Theories of Compulsive Buying Behaviour

Speculations of Compulsive Buying Behavior Most importantly, it ought to be noticed that shopping is large business. Strip malls utilize roughly 8% of the US workforce. These part of the workforce helps drive the machine that makes about  ½ of each state’s charge incomes and there are right now more shopping centers and strip malls that US secondary schools (Farrell, J. 2003, pp. xi-xii). Apparently fueling this juggernaut of trade is ever expanding and obviously voracious hunger of the advanced customer. Behind the 4x development in the quantity of strip malls and the over 3x development in retail area during the 30-year time of 1970 †2000, is the way that Americans (and likely other â€Å"civilized† customers) are expending products at twice (2x) the rate as they did in 1950 and ten-time(10x) as a little more than seventy years back (Farrell, J. 2003, pp. xii-xiii). It is additionally significant that this expansion in utilization is confirm over all pay levels however not really similarly over all sections (Gini, A. 2003, p. 85). Truth be told, increasingly extreme cases are altogether corresponded to a lower the degree of pay, a more prominent probability of having underneath normal pay and spending a lower level of salary at a bargain things, recommending by and large a powerlessness to deal with money related issues well (Black, D. 2001, p. 23) As a ‘counter-statistic’, Americans have a degree of creation that is at present at around 2x that of a similar period (1950). This suggests, we could expend a similar sum as in 1950 and work half so much or, as reality has it, work significantly more to devour over twice so much (Gini, A. 2003 p. 82). Likewise, in a typically correlational style, the not just has the quantity of customers and malls expanded yet there has been a sharp increment in the quantity of newproducts, especially in the publicized â€Å"must have† classification as wellas the rise of the completely new â€Å"disposable† classification (Pooler, J.2003, p. 9). As customers and items have changed, the relationship that existed between them has likewise transformed into something new. With the multiplication of retail scenes that profer an ever-expanding number of items and classifications, the appearance of the â€Å"disposable† item ought not go unnoticed. Despite the fact that undeniably, numerous if not most items are extremely high caliber and fabricated to exceptionally demanding measures, numerous items are less sturdy or are â€Å"designed for obsolesce†. Strength was the trademark that was advanced while the results of today push a message of accommodation. In a general public wild with such express and verifiable messages, it is no big surprise that the enthusiastic associations with most any item are diminishing (Pooler, J. 2003, p. 10). Items, for example, cameras or contact focal points were profoundly pondered purchasesthat were relied upon to last a noteworthy timeframe. Likely more significant than basic the volume of shopping is its intensity†¦shopping implies more than it did previously. Previously,people looked for things that they required. Presently, such shopping despite everything happens except it involves a little division of the procedure. Studies gauge that as much as 2/3 of shopper buys are â€Å"unnecessary†(Pooler, J. 2003 p.2). This overabundance is purchased from a need as opposed to require. As an extra typical issue, purchaser research has even shown that over portion of all blessing buys are really endowments forâ€Å"me† (Pooler, J. 2003, p. 11). Shopping â€Å"used to be† a progressively utilitarian and sensible undertaking wherein buys were arranged and generally, the shopper centered onâ€Å"needs†. Appeared differently in relation to the advanced customer for whom it has been evaluated that just around 1/3 of buys are â€Å"necessary†, obviously unfulfilled want must play an especially bigger job (Pooler, J.2003, pp. 2, 6). For instance, as Pooler states, â€Å"†¦people have a requirement for another pair of jeans yet a craving to purchase creator mark pants is a want†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Pooler, J. 2003, p. 22). Today, brands are power, disposablecontacts are the standard and OTUC, â€Å"one-time use camera†, are quite often inside arms reach. It is critical to take note of these items arenot inferior†¦in numerous ways, they are practically far unrivaled toyesterday’s items, rather, essentially illustrative of a pervasivementality that merits affirmation and thought. Understandingt he mindset that these â€Å"wants†, in the brains of individual consumers,are likely felt to be â€Å"needs†. The eye of the future viewer isparticularly pertinent. By using the â€Å"Hierarchy of Needs†, it is conceivable to shed noteworthy understanding into how a portion of these mental movements are happening. Created by noted analyst Abraham Maslow over 75years back, this pyramid of progressively requested requirements is principal to numerous issues with mental effect. At the base of the pyramid are â€Å"basic needs†, for example, food, haven and attire. Over the basic,physiological level are needs that could be named â€Å"safety† and would incorporate whatever can give mental security and strength. Over this are â€Å"social† needs, for example, the requirement for companions and friendship. Approaching the highest point of the pyramid are needs under thelabel of â€Å"self-esteem† in which feeling, for example, pride and respectbecome significant. At long last, the most elevated level of requirements is characterizedas acting naturally actualization† needs in which an individual has the craving tomake the â€Å"most† of themselves and to â€Å"be† more. A key part of Maslow’s impact is his conviction that higher needs can not be tended to until lower needs are fulfilled. This is particularly notable as the vast majority living in â€Å"modern† humanized nations have even more â€Å"basic† needs met. Thusly and with scarcely any special cases, most can go through their days in quest for the fulfillment of â€Å"higher† needs, for example, confidence and self-completion. As America or any cutting edge society has advanced, clinician and logician Eric Fromm shows that society and its individuals have likewise developed to a point where â€Å"being† is mistaken for â€Å"having† (Gini,A. 2003, p. 84). For example, realist possessive outlook will leavevacant the necessities at the highest point of the pyramid and people will exhibitfeelings related with not having these intrinsic needs unfulfilled. Fromm further shows that a significant part of the side effects of this void questare run of the mill of a â€Å"western† outlook and eventually bring about a mentalityof â€Å"to be much is to have much† (Gini, A. 2003, p. 82). To have an elevated expectation of life intends to appreciate a joy strongly and feel sick of it rapidly. Simon Patten (Hine, T. 2002 p. 17) The way that individuals, when all is said in done, are expending more, that there are more items and more places to get them go far in portraying in to some degree loose yet exact terms that setting of present day society. Maslow’s chain of importance of necessities additionally gives huge knowledge into the conditions of the proceeding with examples of expanding utilization that showed a battle to fulfill a need that can't be satisfied through the component of gaining things. Now, a further separation among â€Å"needs† and â€Å"wants† can be drawn: a need is frequently physical and ought to be fulfilled remotely; a need is doubtlessly a mental, inside showed want. Similarly that you were unable to fulfill a genuine, physical craving with mental fish sticks and french fries, endeavors to extinguish a mental want with an unmistakable item are likely fleeting and confused and willend in mental disappointment. This confused endeavors to alleviate one’s most elevated mental needs isn't absurd given the blended messages in the public eye of which there is an unmistakable accentuation set upon profoundly shallow characteristics. Shopping is just the procedure whereby one endeavors to execute these inescapable messages. As a social wonder, shopping is the procedural execution of monetary dynamic. This dynamic takes puts in an ocean of in which picture and feeling are maybe bound to come first of barely characterized monetary and practical utility. The sticker price on a thing mirrors a specific worth however the genuine worth is in the eye of the customer and is the thing worth that a lot to me. Utilizing financial terms, for example, opportunity cost and opportunity advantage are particularly pertinent as a buy choice remains in a precarious situation: â€Å"what will my companions think?†, â€Å"does it make me more attractive?†, â€Å"does it make me happy?† are instances of what experiences the ‘new’ shopper mind. The way that an item will carry out the responsibility is, best case scenario, important however not adequate and, even under the least favorable conditions, absolutely superfluous. As noted over, the way toward shopping alongside the procured resultant goods are an impression of a changing society and worth framework. â€Å"Shopping† is a piece of a way an individual characterizes what their identity is. What is purchased, where it originated from and the thought processes characterize an individual for themselves and, likely in enormous measure, to others aswell. Similarly as significant as what, where and why that somebody purchased something are the ‘facts of omission’: that they didn't get it at a specific store, and so forth is as pertinent as the ‘facts of commission’. Think about the accompanying telling instances of self-articulation: the customer buys conspicuously named Pampered Chef cookware in lieu of practically proportionate store merchandise,the man who buys a Polo sweater with its particular logo over the maybe significantly pricier/better uninspiring brand,the individual who picks name-brand drinks when organization is normal over

KingKing and Entrepreneurship in China Assignment

KingKing and Entrepreneurship in China - Assignment Example The main significant retailer the firm has focused on is Wal-Mart. KingKing could build its incomes in the event that it extends its arrangement of significant customers to incorporate organizations, for example, Target, Sears, and K-Mart. The third methodology the organization can use to extend its US deals is to sell straightforwardly to the clients using a web store. In 2010 the size of the US internet business commercial center was $153 billion (Plunkett Research). 2. The securing of a US maker is a market section system that could help KingKing enter the US commercial center. So as to limit cost the firm should target little to medium size light maker. In the United States there are more than 1,600 light producers (Manta). Three potential securing targets are A&A Custom Illumntns Inc., Abby Candles Inc., and A&B Reminiscents. 3. Another path for the organization to enter the US commercial center is by opening up its own stores in the United States. This arrangement is ju st feasible if the organization has adequate assortment of items to legitimize opening up a store. The contextual investigation doesn't give adequate data to decide whether the firm has adequate assortment of items. There are not many stores in the US devoted uniquely to selling candles. The arrangement of opening up a store probably won't be suitable.

