Start a successful blog
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Have you ever thought about starting a blog? Or do you have a new blog, but aren’t sure what to do? Follow these steps to start a successful blog.
Have you ever thought about starting a blog? Or do you have a new blog, but aren’t sure what to do? Trust me, I understand. When I started my blogging journey years ago, I was clueless. I had no idea what a blog even was let alone how to create a successful blog.
Over the years I have learned a LOT through trial and error and wanted to share some key factors to start a successful blog. I get a lot of questions about blogging and what to do first.
If you are completely new, click here to check out how to start a blog in less than 10 minutes. This will walk you through the process of getting your blog up and running.
When I started my blog I literally did not know anything. All I knew was that I wanted an outlet to share how my family and I were saving money. I had no idea that anyone made money or created a business from their blogs.
How to Start a Successful Blog
Step #1 - Plan
Before you jump into the blogging world, I recommend that you spend some time planning. I wish I would have done this before I got started. It would have prepared me for what I actually wanted to do with my website and what I wanted to talk about. Here are a couple of things to consider:
Decide on a niche - What do you want to talk about? What blog posts will you write? Think about your passions, knowledge, expertise and life experiences.
How can you help - How can you help your readers solve a problem or teach them something new?
Blog details - Think about the different categories you want to write about and brainstorm ideas for sub-topics and blog articles.
Step #2 - Name & Design
As you work through your niche and the purpose of your blog, start to think about what you want to name it. Once you have brainstormed information from step #1 it may help you to come up with a name. This will be the beginning of your brand. You don’t want to rush into this step and just pick anything. Come up with ideas that fit well with the topics you want to cover. Play around with different phrases and titles until you find something you like. Since you are creating a new website, you will need to start thinking about your brand logo and design. This is where you can figure out all the design aspects that you like for your new blog (colors, fonts, images, etc.).I definitely think it is good to hone in on what you want your design to look like and feel like before you start your blog. It will help you to create a cohesive experience for your readers. Personally, I use Canva for everything. They are a free design service that makes it super simple to create images and graphics.
Step #3 - URL & Hosting
This is a really important step. A lot of people start a blog and choose a free hosting option because they don’t want to invest too much, but this is a mistake. If you want to make money from your blog then you need to have a self-hosted website.
This means you will have to pay a monthly or yearly fee for hosting your blog. I recommend you use Bluehost for your site. You will have to pay $20 for a domain name and then around $3/month for hosting. If you need help going through the process you can check out my post on how to start a blog in less than 10 minutes. I started this site using Bluehost.
They make the process extremely easy to follow and have great customer service. You can then easily set up Wordpress through Bluehost and start blogging!
Once you have it up and running you will need to get consistent with your content and create a schedule to keep yourself on track. You can even create a content calendar to help you stay accountable. I definitely recommend that you make time for your blog. It takes work and consistency to start a successful blog, but if I can do it, you can too!
The key is to figuring out what you want to do and planning out the details before jumping in. I wish I would have taken the time to do this before I got started. It would have saved me a lot of time and frustration.
Follow the above steps to start a successful blog.