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Today I will talk about how to start a blog. If you’re reading this you’re probably wondering whether or not you should start a blog. I wondered the same thing myself, and after a year of contemplating it, I went for it.
1. Pick your blogging niche. You need to choose your blog’s focus. What do you plan on posting? Picking a niche will help you to grow a specific audience. It will be harder to grow your audience if your posts are unrelated. My blog’s niche is lifestyle. With my broad niche I am able to post beauty, health, travel and anything else lifestyle related.
2. Pick your domain. Now that you have decided what to blog about, you need to name your blog. You’ll need to check that the website domain you want is available. I purchased my domain through Blue-host when I signed up for self-hosting.
3. Become self-hosted. I had created a few blog sites in the past, but to become professional you definitely need to be self hosted. I am so glad that I became self-hosted. I am able to do so much more on my site by downloading plugins. Self-hosting also gives you the opportunity to make money on your site. Free platforms usually limit the ways you can make money off of your blog.
So which self-host should you pick? Some popular hosts are:
- Bluehost, this is who I use and I have only had great experiences so far. I paid for three years in advance and bought my domain for only $95. They have great tech support and were such a good deal. Click here for my special deal of $2.95 a month.
- Siteground $5.95 a month
- Godaddy $5.99 a month
4. Build your site. After you make the leap and become self hosted you will get to setup your blog. Bluehost uses WordPress as the site builder. I was easily able to scroll through themes and get my site up and running. WordPress is super easy to use and has some great plugins to add.
5. Start posting content. Now it’s time to get content up on your site. It’s better to get multiple blog posts up right away rather than jumping right into a posting schedule. This will give your audience more than one post to look at. This will give you a better chance of growing your audience from the beginning. When you start your blog it can take. A few weeks before it shows up on google. The more posts you have, the sooner it could show up.
6. Start promoting. Now you’re ready to start promoting your blog. I primarily promote on social media. I do have some other blog promotion tips. That blog post will be coming soon so be sure to sign up for my email list to be notified when I post!
Good luck being self hosted! Now you’re on the road to making money blogging. Let me know in the comments what self hosting platform you use or any blogging questions you have!
