Lately I've been getting this inquiry a lot: "I'm thinking of starting a blog. I've noticed you've had success as a blogger. Do you have any advice for me?" Along with this, "How did you get traffic over to your blog in the beginning?" and "How did you go about getting sponsors for your blog?"
I love getting questions like this. It's an honor for someone to come to me for advice on their dream, and it makes me feel like I'm doing something right. But I never feel like I can fully answer the question in the form of an email, so I thought why not compose a post that thoroughly answers all the above questions? I'll try to write this in a way that will be truly helpful to those of you just starting out, the kind of information I would have loved to have my hands on before I got started.
Making the Leap: Mentally
It took me months to finally get the courage and set up a blogger account. I felt this fear, like I wasn't sure if I was good enough. Silly right? But I know from some of your emails that many others feel the same self-doubt, so it seems worth addressing. I was mostly afraid to tell anyone about it. Like they'd be thinking, "Hah you think anyone's going to want to read your blog?! I guess you think you're something." You see, I've never really been one to be in the spot light or seek attention. Most people would describe me as a more shy and reserved person. So creating a blog for all to see was a big step outside my comfort zone. Even still, I feel unsure about myself at times. I'll think that I've made a bold post and sit biting my fingernails for a response, reassurance. See this post. But man it's awesome when people reach out and let me know that they feel the same way or that it's helped them in some small way. That's been the greatest reward in blogging; helping people, and I'll even go as far to say as inspiring people to try out sewing.
If that sounds great to you too, then I say go for it. Take the plunge and put yourself out there. The great thing is that no one will know your blog exists until you want them to. You can even password protect it if you'd like until you get things just right. However, if you're really just looking to make some extra cash, I'd say skip blogging and get a part time job. You'll earn far more money that way. I'll dig into that more a little later.
Making the Leap: Logistically
Okay so what's the first step? First you'll want to decide on a host. I can only attest to Blogger, but I'm sure Wordpress and Tumblr are great too. Blogger has been awesome for me. It's very user friendly, even more so now than when I first came on to the scene. I remember thinking that I would have to read up on html and "blogging for dummies" books, but no you really don't need it to do some simple blogging.
When you set up your account and hit that "create new blog" account, you'll need to have a name in mind. This is daunting, I know, another big delay in me creating my blog. Once you build a following you can't really just up and switch names, so I'd think long and hard about this. How did I come up with Sweet Verbena? Well this is a little embarrassing but I literally googled plant names, among other random things, and just kind of liked the sound of it. I wanted something original, that didn't necessarily categorize me as a crafting blogger right away. I also had in mind that it could be a name that would one day grow into something bigger like maybe a business, fingers crossed. Other names in the running were: Giddy, Chantilly, The ________ Peony.
Also it's a good idea to go ahead and purchase a domain. This means owning the website connected to your blog, for example I own sweetverbena.com. I've been hearing about domain theft lately, where people will buy the domain of your blog's name to take advantage of your misguided traffic. Better safe than sorry. I recommend GoDaddy because it works directly with blogger so that you can transfer the domain address to your blogspot, for example if you type in sweetverbena.com it takes you to sweet-verbena.blogspot.com where my content actually is.
Designing Your Blog
A lot of people choose to use a web designer when first starting out. If this is in your budget, that's great and I say go for it. I plan to one day hire some outside help to get a more professional look (if you know anyone great please let me know). However, I think it's entirely possible to do it yourself. My blog has been completely designed by me using my own photographs. I have a pretty extensive tutorial on the basics of that here:
Finding Your Own Style
When you go to put together your first post, you might feel at a loss. Or at least this is how I felt. There's a lot that goes into blogging that you don't really realize until you do it yourself. For example, how to go about writing your posts. Do you take a more serious tone? Do you try to keep it up-beat and crack some jokes? Do you share about your personal life? In other words, how do you find your voice? I remember having a hard time striking a balance in the beginning. Part of me wanted to add more exclamation points and smiley faces to my posts because otherwise I was afraid I coming off too serious and matter-of-fact in my tutorials. But at the same time, because I am a relatively young blogger, I wanted to be sure I was taken seriously. There are dozens of other factors as well, like the actual content of your posts, how you use pictures, the kinds of pictures you use, how you open and close posts, font/formatting, etc.
