How to Start a Blog – Part 1 1

I’ve always admired the ladies who blog and run their own websites whether for pleasure or for their full-time income. I had always dreamed of having my own blog with followers that loved to follow my content. One day I was tired of dreaming and just decided to bite the bullet and start a blog.

It’s not really that hard. When I went to researching on how to start a blog, I was surprised at how many full time bloggers said they weren’t tech savvy.

That blew my mind.

I thought if you really had a blog didn’t you have to be tech savvy? The answer is no. It’s really simple actually – as long as you take it step by step and take your time.

Step 1 – Pick a name.

This is the most critical part of your blog because this will be your brand. You can always change the name of your blog (or brand), but it’s not what I would call easy. So put a lot of thought into your blog name. Now you may be looking at my blog name – Honeysuckle Footprints – and think how in the world did she come up with that?

I had an idea to the madness believe it or not. I wanted people to remember my blog name after they left my website. One blogger I read did the exact same thing…

and what do you know? Nearly 4 years later I still remember the name of her blog!

Regardless if you pick an unusual name so people will remember or if you pick a name that’s common and centered around your niche, you’ll want to put a lot of thought into it.

Now with that being said, if you have a common niche like – Budgeting – then you probably will want that in your blog name. Mine was all over the place and not focused on a certain niche, so I wasn’t too concerned.

To start I wrote down keywords on a sheet of paper. Just random words that either described what my blog was going to be or words that meant something to me. My niche was kinda all over the place, lifestyle, uplifting, crafting, etc. My blog was meant to be a place for inspiration and uplifting as well as somewhere I could do tutorials for crafts. I had a long list of words, but two kept coming into my brain “Honeysuckle” and “Footprints”. These don’t have a thing to do with each other and not really even what I write about, but when people visit my blog from a pin on Pinterest, or a post on Facebook, or a Google search, they remember the name of my blog to come back to it. That was my purpose when creating it. You don’t want a lot of words, too many stop words, a blog name that’s hard to spell, or one that similar to another blog.

You can see if domains are taken here. I would pick a domain with a .com at the end of it. You can also use this website to see if the name you pick is in use on any of the social media websites.

Step 2 – Pick a Webhost

The next step to start a blog is to pick a webhost. I use Bluehost you can look into their hosting here. Under this affiliate link, you can get your domain name for FREE for the first year and your hosting for $3.95 a month for the first year. This is a heck of a deal!

I pay around $220/year or so for my web hosting and domain name registration, but the money I make from the ads and affiliates from my blog pays for this. We’ll go over this in a different series.

You don’t have to use Bluehost as your webhost, but I loved how easy it was to set mine up, and the research I done about webhosts, they were at the top of the list.

At my work (my full time job) we use GoDaddy for our website, but their customer service is not great. They’re hard to deal with from my experience. They’re cheaper, but I don’t think it’s worth it.

If I ever have an issue with my blog being slow, Bluehost is quick to resolve. They’re phenomenal.

Step 3 – Install WordPress

After you pick a name and set up your hosting service, you’ll want to use WordPress as your editing. https://wordpress.org/ is the link and you can “activate” it on your Bluehost. It’ll be on your Bluehost dashboard. If you need help with this Bluehost customer service is a HUGE help. Later I’ll tell you about plugin’s and all, basically you have to “get them” and then activate them. That’s what you’re doing here. You’ve got to get it, and then go activate it.

Step 4 – Choose a Theme

The next step is to choose a theme. I tried out so many until I found one that I loved. I have the Customizr theme, but I probably tried out 20 of them before I settled on this one. The “theme” is basically the layout of your website. It determines where stuff is placed. I used a free theme, but there are some really nice ones that are $50 and up. The free theme worked for what I needed so I stuck with it. you can always redesign too. So if you wanted to start with a free one, earn some money, and then pay for a theme that isn’t out of the question. A lot of professional bloggers who blog as their full time job use a Genesis Framework and a child theme (you have to have them both if you go that route), and you can buy them through Studiopress around $100 or so. If you do this, I would hire a website designer which starts out around $250. I haven’t done this because blogging isn’t my main income and my free theme works just fine for me.

You can play around with your theme with colors and all, but I would keep a white background. Colors and patterns get distracting. You want your readers to focus on your content, and not get overloaded with a lot of patterns and colors.

Step 5 – Create a Logo

Next step to start a blog you’ll want to create a logo. I used canva to create mine for free. I put this on my Facebook business page and my website all by using Canva. I also use Canva to create blog post pictures! I love it!

You can also hire someone to do this for you, but I just did mine myself. I like the idea of being creative all the way around :).

Step 6 – Create Content

Then you can create your content. You can go to your website dashboard by going to www.yourblog.com/wp-admin of course this isn’t a real website, you’ll have to input your website name when you come up with it). I would play around with the dashboard and become familiar with things. This is the way I learned to navigate it. In your posts you’ll want pictures. You can take your own pictures or use Pixabay (a free stock photo service) or there are other paid stock photo services out there. Step 3 goes over this a little more in depth.

I would do several blog posts before going live. As well as an about me page for people to know who you are and what you’re about. Mine is at www.honeysucklefootprints.com/about-me/. This about me page was important to me because it describes the reasoning behind honeysuckle footprints and gives it more meaning. It’s also a great way for your readers to get to know you! Step 3 goes over pages vs categories a little more in depth as well.

If you want to start a blog, but don’t know where to start, I hope this info helps!

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