How To Start A blog In 2023 – The Best Guide For Beginners (6 Easy Steps)

Learning how to start a blog is the best decision I have ever made as it allowed me to live a life that I never dreamed was possible.

Two years back, I was just like you.

I was looking for ways to make money online when I stumbled upon a blogger’s income report.

I must say, I was impressed with the income report. The blogger was making around $50,000 per month.

I thought if the blogger can do it, why not me?

Without any planning, I made the life-changing decision of starting my blog using a guide just like this, and little did I know that my life was never gonna be the same again.

Though it can feel a bit overwhelming to get started on this path, the fears and concerns are completely normal. I have gone through all those stages and I completely understand you.

But once you start to get some traction, everything starts to fall into place.

Though I made a lot of mistakes initially, I was able to make my first $1,000 within 6 months. And right now, I am managing two blogs and one is making $2,470 per month.

I never thought that I will be managing two blogs and living a comfortable life.

Now, I am more than happy to help people start their money-making blogs and create the lifestyle that they deserve.

Now, even if my story doesn’t align with yours, I am sure one of these will sound familiar to you:

• Feeling frustrated with your 9 to 5 job and desperately wanting to quit
• Not being able to do what you want because of financial constraints
• Tired of waking up to alarms every day
• Drowning in debts and bills
• Unable to travel whenever you want
• A constant urge to make more money while doing something meaningful

I have been able to avoid all of these issues because I chose to do something new with my life.

Something completely out of my comfort zone, yet it was the most rewarding decision of my life.

So how much do bloggers make per month?

Well, here are a few bloggers who are making a full-time income:

Note: Actual numbers may vary as a lot of them have discontinued posting monthly income reports on their blogs, but these are close figures.

Blogging Myths That is stopping you from starting a blog

1. You need to be an excellent writer

Absolutely not.

I am by no means a terrific writer, not even close.

But I was able to get better because I continued to create content regularly.

The thing is: Most people who start their blogs aren’t graduates of PhDs in English. They are just normal people like me and you who created content in their style.

2. Starting a blog is expensive

Though starting a business is costly, blogging is the only side hustle that can help you build a sustainable income with a very low investment.

For just $2.95 per month, you can have your blog and turn into into a full-time income.

3. You need to have vast knowledge to run a blog

Absolutely not.

Creating a blog is easier than ever and you don’t need to have any knowledge about coding to get started.

All you need is to follow a proven blogging strategy that will allow you to avoid all blogging mistakes so that you can reach your goal faster.

4. Blogging takes too long

Well, it does take some time for your blog to get some initial momentum. But if you are ready to create content CONSISTENTLY, you will be able to make your first $1,000 in just 6-12 months.

Investing only $35.4 for 1 year to make your first $1,000 is not that bad, isn’t it?

All you need is to create content regularly using my blogging strategy.

From there, you can expect your blog to grow exponentially in 12-24 months.

So, are you ready to start your money-making blog?

Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at all. Trust me!

If you follow this step-by-step guide, you will be able to have your blog in just 10 minutes.

Let’s get started.

Starting your blog from scratch- A step-by-step guide

1- Choose your niche

The first thing that you need to check off your list is to choose a niche (a comfortable topic to write about) and a blog name.

So what can be your ideal niche?

Well, it’s really easy. You must choose a niche that:

• You are passionate about
• Is profitable
• You have at least little knowledge about

If you don’t know if your niche is profitable, then you find out the top 10 most profitable blog niches in this article.

Pro Tip: Don’t spend too much time deciding on your niche. As long as you can create content consistently on any given topic, you will be able to make money.

2 – choose your domain name

Your domain name will be the name by which people will know you online. It’s a unique name that belongs to your blog only. Once you have your domain name registered, no one can steal it or use it.

Usually, a domain name will cost you around $10-$15 per year, but if you choose to host your blog with Bluehost, you will get a FREE domain name. ( I will show you how later).

For the time being, you should think about what type of domain name you will choose for your blog.

You can either choose YOUR name or a name that at least contains one word that is related to your niche.

For instance, if your name is John Smith you can choose the name johnsmith.com.

If you don’t want to choose your name and prefer to blog anonymously, then you can choose a domain name that at least gives an idea of your blog’s main topic.

For instance, a food blogger can choose a domain name like foodfantasy.com, foodforlife.com, or receipequeen.com.

If you are confused and don’t have any idea how to generate a domain name, you can head over to Lean Domain Search.

Let’s say you are a DIY blogger. You just have to enter the term “DIY” on Lean Domain search and it will give you a list of available domains.

Let’s do that, shall we?

As you can see, you will get a list of 2,428 available domains. You can also filter the results by length, popularity, or by alphabetical order. 

3 – Register your domain

The next step is to register your domain name. Here you will have a lot of choices that can confuse you.

WordPress recommends these 3 hosting companies:

1. Bluehost: This is the most common hosting that is best suited for beginners and the price is excellent, and the customer service is fantastic. It offers WordPress-centric dashboards and tools along with 1-click installation, a FREE domain name, email, FTP, and more. 
2. Dreamhost: This company has been providing hosting for bloggers for more than 10 years. It is a good choice for beginners and experts.
3. Siteground: SiteGround provides tools that make managing WordPress sites easy: one-click install, managed updates, WP-CLI, and WordPress WordPress staging. It is recommended for users that have higher traffic. 

For this tutorial, we will use Bluehost as it is a fantastic company that is specially designed to help aspiring bloggers build their online businesses.

Make sure you have the page pulled up in a separate tab before beginning the tutorial, as you’ll be following the guide and executing the steps on Bluehost simultaneously.

After tapping the button, you’ll see the homepage of Bluehost (Image given below).