There's no obviously no one way to answer these questions. It's going to depend entirely on you and what you like. A good way to figure out what you like is to visit the blogs you love the most and list the reasons why. What of those factors do you want to include on your own blog and what would you like to avoid? For example, something I strive for is to have large, high-quality pictures (more about my attempts on that here). Also, I try to be as thorough as possible in my tutorials to accommodate those with less sewing experience. Other things that I enjoy about my favorite bloggers is the honesty in their writing or how they share about their personal lives. I try to replicate that because I figure maybe my readers will enjoy it as well.
Getting Traffic to Your Blog
Okay so now that you've spent all this time getting your blog to look and feel the way you want, you're probably going to want to get to work promoting it. The bottom line is that it's not going to come real easy. There will be a period of time where you feel like you're talking to yourself. It's important to remember that everybody feels like this in the beginning. None of the "big" bloggers started out that way. The good news is that there are a lot of ways to get people over, especially for craft bloggers.
Networking
One great way to increase traffic is to reach out to other bloggers of your same size. There are so many times that I'm encouraged to check out a blog because they left a sweet comment on one of my posts. Although, it should be a genuine comment. One of my pet peeves as an early blogger was when someone said something like "Cute! I followed you, come follow me back at ________". That starts to feel a little self-serving.
Also, reaching out to bloggers in an email can be another great way to establish mutual relationships. I was so thankful to have some awesome women reach out to me in the beginning. It made me feel like I wasn't so alone. I still have great relationships with a lot of them. Besides making friendships through emailing you can also make plans to trade guest posts with a blogger that shares similar interests and has a similar following. This alone can really help you gather new readers.
Linking Up
Linky parties give you (usually best for food and craft bloggers) a way to find each other and provide support to one another. A blogger will host the party usually once a week, every week. If you scroll down to the bottom of the list you can click the "add your link" button and follow the directions to contribute. The general idea is that you add your link, provide a linkback to the host blog on your own site, and then visit some others in the party leaving a few comments behind. I used to join 20 or more everytime I posted a new tutorial. If you look back to some of my earlier projects you'll see the linkbacks to the parties. Theres' a great comprehensive list of parties organized by day of the week here.
Features
An added bonus of linky parties is that you have the chance to be featured by the blog host. This means they share a picture of your project, recipe, etc. and provide a link back to your site. Getting a few features in the right place will really help you pick up traffic.
There are some sites that are entirely devoted to featuring other blogger's work. Sites like U-Create, One Pretty Thing, Tip Junkie, Free Needle (among others) take submissions of projects. If they feature your project you'll see a huge jump in your stats. This is where I got really lucky and saw a lot of growth on my blog.
Other Sources of Traffic
You might also choose to purchase ad space on a blog that has a similar audience. Some bloggers participate in ad swaps where you each have an "ad" on one another's blog.
Websites like Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Facebook, and Twitter are also huge in sending traffic. You can't really control this but you can make it easier for people to share your posts. Notice that at the bottom of all my posts I have a Pin it button, A Facebook Like button, and a Twitter Share button. All of these help to syndicate my blog if people choose to share my projects.
Installing a Pinterest "Pin it" Button
.
Installing a Facebook Like Button
.
Installing a Twitter Share Button
Getting Sponsors For Your Blog
I know this is probably a subject of interest for many, so I'll try to be as informative as possible. At risk of being tacky I'll share some numbers with you all because I think it will be the most helpful.
As I mentioned above I don't recommend going into blogging solely for the money. Yes there is money to be made, but it takes an incredible amount of effort before you can even get to the point where you can start taking on sponsors. I'd be lying if I said that when I started Sweet Verbena I didn't hope to one day make money from blogging. However, I didn't bank on it and I didn't expect it anytime in the near future or really at all. I blog because I love to and because I like to think it helps people in some teeny tiny way, not because of a paycheck.
