From One New Blogger to Another

Intro

Starting a blog has been a new experience for sure. Are you in the age group where you didn’t grow up with technology, so it doesn’t come naturally to you? If yes, I’m sitting right there in that boat with you. That being said, it has taken me longer to set up this website than a middle schooler probably would have taken. This post is about the process of setting up a blog website from the point of view of a (little aged) new blogger.

Deciding on a Blog

There are a lot of different reasons to choose a blog. My main reason was the flexibility of it. Being able to work on it any day of the week, or just a couple hours here or there, being able to stop and tend to a wild toddler, was the selling point. The other main thing was I’m not a huge social media person. Obviously, you need to decide on what kind of work-from-home gig works for you. Here are some of the Pros and Cons of being a blogger.

Pros:

• Flexibility
• Low start-up cost
• Passive Income options
• Can make it more custom to your ideal audience.

Cons:

• Consistency, can’t just post randomly, need a post schedule.
• Time; writing a post takes longer than you think and keeping up on ideas.
• No guarantee you will make any money.
• Longer to get kicked off, blogging isn’t going to show results right away it will take months or a year.

Picking a Niche

Picking a niche is probably one of the hardest things to get decided, and deciding what kind of blog you would like to do. For example, a blog just for books or animals, strictly reviewing products, or a lifestyle blog (what I picked). Pick something you are passionate about. I also recommend deciding on this 100% before making your domain/website name.

Haha, I originally thought I would do a strict reviews page, but after more research, I landed on a lifestyle blogger (because I can talk about more topics); this is why my URL is Cowgirl Momma Reviews instead of something else more fitting for a lifestyle blog. Learn from my mess up of jumping the gun on a domain name, but I do still plan on reviewing products and books.

Spending Little as Possible

One of the huge things that was important when starting this work-from-home journey was the upfront cost. I wanted to make money, not spend a lot, in hopes of making it back. A blog has lower start-up costs than most. Most tools you need have a free version. No business is going to have absolutely no start-up cost, so keep that in mind as well. Anything you decide to spend money on for your blog, just keep in mind your ROI (return on investment); the less you spend to start, the faster you can break even and start making a profit. You can always upgrade later.

Picking a Host

Everything I looked up said to use a WordPress website and to do a hosted website. After watching loads of videos and reading everything I could find, I landed on Bluehost; they were the most affordable in my mind for what they offered. I am not saying they are the only option, but they were the most recommended.

Picking a Theme

Picking a theme felt like it took days, there are so many to pick from. WordPress has a lot of free ones that are really nice, but if you can’t find one there, then try Etsy. I found my theme there, and it was under $20. Picking a theme is a big deal; this will most likely be your layout for a long time. It will also give your website the feel you are going for. You can search for themes that are already set up for bloggers.

Figuring out how to get a picture to set how I wanted in the theme was probably the most difficult to figure out. Make your logo or cover picture after you pick your theme so you can make it the right size to fit right (width and length). Again, learn from my mistake, haha.

Learning Curve of WordPress and Plugins

Let’s start with using WordPress in general. Overall it’s pretty simple when you get the hang of it, at first it’s a little overwhelming. When it comes to actually building out your pages, it will depend on what editor you decide on.

One thing I got stuck on was my actual home page, I wanted to have a page that was more than just my posts, this is called a static page and took me forever to figure out how to set that up. So FYI, it’s under settings, then reading. Also, never change your website URL! I did this by accident, and it was a whole deal to get everything back to how it should be (talk about a mini heart attack).

Now, let’s talk about all the plugins. Your page is going to come with a lot of already installed plugins. Should you keep them all? No, after reading what they are all for, some don’t apply to a blog. Plugins was another rabbit hole of videos. One thing I did find out is you only want the plugins you need so it doesn’t slow down your page. After looking at all the recommendations these are some of the ones I have and why.

