How to start blogging for beginners. If you are thinking of starting a blog as a beginner, you are in the right place. I will show you how to start blogging for beginners.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. For full disclosure, read here
There are a few steps you need to start a blog. The very first one is to create a mindset where you can take action.
Sometimes you just go on perfecting something and not take action. Creating a perfect blog is one of those tasks. You will not become perfect on anything until you start. Taking action is the most important aspect of anything.
Never forget, Practice makes a man perfect
1. Create a mindset
Mindset is everything. When you have clear goals and determination to conquer those goals, you are on the right path.
We hear many motivational stories like somebody who lost their legs but conquered the Mount Everest. Their determination and healthy mindset play the most prominent role.
The simple rule of Conceive, perceive, and achieve comes into action.
Instead of perfecting everything else, create a mind to start a blog and make it successful.
2. Choose a topic
Everything starts with an idea. Blogging is not different, so if you are looking for something to start, you need a topic or niche. You can create a blog on anything or everything.
If you are looking for making money from a blog, you have to pay attention to your niche because some niches have better money-making prospects than others. Some people say you should start a blog in a niche you are passionate about. Some say it otherwise.
I think that a little bit of everything is required. You can start a blog about the topic you have knowledge about, even if you are less passionate about it.
Writing on the topic, you are knowledgable about is a lot easy. You can expand on your knowledge as you go.
In this Venn diagram, you get the idea of how you can start something in between. You should have a passion as well as you should be able to make money.
Blog topics that are suitable for making money even now.
3. What do you want from your blog
This one is crucial to your overall blogging success. Be clear about what you want from your blog. Your goals will change as you grow, but be sure about your short term goals.
Your goals may be to drive traffic to your online store, growing your email list, making money with affiliate marketing. You may have a different purpose, but having goals will help you develop better.
If at any time you find that your success is not aligned with your goals, you can change your path and make adjustments on the way.
If your goal is to make money, take that path and be sure of growing from there.
4. Register your name
I think you have chosen a blogging niche for your blog. This is the time to register your blog name. First, you have come up with a blog name. There are many ways to create a blog name. You can create a blog name yourself by joining some creative names.
Your blog name should be easily memorable and should have easy spellings.
5. Start self-hosted blog
So, you have registered your blog name and ready to start a self-hosted blog. You can create your blog on a free domain, but it is not recommended.
Building a blog is a lot of work, and If you are thinking of not spending a dime on your blog, then you will not be able to start a professional blog. A self-hosted blog gives you total control over your blog.
Sign up with Bluehost and get your blog running on as low as $2.85/mo.
How to start a blog on Bluehost
after signing up, you just need a few more steps to download WordPress on your blog.
6. Choosing a theme
You will need a theme for your blog to give it a beautiful look. There are a few points you should remember when choosing a theme,
- It should be responsive
- Have good navigation
- Should be clutter-free
There are many themes out there in the market, and be vigilant about while choosing a theme. I personally use Studiopress themes and love them. They are on the genesis framework. If you are a coder, you can create a child theme yourself, but if you are a non-techy person, you will need a theme.
I also love blue chick themes, as they are very feminine.
You can check bluchic themes here.
7. plugins for blog
I assume that you have started your blog by now, and you are ready to take further action. After installing the theme on your blog, begin installing Plugins. There are thousands of plugins on the WordPress directory, but you don’t need them all.
Actually, you need only a few of them for the proper functioning of your website.
Find out more about the only plugins you need
8. Plan your content
There are so many things you have to do as a newbie blogger. Don’t get overwhelmed with all these tasks. Take them one by one. To make your life easy, plan, and organize everything.
Have a plan for how my posts you want to publish each month. Just have a schedule, whether it is once a week or twice a week, stick to the plan.
I know life comes in the way, and sometimes we cannot stay on our regular posting schedules, keep your blog posts scheduled in advance. It will give you enough time to work on other aspects, and you will have peace of mind.
9. Start writing blog posts
Excited to write your first blog post? Do you have some ideas, or are you staring on a blank screen?
Write your first introductory post on how you will be solving a few of the problems faced by your audience. You may have some ideas about who may benefit from your blog.
There is a step of creating an avatar for your blog. An avatar is one of the audiences of your blog to whom you will refer to while making a blog post.
For example, if you have started a blog in the parenting niche. You may be considering to write about specific parents. For example, if you are writing for new mothers and newborns.
Think about the problems new mothers faces. How can you help them come out of those problems? Write about all of the issues new parents face and how your blog will help them find solutions to the problems.
Your introductory post should be to tell your audience what you will be doing for them.
How many posts you need before publishing your blog?
There are different opinions about the number of posts you will need before you make your log public. Kristie from kristiehill.com says that you should only have 4-8 blog posts.
This will help you in figuring out what you exactly want to write about. Before creating a lot of content, have a look if your audience resonates with your blog posts or not.
Some others say that you should have at least 10-20 posts before you publish your blog. So, there are mixed opinions. I personally feel you should have at least 10 blog posts before you publish your blog. The reason is you don’t know SEO and will use Pinterest to drive traffic.
