This simple measure can increase engagement tenfold. Original Content: Your content should always be original. Never plagiarize — you will eventually be called out on it and could even face consequences. Your content should come from your heart, your brain, your knowledge base, and your experience.
You can get topic ideas from others in your field, but make sure the content comes from you. Original Photos: While it is easy to include stock images from free image sites, it is even better to include your own photos and graphic work. Another idea is to take free images and manipulate them with a free photo editor.
Edit Your Work: Your blog content should be sufficiently edited. Nothing says unprofessional like several typographical and grammatical errors. If you need a few refresher courses in grammar, consider using a writing application. Creating a well-designed blog and writing great content is just the start. In order to get visitors to your blog you will need spend some time promoting it, especially when you first start. The strategies below will help get your blog in front of more readers.
The very first people who should become aware of your blog are your inner circle. This includes family, friends, and colleagues within your field. Encourage them to become followers, ask them to mention your new blog, and — most importantly — thank them. You should post a link to your newest content on your accounts, but you can also post relevant news and links to other sources that your readers may find interesting. One of my favorite ways to get visitors to my blog is to post links on my social accounts, like Facebook and Twitter.
This is great, because not only do your friends see the link, but if your friends share the link with their friends it automatically multiplies your visitors. If you have created high-quality content on your blog then social media is a way for your blog to go viral. Find other blogs in your community and engage with them. Using the comment section, introduce yourself and leave engaging and constructive comments.
Many will allow you to leave a link to your blog. After creating relationships with prominent bloggers in your community, you will find yourself within their ranks quickly. When your readers leave comments on your posts, always engage with them. Become enmeshed in your blogging community by collaborating with respected members of your field. Post content regularly. Create an editorial calendar and stick to it. A good blogger posts at least once per week to start.
If you have long lapses between posts, your followers will drop off and your growth will be severely hampered. In addition to getting new visitors to your blog, you will also want to make sure your current visitors are coming back. This is where email marketing plays a big role. By collecting the email addresses of your visitors with their permission of course , you can then notify them when you post new content on your blog.
This keeps people coming back to your blog, which not only gives you more readers over time, it also allows you to build a closer relationship with your visitors.
Email marketing is too big a topic to cover well here, so I created a separate guide to email marketing for those who are interested hint: every blogger who wants more readers needs to read this guide.
Keep in mind that with a brand new blog your traffic will be minimal to start with. However, this will change over time as long as you continue to add informative and relevant content on a regular basis. There are many more factors relating to consider, such as installing something like the Yoast WordPress plugin , but these are the big ones that will help improve your search rankings sooner rather than later. For more tips on promoting your blog make sure to check out my in-depth guide to blog promotion.
Once you have put in the effort of creating great blog content and promoting your blog, making money from your blog is actually the easy part. It could take six months to a year to start seeing a steady stream of income. Blogging takes work and dedication, but once you develop a large enough audience, there are several methods you can employ to monetize your blog.
Once you have a popular blog, advertisers will be hounding you for the opportunity to advertise. The best way to take advantage of this situation is to use Google Adsense. Google finds the advertisers for you and all you have to do is place the Google Adsense code on your blog to start running ads. Google Adsense takes all of the hard work out of the process and just cuts you a check. I go into the full details of how to set up Google Adsense for your WordPress blog here.
An affiliate program is a commission-based way to advertise. Affiliate links are a nice way to earn income through the use of product reviews. However, you must remember to disclose that you are an affiliate for the product. Selling your own products and services directly on your blog is a great way to increase your income.
As your blog grows and you begin to see a wide audience, your products and services will begin to sell themselves. Use the sidebar of your blog to increase the visibility of what you sell using visual images and a link to your storefront page. Ebooks, video tutorials, and e-courses are the most commonly consumed digital materials sold by bloggers.
With little to no overhead and no shipping costs, you can keep the price low and inviting. If you are extremely knowledgeable in your field, an ebook can practically write itself. Give it a try, you might surprise yourself! Another way to monetize is by creating membership options on your blog.
