Tag Archives: Blogger

10 Beginner Blog Ideas

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When starting a blog, there is A LOT to learn. Believe me. You have to think about niches and how much you want to write and topics within your niche. It can be overwhelming to say the least. Here are some simple starts that you can do when it comes to blogging that can jump start your creative thinking process!

Life is one of the more broad niches to pick in my opinion. For me I would say I am a lifestyle blogger however I do have a lot of parenting coming out as we are going through our second pregnancy and trying to incorporate that into what is happening. Sometimes there are random stories or opinions that come out though but if you choose to do a lifestyle I would still try to make it a little bit more specific. Maybe you are a military spouse, and you want to do a little bit more about letting people know what the lifestyle is, maybe you have experience with mental health or disabilities. Life can be such a broad topic that really zoning in on these things can be huge.

Food can be another broad subject however if you can do something when it comes to food, try to zero on again on a bit smaller niche here. Something like, Mexican food, American food, European food, or even something like vegetarian, or vegan would be a huge way to bridge the gap and make yourself stand out. One thing I will say that I know I have heard others speak about previously, If you decide to post a recipe, PLEASE either link down the page to jump to the actual recipe, or put it first. People do not want to read an entire story about how you made the recipe, or anything else that you want write about first. If someone is looking for a recipe the fastest thing you can do is put some fluff first and people will click away, or go to the bottom to the things that they want.

Mental health can also be tricky. I would assume if you are writing about this it would either be about something that you have experience with or it would be something that you perhaps have some knowledge within the space. I would like to say though if you plan on writing from an educational stand point that it would be best if you were to use links and facts for where you have your information as well too. If you are going to write from an educational stand point people appreciate the facts and where to find resources instead of just writing from your own stand point.

Parenting can be something that a lot of folks eat up. I have found personally some topics have been hit or miss when it comes to parenting blogs. Finding subjects that are not the same as everyone else can be challenging. I do find when I write from my own experience they seem to do a bit better than regurgitating repeated topics that are the same as everyone else. People want to read different information not the same thing over and over again.

Motivational is something that anyone and everyone wants to learn and read about. I think you need to really have an understanding about this because the topics may become limited. Focusing on different types of motivation might be easier to produce blogs.

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Inspiring blogs can also be tricky. Using your own personal experience may help with this but also inspiring people to keep going when they are faced with problems can also be good as well too. It can really be good to write these in a personal perspective as apposed to educational so that your speech is really speaking to the reader. You dont want to again, repeat the same blogs you want to really connect with the person who chose to check out yours to hopefully have them stick around and wanting to continue to read more.

Overcoming obstacles is another thing that might be more of a slim category to write about unless you have had a lot of curve balls thrown your way in life. Talking about the same thing over and over can be challenging to get new readers to stick around or even pull new people in. If you are writing in a perspective or even how you helped others overcome obstacles that could be huge as well too. However it might do some good to be able to actually write out subjects and things that you would write about and how many you want to release per week to be able to see how long your content can be without feeling a writers block.

Goals can be something that changes a lot. This topic can be broad however if you focus on different goals and make it personal it can really help others to understand their own or to better have goals and be successful with them also too. Sometimes I occasionally write some goal blogs and explain the process that I take for them.

Physical health or exercise is a broad topics and if you wanted to write about this it would be great when starting out. Everyone when they have goals around this can have different experiences that work or dont work for themselves. With health and fitness also coming to the forefront in the world there is an abundance of information that people seek. Some of my best blogs were when I wrote about weight loss and trying to be honest with the struggles that I have when it comes to wanting to reach a healthy weight.

Hobbies are also something that can run out of subjects easily. Unless maybe you do something that has a lot of patterns, or how to do it ideas. Talking about hobbies can be really useful to folks who share similar interests but it would also be great if you were to find out if you have enough topics for posts if you write them out before hand perhaps.

As you can see there are so many topics when it comes to writing in blogs. Remember that if you choose one and have not seen a lot of success you can in fact change niches! You are never stuck in just one. After all, I started posting JUST about streaming, and here I am posting about life and blogging and parenting too!