That being said, let's talk about how to go about finding sponsors. For me about 6 months into blogging, when my blog was getting about 125,000 visits a month, I started looking into potential sponsors. I sort of lucked out when a woman emailed me about her dress shop asking me to check it out. I did and found she had some really cute merchandise, so I went out on a limb and asked her if she'd be interested in sponsoring. I was ecstatic when she said yes.
Having one sponsor gave me enough confidence to seek out more. I started emailing some other small business owners to let them know how much I loved their stuff and how I thought my readers would love their stuff as well. I also provided them with a short summary of my blog and a link to my SiteMeter account so they could check out my stats for themselves.
I recommend starting a SiteMeter account or something similar as soon as possible because it starts counting from the day your sign up. It's a great way to provide your potential sponsors with confidence in your site and has much more detailed stats than Blogger provides.
Finally, I posted on the blog that I was searching for sponsors in the following month (you'll want to leave yourself some time to get it all organized).
Determining Rates
I've never found a sure-fire way to determining determining exactly how much to charge. Most bloggers are pretty coy about their rates so I never had a feel for that information. Honestly, I just kind of took a shot in the dark when I established my own. So far they seem to work pretty well for me and I haven't felt the need to adjust rates. Again at the risk of being tacky, I'll go ahead and share that info so that you have some idea of what's reasonable. I charge...
Small Ad 300 x 90, $15 a month or $40 for three months
Medium Ad 300 x 120, $20 a month or $50 for three months
Large Ad 300 x 180, $25 a month or $60 for three months
Factors to keep in mind in pricing are statistics (namely visits a month), size of the ad, FB/Twitter/Bloglovin/GFC follower counts, post frequency, etc. I handle payment by sending a payment request via Paypal and I install the ads the same way I've shown how to create tabs and buttons in this tutorial.
Publishing Networks, Adsense & Adchoices
Bloggers that really make a living through their blog make most of their money through ad networks. I have one ad up in the top left hand corner through the Blogher Publishing network. Many other popular bloggers have quite a few more. I'm going to be a little more vague here but I will say that I make more from this single ad placement than I do from all my individual sponsors combined. Blogher requires that you apply to be apart of the network. However, they do take blogs of all types and sizes. Blogher bloggers are paid by impression of each ad, meaning people don't have to actually click the ad for you to make money.
I don't know much about Google's Adsense or Adchoices but it seems to be a pretty popular choice for many bloggers. I don't believe they require an application, so any blog of any size can participate.
...
Whew! I am legitimately exhausted after writing this. Did I cover it all? If not shoot me an email and I'll attempt to answer your question.
Thanks for reading (:
....
Designing Your Blog
A lot of people choose to use a web designer when first starting out. If this is in your budget, that's great and I say go for it. I plan to one day hire some outside help to get a more professional look (if you know anyone great please let me know). However, I think it's entirely possible to do it yourself. My blog has been completely designed by me using my own photographs. I have a pretty extensive tutorial on the basics of that here:
Another good, middle of the road option would be to purchase a pre-made design here or at a similar company. The design won't be unique to you but you'll get the professional look for a pretty fair price.
Finding Your Own Style
When you go to put together your first post, you might feel at a loss. Or at least this is how I felt. There's a lot that goes into blogging that you don't really realize until you do it yourself. For example, how to go about writing your posts. Do you take a more serious tone? Do you try to keep it up-beat and crack some jokes? Do you share about your personal life? In other words, how do you find your voice? I remember having a hard time striking a balance in the beginning. Part of me wanted to add more exclamation points and smiley faces to my posts because otherwise I was afraid I coming off too serious and matter-of-fact in my tutorials. But at the same time, because I am a relatively young blogger, I wanted to be sure I was taken seriously. There are dozens of other factors as well, like the actual content of your posts, how you use pictures, the kinds of pictures you use, how you open and close posts, font/formatting, etc.
