How to Start a Successful Blog in 2021 _ By Sophia Lee

This video is all about how to start a successful blog in 2021 .

All right .

So basically , I've had my blog now for three years in 2021 it's gonna be four years .

So in August and over these last few years , I've just learned some tips and some life lessons or career lessons or whatever you would want to call it that I would have wished that I would have known when I was starting my blog and that I've learned over the years , especially in 2020 that can really help new bloggers in 2021 .

So I'm kind of going to go through those .

I try to mix it with some like wisdom , not wisdom , but some just some things that people need to hear about blogging that they don't know .

And then also mix it in with some actual like hard knowledge that they can go and actually do or that you can actually do for starting a blog .

So I wrote notes because I'm a note taker um to make sure that I remember everything , but we are gonna start out with the first one , which is , well , actually , I have two that are like the most important , I think .

But this first one is super , super important and I think it's especially hard in 2021 to do this .

And it is when you're starting a blog , you need to stop comparing yourself because the fact of the matter is is that people have been in this blogging world for 10 years now .

Do you know how long they've had to build up their blog ?

And if you think you're going to come into it at square zero , which I don't even know if that's a term at Ground zero and be at the same place as these bloggers that have been doing it for 10 years in one year , you're out of your mind .

So you just have to constantly know that if every single person in the world could make a ton of money from their blog , then every single person in the world would be doing it .

And it takes the reason that there's not everyone in the world doing it is that it takes a lot of time .

It is really , really hard if you want to be successful .

But with it , you have to treat it like a blog from the very beginning and you have to keep working at it and working at it and working at it and working at it and you probably won't see any results for eight months and to do something for eight months and not see barely any results is really , really , really hard .

But at nine months , you could start seeing a ton of results and at 12 months you could be earning your 1st $1000 or your 1st $100 or whatever it is .

So , do not compare yourself , especially do not compare yourself to someone else's middle .

It is so important and I think it's often forgotten because I know that I compared myself to people that were way farther ahead of me .

Still to this day , I am still constantly comparing myself to people that are doing better than me or have more years in it than me .

And I'm expecting to be at the same place as them .

But that's ridiculous .

Like obviously , I've only been in it for 3.5 years where they've been in it for 6.5 years .

They have three years on me .

That's a long time to grow and develop their brand and business .

Number two , stick to a schedule , stick to a schedule and be consistent .

You will not succeed on any social media platform .

If you are not consistent , if you post on Instagram for an entire month , every single day and then the next month you take off for that month .

Literally Instagram is gonna stop showing your things .

Same thing with Pinterest , same thing with youtube , you need to be consistent .

And if you being consistent is you posting once a week , then post once a week I always recommend posting twice a week .

But if you can only post once a week , then just post once a week , don't go from posting every single day for two weeks to then not posting at all .

That will ruin your stats .

Social media is so smart right now , like so incredibly smart that you need to learn how it works and how to work with it and not against it and not posting consistently right away is going to have you going against their algorithm .

But then also just from like a like a follower standpoint posting more consistently , your followers are going to feel more connected with you .

They're gonna feel like they know you more and it's just better all a all around .

But that's another thing .

It's like , I don't want to scare you off from starting a blog , but being consistent is really , really hard because there's time to read , you're just tired and you don't want to do it .

But if you want to be successful in this , you have to do it , you have to keep going , you have to be consistent with it because it's the people that are consistent with it and keep going when times get tough or they're not seeing anything happening that they end up being the most successful .

Um OK .

Oh And , and with that , like just an example of being consistent .

So I just started Instagram after three years of not having Instagram with my blog .

Um I'm a Pinterest girl all the way , but we'll get to that in a second .

But when I got on Instagram , I knew after using Pinterest that the key to Instagram is being consistent .

So I've showed up every single day on Instagram and I've story every single day .

I think I'm going on eight months now .

And that is really , really hard , like , seriously , it's hard to be , you know , present in front of people and to constantly , you know , like it's just tough , like some days you just went off .

But I knew getting into this , that for while I'm built on my Instagram and I don't know how long it will be to , I feel comfortable , just not completely story for today .

I think there was one day where I didn't story at all , but that's one day and I felt so guilty that entire day and now I was posting every single day and I still try to post every single day .

But now , like , I'll skip one day a week maybe .

But I think story is the most important .

So that's just something like there have been a lot of times that I've not wanted to post on Instagram or not want to get on Instagram and you just have to because that is how you build a brand and that is how you build a website , especially in 2021 .

OK ?

Next um stick to a niche .

This is been a thing for years .

So basically , like I would have said the same thing in 2019 that I'm saying in 2021 you need to find your niche .

If you're trying to hit all different things , people are going to get confused , they're gonna find one thing that they like that you do , but then you post another thing and they're gonna be like , well , I don't like that .

Like , so you have to figure out your niche and what sticks with your readers and then just go hard with that .

