When I set out to make a new blog, let’s face it, I had no idea what I got into. I thought I just had to write stuff and that was it. I was naive…
It’s been about a month now, where I’ve tried blogging as a profession and publishing images and different stories on my site. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it, though some more than others, to be honest. Here are a certain things I stumbled, got stuck at, learned and so on.
Design
I had a lot of trouble deciding the look of the site and juggled among several themes, sometimes more than once a day. I think I might have landed on the final look now, but for awhile I was dissatisfied with the looks and couldn’t find a theme I thought fitted. Then I found the Prose theme from StudioPress and that was it.
Niche
At first, I didn’t think it would be too hard to blog on a daily or semi-daily basis. After all, I love the niche I’ve selected (photos and Photoshop) and there’s lot’s of material to cover. And I’m a prolific photographer so I’d never run out of pictures to publish.
But I’ve faced my own expectations of delivering quality content. And my own expectations are high, as they should be. I believe I’ve so far been able to live up to my own expectations on quality of content, but it’s also been a hard battle and many drafts have been deleted.
Search Engine Optimization
Of all my woes on blogging, I think coming to terms with SEO has been the hardest. I’ve almost come to hate SEO, mostly because I think it’s hyped when you search the Internet. There are so many providers of SEO services and plug-ins, it’s hard to know where to begin.
I’ve tried several different products for my WordPress site, both paid and free. What have I learned? That SEO isn’t that difficult if you spend time finding out what it really is. That job in itself is no small task as it’s difficult to find “neutral” information on the subject.
Most information on SEO is tied to some form of product, either free or not. In my experience, the free products tend to be more factual and closer to neutral about SEO than the paid ones. Those who want money, wants to sell their product and therefore tell you that you can’t live without their product. No surprise there, I guess.
As I said before I tried paid SEO services and had a couple of site scans done. The results were… interesting and strengthens my belief, that you should be careful when paying for SEO services. One site scan said that my site was “74% SEO ready” on their scale. Translated it meant I was doing fairly good, but there was room for improvement. Another site scan proclaimed my site scored “23″ on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 was best. Of course, both providers claimed that by buying their product, I’d be on the front page of Google in a matter of hours.
What did I believe? Neither, to be honest. It was interesting to see the results, but I reckon both providers were just trying to sell me a product. Make no mistake, they could both be right in their judgement, but how am I, as a layman, able to make an informed decision to pay for a service based on a quick scan that yields so different results?
No, I cleared my head of SEO and now I use Keyword Winner and Yoast SEO on my site. Eventually I might upgrade to something paid, but for now I’m satisfied. And besides, my budget for running my site isn’t unlimited, so I have to choose carefully when/if the time comes.
Am I in a position to dish out advice to beginners? Maybe not, but that won’t hold me back from doing it anyway. If you decide to start a blog and run it seriously, be prepared for hard work.
Before you even start, I can recommend you buy a book, Successful blogging in 12 simple steps. It’s advertised here on this site. It takes you step by step and makes you write down what you want to do with your blog. I didn’t do that to begin with, but have done it afterwards and it has really helped me focus more on what my site is about.
Summary
You should also be prepared to decide on lots of stuff that has no relation to actually writing blog posts, such as how your site should look, where it should be hosted, what plug-ins to use for what purpose. Starting up presents a challenge, but once you’re past all the technicalities of owning a blog, you can get down to writing.
And remember, writing blog posts is eventually what it all boils down to. If you have a passion for your subject, you’ll never run out of things to write about.
Thomas Kristensen is a wanna-be photographer and a wanna-be problogger. In reality, he is a retired software engineer who’s passionate about photography and everything related to that. He writes about photography, publish Photoshop tips and his own images. Occasionally, He writes about the woes of being a full time blogger.
Bloghands Review: Your Extra Hands For Productive Blogging
Thesis Product Skin Review: Beautiful High Conversion Landing Pages
I feel your pain…..however, I’m not a full time blogger and really don’t expect to monetize from it……….I just like all the adoration………:).
I think I went at it backwards; I visited sites, engaged and saw most had link back sites so I opened a WordPress.com acct. I started dragging this thing around with me and started to actually get responses.
Now I’m in a position I need to figure out the tech side or I don’t think I will have people around for long. Truthfully, it already exceeded my expectations, but if I made it this far I might as well see what I can do with it.
Ms Brankica U has the answers for me, I just haven’t been her best student yet.
Good to see you and good luck in your journey.
Hi Bill
Thanks for your comment. If you need any technical help with your blog, you can contact me through my contact form @ my site and I’ll be happy to try and help you out.
Cheers,
Thomas
Nice to know the facts. Yes I’m also a newbie blogger. Just started blogging 4 months ago and still a part-timer.
