How To Start A Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Determine Your Blog’s Niche

Many blog creation tutorials online begin by teaching beginners how to purchase a domain and choose web hosting, but this approach is highly flawed.

Before you start creating your blog, the first thing you should do is determine your blog’s niche, identify your target audience, and figure out how your blog will make money. If you don’t know who your blog is for, you won’t know what content to write or how to monetize it.

So, before you officially start creating your blog, you must be clear about the following three key points: who your audience is, what content you will create for them, and how you will generate income.

1. Narrow Down Your Blog Interests

When you start blogging, you need to have a long-term mindset. To stay motivated and update your blog regularly, choose a topic that you’re truly interested in. If you pick a topic just because it’s trendy or seems profitable, you’ll quickly lose motivation, and your overall content strategy will collapse.

If you’re not sure what to write about at first, don’t worry. You can do a simple brainstorming session and list topics that interest you. What do you enjoy talking about? What areas are you curious about and want to explore more?

Next, write down 5 to 10 interests that come to mind. For example:

Travel
Cooking
Home decor
Art
Gardening

Then, further refine these broad categories by adding more specific interests. Some possibilities include:

Backpacking in Asia
Healthy breakfast recipes
Home renovation and organization
Illustration
Yard maintenance

At this stage, don’t worry about whether these niche areas are perfect—you’ll explore them further in the next steps. (If you need inspiration, take a look at some popular art blogs to see how they engage with an audience that shares their interests.)

2. Research Your Blog Audience

The next step in creating your blog is understanding which topics will attract readers. If your blog gains attention, you can eventually make money from it and even become a full-time blogger.

You can conduct simple market research to determine the demand for a niche. Start by using Google Trends, which shows how many people are searching for a specific topic. The higher the search volume, the greater the market demand for that topic.

For example, we can search for “healthy breakfast recipes” on Google Trends. You’ll see that this topic has a relatively stable search trend, making it a good blog niche.

On the other hand, a topic like “ancient diet recipes” has much lower search volume. While this doesn’t mean it’s a bad choice—some bloggers prefer to write for smaller niche audiences, especially if they have unique expertise in a field—it does indicate that fewer people are interested in the topic.

If Google Trends shows that a topic has very low or declining search volume, it will be difficult to gain significant attention with that topic.

3. Determine If Your Blog Niche is Profitable

Whether you’re writing a personal or professional blog, it’s a good idea to determine if your niche has profit potential. Even if you’re starting as a hobby or creating a fan site, considering future monetization options is important, as your blog may grow into a business.

There are many ways bloggers make money, but one of the most common is affiliate marketing. As an affiliate marketer, you can partner with companies by embedding their product links in your blog. When readers make a purchase through your links, you earn a commission.

Considering whether you can profit through affiliate marketing will help you evaluate your niche’s potential. For example, you can write “best recommendations” or “how-to” articles, such as “Best Kitchen Appliances for Easy Cooking” or “How to Make a Carrot Cake in 10 Minutes.” In these posts, you can recommend your favorite food processor or electric mixer, and include affiliate links. When someone makes a purchase through those links, you’ll earn a commission.

While you don’t need to map out a detailed monetization strategy right now, having some rough ideas about potential revenue streams will help you choose a niche. Focus on getting your blog started, and we’ll discuss how to make money from your blog in more detail in Step 9.

Step 2: Think and Decide on Your Blog Topics

Once you’ve determined your blog niche, the next step is to think about and decide on your blog topics. You should come up with at least 20-50 blog post ideas before moving on to step three, where you’ll start creating your blog. Doing this ensures that once your blog is set up, you can immediately start updating it with content, without worrying about what to write next.

There’s also an important issue to consider here. Over the past few years, I’ve seen many students successfully create blogs, but they didn’t think ahead about what topics to update or whether their chosen niche had enough topics to write about. As a result, some of them ran out of ideas after writing a few dozen posts.

Therefore, I now emphasize the importance of brainstorming plenty of content ideas before teaching how to create a blog. This ensures that you’ll have enough topics to update your blog for a long time, and won’t end up abandoning it after a while.

