How To Start a Blog The Right Way

This page is for beginner bloggers who want to start a blog but don’t know what direction to take.

You’ll discover the tools and information on how to start a blog, drive traffic to it, monetize it, and make money.

If this is your first visit and you have not learned about the author of this blog, check out the About page to learn how I stumbled upon the word “blogging” in 2011 and started this blog in 2012.

Just in case!

Aside from that, let’s get your blog off the ground together. Then, we can move it onto the Internet so the world can see the changes you’re about to start.

The Research…

If you do a Google search for the phrase “how to start a blog, “You’ll have to choose between over 6 billion pages. 

Each shares their view on the subject and provides excellent resourceful materials for blog creation.

Mostly the practical side of starting a blog.

But Something is Going to be Different Here… What’s That?

Here, I will explain the theory behind creating a successful blog that is worth reading and loved by its users.

After that, I will share the tools and tasks needed to publish your blog online.

Ready? Let’s get started…

How to Start a Blog – Theory

What’s your blog’s purpose?

Ask yourself the following questions…

You need to answer these questions and more before you create your blog. Your answers will save you from starting a blog that will die prematurely.

And help you create a blog that will be useful for its intended users.

To answer these questions, you need a keyword tool like Rank Tracker.

Keyword Research Tool

Your instinct or self-validation is insufficient to provide accurate answers to these questions.

For instance, you know yourself and are sure of the knowledge, skills, services, or goods you’re bringing to the market.

Providing the best answers to all these questions is impossible without an SEO tool. While you can use AI to complete some of these tasks, keyword tools will give you deeper insights and data-driven reports.

SE Ranking and SEO Powersuite are the two most reliable, cost-effective SEO tools I use and recommend. You can download SEO Powersuite for free or sign up for SE Ranking’s 14-day free trial.

Read my complete review here to learn more about SEO Powersuite and how it can help you build a better blog and achieve growth.

What’s Your Passion?

Some experts or internet gurus will tell you to start your blog based on passion.

Well, that’s partially the correct answer.

But passion alone isn’t enough to start a profitable blog business in today’s competitive marketing world.

You can read why your passion isn’t the best way to start a blog today.

Sometimes, a service or good is very highly demanded, but surprisingly, people are unwilling to pay for it. This is because most people who demand it want it for FREE.

The main point here is to research your target market before you start a blog.

This is necessary so you don’t waste your time, energy, resources, and money on a topic people care less about.

What is a Domain Name?

If the words “domain name” and “hosting” are confusing, you don’t understand their meaning or purpose. Here is a short and clear understanding of the terms.

A domain name is “your chosen blog name.” Your blog’s URL address will be called or identified on the Internet.

This name is what people will type into their browser address bar to locate your blog’s homepage and to access its inner pages and posts.

Call it a house address or phone book contact name.

What is Web Hosting?

In layman’s terms, hosting is the space or parcel of land on which you will build your blog so that it becomes visible on the Internet.

As a parcel of land is needed for a building, hosting is necessary for a blog/website.

I hope that’s clear.

If you need more information on this, you can contact me. I’m here to help.

You can also read more about the differences between hosting and domain names on this page.

Setting Up Your Blog

These are the steps to follow to get your blog running online.

Let’s walk through each step one after the other…

Register a Domain Name

Registering your domain name is the first step to getting your blog ready for online use. The next step is purchasing hosting services from a reputable web hosting company.

Many web hosting companies are online, but few are worth the salt.

NameCheap is the ideal web hosting company and domain name registrar I recommend for beginners. This blog was once hosted on the EasyWP NameCheap server before moving to a more reliable and faster web host – Cloudways.

I migrated to Cloudways when my site traffic and resources demanded a higher hosting plan.

As of the time this report was written, NameCheap’s shared hosting plans cost only $2.18 monthly. You can also get started with EasyWP-managed WordPress hosting for only $1 for the first month.

The table below lists our top web hosts and each web host’s trial offer and discount sale.

Installing a WordPress Blog on Your Domain

Here, I will assume you purchase hosting from NameCheap.

So, I will use the NameCheap cPanel to show how it’s done. Most hosting companies’ cPanels are the same or operate similarly.

After your purchase and order confirmation, you will receive a welcome message through the email address you entered during registration. 

This welcome email message contains login information for your hosting cPanel account.

Here is what a typical NameCheap shared hosting cPanel looks like.

All the tools you need to build your blog are available in your cPanel.

Locate the Softacolus App Installer section and click WordPress from the script options. Then, follow the instructions to download WordPress on your root directory.

The process is straightforward and requires no assistance. However, if you need help, you can contact Namecheap support, and they will assist you.

Choose a WordPress Theme

The option you take here is for you to decide.

Use the free themes at the WordPress.org repository if you’re on a tight budget.

But if you know what you’re doing, want to be different and professional, and have the budget, I advise you to pick a premium theme such as Astra Pro.

