It doesn't matter either you are a scholar in literature, a graduate, housewife or in your old age, if you are passionate about writing and above all ready to share your knowledge, experiences to rest of the world. Then you will need a specific writing platform made for this purpose only, where you can publish your content online and connect to worldwide readers. Blogging is an extremely viable and effective medium for creating online content and building your business for the online world.
Definition of Blog
Blog
An online informational platform created for publishing and displaying discussions, opinions, stories, and other writings with the help of text, speech, video or images on a web page is called a blog. A blog is publicly accessible and regularly updated by the author with fresh and engaging content. Posts uploaded on the web pages are typically displayed in chronological order that means the latest posts appear first on the blog web page or at the top.
Blogging
Blogging is the act of writing, posting and running the blog efficiently. Consistent blog posting and creative writing is the key to success in blogging.
Blogger
A blogger is a person who writes the blog individually or with the team. Anyone can be a blogger, passion for writing and subject knowledge are the main qualities required.
Benefits of blogging
- Freedom of expression
You can freely express your opinions, thoughts, and ideas to the world. As an example, you can start a thread where question and answer sessions on different issues can be discussed or you can create a blog post on current political affairs and your opinions on the current situations. You can express without interference but always try to maintain the harmony in your writing and statements to create positive imagery of your blog in the mind of the users.
Knowledge sharing
If you are expert, skillful, informative and are ready to share your knowledge with others than blogging is the best platform. People are always searching for tips and tricks on various topics and there is a fair chance that they will land on your blog page. Your current posts and knowledge sharing initiatives will generate traffic towards your blog. - Personal exposure and recognition
People in the world will start knowing you from your blog and will create one-dimensional imagery about you as per your writing. Successful bloggers are recognized and appreciated by people by posting positive comments and likes on the blog articles. Good articles are shared by the viewers on their social networking sites and also receive reader recommendations or word of mouth. - Professional network
If want to grow your professional network than preferably start a blog and engage other bloggers with the same interests. In a few months, only you will start building a strong network of professionals who either work in the same fields or are inspired by your blogging. Creative blogging builds loyalty and lets your readers engaged, empowered with your blog. - Making money online
For example, if you are good at teaching, you can easily monetize your blog by creating an educational portfolio. You can arrange online classes on Skype or WhatsApp or other platforms and easily get paid for your knowledge and experience. You can also activate Adsense in your blog (earn from Google ads), affiliate income and ghostwriting (for others). More traffic towards your blog will generate more business opportunities for you and to get more viewers you need to post better blog content every time.
Interesting facts
In early days, a blog was called as a personal diary or open diary that people shared online, and it goes back to 1994 Justin Hall, a US freelance journalist is said to be the first blogger.
Only 2% of bloggers make more than $150k per year and the secret of the trade is to do consistent blogging (minimum 20 articles per month) on the hot and viral topics.
80% of bloggers never make $100 from their blogging, it’s because they are never persistent with them their blog posting, hence least traffic towards their blog.
There are approximately 76.5 million wordpress.com blogs and every year the number is increasing.
77% of internet users read blogs regularly. The power of blogging has helped businesses to build trust among their customers by sharing appropriate knowledge.
The most popular time for reading blogs is between 7 am and 10 am. People are searching for new posts and have subscribed to the bloggers whom they prefer to read.
3 steps to start a blog in minutes
Step 1 - Chose the right blogging platform
Blogger or Wordpress?
Wordpress and Blogger are the two most popular blogging platforms. The choice between Blogger and Wordpress depends on your level of expertise and future business plans.
Blogger:
- Blogger is absolutely free to use.
- Create your blog name example mykitchenlove.blogspot.com and start writing on your favorite topics in minutes.
- You don’t need to buy the domain name or web host to publish your content. This is a big advantage for the beginners as they can produce as much content for the readers without a penny spent.
- Customizing options are basic but there are plenty of blog themes to choose from. Give wings to your writing and see how far you can go with it.
- Blogger is owned by Google.
Note:
- Blogger - is a free blog publishing or blogging platform.
- BlogSpot - is a free domain service provider.
- When anyone creates a blog on the blogger website with some blog name like mytechtricks, then he will naturally get a free subdomain extension as .blogspot.com. That means your blogs complete name or blog address will be www.techtricks.blogspot.com.
Wordpress (Content Management System):
- Wordpress is a CMS (Content Management System) that lets you create web pages, blog or websites without having to learn all that complicated back-end coding.
- Wordpress is also free but before starting using Wordpress you must need a domain name and hosting plan without which it’s not possible to publish your content or posts online.
- If you want to be more professional and need advanced customization for your blog, choose Wordpress.
- It's very easy to make a website or a blog over Wordpress platform and you can also enjoy the richness of .com domain extension. Example mykitchenlove.com (You can choose any extension for your domain name like .org, .com, .info or country-specific extensions too).
Step 2 - Pick your unique blog’s name
- What is your niche segment or expertise, your blog name must reflect everything about your blog content? “ www.computergeekz.com or www.computergeekz.blogspot.com ” viewers will have a clear idea about your website or blog from your name that your blog is about computers and technology. It is not necessary to have descriptive blog names but they are advantageous for the new bloggers to get established easily.
- Do your research related to competition or website / blogs in the same field, to get an idea about the blog names. Also, analyze and monitor various aspects, like strengths, weaknesses, reviews, content topics, etc. to get a better insight.
- Decide exactly who will be your target audience and readership. Targeting the right audience will give you a clear idea and better opportunities for interaction. With the clarity and focused audience, you can easily define the right marketing strategies for the right people without confusion.
