In this article, we will look into how to start a blog.
This post is written a simple step-by-step guide in detail, so in the end, you have everything to know about how to start a blog.
Before looking at how to start a blog, let’s look at some of the common questions every beginner has.
Every day we use so many words that we don’t even know the complete meaning of it. One such term is a blog. People say, “Hey I’ve read a blog yesterday”. But if you ask what’s the meaning of blog maybe if the person’s a computer geek they may answer but most of the people’s answers will be vague. Okay, let’s see what a blog really means.
What is a blog?
A blog also called weblog is a type of website that gets regularly updated by an individual or an organization. A blog usually consists of posts and articles which are arranged in reverse chronological order. The person who writes a blog is called a blogger.
There are many types of blogs. For example, a personal blog where one writes about their personal life while Beauty Blog is all about beauty products or about skincare. Some blogs have a niche. For example, the niche of a fitness blog is all about fitness and not about any other things. But Personal Blogs don’t have a niche as they can post about anything. Like this, there are so many types of blogs.
What’s the difference between a Blog and a Website?
A website is nothing but a collection of web pages under a single domain name. So that makes Every Blog is a type of website but every website may not be a blog. Let’s see some common differences between a blog and a website,
Blog:
- Consists of content that gets updated on a regular basis.
- one can comment on a page
- May have a home page.
- Users can subscribe to a blog.
- A blog can have various kinds of niches.
Website:
- Only static content with fewer updates.
- one cannot comment on a page.
- Must have a home page.
- Subscription depends on the type of website
A website is usually about a company or the services offered by the company. There are different types of websites spread over the Internet. A blog is one such type of website.
What is the purpose of starting a blog?
Still wondering why you want to start a blog? .Some people just blog as a hobby while some blog for fun. Other People blog for profit. There are many uses of blogs and reasons why to start a blog.
The main purpose of why people prefer blogs is the way it is written. A blog is written in an informal manner. Its content will be a bit informal so that it’s easier for people to read as the majority of us don’t talk in a formal manner. So people make us of this blog to express their ideas, feelings, promote other things, etc. For any blog, content is the king. So to say the audience for a blog will never diminish if the content is good enough.
Here are some reasons why to start a blog,
1. Blogs can be used instead of personal diaries:
Blogs can be used to describe a personal diary instead of writing a diary. Some people like to write diaries but they don’t like writing or that their personal diaries may look a bit unformatted to read or their handwriting may be worse. So you can actually turn your blog into a personal diary if you want to.
For people who have lots of ideas but can’t find like-minded people to share their ideas, then blogs are the best place to share ideas with the world so that people will come to know about your ideas. Not only you’ll help the people online but also you’ll grow along with it.
If you are someone who loves to share about your life to others then blogs are a perfect thing for you because people are interested in other’s life so much rather than their life. Actually, this is a good niche to start out a blog if you are really passionate about it.
If you love to explain things to other people or teaching others then you can share your knowledge about anything like how to solve a math problem or to explain something, etc. with the world.
5. It can be used for marketing purposes:
You can start a blog for selling a product or some other marketing purposes like diverting traffic to another website. With the right article, you can even increase the sales of some products that you blog about.
6. If you are a Problem solver then start a blog right away
If solving other people’s problems or a common problem in the world makes you enthusiastic then start blogging and provide solutions to common problems like how to make a low-cost inverter or how to repair an air conditioner.
7. For business people/ entrepreneurs:
Business people and entrepreneurs can promote their business by using blogs. With a marketing strategy and some research in keywords used in the blog, the blog traffic will increase which can be useful for people promoting their business.
8. For making money online:
Those who are looking for a job online but can’t find a job online then blogging is like a self-employment kind of job. Yes, you can actually earn money through blogs by allowing other company ads in your blog. There are many ad networks like Google AdSense which provide ads to the blogs and pays you money depending on the blog’s traffic.
9. For educational purposes:
Students don’t like to read the actual book definition. They want to read like in an understandable form. If you are a teacher or you want to teach in a more easy way than by reading a conventional textbook then blogs can be used for such purposes.
Like these, their purpose and use of blogs are a never-ending list. If you interested in blogging then start right away.
Simple step-by-step guide on how to start a blog
The simple step on how to start a blog is to make money too. Here is the ultimate guide for beginners:
1. Pick a domain name for a blog
A domain name is your online identity for your website. For example, www.themeszen.com is my domain name. Other popular examples are www.google.com and www.facebook.com. To own your domain name, you need to register a domain name with a domain registrar. Registering your own premium domain name is like an investment in a real estate shop.
Importance of registering your own domain name
- Investing in a domain name adds credibility to your business or your name as an individual.
- It will help you to establish your own brand name. An identity, different from your competitors.
- It will help you in your search rankings. You will get a lot more traffic by investing in a domain name.
- You can get sponsored advertisements on your website by owning a domain name.
- Establish your own online shop for your business or service.
What domain name you should choose?
For instance, if you choose dog food as your niche, then try to include dog or food in your domain name. It’s also called keywords. These keywords help you to rank higher in your search engine rankings.
