It is an unarguable fact that blogging is one of the most sustainable ways of establishing a successful online business. A blog can be used as a standalone online business or as an effective content marketing tool for any online business…
As a matter of fact, several people all over the world, earn their living online by blogging. And yet several people also setup blogs every now and then; and eventually abandon them with little or no success.
Personally, I have tasted the two sides of the candy. I had run some blogs that failed. And currently, I run successful blogs too. So in this article, I will be sharing with you the basic steps required to start up an effective and successful blog…
How to Start Up a Blog Effectively
To setup a blog effectively, follow the steps listed below…
- Carefully Research and Choose a Blog Niche
- Register a Domain Name and Setup a Hosting Account (I Recommend Hostgator)
- Install WordPress
- Research , Write and Publish Great Contents Regularly
- Optimize Your Contents for Search Engine Traffic
- Share Your Blog Posts in Social Media
- Build Your Email List
Now let me explain the above seven steps of starting up an effective blog in more details…
- Carefully Research and Choose a Blog Niche: As you plan to start up your blog, the first thing you must do, is to carefully research and choose a niche to blog about. A niche simply means an area of specialization. Examples of blog niches include: Travel, Technology, Digital Marketing, etc…
When choosing your blog niche, it is best to choose a niche around your passion or area of knowledge or expertise. Then another thing of a great importance in choosing a blog niche… is that you must find out whether people are searching enough for information around the niche or not.
If people are not searching enough for the content you are providing online, your blog may not be that successful. Especially if you plan to make a living from your blog. So to ensure your content has enough audience to make you profit, you must do keyword research on your niche.
And you can easily do that by using Google Free Keyword Research Tool. Google keyword research tool or other keyword research tools will help you know the volume of search for the niche you want to start blogging about…
It will also help you know the level of competition. In order to help you make wise choice.
For instance, the niche of this blog is “Digital Marketing Tools”. I chose this Niche because I am a multi-lingual App Developer. And I’m also a passionate Internet Marketer. And from my keyword research, there is enough searches on the keyword to make me profit in the long run…
So as you plan to start up your blog, the importance of careful niche research, cannot be overemphasized.
- Register a Domain Name and Setup a Hosting Account (I Recommend Hostgator): Having researched and chosen your blog niche as explained in the above point, the next thing you need to do, is choose a reputable Web Hosting Company to host your blog. There are free blogging platforms, but each of them goes with major drawbacks.
So if you’re serious about starting up an effective blog, I recommend paid hosting. Paid hosting gives you the liberty to blog effectively without any restrictions.
Paid hosting puts you fully in charge of your blog. And when it comes to web hosting for your blog, I recommend the Hosting Services of Hostgator.
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Start Up Your Website or Blog with Hostgator for only $2.75/Mon
I am a Hostgator affiliate. So if you sign up through the Hostgator links in this blog, I will receive a commission. However, if you sign up through my link, you won’t be charged extra or even miss out on any of Hostgator’s mouthwatering offers.
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As you sign up your hosting account with Hostgator, they’ll give you a 1 yr Free domain name registration, 1 yr Free SSL, 24/7/365 days customer support, $100 Google Ad Coupon to promote your blog. And best of all, Hostgator gives you an unbeatable 45 days money back guarantee.
- Install WordPress: There are so many blogging projects and platforms out there, but the WordPress project is the most popular for self hosted blogging. Many bloggers choose wordpress because of its relative ease of extension and customization…
The WordPress repository is made up of millions of plugins and themes you can use to give your blog unique look and functionality. As you sign up your hosting account with Hostgator, follow the steps outlined In This Link to setup your wordpress blog with Hostgator.
- Research, Write and Publish Great Contents Regularly: As you conclude with your installation of wordpress, the very next thing to do immediately, is to begin to research for article topics to write. As you plan to write for your blog, you don’t just choose any topic and start writing…
You must first do some keyword research to find out topics people are searching for in search engines, in your niche. Keyword research will not only ensure you write what people want, it will also help your blog quickly rank high in search engines. And this will make your blog quickly grow in free traffic.
You can research on your article topics using Google keyword planner tool or keyword.io research tool. When you are done with your topic research; and have chosen a topic, then go ahead and write. When you get done writing, proof read the article at least twice and publish. And you must make your publication timing consistent…
If you choose to be publishing weekly or monthly; you must endeavor to be consistent. Then you should also be consistent on your chosen day of posting. If you choose every Tuesdays, ensure you always publish on Tuesdays… for better commitment from your audience.
- Optimize Your Contents for Search Engine Traffic: As you publish your posts, you should optimize your contents for good search engine rankings. In wordpress, you can install S.E.O tools such as All in One S.E.O or Yoast plugin.
Then apart from installing S.E.O plugins, you should tag your posts with relevant keywords. You should link to related posts for easy navigation by your readers. Then you should optimize your site for mobile friendliness and speed.
Plugins like Wp Super Cache can help increase the loading speed of your website. All these and other S.E.O techniques will ensure your website quickly grows in search engine ranking.
- Share Your Blog Posts in Social Media: One of the easiest ways to grow your blog traffic, is consistent social media sharing. As you make posts on your blog, you should share them in social media. Social media such as: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit,Tumblr, etc…
Plugin like Blog to Social can help you easily share your posts in several social media with a single click. Blog to Social has free version, as well as premium version. You can start with the free version and eventually updgrade to the premium version with time.
As you share your posts, over time, you can re-share old posts in order to increase your contents’ visibility and traffic. Social media sharing also helps your blog’s search engine ranking.
So as you kick start your blog, ensure you sign up for as many social media as possible. And consistently share your contents in social media for increased visibility.
- Build Your Email List: As you start up your blogging, it is very important you quickly start building your email list. Because, it is through your email list that you’ll make money from your blog in the long run—by promoting stuffs to your subscribers.
Then apart from making money, your email list provides free and quality traffic to your blog. The email list helps you convert your visitors into customers in due time. To start building your list as a beginner, you can easily sign up a free account with mailchimp and integrate their optin form to your blog.
Then you can use tools like Hello Bar or Icegram to offer your blog visitors access to your optin form. Then you can also increase your subscription with exit popup and overlays.
Conclusion: The guide in this article, gives you the basic directions on how to start up your blog effectively. And the blog setup guide in this article, focuses on installing WordPress in one of the best Web/Blog Hosting platform, Hostgator. So if you really want to quickly start up your on blog right now, click here to sign up a hosting account with Hostgator and start your blogging right now.
If you would rather want me to help you setup your blog for you and install all the necessary plugins– absolutely free of charge. Click this link to sign up an account with Hostgator:
When you’re done with the sign up, you can use my contact link above, to get back to me, so I can help you set up your blog free of charge.
I can only set up your blog for you free of charge, if you sign up with Hostgator… through any of the Hostgator links in this blog. Because as you sign up with Hostgator through my link, Hostgator will pay me commission, which will enable me take some coffee while setting your blog for you.
N.B Your signing up with Hostgator through any of the links in this blog, doesn’t mean you’ll pay more than you’re supposed to pay. As you sign up through my link, you’ll still get all the necessary mouthwatering offers that Hostgator gives everyone.
They only pay me referrer commission as their affiliate.