There's no obviously no one way to answer these questions. It's going to depend entirely on you and what you like. A good way to figure out what you like is to visit the blogs you love the most and list the reasons why. What of those factors do you want to include on your own blog and what would you like to avoid? For example, something I strive for is to have large, high-quality pictures (more about my attempts on that here). Also, I try to be as thorough as possible in my tutorials to accommodate those with less sewing experience. Other things that I enjoy about my favorite bloggers is the honesty in their writing or how they share about their personal lives. I try to replicate that because I figure maybe my readers will enjoy it as well.
Getting Traffic to Your Blog
Okay so now that you've spent all this time getting your blog to look and feel the way you want, you're probably going to want to get to work promoting it. The bottom line is that it's not going to come real easy. There will be a period of time where you feel like you're talking to yourself. It's important to remember that everybody feels like this in the beginning. None of the "big" bloggers started out that way. The good news is that there are a lot of ways to get people over, especially for craft bloggers.
Networking
One great way to increase traffic is to reach out to other bloggers of your same size. There are so many times that I'm encouraged to check out a blog because they left a sweet comment on one of my posts. Although, it should be a genuine comment. One of my pet peeves as an early blogger was when someone said something like "Cute! I followed you, come follow me back at ________". That starts to feel a little self-serving.
Also, reaching out to bloggers in an email can be another great way to establish mutual relationships. I was so thankful to have some awesome women reach out to me in the beginning. It made me feel like I wasn't so alone. I still have great relationships with a lot of them. Besides making friendships through emailing you can also make plans to trade guest posts with a blogger that shares similar interests and has a similar following. This alone can really help you gather new readers.
Linking Up
Linky parties give you (usually best for food and craft bloggers) a way to find each other and provide support to one another. A blogger will host the party usually once a week, every week. If you scroll down to the bottom of the list you can click the "add your link" button and follow the directions to contribute. The general idea is that you add your link, provide a linkback to the host blog on your own site, and then visit some others in the party leaving a few comments behind. I used to join 20 or more everytime I posted a new tutorial. If you look back to some of my earlier projects you'll see the linkbacks to the parties. Theres' a great comprehensive list of parties organized by day of the week here.
Features
An added bonus of linky parties is that you have the chance to be featured by the blog host. This means they share a picture of your project, recipe, etc. and provide a link back to your site. Getting a few features in the right place will really help you pick up traffic.
There are some sites that are entirely devoted to featuring other blogger's work. Sites like U-Create, One Pretty Thing, Tip Junkie, Free Needle (among others) take submissions of projects. If they feature your project you'll see a huge jump in your stats. This is where I got really lucky and saw a lot of growth on my blog.
Other Sources of Traffic
You might also choose to purchase ad space on a blog that has a similar audience. Some bloggers participate in ad swaps where you each have an "ad" on one another's blog.
Websites like Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Facebook, and Twitter are also huge in sending traffic. You can't really control this but you can make it easier for people to share your posts. Notice that at the bottom of all my posts I have a Pin it button, A Facebook Like button, and a Twitter Share button. All of these help to syndicate my blog if people choose to share my projects.
Installing a Pinterest "Pin it" Button
.
Installing a Facebook Like Button
.
Installing a Twitter Share Button
Getting Sponsors For Your Blog
I know this is probably a subject of interest for many, so I'll try to be as informative as possible. At risk of being tacky I'll share some numbers with you all because I think it will be the most helpful.
As I mentioned above I don't recommend going into blogging solely for the money. Yes there is money to be made, but it takes an incredible amount of effort before you can even get to the point where you can start taking on sponsors. I'd be lying if I said that when I started Sweet Verbena I didn't hope to one day make money from blogging. However, I didn't bank on it and I didn't expect it anytime in the near future or really at all. I blog because I love to and because I like to think it helps people in some teeny tiny way, not because of a paycheck.
That being said, let's talk about how to go about finding sponsors. For me about 6 months into blogging, when my blog was getting about 125,000 visits a month, I started looking into potential sponsors. I sort of lucked out when a woman emailed me about her dress shop asking me to check it out. I did and found she had some really cute merchandise, so I went out on a limb and asked her if she'd be interested in sponsoring. I was ecstatic when she said yes.
