why should i start a personal blog

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Full-Proof Guide on How to Start a Blog

If you have read blogs, you might have noticed how finely the blogger makes use of the well-chosen words to come up with a way to connect with the readers. For any budding writer, this is something that can be very inspiring to be able to present the information with which the readers can relate themselves. This can be considered as an identification of a good blogger. 

But the real thing to work on before being such an appreciated blogger is to get started with a blog. There’s no denying the fact that when we try to focus on any goal, the initial steps are the toughest ones, as this is the time when a person has to bring all his determination together and come up with a way to get started. The same is with the situation when you are stepping up to start a blog. Let’s go deeper into the work to be done when you want to start a blog by knowing more about it. 

What is Blog?

A blog is a name given to an online journal or diary that is present on any website. The contents in a blog involve conversational text along with some pictures, videos, and GIFs that make it more interesting for the readers. Usually, a blog is related to sharing a personal view, but now different websites have their blog section as a way to interact with the customers and provide some information for which they had been looking for answers. 

Purpose of Blogging

When the question is about how the company would reach its marketing goals, the most important thing that comes up is being able to improve their search engine ranking. It is why they always look for ways to be found online. Here content can be their ladder to climb. Good content is the key factor in a strong SEO strategy that helps in bringing a company in front. This is where the major purpose of a blog exists, presenting the company in the form of information that the users would be willing to read. 

Blogging tends to carry numerous benefits that are worth knowing for all those who are working on being a blogger. It can be a great move that can benefit your personal as well as professional life. Getting into details about blogging, let’s uncover some of the most important benefits it carries along:

  • Express thoughts in a better way: Even though the marketing pattern has been changing, there are still endless numbers of blogs which can be considered as the platform for people that helps them to voice their thoughts, feelings, and ideas related to any stream or talent, whether it is photography or cooking. 
  • Share your knowledge: Have you ever heard the phrase that knowledge increases by sharing. This is something that can be done with the help of a blog. If you are really good at something, consider sharing that knowledge with others too. This can be one of those chances when you can work on monetizing your blog efficiently. 
  • Refine your writing skills: The more you’ll write, the better you’ll keep becoming at it. Regular blogging can really help in polishing your writing skills.
  • Build your professional network: Blogging can be considered as a community-based endeavor, and networking can be stated as one of the major benefits that can be derived from it. 
  • Market your business: For various companies, blogging is one of the most efficient ways through which they can go online and gain visibility. This can be one of the best ways for growing subscribers and leads, which will ultimately increase the revenue of the company. 

How to Earn From a Blog?

Blogging is not only about the hobby of writing. What makes it exciting is that you can even earn through it. There are different ways in which you can earn from a blog which are mentioned below:

  • Affiliate marketing: Affiliate advertisements are an amazing way through which the bloggers can make good money even from a single sale. This is one of the most popular approaches bloggers are using these days to make money from a blog. This technique of affiliate marketing can be used on any blogging platform just by sharing the unique affiliate link of the product that you are promoting. 
  • Native advertising: Native advertising can be considered as one of the forefronts forms, making money with the help of blogging. 
  • Direct advertisements: AdSense and direct advertisements can be considered as effective ways through which blogging can help in brand promotion and prove to be a way through which good earning can be obtained. 
  • Sponsored reviews: Paid reviews are undoubtedly one of the great ways for adding on to your income. This is how you can quickly make money jus through a small review post. 
  • Campaigns for brands: Most of the brands run campaigns in order to attract their audience base. In this context, the brands can use efficiently written blogs as a way to attract the audience and make some good money, sharing the profits with the bloggers. 

How to Start a Blog?

Whether you want to make money from the blogs, or simply want to communicate your thoughts and expressions to the audience, you have to take the initial steps for starting a blog. Whatever is your reason to have a blog, there are some important aspects that you have to cover in order to have a blog of your own. Here are the things that you have to take care when starting a blog.

DomainWhen you want to set up a blog online, consider where people will find you online? This is where you have to work on choosing your domain name. Your domain name will be the name through which the people will know you, irrespective of your niche. It can be stated as your unique address on the internet. You can keep your domain as long as you’ll keep paying the annual fee for it. Users who will be familiar with your domain will simply type it on the browser to reach your blog. In order to have a popular domain, you can go for “dot com” or keeping your domain to be niche or country-specific. 

