#Blogtober Day 6 – 10 Things You Would Tell Yourself When You Started Blogging

I already wrote a cheat sheet for bloggers after my blogs first birthday, so I’m going to take a more light hearted approach to this one.

1. Just use WordPress from the start. It leaves you room to expand and It’ll save a lot of time started/deleting old blogs on other platforms. Go for it!
2. Practice with your camera every single day. If you know an image is crap, even after editing, don’t use it. If it’s for a product review or an event, then ask the brand/PR to supply you with one instead.
3. “Oh NOOOOO! I didn’t get the post up before rush hour so people won’t be able to read it on their way to colleague and work now!” *sobs hysterically* “OH. MY. God. I forgot to include the ‘before’ picture in my makeover post. So embarrassing!” Take a break, get a drink (not caffeinated), take a deep breath and chill the hell out, you idiot.
4. Images can break up text but so can paragraphs and headings and … little asides…Don’t be afraid to press Return to give your content room to breathe.
5. Unless your aim is to be a journalist and write generic copy for magazines, then you should let your personality to shine through. Don’t write too formally but don’t literally write like you would sorta ava chat to ya mates etha. Urgh! Find your own writing style that sounds natural but is easy for others to read.
6. Having said that…Bear in mind what type of post you are writing and find a suitable tone. For instance, if you are writing a serious informative piece that you want all kinds of people to use, it’s maybe not the best time to waffle on in copious brackets about something that happened to a friend of a friend -blah – blah.
7. At some point you will delete things with a carless swipe or button press. This is not the end of the world, though you might want a cushion handy to scream into. Most blogs automatically update frequently but before uploading pics, links etc you should probably press ‘save draft’ just incase.
8. It’s worth having ‘the conversation’ with friends and loved ones right from the start. Do they want their picture included in your blog which will Googleable? Do they want their name revealing? Is it really OK to use them as an example in your Hilariously Humiliating Moments post?
9. Think about the info you are revealing about yourself and your life. After reading certain blogs for a few weeks, you would know the persons age, weight, be able to figure out their exact date of birth, where they went to school, where they live, what their house looks like, what their greatest fear is, whether they have a lot of excess income, whether they trust banks or not and who, if anyone is in the house during the day. You once had to use the spare key outside, you say…
10. Don’t rely on your blogs spell check as they not only correct words but replace them entirely – sometimes with completely inappropriate words. Google ‘autocorrect mistakes’ if you want a good jiggle.