How to Start A Blog: Blogging Tips For Beginners

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In today’s post, I’ll share with you my easy blogging tips for beginners on How to Start A Blog.

Many people dream of having a blog where they can write as much as they want to on topics they’re deeply interested in. However, a large number of these people feel terrified by the thought of doing something they’re not experienced in. That’s something normal.

Nonetheless, you shouldn’t be restricted by a lack of knowledge. We learn something new every day. Why not learn How to start a blog today?

If that’s something you’re fascinated by, it shouldn’t be that hard for you to create your website. After all, everyone who has ever created a blog has been reading a lot to grasp the idea behind blogging.

To be honest, I had no idea how to start a blog. But despite that, I knew I wanted to. I’ve always fancied the idea of having my blog where I can write about the things that I love.

One day I decided that I’ll just go for it, and guess what? A few hours later I had my very own blog, which I created completely by myself. I read a lot, I watched Youtube videos, and I followed tutorials for every single thing because I didn’t want to mess something up.

This being said, I can assure you that you can do it, too. If you’re willing to spend some time reading my blogging tips for beginners and a few additional articles, you’ll see that it’s absolutely manageable to create a blog.

How to Start A Blog: Blogging Tips For Beginners

Choose Your Niche

Number one from my blogging tips for beginners is to choose your niche. Think of something you’re extremely interested in. You should be able to write an endless number of blog posts on that topic. Of course, you shouldn’t limit yourself to only one subject.

 

For example, my blog is a lifestyle and wellness blog, meaning that I write blog posts about healthy living, a healthy mindset, nutrition, and beauty. All these things fall perfectly into the Lifestyle category.

However, I want to start writing more articles about blogging. This doesn’t really belong to the Lifestyle category, but it’s not something so far from it either. That’s because blogging is part of my daily life. And here, on The Alexandra Blog, I write about my life, my personal tips, my personal experience, etc.

On second thought, blogging is not that far from Lifestyle, right?

However, it’s not really a good idea to create a blog where you’d write on all kinds of topics. I suggest you choose up to two categories that are somehow related. If you blog about mental health and marketing, let’s say, many people will back out. That’s because these two topics are not related at all.

So before starting your blog, write down all the topics you’re interested in and try to combine a few that are somehow related.

Choose A Blogging Platform

After choosing your niche, it’s time for you to choose your blogging platform. With no hesitation, my advice is to go with WordPress. It’s undoubtedly the best blogging platform out there. It’s user-friendly, easy to use, and it allows you to customize your website in the best way possible.

However, if you’re not a fan, you can always go with Blogger or Wix.

Buy A Domain Name

Now, this is something crucial. When choosing your domain name, you should be very careful. You want your blog name to be something memorable, catchy, and simple.

My advice is to not go with something too long and complicated. You can include your name or words, related to your blog category.

I wanted to include my name in my domain name, that’s why I came up with The Alexandra Blog. It’s super simple, easy to remember, and it’s 100% related to my blog content.

You can also try some random name generators out. Sometimes you can actually get great ideas from them.

You can pay for your domain name for up to ten years. The price may vary, depending on the domain extension (.com, .net, .org, etc.). I got mine from FastComet, and it was super cheap. If your desired domain extension is taken, the system automatically suggests those that are available.

Choose Your Web Hosting Company

Let me begin by saying that you can have a completely free blog. However, the cons of owning such a website are so many that it’s definitely not worth your time and effort.

It’s much better to go with a hosting plan, or in other words to create a self-hosted blog. You basically pay a web hosting company to host your website. Having a self-hosted blog is much more professional, and you also have the opportunity to monetize it.

You can choose between a great number of web hosting companies. I chose to go with FastComet, and I haven’t regretted this for a second.

Their plans’ prices are totally affordable, their client area is user- friendly, and their customer support is top-notch. Another great thing is that you have a 45-days money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with their services.

Install WordPress

The next step on How to start a blog is to install WordPress. With FastComet, this is completely free.

They have a super detailed tutorial on how to do this by yourself. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll easily install WordPress.org in no time.

Choose A Theme For Your Blog

Now that you’ve successfully installed WordPress.org, it’s time for you to choose a good theme.

Go to Appearance – Themes – Add new and start looking for your perfect theme. You can preview each one before installing it.

It’s better to go with something simple and more minimalistic. Remember that a great number of your blog visitors use their phones to go to your website. This being said, you must choose a theme that’s also mobile-friendly.

Add Pages and Posts

After choosing your theme, it’s time for you to add some quality content to your website. Start by adding a few pages. About and Contact are the most common blog page ideas.

You can add one by simply going to Pages – Add new.

As for posts, my advice is to have at least 10 written blog posts before launching your blog. Of course, you don’t want to publish them all at once. You can start by posting 2-3 posts on your first day. Presenting an empty blog is not something you want to do.

One of the most important blogging tips for beginners is to have articles written in advance. This is crucial because sometimes you don’t have time to write, or you’re totally out of blog post ideas. That’s when the finished articles will come in handy.

You can add new posts by going to Posts – Add new.

Customize Your Blog

After choosing your theme and adding some content, it’s time for you to make your blog pretty. One of the best blogging tips for beginners is to create your own header. It should be something nice and unique.

If you’re not good with Photoshop, I suggest you use Canva. It’s great for creating graphic content. With their multiple templates, this task will be absolutely effortless.

Also, you can add widgets and menus from the Appearance menu. They’ll make the user experience much better. By clicking on Appearance – Themes – Customize, you’ll be able to edit your theme the way you want to. You can change the colors, you can add a background, etc.

You can find the best blogging tips for beginners here. All of the tutorials are explained step-by-step in a beginner-friendly way. I spent the majority of my time on this website when I decided to start my blog.

Install Plugins

You can’t have a blog without installing a few super important plugins necessary for your blog to be impeccable.

Some of the plugins every blogger needs are the following:

WPForms

Allows you to create contact forms easily, using a Drag&Drop form builder.

Yoast SEO

One of the best SEO plugins for WordPress.

Email Subscribers and Newsletters

Allows you to add a pretty subscription form on your website, and notifies your subscribers as soon as a new blog post is published on your website.

I’ll definitely write an article on ‘The Best Plugins For Bloggers’ where I’ll explain in detail about the plugins I use, and why they’re so great.

Final Words

These are my top 9 blogging tips for beginners I believe are crucial for every new blogger out there wondering how to start a blog. Before starting your blog you should familiarize yourself with the key things listed above.

I’ve tried to explain everything in a very beginner-friendly way and I think I managed to do it.

This is the first blog post about blogging on my website. I truly enjoyed working on it, and you can expect more similar articles in the future.