What is this “Blogging” Thing People Keep Talking About?

Let’s get started by understanding what is a blog? A blog is just a website that is updated with new content on a regular basis. It’s normally written in an informal or conversational style (similar to an informal conversation while writing to your friends).

Blogger’s aim is to charm the readers to stay as long as possible on your website and making them return for any information provided by the website. Basically turning them into loyal fans of your blog posts.

Have you been interested to start a successful blog this year? I highly encourage that you take a look through this entire post, and check out the recommended articles throughout.

Sure, there are paid courses out there for beginner bloggers, but this article will help all of you who are ready for a FREE lesson to set up your first blog! 

Well, let me tell you one thing about starting a blog and making money: It is not as easy as it seems. Yet, it can be as rewarding as everyone says.

I did it, and you can too!

Now you are ready to start a blog!

You are at the beginning of an extraordinary and rewarding journey of starting a blog. It will take you time, hard work and patience, but by following all the steps I highlighted in this post you will get there!

If you have any questions about starting a WordPress blog, please leave me a comment or send me a message via the contact me page 

I will be more than happy to respond to you! Blogging has helped me live my dreams and I am here to help you to do the same!

My passion to help others earn passive income or a side income through blogging. These tips come from my initial struggles and step by step research when I decided to start my blog last year. It wasn’t easy for me, and it is difficult for many, due to so many different sources of “guidance”.

That’s where I decided to help others to make your process with blogging as easy as possible.

There is just no way to cover everything about blogging in one article, but I am here to hold your hand through this. I will be posting different articles covering different things about blogging.

Let’s take the first step and start with the 5 basics of blogging

Lemme explain this in a layman’s language. when you start a blog, you own a website. You start to blog / write articles (“posts”), like this one you are reading now.

You market those posts through social media, or get people to your website through SEO (search engine optimization). There might be so many questions that pop into one’s mind while thinking of Blogging.

But don’t worry you’ll get there, the trick is to take one day at a time.

What is the first step to Start?

Step 1: Decide your niche

Deciding what niche, you want to write about is the first step to start your blog. First, let’s define the word, “niche”: The niche is a category a blogger chooses to write his articles. When I started my blog, I knew it could take time but I was ready to be patient.

Understanding passion & profitability

And I wanted to write about things I loved. This meant I had to combine writing about something I was passionate about, with something that gets good returns. It is not always necessary that you make content that converts into money.

It is very important to ask yourself what is the purpose of choosing a particular niche? – Is it because you love to write about it or you want to earn from it? And you will be good to choose your niche.

Some popular niches include:

• Parenting tips
• Travel & food
• Motherhood & post-pregnancy
• Blogging (yes, there are tons of bloggers who only blog about blogging)
• Marketing & affiliate sales
• Pinterest
• Weddings
• Outdoors, Trekking, gardening

It is very important to choose a profitable niche. If you choose a niche that is already saturated, it may take months to drive enough traffic to monetize. 

Step 2: Get the technical stuff sorted

It is the technical step in the process, so if you are not tech-savvy or great at creating a website yourself or buying the hosting, take the help of an IT professional. Hosting is required if you want to create your blog.

Essentially, hosting works by giving your website the ability to store data on the Internet. Through this service, you’ll get a FREE domain URL, security, and will be directly hooked up to WordPress.

Go to the Bluehost website -Pick Your Plan- purchase your website and hosting – Name Your Website and Start Customizing!

A domain is the name you choose between the “www.” and “.com”. So, for this blog, it is “outdoorswithnaina”.

You should take a moment before you start this whole process and think about what you want your blog’s domain to be! It should be catchy, easy to read, and unique.

Some people spend days looking up different domain options. Be sure to check that no one has taken your idea. A good way is to check what types of names other successful bloggers have used.

STEP 3: Familiarizing Yourself With WordPress

WordPress is online software where you will actually design your website. There are countless themes, plugins, and options to build your website through, on WordPress. Choose something user friendly and easy for you to operate. Now let’s get to setting up the Menu pages for your website.

Here are some useful tips to get you started:

• Pages are not posts or articles that go on your blog. Some pages you will want to include are “Home”, “About Me”, “Contact Us”, “Privacy Policy” and “Blog”
• Posts are the articles that go onto your blog. They will show up on your main “Blog” page, and can also be placed on other pages in different categories.
• Do not launch your blog just yet. Everyone advises new bloggers to make sure of having 10 articles posted, to launching right away. I recommend setting up social media platforms first.
• Remember, not many people will be viewing your website early on, but you want to make sure it looks professional before getting excited and launching! 
• I would recommend you to download my Blog launch checklist.

Step 4: Set up social media platforms

After you’ve gone through the step-up process then you’ll be ready to start setting up your social media! Every blogger has a favorite Social media channel through which they get the traffic to their blog.

No need to rush and start posting right away!

No one will know your blog yet, and this will be an ideal time to start learning about your audience and your preferred method of marketing your website.

One piece of advice: Go straight to Pinterest and make your business account (business accounts are FREE to set up). There are plenty of resources on the Internet to guide you through setting up your profile on Pinterest and learning how to get followers.

Check out this article to learn about pinning on Pinterest!

Step 5: Write your first post

And this is my favorite part. I still remember when I was done with all the technical aspects, I was jumping with excitement that I can finally post! You’ve spent time starting to build your website, you’ve set up your social media… Now it’s time to write your first post!

Here are some tips I’ve learned through experience regarding writing your first posts:

• Don’t spend countless hours on your first 10 posts. Honestly, not many people will read these. You may get only a couple dozen visitors or so to your blog during your first month, so make sure sufficient content is there for them to read.
• Download Grammarly – It’s FREE and it will check all of your grammar and spelling. This way, you won’t need to correct your posts numerous times – let Grammarly do this for you!
• Choose easy to write articles at first as there will be lots of time to improvise later. Keep your first 10 articles around 1000 words. The first few articles are a learning process and the purpose is to simply get content on your blog to look established.
• Spend your time working on making pins for a Pinterest account and on your blog itself.

You may like to read my detailed article about how to write a perfect blog post?

Yay! We made it! Now What?

Now your blog is up and running. You begin to get page views and comments on your articles. That works for you as a motivation but keep learning as you evolve to go towards monetizing it. 

Before we conclude this post and give you some extra resources.

Here are some last-minute tips to keep in your back pocket:

• Write your articles in Word or google docs., then copy and paste it in the “New Post”, under “Posts”. If anything happens to your blog, as a hack, you will always have a backup!
• Spend some time on Google or YouTube for learning about SEO. It’ll easily guide you through making your posts easier to be found on Google!
• Be cautious about trying to do too many things at once for your blog. There is a big learning curve, so take it one day at a time.

TIP FOR NEWBIE BLOGGERS:

I know that when you are going to start, you’ll be worried about your logo, your blog design, and many more things! Do not waste too much money by paying someone to create your logo, and don’t spend hundreds of dollars on a theme!

No one cares about your blog design but your content. People will find you and will care mostly about your content and how your post is going to help them. Just make sure your theme is simple and easy to navigate.

Once you start to make money, you’ll be able to improve your design and make your blog look more beautiful.

The most important step is to take action and start!

If you don’t feel ready to begin yet, then make sure to pin or save this article and be sure to look through when you fell like starting. You may get inspired 😊

You can also check my youtube video to get inspired to start your Blogging career.

Let me know if my post has improved your understanding of Blogging and what do you think is the most inspiring thing to be in the bloggers’ community?