Beginner’s Guide on How to Start a Blog
One of the misunderstandings about blogging is that you have to be a good writer in order to set-up your blog and be successful in it. But the truth is not the same. Readers read blogs to get a personal view on various things that they want to know. This is the reason why so many bloggers write in a very informal and conversational style. In order to have a successful blogging website, you don’t have to be an expert in your niche (a topic you want to write about).
You want to start blogging today but don’t know where to start. Then you are at right place. There’s such a large amount of information on the internet, where you can learn different things free of cost. But the question is from where you can start? Maybe you should simply overlook it – it’s so confusing.
I will help you with a beginners guide to make your job a lot easier than before. It will be easy, and simple to understand by everyone who dreams of starting their blog. In this, I will tell everything step by step to start a blog from start to finish.
The Steps in this Guide for Blogging
It’s not even close to as difficult as setting up a site without any computer and coding knowledge. Actually, there’s no coding required by you. Good news isn’t it.
Here is the most effective method to start a blog in just 5 steps. In case, you read this guide, then you’ll have your very own blog set up in 1 hour or less.
- Pick a blogging platform for your writing
- Pick a web hosting for your blog website
- Step by step instructions to set up a blog on a domain
- Design your blogging website
Stage 1 – Pick a perfect topic to write about in your blog
Prior to becoming a blogger, you must first find topics which interest you, make it profitable, and find out your ideal readers. But you cannot figure everything out overnight.
Selecting a topic you are passionate about writing makes starting of a successful blog so much easier. You have to choose a niche and work on it to attain knowledge in that topic. Make a list of your likes, hobbies, things that fascinate you and interests. It could be anything from sports, fashion, food, automobiles to technology and science.
Writing about more than one topic is totally fine too. As long as you are writing about things that you genuinely want too, you will shine and keep your readers interested.
For example, viewers of a cooking blog don’t want to read the health benefits of the food, rather they want to hear the experiences of someone and cooking instructions. To be successful blogger there is really just one thing necessary that is a passion for your niche.
Stage 2 – Pick a blogging platform for your writing
Selecting where you want to start a blog is the primary thing you need to do. In this step, you have to determine the type of blog management tool to use.
Free Blogging platforms
For new bloggers, the availability of free platforms is quite tempting. Of course, there is one big benefit that it’s free. Some of the best and most used free blogging platforms are-
- Blogger – Definitely the following best thing to WordPress.
- Tumblr – Social network and a blogging platform. Intriguing, and extremely easy to utilize.
WordPress is the best platforms used by millions of blogger across the world to set up their blogging website at an affordable rate. It’s really massive.
It’s by a long shot one of the greatest blogging platforms, with innumerable themes and plugins to personalise your website. There are practically various approaches to design your blog’s layout according to your likes.
Despite the fact that WordPress is greater (and likely better) than those two, here are my reasons why you should choose WordPress:
- Excessively simple to set-up by beginners
- Free to use
- Many free theme and plugins to use
- There’s an enormous support community in case you are stuck in the designing process
- Your blog site will load fast and it’ll additionally look good on your mobile devices and desktop
Individuals can associate with you effectively. Your content will be shared, liked and subscribed.
Stage 3 – Get your blog online
This is one of the toughest choices you’ll need to make before we go any further. There are two ways in which you can start your blog. You have the following options: free and self-hosted (recommended).
To get your blog running you will need blog hosting and blogging software. The good news is that these come together. A host is a company that stores data for your blog and delivers them to the user when they type the domain name of the website. You must have hosting in order to have a blog.
In case, you are confused about which hosting platform is the best, check out Whoishostingthis. They provide a comprehensive review about different hosting companies, their features, and price comparisons.
In case, you choose the paying one, you will need to select hosting plans. WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger; they all offer free as well as paid hosting. Amazing, correct? It’s ideal for those of us who aren’t serious about blogging. In any case, it has some drawbacks:
- Must Read- wordpress.com and wordpress.org
- Must Read- cross-browser compatibility
1) You won’t have the option to get your OWN domain name
On a free blog, your blog’s web address or in simple terms, your URL will be long and boring. Like, extremely boring. To put it plainly, make a free blog with some other the above-mentioned services and it’ll resemble like this:
dreamblogs.wordpress.com
dreamblogs.blogspot.com
It doesn’t look good, plus is long also.
2) You also won’t own your blog
In case of free hosting, you don’t really own your blog. It’s facilitated on another person’s web property. The bad part is that they can delete it whenever they want to. They have done as such before, and continue doing it later on. Which means all your diligent work, every one of those endless and long blog posts may get erased within seconds.
With a self-hosted blog under your domain name, you are the only owner of your blog. You’ll have the option to name your blog and post anything you desire. You can end it web additions such as .com, .co.in, .net, and so on.
Stage 4 – Choose a domain name (for those who picked self-hosting for their blogging website)
In case you’re still confused by what is a self-hosted blog, enable me to clarify you and how you can approach one up for yourself. You’ll have to think of a domain name you like and furthermore pick an organization that will provide you with hosting services.
Domain: The domain is the URL of your site. For example – Facebook.com is the name of the domain.
Hosting: It is the organization that puts your site up on the web so every other person can see it for a price. You can save anything there. Consider it a PC hard-drive on the web where your data will be saved for the future. HostGator, BlueHost, GoDaddy and so on are some example of the best hosting services.
Stage 5 – Designing your WordPress blog
How about we make your blog look precisely how you need it to. You can either install a free theme or buy one from Theme Forest.
Choose the theme that is simple to customize. WordPress additionally has this amazing component that enables you to change templates and choose one which looks the best. So, in case, you get bored with your present blog layout, you can change the layout without losing your valuable data. Keep in mind, your layout or design must reflect about you and what your blog niche is about.
In addition, it has to be easy to explore if you want less bounce rate. In the event that it’s dubious and difficult to navigate, individuals won’t remain on your website. After all web designing is an art; which means everybody likes different things. In any case, nobody loves bad sites, and they particularly despise sites that need time to explore. Make it simple for them.
Final Say–
Bloggers come to this field with social media experience, yet we’ve all committed amateur errors – there’s consistently space for additionally learning and improvement, regardless of whether you’re a learner or you’ve been blogging for quite a long time.
Also, that is it! I’m more than sure that your underlying blog set up and ready to go. In case, if you have any problems while setting up your blog, then this guide may help you accomplish your goals.