So if people , I get like damned sometimes of people being like , well , I can't pick my niche .

Like I really like cooking and I also really like fashion and then I also am a mom .

So I want to write about mom stuff .

Well , it's great that you love all of that .

And if you are really want to write about all of that , what I recommend is that for six months , you write about all of that and then after six months you go back and you analyze your stats and you can see that , ok , your mom stuff gets the most views out of everything .

So what you should do is ditch the other two things and continue writing about your mom's stuff .

Continually test and find a niche .

You will just rank higher faster if Google can figure out Google and Pinterest and whatever you want , can figure out exactly what you're talking about .

Which is another reason that I don't really like posting blogging videos on my youtube account .

And I've actually struggled with this .

Like , I've talked about , like , I've thought it through a lot because I don't want my youtube account to be a blogging youtube account .

And so that's why I like rarely ever post blogging ones because I want my youtube account for people to be able to see this about decorating , cleaning and organization , not about lying .

So you have to really , really , really be specific about what you're doing , especially when you're new so that Google can figure out what you are from the back .

Um Next , so everything is next .

Next , next , I have been a sticker for the longest time and this is not something I've done .

So this is something that I just have like witnessed and I think it's an interesting concept and something to think about .

But I have said for the longest time that you need to find one social media and you need to stick with it because running a lot of social medias is a full time job in itself .

Like each social media is a full time job .

So you have to be really strategic in the media beginning about choosing which social media you want .

Otherwise you're going to get burnt out and your blog is just gonna , you're not gonna be successful with it in my opinion .

So when I started my blog , I chose Pinterest that line , which I still fully fully see , I'm behind that Pinterest is the social media source that you should be starting out with when starting a blog because it's the only social media out there that people go to , to actually go to websites fully stick behind that .

However , and I'm not , I'm not on this , but tiktok I think is a really interesting platform .

I probably will not ever have a tiktok for my website .

Um But I think that starting out if you are comfortable enough to get in front of your phone and do like cleaning hacks on it or there's this one cleaner that I follow a marrow cleaner .

I don't know what her name is , but she literally just gives out cleaning tips on her tiktok .

She has a full , I mean , she is booked for months now because people discovered her through tiktok .

So I think tiktok is just at its beginning .

I think it's going to be a really interesting platform .

I'm curious to see how bloggers kind of transfer it over because a lot of like , it's a younger crowd .

But like from that cleaning one , you can see like that is her platform .

That's a really powerful one .

I don't necessarily know how well tiktok can transfer over to your website and selling things , which is the power of Pinterest .

So that's just kind of something to experiment .

But as a new blogger , I think that looking into tiktok is like , interesting .

I'm just intrigued by it .

And lastly for like my , you know , tips and then I'm gonna kind of give you the steps that I recommend you taking for starting a blog in 2021 .

Um But lastly is think about your Roy and test out your Roy .

So if you don't know what Roy is , it's return on an investment when I was starting my website , I focus and I still to this day focus on my Roy so intensely if I'm not making money from it .

And this is especially in the beginning , then it's not worth me doing .

So that's why I only chose Pinterest for my social media .

Pinterest got me the views to my website which translated into money Instagram was a really bad to my ro I in the beginning because I wasn't making any money from it .

It was , it's so hard to grow on Instagram and it , it doesn't gain traction really fast .

So think about your ro I figure out what is making you money and then just go gung ho with that back to your like the whole don't expect to make money the first month of your blog or the second month or the third month or the fourth month or the fifth month or the sixth month , you probably won't make any money on your blog for a year , at least if for being realistic .

Um So kind of figure out like I always say get the readers to your website first , which is what Pinterest , you know , I'm just throwing out Pinterest now .

But seriously , if you can get the viewers to your website , then you can apply for an ad agency and your ad agency is probably the best bet of getting you money in the beginning of starting your blog .

So , um that's kind of what like my tips are for how to start a successful blog in 2021 and 2021 .

And then um this is kind of the steps I recommend you taking when actually starting a blog in 2021 .

So first you need , I recommend highly , highly , highly recommend .

And I have a , I have a ton of videos that I'll link here that expand in this way further .

But I highly recommend that you get a self hosted wordpress website .

And in the beginning , I personally use my host as blue host and I love them and they're really , really cheap .

So um that's what I recommend for that .

And then I actually have a post on my website that goes over step by step , every single thing that I did when starting my blog and I recommend everyone to do when starting their blog .

So I'll have that link in the description and I just have it written out super , super easy but get a self hosted wordpress blog with a blog post .

Um get your website semi set up and don't spend a lot of time on it .

Get a theme so you can either get it .

I have gotten my theme from 17th Avenue Designs .

Um I'll link that in the description too .

Really , really liked her theme .

I used her theme for three years .

We just got a new , I just read in my website in September .

So I had that same website theme for three years and it worked great .

