Ask Away Blog: Get Your Blog Up and Running in 10 Easy Steps

Monday, March 30, 2015

I've been blogging for almost 5 years now and I have to say, I've come a long way and learned a lot. Now it's time for me to share some tips with you. So if you know you want to start a blog but don't know how to begin the process, these tips should help you!

1 | Choose a host. First things first; you need to figure out a host for your blog. I started wtih Blogger, but it's wise to use a website hosting service such as HostGator , which has 24/7 live support via chat, phone, or email. They are basically always right there to help you which would have come in handy for me in the middle of the night when I had a page crash. By the way, you can sign up for 30% off web hosting services at HostGator here.

2 | Choose a domain. If you know what you want to blog about, that's a great start for figuring out a name and you will want to choose a domain that coincides with the title of your blog. As you can see, mine is AskAwayBlog.com. HostGator is a great one stop shop for domains and will help make the process a lot less overwhelming.

I designed this graphic to help introduce people to my site.

3 | Design your site. You should have some sort of theme in mind and a basic idea of what you want the design of your site to look like. Don't freak out if you aren't good with design and HTML. It took me a long time to learn over the years. Luckily, HostGator has pros that can do it all for you. That will save you a lot of time and energy, I promise you!

4 | Figure out a layout. The layout of your site should be easy on the eyes and somewhat clean so that when people visit your blog they aren't overwhelmed. HostGator has excellent website building tools like drag and drop that make it super simple to build a site. Over time you may need to change the layout and that's a normal and good thing.

5 | Decide on content. Think of what you want to give your readers when they come to your site and what topics you want to blog about. The key here is to basically fulfill a need, like advice, fashion tips, organizing tricks, or product reviews. If you just want to start a personal blog about your everyday life, that's a great idea too!

6 | Choose a posting schedule. I actually have an agenda book for my blog posts. I can see what days don't have any posts so I know where I can add one in.

7 | Use photos in your posts. Pictures tell a story so make sure you always include some in every post. Practice makes perfect if you plan to dabble in photography so just be patient and see what some other bloggers do. And HostGator offers one click WordPress installs with no messy downloading and uploading of files which will actually be one less HUGE hassle to worry about.

8 | Marketing is key. If you want to generate traffic you need to market yourself or your blog. HostGator has in house experts for SEO and PPC that want to help you with marketing. Take advantage of this because the sooner you can start bringing in traffic, the better.

You can learn A LOT at a blog conference.

9 | Network. Everywhere you go, tell people about your blog. Invest in business cards. Go to social media club meet-ups and blog conferences. Trust me when I say that almost any situation can be an opportunity to network.

10 | Have fun. If it's not fun for you, it's never worth doing. Remember to enjoy your blog and be patient and don't expect to be the #1 blogger overnight. Blogging is a great way to use your free time and if it wasn't then people like me wouldn't be doing it for so long!