Wednesday 10 April 2013

How To Start A Blog - Beginner's Guide

Hello and welcome potential future bloggers!

Did you by any chance hear about blogging from anywhere? Maybe some of your friends are bloggers? Maybe you read about blogging and how you can earn a living by working online. And maybe you want to start blogging too? And so you searched about how you can start your own blog and this is how you reached here!

How to Start a Blog

Confused about what is blogging?

Let me give you an example, this article that you are reading just now belongs to a blog, ie Blogging Panorama and I am a blogger :)

What is a Blog?

In simple language, a blog (or Weblog) is some kind of website; basically a kind of journal that is regularly updated. And the person who blogs is called a blogger.

At a blog, a blogger writes about some topic; it can be anything like technology, cooking, sports or anything that comes to your mind. People who come to your blog are called visitors.

This is the basic introduction to this huge world of blogging. Below is a short set of points that would let you understand more on what you would be doing if you create your blog:

  • You will choose a name and a design.
  • You will be writing about your favourite topic.
  • People will come to your blog.
  • People will read what you have written.
  • You will get "famous" if people like what you read :)
  • You will get a chance to earn money online from your blog if you get many visitors to your blog!
I hope this was enough to clear the basic concept.

Recently I got many requests from my friends to teach them how to make a blog. So I decided to add a "beginner's guide" section to my blog. Here I will be posting articles related to starting a blog.

I have already written some articles that a going-to-be-blogger MUST read before starting a blogging life. You can find a link to those posts and many other important posts further in this article.

Articles You MUST Read Before Starting A Blog

How To Start A Blog

Here are some of the hand picked, very important articles you must read before creating a blog. You should know what you will have to face (and also enjoy) during your blogging life.

And if you have some extra dollars to spend for your future blogging career, then I recommend you to get a copy of "31 Days To Build A Better Blog - Darren Rowse". Darren Rowse is a great name in the field of blogging and is a real expert.

This book may be of great help and guidance while starting your own blogging career.

So now have you decided to start a blog? Then go ahead and read these important posts and tutorials:

Starting A Blog - First Step - Choosing The Best Niche

A 'Niche' means a range of topics.

For your blog, choosing the best and most appropriate topic is the most necessary and crucial step. Because it is the topic that would run your blog. An ideal niche is something you are an expert in, and can share many interesting posts about. Don't choose a topic just because you have seen many great blogs about it and you think you can copy their success.

Even a completely different niche can work great. You would have noticed that most of the blogs today cover either tech or blogging niche. But that doesn't mean that a blog about food or travel can't get success. A blog runs the best when its owner is well versed with the topic it covers.

I can't offer even a single tip for choosing the proper niche other than this - Just start a blog on the topic that you think you know more than most of the people in this world.

The Next Steps...

This whole set of tutorials would be divided into various parts which would cover all the topics related to starting a blog. Primarily this tutorial will be divided into two parts for the first few posts. One for those who are willing to start a blog at completely zero cost and second for those who are willing to invest a bit in their blog.

Links to all the parts of this tutorial are available below.

Note- If you are interested in building a blog with zero investment then skip the domain registration part and jump to the article about starting a free blog.

Part 1. Getting A Domain Name

Unless you use a free sub-domain (more information below); the first step to start a blog is - choosing a domain name for it and buying it. A domain name is the web address (URL) you choose for your blog. Eg- www.bloggingpanorama.com

For free blogging services like Blogger and WordPress.com, you can skip buying a domain and use one of the free sub-domains they provide you. More details about free sub-domains and domains will be included in the upcoming post "Starting a free blog".

So coming back to domain names, here is a post that will help you in deciding a great domain for your blog: 9 Tips to Choose The Best Domain Name

After choosing the perfect domain name, it is time to register it. There are lots of domain registrars available on the net but finding a reliable and really affordable one is necessary.

Fortunately there is no need for you to wander here and there to find the best one :) You can find the best ones here: Top 3 Affordable Domain Registrars

Part 2. Starting A Free Blog (Zero investment)

Starting a completely free blog is the best way to start a blogging career because this makes your blogging career risk free and loss free. Though it has its own merits and demerits as well.

For those who want to start their first blog at zero expense; hoping that you have skipped the domain part (part 1); here is the article about creating a free blog: How To Start A Completely Free Blog At Zero Cost

For those who are willing to spend a few dollars to give their blog a more professional start, skip this part and jump to Part 3 about Blogging with little investment.

Part 3. Starting A Blog With Little Investment

If you have some extra dollars to spend on your blog, then you would be more interested in starting a professional blog right from the start.

In this case, read this article: Starting A Perfect Blog With Little Investment

The investments needed are - a domain name and a web hosting. All the information regarding them can be found in the above mentioned article.

Part 4.1 Started A Blog? Now What To Do?

Phew! So now that you have created your first ever blog, you would be wondering.. what's next?

There are a lot of things associated with a blog other than just writing blog posts. You would be wondering how to write posts? How to bring visitors to my blog? And many other things, right?

Don't worry. You will grasp everything in a short time.

Read this to-do list that will guide you on what to do after you have started your first ever blog.

Part 4.2. Basic knowledge about Blogging skills

After reading the to-do list, get ready to read the top secret recipe for blogging like a pro

These are the skills and requirement you should read to learn about professional blogging and how you can become a professional blogger too.

Part 4.3. Promoting Your Blog and Driving Traffic (Visitors) To It

After you have written a few posts at your blog, you would be waiting for some visitors to read them, right? But maybe after few days of waiting you find no-one visiting your blog..

If you are struggling to drive traffic to your blog, then here is my guide to bring the first visitors to your blog!

It all starts with promoting your blog.. Read the whole 3 step ladder I used to build traffic for this blog here: Publicizing Your Blog And Driving Traffic To It.

Part 5. Learning Search Engine Optimization and Driving Traffic From Search Engines

Once you have succeeded in bringing the first few visitors to your new blog, your next target would be to bring lots of visitors from search engines.

But bringing traffic from search engines is not that easy...Though it not difficult either!

All you need to do is optimize your blog and blog posts for those search engines, i.e. you must practice SEO!

SEO is a completely new word for you, isn't it?

Don't worry. Just read this post where all your SEO related questions are answered: What is SEO?

Got the idea about SEO? After that you should start implementing SEO in your posts and also you should focus on optimizing your blog for search engines.

When you start getting familiar with SEO, you would be able to understand this most important factor on which the whole idea of SEO is established - i.e. Keyword Research.

So now your need for starting traffic and search engine optimization is over!

Now after you start getting some decent daily visitors and start building a solid readership, you would be interested in earning some money from your blog, isn't it?

This is not the end! There are many more important posts yet to come. A list of upcoming post:

Upcoming posts:

  • Making money from blog - A Basic Concept
  • Google Adsense Approval Process
  • Basic knowledge about affiliate marketing
  • ...And many more to come...
So stay subscribed to this blog to get the latest updates and posts about starting a blog directly to your inbox!

Now its your turn!

Are you planning to start a blog? Decided? Determined? Or have any questions in your mind? Feel free to comment and ask your questions here. You can also share your ideas about starting a blog here.

So do comment and participate here!