Blog Setup – Simple and Fast

Blog setup

Interested in blogging? Thinking about starting your own blog? Blog setup can be simple and fast. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is how I setup The Photographer’s Blog.

Everyone blogs differently, and there is no right way

Everyone blogs differently, and there is no right way. The internet has lots of advice for bloggers. Me? I organize blog content and update my blog at various hours, and my blogging frequency is random at best. I struggle to keep content fresh. My content calendar is a work in progress. I have trouble keeping a writing schedule. I try not to get stressed out about all of the blogging advice on the internet.

Blogs should be personal. Blog authors who share interesting and real content with beautiful photos are the ones I tend to read. Whether it’s how to bake sourdough bread from a starter or how to sew or knit, I appreciate bloggers who share their knowledge.

Is blogging still important?

A Photographer’s Blog is my third official blog. I get asked, “Is blogging still important”? As a small business owner, I think it is. I also think you have to really like blogging and connecting through your blog. If you want to attract customers or sell products, blogging is a way to stay connected to your target audience. This blog has a tendency to attract other photographers. I love the idea of sharing information in the industry. But, for many bloggers, this can lead to frustration because you are attracting your direct competition rather than your target audience. You need to pay attention to your blog content if you are wanting to attract customers and maximize income for a small business. A blog allows you to repurpose content and images as much as you need to in order to stay relevant on social media.

Pick a host provider

You need to pick a host provider. GoDaddy is my choice for hosting my domain. Why? Because GoDaddy is the company I started with. I have familiarity with their customer service and am comfortable with this company. I think their prices are competitive. Nothing negative has ever happened to me. (Knocking on my wood desk here…) By the way, I am in no way affiliated with GoDaddy. It’s just the provider I chose first and have stayed with over the years.

There are many options for host providers. Spend as much time as you are comfortable with shopping around to find the one that is right for you.

Pick a blog topic

You need a blog topic. Pick something you excited to blog about.

Install a theme

Installing a theme for your blog is similar to finding a domain host provider. You can spend hours, days, weeks or even months finding the perfect theme for your blog. There are a lot of choices out there. For me, personally? I know what I like when I see it. I saw my theme on Envato, and I simply chose it, put it into my shopping cart, and made the purchase for about fifty dollars.

You will want to ensure the theme you choose is mobile friendly. I did pay an extra fee to include theme installation and configuration. Even though I am comfortable with installing, paying extra turned out to be well worth it. I submitted my business logo, host provider password, and answered a few required questions via email to Envato to ensure a successful installation.

Overnight, this group of smart folks at Envato installed and configured my theme. They included my business logo, installed Yoast plugin for SEO, and several other necessary plugins to get me started. I had mentally prepared to go back and forth for days answering all the questions one has to answer to successfully install files into the host provider’s back end and tweak the configuration. None of that happened.

The Envato team performed the blog setup, simple and fast. My blog was waiting for me to provide content and get started blogging the next day. You may want to go back into your host and change your password to something new once they are finished. Or, you can simply allow Envato to have an account in the event you want their help in the future.

I have no doubt that you will be very pleased if you choose Envato for your theme and pay the additional fee for setup and configuration if you are looking for simple and fast blog setup. I have no affiliation with Envato. I had never even heard of them prior to a random internet search a few weeks ago. Envato is not in any way endorsing me or providing any type of compensation But, choosing them did allow for a very simple and fast blog setup, so I can recommend this as an option if simple and fast is one of your goals in getting started.

Theme configuration

Several days later, after already creating a few initial blog posts on my live blog, I went back in and made a few configuration changes to the SEO Yoast plugin. This was easy because there was a really helpful Youtube video that walked me through every single step of optimal blog configuration for SEO. I also configured Askimet for spam, and I installed an additional plugin called Mailchimp for email subscription management. Mailchimp is free, and no credit card is required with setup.

Blog maintenance

The Photographer’s Blog is always a work in progress. The theme I chose is now somewhat dated. I need to update to something newer. Blogs evolve and require ongoing care and feeding. Plan on spending time each week updating themes and blog content.

Conclusion

Looking forward to hearing about your blog setup and installation experience. What domain did you choose and why? What theme? Are you on your first, second or third blog? I am happy to answer any questions you may have about blogging or setup.

Contact Pamela Kay

I am a lifestyle and branding photographer. I willingly share my knowledge. I now have a good understanding of theme and blog setup. Yes, it helps that I am experienced in computer programming with a prior career in software development. Things have rapidly changed over the past few years regarding ease of blog setup. This blog, for example, took about 24 hours from start to finish to be up and running.

Let’s schedule a latte date and discuss images that will be right for your marketing materials or social media or personal needs. In the meantime, please take a moment to Opt In for updates and Keep Smiling!