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2020

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2020 Learn how to start a blog in less than an hour. Become a blogger today by following the steps we used when starting our blog, which now has reached more than 20 million people and has been seen in the New York Times, TIME magazine, and on the TODAY show. How to Become a Blogger in 5 Simple Steps Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. Do you want to start a blog fast? This is a long essay and you may want to start your blog without learning all the details. This is the first how to quickly start a blog guidepost. To start a blog fast simply: Look for these boxes. Follow the brief steps. Click the link to jump to the next box. Click here to go to the first step. How We Started This Blog Want to create something meaningful? Why not start a blog? Why not become a blogger? Creating this blog is one of the best decisions Ryan and I ever made. After all, our blog is how we earn a living. More important, it’s how we add value to other people’s lives. So you’re thinking about starting a blog, but you don’t have any idea where to start, right? Guess whatâ€"neither did we! Before we became “The Minimalists,” we wanted to start a blog to communicate our thoughts and express our feelings, but we were overwhelmed with options. Clueless, confused, and confounded with choices, we had no idea how to start a blog or how to be a blogger. When should we start? How do we register a domain name? What is hosting? Which blogging platform should we use? How do we choose a blog theme? What is a plugin? What should we write about? Heck, we could hardly spell HTML, let alone build a blog! But good news: it turns out that starting a blog is much easier than you think. We’ve learned a ton of lessons during our ascent to millions of readers, and now you can learn from our pain and suffering to avoid much of the tedium involved in setting up a blog. Disclosure: The Minimalists’ blog is hosted by Bluehost. For $2.75 a month, Bluehost can help you set up and host your blog. Because The Minimalists are a Bluehost affiliate partner (i.e., we earn some revenue, at no additional cost to you, when you purchase using our links), our readers can use this link to receive a 50% discount off the monthly price and a free domain for the first year. How to Become a Blogger: Video Tutorial If you prefer to watch our process for setting up a blog, we’ve created a step-by-step instructional video, How to Become a Successful Blogger Today, which shows the entire starting-a-blog undertaking. Otherwise, read on. How to Start a Successful Blog in 5 Steps Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. While there are other blogging platforms out there like Blogger.com and Tumblr.com, nearly every serious blogger uses a self-hosted WordPress site because of its creative freedom and flexibility. The Minimalists uses WordPress because it gives us greater control over the look and feel of our blogâ€"more creative control than any other platform. Oh, and WordPress itself is free! These are the exact steps we took when we created this website. If you follow these five steps, you will learn how to set up a blog in less than one hour. Step 1 Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting The first thing we did when starting our blog was go to Bluehost and register our domain, which is free with hosting. We’ll explain hosting in a moment, but let’s talk about your domain name first. Blogging Quick Start Step 1 In this first step you will choose your blog name (domain name) and buy your blog hosting. Go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button. Select the Basic plan. Pick your domain name and enter it into the New Domain box. Create your Bluehost account. Click here to jump to the next step. Choose your domain name Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it creates a first impressionâ€"it is the name of your blog. Also known as your URL, your domain is also your address on the web. For example, our domain name is www.theminimalists.com. So, what do you want to call your blog? Maybe it’s YourName.com. Maybe it’s YourBusinessName.com. Or maybe it’s a creative brand name you thought up. If you’re having a hard time thinking of a good domain name, try Wordoid, a wonderful naming tool that will give you plenty of great options. Just make sure you don’t buy the domain from them since Bluehost will give you a free domain. (If you’ve already purchased a domain elsewhere, that’s okay, too, because Bluehost will make it easy to transfer your existing domain during the setup process.) Set up blog hosting Once you’ve decided on a domain name, you’ll need to set up hosting for your blog. While WordPress itself is free (see Step 2 below), you need a reliable place to host your WordPress blog (your blog needs to be on a server somewhere on the Internet). For hosting, we recommend Bluehost for several reasons: We Use Bluehost. We personally use Bluehost to host The Minimalists. If you recommend a company, you better be willing to use their product yourself. We also use them to host several other websites of ours. Outstanding Customer Service. Bluehost’s customer service is 100% US-based. With hold times that average less than 30 seconds and 100% in-house, on-site staff in their Texas offices, you can rest assured that the person helping with your site knows how to help. In other words, if you have any questions, they will help you through the entire setup process. Great Pricing. TheMinimalists.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we would still use Bluehost even if we weren’t an affiliateâ€"we’ve used them for a long time. Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend Bluehost because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost offers a 50% discount for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a month for the first year. Free Domain. When you sign up for hosting, Bluehost will give you a free domain name, which allows you to avoid the upfront and recurring fees associated with purchasing a domain on your own. If you’ve already purchased your own domain name, don’t worry; you can still use your domain with Bluehost (it’s just one extra step). Money-Back Guarantee. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk if you change your mind. Reliability. Bluehost’s facilities are world class. They have their own custom-built 20,000-square-foot datacenter with enough backup generators to power a city. Friends Family. Many of our friends and family also use Bluehost to host their blogs. Now that you’re ready to get started, go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button. Next choose your hosting plan. You’ll see that prices range from $3 to $6 per month, depending on whether you want a basic, single blog hosting plan or a more robust plan that allows you to create multiple blogs. Note: Because we’re an affiliate partner, Bluehost offers a special price for The Minimalists readers: only only $2.75 a month for the first year. That’s a significant discount. Once you select your plan youll choose or enter your domain name. If you dont own a domain name simply enter your desired blog name into the New Domain box. If youve already own a domain name simply enter that into the I have a domain name box. Click Next. Finally create your blogging account. And click Create your password to complete your blog hosting setup. Just like that youve nearly become a blogger! Free Ebook How to Start a Blog EbookPressed for time? Learn how we started our successful blog using this free ebook. Email* This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. jQuery(document).ready(function($){gformInitSpinner( 14, 'https://www.theminimalists.com/wp-content/themes/the-mins/images/spinner.gif' );jQuery('#gform_ajax_frame_14').on('load',function(){var contents = jQuery(this).contents().find('*').html();var is_postback = contents.indexOf('GF_AJAX_POSTBACK') >= 0;if(!is_postback){return;}var form_content = jQuery(this).contents().find('#gform_wrapper_14');var is_confirmation = jQuery(this).contents().find('#gform_confirmation_wrapper_14').length > 0;var is_redirect = contents.indexOf('gformRedirect(){') >= 0;var is_form = form_content.length > 0 var mt = parseInt(jQuery('html').css('margin-top'), 10) + parseInt(jQuery('body').css('margin-top'), 10) + 100;if(is_form){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').html(form_content.html());if(form_content.hasClass('gform_validation_error')){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').addClass('gform_validation_error');} else {jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').removeClass('gform_validation_error');}setTimeout( function( ) { /* delay the scroll by 50 milliseconds to fix a bug in chrome */ jQuery(document).scrollTop(jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').offset().top - mt); }, 50 );if(window['gformInitDatepicker']) {gformInitDatepicker();}if(window['gformInitPriceFields']) {gformInitPriceFields();}var current_page = jQuery('#gform_source_page_number_14').val();gformInitSpinner( 14, 'https://www.theminimalists.com/wp-content/themes/the-mins/images/spinner.gif' );jQuery(document).trigger('gform_page_loaded', [14, current_page]);window['gf_submitting_14'] = false;}else if(!is_redirect){var confirmation_content = jQuery(this).contents().find('.GF_AJAX_POSTBACK').html();if(!confirmation_content){confirmation_content = contents;}setTimeout(function(){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').replaceWith(confirmation_content);jQuery(document).scrollTop(jQuery('#gf_14').offset().top - mt);jQuery(document).trigger('gform_confirmation_loaded', [14]);window['gf_submitting_14'] = false;}, 50);}else{jQuery('#gform_14').append(contents);i f(window['gformRedirect']) {gformRedirect();}}jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [14, current_page]);} );} ); jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_render', function(event, formId, currentPage){if(formId == 14) {if(typeof Placeholders != 'undefined'){ Placeholders.enable(); }} } );jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_conditional_logic', function(event, formId, fields, isInit){} ); jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [14, 1]) } ); Step 2 Start your blog by adding WordPress Next you will install WordPress, which is free. Dont let the word install intimidate you, though. Its much easier than it sounds and Bluehost does all the work for you. Blogging Quick Start Step 2 Next youll install WordPress. Click the Log In button. Click Skip This Step on the Pick a theme screen. WordPress is now installed, click Start Building to go to your dashboard. Click here to jump to the next step. To begin simply click Log In. Bluehost provides several blog design options, but simply scroll to the bottom and click Skip This Step (youll see why in a moment). WordPress is now installed. Simply click Start Building to go to your new blogging dashboard and continue to Step 3. Step 3 Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own A theme allows you to pick a design for your blog without the need for coding expertise or design knowledge. In other words, a  good  theme helps you to design your blog exactly how  you  want it to look. If you’re not a coder (Im certainly not a coder), then a theme makes the design work a million times easier. Blogging Quick Start Step 3 Next youll choose and install your blogs WordPress theme. Go to BYLT. Purchase the theme that fits your style (we use the tru Theme). Download and save your themes .zip file to your Desktop. Return to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes. Click Upload and then Upload Theme. Click Choose File, select your theme .zip file, and click Install Now. Click Activate. Click here to jump to the next step. Our blog design is from BYLT, a platform created by our good friends at SPYR. They have several beautiful, simple WordPress themes to choose from, and,  in fact, you can purchase the same theme we use if you like. Simply go to BYLT and find the blogging theme that best fits your desired aesthetic. Their themes are feature-rich; plus, once you buy your theme, you will have the same team supporting your work that we trust to support ours. Once you purchase your theme you’ll be able to download your WordPress theme (a .zip file) from your BYLT Dashboard. Save this file to your Desktop because you’ll need to upload it to WordPress in just a moment. Remember how easy it was to install WordPress? Well installing your blog theme is just as simple. First return to your WordPress Dashboard. You should already be logged in, but whenever you are signed out go to my.bluehost.com, enter your new domain name (or username), your password, and click Submit. From here, go to My Sites and click on Log in to WordPress. Next, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes. Next, click the Upload button. Then, click the Upload Theme button followed by the Choose File button. Find the .zip file you downloaded from your BYLT Dashboard  (this is your theme file) and click Install Now to install your new simple blog design. Finally, click Activate and your blog theme is installed. Step 4 Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats Plugins are third-party appendages  that add additional functionality to your blog. Blogging Quick Start Step 4 In the final setup step youll install two plugins that will improve your blogs features. In your WordPress Dashboard go to Plugins > Add New. Search for Yoast SEO. Click Install Now followed by Activate. Click the Add New button to add one more plugin. Search for MonsterInsights and click Install Now followed by Activate. Click the Launch the Wizard! button to configure MonsterInsights. Click here to jump to the next step. Its  best to keep your number of blog plugins to a minimum and install only the best ones, because too many pluginsâ€"as well as unreliable pluginsâ€"can slow down your site. We use very few plugins at The Minimalists. In this section youll install and activate the following free plugins: Yoast SEO  is the defacto standard SEO plugin for WordPress. For details and everything you’d ever want to know about WordPress SEO read  Yoast’s Definitive SEO Guide. