How to Start a Blog in 2022

How to Start a Blog – Finally, you want to start a blog and step your foot in blogging. Awesome! Welcome to the world of blogging.

Who doesn’t want freedom? The definition of freedom may be different for different people and its obvious. Some need financial freedom some need freedom to express their voice and let the world know and you name it all.

Would you trust me if I say you can get it all in blogging? I know this is a big and bold commitment, but the truth is that it’s absolutely right. Someone may raise conflict and it would be a good subject of discussion.

Are you Know How to Write an SEO Friendly Blog Post? Click Here to Know PRO Tips for Write SEO Friendly Article.

However, no one is a born blogger. Every famous blogger in this industry was like you once. Thinking about how to start a blog and grabbing knowledge from here and there.

I don’t know your purpose in blogging. Whether you want to share your expertise or earn money, it would be fulfilled.

You can start your own personal or professional blog up and running in less than 1 hour after you finish this post.

If you are not tech-savvy, don’t know coding and web designing you can also start your own blog.

This comprehensive guide I will walk you through all the process to set up and run your blog.

So, are you ready and all set to create your blog today? Alright, let’s get started.

Earning Proof Of My All Blog

First of all thanks for reading our blog. I have 22 years of old Blogger & I have achieved my goals in 2019. we made $32,00,00+ in last 11 months. Thank you so much, god.

I have Shown all my earning sources in the last 11 months as well as give a Proof of Screenshot of my earnings.

I have used Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate, Bluehost Affiliate, A2 Hosting Affiliate, Siteground Affiliate and many More.

Adsense Earning

I Have to use google Adsense Ads Network for my blog as well as Affiliate Marketing.

Most of earning from the United States

Bluehost Affiliate Earning

I have Use Bluehost Affiliate Marketing program, It’s High Paying Affiliate Program. Bluehost Give $65/ Sign Up

Amazon Affiliate Earnings

I have a 6 Micro Niche Blog and most of Rank on Top Position. I have plan to start the USA affiliate Marketing Store. Following are my One Month Earning.

Why Start a Blog?

As you have decided to start a blog then you must have some reason. Blogging can be incredibly valuable to various people and for a variety of reasons.

Let me describe some of the biggest reasons why I think you should create your own blog and start blogging immediately.

You’ll Become a Better Writer

As you are going to write several articles and blogging is all about content, then you will be a better writer.

Blogging will not force you to become a good writer, it’ll just happen as you spend some time here and do it.

In the future you can use this writing skill to write books, create courses and much more and earn money.

Attract Audience

Blogging gives you the freedom to reach the billions of people that are using the Internet. You will provide them value and in return, they will be your loyal audience. Then you can monetize your blog and use your audience to Make Money Online.

You will Make Some Money

You can definitely make some money from blogging. You need to be patient in the beginning and then you can Make Money Without a Job from it. You can take blogging as a hobby, part-time or fulltime. There is no upper limit how much you can earn from blogging. The only limit is your imagination.

Blogging is a handsome way to earn passive income. This means you can automate the process and make money without your involvement.

You’ll inspire Others

Blogging not only changes your life. You will change your reader’s life also. You will have some reason to be here and what else you need.

Your readers will be waiting for your voice and don’t hesitate to let the rest of the world know.

You’ll Meet New People

Blogging gives you a medium to connect with the world. You will have an audience base and this leads to meet some new people.

You will be invited to several events and you meet some new people just for your blog. You can increase your networking and it would help you in the long run.

The blogging community is encouraging, friendly, and genuinely cheering for you to get success. The only thing missing is you.

It’s Fun

In the end, blogging is fun. It makes you Entrepreneur, you master in many skills, you get the reputation and finally, you become financially independent. What else you need in life?

Choose a Niche

This is one of the important decision you should take in the beginning. Let me clear that most of the new bloggers make mistake here and realizes latter. Then the only option left for them is to quit blogging. So you should not make the same mistake.

This is one of the important decision you should take in the beginning. Let me clear that most of the new bloggers make mistake here and realizes latter. Then the only option left for them is to quit blogging. So you should not make the same mistake.

What is the Blog Niche?

Let me clear what is blog niche first. A blog niche is a specific topic you’ll write about (or create content in different formats) on your blog.

I have seen new bloggers starts writing about one topic on the beginning and then jumping to another one the next day. One day they write about smartphones and another day they write how to lose weight.

This kind of approach has its own drawbacks and you will fail to attract a targeted audience.

How to Decide The Niche of Your Blog

Choosing a blog niche is one of the important and hardest parts of starting a blog.

You may want to do blogging for profit and want tons of traffic. Niches like WhatsApp tips or free movie downloads may bring you a lot of traffic. But you probably won’t get enough money.

In another aspect, you don’t want to pick a blog niche which is very tough for you to write about.

So, what is a good niche?

In short, a good niche is one which is something related to your passion or having the expertise, has a good amount of traffic, and also has a monetary value. Moreover, your niche should definitely have a future.

There is some topic which has value for a certain period of time. Then no one searches for the same. Just take an example of an iPhone. Why make a blog on iPhone X while the next-generation iPhone will be coming out next year?

Let’s discuss some of the tips will help you to choose the right niche for yourself.

Free Blogging Platforms vs Paid Hosting

If you’ve never blogged before, and want to start your new blog then you might not want to invest some money initially with the new site. Free blogging sites offer a great way to set up your online presence without investment. But these free method comes with several limitations and headache.

Let’s discuss both the platforms and you will get clarity to choose which one is best.

Free Blogging Platforms

As the name suggests free blogging platforms are free to join, get a domain and set up your site.

You can create your free blog with free platforms like Blogger.com and WordPress.com.

