Want to set up a blog for your business but don’t know where to start?  Here are a few simple guidelines to follow to get you up and running!

 

Figure out what you will write about.  There are probably a lot of aspects to your business, or your niche. You can start off writing about broad topics, but I recommend writing about aspects of your business YOU feel passionate about, or that you wish other people knew.  Before you set up your blog, come up with no less than 10 subjects to write about, to make sure you actually want to write about this topic.

Choose a platform.  The two big platforms are self-hosted WordPress and Squarespace. Self hosted WordPress (wordpress.org) itself is free, but you will have to purchase hosting and a domain. It’s not a huge expense and a lot of people say the small investment is worth it to have complete control over your content and the look of your blog. I personally do not have an experience with Squarespace but I know a lot of creatives enjoy it because it’s easy to set up.

Spend some time (or money) on design.  First impressions are important.  You don’t have to have an art degree to make your blog look organized and attractive. Scope out your favorite blogs and note what you like about their layout and design.  Don’t copy, but instead be inspired and influenced by their design, and use your notes as a guide on how you want your blog to work.  Also, search engines are your friends … if you see something on another blog and wonder how in the world they did that, search for it to see if you can find a tutorial.

Connect on Facebook and Instagram.  Social media and blogging go hand in hand.  Be sure to set up a Facebook page and an Instagram account for your blog.  Both are important because they generally have different audiences.  I also recommend Pinterest and YouTube for getting more reach.  Even if you don’t plan on being highly active on these channels right away, you may want to set up accounts to match your blog, so someone else can’t swoop in and steal that user name from you. (If you already have profiles for your business, you do not need to set up new ones!)

Set a schedule.  Do you ever start a new project and then never get around to finishing it?  Yeah, me too.  Don’t let that happen to you with blogging!  Think about how much time you can dedicate to blogging, realistically.  If you can’t update your blog more than once a week or once a month, that’s totally fine.  Let your readers know what they can expect from you and then stick with it.  For me, it helps to keep a planner where I write out all my blog posts for the upcoming week.  This way I can see everything laid out and I can schedule my time accordingly.

Following these five steps will get your blog started off on the right path.  I would love to hear how you got your start with blogging.  What would be your advice to someone just getting started?