Adding a Blog

Why add a blog?

A blog helps your business in several ways:

• SEO — fresh, relevant content helps your site rank higher in search results
• Authority — sharing expertise builds trust with potential customers
• Traffic — blog posts can attract visitors who weren't searching for your business directly
• Updates — keep customers informed about news, events, and promotions

This article walks you through the whole thing — enabling the blog, writing your first post, importing posts from an old site, and (optionally) having new posts written for you on a schedule.

Step 1: Enable the blog addon

The blog is included with your Hands Free Sites hosting at no extra cost.

1. Log into your dashboard
2. Navigate to Addons
3. Find the Blog card in the Available section and click Enable

In seconds we:

• deploy a blog listing page to /blog/ on your site
• add a Blog link to your site's main navigation
• move the card to the Active section with a Manage button

Everything from here on happens on the dedicated blog management page — click Manage on the Active Blog card to get there.

The blog management page

The management page has three tabs along the top:

• Posts — write, edit, publish, and delete your blog posts
• Import — pull posts from your old site's blog
• Auto-Write — describe your niche and have posts written for you

You can bookmark the URL once you're there.

Step 2: Write your first post (Posts tab)

1. On the Posts tab, click New Post
2. Fill in:

- Title — the headline of your post - Content — the body text (headings, paragraphs, lists, images all supported) - Hero image — upload a featured image, or skip and we'll create one for you when you publish

1. Click Save as draft (stays private) or Publish (goes live immediately)

Each post gets its own URL automatically, matching the slug of the title (for example, a post titled "Summer Specials" lives at /blog/summer-specials/).

The blog automatically matches your website's design. The listing page shows post titles, excerpts, and hero images in a clean grid layout; each post has its own page with the full content, styled consistently with the rest of your site.

Step 3: Import posts from your old site (Import tab)

If your previous website had a blog, you can bring those posts along instead of starting from scratch.

1. Switch to the Import tab
2. Click Discover posts — we scan the blog URLs on your old site and list everything we find
3. Select which posts to import (all, some, or one at a time)
4. Confirm — each post is rewritten for you to match your new site's design and published as a draft

Import pricing

• $1 per imported post — each one is rewritten to match your new design
• Free changes cover it — your 5 free changes are used first
• You see the total cost before confirming, so there are no surprises

Imports run in the background. You can close the tab and come back — the Posts tab updates as each one finishes.

Step 4: Have posts written for you (Auto-Write tab)

Don't want to write every post yourself? The Auto-Write tab can produce a steady stream of original blog posts — each with a unique custom-made hero image — based on your business.

Setting it up

1. Switch to the Auto-Write tab
2. Describe your niche — tell us about your business, your audience, and the kind of content you want
3. Add topic ideas — queue up to 50 specific topics, or leave the queue empty and let a relevant topic be picked for you
4. Pick a schedule — weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly (or leave it off and create posts manually)
5. Auto-publish or review as drafts — your choice

Writing a good niche description

Be specific. The more we know about your business, the better the posts read.

Good example:
"We're a family-owned Italian restaurant in Austin, TX. Our audience is local foodies and families. Write about Italian cooking tips, seasonal ingredients, our community involvement, and behind-the-scenes stories."

Less effective:
"Restaurant blog"

Topic ideas

The queue holds up to 50 items. The next one is picked when it's time to write a post. Examples:

• "5 Tips for the Perfect Homemade Pasta"
• "What's in Season: Summer Ingredients We Love"
• "Meet Our Chef: Maria's Story"
• "How to Pair Wine with Italian Food"

If the queue is empty when it's time to write a post, a relevant topic is chosen for you based on your niche description.

Generating on demand

You don't need a schedule to have posts written for you. Click Generate Post Now at any time and a single post is written for you as a draft — ready for you to review, edit, and publish.

Auto-Write pricing

• $1 per post — includes full article content + a custom-made hero image
• Free changes cover it — your 5 free changes are used first
• No charge for failures — you're only charged for a post that actually generates

Quality and editing

Written-for-you content is a starting point. The posts are well-written and relevant, but you know your business best — review posts before publishing and edit anything that needs a personal touch. On the Posts tab, any draft (written-for-you or imported) opens the same editor you used for your first post.

Removing the blog

If you ever want to turn the blog off, go back to Addons and click Remove on the Blog card. The nav link disappears, but your posts are kept in storage — re-enable the addon later and everything comes back.