I’m writing this blog post for folks who want to start a blog. I’ll tell you everything I did.
Now, let me make one thing clear. What I did isn’t the only way to do it. It just happens to be what I did.
First off, you need a domain. I strongly believe you should have your own unique domain, rather than using someone else’s hosting. Unless you write for your own pleasure.
(What does that mean? I own opiumtales.com. It’s not some other site slash opiumtales).
I write to get seen. My blog generates a little bit of side income. It’s not enough to replace the day job just yet, but it’s a nice side bonus and I actually enjoy getting sales. And with the art galleries all currently closed, it’s kind of a necessity for me.
Also, without my blog, I would have sold zero music. Now, people have actually bought and enjoyed my music. No, I’m still losing money on the music end because we use real orchestral musicians and record high end (on 2″ analog tape for you sound snobs out there). But, it’s something.
OK, enough personal crap. Let’s get to the meat of the article.
Buy a domain and you’ll need a hosting service. That’s often the same company. This blog is on GoDaddy.
Are they the best? No idea. I’m not a technical person and I don’t like doing shit so I’d rather things be simple so I don’t have to figure anything out. If you have a hosting company that you absolutely love, please comment below and tell us why you love it.
Then you need a blog tool. I happen to use WordPress. It’s pretty much what most blogs are nowadays. I love it. Tons of mods for it. Yeah, I know mod is a gaming term but I’m seriously not a technical person. I want something simple and easy to use because I’d rather be spending my time with my wife, Allie, and Roxy, and my other frens than learning (fighting) some platform.
My theme is OceanWP. I’ve used other themes before and this one loads the fastest. Thus, I’ll stick with OceanWP for awhile. It’s clean and slick and I personally think it looks good.
Terms
Hopefully I’m not going too fast. Let me break this down if you’re even less technical than I am.
Domain – That’s your website. Mine is opiumtales.com.
Hosting company – the people who host your website. If you’re super smart, you can host it on your own server. That’s not me at all. I’d rather have someone else do it. Mine happens to be GoDaddy but I’ve heard mixed things about them. I have no idea if they’re good or if they suck. It’s just what I use.
Blogging platform – there are multiple competitors to what platform you’re going to use. The majority of blogs today are run on WordPress. I’m not the expert but I’m guessing because it’s 1 – so easy to use, 2 – there are tons of mods available for it.
Theme – that’s the look. Themes vary. Some offer a shitload of features. Some are simplistic. Note though that the more shit something does, the slower your website loads. I can’t speak for you, but I’m very impatient. If I click on a link and it takes forever to load, I leave. My theme is currently OceanWP.
Store plugin – This is how you sell your shit. If you’re not selling anything, you can skip this part. I happen to use Woo Commerce because it’s so easy to use. It will even print up the printing label for you (assuming you own a printer).
Backup and recovery tool – If you’re super smart, you can figure out how to do this yourself. I’m not technical so I pay someone else to do it. I’m not sure how much I pay these people, but I pay Jetpack for multiple things. One of the things they do is VaultPress and I have it setup to backup daily. So if the shit hits the fan, I only lose one day of my blog.
Anti-spam tool – You will absolute need this if you enable blog comments. If you don’t allow blog comments, it doesn’t matter. But if you enable them, you will get a shitload of spam comments. They’re annoying. Apparently, I can’t get boners and there are hot Russian chicks who want to fuck me. Well, that sounds like a mixed bag. So anyways, I use Akismet to stop the spam. Is it good? To be honest, it’s probably my absolute favorite tool on WordPress. It’s freaking awesome and worth every penny! It’s now bundled within the Jetpack app so I pay for both anti-spam and my backup and recovery tool. On the plus side with Akismet, I no longer have erection problems. On the minus side, I no longer have all these hot Russian chicks who want to fuck me.
That’s pretty much it folks. Once you got all those pieces, you simply start writing.
Next year, I’m going to have a few really cool guest writers. I got other plans too. Stay tuned!
Any technical questions, I’ll try to answer them but let me warn you, I’m not a technical guy. That’s why I like really simple, easy to use things.
About the featured image
Allie is the blonde and Roxy is the brunette. They’re two of my besties in real life, not just my models.
I’m heavily into Fantasy art so I combine Fantasy with good ol’ American Pinups.
The tryout method: run it on a free site until you make the impact you want or to see if you want to do it. I am currently flirting with the idea of getting an actual domain/real website. It has blew up since I put in the work.
Yes Sir. Your website has enough traffic that I would advise you move it to your own domain.
And I still owe you a debt of gratitude for hosting my blog; I’m either too lazy or too stupid to make my own
Nah. I owe you a debt of gratitude for keeping on fighting the good fight while I’m becoming burned out.