Thinking About Starting a Blog? 10 Things You Need to Get Started

These are the exact steps I follow each time I start a new blog or website

So you want to start a blog huh? Blogging can be a blast and a profitable one at that. I have been blogging for over 4 years now and I never get tired of it. But only when it’s about a passion of mine. I would say that this is the one prerequisites to blogging, that it has to be on a subject that you are PASSIONATE about.

With that said, just like with any business venture you want to get off to a good start and make sure you are doing things properly. For that reason I have created this page to help you get off to the right start and build yourself a blog that you can have SUCCESS with. This information is free. But if you would be willing to Tweet/Facebook/Digg/Stumble this page it would be much appreciated.

1. A Domain Name = NameCheap.com

DO NOT setup a blog on Blogspot.com or WordPress.com. These are great services for people who don’t take blogging seriously. Only kids and amateurs do this. Invest the $10 and get a domain name of your own. I personally chose to use my name ChaseSagum.com for self branding purposes. That or creating a brand are both good ideas. I recommend purchasing your domain name from NameCheap.com because 1) its cheap and 2) you get free Privacy Whois with each domain.

Quick tip: try to stay away from hyphens and super-long domain names as much as you can. .Net and .Org are also good choices on top of .Com so don’t feel like you HAVE to have a .Com.

2. A Blog Content Management System = WordPress.org

WordPress is the free open source blogging platform that is most popular amongst bloggers around the world. No you don’t have to pay for it and yes it is the best blogging platform in the world. In just a couple seconds you can go to WordPress.org and download this incredible web application and have a blogging platform that is as strong as any blog on the web today. But you need to host it and install it which leads me to the next step #3 where I will explain hosting and how to easily install WordPress.

3. A Place to Host Your Blog = Bluehost.com

Next you need a place to actually host your WordPress blogs’ database and files. Bluehost.com is the best of the best for new bloggers using the WordPress blog content management system. With Bluehost you will be able to host up to 100 blogs (hope you’re not that crazy) with your 1 account and you will be able to install WordPress with literally one-click of a button using their WordPress 5 minute install. Bluehost is only $6.95/month and is well worth the cost to help you get your blog up and going.

Quick tip: once you purchase your domain from NameCheap.com, you will want to change the Nameservers to NS1.Bluehost.com and NS2.Bluehost.com if you do in fact choose Bluehost as your hosting provider. Also ask your sales representative to show you how to install WordPress on your account using their 1-click install platform.

4. A Custom Design for Your Blog = WooThemes.com

Okay now you have a domain, and WordPress running, and a place to host your new awesome blog. Now what? You probably want it to look cool right? Well let me give you some advice that has cost me thousands of dollars over the years. Instead of hiring some expensive web designer, purchase a Premium WordPress Theme instead! You can literally pay $125 give or take and have an awesome design up and running in minutes. Make a few minor custom changes and you have a design as custom as any! Not to mention WAY better looking than if you go through a designer on your own.

Head over to Woothemes.com and check out their themes. They have well over 100+ themes to choose from, all of which are considered some of the highest quality themes for WordPress you can find anywhere. Here are a few more places you can pick up a stunning WordPress theme for your blog:

ThemeForest.net
graphpaperpress.com
press75.com
kreativethemes.com

Quick tip: with just about any premium WordPress theme that you buy you will have 2 options. 1) A standard license (which means you can install it once) and 2) a developer license (which means you can install it as many times as you want). This totally depends on your needs. Just be sure to keep this in mind.

5. Additional Functionality = WordPress Plugins

By default WordPress can do SO much for you. But there are times where you think to yourself “what if my blog could do this or what if my blog could do that?” This is where free Open Source WordPress Plugins can be very powerful. There are Plugins for just about anything and a quick glance over at WordPress.org/Plugins and you can find a plug-in for your needed functionality. Here are some articles I have written up on Plugins I suggest if you are looking for added functionality:

6. Become a Better Blogger = Problogger.net & CopyBlogger.com

Now that everything is setup and in order, now it’s time to start creating engaging, high quality content that people will enjoy reading. It’s time to start building a community around your blog! The way to do this is by educating yourself from some of the best bloggers on the web today. I highly recommend RSS Subscribing (or just checking their sites frequently) to both Problogger.net and CopyBlogger.com to learn how to be a better blogger. There information is free and very powerful.

7. Understand Some SEO = SEOMoz.org Free Guide

You can write great content, but you need to have at least a basic understanding of what SEO is and how you can best take advantage of the content that you have written. This free guide from SEOMoz.org (far and away the SEO experts on the web today) will help give you that basic understanding in a clean, simple powerful way so that you can learn and get back to your blogging.

You need ORGANIC traffic to your blog and this free guide will help show you how to accomplish this. Begin to build an SEO strategy for your blog (not all at once, but over time) so that you can long term maintain a high amount of organic traffic flowing to your blog.

8. Build an Email List = Aweber.com

One of the best ways to make $ with your blog is by building up an Email list and sending out Email newsletters to the followers of your blog. Aweber is the best of the best in the email marketing for blog industry and is far and away the most trusted.

Here’s what you do. Setup an account with Aweber (only $19/month) and copy & past an email newsletter signup form that they give you and put it on your blog. Then using the Aweber interface you can setup some “Auto Responders” that will automatically send content to your subscribers each week/month. Watch people begin to subscribe to your newsletter and your market audience grow each day!

Quick tip: don’t abuse your email subscribers. Be sensitive to them and send them high quality/helpful content each month. You can make your money by including links to offers inside your newsletters.

9. Start Making Money = Affiliate & Ad Networks

Yes ads on your blog can make you money if you do it right. It’s less about banner ads and more about contextual ads within your content that actually makes sense to your readers. Meaning its actually relevant and not something completely random. I recommend starting with Google Adsense of course. But then you can begin to move on to some of these other affiliate networks as your audience begins to grow, and start promoting more offers that make you more money.

Clickbank.com
Shareasale.com
Offervault.com

Quick tip: One thing I like to do to find new offers to advertise on my blog is I go to other blogs in my niche and snoop around to see what banners/advertisements they have. Then by clicking through those ads I can see if those companies have an affiliate program by looking for a link somewhere on their page that says “affiliates” or something like it.

10. Promote Your Own Products & Services

This may be your plan all along in which case you can skip step #9. This may be your company’s website or a website for a product that you are launching. If not and you are just blogging, begin to think about creating your own product and/or service. It could be consulting, selling t-shirts, writing an ebook etc. Give this some good thought and planning and it will help you be successful with your blog.

Good luck in your blogging! I know you can make a success out of it. Just believe in yourself and what you are doing, put in the time and it will work for you. If you have questions feel free to connect with me on the following social sites:

Sincerely,
Chase K. Sagum

Note: Most links in this page are “affiliate links.” All products mentioned here are products that I currently use and have enjoyed using. Any product purchased through one of these links results in a small commission for this blog. These links do not however effect in anyway whatsoever my opinion of the quality and effectiveness of these services.