Let’s talk about my blogging journey first. I started a long time ago on Facebook with a page called quotable quotes and a word press called “Scribbles of a dreamer”. I would write the most random thoughts and things I liked talking about – Inspirational quotes, the brown culture & things. Fast forward life 6 years later, in between life happens, a lot of moving (Dubai to Canada), traveling and a baby. Once Zahra was almost a year old, I decided I wanted to blog again. Moving to Canada, not having a social life, or a job, hardly any immediate family around really gave me that push. I was in a miserable state! And blogging gave me that free space that I slowly made my own creative outlet.
Niche:
You probably have heard about finding your Niche market from almost all the marketing experts and bloggers. But I explain niche a bit differently. For me, it’s not a category that I focus on but my personality. My personality is the niche, you know what I mean? I have tried talking about things that are a niche market but that didn’t help me to connect to the right audience. So, I took my personality (the happy, quirky & hopelessly positive person) that I am and try to depict that in every post, stories and my blog posts. Once, you master the art of portraying your personality the right way- your niche market will automatically start following you!
This works more for lifestyle bloggers, who don’t know where to start & are not passionate about one topic.
People who are foodies, make-up enthusiasts, fashion blogger- finding a niche for them is super easy. But people like us, who like talking about everything: really need to focus on creating content that is relatable and our personality is the brand.
Naming Your Blog:
Naming your blog was one of the hardest things for me but it can always change, right? I chose my life’s canvas because I had no idea what I wanted to write about—therefore It’s a canvas of my life on which I can write and throw whatever I want. Pick a neutral name, if you don’t know what you are writing about Lol.
But always remember, Your blog is the only thing that you own. Unfortunately, we all spend so much time on social media, creating it, growing it but Facebook owns Instagram, not us. Invest time in your blog and you will see it grow into a little community of your own.
Word-press:
Word press has been my best friend for a very long time, it is super user-friendly. Even for people who know nothing about building a website. You can make your own website in like a day. And once you get the hold of it, you can upload another beautiful theme. There are many platforms for free themes but if you want to invest a bit more in your blog. I noticed Creative Market has a pretty good selection and also as per the budget. I bought a blog theme and media kit from there. They always work perfectly.
There are two word-press websites, word-press.com is a more beginner version. For free you can have a web address like nidamonis.wordpress.com and afterward if you feel like you need a domain name. You can always buy one from hosting websites like GoDaddy, Bluehost etc. I and my husband have been using GoDaddy for the longest time and it has been a pretty good hosting.
You can even advance to wordpress.org after a few months. Those are more advanced steps.
Here are some Free themes:
1. Felice & Co
2. Sugar & Spice
3.
For paid you can also check these, I got my theme from Pipdig:
1. Pipdig
2. Colorlib
3.
Plug-ins:
Consider plug-in to be little applications that you download for your WordPress. These plugins that I am mentioning below are a must when you start your blog.
1. Jetpack: Jetpack adds a lot of convenience for you. It gives your site stats, demographics and almost everything you want to know about your target market/audience.
2. Yoast SEO (search engine optimization): Search engine optimization in easy words is how quickly it would show on google. This plugin helps optimize your whole post and makes it google friendly!
3. More Plugins
Build Your Brand:
This might get overwhelming. Initially, I had no idea how I wanted to build my brand. I love so many colors, pinks, blacks, white, minimalism almost everything. My advice would be to pick two main colors and begin with it. Your blog + Instagram will evolve and change with time which is completely okay. Have two to three main brand colors, always incorporate them in your photos.
I will end the first part of this blogging series here & continue with it with a next blog post in which I will talk about Content creation & how to market it to different channels.
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