Learning how to start a blog and how to make money from it is a great decision. There are several benefits of blog writing. You can have a beautiful blog even if you are not tech savvy. With basic guidance, you can learn how to write a blog fast. This article guides you on how to write a blog, personal or professional the right way. Read on
Why Should I Start a Blog?
Is it worth going through all the troubles of blogging? Here are a few compelling reasons as to why you need to start blog writing now!
Share your experiences: A blog gives you a voice and an audience to talk to. Most blogs were started by individuals who aimed at sharing their different experiences with the world.
Identify a community: Blog writing gives you a good opportunity to meet people interested in the same activities as you. With a blog, you are able to learn from this community as well as mentor others depending on your expertise in a given field.
Make money: When done well, blogging can earn you money. Blogging is a passive income, you only need to spend some hours working on content and then progress to making money from it when your content is published. Here is how to start a blog:
1. Choose a Niche
What is a niche? A niche is a general idea of what you want to write about. If you are interested in writing about fitness then your niche is fitness.
Choose your niche wisely: You need to choose a niche that is evergreen. For example, fitness, fashion and beauty niches are one of the few areas that people are interested in. Do not start a blog on a niche that was once popular but no longer interests people.
Narrow down your niche: do not choose a broad niche; it is important to keep all your content in a tight niche to give an impression to search engine that your website is authoritative in the particular field. However, you can broaden your niche later.
2. Choosing a Domain Name
A domain name is the web address of your blog (www.blogname.com) how do you choose a domain name?
Your domain name should relate to what you intend to write about; your audience should be able to tell what the blog is about by just looking at the name. You may use your name in your blog address if you intend to discuss several topics. (www.andywoolley.co.uk)
Choose your domain extension; there are several extensions such as. Com.org. co.uk. However, dot com is the most preferred but the rest work well too.
- Remember that your domain name will not have spaces between the words
You can then progress to registering your domain name with a company of your choice. Here are a few companies where you can register your domain
- Siteground
- In Motion
- Hostgator
- GoDaddy
3. Sign Up with a Web Hosting
A web hosting is a server that will be responsible for storing your blog files and keep them online for your audience to access them anytime. There are several web hosting companies such as Siteground, Bluehost, Hostgator, In Motion, just to mention a few.
How do you choose a web hosting provider? Consider the following when choosing a hosting company for your blog:
Customer support: How responsive the hosting company is in case of an issue.
Uptime: This is how often your blog is up and running. Excellent hosting service should keep your blog up and running 99.9% uptime
Speed: This is the average time (usually in seconds that your blog will take to open its pages)
security: Your content should be safe and secure at all times
Features: A good hosting service should provide great features to make blogging easier. It should also upgrade the existing features often.
- You may also want to get a hosting service that offers one-click installs so that it is easy to get your blog started in minutes.
Select a hosting plan from the many that are available. Most hosting services have a basic hosting package which is recommended for beginners, you may choose to upgrade later. Type in your domain name (the one you registered) and click next to begin the registration process. You will need to check out using your preferred payment options.
4. Choose the Best Content Management System and Launch Your Blog
You need to have an idea of the best platform to start your blog. A blogging platform is also referred to as a content management system.
Which is the best CMS?
You can create your blog on different platforms, but which one is the best? About 80% of blogs are built on WordPress, here are the reasons:
Wordpress is absolutely free: this platform comes with a tonne of beautiful layouts, themes and plugins that other systems don’t provide for free
Easy to use: this is the best blogging platform for beginners, so easy to use and manipulate.
Very secure and safe: The software is updated now and then to keep your content safe. There are also several security features you can enable in your account.
Easy to customize: WordPress gives you several options of themes and other tools to ensure that your blog looks beautiful all the time.
As I write this, I can not figure out any other blogging platform with much functionality as WordPress.
Free or paid content managing system?
WordPress.com is a free blogging platform while WordPress.org allows you to blog at a small fee.
A paid blogging platform gives you control over your posts and website.
A free blogging platform will cause you lots of headaches later on because of several restrictions on their platforms
- The free systems control your content and may shut down anytime
- Your domain shall be so long and unbranded
- Cannot allow you to make money: remember one of the reasons as to why you need to start a blog so as to make money out of it.
- Has limited features for optimizing your content
- Has less no or limited customer care support.
Even though the choice is yours, a paid platform gives you full advantage of your blog so that you are able to grow and make it a business in the long run. WordPress. Org will give you ample time to create content and interact with your audience.
5. Design Your Blog
Now that you have installed WordPress, you are ready to blog. However, your blog may not look so beautiful at this time. WordPress gives you a chance to change the design and make it search engine friendly.
There are several design templates labelled themes; install a theme of your choice, they are all free. However, there are several premium themes you can install in your blog as well.
6. Install Plugins for Easy Blogging
Plugins make your work easier. However, installing too many plugins will slow down your website. On your WordPress dashboard go to plugins> add new and search for one that you may want to install. An example of a popular plugin is Yoast SEO that has unique features to help you publish search engine optimized content.
Others include:
WPforms: allows your blog visitors to get in touch with you. You can easily do this by dragging and dropping the contact forms effortlessly.
Sumo: captures your social emails and shares so as to keep communication channels open
The OptinMonster: This plugin helps you convert your visitors into subscribers. It contains existing popups that catch your users with an offer just as they are about to leave your site.
- There are other several plugins that you can add to make your content user-friendly.
7. Create Your Important Pages
Your blog needs to show information about who you are, what you like so that your audience is able to trust you. Your blog should also allow users to reach you whenever they want to. All this information can be published in what we called pages.
An about page helps you introduce yourself to the audience and tell your experiences. You may also sell your expertise here and show your achievements in your particular field. Pages are easy to create; they make your blog look genuine and professional.
Finally
Well, congratulations for making it this far. How to write a blog is not as difficult as you may have thought. Your blog is now up and running, you can publish your posts for your audience. However, this is just the start; you will need to continuously write content that your targeted audience is interested in. Later on, you will have to promote your blog and finally start making money blogging.
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