HOW TO START A BLOG IN 2021

“What I would do differently if I started blogging now…”

I’ve been blogging for over 12 years now… that’s the longest I have ever stuck at anything (ever).

And over those nine years, things in blogging have changed a LOT… and how I blog has changed probably even more.

I’ve gotten some things very right, and a tonne more VERY wrong.

To be honest, I think I’ve probably wasted at least 50% of that time doing the wrong stuff and obsessing over things that just don’t matter at all.

So while I am really happy where my blog is at… if I was to start all over again I would definitely do a few (OK many) things totally differently.

How to start a blog tip #1 – I would go WAY more niche

Seriously, aiming at women 18-45 who like fashion just means you are creating a blog that a lot of people will go “oh, that’s nice”, and hardly anyone will go “Oh my god… it’s like you read my mind… I am going to read you every day and tell all my friends”.

How to start a blog tip #2 – I would have moved away from advertising sooner.

Yes, by focusing on ad sales (and actually proactively doing them.. a lot!) I was able to leave my job and blog full-time really quickly (in less than a year). But guess what, this meant my new job was being an ad salesperson and there’s no way I gave up my awesome creative dream job to be a damn sales person (no offence, but not my bag at all!)

Plus ad sales is hard earned money, and it’s about as reliable as Lindsay Lohan on a good day.

So I definitely would have made the move to other monetisation options much, much sooner (if I had known… plus as I would have been more niche this would have been much easier too).

How to start a blog tip #3 – I would put more ME in it

As my background was in women’s magazines, I kind of went with that whole model. You got a little bit of the editor, but the content was not personalised at all.

Again I was trying to appeal to everyone… which just doesn’t work.

People connect with people, not shoe galleries. And they also connect with imperfect people much more than seemingly flawless ones. Thank god!

So anyway, moral of this story is… you can start a blog, and get most of it wrong… but as long as you keep at it, you can still make it a massive success (or better yet, you can learn from those of us who have already made the mistakes… and then get to where you want to go much, much quicker!)

Kate xo