Are you want to start blogging , here are the easy step to start a website or blog.
How to Start a Blogging 8 Easy Steps
- Step-1: Select a perfect niche
- Step-2: Choose a blogging platform
- Step-3: Pick a domain name
- Step-4: Get a fast web hosting
- Step-5: Starting a blog on Blogger / WordPress .
- Step-6: Find the right theme (blog design)
- Step-7: Write content and promote your blog
- Step-8: Make money by blogging.
Why are you starting a blog
Are you want to communicate with other or
share your idea? Are you want to create a community around the world
(like Facebook) for a reason? Are you want to keep your followers and
fans update on what's the latest with your brand? Are you want to earn
money by it? Are you want to explain how your product or service works
& why people should buy it? Are you want to create your personal
page, where people can connect with you?
A blog can help you to educate, inform,
promote & even sell your product or content. But you need to be
fully cleared about your intention at the start.
At first, take sometimes to figure out your
purpose for blogging. There are many reasons why people start blogging.
Here are some of them.
- It helps enhance writing and thinking skills
- To establish expertise
- To increase self-confidence
- To network with others in the industry
- To make money blogging
Here we talk about how to make money by blogging.
There are many way to earn money by blogging.
How to start blogging
(step by step)
To start successful blogging , you need to proper knowledge. It's very clear that you are not alone on blogging . Millions of people try to make a passive income from their blog. But everybody can't get their expective success on blogging . Only some of the people who work hard & be patience in blogging , they achieve success in blogging .
However, if you are interested to make a blog for making money online and you are not passionate on your writing & your content than you just wasting your time. To be a successful blogger & earn passive money you
must be patience on your writing & your content. Without a deep
passion for your content, you'll face a tide of frustration and upset.
Why? The answer is without hard working no-one can get success. Same
think is apply on this blogging. Without hard working, without making
proper content ( with proper SEO , keyword research , keyword implement )
you can not be a successful blogger. And than you need hard work to
gain enough audience on your site. Because without audience a website is
nothing. It can take time, but you have to be patience.
When you gain enough audience & you start earning , than will will start your real journey. In this time you should create quality content, make some backlink on your site, do proper keyword research & keyword implement and you audience should be satisfied on you content, than you will be a successful blogger .
If you're willing to your time and effort, and you can stay persistent
over the years ( yes, I said years ), then you can most certainly
generate a substantial income online. In fact, your website is quite
possibly one of the best hubs of passive income generation, and if done
the right way, it can attract the right audience and customers no matter
what industry or niche you might be in.
A quick set-up for new blogger/beginners
Here are five excellent steps to follow that will help you to start your blog . They ate the most important things that you should never forgget. By knowing this things you can create a blog less than 15 minutes. They are :
- Carefully select your blogging platform
- Find a perfect fast & secure web hosting
- Get your own Domain
- Customize & Design your blog
- Find as many important resources as you can.
Chose perfect blogging platform
The first thing you need to do to start blogging is to chose a perfect blogging platform . There are many blogging platform &
they come with their unique features. If you start blogging without any
investment than I will recommend you to go with blogger. But if you can
invest than you can go with wordpress. Wordpress is the best platform
to start blogging. Because it allow you to customize & design your
blog easily.
Get your Domain
Domain is very important fector on blogging . Domain is your brand name. It will help you to ranking & get audience .
So you should choose best domain name. If you create your blog tech
related than your domain name must contain tech or tech related word. If
you create your blog about movie or serial and you get a domain name
journey.com it will be less seo for your blog and you can not gain your tergated audience. So domain name is very important for your site ranking.
Web hosting is also a very important part of your site. Because if you use slow web hosting, your site will be slow. And google doesn’t rank a slow website. So you should use a fast web hosting. On the other hand, If you get your web hosting from an untrusted site your site can be hacked ( same with domain ). So you should get web hosting from a trusted site. Here I will give you best 5 web hosting site link.