What did you start blogging about if you are also a blogger?
What types of blogs do you like to read about?

Let me know all about your journey I would love to hear about the evolution of it all!

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Blog

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Starting blog was never something I thought about when I was growing up and what I would be doing at my age. It really came to be when I wanted to keep producing some content after my son was born while not having to be live streaming and active in that space. Having blogs scheduled and what not was a huge help and slowly but surely after a year and a half I am finally finding how to navigate my way around how things work.

One of the biggest things I am gathering when it comes to blogging is that niches change. And how important it is to have a niche. I talk about my feelings about niches here if you want to see something more specific to what niches are and how they are useful when blogging. Something that I touch base on is how I stuck to one niche and I shouldn’t have for so long. When I started to blog I wrote about streaming and advice and tips and tricks that I had learned. I was such a new blogger I barely knew anything when it came to tags to get your blogs seen. I never knew what SEO was and still don’t fully understand but I am learning. Since making a pivot from streaming blogs to blogs about parenting and my own life, I have seen so much better response that It really is mind blowing that I stuck with streaming for such a long time.

Some of my most popular blogs are the ones that have made me uncomfortable writing and are the most real. My struggling with weight loss was published in November of 2020 for example and that blog still to this day gets reads as well as likes on it. It was part of me facing who I am and what I struggle with in hopes I can maybe help others in the process. When you write blogs, or at least I find when I write them, and I am the most real with myself or even with you all, they seem to get a way better response than when I try to spit out different facts or something that is very one toned and robotic. Being relatable makes it easy for people to connect and I think it also adds a lot of value to a person reading when a post is relatable too.

Pinterest is something that I still am very fresh with and do not to as much as I should. but again that is a learning experience. Out of all the socials that I thought I would really use for blogging pinterest was not one of those! I also didn’t know that you are also able to use pinterest itself to schedule pins to be posted. I was using an app for it however this makes it easier. I also have used canva in order to create pins which has helped tremendously. I need to plan this for myself in my planner a few times a month to schedule pins to post blogs.

Following more bloggers on Twitter. I know this seems to be a no brainer to me but for a while I had strictly used my Twitter for streaming. I had barely anyone who, if anyone who blogged followed. I find that watching others who blog post theirs, or even their tips and tricks can be super useful. The blogging community is so much bigger than I thought it was and a lot of folks are just trying to help one another and grow their brand or business in the process too. Seeing others who are successful also can be really motivating when you might lack motivation. The amount of different things people can write about really is endless. It can also help if someone writes some blogs similar to your own and you can get ideas for your own blogs to write. No that does not mean to copy someone word for word or their own opinions, but seeing different subjects can help trigger your own ideas.

Lastly something that I find I dont do nearly enough as I should is to read other blogs! I need to find out how to search and find different blogs that I would be interested in reading regularly. The same goes for any writing, where you will get better as you read and educate yourself on what it takes to be successful. Having a better idea about what others do and are successful will help me to fine tune myself and better promote my blog as well too! Successful bloggers are a great way to help grow my knowledge of how to be successful myself however it is something that I put on the back burner or make excuses for and push away when the time comes. I need to make a plan to even spend some time each week catching up on some favorite blogs that may or may not be on the same subjects that I write about.

There is a lot of things that I wish I knew when I first started blogging. These are things that as I am learning them and growing my blog, I am slowly and surely starting to see more success with my own blog. Learning to blog can be overwhelming for sure. Especially when you are trying to learn what different aspects of it, I find myself being overwhelmed and giving up. There is also different spots and people who have mini books that are able to purchase for more than reasonable prices that have basically done the research for you! I need to find these myself and use them. I think it is a great way for me to grow my brand even if I am just a small fry in a big pond though!

Did you start blogging as a way to produce content?
Was your main focus to build a brand?
Or are you just researching how to blog and are prepping for your own start in the near future?

Let me know in the comments below, I am always willing to hear what folks are finding to be successful!

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Should you be a content creator?

