Blogging is an exciting hobby that can turn into a business if you work hard enough at it. Whether you want to blog to show the world your passion or hope to turn it into a successful business one day we want to show you how you can quickly start a blog.
Table of Contents
1. Find a Topic
Maybe you already have a topic that you want to blog about already which is why you’re here. Or maybe you’ve always wanted to start a blog, but you don’t know what you want to write about. It’s important to find focus by writing about a single topic so that your audience doesn’t get lost when they come to your blog. It’s such an important thing, that we’ve written an entire post about finding a blog topic.
If you’re a world traveler, you could start a travel blog where you share photos and stories of places you’ve been or itineraries for others to follow. If you love technology, you could write about the latest tech launches and events along with reviews of the latest gadgets and gizmos. If you love fashion, a fashion blog or Instagram feed might be a great choice for you.
Choosing a topic lets you focus and know who your audience is.
2. Get a Domain Name
Once you’ve chosen a topic, you need to get a domain name. This will be the way people find you on the web so it needs to be memorable.
First, your domain name should be short and memorable. That way people will remember it and can easily search for it on Google if they can’t remember the exact name.
Second, you want the domain name to be specific in order to grab the attention of your desired visitors. However, you also want it to be broad enough so that you can cover multiple topics under the same domain name. For example, if you wanted to launch a travel blog you could go as specific as Giza, Egypt, but what about the rest of Egypt? What about other ancient ruins?
Finally, your domain name should be keyword rich. Domain names still play a significant role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so having great keywords in your domain name will make it that much easier to rank for your chosen topic.
There’s also an ongoing debate about using .com domain names versus the myriad of other endings such as .us/.net/.org/.biz/etc. I suggest that you always use .com unless you are running an organization or nonprofit and .org makes more sense.
Unfortunately, one of the most common problems is that you come up with a great domain name and then find out that it is taken. The best way to avoid this is to have multiple domain names in mind before you even begin searching.
There are many websites that sell domain name. GoDaddy is my favorite, but many web hosts, such as Bluehost, bundle free domain names with their hosting packages.
3. Get a Hosting Service & Blogging Platform
Now that you have chosen a topic and a domain name, it is time to find a home for your blog.
While you could certainly go with a free blogging service like WordPress.com or Blogger.com, if you want to fully customize your blog and make it your own you should get a hosting service. Our favorite is Bluehost (this site started on it) because it’s cheap and reliable. Most Bluehost plans run less than $10/month. Bluehost comes with a one-click WordPress installation so you can get your blog up and running in no time.
For other options, read this guide to the best blog web hosts of 2020.
4. Pick a theme, logo, and plugins
Once you have set up your hosting platform, it’s time to set up your blog with a theme and plugins.
Get a Theme
You want to pick a theme that suits your topic and content. It will be a way that you brand yourself. If you’re building an artist blog, make it look creative. Travel? Include photos throughout and make it look adventurous.
Platforms like WordPress offer free themes. You can either search their large database or buy a premium theme from sites like Themeforest.
Get a Logo
You could always start with just having text as your blog’s header, but a nice image logo is best once you begin to get traction. You can use a free AI logo generator like, create a logo yourself with Canva, or have premium artists design your logo through 99Designs (where we had ours made).
Download WordPress Plugins
If you’re using WordPress, we recommend getting the following WordPress plugins:
- Akismet: Block all spam commenters
- Wordfence: Protect your site from hackers, malware, and DDoS attacks.
- Smush: Compress your images so that your website loads faster.
- WP Fastest Cache: Quick and easy caching plugin that will dramatically speed up your site.
- MonsterInsights: Connect this to Google Analytics and instantly get access to events like clicks happening on your blog.
- XML-Sitemap: Our favorite sitemap plugin that automatically creates sitemaps for Google.
5. Write Your First Post
Now that your blog is set up, it is time to write your first blog post. You probably already have ideas for your first blog post at this point, but remember that it should relate to the topic you chose in step 1 above. Don’t worry about being perfect, just write and publish. See how people react!
6. Keep Going
After your first article is published, you should give yourself a goal to complete the next one. Blogging won’t become a habit unless you begin writing regularly. You’ll get better as you go and you’ll begin to grow your audience.
If you ever run out of blog article ideas, try these tips and tools. Consistency is the key to improve your rank on search engines, attract more audience, and even have the opportunity to affiliate your blogs to businesses and online stores. The possibilities are endless.
If you ever lose motivation, just keep pushing through. The tips and tools linked above to help you generate new blog article ideas can also help you persevere. Remember that this trait will get you through the place you have gotten stuck at. Writer’s block is a real thing and there are many ways to beat it.
7. Monetize Your Blog
Once you’ve built up a decent readership, it’s time to start monetizing your content. There are many ways to monetize content, but some of the easiest ways are through ads and affiliate marketing programs. You can learn how to monetize your blog here.
