How to Start a Blog for Your Business in 3 Easy Steps

Interested in learning how to start a business? Did you know you can start a blog and turn that into a business? Ive been blogging for over three years. I have two blogs Elna Cain to help with freelance writers and Twins Mommy to help moms make money blogging. I get emails all the time asking for help on starting a blog for their freelance business or as a way to earn an income and grow their brand. If youve been thinking that you want to start a business and a blog, now is the time! A blog is versatile. You can use it to promote your service coaching, freelance writing, Pinterest management, etc. and you can use it to grow your audience, brand, and income. Starting a blog has also been the best decision Ive ever made. Im able to stay home with my twins (they just started school!) and earn a living doing what I love writing and blogging. If youre willing to put in the time to create a successful blog for your business, then you can work from home and enjoy doing what you love to do! Some of my favorite service-based websites are: Innovative Ink this is my own writer website 🙂 Miranda Nahmias Miranda is a VA Nesha Woolery Nesha is a freelance designer Carrie Madormo Carrie is a work at home mom and freelance writer Work From Home Happiness Ashlee has a wonderful site to help you work from home These blogs help bring in income as a side business or full-time business. Ive had so many people email me and tell me theirpersonal story for wanting to start a blog for their business, but they just dont know how to do it. One thing is for sure: its essential to have a website or blog to help attract potential clients (or readers for your blog). Its hard to have a successful business online without a website! Note: the term blog and website will be used interchangeably. I view a blog as part of your website and you can base your business off a blog too. So, if youre ready, heres how to set up your website in only 3 steps. Its super easy, techy free and if I can do it, then I know you can do it too! 1. Figure Out What You Want to Blog About When you start a business, you need to refine your message. This is what your foundation is for your business. Its also your blog niche. Your blog niche one that can ultimately be your paying niche as a blogger or freelancer is an important first step to having your own blog. This can be hard for many people. It was for me. When I started blogging on Innovative Ink (I later moved it to Elna Cain), I wrote about what I was learning freelance writing. It was sort of a no-brainer and.it stuck! But for Twins Mommy, I struggled to find the right content for the right audience. It took some trial and error and different niche topics to finally stick to topics centering around growing your blog. If youre going to use your blog as a way to generate leads to your freelance business, I suggest you: Write in your paying niche, or Write about your service For example, if your paying niche involves Pinterest marketing (your service is Pinterest management), then you can blog about Pinterest and marketing. Similarly, if youre a freelance writer, you can effectively help other new writers by writing about the business of writing (can I say writing one more time?) 🙂 Well, how do you find your paying niche? What Do You Have Experience In? Use what you know. If your background is in finance, then you can start and grow a business in this topic. You may not like it and it may be the reason why you want to quit your finance career, but you can leverage that experience and knowledge in the beginning to get your blog off on the right foot. What Do You Want to Learn More About? Maybe theres a topic that youre interested in learning more about. For me, the more I learned about marketing my business, the more interested I became in writing about that as my paying niche. If you have a passion for camping, WordPress, entertainment, etc., then use that as your starting ground for blog content. Write about it on your blog and see if its a good fit for you. The beauty of blogging is that you can pivot to new topics easily. Is Your Blog Niche Profitable? If you want to be a freelance writer, then you need to pick a profitable niche. Niches like these pay a writer hundreds of dollars per post. To find out if your niche topics are profitable, you need to do some research. Go to Facebook groups and see what peoples struggles and challenges are Look at job boards to see if companies are seeking writers in your niche Search on Twitter, #(your niche) to see what people are sharing This can give you an indication if your niche is popular and needed online. You can also search for popular blog topics and create your niche from that list. ConvertKit has compiled a list of common blog topics that both professionals and not-yet professional bloggers write about: 2. Choose Your Domain Name Your website name should be representative of your blog and business. For me, I decided on Innovative Ink as my service. It seemed to represent what I do. I