Starting a blog can be made easier through proper planning and guidance. Discover how to launch your own blog in 2023 and achieve financial success, whether you want to delve into lifestyle blogging, niche targeting or promoting your business. If you are unsure of the initial steps to take in setting up a self-hosted website for blogging, we can assist you.
The process of putting together a blog can be quite daunting when you consider all the necessary steps involved.
You may have come across narratives and Pinterest pins of individuals quitting their regular jobs for blogging and raking in loads of cash. Although this is feasible, everyone has to begin somewhere.
This is not the right place for you if you want to create a blog without paying anything.
This article will guide you in creating a blog that has the potential to transform into a profitable enterprise.
Despite claims made by certain “blogging experts” that starting a blog to generate income can be done in under a day, the reality is that it will take a minimum of one month if you want to do it properly.
If you commit all of your time to it, you can initiate a blog within a week.
While the technical aspect of self-hosting may require anywhere from one hour to a full day, the remaining factors will take some additional time. In the end, it is important to remember that great things take time to build, just as Rome was not constructed in a single day.
How To Start A Blog And Make Money
There’s one thing you need to be aware of before we start crafting a blog for you.
In 2023, one can initiate a blog and generate income from it.
It is irrelevant if you are a blogger belonging to Millennial or Gen-X generation.
Despite the plethora of amazing blogs available, I want to emphasize that you have the ability to create your own fabulous blog.
Not everyone is meant to begin a blog. Numerous motives could lead you to initiate a blogging venture or establish a blogging enterprise.
There are various crucial reasons, such as:
- You want a creative outlet, and you may want it to be a source of passive income on the side
- An entrepreneurial mindset and skills mean you can turn a blog into a business with products and services to sell
- You want to quit your job and start your own consulting or freelance business, and a blog is a strong way of promoting yourself
To attain success, dedication is crucial, regardless of the motive. Instant success is unlikely. However, by persevering with time, persistence, and patience, eventual success is achievable.
Set achievable deadlines and strive to attain self-made blogging objectives.
1. Start Your Blog By Choosing Your Blog Niche
Before buying a domain and self-hosting plan, let’s explore the steps you must take to kickstart your blog.
If you are utilizing a blog to promote your business, then you are aware of your specific market. Congratulations, you may proceed to the second point.
Continue reading for everyone else.
At the beginning, my aim was to learn how to establish a blog centered around my passions. Consequently, I devoted numerous hours to researching the fundamentals of setting up a lifestyle blog through online sources.
My top advice for others is to make sure you figure out the specific area of interest for your blog before diving into the technical aspects of launching it.
If you aspire to achieve success with your blog, it is advisable to select a specific area of interest, such as starting a business or lifestyle-related content on a particular profession. General lifestyle blogs can be challenging to convert into a profitable venture. Therefore, narrowing down your niche can improve your chances of profitability.
From experience, it’s a small piece of advice that lifestyle blogs with a broad focus are likely to lose their momentum eventually.
It is advisable to hone your niche as your audience may be interested in following you for a particular topic. If you blog about irrelevant subjects, they will lose interest and unfollow you.
Expanding your niche beyond a single target area, such as embracing lifestyle which encompasses several aspects like food & drink, beauty, wellness, living life, and parenting, is considered a broad niche. However, it is not recommended as it can lead to losing sight of your primary audience.
If you narrow down your blog’s topic, you will achieve faster progress.
Tips For Choosing The Perfect Blog Niche
Discovering your blog’s niche involves some introspection. You will have to respond to some inquiries:
- What is my expertise? About which topics am I most passionate and knowledgeable?
- Who is my audience? What kind of posts will interest them? What are their pain points and how can I help them (brainstorm them!)
- What kind of content will I be developing (e.g. more recipe posts versus simple product reviews etc.)
- Finally, do I see my life evolving? If yes, will my niche also be able to evolve? If you’re planning on getting married in the next year or so and having a family, consider how your blog will change in the near future. Blogs are personal, so if you can’t see an easy fit if your life changes, you might need to broaden your niche just a bit.
Your blog’s overall strategy is outlined here, serving as a foundation for establishing your blog’s unique brand identity.
Your visitors’ perception of you and their likelihood to return depends heavily on this factor.
After you have solved all of this, you can commence dealing with the technical aspects of constructing the website.
2. Choose Your Blog Name & Domain Name
When individuals are trying to start a blog, a significant concern is often what to name it.
Starting a blog from scratch can be quite challenging.
These are some basic guidelines:
- Keep the name short without hyphens. You want people to remember your blog name easily. Shorter names mean prettier URLs too!
- Make your potential blog name list long. There are numerous sites out there with names that will be the same as the vast majority that you brainstorm.
- Consider blog names with your name – for example, I could have a lifestyle blog named “Coffee With Gosia” (my Polish nickname).
- If you have a unique name, use your name. This is a great idea if you plan on providing a service in the future and you know your niche will remain the same.
Conduct a Google search to determine if anyone else has already taken your selected name.
Prior to starting a blog, it is important to contemplate what your social media handles will be and verify their availability.
You wouldn’t want to buy a domain and begin working on it just to find out that someone else has already taken all your social media usernames.
