How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps

If you’re wondering how to start a blog and make money online, this in-depth post can guide you through the setup process step by step (to start a blog) so that you can have your new blog/ website up and running in no time!

Things have changed over the years in Blogging, and it’s more important than ever to start a blog in the correct way and lay a solid foundation for future blogging success. But please remember that the ultimate key to your blogging success is action. The most successful bloggers are the ones who do a whole lot more than the research.

This guide will show you how to start a blog in 10 easy steps, and I hope this extensive guide will help you create a successful blog. 

Let’s get started!

10 Easy Steps to Start a Blog

1. Pick a Blog Name (Domain name)
2. Choose a Blog Host (Web hosting)
3. Customize Your Blog
4. Protect Your Blog
5. Add Standard Blog Pages
6. Setup a Custom Blog Email Address
7. Register Social Media Accounts
8. Decide on a Blog Posting Schedule
9. Promote Your Blog
10. Make Money Blogging

Let’s dig into this.

Step 1: Pick a Blog Name (Domain name) – A Step to Start a Blog

Before you pick a name for your blog and register the domain name (URL), there’s something we have to talk about

Can I start a blog for free? (Choosing the best blog platform)

You have an idea, a topic, or you want a place to share your thoughts, but what is the best way to get started? 

Before we discuss which platform is best, it is essential to note that a blog hosted on WordPress.com is different from a self-hosted blog on WordPress.org. Yes, the names look very similar, but the options and limitations of each one are very other, so be sure to note which one we’re talking about as we discuss them below.

It’s tempting to choose one of the numerous free blogging platforms like WordPress.com or Blogger.com– everybody likes free, right?! But in this case, “free” definitely comes with some downsides.

With Blogger.com and WordPress.com blogs, you give up tremendous control and future flexibility by using a free blogging platform.

WordPress.com inhibits your ability to utilize display ads and various widgets, like those for giveaways and link parties. Google owns Blogger, and therefore Google can shut down your blog any time they see fit.

Blogger blogs can run ads, but they tend to earn less ad revenue than blogs of the same size self-hosted on WordPress.org. Some of these drawbacks may not seem like a big deal when starting. Still, they will hinder your blog down the road, and switching platforms once your blog is established is not always an easy process.

If you think you’ll be in this blogging thing for the long haul or would like to monetize your site at some point, we recommend starting with a self-hosted WordPress.org blog from the get-go.

WordPress.org is the standard in the industry, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. The number of tools, themes, add-ons, e-commerce solutions, designs, and marketing software options that work with WordPress.org is endless, allowing you to create a site (start a blog) that looks exactly the way you want and has all of the functionality you need.

Choose a blog name (Domain name).

Choosing a domain name for your new blog can be a challenge. You want to choose something unique that reflects what your blog will be about and something you’ll still love years down the road.

I like to use a simple free tool called Bust A Name when brainstorming domain names. With Bust A Name, you can type in some keywords you’re thinking of using, and it will come up with available combinations using those words. 

When brainstorming a domain name, here are some best practices:

• Use a “.com” domain when possible. There are quite a few successful “.net” and “.co” blogs out there, but “.com” is more the standard for blogs, and it’s easier for people to remember.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens in your domain name. Numbers confuse people because they never know if the number is spelled out when they hear the domain. The same is true for hyphens — it’s hard for people to remember.
• Short and memorable is preferable to long and descriptive. I know it’s tempting to try and use a bunch of words in your URL and explain precisely what your blog is about, but it’s not necessary.
• For many people, your name will make a great domain name.

Before making your final decision, it’s good to use a social media profile checker app like KnowEm. This will give you an idea about what social media profiles are available with a particular name.

Your preferred name won’t be available on many social networks. Don’t worry! You’ll be able to create a profile with a slightly modified name.

Note: If you still don’t have that perfect URL or domain name in mind, no worries, you can continue and complete step two.

Step 2: Choose a Blog Host (Web hosting) – A Step to Start a Blog

Purchase blog hosting and install WordPress.

