How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps
Dear Lisa,
I really love your blog and want to start a fitness blog to keep myself accountable, but don’t know where to begin. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
Dear Newbie Blogger,
Thanks for checking out my site! I think it’s great that you want to use blogging as a tool to stick to your fitness goals. Kudos to you and here are some suggestions…
How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps
1. Define the purpose of your blog. Are you blogging as a hobby – an account of your life that you just share with your friends and family? Or do you hope/plan to make money blogging? The reason this is an important question to ask is because it will help determine who your web host will be. (More on that in step #3.)
2. Name that Blog! Put some thought into this. For example, if you name your blog “Lisa’s Blog,” (or whatever your name is,) then random people trolling the web will have no idea what your site is about. Originally, I was going to name my blog, “My Bikini Project” as I was writing about my quest to lose 50 lbs by entering a bodybuilding bikini competition at age 38. (‘Cause when you’re middle aged and borderline obese, is there really a better time to enter a bikini competition?)
My husband, being a smartass, said, “You’re going to lose weight, enter a bodybuilding competition, do the accounting for our business, potty train our son, and start a blog…all at the same time? ShesLosingIt.com.” Brilliant!
I loved it because it incorporated so many different aspects of what I wanted to write about: Losing weight, losing my mind dealing with small children (!), losing the excuses that were holding me back, losing my youth (!!), and gaining a whole lot more in the process.
Be sure to write a list of website names you like and then do a Google search to see if they are already in existence out in cyberspace. For example, I had to wait a year before I could purchase the domain name ShesLosingIt.com, so I purchased the domain ShesLosingIt.net in the meantime. Now I own both domain names and link them together. You might also want to check out your favorite social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to see if your name is available so you are branded similarly across everything. For example, my Twitter handle is @sheslosingitnet and my Facebook page is Facebook/ShesLosingIt.net.
3. Choose your Web Host.
Remember in step 1 you had to determine if you wanted a hobby blog or a professional (i.e. – make money) blog? Here’s where this decision is important. If you want a hobby blog, you can go with WordPress.com. (That’s what I used for my first blog, when my website name ended in .net.) The blog set up takes only a few minutes and it includes getting your domain name. If there is a problem once you start blogging, you get to talk to their computer people, who will fix it. And it’s “free.”
Here’s the downside: They can put up ads on your site which you make no money on and you have no say in who’s advertising on your site.
To remove these third party ads you have to pay a fee. If you want to stream video, you have to pay a fee. If you want a nicer background, you have to pay a fee. Also, you can’t run Google Analytics on it, so you won’t have as much data about your readers and what they like to read. Now if you’re just writing to make sure you eat your veggies and you only think your friends and family will follow you, this is a good place to start.
On the other hand, if you are using your blog as a business, you will want TOTAL control over your site – advertisements, banners, site appearance, etc. For this you can use WordPress.org and then get a web host. This is what I do now. My computer guy is awesome and my host fees are very affordable. His contact info is: groovygraphicsatx.com and groovywebhosts.com and he charges just $5/mo for hosting services, and will give 2 months free if you pay for the full year. If you want to skip WordPress entirely, and just have him design a website for you, he can do that for $200. (Rates as of 1/1/2014.)
4. Create consistent content. How often are you going to blog? Generally speaking, I do one post per day, six days per week. (I take Saturday’s off to be with my family and sometimes life’s demands keep me too busy to write.) You can set up whatever schedule you want (daily, twice a week, etc.,) just follow it. If you write 12 blog posts on one day and then don’t write again for a month, your audience will be confused and may lose interest. Also, be consistent with your topics. If you are blogging about diet and exercise, don’t write 30 posts in a row about your cat.
5. Be yourself! You’re not writing a paper that’s getting graded by your sixth grade English teacher; you’re blogging. Have fun with it. Keep in mind that random people will read your posts and comment about it when they see you in the supermarket (really.) So if you are writing about your life, make it an edited version of your life. For example, if I include pictures of my kids in my posts, I won’t use pictures that they would find embarrassing. It’s probably not a good idea to bash your boss online either or write anything you’re not comfortable with your mother-in-law commenting on. Just sayin’.
Hope that helps! Good luck claiming your piece of the world wide web!
Lisa 
Sheslosingit.com (c) 2014 Lisa Traugott. All rights reserved. No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, and artwork, may be reproduced or copied without written permission.
OMG I love your shirts.
Thanks!