Start a Blog: Here is the Step by Step Guide

So, have you make your mind? Really, you want to start a blog? Actually, Great idea! You know back in time, when people wanted to learn how to create a blog, it used to take a lot of time for them to find all the right information online. And, there used to be a lot of search indeed as you had to look on different websites and see the authenticity, if they are right. Even now there’s so of information of the web and everyone whomsoever you ask will tell you to do different things. The question here comes whom to listen to? What is the starting point? Some people even drop the idea of starting a blog because they find it too confusing with all the information around on internet.

Well, hold up. Don’t drop your idea of starting a blog. Everyone is a newbie and blogging also is a subject to understand. Each of face various problems because we know less than nothing about blogging. You know what after reading this post, I promise that you will say it’ll be simple, relatively easy, and definitely easy to understand. This is the reason I have created a simple blog for you just to make you understand how simple it is. You will also know how some text blended with a series of images can possess superpowers. Starting a blog is an amazing thing, yet intimidating experience. Trust me! Let’s move on.

First thing first! Let’s clear the basics.

Why you should create a blog or join the community?

Before we dive in through the blog, we just want to make you understand exactly what you need to do? How to get started with a blog and how to set up your own personal blog. Let’s be clear WHY you should start writing a blog.

Blogging is one of the most popular ways of communicating.
It is a way to spread information and news.
It is fantastic way to share information with others.
There are millions of blogs online literally for a reason.
It’s an amazing way to express yourself.
Blogging makes you better person and a better writer.
The best reason is you can make money.

Yes, few of you must already have an about this, but just thought to remind you.

To start a blog professionally or personally, honestly there is only one requirement: the passion for your topic.

Blogging, what truly means, is about sharing the knowledge with others. Blogging must be done on the topic which you are passionate about. Passion about any topic makes the entire process of starting a blog much easily and successfully. Yes, writing about one or more topic is totally fine and most people are successfully doing it. What you need to keep in mind is you need to write a blog about things which you are genuinely interested in. This way your passion will shine through and this is the most important thing to keep your readers interested.

So here we have mentioned few reason why you should go through the trouble of blogging:

Money making sitting at home. Blogging, if done correctly, can be quite lucrative in nature. There won’t be any surprise for you if we tell top bloggers in the world earn quite a bit. And, if we only talk about the part-time blogger, he/she can also expect to make a nice profit. This depends on the things if they are done correctly. Blogging is a form of passive income, which is the best part about a blog. What you only have to do is to dedicate just a few hours in a week for writing a blog post and only with that you can continue to make money from it for a long time.

You can share your story. A wise man said pen is sharper than a sword. And it is true, a blog allows you to have a voice. And this voice can be heard aloud. Choose blogging if you want to share your thoughts on some topic or share your story with the entire world. In the beginning blogs were commonly used are as a diary where the blogger could write about their daily experiences.

Recognition for your business. Yes, you can get appreciation and recognition over a period of time. Of course don’t expect paparazzi following you around because of your latest blog post. No, nothing is going to happen like that. However, successful blog makes your idea turn into the reality. And, wiring relevant content can give you a ton of recognition in your respective field. Few bloggers in the industry are recognized as experts just because of their blogs. And, it’s true that many of them have got their book published and got movie deals based on their blogs.

Find a community. Blogging is an interactive thing to do. When you write a blog post, you are welcoming people to like, share an comment on it. This is among the great ways to make connections with the people who are as interested in the things as you are. Blogging is a great platform that allows you to teach people based on your experience. Moreover, it also provides the opportunity to learn from your readers as well.

More people than ever are online and the internet is exploding with growth right now. What could be the best time than now to have a blog and more potential readers? In short, we just want to tell you that you have taken the right decision to start a blog and now time is better than now.

Enough of this! Let’s jump into how to start a Blog!