Step 3 - Choosing a blogging platform
- Using a blogger
- Login with Gmail account, if not having Gmail id then create one
Do the mobile verification's, accept the agreement of use and your Gmail registration process is done, with a new Gmail account you can do email communication with the world. - Go to the website www.blogger.com
Sign in through your Gmail account and click on the “CREATE YOUR BLOG” button to create your new blog address.
- A welcome window of blogger will open, choose your display name (you will be seen by that name only), here in the example we have chosen display name as “MarketingAgency".
- Add the title of your new blog (a topic you want to write and publish).
- Write your blog address (blog address will act as your domain name and anyone searching for your blog will have to type that name, here in the example we have chosen address “worldadvertisingknow.blogspot.com” (check the availability and choose perfect blog name for you).
- Choose the theme for your blog, there are various designs to choose from and you can change and customize your blog theme whenever required in the future.
- Google is the owner of Blogger and Google is a domain name service provider too. As you will click on the create blog button Google will give you the option to get a domain name (with extensions like .com, .org or others). You can skip this for later and focus on your writing first.
- Voila! it is done just in 5 minutes.
Congratulations on your new blog, now you are also the part of the online community. We wish you the best of luck for your blog, show your expertise to the world and turn into the best knowledge source.
- Last step
Click on the button “publish” and your article is posted online for the world. Let your readers enjoy your writing skills and get feedback on your articles.
You are having your dashboard and all activities will be logged here for your further review. Explore the world of opportunities attached to your blog and do your analysis.
- Login with Gmail account, if not having Gmail id then create one
- Using a Wordpress
Using a Wordpress is also very easy and no extra coding skills are required for creating your professional looking website or blog page. Within 30 minutes you can set up Wordpress and start posting your articles or content. We will show you the whole process of how to set up your blog in detail:
- Register or buy your domain name
Get your permanent blog address by registering your domain name like mynewblog.com, mynewblog.info or myewblog.org, etc. With the help of domain name registrars like Godaddy, Google domains, Hostgator, Wordpress and various other providers you can register your preferred domain name with appropriate and relevant extension.
Know everything about domain registration, check out our Domain Registration Guide:
How to choose a domain name for your business
How to Buy a Domain Name and Domain Registration Process - Buy web hosting plan
Web hosting service providers maintain the pre-configured servers where all your website information and content are stored. Web hosting makes it possible for visitors to view your site's content when they type in your domain name Your website needs to be published in an online environment, web hosting is the place where your website lives. Choose reliable hosting platforms that keep your website up and running without breakdowns. While choosing hosting plan compare various service providers for pricing and value-added features like free domain name, unlimited hosting space, bandwidth, email accounts, and security protocols, etc.
Your domain name provider can also be web hosting service provider, there are various providers to choose from like Godaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, Bigrock and more. Choose the best after comparison. Specify your chosen hosting provider about your requirement before making the purchase that you need it for Wordpress blog website creation or simply go for their pre-specified Wordpress compatible hosting plan.
Note: You can buy hosting plans directly from Wordpress too by opting for Wordpress.com website plans. While Wordpress.org let you access more customization options, wide variety of plugins and community created themes. - Access Wordpress
After buying your domain name and hosting plan it’s time to access Wordpress admin. Some of the hosting providers gave you access to the Wordpress settings dashboard from where you can reset your Wordpress admin (http://yourwebsitedomainname/wp-admin) login details including username and password while others can directly provide you your wordpress admin username and password details (in this case you can reset these details later within Wordpress admin panel itself). - Log in and write your first blog post
Now, you’re ready to work on your Blog post using Wordpress CMS system. Open up your Wordpress admin platform by simply typing your domain name along with the WP-admin suffix like:
http://my-website-domain-name/wp-admin
Now you will see the admin login page:
Enter the login details and log In.
Here, go to Appearance section to access the pre-installed and new themes to choose the best theme for your blog. There is huge variety of themes available here both FREE and PAID.
To go thru with all Wordpress available themes simply click on the ‘Add New Theme’ button (this step isn’t necessary if you’re happy with the default Wordpress theme).
Now, just dive-in and use Search and filtering options spend some good time and finalize with the one you’re happy with:
Tip: Click on the theme thumbnails to preview the theme and its associated actions.
As you have your finalized theme all you need to do is to ‘Install’ and ‘Activate it’. You can Install the theme simply by clicking on the ‘Install button’ that is available on theme thumbnail mouse-hover action or within the theme preview and details view itself.
As the theme is installed, it will appear within the Appearance > Themes section, simply activate it from there.
Now, use the Posts Section – to start adding your blog posts.
Click on the ‘Add New’ option and start adding the blog title and content here.
Note: these settings will look a bit different based on your theme selection (some themes even comes up with their own content builder sections – refer theme demo / tutorials to learn more about these). As you’re finished with adding your first blogpost content hit – Publish button and view the page. It’s easy and you can edit it anytime you want. All blog posts will be available within this ‘Posts’ section under ‘All Posts’ page.
Tip: It’s alright to commit errors in the beginning, if you feel stuck with something do remember to search Google for tutorials or simply reach us and let us know your query we will be happy to help you around.
- Register or buy your domain name
If you are just starting your blog and want to improve with your writing skills with time, we will definitely recommend you to go with the Blogger, backed by the Google it is the best blogging platform for the beginner writers. Test your blogging skills see how many viewer counts you can fetch by your knowledge and expertise. There is always a chance of improvement and as you feel that time has come to grow further and do some serious business go for more advanced option i.e. Wordpress.
CMS platform will give immense opportunities to develop your blog into a full website without the need of any developer or coder. You can start everything on your own and make your blog stand out with more professional themes and creative designs.
Best of luck with your new endeavor.
CMS platform will give immense opportunities to develop your blog into a full website without the need of any developer or coder. You can start everything on your own and make your blog stand out with more professional themes and creative designs.
Best of luck with your new endeavor.