I’m a bit confused about the site look. Still couldn’t decide how it should look
Hi Sumon
Thanks for your comment
Truthfully, I think site design was the hardest of all decisions to make. Everything else was sort of easy to decide on, but design really had me bogged down for so long.
My advice to you is to try different looks and look around for themes. Also consider premium themes as they tend to be better coded than free ones. I’m not saying free themes are bad, just that some of the programming isn’t up to par.
Cheers,
Thomas
I was also going through with the pain of newborn bloggers. Back then, I just blogs without any plan on my mind and find that it is hard to blog (especially if we want to make money from it) without any plan.
Hi Dana
Thanks for your comment
I too have discovered that having a plan is absolutely essential, otherwise you run mad trying to keep up with your blog.
In my opinion, the very first step is to get the WP Editorial Calendar plugin to get a visual of what articles you have where and when to publish them. It’s a big help to me.
Cheers,
Thomas
Design, Niche , Search engine optimization is very important right, they are the basic needs of blogs or even any business site. to attract readers and viewers and entertain them
Hi Usman
Thanks for your comment. I agree that the three things you list are most important. However, starting up a blog I wouldn’t worry too much about SEO as figuring it out can take away your desire to blog in the first place
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Even I have changed my designed many time and how settled to what outcome is right. For me design me the most important part of blogging and user interface.
I see you are using Genesis and your blog slightly looks like probloggers.net
-Imran
How ev
Hi Imram
It’s correct that I use the Genesis framework on my site. It works really well in my opinion.
You are also right that I’ve duplicated some design elements from problogger.net. What can I say, I really like the design of that site and decided to copy some elements. I use a different overall layout than problogger.net, though.
Cheers,
Thomas
Thomas, aloha. Though you may be a “newborn blogger,” you can certainly communicate clearly. Thomas, I believe most of us have been where you are.
Quite honestly, I am where you are with SEO. It is something that I know I need to do, however, it is always low on my list of priorities. Jane, on the other hand, has made it a priority and it certainly shows. She always has such great tips and advice in this area.
In reading your bio, I see you are a retired software engineer. Heck, SEO ought to be a snap for you.
Will be visiting your blog to check out your photos. Nice to meet you, Thomas. Best wishes for a terrific week. Aloha. Janet
Hi Janet
Thanks for your comment
You’re wrong in thinking SEO is a snap for me just because I used to develop software. It isn’t and I think it’s mostly because it’s difficult to find neutral info on the net about about it. I can understand clearly defined rules pretty well, I just can’t find the rules.
Since writing this guest post I’ve made two investments in the SEO area.
1) I’ve made a subscription to the Scribe plug-in. A bit expensive, however it’s considered to be among the best available.
2) I’ve bought the book “SEO for dummies” by Peter Kent.
I expect the book to bring me some neutral facts on SEO so that in time I can stop subscribing to Scribe.
Thanks for your compliments on my writing. English isn’t my first language so sometimes I screw up. But I think I do Ok most of the time
Nice to meet you too, Janet, and please do stop by my blog and look at my pictures.
Aloha,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
It can be very overwhelming for a new blogger! I was fortunate enough to have done a lot of research first (I accidentally stumbled on the process of blogging) and had a step by step how-to guide that I followed which saved me a lot of time.
It’s been almost a year since I started my blog and I have definitely learned a lot along the way and I still have a lot to learn. Thank you for sharing those plugins, I am always on the lookout for new plugins to enhance the blog for my readers and myself.
Take care,
Stacy
Hi Stacy
Thanks for your comment.
It’s very valuable to get a step-by-step guide and follow that. It’s so easy to screw up if you just start up like I did. I’ve done most things wrong and I didn’t have to if only I’d sought some advice first.
Cheers,
Thomas
Thanks for your insight, I can say being a blogger is a passion. If you like sharing thoughts and ideas on the Internet then this is for you. Yes, most of people nowadays blogs and there are lots of blogging sites that offers free hostings. You can also install the facebook plug-in for your blog. Kudos!
Hi Lawrence
Thanks for your comment.
I tried the Facebook commenting plugin on my site but found it to slow the site down significantly, so I deleted it again. I’ve also looked at the Disqus commenting system, but again I’ve been afraid of slowing things down too much. I think I’ll stick with good old WP comments for now
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Nice to read your thoughts at this stage of your blogging career. It seems like you have it all under control - as you said in the last line - it’s your passion for the subject you’re writing about that carries the day in the end.
Personally I love the SEO element, so I’ve ended up blogging about that fairly frequently! then again, it does fit into the Marketing context of my blog as a whole.
Thankfully, for those who really don’t like the technical stuff, it can be outsourced, though one of the things I like the most about blogs is that it’s relatively easy to set up and get started, so that you can get on with the juicy part of producing content.