Here are the steps to start a blog:

Step 1: Picking the blog topic

Step 2: Choose a great blog platform

Step 3: Pick a domain name & hosting for your blog

Step 4: Install WordPress and setup the design of the blog

Step 5: Write your first blog post and share it with the world

Step 6: Promote your blog and make money

Step 1: Pick a blog topic

The first step to start with is by choosing the topic for your blog. So, just in case if you aren’t sure about which topic to choose, here we have provided you with some examples for your help.

You hobbies & passions. This is one of the basic topics to choose to start writing a blog. Hobbies or any other interests which you are passionate about are among the great things to start with. The hobby could be anything from travel, cooking, fashion, sports, and cars. All these are the classic examples. And, these topics are good to start as obscure hobbies can be successful. As these topics intrigue your audience because they are from around the world with the internet.
Your life experiences. Each one of us have lessons to learn from life experiences. Sharing this knowledge on the blog can be incredibly helpful to others who may be experiencing the similar situations. To start you can think about the things which you have experienced in life and that are worth sharing with your audience. This could be anything related to your family, work, or other life experiences.
Starting a personal blog. A personal blog is a blog which is generally about you and can include a different variety of topics. Right from the things which can do on a daily basis, to a random thoughts and musings. This is like a personal diary which can be shared with the users to know about you. It is a great way to share your thoughts without having a necessity to stick to just one single topic.

Step 2: Choose a great blog platform

Once you have decided what to write, the next thing that comes is choosing where you want to build a blog. And, this is a very important part for any blogger. So, we are assuming that you have heard of WordPress, and this is among the platforms which one chooses. It’s massive and mostly used. Being one of the popular platforms for blogging on the globe, it is very popular with its infinite plugins and add-ons. There are almost numerous ways to design and layout the blog on the WordPress site. Moreover, apart from the WordPress, there are alternative sites too, which we have listed below. Have a look!

Blogger – Again a very popular platform and really the next best after WordPress.

Tumblr – It is half the social network and half blog. It is interesting, and very simple to use too.

Yes, we agree to the fact that WordPress is bigger and better, but these two are good to use too.

Why we suggest you to go with WordPress is mentioned below:

Infinite free themes and layouts
Your blog will be fast
It has a large developer community
Users can interact easily with you
Super easy set-up
You will have full control over your blog
Free to use
There’s a massive support forum
Your blog can be shared and commented by a vast number of users

Step 3: Pick a domain name & hosting for your blog

A domain name and web hosting is something which you are going to need to get started with a self-hosted WordPress blog. There are many services providers in the market to choose from. Choose a service provider that stores your site on its servers. And, make sure it is available for anyone who visits your site. This is the reason you need a trusted, popular, easy to use, reliable service provider as you are the first timer with the blog.

No matter, you can choose any company as per your needs, make sure it has “one click installs” for blogging platforms. This will make your entire set up process easier and you won’t be facing any hassles. Now domain is something which you need because it is the URL of your website. You can think of it as the address for your business.

This you need to buy and they will store your domain and point web traffic to your site which will be on your web host. Now comes the hosting for your blog site, your site will be on its servers. It is important to keep searching till you find a perfect domain name that is relevant to you and your blog and that’s available. Most of the times common domain names are already taken so, you have to search a lot.

Step 4: Install WordPress and setup the design of the blog

Without a blogging software, you can’t start a blog. About the WordPress, we have already mentioned above how great it is and how easy to use. Even without a technical knowledge, you can install WordPress in just few clicks. The installation of the WordPress must be done after you get your free domain and hosting account. Now you can log in and use your first click on the “Install WordPress” icon.

You are now all set with your WordPress blog, now it is time to add a WordPress theme. The theme is something which has all the functions which you need. A WordPress theme comes as a pre-designed template, which you can customized and used as per your requirements. Now this is the right time for you to decide if you want to make choice with a free or a paid one. Yes, for paid and free tools there are a lots of advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the places to find themes for blogs are:

Themeforest
WordPress Library
StudioPress
Mythemeshop

So, choosing themes do involve choosing them to match with your goals. If you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design and if you are blogging personally the theme should match it.

