If you’re wondering how to lớn create a personal blog, you’re not alone.
The first major personal blogger — Justin Hall — started posting content about his life as far back as 1994. At the time, most people dismissed blogging as a novelty.
Over two decades have passed, và blogs have grown lớn become one of the most dominant forms of web content.
According to lớn 2013 reports, there were over 152 million blogs on the internet. Since then, the number of blogs has continued khổng lồ grow. Today, you’ll find more than 500 million blogs online.
Yes, it all seems mind-boggling. But wait, there’s more!
Aside from the growing popularity of blogs, creating & publishing new posts has also become relatively easy. This has led to lớn a cấp độ of content creation that would have been unimaginable back in 1994.
Recent statistics suggest that publishers upload a new blog post every 0.5 seconds. What’s more, bloggers publish almost 2.75 million posts every day on WordPress alone.
As overwhelming as it may sound, this unprecedented number of posts also tells a bigger story.
It says that an untold number of people are now comfortable with sharing their passion online with others. Similarly, reading this article suggests that you’re ready to join this growing number.
But before we delve into the details, let’s address the obvious question.
What is a Personal Blog?
Over the years, private blogs have evolved from just written content.
After setting up a blog & finding an excellent hosting platform, many bloggers naturally progress to creating vlogs or podcasts. But that’s a tale for another day.
Right now, let’s address a popular misconception.
What is the Difference Between a Website và a Blog?
Navigating anywhere from your web browser will almost certainly land you on a website — whether it’s Facebook, Google, or YouTube. A trang web is a collection of web pages & related nội dung that’s identified by a common tên miền name. Blogs, on the other hand, are a subset of websites. Think of websites và blogs as cars và race cars. Although they’re both vehicles with engines & four wheels, race cars serve a more specific purpose.
The primary motive behind a blog is to giới thiệu individual articles, news, or stories. And bloggers rely on Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress lớn manage their blog posts.
Websites, on the other hand, can present their nội dung in whatever manner they want. While they can work with CMS, sites also use static, HTML-only documents built by a website developer.
Now that we’ve cleared that confusion, let’s explore further.
5 Things to Consider Before Starting a Personal Blog
1. Is this my Passion?
Here’s a truth that you may not hear every day; blogging is very challenging.
Although personal blogging mainly involves sharing your everyday life, opinion, or belief with strangers online, it’s a learned skill. As such, you must make a conscious effort to lớn work at it.
That means you may have to pay for some essential blogging tools và take some online courses.
So before you invest money and time, it’s crucial that you first identify your interest. Are you that passionate about food that you would want to share your thoughts with the world? Or is it just a passing fancy?
It’s easy to lớn follow through on a topic that you’re passionate about, whether it’s dirty videos or an antique collection. Stay true lớn yourself, và find your passion.
2. Vị I Have the Right Tools?
The most likely answer lớn this question is “No!”
The mạng internet is filled with lots of noise. In 2018, about 31.2 million bloggers in the United States alone updated their blogs at least once every month.
Since the U.S. Accounts for 30 percent of the population, that suggests that there are over 104 million bloggers worldwide.
Yes, that’s a lot of potential competitors. Khổng lồ cut through this noise, it’s vital to deploy the right sale tactics.
Consider learning more about search engine optimization và social media marketing. Also, you may want to invest in some AI sale tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and INK.
Manually conducting digital sale can be draining. However, if you trust these automated tools to lớn handle the visibility aspect, you’ll be able to lớn focus on the actual blogging.
3. Do I Want to lớn Use Stock Photos?
Photography is an integral aspect of blogging.
When we hear a piece of information, we’re likely khổng lồ remember only 10 percent of it three days later. But, pair that information with a relevant image & the number jumps to 65 percent.
Here’s the question: vày you want lớn use stock photos on your blog?
If the answer is yes, you may want to consider sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, and StockSnap.io.
However, some of these photographs still require attribution. As such, you must vì your research to find out how to lớn use these images correctly.
Another option is not lớn use stock photos at all. Instead, you can take your photos. Armed with a good camera, photo editing software, you’ll be posting breath-taking photos of homemade lasagnas in no time.
4. Vì I Want lớn Work Alone?
As a writer, your first instinct might be to lớn work alone, but that may be a bad idea. In blogging, the community can count for everything.
For instance, if you’re a food blog owner, you’ll need to nhận xét expensive restaurants every night. That means sometimes involves developing a good relationship with the food community as well as restaurant owners khổng lồ get in for free.
Also, being part of a community could enable you to guest post for popular publications in your niche. You’ll also be able khổng lồ attend popular conferences và give talks at respectable food events.
Finally, being part of a community ensures that you don’t lose heart and give up on your blog. It gives you the energy to keep pushing.
5. Vày I Want to lớn Blog Under My Name?
Blogging under your name should be a no-brainer.
But it’s not that simple. For instance, when blogging about sensitive topics lượt thích race or equality, using your name may be a problem.
If you choose to blog under an alias, you must commit lớn a name that makes you happy or represents something. Alternatively, you can choose to blog using your blog’s name.
If you have answers lớn these questions, then you’re ready lớn ask the most crucial question.
How do you create a private blog?
