I’ve been asked several times recently via email, Twitter and in person how I setup this blog. For example, I got this email from Karol.
I really like your blog’s design and see you’re using Thesis. Did you do it yourself or did you hire someone? I’m looking for a designer.
Thanks!
Karol
I responded to Karol but since I’ve been asked a few times now, here is how I setup this blog.
Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links.
1.) Reserve your domain name
I used to be a big user of GoDaddy.com but then somebody introduced me to NameCheap.com. They are the same price as GoDaddy but NameCheap.com will give you free private domain registration where GoDaddy.com charges an extra $9 for it. I was paying the extra and happy that I don’t have to now.
2.) Setup hosting
I also tried GoDaddy.com for hosting but it didn’t go very well. I ended up switching in the middle of the day to HostGator.com. I announced on Twitter that I was switching and they sent me a message back. I was off to a good start. In addition, they have many ways of obtaining technical support including online chat which I have used a few times and they have been able to fix my issues right away.
Maybe my favorite feature is that with the $7.95 plan, you can keep adding domain names to your account. I’m now running 2 or 3 domains off of one account and plan to add more. Get HostGator info.
3.) Install WordPress
I’m going to assume you are using HostGator and will be installing WordPress from there. I’m not the expert on these steps having done them just once but this site has lots of good details to help you out.
4.) Get Thesis
Ok, the real magic starts to happen when you get Thesis. Technically, Thesis is considered a theme. However, I call it a framework. It’s so much more than just a skin of your site. It’s a framework on which you can design your site pretty easily. It’s not free but it’s inexpensive compared to hiring a designer and gives you so much flexibility.
Some sites that use Thesis. Notice how unique but professional they all look?
Once you decide to purchase Thesis, you’ll have access to the forums there where your questions can be answered on how to customize. For instance, I knew that I wanted a large footer so I searched the forums for “wide footer” and got the answer. Other times, I couldn’t find the answer and had to post and get some help. Easy. Get more info about Thesis.
5.) Design your site
Thesis settings will allow you to set some parameters on your site such as the columns, fonts, how you show teasers, if you show a feature space, etc. Here’s the options from the admin screen.
Beyond that, I would suggest that you make code tweaks to customize it. Not only can you tweak the code but you can design custom elements. On this blog, I designed the header only and made the rest of the elements coordinate with it.
Resources for designing:
- Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
- Establish a color palette
- Dafont.com
- SmashingMagazine.com
- Photoshop brushes
Definitely need to use the tools the pros use. I happen to have Photoshop but you can also use Photoshop Elements. A fully functional 30 day free trial is available here.
Use the VisiBone Webmasters Color Lab to play around with colors and decide on a color palette.
Lots of fun fonts for free (I love alliteration) at Dafont.com.
See those cute icons in the upper right under my mini-bio area? Those are from SmashingMagazine.com. They have amazing sets of icons and graphics FREE and they are really high quality. Highly recommend looking there.
There are many places to find free Photoshop brushes but I’m going to recommend deviantART to search for many great ones that are beautifully done.
6.) Promote your site!
Once you’ve got your blog looking professional and you’ve created killer content, you have to promote it so people will come. I do a combination of things such as sharing my links via social media, target specific forums that I’m a member of, commenting on blogs and I submit my site using Bookmarking Demon.
I wasn’t familiar with a product like Bookmarking Demon before I had this blog but what it does is create accounts on various social bookmarking sites for you and then after the initial account creation, you can submit your links to each of the sites. Even if it had just created the 100+ accounts for me, it would have been worth the purchase. I read a case study of a woman who created the accounts manually without using a tool and she spent 8 hours just on creating accounts. Yikes.
Once these social bookmarking sites link to you, search engines will view the importance of your site as higher since you have links coming in. This, in turn, will help people find your blog while searching.
My Google search traffic started coming in steadily about a week after I started submitting using Bookmarking Demon and the great thing is that Google searchers also view the most pages and spend the most time on the site. Read more info on Bookmarking Demon.
I hope I’ve helped those of you who have asked me about creating a professional blog. Let me know if there’s other information you need or if there are other topics you’d like to hear about!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for including me with these cool Thesis sites Shannon! I appreciate it. Got me scared there for a bit with those headlines going over the content border heheh
Good luck with your Thesis!
Thanks for this very informative post. I am using Thesis on my site and it is an incredible theme with so many options for customization. I highly reccomend it for those using Wordpress. Even without know nothing about coding, you are able to make changes in the look of your site, such as columns, fonts, etc. Just taking a look at the Thesis gallery and the examples you’ve given tells you that the possibities are endless.
I was planning to do a redesign, starting with a custom header. You have given me several great ideas.
I’ve been wanting to learn how to enhance the appearance of my blogs for a while now. I’m glad I found this post. I’m going to look into this Thesis program soon
Do you think a super beginner like me would be able to use Thesis? I’ve been considering buying it, because I really want a custom, visually impacting blog. I’ve been talking to a designer too to help me out… but not sure if I should just work with him to tweak my free theme, or jump in a go with Thesis. You site looks great, so it’s quite encouraging to me! But, your professionally technical… and I just barley figured out how to get my site live!
Wow awesome post.
I also made a step by step tutorial how to setup your own website (link above in my postname) but I really like your layout. You also include all the neccesary steps and it really is easy to setup a blog or site once you know how to do it. Customizing the theme and promoting your site is the msot work, to get those subscribers:)
Well, it is a bit of an undertaking with a learning curve up front. One person who is currently working through the steps from this blog post has a site at http://edcabellon.com/. He Tweeted that it was harder than he thought but in just a few days, his site is coming together.
Yeeehh…this is alot.
Really hoping Shawn can make some time for my blog. I commit a lot of time to it but have wanted it to look different/have a new name for a long time.
Hi Mindy,
He may have told you that we spent a lot of time talking about that yesterday. I don’t necessarily think you’d need to do all of this. “Mommy bloggers” get away with using Blogger a bit easier than everybody else. It’s easier to use and lets you easily follow other people. He and I discussed maybe it would be nice to get your own domain name and he could work on a new design for you (one that gives you more space for your awesome pics!). One of the things I told him was “I think Mindy is sitting on a blogging goldmine.” Make him get that new design done!
This is a great set of tips for helping someone escape the blogger blues.
I would only add that Thesis is *not* the only theme out there. A beginner should know that there are literally thousands of free themes available that are professional and to some extent, customizable.
Cheers
George
It’s true that Thesis isn’t the only theme but it is an easy way to look professional relatively quickly. Most free themes look unprofessional to me.