Want to know the answer to the most frequently asked questions I get from bloggers? Check out these blogging FAQ and my answers!
I get the same blogging FAQ again and again from new bloggers. These are bloggers that are either taking my free blogging course, follow me on my blogging TikTok or Instagram or are part of my Facebook help group (where I give everyone advice personally).
As you can tell, because I have so many sources where bloggers can ask me questions, I get a lot of the same questions!
These blogging questions are the most asked for a reason; because everyone goes through them one time or another when starting a blog. From design tips to legal page how-to’s, here’s a list of FAQ new bloggers ask me as well as a detailed response for each one.
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How do I start blogging?
Starting a blogging is relatively simple in the fact that it’s technical and there’s not much strategy or analysis in the start up, except for choosing a niche and name.
In my free blogging course, I share everything about how to start a blog, which includes:
- recognizing that you’re starting a business,
- choosing a niche and name (that won’t pigeon hole you),
- learning the difference between a self-hosted blog and non self-hosted blog,
- buying a domain name and signing up to hosting,
- choosing a good theme and installing it,
- setting up legal pages,
- installing plugins and analytics you need,
- writing your first blog post
- and even tips on how to make money with blogging.
Once you actually start writing blog posts and marketing it on social media, that’s where it gets a little tricky, but my free course goes a bit into this too!
Can I blog without experience?
Yes of course! Blogging only really became a viable career option 10 years and many people are still just getting the hang of it. That being said, blogging is not something you go to college for and get a traditional degree.
I personally went to school to study accounting and even took the Certified Public Accountancy exam to get my CPA license.
I can guarantee that most people who start blogging start it without any experience at all. If they do have experience blogging, it’s probably at most because they were someone’s intern, assistant or worked at a content creation company.
But otherwise, most people don’t have experience starting. You gain experience as you blog, but you won’t learn if you don’t actually start so start today by grabbing this free blogging course.
How do I get over my fear of starting or gain confidence with blogging?
Being scared to start anything new is totally normal, especially with blogging because it is not as structured or straightforward with other careers.
Know that you can have anxiety and/or a lack of confidence and still build an amazing blog.
I did it! I actually went through a lot of my life being so scared because both my parents died by the time I was 10 and I grew up on welfare. I didn’t have financial support from anyone when going to school; I didn’t even have health insurance! I also didn’t have emotional support and had no where to go home to during summer vacation.
I was so scared most of my life, not knowing if I could possibly become homeless or hit rock bottom. But I still pushed through and this led me to this life of being a travel blogger who gets paid to travel.
So acknowledge your anxiety (it’s normal) and push through. You got this!
For responses to worries like:
- What will my friends and family think?
- Will people like my ideas?
- How will I get people to hear my ideas?
Check out my blog post with 5 Tips to Build Confidence in Blogging or watch the video on YouTube.
What is the best blogging platform?
In my humble opinion, the best blogging is WordPress.org (not WordPress.com- big difference here).
WordPress.org is the industry standard for bloggers. In my six years of blogging, I’ve only met one blogger who has a Squarespace blog. I met one who had a GoDaddy and another with a Wix blog but they both transferred to WordPress.
The reason why WordPress is the go to blog for bloggers is because:
- You will have a self hosted blog meaning you have complete control over your content.
- Having a self hosted blog will make it much easier to monetize and work with ad networks, sponsors and affiliate programs.
- It’s really customizable and scalable. It’ll grow with you as your blog grows.
To sign up for WordPress.org the right way, head to day two of my free blogging course, which gives you a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to sign up the right way.
You will also learn more about self hosted sites vs non self hosted sites and why self hosted is so important if you want to make money with your blog.
What niche should I go into?
This is one of the blogging frequently asked questions that holds people back from starting a blog. But DO NOT LET THIS POINT STOP YOU.
There are about 100 things to do after picking a niche so to be very honest about this, if you get stuck at this point, then you will not be successful at blogging.
To not get stuck at this point, on day one of my free blogging course, I do have an activity to help you figure out your niche. Your niche is basically going to be a mix of something you are passionate about and something you’re good at or want to become an expert in.
My best advice for picking a niche is to just start and figure it out as you go. A lot of people generally have 3 niches they want to write about and can’t choose, which is why you should just start. More on choosing a niche below.
Thinking about blogging about a niche is totally different from actually blogging about it. You’ll figure out shortly whether you like blogging about a topic or just enjoy it personally in your life.
For example, I love cooking. Food brings me absolute joy. Because of this, I thought I wanted to go into food blogging but once I started cooking, taking photos of each ingredient and writing blog posts about cooking, I realized this was way too much effort for me.
However, I do love writing about travel so I stuck with the travel and lifestyle niche on my first blog.
Is it ok that I can’t choose one niche?
A lot of new bloggers have this problem of being able to choose one niche. It holds them back for even starting a blog at all.
To be honest, if this is what holds you back, you will not be able to become a blogger because there will be more challenges to face.
But for something comforting- it’s ok to write about multiple niches. You can still rank in Google with search engine optimization if you have a good SEO strategy. I do it on my own travel and lifestyle blog.
My best advice for you is to get started with your multiple niches. You’ll soon figure out what you love and don’t love to write about.
Loving something in real life doesn’t mean you’ll like to blog about it!
Check out day one of my free blogging course to figure out what niche to get into.
How do I make my blog look good?
Making a blog look good design-wise is really easy! All you have to do is install a theme on WordPress.
WordPress itself offers free themes, but after having wasted so much time on free themes, I opted to get paid ones that come with great documentation and support.
