11 Steps To Start Your Blog
There are many ways to go about starting a blog. However, I wanted to share what I have done so far, and what I plan to do. These are my recommendations from my past experience. I’ve set up many blogs, both successful and unsuccessful. I’ve also helped clients set up websites at day job. I hope that this can help you in your future endeavors.
1. Write 10 Posts Before Buying A Domain Name and Hosting
I have to admit, this is one that I have struggled with quite a bit. I’ve gone through many blog attempts, and unfortunately spent quite a bit of money. Most of the expense was in domain names and hosting. I spent this money only to grow bored of the blog topic before I even wrote 10 posts.
Writing 10 posts before buying a domain name shows you are dedicated to the blog. It demonstrates that you are likely to continue writing on the blog.
It doesn’t matter where you write these posts. It could be in Microsoft Word, a Google Doc, Evernote, or anything between. Just pump out those first 10 posts.
Creating a new blog won’t matter as much if you are using a free blog setup. Examples are WordPress.com, Blogger, or the like. But before buying a domain name and hosting plan, you should write a few posts first.
2. Write A Blog Post A Day
This is a continuation of the above suggestion. After you have 10 posts written, I recommend writing at least one blog post per day for a week.
If this isn’t feasible for your schedule, then you should try to write 7 posts in 7 days. So maybe 3 on Monday, and 4 on Saturday. Whatever works for you.
As with the above, this lets you determine if you will be consistent enough. You will need to write on your blog more than you think to be competitive.
3. Buy Domain Name and Hosting
Finally! For me, this is one of the most exciting parts of setting up a blog (besides the money part). Now you’ve proven to yourself that you will be consistent enough with your blog. It’s now time to spend some money on it.
Most of the time, you can get your domain name free with a year of hosting. Choose your favorite host, and get your environment setup! I recommend Bluehost since it’s so easy to use and very affordable.
Now you’ll be able to transfer all those blog posts from your computer to your website. And once you hit “publish”, you can share them with the world.
4. Use A Free Theme For Awhile
This is another reality check step. If you are like most bloggers, you’ll be using WordPress for your platform. As you may know, there are many, many premium themes available for WordPress blogs. These range anywhere from $9 to over $100 for a full featured theme.
I recommend using a free theme for the first few weeks/months of your blog being live. This will allow you to determine what you wish you had in a theme. You’ll also find what you don’t need as you write and publish posts.
5. Buy A Good, Minimalistic Theme
Spending the extra cash on an awesome theme is a good long term investment in my opinion. It is better to spend an extra $10 or $25 for the theme that will fit your blog perfectly. If you don’t, you might have to buy another theme later. Most of the themes, especially the higher rated ones, on ThemeForest are very good.
As far as minimalistic:
Personally, as a reader of a lot of blogs, I like the simple ones better. Medium is becoming popular, and so is its minimalist, clean design style.
Cluttered blogs with lots of widgets and animations make me close the tab.
In the long run, what is best for your readers is what is best for you. Readers need to stick around to read your content. If they don’t, you won’t have time to sell them on your product.
Readers bouncing off your page will also lead to lower search engine rankings. No one wants that, so do your best to lower your bounce rate.
6. Set Up An Email Capture Service
Capturing email addresses should be one of your top priorities when running a blog. An email address holds much more value than a follower on social media. With an email address, you can market to your readers individually. You can send emails that will not get filtered by social network algorithms. I’m looking at you Facebook.
There are many free email capture services that are very good. I just recommend reviewing the service thoroughly. Personally, I like SumoMe the best, but there are lots of different ones out there. You just need to make sure it integrates with all the services you need it to (such as MailChimp).
7. Offer A Free Bribe To Get People To Input Their Email
You might notice that many websites have a “Subscribe Here” and a “Get Your Free eBook” where you can input your email. Both options serve the same purpose: you can collect visitors’ email addresses. Then you can send them emails in the future.
“Subscribe Here” is simple, and users know that they will be added to a mailing list. The user understands that they will receive emails whenever there are new articles.
On the other hand, “Get Your Free eBook” gives the user even more value. Not only will they be added to the mailing list, but they get something out of it as well. This type of bribe tends to work well if implemented correctly.
8. Send Weekly Newsletters With MailChimp
Some blogs send out an email whenever there is a new post live. But if you stick with #2 above and are posting once a day, it may overwhelm your subscribers. If a subscriber feels like they are being spammed, they will unsubscribe pretty fast.
Another option is to send a weekly digest of the posts that went live in the past week. Subscribers can review the email for any posts that are interesting to them. They’ll also appreciate not being bombarded with daily emails.
9. Set Up Affiliate Marketing
Using Google Adsense for ad revenue may not be viable for small websites. To make money with display advertising, a website needs to receive many visitors. In most cases this is not achievable for a new blog.
But affiliate marketing can earn more for website owners than display advertising. With affiliate marketing, the website owner directs users to a merchant. Then the website owner receives a commission on products purchased by users.
Some examples of affiliate marketing providers are Amazon, Udemy, and CJ.
10. Share On Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, And Google+
Most people know this by now, but it’s worth stating again. When you post on your website, you should be the first to share it on social networks.
Depending on your audience, you might share on a large variety of social networks. Or you may choose to focus on just a few networks that work the best for you. Either way, work to increase your reach over time. The more reach you can get, the better.
11. Create, Sell, And Advertise Your Own Product
Affiliate marketing is great for getting started. With a larger audience, you may want to move to something with a higher profit margin. To reduce your reliance on an outside advertiser, you can sell your own products. This will lead to a much more reliable stream of income that you are in control of.
Examples of products that may be good for a first-timer:
- eBook
- Udemy Course
- Etsy Products
- Skype Lessons
- Webinars
In my case, once I have it built and released, I’ll be advertising my app. However, you can advertise whatever product you create.
You’re Done!
Once you have the steps above lined up, you can move on to more advanced steps. You’ll be able to market your products to a targeted email list. You can build your social media networks, and hopefully make some sales!
Let me know if there are any other steps that you think are important.
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Thanks!
Find more articles like this one at SmartWebsiteMarketing.com. There you can also download my eBook, Daily Social Media Checklist, for free!
Originally published at smartwebsitemarketing.com on January 19, 2015.
