by Starting a blog can be an exciting venture, whether for personal expression, business purposes or to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. But when you sit down to do it, you can feel overwhelmed and unsure where or how to start.
Each of the six steps we outline below will show you how to start a blog, but consider this the quick start method – the actual building, writing, and learning are endless. If you’re not growing, you’re not working hard enough. You will always have something new to learn from your first blog post to your last.
This may be a brand new blog, or you may be a seasoned pro with a successful blog or two already under your belt. It doesn’t matter because whenever you start a new blog post, you’re stepping into uncharted territory and hoping you come back with something your readers will love.
Blogging can be a lot of hard work, but it can be incredibly rewarding…and if you play your cards right, you might even make money blogging.
Here’s how to start a blog in just six steps and make it successful.
Step 1: Pick a Niche and Find a Name
The first step in starting a new blog ischoosing a blog niche. In a previous post, we covered choosing a blog niche in depth, but it’s always worth mentioning again.
Choose your blog’s domain name once you have your niche figured out. You can use a tool to look up domain names and see what is available. Be creative, but try to stick to one of two theories: make your blog’s domain name either match your niche’s overall theme or make it something so different that it stands out (think Zillow for real estate). If your blog is about your own personal brand, you can always try to use your name. You’ll see a lot of coaching blogs that use the owner’s name as a domain.
Although you can always change the name of your blog, it’s not a simple process and can cost you a lot in the search engines if you don’t do things right. Try to pick a name and stick to it. Can you change your blog’s name? Yes. Is it easy? Not really.
Step 2: Get Your Blog Online
You’ll need a blogging platform and a web host to get your blog online. WordPress is a highly recommended platform due to its ease of use, flexibility, and built-in search engine optimization (SEO) features. There are a lot of hosting companies to choose from: Web.com, Bluehost, Dreamhost, and Pressable are just a few that we’ve used over the years.
Check with your web host as they often offer a new sign up special with a special discounted web hosting plan and a free domain name to get you started on your new WordPress blog.
Step 3: Customize Your Blog
No matter what blogging platform you choose, you’ll want to take some time making tweaking your site so that it looks great. If you use WordPress, there is an endless supply of free WordPress themes available that can be customized to fit your personal blog style. You can check with your web hosting company to see if they offer any sort of exclusive blog theme – I’ve seen a few that offer their own quick start blog template to get you up and running.
Remember to keep your blog pages clean and neat so that they are easy to read for everyone. Keep your blog content organized so that readers don’t get lost looking for the blog post they came to read. Give your entire blog a unified look and feel so that any post feels part of a greater whole.
The goal is to get your readers deeper into your blog content every time they visit, and the easiest way to do that is to make them comfortable and keep everything just a few clicks away.
Step 4: Write and Publish Your First Blog Post
Crafting an excellent blog post involves defining your content with an enticing title and a clear topic in the first paragraph. Break up your content with short paragraphs, lists, headings, and images to make it easy to read. Always remember to edit your work to avoid grammatical errors.
Don’t be afraid to be you, though. If you only worry about form and proper etiquette, your writing will become dull and lifeless. Make your site a personal blog – show people who you are and why they want to delve deeper into your blog posts. Create content that resonates with your audience, and you will find success.
Sit down and write out a list of blog post ideas or a blog post title or two. Sit with your list, and think about what you want to read and what kind of blog topics best fit your niche. Do you have a specific goal in mind? What do you want people to take away from your first post? Taking the time to brainstorm blog topics will pay off in the long run because not only do you have a first post, but you now have a nice, neat list of ideas for blog content for your first few weeks.
Step 5: Promote Your Blog
Promoting your blog is crucial to its success. After you’ve written that new blog post, don’t just sit on it. You can start by alerting your inner circle, then branch out to social media and engage with other blogs. Collaborating with other bloggers is also an excellent way to expand your reach.
When you’re ready to get more serious, invest in marketing software like Hubspot that will allow you to build email lists and send newsletters, integrate live chat, and more, all while tracking data and allowing you to see how your marketing efforts are working.
If you’ve made friends with some successful bloggers in your niche, discuss potential guest blog posts – not only will it increase readership by introducing your readers to their work (and vice versa), but it can also help with search engines through link building, an important search engine optimization technique.
Another great way to cross-promote with other bloggers is to pick a topic you both write on from your perspective. Linking to each other and discussing how you collaborated on the idea for this dual blog content can help increase readership and interest in your new blog post.
Step 6: Monetize Your Blog
Once you’ve established a steady stream of traffic, consider monetizing your blog. This can be done through selling advertising space, affiliate marketing, and selling products and services such as online courses, digital downloads, or memberships.
Even though starting a blog is a bit of a labor of love (or insanity), you’ll eventually want to make money doing it. I guess you could continue doing it forever as a hobby, but let’s face it, a profitable blog is the goal. Whether you earn through readers clicking on an affiliate link or ad revenue from places like Google Adsense, making money with a successful blog is the name of the game.
Unfortunately, most people who start a blog never make money blogging. It’s not easy, and you have to find the right blog niche, invest a lot of time and sweat equity, and rise in the search engines to get to a level where every blog post generates cash and you’re running a highly profitable blog.
We’ll cover how to make money blogging more in a future post, but we’re always looking for new ideas and opinions from other successful bloggers.
Making Your Blog Successful
Many blogs fail because their owners give up too quickly, blog intermittently, or do not provide quality blog content. To avoid these mistakes new bloggers make, post regularly and create an email list to keep your readers engaged.
Optimize your blog for search engines using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Dive deeper into keyword research with tools like SurferSEO and Semrush and develop a strategy to create content that will rank high in search engines and keep your readers engaged.
Remember that blogging requires time, passion, and a clear goal. From your first blog post to eventually making money blogging, keep true to yourself and the goals you set when you initially set out to start a blog. Choose a niche that you’re passionate about, and stick with it. Don’t be afraid to ask other bloggers for advice and opinions (we’re always just a few clicks away and would love to take a look at your personal blog).
We can’t wait to see where your blogging journey takes you! (We can’t wait to see where it takes us!)
