Starting A Blog

A blog is a site run by a person or group written to evoke conversation and education its audience.

Before the term “blog” was created, a blog was referred to as a “web log.” A web log is essentially an online diary of information organized chronologically with the latest “logs” appearing at the top of the page. Blogs became more prevalent in the late ’90s and were used by many businesses and individuals to promote products, provide reviews and disperse information on a wide variety of topics.

Since blogs are written from an individual perspective, it immediately creates a connection between the blogger and the reader. Comment sections are often seen below the blog post, opening the door to further contact.

This casual, open dialogue is one of the most significant benefits of starting a blog. You can bounce ideas back and forth with others and connect with those who share the same interests. Your readers will likely trust you more, seeing you as a person and not just a business. More trust leads to more potential sales, whether it be your services, an affiliate lead or product.

Anyone with a computer and a web host can start a blog. The start-up cost is minimal, and if you learn how to do it right, you’ll make your money back in no time.

At first glance, starting a blog can seem overwhelming. But breaking it down one by one, it’s not so difficult. Here are 5 steps to help you walk through this process seamlessly.

How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps

1. Choose a name for your blog. Check  the availability of potential domain names here. 
2. Get your blog online. Choose a hosting provider and purchase the domain name. Check out this article about GreenGeeks and why we recommend them.
3. Set up your blog setup on WordPress.
   If you are using GreenGeeks, click here are step by step directions
4. Choose a theme (free or paid).
   A theme is the basic design of your site (layout, fonts, background colour, etc). Click the blue ‘activate’ button and you’re ready to start designing!
5. Write your first Blog!

You’ve got your website set up—now start writing!

On the left menu panel, click “Posts.” A default post will appear.

Add the title of your blog in the top text box.

Type up your blog post content in the main text box.

To the right of the window, you’ll find a place to add categories and tags. Use these to organize your posts. Create your own unique categories and tags, which appear in the sidebar or below the blog title.

At the very bottom is the featured image link. Click this and it will pull up your media library. Select an image and it will appear on the main blog post feed as well as the blog post itself.

Once you complete the blog post, go ahead and click publish! And just like magic, your post will appear at the top of your website.

You can schedule the blog to be posted at a specific time if you’d like. Want to add to it or fix a typo? You can edit it at any time. Now get ready to write your next blog post!

Is it possible to find a hosting provider that provides quality service in ADDITION to being budget-friendly?!

As you may be well aware, there are a plethora of web host providers out there promising to deliver the best service… How do you choose? Several years ago, DasStudio discovered GreenGeeks hosting, and we’re not looking back!
We recommend them to all of our clients. Here are some of the qualities we GEEK out about….

EcoFriendly Environment

It may surprise you that the web site hosting industry is indeed harmful to our environment! The average web hosting service produces 1,390 lb of C02 per year with predictions that it will use as much energy as the airline industry by 2020! GreenGeeks is the most eco-friendly web hosting service in existence today. You can find them on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partners. GreenGeeks uses environmental foundations to purchase wind energy credits to put back into the grid three times (3X) the amount of energy they consume. Other hosting providers run on fossil fuels or other harmful sources of energy.

High Performance

We’ve heard nightmares of clients having their sites down repeatedly for hours at a time! This is especially common with some of the cheap web hosts out there. With GreenGeeks’ 99.9% service uptime, you can be assured your site be up and stay up! They also offer complimentary CDN (Content Delivery Network to help speed up your site.  To increase security, account isolation is another excellent feature, protecting your website against hackers. Their secure cFS framework allows them to protect against malware in real-time.

Superior Customer Service

Do you cringe when you are only given the option to call customer support with 45+ minute wait times? GreenGeeks offers 24/7 online customer support (email or live chat) in addition to being available by phone 7 days a week (M-F 9Am-12AM; Sat-Sun 9Am – 8 PM). Generally, we never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a representative to respond.

Cost Effective / Budget Friendly

Who doesn’t want to save money? At $2.95/month GreenGeeks is one of the lowest cost providers out there. GreenGeeks offers a free domain for an entire year and will even provide one free web transfer, free of charge! So if you’re looking to migrate your existing site (from another web host provider), you can have the professionals handle it without lifting a finger.  When you select a 2 or 3-year plan, it works out to be about $5-7CAD a month which is way cheaper than other host providers. They currently have a 60% off which will be automatically applied as you go through the steps.

If you want to go ahead sign up you can by following this link… ( Das Studio tracking link)  https://www.greengeeks.com/track/designdasstudioca/cp-default

Just follow these steps:

1. Click button (Get Started)
2. Select Hosting Plan & choose a domain name (I Need to Register a new Domain)
3. Fill out all your contact info
4. Best coupon value will automatically apply
5. Once complete, you will receive 3 emails total (With an important account and hosting information for the last 2)

Any questions? Just ask us! We’re happy to help.