Blogging is an incredible way to express your feelings, opinions, and it will also help you make sense of your world. It’s a great outlet for your passion, it will allow you to meet new people, to share your expertise and experiences, and it’s simply such great fun! So, if like me, you are in your 50s and are contemplating whether you are too old for it, let me assure you you are not. Here are top tips on starting a blog at the wonderful age of 50.
Don’t Expect Yourself to Immediately Understand It
The first fact to accept is that you may never actually understand the internet and websites. And that’s okay. You don’t have to know how a car works to know how to drive it.
You also can’t expect yourself to know what you should be doing when you first start out. But instead of waiting to learn, try to learn by doing. You’ll be much better at it if you actually try to write a post, than if you spend a year reading about how to write blog posts.
By all means, do read up on the matter – especially on the part about choosing keywords – but learn as you go, and don’t allow yourself the excuse of not knowing enough about it. You’ll become a pro in no time, once you start working on it.
Let Go of the Stereotype and Fear
If one of the things holding you back is your fear of being judged, use a pseudonym. I do. And it has been the most liberating feeling in the world. Not that I want to turn into an online troll – just that I don’t ever have to wonder if any of my friends have stumbled across my blog by accident.
Do you really think the first bloggers and YouTubers were worried what the world was going to say? Why should you worry about the same thing?
After all, it’s not like there aren’t very successful bloggers in their 50s and 60s. Leave the fear behind, stop wondering what the world and their mother will think, and do it for yourself.
Focus on What You are Good At
Choosing what you will be blogging about is probably the most difficult step.
My advice is to start with something you are truly passionate about and really enjoy. If you like baking, that should be your subject. If you like watching Netflix, why not write about that? If you collect books, talk about them.
Don’t worry about the fact that others are writing about the same things. There is hardly a subject in the world that is not being blogged about already. But no one has precisely your point of view, which is what makes you unique.
As time goes on, you can expand your subject matter and start writing about other things as well. After all, it’s your blog, and you can write about anything you’d like. Don’t worry about any conventions or best practices. Your blog, your rules.
Keep at It and Don’t Give Up
Don’t expect your blog to become an overnight success. It might, of course, but it also might not.
If there is no initial surge of readers, don’t give up. Keep writing, keep posting, keep promoting your posts, and you will notice your readership improve. This is just the way it works. Most major influencers had to work for years before they reached any kind of celebrity. There are also countless smaller blogs that have a steady and loyal readership we know nothing about.
Don’t be discouraged and keep writing because you want to write, not just because you want people to read it.
I also suggest learning how to promote the blog on social media, as this is where you can gain a lot of interested and supportive fans.
How I Started My Blog
My blog, The Confused Nester, is a space I’ve been dreaming about for years. Then in 2020 I was going to turn 50, and we also had the pandemic.
This suddenly left me with a lot of time spent at home, allowing me to explore the ways I could monetize it, the ways I could promote it, and learning how to actually post.
I do have to admit that my son has set the entire thing up – I had nothing whatsoever to do with that. I chose the name and I chose what it would look like, but I have no idea how it’s come about.
I do know how to use basic WordPress now, so I add the posts myself, and I do the images – and if I can do it, trust me, so can you!
If blogging has been a dream of yours for a while, now is the time to embrace it. After all, your 50s are a truly glorious decade, why not document them via a blog?
About Today’s Writer
Joyce is a mother of two and a grandmother of two. She started blogging during the 2020 pandemic and is still unsure about her voice (hence the pseudonym). She hopes to help others turn their houses into cozy homes and inspire them to share their experiences online.