How to Start A Craft Blog – Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Started

Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of crafters I know talking about starting a blog. Some seem to be wanted a way to share their work more deeply. Others are, for various reasons, disenchanted with social media and looking for a new way to share their work. There’s a lot of great general blogging advice out there already, but when I first started blogging, what I really wanted was to hear from someone who understood the crafting world. So, I’ve put together this guide on how to start a craft blog that covers the things I wish someone had told me when I was first starting out on my craft blogging journey.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you. See my full disclosure policy for details.

Why Should You Listen to My Advice?

Step 1: Why Are You Blogging?

This is also the time to decide if you want the blog to bring you income or if you’ re just doing it for fun. While it is difficult to make a full time income blogging, it’s possible to bring in a little fun money with a small crafting blog. Back when I was blogging inconsistently and still in my experimental phase, I was making about 100$ a month through affiliate links. I had about 3000 page views a month at that time, so I wasn’t completely new. But based on my personal experience, it’s fully possible to make a little side money to help buy yourself crafting supplies and offset hosting costs without being a big blog.

Once you’re clear on your why, it’s time to move on to the next steps!

Step 2: Start Writing (and Taking Photos!)

Before you go and do all the work of setting up a blog, make some content. Use google docs, notion, or MS Word to create drafts of at five posts. Ten would be even better. If you’re not sure that to write about, consider writing opinion essays, personal stories, product reviews, starter guides, project journals, or tutorials.

There are two reasons to write before you set up your blog: first, you want to make sure you understand what the process of writing a blog post is like. You may not fall in love with the process right away (I tend to like things more as I get better at them), but if blogging isn’t for you, I personally would rather you find that out before you invested a lot of time and money setting up a blog.

As you write, think about how you’d add visual content. By which I mean, take some photos! As a crafting blogger, there honestly isn’t much in the way of stock imagery that will work. And at this point, most people who have enough access to technology to consider writing a blog will have access to a half way decent camera to take blog photos with. I use my cellphone most of the time and, until recently, I did most of my editing on my phone too. Focus on taking photos that clearly show what you’re talking about in your post and don’t worry too much about aesthetics. Over time you’ll naturally improve and develop your own style.

Second, when you set up your blog it’s nice to have some content ready to go. This makes it easier to see if the design of your blog works with the content you’re writing. A text heavy blog is going to have different needs than a photo heavy blog. And a blog with a lot of minimalistic photos is going to need a different look than one with more bright or busy images.

When writing you posts and taking photos, don’t get too in your head about being perfect. These are your first posts, they won’t be perfect. And you can always go back and edit your posts and change the images out later. Just write as clearly as you can and take photos that clearly show what you’re trying to show and it will be just fine.

Step 3: Choose a Name

Once you have your starter content it’s time to pick out a name. The name you choose can be a variation of your actual name, something related to your niche, or anything else. When coming up with options, consider the following:

• How specific is your niche? If your blog is only and forever going to be a knitting blog, then having some variation of the word knit in the name is just fine. But if you think you might want to expand in the future to other fiber arts or another topic entirely, you may want to go for something more ambiguous.
• Are you trying to make money? If so, you may want to use your real name + studio or some other relevant word as the blog title. This may allow you to avoid filling out a DBA form (Doing Business As) or keep you from getting caught up in a fight if some other company is using the same or similar name.
• Do you have an established social media presence? If you have a handle on any of the major social media sites, consider using a variation of that as your blog name. It will make it easier for people to find you.
• Is this name easy to communicate? If you’re looking to share your blog widely, ideally you’d have a name that’s easy for people to remember and find. So, shorter words, nothing too difficult to spell, and just unique enough to stick.

While it is possible to do a rebrand and change your blog name later, it is kind of a pain. So, I’d advise you to pick a name that you feel like you can grow with.

If you are blogging for profit or if you just want full control over your blog, you’ll also want to check that the domain name you’re interested in is available. I would use ICANN Lookup for this. Most blogging platforms will offer you a discounted or free domain name if you choose a paid plan, so don’t register your domain name until you’ve started the next step.

Step 4: Choose a Platform

There are three main options to consider when looking at blogging platforms: self-hosted, not self-hosted free, and not self-hosted paid.