It’s time to purchase your blog hosting (Web hosting). A hosting is where all the files and content associated with your blog will live. When readers type your new domain name into their browser, they will be shown content, articles, and pictures on servers owned by your hosting company.

An excellent hosting company is an essential part of your new blog. Your host is where your blog “lives,” where all of the important files for your blog are kept. If your host has problems, you have problems, so you’ll want to make sure you choose a host that has fantastic service and helpful customer support.

My conclusion (from first-hand experience) is that Bluehost is the perfect place for most people to start.

Bluehost is one of the small handful of hosting companies that WordPress recommends. It’s almost impossible to beat their level of hosting, customer support, and uptime reliability for the same inexpensive price. And, if you cancel within 30 days, Bluehost will give you a full refund.

Step 3: Customize Your Blog – A Step to Start a Blog

Here I assume that, now you have a blog name and blog host. After your purchase, Bluehost will setup WordPress for your website. You can also make changes or setup WordPress by self by visiting your cPanel. If you have any doubt, feel free to write in the comment section or message me on Facebook.

Next, to start a blog, we need to customize the look of the blog and add a few helpful features with WordPress plugins.

Choose a responsive WordPress theme.

After blog hosting, the next money you spend on your blogging journey should be on a custom WordPress theme. There are thousands of free WordPress themes; WordPress even comes with the official theme. As soon as you can swing it financially, I recommend starting with a premium theme that looks great out of the box with minimal customization.

With more and more blogs starting every day, quality design is becoming increasingly crucial to blogging success. A premium WordPress theme will help you get that professional look even as a new blogger.

I recommend Newspaper by TagDiv WordPress theme for your blogging website. As it’s a premium theme and have tons of features.

You can find some great themes on Envato Market

Install necessary WordPress plugins.

Now that you have your theme, it’s time to install a few essential WordPress plugins. Plugins are great because they allow you to add certain features to your blog without messing with any code.

On the negative side, though, the more plugins you have, the more potential issues (site speed, security, etc.). So while plugins provide great functionality to your blog, you’ll only want to install the ones you need. Here are a few that I use with every new blog setup:

1. Akismet. This is a plugin to reduce/eliminate spam comments.

2. RankMath SEO. The standard as far as a WordPress SEO plugin goes. It will help you quickly structure your blog posts to rank high in search results.

3. WP Rocket – WP Rocket is the most powerful web performance plugin in the world. It will instantly reduce your load time and boost your Google PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores. No coding skills needed

Note: See this section of my blogging resources article for a more extensive list of my favorite WordPress plugins.

Step 4: Website Analytics and Protect Your Blog – A Step to Start a Blog

This step will take care of some security and related analytic tasks. Please don’t skip this step! Your future self will thank you.

Setup Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools

There are a couple of boring-but-necessary Google-related tasks that you need to take care of when you set up your blog. The first is creating a Google Analytics account.

Google Analytics is the industry standard for website and blog traffic reporting. It can give you compelling insights into your blog traffic and site activity. I don’t recommend you spend much time learning the ins and outs of Google Analytics when you first start blogging, start a blog (you have more important things to do!). Still, creating your account and tracking your pageviews is necessary.

Don’t skip this — brands and potential advertising partners will routinely request your stats. They’ll want to see data specifically from Google Analytics.

If you have a custom email address with Google Apps, I recommend using that account with Google Analytics. If not, you can create a Google Analytics account with your Gmail login information.

Once you setup your free account, you’ll receive some tracking code that you need to insert into your website. This is super easy, so don’t worry! 

The second tedious Google task you need to take care of is creating a Google Webmaster Tools account and adding your site. This will tell Google to start paying attention to the content you post on your site and, over time, may help you to rank in Google for specific search terms.

There’s no need to mess around with all of the settings in webmaster tools, but you’ll want to add a sitemap to your account. A sitemap is a .xml file that makes it easy for Google to index your content.

The best way to create a sitemap is from right inside the RankMath SEO Plugin that you’ve already installed. Once you have your sitemap URL (ex: shivanithakur.com/sitemap_index.xml), you can add that URL to the sitemap section of your Google Webmaster tools account.

Pay attention to blog security.

