One of the positive decisions I’ve made was to learn how to start a blog with WordPress
My choice to learn about blogging and making money from it on the side of my day job propelled me into building a four-figure freelance writing business through monetizing the blog with Google Adsense, selling services and products through affiliate marketing, advertising and much more. There are many opportunities to make money through blogging. You need to grab it.
Box Out – One of my clients is making thousands of dollars through Google Adsense and selling travel packages through his blog. He likes to travel, and he has converted it into a side business.
Another person is making a huge amount of money by selling products through online without having any knowledge about web hosting and WordPress. Yes this can also be possible through shopify. For that check our shopify review.
Starting a blog has helped me to generate thousands of dollars as a side income each month. Many top writers have joined me here to share their experience and knowledge about making money through blogging.
My decision to start a blog has allowed me to connect and teach over thousands of talented, incredible and passionate readers (like you) every year.
Whether you’re trying to build a personal blog, a freelance business or a particular brand or whether you are just a passionate writer and want to write about specific topics or if you’re going to earn a living from blogging then there’s nothing I would recommend more than challenging yourself to learn how to start a blog with WordPress.
Now it’s easier than ever to get started with writing and publishing online. The last thing for starting a blog that wants to slow you down is all the online services and technical elements.
That’s why I created this ultimate guide that has taken me a lot of time, almost a year to build. In this guide, I will teach you everything you need to know for learning to start a blog and make a profit from it. I’ll show you the exact strategies and techniques I’ve used for my high-profile clients.
I’ve helped to subscribe from zero to millions of readers a year. Most of all, we will dive deep as I researched deep to learn to create a blog myself, and making this blog a source of more than $50,000 inside income each year.
I will share some tips and tricks also because your writing deserves an audience, I will also share the exact technicalities and strategies you can use to promote, market, and grow your blog—the same ones I used last year to increase my blog’s traffic by 1,252%.
Now before we dig deep about starting a blog, lets us get back in time.
In 2014, when I shared the first post on a blog. It was not an in-depth or entrepreneurial focused neither it was tactical as compared to what I publish today. I still check the content of this article which I wrote & I wanted to share a message from it:
“It’s so easy to continue your life on a path which you choose, allowing the feeling of comfort to rule your daily activities but if you never take calculated risks, you’ll regret you never tried.”
I took a calculated risk and started a blog. But it’s one of the most critical decisions that changed my life. And I believe if you are starting a blog and putting the smart work. You can do the same for yourself.
So, if you’re ready to take a step forward and learn to begin a blog, let’s get started!
I want to mention here that some links below are affiliate links and it will not cost you an additional penny, but it might help me earn a commission and keep doing this good work. Please note I only recommend services, products, tools and learning resources I’ve used and are helpful, not because of the small commissions I make from it. Above all, I would never recommend buying something you’re not yet ready to implement, or you can’t afford.
Box Out — The first step to start a blog (today) — we will choose the WordPress host I recommend after testing, i.e. Bluehost — this guide will help you accelerate your progress to get you on the right track with building a brand-new blog. Register your free domain name and save an almost right amount of money on Bluehost to start your blog online. You can install WordPress with one click on Bluehost.
Important: The Services You’ll Need (Today) for Starting a blog to get you started down the right path with a brand new blog, you need a few of these free (and affordable) tools & resources.
- We’ll be using them throughout this guide to speed up your progress.
- Brainstorm domain name through a blog name generator
- Register your domain name for your blog and save on a hosting plan with Bluehost
- You can check whether your domain name is available below :
How to Start a Blog with WordPress in 9 Easy Steps
1. Search Your Niche and Decide What to Blog About
2. Choose a Platform for Blog (CMS)
3. Pick Your Domain or Blog Name
4. Search a Hosting Provider for Your Blog
5. Design Your Blog
6. Create your main pages (About, Contact Me, Buy/Sell, etc.)
7. Engage in a regular publication schedule
8. Make your posts stand out, use free photos and design
9. Publish your post and promote them
Do you want to start a blog for free in 2020?
