Dear Me Before Blogging

I love blogging and I love learning new things about it as I go. But there are a few things I would have like to know before I got started. It might have saved me a lot of time and trouble. So in the magic of blogging land I would like to tell my pre-blogging self a few things. And maybe you can benefit from my mistakes, experiences. Whatever. 

1. Choose a better website URL.. If you want your blog to be about pony riding midgets your blog name can be Anastasia's Wide World of Glittery Glitterness, but your blog URL should be "ponyridingmidgets.blogspot.com." This way when your very exclusive niche googles "pony riding midgets" There is more of a chance that yours will pop up on the first page. 

2. That being said, don't beat yourself up about SEO, or analytics. Title things what you want and write about what you want. Your passion and love will come through if you are true to yourself. 

3. Pictures. Your blog needs pictures. Check out weheartit or tumblr or my personal favorite pinterest. That being said, don't get picture crazy. Too many makes it look cluttered.  Open a tumblr account if you want to get picture craziness out of your system. 

4. I'm sorry, but you probably won't make money off of it. Move on.

5. On the same note, you probably won't get eleventy-thousand followers at once. Be happy with the people who love and read your blog regularly. All three of them.

6. Don't get bogged down in it, live your life too. You'll have something to blog about. 

7.Don't ramble. Don't make your posts waaaay too long, and pick a topic, Focus on one. Take that post about 82 different things and turn it into 82 different posts. 

8. Decide whether you want to be anonymous or not. If you choose not to be, decided how honest you are going to be and what the consequences might be.But always be honest in your writing, just maybe change the names a little.

9.Read and comment on other blogs. One of the most important things you can do to get people to read your blog. But only comment in a genuine way. Don't comment "Hey great post, visit me at www.midgetsridingponys.blogspot.com" That is not cool.

10. Enjoy it. People can tell when you aren't having any fun.

Just do what makes you feel right. It's a fine line between blogging for yourself and blogging for your readers. When in doubt be true to yourself. I hope it helped you, because I read my archives sometimes and I cringe. Maybe I can save you from that.

More tips: Nicolette said "I would add one more "keep ego in check." Most bloggers are wonderful but a few seem to get a little too big for their britches at times." (so true!)

Do you have any (more) tips?