Get exclusive weekly lessons in dismantling the status quo. These lessons will never be published to the blog. Find out how to love your work, whether that means learning to enjoy your job, starting your own business or anything in between. WSR Dispatch includes business ideas, interviews and advice on productivity, entrepreneurship & blogging.
Wage Slave Rebel Dispatch
So You Want To Be A Blogger, Part Two – Setting Up Your Blog
In Part One of the Blogger Series, we talked a little about choosing a niche for your blog. By now you should have at least a rough vision for your site based on whatever it is you’re passionate about. If you haven’t already done so, you might want to search for blogs in the same niche or similar niches to you. Take note of what they have in common, what makes the best ones more special than the others, what makes the bad ones bad. The more you know about the strengths and weaknesses of the existing community, the better you will be able to cultivate an image and a reputation that will set you apart from the rest.
Now, you’re ready to start on one of the most fun and important aspects of a blogger’s journey. Today, you’ll make your ideas tangible!
The work you do in this part will have a lot to do with your overall success. Bad choices in this stage are likely to result in a failed project so take your time to think through each step thoroughly.
Choosing A Name
There are some important points to remember when naming your blog:
- Paint a picture of what the blog is about The name ‘Wage Slave Rebel’ does a good job of telling potential readers that this is a blog about non-traditional life and work experiences. If your name describes what you are writing about or can capture the spirit of what you are writing about, people will be more likely to visit.
- Don’t be boring Don’t choose an unremarkable name, no matter how accurate it is. For example, WSR was originally to be called “The Aspiring Freelancer.” This doesn’t do much to capture the rebellious nature inherent in freelancing or lifestyle design. It sounds sterile and generic and there’s nothing to play off of in the branding. WSR can do so many cool things just playing off the “rebellion” aspect.
- Don’t consider names that already exist as .coms If you can’t get www.yourblog.com, ditch that name. You need to have a top-level presence on the web. For example, Wage Slave Rebel wouldn’t be as successful if the domain was www.thisiswageslaverebel.com or www.wageslaverebeltheblog.com. Not only are they too long, but people are more likely to remember the title of a blog than its url.
- Make sure it’s clear There’s a story that’s lived as an example on the web for years. The first time I heard it must have been 1999 or 2000. It’s about the Lumberman’s Exchange. They already had a name (obviously) and lucky for them the .com was available! … www.lumbermansexchange.com … Do you see the problem yet? Lumbermans Exchange.com can easily be read as Lumberman Sex Change.com. You don’t want to suffer a case of mistaken identity! Also, make sure you choose a name that is devoid of alternate spellings. If someone tells you to go to ‘utube.com’ chances are you’ll end up at ‘youtube.com.’ Follow spelling conventions and people will be able to find you more easily.
The Platform
The platform you decide to build your site on is very important. The security and reliability of your blog depends on it. There are a few options. You can get a blog hosted at WordPress.com, TypePad.com, or even Blogger as long as you make sure to attach them to a .com name.
As a designer and developer and now as a blogger, I highly recommend building your site on a self-hosted WordPress installation. WordPress is free to download at www.wordpress.org and there’s a good chance that most of the blogs you read run on it. WSR runs on it. So does Copyblogger, TechCrunch, 4hourblog.com, etc. It’s a very stable and reliable platform with a huge community and tons of support, not to mention the vast amount of plugins and themes available.
If you don’t have any technical knowledge, WordPress is still easy to install. Hosting accounts from GoDaddy come with an autoinstaller and services like Free WordPress Install keep you as far from the technicalities as possible (plus, who can argue with free installation!)
The Design
Design matters. In fact, I would argue it matters more than anything, even content. Now, don’t get me wrong. The design alone can’t hold up a blog, but the design defines the experience. The design dictates whether or not anyone cares about the content. Within a few seconds of seeing your site, a person will have made up their mind about whether or not they like it completely based on how it looks. If you skimp on the details and push out something that looks generic or spammy, your blog automatically loses value and you lose credibility and authority as a blogger.
So, how do you make sure your design doesn’t suck? I’d advise working closely with a designer to make some decisions about your brand (yes, your blog is a brand). You need to decide what it is you want to represent. WSR wants to represent the free spirit of rebellion and the courage to live consciously. What do you want to represent? What you want to represent will define most of your blog. Do you want to be associated with being natural and environmentally conscious? Your blog will likely be painted in shades of green and brown. Want to project security and incite trust in your readership? Your logo will probably have sharp, blocky letters. The design should convey whatever your message is.
Maybe you don’t have the money to get a designer to help you out right now. That’s fine. WordPress comes with lots of options. There are many themes available that will have you looking credible instantly. Personally I highly recommend using the Thematic framework and any of its child themes. I recently redesigned WSR as a Thematic child theme. Thematic gives you a really solid foundation that’s really customizable. It’s search engine optimized to make sure your site can easily be found through Google, it contains 13 widget areas so you can add pretty much any information you want to anywhere you want to without any coding knowledge, it comes with both 2- and 3-column layout options, it’s compatible with most (if not all) popular WordPress plugins and, probably most importantly for the beginning blogger, it’s free!
If you want to feel safe and supported, you’ll probably want to buy your theme. Check out StudioPress, WooThemes or any of the other sites in WordPress’ official listing of Commercially Supported Themes for some of the best looking, most affordable supported options.
Have any questions? Ask away in the comments section and I’ll be sure to answer!
Part 3 – Creating Compelling Content
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/booleansplit/ / CC BY 2.0
Related posts
- So You Want To Be A Blogger, Part Four – Promoting Your Blog
- How Nickelback Can Help You Start A Successful Blog
- How To Make Your Blog Boring As Fuck
- So You Want To Be A Blogger, Part Three – Creating Compelling Content
- So You Want To Be A Blogger, Part One – Choosing A Topic
Hi JD,
Is that your Mac Book Air in the picture?
