How to get started blogging.
Hi sweet friend.
While you might not have heard of Xanga or Blogger before, these are two of the first platforms that I started blogging on back in my teens. I don’t think any of my accounts exist anymore, but I just share this with you to illustrate that I know blogging. I blogged as a teen, I blogged as a new mom, I blogged as a photographer, and for the last eight years, I have been blogging as a real estate agent. But I didn’t start taking blogging as seriously as I do now until a few years ago.
Blogging has the potential to change your world. Change your life. For three solid years, I have been posting YouTube videos and writing blog posts that have generated millions of dollars in revenue. And here you can learn my whole content method. But my story isn’t why you are here, let’s jump into the topic at hand, “How to get started blogging.”
There are many platforms one can blog on. If you want no attachments to technology, you can use a platform such as Medium.com. There are pros and cons to blogging on Medium, but in general, a website that you don’t own, and a website that doesn’t instantly push your content to Google, isn’t one I recommend writing upon unless you want the easiest option. And Medium.com is going to be the easiest, go-to option. What I do love about Medium is the built-in community.
The second option I would recommend as an easy go-to is Substack.com. I love Substack. You can build a community within your Substack account, you can put up a paywall, and have a paid subscription option. Substack is also very user-friendly and doesn’t require a love of technology. I have some plans to navigate over to Substack with one of my businesses later on, but I still plan on hosting my own blog.
The third straightforward option I recommend is Ghost.org. It is the best of both worlds, but you don’t own anything like the options above. With Ghost, you are paying a monthly subscription fee that you will have to pay for the life of your blog. What I love about Ghost is how easy it is to get a Ghost website and blog up and running. You can purchase templates, connect your domain name, and make it look like “a real website”. Medium and Substack are not customizable. Ghost websites are customizable and very fast. You can view the website I built on Ghost here: http://wishilivedhere.com.
My favorite option, and the one this website is run on, is WordPress. To set up a WordPress website, you will need to purchase a domain and host the domain on your server. This is the most complicated option, but this is how I have built most of my websites. it is fully customizable but not user-friendly. I host this WordPress site on Bluehost and use Elementor as the design platform interface. You can view a handful of my WordPress websites at the links below.
What is fantastic about WordPress, Squarespace, and Ghost is that you can download pre-made templates that you can install and customize. I like these two websites for templates: Creative Market and Theme Forest.
My least favorite option that I would still encourage others to consider is Squarespace.com. Squarespace is similar to Ghost, but you can build out an e-commerce side of this website very quickly. I wouldn't say I like it for blogging, but it is a great option is you want easy. I have built the website jordanschilleci.com on Squarespace.
The steps below are going to assume you decide to go with a WordPress-based blog and website.
1. So your first step to get started blogging, is going to be: choose a platform you want to host your blog on.
Once you have chosen which website/platform suits your needs the best, you need to think about what you want to name your blog and what domain name you want to purchase. I really recommend you work with a branding coach or marketing coach to brainstorm these items.
2. Think of a name for your website and blog.
If you are building a whole brand around this “name”, you will want to make sure the domain address is available (www.websitename.com), and maybe the YouTube URL, and Instagram username. When I was naming my real estate brokerage, joandco.com was already taken so I decided to go with byjoandco.com. With my travel website, wheretorv.com was taken, so I decided to go with wheretorv.blog. I recommend using Bluehost as your hosting service and buying your domain with them as well.
3. Purchase your domain and hosting service.
Your website will need a place to live. This place is called a server; the provider is a host or hosting service. I listed my two favorites above, but any reputable one will do. I love Bluehost because of their customer service. Once these items are purchased, you will need to install WordPress.
4. Install WordPress.
You will need to assign your domain to a folder on your server and then install WordPress. Installing WordPress is essentially the click of a button, and there are many tutorials on how to do so.
5. Decide on design.
There will be built-in templates on your installed WordPress site. This website is running off of one of those built-in templates. This website was (I have built out all of the websites I have talked about in this blog post) my first time using a built-in template. In the past, I have always purchased and downloaded a template from Theme Forest and used a demo with minor modifications made by myself. I went to school for this (Bachelor’s degree in Web Design and Interactive Media), so it isn’t foreign to me. I wouldn’t say it is easy, but I have always been able to figure it out.
So, yes, the next step is deciding on design. You can use one of the templates installed right out of the box, but you will want to make minor modifications, such as site name, logo, branding colors, etc. You can also choose a template, purchase it, install it, and modify it to fit your brand.
The other solution would be to hire a company to do this for you. At Jo & Coaching, we do partial and full end-to-end build-outs, including websites and blogs. You can learn more about everything we offer by clicking this link or messaging me on Instagram.
6. Decide on your content pillars.
Before you can start blogging, you need to decide on your content pillars. These pillars need to align with your brand and its purpose, as well as with your audience and ideal client. Another way to look at content pillars is the concept of “content buckets.” Each of your blog posts needs to fall into one of these buckets. Having content buckets can allow you to categorize your content and target different audience segments.
