Starting a Blog
After seeing a lot of amazing blogs across the internet, you might have thought “What if I start my own blog?“. And this is when you would also start to realize that you have no idea how to start making one. At a first glance, you might think that blogging is difficult. You probably do not know about HTML codes that would set-up a blog. You think you might as well hire someone to set-up and manage a blog for you and that all you have to do is just post your content. But when the fees of hiring someone to do something that you can do on your own breaks your heart and your bank account, you might think that you might as well just put an end to the thought of making your own blog.
But guess what? You should not give up on that thought of having your own blog if you strongly believe that you can create a content that matters and do something that you would actually love. Most likely, all of the famous bloggers you know right now started with zero knowledge about blogging. Why give up when others have done it already? You might just need some help in order to add more fuel to the spark that is already starting to burn inside of you.
In this article, we would bust the famous blogging myth that starting a blog is extremely difficult because it’s not really that difficult and is actually easier than you think. To make things easier, have a checklist before you start making your own blog. The good news is that this article has already got your back because we have provided a simple and easy-to-understand checklist that will help you make your blogging dreams a reality.
What made others think that starting a blog is difficult is because of all the things that you need to do before starting one. But keep in mind that nothing worth having would come easy. With that, here is a checklist that will help you in starting your very own blog:
1. Choose your niche
If you already know what you would want to blog about then good for you. But what if you find yourself in a position wherein you want to blog about so many things? Be realistic and keep in mind that when you would start blogging, you are not going to hire people anytime soon to write for your blog. And even if you have partners in creating a blog, it would be too ambitious to have a handful of niches.
It’s high time that you should find a niche that you can focus on. A niche is a topic that your blog will be talking about. To find the perfect niche for you, know and list down the following things first:
- The topic or things you are good at.
- The in-demand topics.
- The topic you care about.
Find something that is common among the three and voila! You have found your niche. For example, among the topics that you are good at, one of which is making various kinds of stuff and crafts. After researching about the most in-demand topics, you might see that one of it is DIY projects or do-it-yourself projects. And one of the topics that you care about is the environment. When you look at it, these three can actually be related and could help you come up with your niche. Your niche could be a DIY blog that gives people ideas on how to upcycle and recycle things.
Here are some of the popular niches that most bloggers nowadays are into:
- How to make money
- Personal development and self-improvement
- Frugality and budgeting
- Games and entertainment
- Celebrities
- Health and nutrition
- Physical fitness, running, and exercise
- Food and recipes
- Travel advise and travel guides
- Photography and videography
- Makeup and beauty
- Fashion and personal style
- Pregnancy, parenting and family life
- DIY projects
- Writing advice
Make sure that in finding your niche, you are going to interlink your passion and personality plus it is in demand. Combining the three in finding your niche makes your blogging experience worthwhile and can be a lifetime thing to do.
2. Come up with a name for your blog
Now that you have decided a niche, it’s time to come up with your blog’s name, or those words that you add with a “.com”.
You might want a catchy and memorable blog name so your blog visitors will have your blog’s name always in their minds. You can use descriptive words that are related to your niche and that it will already give people the idea of what your blog is all about. You can also do a wordplay, mix words together and create a brand name that is unique. Or you can also simply just use your own name. It could be your first name and last name but if your first name is composed of two or more names, you can always use the name that a lot of people would call you and the name you want to be remembered by your site visitors.
3. Choose the best blogging platform
There are a lot of blogging platforms available, some of it are:
- WordPress
- Blogger
- Tumblr
- Medium
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Weebly
But before choosing your blogging platform, you would have to decide first whether you want a commercial and closed blogging platform or a self-hosted and open blogging platform?
When you would use a commercial and blogging platform, it’s for free and it has no hidden charges. However, the downsides are that it has many restrictions, it’s not ideal for a long-term use, you cannot monetize it, the designs are limited, and you don’t actually own your blog because the company behind the blogging platform owns it.