32 Web Hosts Reviewed…
Bluehost has been started from 2007 & they have now hosted more than 3,000,000 websites. Bluehost hosting service are the most popular & low cost hosting service. So Bluehost is perfect for new website.
Bluehost hosting service is one of the top rated hosting service because of their 24-month uptime and speed are very strong – 99.99% and 405 ms , respectively.
Bluehost web hosting 's 3-years introductory peice is $2.75 (renews $7.95) and that comes with many useful features like free domain name, website builder and one-click install for WordPress , Joomla , and Drupal through cPanel . So for the begginer or starters (someone without a website), this web hosting is probably the best option. Unmetered bandwidth and 50 GB storage are included with their basic plan.
Bluehost web hosting is a great fit for WordPress website s & it’s officially recommended by WordPress.org
Bluehost hosting service also comes with free email accounts, 24/7 live customer support and SSL (security layer) on all plans. Bluehost web hosting is very easy to use and probably the best entry-level web hosting provider that is both reliable and secure. Bluehost web hosting service shared hosting plane, the company also offers dedicated, VPS and managed WordPress hosting plans for higher traffic websites.
All of their hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee & get instantly activated, so you can start using them right away.
Bluehost prons :
Get Fastest & secure Web Hosting
Web hosting is also a very important part of your site. Because if you use slow web hosting, your site will be slow. And google doesn’t rank a slow website. So you should use a fast web hosting. On the other hand, If you get your web hosting from an untrusted site your site can be hacked ( same with domain ). So you should get web hosting from a trusted site. Here I will give you best 5 web hosting site link.
32 Web Hosts Reviewed…
| RANK | WEB HOST | COST | SUPPORT | UPTIME | LOAD TIME | OUR RATING |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bluehost | $ 2.75 / mo | 10/10 | 99.99% | 406ms | ★★★★★ |
| 2 | HostGator Cloud | $ 2.99 / mo | 9/10 | 99.98% | 432ms | ★★★★★ |
| 3 | Hostinger | $ 0.80 / mo | 9/10 | 99.91% | 369ms | ★★★★★ |
| 4 | SiteGround | $ 3.95 / mo | 10/10 | 99.99% | 713ms | ★★★★ |
| 5 | GoDaddy | $ 2.99 / mo | 7/10 | 99.97% | 517ms | ★★★★ |
| 6 | Web Hosting Buzz | $ 4.99 / mo | 10/10 | 99.98% | 474ms | ★★★★ |
| 7 | A2 Hosting | $ 3.92 / mo | 10/10 | 99.92% | 336ms | ★★★★ |
| 8 | iPage | $ 1.99 / mo | 8/10 | 99.97% | 787ms | ★★★★ |
| 9 | DreamHost | $ 2.59 / mo | 9/10 | 99.96% | 719ms | ★★★ |
| 10 | GreenGeeks | $ 2.95 / mo | 9/10 | 99.95% | 493ms | ★★★ |
| 11 | A Small Orange | $ 5.92 / mo | 10/10 | 99.98% | 682ms | ★★★ |
| 12 | Site5 Hosting | $ 6.95 / mo | 9/10 | 99.98% | 678ms | ★★★ |
| 13 | JustHost | $ 3.95 / mo | 7/10 | 99.98% | 721ms | ★★★ |
| 14 | MDDHosting | $ 4.00 / mo | 8/10 | 99.87% | 376ms | ★★★ |
| 15 | HostPapa | $ 1.00 / mo | 10/10 | 99.96% | 886ms | ★★★ |
| 16 | HostGator (Shared) | $ 2.75 / mo | 8/10 | 99.98% | 1007ms | ★★★ |
| 17 | Hosting24 | $ 1.95 / mo | 10/10 | 99.95% | 824ms | ★★★ |
| 18 | FastComet | $ 2.95 / mo | 9/10 | 99.98% | 887ms | ★★ |
| 19 | LunarPages | $ 3.95 / mo | 7/10 | 99.98% | 861ms | ★★ |
| 20 | One.com | $ 2.45 / mo | 7/10 | 99.65% | 612ms | ★★ |
| 21 | Midphase | $ 3.95 / mo | 9/10 | 99.99% | 1133ms | ★★ |
