Starting, maintaining, and growing a blog or business can be very time consuming, especially if you’re a full time student. Although it can be pretty overwhelming at first, it is definitely not impossible.

The first thing I suggest you do is figure out what type of blog or business you’d like to have. Do you want to have a fashion blog? Are you interested in writing a blog all about education? Would you like to share different beauty tips and ideas with the world? Decide what topics you’d like to write about or what kind of business you are motivated to start.

Next, make a list of all the goals you would like to accomplish. When you start a business or blog, you need to have your end goals in mind so that you are motivated to accomplish them. Do you want your blog to be a safe place for college students? Do you want your blog to be an advice column? Do you want to have millions of views each month? Figure out your end goals and continue on from there.

Starting a blog or an online business involves money, which means you need to make important decisions about how much money you are willing and able to spend. When you have an online platform, you have to decide whether or not you will use a free platform, and from there, you will need to choose which host to go with and figure out which plan is right for you. Before you can officially start your blog or business, you first have to save money, and  then from there, you’ll be able to figure out what kind of budget you have to work with.

To grow your business or blog, I recommend that you have an account on all social media platforms so you have a presence in more than one place. Some of your followers or subscribers may prefer one social media platform over another, so it’s important to have accounts on a handful of different social media platforms so you can cater to all of your followers and reach a variety of people. If you share your blog posts on all your social media accounts, you will be able to reach a different audience on each platform.

Maintaining your blog or business takes a lot of organization, so I suggest that you get a planner. To make the most out of your planner, be sure to have seperate sections for your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more. If you have a blog post launching on a certain day, you will write that down on the “blog" section of your calendar, while filling in the other sections with the tasks needed to properly promote it. On your Instagram section, for example, the task can say, “Make an Instagram post about blog post," or “Create a story about blog post." You may choose to write “Make a Facebook post about blog post" in your Facebook section. Each day, write down all the tasks you need to do in the correct sections. If you like to spend 15 minutes engaging with your followers on Instagram, then write that down in the Instagram section and cross it off each day after you do so. This will help remind you to maintain your social media presence for your blog. If you have a business, be sure to have a section for keeping track of orders, as well as the money you received from your orders.

Another great way to maintain your blog is to organize your topic ideas during your downtime. It can be stressful to maintain your blog as a student, so when you have a free minute, use that time wisely and jot down any topic ideas you may have. This can also be a great time to check your social media accounts. Always have a notebook on hand so that you can jot down ideas and finish small tasks that take a few minutes so that you won’t have to worry about it later.

In order to grow your blog, you need to be comfortable with promoting it. If one of your end goals is to have 100,000 views monthly, then you must feel comfortable talking about your blog. Mention that you have a blog or business to your friends, family, classmates, roommates, and teachers. Ask them if they would like to follow you on your social media accounts and if they would be willing to make a post about your blog or business. The more people you tell about your blog or business, the more it will grow.

Finally, I strongly recommend that you learn more about SEO, or search engine optimization, as well as SEM, or search engine marketing. Getting familiar with these two terms will help your blog or business out in the long run. It’s important to make sure your website includes popular, commonly used keywords so that it will rank high on google searches. When you use keywords on your website, you’re able to attract more visitors.

I hope these tips will help you maintain and grow your blog or business!