later realized that using that name may not have been the best option. Why? Because for new people seeing that name, it almost looks like a content agency or big business with multiple staff. It doesnt show that its just me. I also used a local country domain (.ca) and in hindsight I should have used a .com for a global audience. Thats why later I switched to ElnaCain.com! This uses my name to brand what I do. When I show you how to start your blog using my special link at Bluehost, getting your new domain registered is absolutely free! When thinking of your domain name: Make it easy to say and spell Dont make it too long (ex: Kellycanwritealldayandallnight.com) If in doubt, use your name (if you can get it). Variations of your name include adding writes, biz, blogger, blogging, business, content, etc.. One thing to consider when choosing your domain name is to also think about your social media names. Yes, I said social media. Having a blog gives you the opportunity to share what you write, and to connect with others. You do most of your connecting on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. So when thinking of your domain name, check to see if its available for your Facebook page or Twitter profile. Continuity means people can easily find you. 3. Choose Your Blogging Platform This site, Elna Cain, is a WordPress.org site. This means its self-hosted. This means I have complete control over my content and my monetization strategy. If you want to run a blog or even offer a service like freelance writing, then having a self-hosted site is your BEST option in the long run. This gives you the capability to start a business, look professional and be credible. And while you can use other platforms besides WordPress.org like Squarespace or Wix there are some important reasons why you should choose WordPress at Bluehost: Theres a big WordPress community out there. This means if you have a question, you can probably find the answer in a blog post or YouTube video. Most sites are WordPress sites (which means your future clients are probably using WordPress too) Its much easier to customize a WordPress self-hosted site with plugins and themes WordPress the company itself recommends Bluehost as one of a very select few best and brightest hosts. And the best part is, you can set up a WordPress blog in under 10 minutes! Its super easy too! 4. Choose Bluehost as Your Hosting Provider When I started my freelance writing business, I wanted to make sure to have a secure and reliable web host and Bluehost is one of best and most popular hosting providers out there for those wanting to start a blog or service-based business website. Check out some of their awesome unique features! Why Choose Bluehost? 1. You Get a Free Domain With Bluehost, you receive a free domain when you sign up using my special link. Right there, youre saving $12-15 or more. Super important if youre bootstrapping your blog or business. Registering a free domain is something that a lot of other web hosting providers dont provide for their customers. So make sure to take advantage before Bluehost changes their mind (this recently happened at another very popular hostfor reals)! 2. They Have 24/7 Support One of the great features about using Bluehost is the support for new bloggers and freelancers. Starting a blog doesnt have to be challenging. If youre brand new to blogging or starting a business online, Bluehost can help you with your tech questions about starting a blog. Bluehost has a variety of ways to offer their help: articles webinars online chat toll-free phone Bluehost knowledge base a list of common issues you might face Heres a little tidbit. Ive used the chat many times and theyve been super helpful (and just this morning I was on the phone. In and donequestion answeredin less than 3 minutes). And, even my course students find Bluehost very supportive with any tech issues they faced: 3. 1-Click WordPress Installation When you choose Bluehost, you can install WordPress with one click of a button. Actually, with the new updates and control panel Bluehost just released, its automatically installed when you sign up and you dont have to do a thing! Id say its as easy (and easy to use) as Squarespace or Wixat a fraction of the cost. This makes it a cinch to get your freelance business up and running right away. 4. Very Affordable Pricing When you start a business and website you want to keep your costs down. Youre not generating any income right off the bat, so investing in your business can be hard in the beginning. Bluehost has made it affordable with their plans and when you use my special link you can get started for as low as $2.95/mo). You can even start your freelance writing business for under $60 (if you decide to choose the one year plan instead). Thats amazing! Just think about when your parents were your age and how expensive it was to start their own business. They would need to rent out space, buy business cards, and buy ad space in newspapers or on TV. Thats a lot of money for a brand new business! When