How To Start A Blog From Scratch In 2020
It is finally 2020. This is the year you finally start a blog, but there’s a problem. You have no idea where to begin!
Don’t worry. This is a free guide to teach you how to start a blog from scratch! I will tell you everything you need to do from planning to measuring your blog’s performance.
In no time you will begin typing away and sharing your content with the world.
Step 1. The Planning Stage
Like everything else you invest in, proper planning will set you up for success in the long run. This applies to starting a blog as well. There are things to consider before you begin typing away.
Choosing a Blog Niche
I’m certain you already have an idea of what you want to blog about. The topic(s) you choose to write about is called your blog’s niche.
A niche is considered a section of the online population that your blog appeals to.
If you haven’t pinpointed your niche just yet, ask yourself these types of questions to find what you should focus on:
- What are you passionate about?
- What do you enjoy writing and reading about?
- What do you have knowledge in that people would be curious to read about?
Conduct a Competitor Analysis
Realistically, there are probably thousands of other blogs already in the niche you choose.
That is okay. Conducting a competitor analysis on similar blogs will help you identify their blog’s strengths and weaknesses. You use the information you find to come up with a strategy of your own.
Look at where your competitors miss the mark. Identifying their weaknesses will tell you what you can do in order to snag the target market.
Likewise, your competitor’s strengths can show you what you need to do in order to compete.
Determine how to Generate Income
This may not apply to you if you’re just looking to run a blog for fun. But, there is a lot of money to be made in blogging.
Many bloggers who generate an income from their blog are part of what is called affiliate programs or simply run advertisements on their website.
Depending on how popular your blog becomes, you can start earning a passive income, and who doesn’t like a little extra money in your pocket?
You can monetize your blog at any time. If you’re interested in generating an income from your blog, I suggest reading my guide to affiliate marketing. Some programs to consider signing up for are:
Come Up with a Promotional Strategy
Your promotional strategy is everything you do in order to raise your blog’s awareness. It basically is how you’re going to get your content in front of the right people.
There are a variety of promotional strategies you can look into:
- Social media promotion: Promoting your blog on social media websites.
- Email marketing: Sending newsletters, blog posts, etc., using an email list.
- Online advertising: Paying for online ads such as Facebook ads and Google ads.
- Promotional giveaways: Offering products or services to your audience.
- Branded promotional gifts: Offering branded products or services to your audience.
Your promotional strategy will change as you progress, but it is important to have a basic plan laid out to help get you off the ground.
Typically, new bloggers tend to focus on social media to start and then begin incorporating other promotional strategies in the mix down the road.
Step 2. Domain & Blog Hosting
A domain name and hosting services are two necessities that require a small investment. I am grouping them together because they go hand-and-hand with one another.
Domain Name
Your domain name is what users will type into their search bar to access your blog.
Domains consist of a unique string of letters, numbers or words followed by an extension. The most popular extension being .com, .org, .net.
You can choose what you want your domain name to be and then purchase it from domain websites like Namecheap or Bluehost (affiliate link). This does depend on availability, however.
A great domain name includes being unique, memorable and related to what your blog is about. Take the time to brainstorm domain name ideas before making a purchase.
Once you decide on your top 5 choices, go to one of the websites I mentioned above and search for their availability.
Different websites charge different prices for domain names. However, they are typically cheap and won’t run you any more than $15.00.
Blog Hosting
Blog hosting is the service you pay to have your blog online.
With hosting, your blog will live on a server and will be accessible to anyone that has internet.
There are plenty of blog hosting options available today and choosing one can be difficult.
For first time bloggers, I recommend going with Bluehost (affiliate link). It is the cheapest blog host available and has everything you need to get a blog up and running. Plus, when you sign-up for their basic plan you will get a domain name for free.
Top Blog Hosting Companies:
- Bluehost.com
- HostGator.com
- DreamHost.com
Regardless of what you choose, a host is required to make your blog accessible.
There are free blog hosts available, but signing up for one can limit your control in regard to choosing a domain name, designing your blog and running advertisements.
Top Free Blog Hosting Services:
- WordPress.com
- Blogger.com
My advice to you is to conduct your own research on each hosting company you’re considering. Understand what you need for your blog and then compare prices between each service.
Step 3. Choosing a Blogging Platform
A blogging platform is a service or software that you use to publish your blog content on the internet. There are a variety of blogging platforms available to choose from. All of which offer different features, designs and attributes.
Each platform does have its limitations. You should choose a blogging platform based on how much control you want to have. Below are some popular blogging platforms to consider:
- WordPress.org
- Blogger
- WordPress.com
- Medium
- Wix
- Squarespace
For my recommendation, I am rather biased and suggest choosing WordPress.org. However, I can say with confidence that the majority of bloggers also agree that WordPress.org is the best blogging platform available.
