How to Start a Blog - in Just 7 Easy Steps for Beginner 2020

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Everyone is talking about online marketing and many immediately think: "I have to start a blog". And that's right. Many - maybe you too - are wondering: How do I start a blog? I'll show you how to start a blog - in 7 easy steps - and what is the cost to start blogging.

What is a blog?

A blog is originally a public diary or journal that is kept on a website. It is published by one person, the blogger - there can be several - thoughts, opinions, facts, etc. in the form of articles or articles on different topics. The activity of writing in a blog is called blogging and here you can find more information about blogging.

In business and the modern corporate world, a blog is used as part of the content marketing strategy. In this way, the company addresses informative and current issues to interested readers, thereby establishing itself as an expert and authority in a subject area.

With a blog, you are opening up an ideal channel for bringing structured and regular content to your website and your prospects. There are significant benefits to dedicating yourself to blogging and writing regularly for your readers. In our agency for search engine optimization in Vienna, we run numerous blogs for our customers.

Some of the advantages are:

You establish yourself as an expert (expert status)
build trust
increase your visibility on the Internet
as a small company, you have good chances in the competition
Blog entries are particularly good for sharing on social media
What is stopping you from starting blogging right now?
Often your perfectionism and doubts stand in the way and you hesitate to finally get started. Or. Blogs started with enthusiasm are simply left behind after some time. The articles are forgotten.

The reason for this is in most cases that the beginner or inexperienced blogger underestimated the effort for a successful blog. This in turn is because the necessary basic knowledge about how to run a blog is very often lacking.

We'll clear that up today. The following tips are for beginners and beginners. I will show you point by point what you need and what you need to consider. Blogging is not rocket science. It can be learned. You already know why you should start a blog. Now we’ll look at the next step together.

Since this post is aimed at beginners and not very experienced bloggers, we start at the very beginning.

What are the challenges for beginners?

Bloggers who are just starting have a few hurdles to overcome. It doesn't matter whether you as a company want to make money blogging or just want to run a blog for fun. The rules are the same for everyone.

You must know

what you want to blog about
who your readers should be
what content you deliver to your readers
what technical requirements you need for blogging
should it be a WordPress blog or maybe Joomla?
which plugins do you need?
what should you pay attention to when writing your content?
should you hire a content writing agency like Compose.ly?

If you want to be a successful blogger, you have to face the challenges. You have to think about every single point and get clarity. Otherwise, you will not get past the beginner stage.

So let's focus on every question. Let's start with the topic of your future blog.

1. What topic should my blog have?

You need to take the time to choose the topic of your future blog. Because running a blog is the decision to enter into a long-term partnership. But - as sometimes happens in partnerships - there is a risk that after the initial euphoria, the fire will be out after some time.

To avoid this, choose a topic that interests you. Otherwise, like many beginners, you will soon stop blogging due to the intensive effort. Running a blog is hard work. It means sitting down daily and doing something for it. Sometimes it also means forcing yourself to overcome your inner bastard.

For this reason, it is advisable to blog about something that interests you. Something you are willing to invest time in, educate yourself and learn constantly.

Moritz Bauer asks the following questions on his blog montage.de :

Do I still want to write about the blog topic in 3 to 5 years?
Can I still write about the blog topic in 3 to 5 years?
Will the blog topic still be relevant in a few years?
Does the blog topic offer enough potential?
Can I achieve my goals with the Blog topic?
I add one more essential to these questions:

Can I provide relevant, helpful, and informative content for the reader over a long period of time?
In a company blog, the topic is predetermined. Nevertheless, it would be good if you could answer the questions with a clear YES.

Analyze the potential of the blog topic
The topic of your blog must interest the readers. You have to look for it. Otherwise, you write for yourself.

Research gives you information about it. Here is the simplest method. Just search for it on Google and see if there are other blogs and pages about it. The search volume - the results found - should be high. This shows you that your topic is interesting because there is a lot of content about it.

As a guideline, I would say that the number of search results on Google should not be less than 1 million. But be careful: it shouldn't be too high either. Otherwise, the competition is too big and the chance of ranking well with Google is very slim.

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to blog about one of the big topics - for example online marketing - you can do that. Break your content down into sub-topics and sub-areas and write about them. But this topic would go too far for this post as it is aimed at beginners.

Conclusion: Successful bloggers know what they are writing about. You did your research beforehand.

2. What do I want to achieve with my blog?

The next question is: What is your goal with your blog?

Are you a company and want to generate new customers and make money through blogging or do you want to use the blog for private purposes to develop creatively?

Do you want to:

Earn money?
Establish yourself as a brand or an expert.
Generate traffic for your company website.
Blogging just for fun?

Why is the answer to this question important?

It sets the direction of your future content marketing strategy.
It helps you stay on the ball.
If you're just blogging for your pleasure, set up a blog (how I'll describe it), write your blog posts, and share them with your friends on Facebook. Write as long as you enjoy it. However, don't be surprised if one day the passion is out - that inevitably comes. It’s not too bad, you’re only blogging for pleasure.

