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So you want to start a blog. Awesome!
Starting a blog is a great option for you if you love to write and have something you want to say. But sometimes, it’s difficult to know where to start and also what to do to keep it going. You see others making beautiful blogs and making money, and you just want to know how to do it. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. I’ve been there! But here are 12 steps for how to start a blog that will help you get moving in the right direction.
How to Start A Blog in 12 Steps
Step 1 – Decide on a Niche
When you start a blog, you have to choose something you want to talk about. If this is a hobby blog that you plan to only use for personal use or for your family to read, then definitely feel free to write about anything and everything. This is your blog, so use it as you please. However, if your plan is to use the blog to make money, I highly, highly recommend you choose a niche and stick to that.
A niche could be centered on a topic (example: healthy dog food) or on a specific demographic (example: people who care deeply about the health and wellness of their dogs). Either way, if you want to start a blog that makes money, you would want to stick with that topic and not venture away to start talking about caring for cats or your favorite kind of music.
Step 2 – Get to Know Your Audience
This is where your blog posts will up the ante. If you know your audience, know what they want, and then deliver it to them, you’ll have readers who convert into fans and fans who convert into customers. Don’t get me wrong—knowing your audience isn’t solely about turning profits. When that becomes your ultimate focus, it’s easy to feel a little too “salesy.” A little too slimy. In the end, it’s about service. When you know your audience’s needs and pain points, and you truly want to help them, that’s when the magic happens and you product solid content, both free and for sale.
Step 3 – Pick A Hosting Provider
Once you have an idea for your blog, it’s time to sign up for hosting. I use BlueHost, and I love it. I’m not a techie person, so my favorite part of using BlueHost is their customer service Live Chat. They’ve always been extremely polite and helpful, answering my questions or fixing my issues within minutes. Also, if you have your blog with WordPress, then you can directly access all your WordPress blogs from your BlueHost dashboard. Not to mention, whenever I have an idea for a website domain I’d like to buy, there’s a place to search for its availability and price.
Step 4 – Pick a Website Name (Domain Name)
Time to buy a domain, which you can easily do through BlueHost! When you start a blog, you want to choose a name that will do two things. #1) You want it to be remembered by your followers, and #2) You want it to relate to your niche. This way, people visiting your site will know what to expect when they look around. Having a blog called “It’s a Wonderful Life” but then blogging about dog food doesn’t make sense. Choose something that will stand the test of time.
**The one exception to this, in my opinion, is when you are building a personal brand. Then it’s perfectly fine to use your name instead of a niche topic as your domain. For example, I own the website www.JanetteForeman.com, which is where I sell books I write and where I blog about book-related information. As an author, my name IS my brand, so it makes sense for me to use my name as my website domain. So, before you move on to the rest of this list, you’ll want to go ahead and purchase hosting and picking a domain (I recommend BlueHost!).
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Step 5 – Pick a Platform for Your Blog
When you start a blog, you have to pick a platform on which your blog will sit. I recommend WordPress, hosted by BlueHost. There are two options when you choose a WordPress site – WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.com is free and WordPress.org is a paid site but with more options/flexibility.
If I were to start a blog today, I would definitely create a site on WordPress.org. This is because, for me, starting a blog is starting a business. Plus, with BlueHost, you can install WordPress with one click! It’s that simple.
Step 6 – Pick A Theme and Design Your Blog
The theme I picked for Dressed Up Rustic is the Rachel theme from Bluchic.com. I’ve been very impressed with their customer service, pricing, and ultimately, their easy-to-use themes to install when you start a blog. (NOTE: They also have landing pages!) Once you purchase and download your Bluchic theme, they send you to a website that clearly walks you through all the steps of customizing the theme to fit your blog’s style. I absolutely love mine! For a non-techie person, this option was super helpful. (If you’d like to see more information about Bluchic’s themes, I wrote a post about it!)
Step 7 – Create Important Pages on Your Site
Before you kick off your blog and show it to the world, you’ll want a few pages intact. An About page will let your viewers know more about you (Remember, people buy from people they know, like, and trust.), and of course, the Contact page is there so viewers know how to reach you. Another page you’ll definitely need is a Disclaimers page. If you live in the US and become an affiliate for a company, using affiliate links in your blog posts, you’re required by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to disclose this information to your viewers. This is easily done on a Disclaimers page. Having a few pages like these created on your website, in addition to your blog, will potentially give you a professional edge and help your viewers navigate and understand your site with ease.
