Currently set to Index

Foolproof Guide to Starting a Blog

5 minutes 15 comments
Art
Art
Web Hosting Geek

So you’ve decided to write a blog, share your knowledge with the world, express yourself and make money? Whatever the reason, I’m sure you don’t need an explanation what is a blog, who is a blogger and what is blogging. You simply want to avoid the mistakes that rookies make. Then grab a coffee and let’s get started ASAP!

Do you know that blogging has many benefits that are not evident from the first glance:

  • You become a better writer.
  • You become an expert in your field and learn a lot.
  • You get to know a lot of awesome people.
  • You build a significant online business and earn money.
  • You help others and have fun while doing it.

Tempting, right?


Now, there are basically four steps to starting your first blog:

1Choosing the blog type

What’s it gonna be? A personal, business, non-profit, political, private, sports or how-to, tips and reviews blog? Which type do you want to become?

At first, you’ll need to validate the success of your blog:

  1. Choose a topic that you are most passionate about.
  2. Research the niche you’ve chosen, whether it has any potential by selecting 5 key words and checking the volume of monthly searches.
  3. If the niche has a decent volume, it will be a nice choice for your blog.

2Choosing a platform

There are a lot of different free blogging platforms such as Blogger or Tumblr. But if you decide to go with them, your blog name will be – yourname.tumblr.com or yourname.blogspot.com. You don’t want to look inexperienced, right?

RELATED:   Geek Ethicist: Friend your Spouse?

I strongly recommend to choose a self-hosted platform like WordPress that will allow you to use your own web hosting space and name for your blog.

WordPress is one of the biggest platforms in the world, with countless plugins and add-ons and almost infinite ways to design and layout your blog.

  • It is the easiest and simplest way to build a site.
  • It has tons of free themes and layouts, a massive support forum in case you get stuck.
  • Your blog will be insanely fast and it’ll also look perfect!
  • People can interact with you easily.
  • Your content can be shared, commented on, and so on.

3Choosing a domain name

Your domain name is the unique address of your blog on the Internet by which you will be known online. So you definitely need to make a careful choice. You can end it with .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, or virtually any other web suffix. The only rule is to make your name exclusive, easy to remember and type.


4Choosing a web hosting provider

Once you buy a domain name, you need somewhere to store your files. Sign up for the hosting account to host your new blog online.

RELATED:   Why Great Ideas Fall Flat

There are tons of different hosting options out there for your brand new blog. As a newbie you’ll have to look for these most important features in a host:

  • Price. The cheapest offer you see isn’t necessarily the best idea. Compare prices.
  • Tech support. What kinds of different ways you can contact them when you need support – email, phone, chat, and so on. Are they 24/7? The worst thing that can happen is for a website to go down, or having an email issue.
  • Backup. Find out what your host’s disaster recovery plan is in case you mistakenly delete the entire blog.
  • Uptime. Look for an uptime guarantee of 99 percent or more. The last thing you want your customers to experience is a blank screen when they type in your URL.
  • Storage. Make sure that you have room to expand and grow on the host you choose. So examine your needs and the storage solutions offered by the host. Some services will offer you more space as your needs expand.
  • Bandwidth. The bandwidth is the amount of data that is allowed to be transferred from your server to a visitor. Some services will offer unlimited bandwidth which is rarely actually unlimited. Make sure you know what will happen if you go over your bandwidth allotment.
  • Emails and Applications. Make sure the host you choose gives you access to the server so that you can easily create new email accounts, make changes to server settings, etc. You might also have a need for additional applications. Your host should provide all that.
  • Money back guarantee. Spend some time and read “Terms of Services”. This might be extremely useful once you decide that you want your money back.
  • Reviews. Read reviews on the company’s service to see if people have had issues with customer service and support.
RELATED:   A Bundle of Content Management System, Cloud Computing and eCommerce

This list is certainly not exhaustive, but it covers the most common questions you are likely to have when choosing a web host. Here you can browse web hosting providers from around the world, learn from reviews, and ratings.

Now you are absolutely ready to become a well-known blogger!


If you might need any help along the way when setting up your very first blog, this info is greatly expanded in high details here: http://firstsiteguide.com with downloadable guides and videos.


What challenges have you met on your blogging journey? Don’t hesitate to share them in the comments! Also, let us know what hosts you’ve found reliable and which ones have come back to bite you.