How lớn Create a Personal Blog
Creating a blog begins with selecting a blog name that reflects the topic of interest. After that, you only have lớn register your blog name and get hosting. Next, customize the blog using fonts, màu sắc palette, logo, navigation, và sidebar. Finally, write and publish articles on your blog. You may also want to consider promoting the content on social truyền thông media platforms.
1. Pick a Blog Name
At this point, you have identified your interest and intend khổng lồ build a blog based on this passion. Now, you have to pick a name.
It’s not nearly as simple as it seems
A good blog name is descriptive. It must reflect the topic such that potential readers can instantly know what khổng lồ expect.
However, it’s easy to lớn get hung up on one word while trying lớn pick a name that includes your topic. Since you’re starting a cooking blog, the term “cook” must appear in the name, right?
Wrong!
Rather than waste time trying to lớn incorporate the word “cook” into your blog name, consider other similar alternatives. These include “meals,” “recipes,” & different related keywords.
If you intend to lớn create a personal blog lớn discuss various topics, you may want khổng lồ use your name or some variation of it. It tells readers that the blog is about you.
2. Register Blog and Get Hosting
You need two things khổng lồ get your blog up và running, và these are blog hosting and blogging software.
A blog host is a company that stores all the files for your blog on its server. This way, anyone that types your blog name into a browser will have access lớn your content.
Examples of some blog host companies include BlueHost, HostGator, SiteGround, DreamHost, among others.
Aside from the blog host company, you need a software application khổng lồ create, manage, and modify your blog content. Some examples of these blogging software include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magneto, etc.
With that said, we recommend building your blog on WordPress. It’s easy to use và customize.
Also, WordPress is the most popular CMS on the internet, with 60.4% of the market share. As a result, it has a vast number of pre-built plugins và themes.
Besides, the astronomical community will prove useful when you hit a roadblock.
3. Make Your Blog Feel Personal
We all have different ideas of how we want our blogs lớn look.
Luckily, WordPress offers the option khổng lồ change your entire layout và design with a few clicks. With hundreds of thousands of free blog themes, you won’t be stuck with the pre-installed looks.
Navigate khổng lồ to “Customize” section within the “Appearance” menu to lớn preview how your content looks with a specific theme. You can also tweak several other options to lớn get the perfect look.
These include:
Fonts and font size (Sans-Serif Fonts are best suited for digital content)Your màu sắc palette of choiceYour logo và navigation menuTo add or not to địa chỉ cửa hàng a sidebarOther customization options include installing plugins that offer dark mode options — for example, Blackout and WP Night Mode.
Whatever customization option you may pick, you must consider how it affects your page speed. Thirty-seven percent of visitors bounce when a site takes more than five seconds to lớn load.
Do not sacrifice page tốc độ for customization.
4. Write và Publish Your Content
The first question here is simple: what makes a blog post enjoyable?
The answer is relevance. Ninety-four percent of people share blog nội dung because they think it might be useful lớn other people.
It begins by creating something interesting and educational. Your articles should answer a reader’s question và help them solve a problem.
More importantly, you must provide these solutions in the most exciting way possible — offer actionable steps while being engaging. For example, your introduction should compel readers khổng lồ continue reading the post. Then, provide examples & statistics lớn give more depth.
A blog post can contain an overwhelming amount of information, & that’s fine.
The trick is to lớn ensure that the content length & amount of information don’t intimidate readers. Such an organization can take multiple forms, such as sections, lists, tips, etc.
When you finish writing, go back, proofread your post, and fix any formatting issue. Also, consider optimizing your blog post for search.
Why is this important, you ask?
5. Promote Your Blog
It’s pointless lớn create a personal blog và write great nội dung if no one ever gets to lớn read it. That’s why you must optimize your content for search.
You could learn about how to lớn perform on-page tìm kiếm engine optimization. However, the smarter option would be lớn use AI-powered writing software such as INK to optimize your content for search.
The writing phầm mềm can suggest ways lớn make your nội dung search engine-friendly. What’s more, it could help you avoid cramming keyword into a post, which could lead khổng lồ the Google penalty.
Aside from the search engine, other channels to lớn promote your blog post include social media, phản hồi on other blogs, collaboration, e-mail lists, among others.
Do Personal Blogs Make Money?
Yes, personal blogs make money. Some bloggers want to nói qua their passion with others or pass across some useful information. However, most vị it for the money. Roughly 67 percent of people say that their main reason for blogging is income. Unfortunately, not many of these people make money from this venture. In fact, only 31 percent of them make any money whatsoever from blogging.
The reason for this varies from a high cấp độ of competition lớn new bloggers not having a monetization plan. Consider some of the options below:
Monetize with CPC or CPMSell private adsInclude affiliate links in your contentSell digital productsUse your blog as a nội dung marketing tool for your businessSell membershipsMaking money from blogging requires a lot of persistence. However, it can pay-off in the long run if you bởi it right.
If you’re still unsure how to lớn monetize your blog, consider what other people in your niche are doing. Start from there, & work your way up.
Final Note: Start Your Personal Blog Today
Creating a successful personal blog boils down khổng lồ one thing — passion.
It’s easy khổng lồ write exciting content when you’re passionate about the topic. While interest is essential, the best way lớn connect with people is by creating something relevant.
So, identify that topic that you get your blood running. Then, use that passion lớn create exciting content that addresses people’s issues và be consistent at it.