Simple to spell, short descriptive and easy to remember
Make sure people can easily write them on their browsers and they are easy to remember when then return to your blog. Try to avoid numbers and hyphens in your domain name. Be creative and try to come up with something unique.
Choose a popular extension
Try to go for .com extension as your first preference. People usually prefer to write .com at the end of your blog name when they type on their browsers. Other extensions that are popular are .net and .org
What if my desired domain name is not available?
If the domain name you want to choose is not available, you can try adding suffix or prefix to your domain name. The most common are the, my, online, I, me, go, web, group, shop etc…
You can use the online domain name generator to get the idea.
Go to this website: leandomainsearch
Type in your keyword and it will give you a list of .com available domains with your keywords.
2. Register your blog domain name and get web hosting
Once you have decided on your domain name, it’s time to register and purchase your own domain name.
I will guide you step-by-step for this to you.
Click here to go to Bluehost website
Once you are on the website, click on the green color button called “Get Started”.
It will take you to web hosting shared plans. You would see different plans like basic, plus, Choice Plus and Pro. I would like you to go for a Recommended plan.
Why the Choice Plus plan?
- Unlimited websites
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited Domains
- Unlimited SSD Storage etc..
In the future, if you want to start more blogs, you would be able to host them on this single plan. In case, you are sure you would like to have only one blog, you can also go for a basic plan. The basic plan will allow you to host only 1 website with limited storage capacity.
Now, click on the green color button called “Select”
You would be taken to a page where you can set up your domain.
Type in the domain name that you have decided on the create a new domain box. In case, you already own a domain name then enter your existing domain name in the right box of the page.
In case, at this stage you have not been able to decide on the domain name, you can click on I’ll create my domain name later > option. You can decide on your domain name later and proceed with this hosting process to get your blog started today.
Click on the blue color next button and you will be taken to a page to create your account.
Fill in your account information i.e First name, last name, business name (if any), Select your country, Street address, City, Select your state, Zip code, Phone number and Most important your email address. Your purchase receipt will be sent to this email address. You can also sign in with google for a more flexible option.
Now scroll down your page to package the information section.
Select Prime 36 month price plan. You would get nice discounts if you choose for a longer duration. It would show you the hosting price and also give you a Free SSL certificate with the plan.
Now, scroll down to the package Extras option. Deselect Sitelock security, code guard basic( if it’s not offered free) and Bluehost Seo tools start. We don’t these options for our plan.
Now, move on to final step Payment information. Fill in your payment details and carefully read all the terms and conditions of the website. After you have read, click on I have read and agree on section and click on the green color “Submit” button. You should get a purchase receipt on your email address once done.
What is web hosting?
Web Hosting is a service provided by an organization that provides you with webspace needed for your website files. The domain you register will connect with the web hosting to get your blog started. Domain name+ Webhosting get your blog started online to the world.
The web hosting providers maintain large data centers to provide you with this space service. The type of hosting you need depends on the amount of traffic i.e web visitors coming to your site and the amount of data (i.e files, images, video etc) You have for your website.
Why BlueHost our partner hosting provider?
- It provides a free domain name for the first year
- Free SSL certificate included
- 1-Click WordPress install
- 24/7 Support
In house support team is always there to help you anytime by phone or webchat. Very fast and efficient service makes us our first choice. Your blog will load faster and you would be able to manage your WordPress installation easily through their Wp pro dashboard.
Click here to get started with Bluehost now. And get your blog up and running in case you haven’t done yet.
3. Select/find your blog niche
What is a niche?
Niche is basically a blog topic that you will choose to write on. It generally targets a specific audience in a particularly large group. The size of your niche will depend on your knowledge and most importantly competition.
Choose a niche/ topic that you are passionate about. A topic which can you write for the next 1 year without getting bored. And find the profitability of the niche. The success of your blog nice will depend on how good your solving people problem in your space. Try to solve a problem and you would be an instant hit.
Passion + Profitability = Your choice of niche.
Examples of a niche:
Dogs – Dog breeds – best dog breeds – best dog breeds for families
So, if you are choosing to write about dogs, in general, that’s a broader topic. And if your writing about dog breeds for families, it’s a smaller topic in the larger dog topic. So that’s what is called a niche.
More examples:
Weight loss – Weight loss diet – weight loss diet for female – vegetarian weight loss diet for female
Mobile – (mi mobile, Samsung mobile, Vivo mobile, iPhone mobile, amazon mobile etc) – iPhone – iPhone accessories
Design – web design – photoshop – templates – templates for WordPress
Why choose a niche?
- It helps to tap your market more quickly
- Gives your blog a clear focus to target
- You can compete more easily with a larger group in your niche
What tools you can use to find your niche audience?
Firstly, go to Google Trends
Enter your topic. You would see a graph that will show you the popularity of the topic over a year.
Secondly, go to UberSuggest
Type in your topic in the search box. It will give you keyword volume, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty and cost per click(CPC)
It will give you an average of the top 10 web page rank on google. How many backlinks they have and what is the average domain score.
