We hear it all the time. We should have a blog. Writing a blog article is the easy part, most of the time. It’s the blog part that baffles many of us. Susan K. Stewart, the blog coordinator for Mount Hermon Writer’s Conference, gives non-technical advice to start a blog using WordPress. From purchasing a URL to setting up a simple-to-use blog platform to writing the first blog post, Susan will give step-by-step instructions to get started. The new Gutenberg content managements is also discussed

1. Practical Blogs for Writers
Susan K. Stewart
susan@practicalinspirations.com
www.practicalinspirations.com
Should you have a blog? Probably. It’s becoming essential for writers and speakers. A blog is one more way to
build a relationship with your audience and an important plank in your platform. It needn’t be techy or a burden.
Practical Hints
• Get a URL/domain name. Avoid a web address such as www.skstewart.wordpress.com.
• Select a web hosting company.
Many companies have an option to get a URL when signing up for hosting.
Don’t forget SSL certificate
• Free blog options
o Wordpress.com
Automattic reserves the right to display advertisements on your blog unless you have
purchased an Ad-free Upgrade or a VIP Service account.
Advertising isn’t permitted unless you use WordAds or have a WordPress.com
VIP or Enterprisesite.
o Wix - For the sole purpose of granting you the service, You know and agree that we will
need to access, upload and/or copy your User Content to our platform, including cloud
services and CDN’s, to make display adjustments, to duplicate for backup and perform
any other technical actions and/or uses required to perform our services, as we deem
fit.
o SquareSpace - Your License To Us. When you provide User Content via the Services, you grant
Squarespace a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable right and
license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works of (such as those resulting from
translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that User Content works better with the Services),
communicate, publish, publicly display, publicly perform and distribute User Content for the limited
purposes of allowing us to provide, improve, promote and protect the Services.
Practical Start
• Select a blogging platform.
o Choose WordPress or Blogger. These are the two most popular blog platforms and have good
support systems.
• Installing WordPress
Let experts do it for you.
o Get to know cpanel.
• Blogger has no self-hosting option
Susan K. Stewart
Practical Inspirations
www.practicalinspirations.com
susan@practicalinspirations.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

2. • Both have personalized URL
Using WordPress
WordPress Lessons https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons
• Themes
Described as skins for your website. It’s how your website will look without programming. The amount of
control depends on the theme. Many free themes have few options, but most do nicely for a writer’s blog. If you
don’t plan a store, forms, etc.
• Content Management System
o Posts
The daily, weekly, monthly writing == the articles. Show in reverse order usually on the first page.
o Pages
Pages are for information that isn’t time dependent, such as About, Contact Not date dependent and don’t show
on the home page, unless you set it to be a static homepage.
• Categories vs. tags
o Categories – Broad themes or topics, think of menu items. On a food website, categories might
be breakfast, lunch, dinner
o Tags – think of keywords —- words people use to search. Tags can also be used as sub-menus
o A post is usually has one category, but many tags.
• Plug-ins
Wordpress is by design lean to allow users to build a website that fits their needs. Plugins are like little apps to
help you customize your website to do what you want it to.
There are two default plugins with all WP installations — Askimet and Hello Dolly. Hello Dolly was the first
official plugin. When activated it puts randomly selected lyrics from the song in the upper right corner of the
admin screen.
Askimet is a comment spam catcher. There is a small license fee. I have it installed and have had few spam
comments. Clever people do try to get through, but I moderate my comments.
Some more popular plugins include Jet pack – from WordPress which gives stats, post by email, automatic
social share,
o WooCommerce to set up a store,
o Caldera Forms – build forms for your website.
o Yoast SEO
o Social share buttons
Susan K. Stewart
Practical Inspirations
www.practicalinspirations.com
susan@practicalinspirations.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

3. o Classic – The original content management system for WordPress
o Gutenberg – New content management system, similar to a page builder
• Widgets
Used to add items to the sidebar. Some are pre-built such as a category list, others you build use code provided
by a third-party.
Practical Helps
• Writing Content
o Think of your blog post as short articles. Five hundred words is generally the online reading
limit.
o Use evergreen articles or shorts sections of your book. This series, “Steps to A Good e-Book,” is
from my recent book http://practicalinspirations.com/step-one-to-a-good-e-book/
o Images are important to share your blog post. Be sure your image is either copyright-free (public
domain) or licensed for royalty-free use (usually Creative Commons). Don’t forget to check
attribution requirements.
o Most themes now have a “featured image.” This image will show up on the home page of your
blog and is often picked up by social media.
o But I’m a novelist! Write about the theme of your novel. Does your novel have an underlying
message about drug abuse — write about drug abuse. Do you write Amish romances? Write
about the Amish … write about romance. Historical — write about the history and geography of
your novel. Write about novel writing. Blessing ND — Laurainne Snelling Review books.
• A word about affiliates
Most blog advice is for those who are using their blog as a stream of income. While as writers we may gain
some income from our blogs, that’s not the point. I do recommend an Amazon affiliate. You can post links
to your book as well as others and earn a few pennies from the sale.
When you sell anything a disclosure statement is required. Amazon has a specific disclosure statement.
Some blogs also have terms of service, which states what can be downloaded and not downloaded,
compensation if any for reviews,
These are something you may want to add later on.
Practical Tips
Backup, backup, backup
Wordpress has a handy dandy backup tool. Under Tools simply Export — if a problem happens and you need to
reboot your site — Import it. Your webhosting company will usually help with these.
Take it one step at a time. You don’t need a perfect blog site to start blogging. Get it set up and start posting.
You can add the details, such as e-mail subscription, About page, or links, as you become more comfortable
with the platform.
Susan K. Stewart
Practical Inspirations
www.practicalinspirations.com
susan@practicalinspirations.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

4. Practical Tools
• Grammarly: https://app.grammarly.com/
Grammar checker for the Internet.
• Yahoo Style Guide: http://bit.ly/yahoo_style
The CMOS for the Internet.
• wpbeginner: https://www.wpbeginner.com/
WordPress resource site for beginners.
• Pixaby: https://pixabay.com/
One of my favorite free and royalty-free image websites.
• Canva: https://www.canva.com/
My favorite online graphic tool. (free to use)
• WordPress: https://wordpress.com/ (WordPress hosted blogs)
https://wordpress.org/ (self-hosted blogs)
• Blogger: https://www.blogger.com
Blog hosting option
Susan K. Stewart
Practical Inspirations
www.practicalinspirations.com
susan@practicalinspirations.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License