Blogging for Dummies

I have wanted to start a blog for quite some time now.  I started following blogs about a year and a half ago and have been obsessed since, racking up nearly 20 blogs that I follow daily!  Now that I have finally taken the first step and actually created this little space, I was feeling really inadequate that my blog didn't look as aesthetically pleasing as some of the more 'established' blogs that I follow.  But, alas, I am not a full time blogger, so I can't put 100% of my time, energy, or money into making this space shine like I would want. Instead, it's a little bit more about the elbow grease.  Instead of hiring a professional site designer, I figured a little googling should do the trick... It did!  Since creation, I have spruced up my portion of the blogosphere and have done a little DIY blog enhancing.  Check out where I found some great tutorials:

*note, some of these may be geared toward Blogger as opposed to Word Press or other blogging platforms*

 I feel so official giving my readers (whoever you may be) a way to connect with me-- especially through bloglovin, who wants to be my first follower? Here's where I found some great tips.  

I used the same concept and coding as I did for my social media buttons, to make the graphic above link back to my home page.  Readers can click it and jump back to my main page with my most recent post.

I made my own custom tabs (aka screen shots of a word document, shh don't tell!) and used this coding to make them work for my blog.

Here's how I added the Instagram slideshow on the side of my blog.

Finally, for an extra little touch, I made my pictures 'pinable' so that readers (again, whoever you are) can Pin easily!

There is so much more that I want to do with my space on the world wide web, but for now I am more than happy with what I have created.  To all you aspiring bloggers, take it from a newbie-- you just have to start!  I hope that this gives you the extra little push to put yourself out there, and to look good while doing it!