Starting a blog is super exciting! You might be working on it after your day job or have decided to go full-time on your blogging adventure. Are you blogging about travel, beauty, lifestyle or other topics? There are some certain do’s and don’ts you want to make sure you know before you start your blog. They will help you make your online platform a success!
Do: set up your own company
Especially if your blog is your full-time blog, I really recommend setting up a company at Companies House. This allows you to track and properly run your business. Because yes, your blog is a business! You might not think it is necessary if your blog is fairly small, but when it grows it is handy to be prepared. Tip: if you don’t want to use your home address for business mail, why not use a service like Physical Address?
Don’t: plagiarise or copy photos
You should never copy and paste a blog post or part of their writing. If you love what another blogger wrote and want to use it, quote it and credit the blogger properly. When you share your blogpost on your socials, make sure to credit the blogger too (if they are on social media). Think about how you would feel if your original content was used without a credit to you!
Within this topic, never use someone’s photos or videos without asking and crediting the source. You might think you can scroll Google Images and take whatever you like, but this is not the case! You can get in trouble for this. There are plenty of websites where you can find stock photos (for free), like Unsplash.com and Pixabay.com.
Do: build a relationship with other bloggers!
Other bloggers are your colleagues and you should support them! Whatever topic you blog about, find others who do the same. You can build on each other and find opportunities to help. For example, we reguarly host fellow (travel) bloggers as part of a Q&A series. They helps you put out awesome content and you help them with a link: everybody wins! You can even ask bloggers to share your post on their social media, this can help you get more followers.
Don’t: buy followers on social media
When to join the social channels like Instagram and Twitter you might get intimidated by the amount of followers the fellow bloggers have. But don’t get too hung up on this! Just focus on putting out good content and engaging with other bloggers on your social platforms. Your numbers will follow. Steer clear from anyone that offers you followers for payment. This gets picked up on by brands and they might refuse to work with you.
Do: post good quality consistently
This one often gets overlooked when it comes to blogging. It is important to post consistently in order for your readers to know what to expect. It can also be important for your own motivation. If you have a schedule (say, a new blog post every Friday evening), you are more likely to stick to this. Posting regularly is key to your blog, but also make sure the content you put out there is consistent and good quality. This means you might mean you have to post less often, but what you do put out there is good content.
When it comes to social media though, make sure you post frequently! You can schedule posts easily with different websites (have a look at Tailwind or Hootsuite), these are really helpful to keep your social channels looking active. You will get more page views, more followers and this will result in more opportunities!
What are your top tips for bloggers? Let me know in the comments and we can discuss!
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