Okay, I’ve finally set up my blog: Quips & Tips for Healthy Women, and boy is the learning curve steep when you’re creating a blog! But it was well worth it. Here’s what I learned the hard way.

First, Why Freelance Writers Blog

The benefits of blogging for writers include:

• The joy of writing articles or shorts that you don’t have to sell first. 
• The satisfaction of immediate publishing. 
• The freedom to write about the things you love. 
• The motivation and discipline to write regularly (I definitely feel a sense of obligation to write for my blogs, and I write even if I don’t feel like it. Mostly.).
• The opportunity to increase your writing skills.
• The potential to meet new people (I love when people email me or comment on my blog posts!).

And, here’s 5 steps to creating a blog, with or without blog software…(Click the book cover for more information about blogging).

Creating a Blog For Freelance Writers:

1. Figure out your hook. My hook for Quips & Tips for Healthy Women is that I offer an inspirational quotation from a strong woman in history, then I pair it with practical life tips. And it comes from what I love to do! I love inspirational quotations, I love strong women in history, and I love practical life tips.

For instance, 5 Ways to Find Your True Self With Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes how to be authentic, based on Hirsi Ali’s memoir. Suze Orman Explains Good Debt Versus Bad Debt combines a letter to Suze Orman in Oprah Magazine with practical tips about financial debt. When you’re creating a blog, find your unique slant.

2. Decide if you want advertising. See the Amazon ads, Google ads, and Kontera context links on the side panels and peppered throughout this blog? Decide if you want that when you’re creating a blog. This is how people make money blogging and writing. On the downside, many web surfers don’t like those Google or Amazon ads. So, you need to decide if you want to advertise products on your blog. And, decide if you want to use blog software.

3. Choose a blog hosting site and blogging software. I’m familiar with Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, and this site (Blogger). I like them for different reasons. That said, my “Quips and Tips From Adventurous Women” blog is a Wordpress.org powered site. That’s because I want to include ads. Wordpress.com doesn’t allow ads (at this point, anyway). I originally created Inspirational Quotations For Women on a Wordpress.com powered site, but decided I wanted to add advertising…so off to Wordpress.org I went. So, deciding whether or not you want advertising on your blog can determine which blogging software you choose.

4. Choose a theme or skin. If you go with Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com, you’ll need to pick a Wordpress theme. There are hundreds of free themes out there - and lots of blogging software - but I found none that offered all that I wanted. So, I bought my theme that’s currently on Quips & Tips for Healthy Women from Solostream Web Studio - and it was so worth it! Michael Pollock, who created the WP-Magazine Theme, offers great, fast support (okay, he hasn’t responded to my last email, but I am confident that he will…I did send it on a Friday, after all). Anyway, there’s a lot of work in creating a blog - just because a theme is already created doesn’t mean you get a free ride.

5. Add content every day. Okay, writing for your blog every day is a huge task, but the more you write, the more traffic you’ll see. Plus, the more you do it, the quicker and better you’ll get. If you focus your blog on something that you love writing about - such as inspirational quotations from strong women in history for me - then writing for your blog won’t be a chore.

The benefits of blogging for writers definitely outweigh the hassles of creating a blog. Plus, there’s tons of blogging support and blogging software out there — when you have questions or frustrations, you’re definitely not alone.

Michael Pollock at Solostream.com has been absolutely fabulous in answering all my questions. Thanks, Michael!

And, my websites are hosted through HostGator - their technical support is also amazing. They’re knowledgable, friendly, polite, and offer 24 hour support. They’re fabulous.