Another tool you can try is keywords everywhere.
It’s a chrome browser extension. Once you install it. When you type your niche topic on a google search on the right side of your page you would get information about related keywords/topics and also what else people search for. If will give you volume for each topic plus CPC(cost per click) and competition data.
What are some of the most profitable niche online?
Make money online
The blog basically focuses on multiple ways of generating an online income. This includes freelancing, Adsense, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, etc.
Health and fitness
The blog in this niche target on bodybuilding, how to get six-pack abs, how to lose weight, how to stop hair fall etc..
Travel
Blogger generally travels around the world and shares their experiences through videos and photos on the blog. All the places they visit are blogged in a conversational and casual manner.
Fashion
A fashion blog writes about clothing and accessories, beauty tips, latest styles, and trends, etc..
Lifestyle blogs
Lifestyle blogs are around the blogger’s personal interest and his/her daily activities and experience. They use themselves as the subject for their blog.
4. Select a blogging platform
What is a blogging platform?
A blogging platform is an application which helps you to publish your post with content, images, and videos. The platform enables you to manage your post content in a very easy manner. The advantage is you don’t require much coding skills for it.
There are two types of platforms. One is CMS(Content Management System) – which allows you to create anything from a blog, app to a complete website.
And another is signup service which gives you a quick interface to start your blog quickly. You can host your blog for free here.
Below are some of the top blogging platforms:
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
- Blogger
- Tumblr
- Joomla
- Medium
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Ghost
I would suggest you go for Self-hosted WordPress.org
Why self-hosted WordPress.org?
WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform. That is you book your own domain name and hosting. And your hosting provider gives you a WordPress software installation on your hosting space.
Reasons to go for WordPress.org are:
WordPress is an open-source software.
It’s an open-source CMS(Content Management System) Free to use for everyone. You don’t have to worry about the license. It’s licensed under General Public License (GPL v2 or later) It’s the most powerful open-source software on the planet.
Custom domain name
You completely own your premium custom domain and web hosting. You don’t have to worry about third party service being closed. You always have full control over your blog or website. And the flexibility to scale your blog to any level.
Free themes and plugins
There are thousands of free themes and plugins to choose from and install it for free. Themes are basically designed templates for your blog i.e visual graphical representation of your blog.
Plugins are extensions a software you can use to extend your blog with more features. Example Yoast SEO plugin can help you to manage your blog with SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
Free drag and drop page builders
You can design your website with drag and drop page builders yourself without hiring a developer. The most popular ones are elementor and site origin.
Responsive mobile sites/blogs
Your blog will look great on all devices, which will give you tons of traffic and high domain authority. High domain authority blogs rank higher in Google search engines.
High security
Your blog is completely secured from hackers with WordPress.
Some of the best practices to make sure your blog is secured is to choose a good web hosting like Bluehost.
Keep your software updated to the latest version.
Install WordPress security plugins. Keep the themes and plugins updated and make sure they are compatible with the latest versions.
Make strong passwords and change default admin login usernames. And limit login attempts to prevent brute force attacks.
SEO friendly
You can use plugins and have advanced SEO optimization for your blog.
It will generate auto sitemap.xml for your blog.
Some tips change your default permalink structure. Nofollow untrusted websites. Use caching plugins to speed up your blog and no index duplicate page types.
Make money
Making money with your own hosted blogs is much easier. Your SEO and mobile-friendly blog will bring huge volumes of organic traffic to your blog and make a money-making blog in no time.
5. Write and publish blog content
Now, since we are ready with the design of our blog. It’s time to write some blog post content. How to decide what to write about and what should be the length of the post.
How to find blog topics to write?
Inspiration from similar blogs
Learning from what people have already done it’s the fastest way to get started with the blog topic ideas. You can quickly research what’s working and what’s not working.
Take a look at the top 5 to 10 blogs in your niche. Check them out what articles are doing best on these blogs. I am not saying to copy them but take some inspiration from them.
Go to ubersuggest type in the domain URL and look into the top pages these blogs are getting. You could see the volume of searches for a particular topic and SEO difficulty. Depending on the SEO difficulty you can decide on the length of your blog posts.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a great tool to analyze what content performs best for any blog topic. It’s a very cool tool to use for your content marketing. It’s a smart way to develop your content marketing strategy.
Type in your keyword topic. You would get total social media engagements with a lot of topic ideas. Facebook engagements, Twitter shares, Pinterest shares, Reddit engagements, Number of links.
At the bottom, you can find more topics that more other people are searching for.
Related key searches
Go to Google and type in your keyword topic. If you have installed keywords everywhere chrome extension, you can see related keywords and people search for ideas.
At the bottom of your search page, Google also lists topics searches related to your topic ideas. In the top or middle of the page, you can also find people also ask FAQ(frequently asked questions) section. Scroll to these sections, you would get an in-depth insight into what answers people are most looking for. See if you can answer these questions in your blog topic.
