Dreaming of starting a blog, publish contents on topics you love, and earn money through advertisements?

Blogging is an industry that has helped many individuals achieve their dream to earn passive income. They have found success through ads shown on their site, affiliate marketing, selling their own products, and more.

You can join them.

You can earn passive income through blogging; problem is that the industry is competitive. Turning it into a cash cow is never simple, you still need to exert efforts. Nonetheless, huge earning potential is always there.

Curious? Here’s the ultimate guide to create your own blog website. Read until the end.

What is a Blog and Why You Should Start One

Blog refers to an online platform where authors share their thoughts and ideas with others. Initially started as online diaries, it has transformed into an industry where bloggers create high-quality contents in a specific niche and publish these on their website.

Individuals who publish content on a blog are called bloggers. They share their expertise, experiences, and opinions on a wide range of topics. Some bloggers are independent while others are hired by a corporation to work for them.

Blogs are published on the web and is accessible to individuals across the globe who has access to the internet.

Here are some reasons why a person wants to start a blog:

• Share knowledge on a topic of their expertise
• Make money from home
• Create a portfolio
• Learn new information (you’ll learn more on the topic you love as you blog)
• Develop communication skills (written)

Niche and Audience

Selecting the right niche and finding the appropriate audience are prime considerations when starting a blog.

Niche refers to the specialized topic of your blog. Popular ones are technology, blogging, entertainment, fitness, health. It is recommended to select a specific niche early on to avoid confusion to readers and establish yourself as expert in that category.

The right niche will also help target the appropriate audience. If you have already established yourself as authority in a specific niche, chances are the audience themselves will look for your site to learn.

You also know on which Facebook groups, social media circles to promote your contents.

Having too many niches or generalized niche might not provide the same trust, unless you are a popular and established blogger.

Why Choose the WordPress.org Platform

When starting a blog, you should consider the blogging platform to use. This will serve as digital house of your contents. There are many content management systems, but the most popular is WordPress.org.

WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform that provides complete control over your website. Customization and possibility are endless with the available themes and plugins on the market, and you can install/create your own.

Monetization options are limitless, you can have advertisement embedded, ask for membership fees, or offer eCommerce services. Similar with SEO flexibility.

WordPress.org is constantly being updated by its community to ensure that it has the best features and maintain high level of security.

Henceforth, WordPress.org is top considerations when starting your own blog. It is best to select the best platform early on to avoid potential problems should you switch later.

Find the Right Domain

Domain name refers to the web address that a person should input on the address bar of a browser to find your website, our web address for this website is readthiswell.com.

Your web address should be like your blog name. Our blog name is Read This Well. The name of your blog and its domain are very important to the success of your blogging career. Therefore, you should be careful when selecting one as later changes would bring confusion to readers and SEO.

The name of your blog should be memorable: (a) make it short, (b) make it stand out, (c) make it match your niche. Some would want to have their name on their domain name, while others uses the niche to which their blog focuses on.

If you are having a hard time finding one, you can search domain name generators online. These are free and will help provide choices and ideas.

In creating a web address, avoid using hyphens, numbers, special characters, or long phrases as these would be inconvenient for visitors to type on the address bar.

If necessary, always opt for the .com global TLD since this is the most popular, and what internet users would type by default. Looking for a .com name for your website should be a priority.

Other TLDs such as .net, .org, .info, .ph, .blog are great choices as well, just be creative with naming your website and in selecting its web address.

Select the Best Hosting

If the domain name refers to the address of your website on the internet, web hosting refers to the location where your blog files are stored. In other words, hosting refers to the location or place while domain refers to the name provided to easily find the location of the website.

Like a physical land where you want to live, you should find a great location for your website files. Not all web hosting companies are the same, hence you should read a lot on profile of hosting companies before purchasing a plan.

Some of the factors to consider when selecting your hosting provider are:

• Price. Is price affordable? Are you upgrading too fast? Is your hosting plan appropriate to the needs of your website?
• Speed. Website speed has an impact on SEO and the experience of visitors.
• Storage. Does your hosting plan provides enough storage for your needs.
• Uptime. Will the website run 24/7?
• Security & Hosting Company History

This website is currently hosted under Namecheap. We are not accepted under Namecheap’s affiliate program, but if you want a website hosted under them, go their website www.namecheap.com.

Other popular web-hosting companies are:

• Bluehost
• Hostinger
• Siteground
• WordPress.com (referring to their paid plans)
• WPX Hosting

Pick an Awesome Theme

Now that you’ve found a name and a storage space for your website, you should install the WordPress CMS on your space. Common way to do it is through cpanel, but many hosting companies have their own way of installing WordPress.

After that, you should find a theme for your website. The theme is the primary design – how the website looks and appear to visitors. A simple and clean design is best, do not overwhelm visitors with splashes and pop-ups as these distracts them from your contents.

Popular WordPress themes are:

• Generatepress
• Astra
• Genesis Framework
• Hello Elementor

Install the Appropriate Plugins

Aside from a theme, you should install essential plugins. Think of it as mini applications that enhances features and security of your website without technical knowledge.

These are some of the plugins that I recommend:

• A plugin for search engine optimization such as RankMath, Yoast, and All in One SEO.
• A plugin for website security
• A plugin for performance such as caching plugins

While providing added benefits, limit the number of plugins on your website only to the essentials. Having too many plugins installed can cause the website to have lower loading speed.

For example, instead of installing a plugin for the contact page, simply provide an e-mail address.

Common Pages to Have

Before proceeding to the pages, you should have a logo and site icon for your website. You can hire a professional designer to make for you, and if on tight budget, you can temporarily create one using free generators (or design your own).

Now, your website should have the following pages:

• About. Narrate a story, your services, mission and vision.
• Contact. Provide a way for your readers to connect with you.
• Blog. A page showing your most recent blog updates.
• Home. A page that should appear by default when a person enters your web address on the address bar.
• Legal. Your website should comply with local and international laws on publishing contents on the internet. Legal pages include Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Affiliate Disclosure.

After installing a Theme, the plugins and creating your essential pages; start finalizing the overall appearance of your website. Refer to the manual provided by company to which you have purchased your theme.

Start Writing

Great job! You’re set to creating contents for your website.

Each blog has different type of content and editorial guidelines. Since this is your personal blog, you can set your own.

Note that you should always refer to the specific target niche of your website when writing (out of topic, otherwise).

Common content types are:

• News articles
• How to Guides
• Myths vs. Facts
• Product Reviews
• Interviews
• Personal Stories

Optimize Contents on Search Engines

Writing for the seek of writing, publish your articles immediately.

But, if you’re writing to rank high on search engine and have massive number of readers, you should optimize your contents for search engines.

Tools such as Semrush SEO tool provides you strategy to do this.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations, you’ve finished this article on how to start a blog. By reading this alone, you’ve learned almost everything you need to start a blog.

If implemented, within 30 minutes, your website is now live on the worldwide web.

Creating a website is actually very easy, but creation is only the beginning. Website must be maintained, and constantly updated with contents.