How to Start a Blog
There are plenty of guides out there telling you in intricate detail how to start a blog.
The reality is, starting a blog doesn’t have to be crazy difficult.
It can be as easy as just pressing publish on a great idea.
Let’s go over what you need to start a blog, and a few practical steps to get started.
Step 1: Have a great idea
The most important step to starting a blog: have something you want to say. Maybe there’s a book series you really love that you want to write about, or a DIY project you feel needs to be talked about. The most important step to getting started on your blog is to just have something you want to say.
Choose a niche
While you actually don’t have to choose a niche when you get started (I didn’t with my most successful website), it’s actually quite a bit easier to build an audience around a blog if you’ve selected your niche. People who follow blogs love getting intricate details about their passion, so getting as specific about your niche as possible before setting out on your blog will help guide you on your journey.
Tips for choosing a niche
When choosing your niche, there are two things you want to ask yourself. Those two things are:
Do I care about this?
Do I know about this?
Those are the most important questions you can ask yourself. You will need to care about the niche you are writing about it to write about it for a lengthy period of time, and it helps if you know a fair bit about it already. That way you won’t have to go and spend a ton of time getting to know a new subject matter while also trying to build a blog.
Step 2: Don’t sweat it
Overthinking things leads to paralysis. The worst thing you can do for the sake of your blog’s future is to overthink each and every little thing that can go wrong. Just focus on the fact that you have something you want to say and lean into it.
Step 3: Pick a name
Weirdly enough, it can be very, very difficult to figure this one out. The hardest thing I’ve found when naming blogs is when I know a specific niche in mind. The challenge there is how to express the core of what the blog is while leaving the door open for growth.
Here’s a few tips for helping you with this important step.
Get at the heart of what your blog is about
Being really clear about what your blog is about is important as the name of your blog is the first impression your future readers will have of your site. You want to clearly state what it is your site is all about.
That doesn’t mean you have to be boring, however.
Get creative
A creative blog name is a great way to set your site apart from the rest. Often the best way I find to be original is to just get really me specific. What’s something about me that’s unique?
How I named this blog
This is a somewhat easy example to share because I just recently named this blog. I knew I wanted to primarily write about blogging and joys and struggles of making a living from blogging. I wanted to make it clear that this was all about blogging for money, but at the same time I wanted the title to be something original and unique.
So I came up with the title: “Blogging For Skyr.”
For me, Skyr is a large part of my diet and also one of my favorite foods, so it’s a great way of expressing what this blog is all about: writing for a living.
Step 4: Choose a blogging platform
If you have a great idea for a blog and want to start writing, I wouldn’t delay getting your website published any faster than you have to. If you have that creative urge to start writing and creating, jump on it as soon as possible.
Don’t wait until your website is perfect, either. Believe me: web building never ends. After four years of developing my main site I’m still making changes and enhancements all of the time.
There are lots of different platforms you can choose from when deciding how to start your blog. I’ll highlight a few different ones and why you might choose which.
Medium
So Medium is not actually a web builder but more of a social media platform for writers. It’s like a social blog and you don’t have to actually do any web administering of your own.
If you are looking for mostly a social outlet and not necessarily wanting to start your own blog, Medium can be a great way to test the waters without investing any money.
Squarespace
Squarespace (which is also an affiliate of mine) is my favorite web building platform I’ve used, and it’s especially good for people who are just starting out in their blogging journey. To start, you really won’t have to do much to get your blog going.
That being said, upgraded versions of Squarespace are affordable enough while also being customizable. That might not sound important at the beginning of your journey, but if your blog progresses beyond the hobby stage, you’ll need to make alterations and things as you go.
Step 5: Write your first post
Along the lines of that whole “don’t sweat it” thing, you really want to start writing as soon as possible. Sign up for your web building platform, write your first post and get it published. Assuming you’ve already connected your new site to Google Search Console, you should start getting indexed fairly quickly.
What should you write about? It can be as simple as welcoming people to your blog! Whatever you want to write, write it and publish it as soon as you can!
Getting indexed in Google
You’ll want to make sure your site is indexible by Google as that’s how a lot of people will find you. How this works depends largely on the web builder you are using, but if you are using Squarespace it’s relatively easy to do.
Step 6: Create social media profiles for your new blog
If you’re at all serious about blogging, you’re going to want to create social media accounts to share your content. My favorite account to share content on is X because the entire site is sort of like a micro blog. However, people have tons of success posting to sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
It’s okay if you play around with different platforms but the important thing is to find out what works best for your site and start sharing your stuff!
Why sharing is important
It can be very daunting to share your writing if you are new to blogging, but it’s a vital step in building a blog. As you write and publish your ideas and stories and share them, you’ll get all kinds of feedback from people that will make the whole creative journey of starting a blog feel that much more real.
Step 7: Come up with a content plan
It might sound a little funny to put the planning phase at the very end like this, but I actually think it’s much better to just dive head-first into your blog rather than come up with the optimal plan and never actually execute on it.
Once you’ve published your first post, and have an actual functioning blog set up, you can come up with a plan for where you want to go next.
Your content plan can be as simple as a list of a few posts you want to write a month, or as complex as your grand scheme for the next few years.
Between the two, I would choose simplicity over complexity, as you never know where your blogging journey will take you.
