What’s up!

If you are a follower of my blog then you might have realized something by now. That is, I am not some crazy important/famous blogger. Neither am I some super great writer. Just a normal every-day person like you (unless you’re Jerry Seinfeld or somebody and happened across my site. Hi Jerry!) trying to explore and share my passion through this blog.

We believe here at Brew with Kits that You Can Brew It when it comes to home brewed beer. We also believe you can blog it as well when it comes to whatever you are interested about.

We are passionate people

Everyone has something they are passionate about. Everyone is unique and expresses themselves in different ways. I love beer. I really enjoy brewing beer and that is why I started the Brew with Kits blog. 

I wanted to dedicate a place were I could help people to find the joy that I found in being able to brew great beer at home easily using beer kits. That is why we exist! That is why I started the blog.

It takes a lot of work to start a blog! Don’t be fooled if anyone tells you different. There is a lot that goes into starting a blog but I believe that you can blog it! Hopefully this post will inspire someone to create their own blog about something they are passionate about. With that said, here are 10 steps that I took to start the Brew with Kits site.

“The links on this website may contain affiliate links. This means that we may receive a commission if you decide to make any purchases using our affiliate links.”

1- Pick a Topic: What do you enjoy and want to tell people about?

What are you good at or really enjoy? Is there anything you would like to write about consistently and passionately? Why not start a blog about that? You can do it. I know that sounds strange and thinking about it feels even stranger. It did for me and I talked myself out of it a hundred times before I finally went through with it.

Don’t be a Chicken Little

I was being a total chicken little and blowing small things that weren’t so big in hindsight out of proportion.  Actually starting a blog is a really hard pill to swallow for some reason but that doesn’t mean that you can’t or that you shouldn’t do it. In fact, it might mean that you should. 

Right now I blog as a side job and my normal 9-5 job is a Pastor in a small church overseas. I know. It throws a lot of people off when I first tell them I am a Pastor who loves beer, but then again, I am also just a normal guy.

The reason I bring this up is because in my pastoring job there are a lot of times where I feel anxious about something I have to do and I know it is the right thing. The same is true about starting my blog and blogging in general.

I wanted to provide something to people, and the blog was the means to be able to do that. What is on your heart to write and tell people about? Now ask yourself if a blog is the means by which you want to express that to people. If so, then go for it! 

2- Find your niche

There is a niche for everything! What is yours? If you’re not sure what a niche is: A Niche is “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service” (Websters Dictionary). Therefore anything you think about most likely has a niche.

You want to try and identify the niche that you are going to be targeting so you can know how to focus your content. For example, extreme sports, which covers tons of different sports of an extreme nature. Dirt bike riding, or mountain biking are both a niche in the greater extreme/action sports genre. Another specific niche in this genre would be skateboarding. 

Genre and niche

Now looking at skateboarding as the genre, you have specific niches such as street skating, and vert skating. You can be even more specific as a niche and take Street Skateboarding as the genre for example and have skate park riding or strictly in the city streets riding as a really specific niche.

You may want to be careful not to become too specific that your niche audience becomes too small. However, that still doesn’t mean you couldn’t make a blog about it and that it wouldn’t be successful. 

Here is the order or genre and niche when It comes to Brew with Kits. In the Home brewing beer genre we are a blog dedicated to the kit/ extract brewing niche.

3- Research you niche

You are going to want to spend a good amount of time doing this. Before I created the Brew with Kits blog, I wish I would have spent more time in this phase.

Not that it would have deterred me from creating the blog (or so I guess I would like to think even though we can’t be sure) but that I would have had better expectations going in. I searched some and I thought I did a pretty good job, but I was wrong.  Do a lot of research in your specific genre and niche.

I thought I was entering into a tiny niche but in actuality it’s a pretty big market. Again that doesn’t mean that I want to or should stop, I just have come to the realization I have a lot more work cut out for me. I have to remind myself also that I can not only brew it but I Can Blog It as well! And so can you!

4- Buy a E-Course to help you

This is probably the most import step in the whole process besides knowing what you want to blog about. Without having purchased an E-course on how to start, and grow a blog I can tell you with 100% accuracy I would have never started Brew with Kits. It put the wind in my sails to get started and deflated my fears and anxieties about failing.

It is so valuable to gain encouragement and insight from those who have gone before you. Being able to learn from people that had the same hesitations, went for it anyways, and became successful gave me courage to go for it myself.

