All things must come to an end, and so, alas, does this lovely month of summer camp. Calliope, thank you for doing this. I hope you’ll make it an annual tradition.
Day 31 – What advice would you give someone who is just starting a blog today?
Read more: 31 Days of Blog Juice at Creating Motherhood http://creatingmotherhood.com/2011/06/28/summer-camp/#ixzz1ShHKaVKN
Just do it! You may find that you want to have several different blogs for different purposes. I have this one, obvs, and I have one where Izzy and I write private letters to someone in our family, and I have the honour of being one of the Quirky Girls, and then I have an anonymous blog where I feel free, because of the anonymous nature of it, to share things I don’t feel free to share with most of my family and friends.
Play around with different names before you pick a title for your blog.
Build your blogroll well and wisely–there are some blogs that you’ll want to read their entire archives, but then you’re done. There are other bloggers that you’ll feel an affinity for, and you’ll want to add those to your blogroll so you can check them out.
When people link to you, if you’re comfortable with it, show them the courtesy of linking back to them.
If you’ve got time, try to respond to the comments people leave for you. But if you don’t have time, don’t feel guilty about it. Life is busy and crazy. But know that you’ll get more comments if you’re able to respond to them. And if you leave comments on other people’s blogs, you’ll find that they’ll begin leaving more comments on yours.
If you get an offer to have a post or your entire blog sponsored, think hard about it. I once got an offer for $25 to link to someone’s website in one of my posts. I felt fine with that, and got a cute vegan handbag with the money. (No, I’m not still vegan, haven’t been for a while, but am moving back toward the vegetarian direction.) But if having that sponsorship will make you feel you have to self-edit, decide whether it’s worth it. It may not be. If your primary objective in blogging is to get paid for it, fine. But if your primary objective in blogging is to have open expression, then having sponsored posts/blogs may not be right for you.
