© 2018 by Rebecca Livermore

N UTS A ND BOLTS

Setting Up Your First Blog

In this section, I get into the nuts and bolts of starting your first blog. This section is a summary of my book, Bloggers’ Quick Guide to Starting Your First WordPress Blog. For some, the summary in this book may be sufficient, but If you haven’t yet started a blog, and want a deeper dive, I recommend picking up a copy of that book.

If you’ve already started a blog, you can skip this section and go directly to Section 2, Content Planning.

CHOOSE A BLOGGING PLATFORM

The blogging platform that you’ll use is one of the first decisions you need to make when starting a blog. Some of the most popular platforms include:

• Blogger (Google’s blogging platform)

• Squarespace

• Wix

• WordPress.com

• WordPress.org

Each of these options has pros and cons, and when it comes right down to it, any of them will work as your

author blog. However, I use and recommend WordPress.org for the following reasons.

• It’s open source. This means the software is free, and anyone can use and “tinker” with it.

WordPress is easy to learn. As is true with all new things, there will be a learning curve, but there are a lot of resources available, including my book and course on the topic.

• It’s a popular platform, so you’ll hear about it a lot, which makes you feel like one of the “cool kids” rather than being someone who feels left out.

• It’s a complete content management system. It’s not just for blogging. You can run an entire online business on WordPress

• There are a lot of free WordPress resources – everything from themes to plugins to tutorials.

• WordPress is search engine optimized – which means that it makes it easier to find your site and content via Google, Bing, and other searches.

• It’s easy to update. Themes, plugins, and WordPress itself are easily updated with a simple click.

Before you make your final decision, it’s important to understand the difference between self-hosted and

hosted blogs, and WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. I cover both of those in the next two chapters.

SELF-HOSTED VS. HOSTED BLOGS

Having a hosted blog can be compared to renting and having a self-hosted blog can be compared to owning a home.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both renting (hosted) and owning (self-hosted).

When you have a hosted blog such as on WordPress.com or Blogger.com, you have the following advantages:

• Less responsibility for maintenance

• There are completely free options

• They are quick and easy to set up

When you have a self-hosted blog such as on WordPress.com or Blogger.com, you have the following disadvantage:

• Since you don’t technically own the “property” you’re building on, you have less freedom. For example, you may not be able to sell on your blog and may have less flexibility with design, etc.

WORDPRESS .ORG VS . WORDPRESS .COM

In the previous chapter I explained the difference between hosted and self-hosted blogs, and the pros and cons of each one.

The key thing to keep in mind is that WordPress.com is hosted, and Wordpress.org is self-hosted.

Regarding which option is right for you, I recommend WordPress.org for anyone running any business, including a simple blog that makes money even in a small way. WordPress.com is acceptable for hobby blogs, but even hobby blogs may find it challenging to deal with the limitations of a WordPress.com site. Unless you consider your writing a hobby, then self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org) is a safer choice.

FIRST STEPS TO SETTING UP A SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS BLOG

The first steps to take when it comes to setting up a WordPress.org (self-hosted) WordPress site is to purchase a domain name and web-hosting.

You can purchase both your web hosting and domain name through Siteground. Domain names run around $15 a year, and hosting can start as low as $5 per month.

You can learn more here:

http://professionalcontentcreation.com/siteground

I also provide step-by-step instructions in my book, Blogger’s Quick Guide to Starting Your First WordPress Blog, which you can get on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Bloggers-Quick-Guide-Starting-WordPress- ebook/dp/B01MU6HMV5

INSTALLING YOUR FIRST WORDPRESS

THEME

Think of your theme as the wrapper that houses your blog. It impacts things such as fonts, how many columns your theme has, and other features. The good news is, you can start off with a free theme, and then later upgrade to a premium one if desired.

To install a free WordPress theme, do the following:

• In your WordPress dashboard, under Appearance (on the left-hand side), click on Themes

• Select one of the default themes OR, click on the plus sign to add a new theme

• Explore the various free themes that are available.