If you want to make money as a blogger or to promote your company, things look very different. You need a well-thought-out content marketing strategy and you need to know that you have to overcome, force, and torture yourself when the initial fire has gone out. For this reason, it is good to know your goal and keep reminding yourself of it.

Conclusion: As a blogger, you have to know your goal

3. The target group - who am I writing for?

The goal of your articles should always be to inform other people, solve their problems, support them - and deliver benefits and added value.

Your target group is having problems. You have the solution. Your target group doesn't know how something works. You know it. And you provide this knowledge for free.

You are faced with the challenge of addressing your information and solutions to the people you want to reach and who need it.

To reach these people, you need to know them. You have to know your target group as well as your partner, your child, and your dog.

Create a persona (a fictional representative of your target group) and research.

What does the reader of your newly started blog look like? Is he male or female? Under 30 or 50+? What hobbies, worries, or wishes does your blog reader have? Follow him, chase him, spy on him, crawl into his brain - get to know him. Where? On Facebook, Twitter, question-and-answer portals, forums, etc.

The more specifically you can describe him or her, the more specific and efficient you can blog for the person!

And only when you know your target group exactly and know that you can solve their problems is the time ripe for further steps to start your blog.

Conclusion: Successful bloggers know their readers very well

4. Which blog software is the most suitable?

You now know the goal of your blog and you know your target group. Now it's time to think about the technical implementation.

You can run a blog with your domain or use free providers.

You will choose the "Own Domain" option if you want to integrate the blog into your company website. But also if you want to have the greatest possible influence on the visual and functional design of your blog.

The most popular software solutions for blogs are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

Free blog providers: Blogger, WordPress.com, Tumblr, etc.

WordPress is the clear favorite of blog operators.

Because most bloggers use WordPress, I will show you how to set up and set up your blog using the example of a WordPress installation hosted on your domain.

5. Set up a WordPress blog

Before you start the installation, there are a few things you need to think about. On the one hand, you have to choose a suitable domain or blog name and on the other hand, the selection of the hosting provider is of enormous importance.

Choose the right domain/blog name
The domain name is important in several ways.

If you want to establish yourself as a brand, you should choose your name or the name of your company as the domain name.

To market your product or service, it is advisable to research the right keyword and put it in the blog name.

This is important because you want to achieve good rankings in the search results with your blog and the contributions to Google and Co. In most cases, this is also the main reason for running a blog.

Landing pages, service pages, product descriptions, etc. can often only be ranked well with considerable effort. The competition is simply too big and powerful in many areas. With well-written and optimized texts in blog articles, however, there is still a chance of a top placement in the search results. Also for beginners and beginners.

If you write "just for fun" on your blog and don't care about a Google ranking, you can let off steam with the blog name.

The right web host
I don't want to advertise a hosting provider, so I'm just telling you what to look for when choosing your host.

Reliable server availability 24/7
High server speed
Sufficient data transfer or traffic
Outstanding service
Fair costs
And don't forget an SSL certificate

These are the minimum requirements. With these, you are well served for now. Most hosts offer different hosting packages. Don't get the cheapest out of misunderstood thrift. Choose one that suits your needs. Whether you pay 2.90 or 4.90 per month for hosting doesn't matter for the wallet. However, it can mean worlds for the performance of your blog.

Install blog software
Most hosting providers offer the option of installing web shops, blogs, or other software in the hosting control panel. To find under software center or similar name. You will also find WordPress below. With a few clicks, your WordPress blog is installed.

Which basic settings are necessary?
Do you have WordPress installed and want to get started right away? Wait. Be sure to make some important basic settings beforehand to ensure the success of your blog.

Which theme should I use?
There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes (WordPress themes).

Since you want to start your blog, I would advise you not to waste a lot of time choosing your theme at the moment.

Do not get me wrong. You will need a theme sooner or later, but there will be time for that later.

You can have a look around at ThemeForest. ThemeForest has a lot of good WordPress themes from 30 to 60 dollars.

You can work quite well with that. It is much more important than the optimal design that you write some articles and get them out there.

If you don't like the default theme at all, you can easily change it. Log in to the administration area. To do this, you have to log in with the username and password you specified during installation.

In the administration area, you will find "Design" on the left side. If you click on it, the submenu appears with the menu item Design. Click on it and you will see Add new theme.

If you click on "Add new theme", you come to the selection area. If you click on "Filter by functions", you can choose the functions you would like to have.

After you have selected your desired functions, click on "Apply filter" below. You will then be presented with a selection of free WordPress themes for you to choose from.

Let's look at the "Yoast" plugin mentioned in the video to see how you install plugins.

With this last step, you have installed Yoast on your blog and can use it to optimize your blog content for search engines.

