How to to setup a blog

You have changed the entire design of your blog with just one click! This is the WordPress theme search screen. There are thousands of themes to choose from. You can change your entire design at anytime simply by activating a new WordPress theme. To see your new theme in action, go to your blog and take a look! Changing your theme is the simplest way to customize your WordPress blog, but there are lots of other customizations you can do.

Check out my full post on customizing your WordPress blog for an in-depth step-by-step guide. You can also watch the video above to see me completely customize a WordPress blog from scratch. You will see there is already a post there.

You are now on the post editor screen. Enter the title of your post in the top box and then begin writing your post in the lower box. You can make adjustments to the picture size on the next screen.

Static Content: Your blog should contain a few necessary pages explicitly designed to provide the visitor with the tools they need. These are mainly top-level pages that can be accessed via a menu on your blog. You can take a look at the top of this page to see how I have these pages included in the header menu. See this detailed guide to customizing your blog menus if you need help. These required static pages are typically linked to in the footer menu of a blog.

They should, at the very least, be visible and accessible from the home page. Again, look at the bottom of this page to see how this looks in practice. There are other static pages you can choose to include depending on what suits your blog and business. Common static page examples are an advertising page to solicit paid advertisements, a donations page, a resource page to direct visitors to your favorite links within your field, and a page for submitting ideas and content.

Dynamic Content: Your dynamic content is your blog and the most important content you have to offer. This is where you, as the creator, will infuse the blog with your brand of informative content that supplies your audience with knowledgeable tips, facts, opinions, and stories.

This is how you engage your visitors and keep them coming back for more. Your blog content should be regularly submitted at specific intervals. Waiting months to create content will never build a following. Posting content weekly and driving traffic to these posts will help build your brand. Each post should be lengthy, informative, and engaging. But there are a few elements that each and every piece of content should endeavor to include.

Define the Content: Create an alluring post title that stimulates curiosity and encourages clicks. Use the first paragraph of your post to clearly define the topic of your article and provide a possible hook to keep the reader reading. But visitors will begin to skim if the content contains lengthy paragraphs a mile long, and will pop out faster than they came in.

Visitors enjoy tidbits. Engage The Reader: At the end of each post, a common tactic used to engage visitors is posing a meaningful question to your audience and asking them to reply in the comments. This simple measure can increase engagement tenfold. Original Content: Your content should always be original. Never plagiarize — you will eventually be called out on it and could even face consequences.

Your content should come from your heart, your brain, your knowledge base, and your experience. You can get topic ideas from others in your field, but make sure the content comes from you. Original Photos: While it is easy to include stock images from free image sites, it is even better to include your own photos and graphic work.

Another idea is to take free images and manipulate them with a free photo editor. Edit Your Work: Your blog content should be sufficiently edited. Nothing says unprofessional like several typographical and grammatical errors.

If you need a few refresher courses in grammar, consider using a writing application. Creating a well-designed blog and writing great content is just the start. In order to get visitors to your blog you will need spend some time promoting it, especially when you first start. The strategies below will help get your blog in front of more readers. The very first people who should become aware of your blog are your inner circle.

This includes family, friends, and colleagues within your field. Encourage them to become followers, ask them to mention your new blog, and — most importantly — thank them. You should post a link to your newest content on your accounts, but you can also post relevant news and links to other sources that your readers may find interesting.

One of my favorite ways to get visitors to my blog is to post links on my social accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. This is great, because not only do your friends see the link, but if your friends share the link with their friends it automatically multiplies your visitors.

If you have created high-quality content on your blog then social media is a way for your blog to go viral. Find other blogs in your community and engage with them. Using the comment section, introduce yourself and leave engaging and constructive comments.

Many will allow you to leave a link to your blog. After creating relationships with prominent bloggers in your community, you will find yourself within their ranks quickly.

When your readers leave comments on your posts, always engage with them. Become enmeshed in your blogging community by collaborating with respected members of your field. Post content regularly.

