Do you want to know How to Start a Blog?

how to start a blog

Great idea! Pay attention

There’s so much information out there on the internet, and everyone’s telling you to do different things. It will be a bit confusing for you. But today I’m going to take you and show you how to start a blog in 2020.

In this step-by-step guide, you will get to know about how to start a blog from scratch, choose a niche for blog, find right web hosting for you, choose the right theme & plugins for your blog, and how to publish your first blog post.

Roadmap to How to Start a Blog

 

Choose a Blog Niche to Start a Blog

start a blog

Now, I’ll help you to pick and decide on which topic you can start your blog.

Well for me this is the most frustrating part because many of us can’t decide what to choose or on which topic we are good enough.

When you are picking a niche, always remember the competition, the volume of searches and how profitable this niche is.

But many of the time it was seen that many new bloggers leave many profitable niches just because of their high competition or lack of patience.

Not only new bloggers but many experienced bloggers also do so. But you need to understand here that if it has high competition that means it has a high volume of searches, ultimately it is more profitable to you.

What I personally feel in choosing a niche is selecting the niche you feel you’re best in. As I feel I’m good in seo & marketing so I started this blog.

If you have the right plan and you are ready to put extra effort then definitely go for it. All you need to do is to find a unique angle to the niche and present the information differently than your competitors.

Let me make this a little easier for you. Write down all the topics in which you are interested.

After listing all the topics, think about every topic one by one about how long you can write about this topic.

  1. Is the audience interested in this topic?
  2. How deeply do you know about that topic?
  3. Find all the pros & cons of that topic.
  4. Will you be able to solve people’s query related to that topic?

By considering all these points, resort to your list.

After that now you’ve to divide the topic to its last root, find the depth of the topic according to the interest of the audience.

Are you getting bored reading this?

But you’ll not get bored now. As we’re going to do some analysis.

Now we check the topic according to business analytics.

Start with the competition, volume of searches, ad report and it has any product or service so that you can promote that product or service in the future under an affiliate program.

You can find all these things by using these tools.

  • Google Keyword Tools for the volume of searches, it is free of cost. You can also check out the competition.
  • Consider Google Trends to check the interest of the audience on that topic.
  • Google that topic to find out if there is any product or service related to it and check if they’re providing affiliation for it. You can also find your product on amazon.com as they provide affiliation for all their products

So, always consider all these things while you are looking for a niche.

Here are some of the popular niches that are evergreen for starting a blog.

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Career
  • Hobbies
  • Creative Endeavors
  • Parenting
  • Personal Finance
  • Internet / Digital Marketing
  • Self-improvement

Well, I hope you will find the right topic or niche for your blog. We are done with the niche selection part now.

Choose a Good Domain Name for Blog

Domain Name, the name of your blog, the name which will represent your blog as a business.

start a blog

Choosing a perfect domain is also a little confusing, we get confused like what to choose? is this better? Does it suit the blog or not? And in all this confusion if you choose a domain name, but it is not available, then you get frustrated.

So, be patient and find the perfect domain name. You can use GoDaddy to register your domain name. There are other platforms for domain purchasing – Namecheap, Bigrock, 1&1 Domains, etc.

I also changed my domain name earlier. So I would like to give you some tips before choosing a domain name :

  • Short Domain Name – Use a small name which will be easy to remember by everyone.
  • Keywords in Domain – Use keywords in your domain name which will help you with SEO and learn about your blog that what it is all about.
  • Use TLD extension – Always try to use TLD extension which gives more lead to the domain. As I’m also using .com which is used globally. You can also use the country extension if you’re focusing on some specific country.

We are ending with Choosing the right domain name. As we’re going to start a blog, let’s move to the next step of choosing web hosting.

Find the Right Web Hosting to Start Your Blog

To make your blog online and 24×7 accessible, you need web hosting.

start a blog

If you don’t know what I’m talking about then let me give you a short information about it.

So basically, we’re already done with the domain name process. The domain is just the name of your blog which everyone will use to access your blog. But if we need to get some data on your domain we want to store some files in it.

So for that we use Web Hosting which helps us to store our website data on the server. It works as monthly or annual packages. We’ll have to pay the hosting provider to make our blog live.

So I would recommend you to use Siteground, as I am also using this web hosting. It’s really good and perfect web hosting for you.

Some of the experts say about Siteground:

Siteground Wpbeginner

Siteground yoast review

So, when you are looking for a perfect web hosting then just remember these points that are :

Factors to Consider When Choosing Web Hosting

  • Customer Reviews and feedback.
  • Uptime rating.
  • Price during sign in and also after the renewal.
  • Storage.
  • Bandwidth.
  • Durability.
  • Customer Support.