If after reading the options below you’re on the fence, I’d recommend starting off with a free WordPress.com site. The WordPress framework is also used on many self-hosted sites, so if you do decide to upgrade to a self-hosted site later, you won’t have to learn a completely new system. Plus, transferring the site should be easy, since both WordPress.com and WordPress.org sites run using the same code.

Non Self-Hosted (Free and Paid)

Non self-hosted sites, such as WordPress.com, Wix, Blogger, etc., are great if you want to be able to get started writing right away. Many of them have free options, so you don’t have to make any investment to get started. These usually have limited options, which can make it easier to focus on your writing. Some non-self hosted sites also have other built-in benefits. Medium has a monetization system. Substack is great if what you really want to write is more of a paid newsletter than a searchable blog.

However, using a non self-hosted site also means that there will be a lot of restrictions on what you can do. You often are limited in what themes you can choose, what plug-ins you can use, and how you can monetize. Some of the free versions will also automatically put adds on your site and the paid versions of these sites can be more expensive than self-hosting.

If you want to go the non self-hosted rout, I recommend researching your option thoroughly. There are a lot of different blogging platforms out there and things change regularly. Make sure that whatever platform you use has a good way to back up your site and allows you to move your site easily to another platform if you decide to change.

Self-Hosted (Paid)

Since I wanted to be free to do whatever I wanted with my site, I got a self-hosted site. I use currently use Site Ground to as my host and I also purchase my domain name through them. When I started, I used Bluehost, which I found a little less intuitive, but they also tend to have better prices. The great thing about self-hosting is that I can move my site to a new host whenever I want. So if service is bad or I find out my values don’t align with the company I’m paying, taking my business elsewhere is simple with a self-hosted site.

You also don’t need to know how to code (or even be that tech savvy) to use a self-hosted site. I built my site using the free WordPress source code from WordPress.org. Most hosting platforms these days are set up so that you can install it in just a few clicks. It’s really easy. This is fairly

Step 5: Design Your Site

Before you do anything, take an hour or two to do some research. Look at other craft related websites and think about what you like and what you don’t like. Focus on the structure of the site as much as the colors and aesthetics.

• What static pages do they have? A legal page? A starter guide? Contact page?
• Do they have a store (either integrated or offsite like Etsy or Ravelry)?
• What is on their front page? Full posts? A service or product? Categories?
• How is the site structured? Can you find what you’re looking for easily?

Use this research to map out what elements you need and how you’d like them arranged. This will be your guide when you go to look for a theme.

As a new blogger, I highly recommend starting out with a simple, free theme. I’ve never found changing from one WordPress theme to another to be that difficult, so go with a theme that meets you where you are. Avoid themes that have a lot of features or elements you don’t have the content to fill out yet.

If you’re using a self-hosted WordPress site and do want to invest in a professional theme, my preference is to use something based on Kadence blocks that’s designed for new bloggers, such as the Oleander Theme from Heartenmade. I currently use a Kadence based theme from Heartenmade (the Sage Kitchen theme) and am really happy with it.

Next Steps

• 20 posts – start learning about on-page SEO, how to promote on Pinterest, and get set up with Google Site Kit. Go back and tweak your old posts based on what you’ve learned, then promote them on Pinterest.
• 1000 page view in a month – Set up a basic mailing list form (I use Kit) and start sending out a short newsletter regularly (even if just once a month), watch some videos or take a short course to improve your photos and photo editing.
• 2000 page views in a month – Look into joining affiliate programs to begin monetizing your site (and any legal obligations you’ll have if you do monetize), consider taking a course on SEO or blogging (I recommend Stupid Simple Blogging) to help you professionalize your blog.
• 50 posts – think about your site deign. Review how your posts are categorized, what posts are doing well, and what you are enjoying writing. Change your theme if you need/want to.
• 10,000 page views in a month – start creating freebies or lead magnets to attract people to your mailing list.
• 15,000 page views in a month – Try creating a digital product to sell, even if it’s just a simple pattern or e-book.
• 20,000 page views in a month – look into placing ads on your site. Make sure whatever add platform you use allows you to control the add placement and density.
• 100 posts – Go through your old posts, update and edit any you think could be better and delete any that just don’t fit anymore.

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Are you thinking of starting a blog? Or do you have your own advice to add? Let me know the comments below, or come say hi over on Bluesky!