THE TRUTH ABOUT STARTING A BLOG..

2017 was an incredible year for me. Obviously, my highlight was giving birth to my beautiful baby girl, but from that Biff & Baba was also born.
 
When I first created my blog I never in a million years expected anyone to ever bother reading it. Or if they did, I never expected they would be loyal or interested enough to return. The fact that people take the time to read my content, follow and like my Instagram and more recently YouTube, is mind baffling! Why me? I’m nothing special… I’m just your average new mum, fumbling through motherhood and discovering it as I go along! I am SO unbelievably grateful that people are investing their time to me and my life!
 
But seriously though, why me?
 
I get a lot of questions from other first-time mummy’s or women who are currently pregnant, that are also wanting to start a motherhood blog and ask, “how did you do it?”.. “how did you get a good following?”.. “where do I start?”.. “how do I make it?”..
 
My honest answer. I have no bloody idea at all!
 
I still find it hard to class myself as a proper blogger. I don’t EVER for one minute think I’ve “made it” in the blogging world. I am by no means as big as some bloggers out there, who are SMASHING it and produce some incredible and inspiring content. But the fact that people are asking or turning to me for advice is pretty surreal!
 
These past 8 months of blogging and now vlogging, have been a massive whirlwind and I have just been learning as I go along like any other blogger starting out, be that beauty bloggers, fashion bloggers, parenting bloggers etc! I still see myself as the "new kid on the block" who’s only just started! So, I have no magical answers. There are no mind-blowing algorithms that I follow or have cracked! I’ve just been me and been incredibly lucky!
 
But having said that I do have some advice for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog or have started but not sure where to go next with it. I think the blogging world is such an amazing place to express yourself, it should be open to anyone who is committed and has a passion! Sharing advice and experiences to each other shouldn’t be a secret, we should all support and want one another to succeed! It’s NOT a competition! There is space of ALL of us!
 
So below are a few key pointers that I have found work for me and have been contributing factors in my blogging journey so far..
 
1. BE YOURSELF
This is probably my MOST essential (and kind of obvious) bit of advice. There is no point copying another bloggers style or content. By all means be inspired by someone else, but don’t copy them. No one is going to buy into your blog if you are not being real, honest and trying to portray yourself as something you’re not. A couple of months ago I discovered some girl was copying my ENTIRE blog, from my font, name, layout and even down to literally copying and pasting my blog posts but tweaking a few names to make it look like her own work. I was furious. I was heartbroken. The amount of time, soul and energy I put into my blog, had been completely destroyed by someone so ignorant to think that she wouldn’t get caught and that this was acceptable! I confronted her, the blog was deleted, but I still never got an apology.
Coping someone will get you nowhere. It is someone’s personality and flare in their writing that people fall in love with (from my experience!) Find your style and be confident in yourself and what you do. It’s YOU who people want to follow and fall in love with, it’s YOU they want to relate to. Blogging is so personal, so be your own person!
 
2. BLOG BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT, NOT TO GET FAMOUS.
Want to know one thing all successful bloggers have in common.. they LOVE it! It is their passion, it is their life! Never start a blog with the wrong intentions. I started because I wanted my own little creative space that I could document my pregnancy and journey of becoming a mum and look back on it in years to come. It was my online diary of free expression and discovery. I fell in love with typing – something I never imagined I could do being incredibly dyslexic and crap at reading! I never once thought about people reading it, getting free stuff or how many followers I had on Instagram. Blogging is SO much more than that! It is a passion that takes time, commitment and HARD work. The time it takes to draft, type, format, edit, photograph, it's definitely NOT an easy ticket to becoming famous.
 
3. WRITE ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW
When starting a blog, I think it is important to find a genre or topic that suits you, your life, interests and hobbies. There is no point trying to do everything in the hope of pleasing or gaining as many readers as possible, because you’ll lose sight of who you are in the process. I chose to write about my personal experience of becoming a mummy as I went along. But I would have struggled if I suddenly out of nowhere decided I wanted to be a beauty blogger or an interior blogger (which are both topics I appreciate but know nothing about!) Another example would be if I had tried to be a travel blogger.. I’ve barely travelled in my life! I’ve been to 3 different countries abroad on holiday and that is it! I could blog about travelling with a baby when the time comes? But till then, there is no point me trying to give advice about something I know nothing of! In my personal opinion, if you blog about what you know, you should never run out of ideas or lose your drive/motivation along the way.
 
4. BLOG FOR YOU
I think this kind of links in with all the other pointers above, but is a good tip to summarise everything I’ve written. Don’t blog to please anyone or impress others. Don’t blog for fame or freebies. Don’t blog for acceptance in the modern social media world we live in! Don’t blog for any reason other than YOU want to! Do it for you. Don’t do it for success. I feel there is a very fine line of when blogging becomes forced and unreal if you try too hard to do it for anyone but yourself. I feel you can tell when someone’s heart isn’t in their writing. It should feel natural to type and fill you with happiness! Not stress because you’re worried about how many views or comments your page will get. Don’t beat yourself up. Expect no one to read it, imagine your blog is 100% private. And that’s when I found that people enjoyed my blog more! Blogging for you is so important, and I personally feel it helps in staying truthful to yourself.
 
From my own experience, if you stick to these 4 simple pointers there is no reason why you cannot start a blog! I hope that anyone who is wanting to start a blog finds these tips useful and you get out there and go for it! Like I said above, the internet is a massive place and there is definitely room for you!! By supporting one another, we will succeed together! The blogging community, no matter what topic, is such a fab community to be a part of and I’ve met some incredible and inspiring creators!
 
Again, if you are reading this now, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read my content and be an incredible support! It means the world and I will never stop doing what I love!
 
Of course, feel free to ask any further questions below! And if you have a blog, leave the link as I’d love to check it out!!
 
Lots of love, Bethany x