Want to know how to start a blog? This guide will run you through how to make a blog for beginners.
Do you want to know how to start a blog? Awesome! But how can you get started?
There are many options out there, and so many seem terrifyingly complicated.
What’s the best way to start a blog?
What’s the easiest way to start a blog?
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be confusing.
In this guide, we’ll run you through exactly how to start a blog for beginners. Sound good? Okay, let’s jump in.
How to Start a Blog
Here are ten steps to make a blog:
- Find your niche
- Self-Host or Free Service?
- Meet WordPress
- Choose your domain name
- Choose a hosting provider
- Set up a blog
- Design your new blog
- Install essential WordPress plugins
- Define your audience
- Share your first blog post
All you need to do is follow this guide step-by-step, and you can start a blog in no time!
Step 1: Find your niche.
This is the most crucial decision you must make when learning how to start a blog. What you will write about and the type of content needed is critical to decide before you get into the gritty details. Do you want to write about food, lifestyle, or Italian food, the gluten-free lifestyle? Finding your niche will guide the rest of the process when setting up a blog.
Step 2: Self-Host or Free Service?
Next, you must decide whether to pay to create a blog or get one for free on a blogging platform.
This might seem like a no-brainer at first glance. I mean, who doesn’t want to get free stuff online?
Plus, there are tons of great free blogging platforms available, such as:
- WordPress.com: The big dog of content management systems has a free option.
- Blogger: This dedicated blogging service will help you set up everything you need.
- Medium: Think of this platform a bit like Twitter, but for blogs!
These options are fantastic if you’re looking to start blogging as a hobby. If this is you, simply head to one of those websites and sign up!
However, if you’re more serious about starting a blog, there are three significant drawbacks to free blogging services:
Limitations
Most free blog services have limitations. For example, you won’t be able to monetise your blog effectively, and there will be a limit on the amount of data you can upload to your blog. You’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan to lift these limits.
You Don’t Own Your Blog
It might sound strange, but you won’t technically own your blog if you use one of these services! It’s a part of the platform, like your Facebook or Twitter account.
So you’re not in total control of your blog. This means the company could delete it, and you could lose all of your hard work.
You Won’t Get Your Own Domain
A domain is what you type into a web browser to access a website, such as “google.com” or “wikipedia.org.”
When you start a free blog using one of the services mentioned above, your blog’s domain will look like this:
- yourblogname.wordpress.com
- yourblogname.blogspot.com
- medium.com/@yourblogname
However, if you set up a self-hosted blog, there are no limitations, you’re in complete control of your blog website, and you can get a name like “yourblogname.com.” So how will you start your blog, self-hosted or free? If you choose self-hosted as how to start a blog, keep reading.
How can you set up a blog like this?
Step 3: Meet WordPress.org
As we mentioned above, WordPress.com is an online website builder service.
On the other hand, WordPress.org allows you to download and use the WordPress website framework on your self-hosted site – for free! (From here on out, we’ll refer to this version on WordPress.)
Now, WordPress is arguably the best way to start a blog if you’re serious about blogging:
- It’s easy and free to use
- There are countless free themes and plugins available to customise your blog
- There are plenty of resources and active support forums if you get stuck and need help.
WordPress is so popular that it powers approximately 36% of websites on the entire internet.
How can you create a self-hosted WordPress blog?
Step 4: Choose a Domain Name
Before moving on to the next step, choose your domain name and URL. If you have a name in mind — great! If your domain name is free, you can check via Shopify, Domain.com, Bluehost, NameCheap, or another domain name registrar.
If unsure, you can use a free business name generator like Oberlo’s to find a domain name based on your niche. Then you can check if the domain name is free via a domain name registrar. Now you can start learning about hosting.
Step 5: Choose a Hosting Provider
Think of hosting providers like landlords renting out property. You need to rent space from a web host to store your website.
WordPress recommends three hosting providers:
- SiteGround provides managed WordPress updates and a 24/7 support team with advanced WordPress expertise.
