How to begin blogging in six steps (Platforms SEO, Platforms others) |

Sep 30, 2023

Are you ready to know how to build a blog? This guide is written to help readers like you. From hosting to SEO it is essential to follow these steps to make sure you start your blog up and operating.

It's true that blogging should be an integral element of your marketing strategy. It's a great way to reach new customers as well as impart your knowledge across the globe.

Yet every time you set your computer down to start your path towards becoming an online blogger of top quality, you find yourself overwhelmed with inquiries.

Which is the most suitable platform?

What is the cost?

What topic should I write about?

How do I get people to click through my articles?

What is SEO?

This should get your attention. We've have put together this guideline for creating a blog.

Making a great blog can be difficult However, the results for both your company and customers will be worth it. And with the right analysis as well as the appropriate tools on your side, it is possible to build a website that users and readers enjoy.

Let's begin at the beginning: What should you blog about?

One of the most efficient ways to monetize your blog is by selling digital products. You can begin selling your items at absolutely no cost the quickest time!

Step 1: Choose the blog topic.

One of the most appealing advantages of blogging is the ability to create blogs on almost anything anywhere in the world.

Most people are avid readers ofblogs. Seventy-seven percent or more of the web users read blogs, and Internet users from all over the U.S. spend 3X more time on blogs than email. If you're a lover of an area, it's likely that there's an readership with the same sentiments and wants to read about it.

Below are a few examples of blog sites that are successful, as well as their respective niches:

Daniel Bogan's blog, a web developer's, Uses This  This blog is dedicated to speaking with creators and designers of different kinds on the tools and methods they use to design.

In her blog, Kaleigh Moore shares her expert insights as a journalist freelance on behalf of eCommerce & SaaS companies.

Neuroscientist and scientist Stefanie Faye Frank makes use of her blog to "translate complex concepts in science into a common language utilized in everyday life".

One thing all of these blogs do is share the same thing? Specificity.

Instead of focussing on freelancing in general, Kaleigh talks about writing about her personal subject. Instead of providing travel advice for any group, Queenie focuses on advice to solo travelers such as herself.

To find your own specific niche, you can use this Passion/Profit Matrix.

Passion: Are you excited to work on this? If you're not enjoying doing something, the profits aren't important as you're much more likely to quit before you get there.

Possibilities to Earn ProfitsDo individuals already invest money to solve this problem? Also, it is possible to imagine "profit" in this context as a result of interest or traffic. Are there people who are currently studying on this subject?

( Download your own copy of the matrix for Profit/Passion .)

The ideal product concept -or topic for your blog can be found located in the upper right quadrant of this: The nexus of enthusiasm and the potential to earn a revenue.

When you have found that perfect sweet spot, content marketing specialist Ryan Robinson recommends that you consider the following questions to validate your notion:

Are you enthused enough by this blog niche? Choose a subject that you're unsure about because it seems profitable.

Is there a market in this niche? Or, in other words, do you have any goods or services targeted at the same audience? If you're trying to make money blogging, you need an audience that is willing to pay.

Do you think this particular niche will be around for years in the future? It's difficult to build your blog popular therefore, you must choose a niche that will keep you writing for long periods of time rather than a passing fad.

After you've decided what you want your blog to have, you'll need decide which place you'll host it in.

Step 2: Pick a blogging platform

Starting from Tumblr and Blogger from Tumblr and Blogger to Medium and Wix There are numerous blogging platforms on the market.

With around 70 million blog posts published on the platform each monthly, WordPress is by far the most popular option. over 28 million sites are using WordPress and not 4 million of Squarespace's customers. Squarespace.

But, Squarespace can be more user-friendly for beginners, especially users who do not have any programming experience.

Let's see how the two platforms stack up with regards to options, features, and customization and price.

(A quick reminder (A quick note: The rates listed in this post are accurate at the time at the time of writing.)

Squarespace

for those who are new to building websites, Squarespace is an easy-to-use platform that does not require the use of any programming skills. The drag-and-drop interface is more lenient learning curve than WordPress.

The straightforward block interface has the disadvantage of flexibility and customization. Squarespace has fewer themes along with plugins and themes that WordPress also it doesn't offer as much dedicated blogging functionality.

As a whole, Squarespace is a website builder which includes the fundamentals of blogging. It is not more than the platform that was designed specifically to cater to bloggers.

How much does Squarespace cost?