Pros

• It is free and no initial setup cost.
• A free platform to set up and maintain your blog.

Cons

• Free blogging sites provide a subdomain. If you create your blog in Blogger then the domain looks like yourblogname.blogspot.com.
• The blog looks very basic and unprofessional.
• You have very less control over your blog.
• Limited customization option.
• You have a limited amount of bandwidth and disk space.

Free blogs are best for those people who are not very serious about blogging or just want to explore the blogging world. If you want to blog for time pass or fun, then you can go with a free blog.

Paid Hosting

In the paid hosting, you need to buy hosting and domain name and run your blog. These type of blog also known as a self-hosted blog.

Sites like Bluehost, SiteGround provides hosting services. Usually, these companies provide storage space and all the necessary things to run a blog for rent.

Pros

• You have complete control over your blog.
• You can make a professional-looking blog.
• Full customization possible
• You have access to the backend of your blog and the files. You can also modify the codes.

Cons

• It requires some initial investment. Usually, it costs only a few dollars per month so it is not a big investment.

There are unlimited benefits of Paid hosting and you should use it. Paid hosting is for those serious bloggers who want to take it to the next level. As you can customize your blog and give them an attracting look it will be a professional blog. These blogs look professional and put some impact on readers. I highly recommend you to go with paid hosting.

Choose Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is extremely important for a blog. This is something like now or never like situation.

Your domain name will be your identity and the world will know in this name.

How much time you have spent by thinking the name of your website? Here are some tips that can help you to choose your domain name quickly.

Pick a Brandable Domain Name

Your domain will be your brand and people will remember in this name. Brandable domains are always better than generic.

Generic domain names always consist of some random words and often confusing. Brandable domain names are unique and people will remember it.

Some people prefer to choose their name as their brand name and domain name as well. The best example is Neil Patel (neilpatel.com), one of the most famous digital marketing experts in the world.

Be creative and make your own catchy new words like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Keep your domain name short and brandable. Pick your domain name within 14 characters. There is no specific rule for this but short domains are always good.

Easy to Remember

Choose a domain name that people will remember and tell other people about it. Your domain may reflect your business. If you are providing SEO services then your domain name would contain the SEO word.

Check Availability of Social Media Account Name Trademarks

You may have chosen a great domain name and when you go to book the name then you found that the name was booked.

So it is always a good practice to check the availability of domain name and social media usernames and accounts as well.

Also, search trademark names and stay away from names that already have trademarks to avoid legal issues.

To make this complicated task simple, you can use some tools like Knowem and Namechk.

Use a Domain Name Generator Tool

You have tried so much and run out of ideas? You can generate hundreds of domain ideas through the domain name generator tool.

You can use tools like NameMesh to generate a new blog idea.

Keep your Search Until you Get a Good One

Thousands of domain names are selling each day and some people say that all good domain names are taken already.

Be creative and spend some time to search your domain name. You will definitely find a good one.

Buy the Domain Name When You Got One

When you got a good domain name buy that one quickly before anyone buys it. There may be a change someone buys it if you keep it without buying.

You can buy a domain name from GoDaddy or NameCheap. Wait, you will get a free domain name with Bluehost hosting plan. So keep reading and I will describe it in the next section.

Why you should choose WordPress for Your Blog

You have visited many blogs and see a common thing that everyone is talking about WordPress. Then you might wonder what is WordPress and why you should use this for your blog?

One of the most common misconceptions in blogging is WordPress.org vas WordPress.com.

In short, WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. This is the WordPress we are going to use in our blog and it is a robust content management system (CMS). WordPress.com is a hosting service. For details comparison please check this WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

There is some good reason to choose WordPress.

WordPress is Free and Open Source

WordPress is free software. This means you can download it a free download, install, use and modify it according to your needs.

It is also open-source software. It is managed by a massive community of people and makes sure the software is always working fine.

You can Make any Type of Website

If you don’t have any technical knowledge you can still make any type of website using WordPress. Whether you are making a simple blog or a business website or an eCommerce site all possible here.

Easy to Manage

WordPress helps you to manage your blog easily. The WordPress admin dashboard is easy to use and a newbie can also use it. 

Plugins are the Power of WordPress

Plugins enhance the functionality of your site. There are thousands of plugins in WordPress repo. There is a plugin for almost everything you ever wanted to add.

WordPress is Secure

WordPress is the most secure content management system out there. The developer community behind WordPress always tries to make the platform secure and keep safe from hackers.

WordPress also releases updates and security patches to keep the platform secure.

Most People using it

You know the popularity of WordPress. It powers 34% of all the websites on the Internet. Almost all the popular blogs are using WordPress as well.

Pick a Web Hosting Provider

To set up and run your own self-hosted blog on your domain name you need two things. Domain and hosting. In the above, we have discussed the domain name and you have booked one.

You can Get a Free Domain Name with Your Hosting Plan of Bluehost. So it’s up to you whether you buy or get it for free.

However, you must need hosting to run your own blog. It is like the home of your blog where all your blog pages, media files and everything of your blog stored.

When it comes to web hosting, you need to check a lot of things in the hosting provider. But there are some major things that matter a lot.

• Speed: Page loading speed matters a lot. You need to check the average page loading time (in seconds).
• Resources: Another thing you should check in your host is the server resources you are getting with your hosting plan. Check how much disk space, RAM, bandwidth, number of the domain to host, etc.
• Uptime: Uptime instructs how much time the server is running. 100% uptime is not realistic. So 99.9% uptime would be great.
• Customer service: Check the customer service and how quickly they are solving the issues.

There are literally hundreds of different web hosting providers. In the beginning, you would get confused.