Create an editorial calendar and stick to it. A good blogger posts at least once per week to start. If you have long lapses between posts, your followers will drop off and your growth will be severely hampered. In addition to getting new visitors to your blog, you will also want to make sure your current visitors are coming back. This is where email marketing plays a big role.

By collecting the email addresses of your visitors with their permission of course , you can then notify them when you post new content on your blog. This keeps people coming back to your blog, which not only gives you more readers over time, it also allows you to build a closer relationship with your visitors. Email marketing is too big a topic to cover well here, so I created a separate guide to email marketing for those who are interested hint: every blogger who wants more readers needs to read this guide.

Keep in mind that with a brand new blog your traffic will be minimal to start with. However, this will change over time as long as you continue to add informative and relevant content on a regular basis.

There are many more factors relating to consider, such as installing something like the Yoast WordPress plugin , but these are the big ones that will help improve your search rankings sooner rather than later. For more tips on promoting your blog make sure to check out my in-depth guide to blog promotion. Once you have put in the effort of creating great blog content and promoting your blog, making money from your blog is actually the easy part.

It could take six months to a year to start seeing a steady stream of income. Blogging takes work and dedication, but once you develop a large enough audience, there are several methods you can employ to monetize your blog. Once you have a popular blog, advertisers will be hounding you for the opportunity to advertise. The best way to take advantage of this situation is to use Google Adsense.

Google finds the advertisers for you and all you have to do is place the Google Adsense code on your blog to start running ads. Google Adsense takes all of the hard work out of the process and just cuts you a check. I go into the full details of how to set up Google Adsense for your WordPress blog here.

An affiliate program is a commission-based way to advertise. Affiliate links are a nice way to earn income through the use of product reviews.

However, you must remember to disclose that you are an affiliate for the product. Selling your own products and services directly on your blog is a great way to increase your income. As your blog grows and you begin to see a wide audience, your products and services will begin to sell themselves.

Use the sidebar of your blog to increase the visibility of what you sell using visual images and a link to your storefront page. Ebooks, video tutorials, and e-courses are the most commonly consumed digital materials sold by bloggers. With little to no overhead and no shipping costs, you can keep the price low and inviting. If you are extremely knowledgeable in your field, an ebook can practically write itself.

Give it a try, you might surprise yourself! Another way to monetize is by creating membership options on your blog. This allows you to offer members more exclusive content only available with a paid membership.

For example, you could offer unlimited downloads of digital goods, free consultations, a private network or forum where community members can mix and mingle, and private content available to members only.

There are many ways a blog can capitalize on popularity and traffic. Choosing the way you monetize from your blog depends on your goals and the purpose of your blog. Those who are selling services, physical goods, and digital goods, for example, may not want to participate in affiliate programs where traffic could be lost to another site.

For more information see my full guide to making money blogging here. More specific tutorials can be found on my blog page. Here are some of the most popular tutorials from my blog:. Contact me if you have any issues at all and I will personally respond to your email. The step-by-step guide on this site should give you everything you need to get started, but if you run into some issues, or just want some personalized advice, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

Blogging is my passion, and I would love to talk with you about it! Still have some unanswered questions about blogging? Below are the most common questions I get about starting a new blog.

Keep writing, keep interacting, keep engaging, and your blog quickly become one of the success stories. What do you need to start a blog? Time, passion, and a clear goal. Blogging is nearly a full-time operation. A successful blogger commits to posting lengthy and detailed content at least weekly. Promoting the blog must also be done regularly across social accounts and through peer interactions.

Equally important is the passion behind your blog. To come up with great content on a regular basis your blog should revolve around a topic that you are obsessed with.

You only need to possess passion, excitement, dedication, and deeply rooted opinions. You also need a clear goal in mind. What is the main objective of your blog? Is it to inform the public? To eventually retain paid subscribers? With a clear final objective you can grow a blog that satisfies these goals in the long term.

What should my blog be about? Answer these questions: What are you passionate about? What do you think about daily? What topic do you annoy all of your friends, family, and co-workers with on a regular basis? What do you find yourself dreaming about? What do you find yourself constantly researching?

