How to start a blog

Amanda (@funomenalrealtr) and I were chatting today about blog topics, and I asked her if there was a topic she would like to see covered by me. Her request was for a simple step by step for setting up and starting a blog.

There are two different types of bloggers: bloggers who are adding a blog to their already existing website and bloggers who use their blog as their website. Bloggers who are just looking to add a blog usually already have a domain name, design and goal to their site, the blog is just a secondary piece of the puzzle. Bloggers who want a blog as their website do not have a website yet, usually are just starting with an idea and have no design.  This article refers to the second kind – the ones who don’t have a website and want just a blog. The following are the steps I give my clients who are starting a blog from scratch:

1. Decide what your site is about. The first step to any website is to determine what it is for. What are you going to blog about? Who is your ideal audience? Knowing why and for whom you will write will make designing the site easier.
2. Choose a domain name and get it hosted. Your domain name should either be your business name, your name or something that refers to your site. Make it something relatively easy to spell or say so that people can remember it. Also, try to keep it short. Super long url’s are never easy. For hosting, I recommend (and use) Lunarpages, as they have great customer service and are affordable.
3. Wait 24 hours for your site to finish propagating (basically means that the hosting company is setting up the site). Sometimes it will take less time, but I recommend waiting until then.
4. Install WordPress. If you choose to use lunarpages, you log in to your lunarpages control panel. Once you’ve logged in, find the ‘WebApp Pool’ on the left hand side and select to install wordpress. You will want to install it directly onto your site, so leave the subdomain blank. Provide a user name and password you will remember.
5. Go to the WordPress.org theme’s section and choose a design. There are over 1000 free themes offered on this site, all of which are specifically designed for wordpress. Once you choose one that you like, just remember the name of it.
6. Login to your website using the information that your wordpress install provides you. This is your wordpress dashboard. On the left hand side, you will see ‘appearances’. Click on that and then select ‘add new themes’. Enter the name of the them that you found that you liked and click search. Once it comes up, you can then click install. After the theme installs, click activate.
7. Upload plugins to make using the site easier. There are tons of great plugins that I use, but the 5 I recommend to everyone are: All in One SEO, Disqus, WordTwit, Akismet and Contact form. Each have great explanations of how they work when you install them.
8. Add widgets with your social media buttons and links. SmashingMagazine.com has a great collection of freebies that you can use for social media icons. Once you find ones that you like, download the files. Then, click on ‘media’ and upload the images that you want to use for your social media buttons. Copy the url that wordpress gives you once it has been uploaded. Click on ‘appearances’ and ‘widgets’. Add a ‘text’ widget and paste the url for the image into the box. This way you have it for the next step. Next, you want to turn it into a usable link for your site. To do this, you will use the code: <a href=”http://url of the website you want people to go to”><img src=”http://url of the image”>Text if you want any after the image</a>. This code can be used any time you want to insert an image into the sidebar. If you want to just insert hyperlinked text, remove the section in blue.
9. Start writing your blog. For this, I refer you to my posts on writing blogs: Managing your time, the blog management puzzle, blog post topics, and creating a blog calendar.
10. Start promoting your blog. Link it up with twitter through the wordtwit plugin, add it to the networked blogs through facebook, and ask your friends for support. Soon you will start seeing comments and people sharing your content.

This is a very quick paced set up, and does not include a lot of the small details that will make your site successful, as many of those take a lot of time, and a lot of explanation. What this will do is get you started and get you going while you take time to learn the deeper details and start to integrate them.

What tips can you share for someone getting started with a blog? Or what other questions can I answer?

Related posts:

1. 10 reasons you shouldn’t start a blog
2. 10 reasons you should start a blog
3. So, you want to start a website?