If you are serious about blogging and want to make money online with blogging, it is essential that you know how to get started.
I am writing this blog post for one reason and one reason only. I want to give every new blogger I can an advantage that I did not have when I first started by showing you step by step how to get your first blog up and running.
There is a lot more to learn after this, but let this be one very important step that you will not have to struggle with.
Step 1 – Choose your niche
You need to decide what you are blogging about? You niche, your passion, something you can teach others about.
Here are the top 5 niche catagories:
Health
Beauty
Love
Money
Entertainment / recreation
Profitable niches are usually those in which people are looking for help. Like how-to guides, help solving a problem, or reviews. Examples include how to improve your golf swing, how to cure acne, engine rebuild guide, or magic of making up guide.
Once you have your niche or topic (I.E. Gardening, golf, get your ex back, make money online, weight loss, etc.), head over to Google external keyword tool to find some targeted keywords.
Here’s what it looks like:
Just type your topic in where is says “keyword or phrase”, type the captcha image in and click search to see instant results. These results will tell you exactly what people are searching for in Google. Look through the results to find a keyword phrase with 3 or 4 words (long tailed keyword), and global monthly searches of at least 100,000.
(Note: The Competition rating is not very accurate)
For a more accurate reading of your competition:
Take note of a few that you find interesting and head over to Google to do about 2-3 minutes of research.
In the search bar, type:
allinurl: “your keyword phrase”
allintitle: “your keyword phrase”
This will tell you the amount of sites indexed in Google that have your niche keywords in their titles and in their url’s. These are 2 important tags for on page SEO and will give you a pretty good idea of your real competition for that exact keyword phrase. If you can find a few keywords or keyword phrases that have 100,000 or less competition, you may be able to rank your blog on the first page for those over time, so keep ahold of them if you can find them, but don’t be too concerned about it at this point.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t be to worried about search engine competition at this point in the game. It’s just good to have about 10 good relevant keywords to include throughout your blog posts.
Step 2 – Purchase your domain name
Go over to the GoDaddy bulk registration tool to find your domain name. If you have one in mind already, enter it to see if it’s available. If it is, great! Domain names cost from $3 – $12 per year depending on if it’s a .com, .org, .biz, etc.
If it is not available, that’s ok. Try domain names with hyphens in between. For example: lose-weight-fast-now.com or add a word in front or behind the phrase… instead of curebrianfreeze.com try curebrainfreezefast.com
If you don’t know what you want your domain name to be yet:
You can use the Godaddy bulk registration tool to get some ideas of whats available. Just put some of the related keywords or phrases you have in and click go to see whats available. You can even add your name to the front or back of your keyword like this:
Jeremysgardeningtips.com or loseweightwithjeremy.com
Play around with it until you find one you like. There are no right or wrong domain names. Just be creative and find one that suits your taste.
Once you find a suitable domain, buy it. Don’t add anything extra, don’t purchase hosting through godaddy, just continue to checkout and you now have your domain name for your blog.
Note: Save the welcome e-mail you receive from them as well as any others. You will need them.
Step 3 – Website Hosting
Now, lets head over to Host Gator and get your site live on the internet.
Host Gator is the hosting I use, primarily because you can host unlimited domains for less than $10 per month, their customer service is excellent, the control panel is extremely user friendly, and I have had zero down time so far.
So, choose the Baby plan for the best price.
Be sure to save any e-mail correspondence from Host Gator. They contain important information that you will need later.
You should receive an e-mail titled your account info.
Open it up. Inside, you will need to locate the 1st nameserver and 2nd nameserver.
Now, go back to your GoDaddy account and choose My Account, then click on account summary below. Scroll down until you see “MyDomains”. Click on the appropriate domain name to change settings.
Now click on the nameservers button and select set nameservers. This is where you will need to change the 1st and 2nd nameserver to that which are found in your Host Gator account info e-mail.
Once you do this, click OK and you are set. It can take up to 72 hours for your site to be live, but it can take as little as 1 hour as well.
In the meanwhile, you can set up Word Press.
Step 4 – Install Word Press
Log in to your Host Gator control panel using the login information provided in the e-mail they sent you.
Scroll down until you see Fantastico De Luxe and click on it.
Now select on WordPress on the left hand side panel, then click on New Installation
Now you can use the drop down menu to choose the domain name in which you would like to install WordPress on. (if your domain name is not present, that means you will need to wait for the domain name transfer to be complete. Not to worry, just check back later. It can take up to 72 hours.)
Now scroll down and find the box next to username and enter the username you would like to use to log in to your WordPress control panel. (Make sure you choose your username wisely as it can never be changed!)
Next, enter a strong password that you will remember below the username.
Below that enter a nickname in which will show up when you enter your WordPress control panel.
Enter an e-mail address where you can be contacted, the name of your site, and a short description if you wish.
Now, review all of the information and click Install WordPress.
After installation is complete, enter your email address and click send e-mail to have the installation details sent to you for future reference. This includes the URL to access your WordPress control panel.
Copy the URL and enter it into your address bar to get to your WordPress login screen. Enter you username and password to gain access.
Now click on post to write your first post!
There is a lot in WordPress to discover. That is for a later post, however. I will be making videos to walk you through this process later, so check back.
If you get stuck or have any questions, leave me a comment below and I will help you as much as I can.
Hope this helped,
~Jeremy Ruggles
As you may know, I joined Dot Com Secrets X 30 Day Challenge about 60 days ago. I joined by donating $1 to charity and decided to see what it was all about.
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