Create and Go E-course

Seriously, if you are going to start a blog, you need to invest in yourselves FIRST and purchase this E-course from Create and Go: Launch Your Blog ( my affiliate link).

This course is amazing! I and the Brew with Kits site are a testimony to the encouragement, practical advice, wisdom, and experience that the creators of this course give through their product.

I cannot recommend it enough. If you are on the fence about starting a blog, invest in yourself, buy this course, and get started today!

*The owners behind Create and Go have not only created the initial course Launch Your Blog ( my affiliate link) that I purchased, but they have more advanced courses as well including a bundle package. Depending on your budget and what you want to accomplish with your blog, you may also want to check these courses out as well.

Create and Go’s E-coarse’s

Launch Your Blog (my affiliate link)

Make Money Blogging for Beginners  (my affiliate link)

Pro Blogger Bundle (my affiliate link)

Blog Monetization Bundle (my affiliate link)

5- Buy your domain and hosting 

This is probably the scariest step besides investing in yourself. Buying the E-course on starting a blog is essentially the “pulling the trigger” on your idea to start a blog. Then taking the step further to purchase a domain and hosting really gets you out there.

Once you throw down some cold hard cash on a domain name and you legally own a space to create your vision, you most likely will get a sinking feeling in your gut (I sure did). 

It’s normal. I have heard several other bloggers talk about doubt that creeps up, but you must overcome! I still get it today, right now even.

Here comes the doubt

Questions will pop into your head like Does anyone care about what I have to say or what I am writing about? Will anyone see this or read this ever? Will I be a big fat failure? I guess the answer is maybe but then also maybe not. I would rather hope in the best and have confidence in myself than listen to doubt. My hope is that you will do the same as well.

Go for it, You can Blog it! 

If you feel this is something you should do then don’t let your fears stop you (again check out here on how NOT to be a chicken little when it comes to starting your blog).

Blue host is the Bomb

I suggest you use blue host (my affiliate link) as your domain provider. This is the provider that I use and I love it. I had 0% experience with creating websites before I bought my domain (originally from go daddy but switched it to blue host later). I can easily say I have had a great experience learning and using their product.

By clicking here (my affiliate link) you can start your blogging journey by getting your domain and hosting today with one low price.

“The links on this website may contain affiliate links. This means that we may receive a commission if you decide to make any purchases using our affiliate links. HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY SUGGESTIONS OF WHAT I RECOMMEND FOR YOU TO USE. IF YOU DO DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE, OUR FAMILY HERE AT BREW WITH KITS WANTS YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH WE VALUE YOUR SUPPORT. “

6- Purchase a Theme

Ok, chances are if you don’t have a website or a blog (which is a website with constantly updated content) then you probably have never created one before either. This means you may or may not know that you are going to need to purchase a Theme to build your blog pages with.

Now depending on your provider for your domain name/hosting company (which we hope is blue host (my affiliate link) as stated above) they may provide you with the WordPress download and or to be WordPress compatible. Both of which blue host does. 

With word press and a theme you are going to be able to create your website how you want. There are free themes included in WordPress with differing ease of use, things you are able to do, and differing styles and looks.

The most Elegant of Themes

I went with a theme by Elegant Themes (my affiliate link) called the Divi theme and builder. It is super cool guys! It has been a learning curve none the less, but it’s easy to use. There visual builder was a massive help for me to create a blog exactly how I had envisioned it.

They are a great company with tons of helpful videos that you can watch on youtube here. They also have a team that is there to answer all your questions no matter how simple they are (and trust me, I put this to the test).

If you have the means to be able to do so, I totally recommend The Divi Theme by Element Themes (my affiliate link) to you. I don’t think you will be disappointed.

7- Cover your butt. Legally, that is

Yep this is something that,

One, you’re absolutely going to want to do in order to be protected, and

Two, you are absolutely not going to want to do yourself (unless you’re a lawyer. In which case, go for it!)

When it came time to do my legal pages I was a bit overwhelmed. I am not a lawyer. I also live overseas so I don’t have a lawyer. Now what was a fella to do?

A simple solution

One day I came across a blogger who is also a lawyer that offers legal pages for other bloggers. She is awesome and helped me out of my pickle with a simple purchase and a download. Don’t skip this part, cover your cyber fanny with her legal bundle available here (my affiliate link).