Here’s a quick checklist for choosing your theme:

Description. There is a short description mentioned about the features and functionality. Read it and figure out if the theme matches your needs.
Responsiveness of the theme. Aim for a responsive design which can work on desktop browsers and mobile devices.
Ratings. One of the most important thing is the star ratings. This will give you a clear idea of how good the theme is.
Preview. Preview the theme will show you its overall look, layout, and how customizable it is.

Step 5: Write your first blog post and share it with the world

So far, if we go by the steps you must have captured a domain name, a blog site and set up the theme, and now you are all good to go. You have completed the necessary things and now comes the moment of truth. Writing a blog! Staring and setting up is one thing, but writing a blog content is entirely a different process of imagination, creativity, research and information. You blog must have something that people want to read and interact with. The content should be so engaging that people would want to come back to get more, something of value. Even the most tightly-structured and well-designed blog site can be a failure, without a great content.

You content should do these things:

Speak to a specific audience
Provide value to them in some significant way
Keep the idea in mind and never forget it
Content is not about you, it’s about them
Your content should be attractively presented and easily accessible
Your presentation and quality of your content must be equal
Everything about your blog must attract your visitors
Encouraging enough to interact with your users
Content may be commercially written, but should never be focused on it
Let users know that you are there to help them, not to use them
Greet users with content and reasons to engage with that content

You must be wondering how to create a quality content? It’s simple.

Some of the steps are mentioned below that you can use to make great content of any type:

Point. Main idea and point to cover.
Prove. Example of the idea you are covering.
Perform. A simple way to execute the idea.

Now that you are all set with the content and quality, it’s time to start promoting your blog.

Write the most compelling copy
Design a blog interface perfectly
Promotions happen when engage with your current and future audience
The attainment of your blog promotion depends on your ability to engage in the niche.

Some of the advanced and straightforward promoting activities are mentioned below:

Submit your blog to search engine
Comment on other blogs
Start guest blogging too
Be active on social networks
Let your family and friends know about your blog
Post your blog on bookmarking sites
Be active in your niche
Start building your mailing list
Advertising on the web (paid traffic)

Step 6: Promote your blog and make money

Once you have put in all the efforts of creating a great blog content and promoting your blog. Now comes the next step of making money from your blog. However we can say that it is actually easy but the trickiest part.

As we wrote in the introduction too that blogs have the potential to be extremely lucrative. This doesn’t mean that you can start making money as soon as you start writing. You can’t just start making money in the first week, or first month. It will take its own sweet time like a six months to a year to start seeing a steady stream of income.

To translate your blog activity into earnings, you must keep in mind that blogging isn’t about making money but instead it is about creating useful content which can will pull visitors and make them come back for more valuable content.

Blog Monetization Channels

Choose from the below options to earn money on your blog:

Run ads on your blog:

There are various possibilities to run ads on the blog. Despite of the niche, you have opted for, ads can be specific to what you are writing or it can simply serve your advertiser’s purposes. One of the most popular choices for ads is the Google Adsense.

Joining affiliate programs:

Affiliate programs are a great way to team up with retailers and to promote their products. This will benefit your for successfully carrying out their sales through a commission. Few things that you need to consider are:

The affiliate sales number will strongly rely on the number of visitors.
You need to be credible for your visitors so that they can click on your links.
Consider putting a notice that you do use affiliate links on your Terms of Use page.
Popular online platforms which offer many affiliate programs are Amazon Associates, ShareASale, etc.

Products and services selling:

You can start selling product or services through the medium of your blog. For example you can write a product review and tell your users to buy that from the site.

Final Words

These were the steps which you need to follow to start a successful blog. Before anything just keep in mind that blogging isn’t always about making money, it can be for you and for people who are just like you. Hope these steps will encourage you to start the blog.

Have you started the blog yet?