The internet has broken down the limitations of space and time to allow people to pursue their own FREEDOM! It has given people the ability to build a side income in addition to their regular job or even replace their regular job without large sacrifices of time and/or money. Don’t get me wrong, it will take some time and money to get started, but the investment is minimal compared to other forms of starting your own business.
We will be focusing on starting a blog in this post. If you are looking for a quick way to make money, then starting a blog is probably not the best place to start. However, we do believe it is essential to start a blog to help you grow your own email list. As you will hear many, many times the money is in your list! You want to build an email list of people that relate to you and your personality, which will help you in the long run.
There are two different paths that we pursued in our journey to starting a blog. We will explain both ways to help you make an educated decision if you want to embark on this journey. First of all, with either path you choose, you need to begin with selecting a provider. Think of it as a place where your blog/website will reside. We use SiteGround as our hosting provider. You can sign up through this SiteGround link and get your hosting for as low as $3.95/month. When you sign up with SiteGround, you also get a FREE domain name.
You will also want to sign up for WordPress. The majority of blogs and websites are powered by WordPress. It is easy and FREE to sign up for WordPress at WordPress.org.
Once you have your hosting and WordPress account established, there are two different paths you can take. We will give you the more difficult of the two options first. (We are speaking from personal experience here!)
THE NOT SO EASY WAY:
Install WordPress on your hosting provider and modify your WordPress technical settings to optimize your site. Then, you will need to choose a theme and install the theme you choose on your site. There are a lot of options when it comes to themes, some are FREE where as others may cost you a little money. We highly recommend Divi Themes. Divi is a little more expensive. But, it is well worth the money since it gives you the ability to make changes directly on your site. If you had to make changes on the back end of WordPress, you hope and pray the changes comes out correctly on your actual web page. We can’t say enough great things about Divi and how helpful it has been for us in designing our site. You can check out Divi from Elegant Themes with our Divi affiliate link.
You will also want to install various plugins on your site to handle things such as social media sharing, email opt-in for building your email list, etc. Then, you will need to start designing your web pages.
If you are a technical type person and enjoy doing all of this on your own, then all you need to do is sign up for your hosting and WordPress and begin customizing your site.
For those of you that are not tech savvy (LIKE US!), we will now introduce you to an EASIER way of getting started. We found this EASY way after struggling for over a year doing all of the above on our own. We can’t even begin to describe how simple the following process is compared to THE DIFFICULT WAY listed above! This link will take you to the site for EASY BLOG IN A BOX. We are an affiliate for EASY BLOG IN A BOX because it was a HUGE help in getting our website up and running quickly. You can find the details through the link, but we want to give you a little information on what you will get with EASY BLOG IN A BOX. First of all, you can avoid being overwhelmed by all of the technical side of setting up your site without having to hire a web developer. And, what you receive from EASY BLOG IN A BOX gives you a starting point with a beautiful website already setup with 9 Pre-designed Pages. All you have to do is start customizing your pages and personalizing the site as your own.
WHAT’S INCLUDED WITH A EASY BLOG IN A BOX:
*Installation of WordPress and Site Configuration
*Divi Theme by Elegant Themes ($249 Value). THIS RIGHT HERE MAKES IT WORTH THE PURCHASE!!
* Divi Builder Plugin (Drag and Drop Builder)
*Monarch Social Media Sharing Plugin
*Bloom Email Opt-In Plugin
*9 Pre-Designed Pages
*3 Pre-Formatted Blog Posts
*SSL Certificate Installation (If you signed up for hosting with SiteGround)
*Installation of Recommended Plugins
*Ongoing Technical Support & Community with video tutorials, blogging tips, troubleshooting, etc. in a private Facebook Group
We want to expand on the Ongoing Technical Support & Community section listed on the website for EASY BLOG IN A BOX. It is listed pretty much like it is above on their site, but it is SOOOO MUCH MORE. We can’t even begin to describe how helpful the video tutorials are and the support you receive from the community in the private Facebook Group! What they don’t tell you is how great Trevor and Angie are at providing help! Trevor has helped us many times! As we stated above, we ARE NOT “techie” people. I am sure Trevor has rolled his eyes at some of the questions we have asked:), but he is always there and very responsive to all questions. For example: I sent the following message to Trevor late one night – “I was working on our website and lost everything on the home page. Is there a way to get it back? Even back to the original default would be better than what I currently have.” Within a few minutes, Trevor had already replied with very simple and easy to follow instructions to get us back up and going!
If you are looking for an EASY way to get started with your own website, then check out EASY BLOG IN A BOX. You will not regret the investment you make to get up and running quickly and all of the technical support that you will receive!
