Starting a blog was on my new year’s goals list for many years. With my law practice and adding a new child to our family every couple of years, I was never able to make it a priority. However, last year I was able to make it happen! I am far from an expert and still have so much to learn. In fact, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about blogging it’s that there is always more to do and more to learn.
It’s a journey. But, it’s a journey that I’m so glad I’m on. Even though I’m not an expert blogger (yet!), I do feel like I’ve learned a lot so far this year, and I wanted to share in case starting a blog is on your list for 2020. I hope this guide helps you get started on your blogging journey.
Content marketing
A blog can make a good business on its own or as a supplement to a business. Content marketing is huge and can provide a significant benefit to your business. It helps customers, and potential customers, learn about what your business can offer then and helps them get to know, like, and trust you.
The idea of know, like, and trust comes from marketing guru Bob Burg’s book Endless Referrals where he writes, “all things being equal, people do business with, and refer business to people they know, like and trust”.
If you want to be a blogger, obviously a blog is crucial. But, if you own another kind of business I suggest using a blog as part of your marketing strategy. Even having a website several articles can help you get noticed by Google and found by potential customers.
How to Start a Blog
The Basics
First things first. Before you can have a blog, you need a website. Basically, to have a website you need a domain name, some way to build your website, and a place to host your website.
Domain name
You need a blog name and that will probably determine your domain name. Once you’ve decided on your blog name, you need to choose a domain. You can search for available domains several places online. You can purchase a domain name separately, but if you are going to pay for hosting make sure it doesn’t come with a free one. You can search for available domains at Namecheap.com (affiliate link).
This was the hardest part for me. I chose my name based on a suggestion I got in one of my favorite Facebook groups. I’ve heard the advice to list out the different words related to your blog idea, cut out the pieces of paper, and move them around until you find a word combination you love.
Hosting
You need a self-hosted WordPress blog. WordPress is highly customizable and will allow you to do pretty much anything you want to do with your blog. It is important to be self-hosted because only then will you truly own your platform and your content.
If you build your blog on a platform like WordPress(dot)com, Blogger or Wix, they can pretty much shut down at any time and you could lose everything. And, if you build your platform on a social media platform, changes in algorithms or having your account closed can be devastating for your business.
It’s important to have a home base that belongs to you.
The free blogging platforms can be fine for hobby blogging or if you’re just testing out the waters, but if you’re treating your blog as a business, it is critical you have a self-hosted blog.
When I first started my blog, I made the mistake of going with wordpress(dot)com paid plan. I knew I was supposed to be paying for it but realized later that wasn’t the best choice.
Once I decided to switch to wordpress.org and move my hosting, I went with Bluehost (affiliate link). I’ve been really happy with them. Their customer service has been great and they offer unbeatable rates when you sign up.
If you’re sure you want to pursue blogging, I would sign up for the longest plan you can to lock in those introductory rates (Bluehost is $3.95/month). The price will increase after your introductory period is over, but usually you can lock in this price for up to three years. The price is listed as a monthly price, but you will have to pay upfront for the entire introductory period.
You need to create content for your blog. There’s lots of advice out there. You have to decide what works best for you. I think the most important thing is to be consistent with whatever you choose (Consistency is my “word of the year” for 2019-so I’m working on it.)
There are lots of different kinds of content you can put out: blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook lives, etc. You want to create stuff that is helpful for your audience and you like to create.
Email marketing
If you want your blog to be a business and bring in an income, you need to have some way to communicate with your audience. By creating an email list of people who’ve shown their interested in the content you’re making, you have a group of people ready (and excited!) to purchase a product you’re putting out. I don’t know about you, but there are people I’m a fan of and I will buy anything they put out.
Email lists are great because 1) you have a group of people who’ve shown an interest in what you do and 2) you own it. Whatever platform you’re working on, you can communicate with your audience via email.
You can build an email list by creating opt-in forms on your blog. Some people will subscribe just because they like your content, but most will want something in exchange for their email address.
This may be a printable, freebie, email challenge, etc. and you use them to entice your readers to sign up. These are usually PDFs and you can create them in Canva or PicMonkey. Both of these have paid options, but I use the free version of Canva and it’s been enough for me.
You will need an email delivery service to collect addresses and send emails. There are free options available (usually with a limit of subscribers) such as Mailerlite and Mailchimp.
I didn’t pay for a lot early on for my blog, but I signed up for Convertkit (affiliate link) almost immediately, because I knew I wanted my blog to be a business. There is a cost associated with it, but the tagging features are worth it, in my opinion.
Images
Most photos you see on the internet are copyrighted. You cannot use just any picture you see. There are free photos available like those with a Creative Commons license. I’ve chosen to purchase all of my stock photography. Sometimes, even when you think you’re using a free photo you’re allowed to use, it ends up being someone else’s that didn’t give permission to use it.
Will I get sued for using someone else’s picture? Probably not, but there is a possibility you could have to pay damages if you use someone else’s photo. So, I’ve just decided the small expense is worth peace of mind. There are lots of stock photography options available. I use depositphotos.com and ivorymix.com.
I found I needed two kinds of photos. Realistic photos for blog posts and pretty/flat lay photos for Pinterest. You can use Canva to create pins for Pinterest, but most of the time you’ll be including some kind of image on them, so that’s what I use Ivory Mix for.
