Blogging Tips (Q&A with Maggie)

Today I have Maggie, from Dreaming Of Guatemala, as a guest on my blog! She’ll be answering some questions about blogging in general! Make sure to check out her great blog here!

When and why did you begin blogging?

Back in 2011 (when I was 11), I joined a cool website called HomeschoolBlogger! I was homeschooled my entire childhood, so I was excited to be part of that website and meet other homeschoolers like myself. The point of the website was to allow all the people to create their own blogs, and that was the first time I was introduced to blogging. I thought having an online journal sounded really cool, so I made my first blog in 2011, and I called it Craftygirl5! (I was really into crafts then

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Have you always used WordPress?

No, but it’s my absolute favorite blogging platform! It’s the most affordable and reliable, I love it. I’ve also used (but wouldn’t recommend) Blog.com, Blogger.com, and Weebly.com.

What is your greatest success in blogging?

Hmm, I’m really not sure. I definitely feel like the amount of time I’ve kept up with Dreaming of Guatemala (nearly three years) is a huge accomplishment for me! All of my blogs in the past were very short-lived, so this is awesome for me personally.

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What advice do you have for beginner bloggers?

Don’t lose hope when you’re first starting out! The first several months of blogging are best spent finding your writing style, finding your niche, connecting with other bloggers, and discovering your target audience. It can get discouraging at times, but the wait is worth it. One unpopular bit of advice I’d like to give beginner bloggers is don’t waste time with separate social media accounts for your blog. I tried to do that for my own website, and the minimal traffic I got from all that work was not worth it. If you instead focus all of your attention on specifically growing your blog and meeting other bloggers, you’ll truly be able to flourish instead of dividing your time between many different social accounts!

What, in your opinion, is the most important step in blogging?

I think that the most important focus for any blogger to have is on becoming a better writer. Most blogging niches revolve around writing, so with each blog post we share, we should strive to learn more about the writing process and how we can best express ourselves and encourage/teach others through our blog posts. Just some food for thought

How often do you post?

That definitely depends on the month. On average, I aim to share three to four posts a week. However, when I’m taking time off from post-writing, I may have one post done each week. Other times, I’m blogging every single day for a blog challenge.

It’s probably difficult for my followers to keep up, but hey, I’m keeping my blog real! I aim to be 100% authentic

How do you come up with good titles?

By always coming up with the titles before I begin writing my posts! For my first few months of blogging on Dreaming of Guatemala, I didn’t know to do this, and I was always struggling to name my drafts. When my mom (a fellow blogger!) told me she always came up with her titles before writing her posts, I tried it out for myself … AND IT WORKED.