INTERROGATION TIME! If you're reading this, do you have a blog? If you don't have a blog, are you thinking of creating a blog? Or if you already have one, should you rethink your blogging course?

In this post I'm going to explain some of the things I thought about before I created Wild Pennings, and what you should consider before you start a blog. While this post is geared towards readers who are thinking of starting a blog, who knows?—maybe some of you with blogs will find this post informative.


When I first started blogging, I didn't think much about what I was going to do with it, who I was going to reach, or what I was going to post. I just created it, designed the layout, and announced to the Internet, "Hey guys! I created a blog! Come check it out!" Everything about that logic is wrong. As I explored the blogosphere, I realized more and more what made an epic blog and what made a not-so-epic blog. So when I created other blogs, I kind of figured out what I needed to do in order to get off on the right foot.

Goin' Oprah here. You gotta have a goal! And you gotta have a goal! Everybody has gotta have a goal! If you get nothing out of this, please know that I'm a huge fan of goals. I think it is essential that EVERY amateur or professional blogger have a goal in mind when they start a blog.

Your goal should be more than "reach 10K readers" or "get 200 comments." (I actually consider such "goals" as milestones.) Your first goal, as a general rule of thumb, should be to give back something worthwhile to the blogging community (and the world but LOL that's a scary thought). Your second goal should be based on this question:


I'm going to introduce the feisty little term, motivation. Some people have very noble motivations for blogging, which can translate to their goal (e.g. make someone smile on a bad day). But to me, blogging is a very personal endeavor. You're not going to want to continue blogging if you have no personal motivation. Maybe your motivation is to meet online friends, so your goal could be "write relatable content." Suppose you have a private blog. Maybe your motivation is to have a place to share your poetry with friends and family because you're too shy to read it out loud. Your goal then, could be to create a space that enhances your poetry. If you have any better examples, do share in the comments because my brain is fried at the moment and I know my examples kinda suck. XD


Your audience is very important because (simple equation time) readers = support = progression. So when you come up with content, you need to include who you are trying to benefit. Sometimes, your audience is a key factor in the success of your blog. If you sell jewelry for teens, you'll probably want to target teenagers as your audience. If you want to connect with artists and share experiences, target artists. Your audience can be identified by:

• Career
• Hobbies
• Age
• Political alignments
• Gender
• Culture

And anything else you can think of.

The reason readers follow your blog is because they have things in common with you, or can relate to your content. By narrowing down your audience, you can produce more effective content than if you had just focused on the general population. This can be a huge boost with your blogging goals.


So now you've narrowed down your goals and identified your audience. What is it that you want to talk about that will help you reach your goals? Do you want to provide amazing DIY's, or healthy recipes? Do you want to teach people about animals? Maybe you'd rather post photography and fashion hacks. Sometimes you may want to post about whatever strikes your fancy in the moment, and that's fine. There are some super successful blogs like that. Whatever you post, make sure that it helps you progress to your goal.

Most people are going to categorize your blog as something they are interested in, and if you want your blog to fit in one of those categories, you're going to want to have a common thread. For example, my blog is a writing blog—but I also discuss books, blogging, and short stories. These are the main themes that constitute "writing", and that's okay because I've tagged it as something easily categorize-able and interesting to my audience.



This is my biggest struggle as a blogger. It is just so. freaking. hard. to find time. Blogging takes way longer than many readers realize. I've had much practice over the years; however I'm not the fastest or the slowest, and every blogger has a different process. But here is my schedule to give you an idea of how time-consuming blogging really is:

To write up ONE post, I...

1. Come up with an idea
2. Mull over this idea for several days (sometimes weeks), but not putting too much effort into it.
3. Write down a rough outline/draft in my notebook (10-30 min.)
4. Schedule a day when this will be posted. Not too bad yet, eh? The hard work is coming up.
5. Because it's a rough draft, I have to type up the whole thing and sort out all the knots and kinks to make it flow. This can take from 1-3 hours (on separate days), depending on my creativity flow and how rough the outline + idea is. 
6. Then I edit the post. This includes correcting typos, macro-editing the post for coherence and unity, clarifying the premise, etc. This usually doesn't take too long, around 10-40 min (again depending on the draft and thought process speed).
7. Then comes my least favorite part—adding graphics. I have to search for pictures (10-20 min), add spacers, and create a featured image, which can be a real pain in the butt. I've spent up to an hour creating ONE featured image before, and lemme tell you that was NOT fun. But if you have a good design software/web app, you know how to use it, and you know how you want your image to look, this can be as short as 10 minutes. Before I figured out my image theme, I spent about 20 minutes deciding it because I had to 1) find an image 2) find a font 3) figure out the freaking software kinks. Obviously I hate making feature images. 
8. Not to mention, I take all of the photos in my featured images (except the book reviews—thanks unsplash.com!) so there's that time too. idek.
9. ONE MORE ROUND OF EDITS!!
10. "Publish"

In total, I spend roughly three to four hours sitting down and pulling together one post, not counting extra preparatory work. Maybe I'm over-achieving or doing things the hard way, but honestly it takes a lot of time, even when you settle into a flow.

