The internet is filled with hundreds of thousands of blogs, and more are cropping up every day. However, there are still many people who would like to start their own blog, but don’t have any idea where to start. If you are one of those people, then this article is for you. You will be getting some useful tips in a step-by-step guide, and by the time you finish reading this article, you will have all the information you’ll need to start your own blog.
Step 1 – Think about what you’re going to blog about. For some people, this is the easiest part of blogging, because they already have something definite in mind. It could be a hobby they are passionate about, like photography, cooking, magic tricks, painting, or anything else they love doing. It could be something that’s related to their job or business. Many people start a blog to promote their business online and reach out to a wider range of potential customers, like realtors, insurance agents, car salesmen, and freelancers, to name just a few.
What’s important here is that you know for sure that the topic or niche of your blog will be something that interests you for years to come. Try to ask yourself, “Will I be interested in blogging about this topic two or three years from now?” If you’re not sure, then you might want to find another topic or wait until something comes up that really inspires you.
Step 2 – Find a host for your blog. You have two major choices here – either go for a free blog host, or spend some money and get your blog hosted on one of several web hosting companies online. I’m assuming that this is your first time blogging, so if that’s indeed the case, then I recommend that you start off by getting a free blogging account first, so that you will be able to learn the ropes first before spending some money on web hosting later on.
If you want to go for free hosting, then you can sign up for your own blog at either WordPress.com or Blogspot.com. There are a few other free blogging platforms on the internet, of course, but most bloggers agree that these two are the best free blogging platforms available right now. Signing up for a free account at either one of them is a simple and quick process, so you can start blogging away in just a few minutes.
However, if you do decide to go for a paid web hosting account, then there are lots of excellent web hosting companies online that can help you set up your blog in just a few minutes. The average fee for web hosting will be around $6.95 a month, although you can find some companies that will charge you less or even more than $6.00. Make sure that you understand the features of the plan you’re paying for. The best companies provide 24-hour customer support through email or phone, so make use of that.
Step 3 – Get your domain name. This will be your blog’s identity on the internet. An example of a domain is Amazon.com, or Facebook.com. It would be great if you can find a domain name that fits your blog topic perfectly. For example, if you’re going to blog about your ballet shoes (for example), you might want to get a domain like “myballetshoes.com” or “myballetfootwear.com”.
However, signing up for a free blogging account at WordPress.com or Blogspot.com means that your blog’s domain name will have the sub-domains “wordpress.com” or “blogspot.com” at the end. Many excellent bloggers have their blogs hosted in one or both of these platforms, so this is not really a big deal. If you have signed up for a paid hosting account, then you can get your own domain name without either “wordpress.com” or “blogspot.com” attached to it. So you can have “myballetshoes.com” and not “myballetshoes.wordpress.com” as your domain.
However, there are thousands of blogs and websites on the internet, and there’s a very good chance that the domain name you want might not be available anymore. You’d have to be really creative with your domain name ideas if this is the case. For example, if “myballetshoes” is not available, why not try “balletshoesforever” or “mydancingshoes” or something along those lines?
You can also try a nonsensical but catchy name if you like. After all, websites like “Amazon.com”, “Squidoo.com” or “Boingboing.net” all have these nonsensical names that have no relation to their topics whatsoever, but they still managed to become wildly popular and successful at what they do.