When it comes to blogging, there is this assumption that you need to make money off of your blog. If you’re investing money into something, shouldn’t you get a return on investment? After blogging for more than two years, I felt this added pressure on myself to make my blog a passive income stream. Do you know what happened? I burned myself out and went months without writing and publishing a single blog post. I forgot the reason why I started blogging in the first place: I love to write.

So hey. If you’re a blogger and you make a side (or even full-time) income on your blog, this is not me shaming you. If you make your blog a business, and want to (and sometimes need to), I love that for you and will cheer you on. (I will be the first person to read your blog! Please link it below in the comments.) This is not a blog post for you. This is a blog post for the person who loves writing but is afraid that her blog has to be profitable in order for it to be successful, or she has to have a lot of followers to start a blog. Blogging shouldn’t only be a monetary side hustle. It can be a passion project. It can be a hobby. It can just be … for fun.

So. Here are some tips on how to start a blog for fun.

start writing.

This may be counterintuitive, but it’s that simple: start writing. I started writing about my faith—not even to be a Christian influencer, but whatever was on my heart and what I was learning about. I had just become a Christian (or re-dedicated my life to Jesus to use Christian cliches). But over the years, my blog has turned into a brain dump for my pop culture musings, including my love of books that I read. It’s become a book blog with a dose of lifestyle. Think about what excites you or what makes you think—and write about it. Open a Google Doc and write your very first blog post. And then another one. And then another one. Then, take the steps to set up your blog. (There are a thousand tutorials on the Internet that will tell you to do this. Search “How to start a blog.”)

don’t worry about making money from it.

You do not need to make money from your blog and/or other content. Now, if you want to, go ahead! Get paid! I will be the first person to read your blog and cheer you on! But if you just want to write about life things, like how to survive your 20s, or talking about how Logan was the better bf than Jess on Gilmore Girls (a hot topic), but that doesn’t make any money, do it. Don’t be afraid to start your blog if you think it doesn’t make any money. (Honestly, talking about Gilmore Girls may actually make you money! You never know!)

know that not a lot of people may read it at first. (or ever.)

You may get one reader. You may get no readers. At some point, you may evaluate and realize that blogging may not be for you, especially if you pay for a website. If you started with a free website, and you still don’t have any readers, I’m here to tell you… that’s okay. The readers will come. Keep doing what you’re doing.

you can start a free blog on substack.

Did you know about Substack (link to my Substack website, Booked & Busy, here!)? Substack is a blogging platform, but instead of a website, it’s an email newsletter service where emails (blog posts) are sent directly to your readers (subscribers). Don’t want to pay for a website? Substack is for you! Setting up a Substack is completely free, and you can keep it a free publication, and once you get readers/subscribers, you can include paid tiers and earn money (talking about Team Jess or Team Logan on Gilmore Girls). If I’m being honest here, I prefer my blog over Substack. And it’s for a very vain reason: I designed my blog to look the way I want it to look. I like the font choices and the size of the font and the different pages. With Substack, you barely get that.

write about what makes YOU happy and what YOU are passionate about.

There is this thing where you have to write according to what’s trending and know what your audience wants. While those are absolutely good to pay attention to, especially your audience’s needs, your audience came to your blog because they like your ramblings about whatever. So keep writing about those stuff! And if you want to change topics, then do so gently. Don’t go from writing about video games to food recipes and meal planning overnight, but maybe gradually ease into it. Remember why you started your blog in the first place: for fun.

Are you thinking about starting a blog? What is holding you back? What would you write about? Let me know down in the comments.