How to start a blog?
Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and sharing thoughts and news. Why? It’s a great way to express yourself but also to make some money. Are you wondering how to start with an own blog? Making a blog is often a hard task especially when you are a “rookie” without experience and you do not have an idea where to start from. However, believe or not but it does not have to be complicated or expensive!
We will walk you through the whole process of creating a blog website. Learn how to set up a blog website avoiding common mistakes.You can get started today, just follow the steps listed below, and your fully functional, the quality blog should be ready soon.
Let’s get to it!
Why start a blog?
People start writing their blogs for many different reasons. Blogging is an excellent way to:
- Improve your writing skills. Regular writing is a good practice. You can just write a fresh content, share your interesting stories with others. This should allow you to build an own community of readers.
- Let people hear from you. It’s a great way to share your ideas or views - as do many politicians and businessmen.
- Presenting facts from your life - show how to prepare healthy meals or how to run a sports lifestyle.
- Get more exposure for your existing business. Reach a large number of people and show them your products or services.
- Make money while working from home. A full-time income blogging is something ordinary, and many others do the same. Making money with the help of your blog can be hard work, but the barrier to entry is very low - you do not risk too much.
How to start a blog?
How to choose a blogging platform, domain name, and hosting?
Self-hosting or a free blog?
You need to decide whether you want to pay for your blog or use a free one. There are available perfect tools for online users that are not blogging for serious reasons (WordPress, Blogger, Weebly or Tumblr for example)
Unfortunately, these platforms are limited in their functionality. Some limits are:
- Displayed adverts
- Prohibition of using affiliate marketing or Google Adsense
- Lack of possibility of using the plugins and themes
- Lack of possibility of using custom emails and web address
- Possibility of a ban or a blog delete
Creating a self-hosted WordPress blog means that you don’t have any limitations. All you need to do is choose a domain name and find a proper hosting company that can host your blog. The domain is the URL of your website.
Choosing a right domain name is one of the most important things. Pick a domain name that is easy to remember, unique and trustworthy. Domain extensions like “.com,” “.org” or “.net” are the most popular.
Before you start a website, you should learn more what is web hosting. Then you should think which hosting companies choose. It is important to known are they offering services that allow your website to be viewed on the Internet and be available for the people on the web. You should know that there are hundreds of different web hosting providers on the web. These companies offer you similar services and a similar price. When it comes to hosting, there are some main topics you should focus on: the page load speed and uptime.
How to choose a blog topic?
The main question here what is your main reason to start a blog? Is it to promote your brand, or you just want to write?
You should consider not only what you are interested in, but also check the latest trends and topics related to them. Remember that often is important what your potential followers want to read about. Popular topics should provide you many new followers. If you run own business, or you are a part of a business company or any organization, then your blog should be strictly related to the products you sell or services you provide.
How to install a blog website?
Installing a blog yourself is not so difficult and complicated as you probably imagine. The whole process is very simple. Most hosting companies offer "one-click" WordPress install option. Many hosting providers offer their help. We highly recommend using the WordPress! It’s easy to mention that self-hosted version of WordPress comes with many useful features! In the cPanel, you should have access to many icons for different services and features.
Let’s focus on the installation, using an example. Each installation process should be similar. You need to be logged in to your hosting control panel. Find and click on “Quick Install” button. You should see a screen where you’re offered to “Install” WordPress. Click it and go forward to the next steps. You should see information that your WordPress blog has been installed and you will get your login credentials.
Now you are ready to log into your blog and finally start blogging. Write posts, get traffic and make it successful! You have to get familiar with the WordPress dashboard and learn how to make changes to your blog and how to present your content creation.
How to choose a blog theme?
WordPress blogging platform uses design templates called "WordPress Themes." The visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by them. You can change them in your dashboard control panel. If you are using self-hosted blog site you can think about buying premium themes - there are many available on the web - or download one of the thousands free themes available.
WordPress offers many plugins that you can install to add features and tools to your blog. There are over 46,000 WordPress plugins available. Some available options are:
- contact forms,
- SEO-friendly plugins,
- photo galleries,
- sliders,
- newsletters,
- and more.
Using themes and plugins you have to chance to create an original look of the blog and give it many useful features.
Summary
We hope that our tutorial article about starting a WordPress blog was helpful. As you can see now setting up a blog site is not a complicated task but a simple process that can be done for a very low price. Now everything it’s upon to you. You will discover new ideas and find different blogging tools and strategies. Your site will grow and you will need to invest more time and money into it!