Releasing your published blog to the outside world is essentially the end result of five main activities:
- finding your subject,
- choosing a name,
- picking a platform,
- starting to write
- and last but not least, marketing.
Before that, you will need a plan, you will need a starting point and you will need to have a vision of your future.
But first …
Do you want to learn how to blog?
I guess that you do … because you have asked the question.
You could have asked the question in any number of ways:
- How to Start a Blog and make Money
- How to Start a Blog with no Money
- How to Start a Blog for free
- How to Start a blog on WordPress
- Tips for Creating a Blog
- How to Write a Blog
- How to Build a Website
- and so on …
It doesn’t matter.
They all amount to pretty much the same thing and however you might phrase the question, the answer is usually pretty much the same … as you might expect:
- Find yourself a Niche
- Choose yourself some blogging software
- Pick yourself a reliable blogging host
- Choose a name and acquire yourself a matching domain
- Plan, build and customise your blog
- Write and publish your first post
- Market your site and continue to publish
The 7-step Blogging Plan
Now, if you search the web for the answers, you will realise very quickly that wherever you look, you are going to see the same 7-step plan. You might see it presented in different colours, with slightly different words, with the order of some of the steps moved around a bit and sometimes with an extra step inserted here and there, but it’s the same plan.
The 7-step blogging plan essentially begins with you knowing nothing (or close to nothing) and ends with you writing and publishing your own work on a regular basis … and if there is a step-8 in the 7-step plan, they tell you that step-8 is the point at which you will start to make money.
Of course, we all know that it is not quite as easy as the “experts” might have us believe.
The reality is that each “step” is really a phase … and that each phase consists of several steps.
It sounds easier if you just think about there being seven steps, but let’s drill down for a second or two.
There may only be seven or eight steps to take you from nowhere to the place you would like to be …
But if each “step” is really a phase, and the reality is that each phase is made up of several steps, then however you cut it, there are many, many more steps than there are phases (or “steps”) … I have counted at least 29, and I am fairly sure there are more.
There’s no doubt that there’s a lot to do and there is also a lot to learn … and all this doing and learning takes time! There is no easy-boy shortcut but the sooner you start, the sooner you are going to get there.
And …
It doesn’t matter how many steps there are between where you are now and your finished blog, the most important step that you take is the first step that you take!
So, go ahead and take that first step … and you’re on your way.
The 7-step Blogging Plan Whiteboard
There are quite a lot of whiteboards: they are visual representations of the main points of the text. Most of them contain embedded links and can help you to connect with that post you can remember but can’t find.