So, how to LOOK like a pro blogger when you’re brand new?
You started a blog. Then all of a sudden, you feel like you have to play catch up.
You have to learn all about blogging, SEO, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, email, and more. But, how can you do all that when you’ve just been blogging for 3 days?
Overwhelm creeps in. And you feel like your brain is shutting down.
I’m totally with you.
Take a deep breath.
Just remember that even the most successful bloggers started as an amateur at the beginning.
Focus on progression, not perfection.
Today, I want to share with you 7 things to make you look like a pro blogger instantly even when you’re brand new, giving you more confidence to keep pushing forward.
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7 Ways To Look Like a Pro Blogger Instantly
#1: Have Your Site Self-Hosted
If you are hosting your blog on a free hosting platform like WordPress.com or Blogger, your site URL will look like this:
yourblogname.wordpress.com or yourblogname.blogger.com
Instantly, people know you’re an amateur.
More importantly, the free blogging platform owns your content and limit what you can or cannot do with your blog. It also has the right to terminate you at any given time without any reason (say what?!).
So if you’re planning to make your blog look legit and want to eventually monetize it, you should absolutely have your blog self-hosted.
FIND YOUR Self-Hosted Web Service
The one I recommend is SiteGround.
They have amazing support, so even if you’re completely clueless, you don’t have to worry. They will help you every step of the way.
SiteGround has many amazing features, you can learn more about them here.
Also, you can follow this simple step-by-step guide to get your blog set up the right way quickly.
#2: Have a Pretty Theme
Look.
I’m sorry to say, but people do judge blogs by how they look.
They come to your blog, spend a few seconds. And if your blog looks amateur they are just going to click back and leave. Period.
So, having a pretty and functional blog theme will make you look like a pro blogger instantly even when you’re new.
Plus, having an aesthetically pleasing theme will likely motivate you more and help with your creativity.
Creative Market is the place where I shop for my blog theme. And this is the theme I’m currently using, isn’t it pretty?
Oh, by the way, you can sign up here to get a 10% off coupon for themes.
#3: DECIDE ON YOUR Color Palette
In cooking, spices dazzle our senses by bringing out the taste and aromas that make the flavor experience come alive.
Colors do the same thing for your blog.
The unique color combination you choose will help you visually delight your visitors and make your brand identity more memorable.
Color Associations
Below are some common color associations:
- Yellow. Positivity, happiness, warmth, and playfulness.
- Pink. Feminine, innocence, and delicateness. Bright and vibrant shades of pink evoke a bold and modern appeal.
- Red. Passion, desire, love, and power.
- Orange. Energetic, warm, joy, sunshine, and playfulness.
- Purple. Royalty, nobility, luxury, and creativity.
- Blue. Trustworthy, loyal, dependable, serene, and calm.
- Green. Growth, freshness, serenity, healing, and safety.
- Brown. Simplicity, warmth, neutrality, and depth.
- Black. Class, distinction, formality, mystery, elegance, and tradition.
Select your color palette based on the colors you like AND what the colors associate with. You do want to like the colors you select though, as you will be looking at them for a long time.
If you have an existing business, use the same brand colors to stay consistent across the board. That includes your blog and all your social media assets.
Pro Tip: Use Canva to create a vision board with your color palette, fonts, and images so you can keep all your brand inspirations together for future references.
#4: Select Your Fonts
Your fonts can also reflect your brand personality.
Body Text
- Font Type
For your body text, choose something easy to read. Personally, I prefer sans serif fonts. Common sans serif fonts include Helvetica, Avant-Garde, Arial, and Geneva.
- Font Size
Again, choose something easy to read! If you’re using font size 12, change it right away. Go for a bigger font because you don’t want your blog visitors to squint while reading. Font sizes 14 to 18 are more common.
