Learn how to start a blog in 7 easy steps.
Read this step-by-step guide on my strategy for making $1 million from my blog in less than two years reaching 500,000 monthly readers and being featured on Forbes Entrepreneur and Business Insider. A lot of the advice you find on the internet about starting a blog is outdated.
Taking advice from someone who started a blog years ago is like asking directions from a person who still relies on an old-fashioned map that hasn’t been updated in years.
Blogging is a much different landscape today than it was before.
The best way to start a blog is to update your strategies for the 2020s.
With that said, in this post, you will learn how to start a blog in 7 easy steps, as follows:
- Set up your blog.
- Choose your blog’s niche.
- Install WordPress.
- Choose your blog’s theme.
- Install some easy WordPress plugins.
- Create great content
- Promote your blog
Let’s get started.
1. Set Up Your Blog.
Here’s my favorite beginner setup at the lowest cost with the best features (based on my many years of experience):
- Click here to go to Bluehost.com (<- that link gets you a discount) and click Get Started Now.
- Choose the Choice Plus Plan.
- Enter the domain name you want to use (i.e. millionairblogger.com).
- Enter your account information.
- Under Package Information, choose an account plan based on how long you want to pay. (Remember, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee with all plans, so no risk!)
- Uncheck the Package Extras (you don’t need them.)
- Complete your purchase, choose your password, and log in to your Bluehost account.
- Answer the onboarding questions or skip them, but choose “blog” when prompted.
- Click “skip” when it comes to choosing your theme. (We’ll get that sorted out later.)
- From the Bluehost dashboard, click the WordPress button on the top right and you’ll be taken to WordPress.
Congratulation! You now have a self-hosted WordPress blog!?
Here are some other things to consider when choosing a name through a domain name registrar:
- Your name should be memorable and not too difficult to type.
- Don’t confuse people with difficult spelling, so keep the name easy to spell and pronounce.
- Avoid using numbers and hyphens in your own domain as it can confuse people.
- Keep your name a little bit broad in case you need to pivot to an adjacent niche.
2. Choose Your Blog’s Niche.
We all know that your blog needs a niche.
Regardless of the topic of crazy personal blogs there’s plenty to blog about whether it’s an underwater parkour dance with a dog sitting dog or a marketing cooking exercise.
Here’s the problem:
Most professional bloggers will tell you to start with something that you’re passionate about because it helps you “maintain a consistent writing schedule and push through failure to succeed.”
They’ll also tell you to choose a niche at the intersection of passion, skills, and experience:
However, if you want to start a site to make money blogging , this model is flawed because it’s missing one major component: your brand of you.
As a blogger, you are the brand.
When choosing your niche, it’s time to brainstorm about:
- What you want to teach.
- Where you may already have experience.
- Any leverage you may have in an industry.
- Where you can extract value from the market.
The next step is uncovering your expertise.
Not what you think you are an expert at or want to be an expert at but what you have a proven track record of succeeding at.
Your expertise is what enables you to make money as a newbie with a fresh blog.
The third step is taking an honest look at the market.
Ask: How can you monetize this market? Just because you’re passionate about this niche doesn’t make it the right niche for you.
And last but not least is the leverage you have in your life.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What levers can you pull?
- Do you have connections?
- Insider information on a market?
- An incredible skill set compared to most people?
- How are you uniquely positioned to leverage any and everything in your life that others wouldn’t be able to keep up with?
I am completely confident that The Authority Flywheel is bulletproof when it comes to choosing your niche and starting a blog that actually works.
3. Start a Blog By Installing WordPress.
Self-hosted WordPress is the best blog platform for new bloggers.
The good news?
Bluehost automatically one-click installs WordPress right from your hosting dashboard making starting a blog a piece of cake.
The first time you get to your dashboard, you’ll need to pick your theme.
There are plenty of attractive free WordPress themes to choose from, including free blog themes.
However, if you want to pick your theme later, you can skip this step for now by clicking on the “Skip This Step” option at the end of the page.
From here, you’re directed to a new blog page where you need to click on the “Start Building” option.
Next, select what type of blog site you plan to create, and WordPress will help you with prompts. You can also just click “I don’t need help” to go right to your dashboard.
Finally, enter your “Site Title” and your “Site Description.”
From here, spend some time making yourself familiar with the WordPress dashboard.
This brings us to our next step – choosing a theme for your blog.
Are you ready to start your blog? Get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) with my link below:
4. Pick a Theme for Your WordPress Blog.
A WordPress theme is a collection of templates, files, and stylesheets that dictate your blog design.
Right now, your blog might look something like this:
This is the default WordPress theme, and on the left side is a menu that helps you change its appearance.
Now, there are two options when it comes to themes:
You can either get a free theme with limited options or go with a paid theme.
I recommend you pick a theme from ThemeIsle to get a nice-looking theme for your blog.
