How To Start A Blog Quickly
When I was younger, I always enjoyed keeping a journal to remember things that happened in my life. As I got older, I really wanted to start a blog to share my thoughts, but I didn’t know exactly how to get started.
Fast forward to 2018, I have been blogging for two years and it has been such a rewarding experience. I have become so comfortable expressing myself and I have grown as a person.
Blogging has helped me come out of my shell and do things outside of my comfort zone.
Last year, I flew from the east coast to the west coast alone for a conference hosted by Ruth Soukup of Elite Blog Academy. During this trip, I met some amazing people that I still have connections with today.
This year, I went to Orlando, Florida for FinCon with a group of ladies that I met in Portland the previous year.
See? Blogging comes with amazing opportunities and experiences. If you are even remotely interested in starting a blog, my advice is to do it. It is totally worth it.
Starting a blog is simple, cost-effective, and fun, so today I’m going to show you exactly how to do it.
Choose a Niche
The first thing to think about when you’re ready to start a blog is to choose your niche. Your niche is basically your “thing”. It’s something that you are good at, something that you enjoy, and something that you can teach others.
My niche is personal finance. I absolutely love budgeting and saving money and I think I do a decent job at helping everyone in my audience work towards their financial freedom.
If you are having trouble selecting a niche, think about the person that you want to help. What do they need from you? How can you help them solve their problems?
When you can answer these questions, you have found your niche.
Choose a Domain
Now that you have chosen your niche, it’s time to choose a domain. One mistake that a lot of people make when they start a blog is not putting a lot of thought into their domain.
Your domain is the name of your site. It is what you will have to tell people when they ask the name of your blog, so choose wisely.
Good domains are easy to remember, easy to spell and represent the brand well. Write down about five domain names and pick the best on out of the five.
When you have decided on your domain, you can purchase it from places like Namecheap or Google for around $15.
Another option is to purchase your domain through your host company. This makes it really easy to have your information in one place.
Don’t spend too much time choosing your domain because the point of starting a blog is to actually start a blog. Just make sure to choose a domain that makes sense.
Purchase Hosting
Hosting refers to the place where your website lives. Your host is basically giving your domain a place to reside. There are a ton of hosting companies out there, but for the purpose of this tutorial, I will talk about Bluehost.
My website is currently hosted with Bluehost and I have not had any issues, so I recommend them to bloggers that are just starting out. Use the tutorial below to get started with Bluehost.
Start a Blog with Bluehost
1. Head over to the Bluehost website and click the “Get Started Now” button.
2. Select the package that fits your needs. If you are just starting out, the basic package should work perfectly for you.
3. Choose the free one-year domain option with Bluehost or sign up with a domain that you have already purchased.
4. Enter your personal and payment information, then set up your password.
You have just purchased your hosting! Now, lets set up your blog.
Choose a Theme
Now it is time to choose a theme for your blog. Your theme is what you want your site to look like. There are themes that you may purchase and free themes to choose from.
Bluehost has a great selection of free themes for people that are just starting out. I recommend starting with a free theme.
As you begin making money with your site and decide switch to a paid theme, it’s really easy to make the switch.
Take a look at the themes that Bluehost offers and choose the one that you want for your site.
Install WordPress
WordPress is the software that you will use to run your website. Bluehost will actually set up WordPress for you for free.
After you have selected your theme, click the “Start Building” button.
You are now on your dashboard. Make yourself familiar with the dashboard as this is the backend of your website. Almost everything that you need to do on your site can be completed in this dashboard.
This is the place where you will create and edit posts, create and edit pages, and link to an online store if you will be selling items.
You have access to the dashboard to update your “coming soon” page until you are ready to launch your blog.
Congratulations! You have completed the blog set up and now you’re ready to create some awesome content.
Write Posts
Before you start telling people about your site or promoting it on social media, it is a good idea to have a few pieces of content.
I suggest having at least 10 high-quality posts before any promotions. The reason is that you don’t want to tell all of your family and friends to visit your site and there is only one post for them to read.
When they read the only post that you have, there is nothing else to keep their attention. If you had 10 posts, they would have a reason to stick around.
When creating content, be sure to be helpful, informative, tell a story, and use correct grammar. Link your posts to each other so that readers will know what to read next.
After you have your posts written and loaded into WordPress, click the launch button and your brand new blog is live!
The Bottom Line
I think everyone that has been thinking about writing to help people should start a blog. Just go for it.
Blogging is a great way to express yourself while helping others. You may know how to face an issue that you think is minor, but someone else in the world is longing for help to solve the same issue.
Your post could be the thing that gives them hope or helps them solve the problem that they have been facing for a while. In my opinion, the blogging world is not oversaturated because people love different perspectives.
If you really want to start a blog, head over to Bluehost and get started writing today.
What niche and domain did you choose and why? Let me know in the comments!
