Starting a Home Blog 101

Blogging is a popular way of communicating and spreading information. Starting a home blog is easier than you think. It’s not only low risk but also low cost. Here is a simple guide to creating your blog.

Starting a Home Blog

1. Pick A Niche

If you are part of a company or organization, you should create a blog related to the products or services you deal with. However, if you are blogging as an individual, you are flexible when picking a topic. Remember to blog about something you are excited about. It would help if you also blogged about something that has lots of room for discussion. It is also essential to choose a niche where you can establish yourself as an authority. So, think about it starting a home blog.

2. Choose A Blogging Platform

Choosing where you want to create a blog is one of the first things you need to figure out. WordPress is one of the biggest blogging platforms online. This Content Management System has countless plugins and add-ons and numerous ways to design your blog. Other alternative platforms are Blogger and Tumblr.

One of the benefits of using WordPress as a blogging platform is that it has tons of free layouts and themes, it is easy to set-up, it is free to use, it is fast, and it provides smooth interaction.

3. Domain Name And Hosting

A domain name is a name that will identify your website online. It’s the unique address of your blog. Free domain names end with the name of the blog platform, whereas paid domain names can end with a web suffix such as .com, or .org.

The web host is where your contents and files are stored online. When it comes to hosting, you can choose to either pay for your blog or get a free alternative. WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr all have free blogs. One of the downsides of free hosting is that:

• You won’t get your own domain name; for example, it will look like this: yourblog.blogspot.com. Think about it starting a home blog.
• Won’t be able to monetize your blog entirely. You are also limited in terms of uploading videos and images.
• You don’t own your blog. This means it is hosted by someone else, and they can delete it whenever they please.

With a self-hosted blog, you run the blog on your domain name. You will give your blog whatever name you want, for example, “YourName.com”. This also means you can end it with.co.uk, .org, .com, or any web suffix. You also have unlimited bandwidth for uploading videos and images. Finally, you have full control over a self-hosted blog because you are the real owner of the blog.

It would be best if you chose a reliable web host. Some of the top choices for web host providers are Bluehost and Hostgator.

4. Design Your Blog

After WordPress has been installed, what you need to do to begin blogging is to go to the WP-Admin page, usually: http://www.yourblognamehere.com/wp-admin, and add your first post.

The next step is to make your blog look the way you want it. At this point, you need to choose a theme. Head over to “Appearance” then “Themes” and then install a free theme. If you are not pleased by the free WordPress themes, you can visit premium theme websites like “ThemeForest.net” and buy your preferred theme for up to $40.

4. Starting a Home Blog: Publish Pages And Posts

The final step in starting a home blog is publishing pages. With WordPress, you can easily publish pages and posts at the comfort of your bedroom. You need to differentiate pages and posts. Pages provide general information about a site. Some of the must-have pages include the Home page, Blog page, About page, and Contact page. The other two essential pages are the privacy policy page to reassure readers that you have secured their information, and the disclosure page to inform readers about your intentions with the blog. Your disclosure page could declare that you hope to make money.

To create a page, hit the “New” button at the top of the screen and choose “Page.” Type your page title and hit enter to write content. Finally, preview the page and press publish.

A post is the content you create on a given topic. For example, if you choose to write about “Starting a Home Blog 101,” this is a post. A post is an individual article. When publishing a post on WordPress, open a new post by hitting the “New” button at the top of the screen and choosing “Post” from the dropdown menu.

Starting a Home Blog In Conclusion

Blogging is an easy way of expressing your ideas and spreading valuable information to your audience. Blogging is an art that is perfected with time. The first step of becoming a blogger is creating a blog. While experience with social media platforms might make it easy to start your blogging journey, it takes to research and time to identify common blogging mistakes and to become successful as a blogger.