So, we found a host, setup basic website navigation, a menu, now, how do we start actually blogging?
Perhaps it is modern laziness or information procrastination, but I went on youtube and search start a blog in 2024. I think that is a mistake, because every result seemed to be more about how to make a blog profitable or blog design, or both. I say this is a mistake because, I feel like I am no closer to knowing what how to write a blog on the wordpress platform.
So, I simply went to the wordpress dashboard, found the link for posts and selected “Add New Post”. I made up a title and I am typing away. Ideally for someone else’s benefit not just to make me feel like I accomplish something. We all learn by doing, perhaps you will follow our blogs and learn with us. At the end of the day the time you share with us is truly priceless and we will value it as such.
When I struggle to think what I should write, I use questions to dislodge and free my thoughts. Right now, I am asking myself; Where am I going with this blog? Why would anyone want to read this? What is the purpose of it? and many other questions.
So, some tips for getting started writing any blog could include:
Tip #1 Don’t worry about the title, the intro or summary at first, focus on the reader.
So, if you want to know how I got started writing blogs this is probably what you will find in this article. (That could probably work for as a closer for an introduction). Now that we understand the purpose of this blog post, I ask myself, why should you read it? Well, if you have written many blogs, you are probably bored already and have moved on. But if you are an average person trying to figure out how to get started maybe my suggestions and observations can help you understand better and perhaps facilitate your success. Good or Bad, we can all learn something from someone else. Of course, I would like you to learn something meaningful or useful from me, but if I am completely wrong you may still learn what not to do.
By the way this is my first real blog post here, so as a human, I may make mistakes
Tip #2 Don’t worry about the length
I asked google what the ideal blog post length was it suggested from wix.com a length between 1500-2500 words, it stated 2450 words is a sweet spot allowing your post to contain enough information to be informative while also keeping their attention. I would say if you are counting words while writing your blog, you are probably not creating your best writing. It is natural to want your writing to fit in easy to digest templates and reader expectations, but sometimes it is also nice to vary article sizes.
Tip #3 Develop a system
Hey, I admit it, I am a novice blogger. If you, I, or anyone else is going to be a good blogger it would be nice to make a routine that fits your lifestyle, gives you a voice other people may be interested in, and lets you feel like you have contributed to mankind. I imagine, what is Shakespeare never contributed shared his time and talents to history? I would not profess to be Shakespeare or ever achieve his level of proficiency but did he not have to start somewhere? Aren’t I and all writers in a better place because he did?
This tip was supposed to be about developing a system, but instead it seems to demonstrate how easy it is to deter from a thought. Make a routine in your lifestyle which incorporates time to write. This is difficult because there are so many competing priorities. I think Shakespeare had far less distractions and I imagine that he had a fairly defined method of drafting, revising, and finalizing his content. Without a system, how do you evaluate effectiveness?
I have to admit, I just violated Tip #2, prior to this paragraph, I was at 681 words. I still think I shouldn’t do that though, but in this instance, it resulted in Tip #4
Tip #4 Check your writing in a full featured word processor.
Whether you use the opensource options or the paid versions, the grammar and spell-checking features available in them seem to be much better than the editing directly from wordpress. So, I think cut and pasting the blog content will be more effective than continuing this post from within the wordpress editor.
Tip #5 Use AI
There are a lot of AI models out there which can help writers in a variety of ways. If you prompt the ai to provide editorial suggestions for your blog text in quotes “whatever you are blogging about”. You make be surprised to find you will get some very helpful suggestions. I want to be clear; I do not suggest delegating the entire writing task to AI. You may consider having it provide you with an outline, alternative and/or more SEO friendly title, help you find ways to make your writing appeals to specific audiences, and some of them will create images you can use.
Tip #6 Stand out from others by being authentic
There are going to be plenty of people who have AI do work for them and I could pump articles out on schedule letting AI do all the work. But AI can never relate content to you with my filter, my biases, and experiences, good, bad, or otherwise. If you want to visit a site written by AI, you probably already have. So, I intend to kind of follow my instincts and see where they lead. I hope I will learn as much from doing this as any reader learns from me.
Tip #7 Use Categories to organize blog content
This blog post is published in the category getting started. I would describe this category as “Blog content which relates to how or why we set up the Family Research Network and perhaps goals, challenges, and history of doing so.” I think this category is not as related to the genealogy tasks or categories which will be developed as we go along
Tip #8 Be consistent
This is tough, if you have a good system it will be easier but establishing a group of regular readers who value your content is even more difficult when you are not consistently posting. I am going to attempt to post one blog a week but I suspect most will not be this long. You and I should practice saying what we are going to do, and doing what we said we would. I hope I do not regret writing this tip in. 🙂
Tip #9 Know when to stop
Again, I violated tip #2. If I have done this twice already, I think I should wrap this blog post up. I am used to writing articles in the 400–500-word range, so I may need to practice to get to the ideal blog post size. I could push farther but does anyone really want me to? Just to meet some arbitrary word count?
So, (I tend to say that a lot), in summary, while you should have an introduction and this article’s introduction is sketchy at best, focus first on what you want the reader to know, i.e. 9 Tips to get started posting your first blog article. Tell the reader in the introduction what you are going to tell them in the body. Write the body, and then summarize what you told them. There are a lot of tools out there available but it is easy to get lost and unproductive using them, so be smart. I am just an average guy and if I can do this, you can probably do it better, but you have to do it. So, get started.