“I’d love to start a blog but I’m not a good writer”. The number of times we’ve heard this unreal.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links – if you click through and make a purchase, Blog So Easy will earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Do You Need To Be A Good Writer To Blog?
There are so many people out there who are put off from starting their own blog because they believe they have to be brilliant writers in order to qualify. Do you need to be a good writer to blog? The short answer is no, you don’t but there are some simple things you can do to make your writing as great as it can be.
Let’s take a look at this question in some more detail below by first defining what’s meant by “good writer”, what’s needed to write good blog posts and how anyone can improve their own writing.
What’s A “Good Writer”?
When people ask the question “do you need to be a good writer to blog?” usually what they mean is do they need to be a published author of some kind or be perfect with the pen.
But really all that is required to write a good blog post is to make sure that your readers understand your point.
Beyond this of course, you will need to make sure that your writing is at the very least free from serious errors and flaws. Most readers will probably excuse a few grammatical errors here and there but just make sure your articles are not littered with mistakes.
Ultimately blogging is about conveying your ideas to your audience in a way that they will understand and connect with.
How To Write Good Blog Posts
Let’s now take a look at some possible ideas to help you write better blog posts whether or not you consider yourself to be a good writer or not.
Get To The Point
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter” –
Blaise Pascal
One of the best ways to make sure you writing hits the mark is to get to the point. Don’t waffle.
It’s unnecessary and will likely result in visitors clicking away from your site entirely as they get frustrated.
Good blog writing is not about word count but rather conveying your message in the most efficient way possible.
Check Your Work Or Ask Someone Else To
If you’re worried about making silly mistakes in your writing there are two things that pretty much anyone can do to get around it.
The first one is something all bloggers should do which is to simply check your work. Once you’ve written your article go back over it and read it back to yourself. Sometimes reading it out loud makes it easier to spot errors.
The other way you can double-check your work is to ask someone else to check it for you. They may be in a better position to spot an error than you as they will be completely fresh to your content.
As you get further into your journey, you may even want to consider hiring an editor to check your work.
Imagine Your Talking To A Friend
Write your blog posts like the way you would talk to a friend. Don’t feel any pressure to write in a way that doesn’t reflect your personality.
In fact, very often people read blogs to get the perspective of others and there’s no better way to connect with your audience than to address them as you would someone you know.
Begin With The End In Mind
When you’re writing your blog posts, start with the conclusion. This may seem backward and contrary to everything you were taught in English class but most web users have little patience.
They want their information and they want it fast! You need to be able to keep your reader’s attention and one of the best ways is to show them right from the start that your article has what they’re looking for.
Once you’ve addressed their needs and captured their attention upfront, you can then delve deeper into the topic.
Plan Your Blog Posts
One of the best ways to make sure your writing is concise and well structured is to plan out your articles before you start actually writing.
I like to write outlines of my posts in bullet point format before I get into the details.
This helps with structuring my content and it’s very easy to tell if I’m headed in the right direction.
Just Get Writing
The best way to write good blog posts? Just get writing! You’re never going to become a great writer just thinking about it. Pretty much anyone can become a great blogger with the right tools, techniques and mindset.
Even if you don’t have the confidence right now, once you get started and continue blogging consistently you’ll find you gain it through practice.
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Starting a blog can be a great experience but before you hit that publish button for the first time, here are a few things that we’ve learnt as we’ve started our journey that we wish we knew at the start!
1 – It’s Easy To Start But Hard To Keep Going
Let’s get something straight from the beginning; starting a blog is super easy. Anyone can do it and that’s why it’s such a great form of expression. The signup and starting process is super easy and can be done in minutes.
But whilst it’s easy to get started it can be hard to keep going.
For a blog to have a chance you will need to consistently and regularly top it up with great content which will take effort. This can be particularly difficult in the early days when you have yet to establish any kind of audience.
What we’ve learnt from building our Amazon affiliate site is that you need to prepare yourself for this before hand.
Set realistic expectations upfront.
For example when we first started pretty much everything we read about SEO and ranking on Google suggested it would be about 6 months before we saw any real action on there. That’s why we didn’t lose hope in the first few weeks when we didn’t see any activity and were overjoyed when we ended up getting 10 clicks within the first 6 weeks.
To keep you going through the inevitable rough periods that will come, have the expectations front and centre knowing that in some cases you may exceed them, whilst in other areas it will take longer as we’ve also seen.
Decide upfront that you are in it for the long-haul and make a determination to stick with it.