Having one sponsor gave me enough confidence to seek out more. I started emailing some other small business owners to let them know how much I loved their stuff and how I thought my readers would love their stuff as well. I also provided them with a short summary of my blog and a link to my SiteMeter account so they could check out my stats for themselves.
I recommend starting a SiteMeter account or something similar as soon as possible because it starts counting from the day your sign up. It's a great way to provide your potential sponsors with confidence in your site and has much more detailed stats than Blogger provides.
Finally, I posted on the blog that I was searching for sponsors in the following month (you'll want to leave yourself some time to get it all organized).
Determining Rates
I've never found a sure-fire way to determining determining exactly how much to charge. Most bloggers are pretty coy about their rates so I never had a feel for that information. Honestly, I just kind of took a shot in the dark when I established my own. So far they seem to work pretty well for me and I haven't felt the need to adjust rates. Again at the risk of being tacky, I'll go ahead and share that info so that you have some idea of what's reasonable. I charge...
Small Ad 300 x 90, $15 a month or $40 for three months
Medium Ad 300 x 120, $20 a month or $50 for three months
Large Ad 300 x 180, $25 a month or $60 for three months
Factors to keep in mind in pricing are statistics (namely visits a month), size of the ad, FB/Twitter/Bloglovin/GFC follower counts, post frequency, etc. I handle payment by sending a payment request via Paypal and I install the ads the same way I've shown how to create tabs and buttons in this tutorial.
Publishing Networks, Adsense & Adchoices
Bloggers that really make a living through their blog make most of their money through ad networks. I have one ad up in the top left hand corner through the Blogher Publishing network. Many other popular bloggers have quite a few more. I'm going to be a little more vague here but I will say that I make more from this single ad placement than I do from all my individual sponsors combined. Blogher requires that you apply to be apart of the network. However, they do take blogs of all types and sizes. Blogher bloggers are paid by impression of each ad, meaning people don't have to actually click the ad for you to make money.
I don't know much about Google's Adsense or Adchoices but it seems to be a pretty popular choice for many bloggers. I don't believe they require an application, so any blog of any size can participate.
...
Whew! I am legitimately exhausted after writing this. Did I cover it all? If not shoot me an email and I'll attempt to answer your question.
Thanks for reading (:
....
64 comments
Thanks for taking the time to write all this out! I'm sure many will find it useful :)
Hope your having a good summer Katy! :)
Katy, thanks so much for writing this post. You have given me so much insight to a lot of the questions I wonder so much about as a blogger. Thanks for looking out for the blogging community! People like you make it worth while! xoxo
-Jennifer
Thanks for the wonderful information! I just started blogging a couple of months ago and, like you, basically jumped in with both feet and am trying to figure it out for myself. I've been following your blog since last fall, I think. I'm not even sure how I came across it in the first place. lol! I agree that finding a name was very difficult for me. It seemed like I would find the perfect name and do a Google search only to realize it was already in use. :( I ended up just using my name. The real bummer is that the person who has my blog name as the url doesn't even use it! Double :(( If you'd like to check mine out it's www.dawnmalcolm.blogspot.com. Thanks again for all the tips!!!!!
Thanks for the post! Your blog has been inspiring and I love to read it!
I was just contemplating this exact topic this afternoon...I've had my blog for a while, but haven't been consistent in writing or promoting it...my goal is to start more this summer and this post will really help me out!
Thanks!
This is a great post with some good advice. Thank you for writing this. I started a blog recently and I can totally relate to some of the feelings you described in the beginning. So far it has been fun, and I think that is my main goal. So that is good :)
I love your post, thank you for sharing your wisdom with us! I'm pretty new to blogging so any advise I can find I am very grateful for. I have space on my blog where I highlight great blogging info. I'm putting a link to your post there.
