Five Things You Cannot Live Without When Starting a Blog or Creative Business

I’ve always followed the concept of lead with revenue. And it really is important to know your limits financially, set boundaries, and follow them as closely as you can!  With that being said there are some things that I genuinely believe are worth the investment regardless of whether or not you have income coming in because it allows you to put yourself out there in a meaningful way and get yourself known. If done genuinely and from a heart centered approach it will ultimately bring in your clients and get your foot in the door.  Without further ado here are my top five things you cannot live without when starting a blog or creative business and their approximate cost.

• Domain Name – You absolutely want to buy your own domain. It’s your calling card. Its the thing you will post everywhere and it makes you look professional and serious about blogging or your business. Domains can range in price from 2.99-20.00 for the year. Most places that offer web hosting (see the next one) also offer domain registration. One in particular, Blue Host, will give you a domain name free (for the first year) for signing up. Definitely something to keep in mind.
• Website Hosting – This is where your domain name will live. It’s your websites home in the vast expanses of cyberspace. Prices can range anywhere from 5.99 to well over 100.00 a month. Just starting out you can find some pretty good deals and the 5.99 plan is more than enough. Most companies will give you a discount on your first year. A few really good companies to work with are GoDaddy, A Small Orange, Bluehost, and Host Gator. I will be doing a more extensive post on this later with charts and all that good stuff.
  • The most fabulous part about most of these companies is that they also allow for an affiliate program (of which I am not currently a part of) which means that IF you are an affiliate for the company that you choose to host with you can potentially get your hosting for free AND maybe make a little extra. Can I get an OPA (in your finest greek accent) for passive income!
• Canva – Canva has been a saving grace for me. In today’s world you need excellent images to go along with your posts. Pro-tip – create a specific look for all of your posts so that when you post things to pinterest people know who you are just by the look! Canva has a subscription based option for business’ however there is a completely free option as well that will suffice while you get yourself going!
• Facebook – A business page and subscribing to groups is a wonderful way to spread the word about what you are doing and how to reach you. It’s a way to get in contact with your ideal clients and show your unique talents and skills.
• Dropbox or a good external hard drive – I am currently sitting here writing this post in Pages. I personally prefer to write and edit (round one at least) in a word processing app and then move them over into my wordpress account after. I highly recommend you back everything up MULTIPLE times and MULTIPLE PLACES. Things happen and sometimes everything is lost. If you have to at some point go back and rebuild your whole site wouldn’t you love to have all of those posts backed up somewhere to be able to repost them? Same thing for your images. It will also make life easier when you go to upgrade your computer and TRUST me you will NEED to do that at some point!

Would you like a free checklist to help you get started and help keep you on track? Leave me a comment and I will pull that together and post it in a new post!

Are you interested in starting a business and just not sure where to start? This is my niche! I love helping creative women just like yourself get out of their heads and into their hearts to find their passion again and create a worthwhile and meaningful action plan to get back on track and move in the direction of their dreams. Contact me here to get started!