The fact that I am a Rebbetzin is irrelevant to this blog.
However, I’m mentioning it here because this is a post about “how to start your own blog”.
There are so many people out there already writing about this topic, and unfortunately they don’t have a great reputation for integrity. Some of them are just clueless, while others are true experts, who are using their Internet Marketing expertise to sell a fantasy while enriching themselves.
However, it happens that the most common question that readers ask me is “how do I start my own blog?” In the past week alone, 4 people have asked me this question. So I decided to take the plunge and write this post. In identifying myself as a Rebbetzin, I hope to remind myself that the trust of my readers is very dear to me and I don’t want to abuse that trust in order to make money.
Therefore, I have decided not to include any money-making affiliate links and recommendations in this post. If you want to know my recommendations for specific companies, please visit my Products I Love page.
This blog post will just stick to the general facts, with the goal of guiding you towards making an educated choice.
Should You Start a Blog?
As good Jewish Rebbetzin Blogger, I always tend to explore the “why?” before the “how?” I’m not going to get into the religious angle of the potential impact of blogging on your soul, as I’ve already covered that in my post The Halachas of Google and Facebook. Instead I’ll just briefly mention some common pros and cons of blogging:
Pros of Blogging
- You can learn many new skills that are valuable in today’s world (e.g. content writing, marketing, SEO, social media, technical skills)
- You can promote your business or cause
- You can speak to the world about a topic that is important to you
- You will connect with wonderful people from around the world who appreciate your work (AKA your readers!)
- Eventually, you can make money from your blog, directly or indirectly
Cons of Blogging
- You will spend countless hours tweaking, promoting and writing your blog (if you wish to have a large audience)
- You may have to do and learn some things that are outside your comfort zone (e.g. learning technical skills, marketing yourself)
I think that covers it. Next?
What Should Your Blog Be About?
This is a really huge question which deserves an article of its own. In the meantime, here are some simple ideas for blog themes:
- Your area of professional expertise
- A topic of intense interest to you and your potential customers
- A theme or cause that you have deep personal interest in
Whatever topic you choose, ask yourself whether there is a community of people who are also interested in this topic (AKA your future readers). For example, “kosher cooking” has a big potential community. “Kosher cooking for igloo dwellers” will have a harder time finding an audience. (Though finding a niche that is not too overdone is also a consideration.)
If you don’t know what your blog should be about, spend some time thinking about it more. You can experiment a bit, but I wouldn’t recommend spending any large amounts of money until you know very clearly what is your blog theme.
So, are you ready to get started?
How to Start Your Blog?
Actually, starting your own blog is very simple. The world’s leading software is WordPress, so you can rule out all the other options now (e.g. forget Blogger).
There are two options for starting your WordPress blog: WordPress.com (which is free) or WordPress.org (which is free software that must be hosted somewhere for pay).
Let’s look at both options:
How to Start a Free WordPress.com Blog
It’s very simple:
- Visit WordPress.com
- Click “get started” and fill in the form, giving your blog a domain name
- Login to your new blog, using the username and password you created
- Create your first page – this is usually an “about” page telling visitors who you are and how they can contact you (if you wish to share this info)
- Write your first post and hit publish (for instructions about how to create pages and posts, check out this little video that I once made for a client)
- Tell the world about your blog, so that people will start reading it sooner rather than later
Drawbacks of a Free WordPress Blog
The WordPress.com system is designed to be as simple as possible so that anyone can use it – even if you are completely non-technical. If you can work Microsoft Word yourself, then you can run a WordPress.com blog yourself. The problem is that when we say “simple”, we generally also mean “limited.” WP.com is limited in countless ways, compared to WP.org.
Let me just list a few:
Design: WP.com only gives you a limited number of themes to choose from, and you can’t get your blog custom designed. WP.org, on the other hand, gives you literally infinite design choice and possibilities to create the site of your dreams.
Plugins: WP.com has good functionality as-is, but it makes no pretense of comparing to the 20,000 + plugins that work only with WP.org blogs, which allow you to do pretty much anything with your website
Domain: A free WP.com blog comes with a domain that looks like this: mysite.wordpress.com, which is neither professional nor memorable, but may be fine for a personal blog. If you want a custom domain (e.g. mysite.com) you either need to pay WP.com for an upgrade or use WP.org
Multiple domains: Once you have a paid hosting plan, you can host many domains on it without paying more. However, if you host with WP.com (even for pay) you will have to pay extra for any additional blogs you want to host with them. Therefore it can be cheaper to buy an independent hosting plan if you split it with a friend, or if you want to have more than one web site.
Note: If you start a free blog now, it is possible to upgrade to a paid blog later on, though there can be some hassle and expense involved in this.