Thanks again! - Terrie
Thanks so much for the advice! I've recently started my blog and a few of your tips can make me some good.
x
As almost always, your posts are timely and wonderfully informative. I was thinking earlier today of sending an email to let you know that, with the help of your 101 post, I started my own blog. I credit the beauty of my header and side bars from you. Thank you so very much. Today's post is also giving me some wonderful encouragement. Thank you, again. I have been following your blog on my personal email for some time, and I have gained great inspiration from it, but I've never really commented before now.
I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped by my blog, but no expectations, of course. Thank you for your advice and indirect support.
Howdy, Thanks so much for sharing! I found you via pinterest and love your blog. It's really helpful knowing the basic steps and suggestions on what to do, but you are right the hardest part is just taking that first step. Maybe this summer! Thanks again
Jeannine '06
So helpful! I'm planning on starting my own blog soon and you covered so much that I didn't even know was important/existed!
Thanks!
Ah, thanks so much for taking your time to write all of this out!
It's definitely very helpful. I've been blogging for a few months, and I think I'm stuck in the 'talking to myself' stage. :) At least now I know how to find my way out. :D
Katy, I've been reading yuor blog for a few months and have just quit my teaching job (I teach English in Spain at a primary school) to be able to focus on my blog. I'm just getting started with making it professional, etc., so this post was a huge help!! I'm far, FAR from crafty, but my mom taeches home ec and uses this blog for poject ideas. It's fantastic!!
You.Are.Amazing.
Thanks so much for this post. I've started a blog recently, not really expecting much from it simply because I did't know how to make it successful. This gives me some great ideas as well as a tonne of confidence.
Thanks again!
Lauren
FYI...sweetverbena.com takes me to a GoDaddy page asking if I want to buy the domain name.
Also...if you're planning on doing a deals/sweepstakes blog that will contain a lot of links, you might want to reconsider using Blogger as your host. I got flagged twice for SPAM because my entries contained too many links. I think Wordpress (or probably Tumblr, too) is more lenient on your content and text-to-links ratio.
As for web designers, you should check out Lauren Dubinsky at laurennicolelove.com. I've never used her, but I think she would be pretty good!
Thank you I found this really useful as I recently started a blog purely for my own interest but I have often wondered whether it was worth the effort of taking it to another level, as you say blogging is actually quite involved work! Also thank you for being 'tacky' enough to talk numbers!
Such helpful stuff, Katy, and WOW you grew fast! :) I'm getting close to trying for sponsorship myself...but the rates in my head were a little higher than yours! I think you could charge more, to be honest! Hehe.
Anyway, flickr is also a helpful referral source for new bloggers, especially sewing bloggers. Certain flickr groups are really active, and got me almost all of my traffic in the early days. I still get a lot of traffic from Flickr. But if you're just starting out, that's an easy one. Good luck to everyone out there!
Wow - I think I can safely say on behalf on many people THANK YOU for doing this post. You put an incredible amount of detail and thought into it and breaking it down step-by-step is really helpful. I've actually spent the last few weeks researching blogging platforms and hosting sites and html codes and themes and its maddening - so some guidance from I blogger I follow is a welcome gift!
Thanks again,
Kate xx
I was literally about to Google this topic earlier today to get tips on getting my Blog off the ground, SO GLAD I saw this!!
Thanks so much!! :)
Peace, J
Thanks for posting! I just restarted my blog and I hope to do better than my last attempt! I'll be reading and rereading this for the next few days/weeks!
Hi Katy!
I just started a blog here on blogger (Curcie Dulce) and I wanted to thank you for making this post! I was inspired to start when I first read your blog a couple months ago on stumbleupon. This was a HUGE help and I adore all of you're crafts! You have a ton of amazing ideas and I hope my own blog will be as successful as your's!
Thanks for sharing all these pretty useful information! :-)
Katy, this is wonderful! Thank you so much, you totally answered my questions from the email. Seriously, thank you. I love your blog--it's so real! And I also appreciate that you are willing to give others help and encouragement on starting blogs. :)
Lauren
I have loved reading your blog, and I am so glad that you decided to right this post - such great advice!