Comments

15 Comments

  • Avatar Suzan says:

    Thanks for the recommendation. Great work. I will look into it!

  • Avatar Rose Martine says:

    Fantastic post, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector do not notice
    this. You should proceed your writing. I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!

  • Avatar Hannah Flack says:

    Hi! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly?

  • Avatar Web Hosting Review says:

    Extraordinary article. I ran over your blog and felt this was an incredible site and couldn’t imagine anything better than to be included on your blog or perhaps just referenced.

  • Avatar Ramona Mills says:

    “This paragraph will help the internet users for creating new blog or even a
    weblog from start to end.”

  • That is an extremely smartly written article and this is exactly what I was looking for. Good motivational advice, just what I need. Thanks

  • Avatar nathan oulman says:

    Very well written. I wanted to see if i could contribute a blog post as well . Who can i email about this?

  • Avatar Jamie says:

    I think a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of starting a blog, but platforms like WordPress and Blogger have options for those who don’t consider themselves tech savvy that are so easy to use and set up. Blogging is fun and can even be helpful for things like small businesses who may overlook it. I think everyone should just dive in!

  • Avatar Jamie says:

    I think starting a blog sounds like a fun idea but overwhelming to a lot of people but really there are so many guide available for beginners to help get started. Like this one! I’m an avid blogger myself. Its such a great outlet for so many platforms. You can do so many things with it.

  • Avatar Kendra says:

    First off, this is an excellent post. This completely walks you through how to go about starting a blog. I have used blogger, tumblr and wordpress. WordPress is my favorite because it allows you to create a blog so easily. You don’t even really need to know how to code with all of the templates and plugins that are available. I feel like the most important thing about anyone deciding to blog is blogging about something that you enjoy and something that you are knowledgeable about. It took me years to finally create a blog that I can stick with, but I finally my niche. Excellent post, you make me feel like I might just be on the right track after all 🙂

  • Avatar Todd Palmer III says:

    Awesome post! I have been bouncing around the idea of starting my blog for so long now and this post has given me the confidence I need to do so. I am having the hardest time just narrowing down what I’m going to talk about on my blog. I am leaning towards a lifestyle blog with some affiliate links but only for products that I actually use. Not trying to have a blog full of random affiliate links and a ton of random products.

  • Avatar craigbic says:

    Great article! Good tips for anyone just starting out! I’ve started and managed many blogs over the years, including a couple of really big ones with multiple contributors and thousands of visitors, but I can remember back when I started (back when the term “blog” was first coined) how clueless I was and there weren’t too many articles, if any, at that time to help me get started. I had to troll forums for info on what a blog was and how to get one going. I think the most valuable piece of information I gleaned back then was to ask myself, “why do you want to start a blog? What do you hope to achieve?” I always focus on those questions every time I start a new blog. Keep that in mind when you do too.

  • Avatar Jack says:

    Thank you for writing this but I wonder: how do I actually go about checking those 5 key words you mentioned? Do I have to go somewhere in particular to do this? I’ve searched around and people seem to be mentioning Google Keyword Planner. Is this where I should test my 5 key words? Thank you in advance for any replies; I’m a beginner at this and would like to start my own blog but there are still a lot of things I need to learn first.

  • Avatar Dana says:

    I know how confusing it can be to start a blog. There are so many options and the process can seem overwhelming, especially when you have no idea what you’re doing.
    It’s so important to choose a good domain name. Personally, I find it helpful to go with something you can easily relay in an elevator pitch. Something simple to remember without any complicated characters.
    As far as hosting, I’m glad you included uptime. I see some of my fellow bloggers reporting that their sites are down. It’s usually the same hosting company too – and it can last for several hours if not longer. Not good if your blog is your living.
    You’ve laid out some fantastic tips here and explained them thoroughly. Great job.

  • Avatar Nick says:

    Wow what a great guide! complete and very easy to understand. Starting a blog can be hard especially to those who doesn’t really have any background about it. And this guide is definitely very helpful for those who want to start their blogging career.

    I personally have a blog and I can really say that it can be hard sometimes to choose the best web hosting provider nowadays knowing that there are tons of them that I can choose from.I tend to switch from time to time. Any recommendation? Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *