What is a blog?
A blog is a written form of information, discussion, or solution to a problem that is used for personal or business use. Blog is widely used to share information on a given topic and give thoughts about it. It can be traveling, food blogging, DIY, finance, or anything that you like to cover. The main purpose of writing a blog is to connect the relevant audience. Posting good content in a blog boosts traffic and sends quality leads to your website. Also being consistent and dedicated helps consumers and readers to find your website. That being said, here we have prepared 7 steps to get started on the blogging journey.
Decide niche
Choose a platform
Register a domain
Hosting
Wordpress installation and customization
Initial setup
Publishing your first post
1.Decide niche
If you are getting interested about starting a blog you might be familiar with the niche. It is a category or topic you want to cover. Your niche can be decided upon your interests or a popular niche. Generally going with the niche you would love to cover will have a longer future rather than doing a niche that is popular or will make money. Because in the longer term it will be a boring 9 to 5 job that you don’t want to do.
Deciding the audience based on GAP analysis i.e Gender, Age, Preference helps you build the quality leads to your website. By this analysis you will be exactly seeing to whom you are targeting, which age group is going to love this type of content or at which platform you can boost your website.
2. Choosing a platform
There are numerous platforms to do blogging. Wordpress, blogger, wix, squarespace are among them. In Nepal wordpress and bloggers are popular. Blogger is easy and beginner friendly to use. You can easily set up your account and write your blog using blogspot subdomain.
Wordpress is another option that is widely used for blogging. Wordpress has a lot of options to choose from. Its beginner friendly professional website builder, you don't need a HTML course to build a professional looking website. It has a lot of customizable themes that you can choose from. Also it is a search engine and SEO friendly so many people opt for wordpress.
3.Register a domain
After choosing a platform you need to register a domain. Domain is the name of your website ( for e.g. www.bimalastha.com.np ) Pick a domain name that is simple, memorable and reflects your website’s content. So that way if readers love your content they can always come back to your website.
For registration, if you have the dollar card and you want international registrars, then you can go with namecheap, godaddy,domain.com etc. and they cost $8-$12 annually. Otherwise, there are plenty of options in Nepal too. You can go to babaal.host, nest nepal, prabhu host, and choose an option that is suitable for you. Mostly they will charge about rs.1000-1500 annually.
You can also register a domain at register a .np that is free of cost. For the detail you can check my next blog: How to get a free .com.np domain in nepal.
4. Hosting
Hosting is an internet space provider for a blog. Hosting is optional, but we recommend using hosting. Blogger provides hosting at a zero cost which is great for starting out. But if you are serious about blogging you might opt for wordpress. If you are looking for international hosting you can buy through hostinger, bluehost, godaddy etc. which cost between $10- $15 per year which is a great deal even for beginners.
In Nepal you can buy hosting at a good price too. Babal.host, Prabhu host, himalayan host are good for beginner bloggers. They cost you around rs.1000-1500 per annum, also you can choose a monthly plan as well and upgrade as your blog grows.
5. Wordpress installation and customization
After buying hosting you are ready to have your own website. In blogger you can connect a custom domain and start right away but wordpress needs a little bit of setup. Most of the hosting sites provide automatic wordpress installers within your account cPanel with auto installer, if there is no option for that you can install wordpress manually as well.
After installation you can customize the template and design of the site. In blogger you only have limited themes to customize but in wordpress you have many options to choose from. There are hundreds of themes that you can choose that suits your niche. In seconds you can have a professional looking blogging site ready. You can simply choose a theme that you like and edit later as per your blog. Most of the bloggers use astra themes for their blog. and if you are looking for a more astonishing design you can try premium themes as well.
6. Initial setup
Now the themes and layout have been decided, there are some features that need to be edited. During your editing period you can keep enabled to discourage search engines from indexing sites and process your setup.
Initial setup includes properly setting your site name and tagline, deleting unnecessary plugins to websites, deleting default posts etc. Also wordpress helps to build SEO friendly posts and installing google analytics and creating posts based upon that boosts the traffic to the website. Installing essential plugins and creating privacy policy shows as a credible website.
7. Publishing your first post
Publishing your first blog can be intimidating. But if you have great knowledge or experience that stands out from the other bloggers, you can always find your space. Sharing what you have learned or what is missing out in other blogs helps readers to go back to your site. And doing some extra research before publishing is the great way to start.
Final words
With the right attitude and effort, there is always a way in every sector. Creating high quality content and driving organic traffic to the website is what makes a successful blogger. Once you achieve the frequent amount of traffic then you can monetize your blog and earn that extra money.