| 22 | WestHost | $ 1.99 / mo | 6/10 | 99.96% | 896ms | ★★ |
| 23 | Web Hosting Hub | $ 4.99 / mo | 7/10 | 99.96% | 719ms | ★★ |
| 24 | NameCheap | $ 1.28 / mo | 7/10 | 99.82% | 830ms | ★ |
| 25 | HostMonster | $ 4.95 / mo | 8/10 | 99.96% | 948ms | ★ |
| 26 | InMotion Hosting | $ 5.99 / mo | 9/10 | 99.95% | 855ms | ★ |
| 27 | HostNine | $ 6.99 / mo | 7/10 | 99.73% | 756ms | ★ |
| 28 | HostRocket | $ 5.99 / mo | 8/10 | 99.94% | 1005ms | ★ |
| 29 | HostMetro | $ 2.95 / mo | 8/10 | 99.85% | 1328ms | ★ |
| 30 | WebHostingPad | $ 1.99 / mo | 8/10 | 97.65% | 1281ms | ★ |
| 31 | FatCow | $ 4.08 / mo | 8/10 | 99.82% | 1240ms | ★ |
| 32 | Arvixe | $ 7.00 / mo | 6/10 | 89.46% | 7502ms | ★ |
Best & Top 5 Web Hosting service
1. Bluehost
Bluehost has been started from 2007 & they have now hosted more than 3,000,000 websites. Bluehost hosting service are the most popular & low cost hosting service. So Bluehost is perfect for new website.
Bluehost hosting service is one of the top rated hosting service because of their 24-month uptime and speed are very strong – 99.99% and 405 ms , respectively.
Bluehost web hosting 's 3-years introductory peice is $2.75 (renews $7.95) and that comes with many useful features like free domain name, website builder and one-click install for WordPress , Joomla , and Drupal through cPanel . So for the begginer or starters (someone without a website), this web hosting is probably the best option. Unmetered bandwidth and 50 GB storage are included with their basic plan.
Bluehost web hosting is a great fit for WordPress website s & it’s officially recommended by WordPress.org
Bluehost hosting service also comes with free email accounts, 24/7 live customer support and SSL (security layer) on all plans. Bluehost web hosting is very easy to use and probably the best entry-level web hosting provider that is both reliable and secure. Bluehost web hosting service shared hosting plane, the company also offers dedicated, VPS and managed WordPress hosting plans for higher traffic websites.
All of their hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee & get instantly activated, so you can start using them right away.
Bluehost prons :
- Best uptime (99.99%)
- Top 5 speed (405nm)
- One click wordpress installation
- Easy to use
- Free domain & site builder
- 24/7 suppor
- Discount for longer plans only
HostGator web hosting , founded in 2002. HostGater web hosting is a popular shared and cloud hosting provider that is currently hosting over 2,000,000 websites.
HostGator Cloud hosting has a strong uptime ( 99.99% ) and above-average speed ( 399 ms ) making it a strong contender to Bluehost .
HostGator comes with many features, such as unlimited email
account, unmetered bandwidth, unmetered disk space and built-in cache on
all plans & all of their hosting plans come with a 99.9% uptime
guarantee, free SSL certificate, easy WordPress installs, and a free
domain for a year (when you sign up for 12, 24 or 36 months).
If you want to build a custom website, you can do so with the HostGator Website Builder . It’s a HostGator’s drag and drop website builder designed for an easy, eCommerce-friendly site builder for beginners.
HostGator’s cheapest plan starts from $2.74/mo (when you choose a 12-month payment plan) and renews $10.95/mo. Other than shared cloud hosting, HostGator offers WordPress , VPS and dedicated hosting plans serving all size organizations from small businesses to enterprise websites.
All plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
HoatGator prons:
- Top 5 uptime ( 99.99% )
- Top 5 speed ( 399 ms )
- Free website transfer
- No bandwidth and storage limit
- Multiple datacenter locations
- Unlimited email accounts
HostGator Cloud Cons
- Higher renewal cost
3. Hostinger Web Hosting
Hostinger web hosting comes with an average uptime of 99.95% , but a very fast average loading time of 350 ms making it the best cheap web hosting you can find.
Hostinger (which also owns Hosting24 ) web hosting offers extremely affordable hosting
plans without compromising too much on the quality and performance of
the service. While it’s cheap on the price, the features that come with
Hostinger web hosting plans will appeal to many beginner website owners.
The Hostinger web hosting company offers a variety of hosting
plans with different features and all plans come with an easy website
builder, free SSL certificate, 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7/365
support.
Hostinger’s cheapest plan starts from just $0.99/mo, renewals
start at $2.15/mo. Bandwidth and databases are unlimited with this
hosting plan, unless you choose the “Single Web Hosting” plan. With this
hosting plan you’ll be limited to 10GB of disk space, 100GB of
bandwidth, one MySQL database, and one email account. One more thing,
the cheapest plan doesn’t include a free domain and has limited
processing power and memory.
Other Hostinger services provided us Cloud, Email, WordPress, VPS, Windows VPS hosting.
All plan comes with a standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
Hostinger Pros
- Top 2 load time ( 350 ms )
- Cheap pricing ( $ 0.99 / mo )
- Datacenters in US, Europe & Asia
- Free SSL certificate
- 24/7 support chat
Hostinger Cons
- No free domain
- Limited bandwidth on the cheap plan
GreenGeeks web hosting are around 12+ years old and It's host over 500,000 websites.
GreenGeeks web hosting provide us 99.98% uptimes and load speeds of 445 ms. GreenGeeks web hosting offers fast and reliable hosting at an affordable rate of $2.95/month. GreenGeeks web hosting provide 24/7 customer support and environmentally friendly practices and it’s easy to see how GreenGeeks hosting are quickly carving out a name for themselves in a wildly oversaturated market.
GreenGeeks web hosting all plans come with a free domain for 1 year, cPanel access, free Wildcard SSL, PowerCacher, unlimited SSD storage, and unlimited data transfer. GreenGeeks web hosting customers also get an unlimited number of domain names, unlimited email accounts, and nightly backups.
If your website grows bigger, you can always upgrade you site more flexible with VPS hosting. GreenGeeks will also migrate your site from your existing web host for free. Unfortunately, $9.95/month renewal rate may dissuade some webmasters from choosing GreenGeeks over other hosting providers.
GreenGeeks web hosting all plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
GreenGeeks web hosting provide us 99.98% uptimes and load speeds of 445 ms. GreenGeeks web hosting offers fast and reliable hosting at an affordable rate of $2.95/month. GreenGeeks web hosting provide 24/7 customer support and environmentally friendly practices and it’s easy to see how GreenGeeks hosting are quickly carving out a name for themselves in a wildly oversaturated market.
GreenGeeks web hosting all plans come with a free domain for 1 year, cPanel access, free Wildcard SSL, PowerCacher, unlimited SSD storage, and unlimited data transfer. GreenGeeks web hosting customers also get an unlimited number of domain names, unlimited email accounts, and nightly backups.
If your website grows bigger, you can always upgrade you site more flexible with VPS hosting. GreenGeeks will also migrate your site from your existing web host for free. Unfortunately, $9.95/month renewal rate may dissuade some webmasters from choosing GreenGeeks over other hosting providers.
GreenGeeks web hosting all plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
GreenGeeks Pros
- Good load time (445 ms)
- Stable uptime (99.98%)
- US, Canada & Netherlands servers
- Free site transfer
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
GreenGeeks Cons
- Questionable refund policy
- High renewal cost
5. SiteGround web hosting
SiteGround is a web hosting service provider founded in 2004. SiteGround
web hosting service host over 2 million websites and is one of the
three web hosting companies officially recommended by WordPress.org.