Here’s how you can install a new theme for your WordPress blog:
First, log in to your WordPress account (admin page).
You can always access your WordPress login page by going to yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.
Once logged in, your WordPress dashboard looks something like this.
Here, click on the “Appearance” option from the sidebar menu.
Next, select the “Themes” option from the “Appearance” section
To search for the theme options WordPress offers, click the “Add New” button at the top of the page.
As you can see below, there are a ton of free themes to choose from.
You can scroll down and preview as many WordPress themes as you want before picking one for your blog.
To install an external theme from a site like ThecmeIsle, go to “Appearance” – “Themes” and click “Add New,” upload the zip file, and click install.
Done.
Ready to launch your blog and follow along with this guide? Get started for $2.95/month and get 63% off your blog hosting plan:
5. Install a Few Simple WordPress Plugins.
Plugins are sets of tools that integrate with your website and extend its features.
When starting a blog, it’s important to choose the best ones for SEO and site speed.
Here’s a list of four of the best ones you should add to your blog:
1. Elementor Pro.
Elementor Pro is a WordPress landing page builder, and it’s the tool I used to create my home page and about page.
They have a free version of Elementor, but the Pro version takes it to the next level with much better templates.
2. ShortPixel Image Optimizer.
ShortPixel compresses all of your images and screenshots so that they are smaller files and your pages load faster.
I’ve tested lots of different image compression tools, and ShortPixel has been the best.
3. WP Rocket.
WP Rocket is an all-in-one site speed plugin that can do everything from minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, integrating with your CDN, reducing database bloat, and more.
I’ve tried other speed tools like Autoptimize and had some issues with it. WP Rocket is the best, in my opinion.
You can get started with WP Rocket for $49/year.
4. Yoast SEO.
I use Yoast SEO to manage my sitemap, robots.txt, page title, and meta descriptions.
6. Create Great Content for Your Blog.
Congrats!
You started a blog and are ready to start blogging by creating your first blog post.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
One thing first:
Blogs are no longer places where you simply write updates and gain a following.
They are now Google-driven websites that require organic search traffic.
When you write your first blog post (and every one after that) focus on one main target keyword, and here’s where it should be included:
- Put the keyword in your blog’s permanent URL.
- Include the keyword in the title of your post.
- Add your keyword to the first or second paragraph.
- Include the keyword inside of your headings.
- Add the keyword throughout your blog post.
You’ll see in my example below, that the target keyword is in the title, URL, and first paragraph.
Once you have a list of the top 5-10 keywords (topics) you want to cover, it’s time to start writing.
Remember, in addition to text, blog posts that have audio, video, photos, infographics, and other types of visual content perform the best and keep readers engaged.
It’s also essential to write content that matches Google search intent and compels them to take action on your blog.
Moreover, use keyword rank tracking software to track the position of your various keywords in search engines as time goes by.
Writing Blog Posts that Match Search Intent.
When planning your content strategy, think about what your reader actually wants when they are performing an online search for your target keyword.
For example, let’s say your target keyword is “WordPress hosting”
When you search for this term, you’ll see that a lot of new blog posts feature titles including extra terms like Fast, Overnight, Quickly, and Home Remedies.
This shows that most people that want to get rid of pimples want them gone as quickly and discreetly as possible. And Google’s PageRank is pushing these articles to the top.
What does this mean for your content strategy?
You should get right to the point and offer a list of the best ways to get rid of pimples fast.
Don’t write a long post about “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Pimples.”
And don’t start your post with the heading “What Are Pimples?” like many SEOs did in the past.
Instead, match search intent and provide the solution your readers are actually looking for by understanding the meaning behind their search.
This is accomplished by looking at which extra terms are included in currently ranking content’s title tags and reverse-engineering the search.
While you don’t have to be a professional writer when starting a blog, it’s important to understand basic sentence structure and proper grammar.
For example, short paragraphs, bullet points, and images help break up long, monotonous blocks of text and keep readers engaged.
You can also check out my guide to the best grammar checkers to use with your blog this year and why I use Grammarly.
Extra Tips to Improve Your Writing.
- Your blog posts should always provide value to your readers. Write with a clear beginning, middle, and end outline structure. Even the most mundane of topics can be made interesting if you understand story arcs and hero’s journeys.
- Present your blog content attractively and make it easily accessible to your readers. Make sure both textual and visual content in the blog are high-quality.
- Format your headings correctly with H2 and H3 tags, and use bulleted lists and images to break up long lines of text. No paragraph should be longer than 3-4 sentences.
- Make your first blog posts conversational to build a connection with your audience.
- Use readable fonts and use white space to keep your blog posts easy on the eyes.
- Add bullet points to help readers skim down the blog without missing anything critical.
- Double-check for typos and grammatical errors.
- Bold some text to make it stand out.
