How to start a blog and turn it into a Profitable Creative Business

If you're reading this, chances are you're not only wondering how to start a blog, but you're also wondering how can you turn it into a thriving Creative Business and Career, am I right?!

And ideally, you don't want to be a blogger/influencer, but instead, you want to be more than that because being a blogger is not your end-goal; you want to start a business from being a blogger and ultimately have a thriving career that you can be proud of!

If that's the case, then you're in the right place my friend!

But you've got a tiny little problem... You have absolutely no idea HOW to start a blog and where to turn to.

And it's not like you haven't done your research - you have! But you're still unsure as to where to begin with it all?!

Well the good news is: all the answers to your questions are contained in this tutorial which is aimed helping you blog your way into a new business and a new career!

FIRST THINGS FIRST: LET'S TALK ABOUT CHOOSING A HOSTING PLATFORM AND CREATING YOUR WEBSITE

I'm gonna go out on the limb here and assume that as someone who is/or might be new to the blogging world and presumably with little tech experience, little time to invest in setting up your blog, and lets face it, you're probably not willing to shed tons amounts of money (yet)on setting up your blog, you are wondering whether or not WordPress or Blogger BlogSpot is the right hosting platform for your blog?!

Well... to be honest, based on the fact that 1) Blogger Blogspot is way easier - I mean, super easy to figure out and use, and 2) it requires little time to configure and set-up compared to WordPress , then Blogger BlogSpot is the hosting Platform I would recommend you choose for your new blog!

Blogger is a free publishing platform owned by Google that enables you to publish your very own blog once you have a gmail account with google.

And because it's a free publishing platform, if you publish your blog, your domain name will be something like this www.mynewcreativebusiness.blogspot.com because Google technically owns the site and not you, but once you pay for your domain name - which I highly recommend you do if you're serious about launching a profitable business blog, then you'll have a professionally looking website address that will probably look like this www.mynewcreativebusiness.com

But we'll talk more about that later in this tutorial.

But before you carry on setting up your new blog, here are a few more reasons why I think Blogger BlogSpot might be perfect for you at this stage in your blog to business journey:

P.S. AS A BONUS TO YOU, I have a Complete "BLOG-TO-BUSINESS STARTER PACK" waiting for you at the end of this guide designed to help you kickstart your Online Business like a pro!

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF LAUNCHING YOUR BLOG ON BLOGGER BLOGSPOT AND NOT WORDPRESS YOU WONDER?!

So basically, Blogger & Blogspot are both owned by Google - the biggest search engine in the world. As such, Google has ensured that all the major techy, time-consuming aspects of setting up a new blog are taken care off by making sure that they (Goggle) include hosting for you, taking out the laborious task of setting up a blog by ensuring that you only need to have a gmail account to launch your blog , and it provides automatic software updates, so no need to worry about that (unlike if you're with WordPress.Org, )
There's also unlimited options to customise the look and feel of your blog both for FREE or at a premium if you so desire! Point being: you have the option to run a fully-functioning, visually appealing, profitable business blog at zero to little cost compared to if you were to host with WordPress.Org where the blog setup alone is tricky at best and a mind-boggle at worst (especially if you are not techy and do not have the patience for bringing all the different components to launching your blog well before you even publish a post!

[RELATED ARTICLE: How to blog your way into a new career by answering these 5 key
questions]

HOW TO LAUNCH A BLOG ON BLOGGER/BLOGSPOT

Now that you know what Blogger Blogspot is and are familiar with it's benefits, here's a step-by-step-guide into launching your creative Business blog.

STEP 1: Setting up your blog on Blogger Blogspot

Like I've said already, creating your blog on Blogger is straightforward and super easy! All you’ll need is a Google account, (aka gmail account) to get started!

Once you have your google account, follow these instructions:

Go to your Google dashboard, click on more options, and click on the orange blogger icon or you can go to www.blogger.cim/about/#create to
Hit create new blog, you will then be prompted to choose which Google account you want to link to your blog, choose your gmail email address
Then Enter a name for your blog next to "Display Name" section. After that, continue by clicking on the orange "Continue to blogger" button

STEP 2: Naming your Blog

Now, I'm thinking you've already thought about the name you intend to give your creative business or your blog.
If you're not sure what name to give to your creative business blog, here's a few tips to remember: keep your domain name 2 - 3 words tops! The longer the name, the more likely there are typos which means potential readers and customers won't make it to your site.
And here's the thing: your domain doesn't have to be complicated either. It could be straight to the point or you can even use your name if it makes it easier for you. After you've decided on the name for your blog, check to see if it is available for you to purchase by clicking HERE

[RELATED ARTICLE: The importance of narrowing down a niche and focus for your blogging business]

STEP 3: Getting a domain address for your blog

Once you've checked if your domain name,( ie your blog site's address) is available, it's time to purchase it before it's gone!

