Are you ready to start your blog?

So you are wanting to Blog, eh? Have you spent numerous hours reading on blogging and what you need? So did I and honestly I still do! I love reading about what works for people and then seeing if any of their tips work for me. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. I think it really depends on the type of blog and your readers. That being said.. let me tell you a little about my blog.

 

Step 1. – Hosting

I started blogging almost 9 years ago on a blogger platform. My blog is still up even though I don’t update it anymore. If you’d like to check it out the URL is www.StampinMindy.net. Last year I decided to get a little more serious about blogging and decided to rebrand therefore; I’ve purchased a domain and space through BlueHost. The domain is your name or also known as URL. For example mine is My Creative Scoop or www.MyCreativeScoop.com. Once you have purchased the domain you need space to put content onto the internet. So you need website space. I have done a lot of research on Bluehost and I love how you can get the little package of domain and the web space. To me Bluehost just makes sense. Buy together, renew together this way it is all in one spot and you know exactly where to find all your website info!

 

Step 2 – WordPress

Once you are all finished setting up your Bluehost account the next thing you want to do is download WordPress.org through your Bluehost dashboard. When you design your blog and write your posts you will do that all through WordPress.org. The next thing you will need is to download a theme. I have heard of so many themes.

Step 3 – Design

I love graphic designing. I have self taught myself so much, there’s tons of stuff I don’t know and tons of stuff I wish I knew how to do. My favorite program to work with is Adobe Photoshop CS6. This program is seriously amazing. One day I’ll learn Illustrator. If you are not familiar with graphic designing there are tons of designs you can find on Creative Market. You can get the graphics to create, buy fonts, pre-made themes for WordPress — pretty much anything and everything graphic related! They also have freebies they give away each week.. so signing up is a must!

I think when deciding to make a blog it’s better to have a specific look. Build YOUR BRAND your own personal look! Try going on Pinterest look up color palettes, favorite objects, colors, tools, ideas, quotes, textures .. put them all in a board that will represent you! This way when you go to design your blog, you already have the look you want!

You will also want to sign up on your favorite social media sites with your name/website’s name.

Step 4 – Blog Structure

• Define your Niche. Do you stamp, scrapbook, draw, repurpose old furniture, DIY, organize, cook, etc. — define YOUR thang! Which will be the main topic of your blog. Figure out how many posts a week you want to do and try to be consistent with posting. You want to post valuable, informative posts.
• Break down your Niche to categories – For me being a card maker and Copic user — I’m listing the card categories, for example Birthday, get well, etc.
• Create tags for the products you will be using. Most of my tags are the Stamp companies I use to color my Copics.

Check out my Pinterest board on Blog Business Ideas for more help on blog planning and ideas.

[pin_board url="https://www.pinterest.com/MyCreativeScoop/business-blog-ideas/" size="custom" image_width="100" board_width="400" board_height="250"]

Step 5 – Writing 

When writing your blog posts there are a few things you should always include.

• Photos – Make sure you have photos with good lighting and are attractive. This will draw your readers in.
• Bullets or lists – These make reading through your post easier and breaks up writing to keep readers interested.
• Good SEO – Name your images, repeat focus words, include links, use focus words in meta tags
• Links – You want to link within your blog. If you mention a past post (idea, tutorial, photo) Link to that page
• Questions – You always want to get your readers involved within the topic you’re blogging about. Ask them their opinion or how they might do something differently. Get them commenting and interacting with you.

Pages to include on your blog.

• About me – Talk about your blog and you and what your goal is with your blog. You can check out my About page – My Scoop.
  • Check out Melyssa Griffin’s, ‘How to Write a Killer About Me Page.‘

Step 6 – Monetize

We all learn things everyday. I’ve been researching how to build a profitable blog, daily.. for over a year now. I think there’s a million ways to make money online these days. One thing I’ve learned from all the bloggers I’ve read about. They all have a variety of different incomes from their blogs. Here’s a breakdown of what I have learned.

