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Are you passionate about something and want to share you knowledge with a bigger audience? Maybe you want to create a community of like minded people? Or do you want a way to create an income stream and still be able to stay at home with your kids?
Whether it’s for pleasure or profit or both, starting your own blog can be incredibly rewarding. But where do you even begin?
On this page, you’ll find a comprehensive guide to the very first things you need to do to start a blog. It’s simple!
Start a Blog in ONE Day
Follow these steps and your very own blog can be up and running in just ONE day.
While building your blog into the empire you want it to be is a whole lot of hustle, setting it up is easy. So don’t let the unknown hold you back any longer. Just a few simple steps, and the world will be at your fingertips.
So let’s get started!
Choose Your Niche
What are you passionate about? It’s important to find your niche before getting started. Whether it’s fashion, or parenting, or underwater basket weaving, if you are passionate and create great original content, you will build a following of devoted readers.
And don’t pay attention to people who say certain niches are over saturated. Cream rises to the top, folks, so if you do things better than others in your niche, you will be successful.
Domain Name
Your blog’s name is important. It’s the thing that makes a first impression. It’s also going to be your website address, which you won’t be able to change.
To make sure your domain name isn’t already taken, you can do a domain name search. There are many sites out there. All you have to do is type the domain name you want into the search bar, and it will tell you if it is available or not.
Your name isn’t taken? Now it’s time to move on to hosting, where you will also be able to buy your domain name.
Hosting
If you’re serious about blogging and want to eventually monetize your blog, you absolutely must be self hosted.
What does this mean? It means that you own your site 100%. Using a hosted platform (like Blogger, WIX, or SquareSpace) means you don’t have full autonomy over your blog. They can even shut your blog down without warning!
Also, if you want to make money from your blog, you have to go self hosted. A lot of ad agencies will ask on their application whether you’re self hosted or hosted, so you want to make sure that you’ve got the right setup from the beginning.
Okay, so I need to be self hosted. But there are so many options! Which one do I choose?
I highly recommend Bluehost for hosting your blog. That’s what I use, and it’s seriously the best out there. Why?
- It’s cheap ($3.95 per month cheap)
- You get a free domain name for the 1st year
- One-click WordPress installation
I use Bluehost and I couldn’t be happier with it. From start to finish, it took me 10 minutes to set everything up. Easy peasy!
Choose Your Theme
Okay, so now you have a hosted WordPress blog. Awesome! Now comes the creative part.You need to choose a theme, or the layout and look of your new blog.
You have a few options here, but I think there is one that can set you up for success in the long run. Here’s a run down:
- Choose one of the free WordPress themes
- Choose a paid WordPress theme
- Find a theme from a site like Etsy
- Get a custom design from a web designer
Free Theme
In my opinion, choosing a free theme will hold you back and leave you disappointed. Yes, you could go with one in the beginning to see if this blogging thing is really for you.
The thing is, they just won’t look as good or have all of the features that a paid design will have.
If you want to be taken seriously then I highly recommend you spend a little money upfront to get a great looking blog. If you just want a hobby blog and have no intention of growing it, then I think a free theme could work for you.
Paid WordPress Theme
There is a huge selection of paid WordPress themes to choose from. They have really great features, most are responsive (that means the layout will adjust depending on what device you are viewing it on- very important!), and they will look more put together.
The most popular theme among serious bloggers is by for the Genesis theme. It’s lightweight (that means quick loading), responsive, and offers a lot of customization.
There are other great paid themes out there, but if you’re looking for something tried and true, you really can’t go wrong with Genesis.
Third Party Theme (Etsy)
If you go the free or paid WordPress theme route, you may quickly find out that your blog doesn’t look like the example blog. For the beginner, customizing a website and making it look great can be really overwhelming.
What I did, and what I recommend to everyone who is just starting out, is to go to Etsy or another third party WordPress theme designer.
The best way to go is to find someone who sells premium Genesis child themes. What is that? A Genesis child theme uses the Genesis theme framework, but it has been customized by a designer to look amazing. What you see is what you get, so once you buy a theme and set it up, your site will look professionally designed.
Just make sure you check out the seller, their ratings, and how many sales they’ve made. Make sure that the comments show their installation is easy and that the seller is responsive. You want someone who will be there for support if you have any issues while you’re setting things up.
But isn’t buying a premium theme expensive?
It’s actually really affordable! You can actually find that some sellers will include the Genesis theme with the order. That means you don’t actually have to buy the parent theme (Genesis) before buying the child theme from the seller.
My child theme cost less than the Genesis theme, so in effect I got a customized Genesis theme for less that the uncustomized version.
Custom Design
Another option is to hire a website developer to completely design and set up your blog for you. This will cost a lot of money. So if you have a ton of money to throw at your blog then you can go this route.
This is completely unnecessary when just starting out, though.
Make it Legal
Okay, before you launch this brand new blog of yours, there are a few things you have to take care of. Every blog/website has to have some legal pages on it.
1. Privacy Policy
Your blog is required by law to have a privacy policy if you are collecting any information about visitors. So, if you have Google analytics installed (you want to do this!) or if you are collecting e-mail addresses for your mailing list (also do this!), then you absolutely must have a privacy policy somewhere on your blog.
2. Terms and Conditions
A Terms and Conditions page (also known as Terms of Use) will protect you and your blog. This outlines what is permitted and what is not permitted when using your blog or any of the content on your blog.
The Terms and Conditions page also outlines your policies on returns and exchanges should you ever sell products or services through your blog.
3. Disclaimer
You don’t want to be held legally liable for anything you have on your blog. A disclaimer denies liability for anything you have on your blog and protects you from lawsuits. It is an absolute must from day one.
Okay, so now you know the bare minimum that you need to make your blog legal and protect yourself from lawsuits. Note that you may actually need to include more in the future once you begin monetizing your blog- this is just what needs to be up from the very beginning.
Are you overwhelmed yet? I know I was!
As someone who also manages real estate investment properties, I was already very aware of the need for lawyers (instead of just winging it) but also the insane expense that goes with it.
I ended up finding a practicing lawyer who creates legal bundles for bloggers. The best part? The cost is incredibly affordable.
If you want to have a simple and relatively cheap way to completely protect yourself and your blog legally, then I highly recommend buying the blog legal bundle from Amira at A Self Guru.
If you buy the Starter Legal Bundle, you’ll receive all three templates: Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, and Disclaimer. The great thing is that it comes with lifetime free updates, so if the laws change you can always stay compliant.
It’s an instant download, so as soon as you buy it you can put it on your blog. All you need to do is follow the instructions provided to customize the templates then paste them into your blog. It’s simple!
And Voila!
You’ve set up your blog in just one day!
Don’t let setting up your blog be something that holds you back from building something great. It doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, and once all that is taken care of, you can start creating your amazing content.
Have some more questions or need advice for the setup phase of your blog? Feel free to ask away in the comments or for a one-on-one talk, just visit my Contact Page and send me an e-mail. Seriously! I love to help people get started, so give me a shout!