Ask your audience
If you have built an email list, you can directly ask your audience what topics they are looking for in your blog. If you don’t have one yet try to find them in the comments section as explained below.
Comments section
The comments section can be a great way to find what people are talking about and asking for.
Go to popular blogs in your niche and look at popular articles. Scroll down into the comment section and read people’s comments. See if any questions you can answer through your blog topic.
Quora
Quora is a great platform to find your blog topics. Quora is a question and answer platform, where people ask questions and people having knowledge on the subject try to answer them. Top answers get the best votes and views.
If you type in your keyword topic you could find more related questions asked by people. Figure what is most people are interested in.
What should be the length of the post?
Divide your post articles into three categories:
Starter Post
This type of post will directly answer people’s questions and have low traffic volume. The length of these articles should be around 1400-1600 words per post. This will target low volume low SEO difficulty keywords. They will have you get quick traction from Google.
Medium Post
This will like a shareable content post. The length would be around 2300-2800 words. The type of post that people would like to share with others. For example Top 10 dog foods or 10 best baby swing chairs, 9 best mom blogs, 60 ideas to start your own business.
Longer post
This type of post will target a higher volume of higher competitive keywords in your niche. This will be long-length articles and it will cover everything about the topic people would like to know. It would be a ultimate post that will answer everything about the chosen topic.
This post will length around 3500 – 5550 words. Take your time to write this post for two to three days. You should target at least 10 posts in each category. And try to follow the order from starter to Longer.
A total of 30 articles divided into these articles would give your niche huge traffic around a period of 40 weeks time if you are starting a fresh new blog.
How to structure your blog post?
Headline
The headline of your blog post is as important as the content of your post. 80% of your audience will read your blog post only if they find the headline catchy and helpful enough. So, bad headline can lose 80% of traffic and that’s huge.
So, careful attention is quite an important part. To look for inspirations for your headline look into Google AdSense ads, look into magazines, newspaper, top blogs in your niche. Look it everywhere for inspiration and see what catches your attention.
Try to start your headline with your keywords. This will boost your SEO(Search Engine Optimization) efforts. Keep it focused on your blog topic.
Write multiple headlines and test it out which works our best. Do A/B testing for your headline with AdSense.
You can use numbers, adjectives, call to action text (example now, today, click here) and popular phrases like ‘will make you’, ‘this is why’, ‘ can we guess’ etc… Use combinations of all this to make an awesome headline for your blog post.
Keep the length of the title not more than 12 words. Keep it up to 1 or 2 lines max.
You can use headline analyzer by CoSchedule here: https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer
Introduction
Welcome your reader.
To start with welcome your reader by addressing them personally. Try to connect a bond with your reader. It will encourage them to read further. You can ask a question and generate curiosity. For example: So, you want to lose weight quickly? Or So, You want to know how to make money fast, huh?
You should put the keyword of your topic in the first hundred words of your introduction. It’s a good SEO(Search Engine Optimization) practice.
Try to solve your reader’s problem. The reason you are writing a post so readers to read it. Why would a reader read your post if it’s not solving any purpose? Give them an assurance the post is going to fulfill their needs.
Lastly, conclude it by the promise that the post is going to solve their problem. If possible state some facts and numbers.
Subheadings
Divide your post into different subheadings.
Elaborate each sub-heading as long and informative as it can. Try to write long post 2000+ words. Long post works really well in the long run. Make it an ultimate guide for your reader. So they get all the information they need to know about the topic they are searching for.
If you are getting short of the post, add more sub-headings and then write more on each one of them.
Tyr to write a completely well-researched article for your audience.
Use images
Use images wherever possible. Make it more presentable. If a certain part of post requires a visual representation, make use of images. Explain them with arrows. There are a lot of free stock websites you can make use of.
When you use images on the web you also have to make sure of its license. Each and every image on stocksnap is completely free to use for personal or commercial purposes. The images are under the terms of the Creative Commons CCO License. You have full freedom to copy, edit, modify and distribute those images.
Make use of infographics. what is infographic anyway?
It’s a visual representation of your blog post in the form of graphics. The purpose of the infographic is to present more complex information in a compact and easy to understand way.
This can include facts and statistics.
The most important advantage of using infographics is to make sharable content. You can put links to your graphic and encourage readers to put on their website. And you get backlinks for your post at no cost.
Lastly, use nice header image as we have in this post at the start of a post. Include your topic in your header image and make it shareable and the ability to pin it.
Use Videos
Placing videos on your blog posts can make your posts more exciting and engaging. It will give your readers more detailed and complete information on your topic.
It will boost your SEO(Search Engine Optimization) rankings and will generate inbound links.
You should host all your videos on YouTube. You can create your own channel and it will bring another set of more traffic to your blog post.
FAQ
Write FAQ(Frequently asked questions in your blog post. Write at the end of your post. This will also give you a chance to feature in the FAQ section of Google. This will bring additional traffic to your website.
Try to answer from 3 to 10 common questions, to sum up, your post.
Add Conclude
Lastly, conclude your post with the heading word ‘Conclusion’.
