How to start a blog – Easy steps to learn How to create a blog
Starting a blog or creating a website is simple, it's the people who make it complicated.
After creating more than 500 websites and blogs you can safely assume, that the information for his article on how to start a blog in India is 100% accurate and correct
I
have covered each topic in a step-by-step manner, to make it as easy as
possible to start your first blog/website from scratch. So hop on and
start this journey with me.
Good
news for you, I won't write this article like others where I just tell
you how to buy a domain name and hosting and then leave you to yourself
for configuring and actually creating a successful blog. I will cover
everything I have learnt in my 7+ years experience of creating a successful blog from scratch:
- How to buy the bestest, cheapest and fastest hosting for your blog or website
- Learn how marketing pros configure their wordpress dashboard
- How to write content that drives organic traffic and are click magnets. People will become raving fans of you and yoru blog
- 21 promotional strategies that will dirve insane traffic (number 17-18 will suprize you)
- Making money through your blog. Yes last year i made almost Rs 13,00,000 (approx $20,000) just from advertising on my blog, Clients, consulting, and other ways of monetizing were giving me 10x more revenue
So sit back and relax, and follow all the steps with me. I guarantee you that this article will change your life, trust me i have been in your position and i would have given anything if someone could have held my hand like i am doing with you to guide me and teach me what i know today.
Why you will love this guide
Compete video training
I made this video to cover everything in a step by step manner for you guys. Each step has been showed to you in this video tutorial to make it crazy simple for you
So simple
that even a 5 year old can learn and implement these steps
Save money
You won't make mistakes like I did (I will share discounts and cheat codes for saving money and making money)
Free Support
If you don't understand anything, either you can comment or shoot me an email at contact@incomeboy.com and I will be happy to help
Table of Content for Quick Navigation
What you need for starting a blog
Computer/Laptop
Little Money
$ 3.95 Rs 254/month (India)
Time
15 mins Yes, its that simple
Why you should start a blog
Blogging
can be done for various reasons, some love writing, some love to have a
fan following, some do it to make money (although money should just be a
byproduct of your passion to write) and many other reasons.
Whatever
be your reason, do not start it if you are not in for the long game. If
you are not consistent, then starting a blog should not be
your priority. Creating a website and then adding content is time
consuming, so make sure you love it otherwise you will be like any other
nobody who starts out of passion and then the blog dies a slow death.
Creating a passive income source
Many
people have started a blog and then realized the money making potential
in it. Even all my revenue comes from the various websites I own. The
majority of my new clients find me on one of my websites. I also make
money through advertisement, affiliate marketing, consulting and many
other ways. All this was possible because i started a blog in 2010
4 easy steps on How to start a Blog
Now starting a blog is easy all you need to do is follow the steps that i recommend. So let's start:
#1 : Choosing a Blogging Platform
This is more like the backend
where you will be working on your blog. Just like you use Microsoft
office for writing purpose you need a platform for interacting with your
blog. The best blogging platform i recommend is WordPress.
If
you have not heard of WordPress, then you will hear a lot from me, as
WordPress is the best blogging platform on this planet (at least for
bloggers :D). All my 10+ personal websites are hosted on WordPress and
the simplicity and customization is amazing.
The
free and paid plugins that enhance the functionalities are too
impressive. WordPress is the biggest blogging platform. It offers so
many customizations that a newbie blogger can easily understand without
any coding knowledge. Just look at the status of the research done by
Pingdom:
Do i need to learn coding for WordPress
No,
not at all. It is so simple, just log in and you are good to go. Even a
YouTube tutorial is more than enough to make you understand this ultra
simple blogging platform.
WordPress Alternatives
Yes,
you can use Blogspot or Tumblr as well, but if you are serious about
blogging then WordPress will be your best friend. Here are the
advantages of using WordPress to start a blog
- Free and Easy to set-up and use
- Free themes and plugins are all you need - Yes don't spend a penny on anything, everything is free. I love free
- Great support : If you face any problem there are tons of free solutuons available on various websites, Youtube, Quora, and also wordrpess forum. Again free of cost
- Zero technical skills required: You dont need to be a coder or technical perosn to learn wordpress, it is that simple to use.