How you do it and how to set Yoast perfectly, you can read in our post Yoast SEO tutorial and video instructions .

6. The first blog article

I'm sure you are eager to finally be able to write your first blog post. You can also get started right away. Let me just briefly explain what you should pay attention to when blogging.

What should you watch out for when writing a blog article?
If I could only give you one tip, it would be: Write your articles for the reader - for your target group. Forget about search engine optimization for a moment. No matter what you've heard about it. As you write, do not think of anything other than providing your readers with the best information and help with their problems.

You will soon learn how to optimize your text with Yoast. First, however, is written freely. Siegfried also explains very well how you write SEO texts in his blog article. And he also says in it: Write your texts for the reader.

You can find out how to create great articles in our instructions: Writing blog articles - 10 times better and twice as fast.

And if you don't know what to blog about, read our blog ideas article. After that, you will never have problems finding a topic again.

A little tip from me: Don't always write the same type of article format. Vary the formats - you don't want to eat schnitzel every day either.

What types of article formats are there?
So that your blog doesn't get boring right from the start, you can choose from a variety of article formats. Here are a few examples:

Promotional items

News
Lists
Instructions
Case studies
Link lists
Article series
Product reviews
and much more

One thing is important to me to mention. Namely, the frequency with which you publish on your blog.

How often should I blog?
Continuity is more important than the frequency of publications. In the beginning, you can write a little more often. Over time, it usually gets a little less on its own. You'll spend more time marketing and promoting your blog content, and less time writing articles. If your blog is filled well, it doesn't matter.

But you should level yourself off with a good rhythm. Regularly published articles are a secret to blog success. Your loyal readers rely on hearing from you at regular intervals. Almost like a good TV series.

It doesn't matter whether you fill your blog with news every week, every two weeks, or once a month. There are bloggers like Walter Epp from Schreibsuchti.de who only publish once a month and are therefore extremely successful.

Search engine optimization with Yoast SEO
So that your blog can be found in the search engines in the long term, you should optimize your text SEO. In WordPress, this is pretty easy with the Yoast SEO plugin.

I could now artificially drag this article out and explain again what Marcus already explained wonderfully in his blog post about the plugin. I don't do that, but I recommend reading the post.

Conclusion: Experienced bloggers know: Write for your readers. Don't be bored and offer your solutions and information in a variety of ways. Only then is it Google’s turn to optimize.

7. After publication

If you think that writing the blog article is enough, I have to disappoint you. Now it's only beginning to get really exciting.

Blogging is not just about blog posts. Who will read your information and solutions to problems until they can be found in Google search results? Blogging means writing and promoting. In a ratio of at least 50:50. Writing 3 hours means 3-6 hours of promotion. This rule of thumb has proven itself many times.

Promote your blog post
After you've published your information on your blog, share it on the appropriate social media channels. Let people, your target audience, know that you and your new blog exist.

Show them what you can do. Build up a fan base step by step - a community. Deliver valuable content to your blog, copy your URL, and distribute it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Co.

Which social media channel is the right one?
You know your target group. At least you should know them. You should know where she is hanging around. Our article Social Media Channels - Where Companies Find Their Target Group can serve as a little support. There you will find which social media prefer certain age groups as well as professional groups.

I would suggest you publish five good (very good) blog articles on your blog very quickly. After that, it makes sense to start social sharing.

And since we're talking about social. Remember to answer the comments on your posts.

Conclusion: blogging consists of writing and promoting. Successful bloggers invest at least as much time in marketing their information as in writing the content.

This is how you build a loyal readership with your blog
I now assume that you don't want to run your blog just for fun, but that you pursue a lucrative goal. In this case, it is an advantage if you start newsletter marketing in addition to your blog. Blog and newsletter are made for each other.
To generate newsletter subscribers with your blog, you have to provide a so-called freebie and include a contact form for entry in the newsletter list in your blog. You can read about how to do this here.

2019 can be your year! - The best thing to do is start your blog today!
If you are just starting your blogger career, it is important to start. No matter whether as a clearly defined business or for private purposes. Starting immediately is particularly important.

You should say goodbye to the following doubts and thoughts. Especially when starting a blog:

I'm still not 100% sure that the topic fits
But I don't want to publish Bla Bla either
The research is just too intensive
I could blog about it, but it probably won't interest anyone
I just don't have time for that
I don't know what to blog specifically about
I have already run out of topics
The topic was not over long ago
I buy or copy most of the texts, it's faster
Nobody reads texts over 300 words anymore
Have you already recognized yourself in one or two excuses? Forget it.

Start as soon as possible. Quality is important and essential in the long run to stand out from the competition - but initially poison.

Are you motivated to start your blog, create the first blog post, and publish it tomorrow?

Do you still have doubts? Then retire in a spare minute and think about whether a blog would bring you what you need for yourself or your company. Maybe this article also helped you to shed some light on the dark.