Why Create A Blog? Reasons To Have One.

Are you thinking of create a blog, but do not know where to start? You know that in Google, you have many tutorials to carry it out, but it becomes arduous and loading because they offer you many options and doubts on which to choose.

If I tell you that it is quite simple and that in one day you can have it jammed, will you believe me? I will tell you how I did it with this post, and all your doubts will disappear.

But also, you will learn something much more important than following the necessary steps of creating a blog; you will discover what to do so that your blog is successful and is not one more among a million.

The first and basic thing is that you find out your reasons.

Why Create A Blog?

You are undertaking, you have a profile on social networks, and you want to promote it, your business needs dissemination or you just like to communicate, no matter the origin, you know that having a personal brand is essential in culture 2.0, and a blog is a nucleus for forge your “brand,” to stand out, differentiate yourself and leave your mark. The blog can be your seal that is related to certain values and attributes that make you visible.

But let’s be sensible, there are currently thousands of blogs. Why are they going to follow you? The secret is to identify yourself, look for your “differential trait,” and give it value.

Detect your strengths and abilities, what you are an expert in, what makes you stand out, how you want to project your image in short, define the personality of the create a blog and community of followers.

If you succeed, it is that you achieve an emotional response in your audience, and therefore you are interested. And this is going to bring you many professional and, of course, personal benefits: recognition, continuous learning, the feeling of contributing and, of course, also income, you can offer premium content, collaborations, training, and a long et cetera.

Let’s Start By The Beginning

Do not start “crazy”, without rushing, because there is a previous job before downloading programs. First, focus on what the blog will develop and what strategy you will use to make it successful. This involves defining:

The main theme and all its extensions.
Your personal brand.
Who is it for the target?
How are you going to do it: style (formal, informal, technical, narrative), frequency of publications, in which RRSS you are going to publish, the appearance of the blog .
What objective and why: you want it to be a platform for the dissemination of information, space where you can leave your e-signature, you want to insert advertising, and you want to sell your products/services…
What keywords are going to appear in the blog content that is defined by the topic and personal brand?

In this way, you will have defined the character and objective of the blog. This will direct you on which content manager (CMS) is the most suitable to carry it out. The CMS is a system that allows you to create and publish content on the blog in an organized and simple way. And it turns out that not all CMS allow advertising, or refine SEO positioning, and some are free, others have limited extensions. So, depending on your objective, you will choose the most suitable CMS.

WordPress.com is one of the most popular and used platforms. And in my case, it was a clear choice, and it is not complex and very intuitive.

Difference WordPress.org And WordPress.com

You should know that WordPress has a free option (WordPress.com) and a paid option (WordPress.org), and below I show you its advantages and disadvantages:

At this point, you will have to decide which one you choose, and the objective of the blog will determine the choice if you want to monetize it if you’re going to control its edition if you are going to do something straightforward.

Install WordPress In One Click

With these decisions, you can now install WordPress, starting first with the choice of domain and its extension.

The domain is “the name” through which visitors can access the blog, for example, “tuminiodejemplo.com.” This type of name is registered or “rented” for a minimum period of 1 year.

Choosing the right domain is very important; it is how you will be known. It is good to choose a name that is easy to remember, and it is not too long. Besides, you have to take into account SEO (positioning in google search engines), I mean that the best option is to include the “keyword” of the subject you are going to target.

Regarding the extension, you must also take into account which you are going to address (international, own territory, area as this determines whether it will be .com, .es, .org, .edu …).

And second, choose a hosting, the provider that will allow you to host your blog and will facilitate the installation of the CMS. To do this, you must buy the domain and pay an annual fee to the provider, which normally does not exceed € 100.

In most cases, hosting providers already offer the possibility to install WordPress with one click, it is very simple, and you just have to follow the steps intuitively until the installation is finished.

Once this process has been executed, the WordPress Panel access screen will appear, and you must fill in the information requested, it is simple, you only have to take one aspect into account:

In the section “Visibility for search engines: Check this box while you are working with the content, so that Google or other search engines do not index your test content until you authorize it. Remember to deactivate this box at the moment you have the blog ready!”

Now you can click on Install WordPress and click on the Access button, which will take you to the screen for accessing the administration of your blog with WordPress.

How To Shape The Blog: Build And Design Your Desktop

And I present the back office in one of my blogs, so you can see what the initial screen is like, the desktop from which to carry out all the operations to shape your blog. In this example, you will see many functionalities that I have been installing, when you have just created it, only the basics will appear, and little by little, you will build it.

Access to the WordPress presentation screen, the home page, where pending comments appear, pending updates to apply to your blog, the possibility of creating new elements (entry, medium, page, user, etc.) and other accesses that can be shown the templates or plugins you install.
Access to your user profile, logout, online help, and screen options to customize the WordPress desktop.
This block gives us a series of shortcuts to the main actions to take on the blog.
Show your activity, latest posts, latest moderate comments, etc.
From this section (left column), you have access to all WordPress work items. Depending on the template and the plugins you use, these options may vary.

