Blog

Starting a blog is a simple way to create reliability for your brand. A blog is an outstanding way out for personal fulfilment if you are a promising writer or have an interest you desire to document and share with the rest. Despite that, there are definite approaches you require to create a blog. Hence, we have produced complete step-by-step measures for newbies to begin their journey.

We will discuss choosing a niche for a blogging platform for publishing content and advertising your blog.

Creating a Blog - Basic Measures

In the forthcoming portions, we will break down each step for creating a blog on basic measures and best practices for newbies.

1. Choose your Blog topic or Niche

A niche is a certain topic that your website will concentrate on, it's essential in deciding your target audience. A compatible blog niche will help you choose an ideal blog name and develop a focused blogging strategy. 

Examples of blog niches are books, travelling, food, and photography.
When creating your new blog, it could be enticing to cover an extensive range of blog ideas or topics. Despite that, attempting to master too many subjects is complicated and often unjustifiable.
Examine your hobbies and interests or topics you want to explore. Then choose your topics more specifically. If your interest is in food, try concentrating on a particular cuisine like Chinese, North American, or French.

A compatible blog niche will help you choose an ideal blog name and develop a focused blogging strategy.

2. Choose a niche that has audience capability

Your primary topic should have prior interest to ensure a target audience. Use Google Trends to check the search volume of specific keywords related to your niche. This helps you identify trending topics and understand which content generates more engagement.

3. Select an Appropriate Blogging platform 

Once you have selected a niche, it's time to start preparing a website for your blog. Blogging platforms are separated into two categories: hosted, and self-hosted.

Hosted platforms are like all-inclusive blogging platforms. They usually show up with all the tools required to create a blog. Additionally, there is no need to buy hosting and domain names from a third party.

On the other hand, self-hosted platforms require you to purchase hosting solutions individually. These platforms are typically called CMS (Content Management system). 

4. Content Management System (CMS)

CMS platforms are popular for website creation due to their user-friendly graphical interfaces, making them ideal for blogging and providing extensive control over website management, including hosting and security. WordPress, the most renowned CMS, powers a majority of websites globally, offering both free and paid themes and plugins to design your blog or webpage exactly how you want it. 
Here are some pros and cons of choosing a CMS like WordPress for your blogging platforms:

Pros:
•    You will have a hundred percent control of your website by choosing WordPress as your CMS. You can adjust, manage, and switch web hosting resources.
•    You can also customize your website by adding custom codes of WordPress plugins and themes from the official directory.
•    WordPress is a self-hosted platform that can support complex websites as your blog hosting has sufficient resources.

Cons:
•    WordPress requires some technical knowledge as compared to other website builders. But it is comparatively easier to build a website from scratch.
•    Self-hosted platforms require steps: purchasing web hosting, registering a domain name, and installing themes and plugins.
•    Most self-hosted platforms do not offer customer support. So, you have to rely on your hosting provider.

Website Builder

Website builders are the best options to start blogging without a lengthy setup process. These platforms allow you to build a website without technical requirements, making them ideal for beginners. You can customize the blog template using a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and various tools like AI Writer and other AI generator tools.

5. Get a blog name and acquire a domain

The next main step is acquiring a domain name to become a blogger. It should be catchy and unique. It should be more like a brand and relevant to your industry.
There are three main qualities a good blog name should have:
1.    The domain name should be relevant to your niche or industry. It should contain relevant keywords.
2.    While some domains with long names are highly successful, ideally you should keep it short not more than 2 or 3 words. 
3.    For more look-alike brands it should be easy to spell or remember by name.
You can use blog name generators to choose a domain name. All you must do is give a generator a few keywords and it will come back to you with more suggestions. Simply choose the one which suits you most and now your blog is ready to go.

Tip: Avoid Numbers and Hyphens, these can make your domain harder to remember.

6. Website setup and customization

As previously mentioned, different platforms have diverse needs and priorities. They have different setups and customization procedures. Here we will learn about the procedure of setting up a website and it's customization. 

Installing WordPress

After purchasing the WordPress hosting plan the next main step is installing the WordPress through a web host. Different hosting has different WordPress installation procedures to adopt, or you can use auto-installers through the cPanel.

Picking a WordPress theme 

•    Focus on designing and customizing your website blog.
•    A WordPress theme is a customizable design template available in free and premium options in the WordPress library and third-party resources like Theme Forest or Astra.
•    Paid WordPress themes offer dedicated support, regular updates, and premium plugins, unlike free themes which lack support.
•    Ensure a premium theme is worth the price.
•    Choose a theme with an appealing design, drag-and-drop features, premade layouts, and customer support.
•    The theme should be responsive to any screen size.
•    Check user reviews and experiences for reliability.
To install a WordPress theme from the WordPress directory, log in to your dashboard navigate to appearance-themes-add new, and choose the theme that you want to install, once the installation process is complete hit the activate button.
To install a theme from a third-party source, click on the upload theme button upload the .zip file and then install and activate it.

7. Build the main pages and categories

Website pages contain the content of a website. The most common types of web pages are the following:
1.    Homepage: Your homepage is the main page of your website. It is the most important introductory page of your blog. The visitors visit it when they enter your website URL in the address bar.
2.    The About Us page: Your visitors learn more about your website or organization through this page. This page represents the objective of your website.
3.    Contact Us page:  This page tells how the visitors can contact the owner of the website. The Contact Us page includes an email address, a phone number, or links to social media profiles.

Starting a new blog is a huge task for newcomers who need proper help and guidance. Here in this blog, we have discussed the major steps of blogging in detail, so that it can provide you with complete understating about the topic. We hope that after reading this piece of writing, you will be motivated and able enough to start your own blog. 

Author: Muhammad Hamza | Reviewed By: Hifsah Umbreen