• If you want your theme to be a particular color or have certain attributes such as a right sidebar, select the “Feature Filter” option.

• Once you've found a theme that you like, hover over it and click on install.

• After you install the theme, click on the activate link.

• You'll then be able to customize the theme.

Note: Don't get too hung up on this step -- you can always select a new theme later if you change your mind.

If you'd like to purchase a premium theme, I recommend the following companies:

Studio Press

Themify

OptimizePress

I use and recommend OptimizePress because I use it not only for my blog, but also to create sales pages and

more. You can check it out here: ProfessionalContentCreation.com/op

WRITING YOUR FIRST BLOG POST

In this chapter I get into the technical side of writing your first blog post.

Before you write your first blog post, it’s important to set up your permalinks. Permalinks are simply the way that your URLs (links) for your posts are formatted.

Perhaps you’ve seen links that have dates and other extra information in them. Those not only look unattractive, they also date your posts in a way that can be perceived as negative.

SET UP YOUR PERMALINK SETTINGS

Because of that, I recommend the following option for setting up your permalinks:

Go to Settings (inside your WordPress dashboard and on the left-hand side) Permalinks Select Post Name Click on "save changes"

YOUR FIRST BLOG POST

Now that you’ve set up your permalinks, it’s time to write your first blog post.

Here are the technical aspects:

• Log in to your WordPress dashboard.

• On the left-hand side, click on “Posts” and then “Add New.”

• Write your post inside the editor, adding any special formatting (e.g., bold, italics) if desired.

• Add images, by clicking on the "Add Media" button.

• Be sure to save the post as a draft, or schedule or publish it when you're done creating it.

In the next section, I get into the types of things to write about on your blog. In the meantime, you may want to check out my blog post checklist, which will help you optimize every post you write:

https://gum.co/QmROW

AN INTRODUCTION TO WORDPRESS PLUGINS

Plugins are similar to apps that you have on your smartphone in that they provide added functionality to your site. Here’s how to install plugins.

• Look for the “Plugins” link inside your dashboard. It will be on the left-hand side.

• Click on the plugins link.

• When you do so, you’ll see three sub-options:

o Installed Plugins

o Add New

o Editor

• Click on “Add New.”

o From there you will be able to search plugins you’d like to install.

• Select a plugin and click on “install now.”

• Activate the plugin.

WORDPRESS PLUGIN BEST PRACTICES

If you’re like a lot of people, once you discover the magic of plugins, you may want to install a lot of them. I did that with apps when I got my first smartphone, and I did the same thing with plugins after starting my first WordPress blog. With that in mind, here are some best practices when it comes to WordPress plugins:

• Stick with recommended plugins (either highly rated ones or ones others have recommended to you).

• Only install plugins you really need. Too many plugins slow down your site.

• Deactivate and uninstall plugins you're not using.

• Update plugins as needed, by clicking on the "update" link.

RECOMMENDED PLUGINS

Here are some of my favorite WordPress plugins:

• WordPress SEO by Yoast

• Contact Form 7

• VaultPress

• Monster Insights (for Google Analytics)

• Grammarly

• OptimizePress

• CoSchedule

• W3 Total Cache

TAGS AND CATEGORIES

Before you set up your first category, it's best to think through between five and seven categories that you want to use consistently.

Think of categories as the main topics of your blog. For example, if you blog about pets, you might have one category that is dogs, another one that is cats, another one that is birds, and so on.

If you plan to blog only about dogs, you may have a category for dog training, dog health, and so on. So again, make sure that your categories are the BIG topics for your blog, not every little thing you’ll blog about.

Note that there are two ways to add categories to your blog. The first way is that you can add a category when composing a blog post by clicking on “add new category” that you’ll find on the right-hand side of the post you’re composing.

You can also add categories to your blog on the left side of your dashboard. You can use that option regardless of whether or not you’re currently composing a blog post.

In addition to categories, you can also add multiple tags to each post by typing in a word (or short phrase) that fits with the information in the post and clicking on "Add." Think of categories as the main topics and tags as sub-topics that are related to a specific blog post.