The Main WordPress:

Desktop, below, you have everything you need to configure your blog.
Tickets. Here you have access to the Labels and Categories of the entries, and you can see All the Entries or Add new ones (they are the dynamic posts or pages).
Means. In this section, you access the Media Library and Add new to add new elements (images, small videos, audio, documents, etc.) that you must add from your computer.
Pages. You have access to See all pages or Add new (static pages).
Comments. From this option, you can manage the comments made on the blog.
Appearance. Here you can manage Themes (templates), customize the active theme, manage the Web Widgets (both for the footer and for the Sidebars), create a blog and maintain the Menus of your blog and Editor to be able to access the code of the different pages Php and CSS that make up the template.
Plugins. It has three accesses. One of them is so that you can see and activate, deactivate or delete the installed Plugins, another access to Add new and the last access to the Code Editor of the different plugins that you have installed.
Users. From here, you can see all the users registered in the blog, add a new user, and access Your Profile, where you can modify your user data.
Tools. Under this access are the Available publishing tools and a category and tag converter. Besides, it offers different options to Import or Export data.
Settings. This is usually the last option in this access bar. Inside it you will find: General Settings: to modify the basic configuration of the blog (title, URL, email, subscribers, time zone, date/time format, language, etc.).
Writing: allows you to configure the default category and format for blog entries and publications via email.
Reading: you can specify which is the initial page of the web, the number of visible entries by default, and the visibility for the search engines.
Comments: to configure and parameterize all the details related to the management of comments.
Media: allows you to make adjustments regarding the sizes of the images you use and the organization of the folders where they will be stored.
Permanent links: to configure what the blog URLs will be like and the custom structures for the categories and tags.

Designing Your Blog

You can now work on its appearance and functionalities. For this, you will have to choose a TEMPLATE, which you can buy and upload to the blog or choose from the basic ones. You can search the official WordPress template repository.

Choosing a template well is essential since it will give you the possibility of having an original design and advanced tools that can save you a lot of time and plugins if you had to design it from scratch.

The Main Points To Choose A Template:

Define the key elements for your blog. It is about making a list of what you are going to need and drawing an outline with the contents you want to show on each page and how you are going to distribute them: E-commerce, advertising, magazine, portfolio. And look for the template that includes these elements and with maximum functionality, so that it is compatible with search engines, frameworks, versions of WordPress, Woocommerce, different languages
Must be Responsive. If you want to have the maximum number of visits, you must be able to view it from any device.
With customization and editing possibilities :

- To be able to change the font and color schemes easily.
- Have sidebars, both left and right.
- To be able to personalize the header, so that it allows you to locate the logo/title well.
- Customizable contact forms and comments.
- Good support for video and integration with YouTube.
- Integration of options for social networks.
- Predefined page layouts.

That the design does not drown the content.
Built-in WordPress widgets.
Think about SEO positioning and loading speed: there are “SEO friendly” templates that have implemented in their control panel some functions to easily add metadata to your posts or pages (title tags, meta tags, meta descriptions.). These can be very useful to start until you start installing plugins.
Support and update center.
Without HTML and CSS Errors: validate your language.
Think about the budget.

Next, you will have to investigate which PLUGINS interest you. They are files with functionalities that will improve your blog in many aspects: security, improve SEO…

You can start by searching for the official WordPress plugin repository. In addition to checking the plugin description, to make sure they have up-to-date compatibility and updates.

Thinking about what functionalities you want to add to the blog, certain plugins are essential, those that affect security, generate traffic and SEO positioning, the optimization of page load, interaction with the community, and attractive design.

Then you would take into account the objective of the blog and what you need to allow it to carry it out: advertising, social networks

This Is My List Of Essential Plugins

Security

Akismet: to stop spam comments.
iThemes Security: security plugin for WordPress.

Backups

BackWPup: for automatic creation of backup copies.
Google Drive for WordPress: to create a backup of the web directly to a Google Drive account regularly and to be able to back up your blog against any attack or problem.

Traffic And SEO

Yoast SEO: according to experts, the best plugin to optimize WordPress.
Google XML Sitemaps: plugin specialized in creating sitemaps.
SEO Redirection – Helps monitor website 404 errors and creates redirects to other pages or a custom 404.
WP Keyword Suggest – Based on Google’s keyword suggestions, it integrates a search box in the WordPress editor where you can type one or more keywords to see what it suggests.
Google Analytics for WordPress – Automatically inserts the tracking code that Google Analytics needs in order to collect your blog stats.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP): a bar at the end of posts automatically suggesting other related posts. Not only does it improve the permanence of the user in the blog, but it also looks very attractive.

Optimization

P3 Performance Profiler: This plugin analyzes the impact on the loading time of the plugins you have installed to detect the most problematic ones and be able to take action.
W3 Total Cache – Helps improve WordPress performance by speeding up load times on posts, pages, and other sections of the website.

Interaction With The Community

Contact Form 7: this plugin allows you to design a contact form with the fields you want easily.
Thank me later: it is a plugin that sends the message (that you edit) to any user who comments on the blog.

