Blogging was the best thing that ever happened to my nonprofit career. True story: A year into my role as a development director at my previous nonprofit job, I still had people mistaking me for an intern. I was tasked with raising $1M a year for the organization, yet my youth prevented my older colleagues from fully respecting me as a peer. Then I started blogging. And people actually started to listen to what I had to say. People started inviting me to speak. Then teach. Then consult. I even got raises from my 9 to 5 job! I finally felt like my voice was being heard in this nonprofit sector that I love.

Like me, a lot of young professionals complain that they gets no respect. People think we don’t know anything. That we haven’t done anything. Now in some cases this is true, but in many cases it couldn’t be further from the truth. Young professionals often have advanced education; a rich portfolio of work, volunteer and internship experiences; and a fiery passion for the cause. The only problem? We’re not visible to senior leaders. No one can “see” us because we’re not the CEOs and the VPs. We’re the managers, assistants and the interns.

But that’s the great thing about having access to a democratic tool like blogging. You might be a lowly administrative assistant at your organization, but online, you can be a nonprofit rockstar! Blogging makes it so that thousands of people can “see” you and follow your work and leadership. Blogging can make you more visible to all the right people. Which is why I think every young professional should have a blog. But for many young people, the prospect of starting such an endeavor can be extremely daunting.

In the next few posts, I’ll share a few basic steps to get you on the path to blogging so that you can become more visible in the nonprofit field. Today’s post will cover the technical aspects of getting your blog up and running.

Define Your Niche

Many people have a hard time starting or maintaining a blog because they don’t have a clear focus on what they want to be known for or even what they hope to accomplish with a blog. They’re basically blogging without a purpose, and often end up abandoning their blog because they “don’t know what they want to do with it.” I don’t want that to happen to you. Because the great thing is that when you do have a focus, it helps you write consistently about topics that not only you’re passionate about, but that other people want to read about as well!

The best way to describe a niche is that it’s a specific market. For instance, Beth Kanter’s niche is nonprofit professionals who want to learn how to use social media. Leadership as a Field of Study is geared toward people who want to talk about nonprofit leadership and social change from an academic standpoint. Pamela’s Grantwriting Blog is all fundraising everything. Nathaniel Whittemore’s blog on Change.org is for and about social entrepreneurs.

As you can see, the best nonprofit blogs have a well-defined niche. And if you look at the Technorati 100, for instance, you will see that most of the top-ranked blogs are very focused on a specific topic. Whatever you choose to write about within the arena of nonprofits or social change, your niche should be as specific as possible in order to stand out among all the other gazillion blogs out there.

Choose a Name for Your Blog

You basically have two options for naming your blog. You can use your own name and a tagline (i.e. rosettathurman.com) OR craft a clever name that fits with the niche focus of your blog. Expert blogger Leo Babauta suggests the following acronym when creating a title for your blog:

ISM: (Informative, Simple, Memorable)

Here are just a few notable blog names from some of the top nonprofit sites on the web:

• Tactical Philanthropy
• White Courtesy Telephone
• Nonprofit Adventures
• Wild Woman Fundraising
• Nonprofit Gold
• Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog
• Nonprofit Leadership 601

Set Up Your Blog

Host Your Blog for Free

The cheapest (and easiest) way to get your blog up and running is to set it up for free using WordPress.com or Blogger.com. Out of these two popular blogging platforms, WordPress.com is hands-down the best option for bloggers who are serious about building their personal brand. Because it is a free platform however, there are both benefits and limitations to using WordPress.com, which are outlined in detail here. You can sign up for your free WordPress.com blog here: http://en.wordpress.com/signup.

Self-Host Your Blog (Recommended)

Self-hosting is a term used for any individual who hosts their own website themselves rather than using a free service like Blogger.com or WordPress.com. The most important reason to self-host your blog instead of going with a free blogger.com or wordpress.com account is that you own your blog. You own the data and no one can take it away from you. With a free account on Blogger, for instance, you don’t own your content, Google does. Same thing with WordPress.com.

Many newbie bloggers get confused and think that just because they’ve purchased a domain name through GoDaddy or some other service that they now have a self-hosted blog. No, you just have a domain name. Of course, you can redirect your domain name to your free blog, but it’s still a blogspot.com or wordpress.com blog, just with your own domain. You will need to purchase a hosting plan to be able to self-host your blog.

In my opinion, every blogger should self-host their own blog using WordPress.org. See more on why here. However, the process can be difficult for many bloggers and people always ask me how to do it. In the next section of this post, I explain how to buy a domain name and set up hosting for your blog using my favorite service, Bluehost. Then, if you’re ready, you can go ahead and purchase your domain name and a hosting plan from Bluehost and set up your blog!

How to Purchase a Domain Name and Hosting Plan

This video tutorial below shows you, step by step, how to purchase the domain name you want for your blog as well as one to three years of secure hosting for your blog. I use Bluehost in the tutorial because it’s the one I’ve been using successfully for almost two years now. It’s reputable, reliable and one of only a handful of hosts recommended by WordPress themselves. It’s easy to use and mad affordable – only $7 a month! They also have a ton of great features that come with your hosting plan, including 24/7 support. I used them when I transferred my domain over from Yahoo Hosting almost two years ago and the tech support people saved my life.

Of course, you can go with any host that you choose, and the process will be pretty much the same. Whatever you do, just don’t use Network Solutions! They are the least WordPress-friendly host I’ve ever used. Most professional bloggers use Bluehost, Dreamhost, GoDaddy or Hostgator.

How to Install WordPress

Once you get set up with a hosting plan, you will have to log-in to your account (or cpanel) to install WordPress. Non-techie? No worries. Your web host will have full tutorials to show you step by step what to do. For instance, Bluehost offers this comprehensive tutorial on their site about how to install WordPress. If you happen to get stuck, you also have full tech support by phone. Now how cool is that?

And that’s basically all you need to know to get your blog up and running! In the next installment of this series, I’ll talk about how to customize your blog’s theme with examples of other nonprofit blogs out there that do this well.

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Need more blogging advice? Download my free ebook, The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Blog. Geared toward newbie bloggers, this easy-to-read guide will take you from soup to nuts in terms of your blog concept, software, design, content, promotion and analytics. Longtime bloggers will also benefit from the personal branding angle of the ebook which outlines how to build your personal brand through blogging.

Want me to help you set up your blog? Check out my Blog Starter Kit, a FREE service to get your blog up and running in 72 hours or less!