In the initial days of my blogging, I also faced the same issues. There is so much confusion and you will easily get misguided.

And luckily for you, I’ve already done much research and figured out the best hosting provider.

I recommend Bluehost for their amazing service.

Here are the Benefits of Bluehost.

• Powering more than 2 million websites worldwide.
• Officially recommended by WordPress itself.
• One-click WordPress installation
• Affordable hosting plans
• Award-winning support

Set up your Blog using Bluehost

I will walk you through the necessary steps of getting started with Bluehost.

Click here to get a Special Discount Offer of Bluehost and then Click the Get Started Button.

1: Navigate to Bluehost website and click the big green “Get Started” button.

2: On the next page you will find many hosting plans to choose. Choose the hosting plan that’s best for you. In the beginning, I would recommend choosing the “Basic” plan. You can upgrade it anytime when your blog grows.

3: Next you would be prompted to choose your domain name. You might have decided your domain name by following the above steps and also checked the availability. Enter the domain name and choose an extension. You can simply skip this step and register a free domain latter. A popup will appear if you move your mouse suddenly to any other tab and it will ask you to choose the domain name latter.

If you have booked your domain already then put it in the Use a domain you own section.

4: Create your account by filling your account and contact information.

5: Scroll down and you will find the “package information” and “package extra” section.

You can get the cheapest monthly price by selecting 36 months plan. If you choose the 12-month plan the monthly price will be higher. The plans of Bluehost comes with 30-day money back guaranty and you can cancel your plan and get a refund.

The package extra section contains some additional services. You may choose “Domain Privacy Protection”. This protects your personal information like name, phone number, address, etc and restricts publicly accessible. You can also add this service latter. All the other services on this list are not needed for you.

6: Then fill up your payment information, agree to the service agreements, and then click “submit.

7: Again Bluehost may show you some additional services to buy. You can simply skip it and buy it later.

8: Congratulations! You have successfully purchased a hosting plan and have a Bluehost account. Next, you need to create your password. Click on the green Create your password button.

9: On this screen, you need to create your Bluehost account password. Create a strong password and don’t forget it! Agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service and then click “Next.”

10: Now, your password has been created and you can log into your account for the first time! Click the blue “log in” button. It will take you to the Bluehost Portal. You can also visit the Bluehost website and click log in also.

You will find two options there. Hosting and webmail. Choose the “Hosting Login” tab and not “Webmail.” Enter your domain name and password and hit “Log In”.

11: When your account opens for the first time, you will see the option to Choose The Theme. You can skip this step and do it later as well.

12: Bluehost will then automatically install WordPress for you. You will see this type of screen when it finishes up.

13: Click the blue “Start Building” button and you will be brought to this screen. Now you will be in the backend of your blog and you are in the admin dashboard of WordPress.

14: You can manage your site using this panel and you need to create a user so that you will not log in to Bluehost each time.

15: In the very bottom left corner of the admin panel dashboard, you will see an option named “Users”. Hover your crosser over the word “Users” and select the option “Add New.”

16: Fill all the information on that page like username, email, etc. Click the “show password” button. Save the password somewhere safe. You will need this user name/email id and password to login into your admin panel. Change the role of “Administrator.”

Once you filled all the information, click the “Add New User” button at the bottom of your screen.

17: To log in to your WordPress dashboard go to http://yourURLhere.com/wp-admin. Enter your username and password to log in.

18: After a successful login, you would be in your WordPress dashboard. It may be confusing at the beginning but you will familiar with this soon.

Understanding the WordPress Dashboard

Now you have installed WordPress and ready to publish your first post. Before that, you need to understand the WordPress dashboard.

The WordPress CMS platform consists of two areas. One is your blog’s front end and another one is the backend.

The front end is the section of your blog where your visitors will see when they visit your blog. The backend is also known as the WordPress dashboard. The backend of your blog is unreachable for anyone. It requires access and if you have given access to someone then only he/she can visit the backend. This is the area where you will do all the modifications of your blog.

The administrator WordPress dashboard has three main parts: the top toolbar left side menu and the middle section.

The left side menu contains all the following options.

Updates, Posts, Pages, Media, Comments, Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, Settings. Depending on the plugin’s and theme, you can get new options in the standard options and new menu item somewhere in the left-hand menu.

So let’s analyze one by one.

1: Updates

WordPress continuously updates its platform and introduce new features, fix bugs and increase security. Update related information will be visible here. This also includes theme-related updates.

2: Posts

The Posts menu allows you to manage the new and existing content you add to your blog. Blog posts are arranged in descending order of published date (newest first). In the Posts menu, you will find these following options:

• All Posts – This contains the list of all posts in the dashboard. There are various shorting options and you can also quickly edit.
• Add New – You can add a new post to your blog using this option.
• Categories – Using this section you can see all the categories or your blog and edit them and add new categories.
• Tags – View all your posts that are tagged with, edit them and add new.

3: Media

This section manages all the media file and you can add many media formats.

• Library – View all the media that are uploaded to your blog.
• Add new-  Add new media to your WordPress blog.

4: Pages

This section contains all the pages related information. You will find the following options.

• All Pages – List of all the pages. The listing also allows you to quickly edit single or multiple pages.
• Add New – Add new pages to your blog.

5: Comments

This section allows you to manage all your comments in a single place. You can approve, modify, marking them as spam or delete them entirely.

6: Appearance

This menu is where you can change the design and layout of your blog. Here you can install new themes to your blog and make additional customizations.

You will find the following options in the appearance menu. (Note that we are describing the common options. This will vary depending on the theme and plugins you use.