So you can do that or you can even go on wordpress and look up or Etsy and go on look up wordpress themes .

And in that they'll have um cheap options and it's super , super easy .

Basically , when you buy a theme , all the coding is already done for you .

I can guarantee you unless you're a website designer that your website will not look as good if or if you can just tell instantly or at least I can when someone tries to put their website together and good for them for trying .

But it will save you .

It goes back to Roy .

It is not , you can pay $10 or like the 17th Avenue .

Ones are a little more expensive or kind of a lot more expensive , but like $65 .

But you can pay in that range and have your website look professionally designed and you can get it set up really , really fast so that you can start writing posts , which is a better use of your IO A .

Um So once you have your website basically set up and looking presentable does not have to be perfect .

Do not spend a lot of time on it .

It is a waste of your time .

Get on Pinterest , get on Pinterest , get blog posts out there and just get content .

You need to get content on Pinterest .

Be consistent with it and keep , keep pushing it out there for at least six months , at least six months , You need to be pushing out there constantly um and stay consistent with it .

Keep going , do not take weeks off , you cannot take weeks off .

It'll be really hard .

And if you are planning on taking a week off , I use tan one as a Pinterest scheduler and you can schedule it in advance .

So that way people won't really know that you are taking time off .

Um And then I would highly recommend Googling what Seo means and try to incorporate it into your website as much as possible .

So , um I have a course called Perfecting blogging and that goes over exactly like what we do with an Seo standpoint .

But if you just search Seo on Google , you can get the basics of it and Seo stands for search engine optimization .

And this is really , really huge for a blog .

I know that when I started my blog , I didn't know what I meant at all .

So that's something that you should definitely be looking into and just research it .

And then that's basically all the tips I have for you .

Another thing that I did and I still do all the time is take courses .

I especially did this .

The first year of starting a blog .

I say this in a ton of videos that I talk about blogging .

But doing it like I would rather spend $100 and figure out exactly how a successful blogger is doing their method in their system than spending a year testing out and trying to figure it out on my own and failing at it .

So I like to take courses whenever and now I'm able to buy more expensive courses .

But in the beginning I was buying really , really cheap courses and just being able to see a blogger that has really good stats and is getting , I know it's just doing really , really well and I can see their exact method , then I can go copy that exact method and I do the same thing I tested .

I usually , I do the bloggers method for at least six months and after the six months of doing their exact method , I can go back and analyze what I just did and figure out .

Ok , well , that works for me .

And that's , I'm seeing a lot of good things right there and then that's really , really not working for me .

So those are just , I don't know , that's just really , really helped me .

Um especially when I started a blog .

So those are my tips for starting a blog in 2021 .

I feel like , honestly , like they stay the same pretty often through the years .

The only like , I mean , the internet hasn't changed that much .

Oh , I did forget to say one thing .

OK , this is the last thing I'm gonna say .

I forgot .

This is like a really big one because people message me this all the time .

I think I hate when people tell me that blogging is dead or that there are too many bloggers out there because they , whoever tells me that has no idea what they're talking about .

In 2020 we have learned that more people are going to utilize the internet for daily life than any other time in the world .

Plus just think about how much you use the internet yourself .

I go on the internet and I search the craziest random things like today .

What did I I today I searched , can I leave chicken in the sink for six hours ?

You know , like that , right ?

There is a blog post that can be written on and can make a lot of money off of .

So whenever you search something or all of the things that people are interested in the world and every single person that wants different .

So think about all the things that people are searching for , there can be a blog about .

So I think that 2020 has just taught us and we can take away from it that the internet is , we always knew it was powerful .

But I think that we learned just how powerful it is and how powerful it will continue to get .

And it's scary actually to think about how powerful it is really , really scary .

But I think that's important and it can give you a lot of confidence as a new blogger .

And , and on me , that gives me a lot of confidence too because , you know , I feel like there's , there's space , there's space for every single new blogger , there's space for every successful blogger .

And it's really just about being consistent and helping your reader don't make it about you if you've watched my other videos , you know , I always always harp on do not make blog posts about you , make them about the reader .

That's how you're going to be successful .

So I know that video is kind of all over the place .

But I hope that I got my point across to you on how to start a successful blog in 2021 .

Make sure to check out my post on my website where I go through exactly how I started my blog .

Like the actual step by steps on how to do , like actually start a blog .

I think that will be really helpful .

Actually , I know it'll be really helpful for you .

But I also have a ton of other youtube videos going over how to start a successful vlog and just how I've been doing it and how I've been able to make a lot of money from my website .

So yeah , go check that out for more .

See , this is , this is my harp for my .

I should probably be harping on my vlogging stuff , but I always end every video for more decorating organization tips and cleaning tips to subscribe to my channel and follow me on Instagram .

But also I like post once a month , I post a blogging video .

So subscribe me here for that once a month blogging video .