I’ve got some amazing speed results with it :

start a blog

I hope you would also love to use Siteground now. As their services are really great and they have a very good support team to assist you.

So let’s move to it and buy Siteground now.

Steps to buy Siteground Hosting

1. Click on the Special Link to Get Started.

Siteground hosting Pricing

I would recommend you go with the Startup plan. It covers all the features required for starting a blog.

2. Choose your Domain name.

register a domain name

Choose a domain which is easy for everyone. For example, if you’re going to choose a health niche then you can use healthyhelper.com or if you’re still confused what you should choose then you can go to choose a domain name.

You can also use Domain Name Generators to get good domain name ideas.

3. Fill in your Information

Fill your Account Information

4. Fill in your Card Details

start a blog

Now, fill in your card details for the final payment.

5. Confirm the Terms

start a blog

Tick to agree on the Terms and Policy of Siteground Web Hosting and click on the “Pay Now” button to complete the purchase.

Once the payment is successful, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Siteground.

You’ll be able to use your hosting and domain after this email. You’ve completed the most important step to start a blog.

 

Install WordPress on Cpanel to Start your Blog

After successful payment and activation of hosting, it’s time to install WordPress.

Steps to Install WordPress on your Blog:

Step 1: Login to your Hosting Account & Click on Websites:

I bought a domain name now what?

Step 2: You’ll see your Domain there. Under Domain, click on the “Site Tools” button.

I bought a hosting and domain name now what

Step 3: Click on WordPress from the left sidebar

I bought a domain name now what

Step 4: Now click on the Select button under the WordPress logo.

easy steps to Install wordpress

Step 5: Fill in the information as required and click Install.

I bought a domain name

Step 6: You’re ready to see your site live.

 

Choosing a Website Theme: The Attention Graber

We are almost done with all our work, we pick a niche, domain name and hosting, we activated the backend platform.

We are left with the front-end, which is the theme selection. It’s a structure that will viewers watch. And through this structure, they will interact.

If you don’t set a new theme, your site will be launched with the default theme, the default theme is not suited for blogging.

To start, you can use the free themes available in WordPress. You can avail these themes by logging in to your WordPress.

After opening the Dashboard, place your cursor on the Appearance available on the left side of the screen.

Now you will see a pop-up of the option, select option of Themes.

Now, you can see many themes and you can activate them according to your needs and interests.

start a blog

Yes, you did it, your blog is ready, now what next?

Well, now the next task is to rank your website, so for that create great and useful content.

So, what we have done, let’s check it first. If I talk in simple terms, we built a house for your blog.

Means the outer structure i.e. its walls, ceilings, etc.

Now, what’s next?

It’s very simple, the next step is to add interiors to your blog.

Well, I know you must get confused with this terminology.

Don’t worry, I will make it simple.

We have to now put content, add workable plugins, etc, in our blog.

The whole game is of content. The most valuable content maker will have extra chances to win this game.

So, we start the next step of on “Publishing your First Blog Post”.

Publish Your First Blog Post

Now, it’s field time.

As I above tell you about niche or topic for your blog, so I am sure you must have selected a topic.

In starting, try to write the basis of your selected niche or topic and after that write about the further topics as it’s outer sells.

This will help you to bound your viewers inside your blog. They will also find it useful.

Now, let me tell you how to write the first post in WordPress dashboard.

  • First login to your WordPress Dashboard.
  • Now on your left side, you will see many options. In these options, click on “Posts”.
  • Initially, this option will be empty because you have not created any posts. So, click on “Add New”.
  • And your workplace for writing a post will appear.
  • Now, I am sure you will get a little confused after seeing this interface because of the many options present there. So, don’t worry, I’ll help out.

Before moving into deep analysis, first, let me tell you one more thing about the WordPress editor.

Gutenberg recently released their new editor with WordPress 5.3. And if you don’t like this editor you can also switch to the Classic editor of WordPress. This was officially announced by WordPress.

Let’s Explore:

  • Title Box: Simply put the title of your blog post.
  • Working Block: In this box, you will initialize your content. Gutenberg’s WordPress editor says the block system is new. The difference in this block is that everyone has it’s own block type selection box and also their own editing box.

On the right-hand side, you will see other blog post related options. Like category of post, tags, featured image, etc.

After doing all such things like you are done with writing, now add multimedia to your blog post.

Images, graphics, and videos are very important. These things grab the attention of users and also make your blog post more interesting.