Thank you so much for this amazing post! I just recently started a blog and so many of these tips were not only helpful but so motivating as well. It is so true that you reach that point where you feel like you are just talking to yourself and wondering if anyone really wants to read what you have to say. I especially appreciate your tips on how to network as well as the link for adding the pin-it button. I have spent all week trying to figure that out. The steps were precise and easy to follow. Thank you again for everything! :)
This is a great post, thank you for sharing! I actually started employing some of your techniques today. :)
http://25-before-26.blogspot.com
Thanks for this, I've been meaning to start another blog for a while and had been procrastinating. Last night I went all out and got my blog all set up!!! Now I just have to write my first post... I think the first post is always the hardest... yet its probably the post that doesn't reach the biggest audience! Anyway thanks so much, techy stuff usually has me running for the hills. You can see me blog at www.ookielala.blogspot.com
You are so sweet! Thank you for the time and effort you put into pulling together this post :) Loved your insights and humble attitude - starting a blog has been a dream of mine for awhile, and this post makes me feel like I could actually do it! Thanks girl, keep up the great work.
When you finally want to get some professional help for your design, check out these ladies:
http://www.shatterboxx.com/
They are awesome (I've been following both of their blogs since before shatterboxx) and they have a great eye for aesthetics.
Hi, I love your blog. I live in College Station as well and I really enjoy reading your posts. My daughters are dying for me to make them your simple bow tie top. Anyway, This is a really helpful post. I have had a blog for a while, but never really got into it until recently. I starting doing tutorials and posting pictures of my life and slowly but surely, my page views are going up, actually got featured on a link party. I was so excited. But, I have questions. Do you have any suggestions on giveaways? Should that be part of the sponsor part? Would it be a good idea to giveaway one of my own creations to start? Sorry, lots of questions.
Lesliemarquezdesigns.blogspot.com
Thanks a bunch!!! You are amazing and I love your blog. Great tips and tricks!
I remember being surprised that your first blogoversary was only recently, because you had gained quite an impressive readership in a relatively short amount of time! This post answers some of my questions about how you were able to do it. I've seen a lot of other "tips and tricks" lists about starting a blog, but I think yours is the most straightforward and comprehensive. Not tacky at all.
I appreciate you being upfront with your sponsor prices. I'm not ready to go that route myself, but I've always been curious about what bloggers charge. Thanks!
I just found your blog. Thanks for writing this. I've been trying to figure out how to get more people to read my blog because I totally have that "I'm talking to myself" issue now!
This is awesome! Thanks for always being so open and helpful!
~Amy
www.LadyMockingbird.com
Thanks, so much for the info! I started blogging a few months ago kinda as an outlet since I am a stay at home mom. It has been great meeting new people and I flipped when I recieved my 1st comment from a stranger. :) I have been fumbling through on my own so this post will help me address some of the issues I have been wanting to work on. Thanks so much!
Katy, it is so thoughtful of you to write this post. SO immensely helpful! Thanks to this post, I took a leap of faith and contacted a few of my favorite etsy shops, asking if they were interested in advertising on my little blog, and got three YESes! Thank you for the confidence! ;)
Thanks! That was really great, good link backs to examples and thing too :) - Mary C.
Thanks so much for posting this! I've been thinking about creating a blog for a while now and this gave me the last push I needed! I just made one today!
I'm very new to blogging so for me your info has answered a lot of the questions I wanted answers to.
Thank you, now I know I'm not alone tucked away in the countryside of rural France. I'm just doing some revamping painting some old shelves to brighten up my summer holiday home, so following other blogs has given me lots of inspiration. & yours will help me achieve my own blog. see you again soon. Barbara Lilian
Great post! I always love reading other's advice on how to get started and maintain a blog :)
Thanks for the post! I started blogging a few months ago, and came upon your blog soon after that, I love reading, you always come up with such creative projects, and I appreciate that you take the time to teach the basics of blogging!
