Once you’ve purchased the equipment and tools for starting your blog (see RESOURCES), there are three important steps to take before you start writing posts.
It’s recommended that you spend a considerable amount of time on these steps, which will help shape the mission and success of your blog.
What Are The Three First Steps You Should Take To Start Your Blog?
- Choose Your Niche
- Define Your Avatar
- Name Your Website
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Step #1: Choose Your Niche
In all your excitement to jump in and start your Online Business, you may want to write posts about anything and everything!
However, that’s not the best strategy…
Before you start writing, you need to decide what you’re writing about—choose a Niche.
What The Heck Is A Niche?
Some pronounce this “neesh,” while others pronounce it “nitch.”
A Niche is the topic of what you’ll be writing about in your blog.
How Do You Choose A Niche For Your Blog?
Many new bloggers struggle with choosing a Niche for their blog.
That’s understandable if you’re interested in a variety of topics. How do you decide which one is the best to write about?
That can be a really tough decision! But, it’s a very important first step…
Since your niche will be the basis of your entire Online Business, you should spend a significant amount of time thinking about this.
The good news is that your blog can be successful with almost any Niche you choose, if you learn how to set it up with the right monetization strategies.
Most Profitable Blogging Niches
Some people simply want to be a “hobby blogger,” writing just for fun, with no intent on making money. If that’s what they want to do, that’s perfectly fine.
On the other hand, there are many bloggers who want to make some serious moolah!
If your choice is the latter, there’s one other factor to consider in choosing your blog Niche: market viability.
It’s been said that, “The Riches Are In The Niches” (pronounced “nitches” here), therefore your thoughtful research and planning in this beginning phase will likely pay off in the end.
Research Money-Making Niche Ideas
With each Niche you’re considering, do some research to determine if that topic has the potential to make money.
Research has shown that blogs about Health, Wealth, and Relationships are very successful niches.
For inspiration, spend time searching for, and viewing, blogs in these Niche categories.
Examples:
- Fitness
- Personal Finance
- Dating
Other Niche Topics To Consider
- Arts & Crafts
- Beauty & Fashion
- Business & Marketing
- DIY
- Education
- Food
- Health & Wellness
- Lifestyle/Mom
- Parenting & Family
- Sports
- Travel
While researching blog Niches, take note of the competitive ones, but don’t shy away from them.
Although it can be a challenge to create a blog in a competitive Niche, it can be done because it hasn’t been done with your voice…yet!
Another tip is to choose a Niche that will stick around (is “evergreen”) vs. “trendy,” the latter of which may quickly fade away.
Narrowing Down Your Niche
Once you’ve chosen an overall blog topic, make sure it’s not too broad. If so, you’ll need to “niche down.”
An example would be: if you want your overall niche to be sports, niching down could be writing just about basketball, not all sports.
Niching down even further would be writing about college basketball.
This is important as many experts say that if you try to speak to everyone, you’ll speak to no one.
You want to target a specific audience who will be interested in your content, and potentially what you are selling.
Ultimately, the best Niche for your blog will be the intersection of something you’re knowledgeable in and passionate about.
With this winning combo, writing content for your blog won’t be a struggle. Instead, it will come naturally to you, and will prove to be authentic to your readers.
Use this FREE CHOOSE YOUR NICHE Worksheet to help you explore ideas!
Step #2: Define Your Avatar
All of your blog posts need to be written with your blog Avatar in mind.
What Is An Avatar?
An Avatar is the reader of your blog, your audience, your target customer—your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA). They are people who are searching the internet for answers and solutions to their problem.
Your Avatar, and their problem, is the entire basis for your blog. Without your Avatar, your blog would serve no purpose—unless it’s just a hobby blog, something you’re doing for fun.
Why Is It So Important To Know Your Blog Avatar?
When you niche down on your blog topic, that helps you to narrow in on who you’re writing to—your blog Avatar—the exact person who will be interested in your topic.
Your Avatar will be interested in your blog because they have a problem, they’re searching online for a solution, and your blog content will help them solve it.
Knowing your Avatar inside and out is crucial for you to be able to write authentic, valuable content to help them solve their problem.
