How to start a blog in 2025
I started my first blog almost 30 years ago. In 1997 AOL showed up at my house on a CD and I, an 8th grader, was instantly curious. I can talk to people all over the world? I can put stuff online and people can see it??
The equivalent of a kid today getting their first smart phone. I was obsessed.
Through gURLPages, Tripod, Diaryland, Xanga, LiveJournal and eventually Wordpress, I taught myself to code. Redesigning my blog month after month as my interests changed. This was waaaay before any user-friendly CMS existed so I wrote my posts and coded everything in Notepad.
From there I connected to others through blogrolls, communities (20-Something Bloggers!), and eventually social media.
I’ve met blog friends in person, collaborated on projects, spoke at conferences (which included trips to Philly, New Orleans, and Houston), joined mastermind trips to Mexico and Florida. I built my entire business, which allowed me to leave my corporate job, and connected with THOUSANDS of women all over the world - all starting from my personal blog.
Blogging was and still is one of my favorite things but I haven’t done it in a while.
Until a few months ago when a long-time blogger + friend of mine restarted her blog here on Substack. Then another friend, after years of frustration with the changes on Instagram, moved her entire 40k community to Patreon.
Keeping up with each other and sharing on social media doesn’t feel like it used to. Creativity has been crushed by analytics and algorithms and some of us are looking for a slower way to share and connect.
Now that Gen Z has fallen in love with the 90s, and social media has become an ever-changing corporate monster, it’s the perfect time for blogging, and personal blogging in particular, to make a comeback.
I’m jumping back in and you can too :)
How to start a blog in 2025
Figure out what to blog about
Plan your content
Pick a platform
Design + branding
Promote your blog
Plus FAQ + my top blogging tips
1. The basics
➜ What is your blog going to be about?
If the answer is “everything” or “me” you’re going to have a hard time deciding what to write about. Pick 3-5 topics to give yourself guidelines.
On this blog I write about mental health and ADHD, but I also share self care tips, moments with my dog, how I handle a long-distance relationship. I could really write about anything as long as I write about them in relation to my central topics.
For example: I could write a post about visiting my partner and how much Loop earplugs help with my noise overstimulation on flights.
You could also pick one topic and break it into categories. Mental health = movement, mindset, medication
➜ Who is your audience?
Are you looking for new clients? To build a community around a hobby? To share your stories? Understanding who you’re writing for will help hone your unique writing voice.
And if you’re wondering: Yes your voice is important. Yes you have enough experience. Yes there are people out there looking for what you can share.
When I write about mental health I have a specific person in mind and I write just for them. With all the little extra notes and quirks which show my personality because we’re writing for PEOPLE not search engines.
➜ Pick a blog title
The title of your blog doesn’t matter that much. Search for domains, check for trademarks. Use your name or keywords. Make sure there aren’t any naughty words and you won’t hate repeating it 1000 times when your blog blows up.
This blog could have been named: sarahmorgan.com, mentalhealthwithsarah.com, adhdsarah.com, sarahwentferal.com. I chose Hey it’s Sarah because I wanted it to sound like the opening of a quick note to a friend.
Do I need to buy a domain name?
If you want to or if you’re a business. Otherwise you can get your blog going for free and add a domain name (which will simply direct people to your blog url) anytime later.
2. Plan your content
If you can write 10 posts you can write a blog.
After teaching thousands of students, the data says everyone worries they’ll run out of posts. If you have enough ideas to get going, you’ll have enough ideas to keep going.
How many posts should you start with?
However many you want. (I know, I’m not big on rules) 1 is fine, 10 is great. The more content available the more people have to comment on and share. But if you can start with a single and hit publish, go for it!
➜ Where to find post ideas
What questions do your clients or customers often ask?
What are the top questions and posts on Google or Youtube when you search for keywords
What are the top posts, questions, keywords on Pinterest
What have you learned? What do you want to learn?
Where have you had success or failure?
What changed from the start to now?
If you’re getting stuck writing or negative thoughts are interrupting your flow the following does wonders for shutting those down and allowing you to just write: a glass of wine, a joint, journaling, a cafe full of people, co-working, exercise, a walk, a talk, a boiling shower, meditation. Pick your poison - mine is blue dream + journaling :)
3. Pick a platform
A platform or a CMS (content management system) is where your blog posts live. The system turns each post into a separate page and connects them all together to make them easy to find, read, and share.
SUBSTACK: This my favorite blogging platform and my recommendation for 2025 after using ALL OF THEM.
The main reason I chose Substack is because blogs (they call them publications) are networked. This means you can search for other bloggers and topics on their platform and people can see reposts and shares which is a big advantage in growing your audience.
The platform also includes some design options, subscriber chats, paid subscriptions, additional pages, sidebars, and navigation.
PATREON: Very easy to start with written, audio, live or video posts. Also just a few design options. Feels like it may work better for people who have outside audiences coming to their Patreon for extras. What’s Up Weirdo is seriously bonding with their podcast listeners over there, offering access to live chats and group trips.