SiteGround web hosting service comes with a fantastic uptime ( 99.99% ) and adequate speed ( 673 ms ) making it’s a very strong web hosting service.
SiteGround web hosting is well-known for its exemplary customer service
and its user base is growing fast. All SiteGround hosting plans provide
us website builder, email account, SSL, Cloudflare CDN, daily backups,
and SSH access, for free.
The StartUp plan started for beginners at $3.95/mo (when you pay for the
12-month plan), renewals start at $11.95/mo. You can host 1 website,
It's suitable for ~10,000 monthly visits. This hosting plan comes with
10 GB web space, unmetered traffic, and 24/7 support.
SiteGround web hosting has a wide line of services including managed
WordPress hosting, WooCommerce hosting, cloud hosting, enterprise
hosting, and dedicated servers. Instead of having in-house servers, they
are renting servers from the Google cloud.
All plans come with an industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
SiteGround Pros
- Sufficient load time (673 ms)
- Stable uptime (99.99%)
- Knowledgable customer support
- 24/7 “Guru” chat support
- 20+ email accounts
SiteGround Cons
- Setup fee on monthly plans
- Limited cheap plan
Design
If you decide to go with WordPress, you'll get a chance to enjoy
multiple choice to design your website. There have both free & paid
WordPress blog themes that can help you to design your site. You also
can use different types of plugin that can also help you to customize
& design your blog or website. You can use one the theme that's easy
to customize and looks professional to some degree.
When you get all of this things you are ready to start blogging. Here are some step to start blogging.
Step-1 : Choose A Perfect Nich for your blog/site
If you want to become a successful blogger, you must first find your blogging niche, you need to figure out how to make it profitable, and figure out who your ideal readers are. In short, a niche is a topic that you write about most often, or even exclusively, in your site. Niche blogging will be creat your blog to advertise a very specific market. Niche blogs are easy to monetize & they usually contain affiliate links, advertisements, etc. And that's why they become profitable.
How to choose a nich for you blog/site
If you want to become a successful blogger you will have to choose the right niche and work on attaining the highest form of knowledge within that topic. So pick the one of the blogging nich that appeals to you - that one you are passionate about and most interested in. Strive for success, happiness, and recognition. By choosing the niche of interest and having your own point of view you'll be able to differentiate your personal blog from the competition. Such as, If you interested in gaming, so you can choose a gaming nich. In a nich there have some sub-nich, such as, in gaming nich there have multiple choice for you. You can create Your blog about android game, or you can create about PC game. Or you can create your blog about action game or shooting game or racing game or brain game or open world game and so on. If you work on sub-nich, you can easily rank your site.
Step-2 : Choose your perfect blogging platform
Now, you'll need to look at the best blog sites out there and determine the type of blog management tool you want to use. I recommend that you start your blog using a self-hosted blogging platform that I show in this guide. But before you ask yourself, which platform should I use to start a blog, let me describe each option.
In blogging platforms you have the following options: free and self-hosted (recommended).
Free platforms
For many new bloggers, there have some free blogging platform such as Blogger or Tumblr. There is one big benefit, it's free.
By keeping your blog on a free platform, you can create a blog own your
name. But if you use free blogging platform, you will face many rules
and restrictions. If you are looking to learn how to start a blog to
make money, they may limit or prohibit ads on your blog, or they may
even place their own ads. If you're serious about blogging, you'll want
to move away from this option & choose self-hosted platform.
Self-hosted platforms
Self-hosted platforms allow you to run a blog using your own domain
name. Aside from following your domain registrar and web hosting
company's rules, you're fully in charge of your blog and its contents.
You have a number of choices when it comes to self-hosted systems (also called a Content Management System or CMS). The most popular is Wordpress.org .
This blogging platform is called self-hosted because you will use your
own web hosting space and name. If you use our recommended hosting
company it will cost you a few bucks per month for the webspace (hosting
account), and you will get a FREE name (domain) for the first year. The
actual CMS is usually open-source and free.