First, think about your experiences, successes, failures, or discoveries related to your niche. What insights can you share? What ideas do you want to explore in-depth?

When thinking about topics, try to put yourself in your readers’ shoes. The following questions can help you brainstorm:

What characteristics does my target audience have?
What topics is my target audience interested in?
What challenges does my target audience face?

You can also use a topic cluster model to generate ideas. This is an organized system where related posts are connected through a series of internal links. While this process is often related to SEO, you can also use it as a mind map to generate content ideas.

According to this model, start with a broad topic, such as recipes, and then break it down into smaller subtopics like dinner recipes or brunch recipes. Next, narrow it down further into specific topics like 20-minute dinner recipes, champagne cocktail recipes, and cake decorating ideas. Each of these can become standalone blog posts.

If you’re still unsure, here are some blog post ideas to inspire you:

A bucket list for things to do before turning 30 (or 40, 50, etc.)
Your sources of inspiration
Beginner’s guides
Time-saving tips
Challenges you’ve faced

Use these ideas as a guide, but don’t forget to add your own creative spin based on your niche.

Step 3: Choose Your Blog Name and Domain

Once you’ve decided on your blog’s niche and content topics, it’s time to create your blog.

First, you need to choose a name for your blog. I typically use one of three naming methods:

Use my own name to name the blog.
Use the name of my company or a blog brand I’ve created.
Choose a creative new name related to the niche.

For example, the blog you’re reading now doesn’t use my name but instead has a blog brand called Enter Niche. The purpose is to let readers know that this blog helps them dive into a specific niche.

Once you’ve settled on a blog name, the next step is to register your blog domain name, which is the blog’s address on the internet (e.g., my blog’s domain is www.enterniche.com). Typically, your blog domain matches your blog name, but sometimes the corresponding domain might already be taken. In that case, you can register a domain closely related to your blog name.

There are many domain extensions, such as .com, .org, .us, .blog, etc., each with different meanings. Generally, the most commonly used extension is .com, as it’s globally recognized. However, if your blog targets a specific country like the U.S. or Canada, you might choose a country-specific extension like .us or .ca. That said, I don’t recommend this approach, as the goal of creating a blog is to attract global traffic, not limit it to one country.

There are many domain registrars, including well-known ones like godaddy.com, namecheap.com, and name.com. There isn’t much difference between them, and their domain prices are similar, so you can choose any of them. I personally use Namecheap, which I’ve relied on for over a decade because of its stability, and I recommend it to you as well.

Step 4: Choose Web Hosting and Install WordPress

Like other types of websites, a blog requires a hosting service. Hosting services essentially store your website on a server and assign it a unique address so visitors can easily access it.

The hosting service you choose can have a significant impact on your site’s SEO, particularly in terms of site speed and uptime.

If you choose a poor web hosting service, your site may frequently go down, and its loading speed may be slow, which will directly affect your site’s ranking in search engines. This makes it difficult for your blog to gain traffic from search engines.

Therefore, it’s crucial to select a stable and high-quality web hosting service. Here, I only recommend Bluehost. I’ve been using it for over 10 years, and it’s very stable. The site speed is fast, and the price is relatively low, offering great value for money.

The following steps guide you through creating a Bluehost account and installing WordPress:

1.Getting Started

Click on this link → Bluehost to go to the Bluehost page, and click the green button that says “Get Started.”

I recommend choosing the “Basic” 12-month plan to start your blog at the lowest possible price—this is the plan I chose when I first started.

When you sign up for the 12-month plan through my exclusive link here (prepaid), it will only cost $1.99 per month (regular price is $7.99/month).

You can ignore the “Plus” and “Pro” packages—the “Basic” package is all you need. There’s no need to pay extra, especially if you’re a beginner. I personally started with the Basic plan.

Additionally, if you later decide you need more than the Basic plan, you can always upgrade your options.