Research has shown, readers tend to read the Conclusion part first and then scroll back to re-read the whole post again.
Ask them a question at the end of the Conclusion. And encourage them to share, like and comment on your post. Answer to comments by your readers and make a connection with them.
6. Create blog pages
The next step we begin is creating some pages for our blog.
Pages are different from your blog posts. Your blog posts will be listed in reverse chronological order with time and date. While pages will be independent of timestamp and will be on their own.
Pages are generally added to add static content, unlike your blog post.
Pages will give some important information about your blog to your readers.
Some of the important pages your blog will require to get started are:
About Us/About Me page
How to write an About Me/Us page?
Your About page will be the most important page of your blog. It will provide reasons for them, why they should subscribe to your blog. Consider this page as your CV. Sell yourself as much as you can.
According to popular blogger Darren Rowse https://problogger.com, the most viewed page on his blog is about page. So, it’s that important to write a quality about page.
What should you include in your about page?
Your Photo
Include your real photo on your blog. This will create a sense of trust in the readers.
Building trust and connection is the most important part. It will eventually convert into making sales of your product/service.
Your story
Your about page is a great chance to introduce yourself to your readers. If you have any story about your struggle or how you started your blog, include it here.
Your goals/objectives
Write what are your goals and your objectives are behind the blog. Where do you see your blog in the next five years?
Contact details
Include a link to a contact page or any other important pages like your income reports if you are going to make one. Include your address, if you can like your country and state you belong too.
Email Subscription Form
Include your email subscribe Sign-up form. It will increase your email list subscribers. If the about page is created enough trust among your reader, they are eventually going to get converted to one of your loyal subscribers.
Social media
Include links to your Social media profiles. Give them an opportunity to involve your blog as much as possible through all channels.
Contact Us page
The second most important page that your readers would view is your Contact Us page.
It’s the start of your relationship with your readers.
You will need to add a contact form on this page. Make use of contact form 7 plugins for the same.
Create a personal email address with your hosting account. For example yourname@yoursite.com Tyr to use this email address while creating your forms. As in most cases, your Gmail or Hotmail account won’t work with these plugins.
Also, make sure to add captcha to your emails. It will keep you away with a lot of spams.
Add a Thank you message after your reader submits a form. It can read something like: Thank you for contacting us, we will get to you shortly.
You can also put your support/working hours, your location map and social media profiles on this page. Keep the page short and simple.
Disclaimer Page
A disclaimer is a statement created on your blog with the intention to limit the scope of your liability for the outcome of the use of your blog.
If you are monetizing your website through advertisements or through affiliate links, you will need to put a disclaimer for the same.
If you are providing goods or services tangible or intangible again you will need a disclaimer to limit your liabilities against the use of products and services.
Privacy page
Privacy policy page is needed if you are collecting data (email address, first and last name, billing and shipping address, credit card information, etc..) on your blog and how other third parties may use this data.
Third-party tools like Google analytics can set cookies on your blog. So Google analytics requires you to have a Privacy Policy on your blog to comply with Google Analytics Terms of Service.
You can use online Privacy Policy generators to generate your policy. Make sure to edit the draft as per your requirements.
TOS(Terms of Service) Page
If you are providing services on your blog, you will need Terms of Service page. Terms of Service are a set of regulations to abide to use a service.
This agreement sets the rules that the user must abide in order to use your blog services. It acts as a legally binding contract between you and your readers.
It will also limit your liability in case errors are found in the content of your blog.
Custom 404 page
What is a 404 page?
You might have noticed a lot of times when you misspell the name of a blog URL or clicked on any link, you would see a 404 error page not found a message on a blog/website.
It’s basically telling your reader that the page they are looking for doesn’t exist.
WordPress does have this page, but it’s not very useful. Its better you customize this and provide more useful resources on this page.
Seeing a plain page might scare your readers to hit the back button on their browsers. So, to give your readers the best experience its necessary you customize this page.
Make sure you take a backup of your blog if you are going to customize it manually. Make use of the latest plugins to customize this page.
Product/Service Page
The product page is a page where you display your products for sale.
Products can be of simple types like a book, or group of products like a set of crockery, Virtual product which doesn’t require shipping like a service. Downloadable products like an ebook. Affiliate products that you list on your blog but sell it elsewhere. For example, through amazon associates. And a subscription product that is recurring for the period you set.
If you are planning to offer any of these types of products on your blog, you should use the Woocommerce plugin to set up your products with a shopping cart.
Creating a product page with woocommerce is similar to as you create a blog post in WordPress.
For accepting payments, You can accept the service of Paypal. A Paypal can accept payments on your behalf for a fee. Paypal also has e-commerce options to add the Paypal shopping cart button on your blog.
Paypal also offers the option of paying through credit cards to your buyers.
Payments are very secured through PayPal. Having a PayPal option on your blog is termed as a trust and secured gateway of payment for any buyer shopping online.
The service page is a page where you let know your readers how they can obtain your service.
It should include step by step details about your service.