This allows you to offer members more exclusive content only available with a paid membership. For example, you could offer unlimited downloads of digital goods, free consultations, a private network or forum where community members can mix and mingle, and private content available to members only.
There are many ways a blog can capitalize on popularity and traffic. Choosing the way you monetize from your blog depends on your goals and the purpose of your blog. Those who are selling services, physical goods, and digital goods, for example, may not want to participate in affiliate programs where traffic could be lost to another site.
For more information see my full guide to making money blogging here. More specific tutorials can be found on my blog page. Here are some of the most popular tutorials from my blog:. Contact me if you have any issues at all and I will personally respond to your email. The step-by-step guide on this site should give you everything you need to get started, but if you run into some issues, or just want some personalized advice, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.
Blogging is my passion, and I would love to talk with you about it! Still have some unanswered questions about blogging? Below are the most common questions I get about starting a new blog. Keep writing, keep interacting, keep engaging, and your blog quickly become one of the success stories. What do you need to start a blog? Time, passion, and a clear goal. Blogging is nearly a full-time operation. A successful blogger commits to posting lengthy and detailed content at least weekly. Promoting the blog must also be done regularly across social accounts and through peer interactions.
Equally important is the passion behind your blog. To come up with great content on a regular basis your blog should revolve around a topic that you are obsessed with. You only need to possess passion, excitement, dedication, and deeply rooted opinions. You also need a clear goal in mind. What is the main objective of your blog? Is it to inform the public? To eventually retain paid subscribers? With a clear final objective you can grow a blog that satisfies these goals in the long term.
What should my blog be about? Answer these questions: What are you passionate about? What do you think about daily? What topic do you annoy all of your friends, family, and co-workers with on a regular basis?
What do you find yourself dreaming about? What do you find yourself constantly researching? What do you read about? If there is a common denominator in your answers to these questions — THAT is what your blog should be about. And once you begin to build your blog, no matter what the subject material, you will find a community of people who are interested in what you have to say.
How do I find a profitable niche for my blog? If you know the general topic for your blog, a simple way of making your niche more profitable is by narrowing the niche to eliminate competition. Making the topic of your blog more specific will help to eliminate a lot of competition and elevate your blog results in search engines for more specific queries. How do I name my blog? This can ultimately be a fun exercise. Now start putting words together, introduce new words, and keep playing around until you come up with a name you like!
If you are still struggling you can always try using a blog name generator for additional ideas. If the domain name you want is taken and the full web address is your trademarked business name, you can assert your trademark rights and privileges and eventually get this domain handed over to you. It is a lengthy process that will involve lawyers and hefty fees, but as long as the name is trademarked by you, you would likely win the domain name. Trying searching for it in the browser. You may be able to buy the domain for the right price from the current owner.
If the domain is parked, you may also attempt to purchase the domain. Where is the best place to create a blog? You can begin blogging as soon as your account is set up. You can easily customize your self-hosted WordPress blog just by following the steps in the tutorial on this page. How much does it cost to start a blog?
You can make a blog for absolutely nothing. But the best way to start your blog is through one of the many web hosting companies. These are your main costs associated with starting a successful blog. Of course, you may incur other costs with additional services such as email marketing.
As with any business, the biggest expenditure is often advertising, but this would be a cost incurred later on down the road if you choose to go that route. Do bloggers make money? Bloggers have the ability to make a full-time income from blogging alone. Some bloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. As with any business, it takes a lot of hard work and plenty of time. Many bloggers give up on their project after just a few months. Those who make money online are the ones who stick with it.
Bloggers are most commonly paid by advertisers. How the blogger is paid varies depending on what type of ads are used.
When it comes time to choose a blogging platform, the pros turn to WordPress. And even though WordPress is used by millions of smaller blogs, it also powers many of the biggest sites on the internet. And there are many reasons why:. A self-hosted WordPress blog is a open-source, which is completely free. Choosing between them is one of the most crucial decisions you will make. Because you need your own web hosting plan, this option is known as a self-hosted WordPress blog.
