How To Start A Blog
Do people keep telling you that you should start a blog? Or are you simply wondering how to start a blog? Today I’m going to share my 7 basic steps to start a blog! These steps will put you on the right path so you can start a successful blog.
Starting your own blog doesn’t have to be complicated, overwhelming or expensive. So let’s get started…
Why Should You Start A Blog?
There are many reasons why you should start a blog, but here’s what most of my clients say about why they started a blog:
- Make money while working from home.
- Gain more exposure for my existing business.
- Share passion, inspiration and knowledge (in certain areas) with others.
- To sell own products and/or services.
- A love for writing – sharing stories, building community, encouraging others.
Do any of these apply to you? No matter what your reasoning is, let’s get your blog up and running!
7 Basic Steps To Start A Blog
- Decide what to blog about. If you’re an individual, you have a ton of flexibility in the type of topics you blog about. If you’re a business or organization, your blog should be related to the products and/or services you provide, or the cause that you are promoting.
- Pick a name for your blog + domain name. It’s important to decide on a name for your blog (one that will stay & grow with you, plus isn’t hard to spell). It’s not always a simple change, if you decide to go by something else down the road.
Have your blog name and domain name (aka URL) match. I always advise people to buy the domain name for your blog’s title – trust me it will make finding your blog a lot easier! For example, Your Marketing BFF is my blog name and yourmarketingbff.com is my domain name.
- Choose a blog platform. Choosing a blogging platform can be overwhelming, especially since there’s no shortage of options out on the web. There’s also a number of free services you can use to start a blog or website, but hands down the best and most popular blog platform is WordPress.
Note: When I say WordPress, I’m talking about a self-hosted WordPress.org site, not a free WordPress.com site.
I use and only design WordPress sites because of the many design options, ease of use, huge community of people that create and share tools, not to mention it’s the best platform for SEO (search engine optimization)! Whether you want a site with or without a blog, WordPress is THE BEST platform to go with.
- Get a website hosting account. Selecting reliable hosting will be one of the most important decisions you make. To a great extent, the functionality and performance of your blog will depend on your hosting provider. The host makes sure your blog is available 24/7 to your readers and it’s where your files are stored online.
If you want an easy, reliable, here to stay, one click WordPress install option – not to mention the hosting provider trusted by top bloggers – I would recommend Bluehost.
Ready? Start by clicking here to get step-by-step Bluehost installation instructions.
- Install WordPress. Once you’ve completed your registration with Bluehost, it’s time to start installing WordPress. You’ll find the step-by-step WordPress Install instructions here.
- Design your blog. Once you’ve installed WordPress, you officially are the proud owner of a self-hosted WordPress site. At this point, you have your own blog…it’s just not stunning yet!
How do you design your blog to make it stunning? This is where a theme comes in. WordPress has a ton of free themes, but I’d suggest a premium theme, that’s unique to your blog and the best design for your needs.
- Start blogging! It’s about time we get to the fun stuff!!! Once you’ve done steps 1-6 above, you’re ready to start blogging.
Are you ready to start your own successful blog? Now that you know the 7 basic steps of how to start a blog, and you’ve decided you’re ready to start a blog… You can easily follow the step-by-step guides on this site.
I’ll walk you through the process of how to start a blog; from what to blog about, to picking the perfect domain name, to writing your first blog post.
Go to Step 1: Decide What To Blog About.
*** Captivating Beauty blog featured above designed by Your Marketing BFF ***