2.Register or Use an Existing Domain

I explained domain registration in Step 3. You can register a domain with another registrar, and if you already have one, select “I want to use a domain I already own” at this step. If you don’t have a domain yet, you can register it directly with Bluehost.

I want to emphasize that when you register for at least 12 months of Bluehost hosting, you’ll receive a free domain.

To get the best price, I recommend choosing the 12-month hosting plan, as it allows you to start with minimal cost. Personally, I always choose the best value plan!

If you haven’t decided on a domain yet, don’t worry. You can click “Choose domain later” in the bottom right corner and move on to the next step. Click “Continue to checkout” to create your account.

3.Create Your Bluehost Account

Account Information: Fill in your account information as shown in the screenshot, including your first name, last name, country, city, address, email, password, etc.

Payment Information: You can pay using a credit card or PayPal.

Once you’ve completed this step, you’ll have your Bluehost account, 12 months of web hosting, and a free domain.

Afterward, you’ll be guided to the setup assistant. Since you’re following this tutorial, you can click “Skip this step” on the next few pages to go directly to the dashboard.

4.Install WordPress on Bluehost

Bluehost includes a WordPress installation service. Simply choose to install WordPress.

WordPress is the preferred blogging platform for many bloggers. All of my blogs are built using WordPress.

The system will now automatically install WordPress. Once the installation is complete, click the “Log into WordPress” button in the top right corner to access your blog’s admin area.

Step 5: Set Up Your Blog Template

Choosing and Setting a Blog Template

Many people find the default WordPress theme designs unattractive. Therefore, the next step is to find and set a blog theme template. Bluehost offers some themes for you to choose from, and you can either use the templates recommended by Bluehost or search for better-looking blog templates online.

You can find many WordPress templates on other websites, both free and paid. I recommend beginners start with free blog templates since there’s no significant difference in functionality compared to paid ones, only in visual appeal.

Simply choose a blog template that looks modern, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. Below is a guide to customizing your blog:

Log in to Bluehost and Access WordPress

If you haven’t logged in from the previous step, go to Bluehost.com and click “Login” in the top right corner to bring up the login screen. You can then log in using your domain name and the password you set in the previous step. If you forgot your password, you can reset it by clicking the “Forgot Password” link.

After logging in, you’ll enter the Bluehost portal. In the portal, click the blue “WordPress” button to automatically log in to your WordPress blog.

Change Your Blog Design

After logging in, you’ll enter the WordPress dashboard. Here, you can make any changes to your blog.

Everyone has different ideas about how their blog should look. One of the great things about WordPress is that you can change the entire layout and design with just a few clicks.

In WordPress, the blog layout is called a “theme.” What is a blog theme? A theme controls the entire design of your WordPress blog. To change your theme, click the “Appearance” tab on the left menu.

You’ll see several free WordPress themes already installed on your blog: Twenty Seventeen, Twenty Sixteen, etc. These themes are well-designed, clean-looking, and suitable for almost any type of blog.

Unless you have very specific design requirements for your blog, I suggest starting with one of these themes. For this example, we’ll use the “Twenty Sixteen” WordPress theme. To activate the theme on your blog, hover over the theme and click the “Activate” button. That’s it! With just one click, you can change your blog’s entire design!

If you don’t like any of the pre-installed themes, you can easily choose from thousands of other free WordPress themes. To install a new WordPress theme, click the “Appearance” tab on the left menu, then click “Add New Theme.”

This brings up the WordPress theme search screen. There are thousands of themes to choose from. Simply activate the new WordPress theme, and you can change the entire design anytime. To find a theme you like, I suggest clicking the “Popular” tab and start browsing. Once you find a theme you like, click the blue “Install” button.

After the theme installation is complete, click “Activate” to enable it on your blog. To see how the new theme looks, go to your blog and check it out!

Essential Pages for Your Blog

Contact Page: Here, you can enter your email address so that fans and potential business partners can reach you. You can also add a contact form so people can send messages directly through your website.

About Page: This page tells visitors who you are, what you do, and why you do it. It provides some background on your blog and humanizes your content.