While it does technically let you blog for free, if you would like to enable some basic options, or have your own domain, you will have to upgrade your account to a paid plan. How often should I blog? Blogging can be casual if your goal is solely for personal pleasure.
While frequency is important, it should not come at the expense of quality. Not every piece of content needs be 2, words, but all of your posts should be informative and of value to your audience. This is no easy feat. As with anything else, the more you do it — the more skilled at it you become. Blogging weekly also helps improve your traffic from search engines, which you can track in your Google Analytics account.
When you first begin blogging your latest posts will take time to show up on search engines. As you continue to post regularly you will naturally have more blog posts showing up in the search results, which means more traffic to your blog.
Then stick to those. At the end of every blog post, insert a CTA that indicates what you want the reader to do next — subscribe to your blog, download an ebook, register for a webinar or event, read a related article, etc. After your visitors read your blog post, they click on the CTA, and eventually you generate a lead. But the CTA is also a valuable resource for the person reading your content — use your CTAs to offer more content similar to the subject of the post they just finished reading.
At the end of the post is a CTA prompting readers to take a social media certification course:. See how that's a win-win for everyone? Readers who want to learn more have the opportunity to do so, and the business receives a lead they can nurture After you finish writing, go back and optimize the on-page elements of your post. Don't obsess over how many keywords to include. If there are opportunities to incorporate keywords you're targeting, and it won't impact reader experience, do it.
If you can make your URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don't cram keywords or shoot for some arbitrary keyword density — Google's smarter than that!
Here's a little blog SEO reminder about what you should review and optimize:. Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the post's page title on Google's search results pages.
They provide searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking into it. They are ideally between characters and start with a verb, such as "Learn," "Read," or "Discover.
While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google's keyword ranking algorithm, they give searchers a snapshot of what they'll get from reading the post and help improve your clickthrough rate from search. Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. But if you've followed our formula so far, you should already have a working title that will naturally include keywords or phrases your target audience is interested in.
Don't over-complicate your title by trying to fit in keywords where they don't naturally belong. With that said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords you're targeting to your post title and headers, feel free to take them.
Also, try to keep your headlines short — ideally, under 65 characters — so they don't get truncated in the search engine results. Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page — either on your website or on another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain keywords.
It's also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking pages that you want to rank for a specific keyword. As such, having a website with a responsive design is critical.
In addition to making sure your website's visitors including your blog's visitors have the best experience possible, optimizing for mobile will score your website some SEO points. Last but not least, it's time to spruce up that working title of yours. Luckily, we have a simple formula for writing catchy titles that will grab the attention of your reader.
Here's what to consider:. If you've mastered the steps above, learn about some ways to take your blog posts to the next level. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow? That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for you.
Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about. TLDR; Your first post should cover a niche, low-volume topic. As you write more and more on your blog and establish topical authority, you can begin to cover more highly-searched keywords. The first step is to find a topic with low searches in Google we recommend sticking to about 10 to monthly searches. These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.
To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. We suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.
When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list and choose one with a lower search volume. Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search volume. Do that again. TLDR ; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.
Google the term and look at the results. If you only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post. It seemed like a perfect fit because it had low monthly searches. Upon Googling the term, we found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications.
TLDR ; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic. You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one.
The solution? Build a few backlinks to the post to get it off the ground. Instead, reach out to people and let them know this new resource exists so they can link to your post.
Just grab them from the section on the left and drag-and-drop them onto any of the widget areas that your theme gives you. In this section, we share our best tips and things you should keep in mind once you begin blogging. If you followed our suggestion from Step 1, you probably already know your topic and niche.
