How To Start A Blog

Editor’s Note: Several people asked about getting involved in the Blog Challenge – but admitted they didn’t have a blog and weren’t sure where to start. So I thought this would be helpful.

So you know you want to start a blog but you’re not sure how to go about it. Here are five easy steps, and a few good tips, to make the process quick and easy.

1. Choose your niche. What’s your blog going to be about?  You may want to do a bit of keyword research here. If you already have a business, then your blog will be related to your online business and those keywords, however, you can still narrow your blog niche.

For example, if you have an online business on dog training, your blog could be about positive reinforcement training, about housebreaking, or even about a tangent topic like feeding your dog – because health is important to training.

2. Choose your platform. WordPress, Blogger, Typepad and Moveable type are only a few of the options. But you want to  choose WordPress because of its easy-to-use nature and the ability to customize your blog. It is the industry standard, so there are a lot of tools available for WordPress blogs, many of which are free.

3. Create your blog site. DWhile you can have your site designed by a professional, start with a general theme until you gain some experience. There are thousands of templates, some paid and some free, available by WordPress developers and they’re easily customizable.

4. Choose your blogging schedule and write your blog posts. How often are you going to blog?  Create a realistic schedule and stick to it. Remember that even if you decide you’re going to blog once a week, you can always blog more oten. Blogging less than that isn’t recommended. Blogs are active sites and people expect frequent content updates.

5. Drive traffic. Once you feel comfortable with the number of posts you have on your blog and you’re happy with the way it looks, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog. Social networking, PPC, registering your blog with relevant directories and commenting on other related blogs helps drive traffic.

Starting a blog isn’t the difficult part. The challenge is deciding to start a blog. And now that you’ve made the decision to start your own blog – it just gets more interesting by the day!

If you are looking for a detailed, step-by-step course that will walk you through setting up your first blog, you’ll find First Blog Site invaluable. from start to finish, every step is illustrated in a checklist and short instructional videos. There is even an option to hire someone else to do it for you! Get started with your blog today.

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