you compare that to having your own website that can potentially generate thousands of dollars per month, for about $100 or less, its a no-brainer! So, you can see that starting a website for your blog or service-based business doesnt have to be daunting or expensive. Once you choose Bluehost, just follow this easy and quick tutorial on how to start a blog for your business! Lets get started. Just click on over to Bluehost and follow along! For more help, I have a video tutorial on starting a blog just for you! Follow along with me! Step 1: Choose Your Plan After you click on the big green button that says, get started now your next page shows the plans. There are three main plans Bluehost has for you: basic, plus and prime. If you want to host multiple sites (i.e. have more than one blog or business online) or need unlimited storage space, you can go with the plus plan from day one. Let me tell you, creating sites is so addictive, Ill bet you cant just stop at one! And if youre planning on getting domain privacy (highly recommended), the SpamExperts and SiteBackup service, check out the prime plan because its included for free! But if youre just getting started, or if cash is super tight, thebasic planhas all you need to get going. Its perfect for new freelancers and bloggers. You get one website (and a free domain) with plenty of website space to get your business up and running. Step 2: Choose Your Domain Remember the domain names you were choosing from before? This is where you can check to see if its available in a dot com. I highly suggest you get a dot com rather than a dot something else. Thats partly personal opinion, though. If your domain isnt available, pick a variation of your original domain name. For example, if elnawrites wasnt available I would maybe choose one of these options instead: elnaswriting elnawritenow elnaswritingbiz elnacanwrite Remember that your domain name needs to represent what you do as a blogger or freelancer. You can use your personal name as a domain too. This might be the best thing if you feel that you may want to pivot your business some day. For example, you start out as a VA (virtual assistant) but later learn that most of your VA tasks are writing and you change to be a freelance writer. If you use your name then you can switch that easily. But, if your domain name is rebeccatheVA, then that will be a bit more challenging. So, really sit down and think about your ultimate end goal. What is the main service you want to provide and can you see yourself doing this long-term? Step 3: Account/Package/Payment Info/Password Once you pick your package, the next thing is filling out your information. Go ahead and fill out your account information and choose the package you want. Remember, you save the most moneywhen you choose the 36 month planand you dont have to worry about paying for hosting for the next three years. One thing to note, you can use a credit card to pay or use your PayPal account. Next, you need to set up a password for your Bluehost account. Install WordPress Bluehost makes installing WordPress seamless and pretty easy. After you set up your account password for Bluehost, you can pick some themes. Personally, I like to do this on my WordPress site, so I will skip this. From here, Bluehost directs you to start building your site. You get to customize your WordPress site for business. At any time you can change the options later on. For example, you can decide the layout of your homepage. Do you want a static page or a blogroll. I suggest having a static page like my Innovative Ink website. It welcomes prospects to your site and they arent bombarded with recent blog posts. Bluehost installs the default WordPres theme if you dont pick one right away. But, when youre ready you can start customizing the theme you end up choosing. You can add a logo, change the header image (if your theme has one) and create your business pages. This is the default WordPress theme and on the side is my menu to customize this theme. Logging Into Your WordPress Account Bluehost has made it super simple and easy to log into your account. Theyve created a beautiful control panel and with one click of a button you can login into your WordPress site. Congratulations! You are one step closer to getting your website up online! Are you excited? You are learning how to start a business as a side hustle! Over time it can be your main way of living like me! Getting a website up is one of the first steps for a new freelance writer. This is your home base and is where you lead prospects to so they can hire you!! Yay! Now what? If youre new to freelance writing here are some posts to help you along the way: 20 Ways to Find Freelance Writing Jobs (As a Beginner) The Complete Guide to Getting Started Freelance Writing from Scratch The Best Freelance Writing Job Boards to Land Your First Gig When you start your blog for your service-based business, let me know in the comments. I would LOVE to see it! Need a Website For Your Freelance Writing But Stuck With the Tech Part?