Starting a blog was never so easy but after reading this post you’ll realize that it was! 🙂
Want more people to find your business?
Want more people purchasing your product?
If you haven’t already, you might want to consider starting a blog for your small business.
There are many benefits to having a blog, but they require a tremendous amount of work to maintain and update regularly.
There’s a lot to think about when initially setting up a blog, as well.
Hosting, design, branding, content calendars… the list goes on.
I’m going to share with you how to start a blog (step-by-step!) and the benefits you’ll get out of starting one.
It’s not always easy, but it can be done!
Table Of Contents
First, let’s start with why starting a Blog?
What’s your reason for starting a blog in the first place? What good are they?
Statistics show that 60% of businesses who blog acquire more customers.
Having a blog will help you in many ways, but let’s highlight the top four:
Build a business online
Having a blog will help generate more leads to your business.
Not only that, but with more organic traffic coming to your blog, you’ll be able to start making some money online via affiliate marketing, ads, and giving visitors the opportunity to become potential customers.
Build a personal brand
Blogging gives you the opportunity to not only let your business shine, but it helps you be more visible online when people search for you.
They’ll be finding information that is more professional and see that you are creative, driven, and have a multitude of skills.
Build your personal and professional network
As your personal brand grows, you’ll be more visible online.
Because of this, you have the opportunity to grow your personal and professional network.
You’ll be able to be a part of a community of like-minded individuals.
Learn a new skill set
Beyond growing a business, starting a blog and maintaining it really does help build your skill set.
Think time management, writing, organization skills, social media skills, and analyzing data.
You’ll be more familiar with networking, search engine optimization, A/B testing, and inbound marketing.
Now that you know why to start a blog…
Let’s dive into how to get started.
Step 1: Find your “WHY”
I know I just covered some very good reasons why you should start blogging for your business.
You’re probably looking for more customers, more partnerships, and more income.
Those are all great… but they’re not enough.
Hear me out.
Blogging is not easy, and like anything good, it takes time.
Writing about something you love or a topic you want to know more about can help make running a blog easier.
Which leads us directly into the next step in starting a blog.
Step 2: Find your niche
You’ve probably seen this word floating around the world of the internet frequently.
What’s a niche, exactly?
A niche is a topic.
It’s something that you’ll want to position yourself as an expert on.
Having a niche can help you keep your content consistent, so people will know what they expect when they visit your blog.
Deciding to just write about health, for example, might be a little too broad.
You have to narrow it down a little bit.
[Tweet “Dig a little deeper.”]
Think weight loss, beauty, fitness, healthy living, healthy recipes, or healthy lifestyle content.
Yeah, it’s that specific. But trust me – it helps.
Narrow down what it is that you’re passionate about and how it relates to and can help you build your business and brand.
Bonus tip: Once you’ve decided what your niche will be, try writing out a mission and vision statement for the business blog.
You’ll be able to return to this statement to make sure you’re being on-brand and giving your audience what they’re expecting.
Bonus Info on choosing a niche: Blog Name Ideas, How to come up with a blog name?
Step 3: Pick a web host
Here’s where we get into the technical side of things.
Your blog needs a home – and it’s usually hosted by a web host provider on their server.
If you already have a site for your business, just use the same web host provider you’re using and create a subdirectory for a blog.
Example: smallbusinessname.com/blog or bornblogger.net/blog (This is my blog’s example).
If you don’t have a site set up already, you can host your future business blog through companies like BlueHost, eHost, or even WordPress self-hosting.
They make it very easy to set up a plan and payment option.
The next step is to install your blogging platform.
For simplicity and brevity, I’ll be using WordPress as the example.
Step 4: Install WordPress
Most web host providers have WordPress one-click installs.
That’s right – just one click.
That’s it.
It’s really that easy.
Next, you’ll want to pick a theme and make your site beautiful yet functional.
Step 5: Find a Theme
There are a few things I always look for when choosing a theme for a blog.
You’ll want something that is:
- Mobile-Friendly
- SEO Optimized
- Easy to navigate
There are a ton of free themes available for WordPress, and most of them are customizable to an extent.
If you’re ready to splurge a little bit for your business blog, check out their premium themes.
These themes typically are more customizable, and include all the features I mentioned were important above.
Once your site is functioning well, it’s time to brand yourself.
What if I offer you all these qualities in one theme for free, even!
You heard it absolutely right buddy, Check our theme and download it for free here:
Born Blogger Pro – Genesis Child Theme
Step 6: Brand Yourself
Now that you know what you’ll be writing about for your business blog, it’s also important to establish a personal brand outside of that so others know you’re an expert in your field.
You should work on your personal brand as much as your businesses brand.
I suggest picking two social media platforms to be active on.
I recommend Twitter and Instagram for the sake of networking, sharing, and creating a visual representation of who you are.
The other important thing to note when branding yourself is that your imaging and messaging stay consistent.
Using photoshop, or a free tool like Canva, can help keep your images clean and beautiful.
Step 7: Create a content calendar
Your business blog and personal brand is set up now.
The next step that’s crucial is to create a content calendar so you know what days you are going to post and when.
This helps make your readers familiar with your patterns and they’ll know when to expect content in the future.
I recommend posting at least three times a week, but you should only start out with what you know you’re capable of maintaining and stay consistent.
Try coming up with weekly themes (i.e. motivation Monday), monthly recaps, or quarterly recaps that you want to do throughout the year.
That will help start to fill in the gaps.
Step 8: Always provide value
Almost everything you write should strive to teach something, share a lesson learned, or provide value in some way.
There’s always room for other content, but in order to build yourself as an expert and gain traffic to your business blog, your posts should be informative and fun to read.
Happy blogging!
Starting a business blog is a lot of work, but if you remain consistent there are a lot of benefits that can come from it.
Have any questions about blogging for me?
Leave me a note in the comments below.
Article was written by: Samantha Thayer who is Online Content Creator in Whatsupusana. You can follow her on Twitter and Linkedin.