If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve considered starting a
blog.
Lots of people consider it,
but few of them do it. They don’t know what step one is, and they probably
assume the process is complicated, even insurmountable.
Nope.
It’s easy. I can have you up
and running in five minutes.
A blog can improve your
writing, position you as an authority, help you let off steam, build an
audience, earn affiliate commissions — you name it.
Where
Do You Start?
The first thing you need is a
name for your site – a domain name. Without a domain name, you’d have to tell
people to visit you at something hideous like 123.456.789.123/happyearner. A
domain name, on the other hand, can be recalled easily.
This can be tricky, since
most of the names you might want, at least with a .com suffix, are likely to be
taken already. You can certainly go the .net route, or adopt still other, less
common suffixes, but don’t rule out .com too hastily. It’s possible to be
creative with your site name and come up with a .com domain that hasn’t yet
been taken.
In
fact, a number of sites can help you brainstorm for an available .com domain
that works for you. Free services like BustAName.com, LeanDomainSearch.com,
and NameBoy.com,
to mention just a few, will take one or more keywords you’d like in your domain
name and will give you a lengthy list of available domain names, which you
would probably not have thought of on your own, that incorporate the keyword(s)
you specified.
You can buy your domain name
through a company like GoDaddy, and in many cases you can get a domain name as
a bonus when you sign up with your hosting company (see below).
Your
Next Step: Choosing a Hosting Company
Once you’ve decided on a
domain name, you’ll need a hosting company. We might compare your domain name
to your physical address – it’s where people can find you. And like your
physical address in the real world, you can’t just occupy a location without
paying. Your Internet address needs to be leased.
Your
website is composed of a number of files. They need to reside on a computer
somewhere so that other people – your site visitors – can see them. These
computers are known as servers,
and your hosting company owns them.
If
you’re just getting started, you can get by just fine with companies like Bluehost.
They have an excellent reputation, and my followers have had very good
experiences with them.
Eventually,
as your traffic figures grow larger, you may want to switch to the company we
at HappyEarner.com use, which is WP Engine.
They’re pricier than these other companies, but you get what you pay for, and
as your visitor numbers climb, you’ll want the benefits of top-notch support,
lightning-fast loading speeds – believe it or not, studies show that a
difference of just seconds in loading time can mean huge visitor losses for you
– and overall reliability. That’s why we use it here.
Either way, drop us a line at
bonuses@tomwoods.com after you sign
up either through our Bluehost link or our WP Engine link and we’ll send you 24
free video tutorials to get you from beginner to expert blogger!
From
No Blog to Blog in Five Minutes
If I were to describe every little
step involved in setting up your blog, I’d drive you crazy. It’s like tying
your shoes: if I just show you how to do it, it’s much easier than if I try to
describe it.
That’s why I made a special,
step-by-step video walking you through how to go from having no blog to having
a blog. You can have your blog and be posting your first post within – no joke
– five minutes!
You’ll be using WordPress for
your blog. It’s easy to use. In the video above, I show you how to write a post
and publish it on your blog using WordPress. If you’re familiar with standard
word processing software like Microsoft Word, you’ll find WordPress a breeze.
Tom
Woods [send him mail; visit his website], holds a Ph.D. in history from
Columbia University and is the New
York Times bestselling author of 12 books, as well as the host
of The Tom Woods Show, a libertarian podcast with over one thousand episodes.
Grab his free eBook Sane Space: Libertarian Dispatches from Bizarro America.
Copyright
© 2018 The Happy Earner
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