On January 19, 2017, the president-elect, his wife Melania and family attended a pre-inauguration concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Actor Jon Voight spoke and musicians Sam Moore, Lee Greenwood, Toby Keith, The Piano Guys and 3 Doors Down performed. Trump addressed the crowd of thousands at the end of the concert, saying: “This journey began 18 months ago. I had something to do with it, but you had much more to do with it than I did. I’m the messenger. I’m just the messenger. We all got tired of seeing what was happening, and we wanted change, but we wanted real change.”

He continued: “We’re going to do things that haven’t been done for our country for many, many decades. It’s going to change.” He ended with a twist on his campaign slogan: “And we are going to Make America Great Again — and I’ll add: greater than ever before.”

The following day, on January 20, 2017, Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts. Trump took the oath of office placing his hand on the Bible that was used at Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration and his own family Bible, which was presented to him by his mother in 1955 when he graduated from Sunday school at his family’s Presbyterian church.

In his inaugural speech, Trump sent a populist message that he would put the American people above politics. “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people,” he said. “January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.