Do you want to learn how to begin a blog with WordPress but at the same time, it worries you about the cost of hosting and building your blog?
Fortunately, today this isn’t much of an issue. There are many ways you can start a blog today (in an hour or less) for free.
Free blogging platforms like Blogger, Medium, and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for testing things out. Shopify and Big Commerce are best for selling online product.
These platforms are great if blogging is your hobby.
However, if you’re looking to make money out of your blog or build a business, I would highly recommend some paid (but very affordable) options I will cover below. If you’re not able to decide whether to use a paid or free hosting provider to get started. Here’s a strong reason why you should consider (an affordable) paid hosting provider :
If you choose a free blogging service, then you’ll have a lack of control over how your blog acts or looks: Free blogging services (like Tumblr, Blogger, or Medium) will always limit the design and functionality of your blog. Which means you won’t be able to make your blog look unique or like your other favorite sites. Most importantly, you will not be able to do the things you want (like gather email addresses from your readers using tools, join affiliate programs or include ads and other activities that’ll help you make money through blogging).
Most free platforms have limits on monetization: If you are planning to make money from blogging, a free service will limit the amount you can earn until you pay for an upgrade (which defeats the purpose of using a “Free” function in the first place) which will cost you almost four times higher than your blog and still your free blog will have limited options.
Upgrading or Switching to better service is a severe hassle: As your blog grows, you’ll quickly outgrow the free service you started on. However, transferring to another blogging platform takes time, effort, money and knowledge to do correctly and not lose your hard-earned traffic.
There’s always a lack of support if something goes wrong: While a paid blog hosting service which I always recommend, Bluehost, still provides stellar support. Now if you are using a free service and If things go wrong (and sometimes will), it might be challenging to get the help you need.
Free blog hosting services can vanish overnight: A free service doesn’t make a company any money, and there’s always a risk they might decide it’s not worth it anymore. There is still a risk of losing hours of hard work based on something you can’t control.
Before you get started, always think about your plan and what you want from your blog.
While it’s smooth and perfectly fine to learn about blogging for free, sometimes a little upfront investment can pave a future that’s much more lucrative. But, that’s your decision, and it’s just as worthy if you start as a hobby blogger on a free platform today.
So in this post, I will show you both ways (and what I’ve done to scale my blog to millions of readers a year), so you can choose for yourself what makes the most sense for you.
Step by step guide to Start a Blog with WordPress in 2020
Let’s start with the important thing first. The only thing standing in between you and your blog is you. It’s simple to say that we need too much effort, too much time or you’re tired from work. But staring a blog makes your effort worth it.
When I spoke to the top and best bloggers, almost everyone said they first learned to blog while doing their daily job. At an average, they spent 40 minutes at day and at night to design, write, and create a blog that now brings them an average of more than $15,000 a month in sponsorship revenue.
They did a lot of things right (that I’ll cover in this guide). But the similar situation is that they started in the same place you are right now and we’re committed to creating a blog. That commitment is something vital.
The standard for blogging and what makes excellent content has raised in 2020. And if you’re looking for rapid results in your blog like earning money through a blog from tomorrow, then you will be disappointed. You need to set legitimate expectations.
And it doesn’t mean you can’t start a successful blog in 2020. More opportunities are waiting for you. But it’s important to know and be sure you’re not falling into any traps early on. Traps like
- Thinking about you can make a lot of money writing about something you aren’t passionate or familiar.
- You are not making efforts to publish content regularly neither you are interacting with your audience.
- Without putting time, effort and work. You are expecting results.
Here’s a reality you need to know: The most successful, profitable, favorite blogs in 2020 are run by people who care deeply about the content they’re writing. They’re excited and committed to posting. And they know that starting or running a blog is an investment that will only bring them more significant returns.
And as long as you think same, your blog will be a success! Let’s learn the first step in starting a blog.
