If you love something and want to write about it, you should start a blog. Having a blog gives you the ability to share your love and knowledge with others. And it is not a hard thing to do.
With WordPress, you can start a blog very easily and very fast. Actually, you can start just in one day. And you don’t need the fortune to start a blog or any kind of website. Today we have tools that make everything easy.
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Why You Should Start A Blog
There are several reasons why you should start a blog. First of all, it is fun to write about things you love and share your knowledge, thought, or passion with the world.
Another reason is that you can earn money with blogging and have passive income or it can become your main source of income. There are many ways to earn money with your blog.
Also Read: How To Make Income With Blogging
When you have a blog you will introduce yourself to others and you will have an audience. You will make new connections with other bloggers. And you can build a business from there.
But you have to look at it seriously. Blogging needs time and work. You have to think about it as a business.
Many bloggers think that they publish some posts, add some Google ads, and will grow but that is not the case. You have to work to achieve your goals.
But if you are passionate and love your work then you will achieve your goals and really grow your blog. You need patience, planning, working and everything will be OK.
How To Start Blogging
Now let’s dive in and find out what it takes to start a blog and start publishing your first posts. I will explain everything from start to finish and you will be ready to start creating and writing a blog.
1. Choose Your Blog Niche
The first thing to do when creating a blog is to choose a niche. And you should choose wisely. There are thousands of blogs about every topic you can imagine and you have to compete with them.
So, you should choose a topic you are interested in or passionate about. And you should know the topic. For example, I once started a blog about health, because it is a popular topic but I didn’t know anything about health. So my blog failed.
Some topics are popular and will grow bigger than the others and you can choose from them, but you also have to know the topic or you must really love it. Because if you don’t like what you writing about, it will become boring. Trust me.
Check out some popular blog niches here and choose the one for you.
So, you should choose the niche wisely and carefully. Think about what you love, know, and want to write about. Don’t be scared if that topic is crowded. If you write good content, your blog will become popular and successful.
And you should also think about if a particular topic is good for a blog. Some niches are good for writing content, but some are good for video content and perhaps it would be better to start a Youtube channel too.
But many people prefer reading over watching. So, writing is a very good way to share content. But you can also start a Youtube channel at the same time and you will cover more audiences.
After you choose your niche, it is time to go to the next step which is to buy a domain and hosting. Let me explain how.
2. Buy Domain & Hosting
The next step is to choose your domain and hosting. The domain is your website’s address. For example google.com, youtube.com are domains. So, it is also is the name of your blog.
And hosting is where you host your website and make it available to the world.
Choose A Domain
Before you buy a domain you have to choose the name of your blog and then buy a domain with that name. But because there are millions of websites, maybe your desired domain is already in use. You can’t buy an occupied domain.
The name is very important when you start a blog. It should be short, easy to remember, and should have brand flavor. So, don’t rush yourself and take your time and come up with good names.
You can check the domain availability here.
Also, you can choose different extensions for the domain. Extensions are what comes after the dot in your domain. Popular extensions are .com, .net, .org, etc.
I recommend .com but if it is occupied you can choose other extensions. There are also specific extensions like .blog, .design, etc.
Choose A Hosting
After you choose your blog name and domain, next you have to choose hosting, which is perhaps the most important thing. You must pick a good hosting provider to have a fast, reliable, and secure website.
Good thing is that there are many amazing hosting providers today that offer affordable prices and good features. And you can buy a domain from the hosting provider.
I recommend you buy a domain and hosting from the same company. Some hosting providers offer a free domain for the first year if you buy their hosting plan. Also, they include free SSL which is important for domain security.
And another great thing is that almost every hosting offers dedicated WordPress hosting. It means that you don’t have to install WordPress manually.
They do it for you and hosting is customized for WordPress. I recommend you buy WordPress-specific hosting. Especially for beginners.
Shared Vs Managed Hosting
But before you buy hosting, you have to decide what type of hosting you need – shared or managed. Shared means that you share the server resources with other websites. So it is slower than managed, but not too much.
The main advantage of managed hosting is that it offers automatic backups, updates, etc. Generally, managed hosting is faster, more secure, and offers better performance than shared hosting.
Also, there are other types of hosting like VPS, dedicated, and cloud hosting. They are more powerful but more expensive.