2 – It Is Not As Complicated As Some Would Have You Believe
As much as SEO specialists, developers and a whole host of online marketers like to make it appear, this whole blogging and website thing is not as complicated as some would have you believe.
Yes of course there’s lots to be learned (more on that next) and it takes effort (see above); but what area of life where there’s potential for growth doesn’t?
The point is, if you are prepared to spend time learning, then anyone can pick this stuff up and get to grips with the basics they need to get up and running.
Some would have you believe that only those with technical backgrounds can build a website and get it ranking but the truth is today just about anyone can.
3 – You Will Need To Learn
Having said the above, let me say this; you will have to learn a lot.
There’s no getting away from that but that is part of the main benefit to you starting a blog/website. In a lot of cases those seeking to start a blog already have a desire to learn more about various topics and are keen to share that knowledge or passion.
There are lots of new things you will need to learn to make your blog a success for example how to build sites on a platform like WordPress, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), social media marketing and a whole heap of other cool stuff.
But the great thing about the time we live in is that it’s super easy to learn a new skill.
Before we started our Amazon affiliate site we knew zero about SEO. I didn’t even know that you could register your site with Google to get it appearing on their search results faster.
But through devouring hours of knowledge via podcasts, reading tons of articles online and most crucially starting out and experimenting we’ve managed to build a site that is now growing in traffic by over 50% month on month and continuing to get more and more content onto page 1 of Google in a highly competitive niche.
My point is, although there is lots to learn, there are plenty of tools out there that will help you if you’re prepared to put the effort in.
4 – You Need To Select A Niche
If you’re starting your first site, you need to select a niche and stick with it. There’s so much content out there and it can be easy to get tempted with trying to cover tons of stuff on your blog.
But your best chance of success lies in selecting one particular niche and going deep into it. As well as making it easier for you to organise your content, it will also make your site appear more relevant on search engine results.
From our experience, our site started performing a lot better when we focused on one particular niche from a broader category.
Focusing in one area will help you to identify your core audience and get traction more quickly.
5 – You Can Make Money But It Will Take Effort
For a lot of people, starting a blog is a way to try make some extra money as well as giving them something meaningful to do.
Making money from blogging is simple but not easy.
When I say simple I mean the concepts around how to do it is fairly straight forward. As long as you can drive traffic to your website there are a number of ways you can make money be it selling products and services, advertising or affiliate offers.
But the reality is making any kind of money with a blog when you are just starting out is hard work.
It took our site just over 3 months to make its first sales. It felt brilliant to see the validation of the model we had employed but it also took a lot of perseverance in those first few months as there were times when it seemed like it was never going to happen. This is even though pretty much everything I read prior to that suggested 9 – 12 months before you make your first sale.
Overall, whilst it is definitely possible to make money with a blog, don’t expect to do it overnight.
6 – Focus On One Thing A Day
When you think about the overall goals of your blog it can be inspiring but also draining.
One of the best ways to keep you going, is to simply focus on accomplishing one task each day that will take you closer to your overall goal.
It may make sense for you to break down your overall goal into objectives for each month, week and day for the first few months to give you some traction. A 3 month plan to start things off can work quite well.
After that, the only thing you’ll then need to do is focus on hitting that one target each day and you’ll be confident in the knowledge that your working towards your bigger objective. This will help you overcome a lack of motivation or even frustration when you’re not seeing the kind of results you want especially in the early days.
This could be a goal to write one piece of content every day or at least a social media post.
Whatever it is, make sure you are clear on what it needs to look like to help you move forward as momentum is crucial in the early days.
7 – It Can Be Highly Rewarding
If you’re prepared to put the effort in, starting a blog can be incredibly rewarding in many ways.
You can give you a way to express yourself and build an audience whilst also creating a side income if you’re in it for the long-run.
There’s also something about starting from scratch and seeing your vision come to life that will surely give you a buzz and keep you motivated.
What Do You Need To Know Before Starting A Blog: Tell Us What You Think
“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” ―Baltasar Gracian
What To Do With Free Time At Home? If you’re tired of watching reruns of your favourite tv shows and can’t get out as much as you normally do you might be wondering how to fill your time.
There are so many creative and constructive ways to make use of any free time – there’s no excuse for not making the most of any time you have.
Whatever you decide, the key is to take action and just do SOMETHING! Don’t sit around complaining about not having something to do if you don’t do ANYTHING.
