“HOW TO START A BLOG?” – This is the same question that a newbie asks when he/she is interested to start a blog. Even though starting a blog might seem like it is something that would be very easy, it actually is not. Thousands of people search for how to start a blog but still don’t get anywhere because of wrong approach. If your goal is to create a cash sucking blog that will bring in readers and customers, then you will need to understand the individual components that will give you the best chance to do this.
Those important components required in order to successfully start a blog would be niche selection, domain name selection, the blogging platform, web hosting, and the design of your blog. Each of these components must be understood and properly executed. And in this post, I am going to finally teach you how to start a blog from scratch…
#1. How To Start A Blog? – Niche Selection
Niche selection is going to be very important when you are first looking for how to start a blog. If you choose the right niche then getting readers will be easy. The basis for choosing a niche is to choose a sector of people who are thirsty for information. These people must have a number of problems and questions that are not being solved or answered elsewhere at least not in great amount.
There will be certain keywords they will use in order to search for the information they want. You must know how to identify these keywords along with the problems a given niche will have. You can do this by using keyword research tools or you can use Google keyword research tool, which is free.
You must also measure the competition for these keywords, this is best done by typing in your keywords in the search engine, going through the top ten sites and seeing which ones actually deliver on the promises they make in their titles. Also, you will want to measure the authority of the website itself to see how hard it might be to crack a given niche.
Recommended Niche/Keyword Research Tool :- Keyword Elite or Keyword Winner (wordpress plugin).
#2. How To Start A Blog? – Domain Name Selection
When you start up a new blog the domain name you decide to use can either make or break its success. Your domain name must advertise what the subject or core topic of your blog is going to be. If you are interested in monetization, which I am sure you are, then you will need to focus on getting a domain name for your blog that incorporates the keywords in it.
It would be even better if the keyword in the domain is an exact match keyword. Besides from this you must also pay attention to other things concerning domain name selection. You must make sure the domain is short, easy to spell, and more importantly easy to remember.
Recommended Domain Registrar -: Name.com.
Do try their ubersearch feature…It’s really cool for marketers!
#3. How To Start A Blog? – Blogging Platforms
When it comes to the type of blogging platform you will be using for your new blog you will have a large number of choices. Your main two choices however should be WordPress and Blogger. Both of these blogging platforms are free and are easily customizable.
Each ones comes with its advantages, Blogger for instance is owned by Google, which means it might be easier to rank right away. You might also be able to get traffic without much promotion. You will have the option of upgrading it if you want by getting a private domain.
WordPress might be the better option when it comes to blogging platforms, free or self hosted. WordPress is so powerful because it has a large number of SEO plugins that you can install. There is a sitemap plugin, a Google map plugin, Adsense plugins, membership plugins, and many more. It is also easy for you to set up WordPress with any web hosting service that is having the Fantastico script in their cPanel.
Personally I would recommend you to buy web hosting and self-host a wordpress blog on it for complete control on your blog.
#4. How To Start A Blog? – Web Hosting When Self-Hosting The Blog
You will have a hard time moving Blogger onto a private host afterwards, however you will easily be able to set up WordPress with just about any web hosting service you decide to use. If you are questioning the value that web hosting has when you decide to self-host your blog consider these benefits.
With self hosting you will have full control over your website, graphics, and content. You will have a unique domain address. You will have the potential to be perceived as more professional, and it will belong to you not the company that owns the platform.
Recommended Web Hosting -: HostGator (read my hostgator review) – 25% Discount Coupon: SMARTBLOGGERZ25 .
#5. How To Start A Blog? – Blog Design
Blog design is an area that can really make or break the success of your blog. It can impact how long people stay on your site, how it ranks in search engines, and it can affect how long it takes to load up. The areas you want to focus on when it comes to blog design would be having a good customized header at the top.
You want to make sure that the blog is easy to navigate so people do not leave. Include a search engine bar so people can easily find past posts. You will need to decide on how you want your non blog post pages to appear. You will also want to make sure you pick the right theme if you decide to use WordPress and make sure it includes the necessary social sharing features.
Recommended Blog Themes:
- Thesis Theme – Best Thesis Skin Club: Kolakube
- Ultimate Blogging Theme
- Woo Themes
- StudioPress
Putting most of your focus into these five things will ensure you build a good blog that will get traffic. If you are consistent with good content creation, and you make sure you posts are properly optimized, then the rest should take care of itself. Share your comments with me below if you have anything to say on how to start a blog.