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights  allows you to track your blogs traffic easily and with lots of interesting data: overall traffic, traffic sources, views per author category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews. In your WordPress dashboard go to  Plugins > Add New. Search for Yoast SEO. Then click Install Now followed by Activate and your blog will immediately have improved SEO. Next search for MonsterInsights. Then click Install Now followed by Activate. Next click Launch the Wizard! and follow the steps to complete the MonsterInsights setup. Finally, so people can receive our blog posts via email, we established a free Feedburner  account. For a more feature-rich email-subscription service we recommend Constant Contact (affiliate link). (By the way, if you dont already subscribe to  The Minimalists blog via email, you can here.) Step 5 Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love Congratulations! You started a blog, and now its time to start blogging. This is where the fun begins. Now that you have your own blog, you get to make it yours; you get to turn your vision into a reality. Content. Start writing and publishing the content for your basic pages: create an About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page, and any other page you want in the header of your new blog. Photo. Add a photo of yourself (pro tip: you can start with a well-lit selfie, but when you get a chance, get some professional photos taken; theyre well worth the cost because people identify with other people more than they identify with logos). Logo. Create a basic logo using a program like InDesign, Photoshop, or a text editor (note: even though we have no design skills, we were able to use Apples Pages application to create our simple logo after downloading some free vector art  and choosing the typeface that best suited our aesthetic). Or you can hire someone like 99designs or SPYR to design a professional logo. Images. Spice up your blog posts with high-quality stock photos and images: Paul Jarvis (free), Unsplash (free), Library of Congress (free),  iStock  (fee-based), Shutterstock (fee-based). Comments. Determine whether or not you want comments on your blog; they are often a useful way to receive feedback and directly engage with your readers. Social. Establish a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (or all three). Publish. Start writing new blog posts. Publish at least once a week, especially when first starting a blog, so you can build an audience. Below youll also find 20 blogging tips to improve your writing in the How to Blog section, as well as 15 reasons you should start a blog and 3 reasons not to start a blog. We hope you have loads of fun expressing yourself on your new blog. Were certain it will be a huge growth experience for you during the coming months. You have now officially become a blogger. Wherever youre going, make sure you enjoy the journey ahead. How to Blog: 20 Blogging Tips to Improve Your Writing We receive many emails asking how to blog, about blog topics, and about creating meaningful content. The bulk of this essay explained how to start a blog, but thats just the initial step. Now its time to start writing and publishing your content. Here are 20 tips on how to blog. Find Your Niche. You neednt have a niche, but it helps. When learning how to be a blogger, its important to ask yourself what youre passionate about. Running? Cooking? Being a parent? Have you found your passion? If so, whatever it is, write about that. If not, then you must first find your passion. Note: We generally recommend that people dont start a blog about minimalism or keto or any other heavily saturated topic. But what we really mean when we say this is: dont create a blog about something unless you have a unique perspective. If youve embraced simple living and have a unique perspective, then by all means have at it. Define Your Ideal Readers. Once youve found your niche, you need to know who will be reading your blog. For example, we blog  about living a meaningful life with less. Thus, our ideal readers are people who are interested in exploring minimalism so they can clear the path toward more meaningful lives. If you want to write about your newborn baby growing up, thats wonderful: your ideal readers are probably your friends and family. If you want to write about restoring classic cars, thats cool, too. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether its your family or local community or whoever else will read your blog). Add Value. Your blog must add value to its readers lives. You want to help people solve problems. This is the only way you will get great quality readers to your site (and keep them coming back). Adding value is the only way to get someones long-term buy-in. We both learned this after a decade of leading and managing people in the corporate world. With everything you write, its worth asking: Is this adding value? Be Original. Yes, there are other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Question: So why is your blog different? Answer: Because of you. You are what makes your blog different. Its about your perspective, your creativity, the value  you add. Be Interesting. Write interesting  blog posts. Especially if you want people to share it with others. Be Yourself. Part of being interesting is telling your story. Every person is unique, and your story is an important one. The important part of storytelling, however, is removing the superfluous details that make the story uninteresting. A great storyteller removes 99% of what really happensâ€"the absorptive detailsâ€"and leaves the interesting 1% for the reader. Be Honest. Your blog needs to be authenticâ€"it needs to feel realâ€"if you want people to read it. You can be your blog, or your blog can be you. That is, do you really embody the stuff you write about? If not, people will see through it. Be the change you want to see in the world, is the famous Gandhi quote. Perhaps bloggers should build the blog they want to write for the world. Transparency. Being transparent is different from being honest. You neednt share every detail about your life just for the sake of being honest. Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what youre writing. (Because everything we write must serve the greater good, you wont ever see pictures of us using the restroomâ€"thats simply not relevant.) Time. Once youve learned how to start a blog, youll learn that blogging takes a lot of time, especially if youre as neurotic as we are. That said, once you have your design set up, dont tweak it too much. Instead, spend the time on your writing. Vision. The reason our site design looks good is because we have a great host, we have a great theme, and, most important, we had a vision of how we wanted our blog to look. Once we had the vision, we worked hard to make that vision a reality. (Note: neither of us had any design experience before starting a blog.) Its hard to create a beautiful blog if you dont know what you want it to look like. Find Your Voice. Over time, good writers discover their voice and their writing tends to develop a certain flow, one that is appealing to their readers. Finding your voice makes your writing feel more alive, more real, more urgent. For additional reading, check out our blog post about Finding Your Voice. We Instead of You. Use the first-person plural when possible. Statements of we and our are more powerful than you and your, especially when talking about negative behaviors or tendencies. The first person comes off as far less accusatory. Think of it this way: were writing peer-to-peerâ€"we are not gods. When to Post. Question: When is the best day and time to publish a blog post? Answer: It doesnt really matter. We dont adhere to a particular time-of-day schedule, but we do publish at least once a week because consistency is important. You neednt get bogged down in the details, though. Social Media. Yes, we recommend using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to help connect with your audience and other bloggers, but dont get too caught up in it. Focus on the writing first, social media thereafter. Ignore Negative Criticism and Stupidity. Sure, we get a lot of negative comments and stupid questions from ignorant people who arent really our readers (Youre not real minimalists!). We call these people seagulls: They fly in, crap on your site, and fly away. But we pay them no mind, because we didnt start our blog for them. Delete their comment and move on. Research. Spend time researching what youre writing about. The reason we are able to use so many helpful, relevant links in our essays is because we put in the time to research our topics. Keep It Simple. This is where minimalism can be applied to starting any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site. Stick to the basics and remove anything you dont needâ€"remove anything that doesnt add value. Picture. Put a picture of yourself on your blog. People like to see the face of the person whos writing the blog. If two goofy guys from Dayton, Ohio arent too afraid to put their pictures on their site, then you have nothing to worry about. Comments. If youre going to have comments on your site, then read The Five Words That Kill Your Blog by Scott Stratten. Live Your Life. Youre starting a blog about your life (or about certain aspects of your life, at least), so you still need to live your life. There are things that we always put before blogging: exercise, health, relationships, experiences, personal growth, contribution. Simply put, live a life worth writing about. 15 Reasons You Should Start a Blog We were inspired to research and write this blog post after reading Joshua Beckers 15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog, in which he discusses 15 great reasons why you should start a blog. Why is the keyword here. Crucially, Becker writes about the purpose of blogging, not just how to start a blog. Thats what many of these other blogs about blogging seem to miss: they miss the purposeâ€"the why behind starting a blog. Here is a summary of our three favorite reasons from Beckers list: You’ll become a better writer. At its core, writing is communication. It is about recording thoughts on paper and compelling others to agree with them, writes Becker. To that end, writing (just like every other form of communication that has ever existed) improves with practice. Blogging will not force you to become a better writer, it’ll just happen as you do it. And becoming a better writer holds important benefits for the rest of your lifeâ€"whether you are creating a book, a presentation, a resume, or an anniversary card for your spouse. Spot on! Writing blog posts is not only a great way to improve your blog writing, its a wonderful chance to improve everything you writeâ€"from business emails and text messages to that novel youve been dreaming of penning. You’ll meet new people. Whether it be through comments, emails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people online, writes Becker. Thats true! The Minimalists blog is responsible for many of the most important relationships Ive developed over the past decadeâ€"long-term business and personal relationships birthed from this very blog You’ll become more confident. Blogging will help you discover more confidence in your life, writes Becker. You will quickly realize that you do live an important life with a unique view and have something to offer others. So true! Writing helps us better understand the lives we live and the consequences of our actions. 