Apart from a 14-day free trial, Squarespace has four price plans . Prices vary from $23 to $65 per month payable monthly, and $16 to $49 per month that is paid each year.

The plans include unlimited storage space, as well as domain names at no cost in the beginning. If you do not require an e-commerce option, the lower two levels should work perfectly for managing your blog.

WordPress

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) specially designed for bloggers. It comes with built-in templates and tools that help bloggers. These include:

Post scheduling

Editing

Commentary from the Managing Committee

Multi-author advantage, multi-language settings and multi-author advantages

Technical SEO

WordPress is also home to a huge selection of paid and free WordPress plugins specifically for bloggers, as well as thousands of free WordPress themes designed specifically for bloggers.

What's the difference?

In terms of creating a blog as well as a site, WordPress has a steeper process of learning as compared to Squarespace and makes it difficult to master for beginners. It doesn't have a drag-and-drop feature, and you'll need a fundamental HTML knowledge to fully personalize your WordPress site.

Don't let that put you away, though. It is easy to set an easy WordPress blog isn't requiring an expert in tech or hacking. Actually, since WordPress is so widely used and widely used, there are plenty of resources for free to guide you through the process.

How much does WordPress price?

WordPress is free in and in and must be paying for hosting services, custom web address, themes, and plugins.

According to blogger expert Ryan Robinson , the price to start a WordPress website ranges from $100 between $200 and $140. The ongoing expenses for using WordPress will likely be much lower than if you use Squarespace.

Squarespace as well as. WordPress What should you select?

Here is the full analysis of the major differences between the two platforms:

Although the process of learning for WordPress is more difficult but the possibilities of personalizing your blog are virtually limitless. Squarespace is a website builder; WordPress is an CMS initially developed by bloggers.

In light of all the points above keeping this in mind WordPress is a better choice for bloggers and bloggers looking to develop and grow their blogs, and, ultimately, monetize their blogs.

Now let's discuss ways you can get started with your blog with WordPress.

Step 3: Create your blog.

For you to have your WordPress blog running, you must have two requirements: Two things are required:

Domain names

An Internet Hosting Plan

The domain name you choose is the address where your website and blog reside. If your website is your primary home online Your domain name will be your online address.

Use your brand new domain as the name of your blog's page when in use. Don't create confusion for your visitors using a non-related URL.

However, what should you do if there's no blog site orblog domain name?

Think of the business-minded coach Becky Mollenkamp for an illustration. Becky's blog, as well as her other digital services are focused on sharing her knowledge with other people to help her clients achieve success.

Becky is now her personal brand and it's only natural to make use of beckymollenkamp.com for her business as well as domain name.

If you're still stuck, consider using a domain name generator such as Nameboy or Nameboy, Domain Search or Nameboy . Enter keywords and the name generators will provide you with a a selection of names for domains.

When you have found an ideal domain it is time to put the name available to a hosting service.

We recommend the Bluehost . Bluehost is one of the best-known web hosting providers in the world, Bluehost offers free domain registration in the initial year with every hosting plan. The most basic plan begins with $2.95/month.

If you're planning to put in more cash, Bluehost also offers managed hosting accounts for WordPress sites.

The Managed Hosting plans start at $19.95/mo.

A good alternative in place for Bluehost, Siteground is home to over 2,000,000 domains, and is regarded as offering the best customer service within the market. From $4.99/mo, Siteground is slightly more expensive than Bluehost's basic plans. But, if you're worried as if you'll require tech support often, Siteground might be the best choice for you.

Once you've chosen an hosting company, begin your blog using WordPress. This involves installing WordPress for your blog by selecting and installing plugins, as well as selecting and installing the perfect theme.

If you think that hiring a WordPress developer is not within your means I would recommend the following detailed instructions from WPBeginner  WPBeginner, the biggest free WordPress tool:

     How do I install WordPress

     It's an essential WordPress plugins

     What's the purpose of a WordPress plugin?

     How to install an WordPress theme

Remember the fact you WordPress blog does not have to be the most elegant high-end themes or the most shiny plugins in order to make good blog posts. The only thing you need is that it works prior to posting your content and writing it.

Step 4: Start writing

Start a brand new file start writing on the surface of your mind and pray for success.

Some people really work best that approach.

This isn't me. individuals. If you aren't either Let me introduce my BFF blog by defining.

It saves time, keeps you organized and aid you in organizing your information so it makes sense for your reader. The outline can be written in a notebook You can utilize Google Docs, Dropbox Paper or Microsoft Word.