• Themes – This is where you can find your installed theme and search for new themes on the WordPress repository. We will talk about the theme selection in a moment.
• Customize – Depending on your theme selection, you will edit it in theme’s visual editor. You can customize menu, sidebar, Title, and Tagline, Color, Background Image, Static Front-Page, and Featured Content, etc.
• Widgets – Widgets are like small boxes that can be added to various areas of your WordPress blog. Depending on the theme selection, you will get the various Widgets. Widgets can showcase a search bar, a subscription form, social media links, recent posts, advertisement and more.
• Menus –Depending on your theme selection, you can create one or more menus that can appear horizontally in your header.
• Header –Depending on your theme selection, you can upload a graphic or logo at a specific size and it will be shown on the top of your blog.
• Background –Depending on your theme selection, you can change background colors and keep as per your choice or upload your own background image.
• Editor – The editor is for tech-savvy users and requires coding knowledge. It allows you to edit the theme code. You can add a specific functionality and change design by editing the source code of the theme.

I suggest that If you are going to edit the code then make sure that you have taken the backup of your blog. If anything goes wrong then you can always upload the backup version of the code to fix it.

7: Plugins

A plugin is simply a software add-on that enhances capabilities after installation. They can add new features or allows you to change the appearance of the blog.

There are thousands of plug available in the WordPress repository and most of them are free.

8: Users

You can add new users to your WordPress blog using this section. You can edit users those you have added to your WordPress blog. There is a various level of access and you will have the following roles assigned:

• Administrator – User having this role can perform all actions on the blog. This should be for the site owner (you) and only those you highly trust.
• Editor – User having this role can edit all posts, pages, categories, comments, tags, and links.
• Author – User having this role can create, publish and edit own posts, and upload media files.
• Contributor –User having this role can write and edit their own posts. But can’t publish without consent.
• Subscriber –User having this role can read and comment on posts or pages only.

9: Tools

Tools allow you to do some extended tasks on your blog.

• Available tools – This section has a pre-installed option called “Press This”. It provides an easy and quick way to clip text, images, and videos from other site and share them in your blog.
• Import tool –It allows you to import data from other platforms into WordPress.
• Export tool –It allows you to export blog content. You can later import it to the new WordPress installation. It is a very handy way to backup your blog content.

10: Settings

This section contains all the settings options.

• General –This section includes all the general options of WordPress site, including the site name, URL, timezone, description, date format, and main administrator email.
• Writing – This allows you to set default categories and post formats for your content. If you don’t assign a category and format, WordPress will automatically
• Reading –This allows you to set the home page for your site. You can set a static page or the latest blog posts. This also gives options for RSS feed.
• Discussion – This section allows you to control your comments and how they are received on your blog. This section is very helpful to prevent spam comments.
• Media – Here you can modify the default images sizes when uploaded to your blog.
• Permalinks –Modify the URL structure for your blog. Select the post name URL structure.

These are the common WordPress options. Depending on the theme you have chosen, and the plugins you have installed you will get some additional options. Spend some time to learn the functionalities of the dashboard and you know it all.

Customize Your Blog

After completing all the above steps then you need to customize your blog. The WordPress installation comes with 2018 default theme. It is not up to mark and you need to change it.

50+ Best Free WordPress Themes for Blogger

There are hundreds of themes available in the WordPress repository. Whatever your blog type may be, you will find a theme-matching your need. All the themes are free ready to use. Just download and use it. You can find nice free themes in JustFreeThemes as well. 

But the free themes are a lack in some way as paid (it’s obvious). If you want to go with premium themes then you should check Themeforest. It is one of the biggest WordPress theme and website template market.

The customization of themes varies from theme to theme. So you will get familiar with them once you install and edit one. 

During the modification process, you need to add some must-have pages in your blog. Those are About Us, Contact Us, Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy.

• About Us – This is one of the most important pages that every blog and website on the internet have. In this page tell users about people behind this blog, its purpose, mission and what users should expect to find on your blog.
• Contact Us –A contact us page allows users and advertisers to contact you. Add a contact us form and email address of your blog.
• Disclaimer –If you want to make money with your blog (who don’t want) then this is a must-have a page. In this page tell users about your monetization options. This page now even mandatory after the rollout of GDPR rule.
• Privacy Policy – This page tells users about the data you are collecting from users. Even if you are not collecting user data, Google Analytics and third-party plugins still collecting data.

You can add various categories to your blog. The categories bunch similar articles article and store them. The categories vary from blog to blog. So choose your categories accordingly.

Install Some Necessary Plugins

Plugins are the power of WordPress. Where themes are all about appearance, plugins are all about functionality.

WordPress directory contains more than 55K plugins. There are some essential plugins that every blogger are using.

1: Contact Form 7

It is a very popular WordPress plugin to create contact forms. You can add contact forms 7 in your blog without any hustle. Forgot about spam contact us filling as it comes with Google reCaptcha verification. This plugin is freely available in the WordPress directory.

2: Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet Anti-Spam is also a very popular plugin having 5 million-plus active installation. This is available for free.

This plugin automatically scans all the comments and filters out spam comments. This also works with contact forms 7 and don’t allow spams. To keep your site from spam comments, use this plugin.

3: Jetpack

Jetpack is also popular among bloggers. It brings the power of WordPress.com to your self hosted WordPress blog. This single plugin has many great features and you can lower down at least 10+ plugins on your blog.

This plugin ensures your site’s security and performance. Some features of this plugin include Brute-force attack protection, secure login, spam filtering, and downtime monitoring.

4: Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a very popular SEO plugin for WordPress. This gives suggestions for on-page SEO. This plugin gives a snippet preview that shows how your post or page will look in the search results and on a mobile device.

Yoast SEO makes some process automated. This automatically submits the site map to Google Search Console.

