Behind The Scenes: 5 Steps to Starting A Blog (Or, How To Ignore 5 Steps to Starting a Blog)

in DIY / Family / Featured / General / Inspirational / Lifestyle / Photography / Productivity / Social  by BHPOmom 0 comments

When I announced the start of this blog to you, my seven loyal readers, I said the following: “I’ve been trying to talk myself out of becoming a blogger for about ten years but I’m doing it anyway.” So why have I been talking myself out of this? Let’s explore all of the internet’s conventional wisdom about blogging. I’ve found it all so daunting and impossible that I gave up.

  1. Pick a blog topic! Every blogging guru will tell you that you must pick a specific blog topic. Then, they very helpfully add: the more niche, the better!

Well how the heck am I supposed to do that? I am a multi-passionate multi-hyphenate! I am a mom! I have a career! I love celebrity gossip! I enjoy terrible reality television! I love food! I love bargains! Basically everything annoys me! Chaos follows me! In a world where there is an entire movement devoted to freeing Britney Spears, how the heck am I supposed to pick just one thing to write about? Still haven’t done it. But here we are.

  1. Name Your Blog! Your blog’s name should relate to your topic. Further, it should be something easy to understand.

HAHAHAHAAHA I don’t have a topic and literally nobody would know what BHPOmom means unless they read my first post so I’ll just be over here with my topic-less blog with a nonsensical name wondering why nobody reads it.

  1. All the technical pieces to actually starting a blog – do it yourself!

I have spent a lot of money – an embarrassing amount of money – on online courses devoted to explaining how to set up a website. After about three minutes of attempting to understand these courses, I give up and another year or so passes. This time, I just went over to fiverr.com and selected someone mid-priced to set it up for me. Oh my. This was a total disaster. The nice man who was setting up my blog lived in a time zone about 12 hours ahead of mine, meaning that we were never awake at the same time to communicate in real time. More importantly, he made me a hideous website. After realizing that I had just thrown away more money, I did a search on thumbtack.com and hired the first web designer who responded nicely to my inquiry. As a result, I have a lovely website that I can barely operate. Surely I’ll get better at this?

  1. Use gorgeous, well-lit photographs in each blog post.

You’ll get what you get and you won’t get upset.

  1. Write high-quality posts that add value to your reader/solve a problem for your reader.

Ok, readers. What problems would you like me to solve for you? No, I’m serious. I cannot fulfill my blogger destiny if I’m merely rambling. Let me solve your problems! Send them to bhpomom@gmail.com. No problem is too small. Many are likely too big. No, I can’t cure coronavirus. Or free Britney. Sorry.

Xo,

BHPO