How to Start Your Blog Today

STEP 1: Choose your blog topic

Starting a blog can be confusing. When I got started years ago, I remember being intimidated by this too. I kept searching through Google for different “how-to” guides, but they were all so technical and hard to follow. Back then, blogging wasn’t so popular as it is today.

Nowadays, setting up a blog is really simple. Even for people who aren’t that computer savvy.

Finding a niche, topic or category is ESSENTIAL for your blog. Otherwise, you’ll fail from day one. Believe me, I’ve mentored hundreds of beginner bloggers who all wanted to make it work, but failed since they didn’t choose a blog topic.

Here’s a simple rule I usually suggest: Choose a topic that you’re INTERESTED in. If you KNOW more about something than 99% of the rest of people, go with it. That way you can write about something that you’re passionate about.

If you don’t know what to blog about – don’t worry. You can still create a blog (you can figure it out later)

STEP 2: Choose a blogging platform – WordPress

There are a lot of different blogging platforms to choose from: WordPress, Tumbler, Blogger and many more. However, given that there are over 72 million active users using WordPress today, it’s clear which platform is the boss. Even my own sites and blogs are built with WordPress platform. Here’s why:

1) It’s FREE for everyone to use.

2) It’s super easy to set up.

3) It’s secure; WordPress are always updating their software and keeping everything sound and secure, so there’s rarely a worry of having your blog come under hacking attacks. No wonder Sony, NASA and even university blogs are using WordPress.

4) There are hundreds of free themes and plugins that add more functionality to your blog, from contact and subscribe boxes to plug-in that improve blog performance and more.

While the other blogging platforms are generally all pretty great, nothing in my opinion has ever come close to matching the freedom and customization options that Word Press offers. So without a doubt, go with WordPress.

STEP 3: Make a decision: non-hosted or self-hosted WordPress?

In short, there are two types of blogs – free blogging (non-hosted) services and self-hosted blogs. WordPress is no different than others. I’ll explain you the difference in a second, but first have a look at this chart:

	SELF-HOSTED BLOG	FREE BLOGGING SERVICES
Your blog address	Your blog address will look professional and neat. You’ll be able to set up your own domain name like: www.YourNewBlog.com	Your blog address will look like:tumblr.com/yourblog oryourblog.blogspot.com. Hard to remember and not really something you’d trust as a visitor, right?
Who can controls your blog content?	The only one who controls and moderates your blog is you. No-one will be able to remove/edit your content, you decide what you publish.	Your blog content is controlled and ownedby the free blogging service provider. If they think it’s against their TOS (which can happen), they can take down your blog without any warnings. All your hard work and time put on the blog can disappear within seconds.
How about monetization?	You decide which ads to place, which products/services to sell. You can even set up an email subscription.	Not really. On a free blogging platform,you’ll have some limitations. For example;“Selling ad space or running Adsense are prohibited on free blogging services.”
Customisation?	You’ll have access to over 1,500 free themes/layouts and over 2,000 free plugins. You won’t run out of features.	Limited. Fewer plugins and themes to choose from (around 100). If you want more themes and plugins – you’ll need to pay as it’s only for Premium users.
Sample blogs?	·         www.Jokes.com ·         www.hangamas.com	·         www.jobalertcafe.blogspot.com ·         www.jobalertcafe.wordpress.com
What about the cost?	Domain name: $10 / year Web Host: $2 – $4 / month	Free, but if you reach 25,000 monthly visitors, you’ll need to start paying.