Hello friends! How are you? Are you looking for a post on “how to start a successful blog?” Yeah, you are in right place. I have written this super post for all the beginner who wants to start their first blog but doesn’t know where to start.
This post is the first part of super series “How to Start Successful Blog and Its Essential Elements”.
When someone starts a blog, generally he/she faces lots of problems with setting all the blog function properly for example website design, pages, logo, seo, site speed, high-quality image etc. This post is a sum of all the needs which is necessary to start a successful blog.
Full Disclosure – This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you click on one of the links and purchase an item, we may receive a commission (No additional cost to you).
Lets The Game Begin – Start Successful Blog
The first thing you need to do is finding your niche for a blog. For example, if you are a techie person – start a tech blog, if you love traveling and photography – start your travel and photography blog, similarly for other professions.
Always remember, pick the one in which you have interest and knowledge. Blogging is the game of knowledge and experience. So give some time to think for your blog niche.
A most common myth about blogging -> Some folk said that tech blog generates more revenue than others or news/feed blog generates more. Hahaha… These are garbage and never believe in these types of myth. These are just the personal opinion of a blogger. If your blog is on that right track, it will generate enough revenue to bring smile o your face.
One more thing you should remember, a blog is not only for revenue generation, it is the passion to share something, helping others or express yourself without any restriction. Revenue will be a reward for those who passionately do blogging.
Many folks do blogging just for money, therefore they don’t focus on content creation, and more than 90% of blog fails due to it. The reason behind is simple – unique and quality content is the sole of a successful blog. Now let’s explore the steps to start a successful blog.
1. Find Your Niche
To start successful blog choose a niche of your blog because there is no limitation in blog categories. The niche should be based on your area of interest and show your expertise as I said earlier in this post. Also, it should be problem-solving or entertain based on your blog topic. If someone loves traveling, foods, exploring new places, love taking pictures of every moment, just start a travel blog or food blog or photography blog or something you find most suitable to your need.
Primarily Blogging Should Be Passion, Not Money Making Toolbox!
As I again say, Blogging should be your passion first, It will automatically give you reward for your hard work.
2. Choose a Short and Perfect Name
Choosing perfect name for the blog is very time-consuming work and needs some research over the internet. It is not compulsory to keep the domain name short but it is the best practice to keep it shorter and easily memorable. The domain name must be easily memorable which helps you lot to remember your brand or blog name easily.
basically, I am writing about wordpress, blogging, tips etc, therefore I pick this name WPYard – short, easily memorable and most important part related to my niche wordpress. (wp – abbr. for wordpress ).
Do some keyword research and find a suitable name for your blog. You can also use Semrush keyword research tool for choosing your blog name and for post keyword research.
Semrush – Semrush is used by millions almost every blogger and it helps to grow your blog easily over the internet. Check out free trial here before falling in love with it.
3. Find Best Hosting for your Blog
The another most important, game changer thing is your hosting. A good hosting service makes you happy all the time and always put their service online to grow your blog. The most recommended hosting by millions of bloggers and even by official wordpress hosting page is Bluehost.
Choose a Bluehost hosting plan according to your need for lots of benefits like google advertisement credits free. Click on the given link/button to see the plan and get a great discount on your purchase.
If you are looking for hosting for wordpress, then go with Kinsta hosting, another great managed wordpress hosting providers with free SSL and Free CDN with lots of more features. Check out the pricing, offers and features on the below given link.
Hosting Offers: Check out the latest hosting offers from top hosting providers (Above 50% Off)
Must Read – Shared Hosting vs WordPress Hosting – Facts File
4. Choose Blogging Platform
The blogging platform is the key point for any blogger. Because of some platform extremely limited, you can’t extend feature according to your need. But some platform highly flexible and you can modify it according to you need without touching a single line of code. It sounds Fantastic, Right!
For a techie person, it is very easy to setup and design website but for a non-techie person, it is not so easy. Don’t worry, I am here to tell some interesting point to setup your blog website without any code. Sounds Pretty, Show your love in the comment box!
The first name for blogging platform comes to my mind is WordPress. I am a super fan of wordpress framework.
About WordPress and How to Setup:
WordPress is the blogging platform which allows you to setup your blog easily. You can set up a website by two methods.
(a) WordPress.Com Blog
The easiest way to start your blog using WordPress.Com. Just choose its plan according to your need and budget and setup design within few minutes using plug and play button. No coding or technical skills required. It is the safest and best way to start your blog but it has some limitation vary according to their plans. Please Check the plan carefully before going with WordPress.Com.