What they can expect, from your service
The fees. The cost of obtaining your service
Timeline: How soon they will get the service. Is it instant or they have to wait for a particular time period.
Payments: What are the modes of payment. What are your refund policies?
Plus, any other additional information that might be helpful.
For example, the list of clients that you have worked with. Testimonials were given to you, by your customers, etc..
Advertise page
Advertise page is for monetizing from your blog apart from your content.
Selling ad space on your blog can be a good additional income for you.
You can display ads on your blog by signing up with Google AdSense or other media partners like mediavine, media.net, buysellads, etc.
You can also sell ad space directly to your readers. For this, you should display some essential information on your blog.
Statistics: It can include the number of page views per month, percentage of organic traffic, number of unique visitors, number of subscribers to your blog and so on.
You can put the screenshot of your Google analytics here for proof.
Details about the advertising options:
What type of images you accept. Gif, jpeg or animated gif. What should be the banner sizes? The most common standard banner sizes are 300×250, 728×90, 125×125 and 468×60 pixels.
What are the available advertising slots available? What area of your blog the advertisements will be displayed. Would the ads be included in your newsletters? What are your current prices and so on?
You can also have information about your past sponsors and testimonials on your blog.
Write for Us page
Write for us page is to make a pitch for guest posting. More authors contribute to your blog, more content you will have on your blog.
There are a lot of writers who are looking for more exposure and would like to do guest posting.
To make sure to attract these writers to make a good sales pitch. Provide them with all the benefits they would receive by getting featured on your blog.
Make a nice contact form to invite the writers. Ask some relevant questions so you attract good quality writers for your blog. Increase your contributor base through this simple page.
7. Install Plugins for your blog
What is a plugin?
A plugin is a PHP code that extends the functionality of your WordPress blog. For example, suppose you want to make your blog SEO friendly.
So there is a plugin called Yoast SEO which when installed adds additional functions to your blog.
You can use these extra options to make your blog rank higher in search engines.
What factors to consider choosing a plugin?
Choosing a plugin make sure you check these essential factors:
There are both Free and Paid plugins available. Most of the top plugins are available for free which you can convert to paid/pro version as your blog grows.
While choosing a plugin, check the date when it was last updated. Make sure it’s frequently updated and it supports the latest WordPress version.
Check if the developer has quick support.
Look into reviews by other users and look into forums that people are commenting about it.
What is the list of plugins to get started?
Below are the top recommended plugins when you are starting with your blog:
Yoast SEO
Yoast is the number 1 SEO plugin for WordPress.
They provide 24/7 support, Have huge knowledge base, Free support forums and Help center on their website.
Will boost your search engine rankings
Features/benefits of Yoast SEO:
There are a lot of benefits to this plugin. Below we will discuss some of its most important benefits to your blog. So, here is the list:
It will generate XML Sitemaps for your blog. You can submit this sitemap to the Google search console.
Give you full control over blog breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are basically small text links that allow the reader to track their path from the page they are currently viewing to the homepage of your blog. They generally appear at the top of your blog.
You can set canonical URLs. It will help you to avoid duplicate content issues on your blog. Duplicate content can be penalized by Google.
For example:
yourblog.com
http:yourblog.com
https:yourblog.com
www.yourblog.com
This all above URLS would point to one single homepage. So you need to set Canonical URL to tell Google your choice of preferred URL.
It will help you to set Title and Meta descriptions for your blog post. Your search results on Google will have consistent snippets. You can set different titles and meta descriptions that would show on the Google search results and the one that you set on your blog post.
Some of the premium features include:
News SEO, Video SEO, Local SEO, and WooCommerce SEO extensions.
24/7 Premium support by their technical team.
WP Super Cache
WP Super cache plugin is by Automattic which are creators of WordPress software.
Static Html files will be generated when you activate this plugin. This static Html files will be served to your readers rather than heavier and complex WordPress PHP scripts.
When you are on a shared like Bluehost it’s important to install this plugin.
The majority of your users will be served static Html files. This will put less load on your servers. This will increase the page speed of your blog.
This Plugin will improve the performance of your blog. Google likes blog which is faster to load and eventually ranked higher on search results.
WP Super Cache also supports CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Content Delivery Network is a network of computers spread across the world that serve static files to your readers through a server closer to their geographical location. This reduces the load on your main server, which can help to prevent your site from getting crashed when you have a huge volume of traffic on your blog.
Jetpack by WordPress.com
This plugin is also developed by WordPress creators.
Jetpack is considered all in one plugin as most of the required features for maintaining your blog are bundled into this one awesome plugin. It can greatly empower a self-hosted blog.
When you signup for Jetpack on jetpack.com you can use the free features on your self-hosted WordPress blog.
Jetpack comes with a lot of modules. You can activate or deactivate it according to your needs.
Below are some of the benefits for this plugin:
Free CDN(Content Delivery Network) – It has a Photon module that will optimize your images and load them from a CDN. The benefits are it will put less load on your servers and your blog speed performance will be much faster. It will save a lot of mobile bandwidth for your readers.