- DreamHost is privacy-focused and optimised for WordPress with a support team that actively contributes to the WordPress community.
- Bluehost provides a free domain when you sign up for hosting.
How much do website hosting and a domain name cost? Depending on the service, hosting plans typically cost between £4-£10 per month, and domains cost about £15 per year.
Step 6: Set Up Your Blog
Now’s the fun part – it’s how to start a blog website!
Head to your chosen hosting provider and sign up for a hosting plan. Take your time and pick a domain you love, as it can be challenging to change it later.
Once you’ve purchased a hosting plan and a domain name, you must install WordPress.
You can download and install WordPress.org manually – or, better yet, follow the directions of your hosting provider to install WordPress automatically.
Once you’re set-up, head to “www.yourblogname.com/admin” to sign in to your new WordPress blog!
Step 7: Design Your Blog
Once inside, search for a stunning WordPress theme to customise the design of your blog.
Many professional themes offer free versions to get you to pay to access additional features. If you’d rather avoid this, choose a free theme made by WordPress.
Step 8: Install essential WordPress plugins
You can also add WordPress plugins to customise the functionality of your WordPress blog. Which ones you choose to use is an essential element when deciding how to start a blog.
Plugins allow you to increase your site’s security, add social media widgets, customise a contact form, and more. There’s a plugin for just about everything!
Here is a list of possible plugins that you may need for your blog:
- Onsite SEO
- A plugin like Yoast or Rath Math can help you optimise your articles in the best way for search engines. This is important if you want to get found by people searching Google and other search engines. These WordPress plugins give you pointers like keyword density, internal link, meta title optimisation for better click-through-rate (CTR), etc.
- Spam Filters
- Plugins like Akismet must be used if you have a contact form or comments enabled on your blog. Akismet scans comments and contact form submissions against their spam database to help prevent malicious content from being placed on your website.
- Content Checks
- If you are a one-person blog, you will need a proofreader to check for spelling mistakes, repeated words, and other small things that can give your blog a bad rep. Using Grammarly or similar plugins is a substitute for the real thing. These tools scan your content before you push it live, highlighting errors and considerations for you to update.
- Technical SEO
- Cleaning up unused Javascript and CSS is always good if your website is a little slow. Plugins like Asset CleanUp can do this for you, so you don’t need to delve into code and spend hours getting lost.
- Reduce Image Size
- The image size can significantly increase the time it takes to load pages. Using a tool like Shortpixel Image Optimizer, images get optimised when you upload them to WordPress, meaning that you don’t need to worry about reducing the image size. All original images are stored in a folder, and you can cancel the optimisation of an image anytime.
Step 9: Define your audience
Now that you can find your blog ready and can’t wait to publish your first post, one thing is standing in your way — what you should write about. You have your niche and your blog name, but where to start? Start with your audience. What do they like to read about? Which websites are their go-to for information? Do they prefer videos/charts/graphs/recipes/long-form blog content? Plan out the trending content your audience regularly talks about and start creating a content calendar around it.
A content calendar can be a piece of paper with article articles on it, a Google Sheet going into more granular detail, or a project management tool with boards, tasks and a whole lot more detail. Regardless of the avenue you choose to go down, you are now ready to start blogging!
Step 10: Share Your First Blog Post
Once you’ve customised the appearance and functionality of your blog and created your content calendar based on your audience, you’re ready to share your first blog post!
Summary: How to Start a Blog in 2023
Learning to make a blog doesn’t have to be challenging or take a long time. Here’s a quick summary of how to start a blog in 2023 if you plan on self-hosting:
- Find your niche
- Decide if it will be Self-Hosted or a Free Service?
- Try WordPress
- Choose your domain name.
- Choose a hosting provider.
- Set up a blog
- Design your new blog
- Install essential WordPress plugins
- Define your audience
- Share your first blog post.
Finally, don’t worry if your blog doesn’t look amazing straight out of the gate – you’ll get the hang of it!
As Pierre Omidyar, the founder and chairman of eBay, said, “If you’re passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful.”