What do you read about? If there is a common denominator in your answers to these questions — THAT is what your blog should be about. And once you begin to build your blog, no matter what the subject material, you will find a community of people who are interested in what you have to say.

How do I find a profitable niche for my blog? If you know the general topic for your blog, a simple way of making your niche more profitable is by narrowing the niche to eliminate competition. Making the topic of your blog more specific will help to eliminate a lot of competition and elevate your blog results in search engines for more specific queries. How do I name my blog? This can ultimately be a fun exercise. Now start putting words together, introduce new words, and keep playing around until you come up with a name you like!

If you are still struggling you can always try using a blog name generator for additional ideas. If the domain name you want is taken and the full web address is your trademarked business name, you can assert your trademark rights and privileges and eventually get this domain handed over to you.

It is a lengthy process that will involve lawyers and hefty fees, but as long as the name is trademarked by you, you would likely win the domain name. Trying searching for it in the browser. You may be able to buy the domain for the right price from the current owner. If the domain is parked, you may also attempt to purchase the domain. Where is the best place to create a blog? You can begin blogging as soon as your account is set up. You can easily customize your self-hosted WordPress blog just by following the steps in the tutorial on this page.

How much does it cost to start a blog? You can make a blog for absolutely nothing. But the best way to start your blog is through one of the many web hosting companies. These are your main costs associated with starting a successful blog.

Of course, you may incur other costs with additional services such as email marketing. As with any business, the biggest expenditure is often advertising, but this would be a cost incurred later on down the road if you choose to go that route. Do bloggers make money?

Bloggers have the ability to make a full-time income from blogging alone. Some bloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. As with any business, it takes a lot of hard work and plenty of time.

Many bloggers give up on their project after just a few months. Those who make money online are the ones who stick with it. Bloggers are most commonly paid by advertisers. How the blogger is paid varies depending on what type of ads are used.

When it comes time to choose a blogging platform, the pros turn to WordPress. And even though WordPress is used by millions of smaller blogs, it also powers many of the biggest sites on the internet. And there are many reasons why:. A self-hosted WordPress blog is a open-source, which is completely free. Choosing between them is one of the most crucial decisions you will make. Because you need your own web hosting plan, this option is known as a self-hosted WordPress blog.

While it does technically let you blog for free, if you would like to enable some basic options, or have your own domain, you will have to upgrade your account to a paid plan. How often should I blog? Blogging can be casual if your goal is solely for personal pleasure. While frequency is important, it should not come at the expense of quality. Not every piece of content needs be 2, words, but all of your posts should be informative and of value to your audience.

This is no easy feat. As with anything else, the more you do it — the more skilled at it you become. Blogging weekly also helps improve your traffic from search engines, which you can track in your Google Analytics account. When you first begin blogging your latest posts will take time to show up on search engines. As you continue to post regularly you will naturally have more blog posts showing up in the search results, which means more traffic to your blog.

Why do blogs fail? Almost any blog has the potential to become a success, yet most blogs fail. And there are many reasons why.

Here are the most common reasons why a blog fails:. Hi Scott. Thanks for the valuable information. Can we use creative commons images in our blogs if we are unable to take the photos ourselves? Yes, I would suggest only using images with a Creative Commons license to avoid any copyright issues. You can easily search for images at search. Your tutorials have been really helpful so far in getting my blog up and running. WordPress is tricky without someone to walk you through it.

Thanks so much! If you already know a bit about virtual machines and have basic knowledge about the operating system Linux, you can also use an entire virtual machine with your desired pre-installed CMS to create your local blog. Via the portal, Bitnami , you can simply download the desired 'application' for free and create your own blog with just a few clicks. Another alternative for local blogging is the software, Docker. The blog creation is based on ready-made containers here as well, with each container having a different dependency.

The one-click installation is a feature that web hosts offer in order to facilitate the installation and setup of a blog. Since WordPress is by far the most widely used CMS for blogs, many providers are now offering their clients managed solutions like these. Providers often offer additional CMS, which can be set up with a simple one-click installation process.

In this case, you have to create a database. When the database is created , the database name, database username, database password, and database host often localhost , but varies from host to host , need to be noted.