Backlinks, also known as inbound or incoming links, are links to your blog coming from another website. They represent one of the main elements that will help you rank in search engine results. There are many backlink-building techniques you can use, such as resource page link building, broken link building, and more. You can also try writing guest posts for other blogs and ask to add a link to your piece. Although there are many strategies you can use to improve your blog and drive traffic to it, keep in mind that, when it comes to a blog, quality always beats quantity.
There are two reasons why quality is important for blogging. First, users are interested in high-quality, useful information. Internal links are important for three reasons. First, they pass authority from one page to another, helping you rank on search engines. Second, they guide users to high-value, relevant content on your website. Third, they prompt users to take action as calls to action..
This is normal. Search engines are competitive and it can be difficult to outrank established blogs. A good way to start getting traffic to your blog is to use social media. With social media, you can network with other bloggers and people in your industry or niche. Then, when the article is live, you can share it on social media and tag them.
Another social media strategy you can try is to find online forums and discussion sites e. When you first start, we recommend publishing a minimum of one blog post per month, although many bloggers suggest publishing at least three posts per week. The answer here really depends on your schedule but remember to prioritize quality.
A few awesome blog posts a month are better than several low-quality blog posts a week. The first thing you can do to find content ideas is head over to other popular blogs in your niche and look at their top articles. That can be a good source of inspiration, but avoid just copying content.
Just use this to find ideas and understand what the main topics are in your industry. If you find inspiration, consider using the same topic but making it into a different content format to make it different from what already exists.
For example, you might find that your competitor posted a YouTube video that went viral. In that case, you could take the same or a tangentially related topic and create a long-form article or a listicle blog post. First, you can try typing your niche or broad topic in Google Image Search and see if you find any ideas.
But since most of these are paid, consider using free tools when first starting. There are many ways you can use these tools to uncover keywords to create blog posts. However, we recommend starting off by targeting relevant keywords with low keyword difficulty. This will give you a better shot at ranking in search results. To get your keywords to rank better, and to create an intuitive blog structure for both users and search engines, you can create content clusters.
Your pillar content can be a broad keyword with high search volume e. The topic clusters, on the other hand, should be more long-tail keywords with less search volume, but that you can rank for e. You will then use internal links to properly connect the pillar pages with the individual topic clusters.
One of the easiest ways to find content ideas is to see what your readers think and talk about, and what questions they have about your content. Are you just starting out or have you been blogging for some time and have a group of people who trust you?
Is it your primary focus or do you manage your blog in your spare time? Some even say blogging for money gets them more than a million dollars per year. Do you want to know how to make a living blogging? Once you start your blog, you will have to work hard before getting that first paycheck. Also, passive income needs time to start increasing. Different advertisements and banners will make sense only after you have a well-established blog. While it is possible to get a few bucks per click on a Google ad, you will have to develop your site and build an audience before that becomes a reality.
So, when starting out, you can expect only a fraction of a dollar for each click, but do not let that discourage you. Everything has a start, so does your income from a blog. I always love to hear that someone is interested in learning WordPress or in general how to blog for free. I have dedicated an entire section of our site to learn WordPress where you can level up your WordPress skills and understand the best practices.
The section will guide you from the very beginnings of your WordPress site to advanced techniques that will teach you how to develop a unique site that both you and your visitors will love. Unfortunately, gazillions of awesome domain names have been already taken, especially if you aim for the most popular.
In this guide, I describe how to set up a blog and get a free domain name after. Just by clicking the button, you can skip the domain registration process and install WordPress first. Try thinking about other options or maybe another extension like. I have put together a guide to help you come up with a great domain name , so take your time and consider all the factors before registering a domain name. To secure your blog, all you need to do is turn on the SSL certificate.
It controls the data transfer on your site and makes it unreadable to nosy people who might sniff the data from the outside. But before you start worrying that only tech-savvy experts know how to do this, let me show you how you can get a FREE secure connection in just a few steps: 1.
Hover over the thumbnail that represents your site. After toggling the switch, you should wait up to one hour before the changes become visible on your blog. To quickly identify if the SSL certificate was successfully installed for your domain, check for the icon next to the URL of your blog.
