Last updated on July 30th, 2024 at 11:04 pm
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6-Step Guide On How To Start A Successful Blog For Beginners
Are you looking for an easy step-by-step guide on the best way to start a successful blog for beginners?
If you are wondering how to start a blog, This is a step-by-step guide on how to start a successful blog for beginners.
This is an easy guide with pictures and you can do it without any experience.
By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be able to publish your first blog post.
What is a blog?
A blog is a website where content is regularly updated and regularly published.
Blogging is the putting of one’s thoughts, ideas, experiences, and more all in one place on the web.
A blog is a medium that helps to connect you or a business to the right audience.
Make sure to follow this step-by-step guide because our goal is to start a successful blog.
How to Start A WordPress Blog For Beginners in 6 steps
1. Choose A Domain Name
2. Get Web hosting ( Where your website will be stored)
3. Design your website ( How your website will look like)
4. Write your first blog post and publish it.
5. Promote your Blog
6. Monetize your blog
Blogs are created for different purposes and being a successful blogger means different things to people.
Starting a successful blog as a beginner can be intimidating, but with the right information and tools, you can have a successful blog.
How Much Does It Cost To Start a Blog?
When trying to find out how to start a blog, the first thing on your mind is the cost.
Starting a blog is not easy for beginners but, it doesn’t cost much to get started.
All you need to pay for when you start a blog is a domain name and hosting.
There are different hosting companies you can choose from and most of them cost less than $50 when you’re getting started.
I spent $35 the first year when I started my blog using Bluehost and the package came with a free domain name for the first year.
What Do I Need To Start A Blog?
Some people start a blog with the goal of doing it full-time and others start a blog as a side job.
Whether you are blogging full-time or part-time, there are three main things that you need for your blog to be successful.
- Time: You need to invest your time into researching, writing content, and advertising your blog.
- Objective: When starting a blog you need to know what your main goal is because this helps you to be organized.
- Passion: Having a passion for what you do is important because that will drive you to keep on working on your goals.
Why You Should Start A Blog
There are a variety of reasons why people decide to start a blog and these include:
- Some start blogs for fun and entertainment, like celebrity blogs, sports blogs, hobbies, and more.
- To help businesses reach potential customers.
- To promote business products and communicate with customers.
- For educational purposes, for example, the purpose of a knitting blog is to teach beginners how to knit.
- For Journalism, journalists use blogs for publishing and reporting their stories.
Knowing the reason why you want to start a blog helps you to be organized.
First of all, are you willing to put in the work?
Starting a blog can be fun and amazing but it can also be overwhelming when you are a beginner.
Doing whatever it takes is what separates successful bloggers from unsuccessful bloggers.
Here I will give you a guide on how to start a successful blog in 6 simple steps.
How to Choose A Blog Niche?
First, you need to come up with ideas about your blog topic.
This includes things like your blogger brand, your core values, uniqueness, and style.
I suggest you create a checklist because it helps to keep track of your progress.
The first thing I asked myself when I started my blog was, what am I passionate about?
If you plan on monetizing your blog, try to figure out if you can monetize whatever you are passionate about.
I am passionate about fitness, cooking, marketing and sales, and online jobs and businesses.
I then asked myself if there was a need for my passions in the world, and can I fulfill that need.
If you want to start a successful blog as a beginner, you need to have more than just a passion for your niche.
You need the right tools and information to help make your blogging easier.
The following are some of the most popular blog niches that make the most money :
- Health and Fitness
- Lifestyle
- Beauty and Fashion
- Personal Development
- Food
- Home
- Digital Marketing
- Personal Finance
- Technology
- Travel
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The good thing about blogging is that people will always be looking for ideas or answers, and your blog might be the answer to their problems.
STEP 1: Choose A Domain Name
Now that you have chosen your blog niche, it’s now time to choose a domain name.
If you’re not sure how to choose a domain name, the following are some things to consider when choosing your domain name.
How to Choose a domain name
A domain is the name of your website, it’s an address that makes it easier for visitors to find your website.
A Domain name is important because it represents your brand.
It’s also a good idea to choose a name that is short and precise and relates to your overall brand.
If your blog is about Travel, you can try to include that in your Domain name. (for example, travel buddy or travel bug, etc)
Try to come up with two or more blog name ideas, if one is already taken, you can use the available ones.
If the domain name you choose is already taken, there might be different domain extensions like .org or .net versions.
I recommend a domain name with a .com because it is the most common and it’s easy to remember.
STEP 2: Get Web Hosting
Web hosting is a service that stores your website on Internet servers and helps maintain your files and storage spaces.
If you plan on monetizing your blog, I recommend you start a blog using a self-hosted website like WordPress.org.
With a self-hosted website, there is so much freedom with what you can do with your website.
The advantage of creating a self-hosted website is that you can get much farther in your blogging than using free websites.
A self-hosted website is professional, good for your brand, and helps build credibility with your readers.
With a self-hosted website, you don’t have limitations when it comes to designing your website.
You can also get higher traffic because there is better search engine optimization.
Though a free website doesn’t cost you any money to get started, it doesn’t make any either, but a self-hosted website will make you money.
