Do you have a passion for writing? If so, you should consider creating your own short story blog and share it with the world. Creating engaging short stories is a great way to attract visitors, and you can make some money in the process.
Today, I will share how to create a short story blog from scratch with WordPress.
Create An Outline of Your Website
As any good writer knows, coming up with an outline is an essential part of writing. It gives you an idea of what will happen and when it will occur. Creating a website is no different, and you need to come up with a plan of action.
First, you need to decide what type of creative writing blog you will make. After all, there are a lot of genres to choose from. Will you be focusing on one genre like science-fiction or will you be covering multiple genres over the years?
In either case, you are going to need a web design that matches what you are going for, so it’s important to figure it out beforehand. For example, if you are going with science-fiction, you can design your website with that genre in mind.
Take a look at other writer blogs and see what you can do differently. It is very important to differentiate yourself from the competition, so you need to come up with a way before you begin.
Only once you have taken the time to brainstorm are you ready to begin the web development of your dream site.
You Are Going to Need A Web Host and Domain Name
Over the years, starting a website has been streamlined. And regardless of the type of website you are going to create, they all start the same way…picking a web hosting company.
A web host is a company that rents you a web server. The web server is what your website is stored on and what visitors will connect with to access your website. There is a lot of competition in the web hosting industry, but one thing is clear, the quality of web hosts is not equal.
Thus, you are going to need to pick the best one out there.
At GreenGeeks, we are continually improving to ensure that we are delivering the very best customer experience possible. We provide ridiculously fast speeds, strong security, an experienced support team available 24/7, and optimized WordPress servers.
And it’s all at a competitive price.
However, we stand above the competition with our commitment to the environment. Instead of adding to the industry’s emissions problem, we are part of the solution. We carefully calculate how much energy we use to host our websites and purchase 3 times that amount in wind energy.
This ensures that all of our websites are carbon-reducing.
You will also need to select a domain name before continuing. This is the URL of your website. As such, it should be short, easy to remember and reflect what your website is all about. And if you sign up today, your domain name is free for the first year.
Why WordPress is the Perfect Platform to Build A Blog On
It’s not easy to make a writing blog, but if you choose the right platform to build it on, it becomes a lot easier. And that is exactly what WordPress is; the right platform.
WordPress powers over one-third of the internet, and that is because the system is truly powerful. It can be used to create any kind of website, but it was created specifically for blogging. The platform is fully scalable, which means it can grow as fast and large as your website does.
As such, it is the most intuitive platform to use.
A big part of why it is so easy to use is because it does not require developers to use a single line of code. Instead, developers can rely on plugins and themes, which there are thousands to choose from.
What Are Plugins and Themes in WordPress
You are probably wondering what are plugins and themes and why are they the reason you won’t have to write any code. Luckily, they are simple to understand even if you are not very tech-savvy
Plugins are small pieces of software that add a specific set of features to your website. They are the equivalent of apps for your smartphone that you can install or delete at any time.
A theme is a collection of templates that allow you to customize the appearance of your website. However, they are not just cosmetic. In many cases, themes come with their own set of features as well.
Both of these come in free and premium forms. When you are just starting out, the free version of a plugin or theme is more than enough. But as your website grows, you might consider using a premium version. This is because they often have more options and scalability than free plugins.
Here are a few plugins and themes you may find useful when starting a short story blog:
BookPress
You may, at some point, want to assemble all of your short stories into a book. You can do this with the BookPress plugin. It allows you to create a digital book on your website. It’s simple to use, so anyone can use it.
Just keep in mind that the free version only allows you to create one book, so you may have to upgrade if you planned on making more.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is an amazing plugin that can whip your website’s SEO into shape. But that’s only half of the story. It also helps to identify how easy your content is to read. This is all thanks to a readability section that identifies a Flesch score, transition words, passive tone, and more.
It can really be a writer’s best friend.
Writings
If you want your writing to be the center of attention on a page, having flashy designs that distract the readers in not a good idea. Thus, you want a minimalist design. The Writings theme is one of the best you can choose. It was made for any type of blog and has everything you need.
Blog Writing
The Blog Writing theme is also a minimalist theme that is great for producing terrific short stories on. The design is very basic but allows your readers to not get distracted while consuming your content. There is also plenty of room in the sidebar area if you desire to add more to your pages.
For instance, it only takes a matter of minutes to add a table of contents for your posts.
Marketing Your Short Story Blog
A big part of every website is the marketing it takes to promote your brand. And trust me, it is a 24/7 job.
Marketing is an essential part of making sure your content reaches readers. Over the years, the ways a website can be marketed have grown substantially. There are literally over a hundred ways to go about it and still get a great result. Some of the most popular methods include:
- Social Media Accounts
- Email Subscriptions
- Paid Advertisement
- Participating in Forums (Reddit)
- Doing Collaboration/Guest Blogging
And many more methods are available. In fact, social media could be broken up into 100 different methods on its own. Just think about all of the different platforms that exist like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and more.
Find the best platform for your website and create an account worth following that shows off your short story blog.
Write Great Short Stories
With a website built and a marketing plan in place, all that’s left is to get writing. If you want to be successful, a lot hinges on the quality of the work you produce. However, it’s also important to regularly release content. After all, if you don’t give visitors a reason to come back, they won’t.