How to Start a Blog in 2021 (Your Free Step-by-Step Guide)

Blogging nowadays has become a new craze for exploring your passion and hobbies. Some people want to create blogs but due to insufficient knowledge regarding blogging, they always fail to set up a blog that attracts the targeted audience. So to make your blogging profitable there is a detailed guide by which you can start your blogging effectively and can earn profits also.
There are some easy steps you should definitely follow to start a blog in 2021 –

Step 1 – Select the perfect blogging platform

To start a blog you first need to choose a perfect blogging platform to manage your blog. If you search on the internet there are many blogging platforms like WordPress, Wix, Blogger, and many more. But the most widely used blogging platform is WordPress. WordPress is most popularly known for its advanced Content Managing System (CMS) or software that manages your blog easily and effectively.
WordPress is really efficient because it is totally free blogging platform that helps you to create and design your website or blogging page instantly. You can also add plug-in like security, speed, formats, and online store to enhance your blogging features. It also provides you regular updates and security patches to add value to your experience.

Step 2 – Choose the right niche for your blog

Before starting a blog you first need to choose a topic on which you are going to create your blogs. This is called a niche. A niche in a blog is generally known as a title or a subject you are choosing for your blog. It acts as a key factor in deciding the success or failure of your blog. If you really want to make money out of your blog then choosing the right niche for your blog is a must.
Generally, when you decide to write about a blog many ideas and topics come to your mind. You can choose various topics like travel, craft projects, board games review, food blog, and many more according to your preference. Choose a topic such that you can attract more people.
To write a blog don’t choose a number of topics or irrelevant topics, because it’s really not a good idea to do this. And the reason behind this is that there will be many people who are interested in a food blog and there are many who are interested in blogs related to photography. But there will be only a few people who are interested in both, so because of this, you will not be able to create an audience for your blogs. As a result, it will be difficult to rank your blog in search engines and get traffic from Google.
To decide the profitable niche for your blog you need to follow the three steps to do your niche selection and that is –

• Check traffic potential – if you are selecting a great niche for your blog, there is still no guarantee that it will attract the targeted audience. For example, if you selected your niche in food blogging there are many bloggers who already do that. So it becomes difficult for a new blogger to compete with these existing bloggers. So if you are a new blogger then limit your niche to fast food blogging, healthy breakfast blogging, snack food blogging, etc.

• Computer Research – don’t get demotivated if you get a tough competition in your selected niche. It means that there are a lot of people who constantly search for those types of blogs. Do computer research regarding your competitors and also apart from competing you can collaborate with your competitors. This will increase your profitability in blogging and more audience will get attracted to your blogs, which will result in your traffic.

• Analyze your earning potential – through blogging you can not only explore your talent and hobbies but can also earn and can also make huge profits. For this, you need to analyze the potential of your competitor. For analyzing your competitor’s potential you just need to keep an eye on their work like what type of blogs they are publishing, what type of format and style they are opting for, and then you add extra uniqueness to keep their style in your mind for creating your own blog. In the last section of your blog if you find social media pages or magazines that means your choice of niche is active and profitable.

Step 3 – Find a domain name for your blog

Having a domain name is very important for creating your blog. A domain name should be like that matches your blogging idea and should be easy that readers of your blog should not find any difficulty in finding it.
The domain name should be catchy and memorable because there are many domain names that are registered but if you have an attractive domain name then people can recall it easily. Keep your domain name short so that it can be spelled by people easily. Keep domain name such that people should get a hint in advance about your business or blogs, and avoid using numbers and hyphens because there are chances of misinterpretation.

Step 4 – Choose a good hosting for your blog

The most common mistake made by new bloggers is in choosing the right web hosting for their blog. Choosing the right hosting is really not a big task you just need to choose the Best WordPress hosting for your blog where you can store all your files or website database.

Step 5 – Install and setup WordPress blog

When your domain and hosting are connected, then you need to install WordPress to start your blogging career. For installing WordPress you just need to navigate to your cPanel. Then go to the “Softaculous Apps Installer” through your cPanel. Now you need to select WordPress and fill in some basic details like user name, password, blog name, and site title. After this hit the install button, and then the installation process will be done.

Step 6 – change the theme of your blog

When you have installed WordPress on your site, now you can easily access your blogging website with a simple and default WordPress theme. To make your blogging page look attractive you need to change the theme of your WordPress. To do this you need to follow very simple steps –

• Go to your WordPress admin panel.
• Click on the appearance option. Then click on themes, which is visible to the side menu of the dashboard.
• Then click on the add new button option, and then search “Generate Press” from the search box.
• After doing this entire tap on the install button. It will take some time to get your theme installed successfully.
• After successful installation of your theme, you need to tap on the active button for applying the theme on your website.
• After activation, the theme will be applied to your website.

Step 7 – Add important plug-in

Plugins add an additional features to your blog without writing any single code. Some very important plugins that you must use in your blogs are Contact Form 7, Jetpack, W3 Total Cache, Updraft Plus, Rank Math, Thrive Architect, and Wordfence.

Step 8 – Write and publish your first blog

Now you just need to write your first blog and then you need to post it. For doing this you need to follow the steps –

• First, go to the WordPress admin panel and click on the post option.
• Now click on the add new post option which is visible on the side menu of the admin dashboard.
• Give a nice, catchy, and attractive title to your blog post.
• Now write a description about your blog and then select the category of your post. If there is no category relating to your blog post then add a new category to it.
• Insert attractive pictures relating to your blog post and then when you are done and fully satisfied with your blog post click on the publish option.

Step 10 – Identify how to start making money

Writing a blog with nothing in return is not a good option. Then you are just wasting your time. You can make a good amount of money from your blogs you just need to identify the right source. There are a lot of ways by which you can really earn money like –

• Google Ad Sense – it is generally the first choice of bloggers when it comes to making money. You can earn money with Google Ad Sense by adding Google ads to your blog posts. The ads will be shown on your blog post and then you will get paid on the number of times the ad gets clicked.
• Affiliate Marketing – nowadays affiliate marketing has become a new trend. You can earn from your blogs through affiliate marketing.

Blogging is really interesting if you know the right way to do it. So when you have really read the detailed guide about how you need to start your blogging career then don’t wait much. Just follow the steps and post your first blog. It’s just like earning while enjoying.