Online Store: If you plan to sell products related to your blog, you’ll need to add a separate online store page. You can name this page “Products” or “Shop.”

If you want to enhance your blog with more pages, tutorial pages, current trend pages, or author pick pages are great options.

Additionally, some blogs choose to place posts directly on the homepage, while others separate the homepage from the blog page. If you do this, make sure to include a navigation menu so visitors can easily access your blog and other pages.

There’s no right or wrong way to set up your blog, so experiment with different options to see what best suits your style and personality. Remember, you can always add or remove pages as your blog grows.

Getting Indexed by Search Engines

Another important step in launching your blog is ensuring it’s visible on Google and other search engines. This is crucial if you want your content to appear in search results, so it needs to be addressed immediately.

First, make sure your site is indexed on Google. This means informing Google that your blog exists. You can do this by submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console.

Tip: Google Search Console is not only important for site indexing, but it’s also a valuable platform during your blogging journey. It provides important data about blog visitors and clicks, helping you improve your content.

To confirm if your site is already indexed on Google, you can perform a quick site search (a site search uses your homepage URL, formatted as site.com). If your blog appears in the search results, it means your site is indexed.

Step 6: Write Your First Blog Post

Once we’ve fully set up the blog, we can start publishing the first post. Here’s a tutorial on how to publish a blog post:

Go to the left menu and click “Posts.”

You’ll see there’s already one post there. This is a default post that comes with every new WordPress blog, and we don’t need it. To delete it, click “Trash” below the post.

To start writing a new post, click the “Add New” link.

You are now in the post editor screen. Enter the post title in the top box and start writing your post in the lower box.

If you want to add images to your post, click the “Add Image” icon, then click “Upload” to upload an image from your computer. On the next screen, you can adjust the image size. Once ready, click “Insert into Post” to add the image.

When your post is complete, simply click the “Publish” button in the top right corner of the screen to make the new post live.

How to Write Compelling Blog Content

Every post should be longer, engaging, and informative. Coming up with new blog ideas can sometimes be challenging, so try different tones and topics to make your content lively. This is your space, but it’s best to include the following points in every post.

Define the Topic: Write a catchy headline that sparks the reader’s curiosity. In the first paragraph, clearly tell the reader what the post is about, and give them an intriguing hook to make them want to keep reading.

Keep it Informative but Easy to Read: Providing lots of details is great, but if paragraphs are too long, readers will start skimming and may leave. People like concise information. Keep paragraphs short, leave white space, use lists and highlighted quotes, insert images, and ensure there are headings and subheadings so readers can easily find the content they’re looking for.

Engage Readers: At the end of each post, ask readers an interesting question and encourage them to respond in the comments. This can greatly increase engagement.

Keep it Original: Make sure your content is original—don’t copy from others, as it can be detected and may cause problems. Your content should come from your thoughts, knowledge, and experiences. You can take inspiration from peers, but make sure the expression is your own.

Use Your Own Photos: While it’s convenient to grab images from free stock photo sites, it’s even better to use your own photos and designs. You can also edit free images before using them.

Edit Carefully: Make sure to carefully edit your blog posts. Lots of spelling and grammar mistakes will make you look unprofessional. If you’re not confident about grammar, consider using a writing tool to help.

Step 7: Create an Editorial Calendar

Creating an editorial calendar is an important part of blogging. You should maintain a regular content update schedule rather than posting whenever you feel like it. If you go too long without posting, your readers might lose interest due to the lack of new content.

There’s no strict requirement for how often you should update your blog—it all depends on your own schedule.

If you have a lot of time, you could choose to post something new every day. If you have less time, you could update every 2–3 days.

If you’re unsure about your posting schedule, you can create several posts when you have more time and schedule them to publish at a later date. When publishing posts on WordPress, you can select the schedule option in the top-right corner to ensure your blog is updated at a regular frequency.

Note: If you want to get more traffic from search engines, maintaining a high frequency of content updates is crucial. The more content you publish, the more keywords you cover, and the more traffic you’ll get from search engines.