How to Start a Cheap WordPress.org Blog
If you want the freedom to grow and develop in the future, then I recommend WordPress.org blog self-hosted on your own domain. Hosting will cost you roughly $100/year, plus you will pay another $12/year to own your own domain name. If the cost of this makes you hesitate, then you should start a free WordPress.com blog, as described above.
If you are wondering which web hosting and domain companies to use, check out my Products I Love list for my recommendations.
Here are the steps for setting up your own WordPress blog:
- Sign up and Pay for Web-hosting
- (If you bought your domain separately from your hosting, then you need to login to your domain registrar dashboard and redirect the “DNS” to the web hosting servers. Your web host will send you the address of these servers in your welcome email. The address looks something like this: 1234.hostgator.com)
- Login to your web-hosting control panel using the web address, username and password sent to you by your host
- (If you bought your domain from somewhere else, you will need to click “add domain” and list your domain name at this point)
- In your control panel you will see an option called “1-click-installer” or “fantastico.” Click this and then select the option to install WordPress on your selected domain.
- Confirm your WordPress UserName and password
- TIP: Write down all these user-names and passwords in a safe place – for example, put them in an email and send them to yourself
- Your WordPress blog now exists. You can view it at yourdomain.com, and login to the admin dashboard at yourdomain.com/wp-admin
- Create your first page – this is usually an “about” page telling visitors who you are and how they can contact you (if you wish to share this info)
- Write your first post and hit publish (for instructions about how to create pages and posts, check out this little video that I once made for a client)
- Tell the world about your blog, so that people will start reading it sooner rather than later
Special Offer from Me
If you would like a self-hosted WordPress blog but skip the process of setting it up, I have a special offer for you. If you buy hosting through my affiliate link, I will set up your blog for free. I’ll also give you a free access to my Better than Advertising video, which introduces you to some key ways to build your blogs readership.
If you are interested in this offer, contact me for instructions.
Whichever blogging option you choose, starting a blog is an adventure and learning experience. Adopt this attitude and you will have fun as you learn how to operate the features of your blog and how to promote it. There is plenty of information out there on the web to guide you in your research – just be careful!
In reality, physically starting your blog is just the first step. The next step is knowing what kind of things to write and how to build your readership.
Any questions?
Why do you say that Blogger is out of the picture? I actually read a great blog that is hosted on Blogger. The author has her own domain name and it is set up in a great way.
[Reply]
Naomi Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Great question Mushky.
.
There are lots of great blogs on Blogger. Most of them were begun some time ago, when WP was less dominant, or by people who were not aware of WP’s superiority. Blogger is owned by Google and they have their ways of promoting their products effectively
Blogger does not have anything like the flexibility of WordPress, and in fact if you plan to make money off your blog at some point, Blogger can have serious problems.
For this reason, many successful bloggers have gone to the effort and expense of transferring their Blogger blogs to WP. I’ve never heard of anyone going the other way.
For someone starting a blog today, WP is definitely the best place.
[Reply]
Rebecca Klempner Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
I’m one of those people who moved from Blogger to Word Press. While it’s easy to start with Blogger, it’s way harder to figure out how to do that you most likely will want to do, like add widgets from other sites (such as Goodreads) and post PDFs of things you scanned (like artwork or publications. I finally learned this latter skill today, after I abandoned Blogger over the summer). I think that the WP community also makes it easier to attract visitors and has much better Help pages. Finally, even with free WP.com, you can personalize your blog much, much better than with Blogger. A Blogger site pretty much looks like a Blogger site, in my experience.
Thanks for this great article, Naomi!
[Reply]
Naomi Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Well-said Rebecca.
I love your blog! You should post it on soferet. I think the women there will be interested.
Mushky Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
I have to say that having come across some amazing blogs on Blogger, in my experience Blogger does not have to mean same standard site similar to everyone else. I definitely understand that Blogger is more for personal blogging that is easy to put up. But I have seen some really great blogs on Blogger and am not sure I would say never to consider it.
Great article, Naomi. I agree that creating a blog is a great way to learn skills and promote a business. Do you think that the blogg-o-sphere might be a little saturated at this point? How does one differentiate and gain a following? I think that today, people have to either be starting a blog simply because they want to write, and not because they want to create a business that will make money from the blog, or to gain skills, or to help market an existing business.
[Reply]
Naomi Reply:
November 28th, 2012 at 6:28 pm
I totally agree with you Shoshana that a blog does not equal business. Note the order of the possible benefits of blogging – I put making money last.
I don’t think the blogosphere is saturated, but you do have to be creative and differentiate yourself, like you said. I think there is still plenty of room for good blogs out there.
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