How to Get Started Blogging in 5 Easy Steps

Thinking of starting a blog? Let’s do it! Blogs have been around since the dawn of the internet, and more and more people are starting their own. With a personal blog, you can piece together pages filled with personality and your favorite bits of digital content – it’s like putting together an online scrapbook!

In this article, we’re going to look at the basics for beginners who are interested in trying it out. If you’re curious about the steps you need to take to get up and running, we’ve outlined it for you here. Without further ado, here are 5 easy steps to get started blogging!

How to Get Started Blogging

1. Brainstorm blog name ideas

Everything begins with an idea! Brainstorming for your blog name is the first step to get started blogging, so put your thinking cap on. Decide what you want to do with your blog, as this will dictate what you write about and the type of content you create. Your blog name should reflect this in some way. If it’s going to be personal, get as creative as you want, and if it’s going to be for a business, you may already have your name picked out. On the other hand…

If you intend for others to find your blog through Google searches, it’s essential you do keyword research. Keyword research tells you what people are searching for on the internet, allowing you to make educated choices about which words and phrases to use for promoting your blog. You may want to consider using keywords in your blog’s title and URL (more on this later). The idea is people search for some words and phrases more often than others, and your blog/blog posts will show up in search engines if you make strategic use of popular keywords.

Brainstorming helps you think of all the posibilities for your blog, and if you’re aware of popular keywords, you can create a unique name that stands out and ranks high in search engines. You’ll have to pick a permanent name when you set up your website, so take some time to come up with a good one. Once you’re done, you’ll want to begin registering your website.

2. Set up hosting / purchase a domain name

After you’ve come up with ideas and a name for your blog, it’s time to set up your website. To do this, you’ll pick a host to store all your website files online, and this can be done using either free or premium services. We recommend either creating a free blog directly through WordPress or going premium with Bluehost.

With the first method, you can set up a free WordPress site with the caveat that your website URL will include “wordpress” in the title (ex. yourname.wordpress.com). If this isn’t an issue for you, navigate to their website, create an account, and proceed through their setup process. This process will take you all the way through account registration and site setup, step by step. This is the quick and easy method if your plan is to blog as a hobby with no strings attached. However, if you want to place ads on your site and access even more customization options, you’ll want to purchase your own hosting package and domain name.

With Bluehost, you can choose a number of hosting packages depending on your needs. Purchasing hosting is like purchasing online rental space for you to store files. The company also sells domain names, so you can acquire your site name at the same time you get hosting if that’s the route you’ve chosen.

3. Learn the basics

Once your site is set up and you’re logged in to your WordPress dashboard (you should have already created a free WordPress account or installed it on your Bluehost account in the previous step), start small! Watch a few tutorials on the basics of WordPress navigation in order to get the feel for the dashboard and admin controls. Don’t try to do too much too fast!

It’s important you get used to WordPress before you start making radical decisions about what layout you want, which plugins to install, what colors and fonts to use, etc. It can be difficult to backtrack and adjust changes after you’ve gone all in, so it’s best to take it easy and try not to dig yourself a hole early on.

Watch some video tutorials, as there are plenty out there that teach you virtually everything you need to know about WordPress operation. It’s an entirely different beast that deserves a library of tutorials and FAQs on its own.

Here are beginner’s mistakes to avoid when you get started blogging:

• Don’t start adding a bunch of unnecessary plugins all at once. It’s okay to add a few, but remember each time you add a plugin, you’re adding lines of codes and files to your site. Sometimes plugins can conflict with each other, and you could end up with a coding mess if you let things get out of hand.
• Don’t sweat the details. Focus on your writing and blog content more than anything. It can be easy to get distracted by the design elements in your blog, but these are minor issues you can adjust over time. You’ll learn that it’s hard to ever be fully satisfied with your blog’s appearance, and you’ll always be tinkering with it. Don’t let the customization options rule you!

4. Create your first blog post

Now that you’re all set up, it’s time to create your very first blog post! This is easy, as most blogging platforms give you all the tools you need to get started making engaging posts. From videos to quizzes, you can embed all sorts of content for your readers’ enjoyment, and once you gain more experience, you’ll learn how you can add plugins to expand the functionality of the platform.

Try some of these and play around with their positioning on your pages. Again, blogging is like digital scrapbooking, and the sky is the limit once you begin learning ways to beef up your posts with fun content. Experiment and see what you can come up with. This is where things will really take off and you’ll begin to understand why others enjoy blogging so much!

5. Spread the word

After you’ve created your blog, it’s time to spread the word! You can share the URL to your blog with your friends, or if you’ve found suitable sharing plugins, use them to spread your site across social media. This is the chance to put yourself out there for the world to see!

Final Words 

It doesn’t take long to get started blogging! Once you’ve come up with a general idea and name, you can set up a website, learn the basics, and create your first blog post for all to see! These are our suggestions, but there are really no rules as to how it should be done. After a while, you can get creative and experiment to see what kinds of unique blogs you can come up. Let your imagination run wild as you adventure into the digital world of writing and get started blogging!

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