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Since the beginning of Covid it seems like there has been a lot of people who want to try out the world of streaming and online content creation. With people being laid off and losing their jobs due to work places preventing them from working to help break the spread people think content creation is easy and the way to go. Here is a few things you might want to ask yourself before you begin. They might not be easy questions and some of the answers might be hard to hear but still they need to be asked regardless.

One huge question you should ask yourself is Why? Why do you want to start online content creation? Is it because you want to get rich quick (Which let’s face it, will not happen fast and there will be more about that later!) Or because you want to make a bigger impact on the world or even an impact as an influencer too.

What type of influencer or content creator would you like to be is one of the most valid questions you should ask yourself. Do you want to be a different person and create a persona or would you like to be genuine and yourself? Not to mention, Where do you want to produce content too, Youtube, Twitch or Facebook? Do you want to grow on Instagram or Twitter? When I first started streaming, I could have told you that I wanted to be a partnered streamer and see how that realm of creation works. Now, I would tell you I want to be a successful writer and blogger with streaming on the side as well.

There are many different skills or qualities you need in order to be successful in creating content for the world direct on the web. Some generic answers for this would be you should have some type of a sense of humor and charismatic personality. You also should understand the space you are trying to break into. And a huge if not one of the most important qualities would be to understand that this is the internet and there will be people who do not like you. They will troll you and direct hate towards you for many reasons. How you handle this can ultimately decide your happiness. People will hate or be rude towards you for anything from your appearance or even sound of your voice or way you put out videos or blogs or photos too. Ignore them. Having haters is typically a sign that you are doing well!

Doing some research and finding a niche will ultimately be a challenge for anyone. For example: If you are looking to become a streamer and want to play the game with the most viewers on Twitch chances are you will find a really tough time breaking in unless you are a pro player and absolute god in the game. Another would be if you want to be a blogger and if you don’t research. I stared this blog on Streaming and without thinking, streamers probably are more likely to watch a YouTube video instead of reading a blog about it. Switched to Lifestyle/Parenting/etc and my blog seems to be slowly flourishing when I should have did a bit more research into it. I also had no idea the importance of pinterest in blogging and growth either and that was a whole year wasted (Not really since I did learn more!) that I should have been pinning and helping drive traffic here. I also didn’t use any tags either which didn’t do me any favors.

Here is the question everyone is asking and probably thinking it is easy to get. Will I make money at creating content? The short answer is No, Not right away. Nothing is quick and it will take you a long time to grow your brand and make people want to tip you or support your content. You are going to have to do a lot to influence folks to want to give you money for whatever reasons. Do you provide a product? Do you provide a service? Entertainment? Or whatever else there might be. I have been streaming for nearly four? or three? (Honestly it feels like ages!) years and right now currently I am making about 25$ per month. That is legit all. And with Twitch you only get paid every time you hid the 100$ threshold. That means I essentially don’t even get a “pay check” every month from them. That is another reason why I wanted to focus a bit more on blogging. Streaming is such a give give give way of making money and the reality is the money you make is never a for sure thing either. You could totally make a modest month worth of cash and the next month make next to nothing. I feel like long term blogging could be the way to make a regular income once I get it grown to where I feel I am able to search the financial side of it though. Just like any job, content creation on whatever platform is not easy. Overnight success is not easy and chances are you will be working hard for a long time for little to no money before you can say that you “made it”.

So before you dive in, Ask yourself if creating content online is right for you. And before you take the plunge into trying to make a living out of this I would recommend NOT quitting your day job. So many people in the time I have been around on twitch along have been trying to make it big just by streaming full time hours. If you want to be successful put content to different platforms and bring others towards different avenues you have created. But NEVER put your own family or livelihood at risk because you think you can make full time hours online. Truth be told, The people I have seen stop and try to stream full time and be successful, are no longer streaming at all anymore.

Have you ever thought about creating content online?
What spots have you wanted to produce content?
Do you have any tips you would like to share with folks too?

Let me know in the comments below!

