How To Start a Blog in 2024
Want to learn how to start a blog? This guide will give you everything you need to know.
Table of Contents
- Pick Your Niche
- Choose Your Blog Name
- Build Your Website
- Design Your Website
- Write a Blog Post
- Promote Your Blog and Get Readers
- How to Make Money With Your Blog
Have you ever dreamed of starting your blog and making a living from what you post? If so, there is no better time than now to get started. In 2024, so many tools are available to create your blog.
In this article, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to start blogging so that you can start building your audience and making money. We’ll cover things like picking your niche, a title, how to set up your website, and ways you can monetize. Keep reading to how to start a blog in 2024
1. Pick Your Niche
- Your niche is the focus of your blog.
- Your niche lets readers know what to expect on your blog.
What is a niche? In short, your niche is the topic of your blog. Some common niches are things like travel, jewelry, or crafting. When you eventually start making content for your blog, you’ll want to keep your posts within your niche.
Why is a niche important? Your niche will help to make your blog more discoverable, and people interested in your topic will come back, again and again, to see what else you post on the subject. While general blogs exist, they may be more challenging to get going as your audience won’t know what to come back for.
We recommend picking a topic that you’re interested in. If you like traveling, then start with the topic of travel. Consider the things about travel you enjoy most or you have the most knowledge about. These specific topics such as travel reviews for resorts or hotels, travel trip reviews, or restaurant reviews while you travel. If you love movies, start with the topic of movies. Consider what you know and like about them. Then from there, pick a more specific topic, like movie theater reviews, horror movie reviews, or a movie summary blog. If you have multiple interests, you can always start another blog once you have one going. Many professional bloggers may have two or more blogs going simultaneously.
2. Choose Your Blog Name
- Your blog name enforces your niche, letting readers know what your blog is about before they ever reach the website.
The next step in how to start a blog is choosing your name. Now that you have your niche, a smart idea would be to give some hints about your blog niche in your name. For example, you could name your coffee blog “Coffee With Kathy” or a skincare blog “Love Your Face.”
A good title will help give potential readers an idea of your blog before they click on your website. This will help with discoverability and let readers find you easier.
It is a good idea to review available domain names to see if you can acquire one related to your blog name or content.
3. Build Your Website
- You do not need a ton of website building experience.
- You can either use an all-in-one service, or a website host that supports WordPress.
- Dreamhost, HostGator and Bluehost are all great website host options that support WordPress.
- Squarespace is a great all-in-one service.
Thanks to tons of website building and blogging tools out there, it is easier than ever to start your blog. Here you have a couple of options to get started.
One option is to sign up with a hosting service and use WordPress to build your blog. This is one of the most common options and what will be recommended by most blog-building articles.
Your second option is to use an all-in-one platform that will be able to host your website and act as your blogging platform. We’ll go into these details a little more now.
Website Hosting Services for WordPress
If you want to go the WordPress route (which is probably the most common blogging platform today), you’ll need to start with a website host. While there are hundreds of website hosts for you, here are three of the best hosts for your blog. We also have a great article just on fantastic WordPress hosts for you to check out.
Dreamhost: Dreamhost has some amazing website security for those who want to feel more secure. They have a free SSL certificate and a one-click WordPress install. Dreamhost is another great option for bloggers on a budget, as they offer a monthly plan paid monthly. If you need to cancel your plan, they also have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
HostGator: HostGator is the best option for a new blogger on a budget. HostGator has been around for ages and has a reputation for being a trustworthy website host, with another 8 million websites using its services. HostGator also has some amazing customer service for anyone who feels like they’ll want someone they can reliably turn to for any troubles. As for budget, HostGator is one of the few hosting services that offers a true monthly plan, as opposed to other services that only have annual plans or similar.
Bluehost: Bluehost is one of the bloggers’ most common host services, thanks to its easy compatibility with WordPress. Bluehost’s great features include a free domain name for your first year, a free SSL certificate, 1 click WordPress, and 24/7 support.
All-in-One Website
If you prefer an all-in-one route, or perhaps you’re just not a fan of WordPress, then a good option is Squarespace. Squarespace is a website builder that can handle everything from hosting, design, domains, and posting. They have a drag-and-drop style interface that is intuitive for any new blogger, with the ability to access your website source code for more advanced bloggers.