The database is automatically generated in the background. Lastly, download the blog system of choice from the developer site and upload the data to the web space using FTP. Alternatively, you can also visit the URL where the blog should be available. There the recorded data can be found and the installation process can begin. After just a few minutes, the blog is created and is ready to use.

Before you begin, you should familiarize yourself with the basic structure of a blog. Here are the basic components:. After the blog has been created, the dashboard is the first thing you see after logging in. The dashboard is the command center of your blog. Here you can create, modify, or delete new blog posts, change the design of the blog, and even install new plugins.

This expands the number of features the blog has. Additional plugins enable you to view important data and facts about your blog directly on the dashboard homepage. When you create the blog, you create the first blog user at the same time. This user is the so-called administrator who has all the rights to the blog. However, if you do not want to run the blog alone, you can add additional users to the blog at any time, or give them the possibility of registering on the blog.

Thanks to simple user administration, you can then assign different roles and rights to this user. If the blog system does not have roles and rights management, this feature can be obtained with a plugin.

Plugins are software extensions that can add many useful features to your blog after it has been created. Most plugins are offered by external developers and can easily be installed with a few clicks and added in this way.

There are currently over 45, plugins available for WordPress. Each blog system includes a few themes to choose from in the default settings. When creating your blog, you can choose a template directly from the settings. If you would prefer a larger selection, you can download free and also premium fee-based themes from other design sites and add them to the blog in just a few clicks, as you would with plugins. If you are artistically gifted and can also program a bit, you can create your own themes and give your blog a more personal touch.

You can use the comment system to let your readers get in touch with you. By default, readers can leave comments and thoughts on their posts without logging in.

These then appear under the article, as well as so-called trackbacks or pingbacks. These are automatic notifications that let you know whether your blog was mentioned on another blog. Most blog systems have a web feed or newsfeed to make sure readers are kept up-to-date. Readers can subscribe to this feed so that they automatically receive a notification if a new post has been written and published on the blog.

Immediately after creating the blog and before posting the first post, you should adapt and check the permalinks. Permalinks define the structure of the URL, which is what each blog post is filed under. If you do want to include the date or the topic of the post that is to be in the URL, you can set this up using the permalink setting.

Just select 'Settings' in the dashboard, which will then enable you to define the language, time zone, and visibility of the blog. As mentioned earlier, WordPress, Joomla! This means that not only is it free to install the CMS, you also have access to numerous free themes, plugins, and other extensions. The design is a natural part of individualization and is determined by different themes. The next step is to adjust the technical framework and expand the basic installation.

The basic extensions include various security plugins, backup solutions, and tools for online marketing. Now the blog is basically ready to go and you can start to fill it with content. However, it is best to decide on a rough structure and develop a plan. The focus is on basic structures, such as categories, pages, and tags. Ideally, you will find a niche and become an expert in a certain field, build a loyal readership, and pass on your expertise to others.

This path is not easy — in part two of our blogging series , we will give you tips on how to find the right theme for your blog and how to win over numerous readers and gain their trust by being an expert in your field. Before you can start your blogger career, you first need to choose the right host. IONOS, for example, offers several possibilities for creating your own blog quickly and easily. For those new to the world of blogging, the IONOS website is ideal: here you can choose from a number of individually customizable design templates and you can create your own blog with the 'Blog' web app in just a few clicks.

Besides this option, there is also the possibility of managed blog hosting. In addition to the usual content management systems like WordPress, Joomla! Once you have found the correct CMS, simply select an arbitrary domain and the appropriate web space and just install using the one-click installation. Web design templates for more than industries and over web apps enable you to put your website together in just a few clicks. One of these web apps is the app 'BLOG', which you can quickly integrate into your website.

The first blog entries can already be published in your newly created blog. The blog can be put together in very few clicks. There is an app on Android or iOS that helps you create new blog posts.

With this app, you can also create, publish, and manage your blog and comments with your smartphone. MyWebsite provides the ideal entry into the blogger world. Blogs can be created quickly and posts are published easily thanks to the app. Users rent this IONOS web space, which is hard disk space that is available online at any time and can be used to install various web applications.

