Blogging Tips - Getting Started | Matti May Hardie
Hey all, how’s you?
You may or may not remember that a while ago I did two posts called Blogging Tips (see them here and here). I really enjoyed giving back in a way to the blogging community and helping newer bloggers who happen to stumble onto my lil’ blog looking for help. With this in mind, I decided to create a series of posts where I would talk about everything I have learnt in my two years of blogging. Seeing as this is the first post, I thought it would only be logical to talk about getting started in blogging.
Today I’m going to be talking about everything from web design, which platform to use, to what you equipment you need.
Equipment
I wanted to start by talking about equipment because I want to make a point here that I learnt through my mistakes. When I first started blogging, I was, like from what I’ve read many people, under the impression that you needed to have a big fancy set up with box lights and a professional DSLR camera and a MacBook Pro and a fancy desk from Ikea, plus journalist writing skills to go with it all. I have since understood that that is not necessary. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve understood that really, all you need for to make and write a blog is to have a computer, access to an internet connection and a camera - even your phone camera will do! I started out with a crappy Toshiba laptop and my iPod camera in my apartment in rural France.
A notebook, though I originally bought this for stationary and list making porn, is really useful too, I’ve actually ended up falling in love with this notebook, I write everything I need to remember, research or thoughts on it and I have a funny feeling I’m going to fill it up rather quickly!
Webdesign
Here’s the fun part! Not really I’m just kidding, this is probably the part you’re going to hate and will make you want to rip your hair out every time you even look at a HTML code but it really can make a difference to your blog and will be the make or break of if your blog stands out or looks like you just used a blogger template and didn’t bother even looking at the settings - in simple terms, if it looks like you put some effort into your blog or not. It’ll also be the decider as to how your blog. I don’t know about other people but if someone’s banner and layout doesn’t look too good, I’m immediately unenthused and more tempted to click away straight away.
- For your header, I’d strongly recommend you find something eye-catching so that it encourages your reader to keep reading and snooping around your blog. Again, you don’t have to be amazing at HTML to have a decent header. I’m shit at it yet I managed to make my blog look half okay, right? I mean, both the banners I’ve had on my blog were made by yours truly on the collage section of PicMonkey. All you need is an image in your head of what you want it to look like and then you’re pretty much set.
- When it comes to social media buttons - just don’t look at me, okay? No one has any idea of how fucking much I fought trying to get the perfect social media icons okay?! (I’m still sensitive about it). Here’s what I did - I searched it on Pinterest. Yes I am a cliche! I know! I’m aware! But I don’t care because it worked. So just search “social media icons” on Pinterest and you’ll have more than enough options for you to sift through.
I mean, I could sit here for ages and talk about it but yeah, if you’d like me to do a full post on it then let me know and I shall do it for you guys with pleasure.
Platforms
This has been a big war in the bloggersphere - Blogger or Wordpress? Personally, for the two years that Matti May Hardie has been a thing, I’ve been using Blogger. It’s easy to use, user-friendly, and I can get my head around it. The problem with it is that you can’t really do much with it. There’s not much room to do anything. Wordpress is good because the web design is a lot better, though I do feel like it's tricky to actually access the HTML on Wordpress? I keep looking but I can't actually see anywhere to get to those settings. It's also just quite complicated to figure out at first. I'm still getting to grips with it and I've been on Wordpress for almost a month now (I know it doesn't sound like long but, in my opinion, it should, in theory, be easy to work your way around a platform and should only take you a week or two to get your head around).
__________________________________
Fellow bloggers! I urge you to join the conversation and share your knowledge for future bloggers to come.
If you have anything to add or any questions or suggestions or anything, really, to say then go ahead and let me know in the comments and either I'll reply in the comments or I'll write a separate blog about it.
Matti x
0 comments