• Elementor: This is for editing my pages, and it has a free version and a paid version, so the free will get what you need done. So far, the user experience has been really good; if I get stuck, I can get step-by-step help with the little question mark by the publish button on the top right of the page.
  • Thrive Suite: This is for the same thing, and I’ve seen it highly recommended, but it costs $399 a year, and that would add to my upfront cost. (possibly an upgrade plugin later)
• Kit: This is for your opt-in forms and landing pages and for making your emails. This does cost, but I have found it very useful, and you can make emails ahead of time and automate them. It costs $290 per year with a free trial.
• Rank Math: This is an SEO (search engine optimization) tool. It will tell you how to make your post/website better. From everything I have seen, SEO is very important, even though I’m still learning about it. I have the free version, but there is an upgrade you can pay for.
  • Yoast SEO: This one comes already on your website. I chose to switch over to Rank Math because it offers more in the free version (features I would have to pay for with Yoast to use).
• Sassy Social Share: All this does is show the share buttons you see floating on the left of the page and at the beginning. You can make them look how you want and what options you show. (It’s free)
• Site Kite by Google: This is Google Analytics, which shows how your website rates on Google and keeps track of your traffic. (Again Free)
• Updraft: This is to back up your site. I pay for some storage, but having your website backed up is pretty important in my mind. You can set it to backup on a schedule. (I have it set to once a week since I post once a week)
• Wordfence: This is a security plugin, another important thing to have. There is a free version, and that’s why I picked it (will probably upgrade to paid later down the road).

Legal Pages

If anything should be important to get done right, it’s your legal pages on your site. Since this is something that needs to be done or face some bad legal problems, spending a little on it makes sense. A blogger I follow for information recommended using A Self Guru (click here to visit her bundles page). I used this to do my legal pages and it was so easy to set up and use, just fill in the info needed, copy and paste to your page.

I really recommend using this site for the legal pages! This was probably the easiest part of my site to set up honestly. She also has help with other legal things you may need for your new business.

Getting Pictures

Everyone wants beautiful pictures for their posts, but if you’re not a photographer, this might be difficult for certain photos.

This brings up stock photos. Canva has a lot of really good ones for Pinterest pins and background photos for like categories. When it comes to getting just good ol’ pictures for your posts, it can be overwhelming to decide where to get them from. Everywhere I read says you need to get free or purchase them, but always have permission to use them. That being said, I didn’t want to get in trouble for photos, and finding free ones I liked was not working out. So a subscription for a stock photo site was going to be the best bet.

After spending about 2 days straight just trying to find the best place to get photos, I landed on Vecteezy. From a money standpoint, it’s the best deal for my dollar I could find. They offer unlimited downloads for $9 monthly, billed annually ($108). It is the only place I found that offered unlimited downloads for that price. All the pictures in this post, but two are from them; one is a screenshot of my page. Click here to check them out.

Monetizing Your Blog

One of the main reasons people blog is to monetize it (make money) with it. Some of the ways to do this are with affiliate links, ads, sponsored posts, and selling your own products. Let’s break those down.

First ads: I haven’t signed up with an ad company yet because this is my second post, and they want you to have a minimum amount of content. Everywhere I read said to get 10 to 15 posts first before applying. That being said, having a plan on where I will apply first is planned out. Ezoic is where I plan to apply first. It was that or Ad Sense, but Ezoic actually uses Ad Sense as well, so it’s like a two-in-one thing. There are more ad companies but most require a minimum amount of traffic, so they will have to be upgrade options.

Second, affiliate links are a good way to get some commissions (I have one in this post). This is something that is used very often nowadays. Every time you click on a link from an influencer, it’s most likely an affiliate link. I did a whole course on this and believe it is great, but I believe in only recommending or promoting products/services that I use myself, not just anything and everything.

You can’t just go and be an affiliate for anyone you want at first; most companies have stipulations. Most require a set amount of views or followers, or have to review your website/content before they accept your application. To start out, find the companies you love that don’t have requirements you can’t meet.

Third sponsored posts, this is where a company will pay you to post about their product/services. I won’t lie I don’t know as much about this, I have heard about it and read about it, but not something I can give much advice on since I haven’t done one….. yet haha.

Lastly, selling your own products or services. I don’t feel the need to explain this, if you have something awesome to offer, that’s amazing get after it!

Conclusion

My final take away from the whole experience of setting up a blog is, Man…. I have learned a lot. It feels great to get out of my comfort zone and actually get a blog live online. Overall, it took me approximately 2 months to get everything where I felt comfortable going live (including the first post). Do your research, decide on your niche or blog type, and get started. If I can do it while pregnant and chasing a wild toddler, you can do it, too. If you decide to jump off the deep end feet first to start a website, do it! Go for it! You can do it!