Here's how the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) suggests writers structure their outlines:

Think about it:List all the ideas that you'd like to put into your piece.

Organisation:Group concepts that are related in separate sections.

Order:Arrange your ideas into sections.

Tags:Add headings and subheadings to the blog posts you write.

The content team employs this template for defining each section of our blog article:

[Header title]

The Main Theme:

Stats:

Case Study:

Examples:

Once you've drafted an outline of your ideas, you're now in a position to begin your writing despite the fact that you might not be ready.

Start writing now.

Do not force yourself into finding exactly the correct words, or eliminating mistakes in any circumstance. You can always go back to edit your writing in the future. It's important to keep your writing. Sooner or later you'll be writing a story that's ready to be edited into a gorgeous blog article.

That's not to say that writing isn't an efficient method However.

Blog articles typically will take about 4 hours to complete.

Amanda Nielsen of New Breed Marketing explained to Databox , "You can reap a wealth of SEO benefits when you transcribe videos. If you're in a position to do then, you can write a transcript as a blog entry to help promote the video."

Don't have time to transcribe your own video? Try an on-demand service like REV or an automated transcription program such as Sonix .

After you've completed your blog post, whether you started with scratch or using an existing template- it's time to edit.

Writing again after a bit or time away helps keep your brain fresh. Also, you're more likely to spot small mistakes.

It is also possible to use tools like Grammarly however, it must never replace an actual human editor, regardless of whether you're self-editing.

Grammarly analyzes spelling and grammar mistakes, provides synonyms for common words and gives a wealth of helpful tips to help you improve your writing.

Grammarly's AI occasionally misses mistakes (or finds errors where there's no errors.) Make sure you've read the documents thoroughly. Or, better yet, ask someone else to take it over for you.

Now, it's time to launch your very first blog post and plan out a schedule to follow for the remainder.

A publishing plan can help to keep you accountable. I don't know how many times I've tried to create a blog for my personal use and published one post, but never published a second.

There's good news that you don't have to create blogs every single day (or perhaps even weekly) for a successful blog. In the case of blog posts, it's more focused on the content's quality blog posts more than quantity. Longer, more in-depth and properly researched posts are more effective.

HubSpot says that the best length of blog articles to rank in SEO is 2100 to 2,400 words. An analysis conducted by Orbit Media found that the majority of bloggers who publish 3000-word or longer articles enjoy "strong positive results".

As Jay Baer of Convince and Convert stated to Orbit Media , "Blogging was once a newspaper on the internet featuring a variety of content, published frequently. The site is now a magazine, but with a few more pieces published less frequently."

Step 5: Optimize to improve the effectiveness of search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization could be the difference between a good blog with only one or two viewers as opposed to a great blog that attracts hundreds of hundreds of thousands.

Content that is optimized will appear more prominently when searching for relevant words and phrases. The more well-optimized your content, the easier and accessible it will be for viewers to locate it through the search engine.

In addition given the fact that organic search makes up the majority of all online website traffic and 53% of all traffic to websites, getting first on the list of results is crucial. The top five results from each Google search are 67.6 percent of the clicks .

In addition, SEO can play a major role in how successful your blog is. Bloggers who make greater than $50,000 annually have a tendency to rank organic and non-paid Google traffic as the best way to promote their site.

SEO is also cheaper than traditional advertising -- and also more efficient. An Databox study found that a majority of marketers say that SEO is better than pay-per-click ads for generating sales. This is the main reason why more than 64 percent of all marketers invest time in SEO.

It's an excellent idea of starting your blog today can assist you with being ahead of SEO. SEO game. Websites with blogs will have a increased probability of 434 percent of achieving a high ranking on the search engine result page (SERP).

Even better news is that if you have your own WordPress blog and the Yoast SEO plugin will help you to improve your website's content directly from the WordPress web editor.

Here's how it is done:

Enter the keyword or phrase that you'd like your blog to be ranked in search results.

Yoast examines your text and lets you know that you've used keywords the correct way, and in the right spots, for example headers.

Yoast also lets you examine how your blog post might appear on the Google result page for searches.

At the front-end, Yoast generates and applies schema.org structures and structured information that "helps the search engines to figure out what every part of your website is about, who it belongs to and how it ties into".

It is also possible to employ keywords research tools for example Ahrefs Word Generator to determine the kind of content people want. You can also find out how hard it is to get your website to rank specific keywords and also how frequently keywords are searched for in a month.

