One of the biggest challenges you’ll face when starting a blog is choosing a topic but once you find a niche through these guides on how to start a blog in 10 easy steps and get to know your audience, it’s easy to write compelling posts that keep readers coming back for more.
What to expect
In this article, I will walk you through the steps of finding a blogging niche, choosing the right blogging platform, naming your blog and choosing a hosting provider, building out your site, and publishing your first post but before then let's get to know what blog is and why you should start one.
What Is a Blog?
Blogs are online journals that publish articles. These articles are called blog posts and it can be on any topic range from personal blogs to business blogs, and even media companies' blogs like Buzzfeed. Blogs are different than other websites because they're made up of blog articles.
A lot of successful online businesses have been built off the backs of quality blogs. By blogging, you can build up a targeted readership, to which you can then sell products, services or courses. With the right web hosting package and content, you have the potential to turn a blog into an online brand which the essence of creating this guide on how to start a blog in 10 easy steps
Why You Should Start a Blog
There are many reasons to start a blog, whether it's to build traffic for your existing site, share your perspective with the world, brand yourself as an expert, or sell products. You don't need Faulkner-level writing skills, and actually simple and conversational writing works best for blogging. People don't turn to blogs for great literary writing; instead, they want down-to-earth practical information based on real-life experience.
How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps
Starting a blog can seem like an intimidating task, but it doesn't have to be. Follow these ten simple steps and you'll have a new blog up and running in no time!
1. Choose a Niche
Blogging can be a fun and rewarding hobby when you start with these 10 easy steps, but you should give some thought to where you want to take it. Consider the topics and points of view that would interest you personally, then think about how that might attract an audience. If your interests are more general and not so specific (like mine are!) then you’re going to have a hard time attracting a loyal following.
2. Research Your Niche Further
Once you find a topic that you’re passionate about, explore other blogs in the same space and see what they’re doing. What kind of content do they produce? How long are their posts? What kind of headlines do they write? How many sections do their posts usually have and how often do they use bullet points and numbered lists?
It's important to see what the competition is doing so you can understand what's working and what isn't. You should also see how they're different from you: Can you provide something none of these other blogs do? But at the same time that you think about how to differentiate, make note of what they're doing that's working.
3. Give Your Blog a Name
When you're naming your blog, choose a name that makes sense and will attract readers. This will help you connect with people and get found by search engines like Google. When your name is descriptive and memorable readers can know immediately what the blog is all about. This will help strengthen readers' relationships with your blog
Domain name search
Once you’ve made a choice for the type of your blog, the next thing you should do is search for the availability of the domain names using a domain name search tool. The search tool will show you if your desired domain name is available and can provide related suggestions that are. If it’s not available, the search tool will show you various domain name extensions that you can purchase. The most common domain name extension is .com, but successful blogs have been built using a variety of extensions like .net, and so on.
4. Create a content calendar
Once you have a few main topics or “buckets of information” within your niche—the ones you are most interested in or knowledgeable about—it's time to write about them. Your blog will be more interesting to readers if you have consistent content. An editorial calendar provides a structure for your content planning, so you know what topics you will be writing about.
If you pick between one or three topics and focus on them, it will be much easier to create blog posts and a website that others will enjoy. Don’t make your blog single niche-specific. For instance, if you start a travel blog, you might write about destinations, outfits for various occasions and activities, and recommendations for restaurants or nights out. Or if you start a fishing blog, you might write about different species of fish, their diet, tackle (the equipment), rods, reels, bait, and lures.
How to create a content calendar
An editorial calendar is a useful tool for bloggers. It helps you stay organized so you can post articles on time. You might find it helpful to add a page where you can jot down ideas for blog posts when inspiration strikes. There are many ways to design an editorial calendar, but whatever format you choose, it should help you stay organized so you can post articles on time.
Spy for contents
Next, look at websites and magazines in your niche. If you’re writing about cooking, check out Better Homes & Gardens and see if they post an editorial calendar every month. You can also look at sites that do this kind of thing, like Huffington Post or BuzzFeed. They usually have themes for each month to get ideas from.
Create a schedule for your blog by choosing a date to post each week. If you're blogging regularly, people will come to expect your content and this will help you stick with it!
5. Choose a platform for your blog
You don't need to know how to write code to start a blog. Many software options are available that will allow you to design your blog and publish posts without needing to learn a programming language. The most popular choice for bloggers by far is WordPress, which is a content management system (CMS). As a CMS, WordPress allows you to build your blog and manage your content. Popular websites like Facebook and Perez Hilton use WordPress as their CMS.
