What do you wish you knew before starting your blog?

With 77% of internet users in 2019 reporting that they read blogs regularly, it’s no wonder starting a blog is such a popular endeavor. While seemingly simple and straightforward, blogs can often be more time consuming and require more effort than anticipated. 

Hindsight is often 20/20. What do you wish you knew before starting your blog that would’ve made the whole process smoother? What best practices can you share to help set others up for success?

Share in the comments below!

Wish I had known more about summary blocks and the fact you can make a "list" of blog posts a whole lot more exciting looking with some design tweaks. 

https://myrandomviews.com/storysummary

Update:

Another thing I wish I knew is that you can isolate and group  blog posts using a category filtered by a hyper-link.  They will show up in list layout or as featured posts, depending on how your blog is styled, and  your template setting, but these posts look like they have their own 'page" without actually having to use one. So I mix things up on my site, some posts in a summary block on their own pages, and some grouped using hyperlinks. Those links can go anywhere, on the nav bar, in a folder on a button. And those links can be used outside the site, in emails, social media posts, lots of things. The url slug will take you to the first item in the folder. 

myrandomviews.com/special-stories

I would like to get a domain for starting a blog. I am a bit confused on how the pricing works. When I signed up and was at the domain page, I chose one and it listed the pricing for it which is yearly. Do I continuously pay that price every year or is there a limit (a total amount of buying that domain)? 

Also, will this be the only thing that I pay for for creating a website? Sorry I'm on a low budget and want to know if there are any other fees to consider. 

Thanks!

Custom Domains have a registration fee, that renews every year on date of purchase. After an inital two week trial, the website has its own fee as well. Squarespace has different billing plans, monthly and annually, and all are based on what you want the site to do, for personal things like a blog or for business, selling products and needing specialized coding capabilities. I suggest if you have more questions, post them here in the Getting Started with Squarespace section of this forum on its own thread.  We will be glad to provide you with help. 

https://www.squarespace.com/pricing

Blogs is much more than just writing. I wish I read more about marketing before starting my first blog.

Specifically these two things:

1. SEO - What phrases to use, how to structure the blog posts, etc. There are lots of information on this is you search for "Best tips for blog post SEO".
2. Sharing blog posts - Facebook groups and Reddit subreddits are great places to share your blog posts.

Have a content strategy in mind. As mentioned above, a blog can be a lot of work, and it can be time-consuming. This isn't a bad thing - but it is a reason to have some goals around why you are blogging. 

SEO aside, before writing a blog, consider what kind of content you are writing and how you intend to distribute it. You also want to think about your goals. 

For example, are you hoping to get more people familiar with your products or services, or are you addressing an audience in a different part of the buyer's journey? Is the blog intended to help address hesitations and move people from consideration to purchase?  Once people are done reading your blog, what steps would you like them to take?

With that said, quality content is the most important. You don't want to get so caught up in your "goals" that you lose sight of providing helpful content. 

You may not get a ton of shares when you initially share your content.  However, if you start with quality content, you may find people are retweeting and sharing your content many months later. 

I wish I knew that Pinterest was the best website for promoting my blog, and that I hadn't wasted my time on Instagram lol.