WordPress.org is an open-source platform that allows you to build your blog within minutes. It is one of the easiest software’s to learn and has one of the largest support communities.
With WordPress.org you have full control over the design, look and layout of your blog.
You start by choosing a theme from one of the thousands that WordPress offers and then customize it to your liking.
The best part about WordPress is that the majority of the features, including the themes and plugins, are completely free.
Download WordPress.org today to start building your blog today.
Step 4. Designing Your Blog
The design of your blog can make or break it. Design goes beyond what your blog looks like. It also goes hand and hand with user experience. Meaning, you want to put yourself in the shoes of the user to fully come up with the best design.
Let’s discuss some blog design characteristics that matter most:
Readability
If out of anything mentioned on this list, readability is by far the most important design characteristic of your blog.
When designing, you should focus specifically on two aspects of readability…fonts and color.
Ideally, you want to stick with only 3 fonts for your blog.
- A font for your main heading
- A font for your secondary headings
- A font for your body
The three fonts you choose for your blog should all complement one another. This not only makes it look nice but makes for easy reading. Use Google Fonts to compare fonts that pair well with one another.
Now, for color I suggest sticking with classic black on white for the best readability. However, if you want to mix things up, you can use color for your headings. Leave the body black.
Be sure to take into consideration other aspects of readability as well when designing. This includes paragraph lengths, line spacing, font sizes and padding between blog elements.
Color Scheme
The color scheme you choose is the next most important design aspect of your blog. Mainly because color plays a role in branding.
You should stay consistent with the colors you use. Now, there is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing a color scheme, as long as the colors complement one another.
For inspiration, consider the industry or niche you are in and what type of emotion you want to trigger when a user is reading your content.
There is a whole science behind color and emotion. Read up and decide what emotion you want to trigger and begin building your color scheme from there.
Navigation
The navigation on your blog is a significant design aspect for user experience. It is how your visitors will find what they are looking for on your site.
Typically, your primary navigation will be somewhere at the top of your blog. I recommend making it stand out from the rest of the content in your header area by emphasizing color and font-size.
Sidebars
Sidebars are next up in your blog’s design. They too play a large role in user experience.
Your sidebar provides you with the opportunity to add some creativity to the design of your blog while highlighting certain pieces of content.
A sidebar gives you control over what content or pages get the most exposure. So, the design and the elements you choose to display are of high importance.
Elements typically found in a sidebar:
- Recent posts
- Blog categories
- Advertisements
- Recent comments
- Social media threads
- Promotional products
Many themes in WordPress let you create more than one sidebar. Experiment with different elements to see what works best.
Ad Placement
It is understandable why you want to monetize your blog using advertisements. However, ads can be disruptive to your overall design.
Majority of bloggers tend to place ads in places they believe will attract the most attention, such as within the content of their writing. Even though this may increase ad revenue, they can disrupt the design and flow of your blog.
My advice to you is to place ads where you want, but take the design of your blog into consideration. Style the area around the ad to make it feel as if it is native within your blog’s theme.
Step 5. Uploading Your Blog to the Internet
This step is for bloggers who have chosen to go the WordPress.org route when starting a blog from scratch. Now, I am not going to lie to you. I struggled tremendously with this part when I first built my blog.
However, It really isn’t all that complicated once you understand the aspects of a cPanel. Instead of trying to explain the whole process to you, I am going to provide you with a link that you can use as a reference for launching your blog:
How to Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site
That article covers two methods you can use for moving your WordPress blog from a local server to a live site (Provided by the host you choose).
- Through a WordPress Plugin
- Manually uploading
Realistically, what you need to know is that in order to have your blog live, you need to upload your WordPress files to a public_html folder that is linked to your domain name. This is found in the File Manager section within your hosting provider’s dashboard.
Step 6. Creating Amazing Content
Now that your blog is up and running it is time to do what you have been waiting for for…creating amazing content.
Within the first year, you are going to want to pump out content as much as possible. This will set the tone for your blog and will help you identify what content performs best.
Now, pumping out content is not an excuse for you to write poorly. That will hurt you. In the early months of your blog, you need to produce what are called pillar posts.
Pillar posts are long, high-quality and relevant blog posts that will act as the foundation for your blog. They will be the posts that bring in traffic each month.
Your overall goal is for them to be considered an authoritative resource on a given topic that people can use as a reference.
Two easy blog templates for pillar posts that bloggers use are “How To” posts and “What is” posts.
These kinds of blogs can set the stage for other pieces of content found on your website. You write them considering the opportunities to elaborate further on sub-sections of the subject.
This blog you’re reading right now could even be considered a pillar post.
Writing content can be difficult, especially in the early stages. Let’s explore some tips to help with content creation:
If you want to dive further into content creation I suggest reading how to write your first blog post and kill it.