New bloggers often overlook basic backup and site security needs. It’s better to take care of backup and site security at the start so that you don’t have to worry about those “worst-case scenarios.”

Why You Need to Back Up Your WordPress Blog

Let’s start with backup. It’s critical to have a daily backup of your site. You may think it would be rare for your hosting servers to lose your site entirely or for your blog to get deleted somehow. You’re right; it is rare. What’s more common is hacking attempts and malicious code infecting your site and all the thousands of various files. Your site isn’t technically lost, but it might as well be if you don’t have a backup or a good restore point.

Now we have two options: 

1) go through each file manually and remove the malicious code. This would have been a few weeks of full-time manual work. Who can afford that!?, or 

2) Restore the site from a “clean” or “virus-free” point.

Obviously, we chose the second option.

There are several reasonable backup solutions out there. 

Click to find some awesome tools

Don’t ignore WordPress security.

Cloudflare will improve your site in more ways than I can mention here, but one of its core functions is to improve site security. They pool all their customers’ collective knowledge and analytics to prevent automated hacking attempts and other malicious behavior that could wreck your site. You can learn more about Cloudflare’s security features in this article.

I recommend starting with this free account from day one of your blog. I can say that since using Cloudflare, we haven’t had any substantial security issues with any of our sites.

More than security, CloudFlare can make your site blazing fast! You can read more about improving site speed in my article here.

Step 5: Add Standard Blog Pages – A Step to Start a Blog

Before posting regularly and before your official “launch,” you need to create a few specific pages on your site. These are the pages everyone expects to see when they visit your site. As a new blog, it’s essential to convey a sense of legitimacy and trust. These pages can help with that.

Disclosure, Privacy, and Comment Policy

If you ever want to earn money from your blog, you’ll need some of these standard policies. Google requires them to be part of their Adsense program. Don’t overthink it, but make sure you comply with the law. 

An Amazing “About” or “About Me” Page

It’s been proven repeatedly that one of the most highly trafficked pages on your site by new visitors is your about page. People want to get to know you! They want to see the person behind the blog. Take some time to make this a fun, interesting, and engaging page on your site, and then link directly to it on your menu.

Contact Page

You want your readers (and eventually other businesses) to have an easy way to contact you. I recommend that you setup a dedicated “contact” page, either with an embedded form or just simple instructions on how to get in touch with you.

If you want to use an embeddable form for your “contact” page, consider using the free Contact 7 WordPress plugin.

Step 6: Setup a Custom Blog Email Address – A Step to Start a Blog

This step will teach you how to set up a custom email address to match your business name and the best services for collecting email addresses and building your list.

Create a custom email address with Google Apps.

Email is an essential but often overlooked part of your new blog. Pretty soon, you’ll want to email other bloggers, brands, and companies, and it’s necessary to have a professional, dedicated email address.

There are two options:

The easiest solution is to create a free Gmail account with your blog name. For example, [email protected].

That’s not a wrong solution, and many people can survive for years without a genuinely custom email address. But remember, when you start collecting an email list and sending out emails, you may want to have a professional and custom address to match your name.

The second option is to create a custom email address that matches your domain. An example would be [email protected].

The great news is that you can have a custom email address and still use the familiar Gmail interface… it’s called Google Apps for Business. I use it and love it! The only downside is that it’s not a free option, but at $5/month, it’s well worth the money.

To get your custom email address, go to google.com/apps and start. It walks you through the setup process.

The only confusing part is verifying your domain and adding the MX records. My favorite method for verifying the domain is adding a text record to your DNS (Google will show you how). For us, that means changing a few things in our Cloudflare account. For others, that means logging into your hosting account and editing the DNS zone file. While you’re in there, you’ll also want to add some MX records to your DNS zone file.

It’s not as hard as it sounds! Your domain registrar will likely have a tutorial created to walk you through the process.

Start collecting email addresses.

Why do I need an email list?

1. Traffic. Email is a very reliable way of driving traffic to your site. You can use email to inform new readers of your best old posts and encourage your subscribers to read your recent posts. Suppose you’re able to get a reader’s email address. In that case, you’re much more likely to turn them from a one-time visitor into a regular and loyal reader. Pinterest and Google are both essential traffic sources, but they are sources you don’t control. Your email list is yours.

