Why (and How) I Started Blogging

I’ve told a number of people this story but I thought it worthwhile recording it on the actual blog so N can read all about it when he’s older.

I’ve recently read quite a few social media posts about bloggers who are struggling a lot to keep up the motivation for their blog. Also, I’ve seen quite a few posts about the reasons behind starting their blog. Sometimes it’s for fun, to earn a bit of money or for a career.

But let’s destroy a myth right now, blogging isn’t easy. It’s really not easy. It’s easy to think you just write a post and publish it, put it on your social media account and boom! You’ve a successful blog and oh, look over there, thousands of followers!

It couldn’t be further from the truth. Working on a blog takes an awful lot of time and effort, but this means you have to be motivated and keep in mind the reason you started. In those difficult times when you just can’t be bothered, you just want to watch TV and drink a beer, or just simply enjoy a family day out without taking blog photos and analysing your day out, that’s when you need to remember why you do it.

Why I Blog

I remember the first time I told a fellow blogger why I write my blog and was told how sweet the idea was which was nice. My primary focus, way above and beyond anything else, is to create a life long diary for my son. That’s it. Simple. The first post I ever published was about the day I became a Dad, which I think it appropriate given the purpose behind the blog!

It all started when we bought one of those memory books. The sort of thing you put in a clipping of hair from their first haircut, or what they liked and didn’t like etc. I remember getting one from my Mum and Dad which I absolutely love and cherish still with the things it has in it (like the band I wore in hospital when I was first born). I just thought “why not do something longer and in more detail?” So I did, and I set up this blog.

In fact, something you may see as a dear reader of this blog, is that there is an extra category to my site other than the usual like reviews, days out, early life etc. This extra category is called ‘Diary for N’ and just lets me put things into one category that he may like to read when he’s older.

The second reason I set up the blog, which in itself is very motivating, is to help people. Being a new parent myself I’ve no idea what’s around the corner. Every single day presents new exciting developments as well as new challenges. So if I’m one step, five steps or ten steps further down the line compared to someone else, then perhaps my experiences can be of some help. I’m not a guru, far from it, but every so often perhaps I come up with one thing that helps someone, and that’s a fantastic motivator for me.

How Did I Start Blogging?

1. The first thing I asked myself is whether I want to own my own website or jump on to an existing website that was free. There’s the crucial question, on one platform you have to pay a bit upfront and on the other you can start for free. On the free one you can transfer to a paid site later on but I thought it would be too much faff and risk of error to try and transfer it later so I decided to set up my own
2. Following that I then had to decide who my web hosting company would be. I read all sorts of reviews but knowing me, and how many questions I would ask, I went for someone that could provide me 24/7 help via a messaging route (as I do a lot of my blogging early in a morning outside of normal working hours), was reasonably priced, had good security, was reliable and of course had good reviews. Hence, I chose Siteground
3. Then came the exciting bit. What on earth should I call my blog? I came up with all sorts of names, none of which I can remember now (this was many months before I launched the blog). It was so much fun thinking of different names. In the end my wife came up with the name Bringing Home The Baby. I checked to see if the address at .co.uk was free (I think the suffix says a lot about a site) and checked social media to see if those names were taken. All worked out ok so within about an hour I had registered the domain with hostingit, all social media profiles set up and my website registered with Siteground as my hosting company. I know this seems like an ad for them but it really isn’t. There are a lot of hosting companies, you need to decide on your priorities for your site and pick the best that’s most suited to you
4. Once you’ve picked your website name and got your website (whether free or not) registered, you then need to pick something called a Content Management System. This is basically the front end of your website which, in terms of a blog, you use to write posts, set up links, add images etc. For example, I use one called WordPress, which I’ve come to understand is very popular in the blogging world. Personally I find the tool very easy to use, and there’s an app for mobile blog writing. You just need to make sure you take your time to learn the different elements of it

Once you’ve registered your site, got your content management system all set up and understood how to us the tool, then it’s just all about writing! That’s when the fun begins.

Helpful Links

Here are some useful links you may wish to look at to help you:

• How to make a website
• Tips for choosing a domain name
• More tips for choosing your domain name
• Registering a domain name
• Here’s more detail on all the steps of How To Start a Blog

Summary

Well, there you have it, the reason I started blogging was to create a diary for my son and to help other parents.

I’m intrigued though as to the other reasons people started their blogs.

If you’re a blogger why did you start yours?