How to set up a blog

After the Influence Conference last week and talking to bloggers in all different stages of their craft I was reminded of when I started blogging all those years ago and I hadn’t a clue about which platform to use, how to monetize, how to make connections with other bloggers, and how to make things easier! I blogged for years without knowing how to do most of this stuff and wish someone had given me a cliff’s notes version of what I needed to do. So, I am starting a new series here on the blog called What I wish I had known about blogging. And today’s installment is about how to set up a blog; which options to choose, setting that are important, and how to choose which social media options to use that will benefit your blog the most.

Step #1 - Buy your domain

Choosing a name is something to think long and hard about. It’s important to think about what type of blog you will have - a Mom blog, a style blog, a lifestyle blog, etc. Deciding which topics you are likely to write about will help guide your decision. Be sure it’s something you will want long-term.

How to:

1. Go to Bluehost and click “sign up now”

2. In the “I need a domain name” box enter your desired blog name.

3. Enter your account information

Step #2 - Purchase your hosting

This is where your blog will “live” and is absolutely necessary! I highly recommend Bluehost for ease of use, great support, reliability, and affordability.

How to:

Under “package information” you will choose your plan. Enter your billing information and voila…blog purchased!

Step #3 - Setting up your blog

I highly recommend WordPress.org over Blogger, Typepad, or WordPress.com. Believe me…I’ve had all 4 and WordPress.org is where it’s at! It is fully customizable and available plugins help to give you more functionality (we’ll talk more about my favorite plugins in an upcoming post). So, now we’re going to be uploading WordPress to your Bluehost server.

How to:

By now you should have received an email with your Bluehost login information. Log in using the “Control Panel Login” link. Once logged in click the WordPress icon under “Website Builders”. Now click “Start” to install.

It will ask to verify some information such as your domain, the site name, your username, password, and email address before allowing you to install. Be sure to enter those details.

Congrats! Your blog has been uploaded to your domain! It will look very basic at this point. But, in the next post we will cover what is important when it comes to your blog layout. I know you will be anxious to get moving on designing your blog but let’s finish getting the back end set up first!

Step #4 - Permalinks

Permalinks are otherwise known as the URL of your post. It is important to change this for SEO reasons.

How to:

Go to settings within your WordPress back end and choose permalinks. You’ll want to make sure that “Post Name” is selected. It is important to choose this so that the main keyword of your post is in the URL for better SEO (we’ll discuss search engine optimization further in another post).

Step #5 - Set up your social media profiles

Blogging isn’t just about creating content for your blog. It’s also very important to promote that content on social media. I, personally, don’t use every social media option out there but just the ones that drive the most traffic to my blog.

Pinterest - Pinterest is a HUGE source of traffic for my blog. It is important for you to not only pin your own content but to curate other content as well. A good mix is 3 of your own pins for 7 others. And continually re-pin old content. Just once is not enough.

A couple of other things that are important are to set up your Pinterest account as a business account. You can do that here and simply just follow the instructions to either set up a new business account or to convert your personal to a business account (which is what I did). In setting up your Pinterest as a business account it will allow you a look at the analytics — what people are pinning and just how much your blog content is seen. It helps to identify with what people are loving so that you can create more!

Also, don’t forget to fill out the profile section of your Pinterest profile — making sure to put a link to your blog!

Facebook - I am not a big fan of Facebook personally…but I will say it still drives a considerable amount of traffic to my blog. So, I set up a Facebook fan page and continually post my blog posts there (will explain how to do that in an upcoming post about plugins). I also have my Instagram photos linked there instead of my personal page so that I am interacting there more than just with sharing blog posts.

I have a Facebook editorial calendar that I am getting ready to start doing where I will share more old posts as well as the new.

Google+ - I am not on Google+ a lot but I do have a plugin installed that automatically shares my posts there. This has helped my SEO (search engine optimization) so much as obviously Google+ is an extension of Google. This is why a Google+ account and sharing your content there is very necessary.

Instagram - Instagram is my personal favorite social media program and great for creating community and interacting with your followers. I don’t share a ton of blog content there though and am trying to get better about my Instagram account being an extension of my blog (sharing similar content — and not just photos of my kids) and sharing links to my blog posts as well.

Be sure your Instagram account is NOT set to private. If you want to keep your private life private than consider setting up a separate account for just your blog.

Next week I am going to be discussing blog layout and what you should consider before having someone design it or choosing a template.