Building my Burning Agua Blog

Domain Name and Host
The first step in building a blog is buying a domain name and choosing a hosting company. I’ve used GoDaddy for my Amusing Violet Blog for two years without any trouble so I set-up my additional blogs for $10 more a year and the cost of two additional domain names.  They are yolandaortega.com and burningagua.com.  

Content Management System
The next step is to choose your content management system.  I chose WordPress as I’ve used them for two years and am familiar with their dashboard.  The next step is to choose a theme.  I chose a free theme since I’ve been playing with themes for a few years as well.  I took my time about choosing a theme.  I wanted to make sure that stylistically the burningagua.com site was beautiful to look at from the home page to the contact page.  I believe the shade of light green will appeal to woman and evokes a warm kitchen feel.  I think I want to paint my kitchen this color.

Content and Grammar
Setting up your website is not the most difficult part.  The most difficult part is writing the content for the site.  I’ve been writing consistently for 12 days now.  I’ve written well over 7000 words in the past 11 days.  It’s remarkable what you can accomplish once you put your mind to something.  I’ve been using the free version of Grammarly, but I’m going to upgrade next month.  I’m a good writer but having a second set of eyes always helps.  It costs $29 a month.

Search
The final steps in completing the set-up of my blogs will include setting up a search function on the burningagua.com blog, image share buttons and setting up a email collections function.   I’ve done a little research on search plug-ins and Relevanssi has caught my eye.  I need to do a little more research.

Sumome
JohnnyFD recommends Sumome for his share buttons.  I’ve used AddToAny share buttons on my Amusing Violet site but it takes just a few minute to test them both and see which one I like better.  It’s important to keep an open mind.  In addition, Sumome has email collection system.

Email System
After the search and share features, I need to set-up an email collection system.  Aweber seems to be the consensus for most organizations.  I’ve personally used Constant Contact in the past, and some people use Mailchimp.  I’m going to try out Aweber since it comes so highly recommended by JohnnyFD.  I know that I mention Johnny’s recommendations often but that is because I want to duplicate his success.  Follow the path of the successful person!

Logo
I’ve got the Eighteenth Street Development Corporation helping me with a logo.  I also received a 1-hour free consultation with a brand strategy firm in my neighborhood to help with my business.  I’m going to focus on content marketing advice.

Affiliate Master List
My next step is to really start building my affiliate list.  I’ve had a couple of ideas today.  So I am constantly adding to the list.  I need to get my family involved to help me.  I think they would be a great resource to recommend products for me to try.  It’s important to have a brain trust for any business, and the best way to find new products is through word of mouth.

Food and Kitchen Products
The burningagua.com blog requires cash to invest in kitchen products that I would write a review for and place the articles on my site, then I would provide the links to buy the merchandise to my readers.  This is essentially an affiliate marketing business model.  I want to invest in the best kitchen products available.  At this point, I don’t even know what those products look like.  I’m still investing the time in research on how to become a good cook and what the best tools are for doing that.  I’ve been doing my homework, so I have plenty of subject matter to write about.  

The Journey
It is a journey that I am sharing and my job is to be open and honest about the process.  As I mentioned in my 11 ways to learn to cook blog, I have many resources at my disposal, and I’m going to use them all!  I wrote the blog yesterday about how I was going to learn to cook without going to culinary school.  As I mentioned, there are plenty of resources out there and I’m going to try to access some of them next week.  The article lists 11 strategies for how to learn to cook.  One of the ways was to google blogs and videos that demonstrate techniques so my job next week will be to find a few blogs and Youtube chefs to follow throughout the process.  

Library
In addition, I’m going to take a walk to the library to access some cookbooks.  In my neighborhood the library owns the largest collection of Mexican literature in the Midwest, I’m sure cookbooks have to be included in the collection.  So my blog is coming along well.  I have new insight every day.  

Julia Child
I know that this a fun quest that anyone can join me on.  I’m glad I chose such a fun subject matter.  It is also one that allows me to get help from my family and friends.  I learned that Julia Child did not learn to cook until she was in her 40s just like me!  I watched her show when I was a kid and always found her charming.  A lot of woman aspire to be Julia Child.  I guess I’m just another woman who is in the Julia Child fan club.  Who are the chef’s that inspire you?