2. Marketing. The email simply converts better than any other type of marketing (including social media). You may have no plans to sell something right now, but that day will eventually come, and you’ll be so thankful you have an email list.

Set up your email list.

Instead of the WordPress Jetpack plugin with an email subscriber option, I recommend opening a MailChimp account (free up to your first 2,000 subscribers!).

Other tools are (have some free guddies)

• Optin Monster
• Mail Optin

An important principle to use when growing your email list is offering your readers some incentive for handing over their email addresses. 

Step 7: Register Social Media Accounts – A Step to Start a Blog

In the early days of your blog, social media can be a big distraction. I recommend that you focus on building up one or two social channels at a time before spending time growing a presence on something else.

Create critical social media accounts.

Even if you don’t have the time to focus on all social media channels at once, it’s a good idea to get your names registered. I use Namechk to search and quickly find available usernames on the most popular social networks.

Step 8: Decide on a Blog Posting Schedule – A Step to Start a Blog

If all of the other steps up to this point were of normal importance, this step is of extremely high importance! You won’t have a successful blog if you’re not spending at least 75% of your “blogging” time writing and posting high-quality content, particularly when you’re first getting started. This is crucial, but it’s also the most challenging part. It’s hard to get into that creative mindset and write and publish even when you don’t feel like it.

Let’s talk about the ideal blog posting schedule.

When you first start your blog, you’ll want to build up a library of posts reasonably quickly so that readers have something to browse when they land on your site. Once you have 10-15 solid posts in place, it is a great time to develop a consistent posting schedule. Being consistent with your posts is much more important than the number of times you post per week.

When publishing on the same days and times each week, you become part of your readers’ routines, and they come to expect your new posts, which makes it easier to build up a loyal following. The number of times per week you post is up to you. Think about how many high-quality, helpful blog posts you can churn out consistently and make that number work for you.

The high-quality part is key! People are looking for posts that are helpful and relatable. Be sure to add tons of value for your readers in every post you write. Don’t be discouraged if your posts aren’t as pretty or polished as you’d like them to be right from the start. Blogging is one of those things that takes practice– bloggers get better over time!

If you have a moment, you should go back and look at the first posts of your favorite bloggers. Most likely, they are terrible! The difference between successful bloggers and those that fail is that successful bloggers stick with it. They spend hours and hours honing their craft and getting a little better each day. They show up and continue pressing “publish” while learning from their numerous failures. We have to stick with it and keep learning and improving to have that kind of success.

So what makes a quality blog post that others will love reading and sharing? There’s a lot of nuance to that question, but here are some thoughts:

What makes a quality blog post?

Be useful. It’s OK to interject yourself and your story into your posts, but primarily you are writing for someone else. Is what you wrote helpfully? Will what you wrote make someone’s life a little better?

Answer questions. Answer specific burning questions in your niche and give your perspective. You’ll be seen as a helpful resource for your readers.

Long posts are great. I’m always disappointed when a Pinterest image or a post title catches my eye, only to find out it’s a 250-word post with no depth. It’s OK to write long posts! Fluff isn’t good, but if your message needs 2,000 words, that’s OK! Don’t be afraid of long posts.

Headlines are key. Plan to spend at least 20 uninterrupted minutes brainstorming headline and title ideas. People decide to click or not click on your posts primarily based on your headline. Be careful not to fall into the trap of writing nothing but click-bait-type articles with headlines that promise the world content that doesn’t deliver.

Great post images are necessary for social traffic. Spend time making eye-catching Pinterest-sized images for each post. You don’t have to have Photoshop to do this! Look at free options like Canva and PicsArt. 

Tell stories. If it relates to the message you are trying to convey, share a personal story. If you do this, your readers will feel like they know you over time. They’ll have a personal connection to you, which will help you gain a loyal readership.

Create helpful resources. Think about the posts you’ve bookmarked and saved over the years. Chances are they were long guides or in-depth resources about a specific topic. Think about creating something like that in your niche. Think about the type of posts that readers will come back to repeatedly. These are the posts that keep on getting traffic month after month.

