The thing about being a dad in the age of the internet means that there are many places you can go to for advice, but the fact is that by randomly typing into Google “why is my baby puking” doesn’t throw up a lot of help, but mainly thousands of pages of forums, none of which will give you the answer anyway. Don’t get me wrong, the internet can be a fantastic tool for being a parent, and it certainly makes you rest easier at night when you find out that many parents are going through the same thing with their kids, but finding a useful source can be few and far between. What’s the solution? Make your own blog.
Why make your own blog? Many people make a blog because they have something important to say about their passion. Being a dad is something that we all identify with, and there are many people who would look to dad blogs for hints and tips. But the thing is with that, we already have so many dad blogs online, and they cover various incarnations of fatherhood, such as “being a cool dad” or “relating to your kids” but that’s not to say you should give up before you’ve begun. If you are fed up of the amount of online resources that have nothing to say, then you need to take the opportunity to say it. Many fathers like to also use blogs as an electronic online scrapbook, and I can see the appeal in that because it becomes like a little time capsule of periods in your life. It’s certainly a great way to see your kids grow up, and if it interests other people, then that’s great too.
Really, a blog is all about communicating your perspective on the world. There are so many people that now make money out of blogging, but if you enter the blogosphere with the intention to make money then you will come out with the exact opposite of that! The best reason to start one and you want to communicate to as many people as you can is if you write from the heart. It may sound corny, but the reason we find comedians like Louie CK funny is because we can empathize, and that is the first trick to writing your own blog. Write what you care about!
The next stage is to find a suitable platform for your blog. There are many bloggers that go straight to WordPress, and it is a great starting point, as there are over 82 million users. You have a potentially vast audience for your blog straight away! That amount of people can sound like a big deterrent too, and you may worry that your blog could not get the potential readership it deserves. The next stage is to find suitable hosting. You can self-host which is free, but that means you would not be able to have your URL, but by going via a hosting company, which costs money means you are more likely to have a name that stands out on search engines instead of some long-winded domain name. You can see where to find cheap hosting by going online and doing a detailed search. By doing some in-depth research, you can find the right hosting company with the best payment plan within your budget. There are some that are cheaper than others, but the more money you are able to fork out, the better the package.
The next stage is to decorate your website, and I use that term loosely. If you have a friend that has the skills to design a fantastic site for you, then that’s great, but I imagine the vast majority of us are somewhat limited in our website talent. There are landing page tools and website builder programs you can use to get a decent layout, but look at sites you admire and what you like about them, and more importantly, what you don’t like. It is not a good idea to copy another site; you may encounter some choice words with the originators at some point. You have an original idea, then follow your instincts!
The main building block of a blog is really all about the content, everything else is just window dressing. Writing a blog about being a dad is a topic that has been covered before, but much like they say there isn’t any new music anymore or every story has been told, you just need to find a new angle of telling it. So get started and tell the world.