Now, at this stage you can decide to go with Google when you're deciding to buy your domain address, or you can do what I did and go with GoDaddy.Com instead?!

Personally, I've always used GoDaddy as it is one of the biggest names in web hosting, domain registration, and online marketing sector . I's perfect because it offers a ton of services and aims to be a one-stop shop for most things related to having a website. Plus... GoDaddy hosting also offers unmetered bandwidth, which includes unlimited storage and website bandwidth.

And do you want to know the good news?

GoDaddy are currently offering new bloggers the option to purchase new domains for ONLY €0,99 - provided you don't already have any other domains with GoDaddy!

Just click HERE if you want to purchase your €0,99 Domain from GoDaddy.Com

And once you've doen all that and bought your new domain name and address, you'll want to attach it to your new blog, here's how you can do that by following these instructions below:

How to attach your GoDaddy domain to your Blogger BlogSpot website:

Go to the Domains Settings page.
On the Domains Settings page, next to your domain, click Use My Domain.
Click the Connect button under Connect to an existing site.
Under Forward To Any Site, type your blog's URL (e.g. http://www.mynewcreativebusiness.blogspot.com) in the field provided, and click Next.
Click Finish.

When visitors enter your domain name into their browser, they will now be redirected to your blog site.

If you want more information to transfer your domain, head over here

STEP 4: Designing the look of your website

Once you've successfully created your blog and have attached your URL (domain name) to it, and your blog is live, your blog will now be ready for customising its look and appearance.

For starters, you can use Gadgets (the equivalent of WordPress Widgets) to help design the layout of your page. You can use Gadgets to do things like display your blog’s archive, show blog labels in a list on every page, or put your profile on every page.

Once you’ve added a gadget you can drag-and-drop it on your page layout as you wish:

You can change the appearance of your blog using different themes and layouts that freely come with Goggle's Blogger BlogSpot platform and use the Blogger Theme Designer or you can edit the HTML code yourself - again, this is what I highly recommend if you want to stand out as a professional, particularly if your end goal is to launch a thriving Creating Business through blogging!

STEP 5: Picking a theme template for your new blog.

Now, depending on how far your budget stretches, you can either upload free blogger theme or you can upload a premium themes from third-party vendors.

There are a handful of themes (templates) displayed as you create your blog, but you can browse more and customize your blog later. But if you don't like any of Google's free themes and you'd like to customize the look of your blog either for FREE or you're willing to purchase a premium theme, then today's your lucky day because I've rounded up a list of both free and premium Blogger Templates for New bloggers that are available to install Now .

You can find out all about them HERE And don't worry, this will also include a step by step instructions to customizing your blog theme.

STEP 7: Managing your blog

After the optional step of buying a domain and having created your blog successfully, you’ll see your blog dashboard.

At the moment it will be empty, but this is where you’ll manage your blog.

From the left-hand menu you can:

• Create and view your posts, pages, comments, and statistics

• Change the layout and theme

• Manage earnings, campaigns, and settings

• Above the menu, you can click the link to view your blog

STEP 8: Creating a blog post

First of all, Congratulations on creating your blog and future Creative Business! You now have everything in place to start creating blog posts and launching what will be your profitable Creative Business and you're now ready to create a blog post - This is what it's all about my friend!

So just FYI: Blogger has a basic WYSIWYG editor with the option to toggle into HTML mode. You can add images and video to your post, or you can embed YouTube videos - the world is your oyster!

But before you go ahead and start crafting your first blog post, here are a few simple tips to remember when you're creating your blog posts

Brainstorm blog post ideas before you fully commit to writing a blog post
Know who your audience is and keep them in-mind when you're writing your blog post
Write a killer headline that either triggers extreme emotions or curiosity!
Take out weak and unnecessary words
If you prefer, you could create your post in Google Docs, and then copy and paste it into the editor
SEO your blog post and optimise image file names and descriptions
Proofread and edit your blog post
Include feature image and don't forget to site its sauce if it is not your image

How to start a blog and turn it into a Profitable Creative Business

FIRST THINGS FIRST: LET'S TALK ABOUT CHOOSING A HOSTING PLATFORM AND CREATING YOUR WEBSITE