#2 : Self-hosting or Going for Free
Another important question that should be taken seriously. Let me first differentiate between the two for you. Yes, i know i love free and i recommend free stuff, but sometimes just a few dollars can help you go a long way.
Although
all blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr can help
you on how to start a blog for free, but free is not always the best.
Here are the disadvantages for going for free blog:
No personal domain name
If you go for a free blog alternative then you will get an ugly domain name and that just honestly sucks. With free blog services your domain name will look like this:
- myblog.wordpress.com
- myblog.blogspot.com
- myblog.tumblr.com
Yes, I know you hate it, I do too
Very few customization options
Yes
with a free blogging platform you will get a lot of limits in terms of
customization, personalization and more. You are limited to:
- No custom theme - The themes that the free blogging platform offers
- Very few monetization options
- Wont get google love : A major traffic source for any website is Google, and ranking on your target keywords will be extremely difficult
- It is borrowed property: After all you are just another member in their world, why not just buy a new world for yourself, its cheap i guarantee. I love the blog being mine. Let's say your blog become very popular then you don't own anything. All the benefit will go to the free hosting company. You won't be able to scale your blog. So if you are serious about blogging do not go for free blogging alternative
#3 : Start a blog on your Self-hosted Domain and hosting
I
hope you have decided to go for self-hosting your blog, trust me its
cheap and very simple. Self hosting with a custom domain your WordPress
based blog is will the best decision of your life.
I
wish I knew this and had started my blogging journey on a self-hosted
WordPress based blog. I learnt this useful information much later in my
blogging journey.
If you are still confused and need my personal assistance, then feel free to shoot me an email at: contact@incomeboy.com , my team and i will be happy to help you.
Now let me tell you how to select a domain name and hosting platform for your blog. But first let me explain these terms to you:
- Domain name: The domain name is just the address you put in your browser address bar. Like when you enter www.incomeboy.com then incomeboy.com is the domain name of my website
- Hosting: This is the space that you buy from a hosting company that keeps all your blog files and related items and help to render to load your website to all the people who are opening your website. (A good hosting company makes all the difference, i will cover that soon in this article)
How to search for Domain names
Not
all domain names are available. Honestly, its a difficult job to find a
good domain name for your blog, I spend quite a bit of time finding the
best domain name that is actually available.
You can use this amazing tool by Shopify to find good looking domain names for your blog : Shopify business name generator
Once
you have finalized a domain name, now you need to buy that domain name
for yourself. Although people make the mistake of buying the domain name
and then buying the hosting separately, but here is a tip for you. When you buy a hosting, the domain name comes free, see i just saved you $14. Now bring a smiley face and lets move forward.
Best hosting company to make a blog and start blogging
You
will encounter several articles and advertisements guaranteeing a cheap
and reliable hosting, but trust me don't get affected by these baseless
claims. I have created more than 500+ websites in my 7+ years
experience and i know the ins and out of each hosting company.
I
even wrote a massive 5000+ word guide on the same topic just to educate
the people on how to select the best hosting (add link) company making
a blog. You must check that article here: (add link)
The hosting companies personally use for my 10+ websites and recommend are:
Siteground hosting
All my 10+ websites are hosted on siteground hosting.
I
moved to Siteground in 2015 and I have never been happier. One of my
website saw a 176% jump of free organic traffic just a couple of days
after shifting, because Siteground made my website extremely fast
Just
go for Siteground without any hesitation and doubt in your mind. They
are the most mind blowing hosting company that is offering premium
servers and features at affordable prices.
If you need more data or have any question about sitegorund, feel free to contact us.
Hostgator hosting
Do not go to Godaddy, they are absolutely worse and pathetic. Hostgator
is the 2nd best option you have that is best for beginner bloggers.
