How to Start Your Own Blog #MyBlogU

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MyBlogU is not only about connecting (though it’s the primarily goal). We want to be a learning hub helping people accomplish their blogging goals and move to new levels (That’s why we have #MBUstorm training in place).

Therefore some of our chats will be turned the crowd-sourced knowledge base helping bloggers on all levels. We start from the very beginning and move up step-by-step to more advanced tips.

Today we are discussing starting a blog: What the very basic steps are if you have decided to start a blog.

1. Ask yourself WHY…

Why are you building a blog? If it’s to make money then forget it. Build a blog if/when you have something to say that will benefit your readers. Until then keep your powder dry.

Find something that I am passionate about and that I am genuinely interested in. Answer that question before you start a blog.

Some of the questions I asked myself before starting my blog were:

• Why did I want to start a blog
  • Was it to share my thoughts?
  • Be part of a community?
  • Use it as a means of creating a passive income?
  • Develop my own brand and become authority in certain industry?
• What do I want to achieve by blogging?
• How much time can a realistically put aside to blog?

Tool: Use MyBlogU.com to brainstorm the topic you’d be excited about!

2. Name your brand

Be memorable!

Start with WordPress on your own domain. Estimated yearly cost ~$10 for a domain name + ~$80 for hosting

Tool: Use Namify to come up with a fun blog name and register a domain.

***Once you decide to start a blog, use this blog pre-launch checklist to help you get everything ready before you get going!***

3. Take care of SEO basics

WordPress doesn’t require too much optimization work but having a plugin installed will help you quicker grasp the essential basics.

Here’s the ultimate list of most essential WordPress plugins!

…We’ll discuss other must-have plugins in the upcoming chats and update this guide here…

4. Become part of community

Blogging is highly social. You should become part of your niche, talk to other bloggers and find ways to become known.

Get connected with others in your niche! Find the top 5-10 sites in your specific niche (i.e. mommy blogs, marketing, construction, fashion etc) and embed yourself in their communities.

How? Obviously, start with MyBlogU: That’s what we do. We connect bloggers for them to generate their first interactions and build their core connections to expand upon later.

• Ask to guest post on their sites or do a guest post swap with them (driving traffic and link juice to both your sites).
• Comment and interact on social media with the other bloggers. This is a great way for you to start getting recognized by both that blogger and their readers. Offer insightful thoughts on their posts and tweets. This will also help you build up your own readership.
• Find forums, blogger communities or even popular buttons for your niche.
• Are the most popular blogs in your niche ignoring you? Put together a post featuring the top blogs and make sure the bloggers know they were included in your roundup etc.

Become involved in relevant social communities, knowing who are the leaders and who to follow you will be able to learn so much. Also, it is by being involved that other will become aware of you and your blog

Please let us know if you would like us to add any more steps or expand upon any of these sections in the upcoming chats.