5: MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights allows you to see your Google analytics report on the WordPress dashboard. It is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. This plugin has both free and paid versions.

6: Insert Headers and Footers

Insert Headers and Footers by WPBeginner is a free plugin that allows you to insert code into your blog’s header and footer throughout your whole website.

If you use Google Analytics on your blog, you should place the given tracking code in the header. In these type of cases, this plugin is very helpful.

7: Redirection

Managing URLs in a blog is always a difficult task. Sometime you may have a requirement to change the URL for better ranking. If someone visit to the old URL then your site will show page not found an error (404 error page). This is bad for your blog.

In this case, the Redirection plugin comes into play. This plugin allows you to manage 301 URL redirects for your WordPress blog.

8: Table of content

Table of content is an essential plugin for blogs. This allows you to easily navigate within a post. Visitors can jump to a specific section of the blog by pressing the table of content generated links. This plugin helps get a place in Google rich snippet.

9: UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is one of the best backup plugins for WordPress. Many web hosts offer backup services with hosting plan, but you should never rely on them. This plugin allows you to take whole site backup with few clicks. Its free and essential plugin for every WordPress based blog.

10: Smush

8 Best WordPress Image Optimizer Plugins for Bloggers

Smush is a well-known image compressor and optimization plugin for WordPress. This plugin compresses images without losing quality. Whenever you upload an image to your WordPress backend, it automatically reduces the size. It also does the same with the existing images. This plugin also comes with lazy load images that load the image when you scroll down.

Add your Blog to Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool by Google. This is a very helpful tool to check how your blog is performing on the search engine.

This also helps you to view how searchers see your site in the search results. You’ll get in-depth information on keywords and queries that drives traffic. The new Google Search Console comes with many new features. Discover how your blog is performing on mobile devices. Now, this also shows the backlinks as well.

There are various methods you can use to add your blog into Google Search Console.

Steps to Follow

1. Go to Google Search Console and press Start now
2. Sign in to your Google account you have not yet.
3. Now you will be inside the GSC dashboard. On the left upper corner, under the search dropdown menu, click “Add property”.
4. In the popup, enter your exact blog URL and click “continue”
5. On the next screen, Google will give you various options to verify your site ownership. Find “Other verification methods” and click on the “HTML tag”.
6. You can place this code in your blog’s header and verify. Insert header and footer plugin is helpful for this.
7. Otherwise, use the Yoast SEO plugin to verify your site ownership. Install the Yoast SEO plugin as it is the best SEO plugin.
8. Open another tab in your browser and Login to your WordPress dashboard and click on the SEO.
9. Click on General and then click on the ‘Webmaster Tools’ tab.
10. Find the Google verification section and paste the code here. Then click “Save Changes”.
11. Go back to Google Search Console dashboard and click ‘Verify’.

Congratulation! You have successfully added your site to the Google Search Console. Now you can submit a sitemap. Google will start collecting data from your blog and show you after a few days. You can enjoy all the features of GSC now onwards.

Set up Google Analytics

Believe it or not, Google Analytics is the best analytics tools out there. As a blog owner, you should use this tool for good reason.

This powerful tool provides invaluable information about your website and visitors.

You can get these type of data from Google Analytics:

• Amount of traffic your blog gets overall
• The websites your traffic came from
• Visitor’s geographic location
• Individual page traffic
• Right now traffic on your blog
• The bounce rate of your blog
• The average time a user spends on your blog
• Number of visitors converted into leads or customers
• The websites your leads came from
• Page speed insight
• Demographic information of visitors
• Whether your traffic comes from mobile, tablet or desktop

Google Analytics is the gold mine of data. In addition to the above data, you can get much more from that.

How to install Google Analytics in your blog

Follow the below steps to install Google Analytics in your blog.

1. Go to Google Analytics and click “Sign in to Analytics” or “Start for free”.
2. On the next step, you need to sign in to your Google account. Complete that step.
3. On the next screen, you will see a page saying Start analyzing your site’s traffic in 3 steps. Click the Signup button on that page.
4. After that, you will fill out all the information for your website in the next step. Fill all the details. Beneath this, there is a Data Sharing Setting. You can keep the checkboxes checked and click the blue color Get Tracking ID button.
5. You will get a popup where you need to agree with Google Analytics terms and conditions. Complete that step.
6. On the next page, you will get the Google Analytics tracking code. You need to place this code on every page of your blog.
7. The easiest way to do this in your blog using the Insert Header and Footer plugin. Install the plugin and you will find two sections on it. One is the header section and another one in the footer section. Copy your Google Analytics tracking code and place it to the header section and save changes.

If you want to use the Google Analytics plugin in your WordPress blog, then you can verify it using this plugin. MonsterInsights is one of the best Google Analytics plugins you can use. After a successful setup, Google will start collecting data from your blog and shows you in the Analytics dashboard. As a blog owner, you should use this free tool and get meaningful insights.

Write Your First Blog Post

Now you are all set and ready to write your first blog post and spread your thoughts with the world!

Creating a blog post is the same as creating a page. Follow the steps below:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard and hover your crosser over post section on the left-hand side menu. Click on Add new option.
2. Enter your blog post’s title, and add the content. WordPress automatically generates a URL for your post. You can edit it by pressing the edit button.
3. in the formatting toolbar, you will find various options just like Microsoft Word.
4. If you want to add media files in your post then click on the Add Media button to upload and insert images.
5. Choose a category from the right side menu. You may add some tags to describe your blog post. But it’s optional.
6. Set a featured image
7. You can save your post if you want to modify it later by pressing the Save Draft button. You can preview how your post looks in your blog by pressing the Preview button.
8. Click publish when you are finished

Note – We have mentioned the above process based on the WordPress classic editor. In the latest release of WordPress, they have introduces a new content editor name, Gutenberg. It has a whole different procedure to edit content. You can simply ignore it and enjoy the classic editing. Just install the Classic Editor plugin and you are good to go.