Although there are other companies like the WP - engine and a-2 hosting i recommend, but if you are just starting a blog, then Hostgator is the way to go
Many
of my clients are comfortable with Hostgator, so I already have many
client sites running on Hostgator servers, and trust me their
performance is on par as Siteground
Although i
highly recommend Siteground for anyone starting a blog, but If you
decide not to go for Siteground or Hostgator, or go any other company
from our Best hosting company (add link) list feel free to do so. Almost
all of them have a one click WordPress installs feature and you can
start working on your website.
To make it easy for you to install wordpres and set up your blog , i
have created this step-by-step image guide to help you get started. I
have included this Siteground setup image guide at the bottom of this
article and you can go to the start by clicking here. (add
link) Although the video tutorial in the beginning is more than enough,
if you want to use this image guide for guidance even that is fine.
Visit Siteground and start your blogging journey
Siteground is giving me and exclusive promotional discount if you go through my link, enjoy
After
you go through our video tutorial or Image guide below (add link) you
can then access your WordPress dashboard at the following place: www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin
Just
log in with your username and password and here starts your blogging
journey. Do not feel stupid or confused in the beginning after all you
are starting something new, you are bound to be a little confused. Check
this video tutorial on how to use WordPress, I have covered everything
you need to know about WordPress and how to use it: (add link video)
#4. Designing your wordpress blog like a pro
Now lets make your blog beautiful and good looking more like a makeover.
A
blog design matters a lot, a good design shows professionalism and
makes your information looks genuine and interesting. So to install a
theme you need to go to Appearances --> Themes --> Upload theme -- > Upload --> Activate theme
To get a theme there are two options:
- Free WordPress Theme
- Buy a theme from Themeforest (add link)
The blog design must reflect about your personality as well as it should be coherent with the niche or topic of your blog
Additional Step: Learn Learn and Learn More
To
learn everything about Blogging, it takes time. You must keep learning
to improve your writing skills as well as get huge traffic for your
website.
Although i will be covering everything related to blogging , starting a blog, promoting the blog, building follower base, making money and all, but still you must learn more.
Look
at your competitors what they are doing, learn from the blogging pros
how and what is working for them that you can replicate.
IncomeBoy.com - Journey to 1 million visitors/month
I have decided to document the journey of building and getting Incomeboy.com to 1 million visitors/month by the end of 2017. I will be documenting each step and tactic i will be using to grow this new website into one of the most popular website in India, I hope my 7+ years of experience will help me achieve my goal while i am able to deliver as much value as possible to my visitors.
Since the Goal is 31st December 2017, please bookmark this article (as this article will keep getting updated till 31st December 2017). I hope you learn and enjoy this case study with me.
So lets start
- 2 Paid Digital Marketing Interns (I have hired two students who have done a course in Digital Marketing and want to grow their career as Digital Marketer). They will be helping me in getting my website to 1 million visitors/day while also learning side by side from me
- 1 Freelance Graphic designer (to create Blog images, infographics, gifographics etc)
- Tools that i use : I have compiled a list of all the tools that i will be using for my website: Blogging tools
Incomeboy.com April Progress Report
Before the actual work to start, we need to create a framework and the actual base to build our website upon. So here are the most important steps that every websites needs to accomplish for themselves for the first monthSetting up Website
A website without proper structure will never be able to rank on Google for organic traffic. So you need to follow many steps in order to get your website to perfect start
Share the Knowledge
This
is what people have to say about this guide, I love it when people
genuinely appreciate the time and effort it takes to write a highly
informative, working and genuine guide like this:
Kudos to Ankur, for creating this simple and easy to understand guide on how to start a blog.
I am starting my blogging journey, and I hope I will learn a lot more from you in your upcoming article.
One request: Keep the quality of the articles the same as this one
It could not have been easier for me to start a blog.
Video
tutorial plus easy language, with image tutorial as well. Now I see why
you have so many clients, it's the quality factor you have that others
lack.
Seeing an Indian blogger delivering such high quality, simplified guide makes me so proud
Today i subscribed to your email list and followed you everywhere, hope to learn a lot more about blogging from you Ankur.
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