Today, blogging has become one of the most popular topics and digital careers being pursued on the internet by millennials, it seems like a cool way of making money while at home and a true liberator from the cuffs of corporate monarchy and structural politics.
According to some statistics, there are about 500 million blogs on the web worldwide and it's estimated that over 30 million of them are from the U.S alone, that is massive! a huge jump in numbers since blogging started in 1994.
What Is A Blog?
A blog is a digital platform (website) on which any individual can write about personal opinions, activities, tutorials, reviews, news, and personal experiences which are shared on the internet for anybody to read.
There are seven (7) guides to follow if you want to create a blog.
Look for a perfect niche to blog about
Before you start a blog, you need to ask yourself, what are the things you are most interested in? what drives your passion or your imagination in life that you think you can capitalize on and follow that dream.
When you decide on your interests and passion, look for a connection or a niche that relates to them and use it as an anchor to drive your blog.
Looking for the right niche may not be an easy task, so I will advise you keep trying until you find the niche that works best for you, some niche may be very competitive and difficult to penetrate through while other are much easier, so while you are looking for a niche that relates to your interest you should also consider how well you will fare in them.
Let's look at some of the niches to consider;
- Weight Loss
- DIY
- Animals & Pets
- Passive Income
- Sports
- etc.
Choose a platform for your blog
People usually ask which platform is the best when it comes to creating a blog and that's a legit question because the platform you choose for creating your blog plays a big role in the blogging process of a blogger.
The quality of your blog, functionality, and user-friendliness will define how successful you become in the life of blogging, there are several platforms out there to consider for your blogging career, some are free and some are premium, it depends on your preference.
Like I said before there are several platforms to create a blog from, you can start with Blogger which is owned by Google, others include; WordPress, Hubspot, SquareSpace, Wix, etc.
Choose a domain name
Choosing a domain name for your blog is also equally important, the only way people can access your content on the web is through your domain name.
So the domain you choose is very important if you want to succeed in blogging. The name you choose must be a memorable one and must sell the services you are providing.
There are both free and paid services that allow you to create a domain name. Blogger, WordPress, and others have the option for you to create a domain name for free with no cost, the only restriction is that your domain name will include an extension of the platform's URL. Example; www.domainname.blogspot.com.
It is recommended for you to subscribe to the paid service as it establishes your blog as a real brand and improves its authority on the web, paid services may cost between $10 to $30 per year or annually, most domain services offers a 1-year free domain name when you buy their services. Get your domain name here.
Recommended quick domain search tool:
Get a hosting account
A hosting account is where your blog's domain name will be hosted on the internet for you, and therefore also very important for your blog.
The are several hosting services that are available on the internet but you need to consider the hosting service that will provide you with the best and most efficient service, taking into consideration the speed and quality of the hosting service.
To some extent, the performance and functionality of your blog will depend on the hosting service you employ, your blog needs to be available 24/7 for your potential visitors.
Blogger has its own hosting service for blogs who wish to have a custom domain at very affordable prices, the only downside is, it's not available to all countries at the moment, so check your country availability and see if you can subscribe to their service.
Alternatively, I will recommend Bluehost hosting service for your blog, it is widely used by many blogs, have a great hosting service with an affordable pricing regime.
Choose a theme design for your blog
Now that your blog has been created and is active, it's time to pick a theme for your blog, think of a theme like the way you paint and decorate your room or house after it's built, same applies here.
Mostly when you create your blog a default theme is applied automatically by your CMS but mostly they are attractive looking and have very basic design. They give you other alternative themes to choose from according to your preferences and taste.
There are two types of themes, the paid theme, and the free themes, I recommend using the paid option because they have very interesting designs, and are SEO optimized for better ranking on search engines.
Write and publish your blog content
At this stage, the only thing left for you to do is to write some content for your blog. Finding content for your blog can be a little challenging especially if you don't have enough material to write about a particular subject.
I will suggest you make a lot of research about the topic you want to blog about, look for materials online, interviews or other sources you think can help you put your content together.
After gathering sufficient materials together and you think you have enough information to write about, go ahead and write them in your blog post, remember to have a well-organized structure for your post, and also to use appealing fonts to make your work attractive to potential readers.
Optimize your blog for SEO
You can write one of the most beautiful blogs or content but if nobody gets to see it, it's just going to sit there ideal.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, search engines like google, bing, and others. One of the ways people are going to see your blog is through search engines, and as a result, you have to make sure you submit your blog to the appropriate platforms for your blog to appear on search results.
Platforms like Google Search Console allow your blog to be visible on google search results organically, you only have to connect your blog's URL to GSC and provide the sitemap for your blog.
If you looking forward to starting a blog, I hope this post has been helpful, leave a comment if you have any contributions or questions.
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