For the month of February, in my Facebook group, we are doing February Fundamentals. This means that each week we are covering a different fundamental of blogging for a total of five blogging fundamentals.

I am taking it even further than that. Every day, we are breaking down the weekly fundamentals even more. This blog post is going to cover week one of the February Fundamentals.

Knowing the fundamentals is crucial to succeeding in the blogging game. The fundamentals are more than just knowing what you need to do when it comes down to blogging. They are also about organization, setting clear goals, and more.

I am going to piece together all of these different aspects together for you so that you can understand the fundamentals of blogging without confusion.

THE FIRST FUNDAMENTAL OF BLOGGING

The first fundamental we are going to break down is your blogging foundation. Your foundation is made up of many different moving pieces but in this blog post, we are going to cover just five of those pieces.

It is within these pieces that you are going to be able to build a stronger foundation when you are starting your blog. It will help you grow and monetize when this foundation is built properly.

You could just jump into blogging but that is not what I want you to do. I want you to succeed and I know you want the same thing.

FIVE PIECES OF YOUR BLOGGING FOUNDATION

Let’s dive in and start talking about the five pieces of your blogging foundation. Remember, your foundation is going to be made up of more than these five pieces but these are just the ones that I am covering today.

SETTING YOUR GOALS

This is the most important place to start when setting your foundation. Knowing where you want to go and how you can get there, is going to make blogging a little bit easier. Even if you don’t quite know the how-to piece, knowing what you want and getting clear with those goals are going to help you.

Goals are going to help you structure your blog, create your blogging schedule, and will help you to use your time efficiently.

When it comes to setting goals, when you are just beginning, it is going to be hard to figure out where to begin. That is why I suggest starting with 30-day goals and then building from there.

In the blogging world, 30 days isn’t a lot of time but it can give you some insights into where you are heading.

Begin with goals that are related to how much content you want to create in 30 days.

Begin with goals that are related to how many readers you hope to bring to your blog.

Begin with goals that are related to what you want to learn in regards to blogging or your niche.

These are your starting points for goal setting. Once your first 30 days are up, you can begin to set goals for 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months.

If you want more ideas on blog goals to set, read my Examples of Blog Goals blog post. That blog post also breaks down the 9 areas of your blogging vision that will help you dig deeper into your blogging goals.

CHOOSING YOUR PLATFORM

This seems to be one of the biggest conversations that pop up when it comes to building your blogging foundation.

I am different from many other bloggers and believe that choosing your platform is very unique. Not every platform works for every blogger and that includes the big platforms like WordPress.

You need to truly know what you need in a website, be honest with how tech-savvy you are, and know what you want in the future for your blog.

WordPress is great but you need to be tech-savvy to be able to understand it. Most beginner bloggers, especially the ones that I work with, aren’t tech-savvy enough to use WordPress. There is nothing wrong with that.

The website platform you choose has to work for you. I am a HUGE believer that if you have a website, you should know how to do the basics on it. If you can’t, your website is too advanced for you. You shouldn’t need to depend on someone else to get something done on your website.

Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t hire someone to build it or to maintain it. All I am saying is to make sure that you can fix something easy that comes up so you don’t have to wait for someone else to do it for you. It could mean days without your website and no one wants that.

If you want more detailed help and a workbook on how to choose your blogging platform, grab my blog post that breaks the process down even more.

DOMAIN NAME

I just published a blog post all about how to choose your domain name.

This is an important piece of your foundation because it can help to share with potential readers what it is that your blog is about. It can also be extremely hard to choose your domain name. I have been stuck in overthinking mode and all I did was choose my name. Now there is nothing wrong with that BUT it didn’t tell anyone what my blog was about.

You want to stand out from the crowd and sometimes the first thing that potential readers see is your domain name.

I want you to keep a few things in mind when you choose the domain name for your blog.

• Have fun with it
• Think about words that are associated with your niche
• Think of words that describe your process
• Think of words that describe the transformation that you are offering

Read my other blog post on how to choose your domain name for an even more in-depth walkthrough.

BLOG THEME

What is your blog theme? By this, I mean the theme of your website. With Wix and the other platforms, you can choose from many different themes. This is the layout of your website and what it is going to look like. You just need to update it so that it has your information on it.

I know Wix has so many different options for themes but what I love even more is going to Etsy and purchasing a unique theme from there. They are normally created by small businesses. I have done this for the last three blog themes that I have had.

A few of my favorite Etsy sellers for my Wix themes are…

• Presenti Box
• Brand Design Queen
• Brand and Palms

With your website theme, you can change the colors and the font to fit your brand.

KEYWORDS

The keywords on your website and in your blog are going to be an important part of your foundation. This helps readers to find you. This helps to make sure that you are speaking to your ideal readers in a way that they understand and in a way that connects them to you.

When it comes to keywords, you need to have an idea of the main keywords that you are going to start with. This doesn’t mean as a beginner blogger, you need to have them all figured out BUT I would suggest knowing the main five keywords that you want to begin to rank for.

A few tips to help you choose your main keywords.

• Learn about and get to know your audience
• Make a list of relevant terms to your niche
• Know the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords
• Use keyword tools to better understand the words you choose

When you are building your website, you want to make sure that you are using the keywords in specific places on your site. These include…

• In the meta description
• In the URL
• Optimize your graphics with a keyword
• In your headings
• Throughout your written content on the pages of your website
• Alternate text

Those are the five pieces of your blogging foundation that we are going to cover this week for February Fundamentals. If you want to join my Facebook group, Becoming the Blogger Within, we would all love to have you.