---
title: "Quickstart"
description: "From a new account to a published post, in the order the product asks for it."
updated: "2026-08-29"
verifiedAgainst:
  - apps/web/lib/server/onboarding-status.ts
  - apps/web/app/app/onboarding/plan/page.tsx
  - packages/shared/src/project-plan-selection.ts
  - apps/web/app/api/sites/create-project/route.ts
  - packages/shared/src/trial.ts
  - packages/shared/src/free-grant.ts
  - apps/web/app/app/onboarding
  - apps/web/lib/server/new-post-generation-acceptance.ts
---

Setting up your first Project is a fixed sequence of ten steps. Each one unlocks
the next, so there is no way to get out of order and no way to skip ahead to a
step that would not have what it needs.

A second or later Project may not follow this sequence. If your workspace is
still running its Free Project, an added paid one short circuits to the plan
step and stays there until a billable plan is on it, so payment comes before the
website scan. If the workspace is already on a paid subscription, an added
Project runs the steps in the ordinary order. Everything below describes a first
Project; [creating a Project](/workspaces/projects) sets out the rest.

Expect the whole sequence to take under an hour of your attention, most of it
reviewing rather than typing.

## Before you start

You need the URL of the product you are writing about, or enough written
description to stand in for it.

<Callout variant="note" title="The plan step is a real step">
  On a first Project the plan step is a choice, not a formality, and it arrives
  after the scan and the Strategy rather than before them. What it offers
  depends on what your account was assigned at signup: a plan, possibly with a
  three day trial, and possibly the option of taking a one-time Free allowance
  instead. See [the plan step](/onboarding/plan), [the trial](/billing/trial)
  and [the Free grant](/billing/free-grant).
</Callout>

## The ten steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Sources">
    Give Blogged something to learn your product from: scan your website, write a
    description, upload files, or any combination. The step completes once there
    is enough evidence, not once a scan has run, so a product with no public site
    can still get through it.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Theme">
    Review the visual identity picked up from your site and choose the theme your
    blog will use. This happens early because everything published later inherits
    it.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Strategy">
    Approve the strategy generated from your evidence. Approving it produces your
    Content Directions, which is what the step is really waiting for.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Competitors">
    Approve the competitors Blogged found, add your own, or confirm that you have
    none to track. Either answer completes the step.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Plan">
    Choose how this Project is paid for: a plan, or the one-time Free allowance
    if your account is eligible for it. Pricing is per Project, so this and any
    later plan decision is about one Project rather than about your account. See
    [the plan step](/onboarding/plan) and [Plans](/billing/plans).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Topics">
    Approve at least one Topic. Topics are the specific articles that will be
    written, and setup cannot continue past this step until one is approved.

    That is a requirement of setup rather than of writing. Once the Project is
    set up you can also draft from a [custom brief](/content/custom-brief) or an
    [imported draft](/content/import), neither of which needs a Topic.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Calls to action">
    Review the CTAs that will appear in published posts.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Lead capture">
    Review how readers are invited to hand over an email address. This is the last
    required step: once it is done the Project can be finished.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Assets">
    Review the images discovered on your website so drafts can use real product
    visuals rather than generic ones.
  </Step>
  <Step title="Autopilot">
    Decide how the Project runs from here, and activate it if you want it running
    without you.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Publishing the first post

Once at least one Topic is approved you have two routes to a published article.

<Tabs>
  <Tab label="Let Autopilot do it">
    Activate Autopilot on the Project. It picks an approved Topic, drafts it, and
    takes it as far as its Content Direction's approval policy allows. If that
    Direction requires review, the Post waits for you rather than publishing.
  </Tab>
  <Tab label="Do it yourself">
    Open **Content**, then **Topics**, and generate a Post from an approved Topic
    directly. You get the same pipeline, run once, on demand. Edit it in the
    editor and publish when you are happy.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

Either way the article lands on your blog at `yourname.blogged.dev` until you
connect a domain of your own.

## What to do next

<CardGrid>
  <Card title="Connect your domain" href="/blog/custom-domain">
    Serve the blog from your own hostname, with the DNS records and certificate
    handled for you.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Connect Search Console" href="/analytics/search-console">
    Bring indexing status and search performance into the workspace.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Understand Autopilot" href="/autopilot/modes">
    The two automation modes, and which gates each one respects.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Fill the Knowledge Engine" href="/knowledge/overview">
    The more grounded facts it holds, the less generic every draft becomes.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>