According to some data: Blogs that publish 11 or more posts per month see significantly more traffic. Blogs that publish at least 11 posts per month have double the traffic compared to those that post 2–5 times a month.

Step 8: Promote Your Blog

Once your blog starts updating at a regular pace, your traffic will mainly come from two sources:

Search engine traffic and blog promotion.

If you’re only relying on search engines for traffic, it could take a long time to start making money. Your blog might not become profitable for 3–5 months after regular updates, so you’ll need to promote your blog to quickly attract traffic and start earning money.

Here are some common ways to promote a blog:

Share on social media
Create a blog newsletter
Write guest posts for other websites
Engage with existing communities
Participate in question and discussion websites
Invest in paid advertising
Try new content formats

If you’re new to blogging and unsure how to effectively promote your blog, or if you’ve tried various promotion methods without success, I recommend checking out my two eBooks: “The 30-Day Blogging Success Guide” and “Pinterest Traffic Masterclass.” With just a few days of learning, you can quickly drive a lot of traffic to your blog using Pinterest and achieve success with blog monetization. These eBooks have already helped thousands of students succeed with their blogs.

Step 9: Monetize Your Blog

At this point, it’s time to start making money with your blog. There are many ways to monetize a blog, and here are some of the most common methods:

Affiliate Marketing: This is one of the most common ways to make money through blogging and is easy to get started. Intermediate affiliate marketers can earn anywhere from $300 to $3,000 per day, with higher earnings coming with more experience. There are many affiliate programs to choose from, and Amazon Associates is a popular choice for beginners.

Display Ads: You can place ads on your blog, essentially selling blog space to advertisers. This is a steady source of income because you can earn money per click. Google AdSense is one of the most popular and profitable ad networks.

Paid Subscriptions: You can offer readers the option to pay for access to certain content. While some articles can remain free, you can provide exclusive content that readers pay to subscribe to.

Sponsored Posts: Reach out to companies to discuss sponsorship opportunities. You can write posts promoting their products, and companies will pay you for these posts.

Selling eBooks and Merchandise: You can sell digital or physical products directly from your website, such as branded merchandise, related products, or eBooks. Place a payment button on your homepage to make it easy for readers to browse and buy.

Offer Consulting Services: Use your expertise to offer consulting services to clients. If you’re writing a nutrition blog, you could offer customized meal plans or nutrition consulting services.

You can read more about this in my guide →→→ How To Make Money Blogging In 2024.

Tools for a Successful Blog

Finally, online tools are essential when launching a blog because they make the process simpler and more efficient. Here are some useful tools that you can use to get your blog started—be sure to bookmark them for future reference:

Google Keyword Planner: Helps you find suitable keywords.
Google Analytics: Tracks your blog’s visitor data to help you improve your content.
Google Search Console: Shows how many people visit and click on your blog.
ShareThrough Headline Analyzer: Input your headline to see its strengths and weaknesses.
Pexels: A source for free images to enhance your posts.
Grammarly: Use this tool to check your writing and ensure it’s error-free.
BuzzSumo: Discover trending content to help you write relevant posts.
Asana: Manage your writing schedule and keep things organized.

Now, you have all the tools and resources you need to start your blog. It’s a worthwhile endeavor, and I’m happy to help you get started. Be sure to bookmark this guide as a reference, and happy blogging!

Can I start a “free” blog and make money?

When people talk about making money from blogging, many beginners wonder if they can create a free blog and still earn money.

If you’ve read this far, you’ll realize that the only investment needed to create and monetize a blog is purchasing web hosting, which costs just around $20 a year. But even with such a low cost, many people hesitate to invest.

You can indeed create a free blog on several free platforms, but I don’t recommend it for the following reasons:

1.Lack of user trust

2.Difficulty ranking in search engines and getting search traffic

3.Applying to ad networks and affiliate programs will be challenging

When you sign up for a free blog, it’s nearly impossible to make money because people won’t take you seriously.

