I did it. I bought a nice domain name (did I?), I set up Wordpress and a new theme and I’ve setup a new blog for my girlfriend. She’s a behavior therapist that works with autistic children and I thought that the premise of a blog from the perspective of a therapist would be interesting. There is quite an extensive network of autism-related blogs out there, but most are from the perspective of the parents of autistic children. Check out the site at http://autismchronicles.com. After setting up the new blog, I thought that the documenting the whole process of starting a new blog would be interesting, so here goes.

1. Found a subject matter. I think this is the most important step for anyone planning on starting out a new blog. I’ve seen many blogs out there without a defined subject matter, which I guess isn’t wrong, but I believe that successful blogs have defined subjects matter, i.e. JohnChow.com, making money online, Gizmodo: gadgets and technology. In my case the subject matter for this new blog is quite clear, as I said, my girlfriend will blog about her daily experiences with autistic children and autism in general.

2. Got a domain name. I aimed for something memorable, short and relevant. Finding a good domain out there is not an easy task, so need be be creative. Also, try to stick to .com’s and .net’s.

4. Installed Wordpress. I like Wordpress and they have a huge momentum behind them. The WP community is very active and very helpful. For me, installing WP is very easy, thanks to Dreamhost’s one-click-installs, but most hosting providers out there offer automated ways of installing WP. If your host doesn’t offer this, I would suggest heading over to WP’s official docs.

5. Got a theme. In this case I used Adii’s recently launched unGrid theme. I did a bit of customization by means of creating my own logo. Also, in the beginning don’t focus too much on the design of your blog (there are plenty of very attractive free themes out there), but focus mainly on your content. Its your content that will keep bringing people back to your blog, not the design. Either chose one of many freely available themes, design your own or hire someone to design it for you. If you are low budget I would stick to a free theme, which can be easily customized. More on WP can be found here.

6. Forgot about monetization (at least at the beginning). Sure, one motivation for starting a blog is probably the making-money factor, but in order to make money you need traffic so again, focus on your content. For Autism Chronicles, I have not placed any ads and I’m not planning on doing that anytime soon.

7. Started blogging. My girlfriend will be the primary author on this blog, since she’s the one with the experience, but I will contribute by helping her socializing online (linking and participating on other blogs) and by posting autism-related articles in the news.