How to start a blog

Monday, October 17, 2022

Introduction

Starting a blog is easier than ever and can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It's also a great way to make money, build your brand and network with people.

If you're ready to start blogging but aren't sure where to start, check out these tips on how to get started with your new blog!

Pick a Topic

The first step of starting a blog is picking a topic.

Your topic should be something that you're interested in, but also something that you can write about for the long term.

A blog is not just about getting views or making money—it's about building relationships with readers and providing value to them over time.

So how do you pick the right niche?

It depends on what your goals are:

Do you want to make money from your blog?

If so, then you need to pick a niche where there are people who will pay money for what they read on your site (for example, I have a friend who makes six figures per month writing articles on nutrition).

If this is what motivates you, it might be best just starting an online business instead of creating another website altogether.

Are there topics related to your career?

If so, then these would make great topics for blogs since there's already some built-in interest among people who read them (for example, many doctors start medical blogs).

We'll talk more about this later when we discuss how blogging can help further your career goals after graduation!

Choose a Blogging Platform

Now you have an idea and a blog topic.

You're ready to start writing.

There are many ways to get your blog up and running, but the first step is choosing a blogging platform (or WordPress).

The platform will help you build your blog and make it easy for people to find it on the internet (yes, there are other directories besides Google).

There are several factors that should influence your choice of blogging platforms:

Ease of Use:

The platform should be easy for new users who haven't built a website before.

If you don't like how difficult it is, or if it's buggy or hard-to-navigate, then this could be a major issue for readers who want access anytime/anywhere.

Community:

Finding an audience depends on having people find out about what's being written—and hence why there needs to be some sort of community where users can interact with each other online so that word gets spread around about great posts/content among both authors & readers!

This also helps attract advertisers since they would know right away whether their ads reach certain demographics effectively through targeting options available within certain platforms (which wouldn't exist otherwise).

Reliability & Security:

Reliability ensures that posts aren't lost unexpectedly due either technical issues like crashes while security protects against hacking attempts by unauthorized persons trying access private data stored within servers etcetera.

Here are my recommended blogging platforms.

Ghost - The Ghost Platform is a complete blog and email newsletter platform with lots of flexibility and great customizations around the theme, navigation and overall design of the site and the emails you send.

Beehiive - Similar to Ghost, a complete blog and paid newsletter platform.

WordPress - This is the longest standing blogging platform on the market. They offer free, hosted and self hosted options. I've used WordPress for over a decade on Bluehost and it's great.

Substack - Similar to Ghost, you can publish a blog and news letter for free.

Medium - Also a free platform where you can blog and monetize your writing.

Out of them all, I really like Ghost the most right now.

Pick a Domain Name and Web Hosting

Now that you have an idea of what you want to write about, it’s time to pick a domain name and web hosting.

Pick a Domain Name

Choose something that is easy to remember and spell. Avoid using hyphens, numbers or misspellings of words in your domain name (e.g., [yourcompanyname].com).

Don’t use spaces or special characters in the middle of your domain name (e.g., [yourcompanyname]com) because they can cause problems when people want to find your site by searching Google or Bing.

Shopify has a great name generator tool to help.

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Check Availability

Search for availability on all the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing by putting this into their search bar: “site:[yourname].com” or “site:[yourname]blog” (just substitute with whatever URL you have chosen).

If the results show any websites already using that exact URL then try another option until one works! You can get a domain on your blog hosting company or you can use Enom.

Pick a Theme or Template

When you’re starting a blog, it can be tempting to just use one of the many free templates that exist online.

However, you have to consider whether or not those templates are going to be flexible enough for your needs.

For example, if your site is going to include video and audio content then the free options may not work as well as some of the paid ones do.

On the other hand, if you want flexibility for future customization then themes might be a better choice.

There are many different types of themes available at a wide range of price points so finding something that fits within your budget shouldn’t be too hard.

Start Publishing Content

You've got to start publishing content.

Start by writing a post, and then publish it.

That's it!

Now that you've got an article live on the internet, make sure to write a few more posts over the next week or two.

Ideally, you want to be publishing new content at least once per month or so; this will help you build up a consistent stream of content, which is important for attracting readers and keeping them engaged with your blog (and also makes sure that there are always new things for them to read).

When writing new posts, focus on topics related to your business / industry / area of expertise—basically anything related to what makes your website unique from other sites out there.

Try not over-complicate things either: just get into the habit of regularly writing about what makes you different from everyone else in your niche.

Make sure there are easy ways for people interested in following along with what goes on with your website (like subscribing via RSS feeds).

This way anyone can keep tabs on how often new posts go up without having any unnecessary barriers between themselves and reading whatever content might be available!

PRO TIP: If you are looking for content ideas, I use a great tool called Answer the Public that gives me instant, raw search insights, direct from the minds of my customers.

Promote your blog

Promoting your blog is one of the most important steps to growing a successful blog, especially if you want to make money from it.


Here are some marketing strategies that can help:

Social media.

Posting content on social media is one of the best ways to get new readers and build an audience, but don't spam all your friends with every update! Instead, find a balance between posting about yourself and sharing interesting stuff from other sources (like articles or videos).

If you have the budget for paid ads or boosted posts on Facebook, that's another great way to reach more people who may be interested in what you have to say.

Guest bloggers/writers/contributors.

If running a blog is taking up all of your time—and there's no way around that—you might want to consider getting other people involved by asking them to write guest posts for your site or contribute regular columns like podcasts and video series'

Everyone can start a blog, but you might need to do some planning to make sure you're ready.

So what does it take to be a blogger?

Well, passion is the main thing.

If you don't care enough about your topic to work on it regularly, then there's no point in starting a blog.

You also need to be committed to the time it takes to write and publish posts, as well as the promotion of those posts.

And if you want people to pay attention (and maybe even buy stuff), then you'll need some sort of plan for monetizing your blog.

Conclusion

If you’re ready to start a blog, we hope this guide has helped you understand some of the basics.

Blogging is a great way to build an online presence and share your thoughts with the world.

You can do it on your own or hire someone to help, but either way it’s important to know what goes into creating and maintaining a blog before jumping in headfirst.

Whether your goal is to share your expertise with others or just have fun writing about something you love doing anyway—or both!—I wish you luck as you embark on this exciting adventure.

If you have a blog, drop a link in the comments.

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Hi, I Am Craig Cherlet

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