How to start your blog

Blogging is a nice method to earn an income on the side in addition to the income apart from your day job. The thought of people reading and at times sharing what you have written can be quite intimidating at first but is rewarding in the long run. Therefore, this article will give you a rundown of how to start your own blogging site together with useful tips and mistakes to avoid when starting your blogging career.

Choose a content management platform

The first step in involves choosing the most suitable Content Management System (CMS). A CMS also called a blogging platform is the online space where you will write, publish and design your written work. There are a number of such platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Medium, Wix, Squarespace among others that are both free and paid but the free versions have limited features. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and it is the most recommended for those who are looking to start a blog.

Find your niche

Find a specific niche to write about because handing several niches can become quite difficult. Moreover, most blog readers look for mastery of the topic and if you can prove that you understand what you are writing the better your blogging career will be. It may also be advisable to specialize in a topic where you are passionate about because it will be easier to make constant posts. Examples of niches include:

• Finance
• Medical
• Beauty
• Do It Yourself (DIY) home improvement
• Fitness and Workouts
• Web design and development

Choose your blog’s name

Once you have chosen a niche to write about, you need to pick a blog name that is descriptive enough to let your readers know what it’s all about firsthand. It is recommended that if it’s a personal blog that discusses a number of topics then you can use some variation of your name as the name of the blog. However, if your blog is going to talk about one topic then it is important to include it in your blog name.

Find a hosting provider

A hosting provider is a company whose job is to make your blog available to the readers online. Hosting can be free however, it is recommended to invest in a paid hosting service. Bluehost is good is one such service that offers easy domain name registration and quite affordable hosting packages. In addition, Bluehost also offers free WordPress installation.

Register a domain name

Most people looking to start their blogs make mistakes choosing domain names. Your domain name should be easy to remember and unique. In addition, stick to extensions such as “.com”, “.org” and “.net” which are more common and considered trustworthy. Furthermore, setting up a domain-based email account will help your blog look even more professional.

Design your blog appearance

This process will be made easy by the preferred blogging platform that you chose previously. WordPress has a number of customized themes that can be used to design your blog. However, it is important to note that the best of these themes are affordable. With just one click you will be able to have a professional blog.

Use SEO Techniques when writing

Since the main goal of your blog is to attract a large amount of readership, it’s recommended to make use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques so that your work ranks highly on search engines such as Google. SEO uses keywords to ranks webpages whenever someone searches on a topic. Therefore, you can use tools such as Ahrefs, Moz and SEMrush to conduct keyword research on a topic you intend to write about. Furthermore, SEO also requires link building which involves obtaining hyperlinks from other websites and using them on your blog website.

Strive to provide quality content

Quality content will not only appease to your current readers but will also make your blog content rank higher on popular search engines, helping you attract new readers. Good quality articles gather a lot of backlinks because most people will want to link to a blog that is nicely written and informative. Therefore, instead of focusing on churning out content every day or every week, you should focus on doing proper research on a topic so that your articles become more informative even if you will publish once a month. You should write on interesting topics and use literature devices but be aware of overusing metaphors or malapropism.

Create an About me page

Having an About me page will is essential for those readers who would like to get to know a little about you. Therefore, you may also describe a little about yourself on this page and why people should read your articles. The reader often wants to know what kind of content you are going to deliver. Moreover, you can as well indicate your target audience on this page.

Develop a content strategy

Before you begin delivering content, it may be wise to spend a few days strategizing how you are going to write your posts for the next months or so. You can make use of an editorial calendar where you highlight your planned posts just like the way you set goals. In content strategy, you can highlight the following:
• Title of your articles
• The subsections
• Appropriate keywords to use
• Resources and references you will use during writing

Publish your articles

Once your blog is up and running and you have written your first batch of articles you need to publish them so that people can access them online. You may also add relevant images to go with your text. All this is made simple depending on the content management system that you chose. Word press is one of the easiest content management systems to use because publishing and adding images, headings and links is fairly straight forward.

In conclusion

Setting up a blog is a straight forward task that requires minimal technical or programming skills. Once you have made up your mind and want to earn money on the side as a blogger then you should follow the simple steps highlighted above and you will be good to go.

Bio

My name is Emma Cooper, I am a blogger and work as an editor. I have a Master’s Degree in literature and love both reading and writing about books and literary topics. I also help students with their literary assignments – articles, essays and summmaries of books, my works you can see at freebooksummary website.