9 things no one tells you when you start a blog

Here is a little back story about yours truly. I am technically on my third blog. I started Venus Trapped in Mars in 2010. I was anonymous, and in turn, didn't offer up much of my personality. I went in with the intention of only blogging about sports tutorials. It became a chore, no one was reading and I gave up. I then did a blog called Like, Um, Anyways. That was followed by a two post blog about Pinterest that I quickly realized was dumb. Then in February I came back to Venus Trapped in Mars. 

Although I love Sports, and that is technically my niche, I don't ever want to pigeon hole myself into one topic again. Great writers write what they know and write about things they love. Themes are good, personality and variation are better. 

Blogging isn't like Facebook. On Facebook it is few and far between for me to ever leave a comment on someone's status. In blogland, you read it, you comment. Plain and simple. 

Don't make your post too wordy or too long. I think a good rule of thumb is to have one picture for every 2-3 paragraphs of words. Even if it is a graphic of words, like that lots and lots and lots of words graphic above, it breaks up the post and helps your eyes. 

Here are some bloggers who do a great job of using pictures to support content:

Helene in Between

Two Thirds Hazel

Mint Love Social Club

Postcards from Rachel

Pink on the Cheek
I Wore Yoga Pants to Work
Glitter and Grace

 If you hit the blogger jackpot and Helene or Taylor or Whitney give you a shout out on their blog, then you may not need to spend as much money. Until that happens, get ready to spend some money if you want to grow quickly. When considering sponsoring a blog, keep in mind that group giveaways will cost extra if you would like to participate. I personally don't do button swaps, I don't think simply being on someone's sidebar is really enough to gain a good chunk of readers. 

This isn't the YOU show. I wish it was, I really do (I don't). But i'm just going to be blunt here....

{Insert grumpy cat face here} 

I'm going to leave the rest of this to Nadine's tutorial here.

If your blog background is anything other than white, I vote changing it to white. Go ahead, I'll wait. 

If you want to make money, get to a point where you can sell adspace to other bloggers and businesses. Until then, don't use google adsense. 

1. No one is clicking it. 

2. It makes your site look terrible

3. You have NO CONTROL over the content it shows. 

Typos will happen, poor grammar is forever. If you can't figure out your, you're, their, there, they're, too and to.... we can't be friends. I'm sorry. Hugs and kisses though.