  1. Hosting

Next, you need to do is to purchase your hosting package for which you have to find a suitable web host. Make sure to make a good choice of hosting company as it will do all the technical magic through which your site will appear when people will be typing your domain name in the browser. Thus, we can say that choosing the right web host is very important. Here are some of the majorly considered web host:

  • Bluehost: Signing up with Bluehost will get you a free domain name for the first year. Not only this, but it also comes up with a free SSL certificate. For business owners, Bluehost is usually the default choice that is considered for web hosting, offering its customer support 24/7.
  • HostGator: HostGator is another popular name in the domain of web hosting. Unlike many hosts, it includes support in all of the plans. So if you are looking for a hosting plan with the support that is also cheap, HostGator is your pick.
  • DreamHost: DreamHost has gained the reputation of being the top website hosting platform because of many reasons. It operates its own control panel, is easy to understand by the users, making it convenient for use. The company is available 24/7 for live chat, but us not so active with the phone customer support.  
  • Hostinger: Hostinger is usually considered by those who want to keep the cost of the hosting as low as it is possible. They offer incredibly low prices, and they’ll go up with renewal. But if you lock the subscription for the low price for a long period of time, you can still enjoy the cheap services. 
  • A2 Hosting: When it comes to the factor of speed, A2 Hosting easily beats other hosts. It also comes with 99.9% Uptime Commitment on the plans it offers, thus making it a reliable host that would hardly go down anytime.
  • GreenGreeks: Although this host is not much popular, it is into business for a long time, as it uses renewable energy for powering their hosting services. This is how it offers some of the amazing eco-friendly web hosting solutions.
  • WP Engine: If you are looking for a well-managed WordPress hosting, WP Engine can be your pick. It offers amazing services, but it comes at a high price. If you are going with a fully managed WordPress host, it is definitely expensive than the price in the case of shared hosting providers.
  • InMotion Hosting: This one is a solid web host that comes with an amazing plan and excellent technology due to which people have been using its services for a long time. Its self-help knowledge base is actually making it so popular in the industry.
  • Siteground: SiteGround has a good fan base and some amazing reviews. If you want the best in shared hosting, SiteGround is what you need. Its automatic updates, active technical support, and streamlined security are really impressive factors to fall for.
  1. Install WordPress

The techy stuff is not over yet. After you have chosen your web host, the next thing you need to do is to install WordPress. Although there are many different choices of platforms for blogging, WordPress can be considered the best as it is free and also easy to learn. WordPress comes with numerous themes and also tends to have an online community with many plugins through which blogging becomes easier and accessible to people.

When it is about installing WordPress, the process can differentiate with different web hosts. Here we are considering Bluehost as the web host for installing WordPress. Usually, Bluehost is the officially recommended WordPress hosting provider, and it knows WordPress inside out and can also be considered beginner-friendly.  

  1. Bluehost tends to install WordPress automatically on the domain name when the user signs up. After login to the Bluehost account, WordPress site will be present under the ‘MySites’ tab.
  2. Click on the “Log in to WordPress’ button, and from there, you’ll reach the admin area. 
  3. It not just provides the ‘Basic’ plan but also will allow you to install WordPress on an endless number of sites. 
  4. Click on ‘Create Site’ under ‘My Sites’ and get started, after which the Bluehost guided WordPress installation wizard will be launched.
  5. Enter the ‘Site Name’ and ‘Site Tagline’ and click on the ‘Next’ button.
  6. Choose a domain name and path for your website. If you have purchased one already, find it under the dropdown menu. Leave the “Director” blank, and Bluehost will choose it for you. Click on “Next.”
  7. It would take a few moments, and after that, you’ll get a success message. You’ll also get the details on your email.
  8. Installing Theme

Now your work is to determine how your blog would look like, and for this, you’ll get numerous options of themes to choose from. With WordPress, you’ll open up to a wide range of free themes, and if you are more serious about it, you can also choose for customization and look for paid themes that you find suitable for your blog. You would never wish that your visitors can go discouraged by the non-intuitive appearance of your blog. Thus, you need to go with someone that catches user attention and want them to stay on your blog. Also, when you choose a theme, make sure that it related well with a niche too. That’s how you’ll be able to create a balance. 

  1. Installing Plugins

For people who are less comfortable with the technical aspects should definitely consider going with plugins. You can see them as the app for your blog. Plugins are nothing but free tools that can do creative things with your blog. Some of the highly popular plugins to consider are:

  • Hello Bar: It allows the user to create a banner on the top of your blog for any information through which you want to drag user attention. 
  • Better Click-to-Tweet: You can include a click-to-tweet box with the posts for encouraging readers to share your content. 
  • Google Analytics Dashboard: These plugins are found to be very helpful in tracking the visitors on the website so you can know the people who are interested in your blog. 
  • Yoast SEO: It is the all-in-one SEO plugin that is helpful in getting organic traffic from the search engines.

Starting a blog is a big deal and a major step before you start spreading your thoughts and expressions to the readers. Follow the right path, and you’ll have your blog soon that could help you in giving expression to your words and will also support you in monetary terms. 

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