What type of person will be searching for, and interested in reading about, your topic?
Knowing the answer to that question will help you create content that will make your readers feel like:
- you know them
- you’re speaking directly to them
- you understand their problem
- you can help them solve their problem
In the college basketball Niche example above, your posts would not be “How To Dribble” as your Avatar is older and already knows how to do that…at least we hope so!
Niche/Avatar Example
If you’re an Empty Nester Mom, you’re my Avatar (my target audience).
My Niche is helping Empty Nester Moms move forward and figure out what to do next, in this new chapter of life, for work and fun.
How To Clearly Define Your Avatar
You need to know various details about the type of person you’re trying to reach, so that your blog content can help them with their problem.
This FREE DEFINE YOUR AVATAR Worksheet can help you get started!
Am I Qualified To Help Others?
You’ll be happy to know that you do not need to be an expert on your topic; you only need to be about 10% ahead of where your Avatar is currently.
As in my example, I am my own Avatar. Before I learned about Online Business, I was that Empty Nester Mom, whose kids had moved out, left wondering what I would do next. I understand the sadness, pain, and feelings of uncertainty for the future.
Once I learned about Online Business, I took the steps to start and build one for myself. Now, my goal is to help other Empty Nester Moms to do the same.
Are you interested? If so, what is your Niche? Who is your Avatar? Leave a comment!
Step #3: Name Your Website
After you Choose Your Niche and Define Your Avatar, next you’ll need to Name Your Website (aka, choose your domain name/url).
This is another area where many new bloggers seem to get stuck!
Maybe you can’t think of any ideas…or maybe you’ve thought of a million names and can’t decide on just one!
Use Your Name
To solve that problem, some people use their own name as their domain name—first/last.com, first/middle.com, etc., thereby dubbing themselves as “the brand.”
The advantage to using your name for your website is that you aren’t pigeonholing yourself into a particular topic. When using your name, if you start your blog with one topic and it doesn’t work out, you can always pivot to something else, without worrying about your website name not matching your content.
Check Domain Name Availability
Whether you use your own name, or come up with a creative name for your website, go to Bluehost, (the Web Hosting Service recommended below), to check if the domain name is available, and purchase it there.
If it’s unvailable, you can try different variations of it, by adding “a” or “the” at the beginning (if it makes sense), or just try something entirely different.
Note: It’s best to use the .com extension for your website since it’s the oldest and most familiar, and is viewed as the most professional. While some may argue that Google gives it the most authority, there’s no clear evidence that it will make your posts rank higher than those with a different domain extension.
The Guide
When I started answering (vs. just asking) questions in Facebook Groups, I realized that I needed to share what I’ve learned about Online Business.
So, in an effort to help others, I created EMPTY NESTER MOM To .com (The Guide).
The Guide has five sections that outline the path I followed to start my Online Business, and can help catapult you from stuck to start:
- FOUNDATION
- CONTENT
- PROMOTION
- MONETIZATION
- MINDSET
Ready To Set Up Your Blog?
After you:
- Purchase Equipment
- Get The Guide
- Choose Your Niche
- Define Your Avatar
- Name Your Website
…you’re ready to set up your blog!
Web Hosting Service/Content Platform
The next step is to give your blog a place to live on the Internet:
Sign up with Web Hosting Service—Bluehost
When you sign up with Bluehost, it includes a FREE 1-click install of WordPress.org as your content platform. If you have any problems along the way, Bluehost has great 24/7 customer support. They’ve been a trusted provider since 2003!
Legal Pages
After setting up your blog, read this post about how to protect your Online Business, by adding these very important Legal Pages to your website.
Related:
3 Must-Have Pages To Make Your Website Legal
Why It’s Important To Learn SEO For Blogging Success
Why Photos Are Important To Have On Your Blog
5 Reasons You Need An Email List For Your Online Business
You May Have Missed:
How To Move Beyond The Empty Nest: 8 Tips For Moms
Empty Nester Moms: How To Figure Out What’s Next For Work
Empty Nester Moms: Now Is The Best Time To Start An Online Business
Find More Here:
YOUTUBE
3 Important First Steps For Starting Your Blog
It’s Your Turn To Fly, Mama!
