Beginning Thoughts
I sacrificed my July 4th 2011 holiday weekend to get this post out because having my own blog has given me an incredible feeling of independence. I encourage you to not only read the post but use the check list at the end to take action. If this post has finally inspired you to take action and build your blog leave a comment in the comment box and let the world know. Then send an email to me via my contact form, with a link to your new blog and I will write a blog post about your website. This will be great for your SEO because it will be your first back link from a popular website. This post is dedicated to @MaryTGeraty who inspired me to write it because she was inspired to start a blog by my Why Having A Blog Is Important For A Social Media Professional post. She contacted me via Twitter (@Mrchichester ) and let me know she read the post and asked me if Word Press was the way to go. This made my day so I dedicated a full weekend and this post to answer her question. Since I did not see fire works this weekend if you (all my wonderful readers) have read this post and it has lit your fuse of inspiration, please make some fire works of your own for me by getting your blog up and sharing the good news with me. This way we can share the explosion of joy that comes with accomplishing a goal and therefore watch the fire works together. 
Word Press Powered Blogs And Websites
I have built my blog using Word Press as the blog platform. Word Press is one of the largest blogging platforms with a huge community of developers creating plug-ins and add-ons that can enhance your Word Press blog. You can also use these same instruction to create your business website power by Word Press. Here are some great examples of Word Press websites of all kinds so you can get an idea of how powerful and flexible Word Press really is.
This Blogs Blue Print
You can use this as a reference and blue print to make it easier to figure out how you want to build your blog.
Niche: Social Media Career and Personal Development
Blog Platform: Word Press
Domain Name: LiveLearnLoveLeave.com (Go Daddy $11.99/yr)
Hosting: GoDaddy.com ($4.95 month Linux)
Theme: Woo Theme’s Canvas Theme ($70 plus 2 other themes free)
Why Having A Blog Is Important
If you are a digital marketer of any kind especially social media marketer, having a blog is essential to your career growth (you can read more about that here). For a business having a blog can help you connect with your clients to build a lasting relationship, can generate leads, create industry authority and much more. Blogs can also be great sources of passive income which can drastically change your lifestyle for the better, if you are willing to put in the work.
Trust is Social Equity
The secret to having a successful blog is the same as the secret to having a successful life. You have to add value to your relationships. Your goal should not be to make money, but to create value for your readers and enrich their lives. You do this by creating good content that your audience needs. How To Gain More Twitter Followers For Free and How To Raise Your Klout Score are two examples of solutions to problems that my audience has. They are all things I know how to do. If you create valuable content your audience will share that content with others and keep coming back to your blog for more. This will create trust which is the currency of any community whether it be on or offline.
Investments: Time and Financial
Most of the how to start a blog posts I’ve read don’t talk about this. This is a very important thing to consider prior to setting up your blog. You are going to have to be willing to invest time and money into your blog. The cardinal rule “You reap what you sow” applies here. The more you are willing to invest in your blog the more successful it will be. If you want to make blogging a full time career then you will have to invest more than if your blog is just to create leads for your company. But don’t worry this does not mean you have to pour hundreds of dollars into your blog to make it successful. You do have to have to have money to buy a domain name, buy hosting and purchase a blog theme (read more about this below). All of this should not cost you more than $200, but it is the minimum investment you will need to get your blog off the ground. Then you have to consider how often you can blog. Are you going to post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday? Just Tuesday & Thursday? Or are you going to generate new blog posts everyday?
Step 1: Select Your Niche
The first things you need to do when setting up your blog is to pick a topic or a niche. What are you passionate about? What are you knowledgeable about? What are you willing to spend hours to write about. This step is very important because it will determine how much effort you put into your blog. If you write on a topic you love and are passionate about it will be easy for you to find the motivation to write posts daily. If you chose a topic that you are not familiar with and try to give advice about it, people will be able to see right through you. Focus is also important because if you try and write a blog on multiple topics you will be spreading your content thin and your readers will go to the blog that has an abundance of information on what they are interested in. Focusing on a niche creates value because you are not wasting your reader’s time.
