5 Quick Tips To Help You Start Your Blog
Dreams of traveling the world with just a laptop and a credit card are, for now, only dreams. However, if you set yourself up to succeed, then those dreams stand a better chance of becoming a reality. Once you’ve done that, the only thing stopping you from blogging while traveling the world is you!
If you’re an absolute novice when it comes to starting a blog, then the first thing you need to know is how to get it online.
Select The Perfect Niche For Your Blog
Your niche is the subject you write about.
The more precise you are with your niche, the more chance you have of success. Some niches are far more popular than others, meaning more people read them, and you stand a better chance of someday making money out of it. But what if you know nothing about the top 10 niches in 2020?
If you don’t know about tech, digital marketing, finance or fashion, then, for now, forget about them. Instead, focus on what you do know, a passion you have, experience within a particular market; by doing so, you’ll have plenty to say.
Research Your Audience
OK, you’ve chosen your niche and you have a target audience, but now you need to dig deep and discover all of the pain points, the problems, solutions, and the highs and lows that your future audience has and feel.
Why so?
People want answers to their problems, solutions they can use, helpful advice, that’s why they read blogs, watch videos, and buy products. Your duty as a blogger is to provide them. Find out as much as you can about your audience before you post your first blog by hanging out with them online. Join Facebook groups, forums, Reddit, Quora, wherever they are, then look and listen for the most common issues.
And presto, you’ve got content for your first post.
Pick A Domain Name
Your domain name is what you’ll be known by online, it’s your unique address, how people will find you in the search engines and it’s your until you decide you don’t want to pay for it anymore.
It’s unnecessary to use a domain name that has an obvious connection to your niche. Most bloggers use their name, but if you can add relevancy after your name, all the better.
Domains generally cost between $10 and $15 per year. Ideally, you want to use a .com (dot com) domain, but if what you want isn’t available, there are other alternatives such as .me, .net, and you can also look at .org.
Choose Your Blogging Platform
Now you’re ready to build your blog, but first, you must choose your blogging platform.
My advice, use WordPress. It’s by far the most popular platform for bloggers and for good reason. It’s easy to use, has an endless number of plugins and add-ons so you can build, change, and expand your blog when needed.
However, there are others:
Tumblr – Easy to use and an excellent platform for social media bloggers.
Blogger – It’s in the name, built for bloggers but not quite as flexible as WordPress.
Choose A Theme That Suits Your Blog
Next, you need a theme. It’s the face of your blog, and the one you choose will determine its overall look. If you’re using WordPress, then you’ve got thousands to choose from.
Consider your niche when choosing one as it has to be compatible with your readers. You want it to feel familiar to them even if it’s their first time reading it.
Here are the most important things to consider:
Versatility – The theme must work on all devices.
Navigation – The set up must flow and make sense; readers must be able to find what they’re looking for with ease.
EyeCatching – Yeah, it has to look good too!
Get A Web Hosting Account
You’re nearly online! All that’s left is to choose which web hosting company to use.
Web hosting companies provide you with a server from which all internet traffic will find your blog. There are free options available, but it’s not recommendable as you won’t own the domain. Next, you can consider the best cheap hosting options available. You don’t need a cloud-based or dedicated server for your blog, and an inexpensive option will work just fine.
However, you still need to make sure it’s one and has plenty of adoring reviews as the functionality of your blog depends upon it. You want a reliable provider that can guarantee 99% uptime, regular backups, and 24/7 customer service with multiple options for contacting them if anything should go wrong.
