Hey, good to see you (again)! OR Hi, lovely to meet you!
CCL (short for Comfy, Cosy, … Living 
) 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 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
For all those who are “paper allergic”, please feel free to use: Evernote, Word, Excel… I am sure there are a 1000 alternatives.
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
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.
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.
