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There is hardship in earning from your regular sectors, the online medium can serve the most. Here you can turn out to be a real-time hero with your excellent knowledge about products, about services, and about anything, which is your niche. A blog here can serve the most for you, where you can make a proper earning with the help of ads, affiliate programs, and even by marketing your products if you have any.

Keeping that in mind, you must be wondering about how to start off your blog. With WordPress and the hosts at your fingertips, this is not at all an issue for you. The thing you need here is just a step by step guidance of setting up your blog. Once you have that you can do the essentials on your own and can run your show on your own.

How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps

As you need to learn the setting up of your blog, here are the major 10 steps with details of your activities that you need to do. Go through the details of the steps and set up your blog today itself.

1. Choose Your Blog’s Niche

It is essential to decide the niche of your blog before you move your project a single inch. It is the niche alone that is going to bring the traffic to your blog and is going to make it a boom. Now, what should be the niche of your blog? Have you decided it yet?

If not decided till now, here are some guides for you:

If you have some product to sell through your website and you need a blog for the SEO support of the same, then there can be no other choice than to choose that product itself as the niche. For example, if you are having an app related to medicine selling online, then your blog must have to be in the niche of medicine itself so that the viewers can be redirected to the app store, as they follow the backlinks of your blog. Like that, depending on the product of yours, choose the niche.
If the blog is meant for knowledge sharing, then nurture your mind and your information desk. It is based on the information itself and the knowledge you have that you will have to get through the blogs. You will be continuing with your niche for a long time and hundreds of blogs will be kept erected on that niche itself. Hence, you must have to have ample knowledge and information related to the niche.
The third and final thing that you will have to look out is the trend of the viewers. You are running the blog for getting more viewers and you can have that only when you provide knowledge or information on the sector, where the viewers are searching a lot.

Keeping the three things stated above, deep research is what is needed to select your niche. The research must include the idea about the traffic concentration and also about the knowledge that you have with you.

2. Choose the Right Blogging Platform

Choosing the right blogging platform is the thing that you will have to give a deep concern, as you select your niche. It is the blogging platform that is going to give you the designing support of your blog page. Not only designing, but each of the blogging platforms also has its own SEO, and hence there remains some traffic already with it. Better your choice of blogging platform better will be your blog’s exposure to the viewers.

To decide the right platform, there are so many things other than the two that has been mentioned above –

Check the number of users and the server speed of the platform
Check the uptime of the server, provided by the blogger
Also check the utilities that the blogger is providing, as without those you will have to invest a lot in creating interfaces or designs.
The last thing to be checked here is regarding the possibilities and hazards to handle the domain of your blog and the DNS service that is related to them.

Based on the above things, you can decide the right platform for your blogging. Ensure while choosing the same that you will get ample support in designing getting more traffic and also get help in handling the domain, host, and server.

3. Choose a Domain Name

Choosing the domain name is the next task that you need to do. It is the domain name that refers to your blog. The domain name must be exclusively selected according to your niche and must also be unique and easily searchable.

More searchable your domain is, better will be your optimization with search engines and hence, your portal is also going to be popular rapidly.

However, here too there is much need for proper research. You will have to look after the proper domain name with different hosts at the yearly charge that you think is the best fit for you. Hence is the need to check out the same with different portals and then come out with some decision.

Many a time your domain name remains unique and you find it available with multiple extensions, but the domain name availability is not everything. Remember one thing that the users who will be going through your blog must easily type the domain name on the web to get you. It is quite obvious that they will not subscribe to your portal on the first day of their reach. Hence the domain name must be such that they can easily reach you the second time.

4. Purchase a Web Hosting Plan

The fourth activity that you need to do is to have a hosting plan for you. Your host plan must be providing you ample things that you need for your smooth blogging experience. Some of the things that you need to take care of here are:

There is the server space that you need for putting your media arranged for your blog. There are different things that are to be arranged with the same.
So, take an account of the space inside while choosing the hosting plan. Also, take an account of the themes that will be accessed with the plan. Better the theme access, more will be the ease to select your designs.
Also, connect the DNS server and check the uptime and other things that will boost up your portal.

In one word, a web hosting plan is what you need for your blog to become a perfect hit. With a proper hosting plan, you are going to ensure the high-end traffic and smooth run of your blog.

5. Set up WordPress CMS

This is the part where you need to fix all the server related issues. You will be fixing the add-ons and will also be setting up all the essential coding or the call for action in the blog of yours. Connect your social media networks, your analytics, and even fix the DNS.

