7 Easy Steps That Will Make You A Blogger (Now)!
Ready to become a blogger? Follow these 7 easy steps and start sharing your thoughts.
If you are a novice, and not very tech savvy, you will no doubt feel overwhelmed. The key, as with learning any skill or knowledge, is to break it down into manageable chunks. The first goal is to get started: set up the very basics to begin blogging.
From Novice to Blogger in 7 Easy Steps
Getting the steps done fast is more important than spending days agonizing over choices. From experience, I can assure you that you will not be happy with many of the choices you make in the 7 steps . So my recommendation would be not to spend more than 30 minutes to an hour on any step below, you can always revisit the step, if needed. If there is a default recommendation, go with it!
But, most bad decisions you may make below are recoverable. The recovery is usually easier if you identify them early.
Step 1: Select a domain name
Most simple domain names are taken. However, don’t be discouraged: with a little bit of creativity, you can find something that reflects what you want to blog about. May require joining words (eattolive.com), using numbers (eat2live.com, live4ever.com), and even creative misspelling (happpiness.com). You can use a search engine like Google Domains or a hosting provider like Bluehost to check if your name is available.
Having a compelling domain name is useful, but the reality is most readers will come to your blog through a click from somewhere else, and, for the most part, the actual domain name may not matter. How often do you actually type in a URL? The bottom line is: spend some time on this, but pick something and move forward!
Step 2: Pick a hosting service
Some steps are not worth spending too much time on. For the vast majority of people, selecting Bluehost is a no-brainer. Pick the cheapest service (shared hosting is fine for someone starting a blog), unless you are certain you need something better (may be to host multiple sites, for eCommerce, and so forth). Ideally, you should purchase the domain name from Bluehost as well, to make things easy.
Step 3: Select an editor (content management system)
This, too, is fairly simple: most bloggers start with WordPress. It is easy to learn and fairly intuitive for non-tech savvy writers. Plenty of free support exists in the form of online guides, Facebook groups, and Youtube videos.
Step 4: Pick a theme
Here is where your creative and design skills come to play. A theme provides the basic structure for the site and an overall look-and-feel. While important, the key here is to get started. Skim over the free themes available and select a structure that reflects the content you want to share. Most aspects of a theme are customizable (for example, images can be replaced, menu items can be tailored). Below is a short Youtube tutorial from HostGator that walks you through the steps involved in choosing a WordPress theme.
Step 5: Define the structure
The next step is to fill out the implicit structure of the theme and customize options like menus, headers, footers, sidebars, and images. The below Youtube tutorial provides a short overview of the options and what you can do with them. For the most part, except for content, start with what is provided with the theme.
Step 6: Add content to the basic pages
Most themes will have boilerplate pages including a home page, contact page, about page and others that give the reader a perspective on what the blog is about. Setting up these pages will also build some familiarity with the WordPress editor – how to add / edit basic content, what options are available for styling, and how to publish a page.
Step 7: Write a sample blog
You are finally ready to blog! Write some thoughts down (don’t worry, you don’t have to publish it) – you get a feel for what a blog post is. To learn the basics, you can open a blog post that you like, and build familiarity with the editor by drafting a similar copy. You can always delete the post later (and you don’t have to publish a draft).
Here’s a quick 10-minute Youtube tutorial to get you started with writing a blog post:
Phew! You are up and running! Blog away.