This will indicate that the certificate has been successfully installed and that your blog is secured. You have your own domain name, hosting space and your blog is set up. Next, you will need to get familiar with the WordPress dashboard, make desired changes, start content creation, and promotion to become a successful blogger.
Check out all our resources for starting a blog and learn how to blog successfully. This info makes it helpful for setting up a budget. Thank you. I really appreciate your effort in writing this post. You may never know how much you inspired me with this guide. We wish you good luck with your blogging journey and feel free to contact us in case you need anything.
Hi Anya, Thanks for the very thorough and in-depth article. I would add to your promotion section that you should also use Pinterest as a search engine, not just a social network, as it can be the ideal source of traffic for new blogs. Best Regards, David. Thanks David for reading our guide.
We agree with you, Pinterest is indeed a very good search engine on its own. It might not be suitable for all blogging niches but is definitely worth using as an additional source of traffic. Thanks a lot Anya.
This post has been a great blessing to me. I plan to start a sports blog and I will definitely be using the information I got from you. Thanks again. Thanks Joshua. Thanks for sharing such quality information. I see other local bloggers use Getty Images. Is this easy to do? Is there a cost for that? Hopefully, it helps when starting your new blog. Answers to your questions: 1. You can find and use many royalty free and stock photos but if you want to up to date sports images you will need to pay.
For example, Getty Images is famous for having images from every major sports event but their monthly plans can be expensive. You can easily add a message board and live chat functions to your WordPress blog via plugins. I really appreciate the work you have done, you explained everything in such an amazing and simple way. Is there any other information regarding security? Like preventing people from hacking our website and things of that sort.
Also , very concise and informative guide! I wish more guides were like this. Thanks so much for this post — super useful. This process is covered in our guide. You can check this guide. Personally, I prefer to use WordPress. But depending on your situation you can go with either option. Can you suggest how to come up with new topic ideas?
Any step by step method if you can suggest? You can launch it with one post or few posts and keep posting new content. Just keep posting fresh content to grow your blog plus search engines like when new content is added on blogs. Thanks for sharing such an informational blog which will, surely be a big help to the people who have small medium business.
Hi Anya, You have great content on your blog here. Would I be able to export my blogs later should I choose to migrate? Hi Sarthak, Adding custom code always depends on the theme you choose. Most themes allow you to add custom code to some extent. And for sure, you can always migrate your blog from Bluehost to another hosting provider. I mean, how long doest it take to finish a blog and how many times should i post?
If by finish a blog you mean, how long does it take to launch a blog — you can do it in min. Keep in mind that you do need to think about pre-launch content for your blog, such as About page, etc. When it comes to blog post frequency it depends on your topic and how much time you have. I would recommend focusing on writing quality content. You can publish blog posts every day or once a week.
There is no mention of how to have a e-mail associated with the site name, rather than a personal e-mail address certainly get enough mail there to begin with.
Most web hosting providers offer free custom emails [email protected] that you need to set up on your own.
Thanks, this is going to be a very helpful, and relevant guide for anyone looking for informed blogging decisions. Thanks a lot, initially I thought that it would be more complex to start some standard blog, and I was almost in a chaotic situation, but after reading your content I got some handful of ideas. People like you are the ones that I am looking for cause nothing is greater than the valuable words from veterans. This is a detailed blog on blogging in which all the concepts are explained.
I was looking for a blog like that, thank you so much for giving such excellent information. Hi Anya, thanks so much for this wonderful guide! It was so helpful to me! Thank you! Also, what is your advice as far as copyright and trademarking your blog or brand goes? Do you recommend doing this immediately or waiting to see growth for your website? Do you recommend copyright, trademarking, or both? In the United States, you own the copyright as soon as you put the original work on your blog and you won a trademark as soon as you use your name and logo for marketing your business.