Astra Pro is a versatile WordPress theme that effortlessly creates incredible website designs. It also comes with starter templates that allow you to create stunning website designs using demo sites and content.

You can read my review of the Astra theme to learn more about it.

Next, start designing your blog. As a beginner, you might struggle to settle for a WordPress theme.

While growing up as a blogger, I spent most of the first six months switching from one theme to another.

It is a beginner’s sickness; don’t drown in it.

You should just pick a theme and get on with it. As you grow older in blogging and internet marketing, you’ll discover your voice and find a theme that suits your needs.

Besides, you can use a free AI website builder like ZipWP to design your blog without coding.

This AI website creator takes a few business descriptions from you, such as your business name, target audience, blog purpose, and niche keywords, and uses the information to generate a complete website design with unique content in less than 60 minutes.

This allows you to scale the blog creation process and jump into creating content for your blog.

How to Create Content For Your Blog

Mostly, blogging is about creating helpful content that your audience loves reading.

If you’re not publishing the right content your audience wants to read, everything falls flat right from the gate, no matter how great your blog design is.

You lose!

Learn how to write captivating words your audience will never ignore. The headline draws attention and invites clicks.

Writing is an art. The more you practice with it, the better you get at it.

Everyone fails the first time. So don’t be afraid if you’re not a good writer or have nothing to write about.

The more you read about your industry and get involved in relevant communities, the easier it becomes to put down amazing stories that your audience will find helpful.

Imagine for a moment…

I was once a complete novice to Internet marketing some years ago before starting this blog in 2012. Look at me now, standing in front, teaching you how to start a blog.

Amazing, right?

You can achieve a lot if you’re ready to pay the price, burn candles at night, and take risks.

Writing is all about creativity and experiences. Experiences come at the back of years of hard work, testing, errors, victories, losses, etc.

Now, let’s break down how to create content that drives traffic, converts, and helps you build your business.

If you’re unsure where to start, follow this simple process to create blog content, even if you have no prior knowledge.

Step 1: Pick a Topic You Like

Before you start writing, decide what your blog will be about. Choosing a topic you enjoy will make the process easier and more sustainable. 

Whether it’s technology, fitness, travel, or personal finance, having a niche helps you stay focused and attract the right audience.

AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini can suggest ideas if you’re struggling to pick a topic. Simply type, “Give me blog topic ideas about [your interest],” and you’ll get a list of potential topics.

Step 2: Find Out What People Want to Read

Writing about a topic you enjoy is great, but ensuring that people are interested in reading it is equally important. One way to do this is to research what people are searching for online.

You can use many tools for this process, such as Google Trends, Google Autocomplete, and keyword analysis tools.

Another approach is to use AI tools like SurferSEO or ChatGPT to discover common questions and trending topics. To get useful insights, you can ask, “What are common questions beginners ask about [topic]?”.

Once you get a list of content ideas, the next step is content planning and strategy. 

Step 3: Plan Your Blog Post

Before writing, it’s helpful to create an outline. This keeps your article structured and easy to follow. A simple blog post outline looks like this:

Using AI can speed up this step. If you need help structuring your post, ask ChatGPT to “Create a blog post outline about [your topic].”

The more you learn to use AI to manage your blogging process, the faster you can scale growth and productivity and experience results. 

Step 4: Write Your Post (The Easy Way)

Many beginners struggle with writing, but AI tools can help in two ways. You can either write a rough draft and use AI to improve it or let AI generate a first draft and edit it to sound more natural.

To get started, you can prompt an AI tool with, “Write a beginner-friendly blog post about [topic] in simple language.” 

Actually, that’s a weak and simple prompt. You’ll need to learn how to craft better prompts that get AI to generate better outputs. 

However, it’s important to review and personalize the content. AI-generated text can serve as a foundation, but adding your own voice and experience makes the post more authentic.

Step 5: Make It Easy to Read

People prefer simple, well-structured blog posts. Long paragraphs and dense text can discourage readers. To keep your content readable:

AI can also assist with editing. Tools like Grammarly check grammar and readability, while Canva helps design your blog’s images or social media graphics.

Step 6: Publish and Share Your Blog Post

Once your blog post is ready, publish it on your website and share it with your audience. Promoting your content increases its visibility and helps you gain readers.

Some effective ways to share your blog post include:

AI can also help create engaging social media captions. If you’re unsure what to write, ask ChatGPT, “Write a Twitter post to promote my blog about [topic].”

Creating blog content as a beginner doesn’t have to be difficult. AI tools can help generate ideas, structure posts, write drafts, and even improve readability. 

The key is to start and refine your process over time. With practice, you’ll gain confidence and develop your own writing style.

Using AI doesn’t replace your creativity; it enhances it. The more you experiment with AI-powered tools, the easier content creation will become.

