Lilian Fortune

Starting a blog is pretty easy, and it requires very little technical knowledge. You can set up your blog in a few hours and get started on your blogging journey, whether you are starting it as a business or personal use. It can also be a bit tricky if you don’t gather all your facts right. You need to conduct thorough research, that way you would know what is required of you, and you would be able to tell if you actually meet those requirements.

Here are some tips to help you start a successful blog.

1. Identify Your Niche: Think of what you want your blog to be about, choosing the type of blog you want is the first and most crucial step in creating a blog because it is the foundation of a blog itself. What content would you want to share with the public? It is best to choose a niche that you are knowledgeable about, and you have high interest and passion for, something that would interest the audience you have a targetted.

2. Choose a Suitable Domain Name: it’s one thing to just think of a name, and it’s another to think of a name that best describes your blog. You could choose a name from basically anything at all. It could be something descriptive or something that could explain the content of your blog in one sentence. My favourite domain registrar is Goddady because they are reliable and affordable too. Namecheap is another alternative.

3. Get a Web Hosting: Now that you have chosen a domain name, the next step is to get a web hosting for your blog. Getting your blog online will be one of the most important decisions you make. The host makes sure that your site is steadily available, and your blog posts and files are stored online. It is very crucial that you choose a reliable hosting provider. One of the hosts I recommend base on my personal experience and survey is Bluehost. They are really fast, and their customer service is top-notch.

4. Choose a Theme: The next step is to choose a theme for your blog (design and layout). The look of your blog rely on the type of theme you choose, make sure to select a unique one that is compatible with your blog niche. Thanks to host sites like Bluehost, you’d be given access to the WordPress admin area which would let you design and make changes to your blog easily and with just a few clicks. Choosing a template for WordPress can be overwhelming as there are more than three thousand themes available to use on wordpress.org. Make sure to get a theme that will be easy for your readers to navigate through the blog. I am not a fan of overly complicated setups, so I avoid themes that offer a bunch of things I do not need.

5. create your content Now that you have set up your domain, chosen your blogging platform and set up the theme, it’s time to get right into it. Now comes the moment of truth. Creating the content for your blog. When creating your blog post, try as much as you can to stay within the box. Avoid talking about irrelevant things that are not related to your blog topic in any way. Stay on track, and most importantly, that your choice of words is easily accessible and actively presented to pass your message across. even if your blog is to be composed primarily of words, photos, graphics, etc. make sure it is creative enough to engage your readers. The attraction of a blog site is the content found there. Try as much as you can to edit your work as many times as you can to rid of errors and possible grammar mistakes. Your blog post should also include an “about me” page, “contact me” page, “privacy policy” page and “terms of service page”.

6. Promote your blog: promoting and marketing your blog is quite remarkable. This step aims to attract and bring your target audience to you. For your blog to be seen out there faster, promotion is necessary. Talk to your friends about your blog, share your link with them and ask for their help in sharing it too, if you’re on any social media platform, now would be the right time to take advantage of it. Continuously share useful content and put it out there. Collaborate with other bloggers and Influencers and pay them to promote your work. Be consistent, and keep posting your content, submit your links to search engines and run ads on them, create an email list to keep your current readers updated on all your uploads.

7.  Monetise your blog: The truth is, If you are like most people, you probably started your blog to make money from it. There are many ways to monetise your blog, but the three common ones are:
Running ads on your blog: Google Adsense is one of the most popular choices for ads.you would be paid for each visitor that clicks on an advert placed on your blog. This is called Pay Per Click.

Affiliate Marketing: this can be the fastest way of making money from your blog. You are teaming up with a company by promoting their product on your blog, whenever a reader click on (your advertiser’s) link on your blog, you get a commission when they purchase an item. There is no limit to what can be sold as an affiliate.

Selling Digital Products:You can sell tutorial videos, e-courses and ebooks. For more ideas about digital products  click here.

Conclusion
I hope with these tips, I’ve been able to answer your questions and settle your curiosity about how to start a blog and what you have to do to be successful in starting a blog.