(b) WordPress.Org – Self Hosted Blog
My all-time favorite website designing platform. Even in this self-hosted version, you don’t need to have any required coding skills. It is completely free and has a huge community around the world to support you anytime. basically, it is the open source framework and thousands of developer continuously working on it to make it better and safest place on the earth. It is the best place to start a successful blog.
How to setup WordPress.Org – There are numbers of method to setup it.
* Using Zip File – first go to the official wordpress.org site and download the wordpress zip file. Now Unzip it and upload on your hosting where you want to install wordpress. Create database within your hosting C-panel and open your domain URL in the browser. Follow the steps to setup wordpress.
* Using Softacolous – Almost 99% hosting services comes with softacolous. Click on it within your C-panel and find wordpress. Select it and you will see the same basic requirement like name, root directory, title, username, password etc. Fill According to your need and click on install button. All Done!
Note* I know this is very short description because I don’t want to make this post too long or boring. If you want any help or want to set up your complete blog website, you can hire me. Contact me through twitter, facebook or you can directly send me email at [email protected]
5. Design Logo and Banner
After wordpress setup, you need to design logo and banner for your blog and social media profile. The design is the most powerful element of any business, brand or blog. But don’t worry, hire a professional designer from Fiverr or Upwork. If you want to design yourself then check these beautiful online free tools to make your work easier. Canva is my first preference but Logojoy is another solid team to build your design awesome.
Approx more than 70% visitors attract by banners, logo and site design.
To start successful blog or website, logo and banners are the most visible element of your work. so invest some amount and get a professional design of logo and banner for your blog.
6. Choose a Theme
Your blog design should be inspiring and provide easy to read and explore experience to your visitors. WPYard is built with OceanWP wordpress theme. I said earlier, wordpress is the huge community of developers, therefore there are lots of optimized, responsive wordpress available both free and paid. Check the list of best wordpress theme trending on the internet. Their great support team and highly flexible theme customization option bring smile on your face always.
In my opinion, you should go with the paid theme because their support team always there to help you out and the regularly provide updates according to the latest version and make your site secure.
Divi by Elegant Theme – View Divi theme and its features
Genesis Framework by StudioPress – View Genesis Framework and its features
OceanWP Theme – View OceanWP theme and its features
Also Check – Trending SEO Optimized Responsive WordPress Theme
Also Check (Free) – 20+ Trending SEO Optimized Free WordPress Theme
7. Install Theme and Setup Designs
Its a super easy task. After purchasing the theme you will get the zip file of the theme. Go to your wp-admin dashboard, find appearance -> theme -> add new. click to upload your zip file here press the install button. You can read complete procedure to install wordpress theme on trending theme post.
After installing the theme, import dummy (provided by theme owner) content to get the actual layout of your theme. modify it later according to your needs.
What is Dummy Content and How to Import it? – Dummy content is a XML file provided by theme owner to setup demo layout with a single click.
8. Compulsory Settings For A Blog
After setting basic things you need to think over the some tools that helps you to grow your blog on the internet without any obstacle. WordPress is completely the plug and play game. Easily Extends site’s features using plugin. Lots of plugin are available in wordpress plugin repository. These are both paid and free. Check below for more.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) –
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a technique to get higher rank on the internet to get higher traffic from search engines like Google, Bing etc. Don’t worry, if you are using wordpress, Yoast Team build a beautiful free plugin for you. No coding skill required. Just install the plugin from your wp admin dashboard -> plugin -> add new and enjoy.
Yoast SEO – Yoast SEO requires some basic setting you can learn form thousand of post over the internet but my recommendation goes with WPBbeginner and Shoutmeloud team or you can learn from Youtube easily within 5 mins.
Every post you will write, it indicates the post seo score and also suggest required improvements in your contents. It removes SEO headache beautifully, A huge thanks to Yoast SEO Team.
Cache Techniques –
Cache helps to improve your page speed and improve your blog page rank on search engine results. You can use WP-Rocket (premium – highly recommended) and enhanced your site speed. W3 total cache, Super cache are other free popular wp plugins.
Recommended – Best Cache Tools for your WordPress blog – Check the list
CDN (Content Delivery Network)-
CDN stands for content delivery network, also speed up your site and takes it to the next level of user experience. It easily integrate with almost every cache plugin. Incapsula, KeyCDN, MaxCDN are the best CDN in the industry. Cloudflare is another CDN providers used by millions. Cloudflare’s first plan is free and you can use it without any restriction.
