So, you want to start a blog…

Photo Credit: DeaPeaJay

Like all Friday Features, today’s is for new and established bloggers alike.

How did you start blogging? Were you excited and jumped right in? Were you cautious and started out slowly?

Were you intentional? Do you wish you had been? What would you say to people ready to start blogging?

Putting some thought and prayer into blogging before you start can really pay off down the road. Here are some useful steps you may want to try.

Starting a Blog:

1. Pray – Before you begin blogging, like anything else, find out if God’s in it. It will settle a lot of questions that will pop up in the future if you are sure He is telling you to go for it. Take a minute to read our blogging testimonies (Blogimonies) to learn more about how some of us got started.

2. Start a blogging notebook/folder – This is handy for keeping track of all the accounts you’ve set up, lists of post ideas, potential sponsors, and anything else related to your blog. If you want some help, ListPlanIt has some great lists especially for bloggers.

3. Buy your own domain – You may think that this is unnecessary or for more established bloggers. It’s true, you don’t have to buy a domain. There are many options, such as wordpress.com and Blogger, which provide you with one. So why buy your own domain? Because it’s cheap. Because it secures your title and identity if you decide to grow your blog. Because someone else may be blogging under that title already and knowing could avoid confusion. There are many good reasons to do it. I can’t really think of a good reason not to. There are lots of tutorials on the web that will take you through the process of pointing your new domain to your free blog. (That means when someone types in www.yourblogtitle.com it automatically takes them to www.yourblogtitle.blogspot.com or wherever it is you blog.)

4. Choose your blogging platform – There are many to choose from. The main difference is whether or not you want to be self-hosted. There’s more creative control this way. There’s also more responsibility. If something goes wrong, you must figure out how to fix it. If you start out using a free service, you can later import your blog to WordPress if you realize you want more freedom. Check the documentation for details about which blog platforms are easy to import.

5. Set up other accounts – You’ll want a nice new email account for your nice new blog. Gmail works well for this. Not interested in Twitter? You might be someday. You could be @coolestblogever or you could wait and be @coolstblogeva495.  You may also want to set up a picture/video hosting account, get a Gravatar, and register on Facebook.

Advanced Steps:
Install Google Analytics
Create a Facebook fan page

Required Reading:
Blogging Glossary on Blogging Basics 101
Why you need a Facebook Fan Page on SavvyBlogging

Homework:
Complete at least 1 (or all) of the steps above.
Leave a comment telling us what you did!