Note – With the Bluehost hosting, you might not see the published page as the blog in under coming soon page. Launch your blog by clicking “Coming Soon Active” at the top WordPress bar and then “Launch Your Site”.

How to Create Quality Content

There is an ocean of content. Millions of new contents are producing each day as well. So creating high-quality content is even more important than ever.

People often assume quality content means lengthy content having 1000+ words and Google will love it. But is the lengthy content on a particular topic makes the content high quality?

Of course not. There are a lot more things that make a content high quality.

If you ask SEOs, marketers or content creators about this question, the answer will vary and you might get the answer you already know.

Quality content is mainly the content that achieves your goal. For you, that might be:

• Ranking higher on search engines.
• Improving click-through rates (CTR).
• Increasing brand awareness.
• Generating leads.
• Getting social shares.

A content that achieves any (or all) of the above objectives is quality content.

So now you may think about how to write high-quality content? I have listed some of the points that makes a content prefix with “high quality”.

Research for Content Ideas

This always happens with some new bloggers that they decide to write about content without research on the same. It is not a good practice and you should avoid it.

Spend some quality time to research some topics in your niche. You will get some content ideas for your next article. Again visit some existing article on the same topic and figure out how you can write a way better version of that.

You may check your competitors’ sites to get some idea what type of content is working for them. To make this process simple you can use tools like BuzzSumo.

Do some keyword research also. You can use SEO tools like Ahrefs (PAIS) or Ubersuggest (FREE) to get some high search low competition keywords. Also, find some LSI keywords that you can sprinkle throughout in your article.

Show Your Unique Aspect

Many people write the same things that are available on the first page of Google although they have different ideas to share. Don’t be afraid to include your own ideas and point of view in your content. Otherwise, it will sound like everyone else.

As you have research about the topic earlier, you know the aspects of the existing articles. Add the points that are not covered by the existing articles if possible. Otherwise, write in your style of the same topic that feels people that the content is unique.

Sometimes, changing the heading of content have a great impact on the overall structure. This feels users the content is different by seeing the heading they more likely to click to your blog and read it.

No matter how much content are producing each day or each hour, contents written in unique aspect have always special space.

Tell a Story

Who don’t love stories? Monsters? Maybe.

If you are delivering some personal experience or message, then don’t hesitate to tell your own story. In this way, you are not writing the stuff with commands and dry sentences.

Readers can connect the article on a personal level and this makes them share the article forward. Relating toa personal level has a greater impact than just surface level.

Storytelling articles perform better than normal articles. Stories help you stand out from other bloggers and loved by readers.

Becoming a storyteller blogger is not as difficult as it may seem in the surface level. You don’t need to write a thousand-word story in your article. A paragraph or 100-150 words is enough to delight your readers.

Don’t just limit your storytelling in the body of the article. Why don’t you apply it in the headings of your blog post? You will be amazed to know the following study.

A study suggests that, on average, 80% of people will read your headlines and only 20% of people will read the rest of your content! So

So don’t feel shy further. Start telling a story from your next blog post.

Provide Answers

People search on Google to know the answer. So if you are writing on a topic, make sure you have covered the answers to their questions.

Don’t just write many unnecessary things to increase the length of the article. Searchers want their answer fast. So make sure to clear the answers in the beginning. Otherwise, they will leave your blog this sends Google a negative sign.

Decorate Your Content

Only text-based contents are boring. Hundreds of sentences and sentences one after other creates irritation and no one wants that.

These days Google also seeing user signals in your blog. So you should add different media files and decorate your article.

Fill your text-based content with images, graphics, screenshots, videos, diagrams, infographics, charts, etc. You can easily make this type of graphics from Canva.com

These type of visually rich contents enhance your content.  Invest some time to make some visually rich infographics and chats and add them to the article.

Write Short Paragraphs

One of the best writing lessons I have learned is this. Write short and to-the-point paragraphs.

No one wants to read lengthy paragraphs of 500 words. One can easily get lost inside it.

Don’t believe my words? Then just head to a famous bloggers blog and visit two or three articles. Do the same with some of the famous blogs like SearchEngineJournal and HubSpot Have you got something?

You will found that each post will have small paragraphs and very easy to consume the content.

Solve your Readers Problems

Problems are everywhere. As a blogger, you need to solve the problems of your readers in your niche.

List out the problems in your niche and try to solve then in your blog with helpful articles. In this way, traffic will come into your blog and if they get the solution to their problem, then they will become your loyal audience.

As you have listed many problems and write dedicated articles in your blog, then you can interlink them. This way you will get more page views and time on page will increase.

This passes a good signal to Google and makes your blog more authoritative.

Review The Final Piece

One of the biggest challenges in creating quality content is the lack of time.

When you are under pressure publish the content and the date is fixed according to the editorial calendar. If you will finish writing the content on the same day, then you have no time to review it.

That’s why you should write content before the deadline. You will get some extra time to review the content.

In the review process, you will find some errors and area that need improvements. Fix those issues.

Whenever you are publishing a content make sure it is the best it can be.

Learn The Basic SEO

You have installed the theme, customize it and publish some blog posts. What’s next? It’s time to drive traffic to your blog.

In the surface level, there are two ways to drive traffic to your blog. One is through organically and another is paid.

Every blogger wants organic traffic. Then the Important Tips of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into existence.

SEO will improve the blog’s overall searchability and visibility. But what other real benefits of SEO and why it is important?