A lot of new bloggers seem to do most of their design and wordpress customization themselves. I would highly recommend outsourcing everything. You can waste a lot of time customizing and tweaking everything and still not be very good at it. Outsource the work and focus on content and marketing. That is a much more efficient use of time.
Outsourcing takes work and project management can be difficult, but they are much more important skills to master in my mind.
They are, indeed, more important skills and I would definitely recommend outsourcing it to people who know what they are doing. I was lucky in that design and WordPress were already my thing. Most people won't have the ability to design and code their own theme and learning will just be an excuse for postponing the project indefinitely.
This isn't my MacBook Air, though. I have a MacBook unibody. I just thought this picture looked sufficiently badass.
Hey J. D. Awesome post man. And thank you so much for linking to my business! I appreciate that a ton. I'm kind of looking around for a free theme for a new project so Thematic looks sweet, that's just what I am looking for.
I also like your comments on design. This is an area where I've slacked off big time, basically due to the fact that I have a pretty strict budget right now. I really want at least a custom header on my blog so I'm saving up for that right now.
Great post once again and thanks!
So many people are starting to run an unmodified Thesis theme that it's getting hard to differentiate from one to the other. You should definitely get a custom header or custom logo and start working on building a brand.
I linked to your business because it's still the first and only business of this kind I know. I read on your blog that others exist, but I've never heard of them so yours stands out in my mind. And who can argue with free. It's a great service.
Glad you could stop by!
Hey J. D. Awesome post man. And thank you so much for linking to my business! I appreciate that a ton. I'm kind of looking around for a free theme for a new project so Thematic looks sweet, that's just what I am looking for.
I also like your comments on design. This is an area where I've slacked off big time, basically due to the fact that I have a pretty strict budget right now. I really want at least a custom header on my blog so I'm saving up for that right now.
Great post once again and thanks!
I agree with John, if you are just starting out it's better to outsource the whole process, especially with free services like free wordpress install. Stumbled!
Thanks for stumbling! I agree with John myself, but some people don't have that option. Proper designers can be expensive, so it might be better in the beginning not to outsource, but to use canned solutions to keep you from procrastinating. Running a default Thesis or Thematic is a good start and then worry about the design when the money is there to get someone who knows what they are doing.
I just checked out Freestyle Mind. You and I have a pretty similar background. I just subscribed! I hope to see you around here again.
Hey JD!
I'm loving this serious on how to be a blogger! Really helpful for those wanting to start their own blog, either just for fun or to later turn into a full time income!
I personally found the design a hard thing to complete, and eventually ended up buying my WP theme I am currently using, simply because free WP themes are just not quite what I was looking for.
Your theme looks pretty sweet! Did you do a lot of customizing to get it like that?
Keep up the good work! Diggy
The original WSR theme was built by me entirely from scratch. The version 2 design that's up now is a child theme for Thematic. I wanted more power from my theme, but I also didn't want to reinvent the wheel so I made Thematic the base and just threw a "skin" on top. I think it's turned out beautifully. I'm still tweaking here and there though.
And I agree, it's hard to find a premium theme that's anywhere close to what you want, let alone a free one. Some people just have better luck (or at least feel safer) buying from a company who can support them later on.
I actually found myself breaking the 'Choosing a Name' rule when I first started my blog.
The idea was that I already went through the traditional education system, and learned an incredible amount running a series of businesses and all that entails. What I wanted to do was learn what I could from travel, the world, the people out there…to get a third education, if you will.
So I bought 3rdEducation.com (and a bunch of subsidiary domains) and built my site.
A week later, I realized that every single time I told people about the site, or they discovered it on their own, a lengthy explanation was required in order to convey what the project was all about, why I was doing it, etc etc etc. It seemed great in my head because I knew what I was doing (the so-called 'burden of knowledge,' which makes it difficult to explain things to others because you already know all about it), but it just wasn't clicking the way I wanted it to.
Long story short, I ended up rebranding the second week of the project as 'Exile Lifestyle' and since then everything has been just dandy. Taking stock of this kind of things more carefully (and less emotionally) from the get-go would have saved me quite a bit of time, so it's good advice to everyone out there to consider it carefully!
Exile Lifestyle caught my attention the first time I saw it (in the Thrilling Heroics sidebar). I instantly knew it was something I wanted to read, so you did a great job with the new name!
I should have also mentioned that any of these rules can and have been broken. For example, Chris Guillebeau's Art of Non-Conformity is chrisguillebeau.com. Guillebeau is unusual and difficult to spell if you are just telling people, and yet he has one of the top blogs on the internet. Its like the saying goes… you have to know the rules to break them. This post defines them, but they definitely aren't the only way to go about things.
Hey JD,
This is great advice, simply laid out, and totally do-able for someone wanting to start blogging. I love your advice of, "Don't be boring"! Chris Guillebeau said once "You can break most of the rules, but not all of them at the same time" (in 279 Days to an Overnight Success, I think). I love that advice for life, and especially blogging.
I have learned so much just from checking out other people's blogs- from the most successful, to the person next door. I totally agree that design is super important as well… most people are visually attracted to a site, before they even give the content a chance to pull them in.
Keep up the good advice!
Karen
Damn it, why didn't this post come out a few months ago when I was starting to blog!?
I agree with Nazim–great outline you've got here. And I had no idea about the Lumberman's Exchange…hilarious!
You're right in that design is one of the most undervalued aspects of not only blogging, but also any Internet-related venture. It's not easy to crank out amazing content or to create a valuable service for others, but if the design isn't captivating/unique/user-friendly/(insert design-related adjective here), then potential engagement is lost.
Keep up the good work–looking forward to part 3!