How to Start a Blog (Part 2)

Guys!! Oh I am SO excited you’re back to read the second half of the blog post on How to Start a Blog (Part 2!!)! To be honest, I wasn’t even sure that people would even be interested in Part 1 lol so this makes me ecstatic and even more excited to share more tips & tricks with you guys! Part 2 is going to have the next 5 steps & some resources/tips to help you get going, curate a following, and really help you become a blogger!

*affiliate Links may be following – thank you for supporting my blog! 

In How to Start a Blog (Part 1), I covered the first 5 steps in getting your blog started and off of the ground! Let’s do a quick recap of these first steps:

1. Figure out what you’re going to be blogging about!
2. Pick your blog name & buy your domain.
3. Prepare 4-5 blog posts
4. Choose a blogging platform. 
5. Pick your Theme.

Pretty easy, right (i know, i know, it’s way harder than it sounds)?! 😉 I actually had a lot of you message me and tell me that you got through these steps and now you’re ready for the next few, which is amazing & so impressive! Hopefully today I can give you some more insights on how to start a blog! Let’s get to it!!

How To Start A Blog (continued!!)

6. Choose your hosting provider. This step can be a little bit tricky & honestly a little daunting.  The good thing about this step is that you can switch hosts if you need to – if you’re just starting out, I would recommend going with Bluehost.  This is the only hosting provider I have experience with & I’ve never had any problems! They have always been helpful – especially when I’m confused because I have no clue what I’m doing lol! Right now you can get Bluehost for *$3.95/month for your first year! This is what I did & it saved quite a bit of money in the beginning for me!

I know some bloggers don’t like Bluehost or are too big to use it, but if this is your first blog I would totally recommend it. It’s easy & there are TONS of tutorials on how to install it! Here is a good tutorial that should help you!

7. Set up a blog email. It’s important to set up an email just for your blog! This is where you will receive potential collaborations from companies, emails from readers, and you can connect everything that has to do with your blog to this account! For this, I would recommend just setting up a gmail account! Set up the email address as ‘yourblogname@gmail.com’ – this way, companies & your readers will recognize it right away as a place to contact you. 🙂 Your blog email is the email you will also send newsletters or emails to your blog subscribers with, but that’s an entire blog post in itself! 🙂

8. Set up Social Platforms. Social platforms are what you will use to get your blog out there into the world! This is how you will build your audience and create a community among your followers!  I currently have Instagram, Facebook, & Pinterest. I know that some bloggers go all out and also have Twitter, Snapchat, etc., but for right now I’m just focusing on these 3!

Instagram is a really good tool to create community with your followers. Here you can meet other bloggers, find inspiration, and build your own audience. I like to think of Instagram as a more intimate social channel because you can choose to show as much or as little of your life as you’d like – it’s completely up to you! Definitely remember to utilize the ‘stories’ feature, I always love to watch other bloggers’ stories & sometimes don’t even get to their actual posts! See my Instagram for an example!

Pinterest is going to be a really important part of your blog! This is how you’ll get your content out & about on the web! Start a Pinterest account and make it a business profile – you will be able to track your monthly analytics & it’s a great way to see what works for you & what you may need to adjust in terms of your pins! See my Pinterest for an example!

9. Set up Google Analytics. Getting Google Analytics set up will give you tons of insight to where your blog traffic is coming from + more. Not going to lie, it’s pretty overwhelming at first and I still don’t have even half of it figured out, but take time and experiment with it! You will get used to navigating it and figuring out what means what. The one feature that I really love is that you can actually see, in current time, how many people are on your blog at that exact moment. SO cool, right?!

10. Publish your first post! YOU DID IT! You got your blog all set up & now you’re ready to share your story! Once you hit step 10, go treat yourself – you deserve a venti latte with an extra shot and a piece of warm banana nut bread from Starbucks (I may or may not have done this myself lol!).  Starting a blog is not easy, but it’s truly so rewarding!

Getting Your Blog off the Ground

After these steps, I know you guys will still have some questions, so let me give you a few more tips to getting your blog out there!

• Join blogging groups on Facebook. Literally type in ‘blogging groups’ in the search bar & you will find some! Introduce yourself & start getting your blog links out there!
• Find a few bloggers to confide in. Start seeking out a few bloggers in your niche who seem to have started a blog around the same time as you & reach out to them! Maybe even start a group chat, so you guys can share questions, tips, etc. about blogging!
• Put your blog link in your social media bios. Really, just put your link anywhere you can!
• Comment on other bloggers’ posts. This is a really great way to bring attention to your blog! Do you have some bloggers you like to follow? Comment on their posts with your blog profile!
• Ask friends & family to like, comment, and share your blog. 
• Remember that your blog will not magically gain an audience overnight. Like anything, blogs take time to gain traction. It may be frustrating sometimes, but just remember that you will get there! Be persistent and remember why you started!

I hope this post guided you with further insight in starting your blog! If you have any question (ANY at all), email me – thegracegatheredhome@gmail.com – and I will try my best to help you out! Thank you so much for reading today & be looking in the future for more posts on blogging! 🙂