1. Search Your Niche and Decide What to Blog About
You don’t read a blog because they publish frequently or it looks nice. (Although both these step helps)
You read a blog because you care about what it publishes.
Before we start a process of learning blogging, decide everything about what your blog will do and what will be the design of the blog. Before that, you need to answer a straightforward question: Why?
- Why should other people read what you’re writing?
- Why is this topic important to you, which you’re blogging?
- What is essential in this topic that you can add value?
To answer these crucial questions, IÂ need to think of a blog like any other business and pick a niche.
What is a niche? And why does your blog need it?
A niche is a kind of one direction out of many. It is more than just a topic. It’s the viewpoint and knowledge or tutorial you have, the people you want to go after, and through the style and technique, you will talk to them and position yourself as an expert.
It’s not essential that a particular niche is your passion, but it’s easier to be committed while starting your blog when you’re passionate about it. But you should be having knowledge and interest in that niche. The best niche is enough to excite you as you will be motivated to post about it continually and will be accessible enough so that you can build a target audience.
So, whether this means Travel, Health, cooking, lifestyle, starting a drop shipping business, or home decor tips, it’s all up to you.
The reason your blog needs a niche is that it gives it a particular direction. Your niche is how you’ll design it, plan your content and know how and where to market it. It’s also how your target audience will find you and the way you will make connections with other bloggers.
Remember, we all have our own opinions and tastes and a blog is a perfect destination to put those out in the world. So when you write to everyone. You’re writing to a particular audience of the same taste. Opinions can differ.
Now, if no niche comes to mind right away or you’re unsure what to write? That’s not an issue. We can take it out of you with a few basic questions.
Let’s begin with some simple questions:
- What interest in your childhood that you find exciting?
- What is a deeply held value of yours?
- What’s the best part of your day?
- Do you want to learn any hobbies or you already have one?
- What are your achievements that you’re incredibly proud?
Right away, an idea should come up in your mind, what you could write to start a blog. But let’s go deeper before we choose a niche.
Next, list out eight things you find easy to do or you are naturally good at. Which means you’ll be able to write about them quickly, with confidence and authority. You don’t need to be over as specific as possible.
For example, instead of saying “Blogging,” say “Blogging tips for working moms, especially at home.”
Now, write a list of 8 things you spend your free time on. But stick to things that are both what you “want” to do and that you “have” to hit a goal.
Finally, check your answers and pick out the phrases, patterns, and common keywords. Is there anything that interests you right away? Are there any themes you can see like want to cook or playing any sports?
Pick the things out which interest you right away and rank them on a scale of 1–10. Ten being the highest points while the one least. Pick out the one with most points. Yes! You just found your niche.
Now, at this point, there’s a good chance that you’ve found a niche of your choice, but the hindrance is other bloggers have already blogged about it!
Well, that’s OK. Yes, it’s not essential to think that you’re going to have competitors that have been blogging about a topic for years, but know that there’s always space for your unique opinion and voice.
One famous blogger shared with me:
“Many bloggers think, they have nothing to write or talk about and add value to. But if you’re successful and good at something, think about it and write out everything about it. The more steps you took, the more you learn, and the least mistakes you made.”
It’s your experiences that will define your blog and your niche to stand out.
So don’t be scared if bloggers have already written about this niche.
They can never write it from the same perspective that you can. And that’s a big advantage for you while learning about blogging.
Now one important point to mention is how to know if there’s a business opportunity for your niche.
For that you’ll need to research to see if there is a market demand for your niche or will you be able to make money from out of it or not. Let me explain it in another way: Are people regularly searching for what you’re writing about? And can you add value and help them in a way that makes you money?
To create money from your blog, you need to provide a solution to a problem for your audience. To do this, I use a simple spreadsheet I call the Niche Demand Checker.
