How to Start A Blog: What Are You Waiting For?

Maybe you like to travel and have read this blog as well as others and thought, “I could do that.” Today I’m going to share with you how to start a blog in a few easy steps. You’ll find that it’s both rewarding and maybe not as easy as you might have thought. Read on and discover my introductory tips on how to start a blog and to see if you ready for the challenge, you can also click here to learn more about the fundamentals of blogging.

Pick a Name

What describes you? Who are you? What are you trying to accomplish? These are all things you should ask yourself to help you determine your blog name. By picking a name, you’ve completed one of the hardest tasks yet. This is the name you’ll be identified by not only on your website, but on social media as well so choose wisely as it’s not something you want to change often.

Choose a Dependable Host

I can’t even begin to tell you the frustration I had with people who were supposed to help me with my site over the past few years. Also, if I had known about something like these Discount codes for hostgator’s shared hosting, I could have saved some money, as well as finding a web host straight away for my blog. But we all have to learn as we go along. Between the lack of experience and undependable server hosts, I wanted to throw in the towel several times. Do your research on sites like Hosting Foundry, ask bloggers that you like and respect what platform and host they use, and find a host like Bluehost that will match your needs not only for today, but for the future as well.

Choose a Niche

While you could say that you are interested in creating a blog, the people that tend to abandon their blogs that write about everything without choosing a niche. For example, someone who writes about family, cooking, money, travel, and fashion is not targeting their audience. Even within each of those topics are further subtopics so choose your niche and stick with it.

Write Often

Get used to writing about everything and everything, even if whatever you’re writing about never becomes an actual post for your blog. Sounds strange, right? Whether you use pen and paper, your phone, a tablet, or a computer, it doesn’t really matter. Just write! Become accustomed to writing on a regular basis and start to think about a schedule for your writing. Some people work best at night, some in the afternoon, some during the day. As for me, I like getting to work first thing in the morning and not breaking until early afternoon. If I put off my writing until later in the day, well, it usually doesn’t get done. Take your writing seriously, even if you’re not an experienced writer, and commit to it.

TSG Tip: Before you actually post to your blog, check and double check for misspellings, typos, and grammatical errors. There’s nothing worse than reading someone’s blog and finding numerous careless mistakes. Those simple things can be enough of a turn off to a potential reader and that might mean they never return.

Post on a Regular Basis

If you want to develop your brand and have followers, then it’s necessary for you to post on a regular basis. If you only contribute a post once a month, no one is going to really care. So consider posting no less than once a week, but more if possible. Try to write no less than 500 words, but don’t make your posts super lengthy as people will shy away from reading them. Short, sweet, and to the point and you’ll get your point across and keep the reader interested.

Take Great Photos

Believe me when I tell you that no one wants to read a post that contains only words. Use great images that highlight what you’re describing as a way to entice your reader to continue scrolling through your posts. Insert at least one image and try to find a balance between images and words. Don’t have enough images of your own? No worries, just look for images in the public domain like on Creative Commons and attribute the image in your post or find free quality images that don’t require attribution through a website like Pixabay.

Hobby or Job?

If you’re thinking you can do this casually on the side, then treat your blog like a hobby. But if you take this seriously, then you can expect to work hard. On the day you consider how to start a blog, decide whether this will be only a hobby to you or more. After that it’ll be easy to determine how much you’ll really need to work at it. Ask anyone who has ever traveled with me, gone out with me for a meal, or has spent time in my home and they will tell you that this is a 24/7 job for me and not a hobby. One isn’t better or more important than other. They’re just different. You’ll need to decide which one it will be for you.

After you’ve thought over the world of blogging and read many posts on how to start a blog, only you can decide if you’re ready, willing, and able to take on the challenge. Tips like finding a host like Bluehost are a good starting place for anyone wanting to start a blog so I hope you’ve found them helpful. If you do start a blog soon or have recently started one, let me know and come back here and post your blog name so I can check it out.