Getting Started in the Big, Blog World

Starting a blog of your own is a hugely rewarding and worthwhile experience for many people. If this is something that has been in the back of your mind for a long period of time, taking those first steps require a good deal of patience and commitment. There are several reasons why people start a blog in the first place, so it is worth carefully considering yours before you get started. Are you looking to make money from it or will it just be a hobby? Do you want to get your name out there as a writer or are you in it for the love of writing alone? Let’s get you started with a few of the basics before getting into the big, blog world.

Decide on Your Topic

There are so many generic blogs out there these days that it is worth thinking carefully about how you will make yours stand out from the crowd. The old advice of writing about what you know still stands the test of time, but you should try to put your own unique spin on it if you can. Think about your own areas of expertise and how you can help people out who are coming to you for advice. It may be obvious, but it has to be a topic that you are passionate about or you won’t maintain the commitment levels you need.

Choose a Blogging Platform

Though you have the option of starting a blog on a free platform, you are likely to be heavily limited in what you can do. Using a paid-for service such as WordPress doesn’t have to be hugely expensive, and you will find that you are able to do a whole lot more. After this, you then need to choose a host to provide the server space for your site. Again, a quick search should throw up plenty of options offering hosting, and many will give you a good deal as a first-timer.

Select a Domain Name

Now is the time to select a domain name for your blog. Services like Shopify make this easy, but the tricky part is actually coming up with a clever name. You want to make sure that it is memorable so that people can share it around easily. Avoid using hyphens, numbers or obscure terms so that new visitors don’t struggle to find you. You may need to get a little creative as a lot of names will already be taken so it is worth writing out a long list of potential options.

Design and Use Your Blog

After all the technical details have been sorted, it is time to design your blog and actually start using it! Though there a plenty of pre-built blog themes that you can utilize, you will probably want to customize things at least a little bit to make your blog stand out from the crowd. Now it is time to actually start writing, building up a following and enjoying what you have created!