Affiliates – I’ve signed up with a few different Affiliate programs and so far I think these are the ones that have seemed to fit my need, are the easiest to setup and great for a new blogger! Both of these Affiliate sites have a HUGE variety of different products, so whatever niche you are in you are bound to find products you can link to in your posts.

• Amazon Affiliate
• Share a Sale

You can always get creative and sell crafts, digital files, e-books and speciality services which I will be doing very soon! Super Exciting!!!

Step 7 – Networking and Communicating

Blog Commenting – Yup. Simple. Comment on other people’s blogs and respond to their comments on yours. I have been trying to comment on all my blog comments or visit those who do comment, if someone takes the time to leave you a comment, you should reciprocate!

Social Media is probably one of my weakest areas. I have a hard time posting what I’m doing, where and when! I try.. but I feel silly and usually write it out and end up deleting it. I really need to start posting personal things here and there. 🙂 I’m working on it.

I have found that sharing other blog posts as well as my own projects is easy and fun! I could go on and on talking about Copics!! I have found a few ways to help me with my social media strategies.

• Board Booster – This is an awesome tool to grow your Pinterest following! Pinterest is HUGE — most of my traffic comes from Pinterest and although I love sitting on there for hours and hours pinning away. Board Booster is a real time saver and actually gotten me more traffic in the last few months than in the last year! I Highly recommend joining.
• Hootsuite – You can schedule your Facebook, Twitter and other popular social media accounts. This is awesome because you can schedule to share your latest blog posts across all platforms consistently. You can schedule weeks in advance, which will lighten your to do list at the same time being very productive.
• CoSchedule – I just signed up for this and it is awesome! There’s a super convenient dashboard you can add right in your WordPress dashboard. This tool is great for blog planning, sharing your blog posts on social media, re-sharing old blog posts, shows your most popular posts across social media. I LOVE this tool!

Craft Challenges – Every time I have a new project up on my blog I always visit Paper Playful to see if my projects fit into any of the categories. You can win prizes or be featured and you get all the information from this super helpful blog – Paper Playful!

Join Link Up Parties  for a chance to be featured. Also visit blogs from the Linky Parties!

• Sunday – Flamingo Toes, DIY Sunday ShowCase, Nifty Thrifty Things, Block Party, DIY Show Off, By Stephanie Lynn,
• Monday – Keeping it Simple, Your Homebased Mom, The Stitchin Mommy, Mopping the Floor, Monday Funday
• Tuesday – Inspire me Tuesday, Tips and Tricks, Cozy Little House, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Sugar Bee Crafts
• Wednesday – Ginger Snap Crafts, Someday Crafts, Homemade by You, Work it Wednesday,
• Thursday – Thursday S.T.Y.L.E , Lamberts Lately, The Insiration Gallery, AKA Design, Too Much Time
• Friday – Creative Collection, The Girl Creative, I Heart Nap Time, A Night Owl Blog
• Saturday – Strut your Stuff Saturday, Weekend Wrap up,

 

Step 8 – E-mail and Newsletters

Building an email list is one of the most valuable parts of blogging if you want to grow your blog and earn an income. I’ve learned so much from my 2 favorite bloggers, Melyssa Griffin and Allison Marshall . Both of them have free and paid online courses to help you build your blog/brand and email list.

 

I’ve grown my email list to over 900 subscribers in the last 4 months by listening to these ladies. I created a free Beginner Copic E-Course and automated a 3 day course through Convertkit and my email subscribers is growing every single day! As of right now I am only sending out one newsletter a month and it’s sort of a run down of what I’ve been posting on my blog. Another opt in freebie I have for my email subscribers is access to a FREE Digital Library. Here I offer my readers digital stamps and papers they can download and use for their card making and coloring needs.

 

 

I think Blogging is a never ending learning experience. You learn, you grow, you change, everyday! As long as you love what you are doing right this very minute, that is all that matters.

 

 

*This post contains affiliate links.