Learn SEO
Your ability to rank on search engines, like Google, will come from implementing a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy for your content.
SEO involves applying search engine factors within your blog and content that search engine algorithms look for.
There are plenty of ranking factors that search engines use when crawling your blog content. Below are a few you should consider when writing content:
- Keywords
- The intent of your content
- Internal and external linking
- Backlinks
- Image sizing
- Title and meta descriptions
Recommended Article: How to Use SEO for My Website
Come Up with a Content Schedule
One of the hardest problems I faced in the early days of blogging was staying consistent with when I wrote and posted new blogs. And there are a lot of factors that can interfere with your blog schedule.
Consider taking the following measures to prevent bumps in the road:
- At the beginning of each month, create a list of blog topics you are considering writing.
- Set a word count goal for each month.
- Determine how many blogs you want to write for that month and split that up by weeks.
- Choose alternating days of the week for posting new blogs.
- Actually write your goals and schedule down.
Using these practices, I have been able to stay consistent with my blog writing and posts. Either way, find something that works for you.
Pay Attention to Trends
Writer’s block is a real thing. Blogging religiously can get exhaustive and coming up with new ideas can be challenging at times.
To help prevent this, observe what is going on within your niche. Use tools like Google Trends to see what people are searching for.
You as well can use social media as a source for finding hot topics at the moment.
Be Original
Originality goes a long way in the blogging world. It is what keeps your audience coming back.
When creating content, be your authentic self. Write in the tone you want and for the audience that you have. There is no sense in trying to be something you’re not.
Step 7. Begin Promotional Efforts
So, you have a blog that is live and some amazing content. It is now time to begin your promotional efforts. Let us take an in-depth look at two ways you can begin promoting your blog.
Establish a Social Media Presence
This really is a no-brainer. Social media is one of the best ways for spreading content online.
Start by creating social media accounts specifically for your blog. I believe it is important to have a presence on every platform, but if anything, focus on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.
Each of these platforms can help with generating interest.
Before diving into the three platforms I listed, I want to emphasize making your blog easily shareable.
Add a plugin and a CTA to each of your posts that makes sharing the content easy for your blog visitors. I personally use the Sassy Social Share plugin.
Build a Facebook page for your blog. Once you have done that, use your personal Facebook profile to share the page and ask your friends and family to do the same. This is an easy method for gaining followers quickly.
Use Facebook to share your content across the platform.
If you’re struggling with gaining Facebook followers, consider investing in Facebook ads.
Facebook ads are cheap and an easy way to extend your reach. A simple $20.00 boost to a post can get your content in front of hundreds of individuals.
The reason you need to focus on Pinterest is that the platform itself is like a social media search engine.
Users go on to Pinterest all the time to find information on topics they are curious about. With the right keywords, eye-popping images and interesting descriptions people will engage in your Pins.
My tip here is to make multiple Pins for one link, each varying in design. Doing this will help you identify what attracts clicks.
Twitter can help not only in promoting your blog but keeping you in the loop on what is trending.
This social media platform is like a personal news source, but you get to choose what you see. That being said, create an account for your blog and follow #hashtags and users within your niche. Retweet, like, comment and tweet daily.
If you tweet interesting content consistently you will see a following begin to take shape.
Promoting With Email Marketing
This promotional tactic comes more down the road once you establish an audience.
A core tactic for growing your blog is creating what is called an email list.
This list consists of…you guessed…emails. These emails come from users who have opted-in to receiving information from you.
Typically, you gain emails from form plugins, subscribe buttons, landing pages, etc.
Once you have them, you can use a software like mailchimp to send email blasts out to these subscribers.
The emails you send need to be meaningful. They should create enough interest for the user to convert. You can use email blasts to promote new blog posts, send newsletters, etc.
Regardless of the content, you should have a clear Call to Action in the email.
Recommended article: How to grow your email list
Step 8. Measuring Blog Performance
The last thing you need to take when starting a blog from scratch is finding a way to measure your blog’s performance.
The easiest method to do this is linking both Google Analytics and Google’s Search Console to your blog.
Google Analytics provides in-depth information on the traffic coming into your blog while Google Search Console shows you the keywords you are being found on, the total number of impressions and the technical performance of your blog. This includes page speed, sitemap validity, etc.
Other performance tools you can use are:
The two tools above offer free versions but limit the information. However, having a subscription for one of the tools can offer you plenty of information that can improve your blog. That includes competitor analyses, content creation tools, and site audits.
Conclusion
If you have made it this far you have successfully learned how to start a blog from scratch! Blogging is a great hobby that I fully endorse. It allows us to spread information, opinions, guides and so much more with everyone online! Everyone’s insight is valuable. Good luck on your blogging adventure!
