Want to Start Blogging? Here Are Some Tips

But if you’ve never blogged before, it can be intimidating to get it set it up for the first time. We can teach you how to start writing a blog (and even how to make money writing a blog) with a few simple steps.

Decide on your niche.
A blog about everything ends up being a blog about nothing. This is why it’s important to narrow down your blog’s topic into a single niche, which means that you need to choose a specific topic when writing a blog. Find something that you know about and you’re passionate about because there will be days when you don’t want to blog, even about your favorite topics. Find something you love, so you’ll keep wanting to write about it down the road.

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Of course, you don’t need to get so specific that you’re pigeonholing your audience. Keep the topic broad enough that you can grow an audience but narrow enough that you can target an audience. For example, a blog about gardening is a great way to go. General gardening can be helpful for a lot of people by offering tips and tricks for growing flower beds, vegetables, and anything else involved with gardening. You can leave your niche there to appeal to a broad audience or narrow it down even more. Let’s say that you specialize in growing vegetables in raised garden boxes, you can specialize in this area with your blog. This would be a great place to stop narrowing down your niche because you might get too niche by narrowing down to writing a blog specifically around growing turnips in raised garden boxes. It’s a good idea to find your niche and narrow it down to a specific audience that still allows you to appeal to a wide audience.

Name your blog.
Naming your blog can be one of the more difficult parts of getting started. There’s a balance in coming up with a name that’s catchy and memorable without taking it so far that readers don’t know what it’s about. Going back to the previous example of a blog about garden boxes, you could call your blog The Garden Boxer. While this might give off somewhat of a vibe of a backyard fighter or a dog breeder, those who are looking for information about garden boxes will know what that means. The title is catchy, short enough to be memorable, and tells your audience what you’re about.

Choose a hosting platform.
There are a ton of places you can host a blog, and all offer a wide variety of features. If you’re getting started on your first blog, you might not know what features, widgets, or plugins you want to use. Do some looking around at hosting platforms to see what each offers. You’ll find that there are a few free hosting platforms that offer limited features, while others cost money with more features. Know you’re budget and whether you want a plethora of features to play with or if you’re simply looking to get started with a simple plan to see if it’s something you’ll enjoy doing.

Build your blog.
You don’t have to build a fancy blog if you’re just starting out. Go basic because your content is what will initially attract people. Don’t spend too much time focusing on animations, graphics, or images. While these will help with the visual side of your blog, they’re not as important in the beginning as setting up your home page, blog page, and other basic aspects. You’ll have a chance over time to learn how to build a more visually appealing blog as you go.

Build a content calendar.
You’ll probably be gung-ho about blogging at the start, so ride that positive energy and pump out a few posts to get started. Come up with three or four posts that you can write, then get them uploaded and scheduled. Once you’ve burned through the first few, think of a few more topics you’d like to cover. Use a spreadsheet to build a content calendar that matches up with events. For instance, if you write a blog about homeschooling, consider the traditional school schedule for timely topics. You can also highlight any upcoming events like conventions or expos. Make a note to yourself to write a blog post that’s time-sensitive and put off those that are evergreen. This will make it easy to rearrange if you come up with a new topic that’s not already on your calendar.

Find ways to make money.
If your plan for your blog is for it to be nothing more than a hobby, then you might not be too concerned about finding ways to monetize it. But wouldn’t it be nice knowing how to make money writing a blog? Well, there are several ways that you can monetize a blog, regardless of how big or small it is. You can:

• Run ads on your blog.
• Promote products using affiliate marketing.
• Sell your own merch (shirts, stickers, mugs, etc.).
• Diversify your content to YouTube and/or a podcast.

While you probably don’t have to make money to maintain your blog, it sure helps with hosting costs and keeps the motivation up to write.

It can be tough knowing how to start a blog if you’ve never done it before. With these simple steps, you can go from having an idea to writing your first blog post in no time.