4. Design Your Website
- Choose a design theme that compliments your niche.
- Consider getting graphics that support your brand.
- Make a style guide for your posts, including consistent font style, font size, and colors.
In this section, we’ll go over how to design your blog to help attract readers.
Choose a Theme
Now that you have a name, a niche, and a website, it’s time to make things pretty.
If you go with WordPress and a traditional web host, you have thousands of WordPress themes to choose from that will make your blog beautiful in just a few clicks of a button.
If you’re not worried about spending a little bit more money or have the know-how, then you can make your WordPress theme or hire someone else. If you’ll looking for someone to make a WordPress theme for you, a great place to look is Fiverr. Fiverr lets you hire someone to make a WordPress theme for your website or many other jobs. Another great option for themes is ThemeForest. ThemeForest is an online marketplace full of pre-made themes that can be tailored to your liking.
Using an All-in-One website like Squarespace will also have plenty of beautiful themes to choose from.
Branding Images
Now that you have a name and a theme, an optional step would be to get or make some graphics to make your blog look unique. Something like a header when your blog name would be a good place to start.
If you have some talent for graphic design, you could do this yourself. You can also hire someone to create graphics for you. Fiverr is a great option for finding someone to create website-specific graphics for you on a budget.
Choose a Style
Everything by now should be set up to write your first blog post. Before you start writing, however, you may want to consider one last thing. A blogging style.
If you spend time reading other blogs, you may notice that great blog posts have a structure with headings and nested images. This will be a good time to research and think about how you would like your posts to look visually. This can include aspects like a font you like, font color, or even how pictures are used.
Once you have a few ideas, take note of these aspects of design so that your future posts will look cohesive to a passerby. Overall it will give your blog a more polished look.
5. Write a Blog Post
- Brainstorm blog post ideas.
- Research a topic that fits your niche.
- Write your first port.
- Consider a posting schedule to show your readers you’re consistent.
When learning how to start a blog, with everything else in place, you can truly begin writing. But where do you get started, and how do you know a good post from a bad post? This section will help you out.
Brainstorm Blog Posts
If you’re stuck on where to start, it can help to brainstorm ideas. If you’re writing a hiking blog, you could brainstorm topics like “best hiking gear” or “best places to go hiking.” Remember that large topics can be broken down into multiple smaller posts. A blog post about the best hiking places could later branch into individual reviews on the best hiking trails.
You don’t need to come up with a ton of ideas to get started, even just a couple will help you get started.
Start your Research
Once you have brainstormed enough to decide on a topic you want to write about, it is time to do a little research. Depending on the topic, this section will look a little different. If you’re writing a movie review, you may need to go watch that movie and take some notes. If you’re writing an in-depth article about Bitcoin, then you may need to do a little research on Bitcoin.
As you research, try to save any reputable sources your readers might appreciate. Great sources help to give the validity of your posts.
If you’re still stuck, there are plenty of tools on the web to give you ideas on what to write about or what phrases to target when writing within a given topic. Try sites like ahrefs and Semrush to not only help to find optics, but also give you SEO tools to best position your posts.
Write Your Blog Post
The time has come. With your research done, you can start writing. Don’t worry if your first post isn’t a masterpiece. You have the benefit of not having an audience yet. The important thing is to continue posting content on a reliable schedule, and you will start to get better at writing posts as you gain experience.
Once you have finished your post, along with any editing and style adjustments, you can either post it right away or schedule it.
Consider a Posting Schedule
One very important aspect of blogging to consider is a posting schedule. Are you going to continue to post once a month? Once a week? Remember that consistency is key as you gain readers. They will start to expect new posts regularly. It is important to have a balance between quality of content and frequency of posting.
Both WordPress and Squarespace allow you to schedule posts so that you can write them ahead of time and set them to release according to your schedule.
When considering a posting schedule, there are two things to keep in mind, quality and frequency. You should always try to keep your posts as high quality as you can. Giving yourself time between posts will help maintain that quality. You also want to post on a regular basis. When you’re first building traffic, two to four times a week is thought to be the sweet spot, depending on the blog type. Blogs with long, thought provoking posts for example may only post once a month, while a celebrity news blog may be able to post smaller articles multiple times a day.