Solve your readers’ problems. Pay attention to what readers in your niche are struggling with. Notice what type of comments they are leaving on social media. Is there a common problem many of them face? Work hard to solve those problems, and the traffic will come.

From the beginning, I recommend that you keep a list of post ideas. You can do this in Evernote, a regular notebook, a Google Doc or spreadsheet, etc. If a post idea strikes you, take a minute to write down the statement. You want to have a bank of post ideas to turn to when you are not feeling creative.

Step 9: Promote Your Blog – A Step to Start a Blog

As a new blogger, it’s necessary to find a good balance between creating content and promoting content. It may look like 75% content creation and 25% content promotion in the early days. Over time as you build up a library of over 100+ posts, you may promote your content close to 50% of the time.

Promote your content.

Remember that the best promotion strategy won’t get you significant traffic if the underlying content is not helpful and exciting. Promotion is great for getting eyeballs to your site. Still, great content is what will turn a casual visitor into a loyal reader.

Here are some effective promotion strategies that have worked for us. These strategies are essential in the early days of your blog.

1. Build relationships with other bloggers.

Make a list of 5-10 other bloggers who are a little more established than you are. Commit to reading their posts and providing helpful comments. You can’t just say “great post!” and expect to get noticed. But over time, the blogger will see you if you leave kind and helpful comments.

Along with reading and commenting, commit to sharing their content on your social media accounts. Nothing says “thank you” like sharing a post on Facebook or Twitter. Over time, a few of the bloggers on your list will start to notice you and may even promote a few of your posts to their audience.

2. Join a community.

One of the best strategies for getting your name and blog out there is joining a Facebook or Slack group of like-minded bloggers. It takes some effort, but eventually, you’ll find your “tribe.” These are bloggers that you resonate with and enjoy interacting with. Finally, you’ll become friends with them, and when there is a collaboration opportunity, they may ask you to join in.

Please keep in mind that the way to get noticed in these communities is by being as helpful as possible. Don’t join a Facebook group and start posting links to all your content. Instead, answer questions and participate in the existing conversations. Posting links to your posts right away is like walking into a party and screaming, “Look at me! Look at me!”

3. Pinterest

For many bloggers, Pinterest is the largest source of traffic day in and day out. You’ll want to set up a Pinterest account for your blog as soon as possible and start pinning high-quality pins relevant to your blog’s niche.

Understand SEO basics.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an exciting topic. The idea is to highly optimize your posts to display near the top of Google search results for various keywords and phrases.

In my mind, there is legitimate SEO and also non-legitimate SEO. The non-legitimate SEO tries to find loopholes in Google’s search algorithm and then exploit those loopholes. Many times these strategies work for a while. Still, Google catches on and updates its algorithm and penalizes sites that use these strategies.

On the other hand, legitimate SEO strategies are just best practices for post formatting, keyword usage, and headline tags. If you’re focusing on creating quality content and writing easy-to-read posts that are helpful for people, SEO will fall into place. Your SEO needs can be accomplished with the fantastic and free RankMath SEO plugin for WordPress. Install it, understand it, and use it. That’s it!

Step 10: Make Money Blogging – A Step to Start a Blog

For the first few months you are blogging, your primary focus should be creating unique content and building relationships with other bloggers. Once you’ve settled into a routine and feel like this blogging thing is under control, you can consider earning some money or “monetizing” your blog.

How to make money from your blog (monetize)

1. Ad Revenue

Use Google Adsense or other ad networks to display ads on your site. To earn significant income, your traffic numbers must be high.

2. Affiliate Links

Promote various products on your site and earn an income if a reader clicks on one of your links and makes a purchase.

3. Sponsored Posts

Team up with a company and get paid to promote their products. Typically, you’re paid on a “per post” basis instead of affiliate links, which require you to make a sale to get paid.

4. Digital Products

This is potentially the most lucrative income category. Creating and selling your digital products is also the most time-consuming. Digital products include eBooks, courses, printable, paid webinars, and email courses.

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