Depending on your own expertise, you can either install and configure the applications yourself on the web space, or simply have them be installed automatically by the one-click installation. The advantage of IONOS web hosting is that even exotic blogs can be installed and run on the web space. You have full control and can directly engage with the content management system.

However, programming skills are an advantage. IONOS web hosting is the right choice when you want to have as much freedom as possible when creating a blog. It combines the simplicity of MyWebsite apps with the flexibility of web hosting. WordPress hosting enables you to create a blog with the popular blog system WordPress in just a few clicks. In a couple more clicks you can install recommended plugins and themes and get started right away. Plugins enable you to expand your blog with useful features, such as protection against spam or a contact form.

WordPress is free software that was developed in and is being continuously updated. Special emphasis is placed on usability, web standards, and easy adaptability. With IONOS WordPress hosting, you can make use of these benefits and have an established and popular blog system at hand, while at the same time maintaining the security and maintenance of the software and server. WordPress hosting is suitable for anyone who wants to create a blog with WordPress without having to worry too much about administrative tasks.

In part 1 of our blogging series, we discussed the technical aspects of starting a blog. But how do you go about searching for topics?

Read part 2 here to discover how to collect blog ideas, pick a suitable blog topic, and analyze the potential of your new venture. There are countless blogs online and thanks to easy and free blogging software, anyone can become an author.

In our blogging series, we take you through the basics as you create your own professional blog. After discussing the technical aspects of a blog in part 1, and the importance of finding the right topic in part 2, the next step is to analyze your target market.

After all, you can only Written by Caroline Forsey cforsey1. Blogging has exploded since its humble beginnings in the s, and many people today interact with blogs frequently if not daily. By setting up a blog, you have the opportunity to make meaningful connections with other people, whether you want to share your recipes, talk about your lifestyle, or sell products and services.

Whatever the topic, blogging serves as an outlet that can even become profitable. But before you see dollar signs, you'll need to set up a blog, which involves choosing a content management system CMS , deciding on themes and color schemes, and reaching your target audience. This guide will help you navigate the process of setting up a blog successfully across various platforms.

You can't have a blog without a CMS, or a content management system. As the name suggests, this is a system that manages your content. While you could certainly build a blog from scratch with savvy coding skills, a CMS does the hard work for you. This software makes it nearly effortless to switch up your blog's font styles, colors, and overall theme. It also means you can generate content much easier, simply clicking a few buttons to add photos and videos.

This way, you can dive right into making great content. The point of choosing a CMS is to make creating your blog easier for you. If you find it difficult to navigate the dashboard or the text editor, blogging will just like a chore. Look for a CMS with drag-and-drop capabilities, and unless you have top-notch developer skills, steer clear of anything that requires heavy coding.

As we'll cover below, it is completely possible to start a blog for free. But if you are looking for more robust features, you'll need to consider your budget. If you are looking at paid platforms, consider what you get with each CMS for the price, and double-check for hidden fees.

You want your blog to look and perform how you've envisioned it, so make sure your CMS allows for customization through different themes and templates that can also be adjusted as you see fit. For example, with Ceros , you can completely customize every element of the content you publish without adding a single line of code. If your blog glitches while you're writing an important post, you'll want to be able to get help right when you need it.

CMS support ranges widely — you might only find a digital handbook or FAQ page full of common issues and fixes with no number or live chat to reach for urgent matters. Or the platform could only have an email or number available during standard office hours, Monday through Friday.

If you don't have experience working with CMS systems and want access to hands-on support, take this into consideration when comparing platforms. One of the most helpful features for CMS platforms is the ability to work with third-party extensions or plugins, which add even more functionality to your blog.

There are extensions for nearly everything you could think of, so whether you want help with search engine optimization SEO or the ability to create galleries or social media feeds on your blog, extensions and plugins can help you do so. If your CMS isn't compatible with most of these applications, your blog could suffer.

Protecting your information and your content is important. You could also lose your audience's and customers' trust if your blog is compromised. As such, you'll want to make sure the CMS you choose has plenty of security features.