Remember, a blog is a living thing that can be updated over time. So don’t try to make your content perfect – just get your blog online and publish it without fear – you can always update it later.
If you haven’t started your blog yet and are ready to go, get started for just $2.95/month (63% off):
Create Your Home and About Pages
Before starting a blog, you should have a few pages in your blog’s top menu navigation so that readers quickly understand your blog and find important information.
In my blogging course, Blog Growth Engine, I cover extensively the pages that you need to launch your blog and get started off on the right foot.
I call them “Your Core Four” pages and they are:
We all know what a home page is – it’s the main URL of your website.
This page shouldn’t include every little detail about your site – its purpose is to sell your unique value proposition in two seconds or less.
If a reader hits your home page and doesn’t quickly understand what your site is about, they may bounce and never return.
A WordPress home page can be edited with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) page builder like Elementor.
This tool allows you to drag-and-drop content blocks, including text, images, videos, color blocks, and more.
A good home page should contain:
- A slider or hero image with a headline and subheadline.
- A small section to tell readers more about what your blog is about.
- The main call-to-action button takes readers to an important page, post, or email list opt-in form.
- Internal links pointing to your important content to make it easy for readers to navigate around your site.
2. About Page.
The About Page of your blog should cover everything about you – who you are, what you stand for, and what your blog is about.
This section will help you connect with your readers on a deeper level, so don’t hold back.
Make sure to write about:
- Who you are.
- What made you decide to start your blog?
- Your expertise or background to build trust with your readers.
- The pain point you’re solving and how you’ve dealt with the same struggles as your audience.
- Your success story.
- A call-to-action.
To keep readers engaged, I wrote my About page like a story.
3. Blog Post Template
Your blog post template page is fundamental when it comes to starting a blog.
Your blog mostly consists of posts and you need to have this template dialed in before you start publishing posts.
Your blog posts need to be:
- Easy to read text by making sure you use large enough font in black with a white background. (Do NOT break this rule
) - Your text should be no wider than 850px. Once you start going beyond this your readers have to look too far from left to right making it difficult to read.
- They need to have proper line spacing. If you take this post you are reading right now for example you will notice that I have no more than three lines of text before a paragraph break.
Those are the main points you need to address but one thing that is also super helpful when starting a blog is looking at sites you want to model (not copy) and reverse engineer what they are doing.
This is true for every area of your blogging business, but especially in the blog post design.
4. Blog Archive
Every blog has a “/blog” page like Adamenfroy.com/blog and your blog shouldn’t be the exception here.
Note: A current trend in blogging is to use a more complicated page structure if you are starting a blog. scratch I would make sure to have a standard /blog archive page that displays your posts in chronological order.
A good rule of thumb to follow here with this page is to make sure that it is simple and displays no more than 10 posts per page.
With WordPress, this site is set up by default and almost every single theme will be automatically installed.
The same advice applies here as above, you want to model (not copy) sites in your niche that are getting great results.
5. Contact Page
Having a page with a contact form means that people can get in touch with you needed.
Ensure that you have a confirmation message when someone submits their form.
This can be as simple as:
Thank you so much for reaching out. We’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.
Plan Your Future Content
Another common question I get asked is how to prioritize new blog post ideas.
This should be based on keyword metrics, including search volume, difficulty scores, and how well you think you can rank for a keyword.
You can keep track of this inside of a simple spreadsheet with columns for your future posts, including:
- Target keyword.
- Blog post title.
- Monthly search volume.
- Word count.
- Priority.
Analyze Your Content
You absolutely need to use analytics tools to analyze your content’s performance.
Tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs do this well. Since a Google Analytics account should already be in place on your blog, you can go to your GA dashboard to view metrics like site visitors, average time on page, total page views, and tons of other interesting stats.
You can view traffic to individual blog posts over any period and compare it to previous periods to see if your traffic is increasing or decreasing.
Additionally, Ahrefs is the best search engine optimization (SEO) tool to track your blog post’s rankings and inbound links. You can view the keywords you’re ranking for, which sites are linking to you, and a lot more.
Ready to take the leap? Start your blog for just $2.95/month with Bluehost today.
7. Promote Your Blog.
To promote your new blog, the best strategy is to do whatever it takes to build links to your blog.
Links are like the currency of the Internet.
The more you have, the more Google will take you seriously and rank a new blog post quickly after you publish it.
Here are the top strategies to promote your blog:
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is one of the best ways to promote your blog.
It’s a great way to build authority in your niche, meet other bloggers, get exposure on various forums related to your niche, and get backlinks.
This is a hustle that includes cold email outreach and relationship building.
First, don’t think about the benefits you’ll get from backlinks.
You have to provide value to others.
This bears repeating:
In the world of Internet marketing, you need to provide value when you write guest blog posts.