I use Bluehost because it’s affordable and perfect for beginner bloggers.
I recommend Bluehost because of the following reasons:
- free domain name. You get to save money because when you purchase any Bluehost plan, it comes with a free domain name.
- Excellent Customer Service. When I started my blog, I encountered many technical problems but with the help of the Bluehost staff, I got help as soon as possible.
- Money-Back Guarantee. You get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Affordable Prices. They cater to different needs at affordable prices.
In this guide, I will be showing you how to set up your WordPress website using Bluehost hosting services.
How To Set Up Blog Hosting.
1. Go to Bluehost and clicks on the “Get Started Now” button.
2. Select your plan. I recommend the BASIC plan if you are a beginner.
Click on”Select” to choose your plan, you can always upgrade your plan as your blog traffic grows.
3. Enter your domain name in the “Create a new domain” box and click next.
If you already have a domain name, enter your existing domain name in the “Use a domain you own” box on the right side and then click Next.
4. The next step is to “Create your account”, Input your account information.
The next section is the “Package Information”. It will have the Bluehost package you chose with the price and the term of the plan.
The next section is the “Package Extras”. The package extras are completely optional and up to you if you want any of them or not.
You can untick the package extras if you don’t need any of them.
Next, enter your payment information and click the “submit” button.
Bluehost will email you your receipt.
You’ll now be directed to a page where you can create your Bluehost account.
Click the “Create your Password” button.
5. Enter the password you will use to log into Bluehost, accept the terms and conditions, then click the “Create Account” button.
Your Bluehost account has now been created and is now ready to be logged into.
Click the “go to login” button, so you can be logged into Bluehost.
Enter your Bluehost login details and click the “login” button.
Once you are logged in, click on the “Create your Website” button.
You will now be on a page where you’ll be will be asked how much help you need with building your website.
Click on the “Skip this step” button and you’ll be directed to the next page.
The next page will ask you the primary purpose of your site.
You can select one if you like or you can click the “Skip this step” button.
You will now be on a page asking you how you want to build your website.
On the left is WordPress which gives you limitless customization.
On the right side, you have a Bluehost website builder which also uses WordPress.
Select WordPress by clicking on the” Get Started” button.
You’ll now be on the “Let’s create a website page”.
Click on the “Skip this step” button
You’ll now be on a page where you can name your site along with your site’s tagline.
Click on the “skip this step” button.
You’ll now be on a page where you can select a theme for your website.
Click on the”Skip this step” button.
You’ll now be in the Bluehost dashboard, you’ll see the login to WordPress button on the top right.
Click the “log into the WordPress” button to go to the WordPress dashboard.
You’ll now be on the WordPress dashboard where you can start building your WordPress site.
When you install WordPress on your domain name for the first time, there are a few basic things you have to understand.
There are also a few basic settings that you have to do.
On your dashboard, you’ll see many widgets that are not important.
Click on “Screen options” at the top right of the screen and untick to remove the widgets.
On the left side, you’ll see the menu, the first option is the dashboard.
The second option is the Posts, This is where we can create our posts by clicking “Add New”.
The third option is the Media, this is where you can see and manage all the files and images you have used or uploaded to your website.
The fourth option is the Pages. This is where you can manage and create your website pages like Home, About, Contact pages, and so on.
You can create a page by clicking on the “Add New” button.
Next, we have the Comments option, Whenever someone leaves a comment on any of your posts, you’ll be able to see and manage the comments from the comments option.
This is where you can approve, reply or even delete comments.
Step 3 Design Your Website.
The next thing is for us to design our website by adding a theme, this is important because it’s the first thing your website visitors see.
How to Add A WordPress Theme
The Appearance option is an important option on our website.
When you click on appearance and go to themes, you’ll see that there’s a default theme already activated.
What is a website theme?
A theme is the style and appearance of your website.
To add a WordPress theme, first, go to Appearance and under appearance, click on Themes.
Next, click on Add New, and you’ll now see different WordPress themes to choose from.
There are thousands of free themes to choose from.
You can also go to Search themes if you have a particular theme you would like to use.
You’ll now see WordPress themes you can choose from.
There are thousands of professional-looking themes to choose from.
To search for a theme, type the name of the theme in the search box on the right.
Next click on the “Install” button.
Now that you’ve installed your theme, you need to activate it.
Click on the “Activate” button to activate your theme.
You should always have one theme installed and activated.
To delete a theme, first, click on the theme you would like to delete, then click the delete button on the bottom right.
The next option is the Plugins.
A plugin is the functionality and features part of your website, it adds extra features and functions to your WordPress website.
For example, if you want to add a feature for ” broken links”, you’ll have to install a plugin for that feature.
To add a plugin, go to Plugins and click “Add New”, search for the plugin, and install and activate it.
Step 4 Write your first blog post and publish it.
There are a few settings we need to do before writing our first blog post.
Go to the settings tab, and under settings, go to general settings.
This is where you’ll write your site title and tagline.
Write whatever title you would like for your website.
Under the tagline, you can describe what your website is about.
Make sure to tick mark the “Anyone can register” box.
Next, select your timezone and click save changes.
