How to Start Blogging Right Now

Have you been thinking about starting a blog? Now is a GREAT time! You’ve totally got this. Let’s get started.

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Step 1: What type of blog do you want?

Decide what area of blogging you want to venture into. A DIY blog? Mom blog? Recipes and food? Fashion? Fitness and coaching? Movie reviews? Maybe an author blog? All great choices. Pick your overall theme to your blog.

Step 2: What kind of content do you want to post?

Decide on a few categories of types of posts. For example, if you’re doing a mom blog categories could be Crafts, Activities, Recipes, and Motherhood. If you’re just doing a food blog you could break it out into categories like Desserts, Chicken, Beef, and Vegetarian, There’s really no limit to how many categories you can have but I wouldn’t do more than 8. If you have a lot consider having some subcategories. Instead of having a category for each kind of meat, you can just have a Meat category with subcategories of Chicken, Beef, Pork, etc.

Take my Free 7 Day Start a Blog Challenge to learn more!

Step 3: Name your blog

This one is important. Every blog needs a name that people can remember and that relates to the content. I picked Toot’s Mom is Tired because you can easily infer that it’s a mom blog and that I’m always tired and probably have some tips for other tired moms to make their lives easier. Picking a name also means you’ll be choosing your domain name. You want the name of your blog to match your domain.

Step 4: Find a host and platform

There are a few big names for blogging out there. I started with Blogger/Blogspot but after a week I switched to WordPress. If you go with the free version of Blogger or WordPress, your URL is going to be yourblog.blogspot.com or yourblog.wordpress.com. Not exactly appealing to readers and not as professional as having your own domain.

 Here are my top 5 reasons to have a self-hosted blog

The reason I switched to self-hosted WordPress after a week is because I found out that a Blogspot blog isn’t really your own blog. Google owns it and can shut it down at any time. You also don’t get the full range of control on your blog as you do with WordPress. If you just want to have a fun blog that your friends will read, I would suggest a free WordPress or Blogger account. But if you want to be a professional blogger and make money with your blog, you need a self-hosted WordPress blog.

 Not sure what these terms mean? Check out my Basic Blogging Terms for Beginners!

Step 5: Sign up for hosting

I personally use Bluehost for hosting. I got a great price for hosting, a free domain name, and free email accounts. The original price is $5.95/month but if you use my discounted link, it can be as low as $2.99/month. Sometimes it’s even less depending on what sales they have going on. Follow their instructions and choose your domain. Definitely get a .com if you can. Everyone always forgets the .nets and .biz websites. .Coms are prime internet real estate.

Other options you can check out are Siteground and Weebly. I’m not very familiar with them, but they may work for you. Check them out and compare them to Bluehost.

Take my Free 7 Day Start a Blog Challenge to learn more!

Step 6: Install WordPress

Luckily Bluehost makes this step easy. Just log into your Bluehost account and click install WordPress.

Step 7: Design your blog

To log into your blog go to whateveryoupickedasyourdomain.com/wp-admin.

Now for the fun part!  Choose a theme. You can get a free one or pay for one. Stick to something simple. Simple always looks more clean and appealing. If you want a professional looking blog, get the Genesis Framework and a child theme designed for it. Genesis is a parent theme that provides the basic structure and a child theme will give you all of the custom designs and widgets.

I use the Genesis Framework and Hello Trending by Hello You Designs.

Other popular designers for the Genesis Framework are Pretty Darn Cute Designs and Restored 316 Designs.

You can also take those categories you wrote down in Step 2 and put them into your menu.

If you’re not tech savvy, and you just don’t understand how WordPress works, check out this tutorial offered by SiteSkills.

Step 8: Start blogging!

Congrats! You have a blog! Write your posts and share them with the world! Good job. You’re great at this!