To weight my words let me present some real data.

Thanks to Ahrefs for their amazing services and studies. Recently, Ahrefs studied over billions of webpages to see how many of them are getting organic traffic. They found that 90.88% of pages are receiving no organic search traffic whatsoever. Checkout 25 Best SEO Tools That Boost Your Organic Traffics from Search Engine.

If you don’t want to be in that invisible ~91% then SEO is the solution.

It’s a discussion of another day why you should do SEO and all the benefits of it. In short, you will drive traffic to your blog.

SEO is a vast topic and you don’t need to know them all. Learn the basic SEO and apply them to your blog.

On the surface level let me summarize the whole topic in a paragraph (Don’t blame me for my courage). There is two main part of SEO. One is on-page SEO and another one is off-page SEO. I have written two compressive articles on both of them. You should definitely check them to get some basic ideas. Otherwise, the internet is full of information and SEO expert blogs. You can grab enough amount of knowledge and put them into your blog.

Setup a Custom Email Address

Email is an important part of your new blog but often overlooked. Having a domain-based email address like [email protected] has several good reasons. It shows the professionalism of your blog and increases authority with your readers.

People survive for years with a [email protected] without a truly custom email address. But these type of email address put a separate impact and don’t seem authoritative. So better to go with custom emails. You are not going to pay for the extra as they come with hosting plans.

Nowadays all the hosting providers are providing custom email support. Make sure your hosting plan includes that feature.

Pretty soon you’ll want to email many other bloggers, and companies, for several reasons and it’s important to have a professional email address.

Luckily, Bluehost allows you to create a custom email address with the hosting plan.

Login to your Bluehost portal and find Email section. Under Email Accounts, create your custom email address. You can create custom address in a matter of seconds. To access your created email address, log in to webmail and manage your email account.

After successful creation of custom email address, add it in the Contact Us page.

Register Social Media Accounts

Social meads are now skyrocketed and you can take advantage. For a new blog, social media platforms are a great way to drive traffic and create brand awareness.

Before that, you need to create a social media account in your blog’s name. The same name in everywhere feels authoritative and pass users a trust signal. Trust has a big impact on the blog’s future and your reputation.

There are many social media platforms are there. It is a difficult task to find the available username. You may use traditional ways. Visit each website and check the availability.

To make this process super fast and hustle-free I use Namechk. This allows you to check usernames in various platforms for free.

After checking the availability head to major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. and create accounts. There are many social media platforms there but don’t need to create an account in each of them. Many of them are not helpful for bloggers and you should not waste your time there.

Whenever you will write an article, share it through the major social media platforms. This helps your article to get more eyeballs and visitors will come into your blog.

Don’t spam or misuse social media platforms by sprinkling links everywhere. This is one of the mistakes most new bloggers make and realizes the latter.

Use the platform naturally and slowly build your audience base. This will help you in the long run.

Promote Your Blog

You have created a nice looking blog and written some awesome contents. You think this article deserves some attention. But writing great content is not enough.

There are thousands of blog posts are written and published each day. According to a study, over 4 million blog posts are published every day. There is a flood of content and the number is huge.

Whether you have a new blog or an established one, you can never think enough traffic.

Rather than lying on organic traffic, you should promote your content. This will help you to get more eyeballs to your blog.

There are several promotion mediums are there. I have seen that people are recommending 100+ ways to promote your blog. To say frankly they are increasing the number in the shake of increasing the length of the article and most of them are not necessary.

Here I am sharing some recommended ways to promote your content. Rather than trying hundreds of ways and getting less result, try these ways.

1: Create Share-Worthy Content

This is the most important thing before you rush for content promotion. All starts with creating an amazing piece of content that has the power to grab people and forces them to share.

Rather than writing the same content in a different way or different sentence structure, try to write some unique content that the readers have not read yet. Do this, you need to invest a lot of time to research the existing blog posts on the topic. Then create your own piece of content.

There is no better promotion strategy than publishing share-worthy contents and turns every reader into a sharing machine. 

2: Run Facebook Ad

Facebook has millions of user base and it’s a great way to promote your content there. Then you might ask me, why Facebook only?

In the beginning, you can use this platform as it is comparatively cheap to other networks and good for new bloggers.

Learn how to run a Facebook ad (It’s easy). Put some small budget in this paid traffic method. This is a good way to target interested people and most likely if your content is awesome, then they will spread it.

3: Reach out to Relevant People

Let’s say you have made an amazing piece of content and published it. Then find some people relevant to your space and have some good audience. Show them your content and ask to share.

In the digital marketing industry, it is well-known as “outreach.”

The benefits of this approach are clear. They have a similar user base like you and if they share your content on their social media accounts or blog, then you will get quality traffic to your blog.

In addition to that, you are recommended by the authoritative people so your reputation will also increase.

If you reach out hundred people, then the changes are around 5 to 10 people will share your article if it provides some value to their users as well. The number seems very low, but this will brings you tons of traffic.

4: Be Active in Communities

Most people advise that join some forums and communities. And another thing they advise is that, promote your blog posts in the relevant communities.

Online communities consist of some peoples and allow meaningful conversations about a particular topic. They help each other and solve relevant issues.

Most of the forums strictly avoid self-promotion and kick you out if you misuse it. Many people join several Facebook groups and sprinkle links throughout the group. It is a spam behavior and the administrator/moderator will kick you out from the group. So don’t use this technique.

Instead of that, join some relevant active Facebook groups, forums and help people by solving their issues. Be an active member of the group and people will start trusting on you if you are helping them. If you have written an article that can help them, then share the link and you are done.

People will visit your blog through that link and they may subscribe and become a regular reader.

