Starting a blog is hard work.

Period.

There’s so much that goes into getting it up and running, not to mention all the stuff you have to do before you can even get it up and running.

I did a ton of research before I actually got down and dirty into creating my blog.

I wanted to set it up to do well and so I tried to cover my tracks and make sure I had a proper understanding of what I was getting myself into.

I’m not afraid of hard work, especially if it’s for something I’m passionate about, but let me tell you, there were times when I wanted to slam my laptop shut and throw it across the room.

I never actually did, of course, because that would be insane and who is really trying to fork over money to replace a laptop right now, not me.

Following tutorials

There are a lot of tutorials and how to guides out there that I did take advantage of but not before I drowned myself in misery trying to figure it all out for myself.

I am what you call a do-it-yourselfer.

I would rather try to figure things out for myself, than get someone else to do it for me. If I can make it myself, I will.

There’s also that feeling of satisfaction you get after completing something that was super hard, and personally I love that feeling.

Now if you’re planning on starting blog, and you want to do it all yourself, I highly recommend hopping over to YouTube and watching some tutorials.

There’s also a ton of blog posts about the steps you need to take to start your blog if you prefer reading through the steps as opposed to watching videos.

I have a really simpe step by step guide you can follow. Click here to get started today.

Can you start a blog in just 15 mins?

It takes a lot of time and effort to start a blog from scratch, even more so if you’re new to the whole world of websites and blogging.

There are a lot of misleading posts that tell you that you can start a blog in 15 minutes or less or that you can start a blog in 10 minutes and make money your first month!

Sure that all sounds great, and if you’re one of those people who walk around with a lucky golden leprechaun on their shoulder, you might be making money in no time.

I unfortunately do not fall into that category.

I’ve definitely been sucked into these types of posts but the reality is that it takes waaayyy longer than 10, 15, or even 30 minutes to start a blog and even more so if you want to start making money.

Here are the reasons why.

Domanin name

You need to think of a domain name, and one that you really like that will stand the test of time.

You don’t want to get tired of your name two months in or have it not match up what your blog is all about but then have to be stuck with it.

There’s always the option of rebranding but it can take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and there’s a possibility to lose some of the followers you’ve gained along the way.

Web hosting

You need to figure out what web hosting hub you want to sign up with. There are a couple options for you to choose from and you want to make the right decision.

I use bluehost for my website hosting. Their platform is super easy to get started with and their hosting plan is hella affordable. The plan also comes with a free domain. Click here to get started with Bluehost today.

Blogging platform

You need to figure out what blogging platform you want to sign up with.

Same as above, there are a couple to choose from, and you want to like that platform, otherwise it’s going to be a huge headache trying to move all your content from your current platform to another.

Choosing a theme

You need to choose a theme for your blog.

If you’re anything like me, the queen of indecisiveness, that alone will take you 30 minutes or much much longer.

I changed my theme several times before finally finding one that I loved.

Now, there are free themes and then paid themes. You need to figure out which route you want to go. While free themes are..well free, paid themes offer a lot more options in terms of customizing your site and tech support.

I use themify.me for my website theme as it is super easy to use and their drag and drop builder makes customizing your site super fun and easy. It truly is such a powerful platform and I highly recommend them. Click here to check them out!

So can it really be done? I think not.

If you’re speedy Gonzalez or you have thought about all this beforehand, maybe you could complete all those steps above fairly quickly.

However, it would probably serve you better to take your time and make sure you’ve filled everything out correctly and that you’re making the best choices for your blog.

You want to make sure you’re setting it up to last and to succeed.

Then after you’ve done all those steps, there’s a couple more that you will need to complete.

Setting up your menu

You need to set up all your pages i.e. Home, About me, Blog page, Contact page etc.

Publishing posts

You need to write, edit, then edit again, then maybe edit one more time your posts before you hit that publish button.

I can’t tell you the amount of blog posts I’ve read that have grammatical errors in them, you don’t want that to be you!

Some people write and publish 5 posts or more before they actually make their website live.

Some people start with 1, some start with 25.

There isn’t actually a golden number here, it’s really up to you and how many posts you feel you want to start with.

SEO

You need to set up SEO for your posts and graphics so that you can be found and get good rankings on google.

This step can be fairly easy but if you don’t know anything about SEO than you’ll need to do a little research in order to get a good understanding about it and how to set it up properly.

Professional email

You need to make a professional email (If you haven’t already).

It looks a lot better having an email that shows [email protected] than [email protected].

Not everybody does this but trust me, if you are trying to make your blog into your business, you really should have a professional email address.

Also certain mail list companies don’t allow you to send out emails to your subscribers if you have a gmail.com or Hotmail.com account.

I found this one out the hard way and it made things a little difficult for a while trying to switch everything over.

I’d actually suggest making this one of the first things you do after choosing your domain name. It’ll save you the trouble of having to switch everything over after.

Spending them dollars

Keep in mind that you will need to fork over some money to make some of these things happen.

I am a person who tries to avoid paying for services if I think I can find what I need for free.

I will literally search for hours to find a way to not pay for something before finally giving in and making the purchase.

While some people have money to pay for these extra things easily, I didn’t.

And so if I’m going to spend my money here, I’m going to make sure that it will be well worth it.

I knew that when I started my blog that I wanted to take it places, so I already knew I would be buying my domain name, as well as my web hosting.

What I hadn’t anticipated was all the other costs that would come along after.

A little coding

Now a lot of themes are very easy to set up and a lot of them are drag and drop, so you don’t really need to know coding.

However if you want to customize your site a little bit more, then that is where coding comes in handy.

I struggled with this part a little as I didn’t know coding and ended up spending a lot of time searching for coding that would work in the way I needed it to.

While some worked out, others I honestly just gave up on.

So if you know some coding, you’re golden, if not, you might need to seek out some help here.

As I said above, free themes are great because they’re free and some have great design aspects. But they do not offer you all the customization you might want nor do they have the support if you run into a wall.

That is where having your paid theme comes in handy.

Google analytics

Lastly there’s setting up good ol’ google analytics.

You want to track your website activity to see how many people are viewing your blog and so this step is very necessary.

This one is pretty easy to set up though, so don’t fret.

Standing the test of time

Once you have your blog set up, all your pages designed, and your posts published, the work doesn’t just end there.

It’s really only beginning.

Now you have to promote your blog and get on social media and try to attract people to read all the awesome stuff you’ve written.

Then you need to continue writing some more awesome stuff.

So if you think this is going to be easy breezy, and for some it might actually be, but for the rest of us, it’s a lot of work.

A lot of hours dedicated to it, a lot of reading, a lot of writing, a crap ton of editing, and a huge amount of time staring at a computer screen.

It can get super frustrating at times, but you just have to remember why you’re doing it and that you love it.

Otherwise, blogging just might not be for you.

Personally even though I’ve had some  frustrating hiccups along the way, I’m still super happy with what I’ve created and I’m hella proud of myself for getting it done and for not giving up and throwin’ in the towel.

It would have been a lot easier to just say forget it, this is too much work.

But then again no one likes a quitter and you have to get through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff!

Until next time! Stay Blessed ♡

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You are only as strong as you allow yourself to be. Never get discouraged and never give up because consistency and dedication are the keys to success

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