On the right side, you can see “Easy WordPress Website Builder”. Click on “Start Building”

Now you will need to choose your plan to get started with Bluehost.

Choose the basic plan. It will be enough for your WordPress blog as a beginner.

Once you have chosen your “Basic” plan, you will need to add your domain name.

As you can see, you just have to type your domain name and press “Next”.

Now you will need to provide your account information.

Once you have entered all your details, you will need to uncheck every box except the “Domain Privacy+Protection“, and provide your credit card details for the payment.

Selecting domain privacy protection hides your personal details so that your information remains confidential.

Unless you want spammers and scammers blowing up your phone – you want this checked!

Finally, all you have to do is add in your credit card details, check the standard Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and hit the green submit button!

4. Congratulations. You now own your blog!

Not that difficult, right?

The next few steps will direct you to create your password before beginning with anything else. Make sure to create a secure password!

5. Access your WordPress dashboard for the first time

Once the installation process is complete, you will need to log in to your WordPress account.

For example, if your blog name is mynewblog.com, simply type  http://mynewblog.com/wp-admin into your browser’s address bar.

If you are not sure of your login name and password, you can check the email you received from Bluehost. They will send you your login credentials at the bottom of the email.

Once you log in to your WordPress dashboard, you will see that your blog comes with a standard design.

Usually, you will have the theme twenty-twenty-two installed.

So, if you want to change the appearance of the blog, you can easily do that.

In your WordPress WordPress dashboard(left-hand side vertical menu), click on ‘appearance’ and click on themes.

On the top, you will find add new; click on it, and you will be given a list of all the themes available.

Choose the one you like and click on install (Top left). You are good to go.

6. Create your first blog post

Now that you have installed your theme, it’s time to create your first blog post.

Go back to your WordPress panel, search for “Posts“, click on it, click on Add new, and you will get a new blank post page.

You enter the title and your content, as shown below. 

Pro tip: Make sure that your first content doesn’t contain any grammar errors.

Use Grammarly to make your content better.

Once you have created your content, you can hit publish and your blog post will go live.

Now that you have your blog up and running, I will highly advise you to take a break and celebrate your day.

Things that you must do for your blog to perform at its best

Your work is not done yet. Now you have a blog where you can add new content.

But there are a few things that you must do to get the most out of your blog.

1. Create an about and contact page

It’s very important to create an about page as people who will visit your blog will want to know more about you.

Creating an About page is really simple.

In your WordPress dashboard, on the left-hand side, press “Pages” and click on add new.

Here you can add a little detail about yourself, your goal for your blog, and what readers can expect from you.

You can choose either to add your Picture or not. If you prefer to remain anonymous then don’t add any pictures.

Once you have added your details click on publish.

Next is setting up a contact form for your blog.

I will recommend you use the Contact Form 7 plugin. The process is really simple.

Head over to:

Plugins → Add new →type “Contact Form 7” → click “Install Now” → click “Activate.”

Once The plugin has been installed, it will give you a new menu on the left named “Contact.”

Hover over to “Contact” and click on “Contact Forms.”

You will have a default form name “Contact Form 1“. You can either create a new one or customize the “Contact Form 1” by clicking on “Edit.”

For now, let me show you how to use the existing one.

By default, you will have the following:

• “Your Name (required)”
• “Your Email (required)”
• “Subject”
• “Your Message”

You can add any field you like, such as a date, a dropdown menu, a quiz, etc.

To change the email where the form will be sent, you will have to click on the “Mail” tab and enter your email address. Now click on “Save.”

2. Remove unnecessary plugins and make your website perform at its best

By default, your WordPress blog will come with default plugins, pages, and posts.

You will need to remove them completely and install only plugins that will benefit your blog.

Though I would like to show you how, for the sake of keeping this blog post short, I have created another free resource that will help you.

Find out how you can make your WordPress more secure and perform better

Pro Tip: This step is really important as you will need to protect your blog from getting hacked. Don’t worry you don’t need to invest anything as the plugins are free.

3. Structure your blog posts so that you can get a higher ranking

Having a proper blog structure not only helps you to get a higher ranking but will also make it easier for your readers to consume your content.

A happy reader is worth a lot for your blog.

If you can get at least 1,000 loyal readers, you can rest assured that you will get a lot of success with your blog.

That being said, you must absolutely know how to structure your blog posts so that you can have a much higher chance to get on Google’s first page.

Related article: How To Structure Your Blog Post To Get A Higher Ranking

Now that you have learned how you can structure your blog posts, you can start creating valuable content for your readers.

Please don’t forget that blogging is a long journey that will take time.

So, it’s absolutely necessary to create content at your own pace.

Even if you are spending only 1-2 hours per day on your blog, you will be able to make it work.

Final thoughts: How To Start A Blog

Once again I will like to congratulate you for taking the initiative of starting your blog.

Now is the time to put all your focus on your blog and start creating content that will generate traffic. And once you are getting enough traffic, you will be able to monetize your blog.

Actually, your blogging journey for the first year should be like this:

1 –First 6 months create as much content as you can (Choose the right keywords).

2- After 6 months, when you have enough data about your blog, you will understand which topics are performing better and try to create more content on those topics.

3- Once you are constantly getting 100 visitors per day, you can now learn more about blog monetization and use affiliate links to earn money.

You can use ads on your blog after you have at least 15-20 published articles. Ads will help you generate a little income which will keep you motivated to create more content.

That being said, I sincerely wish you all the best in your blogging journey.

If you really have enough patience, blogging will allow you to live a life you never imagined before.

Trust the process.

If you liked this post, please don’t forget to share it so that others can benefit from it.

See you soon!