Top 10 Search Terms:
• how to start a blog • starting a blog • start a blog
great points. I am considering buying a domain for my blogger blog. The greatest advantage of blogger is that you can buy a new domain and still use blogger free hosting services:)
Yup you are right. When I first started a blog, even I used the free blogger platform for a year or two and in that somewhere when I started earning a bit, I bought a new domain ‘SmartBloggerz.com’ and used it with that blogspot blog.
It gave me additional boost to traffic and advertising income. Later on I moved to self-hosted wordpress platform on which you are commenting today! 😉
that’s nice. Is it necessary to use wordpress if you wanna make a great blog?? I mean most great bloggers use wordpress:/
Not NECESSARY..But yes, using wordpress gives you more control over your blog. With blogspot you never know when they will shut your blog down because it’s hosted on Google “The Dominator”. There are some good examples of bloggers (and well known) too that are using blogspot but they are just handful only according to me.
ohh. I personally don’t think google will do anything like deleting my blog. Unless ofc i break some rules. Ya i agree wordpress is better for SEO and all. But i still love blogger. I will try to be in the handful of the succesfull bloggers that use blogger:/
nice points but nothing that has not been told before. Niche selection is very important to have a successful blogging career. a wrong niche, a hasty decision and the blogging career will be finished before starting
I agree that there might be nothing which hasn’t been told before but that’s just for you because you are already in blogging field from quite a few years now.
There are many people who eagerly wants to start a blog and they keep asking me sometimes how to start a blog like you did to make money online.
So this post will be helpful for those…Whenever they will ask me now, I will just send them to this page and in the end it will also benefit me.
I am looking to write more such posts for newbies as they are missing from this blog but in a proper way and on good topics which I get asked many times.
Sushant,
Great advice! Although I have been blogging for some time, I got started the “hard” way, by trial-and-error. I eventually discovered much of what you posted to be true. I love self-hosted WordPress blogs due to all of the SEO features and the way WordPress enables us to focus on blogging and not building websites. Thesis is a GREAT theme and I will probably never use another theme. I have had a great experience and look foreword to learning more.
Justin
Yes, wordpress is so great. Their recent version 3.2 just makes it more better. I loved using the full screen writer in the new wordpress which removes all the distractions so that I can focus on just writing.
Other than that, wordpress can be tweaked very much according to the needs and helps very much in growing business.
Thanks for your comment.
Wow great A-Z article on how to start a blog, I am probably much interested in doing a keyword research as it is my line of study this month. Thanks for the post.
Thanks Emman for commenting. What keyword research tool you use currently the most and how easy it is for you to keyword research right now? How much do you take to find a profitable keyword?
Good posts with nearly all points that are needed to be kept in mind before and while starting a blog. Having a good host is of utmost important and hostgator is the best. If you choose the right host, you will never get into any issues and can easily focus on building content.
Thanks for commenting Garish! Yes, HostGator is truly BEST for everyone specially for those who are starting up. There support will help you out from any trouble if you are newbie. What host you are using? Lemme guess… HostGator?
Yes, of course, I can not think of any other host when I am using the best one already. Long Live HG !!
Sushant, well said. I just want to add that if a newbie is really serious to start a blog or want to earn money through blogging it would be better to have a private domain and self hosting because most of the time advertisers prefer private domains.
You are absolutely correct matt. Advertisers prefer that simply because they consider that you are serious about blogging and won’t fly away overnight. Having a private domain is MUST now as it increases your reputation quite a lot. Which domain registrar and hosting you are using currently matt?
Hi one of my blog is in namecheap. Hosting is in GoDaddy and the other one is in hostgagor. 🙂
Most of the famous bloggers are using WordPress platform and it is recommended one. To select a niche is actual step from where actual blogging start and always select long tail keywords that are more rewarding.
Long tail keywords work well but to create a good brand name in blogosphere I won’t recommend using it. But there are still exceptions to this one.
Thanks for commenting Jamal!
One of my friend ask once about starting a blog. I am writing here what I told him.
I ask him to create accounts at blogger and wordpress, spend your 2 months there. I also told him some seo tricks. After 2 months, he has good expertise at both networks. Now he is running his own self hosted blog very well.
That’s great to hear Ross. Thanks for commenting here! Did he started his new self hosted blog after earning a good amount of money from those previous 2 ‘free’ blogs? Or he was already having money to start a blog but thought to spend time to understand the whole blog thingy using free blogs?
In everything that we do as long as you have the motivation and state of mind there is no doubt that you will be successful.
Nice foundations you’ve laid there Sushant.
Have to say that Google keyword tool ain’t up to much. I’d go for the recommendations you made there or better still Market Samurai.
It’s worth taking time to research niche and principle keywords properly, getting those right from the start makes a huge difference…
Keep up the good work mate