Start Writing The Next One

Blogging is not easy. It is heavy work. Yes, I know. My advice is, to start writing.

If you are the only soul who does everything, such as blog’s backend work, designing work, writing, editing, and marketing, you are in big trouble. You will feel overwhelmed soon with your blog.

Do not let that happen. Blogging is pretty impressive, and it changes everything in your life. I am not talking about money. Money is just secondary.

Having your own blog is having a great friend with you always. Just imagine how amazing it is to walk through life with a great friend. 

You can discuss anything with that friend. You’ll learn a lot from that friend. You’ll get help when you need it so badly.

Why would you give up on that friend? So, don’t even think about that.

WordPress blog

Setting up your own blog with WordPress is not a big deal these days. You don’t have to have any knowledge of programming or WordPress because I don’t. 

I have set this blog up by myself, designing everything, and now I know how to make little changes in the design. It is just a multi-purpose WordPress theme.

So, don’t worry too much.

For web hosting, choose Bluehost or Namecheap. Both companies have amazing deals.

Bluehost hosting service is the best and the fastest, but Namecheap’s customer support service is second to none. For beginners with limited technical knowledge, I recommend Namecheap.

They did everything, including the migration of my blog from GoDaddy, setting up the SSL certificate, and all the other tiny things for me with no extra fees.

You have to ask them via their live chat. Tell them you know nothing about WordPress or web hosting. Excellent people there will do the rest for you.

If you know how to do things around WordPress and set up hosting accounts, go for Bluehost.

All the other tiny optimizations can be done after you start writing.

Another option is to hire a freelancer from Upwork or Fiverr to do the basic stuff for you. Yes, it has an extra cost but worth giving that money to a freelancer than giving up on your blog.

This article is getting longer. If you want to know how to set up a blog like mine with no technical knowledge, let me know in the comment section below.

I’ll show you everything I did step by step.

Start writing

Let’s get back to the actual topic.

After I publish an article on my blog, I take a break before the next one. This break is days long. Sometimes, my break extends to a month-long vacation.

It is entirely a bad practice, and you’ll not become a professional blogger operating like this. Consistency matters the most in blogging.

So, you have to start writing the next one.

Honestly, you must start writing the next one even before you publish the first one.

I am not here to ask you to set up your publishing calendar for the upcoming month or write five blog posts at once. It does not work for beginners because I tried, and you know what happened?

That strategy delayed completing all five articles; I couldn’t publish a single article that month.

Hey newcomers, focus on one article and publish it when you think it is ready. Do not worry about the topic, SEO, or the word count too much.

Just put it on your blog.

And from the next minute, open your word processing app and start writing the next one. It’ll take time, but that is what you should do if you want to publish at least once a week.

Setting up high goal or impossible standards do not work for all. I’m here for those who have passion but struggle to write consistently.

Let me refine the strategy.

Pen and paper

Use a pen and a notebook all the time. People believe writing can only be done on a computer or tablet. They are so wrong.

Those electronics are designed to distract us easily. If somebody mentions you in their Instagram photo or retweets your tweet, we get notifications, right?

We receive emails from our friends, family, subscribed websites, or our job every hour. You can’t ignore those notifications.

So, how could you possibly write something? That is why one article per month was a massive deal for us. We are busy but without doing anything.

That is the best thing about pen and paper. You do not get distracted by those unnecessary notifications.

You don’t have to worry about your battery level or WiFi. Travel with your notebook and a pen all the time. When you come home, you probably have a few ideas for your next article on the paper.

You have to start writing your next piece. You will not believe me until you do this.

Notepad app

It is not as exciting as the real physical notebook and pen, but it is something. As I said before, you should have something to capture your ideas whenever those flow through your brain.

I didn’t use at least one app when I started blogging. I thought I could remember those ideas and start writing anytime I wanted.

Believe me. That is not going to happen. You remember nothing, and you feel nothing. Ideas come with the environment, mood, or the places you were at that time.

You can’t say recreate those factors when you sit in front of your laptop and have already lost the best ideas without knowing they exist. So, hurry up and grab those ideas when they come.

I use Apple’s Notes app. It is clean and syncs with my Mac. On the laptop, I use Scrivener for all my writing. It is incredible and has all the features any writer needs.

But I didn’t use the Scrivener iOS app (iPhone and iPad). Reviews and ratings are good. So, if you are ready to spend $20 on a mobile app, go for it.

People talk a lot about Evernote App, but I do not like Evernote. Notability is also a pretty decent app. I have been using Notability since the first day it came to the Mac App Store but not the iOS version.

Stay inspired

Have you heard about TED talks? Most of you might know, but some don’t.

Just go to the TED website or TED YouTube channel. I prefer their website because YouTube is purely a distraction. Even if you go to watch a TED talk, you end up watching so much other trash because you are forced to watch those.

According to your watch history and subscriptions, YouTube knows how to pick videos for you.

Don’t end up being their prey.

TED is loaded with excellent talks from remarkable people. Watch any video in any subject area you like. You won’t find that inspiration and knowledge anywhere else.

We all need the inspiration to stay strong and achieve our goals. Blogging is not an exception to that. However, don’t be inspired by the income reports from top bloggers.

Because you’ll be unable to earn any money, at least for the first few years, if their monthly income reports inspire you, you get nothing but frustration.

That is why I recommend TED. It combines inspiration, knowledge, great people, touching stories, and so many things.

Start writing your next piece after watching a fantastic story.

If you would like me to recommend the most inspiring and must-watch videos on TED, let me know. I’ll dive in and extract those for you.

Learn from the experts

Instead of following the exact footsteps of top bloggers in your niche, learn from them but sometimes steal.

Here I have written how to steal ideas for your next post from the pros.

You are already a writer. You all have written and published somewhere. Facebook comments and captions also count.

So, most of you have enough knowledge in your interested area. You have to learn how to write.

I have worked as a freelance social media strategist for years, and I know about social media marketing and freelancing. As I graduated with a Zoology sp. degree, I learned about animals and their ecology.

Even if I knew enough about my subjects, I still didn’t know how to write a good blog post. How to present that knowledge in a way my audience is eager to read.

I’m not talking about the language you write. You must learn to write like a pro in English or any other language. 

So, follow some great writers such as Jeff Goins, Seth Godin, Ayodeji Awosika, Austin Kleon, Ryan Holiday, Darius Foroux, and blogs like Men With Pens, Positive Writer, and The Creative Penn.

Learn from them. Study how they write. How they start their article, end it, and engage with their audience.

When you study their pieces daily, your vocabulary will improve, you can live their life experience, and you can live with them.

With all these troubles,  you should find your own voice. That is how you become a professional.

Wrapping up

You might ask, “Why would I take advice from you? You are just a beginner too.”

Yes, of course, I’m still a beginner. There are so many expert bloggers out there. 

My answer is,

I write this purely on my personal experiences. I didn’t run internet research before writing this. That may be a bad practice, but when I read blogs on the same topic I’m writing, sometimes, it happens to rewrite their ideas involuntarily.

Isn’t that enough?

And I could have given you 10+  methods to stay inspired, but I rely only on TED here because it is a complete package that offers you not just inspiration. 

You can learn storytelling, how to present your story exciting, and how ideas change the world with TED.

Don’t forget. Don’t take breaks as I did in the past. Always try to start writing your next one.

Featured photo by Brooke Cagle