How To Start A Blog From Scratch
You have the idea to start a blog but lack the knowledge on how to go about doing so. Where do you begin?
Don’t worry…
This post will teach you how to build a blog from scratch. This is a step-by-step guide that covers the first steps for creating your blog all the way to promoting your first blog post.
Choose What Your Blog Will Be About
This first step is obvious. You can’t have a blog without knowing what you’re going to blog about. I want to emphasize the importance of choosing a topic or theme that your blog is going to be centered around.
Having a theme and staying consistent with the type of topics you write about will help you gain and maintain a following. Although it is not impossible, having a blog that covers a variety of different topics can take a much longer time to grow an online audience.
So, identify what you want your blog to be about. Look at your passions, your expertise, and your interests. Choose a subject that you will actually enjoy writing about daily!
Come Up With A Unique Domain Name
Once you decide on what your blog is going to focus on, now is the time to come up with a unique domain name that people will use to find your blogging website.
A good blog name should be descriptive enough to tell your readers what your blog is about, but, unique enough so that your website stands out among others.
Once you gather some ideas on what you want to call your blog, head over to a domain purchasing website such as HostGator, BlueHost or GoDaddy. Type in your domain name ideas and see what is available to purchase.
Purchase your domain name with a common domain extension. There are plenty of domain extensions to choose from but the most common (and ones you should consider are):
- .com
- .org
- .net
Check to see if your dream domain name is available today!
Find A Web Host
Now that you have your domain name it is time to get your blog online. To get your blog online you’re going to need two things.
- A Web Host
- A Content Management System (CMS)
A web host provider is a business that has the technology and capabilities for displaying your website on the internet. Basically, web hosts are supercomputers called servers where your domain and content will live. BlueHost is the number one recommended web host provider for bloggers. Mainly, because they pair perfectly with WordPress. Which brings us to the second thing you will need.
A content management system is software that is used to create and manage digital content. In other words, it is the software that you’re going to use for uploading your blog content online.
I recommend going with WordPress as your CMS. WordPress is easy to learn and use even with little to no knowledge of HTML or CSS. Download WordPress and follow the instructions for linking and setting up your domain.
If you want to dive further into creating a website I suggest reading how to build a website from scratch. This article will go into further detail on building a website.
Customize Your Blog’s Website
Once you download WordPress you will see that you have a selection of WordPress themes to choose from. Themes are templates you can use for styling the appearance of your blog.
Once you have a theme selected, you can begin customizing your blog to your choosing. Add your own touch to make your blog unique!
There are no guidelines to follow when customizing your own blog. It really is up to you to make it your own piece of the internet.
However, below are a few things you want to consider when styling your blog that has been proven to improve usability:
- Stay consistent with fonts and colors
- Choose a simple color pallet
- Have an easy to use navigation
- Create an email sign-up form to collect subscribers
Write And Publish Your First Blog Post
Now is the fun part! Start writing away!
Everyone blogs differently. However, to really ensure your blog is A+ material, take some time on brushing up on search engine optimization (SEO). SEO practices focus on creating content specifically related to what people are searching for. SEO is important if you want users to find your blog easily online.
If you’re really serious about increasing your blog’s popularity, try planning out topics you are going to write about.
Having a schedule will keep your blog postings on track ensuring that you are delivering content to your user base on time. Plus, it is nice having your topics already listed out. It sure beats trying to think of a topic when your deadline is approaching.
Now, I don’t want to tell you how to write your blogs but a few popular templates successful bloggers follow are blog formats such as:
- “How To” blog posts
- “What Is” blog posts
- “List Type” blog posts
- “Pillar Page” blog posts
- “Infographic” blog posts
I suggest exploring each of these blog templates and incorporating them into your pieces of writing.
Help Search Engines Find Your Blog
Your blog at first won’t just appear online unless users directly search for your domain name.
You need to incorporate online tools to help users find your content. There tons of practices to follow that will help increase blog visibility, but the simplest step to take is to generate a sitemap.
Skipping as much technical talk as possible, a sitemap is how the internet reads and identifies your blog. It acts almost as an index for all the content associated with your domain name.
Most web hosts and CMS’ have sitemaps generated for you by default. However, I suggest checking just to be safe.
Along with submitting your website to the internet, you are going to want to link Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your blog’s performance.
Google Analytics will show you valuable information on when and where people are visiting your blog from, what posts are performing best and what channels people are using to access your blog.
Google Search Console shows you information pertaining to your blog’s performance and health. In Google Search Console you can see what search queries your blog is appearing for as well as the number of impressions and clicks your blog is receiving.
The Google Search Console is also a good tool for identifying any performance issues with your blog. Use it to monitor your website’s performance and health.
Promote Your Blog On Social Media
Share your blog with your friends and family on social media. It is a great way to get your content in front of a large audience quickly. The more people that see your blog post the more likely they are to share, like, re-blog, etc.
Social media is a great starting point for growing a following. Go a step further and create social media accounts specifically for your blog. Your blog’s social media accounts can be channels used for getting your blog posts directly in front of your audience.
Don’t be afraid to share your content. One thing about blogging is that you need to be confident in what you write. Brush of criticism and the fear that your blog isn’t worth reading. There is an audience for everything.
Stay Blogging
That last step in creating a blog is to stay blogging! Get into a routine! To have a truly successful blog you need to be consistent with posting new content weekly.
Remember, with every blog you publish you will learn more and more with what kind of content works. You will begin to identify the best times to post. You will also begin to see what content your audience engages most with.
However, you have to understand that it takes time to build a following so don’t be discouraged if the traffic you receive throughout the first year is not what you expected.
If you are truly passionate about blogging and sharing content with the world then keep it up! Your content is worth sharing.