This product is really user-friendly and all the legal pages on my site are from her legal bundle. Big shout out to Amira for the helpful legal bundle! Go and get you some pro-tech-chee-yon (protection, for you non-Kevin James fans. C’mon he’s hilarious) from Amira’s Legal bundle (my affiliate link).

8- Design your website 

Now it’s time to put your Theme to the test. Think how you want your blog to look and try to come as close to that as possible with your Theme.

If you went with The Divi Theme (my affiliate link), you are in for a treat with the visual builder.

Never the less, at some point you are 100% going to hit a wall and feel super stuck.

This has happened to me multiple times! Don’t worry, you will figure it out. Push through it and take it step by step.

Taking it step by step

Really it’s that simple. Several times I have felt, and with some things still do feel, like I just can’t do it. When I get to that point of feeling “I just can’t fill in the blank”, I have to remind myself to bite off a small piece of the problem. Each and every time this has happened I have taken a little break. I then think about what the next little step is so that I can keep moving.

Even if it was something as simple as reaching out to a support team for help, I would still strategize and take that next little step. I would do this over and over until I felt back on my feet again. 

Problems are going to happen, you just need to remember that it’s not the problems that will keep you from overcoming, but the way you deal with them.

You must be a problem solver if you want to run a blog! The more you remember this and put it into practice when you get in a pinch, the more confident and experienced you are going to feel in the end.

9- Write, write, write 

Now “you are cooking”, “you’re running full steam ahead”, “you’ve got your wheels turning”! However you want to describe it, you’re on your way to greatness with your blog. Now you have to write your articles.

You need content to put on your blog. If there is no content then there is nothing for you to drive people to. If there is nothing to drive people to then you won’t have a blog or at least a successful one at that. 

You need to write articles!

Content is key

Think about your niche and the things you want to write about. Ask yourself what it is you can teach people about, or bring to the table concerning x, y or z.

Then write a “how to” article on that subject. Think of ways to improve something and then write a 5, 7, or 10-step article to do this. Testimonials are powerful ways to connect on a personal level with your audience and tell them about your experience with your niche.

This will all be covered in more detail in the E-Course (my affiliate link) mentioned earlier, that hopefully you have purchased and are now learning from. For now just remember you need articles. Article = Content & Content = Traffic, Content is what you drive traffic too, traffic is where you get people who read your blog from.

Get on your computer and start writing now!

10- Drive traffic 

After you have your blog up with your first 5-10 articles posted and your stuff out there for the world to see, now it’s time to start to drive traffic to your sight. That’s right, YOU MUST drive the traffic to your blog.

You could have a killer article with the most beautiful blog on the face of the planet. If you don’t drive traffic to your site though, nothing is going to happen. It will just be sitting there with the information highway just passing it by. 

Get out there and drive that traffic

Get your blog out there on social media. Make your post known. Work on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Don’t expect people to just come to you. It doesn’t work like that. You need to take your content to the people. Be inspired by The Rock. He gave his fans “The peoples Elbow”, now you go give your fans The Peoples Content. 

This is a big part of blogging so don’t be naive and think its just going to blow up by you sitting back on your keister and doing nothing. Put in the work now and reap the rewards later.

I would be doing you a massive disservice if I didn’t tell you this is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time. Don’t let it catch you by suprise! Be prepared to have to go out and work to earn your blog’s traffic.  

You Can Blog It!

You are human and humans are amazingly interesting. We all have something that we can share with the world. We are creative. We all have different prospectives and styles and bring different traits and talents to our respective niches.

If you have read this post to this point then something in you is searching and wanting to start a blog. I am telling you that you should do it!

You are going to have a thousand doubts and you are going to try to talk yourself out of it as best you can but I don’t think you should. If you put in the hard work and are willing to learn some new stuff, then you will blog it. 

I hope this post has inspired you to do just that.

**** HEY Y’ALL, I WANTED TO LET YOU GUYS  KNOW THAT AS AN AMAZON ASSOCIATE I EARN A SMALL COMMISSION FROM QUALIFYING PURCHASES YOU MAKE FROM MY LINKS. HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY SUGGESTIONS OF WHAT I RECOMMEND FOR YOU TO USE. IF YOU DO DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE, OUR FAMILY HERE AT BREW WITH KITS WANTS YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH WE VALUE YOUR SUPPORT. ****