Although I mentioned some free hosting options, the best course of
action is to own your blog, especially if you will be using your own
copyrighted material (articles, drawings, photos, etc.). Pay a small
amount of money every month, about the same as a Starbucks coffee, and
you will build your own equity. If you plan to sell products, services,
music or anything else via your blog, then this is the best way to go.
Many hosting providers can help you maintain an e-commerce blog.
Step-3 : Pick A domain name
Now, choose your own domain name. Your domain name will be the name which you will be known by online, no matter what niche you choose. It's will be your unique address on the Internet. Your domain will be yours as long as you continue paying the annual fee for your domain name ($10 to $15 for a .com domain).
Users who know your domain/URL (uniform resource locator) can simply type it into their browser's address bar & they can visit your blog/sitep. Others will be able to discover you through search engines such as Google and Bing, so you definitely need to find a unique domain name.
Your domain name may be the highly popular " .com" or it may be country or niche specific (".in" ".us" ".bd" etc). The general rule is to go for a ".com" domain, but some of the other extensions can work. For example ".net" or ".me".
Step-4 : Get A web hosting account
After choosing a perfect domain name for you blog/site, choosing a reliable hosting service will be one of the most important decision that you should make. Much of the effectiveness and performance of your site will depend on your hosting provider. The hosting ensures that your site is available to potential readers 24/7 and that your files are stored online.
Most of the hosting companies also provide domain registration services. Some people keep their domain name with a registrar company separately from the hosting account. I recommend keeping these under your hosting account for trouble-free management and maintenance.
Step-5 : Start blogging with Wordpress
This section provides detailed information to help you signup for the web hosting account and set up a WordPress blog. As an example, I will show you how to make a blog with Bluehost and I included screenshots of the pages that you need to go through.
1. Visit Bluehost
Go to Bluehost hosting service site.
2. Select your blog's hosting plan
You should start by selecting your plan. If this is your first time, you should go with the basic one – at least until you explore your options. The one called plus should be able to cover all your needs once you get your blog going, and you should consider the pro version once your popularity skyrockets.
3. Input your blog's domain name
Your domain name has an important say when it comes to the future success of your blog, so you should take your time to come up with something new. Just type in a desired domain in this “new domain” box and BlueHost will show you whether it's available or not. If not, it will provide you with a list of similar names for you to choose from.
4. Register for Bluehost
After you pick out your domain name, BlueHost will take you to the registration page where it will be required from you to fill in your personal info including the billing data. A couple of minutes is all you need.
5. Select your hosting options
Pay additional attention to your hosting options. Obviously, the 12 month package has the lowest price, but the other two are great when you want to make a long term investment. You can feel free to uncheck the rest of the boxes – you can always get them later when you find them necessary.
You can feel free to uncheck the rest of the boxes - you can always get them later when you find them necessary.
6. Launch your WordPress blog with Bluehost
Congratulations , we are almost done! When you have your domain name and web hosting connected, it's time to set up WordPress.
Go to your Bluehost cPanel account, find the 'My Sites' section and
click Install WordPress. That's the famous one-click set-up offered by
Bluehost that makes blog creation a breeze.
Now, if you go to your site's URL, you will only see a 'Coming Soon'
page because the site hasn't gone live yet. For this, you'll need to set
up and design a WordPress site before launching it, but I'll get to
that later. Once this is done, go back to the cPanel and hit 'Launch'.
Step #6: Find the right theme (blog design)
The first thing on the front end of your blog needs a face (design and
layout). You want to create an environment that is both eye-catching and
practical. In the long run, you want your visitors to easily find
information on your site. You don't want visitors to be discouraged by
the colors you choose or the way the information is displayed in an
intuitive and unreasonable way. Your design can cause instant distrust
or instant recognition of your blog.