3 Reasons You Should Not Start a Blog So now you have 15 reasons why you should start a blog, and weve shown you how to start a blog, step-by-step, based on our personal experience. But after giving you those detailed instructions, which could save you hundreds of hours of wasted time, we also want to give you some good reasons why you should not start a blog. (Keep in mind that these reasons are just our opinions, and we do not pretend to offer them up as a collection of empirical blogging maxims.) Money. You should not start a blog to make money. We need to get that out of the way first. If your primary objective is to replace your full-time income from blogging, forget about it. It doesnt work that way. Do you think that Jimi Hendrix picked up his first guitar so he could supplement his income? No, he didnt. Rather, he did it for the love of it, for the joy and fulfillment he received, and the income came thereafterâ€"much later actually. Notoriety. Dont plan on getting Internet famous right away. Not every site grows as fast as ours did, but thats okay. The truth is that we kind of got lucky. We found a great domain name, we cobbled together a logo and site design that people liked, we write fairly well, and our content connected with people in a unique way. We didnt start this site to become famous, though. Thatd be ridiculous. We started this site to become bloggers and share a message. Our popularity came as a surprise to us, and it was a result of a little luck and a lot of hard, passionate work. Traffic. Not all traffic is good traffic, so dont worry about getting thousands of readers right away. Spend your time producing meaningful creations and eventually the audience will show up if you are helping people solve problems. In other words, focus on adding value, not increasing traffic. The funny thing is that all these things can happen. You could make a full-time income from building a blog. We do it, Corbett Barr does it, and so do many others. And you could become an Internet famous blogger like Leo Babauta or Chris Brogan. But if these are the sole reasons you start blogging, youll be miserable because it will seem like a job. And if it feels like a job, you wont be passionate about it, so youll either hate it or fall flat on your face (or both). Instead, become a blogger and write because youre passionate about it 4 Blogging Resources If you want to learn more about blogging, publishing, writing, and SEO, then check out these additional resources: What Kind of Media Counts?  (Seth Godin) How to Publish an Indie Book (Asymmetrical Press) How to Write Better: Online Class (Joshua Fields Millburn) Some Funny Thoughts on SEO (Exile Lifestyle) How to Start a Blog Infographic Click to Pin FAQs When Starting a Blog How do you make money blogging? How much do bloggers make? Can I make money blogging? What does blog stand for? What does blog mean? Squarespace vs WordPress: Why should I use WordPress instead of Squarespace? How do I become a blogger? Whats the difference between a blog and a website? Are blogs dead? What should I blog about? What is a blog used for? What makes a good blog? How do you start a blog for free? How often should I blog? What should my first blog post be about? Does Bluehost charge monthly or all at once? Do you have a question that we didnt answer? How do you make money blogging? How much do bloggers make? Can I make money blogging? How to make money blogging is the topic that beginner bloggers tend to be most interested in. At The Minimalists, we earn money in several ways: Creations. By building an audience who finds value in our message, weve been able to offer our three books and our documentary, Minimalism, to an audience who is willing to support our creative work. Consequently, all three books have been bestsellers and are now translated into more than a dozen languages; and thanks to Netflix, our documentary is available in 190 countries. (For more information about our book-publishing process, read this blog post series: How to Publish an Indie Book.) Audience Contributions. Since we refuse to clutter our blog or popular podcast with ads, we depend on audience support to fund production of our podcast. With more than 4,000 supporters on Patreon and many others via PayPal, The Minimalists Podcast is fully funded with audience support, which means were able to pay for our podcast producer, filmmaker, and studio space without advertisements on our platforms. Speaking. As we built our audience, many organizations, universities, and conferences began contacting us about speaking at their events. At first, we starting speaking for free just to build a name for ourselves. Then, we started charging a few hundred dollars per event. Now, were able to charge significantly more money because the demand for our talks is high. So far, The Minimalists have spoken at Harvard, Apple, Google, Allstate, SAP, SXSW, TEDx, and many other organizations. We speak about a wide array of topics, from simple living and “simple work,” to health, relationships, writing, publishing, social media, personal growth, and contributionâ€"and it all started because we started this blog. (Anyone who is interested in hiring us to speak can visit our speaking page for details.) Tours. Over the past eight years, The Minimalists, have embarked on eight speaking tours, including 2017’s 50-city “Less Is Now” theater tour, which attracted an average of more than 1,000 people a night, with considerably larger audiences in bigger cities. Our 2014 “Everything That Remains” bookstore tour spanned 119 cities in eight countries and attracted 75,000 attendees. Writing Classes. I get countless questions about writing, so I’ve been able to transfer that skillset to help hundreds of students improve their writing over the years. I teach a four-week online writing class designed to improve the writing of people at any skill levelâ€"beginner, intermediate, or professional. Amazon Links. If The Minimalists recommend a product like this photo scanner, and then a reader purchases that product, we receive a small commission for that sale at no additional cost to our audience. Were careful about what we recommend, however, because, as minimalists, we want you to consume less and to consume intentionally. Affiliate Sales. When we recommend services such as Bluehost and Constant Contact, we receive a referral fee. Once again, though, that’s obviously not why we recommend these services. Virtually every hosting company has an affiliate program, so we think its best to recommend the companies we use. Through these various means, Ryan and I are able to earn a full-time income through blogging. But its worth noting that making money from your blog is not the best place to start. While theres nothing wrong with making moneyâ€"which you can do through affiliate links, advertisements, and your own products and servicesâ€"the best reason to start blogging is because you have something to express. If you make money along the way, thats great. In fact, if you help people solve their problems, youre all but guaranteed to make money from your blogâ€"eventually. Lets just remember there are at least four resources that are more important than money: skills, time, energy, and attention. That said, lets not kid ourselves by acting as if making money is irrelevantâ€"its not. Making money from our blog is simply not the primary driver for our creativity or why we became bloggers. Although people often think of money as the ultimate resource, it is the least important of the five mentioned above. Money won’t necessarily improve your life, but it will amplify your existing behaviors. If you have bad habits, then more money will make your life considerably worse. And if you’re already a generous person, then more money can help you be more loving, caring, and considerate. What does blog stand for? What does blog mean? According to Wikipedia, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). The term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, blog, was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog in 1999. Today, blogs have many shapes and sizes. Many are public journals people use to express their feelings. Others, like this blog, exist to help people think critically and solve problems. There are blogs that cover nearly every topic, ideology, and interestâ€"from sports and politics to religion and travel and everything in between. Even the worlds largest news organizationsâ€"ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBCâ€"all have their own blogs. Squarespace vs WordPress: Why should I use WordPress instead of Squarespace? It feels like we hear about Squarespace on every podcast. But when you compare Squarespace to WordPress, you soon discover that WordPress is superior in several ways. While Squarespace isnt a terrible option, it lacks the personal control thats available with WordPress. This is why every serious blogger I know uses a WordPress blog. Here are five reasons WordPress is better than Squarespace: Design (Themes). Squarespace provides some beautiful templates, but theyre limited by the number of designs that are available. Since WordPress is a free, open-source blogging platform, theres an ecosystem of tens of thousands of themes ready to satisfy every want and need. While this variety is a benefit, we know full well that too many options can lead to a paradox of choice. This is why we recommend starting with the premium themes designed and supported by our friends at SPYR. Weve worked with SPYR since the early days of The Minimalists and continue to recommend their products and services. (This is not an affiliate linkâ€"SPYR just does great work.) Features (Plugins). While Squarespace has a rich feature set, no blogging platform can compare with the immense scale of features that WordPress offers. WordPress has a library of over 54,000 free plugins that can handle any task. While we suggest that you keep the number of plugins on your blog to a minimum, the level of customization provided by WordPress is unmatched. Plugins aside, one key feature thats built in to WordPress, but not Squarespace, is version control. Version control tracks your changes and allows you to compare revisions and revert back to a version of your Page or Post from any point in time. I use this feature all the time because I know that if Im unhappy with anything Ive changed, I can quickly revert back to the previous version. This feature provides a failsafe that allows bloggers to compose, draft, edit, and publish their posts within WordPress itself, making it a complete blogging solution. You Own Your Content. Owning your content means that you have full control over what you express on your blogâ€"and complete access to take that content and use it anywhere that you wish. To enable the latter, WordPress provides tools to export your data for use on any hosting provider that you choose to use. With Squarespace you can never truly download a complete copy of your server files or database, but with WordPress you can create an exact replica of your blog, at any point in time. This is most valuable for maintaining backups or in case you choose to restart a blog with a new hosting company. With WordPress you have 100% ownership of your content, files, data, and designâ€"and everything can be backed up. SEO. Out of the box, both WordPress and Squarespace are search engine friendly. But with a single plugin WordPress elevates your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A plugin we recommend for every blogger is Yoast SEO. This free WordPress plugin allows deep customization of your on-page SEO, but, more impressive, it provides automated content analysis. This helps guide you to improve and optimize your content for better readability and improved reach in search engines. While SEO isnt everything, we all start our blogs in hopes that people will read what weve written. Following proper SEO practices can be a differentiating factor in reaching new people. Growth. WordPress is extremely robust and customizable. It allows you to build a blog exactly as youd like. But what happens as your new blog grows? If you outgrow the off-the-shelf option, maybe its time to work with a designer to create a fully custom website thats tailored to match your brand and image. Since WordPress provides you with complete ownership of the platform, it also provides a designer with the freedom to build and create your blog design without restriction. Nothing is off limits. How do I become a blogger? The answer is in the question: the only way to become a blogger is to start a blog. This might sound overly simplistic, but thats because its not that complicated. If you follow these steps youll become a blogger and start blogging today. Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. Theres an old truism, Writers dont like writing; they like having written. I think the opposite is true for bloggers: because of the instant gratification of the WordPress Publish button, I find that bloggers enjoy writing because theyre constantly sharing that writing with the world. The barrier to entry is gone, so start blogging if you want to become a blogger. It really is that simple. Whats the difference between a blog and a website? While the lines have blurred over the years, the simplest way to put it is that a blog is a type of website, one that catalogues, over time, the personal or professional thoughts and beliefs of a person or organization. As your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas change, so will your blog. Its nice to have a time capsule of our thoughts, as theyve evolved over the past decade. Are blogs dead? No, blogs are not dead. In fact, blogs are more alive than ever! As a matter of fact, our blog has grown every year since 2010 and now boasts more than 3.78 million readers and an email list that continues to grow every month. What should I blog about? We often hear people say that you should blog about what youre passionate about. Thats great advice if you know what that passion is. Maybe its technology, finance, baking, music, or rock climbing. If so, write about that! If, however, you dont know what youre passionate about, dont worry. Passion isnt simply stumbled upon; it is cultivated. Here are six questions to ask yourself to help you determine what you should blog about: What are your values? Whatever you write about, you want it to align with your values. What excites you? There will always be drudgery, but if you find something that excites you, you will be able to drudge through the drudgery. What makes you angry? If you arent excited by something, then anger is often a great motivator. If theres something in the world you want to change, write about that. It will help inform and strengthen your values. How can you solve problems? You will feel fulfilled if you can provide solutions to people peoples problems. Coincidently, if you write about solving your own problems, that will help other people solve those same problems, too. What if money wasnt important? If money wasnt a factor, what would you do with your life? Yes, you need to make money, but, just as important, you want to do something meaningful. Write about that. Who is the person you want to become? Your writing should help you become the person you aspire to be. Write as if youre writing to make your future self proud. What is a blog used for? What makes a good blog? A blog is used for two things: to express and to communicate. A good blog is able to marry communicative writing and expressive writing to create blog posts that are informative and entertaining. When considering how you want to use your blog to communicate and express yourself, ask these questions: What message am I attempting to communicate? Does the writing express the emotions I want to the reader to feel? What are those emotions? How can I make the narrative more urgent? Does this sentence serve a purpose? Can I cut this line and still preserve my message? How can I make this more concise? Do I need all these modifiers and qualifiers? (Hint: no!) If I killed the first two paragraphs, would this piece be better? How could I restructure this sentence/paragraph to make it more climactic? How do you start a blog for free? The good news is that starting a blog is free with WordPress. All you need to pay for is hosting, as outlined in the step-by-step instructions above. There are also other free amateur services like Tumblr or Blogger that allow you to start a blog on those companys platforms. Just be careful, because you may not own your content if youre posting it on someone elses website. Thats one of the many reasons why we use WordPress. How often should I blog? When talking to my writing students, I recommend writing every day and publishing a blog post at least once a week. We usually publish two blog posts per week on this blog. Seth Godin blogs every single day. Whatever you decide, we recommend you stay consistent. Setting a weekly schedule helps you create accountability partners (your readership) so you feel compelled to write even when you dont want to write. What should my first blog post be about? Avoid grandiosity. Avoid throat clearing. Your first blog post neednt be a grandiose mission statement. And your first blog post doesnt have to be a vapid, self-involved introduction to your blog. Instead, find one thing that interests you today and write about that. Use the prompts in the What should I blog about section above. For reference, you can read the first blog post on this blog, circa 2010: Be on the Mountain. Does Bluehost charge monthly or all at once? Bluehost bills annually, so when you use our link to receive the discounted rate of $2.75 per month you will be billed for the entire first year. That said, if for any reason you decide that its not right for you, Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee. More Blogging Questions Do you have a question about becoming a blogger that isnt answered above? Tweet to @theminimalists with your question and a link to this essay. Ask Your Question

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2020

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2020 Learn how to start a blog in less than an hour. Become a blogger today by following the steps we used when starting our blog, which now has reached more than 20 million people and has been seen in the New York Times, TIME magazine, and on the TODAY show. How to Become a Blogger in 5 Simple Steps Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. Do you want to start a blog fast? This is a long essay and you may want to start your blog without learning all the details. This is the first how to quickly start a blog guidepost. To start a blog fast simply: Look for these boxes. Follow the brief steps. Click the link to jump to the next box. Click here to go to the first step. How We Started This Blog Want to create something meaningful? Why not start a blog? Why not become a blogger? Creating this blog is one of the best decisions Ryan and I ever made. After all, our blog is how we earn a living. More important, it’s how we add value to other people’s lives. So you’re thinking about starting a blog, but you don’t have any idea where to start, right? Guess whatâ€"neither did we! Before we became “The Minimalists,” we wanted to start a blog to communicate our thoughts and express our feelings, but we were overwhelmed with options. Clueless, confused, and confounded with choices, we had no idea how to start a blog or how to be a blogger. When should we start? How do we register a domain name? What is hosting? Which blogging platform should we use? How do we choose a blog theme? What is a plugin? What should we write about? Heck, we could hardly spell HTML, let alone build a blog! But good news: it turns out that starting a blog is much easier than you think. We’ve learned a ton of lessons during our ascent to millions of readers, and now you can learn from our pain and suffering to avoid much of the tedium involved in setting up a blog. Disclosure: The Minimalists’ blog is hosted by Bluehost. For $2.75 a month, Bluehost can help you set up and host your blog. Because The Minimalists are a Bluehost affiliate partner (i.e., we earn some revenue, at no additional cost to you, when you purchase using our links), our readers can use this link to receive a 50% discount off the monthly price and a free domain for the first year. How to Become a Blogger: Video Tutorial If you prefer to watch our process for setting up a blog, we’ve created a step-by-step instructional video, How to Become a Successful Blogger Today, which shows the entire starting-a-blog undertaking. Otherwise, read on. How to Start a Successful Blog in 5 Steps Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. While there are other blogging platforms out there like Blogger.com and Tumblr.com, nearly every serious blogger uses a self-hosted WordPress site because of its creative freedom and flexibility. The Minimalists uses WordPress because it gives us greater control over the look and feel of our blogâ€"more creative control than any other platform. Oh, and WordPress itself is free! These are the exact steps we took when we created this website. If you follow these five steps, you will learn how to set up a blog in less than one hour. Step 1 Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting The first thing we did when starting our blog was go to Bluehost and register our domain, which is free with hosting. We’ll explain hosting in a moment, but let’s talk about your domain name first. Blogging Quick Start Step 1 In this first step you will choose your blog name (domain name) and buy your blog hosting. Go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button. Select the Basic plan. Pick your domain name and enter it into the New Domain box. Create your Bluehost account. Click here to jump to the next step. Choose your domain name Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it creates a first impressionâ€"it is the name of your blog. Also known as your URL, your domain is also your address on the web. For example, our domain name is www.theminimalists.com. So, what do you want to call your blog? Maybe it’s YourName.com. Maybe it’s YourBusinessName.com. Or maybe it’s a creative brand name you thought up. If you’re having a hard time thinking of a good domain name, try Wordoid, a wonderful naming tool that will give you plenty of great options. Just make sure you don’t buy the domain from them since Bluehost will give you a free domain. (If you’ve already purchased a domain elsewhere, that’s okay, too, because Bluehost will make it easy to transfer your existing domain during the setup process.) Set up blog hosting Once you’ve decided on a domain name, you’ll need to set up hosting for your blog. While WordPress itself is free (see Step 2 below), you need a reliable place to host your WordPress blog (your blog needs to be on a server somewhere on the Internet). For hosting, we recommend Bluehost for several reasons: We Use Bluehost. We personally use Bluehost to host The Minimalists. If you recommend a company, you better be willing to use their product yourself. We also use them to host several other websites of ours. Outstanding Customer Service. Bluehost’s customer service is 100% US-based. With hold times that average less than 30 seconds and 100% in-house, on-site staff in their Texas offices, you can rest assured that the person helping with your site knows how to help. In other words, if you have any questions, they will help you through the entire setup process. Great Pricing. TheMinimalists.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we would still use Bluehost even if we weren’t an affiliateâ€"we’ve used them for a long time. Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend Bluehost because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost offers a 50% discount for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a month for the first year. Free Domain. When you sign up for hosting, Bluehost will give you a free domain name, which allows you to avoid the upfront and recurring fees associated with purchasing a domain on your own. If you’ve already purchased your own domain name, don’t worry; you can still use your domain with Bluehost (it’s just one extra step). Money-Back Guarantee. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk if you change your mind. Reliability. Bluehost’s facilities are world class. They have their own custom-built 20,000-square-foot datacenter with enough backup generators to power a city. Friends Family. Many of our friends and family also use Bluehost to host their blogs. Now that you’re ready to get started, go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button. Next choose your hosting plan. You’ll see that prices range from $3 to $6 per month, depending on whether you want a basic, single blog hosting plan or a more robust plan that allows you to create multiple blogs. Note: Because we’re an affiliate partner, Bluehost offers a special price for The Minimalists readers: only only $2.75 a month for the first year. That’s a significant discount. Once you select your plan youll choose or enter your domain name. If you dont own a domain name simply enter your desired blog name into the New Domain box. If youve already own a domain name simply enter that into the I have a domain name box. Click Next. Finally create your blogging account. And click Create your password to complete your blog hosting setup. Just like that youve nearly become a blogger! Free Ebook How to Start a Blog EbookPressed for time? Learn how we started our successful blog using this free ebook. Email* This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. jQuery(document).ready(function($){gformInitSpinner( 14, 'https://www.theminimalists.com/wp-content/themes/the-mins/images/spinner.gif' );jQuery('#gform_ajax_frame_14').on('load',function(){var contents = jQuery(this).contents().find('*').html();var is_postback = contents.indexOf('GF_AJAX_POSTBACK') >= 0;if(!is_postback){return;}var form_content = jQuery(this).contents().find('#gform_wrapper_14');var is_confirmation = jQuery(this).contents().find('#gform_confirmation_wrapper_14').length > 0;var is_redirect = contents.indexOf('gformRedirect(){') >= 0;var is_form = form_content.length > 0 var mt = parseInt(jQuery('html').css('margin-top'), 10) + parseInt(jQuery('body').css('margin-top'), 10) + 100;if(is_form){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').html(form_content.html());if(form_content.hasClass('gform_validation_error')){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').addClass('gform_validation_error');} else {jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').removeClass('gform_validation_error');}setTimeout( function( ) { /* delay the scroll by 50 milliseconds to fix a bug in chrome */ jQuery(document).scrollTop(jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').offset().top - mt); }, 50 );if(window['gformInitDatepicker']) {gformInitDatepicker();}if(window['gformInitPriceFields']) {gformInitPriceFields();}var current_page = jQuery('#gform_source_page_number_14').val();gformInitSpinner( 14, 'https://www.theminimalists.com/wp-content/themes/the-mins/images/spinner.gif' );jQuery(document).trigger('gform_page_loaded', [14, current_page]);window['gf_submitting_14'] = false;}else if(!is_redirect){var confirmation_content = jQuery(this).contents().find('.GF_AJAX_POSTBACK').html();if(!confirmation_content){confirmation_content = contents;}setTimeout(function(){jQuery('#gform_wrapper_14').replaceWith(confirmation_content);jQuery(document).scrollTop(jQuery('#gf_14').offset().top - mt);jQuery(document).trigger('gform_confirmation_loaded', [14]);window['gf_submitting_14'] = false;}, 50);}else{jQuery('#gform_14').append(contents);i f(window['gformRedirect']) {gformRedirect();}}jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [14, current_page]);} );} ); jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_render', function(event, formId, currentPage){if(formId == 14) {if(typeof Placeholders != 'undefined'){ Placeholders.enable(); }} } );jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_conditional_logic', function(event, formId, fields, isInit){} ); jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [14, 1]) } ); Step 2 Start your blog by adding WordPress Next you will install WordPress, which is free. Dont let the word install intimidate you, though. Its much easier than it sounds and Bluehost does all the work for you. Blogging Quick Start Step 2 Next youll install WordPress. Click the Log In button. Click Skip This Step on the Pick a theme screen. WordPress is now installed, click Start Building to go to your dashboard. Click here to jump to the next step. To begin simply click Log In. Bluehost provides several blog design options, but simply scroll to the bottom and click Skip This Step (youll see why in a moment). WordPress is now installed. Simply click Start Building to go to your new blogging dashboard and continue to Step 3. Step 3 Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own A theme allows you to pick a design for your blog without the need for coding expertise or design knowledge. In other words, a  good  theme helps you to design your blog exactly how  you  want it to look. If you’re not a coder (Im certainly not a coder), then a theme makes the design work a million times easier. Blogging Quick Start Step 3 Next youll choose and install your blogs WordPress theme. Go to BYLT. Purchase the theme that fits your style (we use the tru Theme). Download and save your themes .zip file to your Desktop. Return to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes. Click Upload and then Upload Theme. Click Choose File, select your theme .zip file, and click Install Now. Click Activate. Click here to jump to the next step. Our blog design is from BYLT, a platform created by our good friends at SPYR. They have several beautiful, simple WordPress themes to choose from, and,  in fact, you can purchase the same theme we use if you like. Simply go to BYLT and find the blogging theme that best fits your desired aesthetic. Their themes are feature-rich; plus, once you buy your theme, you will have the same team supporting your work that we trust to support ours. Once you purchase your theme you’ll be able to download your WordPress theme (a .zip file) from your BYLT Dashboard. Save this file to your Desktop because you’ll need to upload it to WordPress in just a moment. Remember how easy it was to install WordPress? Well installing your blog theme is just as simple. First return to your WordPress Dashboard. You should already be logged in, but whenever you are signed out go to my.bluehost.com, enter your new domain name (or username), your password, and click Submit. From here, go to My Sites and click on Log in to WordPress. Next, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes. Next, click the Upload button. Then, click the Upload Theme button followed by the Choose File button. Find the .zip file you downloaded from your BYLT Dashboard  (this is your theme file) and click Install Now to install your new simple blog design. Finally, click Activate and your blog theme is installed. Step 4 Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats Plugins are third-party appendages  that add additional functionality to your blog. Blogging Quick Start Step 4 In the final setup step youll install two plugins that will improve your blogs features. In your WordPress Dashboard go to Plugins > Add New. Search for Yoast SEO. Click Install Now followed by Activate. Click the Add New button to add one more plugin. Search for MonsterInsights and click Install Now followed by Activate. Click the Launch the Wizard! button to configure MonsterInsights. Click here to jump to the next step. Its  best to keep your number of blog plugins to a minimum and install only the best ones, because too many pluginsâ€"as well as unreliable pluginsâ€"can slow down your site. We use very few plugins at The Minimalists. In this section youll install and activate the following free plugins: Yoast SEO  is the defacto standard SEO plugin for WordPress. For details and everything you’d ever want to know about WordPress SEO read  Yoast’s Definitive SEO Guide. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights  allows you to track your blogs traffic easily and with lots of interesting data: overall traffic, traffic sources, views per author category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews. In your WordPress dashboard go to  Plugins > Add New. Search for Yoast SEO. Then click Install Now followed by Activate and your blog will immediately have improved SEO. Next search for MonsterInsights. Then click Install Now followed by Activate. Next click Launch the Wizard! and follow the steps to complete the MonsterInsights setup. Finally, so people can receive our blog posts via email, we established a free Feedburner  account. For a more feature-rich email-subscription service we recommend Constant Contact (affiliate link). (By the way, if you dont already subscribe to  The Minimalists blog via email, you can here.) Step 5 Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love Congratulations! You started a blog, and now its time to start blogging. This is where the fun begins. Now that you have your own blog, you get to make it yours; you get to turn your vision into a reality. Content. Start writing and publishing the content for your basic pages: create an About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page, and any other page you want in the header of your new blog. Photo. Add a photo of yourself (pro tip: you can start with a well-lit selfie, but when you get a chance, get some professional photos taken; theyre well worth the cost because people identify with other people more than they identify with logos). Logo. Create a basic logo using a program like InDesign, Photoshop, or a text editor (note: even though we have no design skills, we were able to use Apples Pages application to create our simple logo after downloading some free vector art  and choosing the typeface that best suited our aesthetic). Or you can hire someone like 99designs or SPYR to design a professional logo. Images. Spice up your blog posts with high-quality stock photos and images: Paul Jarvis (free), Unsplash (free), Library of Congress (free),  iStock  (fee-based), Shutterstock (fee-based). Comments. Determine whether or not you want comments on your blog; they are often a useful way to receive feedback and directly engage with your readers. Social. Establish a social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram (or all three). Publish. Start writing new blog posts. Publish at least once a week, especially when first starting a blog, so you can build an audience. Below youll also find 20 blogging tips to improve your writing in the How to Blog section, as well as 15 reasons you should start a blog and 3 reasons not to start a blog. We hope you have loads of fun expressing yourself on your new blog. Were certain it will be a huge growth experience for you during the coming months. You have now officially become a blogger. Wherever youre going, make sure you enjoy the journey ahead. How to Blog: 20 Blogging Tips to Improve Your Writing We receive many emails asking how to blog, about blog topics, and about creating meaningful content. The bulk of this essay explained how to start a blog, but thats just the initial step. Now its time to start writing and publishing your content. Here are 20 tips on how to blog. Find Your Niche. You neednt have a niche, but it helps. When learning how to be a blogger, its important to ask yourself what youre passionate about. Running? Cooking? Being a parent? Have you found your passion? If so, whatever it is, write about that. If not, then you must first find your passion. Note: We generally recommend that people dont start a blog about minimalism or keto or any other heavily saturated topic. But what we really mean when we say this is: dont create a blog about something unless you have a unique perspective. If youve embraced simple living and have a unique perspective, then by all means have at it. Define Your Ideal Readers. Once youve found your niche, you need to know who will be reading your blog. For example, we blog  about living a meaningful life with less. Thus, our ideal readers are people who are interested in exploring minimalism so they can clear the path toward more meaningful lives. If you want to write about your newborn baby growing up, thats wonderful: your ideal readers are probably your friends and family. If you want to write about restoring classic cars, thats cool, too. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether its your family or local community or whoever else will read your blog). Add Value. Your blog must add value to its readers lives. You want to help people solve problems. This is the only way you will get great quality readers to your site (and keep them coming back). Adding value is the only way to get someones long-term buy-in. We both learned this after a decade of leading and managing people in the corporate world. With everything you write, its worth asking: Is this adding value? Be Original. Yes, there are other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Question: So why is your blog different? Answer: Because of you. You are what makes your blog different. Its about your perspective, your creativity, the value  you add. Be Interesting. Write interesting  blog posts. Especially if you want people to share it with others. Be Yourself. Part of being interesting is telling your story. Every person is unique, and your story is an important one. The important part of storytelling, however, is removing the superfluous details that make the story uninteresting. A great storyteller removes 99% of what really happensâ€"the absorptive detailsâ€"and leaves the interesting 1% for the reader. Be Honest. Your blog needs to be authenticâ€"it needs to feel realâ€"if you want people to read it. You can be your blog, or your blog can be you. That is, do you really embody the stuff you write about? If not, people will see through it. Be the change you want to see in the world, is the famous Gandhi quote. Perhaps bloggers should build the blog they want to write for the world. Transparency. Being transparent is different from being honest. You neednt share every detail about your life just for the sake of being honest. Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what youre writing. (Because everything we write must serve the greater good, you wont ever see pictures of us using the restroomâ€"thats simply not relevant.) Time. Once youve learned how to start a blog, youll learn that blogging takes a lot of time, especially if youre as neurotic as we are. That said, once you have your design set up, dont tweak it too much. Instead, spend the time on your writing. Vision. The reason our site design looks good is because we have a great host, we have a great theme, and, most important, we had a vision of how we wanted our blog to look. Once we had the vision, we worked hard to make that vision a reality. (Note: neither of us had any design experience before starting a blog.) Its hard to create a beautiful blog if you dont know what you want it to look like. Find Your Voice. Over time, good writers discover their voice and their writing tends to develop a certain flow, one that is appealing to their readers. Finding your voice makes your writing feel more alive, more real, more urgent. For additional reading, check out our blog post about Finding Your Voice. We Instead of You. Use the first-person plural when possible. Statements of we and our are more powerful than you and your, especially when talking about negative behaviors or tendencies. The first person comes off as far less accusatory. Think of it this way: were writing peer-to-peerâ€"we are not gods. When to Post. Question: When is the best day and time to publish a blog post? Answer: It doesnt really matter. We dont adhere to a particular time-of-day schedule, but we do publish at least once a week because consistency is important. You neednt get bogged down in the details, though. Social Media. Yes, we recommend using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to help connect with your audience and other bloggers, but dont get too caught up in it. Focus on the writing first, social media thereafter. Ignore Negative Criticism and Stupidity. Sure, we get a lot of negative comments and stupid questions from ignorant people who arent really our readers (Youre not real minimalists!). We call these people seagulls: They fly in, crap on your site, and fly away. But we pay them no mind, because we didnt start our blog for them. Delete their comment and move on. Research. Spend time researching what youre writing about. The reason we are able to use so many helpful, relevant links in our essays is because we put in the time to research our topics. Keep It Simple. This is where minimalism can be applied to starting any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site. Stick to the basics and remove anything you dont needâ€"remove anything that doesnt add value. Picture. Put a picture of yourself on your blog. People like to see the face of the person whos writing the blog. If two goofy guys from Dayton, Ohio arent too afraid to put their pictures on their site, then you have nothing to worry about. Comments. If youre going to have comments on your site, then read The Five Words That Kill Your Blog by Scott Stratten. Live Your Life. Youre starting a blog about your life (or about certain aspects of your life, at least), so you still need to live your life. There are things that we always put before blogging: exercise, health, relationships, experiences, personal growth, contribution. Simply put, live a life worth writing about. 15 Reasons You Should Start a Blog We were inspired to research and write this blog post after reading Joshua Beckers 15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog, in which he discusses 15 great reasons why you should start a blog. Why is the keyword here. Crucially, Becker writes about the purpose of blogging, not just how to start a blog. Thats what many of these other blogs about blogging seem to miss: they miss the purposeâ€"the why behind starting a blog. Here is a summary of our three favorite reasons from Beckers list: You’ll become a better writer. At its core, writing is communication. It is about recording thoughts on paper and compelling others to agree with them, writes Becker. To that end, writing (just like every other form of communication that has ever existed) improves with practice. Blogging will not force you to become a better writer, it’ll just happen as you do it. And becoming a better writer holds important benefits for the rest of your lifeâ€"whether you are creating a book, a presentation, a resume, or an anniversary card for your spouse. Spot on! Writing blog posts is not only a great way to improve your blog writing, its a wonderful chance to improve everything you writeâ€"from business emails and text messages to that novel youve been dreaming of penning. You’ll meet new people. Whether it be through comments, emails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people online, writes Becker. Thats true! The Minimalists blog is responsible for many of the most important relationships Ive developed over the past decadeâ€"long-term business and personal relationships birthed from this very blog You’ll become more confident. Blogging will help you discover more confidence in your life, writes Becker. You will quickly realize that you do live an important life with a unique view and have something to offer others. So true! Writing helps us better understand the lives we live and the consequences of our actions. 3 Reasons You Should Not Start a Blog So now you have 15 reasons why you should start a blog, and weve shown you how to start a blog, step-by-step, based on our personal experience. But after giving you those detailed instructions, which could save you hundreds of hours of wasted time, we also want to give you some good reasons why you should not start a blog. (Keep in mind that these reasons are just our opinions, and we do not pretend to offer them up as a collection of empirical blogging maxims.) Money. You should not start a blog to make money. We need to get that out of the way first. If your primary objective is to replace your full-time income from blogging, forget about it. It doesnt work that way. Do you think that Jimi Hendrix picked up his first guitar so he could supplement his income? No, he didnt. Rather, he did it for the love of it, for the joy and fulfillment he received, and the income came thereafterâ€"much later actually. Notoriety. Dont plan on getting Internet famous right away. Not every site grows as fast as ours did, but thats okay. The truth is that we kind of got lucky. We found a great domain name, we cobbled together a logo and site design that people liked, we write fairly well, and our content connected with people in a unique way. We didnt start this site to become famous, though. Thatd be ridiculous. We started this site to become bloggers and share a message. Our popularity came as a surprise to us, and it was a result of a little luck and a lot of hard, passionate work. Traffic. Not all traffic is good traffic, so dont worry about getting thousands of readers right away. Spend your time producing meaningful creations and eventually the audience will show up if you are helping people solve problems. In other words, focus on adding value, not increasing traffic. The funny thing is that all these things can happen. You could make a full-time income from building a blog. We do it, Corbett Barr does it, and so do many others. And you could become an Internet famous blogger like Leo Babauta or Chris Brogan. But if these are the sole reasons you start blogging, youll be miserable because it will seem like a job. And if it feels like a job, you wont be passionate about it, so youll either hate it or fall flat on your face (or both). Instead, become a blogger and write because youre passionate about it 4 Blogging Resources If you want to learn more about blogging, publishing, writing, and SEO, then check out these additional resources: What Kind of Media Counts?  (Seth Godin) How to Publish an Indie Book (Asymmetrical Press) How to Write Better: Online Class (Joshua Fields Millburn) Some Funny Thoughts on SEO (Exile Lifestyle) How to Start a Blog Infographic Click to Pin FAQs When Starting a Blog How do you make money blogging? How much do bloggers make? Can I make money blogging? What does blog stand for? What does blog mean? Squarespace vs WordPress: Why should I use WordPress instead of Squarespace? How do I become a blogger? Whats the difference between a blog and a website? Are blogs dead? What should I blog about? What is a blog used for? What makes a good blog? How do you start a blog for free? How often should I blog? What should my first blog post be about? Does Bluehost charge monthly or all at once? Do you have a question that we didnt answer? How do you make money blogging? How much do bloggers make? Can I make money blogging? How to make money blogging is the topic that beginner bloggers tend to be most interested in. At The Minimalists, we earn money in several ways: Creations. By building an audience who finds value in our message, weve been able to offer our three books and our documentary, Minimalism, to an audience who is willing to support our creative work. Consequently, all three books have been bestsellers and are now translated into more than a dozen languages; and thanks to Netflix, our documentary is available in 190 countries. (For more information about our book-publishing process, read this blog post series: How to Publish an Indie Book.) Audience Contributions. Since we refuse to clutter our blog or popular podcast with ads, we depend on audience support to fund production of our podcast. With more than 4,000 supporters on Patreon and many others via PayPal, The Minimalists Podcast is fully funded with audience support, which means were able to pay for our podcast producer, filmmaker, and studio space without advertisements on our platforms. Speaking. As we built our audience, many organizations, universities, and conferences began contacting us about speaking at their events. At first, we starting speaking for free just to build a name for ourselves. Then, we started charging a few hundred dollars per event. Now, were able to charge significantly more money because the demand for our talks is high. So far, The Minimalists have spoken at Harvard, Apple, Google, Allstate, SAP, SXSW, TEDx, and many other organizations. We speak about a wide array of topics, from simple living and “simple work,” to health, relationships, writing, publishing, social media, personal growth, and contributionâ€"and it all started because we started this blog. (Anyone who is interested in hiring us to speak can visit our speaking page for details.) Tours. Over the past eight years, The Minimalists, have embarked on eight speaking tours, including 2017’s 50-city “Less Is Now” theater tour, which attracted an average of more than 1,000 people a night, with considerably larger audiences in bigger cities. Our 2014 “Everything That Remains” bookstore tour spanned 119 cities in eight countries and attracted 75,000 attendees. Writing Classes. I get countless questions about writing, so I’ve been able