- Font Color
Choose something easy to read and also easy on the eyes. If your blog’s background color is white, having a solid black (such as HEX color #000000) could become difficult on the eyes because of the high contrast. Instead, choose a very dark grey such as HEX colors between #222222 and #555555.
Headers Text
- Font Type
You will have various headers such as H1, H2, H3, H4. So just play around the different fonts in your theme or page builder and see which font types you like to use the most!
You want to have some variations in the font of your headers. For example, if your body text is a san serif font. You may want to use a Serif font such as Georgia in your H1 or H2 header. Again, just play around!
- Font Size
For your headers, choose a font size that is bigger than the body font. For example, if your body font is size 14, you may want to have your H2, H3 headers set at 24 and 18. Again, play around!
- Font Color
For your headers, you may want to use a slightly darker tone as your body text. Alternatively, you can also choose one of your primary colors from your color palette so your headers stand out.
Occasionally, you may want to add in a fancier script font (such as Northwell) to spice things up. These fonts are absolutely beautiful and can add style and personality to your blog. However, don’t overuse them as they can be hard to read.
Again, if you have an existing business, use the same brand fonts across your blog and your social media assets to stay consistent.
#5: Have a Brand Logo & Favicon
Two easy things you can do to instantly make your blog look professional is to add a logo and a favicon.
A favicon is a brand icon that is placed in the browser next to your blog name in the browser.
#6: Select Your Photography Style
How do you want your blog to look and feel?
Your photography style can speak a lot about your personality and brand image.
Are you chic and stylish? Are you feminine? Or are you vibrant and playful? Are you bold? Are you quirky?
You can take your own photos if you’re good at photography. Otherwise, there are many royalty-free stock image websites available, where you can use free ones or purchase images to be used on your blog.
Related Read: 21 Best Places To Find Beautiful FREE Feminine Stock Photos for your blog
#7: Write Freakin’ Awesome Content
Okay.
Blogs are filled with content.
This content needs to attract your target readers so that you can grow your blog traffic and eventually make money.
You do this by writing engaging blog posts that solve a problem and speak to your target reader.
Dazzle Up With Your Personality
Be you! Add in your personality in your posts.
And don’t worry about being perfect with your English. Don’t have grammatical and spelling mistakes, but you don’t need to follow what your school teacher told you neither.
Blog content is meant to be more personal. So just blog like how you would talk with your good friend!
Make Your Content Scannable
People are busy, it is unlikely they will consume your content word by word. So, make your content easy to read for your readers. Do these:
- Choose fonts that are easy to read
- Leave the big words in the dictionary! You want to use everyday normal language.
- Use proper H1, H2, H3 headers
- Use bold, underline and italic for your text as appropriate
- Have enough white space, so people can rest their eyes
- Add relevant images and infographics to break up text and support your info
- Use shorter sentences
- Have shorter paragraphs (maximum 5 – 6 sentences)
- Use bullet points (like this!)
Related Read: 5 Powerful Yet Simple Posts Every New Blogger Should Write
Write Consistently
Look.
If there is no content on your blog, that screams amateur.
So, the rule of blogging is – if you’re new, you have to create content more often than if you’ve been blogging for a while.
As a new blogger, try to create new blog posts every week. Find a schedule that works for you. If that means once a week, great, stick with it. If you can manage 3 posts per week or post every day, more power to you. Stay consistent.
Just remember, always choose quality over quantity.
Don’t rush out mediocre content just to meet a blogging timeline. If you found yourself doing that, it’s time to adjust your blogging schedule to make things more manageable.
You can do this!
Look like a pro blogger even when you’re brand new
There ya go! 7 tips to help you LOOK like a pro blogger when you’re new!
I know blogging is a brand new adventure and it can be very overwhelming. I hope this guide can help you (or will help you when you’re ready to tackle blogging and start your blog)!
So now it’s your turn. What’s one thing you are going to do TODAY to help your blog look like a pro? Also, did I miss anything on this list? What would you add to this list? Leave a comment below! I’d love to know!
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