If you have a creative voice, passion or love to write you may want to start a blog. I know what you’re thinking, you’re probably thinking that the internet is saturated with blogs and it’s too late to start one. The truth is it’s never too late.
If you want to start a blog here’s how you can do it in just seven easy steps:
Pick subject
When people go online they’re usually searching for a specific subject. That’s why it’s important to focus on a niche when starting a blog. It helps people find your website through search engines and it also helps you become an expert in the chosen field. In short find your passion and do what makes you happy.
The more concentrated you are on a specific topic such as travel budgets, wedding planning or couple’s finance the higher you will rank because Google will understand what you’re all about.
Buy your domain and pick your hosting
In order to get online you’ll need a website name and somewhere to host it a.k.a. keep it live on the internet. I personally use Big Scoots for both my hosting and to buy domains. However Go Daddy and Blue Host are also very popular.
Big Scoots has excellent support and are very helpful for first time users. Blue Host has easy step by step directions and Go Daddy is easy to use. Even if you’re not very tech savvy you’ll be able to set up your blog in about thirty minutes.
The average price of a domain is around $10, but depending on the popularity some can run into the $1,000s.
Get set up on WordPress
Getting your blog set up online is one thing, getting it functional and looking the way you want it to is a completely other step. WordPress is a blog management and publishing platform that allows you to pick a theme (look and appearance) for your website. Once you have a basic theme picked out you can always customize the look and change the colors.
Don’t get too hung up on your theme, my advice is to pick one and move on. Otherwise you can spend countless hours trying to get your site to look exactly as you want. The truth is it will never be perfect because when it comes to blogging there are always improvement to be made.
Start writing
Building a website properly takes time and you can also tweak your blog as you go. The most important thing is to get up and running. Start writing. Create an about page and a contact page – those are the basics.
You want readers to get to know you as a person because blogging is only half about (maybe even less) about being a good writer, the other half is about building relationships with readers that make them want to keep coming back.
Share on social media
When you’re a new website it’s hard for people to find you, so you need to tell them. Share your posts on social media. Join online communities in your niche and talk to people about your blog. You should be proud of what you’re doing and unless you yell about it from the mountain tops no one will ever read it.
Photo from Pixabay