And Pinterest loves fresh content. Having a few blog posts will help you stay in control, and you will have time to take on other blog-related tasks.
10. Traffic generation
Traffic is the most critical aspect of the blog. If you don’t have any traffic, you will struggle a lot. Everything else starts with having eyeballs on your blog posts.
There are many ways to start getting traffic.
- Google ( organic traffic)
- Social media
Google traffic is a bit complicated in the beginning, but as you grow and implement strategies, it will be a bit easier to start getting Google traffic. You have to learn SEO and make changes along the way.
Never ignore SEO and start learning from day one.
Social media
Getting traffic from social media is a bit tricky. Because you go on social media with a different mindset. When you are Facebook, you are more interested in checking with your friends. Similarly, you go to Instagram to look at beautiful pics.
But Pinterest is different. When you go to Pinterest, you go there to get the idea of something or to plan something. It is an amalgamation of search engines and social media.
People make purchases by getting an idea from Pinterest. So you can get a lot of traffic from Pinterest.
How to start a Pinterest account and get traffic
11. SEO for beginners
SEO stands for search engine optimization. If you follow the correct SEO, it can help you get to the first page of Google. I love SEO but don’t have much knowledge about it.
But I am learning about it. I have bought a few courses, and I love this blog about Google SEO. This blog is from an SEO expert.
Even then, there are a few things you should do on your blog, and it is on-page SEO. On-page SEO helps your content to be suitable for not only search engines but also for readers,
- Write your blog posts in a format.
- Break into headings, start withH1, H2 nad then subheadings in H3.
- Add images and write Alt attributes with the main keyword.
- Use Yoast SEO plugin, which will help in basic SEO
- Write your primary keyword at the end of the post.
- Sprinkle your keyword and related keywords in between the post
- Interlink your content
These are just a few, and there is a long list of tasks that you should do for on-page SEO, but practicing them will help you remember everything. After a few posts, you don’t have to struggle to carry it. You will naturally follow these rules.
This will help you in creating content which you will not regret later. If you have the blog post permalinks written the correct way, you can update your content later if you find some discrepancies.
Making money from your blog: Blogging for beginners
Now comes the fun part of making money from your blog. If you have traffic on your blog, you can definitely make money. Making money should not be a big deal if you have other things in place. There are many ways to make money from a blog.
1. Advertising
Advertising is the easiest way to make money. But it is difficult to make a lot of money from ads. You need thousands of page views to make a good income from ads.
There are many companies to get ads on your blog.
Google AdSense: Google Adsense is easy to get in, but the pay rate is not that good. Your domain should be a few months old, and you can sign up with Google Adsense. There is no limit on Pageviews or sessions.
Monumetric: Monumetric requires you to have at least 10,000 pageviews before getting signed up with them.
Mediavine: Mediavine is one of the premium ad companies that require you to be at 50,000 sessions( not pageviews) before signing up. Earlier it was 25000, but now they have increased the threshold.
Also, most of the traffic should come from the United States and English speaking countries.
Adthrive: This one is similar to Mediavine in requirements but needs 100,000 sessions for getting signed. They are highly selective about the blogs they work with. And thrive is by Cafemedia publishers. One more important point is that your account should be in good understanding with Google.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing can be beneficial if you have a very engaged audience. The best part is that you can don’t have to create a product to start affiliate marketing. But getting your affiliate marketing game right takes some time.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you like a product and recommend that product in your blog posts. When someone buys the product through your link, you get paid the compensation for referring that person to the product.
As a beginner, it is difficult to drive sales and get paid, but as you build confidence and start working on your links, you will begin getting spent affiliate money.
If you want to learn affiliate marketing, I highly recommend this course. It is suitable for beginners as well as intermediate persons. This course is from Michelle of Makingsenseofcents, who is making $50,000/mo with affiliate marketing.
3. Creating digital products
Digital products are considered a great way to add an income source to your blog. Many bloggers are making money from there blogs because they started there digital marketing early in their blogging journeys.
One f my favorite is Ana Skyes from Thesheapproach.com. She says that she created her digital products in the early stages of her blogging. Though she didn’t make much money in the beginning, she gradually got successful with her digital products.
And believe me, her products are fantastic. Her Pinterest ebook is incredible for new bloggers for generating traffic. You will learn all the ins and outs of Pinterest from this ebook.
4. Services through your blog
Your blog is just the marketing tool, and you can start so many things from there. Providing services is one of them. If you want to offer some services, you can create it in the early stages of your blogging.
Services like
- Freelance writing
- Social media services
- Virtual Assistant services
- Email marketing
- Admin or bookkeeping
- Editing and proofreading
Depending on your expertise or skill, you can start providing services to clients.
5. Sponsored posts
I haven’t done it yet, but sponsored posts are a great way to add an income source. Some people are killing it with sponsored posts. Kelan and Brittany Kline from Thesavvycouple is one of them. Their income reports clearly state that they make a fair amount of their money from sponsored posts.
These are the steps that will help you grow your blog as a beginner. I hope you will be able to increase your blog successfully.
A request
Please share this post as it will help me as well as somebody who want to start their blog.
Gursimrat
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