5 Tips I Would Give to a New Blogger [Blogtober]

So a couple of bloggers have asked me, "What advice would you give to a newbie blogger?", and so I've summarised them into 5 points.

But before you start, remember that these are just tips, and at the end of the day you can do anything you want. The 5 points below are just guidelines I personally follow. Hope you don't become overwhelmed and stop blogging entirely. Don't get discouraged, you can do it!  1. Be consistent. 

• You can write about anything. 
• You are the one who thinks that it should or shouldn't be posted. 
• You make the decisions. Just continue updating. 
• You won't want people to close the tab with your blog just because your last posts was 2 years ago, right?
• Keep updating it.

2. Attract your readers and give them reasons to stay.

• Don't be afraid to use photos. I use picmonkey.com which is really simple to use, yet there's enough free features for me. Remember to give credits wherever necessary!
• Design your blog. You don't necessarily have to get someone else to do it, or pay for a nice designer blog, but your blog is like your room. It represents you. Add some widgets, make sure you have the 'follow' button so interested readers can click on it (that's uber important), make your blog easy to the eye and attractive.
• Remember to make your text colour readable without too much squinting, as it may turn readers off. Also try not to use too fancy fonts for your post text-you might think it's cute, but your readers squinting at the screen will think otherwise, and they won't stay for long.
• Also, try to be grammatically right. Capitalise your 'i's and such, unless your whole post is in lowercase, which in that case is alright. If you have spellcheck, use that.
• Like my first point, continue writing, so readers can look forward to something from your every day/week/every other week. 

3. Socialise

• I can't emphasize it enough, especially if you want readers. We humans are naturally social animals. For teenage bloggers, try Teenage Blogger Central. 
• Browse through others' blogs, be nice, comment on their posts and at the same time kindly ask if they would mind checking out your blog. That's what I did myself.
• Also ask for feedback from bloggers. That's one of the ways to improve your blog. 
• Share your posts using social media, your friends may be keen to know what you write about!
• Remember to reply to comments, keep on interacting with your readers. You might want to check out their blog as well!
• If you don't really mind whether you have readers or not, you can skip this point. But it'll be nice to have people read your posts. Just saying.

4.  Write for yourself.
You will not get thousands of pageviews a day if you don't work hard for it, and even then, it'll take a lot of effort and time. It's the harsh reality. When you write, the main intention should be to share your thoughts. Write about anything and everything you want, and you can be whoever you want.

That's the part I love about blogging- even though you may be a quiet introvert, you can use as many exclamation points and have long conversations with your blogger friends. Even if you are a boisterous, energetic person around your friends, you can still show a philosophical side of yourself through your blog.

5. Remember:

via

It's okay to make mistakes. Ultimately what's important is that you learn something from it.