Start Using Incapsula Free Trial using Given Link – Start Incapsula CDN Free Trial
Know more about CDN – Why CDN is important for a website? Check Best CDN Providers.
Security –
Spam protection and firewall protection are necessary to protect your site from hackers. Sucuri security is the best security for blogs and website. Check abut Sucuri in details. Get Sucuri Security. Sucuri Security wordpress plugin is available for free.
Site Backup –
To keep safe your hard work, use site backup service. There are lots of site backup services and plugins but you can’t use them easily. Each have some limitation or complexity.
In my opinion, Updraft Backup and VaultPress is the best site back up service. It allows you to store site data and file on cloud platform like Google drive, Dropbox, OneDrive etc.
It helps to restore the site file easily in worst case scenario and saves your lots of time and hard work from getting lost.
8. Get High quality Free Images
Only reading content is sometime boring while it is useful but adding some images to the content, keep the reader interested. Like other bloggers, I also suggest you to put an image within your post for every 300 – 400 words.
If you looking for free high quality stock photos for your blog or website, Check the given link below.
Get Free Photos – Best Sites to find high quality free stock photos
You can also purchase photos if you want to invest some little amount on your blog. Check sutterstock, istocks, getty images etc.
9. Social Media Appearance –
Social media helps a lot to grow any type of business or blog over the internet. For a blog social media is the secret tool for getting high volume of organic traffic. To start successful blog social media presence is compulsory. It helps to engage you with your readers. A quickest and easy way to interact with readers and tell about your new post to them.
Create your blog account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. But wait – Read carefully written below
Priority for Blog Type on Social Media- Based On my Personal Experience –
Twitter – Tech Blog, Travel Blog, News/Feed blog, Photography Blog, Food Blog etc.
Facebook – Entertainment Blog, Travel Blog, Photography blog, Food Blog, News/Feed Blog, Tech Blog etc.
Instagram (Photo sharing Service) – Photography Blog, Travel Blog, Food Blog etc.
RSS – Tech Blog, News/Feed Blog etc.
Youtube – Entertainment Blog/Video, News/Feed Blog, Education/Tutorial etc.
10. Create Your First Post
All Done! Now start creating your first post. Write something unique, something interesting with including appropriate but eye catching images. Your main priority always should be creating unique and useful contents.
There are lots of post on almost every topic already existed on the internet. Then what will you write? confuse, don’t worry, do some keyword research using semrush, check the trending topic on twitter hashtag or google trends.
#Secret – Write post in simple words (traffic come around the world and not everyone have good knowledge of English). Write post to end reader’s query. Add Some Good Joke or images to entertain them but not too much. They will never forget you and keep visiting your site regularly.
11 – Get Reward for your Hard Work
I always said blogging should be your passion and it takes time almost 6 to 12 months to get some descent traffic on your blog. Once you have done all the things properly, just focus on content creation continuously (2 or 3 in a week) is sufficient for your blog to grow.
Once you start getting descent amount of traffic, its time to enjoy the party.
Get Reward – Best method to Earn From a blog or website easily
Monetize your blog and get paid. There are lot of methods to earn good amount form your blog. But remember don’t put too much ads or harmful link in your website to make hard to read post on your site. Search engines punish these types of site and remove from search result (largest source for traffic).
At last getting paid via Adsense, Affiliate, direct advertisements and many more these type of programs.
Final Words
Blogging is best thing for expressing yourself, helping others or sharing experience with others. To start successful blog, it is most important thing to be consistent and post regular. Active on social media, join community and attain webinars. Communicate with your reader, create polls, quiz to engage them within your site to know their interests.
Offer some freebie to your readers to grow your audience and build a relationship with your user.
To Start a successful blog there are lots of other tools and plugin also necessary to run a successful blog like site backup, spam protection, image optimization, firewall protection etc. will discussed in my next posts. Subscribe my blog for upcoming post.
Need any help and support or want to create a blog, connect with me using any given method (Twitter, Email, Facebook etc). Subscribe my blog and follow me on twitter and facebook.
Twiiter – @WP_Yard
Facebook – WPYard
Google Plus – Click Here
Email – [email protected]
All Done, Have Fun!
Keep Smiling, happy Blogging! 🙂
