When you’re first starting blogging there’s a lot of things to think about. It’s a bit overwhelming.
I asked for people’s advice on what they wish they’d known when they started blogging. I thought it would be helpful to put some of these pieces of advice together for community-sourced advice for new bloggers.
None of this advice is from me but I will provide a bit of a commentary.
Brent
First up is Brent Schlenker who provided this bit of sage advice:
.@exprance Looking back, I just wish I started blogging sooner. Get over the fear. And be nice. Turn off comments. Push out via SoMe.
— Brent Schlenker (@bschlenker) June 1, 2015
The sooner you start the more you can reflect on what you’re doing, then you can refer to it later down the road. I had to think about the turn off comments a bit as that’s one of my favorite parts of my blog, but for a new blogger, I can see how this is wonderful advice. When you’re just starting, it’s nice to just worry about what you’re writing for you and not for trying to spark a discussion. Turning off comments is the perfect way to do this and just concentrate on the content for you. You can find Brent blogging over at Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development.
Melissa
Melissa Milloway had quite a few great suggestions for new bloggers. Here are her three pieces of advice for new bloggers:
@exprance Oh gosh. Too much advice! 1. If you can use multimedia to explain something do it! i.e. YouTube video. — Melissa Milloway (@MelMilloway) June 1, 2015
@exprance 2. Make sure your images are not distorted. I see way too many people do that with LinkedIn posts. I can’t respect that.
— Melissa Milloway (@MelMilloway) June 1, 2015
@exprance 3. People love lists. Lists are your friend but try not to use bullets instead substitute numbers or just bold words. — Melissa Milloway (@MelMilloway) June 1, 2015
Multimedia is a great way to explain something that lends itself to that sort of delivery. I love that suggestion because it’s always a challenge to spend the time to think about the best way to deliver a piece of content. Clear images are definitely important, I’d recommend taking a few minutes and reading this article about working with bitmap and vector images. It has been proven again and again that people love lists so no doubt this is great advice. I might add that lists are great but don’t overuse them, meaning maybe don’t make every blog post a list :)
Taruna
Taruna Goel has suggested one of the pieces that I think makes the most successful blogger. Whether or not you do it using draft posts or not is up to you, but the moral is to always write your ideas down and keep working on them.
@exprance When inspiration strikes, make a note of it! I use ‘draft posts’ to capture key ideas and turn them into blogs when I can. — Taruna Goel (@write2tg) June 2, 2015
Bruno
Wise advice from Bruno Winck:
@exprance write quickly, often until you get in the flow, over fear, then become better at editing and aim desired audience #PKMChat — Bruno Winck (@brunowinck) June 2, 2015
Start writing and don’t stop until you’re satisfied, you’ll find that you get into a flow that is hard to stop once you get going.
JD
JD Dillon has some great advice for working together with others, sometimes this can create your best work.
@exprance Write and share via collaborative doc with a few peers to refine presentation before going public — JD Dillon (@JD_Dillon) June 4, 2015
Cendrine
As Cendrine Marrouat points out, a plan is important to have because without it then you don’t know what your purpose is or who your audience is:
@exprance Know your audience, see the big picture, have a plan. Keep an open mind and experiment. — Cendrine Marrouat (@cendrinemedia) June 4, 2015
Help Someone Blog
It’s always nice to give advice to new bloggers because if you can remember starting out, it can be tough at times.
If you have additional advice I’d love to hear it, leave your comments below and help a new blogger make their way in the confusing world of blogging.