It will assist you in finding the perfect search term .

What does this SEO appear like in real time?

If I'm a parent with lots of responsibilities who's having trouble keeping the finances of my family, I might Google a phrase similar to "budgeting for busy moms".

The text snippet that appears for the search "budgeting for busy moms" is this post from Simplified Motherhood. The blog was created to assist busy moms keep their lives well-organized.

If you can optimize your blog with a keyword searches, you will boost the likelihood of getting on the first page or two results. People you wish to attract are more likely to see the content you post, go to your website then, once they're comfortable with your expertise, they will invest in your digital items.

For further SEO strategies and tips check out these websites:

At the end of the day, SEO is an absolute must for all bloggers. But it's not the only way to increase your readership.

Step 6: Grow your audience

It's a dual-track road. first step is to start with a blog. It will help increase your readers, and promoting to your followers will to grow your blog. Blogs that have a presence produce about 70% more leads than those that don't.

Here are three of our top ways to get new email subscribers as well as blog readers.

1. Create opt-in email forms to send emails.

Developer and trainer, Reuven Lerner utilizes his blog to grow the number of his email subscribers with the help of an opt-in section on his blog.

Create a powerful call-to action (CTA). Offer people a compelling reason to join your mailing list -for example "Teach me more Python!" From Reuven's examples.

Set expectations. Let your customers know what you'll send them and when they'll be notified of updates.

One of the most effective methods to convert blog readers into customers is by offering an item of value as a reward for email address.

2. Encourage subscribers to take advantage of lead magnets

They give you their email addresses and you give them important content. It's a win-win situation for all.

Lead magnets show potential customers the confidence they need to have in your brand. Lead magnets that work consist of pertinent, useful information that is specifically targeted to your customers and their weak issues.

To create a content upgrade:

Identify the content on your site that attracts the most traffic.

Add the information on the webpage that's relevant.

Turn more readers into subscribers.

If you're looking for an area to place your digital downloads, whether they're digital products that are available for purchase, or lead magnets that are free check out . Try it without cost today.

Formulas for opt-ins as well as lead magnets could be a great way to convert visitors of your blog into customers. In addition to sharing posts from your blog on social networks, what is the most effective way to get those blog readers to begin with? Third and final, this aspect is covered.

3. Guest posts on various blogs

Guest postings are an excellent opportunity to get your message in front of a bigger number of people, especially if you publish on a popular blog.

Here are a few of the main benefits of your guest blogging :

Increase the number of backlinks.

Enhance the authority of your domain (a index of the search engine ranking).

Drive traffic to your own site.

Increase the visibility of your company.

It's likely the reason 60 percent of bloggers compose anything from one to five guest posts each month.

Before you can publish a guest article, you must present it to the world. Prior to being able to expose it for the rest of humanity, you must to locate blogs within your niche that accept guest posts.

Here are some sites to help you get started:

A list of more than 200 sites and blogs that are willing to accept guest posts

      The list includes 150+ sites to allow writing on.

Some well-known websites that accept guest postings usually include guidelines for pitching and writing that must be adhered to, such as those on Practical Wanderlust's website. .

When your pitch is approved After approval, you compose your blog post after which the blog will publish your guest post. Then you can post the link on your social media fans as well as your email contacts, in order to increase the reach and increase the number of people who click on it.

When you have a larger readership, you could monetize your blog. Find out more about how to make money:

It's time to blog'

It's not easy. If you're willing to put in the work and make use of the appropriate tools and resources, blogging could enable you to connect with new customers, share your expertise, and boost the bottom line of your business.

If you're wondering about it how to go about creating your own blog:

Pick a subject or area of interest for your blog. Choose something you and your followers love to do.

Pick a blogging platform. Squarespace as well as WordPress are among the best two choices. However, for blog features and customization, WordPress is a clear winner.

Create your blog. Choose and sign up for the domain name, and then buy a hosting plan.

Start writing your first post. Start with an outline writing, and then make a list of the posts you write to help keep you accountable.

Optimize your blog for search. SEO is the primary way effective blogs gain traffic. It also aids the target audience to find the blog and the content.

To increase your readers' number, you can use leads magnets, opt-in form as well as guest blog posts. After you've built your subscriber base and list of email addresses, you can make money from your blog.

With this fresh blogging knowledge and knowledge, you're already on your path to becoming a successful blogger. Get out and write.

Article was posted on here