Contact form – You can create simple contact forms at the click of a button. And include them in your posts or pages.
Subscriptions – You can provide email subscriptions to your readers for your posts or comments. So whenever you have a new post on your blog, your readers will get a notification on their email.
Monitor – This module monitors your blog for any downtime. So whenever you have downtime on your blog, you will be notified by email.
Related posts – Jetpack can generate a related post for your blog. Related posts will increase engagement with your readers.
Shortcode Embeds – Easily embed Videos from Youtube, Vimeo, etc..into your post. You don’t need to know any knowledge of coding.
Sharing – You can display social sharing buttons on your posts or pages to increase your social marketing efforts.
Protect – It protects your blog from malicious login attempts by hackers. Your blog is quite secure with this plugin.
Akismet Anti-Spam
Akismet Anti-spam plugin is developed and maintained by Automattic.
This plugin comes pre-installed into your WordPress installation.
When you are starting and growing your blog, you will notice receiving a lot of spam comments and emails on your blog.
Spams can be a nuisance by spambots and monitoring its essential to keep your blog free from search engine penalties.
Akismet does a good job of monitoring your comments and contact form submissions. You will need to generate an API key to use it. Once you have entered your API key, the plugin will start working.
Contact form 7
Contact form 7 is one of the top plugins to create contact forms for your blog.
It’s well maintained and updated plugin and has good community support. Its translated into more than 50+ languages.
Some of its important features are:
The contact form can manage multiple contact forms.
It has support for the Akismet spam plugin. So your contact forms can be free of spam.
You can add CAPTCHA to the forms to stop the abuse of spam emails.
The plugin has extensive documentation and a knowledge base.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer
ShortPixel plugin is useful to optimize images on your blog.
Why optimize images?
Optimizing your images will make your page load faster and you will get more visitors on your blog. More readers will lead to more subscribers and sales for your blog.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer will optimize your images without losing their quality. The image formats supported by this plugin are Jpg, png, gif, and webP. It also has support for any PDF files on your blog.
Below are some of the other important features of this plugin:
Option to automatically convert PNG or jpg images on your blog.
There is no size limit for any images to compress and optimize.
Compatible with the latest WordPress version and frequently updated.
Optimization is supported for any images in your image galleries or slideshows. It supports the popular NextGEN Gallery plugin.
Supports featured images. Which can be automatically optimized without requiring an additional plugin
It’s a great plugin for photographers who would like to compress their images without losing quality.
Ability to optimize images in bulk at a click of a button.
WordPress Gallery Plugin – NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery plugin is created and managed by Imagely since 2007. It’s one of the top image gallery plugins for WordPress having maximum downloads over the years.
If you want to create image galleries and albums on your blog this is the best plugin. It’s a great plugin if you are a photographer, web designer or virtual artist.
What can this plugin be useful for?
Selling photographs or any kind of digital design.
Share images with your readers
Showcase e-commerce products for sale
Below are some of the features of this plugin:
You can upload photos in batch.
Import metadata
Ability to add/delete/sorting of your photos and images.
You can edit the thumbnails of your images.
You can group galleries into albums and so on.
8. Promote your blog
Now, since you have spent your time writing an awesome blog post it’s time to get traffic for your blog.
You need to divide an equal time on promoting your blog as much you spend on researching and writing your blog post.
Below we will look at some of the best strategies that you can employ to effectively promote your blog. So, let’s get started.
SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
Improving your SEO is an important part to get traffic on your blog.
Though WordPress itself is SEO friendly you need to do some extra things to ensure Google understands your content.
SEO is a process of getting traffic from the free and organic search results on the search engines.
Let’s look into more detail here.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO focuses on your blog and content. It’s a process of optimizing your individual blog post and pages in order to rank higher in search engines. It helps Google and your readers to decide whether the content of your blog is relevant and useful.
Below is the checklist to take into consideration to take care of on-page SEO:
Right keywords
Choosing the right keyword is the most important part of your on-page SEO. Targeting one keyword per one blog post increases 300% chances of your search engine ranking of your blog post.
You multiple keyword tools to research your keyword. For example Keyword planner or Ubersuggest
Use keywords in the appropriate way
Here are the different places where you can use your keywords.
Include the keyword in your page URL – For example Yourblog.com/targetkeyword
Your domain name may also include the keyword.
Blog/page Title
Including your keyword in your blog post title gives Google a signal about the relevance of your content. Include your keyword at the start of your title, it increases the chances of your search rankings.
Headlines and sub-headings
Include your keywords in your main H1 headline and in your sub-headings i.e h2, h3 and so on. Have only one H1 tag in your blog post.
Post content
Include keywords in your post content wherever appropriate. Avoid overstuffing your keywords in the content. Use it wisely. Put in the first 100 words of your content.
Image Alt tags
An “alt” tag is used to provide a text alternative to search engines. Use your keywords here rather than not defining anything here. Also use image names appropriately with your keywords, which would enable Google to identify the relevance of your content. Avoid naming your images like image1, my image2, etc
Meta description
A meta description is a short description of around 155 characters that summarizes your blog post.