Thanks so much for writing this post! I have been blogging for what, well over a year now, and I'd never heard your suggestion to purchase your blog's domain name before, or your advice and info on blog sponsors or the sitemeter thingamabobber.
I did read a great book that helped me get started; The IT Girl's Guide to Blogging with Moxie by Joelle Reeder and Catherine Scoleri. They go over the pros and cons of different platforms, feedburner, blogger ettiquette, creating an identity for your blog, etc.
Such a helpful post! I am new to the blogging world and am so happy I stumbled upon your blog :) What an inspiration you are to us newbies!
http://theaustinfamilydiary.blogspot.com/
Thank you for sharing all of this. I will definitely these things in mine when working on my new blog/website.
Hi there! I came across your blog through pinterest, and like everyone else that has commented on this post, I can totally relate to this topic! I started blogging about a year ago, but slowed down when I felt like I was talking to myself. I really miss blogging, so I am going to take some of your tips to get back into the swing of things! I look forward to seeing more of your posts!
Great post! I really appreciate your openness in sharing, and I'm sure other bloggers do as well! And it didn't come off as tacky :).
This was so informative, thank you for sharing!
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time to write this post. This is exactly why you are a successful blogger. You have an incomparable work ethic and a sweet spirit that really and truly wants to help others :-)
Wow thank you for the info. This is VERY useful! I enjoy reading your blog and following your tutorials.
Thanks again.
Thanks so much for the info! I've been wanting to start a blog for 6 mths now and felt so afraid to. This gives me the info I need to talk myself into jumping in. I love to share with others and be a part of a crafting or cooking community, both things I love to do.
Thank you for all this wonderful information. I've only been blogging for a few months and did not know anything about the linky parties. In the two days I've started doing them, my numbers have quadrupled. I'm re-energized about my little blog!
I have procrastinated for about 2 years and yesterday I finally jumped off the fence to start my blog. Thank you so much for writing this. It has given me a lot to think about and made the whole thing seem a lot less daunting for my ADD brain. Now all I have to do is find the time. I love your blog and it has now been added to my morning coffee blog (half) hour.
Thank you so much for writing this post. I very recently started a blog and I have had all of the self doubt and hesitation you wrote about, I was so encouraged to hear I'm not alone! I'm so excited to begin implementing some of your tips!
I love your blog, I've just come across this post and It's been so encouraging to read. I just started my own blog yesterday, and panicking about not getting any followers etc etc. Thankyou for sharing this x
Thanks for the advice :)
I started my blog quite a while ago and i get a reasonable amount of traffic but no followers :(
I guess success doesn't come easily and you really have to work hard to get what you want
Dank je voor de goede uitleg. Ook al is het in Engels, ik heb er veel aan gehad. Ik ben sinds gisteren gestart met mijn Blog dus met jouw uitleg erbij komt het goed.
Wow this was extremely informative. I've read a lot of your posts but just seeing this one now. Thanks for providing details like the numbers. It wasn't tacky at all and it was extremely candid of you ;) As far as choosing layouts, what did you do during your transition to a permanent layout? Did you try different things for awhile or picked a design or style before writing and stuck to it? I'm still trying to find a style and I don't want to run the risk of looking inconsistent but it's a lot of work to change my previous posts to whatever formatting or style I am doing at the moment and I haven't dipped into CSS yet. Anyways, thanks so much for being so kind to share!
Thank you so, so much for being so open with us. You talked clearly of things that normally bloggers don't talk. It really helps to discover how a blog works in the inside.
Thank you again.
I just went back to read this, and I'm really glad I did! I'm relatively new to blogging and I've had so many questions and wasn't really sure where to find answers. Thanks SO MUCH for posting this! You're an angel!
This is great! I found your blog througha snippet on BlogHer after a bit of Googling how to get your blog off the ground. I've just seen the timestamps on the earlier comments, so although this is now quite an old article in the blogging world, I wanted to say thanks for including so much information! And especially the inclusion of the rates and stats; one day I would love to have sa successful blog, so I will definitely keep all these tips in mind!
x Elly
www.ellygray.com
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