Starting your own Blog is really simple, you just need to follow a few simple steps to do it correctly and get the best results. These steps will show you the Simpleton approach to starting up your own blog and doing it right. If you want to know more, follow the links to get more detailed information about each topic.
Simple Steps
1: Choose Your Blog’s Domain Name Carefully
You have one shot to get this one right. Take your time and think about it before you bite the bullet and buy your domain name. I highly recommend getting a .COM domain if at all possible.
2: Pick Your Web Hosting Provider
Think of the web hosting provider (Web Host) as your blog’s landlord. You rent space on their web server for your blog to live in. Just as there are good and bad landlords, there are good and bad web hosts. Do your research and start off using one that you won’t be regretting later.
If you are just starting, you don’t need massive amounts of space or numerous bells and whistles but you do want the opportunity to expand in the future.
3: Pick Your Blogging Platform
Your blogging platform is the software that makes your entire blog come together. It is a CMS or Content Management System that gets all of the little bits put where they need to be. You do have a few options when it comes to the blogging platform, however I recommend WordPress hands down. WordPress is the most popular platform in use, it is extremely well supported and flexible enough to do pretty much anything that you will be needing.
To keep things simple, just stick with WordPress for the time being.
4: Choose Your Blog’s Theme
Your Blog’s Theme will be dictating the look and feel of your entire website. On a WordPress blog, the look of the site and the actual content you write are separated into separate entities. What this means is, you can change the theme (look and feel) of your site without having to jump through hoops and mess with the content every time. This is extremely handy since you can keep updating the look and all of your brilliant content will be just fine.
WordPress comes with lots of free themes. These are great for getting started and most can be modified to give your blog it’s own custom look. These free themes allow you to get your blog set up instantly so you can get your information out there.
Needing more control over the look of your blog? You probably want to consider upgrading to a Theme Framework. These are highly customized “Theme Engines” that give you tons of control over the look of your theme. There are several companies that have created these framework and all are completely different. A couple great places to start are the Genesis Theme by StudioPress and the Thesis Theme by DIYThemes.
5: Write Amazing Content
This is the most important step of all! It is much easier to design a beautiful and easy to use Blog than it is to write amazing content that will keep readers coming back for more. You have two goals when writing your blog’s content.
- Write interesting and readable content that will engage your readers and keep them reading. This will get them to start looking around your site for more, which is exactly what you want.
- Write content that is expertly optimized for Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This will get you ranked well in the search engines like Google or Bing so that readers will find you.
These two goals are basically one in the same. The search engines are looking more and more for well written content that is readable and will give their users the information they have searched for. Gone are the days of just stuffing lots of Keywords in your content and expecting to rank well.