Now you’ve made the decision to step into the world of sex blogging, it’s time to look at how you start a sex blog. It might seem easy enough to simply create a Blogger or WordPress, but I want to share some tips that will help you step into the blogging world with confidence.
Ever heard the expression, “hindsight is always 20/20”? I wish I could go back and change the way I did certain things right at the start of my sex blogging. I made a few dodgy decisions (in my opinion, and for me personally) and there were a few cock-ups. Name, platform, email address… Let me share my hindsight with you as I explain why I believe these subjects and more are so important to get right… right from the start.
What’s Your Blog Name?
Your blog name is what your blog will be known as. It will be the primary way that people will find you on the web until you start ranking for things other than your own blog and domain name. Your name is what people will associate with you, with your blog. It’s a good idea to give plenty of thought to the exact blog name you’d like before you start a sex blog.
Although it’s true that you can change your blog name in the future, in reality this is trickier than a simple switch-over – plus, it can lead to confusion amongst your readers. Changing your blog name down the line could also incur additional expense if you need to buy a different domain name, as well as other annoyances like ensuring that name’s available on social media, changing your email address, making sure everyone knows all the new details etc.
Is Your Blog Name Available?
Once you’ve decided on your perfect blog name, it’s time for something a bit scarier. Is your blog name available?
What do I mean by available?
Assuming you’re in this for the long-haul, you’ll want to purchase your own domain name and set up some social media accounts connected to and for use with your blog. It makes sense to ensure that your blog name – or an acceptable to you version of it; eg. hyphens are not ideal but sometimes unavoidable – is available before you continue with anything else.
You can check which domains are available through a domains merchant such as 123-reg or GoDaddy. Check whether it’s available as a .com as well as just the .co.uk version of it (for my UK readers). It’s worth having both of these domains and deciding which one you want to be the ‘official’ one for your blog – simply directing the other one towards it for any mistypers out there.
Unfortunately, finding out whether your chosen name is available on social media is a little more tricky. You need to be actually in the process of making the social media accounts before you can tell whether a certain name is taken – and then for Facebook, there’s the recent rule that accounts need to have ‘proper’ not ‘pen’ names.
Twitter has a character limit for their handles too, so take this into consideration when selecting your blog name and then setting up all related accounts. I’ll be discussing social media use for sex bloggers in a future article.
Secure Your Domain – and Hosting
Once you’re settled on your blog name/brand/handle then you can secure your domains. By which I mean going and buying the .co.uk and or .com (and any other URL ending you may want to own) relating to that name.
Choose the right options for you when it comes to how long you own the domain – you can usually opt for anything from 12 months up to a few years in one go.
Also, take note of the renewal options for your purchased domains. Auto-renewal might seem convenient but it means the money will be taken from your account each time without requiring additional permissions.
When you’re purchasing your domain(s), give due thought to domain privacy. There should be an option to add domain privacy to your basket, meaning that people won’t be able to find out your name/home address with a simple domain look-up tool. A very important addition!
Something you may not realise when it comes to blogs and websites is that you need hosting. Hosting is the space on the internet where your blog will literally be ‘hosted’. With internet hosting services such as Blogger and WordPress.com, your blog is hosted by those organisations. However, this means you need to abide strictly by their rules or else your blog can be terminated by the provider at any time, without warning. These 3rd party hosted blogs usually cannot include explicit content or affiliate links/other for-profit advertisement, for example.
Hosting can often be purchased at the same time as your domains. I’ll go into more detail about why self-hosting is the best choice for sex bloggers in the third part of this series, next week.
Get Your Blog Domain Email From The Start
It’s so annoying when someone changes their email, right? You’ve been emailing this person for a while, then they change their email address and you’ve got to update everything and remember which one is correct.
Just think how much smoother everything will be for you if you have the right email address from the start. Get your blog domain email (ie. katy@mysexblog.com, rather than the complex and forgettable katy-cherryapplexxx-36@hotmail.co.uk) organised from the beginning. Not only will you avoid that email change annoyance mid-blogging but you’ll also seem incredibly sorted and professional. Win!
How Anonymous Do You Want To Be?
I’ve written in depth about sex blogging and anonymity in the past – it’s such an important issue to consider when you start a sex blog, as well as throughout your blogging life. Putting information on the internet is like seasoning food; you can always add more, but difficult if not impossible to remove if you feel you’ve gone too far.
In particular, be aware of how much personal information you’re revealing not only on your blog posts – how explicit you want to get with your photography, for instance – but also via the privacy settings on social media accounts. Disable location services on your social apps, and ensure only you can view any personal info that Facebook requests such as your telephone number – and even your birthday, if you feel it could be used to identify you.
Of course, these are just suggestions for those who want to blog as anonymously as possible. If you choose to let your readers know everything about you – who you are, what you look like – that’s fine too. Just make sure at every step that revealing those pieces of information really is your well-considered choice.
Decide Your Blogging Platform
I’m a huge fan of WordPress when it comes to blogging platforms. It might seem complex at first but that just means more options when it comes to customising your blog. There’s room to grow, in terms of theme options and other design specifics. I find that I can make my blog – and the blog posts published on it – not only eye-catching, but easy to read and shareable too.
Other blogging platforms include Blogger, Movable Type, Drupal and Joomla. However, these can often be less user-friendly and customisable than WordPress. Blogger seems easy enough (I used Blogger myself before moving to WordPress) but adult blogs typically have an adult content warning ‘splash page’ as the front page. Readers will have to accept and then click a button in order to access your blog. Not only is this a constant annoyance to visitors, it can also hide blog content from the search engines – affecting your SEO. Read more resources also on how chastity cages affect SEO because lately, it has caused a lot of stir on many netizens. This is due to the rumors that cock cages promote oral sex safely.
We’ll discuss what SEO is and some top tips in a future post in this Sex Blogger School series.
Source Or Create Your Blog Images
So you’ve got your blog name sorted, checked out some social media accounts, purchased and pointed your domains and self-hosted. What’s next?
Oh yes, making it look pretty.
Blog images aren’t simply for visual appeal – they also tell your readers a lot about you, your blog and your unique voice on the internet. You might want a similar look for all your blog imagery, such as cartoony, or explicit, or implied nudity, or black and white, or line graphics. Or, you might want to mix it up and use a variety of personal photos, internet-sourced images (that you’re legally allowed to use) and professionally designed graphics.
When it comes to your logo it’s worth spending some money on a professional designer. A graphic designer will not only be aware of the latest design trends and how to encapsulate your unique voice and brand in your logo, but will also advise what to avoid. A designer can work with you to create a logo you love – and that your readers will love and recognise – right from the start. Research adult-friendly designers by reaching out to other sex bloggers or through a simple Google search.
Stop! Content Time
Now that you have a beautiful, functional, eye catching and ingeniously named sex blog live on the internet, it’s time to write. Will you publish a short welcome or dive in at the deep end with a write up of your latest sexual encounter or a product review?
I believe it’s best to only make your new blog announcements when you’ve actually got something for people to read. It’s SO tempting to shout out to the world through your social media and email that you’ve got this lovely shiny new blog – won’t you come look? But please, hold off the grand unveiling until you’ve racked up a handful of posts at least. That way, readers can enjoy your new blog and your unique voice immediately – plus, whetting their appetite in this way will entice them to return regularly for more.
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