Depositphotos
Depositphotos is great for true stock photography. Photos of people doing various things and pictures of specific activities. They also have a lot of seasonal photos. I use 1-2 of these in each blog post. I found a deal at Depositphotos (affiliate link) and I’ve used them ever since. You can sign up for a monthly plan or buy an on-demand package. You can get offers from AppSumo (kind of like Groupon for online/tech stuff) for 100 photos for $100. They usually have a huge Black Friday sale too.
Ivory Mix
When I’m creating pins for Pinterest, I prefer flat lays over photos of people. My friend recommended Ivory Mix (affiliate link) to me and I love it! You get 100 or so photos every month. You can choose by color scheme, topic, etc. She has so many photos to choose from and they are all beautiful!
Education
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of blogging resources out there. I’ve consumed so much information about blogging over the past four years-way before I had a blog. I just loved learning about it. I’ve purchased a lot of courses. I have not done them all (hello Genius Blogger’s Toolkit!), but I have done a bunch of them. Some are great and some are just okay.
Kim Anderson
I found Kim Anderson through Elite Blog Academy and I am so glad I did! She has a Mentored Membership that has been invaluable to my journey. She puts out monthly information about different topics and a monthly challenge. The Facebook group is awesome and a great place to ask questions and connect with other bloggers.
She also has a 12-week blog growth strategy course that I’ve really liked. If you liked the book the 12 Week Year, you would love this. It’s breaking your goals down for the next 12 months and setting action steps to go along with each goal.
I feel like I’m gushing, but seriously, her resources and community have been so helpful to me.
Finally, she created a blog planner that I have been using. It’s based on 12 weeks and has pages for goals/action items, but it also has helpful sheets like income/expenses, brand font/colors, planning blog posts/products/emails and lots more. It’s nice to have everything organized and in one place.
List Love by Jennifer Maker
This course was created by Jennifer Maker and it’s dedicated to helping you make the most out of your email list. She teaches how to build your email list using opt-ins and how to use that email list to make an income from your blog. Jennifer Maker has been incredibly successful and she is ready to teach you everything she has learned.
I am working my way through this course now, but I know it’s going to change my email game. Email is a real struggle for me. I’m not sure why but sending emails to my subscribers is so hard for me. I love the way the course is set up with videos & text and how she gives you an assignment to work on for most sections. There is also a Facebook group that’s connected with the course.
Website maintenance and protection
This took me a while to think about. Once I hit a point where I felt like I would be devastated if I lost everything on my blog, I started to think about protecting it. I could’ve {probably} figured out how to back up my site and make sure it was secure myself, but I found an affordable option for someone to do it for me, so I went with that.
Grayson Bell, from iMark Interactive, is amazing! (He has a free WordPress course that’s really good.) They offer a monthly website plans that offer daily backups, weekly security scans, and managed WordPress updates (this is so helpful with all the constant changes in WordPress). Plus you get one “small job” every month and 10%+ off bigger projects. They are very fast and the customer service is fantastic.
Building traffic
You’re putting a lot of work into your blog, so I’m guessing you want people to read it! And, if you’re trying to make money off your blog, pretty much the only way to do that is by finding an audience. You can pay for traffic with Google or Facebook ads, but when you’re just starting out you may not want to spend money just yet.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s basically how you’ll get found in searches. You include keywords in your blog post and when someone searches that topic, the search engine can find the keywords you’ve included.
I am not an SEO expert. I chose not to focus on SEO right away, because I think it will be hard to compete in my niche. I’m working against big companies like LegalZoom, Nolo, and various magazines.
I do try to get a green light in Yoast and I do a quick keyword search. To do a keyword search, I go to kwfinder.com, enter what my article is about and check out the results. Kwfinder lets you do five searches a day or free, but they also have a paid service with more options.
You want to choose something with a high-ish search volume that looks like it’s possible to rank for.
Pinterest can be a good source of traffic for your blog. But it takes time and quite a bit of work. You will need to create pins for all your posts. It’s helpful to have a template to work from. You can create pins in Canva. They even have some templates you can use. There’s a free and paid option. I’ve only used the free and so far, it’s worked well for me.
Pinning Perfect
Pinning Perfect covers everything Pinterest! I’m still working my way through the course, but I have learned so much! In my opinion, this is THE course for learning Pinterest. I was an avid Pinterest user before blogging, but it’s a whole different world as a blogger. Who knew there was so much to learn?! They teach you how to create a good pin, how to describe your pin, and how to you get your pins found. It’s usually updated twice a year, which is important for Pinterest/social media courses since things change frequently.
Tasty Pins
Pinterest thinks of itself as a search engine as opposed to a social media platform. When you’re creating pins, you should focusing on keywords, hashtags, and an appealing image. But, when someone comes to your site and loves an article (yay!) and they want to pin it, they can choose any image they want and would need to include a description. You want your pin to have all that info you worked so hard to include! Tasty Pins allows you to do that. It will automatically include your pin information when someone wants to pin a post from your site.
If you’ve decided to start a blog, I’m so excited for you! It has been such a great experience. A lot more work that I expected, but I’ve met so many great people and it’s so fun to see your message get out to those who need it! You can do it! I hope this article helped reduce some of the overwhelm and gave you some great resources to help you on your journey! If you have a blog, share it! I would love to see what you’re doing!
Once you’ve got your site up and running, make sure you have a privacy policy in place. You can create your own, but if you would rather save yourself the time and hassle, you can purchase a customizable template here.