The blog start-up : Why, how, when, what …?

Feb 06, 2015 Categories: Comfy,cosy,living

Hey, good to see you (again)!  OR  Hi, lovely to meet you!

CCL (short for Comfy, Cosy, … Living The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...? ) has been online for a month now and I wanted to chat with about my blog start-up.  Just a way for me to see where I am in my blogging adventure, find out where I’m going, setting or correcting blogging goals, and working out a detailed plan of action for the future.  I’d love to hear your opinion, remarks, ideas and tips.  So, here goes:

You might have read the odd thing or two about me and CCL on my profile page.  But let’s go into detail a bit more.

I started blogging in January 2014. About a year ago The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?  The blogging sphere was VERY new to me.  Thinking I was a good cook, I started “Essenzfertig“.  As I was writing like mad (or so I thought), I was making the mistake almost all new bloggers make: NO PLAN!  Although I thought I had one.  I read E-books and Blogs about blogging, made a few thoughts and wrote them down.  I thought that would be sufficient.  Oh my God, how wrong I was!!!   Today I know, I had to go through that “mistake” in order for me to grow or develop.  It is because I made all those experiences, and they were not all bad (!!! far from it!!!), that I started to realize what I wanted and most importantly what I didn’t want.

The biggest lesson I learned?  I blog because I like to!  Not because I want to make a million, not because I want to be famous … I just want to be creative, learn by doing creative stuff and interact with everyone who wants to join me.

 

The blog start-up: forget your Laptop, stick to pen & paper!

When I want to start something new in my life, I tend to get overexcited.  1000 Ideas jump through my head like bouncing balls and I can’t seem to fixate them.  Pretty bad, as this is the biggest window of opportunity for distraction.  If I start willy nilly on my computer, with whatever jumps into my mind first: Chaos is guaranteed.  That is why I always TRY to start with pen and paper.  Well, 1 pen and 100 pieces of paper, to be honest.  Because I can put all those bouncy ideas on separate notes, leaving them to be sorted when I’ve got them all out of my mind.  The chaos out of my head, start-up structure visible!

To begin the blog start-up, I divided my ideas in 3 categories this time.  This I didn’t do on my first blog … turns out to be the biggest most valuable preparation!!  NICHE: all ideas about content.  What do I want to wright about?  What categories do I need, my blog’s name, what do I wright on my “About”-page …  BUILD UP:  How should my website look?  What do I want for theme, fonts, structure, widgets … the list is endless and growing nonstop, even today. ORGANISATION: How do I organise myself to make this blog a success?  I must admit, I forgot (AGAIN!!!) this category as I started CCL.  But this is actually crucial, as it helps keeping my blog going and it helps building consistency.  When do I wright my posts?  How and when do I integrate social media?  When do I make/have time for to read other blogs and interact with them?  Take a look at your personal calendar.  Integrate your blog calendar into it.  Oh and don’t forget an editorial calendar.  It really leaves space free in your head if you have a place to wright down all your post ideas and their strategy.  Finally, don’t forget your pictures!  How do I make them, how do I edit them? Where do I store them?  All this has to be considered The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?

For all those who are “paper allergic”, please feel free to use: Evernote, Word, Excel… I am sure there are a 1000 alternatives.  The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?

Blog start-up – Research: Let’s google!

Now I take the laptop, my notes and a deep breath.  Every single word I have written up till now, I google.  (Here in Germany “to google” has become an official verb!) Oh, and not just words!  I write complete questions or phrases in the search bar.  There is a search result for everything.  And what exactly did I look for?  Web space, blogging niches, blogs, tutorials, blog names … you name it.

I did the same in YouTube.  You cannot imagine how useful and visible all them tutorials are!!  Saved my blog start-up more than once The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?

Blog start-up – First steps online: Welcome WordPress!

After having written my first blog via Blogger, I decided to create my own domain using WordPress.  I just wanted to try it out.  Until today it’s a step I don’t regret.  It’s a change I had to get use to as not everything is reported automatically. But thanks again to many YouTube tutorials.  Here are a few of my favourites:

Blog start-up – Finally: Start blogging and have fun!

The hardest work is done now … promised!  It’s time to have fun and wright.  The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?

Honestly??  This post is easier said than done!  But I’ve written it as a mirror for my own goals and strategies.  I will work via the editorial calendar (maybe an extra post on this will follow?), I will keep on developing the website, but most of all I will keep on being creative so I can keep on posting cool stuff!

How about you?  What do find difficult about blogging?  How did you go about your blog start-up?  Let me know!  I’d love to hear it.

The blog start up : Why, how, when, what ...?

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