Everyone around the globe asking about how to build a successful blog, and every blog on the internet have his own top 10 tips... they write everything we want to hear, let's be honest, did the technique works for you?
It's March 29, 2020 now, and this is my first post in just 3 days after I buy my domain "payasyouwant.com.
Here I am stuck..... I don't know what to write, and I don't know where to start, all I have is just the bigger picture of my blog "a theme".
I experience this a couple of times in my entire career when i built a new site, so I will write something honest for my first blog post "How I Built My Blog".
How I Built My Blog
First, i want to say that it's all base on my own experience and what basically I did, I didn't mean to offend anyone if you have a different ways to build your site.
So where do I usually start when building a new site?
Blog Objective
If you read the "About Me" page, you soon realize that I'm just trying to find a better job and generate other sources of income using this blog (that was my objective).
Don't get me wrong, I do have a job, I love my job" My company gives us a lot (to me and my family), I'm just trying to find another source of income. Covid-19 changes how people see the world, how people work, how people live their lives, and the world is different now during the pandemic.
So I want to generate a new income source but I have my regular job, so I have my theme "Freelance"
Objective: Generate Income
Theme: Freelance
Research On The Internet
I have my objective and the theme but I don't know how to do it, so I'm doing research on the internet, where is the best place to ask rather than google?
The Internet gave me many references about it: Adsense, affiliate, freelancer, flipping, sell something on the marketplace, etc... I got a lot until I saw something new "Pay What You Want Concept" I like that.
Pay What You Want <-- ill go that way
We ain't talking about the best way to reach our goal, we talk about where you have your passion.... what do you like? how you like to do it?.... just give it a go you never know before you try !!
Some time people using other people's experience as a reference and start from that idea ... I didn't say it was wrong, but at some point, it will not be fun or works anymore because you and the people you follow have a different reason behind it.
Start with something you like will make your project more fun, and you can enjoy your adventure. It's really important.
Get My Brand
I have my objective, theme, and how I will do it, so I'm going to the next step "get my brand name".
The brand is everything, short sentence that talks a lot about you: Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How.
I'm going to GoDaddy to claim my brand instead and type "paywhatyouwant.com"
Ok, I need to find alternatives... so I try to find the synonym
That's is how I find my brand name "my domain name" and I buy it from google domain in the end, 165.930 Indonesian rupiah (11 USD)
Sometimes it didn't go that easy and you got stuck. The option you have was: choosing the alternatives TLD (.co .net. .online, etc), using the dash between words, or just buy the brand from the owner (if you have enough money).
Social Brand
After getting the domain name, the next step is to acquire all the usernames on social media, in my case I failed on twitter link... so I just use twitter.com/payasyouwant1 instead.
The Website Platform
I don't want to get caught up in the debate about what platform is best for creating a website.
Joomla, Wordpress, Blogspot, Wix ... they all have their own user success stories, so every platform is good.
What matches your theme, your skills, your time, your goals, your budget, your team ... use it.
In my case, I will use Blogspot by blogger because I feel it fits into my strategy (base on my own experience), period - no debate.
Website Template
Yes, I can build my own website template that suits my needs, SEO, design, and everything ... but it takes time, the things I don't have "the time".
I want my website going online ASAP and the free theme is not an option because I will spend a lot of time to modify it.
So, I will buy my theme, 10 USD is not worth the debate.... not even worth thinking about it in my opinion, because I have a bigger goal to reach.
This is the bill (i modified a little using inspect element, I change the date, etc to hide my payment info).
How To Installing My Blog
The last step was to connect everything, The Domain, Web Platform, and The Template. Its easy task only takes 5 - 15 minutes.
1. blogger.com >> Create a new blog
2. google domain >> Click on domain and connect with the blog
3. back to blogger >> Theme >> Install New Theme
4. Done
Create a website is easy task, the next step is obstacles
The first thing to do after all steps above is to rearrange the design, menu, and start creating some static content. it requires a little bit of creativity and a lot of moods.
At this stage, I will go back to the template instruction (if you buy the premium template, they gave you manual) start from there and ended by writing about me page.
And Finish, that is how I built my website.
notes: If you were interested in some of the details that I wrote above (domain, branding, platform, etc) you can google it or ask me in the comments section below.
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