Here you might also go for the SSL certificate, which is essential for your blog if you have placed any of the things like PayPal payment or any bill desk in the site.

The CMS program is going to help you in setting up the sharing options of your content on the different platforms, the font settings, and all other things that you need to do with your media and writings. In one word, the entire content management is compiled in this record.

This is the area where you can customize your –

Categories and sub-categories – This is the section that is dealt with separately by the analytics and each of the category names is dealt like that of a keyword. Hence, focus there and shape your categories in the perfect style, so that you can get the most out of your blog pages and contents.
Tags – these are the things that can be additionally used as categories and keywords. While dealing with the analytics, you will find that the tags are dealt with separately and they also are treated like that of keywords. Hence, if you feel that you will not put too many keywords in your blog contents, then you can use these categories and tags as your essential substitute for the keywords. They will work even more than that of the keywords.

In the CMS section, you will thus be managing the keywords in the perfect style and hence will be boosting up the SEO ranking of your pages and the contents to a great level. You can also use multiple plugins for the purpose too.

6. Pick Your Blog’s Theme

This is one of the major things or steps that you can regard in your blog setup. If you have chosen WordPress as your blogging site, then you will get hundreds of free themes, hundreds of free themes that come with paid plans, and even some excellent paid themes. Each of the themes is explicit and elaborating, and that is not everything – you can choose the perfect theme that adjusts with your blog niche and presentation style.

Each of the themes includes different navigation styles and different blogging styles. Sharing icons, comment boxes, and even the feed set up or search panel customizations are there in each theme. The most important thing here is the need of yours. If you are going for some blog that is meant for customizing the setup of your product pages, then you need a differentiated navigation style or blog updating mode. If you are looking for some travel website, then the requirement is different and you can accustom that with some excellent themes or if you are simply going for some blogs, then also there are ample options to help you do so.

So, according to your need go for the right theme, as themes make the blog more and more exclusive for you and for your viewers.

7. Install WordPress Plugins

In case you are going with WordPress, there are thousands of plugins that you can access. There are hundreds of plugins for social networking, which can improve the sharing of your blogs on different platforms. There are glossary items, which can help you make your website outstanding, especially when you are including thousands of terms in the portal.

Plugins also include blog copying, category creation, landing page creation, search engine creation, separate blogging tools for mobile and desktop, subscribing tools, browser notification tools, and many others. Each of the plugins is going to give your blog a different taste and you can have them included to make your texts perfectly reachable to your viewers.

There are also plugins that are going to help you shape your content suitable for SEO. There you will find the readability score, SEO score, and many others. Finally, there are different tools, using which you can create an exclusive gallery and slideshows. You can even include full-screen videos form the feeds of YouTube or Vimeo. And even can find a feed from other blogs and put the same on your portals.

In one word, when you go for the WordPress plugin store, there is nothing that you cannot do, and the best things are that there you will not need any help from any of the coders. All the plugins are pre-coded and hence you will not need to have any knowledge about coding anyway. However, if you are looking to customize the plugins, then you might need to go for the coders.

With the plugins, you can edit your blogs from the c-panel and can also allow the users to edit them from the front-end. Other than that, at the backend, you can also find the support of plugins in getting the feeds of analytics, email marketing, and many other things. Hence, just get to the plugin store and you will have so many options that you will be certain to put up your blog in the most professional way, without the help of any web developers or designers.

8. Setup the design of the blog

Designing your blog is the next thing that you will have to do. There is no need of knowing any sort of coding for that. You have the theme with all the tools provided for you, with the footer, with the read next options, with the navigation tools, and with the related articles extensions.

You have the plugins for you to customize your landing page, your normal pages, your slides, and also to manage your glossaries and your social networking and search panels. Now is the time to manage all these and exclusively design your blog main page, landing pages, and other things. Here are some of the tips for your aid –