The purpose of the meta description is to get a visitor to click on your search engine link. So it’s important to optimize your meta description with your keyword. Write your meta description in active voice and include Call to action. Examples of call to action click here, get it now, try for free and so on.
Let’s look at other important on-page SEO techniques:
Long post
Try to write a long post. Google generally likes content which is long enough. On an average post which ranks on top 10 search results of Google are around 1800-1900 words.
Long post also increases engagement with your visitors and might reduce the bounce rate on your blog. Write a description and useful content as much as possible.
Page load speed
Make sure your page load faster to your visitors. Fast page loading is considered an important factor to rank higher in Google search results.
Use this tool pagespeed insights by Google
It will analyze the content of your blog post and give suggestions to make your page load faster.
Optimize your blog images, make use of the ShortPixel Image optimizer plugin.
Test Mobile-friendly of your blog
Make sure your theme is responsive i.e it supports all devices.
Why a mobile-friendly theme?
Mobile users have outgrown the number of desktop users over the years. If you are a blog is not mobile-friendly there are 90% chances your visitors would leave your blog.
Google crawls the mobile version of your blog first. If your blog is not responsive you will lose Google rankings.
You can test your blog here to check whether your blog is mobile-friendly or not. https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Internal Linking
What is internal linking?
Internal linking is basically when you link one page of your blog to another page/post of your blog.
Why internal linking is important?
Improves navigation usability for your readers
Your readers can easily navigate from one part of your blog to another through your anchor text. Below are its benefits:
Page Time
Your visitors will spend more time on your post. Your readers are looking for relevant answers to your problems.
Page view
It will increase overall page view for all the blog post on your domain. Increased page view will give your blog an SEO boost.
Bounce rate
Increased page time and page views will eventually reduce the bounce rates of your blog post. The bounce rate is how quickly when a reader visits your blog decide to leave your blog. The more time spent gives Google the signal of the relevance of your blog post.
Internal linking will help to spread link juice
The page authority of one page can be passed to another. So when you interlink one page to another you are basically passing the link juice to all the relevant blog pages or posts in your blog.
Internal linking will help crawl and indexing
Google will find it easier to find deep inside pages on your blog. Internal linking will improve the architecture and structure of your blog.
External Linking
External liking is the links that you link to other blogs that are linking which is outside your blog.
Benefits of external linking:
Improve the authority of your blog
Linking to relevant authority blogs or websites will increase the credibility of your blog.
You will make connections and there are chances you might get return backlink from the respective blog.
While linking you need to know about follow and no-follow links. Follow links has SEO benefits while no-follow has o SEO benefits. So, If the blog you are linking to is of high authority link them with follow. If the blog is of low quality link them with no-follow.
And lastly, about links check all the broken links on your blog.
Update your old blog post
Try to update your old post to make it more relevant according to the time. Older pages and older domains have high page authority. If you are getting a lot of traffic from an older post, make sure to improve that post over a period of time.
When you hit publish of your old post, change the last updated or publish date of your post.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to a technique that is done away from your blog to improve your page rank on the search result page.
Off-page SEO tells Google what others think about your blog. So, the more links you get from high ranking blogs the more relevant your blog content looks to Google.
Off-page SEO is a great promotional technique for your blog.
Below are some of the techniques for Off-page SEO:
Guest posting
Guest posting means you post on another person’s blog in order to get traffic, backlinks and build relationships with other bloggers in your community.
You write an article according to other blogger’s requirements and you get a backlink and exposure in return. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.
You can place your anchor text in the backlink. Anchor text can be basically your target keyword or your Blog name or URL of the page.
This will help tremendously in your Search Engine ranking efforts.
Question and answer Link building
Question and answer websites are great ways of link building.
How you do that?
Go to the Quora website and look for questions related to your niche.
See what questions you can answer. Try to answer them. Your answer should be long informative and helpful for the user. At the end of the article, you can insert the link to your blog post related to the query.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking involves saving or sharing our favorite website links on social bookmarking sites.
The process involves submitting or sharing a blog link on high authority social bookmarking sites.
Some examples of social bookmarking websites are Digg, Delicious, and Reddit.
Getting listed on a social bookmarking website can bring you a lot of traffic on your blog.
Blog Commenting
Blog commenting is the topmost favorite method for your Off-page SEO blog promotion.
Try to comment on well-established blogs who allow do-follow links. Avoid making spam comments. Make a useful and descriptive comment that is relevant to the post.
If done correctly, it can bring a lot of traffic to your blog and build a relationship and brand with other bloggers.
Press release
The press release is a process of sharing newsworthy content with interested parties.
If your article gets featured on Google news you are likely to get a lot of traffic and will create a lot of awareness about your blog.
Directory Submission
Directory submission involves submitting your blog to high page rank directory websites who allow do-follow backlinks.
Make sure your submission gets listed in the right category and subcategory and put all the required information like title and description.
Conclusion
If you have any more questions on how to start a blog? Please, let me know in the comments and I will try to answer them.