At the end of each month, review how your blog is performing and adjust your frequency as needed.
6. Promote Your Blog and Get Readers
- Use keywords and SEO tactics to passively boost your visibility.
- Use a newsletter with an email campaign to retain readers.
- Strategically use the best social media for your blog niche.
- Guest post on other blogs to find new readers.
Now that you’re actively blogging, you’ll be able to start working on promoting your blog.
Keywords
One passive way to promote your blog is through SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
SEO elements in your blog posts will help them appear naturally in a google search. One popular method is to use specific keywords. You can research keywords for your blog through services like Google Adwords. Google Adwords can help you find what keywords people search for on the internet concerning your niche. Sprinkling in a few of these keywords will help your blog posts become more discoverable. Other SEO tools that we recommend are Ahrefs and SEM Rush.
It is important to remember to use keywords effectively. If you start loading in too many, also known as “Keyword Stuffing,” Google can detect this and will make your search results worse. Tools like Rank Math SEO and Yoast SEO can help you with this process.
Email Campaign
Once you get a few readers, you can start asking readers to sign up for your newsletter. Using a service like Mailchimp, you can send out scheduled emails that will remind your readers to come back to your blog when you post.
Social Media
Do not underestimate the power of social media. When you start posting on your website, your next step should be making social media profiles for your blog or linking your website to your social media.
Whenever you post to your blog, you can link it to your social media accounts to help more people find it. Different blog types will benefit from different social media campaigns, so it is a good idea to research what works best for your niche. For example, a fashion blogger might succeed with highly visual social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
Guest Posting
Another great way to get more readers is by writing guest posts for other established blogs. If readers of those other blogs like your guest post, you can also invite them to check out your blog.
When one blog has a link that leads to your blog, this is called a Backlink. Backlinks are vital for ranking in a google search as it shows the algorithm that other websites are willing to vouch for your content and that you are valuable for readers. Establishing good quality backlinks will help improve your websites overall ranking as Google seeing the links from other websites as a “vouch” or approval of your content.
7. How To Make Money with Your Blog
- Get a kickback for promoting products through affiliate marketing.
- Sell your own service or product.
- Partner with a brand and have them pay you to write a sponsored post.
- Utilize ad space on your website
Now that you’re actively blogging and promoting your blog, you’re likely wondering how to make money with your blog.
Affiliate Marketing
One of the most common ways of making money through blogs is through Affiliate Marketing. The simplest way to explain affiliate marketing is that brands will give you special links to include in your blog posts. If a reader clicks the link and makes a purchase, the brand will send you a portion of the purchase price.
Sell Your Service or Product
If your blog is about something that you do, selling your services is a great way to make money quickly. This may include getting paid to write blog posts for other websites, consulting services, or photography.
Additionally, if you have a product you can sell, you can turn part of your website into an e-commerce store by allowing readers to purchase from you directly.
Sponsored Posts
Once your blog is a little more popular, you may be able to partner up with brands to make a sponsored post. A sponsored post will include you writing about a particular product or service the brand provides. The brand will then pay you simply for writing the post.
Selling Ad Space
Whether it’s joining an ad network, or selling ad space manually, designating a space where brands, companies and organizations can provide content to show on your website is another tried and true method of earning revenue through blogging.
An ad network will find the advertisers for you, whereas in a manual process, you will sell ad space directly to the advertisers yourself. Advertisers are typically interested in traffic around your website. This method of monetization requires a regular amount of traffic that is quantifiable and shareable with advertisers.
Conclusion
To recap, here is how to start a blog in 2024.
- Pick the focus of your blog or your niche.
- Decide what to name your blog.
- Build a website either by using an all-in-one service or a website host that supports WordPress.
- Use built in themes, branding graphics, and a consistent style to make your blog beautiful.
- Write your first blog post. Start with brainstorming and research before writing your first post. Consider a posting schedule for future posts.
- Promote your blog with SEO tactics, social media, email campaigns, and guest blogging.
- Make money with affiliate marketing, selling a product or service, writing sponsored posts, or selling ad space.
These steps listed above are a general outline for how to start a blog in 2024. The importance is to understand the core value of each step. Getting started is the most challenging and important first step in how to start a blog in 2024.