to transfer that skillset to help hundreds of students improve their writing over the years. I teach a four-week online writing class designed to improve the writing of people at any skill levelâ€"beginner, intermediate, or professional. Amazon Links. If The Minimalists recommend a product like this photo scanner, and then a reader purchases that product, we receive a small commission for that sale at no additional cost to our audience. Were careful about what we recommend, however, because, as minimalists, we want you to consume less and to consume intentionally. Affiliate Sales. When we recommend services such as Bluehost and Constant Contact, we receive a referral fee. Once again, though, that’s obviously not why we recommend these services. Virtually every hosting company has an affiliate program, so we think its best to recommend the companies we use. Through these various means, Ryan and I are able to earn a full-time income through blogging. But its worth noting that making money from your blog is not the best place to start. While theres nothing wrong with making moneyâ€"which you can do through affiliate links, advertisements, and your own products and servicesâ€"the best reason to start blogging is because you have something to express. If you make money along the way, thats great. In fact, if you help people solve their problems, youre all but guaranteed to make money from your blogâ€"eventually. Lets just remember there are at least four resources that are more important than money: skills, time, energy, and attention. That said, lets not kid ourselves by acting as if making money is irrelevantâ€"its not. Making money from our blog is simply not the primary driver for our creativity or why we became bloggers. Although people often think of money as the ultimate resource, it is the least important of the five mentioned above. Money won’t necessarily improve your life, but it will amplify your existing behaviors. If you have bad habits, then more money will make your life considerably worse. And if you’re already a generous person, then more money can help you be more loving, caring, and considerate. What does blog stand for? What does blog mean? According to Wikipedia, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). The term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, blog, was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog in 1999. Today, blogs have many shapes and sizes. Many are public journals people use to express their feelings. Others, like this blog, exist to help people think critically and solve problems. There are blogs that cover nearly every topic, ideology, and interestâ€"from sports and politics to religion and travel and everything in between. Even the worlds largest news organizationsâ€"ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBCâ€"all have their own blogs. Squarespace vs WordPress: Why should I use WordPress instead of Squarespace? It feels like we hear about Squarespace on every podcast. But when you compare Squarespace to WordPress, you soon discover that WordPress is superior in several ways. While Squarespace isnt a terrible option, it lacks the personal control thats available with WordPress. This is why every serious blogger I know uses a WordPress blog. Here are five reasons WordPress is better than Squarespace: Design (Themes). Squarespace provides some beautiful templates, but theyre limited by the number of designs that are available. Since WordPress is a free, open-source blogging platform, theres an ecosystem of tens of thousands of themes ready to satisfy every want and need. While this variety is a benefit, we know full well that too many options can lead to a paradox of choice. This is why we recommend starting with the premium themes designed and supported by our friends at SPYR. Weve worked with SPYR since the early days of The Minimalists and continue to recommend their products and services. (This is not an affiliate linkâ€"SPYR just does great work.) Features (Plugins). While Squarespace has a rich feature set, no blogging platform can compare with the immense scale of features that WordPress offers. WordPress has a library of over 54,000 free plugins that can handle any task. While we suggest that you keep the number of plugins on your blog to a minimum, the level of customization provided by WordPress is unmatched. Plugins aside, one key feature thats built in to WordPress, but not Squarespace, is version control. Version control tracks your changes and allows you to compare revisions and revert back to a version of your Page or Post from any point in time. I use this feature all the time because I know that if Im unhappy with anything Ive changed, I can quickly revert back to the previous version. This feature provides a failsafe that allows bloggers to compose, draft, edit, and publish their posts within WordPress itself, making it a complete blogging solution. You Own Your Content. Owning your content means that you have full control over what you express on your blogâ€"and complete access to take that content and use it anywhere that you wish. To enable the latter, WordPress provides tools to export your data for use on any hosting provider that you choose to use. With Squarespace you can never truly download a complete copy of your server files or database, but with WordPress you can create an exact replica of your blog, at any point in time. This is most valuable for maintaining backups or in case you choose to restart a blog with a new hosting company. With WordPress you have 100% ownership of your content, files, data, and designâ€"and everything can be backed up. SEO. Out of the box, both WordPress and Squarespace are search engine friendly. But with a single plugin WordPress elevates your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A plugin we recommend for every blogger is Yoast SEO. This free WordPress plugin allows deep customization of your on-page SEO, but, more impressive, it provides automated content analysis. This helps guide you to improve and optimize your content for better readability and improved reach in search engines. While SEO isnt everything, we all start our blogs in hopes that people will read what weve written. Following proper SEO practices can be a differentiating factor in reaching new people. Growth. WordPress is extremely robust and customizable. It allows you to build a blog exactly as youd like. But what happens as your new blog grows? If you outgrow the off-the-shelf option, maybe its time to work with a designer to create a fully custom website thats tailored to match your brand and image. Since WordPress provides you with complete ownership of the platform, it also provides a designer with the freedom to build and create your blog design without restriction. Nothing is off limits. How do I become a blogger? The answer is in the question: the only way to become a blogger is to start a blog. This might sound overly simplistic, but thats because its not that complicated. If you follow these steps youll become a blogger and start blogging today. Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting. Start your blog by adding WordPress. Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own. Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats. Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love. Theres an old truism, Writers dont like writing; they like having written. I think the opposite is true for bloggers: because of the instant gratification of the WordPress Publish button, I find that bloggers enjoy writing because theyre constantly sharing that writing with the world. The barrier to entry is gone, so start blogging if you want to become a blogger. It really is that simple. Whats the difference between a blog and a website? While the lines have blurred over the years, the simplest way to put it is that a blog is a type of website, one that catalogues, over time, the personal or professional thoughts and beliefs of a person or organization. As your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas change, so will your blog. Its nice to have a time capsule of our thoughts, as theyve evolved over the past decade. Are blogs dead? No, blogs are not dead. In fact, blogs are more alive than ever! As a matter of fact, our blog has grown every year since 2010 and now boasts more than 3.78 million readers and an email list that continues to grow every month. What should I blog about? We often hear people say that you should blog about what youre passionate about. Thats great advice if you know what that passion is. Maybe its technology, finance, baking, music, or rock climbing. If so, write about that! If, however, you dont know what youre passionate about, dont worry. Passion isnt simply stumbled upon; it is cultivated. Here are six questions to ask yourself to help you determine what you should blog about: What are your values? Whatever you write about, you want it to align with your values. What excites you? There will always be drudgery, but if you find something that excites you, you will be able to drudge through the drudgery. What makes you angry? If you arent excited by something, then anger is often a great motivator. If theres something in the world you want to change, write about that. It will help inform and strengthen your values. How can you solve problems? You will feel fulfilled if you can provide solutions to people peoples problems. Coincidently, if you write about solving your own problems, that will help other people solve those same problems, too. What if money wasnt important? If money wasnt a factor, what would you do with your life? Yes, you need to make money, but, just as important, you want to do something meaningful. Write about that. Who is the person you want to become? Your writing should help you become the person you aspire to be. Write as if youre writing to make your future self proud. What is a blog used for? What makes a good blog? A blog is used for two things: to express and to communicate. A good blog is able to marry communicative writing and expressive writing to create blog posts that are informative and entertaining. When considering how you want to use your blog to communicate and express yourself, ask these questions: What message am I attempting to communicate? Does the writing express the emotions I want to the reader to feel? What are those emotions? How can I make the narrative more urgent? Does this sentence serve a purpose? Can I cut this line and still preserve my message? How can I make this more concise? Do I need all these modifiers and qualifiers? (Hint: no!) If I killed the first two paragraphs, would this piece be better? How could I restructure this sentence/paragraph to make it more climactic? How do you start a blog for free? The good news is that starting a blog is free with WordPress. All you need to pay for is hosting, as outlined in the step-by-step instructions above. There are also other free amateur services like Tumblr or Blogger that allow you to start a blog on those companys platforms. Just be careful, because you may not own your content if youre posting it on someone elses website. Thats one of the many reasons why we use WordPress. How often should I blog? When talking to my writing students, I recommend writing every day and publishing a blog post at least once a week. We usually publish two blog posts per week on this blog. Seth Godin blogs every single day. Whatever you decide, we recommend you stay consistent. Setting a weekly schedule helps you create accountability partners (your readership) so you feel compelled to write even when you dont want to write. What should my first blog post be about? Avoid grandiosity. Avoid throat clearing. Your first blog post neednt be a grandiose mission statement. And your first blog post doesnt have to be a vapid, self-involved introduction to your blog. Instead, find one thing that interests you today and write about that. Use the prompts in the What should I blog about section above. For reference, you can read the first blog post on this blog, circa 2010: Be on the Mountain. Does Bluehost charge monthly or all at once? Bluehost bills annually, so when you use our link to receive the discounted rate of $2.75 per month you will be billed for the entire first year. That said, if for any reason you decide that its not right for you, Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee. More Blogging Questions Do you have a question about becoming a blogger that isnt answered above? Tweet to @theminimalists with your question and a link to this essay. Ask Your Question