Also Read: Difference Between Hosting Types
Also, all hosting providers have numerous plans. You can get WordPress hosting as cheap as $1 from some hosting platforms. And different plans offer different features like more storage, bandwidth, websites, subdomains, and other options.
For beginners and new websites shared hosting is enough with the starter plan. But as you grow, you should upgrade your plans or change from shared to managed.
It is very easy to register your domain and hosting. Very simple procedure and there are tons of videos on Youtube about how to do it. So you won’t have a problem.
Now, as I said you can buy a domain from any registrar but I recommend you buy it from your hosting provider. But if you want to have domain and hosting separate, you can buy your domains on Namecheap.
So, you have chosen your niche, you have a domain, and a hosting plan with WordPress installed on it. Now it is time to build your blog.
3. Build A Blog With WordPress
To start a blog with WordPress is very easy and you have a couple of options. It is up to you which one is the best for you. Options are:
- Hire A Developer – Pay a developer and he/she will build a blog for you.
- Buy A Theme – Buy a template, upload, customize and start a blog.
- You Build It – You can learn WordPress and start a blog yourself. Knowing how WordPress works will help you to solve issues in the future and also it’s good for maintaining your website.
All the options have pros and cons. Let me explain what are they and what is my recommendation.
Hire A Developer
Hiring a WordPress developer is not a bad choice. You will have a professional, fast, and clean blog. But you have to pay and the price range can start from $1000 to $4000, depending on the website size.
Also, a website needs maintenance and you have to pay monthly fees to a developer for that. You can start a blog this way but it’s a little expensive.
But if you don’t want to spend time on creating and maintaining your blog and just want to focus on your writing and business, then this is a good but pricy option.
Use A Template
Alternatively, you can learn a little about WordPress, how it works, and buy a template (already made theme for blogs). You just upload it on your website, tweak some settings, change colors, images, upload your content and you are ready to go.
Very easy way to start a blog. Then you can pay a developer just for maintenance or learn about it and do it yourself. But you have to pay for the theme.
You Build It
But my recommendation and how I do it is the 3rd one – learn WordPress and build the blog yourself.
I’ve built my blog and I maintain it. I love to do things myself if I can. WordPress is not that hard to learn and you can do it too.
Just watch 2-3 tutorials on Youtube, install WordPress locally, and try it yourself. You will learn it very easily and quickly. And then you can build your website with free themes and page builders without hassle.
Now, as you have the website ready, time for the next and the most important step.
4. Start Writing
Now, your blog is ready for the content. And it’s time to start writing your blog posts and publishing them to the world. Also, it’s a good practice to write several blog posts before you build your website. This way you will have content to publish immediately.
If you plan to have ultimate guides or big posts on your blog, you should write them beforehand. This way you can publish them as soon as you finish building the blog. Then add new posts regularly.
Before start publishing, it’s a good idea to have a blog post structure and follow that structure. Your posts will be more readable not only for humans but also for Google. Well-written content is the king for SEO.
Also Read: How To Write Blog Posts
Also, you will need images for your posts. You have to decide where to find free images. You can get free images on Unsplash or Pexels.
Not only the great content is important but how you present it is perhaps more important. A blog post must have structure, hierarchy, it should be divided by subheadings. Must include high-quality, non-copyright images, etc.
After you will have a structure you can start writing and publishing your work.
I recommend that first three months you have to think only about writing and publishing posts. The more you publish, the more chance for success you have.
Try to publish at least 60 posts in this period. But only write quality content. Don’t write just for sake of quantity. Quality is the key.
After three months, you can try different things like creating a Youtube channel, adding a newsletter, analysis of your blog, see what works and what doesn’t, etc.
And if your website won’t have traffic in the first months, don’t panic. It’s natural for new blogs. Typically, when you start a blog it needs at least 6-8 months to gain some attention from Google.
Don’t give up. The hardest period is the first year. If you do everything properly, your blog will gradually grow and accumulate traffic.
And when will you have decent traffic, you can add affiliate links or ads to start making money.
Conclusion
Do you want to start a blog? As you can see it is not that hard. You just have to be ready, prepare for it, and just start and don’t look back. Publish as many good posts as you can for the first months and then create a schedule.
Create free products to offer your readers, start a Youtube channel to diverse your traffic, engage with your audience, and soon you will see your website growing.
Blogging is a great and easy way to start your online business and make it your main source of income.
