How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps + Best Practices for Beginners
Starting a blog is an excellent way to build credibility for your brand. A blog is also a great outlet for self-expression if you’re a budding writer or have a hobby you want to document and share with others.
However, there are certain strategies you need to know before you start a blog. Therefore, we’ve created this comprehensive step-by-step guide for new bloggers to kick-start their journey.
We’ll discuss everything from finding a niche and setting up a blogging platform to publishing content and promoting your blog.
How to Start a Blog in 10 Simple Steps
In the upcoming sections, we’ll break down each step in the journey of how to make a blog for beginners and provide more details.
1. Pick Your Blog Niche
A niche is a specific topic that your blog will focus on, and it’s key in determining your target audience. A strong blog niche can also help you pick the perfect blog name and develop a focused blogging strategy.
When setting up your new blog, it may be tempting to cover a broad range of blog ideas or topics. However, trying to master too many subjects is difficult and often unsustainable.
You might pull off a few successful quality blog posts, but your audience will be scattered, making it hard to maintain a loyal readership.
That’s why sticking to a niche that can attract a devoted following is important. A dedicated audience will look forward to your next piece of content, giving your blog a steady stream of traffic.
To find the perfect niche for a successful blog, keep the following tips in mind:
Pick a Niche That You Like or Are Passionate About
Writing about a topic you enjoy will always be more fulfilling than forcing yourself to write about something you’re uninterested in.
Consider your hobbies and interests or topics you’d like to learn more about. Then, make them more specific. If your passion is food, try focusing on a particular cuisine like Japanese, Mexican, or Italian.
Similarly, if you want to start a book blog, consider blogging about reading on a budget or specific literary styles.
Select a Niche That Has Audience Potential
Your main topic should have a level of pre-existing interest to ensure you’ll have an audience to target. Use Google Trends to find the search volume of specific keywords related to your niche and determine whether enough people are discussing it on social media and community forums.
This way, you’ll know what’s trending in your niche and which blog post ideas have more engagement potential.
You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Profit From a Niche
Being a topical expert gives you a certain authority that many readers look for, but it’s not a requirement. What’s more important is having a unique perspective on your niche and being eager to learn more.
For example, you might not be a professional photographer, but you can still start a photography blog as a beginner. To help build authority, feature interviews with experts on your blog.
2. Choose a Suitable Blogging Platform
Once you’ve settled on a niche, it’s time to start preparing a website for your blog. Blogging platforms are divided into two categories – hosted and self-hosted.
Hosted platforms like website builders are all-inclusive. They generally come with all the tools needed to build a blog. Plus, there’s no need to purchase hosting and a blog domain name from a third party.
On the other hand, self-hosted platforms require you to buy hosting solutions separately. These platforms are typically content management systems (CMSs) that offer extensive customization options for your blogging website.
Let’s take a look at some examples to understand these options better.
Content Management System (CMS)
CMSs are among the most common website-making solutions. They let you create and manage a website easily with a graphical user interface. CMSs are suitable blogging platforms due to their versatility and are perfect for those who want extensive control over their websites, from choosing blog hosting providers to implementing security measures.
WordPress is the most popular option among the many CMSs out there and powers almost half of all websites on the internet. Due to its popularity, users have numerous options for paid and free WordPress themes and plugins to enhance their blog pages.
This CMS also has a large and active community that shares useful knowledge and information regarding the platform. Therefore, we recommend using WordPress if you want to start a blog using a CMS.
First, it’s important to grasp the definition of web hosting because you’ll need to select a hosting service if you plan to start a self-hosted WordPress blog. Consider managed WordPress hosting to minimize technical complexities and focus more on creating content.
