How to Start a Blog in 2020

Hooray! You’ve decided to launch a blog. However, you should know that this is a big move for you. The digital landscape has become highly competitive. Research says that, out of 1.7 billion websites, 600 million are blogs. Only in the U.S., there are more than 31 million active bloggers that share content at least once monthly.

For you as a beginner, this means lots of competition. Still, if you know how to start, you will stand out and build a solid follower base. 

Select your Niche 

When pursuing a blogging career, you first need to choose your niche. It impacts numerous aspects of blogging, from your writing style and topics to your blog name and target audiences. 

Whether it’s fitness, marketing, or cooking, you first need to consider your preferences, skills, and experiences. Choose the industry you’re familiar with, something you will enjoy writing about. 

However, your passions, dreams, and ideas are not always enough. Writing about the things you like is fine only if you’re generating a decent following and making money. Otherwise, you will fail. There are a few things to consider when monetizing your blog:

• Audience revenue potential: Research your target audience. Learn more about their demographic data, interests, problems they face, etc. Then, find out how much they’re willing to spend to solve these problems. 
• Your professional leverage: Ask yourself what your industry knowledge and experiences are, what connections you have in that industry, etc. 
• Keyword research: Your goal is to appear high in Google’s SERPs. Use keyword research tools to learn whether people are googling industry keywords.

Choose your Domain Name

One of the most common SEO myths is that exact-match keywords in a domain name can boost your rankings. While this tactic worked in the past, today, it doesn’t cut it. Therefore, instead of niching your domain name down and spamming it with keywords, focus on its branding potential.

First, your blog name needs to grab users’ attention and maximize brand awareness. Choose a domain name that is simple, clear, and memorable. It should be easy to type and pronounce. Don’t use misspellings or complex words. Also, avoid using numbers, dashes, and similar characters. These names are difficult to remember and spell, so chances are they would confuse a searcher and point them to the wrong site.

Second, you can use your personal name as a domain name. This is a great opportunity to build a personal brand and boost your online exposure. Once a searcher googles your name, your blog will be the first thing they will see in search results. 

Third, pick the right TLD. The most popular option is, certainly, .com. However, there are many creative domain extensions, especially country-specific ones, which will boost your online presence. For example, Montenegro has the awesome .me extension that is perfect for building a personal brand (www.stefania.me, VeraChen.me) or using your blog name as a call-to-action (see.me, MSSG.me)

Invest in the Right Hosting Plan

Web hosting is critical for your blog. It makes it visible on Google and helps people access it. Above all, your blog’s performance, especially its page load speed, depend on your hosting platform. You should always choose reliable hosting providers that provide affordable plans. Here is what to take into consideration:

• Scalability – choose a host that lets you grow.
• Security – choose providers that offer firewalls, website monitoring, and similar add-ons. 
• Support – a hosting provider should provide 24/7 help across multiple channels.
• Uptime rates – hosting service outages will make your blog inaccessible, harming your revenue and online image.
• Bandwidth – how fast searchers can access your blog’s content. 

Install a CMS

Now that you have a domain name and a hosting provider, you need to choose a reliable content management system (CMS). There are many options to consider, such as WordPress, Blogger, Ghost, Medium, etc. 

WordPress is the most popular, powering 34% of the internet and 60% of CMS-built sites. The reason for that is simple – WP offers free plugins, themes, and other features that will help you optimize and customize your blog. 

Note that there is a difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The first is self-hosted by you, fully customizable, and costs at least $50 per year. As such, it’s perfect for serious bloggers. For newbies like you, WordPress.com may also work. It’s hosted by WordPress, provides limited customization options, and offers free plans. 

Pick a Catchy Theme

Statistics say that first impressions are 94% design-related. That’s why you need to choose a visually appealing and unique theme that will reflect your blog’s missions, values, and personality. If you have no coding experiences, don’t fret. WordPress offers easily customizable themes, both free and paid. 

Make sure your blog is pleasant to the eye and easy to navigate. If visitors cannot find their desired content immediately, they ditch your blog frustrated. Also, make sure your theme is responsive and that it works well all kinds of screens. Finally, pay attention to the description of the theme to understand whether it’s compatible with your industry and read user reviews to assess its functionality. 

The good thing is that you can check the demo to learn how the theme looks before you apply it to your blog.

Optimize Permalinks

Permalinks are static hyperlinks that point searchers to a specific page. However, unoptimized permalinks harm both user experiences and your SEO efforts. To improve them, go to your WP dashboard, then click Settings > Permalinks. There are a few permalink structures to choose from, including month and name, day and name, post name, etc. 

Your Turn: Create Awesome Content

Now that you’ve built and optimized a blog, it’s time to start writing top-notch content.

Start by researching the hottest industry topics. Use content discovery tools like BuzzSumo and Google Trends to find the most popular articles in your industry and use them as inspiration. 

Your posts should be helpful and insightful, educating readers and helping them solve real-life problems. Back them up with recent research and statistics, provide examples, and offer actionable tips your users can apply immediately.

You should also make your content easy to digest. Write short sentences, use original illustrations, and break content up into small paragraphs. Use headings, bullet points, and white space to make content easier to read.  

Inspire people to share, too. Provide prominent social media buttons that will help users share your posts automatically across multiple networks.

Above all, you need to have a solid content marketing strategy and build a monthly editorial calendar to increase your blogging consistency. Always track your blog’s performance to see whether it resonates with your audiences.