Link Building
Although guest posting is one strategy to get links to your blog, there are plenty of others.
First, the best form of link building is passively getting links without any involvement or outreach.
Sounds like a dream, right?
People naturally link to the best content they can find.
So how do you make sure your blog posts are “linkable”?
When you’re starting a blog, your content needs to be unique and high-quality. That’s the basic entry fee to get into the game.
To take it to the next level, add visual elements to your blog posts. These can be infographics, videos, case studies, statistics, and any other unique content that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Here are some other link-building strategies to try out after you set up a blog:
- Broken link building: Use a tool like Ahrefs to find blogs in your niche with broken external links. Send them an email that their link is broken and your resource is a better option. This strategy is great because you’re helping the blog fix its 404 error and (hopefully) getting a link at the same time.
- Link reclamation: Input your blog’s URL into the Ahrefs Content Explorer tool to find instances where your brand is mentioned but not linked to. Here, you can reach out to the writer of the post, thank them for the mention, and ask if they can add the link.
- Link partnerships: Form relationships with other bloggers in your niche to get links in their guest posts and vice versa.
- Competitor research: View which websites are linking to competitors to come up with new sites to reach out to.
If you’re interested in more next-level ideas, check out my new guide to link building.
Search Engines And Blogging
You could have the best blog in the world – if you don’t have visitors then it doesn’t really matter, does it?
So how do you get people to your blog? The answer is very easy – through SEO for blogging.
Search engine listings are the primary method used by potential readers and subscribers to find out about new blogs.
If they can’t find you, or even worse, if you aren’t ranked highly in search results, they won’t know you exist!
When you create a blog, keep in mind that content that readers will love is great, but you also need to make sure that your blog can be found in search engines.
Search engine rankings are something vaguely resembling the Holy Grail for new bloggers.
Although they do take time and patience, good rankings are achievable even if you have a brand new site so don’t give up hope just yet!
The secret of achieving good rankings is not really a ‘secret’ at all – it’s simply about making sure Google knows exactly what each page of your blog is dedicated to.
For example, instead of just saying “This post is about this” or “This post is about that”, use language which reflects what future readers might type into Google when searching for information on the topic covered by your article.
Think of it as a good way to ensure that Google knows what your page is about – then you’ll naturally start appearing for relevant search results.
SEO title tags
This is what appears in search engine results and gets people to click on your blog.
It can be the same, different, or similar to the title of your articles, but most importantly it needs to make sense when people search for specific words.
Also, search engines will truncate the title tag to about 160 characters so you should consider this as you are thinking of your SEO title.
Don’t forget to include the main keyword/s you are targeting in your title.
Meta description
Another on-page SEO factors to consider are meta description. These are basically the words that appear beneath your blog post on Google.
They are displayed on your page, so you have complete control over what Google thinks your post is about.
Use these to give readers a good idea of what to expect from your blog.
Sitemap
This helps search engines direct search engine bots to your blog and also lets them know about all the pages you have.
You should submit a sitemap via Google Search Console as this ensures that new content added to your blog can be indexed as quickly as possible.
Pay attention especially to categories and subcategories when creating your directory structure as this will be shown in the sitemap.
Ensuring that you give the search engines as much information as possible about your blog is very important.
Widgets
Having a great blog for SEO purposes sometimes means displaying information in a widget as well as in your post.
This means including things like RSS feeds, author info and related posts to your blog posts will help the search engines direct relevant readers through to your site.
Widgets can be great for subheaders as well, giving you additional functionality when it comes to your blog.
On-Page SEO
You need to properly format your blog posts to rank on search engines.
To do that, you need to make sure your target keywords are in the URL, the H1 (title), the first H2 in the form of a question, and throughout the content.
You can use tools like Jasper and SurferSEO to optimize your blog posts for SEO.
Starting a Blog: Summary
As you can see, starting a blog is pretty easy.
It’s the content strategy, link building, and monetization that can be the difficult part.
Ultimately, your success with blogging comes down to how fast you can scale both your content publishing efforts and your llink-buildingefforts.
Because that’s how you rank on Google for valuable terms and make affiliate revenue – getting to page 1.
To recap, the 7 steps are:
- Choose a niche.
- Pick a blog name and web hosting.
- Install WordPress.
- Picking your blog’s theme.
- Install WordPress plugins.
- Create great content.
- Promote your blog.
However, making your first blog successful is hard work.
To read more about starting a blog, check out my other guides:
- How to Make Money Blogging
- Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started a Blog
Now, it’s your turn. Why not start a blog today?
Start a blog now with Bluehost and get 63% off your hosting plan ($2.95/month). Read this step-by-step guide on my strategy for making $1 million from my blog in less than two years reaching 500000 monthly readers and being featured on Forbes Entrepreneur and Business Insider. A lot of the advice you find on the internet about starting a blog is outdated.