Start a Blog in 2021
11 Step by Step guide to Starting a Blog.
If you are planning to start a blog in 2021, then there are a few things that you will need to take into consideration. Even before you start writing content or getting the domain, you need to understand and be honest with yourself about why you want to start the blog.
Here are a few steps that you can follow to setting up and creating your blog site. I know, at this stage a lot of people you speak to will ask you to think of a niche – but let’s get to that a little later.
Step 1: Reason to start a blog
Make a list of all the reasons why you would like to have a blog. To make it easier for you, I have listed below some of the reasons why many bloggers start their site. At this stage, be completely honest with yourself. Whatever the reason,
- You simply enjoy writing.
- Knowledgeable on a subject and you would like to share it with anyone who is interested.
- Financial Independence.
- Passive income.
- More time to do the things that you love.
- Early retirement plans.
- Be a famous blogger.
- Interested in affiliate marketing.
- You know somebody who makes a living from their blog and you want to do that too.
- Experimenting on the platform and not sure where it will lead to.
Because you have written down your reason or reasons to start a blog, you know the core objective of your blog. Now everything else that follow is simpler, well until you get to the point of getting a domain name 
Step 2: Set how much time you are willing to work on the blog
Now that you know why you want to start your blog, write down how much time you would like to spend working on it. Being a blogger is not a once-a-year activity. It requires constant nurturing. Will it be an hour a week, or up to 3 hours daily or more? Come up with a practical time that you can spend on your blog. If you do not have the time during the day, are you willing to stay up a little longer or wake up a few hours before your day starts to get some blog work in or maybe get 40 minutes of work during your lunch break. It is absolutely necessary to know when and how much time you are willing to spend on it. Not only because by writing it down you know that you cannot make an excuse that you do not have the time but also that you will stay more committed to those timelines.
Step 3: Create a post schedule
You know how much time you can put in to your blog and why you want to have the blog, now you can make a very rough estimation of how many articles that you can publish and when. Will you post an article on a weekly basis or fortnightly or maybe you have the time to publish an article every day? Be realistic. If you can put in only a couple of hours a week, do not be ambitious to publish an article every day. And if you are going to spend 3 – 4 hours a day, do not be publishing simply one article a week. Well, unless the niche requires way too much of your time doing research.
Step 4: Know what you are passionate about
Make a list of all the things that you are passionate about and will enjoy writing about. If your objective is to make money fast, then some of the niches you might be interested in are health and fitness, self-improvement, beauty, finance and personal finance, technology. These are just a few. If this is one of the niches that you are already interested in, then go on and make some money. But what if your niche is not in one of the high paying brackets, that shouldn’t stop you from building on what you are passionate about. Remember, if it is a subject that you like, you are more likely to keep publishing regularly.
Now you may have a rough idea on the subject or subjects you want to write about. Let’s make a list of all the topics you can write about for that subject. Try to come up with 30 – 60 topics. These do not have to be full fledged articles, but an overall topic for your article.
If your niche is Health and Fitness, try to come up with as many topics as you can for that given subject.
- Top Tips to stay Fit.
- Staying Fit During the Holiday Season
- Eat Right for a Fit life
- Should you go on a diet?
- Find the right diet for you.
- And so on and so on.
Here, give yourself 30 minutes to an hour to come up with the list. Try not to do this over a period of days, as you can lose steam and your project will fizzle out even before you start. You can always add to this list at any time going forward after you have your initial list. Note – this does not have to be titles for your articles, this is a broad topic that you can write an article about.
Well, if you are scratching your head after just a 10 – 12 topic ideas, then it is time to go back to the drawing board. Do some research or try to think of something else that you are passionate about.
Step 5: Get your domain name
A domain is like a house where all the contents are located. Get a domain name that reflects your niche. If it is a beauty niche, then get the name reflects that. If it is a wedding photography niche, then get something that you can relate with your niche. A domain name should not be very long and it should spell correctly. Do not have abbreviations of a word as it is difficult for your audience to remember.
If a domain name is already taken, get alternatives of how you want to be found on the internet.
To get your domain, you can go to godaddy and enter the name that you want and search. If is available, it will give you the option to buy. Buy your domain.
Step 6: Host your domain
Now the hosting is like an address to your home. There are multiple hosting providers. Pick one that is easy for you. I find bluehost to be one of the easiest to use so far. But you can pick one that you are comfortable with. To get hosting you can go to – www.bluehost.com
You will get your login credentials for your wordpress site under My sites in your dashboard.
Step 7: Create your website. Create Social media accounts
Start building your very own website. You do not have to be a coding expert to build your website. You can use the WordPress platform. Building your first website can be tricky. But do not get overwhelmed. The basics you will need are
- A Logo
- Header – Know what are the top menu items you want to have
- Body – Basic colors that you want the blog to have. Pick a font, font color, link colors, menu background colors
- Footer – If you have a footer, what items do you want to include in the footer.
- Decide if you want to have a contact us page or an about us page.
Getting a domain name, hosting the website and creating the template for your website should take you no more than a day. Don’t get too caught up on the minor details. You can always work on your website even after it does go live.
Once you have your website created. Go Live.
Step 8 Publish your first post
Write your first post and publish it. Write an article that has a minimum word count of 1000 words. We will talk about things to focus on in a separate article.
Step 9: Share your content on social media
You have published an article, and now go ahead and share those on the social media accounts where you can get additional traffic from. Some of the social media from which you can benefit are facebook, pinterest, Instagram. If you have the time then you can interact with members of Quora, Redddit, Tumblr. All these can sites can drive huge traffic to your website.
Step 10: don’t be shy, interact with your audience
By interacting with your audience it is a good way to have them coming back to your website. Answer the comments regularly. It could be on social media or on your website.
Step 11. Publish articles regularly
Remember the schedule you created earlier about when and how many articles you will publish. Stick to it. And create content and publish them regularly.
Are you convinced yet, that you can start a blog. Be consistent in your blogging journey and you can be the next most successful Blogger. Read Launch your Blog in One week to get started on your blogging journey.