So figure out how much time you currently have to write up a post, and go from there. Will you post every other day? Every Tuesday? Once a month? Bi-weekly? Go with what works for you. You may have to make changes from time to time, but don't be afraid to do that because you're doing your best to produce top-notch work. Whatever schedule you decide, do be consistent. Readers adore consistency. There's nothing like scrolling through your feed and seeing another amazing post exactly when you expect it. Some readers even make time to read specific blogs! (I do but shhhh.) Your readers are eventually going to rely on you to produce content on a predictable rhythm.


A platform is the internet system you will be running your blog on. Some are made specifically for blogging, others are made as more of a "build-a-website" thing. I have tried both Blogger and WordPress, and I prefer Blogger because of the design flexibility. WordPress has a very nice, flourishing community I wish Blogger had. Research all the platforms and decide what works best for your goals and preferences. I really am not savvy in this section of blogging, but here is a great post about the pros and cons of WordPress Versus Wix.



The blogging community is made out of two parts: the bloggers and the readers. As a part of this community, you want to give something worthwhile back to it.  I've seen several blogs where people just posted things like, "Idk what to post, so I went to school today and my lunch fell out of my bag. That was gross." Eventually, they stopped posting because they had no aim. I personally am not going to waste my time reading something that is not going to benefit me as a reader. Readers benefit from blogs by gaining new and/or useful information. Bloggers benefit by gaining support in their endeavors and progressing towards their goals. My point is that bloggers and readers are dependent on each other, but as a blogger, if you don't post anything with direction, your readers aren't going to benefit and as a consequence you are not going to benefit.

When you start a blog, expect yourself to participate in the blogging community. Do you chat? Comment? Like? What about social media? Connect with other bloggers and build your own community! Remember the Simple Equation™. You want your community to be unique and friendly and large. Do what you can to enlarge it. If you love connecting with people, I expect you to be super tech savvy in this department. ;) (jk, no pressure! Just be you.) :)


DO NOT TAKE MY SARCASM LITERALLY. Appearances DO matter, but not to the extent I joke about. XD

Design is a really important feature. Your blog design probably won't affect the quality of your content (unless you're super motivated by beauty), but it's a great tool to attract and keep readers. Think of it like one of those pretty flowers that insects love, crawl inside, and SNAP—you got 'em. Breakfast is served. Except we're thinking more along the lines of catch and release so they can come back again.

Again, with the sarcasm.

How do you know your design is successful? People will tell you. Or they'll drool over it and stare at it for hours, who knows. Part of having an on-point design is staying trendy but still keeping a trademark. Right now, white backgrounds are really in. Simplistic formats are super in. Watercolor graphics are in their heyday. But don't make it so trendy it looks like literally every other blog on the planet. Also, don't be afraid to go against the current. Basically, when creating your design, create your trademark so people notice you but not in an oh-gross-what-is-that-mess way. :)


DO NOT start a blog because:

- you want to be famous (doesn't work overnight)
- so you can be mean (no excuse for that)
- to get lots of internet success (people won't like you)
- solely for money (very difficult)
- to complain (arghhhh!! So annoying)
- just to start one (with no vision)


Many bloggers out there boost their stats through social media, but if you're like me and am still trying to set up the fancy shmancy stuff, here are ways you can boost your blog traffic through just your blog! The trick is to be super active in the blogosphere. Do stuff that gets you noticed in a non-overbearing way, but still makes people wonder, "hey, I see this gal everywhere. Who is she?"

- comment, like, share, pingback, follow!
- buttons
- guest posts, collabs
- giveaways, contests
- Interact with other bloggers


The number of followers you have can be huge, but what really matters is the number of page-views you have. If you don't have many page-views, that means not many people are reading your content. That huge number of subscribers could mean that people are just following you for the heck of it.


So I know that was SUPER long and SUPER ranty, but I've been working on this for DAYS and this is the best draft I could come up with. XD I missed the tenth, which I didn't realize, but OH WELL. Thanks for sticking around. :) I'll be back in a couple of weeks! Love y'all! <3