– Stacey

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How I Write My Blog Posts

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When I first started seriously blogging I had nearly no idea what I was doing. Literally none. I just wanted to be a blogger and I kind of did it however it was more rants and totally sporadic. There was no rhyme or reason. That is until I though blogging could be a serious way to make some type of footprint in the world of writing.

I started blogging seriously in preparation for my son. I was a streamer and would stream pretty heavy hours. I wanted to branch out into more than just streaming. I always loved writing and thought this could be a great way to still produce some type of content while waiting for my son to be born. Though the schedule was a bit tricky I could still schedule posts and pre-write them so I was still putting out content even when he was still a newborn and I had little to no sleep.

I first started with goals for blogging. That would be to try to have some growth and see where it goes. I knew I wanted to see if i could eventually make some kind of income though I still have legit no idea how to make that happen as of right now but I am working on growing followers as well as my email mailing list. I think that is good starts for it as well. I had dabbled with the idea of starting a blog in the past however I had no idea where I wanted to start or how I would go about it even. I had done a few posts but never really knew or understood how I would go about growing it, continuing, how often to post or anything. When I became pregnant with my son I knew that I wanted to take it a big more seriously and try to get something happening.

When I first decided to blog, I believe I posted on a few different days, still two days a week though but it was all about streaming. I thought because I was a streamer that I had to write about something that I knew. Which was streaming. I wasn’t really a big streamer by any means just one that was around a long time and felt like I could offer some tips and tricks to people if they wanted to see what it was about. I would strictly post about streaming like that was my niche. I know it seemed like a good idea. I was posting it on twitter when I was publishing posts and then I was seeing how it would go. I never really posted it anywhere and didn’t do anything to push them out. I just “hoped” that people would read them. They didn’t. After about the summer I realized that it was time to change it up. I started to write about my life, different aspects like parenting, funny stories, little rants. And well, here we are if you are familiar with my blogs you will see I don’t really have a “niche” per-say but I still do quite well I think!

Since I don’t really have any specific subject that I write about, it can be challenging to narrow down something to actually write about. What I normally do is if I am away from the computer I will save the title in my phone in a notepad and when I have a handful saved Ill save them into word press as a draft. It can be the weirdest times that something pops up. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, sometimes it has to do with something on TV or somethings it has to do with food or life or parenting in general. You can see that I kind of have a random amount of topics in here and to be fair, I just cant really narrow it down though!

I structure paragraphs after I figure out the title. I typically have an intro and outro which is standard I assume, and questions at the end of the post. In the middle I try to if I can write in subject words for the paragraphs where I can just start writing. Just words to break down what I am thinking and to help the flow with my train of though. For this I had the words “Paragraphs” and the next was “Googling Occasionally for idea jolts” to help with what I need to write about. I find it helps prevent me from having a writers blog mid way through a post, however if that does happen I have learned to leave the post and then come back to it at a later date to finish!

Sometimes I occasionally will google “blog ideas” and see if anything triggers some ideas for myself. I don’t like writing the standard posts I want to put my own spin on them. Sometimes when you google topics it can give you a very generic idea and I like to hone in on something more specific. Is that good or bad? I am not entirely sure since it can be maybe a little too specific. But I don’t want to write blogs full of fluff or rainbows. I want to write about real life subjects even if they are a bit tough too.

I would say my first year blogging I did OK, I went too hard on one subject but overall I think it could be a lot worse and I STILL could be writing things about streaming and going no where. But instead I changed my focus and here we are nearly at 200 followers and working on getting more daily/weekly/monthly views.

My goal by the end of 2021 would be to have about 500 followers on the blog. And hopefully in the process grow my email list which I think could be a great tool to use as well too. I think the hardest part is admitting that something I started might not be the same as when I finished. If I knew or thought about changing subject I would have done it a lot sooner. And to be fair, I have a lot more fun and enjoyment talking about subjects randomly instead of the same things about streaming and gaming all of the time.

How did you find this blog?
Are you a blogger yourself?
If so, What do you blog about?

Let me know in the comments below!

– Stacey

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