What is WordPress
WordPress is a free, open-source blogging software that you can install on your own web host. It's relatively easy to use, and there are tons of themes to choose from, which makes building a website easier. There are also tons of plugins available, which extend the functionality of WordPress, as well as lots of resources to help you learn how to use WordPress effectively and get the most out of it. WordPress does require a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes to getting your design just right and learning how to work with different themes and plugins. But once you have your main blog design in place, adding new posts and editing them moving forward is easy.
Choose a drag and drop builder
For beginners, however, a drag-and-drop website builder may be the way to go. These builders do not require any coding knowledge and make it easy for you to customize your site. This can be great for those who want to create a site quickly and easily but lack coding skills.
6. Purchase a web hosting
To have a blog that’s live on the internet, you need to register it with a web host. When you sign up for a hosting plan which you can access them in difference types here, you’re renting server space which will give you a place to store your site’s files. Without a hosting company, you’ll have a domain name but no website ready to publish.
WordPress and Shared Hosting Plan
WordPress hosting is a customized, premium plan for web hosting that makes it easy to build a website with WordPress. You'll get faster speeds and greater security, compatibility with your host's other customers and more storage space if you need it.
WordPress hosting is usually more expensive than shared hosting, but offered by companies who specialize in WordPress—so if you're using WordPress and want some extra perks like quicker page loads or more storage space—or if you want to avoid any issues with compatibility
7. Build your new blog
Choose a theme for your blog
Now that your domain and hosting account are set up, it’s time to build out your site. To start, we recommend installing WordPress on your web hosting account. From there, you can create a website within WordPress itself or install a pre-made theme to build your site around. A lot of designers have created great-looking themes for bloggers, so spend some time browsing through the options or check out our list of some of the best free and premium WordPress themes available right now.
Once you've chosen a theme that you like, activate it by logging into your WordPress account, navigating to Appearance>Themes, then click ‘Add New, image above. Then Perform a search for your chosen theme's name and then click Activate. image below. Your new theme will form the foundation for how your site looks and functions. It will provide most of your website's base design, so once you have it looking how you want, you can just focus on content.
To further customize your site navigate to Appearance>Customize. This will give you a wealth of different options to edit your site with!.
Building Your Blog with a Website Builder
If you decide to build your blog via a website builder, your experience will depend on which tool you choose. In most cases, the process will either start with choosing a template (which is kind of like a WordPress theme) that provides the basis of your website’s design, or providing the website builder with some basic information about your site and letting it use artificial intelligence technology to build the foundation for your website.
8. Start writing!
When you're ready to make your blog go live, it's a good idea to have a number of posts already published on your site. A blog with only one article won't give people much of an idea of what to expect or why to come back. If you have several interesting posts already published on your site, visitors are more likely to read and enjoy your articles, which in turn can inspire them to come back later for more.
To write a great blog article, you should consider these points and can also be done through AI Tools
1. A catchy title that will make your article more readable, interesting, and clickable
2. Images that illustrate or add to the topic without detracting from the text3.
3. Useful information
Reasons for your post
When writing a blog post, think about how much information you want to give. Choose a clear structure for your post and include headings, subheadings, lists and bullet points where appropriate. Research relevant links for your article before publishing it and include links to further helpful information on the topic. Include a call to action at the end of each post so visitors know what you want them to do next. Proofread before publishing and avoid embarrassing typos and sentences that don’t make much sense.
9. Publish your first post
To publish a post with WordPress, you should begin by selecting Posts>Add New from the left-hand menu. This will bring up the post editor screen where you can enter your title, your post content, and any media you want to include. You’ll also want to publish your post at some point after you finish adding your content. Image 1-2-3 respectively
You've got to, add relevant tags and categories, select a featured image for it, add a meta description and preview it.
Preview’ button in the top right corner of the screen to see how it will look once it’s live. Make sure everything looks right and click ‘Publish’
10. Promote your blog
If you’ll be keeping your blog as a personal journal and you don’t care if anyone reads it, you can skip this step. But if you actually want people to find your words and read them, you can’t just “Publish” and hope they do. You have to work at promoting your blog post.
Optimize your content for SEO
Search engine popularly known as SEO visibility is incredibly important for a new blog which you actually achieve with this powerful tool. However, to attract readers in your first few months, you may want to invest in an advertising campaign with ads that show up on search engines Image below. This can get you found much faster than waiting for people to stumble upon your blog organically.
Final thought
When you have a blog, you share your thoughts or experience with the world. Whether you're starting a personal blog or one for business, all you need is the right hosting plan with speed and compatibility and a little knowledge to get started. Start today with these recommendations from our research
Thank you for reading, let’s have your thought in the comment section… SHALOM
