Starting a Blog Day 2: Finding a Theme & Writing Your First Blog Post

Welcome to day number 2 of starting a blog.  Yesterday, we covered the topics of registering a classy domain name that captures the purpose of your blog as well as the steps involved in purchasing a web hosting package and beginning the 48-72 hour process of changing your name servers and DNS settings.

Even though you are patiently waiting for your domain to propagate with much anticipation, there is still much that you can be doing to prepare your blog for its official launch.  So let’s not waste a single moment and get started, shall we?

It is time to write your very first blog post

Since blogging is technically a writing industry, you have now enlisted yourself into the business of writing content.  Your blog will not survive without quality content, so I can not think of a better way to start out day 2 of starting a blog than to jump right in and write your very first blog post to have ready and waiting when your site is ready to launch.  Think of this as a practice session.

Write a post that introduces yourself, your background, hobbies, hopes, aspirations, and what your future readership can expect to see as a loyal visitor of your blog going forward.  What is the point of your blog?  Why are you starting this blog?  Why should visitors take their valuable time to revisit your blog for future updates?  Portray these ideas to your readers!

This should keep you busy for the next couple of hours.  But don’t fret, as you gain more experience and find that special groove that works for you, writing content for your blog will take less and less time.  Once completed, save your post to a convenient location to have ready when your blog is ready for action.

Now it is time to find a theme

Once you have written that first blog post, it is now time to begin researching a WordPress theme that you are going to install on your new blog.  Your theme, sometimes referred to as the ‘skin’ (although this is not the technical term) is going to be the look and feel of your new blog.  Essentially, it is the glue that holds everything together and provides the appearance and functionality that your visitors will come to experience and enjoy.

Now, if you are anything like me, finding an effective theme that fits into your personal style and functionality is going to take some time.  I never knew that I had such a “type A” personality until I began shopping and experimenting with WordPress themes.  Man am I picky!  My 1st blog went through more than 10 themes before I settled on one that fit my needs and preferences.  I promise you, it will take time before you find that perfect theme for your blog, and that time will come later, so try not to focus too much time and energy in finding that perfect theme right at this moment.  You have many more important things to be doing.

For this reason, and especially if you are a new blogger, I would recommend finding a free theme for the time being.  At this point in your blogging career, you do not have the faintest clue what you are looking for in a theme, and there is no reason in wasting unnecessary funds on purchasing a premium WordPress theme, just to end up purchasing another (or more) later.  After you have been blogging for awhile, you will then have a much better idea on what you are looking for in a theme, and can then purchase one to your liking.  But for the time being, I would recommend staying with a free theme.

But even shopping among free themes will be time consuming, so pick wisely.  But try not to spend too much time on this.  You’ll be finding a new theme in the near future.

At this point, don’t worry about downloading a theme.  Just locate one that you prefer for the time being.  Since your domain is still propagating, you will not be able to upload your theme anyway.  So just bookmark one that you like for safe keeping, and you will be ready to upload it in a couple of days.  The downloading and uploading process is much simpler through the actual WordPress platform.

Once you have written your very first blog post introducing yourself to the world, and selected a viable theme to use when your blog launches, your 2nd day of starting a blog is now complete.  Go relax, and we will catch up with you tomorrow.

Starting a Blog Day 2 – Finding a Theme & Writing Your First Blog Post is a post from: BloggerGo