Do you want to start a blog? If so – you’re in the right place.
In this post I want to walk you through the basics of how to start a
blog, and while I do, I want to answer some of the basic technical
questions that many pre-bloggers need to answer to get their first blog
up and running.
There are many reasons to start a blog, but the challenge that faces
all aspiring bloggers (including me back in 2002) is: how to start a
blog?
5 Easy Steps
There are a few simple steps that you will need to complete to start your blog:
- Choose your blogging platform with https://pizzyvibe.blogspot.com/logger.com
- Secure a domain name and get hosting in place
- Configure your blog
- Design your blog
- Start creating useful content that serves readers
Below I’ll walk you through how I’d approach each step if I were to
start a blog and suggest further reading that will be helpful on other
important questions like: choosing a niche, finding readers for your
blog, building community with your blog, and thinking about how to make
money from it, etc.
My hope is that this step by step starting guide will help you to start your first blog.
Step 1: Choose a Blogging Platform
To start a blog you’ll need to select a blogging platform – or a tool that helps you to get your content up onto the web.
There are many blogging platforms available but in my mind the choice
is clear and simple. I would set up straight away on a WordPress.org
site, and I highly recommend you do too.
WordPress is by far the most popular blogging platform and for good reason –
- It is free to use (although you do need to make a small investment in a domain and a server – more on that below)
- It is easy to set up
- It has been around for many years and is a robust and secure system (although you do need to keep it up-to-date to maintain security)
- It has a whole industry of tool providers, designers and developers around it that will help you to customise your blog in many ways
Keep in mind that WordPress offer two tools:
- WordPress.com – where they host your blog, look after the back end, and give you access to have it on their own domain. It’s free to start but, you pay to upgrade different elements of it.
- WordPress.org – where you have complete control and host the blog on your own server, your own domain and have complete control over how it looks, operates and how you can monetise it. It is completely free to use but you need to arrange your own hosting, domain etc.
WordPress.com is easier to set up and means you don’t need to keep
upgrading versions of WordPress but it gives you less control over your
design, how you monetise and what features you can add. WordPress.com is
free to start with but depending upon what upgrades you want to get it
can end up being just as expensive as WordPress.org.
My recommendation is to go with WordPress.org – you’ll have a little
more work in the setting up phase (I’ll walk you through it below) but
in the long run you’ll have full control over the look, feel, features
and monetization of your site. It could end up cheaper for you too!
I know some of you are probably searching for advice on how to start a
blog for free and so my advice to invest a little in a WordPress.org
blog might not be exactly what you’re looking to hear because there are
some small costs associated with it – but you’ll be better off in the
long run and as you’ll see below the expense is not great.
Step 2: Secure a Domain Name and Set Up Your Blog Hosting
Choose a Domain
For the next step of starting your blog you’ll need a domain name
(your blog’s address) so that you have a home for your blog online. every blog needs
its own domain, so it can be easier said than done to find one that
isn’t taken!
For the sake of this article I just want to talk about how to
technically get your domain – but there are a few other factors to
consider including:
- The Human perspective – readability of your domain, the ease of it to say and remember, etc
- The Brand perspective – uniqueness, what the domain says about you
- The SEO perspective – choosing a domain with good keywords can help your site rank higher in Google
- The Legal perspective – copyright and trademark factors
Step 3: Set Up Your Blog
If you’ve gone with Blogger as your domain and hosting provider,
installing WordPress is super simple. In fact Bloggerhave created a
simple video to show you exactly how to do it:
If you have any trouble during this process, they have a live chat
support system which enables you to ask questions of their support team.
Note: other hosts including inmotion have similar simple install
systems for WordPress but if you run into trouble WordPress
Once you’ve completed this process, you now have a WordPress blog
installed! You started a blog! Congratulations – you’re almost there!
Step 4: Configure and Design Your Blog
If this is your first experience of WordPress you might be looking at
the dashboard and wondering what you’ve done by installing it – it
feels overwhelming doesn’t it!
Don’t worry – you’ll pick this up in no time and just need a good walk through!
Configuring your blog
Luckily the team at Bloggert
have put together a great series of tutorials that will help you with
becoming used to WordPress and also setting things up to make your blog
look and operate just right.
Here’s a good video that introduces you to what you’re looking at on your WordPress dashboard.
And here is another on creating categories and tags for your blog:
One of the most powerful things in WordPress is that it allows you to
install and use plugins to get extra functionality on your blog. You
might want to save this one to watch later but it will help with making
your blog more feature rich.
Designing your blog
Another thing you’ll want to do now is to think about your blog’s
design. First impressions count for a lot so you’ll want one that says
something about the type of brand you’re trying to create and that helps
you stand out in the crowded blogosphere.
- The Genesis Framework – Industry Standard Design Framework that makes WordPress easier, without sacrificing power or flexibility
- 20 Mobile-Optimized HTML5 Designs – sleek professional designs that provide beautiful frames for your content
- Fast Loading Cloud Performance – cloud infrastructure that’s optimized specifically for peak WordPress performance
- Zero “Hosting” Hassles – with a fully hosted website that will grow with you and your website traffic
- One-Click Install of Included Plugins – Never wonder which plugins are trustworthy, thanks to your StudioPress Site’s repository of one-click solutions for the functionality you desire.
- Rock-Solid Security
- Advanced SEO Functionality
- Automatic Plugin and Theme Maintenance – Many WordPress site owners spend $$$ every month to have an outside service keep things updated and safe.
- World-Class Support – friendly support team standing by 24/7
To be honest – the design part of setting up a blog is the bit I find
hardest. It is definitely possible to do it 100% yourself (and there
are many tutorials around that will help you learn the skills to do it)
but for 99.9% of new bloggers a theme that you tweak is the way to go.
The other option if you’re super serious is to hire a designer to do a
custom design for you. But that is likely to cost you some significant
cash to get a reputable designer and so a them is probably the best
place to start.
Don’t stress too much in the early days – we all start with a design
that we later look back on and cringe a little at. The main thing is to
get set up and evolve from there. My key tip is to choose a simple,
classic and clean design that you can add a simple logo to to make it a
bit more individual and then get on with blogging!
Step 5: Start creating useful content that serves readers
OK – hopefully by now you’ve got your domain, hosting, have installed
WordPress and have your theme installed. You have started a blog… but
you’re not a blogger until you start creating some content for your
blog!
I can’t really tell you what to write on your blog for your first
post – because it is something that will vary a lot from blogger to
blogger – but I’ll share some links below that might help give you some
starting points.
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