5 Steps to Start Your small Business Blog

Do you need a blogging site for your small business? Well, this article will help you with ideas to start your small business blog today.

For those with a WordPress website, all they need is to add a blog for their business and the dashboard is the best tool to do this.

However, the process of using the dashboard to add a blog to an existing WordPress site may be technical to many and the help of a web developer/designer maybe required.

You can start your own small business blog from scratch today with the following step-step simple process.

1. Decide on the right blogging platform

Choosing the right blogging platform will make things easy for you, while the wrong platform may make things difficult.

There are variety of blogging sites available online that you can go for. One of the most user-friendly and versatile blogging platforms is WordPress. This platform has two sites, and choosing the right one for your business is very important.

One of the WordPress sites is WordPress.com, which allows users to set up a blog and its domain in minutes. This WordPress version is not ideal for your business blog.

The second and recommended WordPress site is WordPress.org. This version is simple to use and you can create your own self hosted business blog. However, if you don’t have any technical knowhow, you might need help in the initial stages of setup.
Both WordPress.com and WordPress.org are free but hosting and registration will cost you some money.

There are other platforms that are completely free like Weebly, Drupal and Joomla, where you setup your own site by following some simple steps. Most of these sites are not recommended for a business blog since they have design, SEO and functionality restrictions. These restrictions make it difficult in running a successful business blog in the long run.

2. Customize your blog

Themes are one of the best features in WordPress that give you the ability to customize your blog with ease to reflect your style. WordPress has a Directory with wide variety of themes that you can choose from. If you don’t find a theme that you can work with in the directory, other site like ThemeForest have Premium themes that you can buy and use.

Consider the following points when choosing a theme:

Responsiveness: Choose a theme that is properly displayed on devices like desktops, tablets as well as mobile devices.
Customer support: The theme should have some level of customer support or have a customer support forum.
Customization: The theme should allow for easy customization with such tools like navigation menu, buttons, widgets and changing color.

3. Choose a domain name

Once you have a blogging platform and a theme, the next step is choosing a domain name. A domain name is the URL that will be used by your intended audience to access your site. Consider using domain registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap or 1$1 to register your domain name.

The price of a domain costs around $10 per year or less if you pay for more than one year at a go. Choose a .com domain, which is usually better than other domains like .biz or .net, with the trademark of your business name if available. The domain name should be catchy but specific to set your business apart from other businesses with a similar name.

4. Purchase web hosting services

Even with a free WordPress site, you will need to purchase web hosting services to have your blog hosted. These services may cost more than renting a domain name. Some of the popular companies offering web hosting services are Hostgator, 1$1 and GoDaddy.

5. Have a plan, and start blogging

Now that you have taken the necessary steps of having a blog, you can have fun writing and sharing with your audience. But before you set the ball rolling, outline the main purpose of your blog by answering the following questions:

What is my objective? Is it to become an expert in a given field, to build an email list for your business or to get leads?

How often will I commit to blogging? Is it two or three times a week or just once a week?

What voice will I use for my blog? You can engage your audience in a casual, academic or authoritative voice.

How will my audience take action while on my blog? Is it through an email box, a request for a quote or a link to a sales page?

With a plan in place, you can now start writing. Go for topics that you are well familiar with and where you can contribute to a conversation. Be original with well researched topics that are not only entertaining but also original and can add value to your audience.

With the discussed 5 steps, you can start your small business blog today; nothing should hold you back from writing.