Blogging is like building a business, and building a business entails hard work, personal growth, money making and everything else that is related to success. Don’t view blogging as a hobby, although it could be just a hobby. For most of us who are serious in making a successful blog, it’s a place where we try to change the world, by making you – our reader and our friend, a better person every day. So if you are one of us, please read the rest of this page.

Are you new to blogging? You might plan to launch your own blog soon, on blogger or typepad. Most people do that because these are free blogging platforms. But you know, in order to succeed in this blogging arena, you need to have a web hosted blog. Why? Here are the advantages of having a hosted blog:

1) It gives you full control over what you can do and this is critical to your success

2) It eliminates the worry that one fine day blogger.com would just close down or ban you from their service, then you lose your precious blog

3) It allows you to customize the themes to create a professionally looking blog, just like all the successful blogs out there

And I could go on and on…

But the main thing that stops you from doing it is this: you don’t have much of a technical background and don’t feel like spending an entire day trying to set it up. Don’t fret. Because I’m going to help get your new hosted blog up and running.

Yes. That’s right. You don’t pay me anything, you’re just paying for the products below which you’re going to pay anyway if you do it yourself (with all the potential headache and frustration).

What’s in it for me?

I’m going to do the following for you:

1) Put up a WordPress blogging platform for you, it is the most widely used and popular platform out there

2) Install WordPress on Bluehost for you (it’s simple, but just in case you’re lazy)

3) Install several useful WordPress plugins that will allow your blog to rank higher on search engines and have a better user interface, among others

4) Install a theme for you, either a basic free theme, or a premium theme that will make your blog look pretty and professional

5) (Optional) Get your email marketing service software set up so you can let your readers subscribe to your email list right away, which is the key to monetization and community building

And FYI, people charge more than $50 just to set up your WordPress blog! With theme installation and email marketing tool set up, it’d come out to be approximately $200 to say the least. And I’m giving it to you for $47.

To get started, click on “Add to Cart” to get the service.

KS Blogging Set-up Service ($200 $97 $47)

I personally use and love the products below! I’m making personal recommendations, not mindless promotion.

So let’s check out the tools you’d want:

Blue Host (no need to pay for a domain name elsewhere, you get a free domain when you sign up)

I’ve looked at different hosting solutions such as GoDaddy, Hostgator, Laughing Squid, etc, and I’ve decided to try Blue Host. After all, it was the most recommended hosting service on WordPress, the blogging platform I was going to use. I’ve never looked back since.

All the popular bloggers out there use WordPress, and there are some like Seth Godin who uses Typepad, etc etc, all the support that you are going to get in terms of the technicals of blogging will revolve around WordPress. It’s not just the craze, it’s the trend. And it has a lot of useful plugins to support your blog that will make your life much, much easier.

Total Discount: Free Domain Name ($10 value)

Total Investment: $83.40

Premium Theme: Thesis or Woothemes

I personally use these 2 themes on my blogs, so I can attest to their values and features.

Also, because I’ve purchased the developer option for Thesis theme, I can install the theme on your site for a fee. I’m charging $70, 20% discount off the $87 personal option. If you’re interested in getting the developer option because you have some experience in coding and web design, you can order it through here.

If you decide to go with Woothemes, it’s $70 for 3 themes with different designs (buy 1 get 2 free). Woothemes is slightly more difficult to customize if you don’t know much about HTML and CSS, but the themes are functional right out of the box.

So here I’m making both of them available to you at $70, so price isn’t really a factor in determining which one you should go for. You can focus on the user interface, ease of customization, and personal preferences when choosing which to get.

Thesis themes has this simple and elegant design that I like (KenSiew.com runs on Thesis), and Woothemes has more animated web 2.0 feel to their themes which I also think is appealing (Think Big Think Money, my blog on personal development and financial planning, runs on Woothemes).

If you’re starting out, I’d suggest using Thesis just because it has great support community and tutorials. It’s easier to pick up that way.

Total Discount: $17 (for Thesis), $0 (for Woothemes)

Total Investment: $70

Aweber Email Marketing Software

If you would like to monetize your blog down the road, it’s best for you to start building an email list. Why? Because it will be one of your most important source for revenue. And even if you’re not exactly into monetization, you should still use an email marketing software to build a community.

Most people would drop by your site and leave after reading one of your blog posts. They might find it useful but they would most likely forget about your blog entirely after 10 minutes (blame the TV!). So how do you get them to stay around and read the valuable information you’ve painstakingly created? Get them to sign up for a email newsletter.