Thanks for sharing your experiences here, and I wish you all the best for the future!!
Hi Jym
Thanks for your comment.
I really don’t have everything under control, that’s just an image I project
I’ve got a long way to go yet, but so far the journey has been exciting.
Cheers,
Thomas
Hey, Thomas! Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging.
Myself, I have learned that I have no problem coming up with the content. For a while, I struggled with how to get my sites. found. Now, however, I am learning that my biggest struggle comes from remembering to take the time to do the actions that will do the other two things. I’ve kind of always been a bit of a procrastinator, and it can be really tough when it seems things aren’t quite going the way you expect. But keep going. As long as you keep trying, you can’t fail. You may have to adjust what you are doing, but as long as you are moving, you can succeed
Good luck!
Hi Grady
Thanks for your comment
I am a fellow procrastinator and it’s a daily battle to overcome it. But it can be done and I believe that I’ll ultimately win the battle.
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi Jane,
it’s very important to point out that blogging isn’t only about writing. Writing is one thing, promotion and SEO another. Blogging is a complex process where everything needs to be in place to produce good results. The weakest link in the chain determines the success. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Take care
Oliver
Hi Oliver
Thanks for your comment.
You are absolute correct when you say blogging is a complex process. As I started out the above post, I had no idea what I got into. I also think it’s important not to overcomplicate things. SEO can be complicated and it nearly ended my blogging career before it got started.
Cheers,
Thomas
Hey Thomas,
Ah, you are not alone that’s for sure. I probably did everything wrong and spent way too much time just picking out a theme. Went through several before settling on one. Although I’m not a full-time blogger either, I’ve learned the importance of having everything in place. I guess when you are new to this you don’t always know exactly what needs to be done first.
I appreciate you sharing your journey with us and now it looks like everything has worked out really well for you, so congratulations on that. Hope you are enjoying your blogging experience and sharing your love of photography! I’m sure your readers and followers really enjoy it as well.
Thanks for this post and enjoyed reading more about you.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne
Thanks so much for your comment and kind words, I really appreciate them.
I do enjoy the blogging experience, though I admit it can be hard to come up with and write at least two posts a day. I know, I’m whining :-P.
Cheers,
Thomas
Thomas,
Congrats on getting out here and guest posting already. I like that panoramic field shot you have posted on your site (April 19th). Very cool.
You aren’t alone, my friend. We all start out with the same challenges and learning curve that we have to make it through and you’re moving along nicely. Keep at it and stay connected.
Thanks for sharing!
Jon
Hi Jon
Thamks for your comment and thanks for liking my photo, I really appreciate that
The learning curve is indeed steep if you decide to take blogging seriously and do it as a “business”, but I don’t think it’s rocket science (thank God for that). There are just so many things you need to be aware of. This is where Jane really helped me out, she was a gift to me to be honest. She pointed me in the right direction and her help was invaluable.
Cheers,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Congratulations on starting your blog! I know how you feel as I have been blogging for almost 2 months. Unlike you, I doubted I could keep up with the pace of blogging. I jumped into blogging when I saw the 31 Days Blog Challenge and since there, I am been slowly building my blog.
There is a lot to learn and I haven’t reached SEO yet. I have read a few things about it and am focusing on one thing at a time. Small steps work well for me and honestly I have already seen results which I have very pleased with.
Wishing you all the best on your blogging adventure!
Hi Diana
Thanks for your comment
I think I’ve done most everything wrong. Or maybe not wrong, but I’ve tried to do everything at the same time and really fast. I’ve rushed too much and looking back there are things I wish I had done differently, such as taking it slow and easy.
But I can’t change that now and I think I’m up to speed right around now
Cheers,
Thomas
Good Stuff Thomas,
The truth is that each one of us started from not knowing much to the level we have found ourselves and a chunk of us will say that its been an interesting journey. Now that is not to say that there have not been moments of utter frustrations, but above all else, it’s been fun, you know.
I also love this statement “SEO isn’t that difficult if you spend time finding out what it really is.” Was I scared of SEO when I first started out? You bet! But upon a close look, it’s really interesting when studied from close quarters and it’s rewarding too when time is taken to study it.
Thanks for sharing your great insights, Thomas!
Tosin
Hi Tosin
Thanks for your comment
I stand by my comment about SEO not being that difficult, IF you seek knowledge in the right places. The internet is swamped with bad info on the subject so I’d suggest simply buying a book about it and read. You get much more neutral info that way IMHO.
Cheers,
Thomas
Rank Higher, Make Money! says
I feel I know where you are coming from. Although I know my SEO, there are a lot of decisions to start out with when you first get started blogging. For example, your niche, what audience you are targeting, website design, etc. I am constantly tweaking my design. But eventually you get settled in and can just get focused on writing.