The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Successful Blog

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Successful Blog:

Here is the ultimate beginner’s guide to starting a blog.  When I first decided to create a blog there was so much information out there that I didn’t know where to start. This covers hosting, themes, content, and much more.

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Finding Your Niche

Find something you want to talk about or something you are passionate about. Can you teach others your interest? Can you engage with your audience on such topic?  These two questions should be answered before starting your blog. I started a blog so I can share my experiences with other people.

There are a lot of bloggers out there that will tell you to stick to only one niche. I am here to tell you don’t have to. However, with that being said pick a niche or niches that complement each other. For an example. You do not want to have a niche about recipes and then in another section talk about makeup. A good choice would be recipes and couponing, or recipes and health/fitness. Another good one is if you travel but you like cooking. Use your travel experiences from where ever you go and make a recipe dedicated to that particular place.  The main point is you want to keep your audience happy and what to attract a certain type of audience. I have done my resource on topics within a niche that might help you decide, click here. Need niche ideas here are a few to help you out!

• Recipes/couponing
• Mommy/family life
• Adult
• Healthy living/weight loss
• Career
• Homeschool
• Fashion/clothing trends
• Personal Finance/money making
• Makeup/hair
• Faith/religion/inspiration
• Reviews/direct sales –Scentsy other home-based businesses
• Product Sample Reviews
• Pets
• Wedding/event planning
• Shopping
• Garden/home
• Automobiles
• Students
• Home decor
• Everyday lifestyle
• Traveling

Choosing a Platform

There are different platforms to choose from such as Blogger, Square Space, Wix, and WordPress. I decided to go with WordPress. I have seen all the great reviews on them. When I did start I did the free plan through wordpress.com and within a month I switched to wordpress.org where I was able to control my site through hosting.

Hosting

If you decide on going with a platform such as wordpress.org you will need a host. My choice is WordPress and so that is what we will discuss here. My hosting is from SiteGround.

Click here for step by step guide on SiteGround

Themes

There are thousands of themes to choose from depending on your type of blog or business. Many web designers dedicate making themes for blogs. WordPress is known for having a variety of themes to choose from.

Now that we have your blog set up and ready to go NOW WHAT!?!

Content

Content is a major part of growing your blog. In order to get traffic to your blog, you must have “GREAT CONTENT”. In blogging terms, content is “King”. How do you get great content? With quality work. What you write must be relevant and relatable to your audience. You must have an eye-catching title for the blog. A plugin like Yoast SEO will guide you into how to use keywords to attract people to your site. Another great source to use is Google AdWord Keyword Finder. That leads to quality photos.

Quality Stock Photos

When I started I thought all I had to do was go to Google and search for a photo and copy and paste to my blog. This is a big No. Many photos are copyright protected and grabbing photos off the internet can land you in the hot seat with lawsuits and legal fees. However, there are sites that provide content stock photos for your blog and business. Some come with a membership fee and others you can get free. Here are a few sites that are trustworthy and come with a copyright to ensure your safety and theirs.

• • Creative Market
  • Pixabay
  • Rekita Nicole
  • Haute Chocolate
  • Wonderlass
  • Create Her Stock
  • Ivory Mix
  • PicJumbo
  • Pexels
  • Unsplash

Promoting

<

p style=”text-align: left;”>Promoting is a big part when trying to get your message out there. The blog community is saturated with hundreds of niches.  Social media is a great tool to promote.  Pinterest is a prime example. Millions of people visit Pinterest to search a variety of topics. This platform is in your face type searching. When promoting on Pinterest you must have quality pins. I use PicMonkey and Canva to edit and design not only Pins but a variety of other social media photos. Next, make sure your Pins are rich pins. Facebook is another great platform. You can join great blogging groups and promote within those groups. ***Each group as their own rules and regulations. So Please read them before joining.****. Create a Facebook page to advertise to friends and family which can highlight all your latest blog post. Instagram is another great tool to promote your business. Although all visual content leaving your site URL and building followers will lead people back to your site.

All Done, Blog is Ready to Be Successful

In this guide, we talked about a niche, hosting, content, and a much more. Now you are ready to create a successful blog for a business or for pleasure.****Remember to read terms and conditions (copyright) of all stock photos you decide to use. I hope you enjoy and have a great time creating your blog.