Building a blog can be lucrative. However, there are risks to doing this as a money-making project. You will need to put in a fair bunch of time and a bit of money on the front end to get your blog rolling. If you plan to turn your blog into a job or a second income stream, be aware that things may be slow at the start. On the bright side, your readers will become an effective part of your marketing team and each post can be out there contributing to your income for a long time.
Step-by-Step Beginner’s Guide to Start a Blog
Find and Focus on Your Why
Choose your blogging focus with care. You probably have expertise that you want to share. Selecting the right focus is a critical first step to both producing good content and enjoying your research process. It’s not fun to study things you really don’t care about. What is a blog? It’s a teaching platform that draws in the like-minded for community growth. You can read The Doe blog to take an example of a good blog, where you can publish anonymous stories.
However, if you’ve come through a rough time or have overcome a serious challenge in your life, the lessons you’ve learned are yours to share, so why not create a blog that makes room for others facing the problems that you have conquered? Your life as a teacher, break your echo chambers or at least a sharer of better news just like vietsn, could be the purpose of your blog.
Choose a Name
Once you know what you want to write about and why, you need to pick a name for your blog. Try to stay simple, and consider using alliteration to create something catchy. For example, if your blog is about putting together a great wardrobe and home with secondhand or frugal finds and your name starts with an “S” sound, your blog could be called “Stylings by Cindy” or Sally, Sarah, or Steven.
While working on your blog name, make sure that you’re also considering your logo. Your blog traffic could turn your writings into a business and an income stream. Creating your name in such a way that it can easily be turned into a logo and added to your blog page will save you design effort in the future.
Select a Web Hosting Company
To start, choose a cheap web hosting company. It’s possible to sign up for a year and get a package deal for around $10 a month. Once your blog starts making money, you may need to move up, but for now, do your best to keep costs low.
Be ready to make mistakes. Building your blog and launching it will not be a perfect process. Things will go wrong, and you will make choices that you wish you had avoided. You will also make mistakes that you will have to fix. Since that’s the best way to learn, act, screw thing up, fix them, and move on. The question of how to start a blog is all about getting your ideas on screen, in a format that will entice an audience, so you can get it in front of readers.
Pick a Platform
Again, choose your platform with an eye toward thrift now and expansion later. When working out how to start a blog, consider using WordPress, which has many free themes that you can use to start.
You already enjoy writing, or at least you understand the technical skills necessary. Getting your writing onto your blog in a perfectly readable format is another step in your skill-building process. The free themes may not have a great deal of flexibility, but once the posting process becomes automatic and your blog picks up an audience, you can update your look with a premium theme that costs a bit more.
Create Content
So what is a blog? It’s a space where you can share great ideas, answers to questions that many of us have faced, and the things in life that thrill you. If you love rehabbing old houses and are currently turning an old time capsule into a modern home, creating a list of what project is next can spawn a lot of tips to determine your next blog post topic.
If you’re building a life in spite of a health challenge, you may be able to turn reader comments into a new series for your blog. Being open to the comments of fellow crafters, writers, readers and anyone who is at least on the same body of water as you, even if you’re not all in the same boat, can be a wonderful way to generate new content that even more readers will enjoy and share.
Blogging can be a way to build an income. It can also be a terrific way to learn, to build community, and to share your expertise. Start simple and be thrifty. As your blog grows, you can invest more cash into your presentation. Get your ideas out there first.