A Comprehensive Guide to Starting Your First Blog
Starting your first blog is one of the most fulfilling things that any person can undertake. If you have something to share, whether it is your passion, a business, or a message, then a blog is a great way to get your voice out there.
Below are the basic tips that you will need to follow in order to get your blog started.
Decide on Your Niche and Brand
The first thing that you will need to determine before you start your blog is your focus or your topic of discussion. A niche is a specific subject matter that you will be concentrating on. Selecting a niche also helps in marketing since you are able to direct your services to a certain group of people and create a niche for yourself in that particular area. When choosing your niche, it is advisable to focus on your interests, specialty, and things that you are interested in.
The next aspect that you should consider is your brand once you have decided on your niche. Your brand includes the name of your blog, as well as the logo and general visual style. It should be catchy and should contain the essence of your blog. Take time and think of a good name that is unique and can easily be remembered. Also, create a logo that reflects the theme of your blog as well as the values it holds. A strong brand will assist you in cutting through the noise when it comes to blogging.
Sign Up for Hosting
Once you have settled for your niche and brand, the next step is to get hosting services. Web hosting is the process through which your blog becomes accessible to the public on the internet. Some of the well-known hosting providers include Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator among others.
The criteria that might be used when choosing a hosting provider include reliability, customer service, and cost. Almost all hosting companies have various packages depending on the users’ requirements and their willingness to pay. For the newbies, the basic plan that is offered in the shared hosting plan is usually enough. After you decide on a hosting provider, create an account and acquire a hosting plan. This step is important as it will help you in creating your blog since it will act as the base.
Install WordPress
Once your hosting is ready, it is now time to install WordPress. WordPress is one of the most used content management systems, or CMSs, as it is used in more than 40% of all websites. It is easy to use, versatile, and has a lot of themes and plugins to create a blog.
Almost all hosting companies have an auto-installer tool that can install WordPress in a matter of minutes. Go to your hosting cpanel, click on the wordpress icon and follow the instructions to install wordpress. Read the guide to setup WordPress for your domain. After the installation, you will get login credentials to your WordPress backend control panel. This is the control panel through which you will be running your blog, writing posts and changing your site.
Pick a Theme for Your Website
Selecting the right theme for your blog is very important since it determines the look and feel of the blog. WordPress has a array of free and paid themes that one can use for their website. When choosing a theme, think of your blog’s subject and the overall design you want to convey.
To select a theme, go to your WordPress admin panel, click on appearance and then themes, you will see a list of themes with options to preview and install. After installing, it is important to change the theme to reflect that of the brand through color, fonts, and layout. Incorporating a good theme will improve the usability of your blog and the overall appearance of your blog to the visitors.
Start Blogging
We have our blog created, and the next step is to start posting on it. Having quality content that is worth reading is the main secret for getting people to read your articles. Start by coming up with ideas that are related to your area of focus and the readers. Develop an editorial calendar so that you can know when to post your content and stick to the schedule.
While creating the blog posts, the writer should ensure that the information they are presenting is useful, interesting and researched. Write in the first person and be informal to engage the readers. Always use images, infographics, and videos to make the posts interesting for the readers. Also, it is possible to conduct keyword research to ensure that the content is properly optimized for search engines. Special sites such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs can be used to find out the trending keywords concerning your topic. This way, the use of these keywords in the posts will enhance the blog’s visibility on the search engines.
In case your blog is in a different language, using VPNs to change your IP address and do a keyword search on search engines such as Google can be of great help. The primary reason of employing a VPN in this case is the monitoring of keyword and search strings in different countries. Utilizing VPN by Surfshark might give you insights into how users in various regions search for content concerning your area of specialization hence enabling you to post content that is relevant to those markets hence enhancing your blog’s ranking in those markets.