THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO REGULAR BLOGGING

Hi, it's me! Still know who I am? I won't blame you if you don't! You see, I've been so absent over the last couple of months that I would be more suprised if you did know and were impatiently waiting for a new post ever since. I couldn't find the motivation and time to write. The main reason was me having a lot of other activities/things going on that I made priorities without thinking twice about it.

I can't promise anything but I will definitely try to post more regularly the coming weeks. But who am I kidding? I don't have a (huge) following so I can basically post whenever I want. Nobody will judge me or be disappointed when I don't post for weeks in a row. I know from experience. But what I also know is that in order to grow as a writer, in order to grow as a blogger there needs to be some sort of regular practice and there needs to be some sort of clearness as to when people can expect a post and also what those posts might entail. Not exactly, but it's good when people know what kind of subjects you will touch on.

That being said. I'm writing this post to help myself and hopefully others in the struggle that is called planning your blog posts. Well technically the planning part isn't so hard. It is the executive part that needs to be done.

A few things to consider as they might be different to everyone:

- WHY are you blogging? Always start with the why as this is the most important question you could ever ask yourself. (Classmates of  mine will probably experience déjà vu moments or throw up right now as alarm bells start ringing when Simon Sinek/Ted Talk/Golden Circle slowly come to mind.) But on a more serious note, asking yourself the why question can be applied to any aspect of your life. Try it sometime. Once you've established what it is that motivates you to start blogging you can work from there.

- What is your long term goal? Start with your most important long term goal. If you have more and you can't choose which one is your main goal that's fine too. As long as you have a simple and clear focus on what you want to achieve in the long run.

- What is your short term goal? You might have more short term goals. Pen them all down and make a top five.

- How much time do you want to spend on your blog? A blog is more than just writing a few lines every now and then. Think about brainstorming, writing good texts, taking photos, marketing your blog into the world etc.

- How much time are you going to put into a single post? This can differ. Not every post needs as many words as another.

Once you've answered these questions, the next step is to plan out week by week the moments you are going to work on your blog and when you want to make your posts public!

The key is to write it all down. When it's on paper, it becomes real and you will be more likely to stick with it. For example: on Monday I will spend 2 hours on my new blogpost. On Tuesdau morning I will photograph the subject of my new blogpost. On Wednesday I put them together and online. I also make sure to post on my social media accounts so people know I have a new post they can read.

The social accounts that I use to promote a new post are Bloglovin, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest. In that order. Because I always use the first three and I sometimes use Snapchat and Pinterest too. If you really wanna grow as a blogger, you gotta put in the work. You can plant the seeds, but you need to water it often, preferably every day in order to grow.

What is your number 1 tip for beginning bloggers?