MEDIUM: Another option with a network so bloggers can follow and connect, but no design options on this one. If you want the easiest option, this is it!
Networked platforms also include likes, comments and shares (reminds me of og Twitter) which makes your content more likely to be seen. Every interaction counts!
SQUARESPACE: If you want a full website, but still easy. Tons of templates and drag + drop design options. Lots of additional elements included: ecommerce, scheduling, restaurant menu, video, podcasts. This website is built on Squarespace.
The downside and the reason I opted for Substack - you’ll be blogging in a silo. Squarespace doesn’t have a way to connect with other bloggers. This may not be an issue if you’re trying to make a stamp in your field or locale and can focus on search engine and social media to drive traffic.
WORDPRESS: If you want a full website (wordpress.org) or a basic website (wordpress.com) you’ll have the most design control here. You can pretty much do whatever you want on the open-source platform. But you’ll want to hire a website designer or learn to build and code websites. An excellent adventure from my experience, but if you just want to get going quickly this is probably not the best option.
4. Blog design + branding
This is probably where people get slowed down most. Trying to pick the right colors, fonts, photos, and graphics can take days and weeks and months.
The thing is - they don’t matter.
If you’re building a brand or business you can put more time in, but if your content is great any design will do. Take a week to get creative and then start hitting publish.
My favorite way to figure out my design aesthetic is through Pinterest. Start a new board, pin everything you like until you have 50-ish pins. Clothing, interior design, photos, art - whatever catches your eye, add it to the board. Then prune the pins that don’t really fit and take your design inspo from that.
As you can see I’ve had a very specific aesthetic for years and still use that shade of chartreuse!
Do you need to add pages or a navigation/menu?
Maybe! It might be helpful to add an about, resources, or contact page or you could simply include a short bio at the bottom of blog posts so people know who’s writing.
Once you have lots of content, create category archive pages by month or topic to make browsing easy. You can do this by adding links to the navigation for each category/tag.
Do I have to put my face on my blog?
No, but you should. People want to connect with people. Especially in the times of quarantine, filters, and AI. It’s one more thing to catch someone’s attention because they might be just like you.
5. Grow your audience
How will people find your blog? Links in social media bios, keywords for SEO, Facebook groups, commenting on other blogs, referrals from friends + family (yes you should tell them!).
For the longest time I actually hid my blog from most people IRL. I was worried they would think it was stupid and judge what I was writing about. When I finally did share it all the responses were positive and encouraging.
If you’re not writing for them (rude Aunt Betty, that woman at your kids school, your partner who doesn’t get it) then don’t worry about their opinions. It’s not for them. Worry about the people showing up to your blog. Write for them. What do they need to hear today?
A few other things
➜ Start with a quick outline - it’s easier to start with headings or a few notes than a blank page. Keep a note where you save all your post ideas and make sure to include a quick description.
➜ Short paragraphs, short sentences, use headings (like this post) will help your readers AND search engines understand your content. But you could also write one long block of text if that’s your vibe. You do you!
➜ Find your “blogging voice” by writing the way you talk. Read your posts out loud and edit anything that doesn’t feel natural.
➜ If you don’t like writing you can create an audio/podcast or video blog (YouTube would be the best platform for that). It doesn’t have to be fancy or formal, just set up your camera and talk.
➜ Use Grammarly or Hemingway to improve your writing if you’re not feeling confident or hate editing your own posts.
➜ Photos + video: Canva (free) is easy for creating photos + graphics. VideoLeap (paid) is my favorite video editor. Most platforms have integrated a stock photo partner like Unsplash.
➜ Worried about haters and trolls? That’s what the block button is for. Platforms like Substack, Patreon, Medium will let you do that easily because people are required to make an account and/or subscribe. This is MY blog like it’s YOUR blog and we’re gonna be kind and respectful. House rules.
One of my marketing students’ FAVORITE reminders is that you can hit the unsubscribe on someones snotty email. If someone emails you something shitty just scroll to the bottom of the email you sent that they replied to and hit that unsubscribe button for them. You’ll disappear and they’ll never know.
➜ And lastly - don’t stress over getting it perfect. You’ll learn as you post so don’t put off hitting publish for too long. I’m sure there’s a typo in this post and someone will point it out and I’ll fix it and everything will be fine.
OG bloggers for inspiration
Speaking of people showing up to your blog launch, they probably won’t. At least not for a while. Every blogger had to start from zero pageviews and it can be pretty quiet at the beginning. But if you stick with it you could end up like:
Gala Darling, Yes & Yes, Cup of Jo, Seth Godin, Kyla Roma, A Beautiful Mess
If you show up consistently, your audience will eventually start doing the same. You gotta go first!
P.S. Pick up a copy of my content planner and learn my process for monthly planning + productivity: https://www.daretogrow.co/shop