Pick the niche that you’re thinking to write about and come up with 4–8 keyword phrases or topics within that niche that you would write about. So, if we wanted to start a blog about cooking you might choose keywords like “best cooking books,” “how to make Apple pie,” “beginner cooking courses,” “what cooking kit should I buy” and so on.
Now, enter any one of those keywords into your Google search. If there are tens of millions of search results, then this is a reliable indicator that people care about your topic. To be more precise, I use a free Google ad words tool to find search volume.
Repeat the same process for each of your keywords and look at the results. If all of your top keywords have a Monthly Search Volume of 3,000–10,000, your niche has definitively a potential to make profits for you. A meaningful point to mention here is if the topic of your choice has hundreds of thousands of Monthly Searches, then you might need to get more specific with your niche rather than competing with a much larger, established websites on more popular subjects.
With time you will learn, about blogging and into the direction where you’re progressing in different ways to drive traffic to your website, growing your base of readers and focusing on improving your domain authority and trust flow. Slowly you’ll be able to compete on the more significant topics—but for now, picking a niche is the name of the game.
Who is your ultimate reader?
Now how to find your idle reader? If you’re trying to choose a niche for your blog. At the same time, you need to think about who your ideal reader is. Your idle reader could be the person who visits your blog and gets benefit from your writing. Now let me take an example of myself. If you’re writing about domain names or hosting, then I am most likely your ideal reader.
This always happens but not always. Like the audience who’s reading you might differ from the audience you are attracting.
Let’s take an example. When one of my friends started blogging, he was publishing 2–4X a week on a variety of topics like, freelancing, design and starting a small business. But then he realized that his audience is attracted to a certain type of post:
He says “The critical moment for me came when I realized that out of the 2-4x posts a week I was publishing it was freelancing and drop shipping business that got attention. I also like writing content about these topics. So that was this turning point for me to understanding this is what the blog should be about.”
While beginning your training about blogging, don’t be scared. But make a content calendar about how much you can write for the niche you’re picking. Can you write five blog post ideas for this niche that you are interested in? What about writing a 50?
Remember, writing at the regular interval is vital when you start a blog.
Therefore, always pick a niche you are interested in and will be consistent about it. This is an essential point for growing a successful blog.
2. Choose a Platform for Blog (CMS)
Now you know which niche to pick and what to write about, it’s time to get into the crux of blog.
This is where you will get an idea about the process of starting a blog.
Let us dig deep into a technicality ; some of this might seem challenging.
So let’s learn the basics first.
What is a CMS?
A Content Management System (or CMS) is where you’ll be designing, writing, and publishing your blog posts. A good CMS is easy to use, from organizing content to uploading images or videos. You will have full control over the blog from using themes to custom design elements.
Now, which is the most popular CMS you might have heard about? Right, it’s WordPress, the most popular and easy to use CMS. Numbers speak itself, over 60% of all blogs are run on this CMS, including the websites for NBC, Tech Crunch, Forbes, TED, New York Observer, Thought Catalog, and others. So it’s time to get started with WordPress.
Shall I use WordPress for my blog?
There are many options you can use for starting a blog such as Wix, Squarespace, and Ghost. However, for your blog, I strongly recommend setting up a self-hosted WordPress as it has user friendly WordPress Dashboard, it’s easy to use as you just need to login to wp admin to access everything, most sustainable for a long-term solution and the only option worth considering if you’re starting a blog with the eventual goal of making money from your website in any shape or form.
I’ve recommended using your blog on WordPress powered by Bluehost. From the day you will start a blog. You couldn’t be happier with the amount of control, flexibility, and long-term growth potential you have over your website.
3. Pick Your Domain or Blog Name
Now, it’s a time to pick a brand or domain name for your blog, website or online company and make sure that your audience can be able to find or spell it easily.
Now we will cover this topic in two sections:
- How to pick a name for your blog
- Buying a domain name.
Let’s start with the technical part first.
What is a domain name and where do I get one?