And the easiest way to do it is to use a email marketing software like Aweber to capture the emails and manage the lists. It will give you the ability to send them the latest articles on your blog, occasional announcements, product promotions, and so on so forth. Free email newsletter service like Feedburner will only allow you to send your subscribers the latest blog feeds, and you can’t control how it will be displayed or when they will be sent out.

More importantly, you can’t transfer the email list from a email marketing software to another without having your subscribers opt in again. Statistically, you’d lose about 3/4 of your readers. Why? Simple: It’s a pain to have to put in your email again to sign up for a newsletter. I know I wouldn’t do it!

So, don’t wait now. Sign up for the $1 trial by clicking on the banner. You can cancel any time within 30 days and you won’t get charged other than the initial 1 buck.

Total Discount: $18 in the first month

Total Investment: $19/month

Why do you only set up for the products above?

It’s hard to help you navigate around if I don’t use them myself. I personally use the products above and I know how to get around them fast. I’d like to minimize the time spent on setting up a new hosted blog for you, which means that you can start blogging earlier.

What to Expect from Me after the Blog Setup

I will do my best to help you with these:

1)      Get started in blogging. I’ve been through it, so I know it’s hard to start the process. And it still is sometimes. You gotta love the stuffs you blog about, 360 degrees inside out, otherwise you’d give up in a month. I don’t want you to waste your hard earned money, even if I get my commissions. It takes time, sometimes a lot, to build a successful blog, period.

But I’d like to emphasize that I help you not because I’ve helped you to set up your blog, but because you’re taking your precious time to read my stuffs,  And as much as I wish all of the things I write would in one way or another help every single one of you, they don’t. So if you’re willing to stick around and be a part of this community, I should help you.

2)      Anything issues related to the initial set-up. Just let me know and I’d fix it for you! I won’t leave you in the dark. I will send you my email created specifically for this service.

I won’t be able to provide support on the following:

1)      Technology-related issues. You should contact Bluehost.com, Thesis, or Woothemes as they have a great customer support system. Let me know if you’re not familiar with getting access to their support though.

2)      Theme customizations. I’m not a professional web designer, as much as I aspire to be one. I’m just not ready to commit myself into learning all the details about how to design an awesome site from scratch. In fact, I’d just outsource it to someone else.

Having said that, I did customize the themes on all my blogs by myself. I figured it’s relatively simple, especially with Firefox add-on Firebug, and various friendly tutorials out there. In fact, it feels more personal because I’ve done it myself, but I’d surely hire a professional later on just because they can do a much better job at design than I do.

If you need help getting started and you don’t have the budget to pay for professional service, email me so I can show you some tools and tutorials to get you started.

Okay Great, Show Me the Numbers!

Grand Total Discounts: $35 (if you chose Thesis), $18 (if you chose Woothemes)

Grand Total Investment: $153.40, $19/month (after the first month)

Before you decide to continue or not, I’d like you to put things in perspectives first.

To get 1 year of hosting, a domain, a premium theme, and an awesome email marketing tool, it’s less than 1 dollar a day! That’s how I looked at it when I first got started. If you’re determined to own a successful blog, is it worth it to invest 1 dollar a day to have a professionally looking blog so that people would trust you and want to go back to your site? The answer is obvious.

And if you’re not satisfied with it, all the products have a 30-day or 60-day 100% refund guarantee. So if you don’t think it works, just cancel them and get your money back.

And at the end of the day, what you get trade a dollar a day for, is an opportunity to become great at what you love, be it writing, building a business, or meeting friends. Trust me, if you’re word hard enough and use your mind and creativity, you’d get much, much more from blogging, guaranteed!

Here’s how we can work together to create your first hosted blog

What you need to do:

1) Click here to sign up for Blue Host (a web host) and  choose your domain name (it’s free)

2) Sign up for a WordPress premium theme:

If you choose Thesis, click “Add to Cart” button at the bottom of this page. And send your preferred username to the email I specify.

If you choose Woothemes, click here and select 3 themes when you checkout (for Standard Package).

3) Click here to sign up for Aweber’s $1 trial.

4) Send me your username and password for Blue Host, and Wootheme (if you chose it) and Aweber. Of course, you should put a dummy password like “kensiew“.

5) I’ll contact you when I’m done installing everything. Then, you will change the dummy password to your liking.

There’s no better time to act than now:

KS Blogging Set-up Service ($200 $97 $47)

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Thesis Theme Installation ($87 $70)

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