Read this post about feminine WordPress themes. If you don’t want something as feminine, then still take a look at the post because Pipdig has great themes that are neutral.
How do I make my content engaging?
Getting people to your blog is one thing but making them stay on it is another. But it really comes down to providing them the most helpful information possible.
With an easy-to-read, clear-to-follow blog post that shares all the information to questions your blog reader has, your reader will want to stay on your blog post and be engaged in your content since it provides so much value.
Humans are inherently selfish so anytime you’re writing a blog post, to keep your reader engaged, answer the question from their perspective, “What’s in it for me?”
How do I get page views?
The best way to get page views is organically from search engines. That’s because 60-75% (depending on the study) of website referrals come users searching online so might as well grab readers where they are hanging out the most!
To get page views from Google, the most used search engine, you want to search engine optimize your blog. This is the process of optimizing your blog in various ways so that your potential readers can find exactly what you’re writing about by searching it.
Search engine optimizing my blog is what helped me get 12,500 page views in six months on my second blog (the one that you’re on right now; this is my first blog).
Traffic from search engines is more passive meaning that blog posts you wrote months and even years ago can get traffic with little to no work thereafter.
Compare this to social media sites where you have to constantly post to constantly get traffic. That’s why I prefer getting traffic from Google vs. social media sites.
However, if you do want to get traffic from social media, I would recommend using Pinterest. This is what I consider the 2nd best way to get organic traffic because Pinterest is also a search engine.
It allows for more passive traffic than Facebook or Instagram but it’s still not as passive as getting traffic from Google because you need to post to Pinterest constantly.
You can also get page views from Facebook if you have a good following or pay for ads, but because I’m lazy and want sustainable long-term traffic, I focus on SEO first.
How can I stay consistent blogging?
If you want to stay consistent blogging, you could create a schedule with what you need to do for the next month or two… But to be honest, schedules don’t work well for me.
We are human so we have natural ups and downs; times we’re inspired and times we’re not.
When you’re feeling inspired and charged to write blog posts, batch write your blog posts! Then perhaps batch take photos or batch input affiliate links into your post.
You can easily schedule blog posts out as if you are writing weekly when in fact, you only spent one weekend writing two or three blog posts.
Also, you have to look beyond the blog. Visualize what blogging can bring you. More money on the side to go on vacations that you want? Ability to work from home so you can be with your kids more? These images will encourage you more than anything.
Lastly, join our Facebook group! You’ll see others taking time to blog and be inspired to be part of like-minded bloggers.
If it’s a matter of building a habit though, read Atomic Habits by James Clear.
How do you manage your time blogging?
I’m going to be straight up here. Starting a blog is time consuming, and if you want it to grow quickly, most likely you are going to cut something else out of your life if you are super busy.
Most bloggers and influencers I know cut out their social life when they were first starting their blog! I did.
Otherwise, here are a couple of tips to manage your time blogging along with your full-time job, work or life in general.
- Be kind to yourself. Don’t tell yourself you’re going to write 4 blog posts a month, only to have time to write one. This will strongly discourage you.
- Be realistic with yourself. How quickly do you want to get your blog up? Are you ok building it up over a few years or do you want it to succeed ASAP? It all comes down to what is considered priority in your life.
- Break down your blog posts into small pieces. Don’t tell yourself, “I’m going to write a blog post this week.” Break it down into writing, taking photos, search engine optimizing it, adding affiliate links and so on. You will feel more accomplished as you check off the little things, which will encourage you to keep going.
- Stay focused on how you’re going to make money and don’t get distracted with too many social media sites. At the most, focus on Pinterest. Don’t worry about the other social media sites.
Read Atomic Habits by James Clear (also mentioned above).
Seriously– if blogging is a new habit you’re trying to build up, then this book will help you build that habit!
Like this post on blogging FAQ so far? Pin to Pinterest for later!
How do you make money blogging?
My three favorite ways to make money with blogging are:
- ad revenue
- affiliate marketing
- and sponsorships.
Ad revenue comes from joining an ad network. With simple coding or plugin that the ad networks take care of, you get money every time a reader passes an ad.
On my first blog, with about 60,000 page views a month, I was making about $1000 in ad revenue, which is considered passive income.
Affiliate marketing is when you get paid a commission by a brand every time you sell their product or service to one of your readers.
The best way for affiliate income to become passive income is to write search engine optimized blog posts. That way you target readers searching on Google for the exact product/service you’re writing about.
I personally make about $1,500/month with affiliate marketing and I love this form of passive income. Blog posts I wrote in the past are making money today.
Read my blog post on Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.
Sponsorships happen when brands reach out to you to write about them on your blog. This can be in the form of a direct review or written naturally as part of a blog post.
I personally charge about $600-1000 per blog post, which includes Pinterest marketing as well. I charged more for search engine optimized blog posts.
In general, search engine optimization is a must if you want to join a good ad network that pays well, make passive affiliate income and get better paying sponsorships. Read my blog post on SEO for Beginners.
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If you need personal help with blogging, join my free Facebook community!
Want to learn more? You can find more helpful blog posts here, get consistent page views to your blog with my SEO course, or follow me on social media to get daily tips:
- TikTok for blogging + social tips @sarah.chetrit
- Facebook Group to ask me anything Blog and Make Money
- Instagram for travel, blogging and Korean food @sarchetrit
Until next time,
Sarah Chetrit
xo, Sarah
Hanan Nizar Msusharafieh
Thursday 14th of April 2022
That was perfectly amazing info to start up my blog...which I am still eager to have more help in to succeed and long for having your support...Thank you so much for all help