Step 8 – Design A Content Strategy
In today’s world, if you want to rise above other blogs in your niche, you need a content strategy. What is a content strategy? It’s your plan for how to implement and market all of your content—whether it’s written content like blog posts and social media posts, or visual content like videos, or audio content like podcasts, or digital product content like courses, printables, and e-books. When you start a blog, you want to have a plan for how you’ll share your content with the world. Doing things willy nilly isn’t sustainable and won’t help you reach your ideal clients.
So how do you create a content strategy? First you want to think about who your content is for. What do they need from you? Knowing their pain points, the problems they need solved, will give you direction as you create your content. Second, you want to think about what sorts of content you want to create. Blog posts, yes, but what social media platforms (and search engines like YouTube and Pinterest) are best suited to you and to your niche? What platforms and sorts of content (video, audio, visual, etc.) do your audience members like the most? Next, you’ll want to create a content calendar—something that lays out what you’re going to post, when you’re going to post it, and where. This will help you see your strategy on paper, will help you stay focused on the right things, and help you deliver with consistency.
Step 9 – Publish Consistently and Learn SEO
When you start a blog, you feel as if the world is at your fingertips. But like most things, it’s easy to let life get in the way. This isn’t a big deal if you want to blog for a hobby. But if you want to start a blog as a business, then you have to publish consistently and also learn SEO tactics. Search engines like Google like blogs that publish on a consistent basis. They also like blogs that utilize SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They’re simple tactics that improve your chances of placing high in search engine results, thus positioning your blog in a place where you can potentially reach more people, help them, and turn a profit. SEO tactics are not a quick-fix scheme, but in the long run, trust that they are paying off.
Step 10 – Use Eye-Catching Royalty-Free Photos
Royalty-free stock photos are a staple in blogging. (You, of course, may also take your own photos, and that is a smart idea, too, if you know how to take qualities shots.) My favorite place to get royalty-free stock photos is Pixabay.com. But there are others, too, like Pexels.com, Canva.com, and Unsplash.com. If you use stock photos when you start a blog, be sure to read their licensing information just to be sure. Some places are royalty-free for personal and commercial use but still require artist attribution. Other places don’t. Just be sure you know the rules. 🙂
Step 11 – Market Your Posts
Send them out into the world so people can read them! Publish your blog posts on social media sites and search engines, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Bloglovin’. Each of these sites will help you reach more readers. Now, as I mentioned before, take a good look at the type of people you want to reach. Are they on Instagram more than Twitter? Pinterest more than LinkedIn? Wherever they are, focus your attention there first.
Also, what sites are you most comfortable with? Start there. You can also master one and then add another platform when you’re ready. Also, you can promote/create ads for your posts and products. This will get your content in front of even more people. I know it all feels overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. Don’t let this step stress you out. One piece at a time! Learn one, then try another. The race doesn’t have to be won in a single day, month, or year.
Step 12 – Grow Your Email List
The money is in the list. Again, when you start a blog, you want to keep in mind people’s pain points and you want to grow your business out of the desire to help people. But also, if you’re blogging as a business, you must focus on growing your email list. It’s not just about sending quarterly newsletters to your subscribers. Rather, it’s about communicating intimately with them and becoming their favorite, their go-to in that niche. It’s about creating superfans. These are the people who will most often encourage you, promote you to their friends, and purchase your products. Don’t neglect this step!
Growing your list is imperative to having a successful blog business. My favorite place to do this is ConvertKit. They have so many helpful options, and the people/customer service is amazing. This company was created with bloggers in mind, so they really have a keen insight into the pain points of bloggers! There are also free places such as MailChimp, which also work when you’re starting out, though personally I find the dashboard to be a bit clunky and hard to understand, so I would personally look into ConvertKit.
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There you have it!
12 steps for how to start a blog! Rome wasn’t built in a day; each of these steps take time. But if you stick with it, and keep your focus on helping others, things will fall into place. Go conquer the world!