However, don’t rely on AI to write your entire post. Use AI to assist your process and writing task. Your audience wants to hear from you and learn from your real-world experience.

Everything is in the Marketing

The success of your online marketing is heavily tied to two things: 

The two are needed to achieve significant results in your online business. If one is lacking, the other will suffer and won’t yield the maximum expected results. 

You need effective content distribution channels to market your helpful content regularly.

There is no one-size-fits-all here; your choice of distribution channels will vary. Depending on your blog topics and audience, Facebook and Twitter are the default options for most industries.

You must keep testing different communities to see where your audience gathers the most.

It is an ongoing exercise as there will always be a need to increase customer/reader databases.

How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

You can drive traffic to your blog or landing pages at no cost if you’re ready to give it all that it takes (time and energy).

Alternatively, you can employ the services of traffic agencies that help with content marketing. This process involves money; you pay others to market your content.

If you have the money and resources, this route can quickly grow the blog’s popularity, unlike trying to do it all yourself.

There are advantages you gain from marketing your content yourself. You learned a lot in the process. You know what works and what doesn’t. And in the future, it pays to teach others from your experience.

One piece of advice I want you to take to heart is this…

Don’t attempt to be everywhere marketing your content.

You’ll only get burned out quickly (especially if you do everything yourself). Spreading your marketing resources across too many advertising channels won’t help you grow faster.

Instead, concentrate on two or three marketing channels at most.

Put everything you have into making these marketing channels work for you. Test everything possible before moving on to another. Should, in case you can’t find your sweet spot over there.

At least give each marketing channel three to six months before deciding whether it suits you. Don’t waste time on traffic techniques that don’t yield a meaningful result.

If a traffic technique produces the required result, continue using it; if not, try another traffic tactic.

Track and Measure Your Progress

Something significant here is that you should always measure your progress with analytics tools like Google Analytics, which is free to use.

Don’t judge website traffic value by your instinct or imagination.

Don’t confuse vanity metrics, such as a spike in traffic, blog comments (though they are valuable for some bloggers), page views, etc., with essential metrics, such as return on investment (ROI). That’s what matters.

It doesn’t matter how many people subscribe to your newsletter daily, how many comments there are on each blog post, or how many millions of page views there are per day.

If you’re not making profits on your investment in bringing all these metrics to their current level, you’re not in business.

Take a moment to read this article to learn some proven strategies to market your brand-new blog effectively without spending money on advertising.

Make Money From Your Blog

While the core focus of everyone who starts a blog is to make money from it, you’ll only make it if you provide valuable services and attract plenty of relevant visitors.

You must cover many fundamental grounds and execute them correctly before money can be made from your blog. Money is a by-product of the value you offer your blog users.

You’ll receive no money in return if you offer your blog users no tangible value. It’s simple.

With that said, let’s explore a few ways you can monetize your blog for BIG money.

How to Make Money Blogging

Since you’re starting with this crazy thing called “blogging,.” I’m going to discuss two blog monetization methods:

Affiliate marketing and contextual advertising – also known as cost-per-click advertising.

These two are the most accessible and comfortable ways beginner bloggers can make money from their blogs.

The other blog monetization methods listed require expertise, experience, knowledge, resources, energy, time, and money to yield the best return on investment.

You don’t have these criteria now, so don’t worry about those monetization methods.

Let’s focus on these two: Affiliate Marketing and Contextual Advertising.

First, I suggest you start with contextual advertising companies like Google Adsense, Info Links, Bidvertisers, Adbrite, etc.

Don’t worry about the term “contextual” for now. You’ll get used to it as you grow in internet marketing.

What is Contextual Advertising?

For clarity, contextual advertising is a way of ads serving on a web page based on the page’s topic, user search phrase, keywords, etc.

It attempts to make ads serving on a web page more relevant to the user and encourage a higher click-through rate.

Your job as a content publisher is to provide valuable and engaging content for your blog users and drive massive traffic to your blog.

This type of blog monetization method heavily depends on traffic volume.

The more people visit your website, the more potential revenue from contextual advertising.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is my favorite on the list.

Your job as an affiliate marketer is not to sell…No!

Your job as an affiliate marketer is to pre-sell the products or services to the customer. Write an honest review of the products or services on your website, email your list, make a special announcement, etc.

You get paid a predefined commission when a sale is made through your unique affiliate tracking ID. ShareASale is my favorite affiliate marketing company.

You will find over 4,000 relevant products and services to promote to your audience.

It is as simple as that!

Summary: How to Start a Blog

In this post, I have given you the information you need to start your blog on the right path to success.

If you follow the advice on this page, you’ll be one step closer to building your dream blog. I have used every tool mentioned here to build the blog you’re reading.

So, what you’re given on this page is practical experience, not fiction.

Meanwhile, you can subscribe to the blog newsletter to avoid missing out on our future announcements. The sign-up form is placed on the blog homepage or sidebar.

To your success.