headermask image

Business Tools Blog

How to launch your new blog, the easy way

I get a lot of Google hits from people searching for information on how to start a blog.  I am not an expert, but I will share my experience.

I thought starting a blog would be something that I could easily do myself.  I tried Google Blogger (which is free and easy).  This didn’t work, because I wanted my blog to have a certain look and feel and Google Blogger’s templates didn’t accomodate.

I asked Dan Caruso for advice and he recommended using WordPress, a free blogging platform.  The steps WordPress gives are:

  1. Find a Web Host and get great hosting while supporting WordPress at the same time.
  2. Download & Install WordPress with our famous 5-minute installation.
  3. Consult the Documentation and become a WordPress expert yourself.

Those 3 steps may sound simple to a developer, but to me … they were enough to turn me into a long term procrastinator.  Here’s what I did instead:

  1. Select a free blog template by searching through WordPress’s 396 free themes.
    • To make your search easier, try to determine the following ahead of time:
      • Number of columns
      • Color scheme
      • Relative width of screen (width changes based on users browser)
  2. Select widgets.  (Hint - the best way to find widgets is to visit your favorite blogs, and make note of the features you like most.)  BusinessToolsBlog.com uses:
    • Subscribe via email
    • Recent Comments
    • JobThread Job Board
    • Wassup WordPress analytics
    • Google Analytics
  3. Select an available domain name.
    • I used GoDaddy.com to search for available names, then I purchased the domain businesstoolsblog.com for $9.99.
  4. Purchase a hosting plan.
    • I purchased a hosting plan for $4.99 per month. (I may need to purchase a virtual dedicated server some day, but for now, the cheap and cheerful plan works for me.)
  5. Sketch out how the blog should look (widget placement, colors, fonts, etc.)
  6. Find a great developer to implement your plan.
    • I found a great developer who was able to build my blog for approx. $200 in <2 days.  If you are starting a blog, I highly recommend that you use Ray Goins.  Ray is very quick, efficient and fun to work with.  He invoices on an hourly basis and is always available for questions.

I hope this was helpful.  Good luck on you blog!

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Money Making Options

Post meta

This entry was written by Sandi Mays and posted on September 26, 2008 at 12:40 am and filed under Blogging. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Share with others

Post How to launch your new blog, the easy way to digg. Post How to launch your new blog, the easy way to Reddit add to stumbleupon Google Bookmark myweb bookmark on del.cio.us newsvine Tailrank magnolia Furl co.mments shadows simpy blinklist

6 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Wordpress has become the most popular used platform in its category. A recent search i conducted on Alexa found wordpress.com to be number 22 in the top most visited websites “globally”.

    Wordpress not only makes it easy to create a blog but it has also been used to develop websites, simply because it makes it so easy to update.

    Regards,
    Richard

    1. Wordpress Hosting on March 12th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

  2. Hey,
    My Name is, Steven
    Nice site, verry informative
    look at my site:

    http://uLToDiC.spaces.live.com/

    2. HowDialosoins on October 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm

  3. When considering Blogs Tools, remember Publishers Union of Bloggers currently advise Publishers hold off installing any Lijit Software on their blogs pending both Lijit’s promised upcoming transparency from Lijit concerning revenue and Lijit’s current ‘terms of use’ which gives Lijit free reign concerning use of your content once our Publishers install Lijit Software into their blog.

    Any thoughts on these critical issues for Pub’s, pass it on, all appreciate it.

    Barney
    Founder, P.U.B.

    3. Barney Moran on September 29th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

  4. WassUp is a Wordpress plugin to track your visitors in real time. After you install the pluggin, you will have a tab on your Wordpress dashboard. With Wassup, you can see where your visitors are coming from (including feedburners and spiders).

    It has a “current visitors online” view and a more detailed “visitors details” view where you can know almost everything your users are doing on your blog, it’s very useful for SEO or statistics maniacs. It comes with a “Spy” view in Ajax like the Digg Spy.

    4. Sandi Mays on September 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am

  5. How do u use “Wassup” ?

    5. Prakhar Agrawal on September 26th, 2008 at 10:14 am

  6. Thanks for including Lijit on your list of recommended tools for bloggers.

    In addition to helping your readers find more of the content you’re producing online, we also give blog publishers detailed stats about what readers are searching for, what they’re clicking on, and where they’re coming from.

    For the beginning blogger, this is valuable information to help better understand and serve readers.

    We appreciate your continued support Sandi!

    6. Tara Anderson on September 26th, 2008 at 9:42 am

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*