Niche Examples
Business
If your blog is for your business then you would be writing about the happenings in your company and your thoughts on your industry, which makes things easy because your niche is your industry. My friends at Climax Media have a blog that is a good example of this.
Hobby/Interest Based
You can create a blog on the side for a hobby or social cause you are passionate about. I’m passionate about spreading hope, love and inspiration to other people so I created spreadlove.org to do so. Darren Rowse’s photography blog is also another good example. You can also find niches with in a niche. For example if you want to blog about “cars” you can break your niche down even further and just blog about “car interiors” or “Mustangs”.
Personal Brand
Another option is to build your brand around your name. For example author and marketer Chris Brogan has Chrisbrogan.com where he writes about marketing. This will help you rank high on search engines for whenever someone searches for your name which is instrumental to managing your online reputation.
Step 2: Choose A Domain Name
Once you have chosen your niche it will be much easier to figure out what domain name to purchase. Ideally your domain name should be short and reflect your niche. This is important for search engine optimization and for communicating your websites subject with new site visitors. Spreadlove.org is an excellent example of this. It is two words long and describes exactly what the function of the website is for. LiveLearnLoveLeave.com is a bad example not only is it long but it is hard to remember, however I chose it because it reflects perfectly the way I live my life and inspire others to do as well. I also plan on writing a memoir of sorts with this title so keep all your big picture goals in mind as well. You can buy a domain name from a domain registrar.
Domain Name Registars
GoDaddy.com I use Go Daddy for domains as well as hosting. I like to keep everything under the same roof to keep things organized.
Other Good Domain Name Options
Step 3: Choose A Hosting
Buying and setting up a hosting account is the next step. This is where all your website files will be stored so your site can be live on the internet. Like I said above I would suggest buying both your hosting and domain name from the same place. This way you only have to go to one location to manage both.
I use GoDaddy.com for hosting.
Other Good Hosting Companies
Step 4: Choose A Blog Theme
The next step is picking how you want your website to look. There are many companies that create amazing Word Press Themes with easy to use admin systems. These themes are not only beautifully designed, they are SEO friendly and require you to know zero HTML to get them up and running. I use Canvas By Woo Theme’s . The theme costs $70 dollars but they give you two other themes free. So if you don’t like one you can just try the other two you selected.
Other Great Word Press Theme Websites
1. Elegant Themes (These themes are beautiful)
2.Theme Forest (They are good as well)
3.Thesis Awesome (Great Themes and excellent support)
Step 5: Install Word Press and Uploading Your Theme
1.Once you have purchased your theme and downloaded it you will need to upload it to your new hosting account.But first you will have to install Word Press on your hosting account. Below is the instructions on how to do it from each hosting provider.
Here is how to install Word Press on a Go Daddy hosting account
Here is how up install Word Press on Blue Host or Host Monster
Here is how to install Word Press on Name Cheap
2.Once Word Press is installed on your hosting server sign into Word Press and upload your new theme following the steps below.
2A. From your Word Press Dashboard click “Change Theme”
2B. Click “Install Themes”
2C. Click “Upload”
2D. Click “Browse” and search your computer for where you put the yourtheme.zip file. Once you find it click “Open” and then “Install Now” and it will automatically install your new theme.
Once this is done you simply go to “Manage Themes” and activate the new theme that you have just installed. Then customize the theme as you see fit by adding plug-ins, customizing its appearance and adding widgets. All this can be found on the side panel of the Word Press admin section shown below.
Summary and Take Away
-Despite your motivation for blogging (financial, career advancement, business) your main goal should be to add value to your reader’s life.
- Buy your domain name and hosting from the same place. Name Cheap is the cheapest and you can get both.
-Purchase a Word Press Theme (or you can use the free ones Word Press provides but you get what you pay for) Elegant Themes and Woo Themes are the best.
Final Words
Have fun with your blog, take your time, learn as much as you can and express yourself to the world. We all have something to say, your blog is the perfect place to say it and say it loud!
Use This Check List To Take Action And Get Your Blog Up
Blog Platform: Word Press
1.Niche: Your niche here
2. Buy Domain Name:
4.Buy Theme:
5.Install Word Press
6.Upload & Install Theme
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