While designing the landing page, do not make them too much congested with blog feeds. Rather put the category wise blog feeds with the help of certain plugins. This will help you reach your viewers easily with the latest blogs of your different categories. In case you are dealing with multiple niches, this is much more effective than anything else.
On your landing page, you can take the feed of the latest 10 blogs and run a slideshow with the header images of the same and also the summary of the blog. This will be a perfect way to expose your latest activities to your viewers.
You can even put the most popular posts as a slide on the landing page, with a count of the views for each of the posts. This is a kind of marketing of your blog, without any sales statement.
Also put a proper search window for the viewers, so that they can grab the thing they need with the help of those. However, while you put that, make sure that you have placed the tags well, as the search will be made with the reference of the tags itself.
In the blog main pages, make the summary and excerpt of the blogs well enough, as this is the part that will be exposed in the social media sharing of the blogs and also in the feed of the blogs when you place them on the home or landing page. Noteworthy here is that they will also be placed on the search lists. So, take care of the same.
In the blogs, try to put the designing different for desktop viewers and mobile phone viewers. If you have done so, put off the option of the AMP view in case you are working with WordPress. If you are not going for a different exposure for different devices, then go for the AMP views. In WordPress all the themes are screen responsive, hence there is nothing that you need to think about while working on those.
Put the customized sharing icons for each blog and also put the comment box at the end of it. However, take into consideration in putting the related articles at the end and with the help of the plugins customize what to be shown there for each of the blogs. If you are writing a series on your blog, include the other series details there, or otherwise apply the Tag related reference of your related articles. This will make the blog type of storytelling for your viewers.
Finally, check out the ease of page opening with your design. It must not be that you put too many things and the page loading slows down – this will put a negative impact on your pages.

There are lots of other things that you can do with your designing concepts. For that, you can also get through some competitor’s websites and blogs, of the same niche or even some other niches. All those researches will provide you different ideas, out of which the best will be on your blog itself.

9. Build Your Email List

The designing, putting the plugins, the themes, and even the CMS part are all meant to bring traffic to your blog. However, there is no use of all these, if you cannot retain the traffic that comes to your page. If you have any product to sell, then this retention is essential and for that, you might create a funnel through your blog series itself.

If that is not the case, then also retaining the viewers is essential. If your page finds 1000 traffic a month at the initial stage, you can use that traffic in each of your blogs and can get more traffic added to it. If you cannot retain the traffic that is flown in, then you will have to strive for the viewers for each of the blogs you write.

So, retention of your viewers is essential and that you can do with three major things. Here are the three things, but before going through them, make it clear that these are not the options. All three things are to be included simultaneously –

The first of the three is the quality content of yours. Your content must have the quality that is needed for your writing and that is demanded by the viewers. If you write on something that the viewers won’t need to know or understand, then all your efforts will go in vain. Hence, select the niche and support your blog writings with ample references.
The second thing to be observed is the idea you share. A person who is coming to your portal is either intending to know something, get some information that he is not getting elsewhere, or to develop a certain idea about the topic. Include all the three things and you will find that traffic is naturally growing on your page.
The final thing that you need to do for retaining the viewers is by reaching them personally. To do that create a subscriber form with the help of certain plugins, whichever you find suitable. Then simply collect the subscriptions from those viewers who are regularly viewing your blog. If you have something to sell them, then this list of emails will be the perfect thing that you can nurture for your future progress.

You can customize the email options easily and then can reach them with a series of mails posted regularly. This will turn out the blog readers to your customers in no time.

10. Monetize your blog

The final thing that you need to go for is to make earning from your site and from your blog. You might have some product to sale and for that, you have collected the mail list of the viewers and allow them to surf through your items, with the support of your marketing emails.

However, the traffic that is coming to your blog can also give you ample revenue. Why then to leave that? You have your own domain and you are perfectly eligible for the same. Hence, simply reach out to them with webmaster tools and put Bing AdSense or Google Adsense on your pages.

If you are working with WordPress, then the themes will give you the option to arrange the ads in the most effective way. The same option is also available in the Adsense setting pages. If you have an idea, then customize them on your own. But if you have no previous idea, then leave that on the hands of Google, Bing, or your themes. They will make the perfect arrangement and you will find a suitable result for the same.

If it is a news blog, then you can even go for some local ads and in such cases, you will have to apply some coding to customize the banners of the ads.

Nothing more, simply sit tight and write your blogs enriched with knowledge, information, and details. You will get the end result is a perfect style with the traffic that you will get. Just make sure that your viewers read through the full texts. More they remain in the pages, better will be your page ranking and better will be your earnings too.

The final word

So, you have now the complete idea of setting up your own blog. Select your niche now, select the host and the blogging platform, make the designing, customize your CMS, start making your first blog, and grab the perfect theme and plugins for your page. Once, you are all set to start adding the email subscribers in your email list and start monetizing from your blog.

In this crucial time, when you are looking for some extra earning, this blog can give you perfect support. In your business too, the same is going to give you perfect support to help you out in all ways. So, why are you waiting for? You are fully set to go ahead with the blog that you will own from now on. Enjoy blogging and be the unique one among all.