Next, you need to design and build the blog to give your visitors an awesome experience. While you could code the site from scratch, this is a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. Hiring a developer will make for a more polished product, but that comes at a high cost. When you’re just getting started, it is quicker and easier to use a drag & drop website builder or a dedicated blogging platform.
Use a Blogging Platform
Utilizing a well-known blogging platform such as WordPress or Drupal is an easy way to get a blog up and running quickly, since they come equipped with many of the tools you’ll need to market your site. As with web hosts, many blogging platforms allow you to purchase a domain name from within their interface.
Use a Website Builder
There are many website builders such as Weebly, GoDaddy, Squarespace and HostGator. These website builders usually offer a drag-and-drop interface so that you can create your own website quickly even if you have no coding experience.
If you want to (and have the budget for it), some of these platforms allow you to hire a professional website designer to build your blog.
Apply Your Brand Standards
After you have clarity on your brand identity, you need to convert it into tangible assets that can be shared on your website, social media handles and other channels you use to interact with your ideal audience. You need to think about color palette, font specifications and logo that you want readers to associate with your blog. Both website builders and blogging platforms give you a wide variety of themes to choose from.
Themes are design wireframes that include page layout, colors, typography, background, headers and footers, etc. Themes help you give your blog a consistent look and feel. Most modern themes are optimized for mobile devices, so you don’t need to worry about how your blog will look across devices.
You can choose a theme that matches your brand design and you are ready to go. Since you can customize these themes, matching them to your brand identity should not be difficult.
The one thing to remember while building your blog is that you will not get it right the first time around. Put out a first version of your blog and keep experimenting with the design to see what works.
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