How To Start A Riding Blog

Since 2011, the goal of Black Girls Ride Magazine has always been to tell the stories of women who ride.  As riding season begins, it makes sense to write about your own travels on ground.  It’s a great way to document your travel and memories to share with family, friends and the growing sisterhood of female bikers all over the world.  When other women see us on ground, we become an inspiration to them.  So, it’s important for you to contribute your ride to the story.

We often get questions on how to start a blog site. We want to encourage all of you who ride to begin your own blog.  Sure, it’s great to share your riding photos on your Facebook or Instagram feeds, but it’s definitely better to create your own platform for sharing your riding experiences.  What happens if FB or Instagram suddenly deletes your account or shuts down?  Without a home for your memories, they’re lost in the matrix. Your blog becomes your home.  You control the content completely, blocking out the noise of other items competing for the reader’s attention.   You don’t have to be super tech savvy to build your blog.  It’s actually a pretty simple process, and not expensive at all.  We’ll take you through a quick step by step process.  Let’s get started!

Disclaimer: Some of the links here are affiliate links, and Black Girls Ride Magazine may be compensated from affiliate partners when readers click and buy. However, we never suggest a service we don’t use or haven’t fully reviewed ourselves.  These links are here to make the process as quick and easy as possible.

Step 1: Choose a good domain name.  
Your domain name is the address to where your blog lives on the web.  Keep your domain name should be relatively short, easy to type, easy to spell, easy to remember, and easy to share.  Too many words, or funny spellings may send folks somewhere other than your page.  Your domain name should tell folks immediately what you’ll be writing about.  Stay away from hyphens or numbers.

Step 2: Get Hosting
Hosting is the apartment your blog site will live in on the internet.  You’ll need to rent space to store your data and photos.  We recommend BlueHost.  For just $3.49 a month, or the cost of a cup of coffee, you’ll get a free domain name, hosting, and great customer service.

Part 1: Click “get started now”

Part 2: Pick a plan
For those just getting started, we recommend the basic plan.

Part 3: Check to see if your domain name is available.

Step 3: Installing WordPress

You’ll want to set up a self-hosted WordPress account. This means the WordPress software resides on your hosting company’s servers, not on a free WordPress.com account. What’s the difference?

• Your website is “MyRidingBlog.com” rather than “MyRidingBlog.WordPress.com”
• You own your data and have full control
• You can sell advertising on your site
• You can install plugins & custom themes
• You can use Google Analytics tracking (important)

Yes, you want to use WordPress too. Not Blogspot, not Blogger, not anything else. WordPress is the king of blogging, and probably always will be. Most professionals use WordPress.  Plus, installing WordPress with your BlueHost Account is super easy.

Click through the simple installation process on your BlueHost cPanel. When it asks you where you’d like to install it, choose your new domain (ex: http://MyRidingBlog.com).

Once installed, you’ll be able to log into the WordPress dashboard with your new username and password. Welcome to the club! You now have a travel blog. That wasn’t too hard, was it?

Step 4: Learning WordPress

Feeling intimidated about WordPress? Don’t worry. Because it’s the industry standard, and has been for years, there are TONS of useful tutorials online that will teach you anything you need to know.

Here are a few of my favorite WordPress training resources:

• WordPress Lessons (free guide)
• WordPress Essential Training (video tutorial)

Step 5: Install a theme and plug-ins

A theme is the way you decorate your blog.  There are tons of free themes available in wordpress.  You’ll find some great themes at Themeforest.  You can think of WordPress plugins as third-party apps for your website. They give your blog additional features. Most plugins are free, some you have to pay for. You can download new plugins in the “plugin” section of your WordPress Dashboard.

Here’s my recommended list of plugins to install with your travel blog.

• Akismet – Protects your blog from spammers leaving comments on your posts. Not perfect, but probably the best one out there.
• WordPress SEO – Very important plugin for optimizing your articles for Google search, plus integrating Google Sitemaps and Analytics.
• Easy Social Share Buttons – Nice social media sharing buttons for your articles.
• WPtouch – Makes your travel blog mobile friendly.

There are others of course, but these will get you started.

Step 6: Go Ride and Start Writing

Next time you’re out for a ride, snap some shots, jot down your thoughts and blog.  Share your experience with us and we just might add it to Black Girls Ride!  Have Fun!