Are you thinking about starting a blog? The thought of setting it up may be intimidating, but in reality, it only takes a few simple steps to begin your blogging journey. Today’s market is saturated with blogs, which means launching one is easier than ever. You don’t need the newest computer programming, coding skills or any past experience to create one. Blogging has become one of the most popular ways of communicating with an audience and developing a passion. It allows you to share your thoughts and opinions about certain topics that interest you while giving you the opportunity to make money off of it. You distribute information through writing, researching and posting articles, graphics or videos.
Step 1 – Name your blog
You decided that you want to create a blog, but don’t know where to start. The first step is to come up with a blog name. This is the first thing your followers will be seeing. It’s important to choose a name that’s simple but also relates to the topic of your blog. Make sure your name is unique and catches peoples’ attention. Be careful not to go too over the top, though. A flashy and annoying name can push away followers and potentially offend others. Avoid numbers and hyphens and try to keep it short.
Step 2 – Choose a blog platform
Your blog platform is where you’ll be posting, writing articles and interacting with your followers. Choose a platform that is easy to set up and versatile, with helpful options that will enhance your blog. Some popular blogging platforms are:
–WordPress.org– this is definitely the most popular blogging software. Its biggest advantage is that it’s super simple and easy to use. You can customise it however you like. WordPress offers amazing tools like Google Analytics that helps with custom analytics and tracking.
–Medium– this platform is growing and has become one of the largest communities of bloggers and experts. It’s a great place to start for beginners since there is no setup required and you don’t need any particular tech skills. Here you focus mostly on writing and not worry too much about designing a website.
–Blogger– this is a simple blog hosting service that was created for non-tech savvy users. A bonus is that it’s free!
–Tumblr– this tool is quite unique and different from traditional blogging platforms. It combines a social network and a blog. It’s free, easy to use and extremely quick. You can blog videos, images or GIFs in seconds. It’s also a great place to discover other amazing blogs and get inspired.
These simple platforms with help you get the hang of things. It takes time to learn how to work with each of them, but once you start blogging regularly, you’ll see improvement.
Step 3 – Find your niche
Now that you’ve chosen a blogging platform, it’s time to choose the topic you’re going to blog about. Consider what you love doing, what you’re best at and what you see yourself posting about frequently. There are so many types of blogs, so make sure you choose something you genuinely enjoy and don’t choose a specific niche because of its popularity.
Here are a few types of blogs:
–Lifestyle– these blogs cover a variety of topics, from beauty and fashion to finance and sports. Lifestyle blogs are extremely universal, and you don’t have to limit yourself to one category. It also gives you a broader audience.
–Travel– travelling the world, experiencing new cultures inspire travel bloggers to capture the moments and share them on their blog. Visiting new places is their biggest passion.
–Beauty– beauty blogs discuss everything makeup and skincare related. They discuss skincare trends, test out products and review them and post makeup tutorials. Beauty blogs are pretty universal as well since you can choose to write about only natural products or post only makeup inspirations. It’s up to you to decide what interests you the most.
–Food– food blogs involve a lot of pictures of meals you cook, sharing recipes and even reviewing restaurants and their food. You can even combine two topics into one blog, for example, food and photography.
–Fashion– these blogs cover the latest trends, show off fashion looks and hauls and even discuss fashion shows. A lot of fashion bloggers usually collaborate with clothing brands and promote their products.
–Music– music blogs discuss music releases, review music, share their own music or write about instruments/music equipment. This is also quite universal since you can also choose a specific genre of music to blog about.
Step 4 – Design
Once you choose your niche, have your domain name and blogging platform, it’s time to design your blog. This is the fun and creative part of running a blog. It’s all up to you to decide how you want your blog to look. Try to keep it simple and aesthetically pleasing for the user- nobody likes clutter or millions of pop-ups all over websites. Make sure everything looks good together. Most blogging platforms offer themes and tools to help you customise and navigate your page. If your audience notices that your blog is problematic and difficult to use, they will most likely click out. User experience is extremely valuable, and if you aren’t sure which type of them to choose, the safest option is a white, simple background and minimalistic details.
