Let’s jump right to it. This is a quick start guide to setting up a blog – which is a great tool for marketing yourself or business. This process can be completed within minutes.

Become an authority on your topic while driving traffic to your site and money into your account.

It took me way too long to focus on my own blogging. Even if you’re not looking to do it full on, a blog can be a great way to build a portfolio of sample work as a new freelancer. Don’t make my mistake. 

Just do it! Make it yours.

My first Pro Tip is to buy a domain name and host your own blog. While there are sites that offer quick, free setup for certain types of projects, a long-term blog needs to be yours – all yours. This is important for many reasons but monetization is one of the main ones.

Having your own domain name also gives your site a greater appearance of legitimacy than those with a trailer URL from another site cheapening your new project. It’s that simple.

Bluehost is a one-stop shop on this. They give a free domain name and SSL privacy certificate(where others jack the price up) with every hosting package. There’s even a 30-day money back guarantee. That’s hard to find. 

Consider the name

A lot of times, my initial gut choice is the best one. But, you should take a moment and consider a few options for your blog name. Something clever? Keyword specific? Concise? All are things that factor into the best decision but don’t overthink it too hard. While it’s not super easy to change on a whim, blogs pivot and change names quite often.

Also, my buddy in advertising says .com is the only way to go. How many sites do you visit that aren’t .coms? There you go.

Best Deal

For as little as $3.95 per month, you’ll have your blog established and on the road to building a community and earning a living. They offer a free domain name (a $15 value), SSL, and one-click WordPress installation. They’ve got it all set up for bloggers. These procedures took me several steps and some pretty decent know-how with other providers. 

Again, it might be tempting to choose a free blogging site or landing page option. I say don’t. Not if you want to turn a blog into a long-term money maker. Those sites are appropriate for some projects and we’ll discuss those in the future.

“Hello World!”

WordPress is the free platform that runs your blog. It’s installed through a one-click process on Bluehost.

All new WP blogs start with a sample post. Click edit and explore. It won’t bite. You’ll find the backend of the site pretty self-explanatory once you peek around a bit. This is where you’ll upload your content including text, photos, videos, and more.

Use this link for current pricing (or the other links in this article) but open this link in another window to use as a tutorial of five quick steps that help you set up your new blog in 15 minutes or less!

Pro Tips 

1. Keep this simple at first. You can always add certain things later if needed.

2. Focus on the Domain Name (free through Bluehost) and getting the hosting set up. The Basic Package at Bluehost is perfect for beginners.

3. Start with one simple post that states the purpose of your site. This can be anything from following your favorite team or a simple archive of your photography.

4. Set up an email list and use a link so followers can subscribe. This is your new goal as it creates direct contact with potential clients/customers/patrons, etc. 

5. Establish at least two social media profiles for the site and share your first blog post to the world!

If all of this seems a bit overwhelming, I also offer limited mentoring and editing for beginners just getting started. And I do it all from my couch.

I love the 21^st Century!

Did you find this Quickstart Guide helpful? Please comment with links to your new blogs!

(Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash)

**Affiliate Disclosure: Links within articles may be referral links where I share in marketing revenues for any purchases made via the links.