The One Thing No One Tells You About Starting a Blog

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If thereâs one comment/question that I get a lot, itâs âBlogging seems like it would be a ton of fun! Iâd love to start one of my ownâŠis it fairly easy to do?â or âI want to start a blog, because I like to write, but I have no idea where Iâd startâ.
If youâve been thinking either of these thoughts, Iâm going to answer both with this post.
If youâre looking to start a blog, most people will tell you to âwrite about something that youâre passionate aboutâ. This was difficult for me, because I didnât think that I was âpassionateâ about anything. In my mind, having something that I was âpassionateâ about, equated to âdo you have any hobbies?â I have no hobbies. I like everything in general, nothing in particular.
If youâre one of those people who also doesnât have any âhobbiesâ (and there are many, many of us) to speak of, or anything that youâre particularly excited about doing, seeing, being, etc., donât despair. That was me. I racked my brain for months about what I could possibly write about, that anyone else would give a shit about reading.
Then one day it dawned on me; I love fashion, I love âlifestyleâ in the form of things like shopping for cool things for my apartment, trying new restaurants, hunting for great deals on anything I might want, health and wellness topics, etc.
Essentially, I like nice things. Hence the name of one of my blogs.
That was it. That realization gave birth to âShe Loves Nice Thingsâ; Food, Fashion, Lifestyle and More. It was perfect :) Itâs not ânicheyâ as most will tell you to be; finding a niche that you can cater to, and writing about that. âShe Loves Nice Thingsâ is about the pursuit of nice things, a decent life, which I suppose covers just about any and everything you can reasonably think of, but whatever. I went with it.
The Steps:
Purchase a Domain Name and Hosting
Iâve built a few blogs in my âpast livesâ, so I knew that the first thing I had to do, was to see if the name I wanted was available as a domain for purchase. Lucky me, it was (obviously). At the same time, I also purchased hosting for my beloved new domain.
*This next bit is REALLY IMPORTANT. Please read it :)
Whatâs already out there;
Youâre probably already familiar with the âscriptâ from all the other âusual suspectsâ; âI use this web host and you should use it too, because itâs only $2.95 a month! But only with MY link! Wink!â
Horse sh*t.
Hereâs the deal on the â$2.95 a month but only with my linkâ BS; Yes, you can get your hosting for $2.95 a month. Iâm cheap AF, and Iâd say thatâs a great deal, but not only am I cheap, Iâm also a hardcore skeptic, and if you tell me that I can only get that price âwith your linkâ, Iâm gonna poke around elsewhere to make sure thatâs all true.
I canât stand half-truths and flat out lies, and thereâs SO MUCH of it on the www. I donât care what youâre trying to sell me, if I smell a lie, Iâll click away faster than you can say âwtf?â
That said, hereâs the deal with most â$2.95 a monthâ hosting deals (you ready?);
SureâŠyou get your hosting for $2.95 a month! But you only get that price if you pay for 36 months of hosting in advance!
YeahâŠthatâs what I said. 36 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. If you pay $106.20 ($2.95 x 36), you can have the hosting for your brand new blog, for â$2.95 a monthâ! (Iâm Canadian, so that translates to $139.51 for me.)
That pissed me off. I felt like Iâd been âbaited and switchedâ. And you donât see that total until you get to the checkout, and by then, youâve wasted all kinds of time on the damn thing!
At the moment, I own 7 blogs, and I use this web host for all of them.
Know why?
I use them because theyâre $2.88 a month, and I pay for that MONTH TO MONTH. I donât pay $2.88 x 36 months up front!
What if I decide to throw in the blogging towel after only a few months?? (Not gonna happen, but Iâm playing Devilâs Advocate here.)
*OkâŠI have a confession to make here; because I own so many blogs, I have the upgraded version of that plan that lets me host an unlimited number of blogs on the one host, but thatâs still only $4.88 a month!!
If you want a Wordpress managed blog, even thatâs only $8.88 a YEAR!!! Why the hell would you go anywhere else and spend $106.20???
With any of the other web hosts, I would have handcuffed myself into a 3 year commitment with my damn $139.51 payment!! (Canadian, remember.)
I canât have that. And with 7 blogs, thatâs nearly a thousand bucks out of pocket right away with those âother guysâ!!
Screw that nonsense.
In addition, my hosting company has everything those other guys have; quick customer service (I swear they all know me by name), SSL site security, etc.
CLICK HERE to grab your domain (which will only cost you something like ten bucks a year), and your awesome web hosting at a truly awesome price; just $2.88 a month :)
Choose a Blogging Platform:
NowâŠIâm going to tell you something that no one else is telling you;
(Iâm steady handing out the secrets hereâŠ)
Iâm telling you this so that you donât (like I did) start using this blogging platform, and want to throw your computer through a window, thinking that itâs supposed to be easier than it is.
That said, here goes;
THIS BLOGGING THING IS NOT EASY!
Starting a new blog is MUCH more than âall you have to do, is purchase your blog name and hosting, and youâre up and running!â
And donât let ANYONE tell you different!
Wordpress is a fantastic blogging platform. No question. Itâs better than pockets, and I absolutely LOVE it⊠Now.
BUTâŠwhen I first started with Wordpress, there were many (MANY) times that I actually (no joke) cried with sheer frustration over customizing the various parts of the blog, and sometimes I STILL DO when Iâm working on a new blog.
Wordpress will make you cry. I promise you that.
People make it sound like Wordpress is easy to install and set up, but Iâm telling you..ITâS NOT. If you donât already know what youâre doing, Wordpress will make you question your mental ability.
If you have access to someone who can install and set up your Wordpress blog, please, for the love of GOD, get that person to do it for you.
But if youâre the patient sort, who loves a technical challenge, Wordpress is your deal. Go nuts with it.
Once itâs all set up, youâll need to choose a theme for your new Wordpress blog, and customize it. Hereâs where the heavy lifting comes in. THIS is the part where you want to hand it off to someone who knows the difference between a âpluginâ and a âwidgetâ. Alternately, you can google just about anything you want to know about working with a Wordpress function.
The next piece of advice Iâd give you, would be to make a list of bloggers that you enjoy, follow them religiously online/social media, and do what they do with their blogs. Some will tell you to do something, but theyâll leave out a very valuable part of that piece of advice. Your job, is to figure out what that piece is ;)
If youâre looking for a web hosting company that you can trust and I havenât completely scared the living sh*t out of you about starting that blog, click here to get your hosting for an ACTUAL, honest to goodness $2.88 a month :)
And thatâs it!
Happy blogging!
Peace :)
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