I’m really excited that Laura from Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish is going to share some of her blogging tips with you all. 

Hello The Runner Beans readers! I’m Laura and I blog over at Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish. Charlie has asked me to write a little guest post on the topic of blogging, so I thought I’d share my blogging story and how I’ve grown KHGS to what it is today…

I started writing KHGS after I’d lost some weight. It was January 2010 and I was looking for some inspiration to get me back into weight loss mode after Christmas. I was commenting on some forums and then eventually discovered healthy living blogs. I had already read fashion blogs so I was excited to discover this new world. After a few weeks of reading I decided to start my own. To begin with all I was doing was sharing a diary of my daily food and exercise as a way of staying accountable, as well as some fashion titbits, and then gradually I started to widen the scope.

I never started the blog with the aim of making it into what it is today, but I think that is really important, if you start a blog with the aim of making money I think that is missing the point! It’s taken me 3 years to build things up and it’s been a marvellous journey.

The main ways have built up a readership was simply by being part of the community – commenting on other blogs and interacting with other bloggers on Twitter and Facebook. I was also featured in a magazine and another blogger with many more readers than I had loved what I was doing and shared that, so I gained a lot of readers from her! I also started writing to brands that I loved to see if I could review their products and host giveaways. I did some guest posts for other bloggers which is yet another way to get yourself out there. Eventually, when I started seeing my blog as a more serious venture, I sponsored other blogs so that my blog was shared with their readers – something I now offer on KHGS! So it’s been quite a gradual thing.

The vast majority of my readers are UK based which I’m really happy about as blogging and blogs, especially healthy living ones are still rather new compared to how they are in the US. It’s only been in the last year or so that big brands have started to realise what we can offer and work with us.

I think the key thing to remember is to blog because you love it that is the only thing that will keep you blogging consistently! Get involved in the blogging community and just enjoy sharing your interests with other people – be creative and original too!

Oh, and please come by Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish and say hello! Thanks to Charlie for having me!