The images should be related to your blog post. And try to put informative images.

Okay, so you are done with multimedia.

Next is the backbone of blogging i.e. SEO.

So, here we will do on-page SEO.

  • Keyword: Add a proper keyword in your blog post. Put a keyword on which you want the viewer to see your blog post. Here don’t put the excess of the keyword, if your blog content is of 1k words, then just add keyword 6-8 times.
  • Linking: Here linking is of two types of internal linking and outer linking. Interlinking means, you add the link of your already published articles and Outer linking means you are adding the link of someone other’s article, and you are doing this thing if you think that this is also valuable for the viewer.
  • Multimedia: We had already talked about multimedia. You will need to add an Alt Tag to the images.

Now you are ready to publish your article.

Okay, so now we filled our house with interiors and with other stuff.

So, now let’s decorate the house a little bit or make it more attractive. Sorry Sorry! Again, I am in a different terminology.

Now, let’s talk a little about the mindset for blogging.

With planning, I want to clear a few things related to blogging.

If you plan to start blogging then it’s obvious that you have some expectations in return from blogging and these expectations may vary.

So, in this part I clarify those expectations and also we reform these expectations.

Some Blogging Myths

1. Automatic Audience

The most important thing in blogging is the end audience that is viewers. Many people thought that if you start blogging you will automatically get followers.

If you are also in this hope then, sorry dear, they won’t. No one will come if you aren’t telling anyone about your blog or promoting your blog.

If you have a great piece of content and you show your content in front of your audience then, in this case, many people don’t get this

2. New Day New Post

Many think that for running a successful blog, you have to write an everyday new post or after every two or three days But there is no such type of compulsion.

You just have to keep updating your blog. In blogging, quality matters not quantity.

So, don’t make a burden of such a thing, because by doing such type of things there are most of the chances that you may ruin your blogging interest.

3. Needs to be Technical

Here if you are little surrounded by technology, then don’t worry, you would not face any crisis. You can hire tech people easily for most of your work. You can also take help from my team at support@l0e.67d.myftpupload.com.

4. Don’t Focus on Fast and Furious

You don’t need a vast audience in the initial stage. Your blog sees hikes in the audience at a gradual speed.

In most of the blogs it was seen that they get their audience after a long period, but when they get their audience then they easily make six figures, so the whole game is of patience and hard work. 

All you need is the right audience. Because your success is always based on your right audience.

5. No Luck Only Planning, Patience and Potential

6. No Need to be a Perfectionist in Initial Stages.

7. Create a Blogging Mindset

I want to cover all aspects of blogging.

Now, you are clear about the myths related to blogging.

I am sure now that your little spark gets more energy now, hoping that you are getting excited to launch your own blog.

Don’t worry, you are not very far from the launch ceremony, but before that let’s discuss a little bit about a new mindset.

See after creating a blog, basically, you are adding a new daily routine in your life.

So you need to set a new mindset for that, especially from your mind that you have to do that. Because there are thousands of blogs already there and every day many new blogs are coming into existence.

But only a few…very few blogs succeed, and most bloggers drop that idea of blogging.

And the reason for this downfall is not the skills but the right mindset to do blogging.

So, you have to shift your mind to a businessman from a normal person’s mindset.

A business mindset is required because this is also a business whether it is money or popularity and businessman is the person who knows how to balance, nourish and maintain any business.

How to Set Blogging Goals

Goals, objectives, achievements these all terms have their importance in every successful task.

Without goals, you can’t move forward. You have to set your direction for working and this direction is set by your goals

Basically, what you want from blogging or how you evolve yourself in the field of blogging.

The main point here is always set genuine goals, never promise yourself high points, start with small things, after that shift to the big screen.

Your goals should be smart that is  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-Focused and Time-Bound.

For eg., I will increase traffic by 30% in the next two months or I will increase my email subscribers by 1k in the next 4 months.

With these goals, you can analyze your working report and how you are performing.

Now, with all these points whether the myths, mindset or goals, my motive is to make you guys mentally ready for blogging.

This is the half motive of mine behind this article because I want these things to vanish.

So, you can’t lose your interest after one or two months while you start blogging.

Conclusion

We start with mindset, goals, domain name, hosting, theme, myths, and we end with the first blog post. We cover almost all aspects of blog creation. I hope you like this article and also worth your knowledge. I think you can start a blog from scratch without any issues.

Please let us know your feedback and also let us know if you feel any issues in the comment section.

With this note, it’s time to leave and stay tuned for more articles like this. Tada!!!!