Below i'm going to outline what you need to do to get started on your own blog. But before we begin, lets talk about WHY you should build a blog.
Note: If you already have a solid idea of the whys, then skip this and go right ahead with the guide.
Note: If you already have a solid idea of the whys, then skip this and go right ahead with the guide.
- Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand out and get noticed!).
- It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.
- You become a better person and a better writer.
- The best reason? You can make money doing it!
I bet you already knew all of that, but it’s nice to be reminded.
One very last thing before we get started:
Creating your own blog can take a little while, probably up to 30 minutes. So grab yourself a coffee or juice (or whatever you prefer) and let’s get stuck in.
There's the five main steps you need to go through in order to set up a blog.
Easy Steps to Starting a Blog:
- Choose your preferred blogging platform
- Designing your blog
- Write compelling content
- Self-hosting or a free alternative
Step 1 – Choose your preferred blogging platform
Choosing where you want to build blog is pretty much the first thing you have to do. The two biggest blogging platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. Tumblr is a blogging platform as well. But there more blogging platforms out there. And you can even get your very own website that you can use as your blogging platform.
Now, each platform has its Pro's and Con's and which one you will end up using depends more on what you specifically want in your blog and which one is easier for you to use.
Step 2 – Self-hosting or a free alternative?
This is the biggest decision you’ll have to make before we go any further. You need to decide whether to pay for your blog or grab a free one.
WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger all offer free blogs for anyone. Awesome, right? It’s perfect for those of us who aren’t super serious about blogging. But it does have downsides:
1) You won’t be able to get your OWN domain name
On a free blog, your blog’s web address (your URL) will be ugly. Like, really ugly. In short, create a free blog with any other the above free blog services and it’ll look like this:
- yourblog.wordpress.com
- yourblog.blogspot.com
- yourblog.tumblr.com
2) Limits and more limits
There are some limits to free blogs. You can’t fully monetize it, and you don’t have the possibility to upload all those videos and images you want to show everyone – it’s all limited.
3) You DON’T OWN your blog
It might sound silly at first, but you don’t actually own your blog. It’s hosted on someone else’s web property and they can delete it if they want so. They have done so in the past, and keep doing it in the future. Which means all your hard work on your blog, all those countless hours of writing blog posts might be vanished within seconds. Sad…
On the other hand, with a self-hosted blog on your own domain name – you are the REAL owner of your blog. You’ll be able to name your blog whatever you want, for example “YourName.com”. You can end it with .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, or virtually any other web suffix. Add to that unlimited bandwidth for videos, images and content plus the free themes and you have a winning combo.
Step 3 – Designing your blog
Designing your blog can be a simple task. Every blogging platforms offers different designs and templates that you can use on your blog. You can even customize them or even download free templates for your blog online. But if you prefer a professional template on your blog then you can always get an professional to design it to your taste, but it will cost you though. And after choosing your desired look you can select the best plugins for your blog making it better.Step 4 – write compelling content
Best way to do this is t find your niche. You will like blogging more if you can blog about something that interested you. this way you can give your audience some inside about who you are.
Making your content compelling for your audience is super important. Especially if you plan to monetize your blog. The higher the traffic on your blog, the more money you can earn when you monetize it. So this is a very important part
Source: bloggingbasics101, theminimalists
Source: bloggingbasics101, theminimalists
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