What To Do With Free Time At Home
Here are a list of 7 ideas that will help to keep you occupied and your mind stimulated:
1 – Learn A New Skill
Acquiring a new skill could be one of the best ways to make use of your additional free time.
There are so many ways out there to acquire new knowledge and it’s easier than ever before.
As well as sharpening your tools it will also keep your brain stimulated which will help to boost your mental health.
Quite importantly in a lot of cases it’s absolutely free. I’ve learnt pretty much everything I know about SEO through podcasts.
If you’re now confined to your home office with limited social interaction, having a podcast on in the background can be a great way to keep you lightly entertained whilst also filling you with expert knowledge.
It’s never a bad idea to pick up a new skill especially in a world where technology is rapidly changing the work landscape.
Here are a few potential skills you could look into:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Website development
Languages (Spanish; French; Swahili)
Advanced Excel
Learning an instrument
2 – Listen To Podcasts
We’ve sort of covered this in #2 but it’s worth featuring on its own because podcasts offer such a wealth of high quality content and entertainment.
Whether you want to learn, simply be entertained or just pass some time you can find a podcast that can cater to your mood.
Here are some of our favourite podcasts to get you started:
There’s no better time to start journaling and writing daily reflections than when you have lots of free time on your hands.
As well as keeping your mind stimulated, it will also help you with keeping focused on what’s important to you.
5 – Start A Podcast
Can’t find a podcast that caters to your interest? Then why not start your very own podcast!
Its never been easier to produce your own content and the podcast format is no exception.
With a basic microphone and a laptop you can get started on your journey.
6 – Take Up A Hobby
There’s no better time to take up a gentle hobby like sewing or baking then when you have extra free time. Here are a few ideas for hobbies you can take up at home:
Baking
Sewing
Drawing
Painting
Writing
7 – Workout
Working out at home can be a great way to keep your mind and body both fit and health.
Head over to YouTube and you’ll find a gazillion ways to get active.
What To Do With Free Time At Home – 7 Great Ideas: Tell Us Your Thoughts
You want to start a blog but you’re asking yourself – what topic should I choose for my blog? Don’t worry you are not alone.
Selecting a topic for your blog is probably the hardest and also the most important step in creating your blog. It can feel inconvenient that it is pretty much the first decision you have to make when you set out.
But if you approach it in the right way, it need not be as daunting as it sounds.
What Topic Should I Choose For My Blog?
The best way to approach this is to ask yourself a series of questions that can help to lead you to the right area.
What Do I Find Interesting?
The first question to ask yourself is “What Excites Me?”. This is crucial but often overlooked when it comes to blogging as people try to hone in on what will make them money first. Whilst the profitability of a niche is absolutely important, what’s even more critical is making sure it excites you.
Your blog is really powered by the content you have on there. If you don’t have great content, people simply won’t visit. No visitors, no money.
In order to create quality content weekly or even daily, you need to have a topic that genuinely excites you.
To hone in on what excites you, ask yourself the following questions (grab a piece of paper and write whatever comes to mind):
What do you find yourself talking about constantly when given half a chance?
What gets your emotions going when you start talking about it?
What do you wish everybody knew or cared about?
What do you think you could write about every day without getting bored?
These questions and similar like it should help to get you to a few topics that could work well.
What Is In High Demand?
Now you have a list of a few topics that excite you, we now need to make sure that other people will get excited about them too!
It’s all well and good if you get really excited about custom-made to order golf shoes but we need to make sure a big enough group of people do so too.
There are a few ways to check our topics will generate enough of a regular buzz to give us the assurance that we will get the audience we need.
One of the most popular ways is to conduct some keyword research. This is a whole topic in itself but for the purposes of finding an overall blog topic we just need to know how many people are searching for a particular term. One of the best tools around for doing is is Mangool’s KWFinder. Enter your overall topics into the tool and see what kind of search volumes you get.
As long as you have a few thousand search queries a month you know you will have a pretty good level of interest.
What Will Generate Income?
Now that we have one or two topics that (i) have your interest and (ii) get lots of searches, the third part of the equation is making sure that you can monetise them and that there is potential to actually make some money.
The reality is that it’s possible to make money in pretty much any niche as long as you have the first two parts of this equation covered. If you know you can get excited and generate quality content for a popular niche then you’ll have a good chance of generating traffic which you can monetise.
But to be absolutely sure, you can start by brainstorming some potential ways you could monetise your traffic and think about:
Are there products on a marketplace like Amazon that your readers would be interested in?
