Getting ready to start a blog is one of the best ideas you could have!
Great job taking the leap and even visiting this page. That’s a huge first step.
If you’ve been toying with the idea for a while that’s totally ok, let’s be realistic most of us think about it for quite a while before we get started. No matter if you’re looking to start a hobby blog, a personal blog for sharing your experience or if you’re wanting to start your own online business you can find some amazing resources on this page.
Starting your blog
When starting a blog there is a LOT to consider and sift through. In this post, I will strive to keep it as simple and easy to understand as possible. It is not meant to be a step by step but a walk through all the major services you should have and why. I have faith that you are smart enough to be able to understand the instructions given by each company when you click through to get a service.
Hosting
A hosting service is the foundation for your blog. It’s what the whole thing runs off of. So getting a good one is key. Bottom line, your blog needs to be hosted by someone, but my recommendation is that someone is you.
There are tons of choices for services and you can do it for free with WordPress.com but that’s not self hosted. Self-hosting a site has a ton of benefits (like a faster, better blog) so if you’re looking to grow an audience and monetize it, you should self-host you’re site from the get-go.
I use Bluehost and it’s been AWESOME. No hiccups, glitches, confusing info. It’s a super easy experience that you couldn’t be happier with. Click the link to get a special offer with them. It includes a free domain and free SSL, 24/7 support and if that wasn’t enough, setting up your WordPress site literally takes only one click with them. Bluehost’s first tier service is usually $7.95 but through my link, you can get it for only $3.95/month and it has a 30-day money back guarantee. This deal is so good there shouldn’t be anything holding you back, especially after taking a look at how easy it is to set up through the tutorial linked below.
If you’d like to learn more about setting up Bluehost and get a step by step tutorial to walk you through the process, click hereÂ
Where to build your site
Nowadays there are a ton of options when it comes to where to build your site. You can go with Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, WordPress.com and WordPress.org and many more.
WordPress.org is the way to go if you’re going to be serious about building a great site. When it comes down to it there are just so many ways that WordPress allows you to customize your site making it way easier for you to show off your, style, voice and unique content.
There are so many great WordPress plugins (these are programs that customize your site) and themes and it’s only growing by the day. You can start with a free theme or purchase one depending on your needs and budget.
I originally tried to design my site with Wix and the drag and drop format was great since I could see everything but the actual logistics of making blog posts and categorizing them was a mess. This would be great as a storefront or an image-centric business but not a true blog in my opinion.
E-mail Marketing
Once again, if you’re serious about your blog and want to have the option to monetize it (who doesn’t want to get paid for their work?) you need an email marketing service.
The one true asset that is YOURS when it comes to your blog is your email list. The list of subscribers that want to hear from you. These people have chosen to give you their information and opted into building a relationship with you. Everyone is more likely to buy something from a friend so when you’re in regular contact with that person through their email they are MUCH more likely to buy something you recommend or a product that you designed with them in mind.
With that said the only service you should go with is Convertkit.
Convertkit is the easiest to use, the most versatile, and the most thorough provider there is. Thousands of bloggers use this service to categorize their subscribers, set up auto-responders and email sequences. Why is all this so important? It saves you a ton of time. And as a new blogger, you need all the time you can get. Services start at $29/m with the 1st month free. Although you can get some mail services free at least click the link and read some more about them. If you don’t start with them you’ll end up with them eventually.
I’ve used their support on a few occasions and they have been wonderful and personable which is not always the case. There is also a massive amount of help out there for learning how to use Convertkit, all you need to do is follow along.
Convertkit also hosts AMAZING webinars for their users which give you tons of actionable tips and advice on growing your business. 💕
Grammarly
What is a business built on communication without a good spell-checker? Grammarly is a FREE service that will edit your posts, emails and everything else. It is the best and easiest service and essential to a new blogger. Click here to get your free subscription.
If you want to read a little bit more about Grammarly and how it’s helped me you can do so in this post.
Tailwind
If you’re a blogger you need a business Pinterest account (which is free) and you should consider using Tailwind. It’s the only approved Pinterest scheduler and it makes life easier when you don’t have to remember to pin. I manually pin as well as use Tailwind and Tailwind tribes have been a game changer. Like I mean without changing anything else my pageviews almost tripled in less than a week. You can get a free month of Tailwind to try out through this link!
Plugins
YoastSEO
I love it. Once again, it’s free and will break down the readability of your content and make suggestions based on what will allow your content to rank in search. If you don’t understand a term it’s usually linked to a definition to allow you to easily implement the advice.
Yoast also lets you put in a keyword and will tell you how well you’re doing with your SEO based on that.
Pinterest PinIt Button
Pinterest is a blogger’s best friend. Make sure you have a plugin to add the PinIt button so that readers and easily save your content to a board.
Poptin
Poptin is a simple to use plugin that gives you options for adding pop-ups to your posts. There are so many different ways to customize them like what triggers their action, how often they can be seen and on which pages. There, of course, are tons of stylistic changes you can make like color and text. There are both free and paid vesions of Poptin. The free version shows your pop-ups to 1000 people monthly.
Social
Just like with Pinterest you want your content to be easy to share so make sure you add in a social media sharing plugin.
 A few others to have
Google Analytics – make sure you get all the info about your site that you need
EWWW Image Optimizer- will make your site run faster if you have a lot of images
Jetpack- gives you insight into your post and views
Graphic Design
Canva
Personally, when designing my logo, pins, headers and pretty much all of my images I use Canva. It is an amazing service that is so user-friendly I can’t believe it’s free. This has been one of the best discoveries of my life.
Picmonkey
You can use this service as well but I believe you need to pay for it. I haven’t personally used it but I hear about it often in the blogging community.
Resources:
Ultimate Bundles Blogging ToolKit- only sold for short periods at a time but it’s a huge selection of courses and e-books given at a 98% discount. I bought it, it’s been life-changing.
Createandgo.co– a blog dedicated to helping you build yours.
Startamomblog.com– if you’re a mom and want content specific to that, check out Suzy, she’s great.
Take it away!
