Starting the Blog – The First 2 Weeks Before Going Live
Welcome!
My name is Leah and this month my husband, Samuel, and I decided that we were going to start a blog! Since we made the decision, I have been researching everything I can to help set us up for success. I was surprised by how much content is actually out there on this topic. I guess that means everybody, probably including you, is trying to start a blog! I am already finding their content to be super helpful in terms of website set-up, monetization strategies, income/expense expectations, and more. Since that is the case, I thought I’d record my experience setting up a blog as well, both so I can look back on one and to help encourage others to start in this space!
Motivations for Starting the Blog
First, let’s talk about my motivations in starting this blog. There are a few reasons why I’m super excited about starting this blog, Little Moments, but let’s start with the one we probably have in common – making income!
Currently, my husband and I both work full time jobs. We also bought our very first house last year in 2023! It’s a two-unit house and we currently live in one unit and short-term rent out the second unit. It’s been nice having a second income stream though the rental, but unlike blogging, that project had a lot of up-front costs. When we bought this house, Samuel and I decided that we would try to buy a second house in about two or three years. Right now, we about a little over one year out from that goal of buying a second property and we’re saving for the down payment and closing costs. Hopefully, this blog can turn into an additional source of income one day. I’m not naive enough to think that it will turn into that right away, but through hard work and consistency I think that it can turn into that one day. At least that’s my goal and probably yours too if you’re thinking about starting your own blog.
Another reason I’m really excited to start this blog is for memory’s sake. Samuel and I have been so fortunate to have traveled to so many places in the few years we’ve known each other so far. For some context, Samuel and I met when at university when we were 20 and 19, respectively. That was in 2020. Now, just a few year later Samuel is 24 and I’m 23 and we’ve traveled to over 10 countries and 50 cities. After we got married, we went on a three month honeymoon throughout Europe. If that doesn’t show how important traveling the world is to us, I’m not sure what would! Anyway, with all those trips I don’t want to lose any of the memories. I think writing about our travel and sharing our experiences can both help others who are planning trips of their own and serve as a way for Samuel and I remember all the places we’ve been. Maybe this is thinking too far into the future, but I am seriously so excited to show this blog to our kids one day so they can see all the places their Mom and Dad went to!
Now that you know why Samuel and I decided to make a blog about travel, let’s talk about everything that we did before the blog even went live. At this point, some people might decide to jump all in and buy expensive websites and set-up affiliate marketing, but Samuel and I are really thinking about this blog for the long-term so we decided to take the time to plan it out a bit and set ourselves up for what I’m hoping turns into success lol!
Week 1: Realistic Goals and Getting Started
After we committed to the idea of Little Moments Blog, we decided we’d give ourselves about a couple weeks to prepare for the blog to go “Live.” During this time, we set some goals for what we wanted to accomplish over this “prep” time.
The Original Goals We Set –
- Prepare 8+ blog posts and schedule 2 posts to go live per week
- Prepare Pins and schedule 1 a day
- Research SEO keywords
- Design the blog
- Set-up a subscription email
- Set-up a Pinterest account
If you’re reading this to use as a guide for your our journey in starting a blog, I’d say the most important thing is to make realistic goals. Keep in mind that Samuel and I are working on this together, so we have the manpower of two people where as you might starting solo and already have a bunch on your plate. It’s easy to get discouraged knowing that you won’t see a penny for months, but that’s just part of the how this “job” works. Samuel and I decided we wanted to have at least 8 blog written before going live to give us some wiggle room in our busy schedules. This way, we’d be starting the blog with 2 months’ worth of content, so we would feel super rushed and could take our time continuing to write more posts. Another thing I wanted to do was make sure to write a certain number of articles before I even thought about setting up the website. I think for a lot of people, myself included, setting up the website will be most fun part of starting a blog. Of course writing content about something you enjoy or are passionate about will be fun for the long-run, but in the beginning setting up the blog website seems like the first real step to making that happen. Also, setting up the website costs money, so I wanted to make sure Samuel and I actually enjoyed and could see ourselves writing 2+ blogs a week for the foreseeable future.
During week one, we completed one of these goals hahah!
- Set-up a Pinterest account
Week 2: Designing the Blog and Prepping Posts
At the start of week two, we had five blogs written and were off to a good start. I had also made about two weeks’ worth of Pinterest Pins. At this point, Samuel and I were thinking we might not need a whole month to prepare for the blog going live, but we didn’t want to get too excited. That being said, it felt like a good time to start on creating and designing the website. Here’s a break-down of how I set-up a website in the cheapest way I could find.
How I Set Up My Website –
- Set-Up a Bluehost Hosted WordPress Account
- The first step in creating a website is decided where to host it. I did a lot of research over the past week to figure out where I should host my blog. After seeing countless blogs and YouTube videos about why you should use a Bluehost, I decided I’d start there. It’s the most affordable option out there and they cover the cost of your URL for the first year!
- I chose the basic plan, which cost me $38.77 for a one-year subscription.
- This is where I picked my website URL, LittleMomentsTravelandMore.com.
- Buy a Template from Etsy
- Once you have a Bluehost WordPress website, it’s time to design it! I wanted our blog to look professional and bright, and since I have no clue how to build a website I opted to buy a design template from Etsy.
- I used the Mary Jane template from SkyandStars, which was only $23.10 and makes my website look so clean and professional!
- Design the Website Using the Template
- Incorporating the template into my website was quite easy, SkyandStars provides helpful step-by-step instructions for the process.
- It took me a bit of time to get used to the WordPress site and where to go to edit certain things, but SkyandStars also had instructions on that part too which was super helpful.
- I’d say this took me about four hours in total. This is where I set-up my homepage, navigation bar, about us page, and the sidebar.
- Schedule the First Blog Post
- Since we already had five blog posts written, I transferred them over to the website and scheduled their posting dates. This was super exciting! I scheduled the first blog post to go live on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. I scheduled the other blogs to go live every Tuesday and Thursday after that, so a twice a week posting schedule.
During week two, we completed the below goals!
- Prepare 8+ blog posts and schedule 2 posts to go live per week
- Prepare Pins and schedule 1 a day
- Design the blog
Summary: Making Good Progress and A Long Way to Go!
Well, that’s the recap of everything Samuel and I did the first two weeks after we decided to start the blog! Below are the goals we set for ourselves and as you can see we made good progress, but still have a couple to work on. That’s ok! We’re learning as we go and doing the best we can. We’ll work on accomplishing the rest of these goals and more over the coming months!
Prepare 8+ blog posts and schedule 2 posts to go live per weekPrepare Pins and schedule 1 a day- Research SEO keywords
Design the blog- Set-up a subscription email
Set-up a Pinterest account
Our first blog is scheduled to go live on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. We’re so excited to see where this blog can take us and are having a lot of fun reliving all our trips together! I plan to continue posting little recaps of our journey in starting this blog over the months to come. Hopefully, this provides some value to those of you who are interested in starting your own blog! Stay tuned!
-Leah and Samuel
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