5: Guest Post

Many people in the SEO industry say that guest posting is dead. This is not true at all. It is still alive.

Guest posting is a great way to promote your blog posts. Reach out to some relevant blogs that are accepting guest post. Write a post and include links to your blog.

Visitors will read your guest post on their blog and visit your blog through the links. If you have done this in the right way, you will get some consistent referral traffic to your blog.

Make Money From Your Blog

You have put a lot of effort into creating your blog, writing contents and all. After a few months of blogging, you can consider earning some money.

You might thinking can I make money blogging? How much can I earn? Like a ton.

A few years back, blogging was not like today. People were doing it as a hobby or in-addition with full-time jobs. But a lot has changed since then. Blogging has become an awesome profitable online profession and people are knowing the potential.

There are many bloggers who are earning more than $1 million (even way more) a year with blogging. There is no upper limit how much you can earn. The only limit is your imagination.

There are various ways to monetize your blog. I will show you some best ways to make money from your blog. Depending upon your level of blogging and the niche of the blog, you could pick the method (or methods) that fits you.

1: Ad Networks

Ad networks are the easiest and quickest way to make money from your blog. This is also beginner-friendly and mostly used the method.

Some of the most popular ad networks are Google AdSense and Media.net. You just have to register for approval and they give you few lines of code to put in your blog. They show ads automatically on your blog based on your article and also user interest.

Google AdSense is the most popular and gives a recurring income. You will get based on the ad impression and ad click.

To say frankly, these ad networks won’t give you much money if you have less traffic to your blog. At the initial days, you won’t have enough traffic. But these type of income sources is best to keep you motivated as the flow is coming.

2: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money from your blog. This is also a high earning method and every successful blogger using this.

You might be thinking what is affiliate marketing? Well, in short, Affiliate marketing is a method where you refer someone to any online product or service. Usually, you are provided a special affiliate link through which the company will track. When a person buys the product through your link you receive a commission.

This is how affiliate marketing works:

• Join an affiliate program
• Pick a product based on your audience to promote
• Will get a unique affiliate link
• Place this link on your blog (In text or image) or share the link via social media. Promotion medium depends on you.
• When someone completes a purchase, you will earn an affiliate commission.

This commission varies from few cents to $10,000 depending on what product you are promoting.

You could join some of the popular Affiliate marketing marketplaces like:

• Amazon Affiliate Program
• ClickBank
• Commission Junction
• ShareASale

Affiliate marketing can give you a handsome income. You can earn with Google AdSense and affiliate marketing simultaneously.

3: Sell Your Own eBooks

People are adopting digital medium than traditional one and books under the same. More people are willing to read eBooks than paper books.

So, it is an awesome time to write and sell your own eBooks on your blog. You may have seen many pro bloggers are using this technique and making money.

As you are writing content for your blog, after a few months your writing skill will be good and you will know how to do this. If you have not, then it’s ok. You can learn this skill and try to improve your writing. The more you write the better you will grow.

Then all you need to do is pick a topic and write an eBook on it. Put it on sale on your blog and Amazon. This is a nice recurring income model and you will earn for life.

The book cover is one of the first things you need to focus and make it awesome. This grabs eyeballs and people will intend to buy quickly. For this, you can hire someone from freelancing sites like Fiverr or Freelancer. You will get a professional-looking book cover at a cheap price.

When your book is ready for sell put it in your blog. To increase the sale you can list it on leading eBook marketplace like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

4: Sponsored Post

Sponsored posts are a great way to boost your earning. Allowing paid posts to your blog has several benefits as well. You will get content plus money to just publish it in your blog.

The pricing varies from few dollars to thousands of dollar. Search for sponsors in your niche and pitch them to put a paid a post on your blog. 

5: Sell your Product or Services

Rather than selling other product and getting a small commission from it, it’s always good to sell your own product or services.

Again it depends on your blog niche. If your blog is on content writing, logo designing, SEO, web designing, cybersecurity, business consulting, fitness products, baby products, survival, etc. you can sell your own product or services on the same.

In fact, launching your own services and putting it is quite easy. All you need to do is create a separate page on your blog and list all the services that you are offering. Highlight this in your blog sidebar so that more and more people know about it.

6: Launch Your Course

In the course of blogging, you will grab enough knowledge on that particular topic. You can use your knowledge to educate people by launching an online course.

It again depends on your niche. If you found your blog has the potential to launch a course, then do it. Many successful bloggers are earning millions from this earning model.

You just have to put effort to make the course once. Then you can earn from it again and again. This is also a good recurring income model.

Making online courses is now easy. You can use the power of digital platforms to make a course in less time.

Keep Blogging ‎

At this point, you have made everything that is necessary to start a blog. So what’s next?

Same as you are doing. Keep creating content, educate or entertain people.

A blogger’s work never ends.

Don’t run after traffic and money in the initial days. Because it takes time to grow a blog and be patent for that.

In addition to content creation, and blog management focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is the most convenient and consistent way to get traffic from search engines.

Write quality contents and don’t hesitate to promote it through the above methods.

Be consistent and stick to your publishing schedule no matter what happens. With the right strategy, you can go far and scale your blog.

Over to You

So these are the things you need to get started. Staring and managing a blog today easier than they have ever been before. There is plenty of information available on the web that drives you to your success.

It takes months of blogging and a lot of efforts before seeing income from it. Be patient and the reword would be huge.

I cannot wait to see you in our blogging space. Go and start your blog and spread your voice. Thank you in advance and have a wonderful journey. 

If you enjoyed this Article, Kindly share it on your favorite Social Media Networks. Your one share will help many bloggers like you, who want to start their own blog and earn some money from it.