The new year is here and you’ve been telling yourself for months that you were going to make IT happen.

This is the year you start a BLOG.

I’m sure you have seen people in all walks of life write about topics that they love and are passionate about. The fashonista on Instagram you follow with the great style, YUP she’s got a blog. The fitness keto guru on YouTube, what about him? YUUUP he’s got a blog too. What about grandma? YUUUUUP. Abuelita and her dog even have their own cooking blog.

Now you want to do the same. Congratulations on your decision to begin.

But where do you start? What if no one reads it? What if I’m a bad writer? What if…what if…what if…

I can’t guarantee you will be the next J.K. Rowling or Hunter S. Thompson, but I can help walk you through step by step how to create a blog. There are principles to consider when you are beginning to ensure your article is found on google, read and your new years resolution is accomplished.

Here’s The Recipe:

Thanks Kendrick.

The Idea

This is the root of your blog. Your subject matter. Your niche. Your rock. Your love.

When deciding on your blog idea there are 2 questions that should be answered with a resound YES before you begin.

Do you love what you will be writing about? Are others interested in this topic?

Writing takes time, energy and your blog idea probably won’t make you rich and famous (or it could). Doing this will help you become better at what you are passionate about and find others who you can share this with.

To learn, read. To know, write. To master, teach. – Hindu Proverb

You will also eventually run out of ideas for articles if you don’t  enjoy writing about them. If you are having difficulty deciding what you want to write about, think about when your friends and family come to you for advice. What is it they are asking you for help with? Is it because you are the techie who can solve their issue in a second? The make-up artist who knows the exact brush to use? The mom with 3 children but still finds time for her side hustle?

You’re the only one who can decide if you truly love your idea.

Now you might be wondering if you are the only 31 year old interested in funny animal gifs (your blog topic) or if there are more people like you. Otherwise, what’s the point? Here’s what you can do to find out if your blog idea is too broad or too narrow.

1. 1. Download & Install Keywords Everywhere on your Chrome or Firefox browser. If you’re using Internet Explorer, sorry. Get Chrome. (Seriously though I’ll edit this later for the 15% of you using I.E. That’s great you are so loyal to Microsoft)
   2. Check that Keywords Everywhere is active on your browser. Search Google for Your Topic.
   3. Compare Monthly Volume Search Results. Here you can see if I started my blog about funny animal gifs I would have a total monthly volume of 6,600 searches (interest) to fish for.
   4. BUT what about a more broad topic such as funny gifs. Now I have a ocean of 246,000 queries a month to pull from. Is this too much competition? Probably. Funny animal videos seems to be a good middle ground with 74,000 searches a month. If your new blog can receive just 1% of that 74,000 you’ll be looking at 740 visitors a month for just that search. Funny animal videos it is.

Not a bad start for our new blog, especially if we can find a way to monetize it. For now we need to focus on what to name it.

The Name

What’s in a name?

A lot. This is an important and fun step. Aim to align your idea to a brand. Just don’t overthink it. Anything is better than nothing if it keeps you going.

You will need the following when building your first blog.

1. Domain – the name of your blog
2. Hosting – allows for your website to be seen online

There are a few large providers of domains and hosting. For your first blog it will be convenient to buy them both in the same place. I recommend BlueHost. It is only $3.95/month for hosting with Bluehost and they offer you a few free goodies including a free domain. Please use my link provided, I partner with them and they kick me a little summin summin if you purchase.

Once you become the rockstar blogger we know that you will you can consider upgrading or creating a custom solution. You will reach that point when you are averaging around 25,000 monthly visitors. What a great problem to have!

Ok you still with me? We’re getting there. Look at everything we have already accomplished together. You have a blog idea that people are hungry to start reading. Now comes the part where most give up. The intimidating tech. Don’t worry, I am here for you. Message me in the comments at any point if you are having trouble and I can help.