Let’s discuss four generic pillars all business owners should have, and then you can decide how to niche or bucket those pillars. Let’s consider people who “have no idea who you are,” people who “know you,” people who “like you,” and people who “trust you.” So yes, we have broken down the concept of know, like, and trust.
People who don’t know you might want to be entertained.
People who know you might want to be educated.
People who like you might want to watch you showcase.
And people who trust you or love you might want to be sold to, so we will invite these folks to be a part of what you offer.
Nicole Burke of Gardenary Co. speaks about this directly. Let me summarize what I heard her say on a Podcast recently…
Online is a town. Your business is a building. Every single person I am going to work with (or serve content to) lives in this town. So let’s think about where they live in this town in relation to my brick-and-mortar (my business). There are people who live as far away from your business as possible. They probably have never driven by, and they don’t know you exist. In order to draw them in and introduce them to your business, you can use stories to entertain them. Nicole loves to garden. She took her gardening hobby and turned it into a business. Now she is a coach to those doing what she has done. Her example for this one is, “This is a story on how I grow arch cherries 225 days a year.” She is talking about video content (reels) in her examples, but I think this philosophy applies to all content creation. We do not want to try to sell this audience anything, and we are not trying to get them to subscribe.
Then, the person who kind of knows you or kind of knows about the material you are writing about or the concepts you are teaching, this person wants to be educated. They want to learn more. They want “step-by-step” content and “how-to” content. We are trying to pull this person closer to the building and business.
The next type of person is the one who knows your business. They read other blogs like yours and seek out content like yours. The type of content we should be serving them is showcasing content. Examples are testimonials, before-and-afters, “wow” content, and content that makes them want to hit the share button. This content doesn’t just need to be sharable, but gorgeous or amazing.
The last person is driving by your building, and you want them inside. They know who you are. They are active followers or readers. They are trying to decide if they want to be more involved, if they want to buy, etc. We are making inviting content for them. We should ask them to join a challenge, buy a course, download a guide, or sign up for a webinar.
I don’t know if this is helpful for you, but it was a pretty eye-opener for me. I am going to share some general examples:
Content pillar: Entertain
Buckets: show a day in the life, put your spin on a trending topic, “this is a story about…”, “this is a story on how…”
Content pillar: Educate
Buckets: tips and advice, frequently asked questions, new news on a relevant topic, share the research you gathered
Content pillar: Showcase (Insire, and Relate)
Buckets: show a before and after, tell your story, tell a client’s success story, share something you struggled with and pose a solution, share a client review in their own words,
Content pillar: Invite
Buckets: promote a sale or product, feature a piece of a course, offer a free trial, do a free webinar
I make sure my buckets are categories on my blog. I think it is super bright to keep your blog organized. This will help people find what they are looking for and keep them on your website longer because it will be easy for them to find more relevant content. This website/blog is new(ish), but here are some of my current categories: With Love, Jo, Ebook, Freebie, Printable, Stan Store, Instagram, Pinterest, Content Marketing, and Blogging.
7. Write.
The next step is the most intuitive and the most important. It would be best if you started writing your blog posts. This might come easy to you, or you might need to research. My four favorite ways to do research are:
Install and use keywords everywhere. — You write a general topic into Google (I recommend 1–2 words max) and hit enter. Then you must select the “Find long-tail keywords for “keyword” button”. This will share everything that has been Googled with the said keyword as a part of the input. You can find ideas from here. Keep in mind that the main reason why you have a blog is so that people can organically find you and your content through Google Searches. In the last few months, I have averaged 1M impressions per month, which just means I have popped up on over 1M Google searches per month.
Use answerthepublic.com. It works from the same data and will give you questions people want answers to. You can create blog posts with these exact titles.
Peruse your favorite Facebook Group or Reddit threads to see some commonly asked questions. These will make great blog post topics.
Ugh. I had a fourth, and now I cannot remember it. Hopefully, I will remember it in the next day or two, and I can update this. You can also study your competition and look at reels with lots of views or YouTube videos with lots of views to see what people are interested in real time. Then, create blog posts around those topics.
You want to talk (write) most about what you know most about. You want to make sure you are representing yourself as the expert you are. Once you have exhausted the topics you know most about, move down the list. It is important, as you probably know, to continue growing. As you grow, your content can grow. It can evolve. And you will see this same evolution in your audience.
My final thoughts.
You want to make sure you are syndicating your content. If you aren’t properly marketing your content, then your content isn’t reaching its full potential. You can learn all about my content method here.
Any relevant YouTube videos or Instagram Reels should have a home on your blog. You can embed them quite easily.
If you don’t want to do this alone, you can hire us. All of our contact information is below.
Make sure all of your blog posts have a call to action. You can learn more about calls to action (CTAs) here.
What’s next? Are you seeking both personal and professional growth without sacrificing? We are looking to work with those building a business while seeking a balance between family and work, and they don’t want to do it alone. We provide coaching, build-outs, training, step-by-step guides, mentorship, and one-on-one consultations.
Empowering you to build a successful business that complements, not complicates, your family life, offering you the tools and support to make it happen,
With love,
Jo
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