However, some people like to use it for certain products and names. Yes, you can definitely do that. Instead, you can do pre-launch changes on your blog design, content, etc. And launch it when you are ready. Thanks for this tutorial on starting a blog. Hi Anya! I have a question. I chose a domain name, but that is not what is in the search bar when I am previewing the website. It is a bunch of random words, letters, and numbers. Just wondering if you could help!
Hi Sarah, Your hosting provider has probably assigned you a temporary domain name. It usually takes 24hrs for your main domain to show up. Really amazing Anya! This is a real and complete guide to making a blog from scratch. Very helpful, thank you! Thanks for sharing this info, it was really helpful. My friend and I will be launching our blog soon called thefroavenue.
Hi Anya, that was so informative and clear. I loved your simple language. Thanks for sharing. This is an excellent guide on how to create a good blog.
Thanks a lot Anya for sharing your knowledge. I have read through your Guide for wannabe Bloggers. Quite Impressive, I must say. In spite of the detailed explanations, I still find the process of setting a Blog so complex.
I doubt if it is something I can do myself, or will I need an expert to set it for me? You will have your live blog in minutes. Keep in mind that after you get your blog online, you need to work on your theme design and content. Feel free to reach out to me via our contact form if you have any questions along the way.
Good luck! A great guide in precise words. I was just thinking about beginning my own blog but had no clue how it works.
Thanks for the information conveyed here. It had been a great help. Thank you so much for giving me the needed push to get this moving! Your post covers so much information and answers so many questions! Thank you again for sharing. I am really grateful for this information. I hope my guide will help you get your new blog live. Let me know how it goes and good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing these great tips! I am living in the US now, but will soon return to Brazil. Will I be able to keep my blog running with Bluehost and WordPress?
Can I change the payment details later? Do you know if my domain will show up from searches outside the US? Thank you so much again! Hi Maria. And with Bluehost, you can always update your payment preferences. All the best! Thank you so much Anya…This is a very simplified step by step to blogging.
I truly want to get started this minute. Loved your guide. It is super helpful and complete. I do have one question. If you already bought a domain, would you be able to use the hosting service you recommend? Hi Christine. You can transfer your domain to Bluehost and still be able to use it. Let me know if you have any other questions! I really appreciate the content here, thank you so much. Very informative information, easy to understand. This guide on starting a blog is one of the most precise and easy to consume content for beginners.
I just started exploring your other content as well and hoping to enjoy it. Be safe and have a nice day there! Thanks a lot, Anya for sharing your knowledge. Really useful! Hi Elio! You can certainly write on multiple topics. There are ways to categorize your topics within WordPress. This was really helpful! The step by step approach was of great help and as a beginner, I got it all clear.
You made it quite simple. As a beginner, this is all we need to know. I got almost all the answers. Thank you again. Good luck with everything. Hi Anya, I am a novice when it comes to blogging.
I now have a fair idea of what is blogging. Thank you Suresh! I really appreciate it when people recognize the effort…this means a lot to me. Thanks once again. This the best guide ever.
I have been wanting to start a blog and now I have an idea. I will start with my research and brainstorming the domain name. Outstanding post, well done! Because all keyword and search phrase placement is dependent on that. Without which it will be impossible to dominate search result pages. This was such a wonderful guide! Thank you for your helpful tips and step by step instructions! This was very helpful, thank you! Your step-by-step instructions helped me understand where to start and how to get to where I need to be.
This is an amazing article that helped me in deciding on how to start my blog. I appreciate the step by step process you went through to explain on how to start for beginners. Thank you for the information. It is really helpful. Bookmarking sites can offer your content …… You should do this every time you publish a new blog post to spread the word out.
Some popular social bookmarking sites are Scoop. Your article was very informative and it actually helped me make my decision to start! Thanks Anya. Thank you so much! Thanks for sharing! It is very helpful for all new bloggers. What an incredibly informative article. Im looking to start a blog for my company and i love this article. In fact you are now bookmarked as my blog bible.
Any problems i can and will probably run into getting it off the ground you cover.
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