Does This Sound Like You?
- You have a passion and you want to share it
- You’d like to make money from home doing something you love
- You’ve thought about starting a blog
- You don’t know exactly where to start – you just want to start!
Now’s the Time!
Then let’s get started! Follow these steps and you’ll be up and running in no time!
One of the great things about blogging is that you can always make changes and work out a lot of the finer details as you go along. I still tweak my blog every week – you don’t need to get too hung up on getting it perfectly perfect right out of the box.
And believe me – all those choices will actually make more sense once you’ve been blogging for a while.
Choose a Topic
I’m going to assume you already know what you want to blog about. But while it’s obvious that you want to chose something you know about, make sure it’s also something you love! Something you could talk about forever!
Create a Blog Name
Your blog name is probably the thing you want to spend the most time and thought on at this point. Not only do you want it to really represent you, your topic, and your audience, but it might be tricky to change later on when it already represents your brand.
For instance, I only thought of one aspect when I chose my blog name! And though it’s very sentimental, and I love it, and I’m not planning on changing it, I’ve run into challenges. You however, can avoid all that!
First, think of who you’re writing for – your ideal reader – then brainstorm names.
And Consider the Following
- Relates to your topic – This is the one I thought about. Mantel and Table fits, since mantels and tables are exactly what I decorate. But it doesn’t say What About mantels and tables, does it? However, the tagline does help! Keep that in mind too, to help clarify your name if need be.
- Is not similar to (or exactly the same as!) something else – When I put ‘Mantel and Table’ into Google, I get furniture and fireplace ads! You want your name to be easily searchable for your topic. Different and unique enough to show up in the results. And obviously, if you Google a potential name and it already exists, time to move on. You don’t want to compete with the current name holder, or be sued by them for stealing their name!
- Easy to remember – A lot of people can’t remember which comes first, the Mantel or the Table. The easier to remember, the better!
- Easy to spell – I didn’t think about it when I chose it, but “Mantel” is a tricky word to spell, which is a pain when people are trying to find it.
- Has only letters – No numbers or hyphens.
- Choose .com – That’s the extension people will expect. .org, .biz, etc are harder to remember, and might not seem as professional.
- Is available as a domain name AND in social media – You want to have your domain name (URL) match your blog name and also your social media networks. The ones you use currently, and those you might use later. Snap them all up now!
Check Blog Name Availability
There are two great tools for making sure your name is available across all your platforms.
#1 – URL Availability Tool
This tool will tell you if the blog domain you want is available or not. That’s totally cool!
#2 Knowem.com Social Media Name Availability Tool
On Knowem.com, you can enter your name choice and see if it’s available on all the social media platforms you want. For free! That’s pretty cool!
(You can pay knowem.com to grab them up for you too. However, I don’t have any experience with that so can’t necessarily recommend it.)
Congratulations! You’ve done the hard part! Now –
We move on to the actual mechanics of setting up a blog!
Sign up for Blog Hosting
In order to have an actual blog, you need to do the following:
- Register your domain name
- Set up hosting/WordPress
- Choose a theme
- Secure your site
- Get a domain email address
Sounds like a lot, right? It is! But there’s an easy way to do it all in one place.
Go to Bluehost
Bluehost is the hosting company I use. But they do a lot more than host! Not only can you get your WordPress hosting, you can get a free domain name for the first year. You can also choose a theme, get security, and even an email address for your domain name – all in one place!
Beat Blogging Overwhelm
Honestly, when I first started, I was overwhelmed by the choices! So I just added up the times my favorite blogs mentioned their hosting company, and went with whoever came out on top! That was Bluehost – by a long shot.
But now I love Bluehost for itself! Not only is it the #1 recommended host by WordPress, and used by over 2 million websites – including my favorite blogs – but my experience has been fabulous! My website has never gone down, it’s always fast, and they have super fantastic customer service! It’s only a phone call away 24/7, and every tech I’ve talked to has been super kind and patient. They’ve answered all kinds of questions for me and walked me through really annoying problems – even in the middle of the night!
How Much Do I Love Buehost?
I love Bluehost so much, that I’ve become an affiliate. (That’s where I get to officially recommend them, and if you sign up through my links, I get paid a small commission at no extra cost to you. As I always say – Win/Win!)
Once you go to Bluehost, it pretty much walks you through the rest of the sign up.
Notes on Choosing Your Theme
In the signup process for your hosting, you’ll get an option to choose a theme. There are several things you should keep in mind, whether you choose one from Bluehost or somewhere else. (Mine comes from Restored 316.) CLICK HERE for some theme-choosing notes. And HERE for a post I wrote about it a while ago.
Great Customer Service
And if you have other questions as you go along, you can call Bluehost – they have the best customer service ever! 888-401-4678
So go ahead and click the Green Button below to Get Started!
Secure Your Blog with SiteLock
Bluehost recommends SiteLock for the security of your blog, and so do I! It costs a bit, but every penny is so worth it!
True Story – I actually had someone hack into my site and add themselves as an Administrator! They could have made any changes they wanted to my blog! When I found out, I was frantic, so I called SiteLock! They explained that it was because I only had the very basic security in place. So I got a security plan and I haven’t had any problems AT ALL since!
Set Up Your Social Media Accounts
Then you can go and set up accounts for all the social media platforms you think you’ll eventually use. Enter “How to set up an Instagram account” (or Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, whatever) into Google for instructions.
You don’t necessarily have to do anything with them yet. You just want to secure the name that matches your domain.
Write Your First Blog Post
So now you’re ready to be creative! Congratulations on joining the blogging world! Let me know how you’re doing – I’d love to check out your new site!
Happy Blogging!
Great advice! Wish I had read before , I began, I only have a few blog posts but at least I took the leap!!
Yaay – good for you!💛 There’s so much to know, isn’t there?! Thanks so much for stopping by – can’t wait to visit yours!