How to Host Your WordPress Blog on Shopify
A couple of months ago, I decided to give the Shopify blogging platform a go. I had heard about it from a friend and decided to try it out. Since then, I’ve been meaning to write an article about my experience, so here it is. I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to get started creating a blog for your business or brand, no matter the size.
1. Create a Shopify account
As with any other eCommerce store, you’ll want to first create an account on Shopify. To do this, simply visit https://my.shopify.com and click the blue Sign Up button to begin. You can use your email to set up an account and then you’ll be asked to choose a password. If you’re setting this blog up as an online store, then you’ll want to use a disposable email that you can set up on Shopify.
2. Get inspired
Now that you have an account set up, you can begin to explore the platform a bit. The first thing you’ll want to do is log into your dashboard and click the Blog icon in the top right corner of the screen. This will take you to your blog’s dashboard. From here, you can click on any of the six tabs along the top to access various features.
You’ll want to take a look at each tab in turn. First, you’ll want to explore the blog’s settings. Here, you can see a number of options for how your blog should function. You can choose from several different themes for your site and can also upload a logo and custom banner for free. You can even choose to enable Facebook and Twitter buttons on your blog or not. To test out the settings, simply click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and select Theme Options from the drop-down menu. Once you’ve made your selection, click Save Changes.
3. Set up automated social media posts
One of the first things you’ll want to do once you’ve launched your blog is to set up automated social media posting. This way, you can schedule content to go out on a regular basis. To do this, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and select Tools from the drop-down menu. A box will then appear with the heading Automate Social Media Posts. Click the blue Add New Post button to add an entry, similar to the one below.
In the Posts section of your dashboard, you’ll see entries for all of your scheduled posts. To edit an existing post, simply click on the entry and you’ll see a preview of the post at the top of the screen.
You can see four different options for what type of content you post. You can choose to post about a product, service, event, or theme. If you’re posting about a product, then you’ll want to make sure that you have an Amazon affiliate link included in the text of your post. When someone clicks that link and makes a purchase, you’ll earn a small commission.
You can also choose to post a video to YouTube. Make sure that you create a short, snappy title for your video and add a relevant, interesting description. Then, you can upload your video directly to Google Cloud Platform and share it with up to 500 people.
The last option is to write a traditional blog post and have it curated into a podcast. To do this, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and navigate to Podcasts. You’ll see all of your published episodes along with the option to create a new one. Simply click on that button and you can start curating content for your podcast.
4. Start a blog series
If you’re looking for a way to grow your blog and establish yourself as an expert in your industry, then you might want to consider creating a blog series. A blog series is where you publish a series of blog posts on the same topic. For example, you can start a blog series on SEO or digital marketing if you’re an expert in those areas.
The benefit of a blog series is that you can simply publish one post and then schedule the rest to go live at a later date.
You can see all of your blog posts in a series along with the date they were published. To create a blog series, visit the Start a Blog series button in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard. Once you’ve clicked that button, you’ll be taken to a form where you can choose the name of your blog series and the dates you’d like to have the posts published. Then you can click Save to finish.
You can see how the above screenshot displays all of the posts in my blog series. In the next section, I’ll show you how to actually write a blog post in just a few minutes.
5. Write a blog post
Now that you’ve got your blog set up and you’ve started publishing content, it’s time to write a blog post. To do this, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and navigate to Posts. Then click on the New Post button to start writing. To write an SEO-related blog post, simply click on the tab at the top of the screen and you’ll see a number of topics ready to be written about.
From here, you can type your post’s content and select the blog platform you’re using from the drop-down menu. WordPress is the most popular option and you can see why. It’s flexible, free, and open source so you can use the very same platform for both your blog and your online store. Plus, you can customize the appearance of your blog with a simple click of a button.
In the next section, I’ll show you how to actually publish a blog post and get it live on the internet. As you can see above, the process is a bit different for a WordPress blog post than it is for a blog post on another platform. For a WordPress blog post, you’ll want to follow these five steps:
1. Choose a publishing date
The first thing you’ll want to do once you’ve finished writing your blog post is to choose a publishing date. This is the date that your post will be made live on the internet – typically, this will be somewhere around the time that your post is published.
To choose a publishing date, simply click on the calendar icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard. This will bring up a calendar overlay where you can see all of your upcoming events (including blog posts). Simply click on the date you’d like to publish and the article will be live on the internet.
If you’re using a free blogging platform, then you’ll need to remember to renew your account before the free term expires. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay for the privilege of blogging. Many blogging platforms offer different subscription plans, from the basic to the premium. The basic plan simply gives you access to post once every week. The premium plan gives you access to post on an hourly basis.
2. Categorize your post
The next step in publishing a blog post is to categorize it. You can do this by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and selecting the Categories icon. Then, you can click on the New Entry button to add a new category for your post.
To create a blog post about digital marketing, for example, you could add the category “digital marketing” and then add a sub-category for “SEO”. As you can see above, my post is already categorized and I could even add a subcategory if I wanted to.
Once you’ve categorized your post, you can see all of your posts in the same category along with the date they were published. To create a blog post, simply click on the blue New Post button and fill out the form.
3. Configure your blog’s appearance
The third step in publishing a blog post is to configure the appearance of your blog. To do this, click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your blog’s dashboard and select the Theme Options option. Then, you can change the colors, fonts, and layout of your blog with a few simple clicks. Save your changes when you’re finished.
Above, you can see the default look of my blog. It’s fairly standard with a gray background, white font, and three posts per page. To change the colors, all you have to do is click on the heading above the post and select a new color from the palette.