Ensure that the URL of your prospective blog name has not already been taken. I usually conduct a brief search on Domain.com.
Do you believe this name will be used in the long term?
Do you have plans of broadening the scope of your writing?
It becomes challenging to rename your website once people have grown accustomed to associating it with a specific name.
Once you’re prepared, you can procure your domain name from either your hosting provider or an external entity like Domain.com.
It is advisable to buy not just the .com domain name but also other variations of yours.
3. Design Your Blog with a Free WordPress Theme
After successfully completing the important initial stage of establishing a blog, it’s time to enjoy ourselves a little bit more.
Creating a design for your WordPress blog may cause some difficulty, especially if you have no prior experience with blogging, but it won’t be overly technical.
If you want to start a blog and make money as a blogger, WordPress is the best blogging platform
To ensure your comprehension of why WordPress is the ideal platform, which is also referred to as a Content Management System (CMS), for your blog, let’s go over a few fundamental terms.
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
Your blog writing, designing, and publishing can all happen within a Content Management System (CMS). The ideal CMS, such as WordPress, should allow for easy navigation, content organization, image and video uploads, and customization through blog themes or design elements. WordPress is probably the most familiar CMS for you.
What is WordPress?
Millions of bloggers, myself included, use WordPress, which is the most widely used CMS globally. Recent statistics regarding blogging demonstrate that over 60% of blogs, including those for Forbes, New York Observer, TED, Thought Catalog, TechCrunch, NBC, and more, are run on this CMS.
It is important to be cautious because WordPress is available in two distinct versions, namely WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Despite their similar names, these platforms differ significantly from each other.
The website WordPress.com:
- Is free to use (with heavy restrictions)
- Doesn’t let you pick a custom domain name (i.e. yoursite.wordpress.com)
- Has very limited monetization options (you can’t sell your own ads)
- Doesn’t let you upload plugins (for email capture and other things)
- Has limited blogging theme support so you’re stuck with very basic designs
- You have to pay to remove WordPress branding and get your own domain like yoursite.com
- Limited SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and analytics
The organization known as WordPress.org:
- Fully customizable design (using WordPress themes), unlimited plugin options, and no branding
- Your own custom domain name for your blog to run on (like ryrob.com)
- Total control over your own monetization efforts
- Powerful SEO features with great plugins (so people can find your site easier)
- Let’s you start or add an eCommerce store or membership site
- Small monthly fee (from the cheap hosting plan you use to get your blog online)
- A free domain name during sign up (with most blog hosting platforms)
Although the decision is ultimately yours, to fully capitalize on your blog’s potential, allow it to expand alongside you, and establish a source of income as a blogger, it is recommended that you opt for WordPress.org (which is precisely what we’ve outlined in this guide). This CMS preference will function behind the scenes to fuel your blog’s success.
Why Blog Design is so Important When Starting a Blog
Creating a well-designed blog instills confidence and shows your dedication to presenting a visually appealing platform. This doesn’t require excessive embellishments like flashy graphics or various font and color schemes. Instead, the most effective designs are straightforward, transparent, and understandable.
After finalizing the theme for your WordPress blog, it is imperative to explore the realm of WordPress plugins to expand the scope of customizations for both design and functionality. This groundwork is essential to establish your blog as a legitimate business venture in due course.
4. Write Your First Blog Post
While frequent publishing and an attractive appearance may be beneficial, people do not read blogs solely for those reasons.
The reason you go through a blog is because its content matters to you. Producing exceptional material is the key to attracting an audience and eventually earning income as a blogger.
Prior to extensively delving into crafting a blog business plan, establishing your content roadmap and completing your initial blog post – there is a fundamental question that you must address: Why?
- Why do you care for the topic you’re blogging about?
- Why should other people listen to what you’re saying?
- Why is this a blogging topic you can add real value to?
When attempting to address these inquiries, I prefer to approach blogs as one would any other enterprise and stress the significance of selecting a specific and well-defined niche. In case you’re in need of ideas, feel free to peruse my comprehensive catalog of lucrative blogging niches.
It’s alright if you don’t know your niche or can’t think of one immediately. We can extract it by asking some questions, and you can refer to my compilation of lucrative blog niches for some ideas.
Ask these questions to determine a smart niche to start a blog in:
- What’s an interest or dream from your childhood that you find exciting?
- What’s the absolute best part of your day?
- Do you have any hobbies or hobbies that you want to learn?
- What is a deeply held value of yours?
- What’s one achievement that you’re incredibly proud of?
Almost immediately, you should come up with a concept or two for a distinct topic that you can commence blogging about. It is acceptable if your topic develops, adapts, and transforms gradually.
How to Choose an SEO-Friendly Blog Post URL
Customizing the URL (blog link) of your new post is crucial if you want it to rank high in organic Google search results.
Below are some additional guidelines for writing URLs:
- Remember to separate each word in a new post URL with a dash (for easier readability)
- Keep it short at no more than 3 – 5 words in length (less is better)
- Avoid the use of numbers unless there’s a very compelling reason otherwise
- Always, always, always include your target keyword phrase