So trust me, you’ll want to invest in a very affordable Bluehost plan to start your blog the right way. You’ll thank yourself later! Honestly, it’s one of the best investments I made this year!

Frequently Asked Questions about Starting a Blog

1.What is Bluehost?

I get asked this a lot, so I’ll answer it here.

Bluehost is a web hosting company that helps you create a website or blog. I use Bluehost for hosting a dozen of my blogs. Bluehost offers several hosting plans, from basic to Plus and Plus Choice, so everyone can find a suitable plan. I recommend beginners start with the basic plan (12, 24, or 36 months), which will be enough to host your site.

Honestly, their plans are affordable, and starting a blog doesn’t cost much.

2.Can you still make money from blogging in 2024?

Yes, even though some people think blogging is outdated, the reality is that almost all freelancers are making money by creating blogs. According to affiliate marketing data, bloggers earn an average of over $8,000 per month through affiliate marketing alone.

In fact, blogging remains one of the best ways to make money online in 2024, and it’s never too late to start.

3.Can I blog as a side hustle?

Yes, you can blog as a side hustle.

Whether you’re a college student, a 9-to-5 office worker, or a stay-at-home mom, you can create a blog and earn money from it. There are many full-time moms who make more money from blogging than they would in a regular job. Blogging is a low-investment, high-return way to make money online.

4.How do I use AI to write blog posts?

AI can help you identify blog topics, provide research insights, outline posts, and even draft content.

However, you shouldn’t rely solely on AI to write your posts. Each article should reflect your unique perspective and industry experience. This not only helps you stand out among countless other posts but also improves your rankings and user engagement on search engines.

5.Can blogs really make money?

Absolutely! Blogging is one of the most profitable ways to make money online.

To see if blogs can make money, just open up any social media platform and look at the content. You’ll notice that many posts link to websites or blogs. These are bloggers promoting their blogs.

If blogging didn’t make money, you wouldn’t see so many bloggers creating content and promoting their blogs daily. The reality is that blogging is so lucrative that it motivates people to write and promote their blogs.

6.How can I start a blog with no money?

If you don’t have money but want to start a blog, I suggest you first promote affiliate marketing links on Pinterest. This is one of the fastest ways to make money online.

Once you’ve earned $30 through affiliate marketing, you can invest in your first blog and start making long-term money from it.

7.How often should I blog?

There’s no rule for how often you should blog. You can blog every day, once a week, or even once a month.

However, if you want to make money from your blog quickly and earn over $5,000 to $10,000 per month within a few months or a year, you’ll need to invest more time in updating your blog with more content.

Studies show that blogs that publish 15 or more posts a month make significantly more money than those that publish 3 to 5 posts a month.

8.Why do blogs fail?

Nearly any blog has the potential for success, but in reality, most blogs fail. Here are some of the main reasons:

Giving up too soon: Many bloggers quit after 1-2 months of posting because they don’t see immediate income. When starting a blog, you need to be mentally prepared for it to take several months or even a year before turning a profit. If you lack the patience, it’s better not to start.

Poor content: Many bloggers don’t spend enough time creating quality content or rely on AI to generate posts. Such content won’t attract traffic from search engines or gain user trust. Writing high-quality, original content is one of the keys to a successful blog.

Too many ads: Some blogs are filled with ads, which negatively affect the user experience. Users may visit once but never return. It’s essential to balance the ads on your blog and ensure user experience is the priority.

No promotion or SEO: These are the main sources of blog traffic. Many bloggers simply post content without optimizing for search engines or promoting their blogs. Even if they blog for six months or a year, they may struggle to attract visitors, making it hard to make money.

9.What do I need to start blogging?

Time, passion, and clear goals.

Blogging is almost a full-time job. Successful bloggers post at least one high-quality, original article each week. They also regularly promote their blogs on social media and engage with peers to drive more traffic to their site.

You’ll also need clear goals. What is the primary goal of your blog? Is it to provide information to the public? Or to retain paid subscribers? With clear end goals, you can develop a long-term strategy to meet them.