Here we go…

The Technology

WordPress. Have you heard of it?

WordPress is THE most popular content management system in the world. More websites are powered by wordpress than any other system in the world. Best of all it’s easy to install, use and maintain. (It’s also free. We like free.)  Anyone, I mean anyone can do this in 5 minutes with these steps…

So because of all these reasons we’re going to build your blog using WordPress.

Once you have purchased your hosting and domain you will login to BlueHost and click the “Install WordPress” icon.

You will then want to choose “do it yourself”. Click “Install”.

Then click the “Check Domain” button.

Lastly check the terms and condition box and click “Install Now”.

You did it! You have built your first blog using WordPress. Soon enough people are going to be calling you Mark Zuckerberg. But don’t get ahead of yourself Mark, you still need to design this blog. We’re not going to be showing off our writing on any average blog. This is your masterpiece!

Let’s whip out the figurative paintbrush and get to it.

The Design

A picture is worth a thousand words they say, first impressions matter, yadda yadda yadda. Point is style and design can help sell your brand to encourage readers to engage with your writing.

I recommend using a pre-made design (called a WordPress “theme”) because most likely you are not a professional web designer, and even if you are your goal here is to start writing. There are thousands of wordpress themes to choose from so in the future if you want to use WordPress for something else like an eCommerce store you will already be much more familiar with WordPress. I’ll put together an article on that soon if you want to start selling online without having to pay an expensive monthly fee.

When choosing your theme you can choose a free theme or purchase a premium theme. I recommend spending the $50-$80 so you can present a brand exactly how you envision it. Many times free themes are played out and lacking. Gotta pay to play.

So where do you get a wordpress theme? I love envato and have purchased many of their premium themes.

Here’s their link

After you purchase you will be emailed the theme file or provided a link to download your theme file. It will be in a .zip format. That’s what you want.

Take a look at this video to complete the next steps.

Your theme also comes with support from envato so if you are still having difficulty or in the future you they will assist you. I am also available to help 🙂 Now that wasn’t so hard was it?

Next we need to customize your theme. Let me show you how you can do this.

If you were brave enough to make it this far it means you have chosen a name for your blog, setup your domain and hosting, installed WordPress with a premium theme as well as customized it. Your blog is technically complete.

The Topic

What topic should you write about first? Try the following formula

What you are interested in currently + what others are interested in = blog topic

Our friend Google Trends is here to help, watch this video on what you can do to pick a blog topic.

The Writing

Your blog topic has been chosen, you are ready to start writing. You may need to take a break at this point to recharge and refill your coffee mug. Writing will be flexing a different muscle than what we were just working on. When you are ready log back in to your WordPress dashboard and check out this video to learn where to type your first blog.

We’re done! Here are some frequently asked questions around blog articles that may be going through your head…

How long should my blog article be? How many words? What is the maximum?

I recommend you prepare to write at least 1000 words. You may find you can write for much longer or that you prefer writing shorter articles. That’s fine. It all depends on you. This isn’t a competition and you will become much better quickly. Step by step your blog will improve.

How often do you need to write blog articles?

I wouldn’t worry about this as much as the quality of your content. If your content is useful and others enjoy your writing style you are heading in the right direction.

Do I include keywords to rank on google?

Short answer – Yes.

Long answer – Yes. This is an SEO question and ranking for keywords takes strategy and effort as well as a solid understanding of Google and Bing’s algorithms. I will cover this in a series of additional articles but for now don’t stress it. Focus on a creative headline and writing an article that you would enjoy reading yourself or find useful.

Can my blog make money?

Of course. There are many ways to do this that you may heard of and a few that you may not have. I’ll walk you through what you can do if you want to begin monetizing your blog in the future. For now there are others who have wrote about the subject, or check YouTube. There is a lot of free content out there.

What do you plan on blogging about this year? Let me know in the comments with any questions.

Also I plan on continually updating this article with what I feel may help. 

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