How To Start A Blog in 2020 [Blogging Guide For Beginners]
Want to start a blog and make a career as a blogger?
Yeah! It’s possible to do both at the same time! After all, What’s better than following your passion and making passive income along.
People start blogging for many reasons, and some of the most popular once are:
Sharing the new learnings
Documenting your thoughts
Passive income and making money
Free gadgets and stuff for review
Free travel
In this guide, you will find answers to all these questions and will be able to start a blog. Here are the steps to start a blog:
Picking the blog topic
Select the blogging platform
Pick a domain name & hosting for your blog
Install WordPress on the blog
Setup the design of the blog
Install the best WordPress plugins
Write your first blog post
Share your writeup with the world
Monetize your blog
Monetize your blog
Picking the blog topic
The very first thing you need to do is find the niche of your blog. By niche, I mean finding a topic that your blog is going to be about. I hope you don’t plan to blog about every random thing and make money. This doesn’t work in 2020 and your chances of success are better when you blog on a single topic. You might be a jack of all trades, and want to start a blog on multiple topics, but it will not be fruitful, as people like to subscribe to a blog, which is an authority on a particular topic.
Select the blogging platform
The first answer you should have is, where should you create your blog? There are many blogging platforms out there, and people have different opinions about each of them. Most of the Bloggers start blogging on the WordPress platform. WordPress is popular because it’s easy to use. Here is an interesting fact: 37% of the websites in the world is powered by WordPress. Once you have crossed the testing period, you are ready to do something more meaningful. Get a WordPress blog, and don’t confuse yourself with WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress -blog. A self-hosted WordPress blog (WordPress.org) is what you need.
Pick a Blog name & domain name for your blog
There are 4 rules that I usually follow when picking a domain name:
Easy to Remember
Easy to Type
Easy to Pronounce
Easy to Brandable
A domain name is the URL of a blog which a visitor will use to open a blog. Now, there are a few rules which will help you to pick the best name for your new blog. Here are some of the tips from my experience:
Prefer .com domain name above everything else.
Your domain name should be easy to pronounce and easy to type.
Make sure your domain name should not be confusing to the listener.
You can use Bluehost domain suggestion feature to check if your domain name is available or not. Simply enter any word that you have picked for your blog and it will also show you available domain name suggestions. Name of your blog very crucial in my opinion. You can also have a domain name under your own name, and its great for personal portfolio or if you planning to make yourself a brand. However, I prefer having a generic name so that in future I could have people running it, and I could enjoy the benefit of solopreneurship.
Picking the hosting to start the blog:
Web-hosting is where WordPress will be installed. This is a server which stays online 24*7 and all your future blog images, your blog design and everything will be stored on this server (hosting). That is how your website will be up and running 24*7. The good thing is, hostings are cheap. There are plenty of hosting service providers but for your blog:
Bluehost is the idlest choice as it offers everything you need to create a blog. Features like:
Free SSL
Unlimited bandwidth
Unlimited storage
Free domain name (Saving of $12/year)
Easy to use cPanel.
Live chat support
30 days money back guarantee
Set up your blog
The best thing about Bluehost is, it will automatically install the blog for you. However, you are not done, as you need to complete a few things before you will write your first blog post. To start setting up your blog for branding and make it perfect, I have shared some guides which you can refer to get started:
“The first impression is the last impression”, that’s the mantra we follow for a blog.
Blog design is the most important aspect of your blog because a good design will ensure that your visitors will love your blog. In fact, that is how your readers will remember your blog. Imagine your blog design as you with a nice outfit. In WordPress, there is a concept called “WordPress themes”. These are ready-made designs that are available for all types of blog. There are many Free and premium WordPress themes out there. I always recommend to go for a premium theme because you will get all the support and starter guide, and moreover, you will have a quality design for your blog.
WordPress plugins
There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there. Below I have mentioned only those plugins which you should install from day one. Here are plugins which you should have on your newly created WordPress blog:
Yoast SEO
ShortPixels
Jetpack by WordPress.com
There are many more plugins, but the above plugins will ensure that you have all the basics plugin installed on your blog. If you have followed, all the steps until now, your blog is up and ready. Now, comes the part which you should be doing over the period of time and that is adding new content.
Plan your content
Before you start writing your first blog post, you should make a content plan. You can use an excel or use a Trello board. Here is a free Trello content planning board that you could use.
This Trello board also comes with a checklist to help you write the perfect article. Click on more on the right sidebar and click on copy board. In the article ideas, write down all the content that you could write. You can also create an outline of the content if you like. It’s a good idea to do this in one sitting and next time you can start writing your content (one at a time).
Writing your first Blog post
Now, this is where the real fun begins, writing your first article.
Here are few tips which will ensure you don’t make mistakes a newbie usually makes:
When you are writing your content, imagine there is a person sitting next to you, and you are talking to the person. Write in the first person tone, because there is a single person who is reading your blog. For example, you are reading this blog post alone. That is why you might notice, my tone is “I” and “You”.
Your content should cover all the aspects of the topic you are writing about. Feel free to write 1000+ words.
Do not copy images from Google.
You can also embed videos from YouTube.
Getting social
Once you have established your blog, make your blog social so that your readers can join your community. You just need to get started and no need to stress, as again I’m here to guide you with the best resources. To get social with your blog, you need a Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter account.
Make money from blogging in easy steps
There are many ways by which your blog can earn passive income for you. Here are some of the most popular ways:
.jpg)
