I’m not a huge blogger, but I do indeed have a clue on how to start a blog. I’ve designed blogs for hundreds of teacherpreneurs just like yourself and I hope this little blog post gives you the boost you need to start writing. In this post you will be determining your budget and platform. These two decisions are vital to make before you start a blog.
Decide on your budget
This is the biggie. And when I talk about budget, I don’t just mean monetary, I mean how much time you are going to budget towards your blog too. If you are going to blog once a month, post a few products here and there, then maybe $200 plus a year is a bit out of your budget. But, if you intend on blogging once a week, soft selling, linking to products, taking part in link ups and really spending a great deal of time on your blog or site, then $200 is not much at all!
Here is a breakdown of some costs you can expect to be involved.
Blogger:
If you decide to go with Blogger, then your costs will be more minimal:
- Theme: $20 – $35
- .com (if you decide you even want a .com) about $5 a year when registering for 2 years (through GoDaddy)
WordPress:
WordPress is much more expensive to blog on:
- Hosting can range from $3.95 to $17.50 (plus) a month. I currently host with TechSurgeons for $17.50 a month. They are incredibly reliable and their customer service is unequalled.
If you are not having a designer set up your site for you, then you will require a theme.
- Genesis Framework: $59.95
- Theme: $75 – $130 (plus)
As you can see, the difference is quite large. Also, if you are having a designer design your site for you, the charge for a WordPress design is quite a bit more than a Blogger blog. You can see my pricing here to see how it differs.
Decide on your platform:
Your budget might determine whether you want to go with Blogger or WordPress, but you also need to think long-term when deciding to start a blog. With WordPress you can have an awesome members only free resource library like mine has or you can even run your own online shop like I do! WordPress also gives you the option to have an online portfolio.
However, if you are happy with running your TpT store and having a blog just for blogging, then Blogger might be the way to go. There is much talk about Google ‘owning your content’ if you blog with Blogger – but this has been some what blown out of proportion. Google will only remove your comment if it is spammy, pornographic, racist etc. If you blog ethically then you will never have a problem.
Once you have made these two big decisions, you can really get down to the nitty gritty of starting your blog. Have any questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll be sure to answer them in upcoming posts.