Now under settings go to Permalinks and select Post name, this is the most SEO-friendly permalink structure, and click on save changes.
Things to know before writing a blog post.
Before you start writing your blog post, you need to do some research.
There are a lot of advantages to researching before writing a blog post.
There are many resources, blog posts, and content on the internet.
If you want your content to be found and shared, you have to do something that no one else is doing.
The first thing is to do keyword research.
Why is Keyword research important
- You can know what others are writing about.
- You’ll know what others are not saying on the topic you want to write about.
- Helps to get your keywords narrowed down.
- You’ll know what kind of keywords to include in your post and your title.
- It helps you to come up with an outline of what you’re going to include in your blog post.
How to write a successful blog post.
There is so much that goes into writing a blog post and being a successful blogger.
- Write content that is easy to understand.
- Write sentences that are short and straight to the point.
- Make sure that your content sounds natural.
- Break down your paragraphs into one or two lines.
- Outline your blog posts, If you have headings, it is easier for your readers to skim through your posts.
- Include images to break up your post and make it more interesting.
How to write a blog post for beginners on a WordPress website.
Go to”Posts” and click on the “Add New” tab.
Write your post title and start writing your post.
To add an image, click on the plus sign, and a menu will appear, click on the image icon and then upload your image.
Now that we have finished writing our blog post, there are a few things we need to do before we publish it.
First, we need to make relevant categories for our posts.
What is a blog Category?
A blog category is a division or grouping of blog topics.
Blog categories help people to easily navigate through your site.
To add categories, click on the settings icon on the top right.
Under Post, go to categories, click “Add New Category”, write the name of your category and save.
Add your blog post to the relevant category and then click publish.
Now that we have published our first blog post, this is where the real work begins.
Anyone can start a blog, but our goal is to start a successful blog and make money.
Now it’s time to let people know about your blog.
Step 5 Promote your blog
A successful blog is a lot more than great content, for a blog to be successful, it needs exposure.
You cannot have a blog without an Audience.
When you start a blog as a beginner, it’s important to know and understand the power of social media platforms.
It’s important to generate traffic, shares, and backlinks.
You can promote your blog using Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
There are also platforms such as Facebook groups, Medium, Pocket, Youtube, and more.
Our goal here is to start a conversation with our audience.
Building relationships with other blogs, by visiting their platforms and engaging with them is also another way to promote your blog.
Step 6 Monetize your blog
Having a monetized blog is one of the ways to know that a blog is successful.
Monetizing a blog is all about doing it the right way.
The following are some of the ways to monetize your blog and be successful.
1. Affiliate marketing.
This is when you promote other people’s products and if someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link, you get a commission.
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that there are so many opportunities with it.
There are many affiliate marketing programs you can choose from.
Some of the most popular affiliate marketing programs are Amazon affiliates, Clickbank, Digistore24, and many more.
2. Sell your Products and Services
One of the many ways to have a successful blog as a beginner is to sell your products and services.
For example, if you are good at making handmade accessories, you can sell them on your website.
3. Email Marketing
Email Marketing is promoting your products or services by sending emails to your customers
It is one the best and most effective ways of communicating with your customers
Email marketing is only effective when done the right way with the right tools.
There are many tools available for email marketing.
A lot of businesses use email marketing software to do email marketing the right way.
Create And Sell Ebooks
An ebook is a book that is made in digital form and can be read or downloaded on electronic devices, like smartphones, computers, and iPads.
Instead of writing and printing a physical book, most people are now creating ebooks.
Selling ebooks is also one of the best ways to make money as a blogger.
5. Create And Sell Digital Courses
Digital Courses are a great way to monetize your blog.
Digital courses are online educational programs that can be accessed by anyone on digital platforms.
The process of creating online courses can sometimes be time-consuming, but it’s worth it.
You can sell your online courses using platforms such as Teachable, Thinkific or Skillshare.
Why do blogs fail?
No one starts a blog because they want it to fail, most of the time we don’t understand what we are doing.
When you start a blog, you need to understand that it needs to be nurtured, and there’s a lot of effort that goes into having a successful blog
You need to create great content and post new content regularly and without consistency and hard work, your blog will fail.
Having a blog is not hard, but it’s hard work. Some blogs fail as a result of choosing the wrong niche.
Lack of consistency is one of the main reasons why blogs fail.
If you’re not willing to put in the work when it comes to blogging, then your blogging journey might come to an end before it even started.
What makes a successful blog?
A successful blog helps to solve its audience’s problems and helps to fulfill their needs.
People come to your blog searching for answers and ideas.
It’s important to provide valuable and accurate information to your readers.
Successful blogs have a clear and defined focus and give their audience a reason to keep on coming back.
For your blog to be successful, be consistent, and constantly update old articles to ensure they remain relevant with SEO.
Make sure to always look for new ways to improve your content with keyword-rich content and media.
I hope you now know how to start a successful blog as a beginner, and I hope you will enjoy creating your website.
Conclusion
Remember that starting a successful blog is more than just a well-designed website with dozens of blog posts.
A successful blog brings value to its audience.
This is just the beginning and I wish you the very best in your blogging journey
Feel free to ask if you have any questions, I am happy to help.