Step 5 – Content is key
The reason people will be reading your blog is your content and what you post. Your audience will want to learn something valuable from your blog. Focus on being as informative as possible about the topic you’re writing about. Try something original, think outside the box and keep your content interesting. The writing should be transparent and easy to read- you don’t have to use crazy vocabulary or write long essays. Write in the tone of voice that comes naturally to you; this will keep you authentic and different from other bloggers. Your first post can describe why you’re starting the blog and your goals. Share your experiences and be honest with your audience. Don’t worry about perfecting posts in the beginning, in time you’ll learn what types of posts are liked best and what to avoid while writing.
It’s also important to know your target audience well and post things you know will interest them. If you run a cooking blog, try to avoid discussing a new beauty product or your favourite sports team.
Graphics – Try adding pictures, videos, animations and GIFs to your blog posts. Keep things colourful and visual instead of boring and mundane. Your audience will love seeing specific products you write about or videos of places you’ve been to. Any graphics can completely transform your blog. Get creative and show your unique approach to the topic.
Stay consistent! After writing your first post, it’s important to keep it up. Post consistently in order to keep your audience invested and interested. A helpful tool can be a posting calendar, where you can plan your posts and stay organised. Instead of writing everything in a rush and last-minute, you’ll be relaxed and ready ahead of time.
Step 5 – Promote and monetise
Although your main goal in blogging shouldn’t be earning money, it’s an amazing perk that comes with being a good blogger. In order to start receiving offers from brands to collaborate, you must make your blog known to the world. Start by promoting it on social media. Stay active, post updates and contact other bloggers. It’s a good idea to befriend others that cover a similar niche- you can always promote each other, and this way broaden your audience. Try not to spam your audience with posts or promotion; this can easily discourage them.
It’s a good idea to leave information on your blogs informing brands that you’re interested in collaborating. This will let them know that they can contact you with offers or you can inform them about what you’re looking for in a brand.
Sponsored articles, ads, affiliate links and reviews are some examples of ways you can start earning money.
–Sponsored articles– the more popular the blog, the more brands will reach out to pay for their content to be posted. Be careful with posting too many sponsored posts, because your audience will be less trustworthy of your opinions.
–Affiliate links– this is an easy and non-harmful way of earning money. Followers interested in purchasing a specific product click on the link that leads them to said product or service. The website tracks how many users click on their link through your blog, and you gain profit.
–Product reviews– it’s best to choose products you believe in and enjoy using. Be transparent with your followers and review good quality products that can be helpful to them.
–Display ads– keep them minimal. Don’t spam your blog with ads everywhere.
–Guest posts– try to get others to post on your blog and try to post on other peoples’ blogs. This will increase your reach and number of followers.
When it comes to ads, the best advice is the be honest and transparent about it. Let brands know you’re open to offers and post these in moderation.
Step 6 – Helpful websites
There are many available websites that offer bloggers help with investments and statistics. Here are a few:
1.Indahash– this site is dedicated to social media influencers where they can sell their posts’ advertising space.
2. Whitepress.net– here bloggers can provide their services and invest in their posts.
3. BlogVertise– a site dedicated to content and sponsored articles.
4. Pressboard– they collect entries for creating content for a particular project.
- GroupHigh– they provide many statistics for social media influencers.
Starting a blog isn’t as difficult as you think. Take it step by step, and you will quickly get the hang of it. Interact with your audience, stay active, post consistently and you will notice an improvement in no time. Remember to enjoy the process along the way and remain passionate about your niche. Having an original idea will always interest more followers, so stay true to yourself, but also don’t be afraid to try something different! Be confident in what you write about and soon you’ll become a pro at blogging.
