3 Easy steps for setting up a free blog on Blogger

 

Are you having these challenges?

1. Looking for a cost-effective online marketing tool?

2. Looking for business know-how to diversify your skill set as an entrepreneur?

About Author 

Cain Ndhlovu is a start-up and entrepreneurship consultant and founder of Sunrise Consultancy which is a start-up in Harare Zimbabwe. He has helped start-ups and entrepreneurs in sectors like MLM, construction, architectural design, and merchandising consultancy to cost-effectively use internet tools like blogs, social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc) in marketing so that they have sustainable sales and income. His expertise was refined by experience helping start-ups and entrepreneurs in the real estate sector particularly property players like estate agents, conveyancers, and property developers.

Me too

In my journey I have noticed that a start-up or entrepreneur needs to have a skills set or some know-how pertaining certain areas of business for two reasons. One this helps you save money at a time when you have budgetary constraints. Two as it is said knowing how to fish helps you feed yourself for life. To this end I will show you how to set up a blog. Being able to set up and run my own blog was a key know-how that was very helpful. I met a blog during a crisis.  

It all started in 2007 when a friend called Thando helped me to get employment as a sales negotiator at an estate agency. The remuneration was 100% commission, no basic salary – so it was no sale no income.

An economy that was nose diving and the company’s poor marketing conspired to hit hard on my sales. This situation forced me to be innovative to survive. So I tried many things that included taping into a high school passion. At high school my passion was writing poems and my master piece titled Wilderness Wanderer talked about a beautiful girl in search of true love. I didn’t write love poems for prospects though but I started pdf e-books.

Having noted my initiative pertaining the creation of original real estate e-books my friend might have perceived that the content could make a more positive impact on my sales if positioned to reach a bigger audience on the world wide web. So again Thando was the hero for me when he helped in the setting up of my first real estate blog which I called Property Matters News  .

The Results

A turning point happened in 2014 when I earned Usd 1 000.00 with the amazing help of the new tool. It all started when I wrote a blog article titled, “ Financial consequences of purchasing property from a seriously-ill seller and other purchases to avoid ”. This title resonated with a Harare lady who had just purchased a Msasa (Harare suburb) house from a seriously ill person. Because of the post she also decided to sell a piece of land in order to settle certain outstanding balances due to the seller. Can you guess which estate agent was commissioned to handle the sale of land ? It was me of course. Why? The aforementioned article did a great job by also positioning me as the expert !

This was proof to me that a blog was an asset. So I had to master how it was set up. I also made efforts towards continuously making improvements so that it was better every day. For example I also got involved with the use of mailing lists that are based on cost-effective tools like Gmail Contacts because my lead had come through a mailing list. 

Probably one of my biggest achievements with a blog was the ability to duplicate what worked in real estate so that it benefit other sectors. As a result I have had blog clients in various sectors like multi level marketing, real estate, construction, architectural design and merchandising consultancy. Multi level marketing has provided the most clients and I have done blogging work for distributors affiliated to international organizations like Forever Living, AIM Global, Green World and PhytoScience.

By 30 March 2020 just before the Zimbabwean Covid 19 lockdown I had taken blogging to the next level by teaching MLM distributors plus other entrepreneurs how to set up a blog, its role as a cost-effective online marketing tool at my workshop called Own Boss Entrepreneurship Workshop in central Harare.

Since setting up a blog is something I got for free from a friend I will do the same here for you. But before I do this lets quickly take a look on a slide that I shared with other entrepreneurs at Own Boss Entrepreneurship Workshop programs in March 2020. I wouldn’t want to see you missing this one despite your being absent at these Harare start-up ecosystem meetings.

This infographic emphasizes a point that the era of traditional marketing tools like fliers, bill boards, print classifieds is fast being overtaken by a new era of online and usually social media based marketing tools like blogs, social media pages, email marketing etc.

3 Easy steps for setting up a free blog on Blogger

1. Open a new Gmail account

The first step is opening a new Gmail account. A free blog on Blogger is based on a Gmail account as it is explained in full under 2 but through experience I have noted that if you want to start a blog for business its important to open a new Gmail account devoted to blogging and this may mean another Gmail account if you already have one. Here are the reasons why;

1.1 An employee, partner, a guest contributor or any authorized personnel can have access to your blog dashboard without raising confidentiality fears. Confidentiality can be a challenge if you use an account you have been using for other business.  

1.2 Your current Gmail account is probably congested right now it is therefore prudent to have an account committed to blog specific communication like lead feedback.

1.3 After all a Gmail account is free it doesn’t hurt to open another one or a few. So please open a new Gmail account here

Get the full article on a free e-book. Send a request to tsmylife16@gmail.com. You will not only get an e-book for this article but the first two e-books in its series. The series is as follows;

e-book (1)  : 5 Key features of profitable online marketing for start-ups and entrepreneurs.

e-book (2)  : 6 Benefits of a blog for start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses

e-book (3) : 3 Easy steps for setting up a free blog on Blogger