Starting A Blog – 3 Important Things I wish I knew

3 things you NEED to know before you begin your blog. Blogging advice How to know you are ready to launch a blog & where to begin

Do you have something you’re passionate about & want to share it with the world? Maybe you want to make a little income from your passion? These are some of the questions I asked myself when I was itching to start a blog. It kinda “happened” overnight, I remember talking to a friend in Messenger about her starting up a food blog & I was so impressed (she always has some new hustle going on) I expressed my interest in thinking about starting a blog about money saving & lifestyle, happened to mention that I’m thrifty – so ThrifDeeDubai was born!

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#1 Starting out

I’m guessing you’re here because you’ve decided to start up a blog – great! But, before you begin learning the ins & outs of blogging & deciding what it’s going to look like, you need to ask yourself a few questions!

  • Why do you want to do this?
  • Do you care about the topic you’re talking about?
  • What can you offer that nobody else can?
  • Is this a topic that you can add value to?

To answer these questions, you need to think of your blog like your own personal baby, something you can nurture & grow with. Then you can begin with picking a niche.

#2 Niche –

First of all, what is a niche? & why does my blog need one?

A blog niche is a specific topic you’ll write (or create content) about on your blog. it’s more than just a topic. It’s the approach you’re going to take, the voice you’re using within your writing. The audience you want to go after, & the way you’re going to talk to them & position yourself as an expert.

When you decide on your blog niche, you need a clear understanding of who your target audience is. For example. I get asked a lot “what is your niche” & when starting out this blog I had a straightforward answer because I had a niche in mind.
Being an expat myself, all I had to do is look at the different types of people that would be interested in what I had to say & use my info to help them.

Who am I writing to?

  • Expats
  • Parents
  • Money savers
  • Frugal living foodies
  • People looking for healthier lifestyle options

These people would be most interested in what I’m talking about because I am reaching out to their needs. I knew this, because I was in the same boat. An expat in an extremely expensive city, looking for a penny pinching way to live comfortably & still enjoy what the city had to offer with my children.

A niche doesn’t have to be your passion (but it helps if you’re passionate about it). But it does have to be an interest of yours. The best niches are exciting enough that you’ll be motivated to continue to post about it, & accessible enough that you can build an audience.

Your blog needs a niche so it has a focus. If you don’t have some sort of focus you’ll get lost in your own content, you wont be consistent because you’ll not know what to post about next! Your niche is what will help you know how to plan your content calendar, decide on blog design, & know where (and how) to market your blog. It’s also how your audience will find you & how you’ll make connections with other bloggers.

#3 Blog name –

Why does the name I choose for my blog need to be open ended?

.One of the things you’ll need to consider is whether your blog name & brand are right for your audience. Is it open-ended enough to allow a slight change in direction, would you need to rebrand & start over later on?
Well we all start a blog with the best of intentions to focus on a niche. But things change. & sometimes you’ll end up changing your original idea, prime example is myself! Take a look a my blog name –

Thrif = Thrifty
Dee = My name
Dubai = The city I lived in at the time.

I started in Dubai so I now have that in my URL, which is fine, but if I had the choice now, I wouldn’t have used “Dubai” in the blog name. In hindsight I didn’t think through the possibility of moving countries, or the fact that there were more people in other countries who were also interested in my topics & recipes. So narrowing it down to a specific place isn’t always the best idea.
Having a good name that isn’t location specific or too niche specific is the perfect way to ensure you won’t need to rename/rebrand later on down the line, which can be damaging to your brand & all the hard work you’ve put in. Since you have the freedom to make these choices right now, while they’re free & easy. Not later on when you’ve made commitments such as buying hosting & a domain name/URL.
If you do earn money from said blog, it really would be a shame to have to start from scratch & redo everything just because you didn’t think long & hard about the name from the beginning.

Making money –

Which brings me to making an income from your blog. Once you’ve decided on a niche & name, got the design how you want it, most importantly got good content, you can finally, possibly, monetize your blog!
To do this you’ll need to do some research & go through similar blogs in your niche & see how they’re making their money. Are they offering products? Are their email opt-ins collecting revenue?
The best way to see this is simply to just check them out, look around & see if they have the following –

  • Display banner ads or other advertisements on their site
  • Write about certain products with links to where people can buy
  • Sell their own information product/eBooks/courses

This should instantly give you some idea of the potential ways to make an income from your blog & see which options are available to you.

Final thoughts

Once you feel you’ve hit the right target audience, have a good deal of interaction with your readers, the rest should flow in to place!
There are no hard or fast rules to blogging, it’s not as simple as either going IN or going home! Blogging takes a LOT of effort & hard work, but at the same time it can be extremely rewarding, I’m not talking just financially. It’s a medium to let off steam, pass judgement & give advice. It can be a source of therapy, a way to make a difference & also, if done correctly, a way to make a killing! 😉 Whatever your reasons for starting off a blog.
Don’t. Give. Up!

Hey! Are you new to blogging? Do you feel like you’re going in the right direction? If you’re already a blogger, Do you have any words of wisdom to add to this list? Are there any things you did as a new blogger you wish you’d done differently? Let me know in the comments below & don’t forget to share!!

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2 Comments

  1. 25/03/2019 / 2:45 pm

    Blogging is so much more work than I realized when I first started! I think it would be so hard to write about something you aren’t passionate about, because it takes so much darn time! I love to see how Thrifdee is growing and changing!

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