Start your search for a theme as soon as your WordPress platform is
installed. The look and feel of your blog depends on the theme you
choose. Your readers will notice the overall look first before taking a
look at the content. Choose a theme that looks great but it also works
for your unique content needs. The default theme for installing your
WordPress blog is twenty-nine - as it is a good starter theme, you will
want to choose a theme that is unique and suitable with your niche. There are more than three thousand themes available on Wordpress.org.
Here's a quick checklist for choosing your theme by searching within blog dashboard:
- Read the description
2. Preview the theme
Preview the theme to get an idea of the overall look and layout.
3. Check the ratings
Popular themes will have star ratings that are visible in the preview and under theme details. They should give you a clear idea how good the theme is.
Popular themes will have star ratings that are visible in the preview and under theme details. They should give you a clear idea how good the theme is.
4. Check for responsiveness
Aim for a responsive design that will work in desktop browsers and mobile devices. It is recommended by Google.
If you find a theme that takes your breath away, go cool. Once you've
installed your favorite theme, don't be surprised if it doesn't look
right. Your theme is just a skeleton of your blog. You need to fill in
the content (text, photos, videos, etc.) to make it interesting.
Should you choose a free, premium or a custom theme when starting a blog?
For many visionary novice bloggers, the world is not enough. Stash of
free themes (more than two thousand themes are available in
WordPress.rj) does not satisfy their special desire for look and feel.
There are two more options that you can take a look at, premium and
custom themes. But the cost for these is, sometimes a small one, at
other times a lot.
Premium themes create both single developer and dedicated showcase
websites. The price range for a single-use license ranges from $30 to
$500, depending on which premium theme you choose. May be up.
Custom themes are created by individual developers (coders and
designers, or agencies) who will either customize the existing theme or
create a new theme for you. When it comes to clear-cut benefits, they
are not the ideal choice for any beginner blogger because of their high
cost. Prices for customizing any theme range from $500 to $2,000,
depending on the features you want.
Step #7: Write content and promote your blog
So far you've captured a domain name, chosen your blogging platform and
set up the theme, and you are ready to go. Your framework is complete.
Now comes the moment of truth. You must create content - in the blogging
world, any useful information that you bring to readers can be called
"content". It must be something people will want to interact with and
come back to get more, something of value.
The next step is to figure out what content you need to make for your
new blog and the best practices you should follow. Whether your blog is
to be composed primarily of words, photos, graphics, audio, video etc. -
the content will be the bait that draws your crowd. Few will come just
to see your new site. Without great content, even the most
well-designed, tightly-structured blogs will ultimately fail. The
framework of the web is code - but the attraction of the web is the
content found there.
Three things your content should do
- Your content speaks to a specific audience and provides value to them in some significant way. If this sounds suspiciously like our Commandments, you are right. Drill the idea into your mind and never forget it: It's not about you; it's about them.
- Your content should be easily accessible and attractively presented. Your presentation must equal the quality of your content. Here again, don't cut corners on low-quality graphics or designs. Everything about your blog must attract your visitors and encourage them to interact with your content.
- Your content may be commercially purposed, but should never be commercially focused. Never greet your visitors with pop-up ads and giant banner ads. Greet them with content and reasons to engage with that content. Let them know you are there to help them, not to use them.
As a blog owner you might get overwhelmed by all the available types of
content and methods you can deliver it to your readers. You have to
remember that the content delivery method is less important than actual
content and it's quality. Wondering how you can create quality content?
It's simple. Here are three simple steps approach you can use to make
great content of any type:
- Point: State your main idea and point you are covering.
- Prove: Give an example of the idea you are covering.
- Perform: Give a simple way to execute the idea.
There are two blocks you need to worry about, pre-launch and post-launch contents:
Pre-launch content
Before you start writing your day-to-day blog posts, you will want to
make sure static pages (such as About us, Contact, etc.) and other parts
of your blog (Sidebar, Footer, etc.) are filled with the suitable
information. Let's explore each of these content areas.