Social Networks

Easy Social Share Buttons: to implement complete and recommended social buttons.
Shareaholic: to make the user who visits the blog consume their content, stay longer, and share it with their social network contacts. It also allows you to add a related articles section at the bottom of each post and includes its own dashboard to view statistics and performance reports.

Design

Google Typography: Add more than 600 fonts from Google Fonts so that they can be used with any WordPress theme.
WP Smush.it: optimizes the images that are uploaded to the WordPress media library so that they occupy as little space as possible, without loss of quality.
WPtouch: generate a mobile version of our blog in WordPress, if you have old themes that are not responsive.

Ecommerce

Woocommerce: free WordPress plugin, if you do not rule out the option of adding “a small e-commerce store” on the blog.
Google AdSense: This will allow you to insert advertising banners without having to search for companies that want to advertise.

Organizing Content

The most complex and substantial part arrives at the CONTENT. Above all, do not forget that your objective is “to have a personal brand”, to get followers, that is to say, to have many visits, and that they stay as long as possible, and of course retain them, that they come back to visit you.

Beyond the interest they may have for the content (message) of your blog and your communication style ( storytelling ), you should think and spend time on their aspect. What your visitors will see and everything that surrounds your publications must be attractive, agile to load, adapt to any device, and use codes that contribute to a good SEO positioning. The content will always take into account the KEYWORDS or “keywords”.

Once everything is in order, go for the design! Backgrounds, colors, fonts, borders, sidebar, header, footer, forms, advertising, labels, top menu, social networks.

Organize All The Elements:

You have PAGES. They are usually the ones used to define yourself as an author or company, and they define the blog, they can also be categories they are static URLs in which you will have to be careful with the keywords that and with a text never less than 300 words.

And the TICKETS, which are the post periodicals that you are publishing, are also pages, but they are dynamic and are located chronologically. Keywords must be very well defined to enhance SEO. They must be linked to CATEGORIES and to tags or LABELS.

In the pages and entries, you will find: the title and the H2, which must also contain keywords, and the content is essential that it is original, its own, that it has your personality.

I show you how a new entry is:

To organize And Design The Blog, I give You An Example Of a Structure:

Header: featured image, logo/author/title, social media, and top menu with static pages:
- Start: so you can always go back to the beginning
- About the author / About the blog / About the company
- Others: according to the objective and theme of the blog: services/products
- Contact
Body: Where the content of each of the pages or entries will appear.
- The initial page should convey a clear message of what you offer, is it your personal brand, is it a product/service or is it you as a person.
- They will have attractive images, and the text will be clear and spaced, highlighting the key points.
- At the end of the content of each page, there will be a form to subscribe.
- And between them, they will be redirected.
Footer (foot): through WIDGETS, you will distribute company data, contact form, newsletter registration, RRSS, copyright.
Sidebar: permanently visible, it will have a category box, tag box, blogroll from other websites, and a contact form. If it is your choice, also advertising.

All these elements can be personalized in the following section: Desktop> Appearance> Personalize:

The blog can increase its functionalities through PLUGINS, for example, putting a pop-up to register or offer a product/service, insert some elegant buttons for the RRSS, etc.

I’m Going To Write My First Article!

It is not just about writing well, you can be a fantastic editor, that tells stories that dazzle, and that is part of success! I will elaborate further on this.

But for your content to reach the broadest possible audience, you have to write with SEO positioning in mind. The words that are part of your story, the size of the sentences, the links you link, the size of the Keywords and their quantity, the attributes of the images all will determine that your blog appears better positioned in the search engines to google search and consequently reach more public.

With Keywords, you will have to be precise in using long tail, middle tail, and head, that is, not always stay in general (head) since then it will be very difficult to appear in a good position. If your keyword is “diet,” it is a very general word, and it will be more difficult to be well-positioned, but if it is “paleo diet,” its specificity will lead you to better positions.

In all the Entries, at the bottom of the screen, the section that Yoast SEO provides you will serve as a guide, so you will take all these points into account when writing. I show you an example:

Now, yes, you can start writing the content. A thousand and one times, you will have heard that content is king. Right, it is the key. Apart from everything related to SEO, your content must be truthful and authentic, and at the same time, original and attractive. The best thing is to be yourself, tell your story with your words, keep the tension and, at the same time, be clear.

And where Is The Trick?

You may be thinking, And this is called simply creating a blog? As I mentioned at the beginning, there are infinite tutorials to install WordPress and start a blog, but your real job is to make your blog visitors like what you offer, stay browsing it, and want to visit you again.

If you want your readers not to divert their attention, here is a summary with the main points:

The beginning is basic: if the first sentences do not capture the attention of visitors, you are lost, they leave the blog after the first paragraph. The beginning should have short, clear, and concise messages and be accompanied by attractive images.
Eliminate “noise”: there should be no excess text, images, icons, colors, products, etc. but we oversaturate the reader.
Highlight strong points: highlight only what you want your visitor to capture, too many highlighted elements overwhelm.
Easy navigation: well structured, so that the visitor can clearly see where everything is. And above all, do not get lost or go to another page that distracts you from yours, so that you will be redirected through your pages.
Optimization: that pages load quickly and display well from any device. Make it responsive.