How to Start a Successful Blog From Scratch

Given the current state of the Web, it’s not surprising that so many people want to give blogging a go, whether as a hobby or as a full-time job. From tech and beauty bloggers, online influencers seem to enjoy a lot of benefits, but reaching a certain level of recognition takes time and effort. The road to fame can be quite challenging and persistence is one of the qualities you’ll need to have in abundance. However, it will all be easier if you start off on the right foot. Initial planning will help you establish a long-term strategy and set a foundation for future development. Two million blog posts are written every day. Here’s how you should start your journey so that your blog doesn’t get lost in the crowd.

Decide on your niche

One thing you should know before you learn how to create a blog is that the blogosphere is a very competitive place. In order to develop a strategy, you need to know where you belong. It’s not very effective to start a blog that’s about everything, because it would be difficult to optimize and you couldn’t find a clear audience for it. If you post phone reviews, personal thoughts, poems, photos, DIY projects and recipes at the same time, you will create a lot of confusion among new visitors, who will most likely not subscribe. Instead, establish from the very beginning one main niche and publish posts related only to it. You can have a personal blog, a beauty one, a cooking one or everything in between. Once you start gaining followers and you become known in a certain circle, you can branch out from there if you want, but slowly and methodically.

Choose a blogging platform, hosting option and domain name

After deciding on your niche, you have to think of a few technical aspects:

• What blogging platform will you sign up on? There are many options to choose from and it all depends on the features you want and your level of experience. Popular options include Blogger (great for beginners because it has a simple dashboard), WordPress (offers advanced features and the possibility to add a lot of plugins), Wix (plenty of beautiful blog templates) and Squarespace (can be used to create online stores).
• What will your domain name be? The domain name is the actual URL that people use to get to your blog. It has to be unique and, to avoid confusion, it should be the same as the name of the blog. A successful domain should be short, brandable, catchy, easy to pronounce and SEO-friendly.
• Choose your hosting provider. If you don’t want to pay for hosting from the beginning, you can keep your blog as a subdomain. However, if you’re serious about blogging and understand the importance of having your own domain, you should invest in a hosting plan that matches your needs.

Find the perfect template

User experience on blogs doesn’t depend only on the actual content you post, but also on the way your blog looks, so finding the perfect template is really important. You can have a look in the theme collection offered by your blogging platform and get a free option or you can download a premium template from a third party. No matter your budget, make sure you choose a clean, professional looking template that is also suitable for your niche.



Install plug-ins

The blog template doesn’t always offer all the features you need, so sometimes you have to install plug-ins. There are many things you can do with them: add social media buttons, improve SEO, filter comment spam and so on.

Start posting!

Once everything is set up, it’s time to start posting! In order to keep your followers interested, you should post at least twice a week, but, first and foremost, you have to strive for quality content. Post engaging content that you would want to read yourself and, at least in your first months as a blogger, focus less on monetization and more on building loyal readers.



Spread the word

A successful blogger doesn’t rely on luck to get followers. In order for people to find your blog among the millions that already exists, you have to spread the word and be social. Create social media profiles for your blog (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and promote it wherever you can. Submit your blog to blog directories, tell your friends about it and comment on others blogs. In time, you will see an increase in traffic and followers.