To visit a site, you need to type a web address and when you type a Google.com into your browser that’s the website’s domain name. In a nutshell, a domain name is like your brand name and address. It tells audience and web browsers where to find your site.
If you decided to use a free blogging service, still you can pick your domain name, but it always has the company’s name added to it.
So, if you use a free service like Wix website to create your blog, your domain name will look like this:
Yoursitename. wixsite. com
Neither, it looks nice or catchy, Right? This isn’t a great start. If you’re trying to build a business around your blog. No one is going to take it seriously.
Instead of depending on free site, buy a domain name of your choice if the domain name of your choice is not available, you can brainstorm a domain name using a blog name generator.
Still, if you are unable to find a brand or domain name for your company or blog, you can hire a team of companies like Boskier through Fiverr. That will cost you cost you $ 5 – $ 200 depending upon what you want.
I would recommend if you are planning to build a business. Then you can buy Brand name full package which includes Domain name check, social media check, trademark check and much more.
After brainstorming domain name for a blog. You can buy a domain name from many companies. I will recommend to buy it from Bluehost as they provide reliable web hosting package.
Important Tip: website hosting and Domain name are two different things However as I said, many web hosting sites like Bluehost (which I recommend) will host both your domain name and web hosting for you, meaning you will save time, less technicality and you will get at one place.
4. Search a Hosting Provider for Your Blog
Finding a blog hosting service is one of the last technical parts about educating yourself for blogging. If you have decided to go signup free service like Wix or medium, then you can skip this step, but still, I highly recommend reading it and making a decision at the end.
Let’s get started with the basic:
What is web hosting?
You need a “host” To make your website accessible to other people on the Internet. The host keeps all your site files secure, safe and makes sure that internet users can access your site when they type in your URL or click on a link.
Let’s take an example of a shop. Whenever you go to a shop, you will be able to see all the things shopkeeper has kept inside his shop. Now let us connect it. Shop address is a Url while as space and shop is a web hosting. But yes web hosting will cost you, but you don’t have it if you choose free blogging platforms. Having a genuine website host is one of the most critical investments in starting a successful blog.
One of my friends started his personal travel blog. To save money, he began his blog on a free platform to host his site. This choice ended up costing him more than he has saved:
He says “It was my biggest mistake to start a blog on a free platform because you don’t own it. At one point Google deleted my blog with no notice. After a lot of requests and emails, I got it back, but that was the turning point, and I decided to move over to self-hosted WordPress.”
Now he earns in five figure and always says it would never have happened if he hadn’t switched over to a paid hosting provider. His first advice for new bloggers is to start on a self-hosted WordPress site and use Bluehost as your hosting provider.
Which is the best blog hosting services?
There are many great website hosting providers out there for your blog.
But below is a list of most important thing you should check:
- Track record
- Speed
- Features
- Security
- Support
The web hosting provider, I’ve found that ticks all of these boxes (and more) for just getting started is Bluehost. Yes, I know I’ve recommended them several times already in this guide, and that’s for a good reason.
Sign up for BlueHost (Discount added into the link)
5. Design Your Blog
Now as you are ready and mastered about blogging. It’s now time to web design. For that you can choose a premium themes (or Template) to turn this blank screen into a work of art.
The first thing is to start with a theme. A theme or a template is a visual layout of your blog. Once installed, using a theme is very easy. I am not a web developed neither I know how to develop a theme nor plugin still I am using my blog like a pro.
If you’ve purchased a self-hosted WordPress site as I recommended, you’ll get thousands of amazing free and paid theme options at your fingertip. If you are planning to buy a theme like the one I use for my blog here, then Envato is an excellent option to purchase premium themes. You’ll own it forever and get all the updates, support, benefits and customization options that come with premium WordPress themes.
However, if you decided to use a free blogging platform, then most likely you get a limited option on your blog.
Now if you decided to purchase a theme with a self-hosted WordPress blog (like mine). Here’s what you should look in a theme.
