The last week of December and first week of January was about setting Wordeco up! A little time consuming but very interesting indeed. One step a day! And now that it is live, my learning curve is going wild (installing & trying new plugins, reading more about SEO, tagging etc) and looking out for more, all the time.
The sense of accomplishment you get at the end of the day keeps you going!
Of course, I am not an expert at it. I am sharing the steps I took to have my own personal space online.
Step 1: Start Writing Now
If you have this urge to write every now and then; you should write whatever crosses your mind.
Keep a diary along or just download Evernote on your cell phone / tablet / desktop and start writing to shut the noises up and to have a peace of mind.
Evernote has a very pleasing interface. It allows you to categorize your pieces of writing into notebooks. You can create multiple notebooks, rename them and save your notes in the respective ones.
Another cool feature is that your notes gets synced easily. So, if you have saved your piece of writing on the Evernote using desktop and on your way to office or while you are waiting for a friend at a cafe; you think of an edit you can make the changes instantly through your phone.
Another cool feature is that your notes gets synced easily. So, if you have saved your piece of writing on the Evernote using desktop and on your way to office or while you are waiting for a friend at a cafe; you think of an edit you can make the changes instantly through your phone.
Lastly, once you have written it; you can refine your thoughts whenever you get the chance to go back at it and decide whether you want to share it publicly. And that is where the blog part comes in.
Step 2: Decide how you want to share your thoughts
Is a tweet or an Instagram post enough for sharing your thoughts and do justice with your piece of writing? If yes, go ahead and share. But how about having your own blog?
With ownership comes greater responsibility but also more freedom and flexibility for being creative. Aurelia from dailytravelpill has done an amazing job in differentiating between blogging and instagram. So, I won’t go into detail.
But decide as soon as you can and go ahead. You can always start easy and go big. Or you can always go big and use easy bits as leverage to gain audience.
But decide as soon as you can and go ahead. You can always start easy and go big. Or you can always go big and use easy bits as leverage to gain audience.
I am doing the latter.
Step 3: Creating a blog
Here comes my most favorite advice: ask for help and enjoy the perks along the way. If you are not a techie; look out among your friends or family and you will end up setting it up. The trick is to know and show that you really want it!
The way I did it was simple. I read articles about setting up a blog and found out that the first thing I need is a domain and a hosting. Then, after having all the information, I discussed it with my techie guy who is passionate about it and asked for help.
Remember, people around you are even busier than you are! So, I bought the hosting myself while sending him screenshots if I am doing it right – just to be sure! Whenever you are buying online, always look out for promo codes. I ended up saving 80% by trying different promo codes given on Go Daddy website.
Once I had the domain and hosting, I gave access to my tech guy and got it set up.
Step 4: Decorating a blog
Once I had it set up; it had a very basic layout. So, I tried multiple themes; decided between the need for pages or categories and chose the latter one (for now); tested out different design options within the chosen theme and here you are!
On one of the days to school, my mom gave me an advice; which I keep with myself.
Always take away something good from all your experiences, from meeting people and making friends.
So, I don’t shy away from learning or for that matter directly asking for an advice from people who are in the same boat. For decorating my blog, I visited various other blogs to check out how well they are doing and what could be my takeaways; from layout to color schemes, font styles and sizes, level of interaction they offer etc. This included, Brainpickings, Medium, Mark Manson, Mitch Albom, Daily Travel Pill and a few others. Each of them has their own way but you get attracted to read for a reason or two. and you will have your own way eventually but you have to give your audience a reason to stay at your place for a minute or two and keeps coming back for living those minutes again.
Of course, I am nowhere near but hey at least I am trying. Being a big fan of Barbara Corcoran; I usually start my days with her start your business already tweets.
So, let me quote her here: “The only way I know to start a business is to start it. You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.” I guess replace the ‘business’ with the ‘blog’ and you are good to go!
Hey, one clap for me (if not two) for starting wordeco.com? 😉
Step 5: Get it Going
At the end of the day, it is about your passion. Its about doing what you love and living it. And if you are passionate about it and already in love with it; you will get it going. You will keep it alive.