- About us: The most traditional page on any blog is the About page. This page tells new visitors to your blog what it is all about, who you are and why you run a blog about the particular topic. Depending on your niche and your style, the information you provide can be "all business" or personal and fun.
- Contact: This page allows visitors of your blog to communicate with you at any time. It can be a simple page with your email address plus social network links, or you can use a simple contact form that visitors can use to communicate with you without leaving your website.
- Sidebar content: Your sidebar is the smaller column to the left or right (depending on the theme you selected) of your blog's main content. In the sidebar, you could include your blog categories, most popular posts, ads, etc.
- SEO meta tags: You will need to prepare content for the SEO titles and description tags of each page (not seen on the actual page but you need to have it ready).
Post-launch content
- Blog posts: The blog post is an entry (article) that you write on a blog. It can include content in the form of text, photos, infographics, or videos.
- Cornerstone content: Cornerstone (or evergreen) content continues to be relevant to its readers and gives them value years after the publish date. It is always fresh and up-to-date. It remains informative and retains its original quality. As its name implies - it is timeless.
Content is not limited to written material but easily overlooked. It is often best to utilize numerous forms of content and give your audience more than one way to obtain knowledge.
In order to produce quality content, you will have to use your
originality and imagination. However, you have to understand that some
content performs better than others. But again, you should start
creating content that you feel comfortable with, right for your readers,
and for your blog.
Start promoting your blog
You've learned that the content will be the bait that draws your
audience. You can write the most compelling copy the world has ever seen
and design a blog interface that would sell people their own shoes...if
no one sees the blog, though, all your work is in vain. Marketing and
promotion happen every time you engage with your current and future
readers. The success of your blog promotion will depend on the ability
to engage within your niche.
Let's look closely at the simple and advanced promoting/marketing
activities you could be taking to become an authority and successful
blogger:
Let your friends know about your blog
Inform everyone you know about your new endeavor. You should include
your blog name and URL in your email signature, list it on all your
social media profiles, and use every opportunity to get the word out
about your new undertaking.
Submit your blog to search engine
It only takes a moment and it will help to get your blog indexed. To
submit your blog URL to Google, sign in to your Google Account and go to
the Submit URL option in Webmaster Tools. For extra credit, submit your site to Bing .
Submit your blog to bookmarking sites
Bookmarking sites can offer your content to a lot of potential viewers
who are searching for content within your niche. You should this every
time you publish a new blog post to spread a word out. Some popular
social bookmarking sites are Scoop.it , Reddit , etc.
Be active in your niche
Start being active on other relevant blogs, forums, and social pages.
Blogger communities are a good way to connect with other bloggers within
your niche. You are able to engage, build friendships and help each
other in spreading the content.
Be active on social networks
Your business is unique, and you should make use of the social media
avenues that best fit your own niche and style. Choose the one (or ones)
that best fit your needs and become an expert at leveraging them to
help reach your goals.
Comment on other blogs
Commenting on other relevant blogs is a great way to build relationships
with top bloggers within your niche. This will help you make them and
their readers aware of your existence as well as developing your
personal brand within the topic.
Guest blogging
When you take the relationship a step further, offer to write a guest
post for the other website. Just be sure your work goes on reputable
sites and that the content is directly related to your niche. Guest
blogging is an excellent way to build an online presence.
Start building your mailing list
Once your blog gains new fans and readers it's a good idea to collect
the email addresses of those who want to be notified of new articles and
offers. As people come to know and trust you, they will respond better
to your promotional efforts.
Advertising on the web (paid traffic)
Appropriate and well-informed use of paid media can help you gain
exposure and attention before your organic (naturally derived) traffic
takes hold. Paid traffic avenues include Google AdWords , and Facebook to name a few major ones.
Remember that you can always find other ways to promote your new blog.
Rely on the blogging fundamentals: a clear and properly functioning
blog, focused and helpful information, engaging conversation and helpful
advice. Your authority will come from helping and giving advice to
other people, your fans or readers.
You are welcome to share your ideas with us in the comment!