In this post I will discuss the necessary steps to setting up a blog. This is the fourth post in a series I am doing on getting your website to rank higher in the search engines. I am relatively new to the world of blogging but did a reasonable amount of research before starting. Some common questions people have before starting a blog include: Is there free blog software available? What kind of learning curve is there to learning it? I will attempt to answer these questions along with a few others in this post. Listed below are the five necessary steps for setting up your blog. I am assuming you want to host the blog through a webhost and will not be using a free blogging service.
Step #1: Register a domain name – As I have mentioned before, I use Godaddy.com to register all my domain names. Their rates are very competitive and I have found their support to be very helpful.
Step #2: Chose a Webhosting Company – Once again, I use Godaddy.com for this. Keep your webhosting and domain registration with the same company if at all possible. This will make annual renewals much easier to keep track of.
Step #3: Decide on a Blogging Platform – I use WordPress and have found it to be very simple. Godaddy.com (along with most webhosts) have made it so that WordPress.org can be setup with a few clicks of the mouse.
Step #4: Select a Website Theme – If you plan on using using wordpress then I strongly suggest that you take a look at Thesis 2.0. Thesis is great because it offers a lot of built in SEO and has a very strong community for support.
Step #5: Customize Your Blog – Select the appropriate plugins and widgets to make your blog stand out. Wordpress has many plugins available and many of them are free. Download and test a few plugins. If you like them keep them or simply uninstall them if you are not satisfied.
These five simple steps to setting up your blog. Of course, there are many more and I will cover some of them in a future blog post. If you have any questions that I have not answered in this post feel free to leave me a comment.
Thanks,
David Landen
Pauline January 8, 2013 at 8:05 am
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Hi David
You have listed some great tips for anyone just starting out and wanting to have their own blog.
It can be confusing for many as to where to start but you have given the easy steps to cover this.
I would suggest doing a post for each of the 5 steps to go into every one in more detail….
Thanks for sharing, have a great day
Pauline
davidl January 8, 2013 at 8:00 pm
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Pauline,
Thanks for your input. I know when I started thinking about starting a blog it seemed overwhelming. I plan on doing a more detailed post on each of the five steps. Come back and visit and hopefully I will have those posts finished!
Thanks,
David
Matt Hayden January 15, 2013 at 10:52 pm
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I know that using Wordpress hosted on your own domain is the best approach to blogging. However, if you have several blogs like I do, doing this would be too expensive. That’s why I use Blogger and Weebly. They’re not as versatile as Wordpress, but they do the job. I’m happy with them for now.
davidl January 15, 2013 at 11:20 pm
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Well put Matt! I think everyone has to look at their own budget and determine what works best for them. Thanks for your input!
Gladys March 14, 2013 at 10:23 pm
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Hi David
Awesome article for newbies like me. I ventured out and got my blog with wordpress and Hosgator. Then I purchase Thesis and Adrienne Smith helped me with it. Now I am in the cycle of learning Aweber. Still cannot wrap it in my head, but there are lots of people helping me.
Yes you should write a post on each step.
Thank you David
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davidl March 14, 2013 at 11:15 pm
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Gladys,
It does take some time to figure out what works (best for you). I have experimented with different plugins, themes and widgets and I guess that is part of the learning process. The good thing about Wordpress is that there are many things that are either free or at least free to try. Let me know if I can help you with anything specific. I don’t know everything but I have picked up a few pointers (mostly from others out of the goodness of their hearts)!
Thanks,
David