Most of the present bloggers nowadays would prefer the self-hosted and open platform because it makes them in control of everything that goes in their own blog. Although they have to pay, it’s worth the price.
But bottom line, it really depends on you on what blogging platform you would choose.
4. Your Blog’s Design
After settling on your blogging platform, you should now proceed to the designing of your blog. You are now a step away from finally launching your blog but beware because this step is the step that gave birth to the myth that starting a blog is extremely difficult.
The designing includes the over-all design elements of your blog as well as the pages you would like your blog would have.
Many people, beginners, in particular, would get confused between a page and a post. To simply draw a line between these two different things, just keep in mind that your posts can be found on a page and it is in a page where you can find your posts. Pages are static and you can consider this as the menus of your blog.
If you have chosen a commercial and closed blogging platform, there are ready designs you can choose from. However, the free ones are limited and editing some elements of it is restricted. There are also ready designs that you have to pay for in order to get it.
If you have chosen a self-hosted and open blogging platform, there are a lot of designs, both free and paid, you can choose from whether on the blogging platform you have chosen or from third-party blog designers.
You can also start uploading the images that you want to put up like your profile image, your banner, and your brand logo.
Come up with a color palette so that your blog will look more put together and cohesive and make sure to maintain that color palette throughout your blogging journey.
This is also the part where you would add pages to your blog. Both commercial and self-hosted blogging platforms would offer this feature. The common pages that blogs would automatically have are Home, About Us or Me, and Contact pages. For your Home page, this is where people can see your latest posts. On your About Us or Me page is where people can see and read information about you and what your blog is all about. Do not be afraid to tell a long story and be confident to state what makes your blog different from all the existing blogs out there who have a similar niche as yours. And your Contact page is where people can find a way to contact you; you could provide an email address, a cellular phone or telephone numbers, and you can even include your social media handles but most bloggers nowadays would have a separate page for that.
5. Creating your first blog post and making it SEO friendly
Now that your blog is almost ready, there is one more thing that will launch your blog and that is your first post!
This is where you will unleash the beast. This where you will show that you have a caught the Muse. Show people you’re the real deal through your first blog post.
You might want to consider your word count of at least 2,500 words. Make sure your first blog post would set the tone of your blog’s style and niche. Add quality photos it could be your own photos and if you do not have your own photos, you can always download royalty-free photos from the websites that would offer royalty-free photos. Also, make sure that you add a featured image aside from the images within your blog post.
Your first blog post will become Search Engine Optimization or SEO friendly if you would add relevant links throughout your blog post. These links would give your post more authority and that those site owners will also take notice of your blog.
Keep in mind your categories, if ever you have, and add 3-5 tags based on your keywords.
6. Get your first loyal visitors
You might think that visitors will flock your blog after your first post. We’re sorry to dampen your spirit but no; visitors would not come for you after your blog post. In fact, you will be the one who will bring your blog post to the people. If you feel shy doing this then people will really not know about. You can start by sharing your blog or your blog post in your social media handles. If you have already a lot of Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and Instagram followers, you can make use of the number and share and promote your blog post.
If you know how to strategize, post your first blog post during high traffic days such as Mondays or Wednesdays at East Coast US time.
7. Keep on posting!
Now if your first blog post did not garner a lot of visitors then do not feel disheartened and give up. Instead, keep on writing!
One tip is not to put your expectations too high so that you wouldn’t easily feel giving up. The famous blogger you know now have also experienced this when they were just starting but they did not give up, continued writing and posting blog content, and look where they are now? Keep in mind that you are starting from zero so all you have to do is build your way up.
If you feel like you need improvements, then find ways in order to make-up for it. Create more content and keep on posting and you will just find your blog with a lot of traffic.
If you feel like giving up, keep in mind the reason why you started and this will help you make a commitment that will help you in sticking to your blog.
We hope that with the help of the checklist that we have provided in this article, you will be able to finally launch a blog that you have always wanted to have.
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