Important Tip: A study from Google in 2012, researchers found that good design and perceived functionality builds trust. Plus, through psychological bias called the Halo Effect, we extend that judgment to all parts of your blog.
Below are a few suggestions while checking out themes:
- Responsiveness is a must
- Keep it simple
- Does it work in different browsers?
- Support
- Reviews
Click here to buy Themes and Start creating a blog
6. Create your main pages (About, Contact Me, Buy/Sell, etc.)
Each blog must be SEO friendly and should contain some necessary information. Who you are and why should people listen to you? How can they contact you if they have questions or if they want to work with you?
All these pages are quite standard, but they are also a great way to have fun and let your readers know about you. I’m not only introducing who I am and telling my story, but also explaining my value proposition (for potential customers who want to hire me as a freelance content marketer) and showing some of my recent achievements. It is a great place to meet me, my company and how I work.
Click here to use Grammarly for free
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7. Engage in a regular publication schedule
You have to give them a reason if you want readers to come back to your blog consistently. Consistency is one of the primary key and most important aspects of successful blog building.
There are a few reasons why coherence is essential:
Writing consistently sets your readers †expectations: People will check your blog and check in regularly for new content.
Writing consistently sets your expectations: if you miss a few days, it can be easy to get out of the habit of regular publishing. However, you know when you decide to publish and commit to a schedule. With some deadlines in our lives, we all do better.
Publishing not only helps you to test the content types that work with your readers consistently and to understand it.
A world-famous blogger shared with me, their blog has grown to millions of monthly reading enthusiasts, publishing 4–6 pieces a week in a row before you have real traction:
“Also, the more the majority of your posts are viral, the better your chance to get much traffic.”
Now, when you start a blog and wish to make a thorough publication plan, you have a fine line to walk.
You may have a ton of ideas and excitement, but over-engagement is the easiest way to kill both. Instead, you should commit to publishing the minimum amount–say once or twice a week–and try religiously to do it.
This is where having a clear content calendar becomes so essential. If you can spend a couple of hours each month mapping out all the posts you want to write, you’ll always know what you should be working on and when it’s due. This can be in a simple Google Doc or by using a tool like Trello that lets you track posts through the whole process from idea to writing to published and promoting.
Just like when you’re working out or investing money, the more consistent you are with investing time into your blog, the more significant returns you’ll get.
8. Make your posts stand out, use free photos and designs
You have to take one final step before you publish your brand new blog posts.
Studies indicate that images in blog posts receive 94% more visual information than without ones. And when it comes to social media posts, the photos of tweets are up 150% more retweets than without, while images from Facebook are up to 2.3x more.
Just adding several visual elements can nearly double the size of the views and increase shares significantly.
Now, you think you will hire a photographer to work on your new blog, which is entirely unrealistic. And that’s okay (hint: neither do I)!
There are some fantastic free photographs and design resources available on the internet, even if you’re not design-oriented. Depending on the subject, you can use just product screenshots across your content
Here are a few free blog photo resources that I like:
- Unsplash
- Pixabay
Free blog design resources
There are many great design resources available on the internet, along with stock photos, that can raise the standard of your posts †design. And to use Photoshop, you do not need a deep understanding or even a cent percent of creativity. Some of my favorites are here:
- Canva for social media images and quotes.
- Visme for infographics and presentations.
9. Publish your post and promote them
Collect the bases of compelling posts, and create a beautiful design for your Website.
But a last piece of the puzzle is still pending which most of the bloggers don’t touch or talk about, i.e. promotion.
Once you’ve published a post. What to do next?
Well, this is the exact reason with in-depth content writing for the blogs you should know how to promote their content and to encourage the new readers. So you have learned how to start a blog with WordPress. How are you now driving traffic?
Here are some of the best ways to get in touch with new readers. Share your posts on
1. Social Media
2. Forums and message boards
3. Guest posts
4. Use an email newsletter to grow your audience
Click here to get your free month of email marketing - Constant Contact