If so, Amazon has a very popular affiliate marketing program where you get paid a commission when a reader clicks a product link on your page and buys something (our first website is an Amazon affiliate website).
Are there products that your readers would be interested in buying directly from you?
If there are products your potential audience might buy directly from you then this could be a great way to monetise traffic. This might be products you could drop-ship to your audience or even develop yourself.
Are there other affiliate programs you could use that your audience would be interested in?
For example are there magazines or subscriptions services your audience would be interested in that you could offer up on your website.
Could you attract enough visitors to use display ads?
Display ads from a provider like Google AdSense payout whenever users visit a page and see the ad or click through onto an advert. You get paid a small amount for every view or click so you typically need a large audience to make it worth while but it offers a predictable stream of income.
A great way to see the potential for monetisation in a given niche is to look around at what other blogs in your prospective space are doing.
Finding Profitable Low Competition Sub-Topics
As well as giving you volume, KWFinder will also give you an idea of how competitive a given topic is in terms of rankings on Google. Just because a topic is competitive does not mean you shouldn’t go for it but it will give you a clear indication of the difficulty involved in ranking on Google.
In any case, at this stage you are more concerned with high level search volumes. In any given niche or topic there are thousands of sub-topics and queries you could write articles about and rank for which won’t be as competitive as the main topic.
But it’s worth bearing in mind KWFinder as a tool for helping you to identify sub-topics that may not be as difficult to rank for on Google as the main topic.
What steps are required to start a blog? Learn the exact steps required to start your blog today.
Starting a blog can seem a daunting prospect if you’ve never done it before and with all the noise online it’s easy to get lost and discouraged.
But it doesn’t have to be that way because starting a blog or any other type of website is actually a very simple process if you know the right steps to take.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links – if you click through and make a purchase, Blog So Easy will earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
What Steps Are Required To Start A Blog?
Let’s take you through the steps you need to launch your own blog today!
Step 1: Find Your Why
Before you do anything else you need to be crystal clear on why you want to start a blog or website. The mechanics of starting a blog are super-easy as we’ll show below but keeping it going and growing takes significant effort.
One of the best ways to ensure that you’ll have the determination and peristence needed to keep going is to make sure you have a clear and compelling reason for starting it in the first place.
The “why” should come in 2 parts:
Part 1: this is the “practical” why – the why you could explain to a work colleague or bank manager. It’s what explains your reasoning from a logical perspective. Possible practical reasons why may include:
Promote an existing business/product/service
Talk about a topic your keen on (for some this means what they’re “passionate” about)
As a way to learn new skills (web development; SEO; social media marketing; content creation etc)
Create additional income streams
Part 2: this is the “emotional” why – the why you probably couldn’t explain but you feel it any way. It’s this why that will compel you to push on when the going gets tough. This why will give you the courage to try stuff you’ve never tried before and keeping getting back up whenever you get knocked down. These reasons may include:
To try and find space for you to express yourself
A platform to create ideas out of nothing
To leave a legacy
To start building your way to financial freedom
Step 2: Select A Topic For Your Blog
So now that you’re clear on why you want to start a blog, the next stage is deciding what your blog’s going to be about.
Picking a topic for your blog will partly be determined or at least informed by what you wrote down from step 1.
The topic you select will depend on what you want your blog to accomplish.If you want to create a blog
Let’s take a look at a possible framework you could use for selecting a topic (you can get this framework in a handy Google Sheet template):
1 – Demand: How Much Demand Does Your Topic Have?
What is the search volume on Google?
Are people talking about it?
Is it likely to grow in future?
Are there any trends present today that could mean demand reduces in future?
Is demand consistent across the year? I.e. not seasonal
Do people carry a high level of buying intent?
2 – Interest: Is It A Topic You Find Interesting?
Could you imagine writing about this topic every day?
Do you think you could get bored of this topic?
Is it something you could imagine talking to your friends and family about?
Could you add original value in this field with your ideas?#
3 – Monetisation: Is There A Way To Monetise It?
Can you see some potential income streams from it?
Are there others in this space who are already making money from it?
Could one or more of the following income models be applied:-
Selling adverts
Affiliate marketing
E-commerce – selling products or services
Training/coaching/courses
Subscriptions
4 – SEO POTENTIAL – Could You Find Keywords To Rank For On Search Engines?
Could you find keywords to rank for?
Would you be able to rank on Google and otherwise search engines?
Are there ways you could improve on what others are doing in this space?
Once you’ve addressed the above exercise you should have a pretty good feel for what topic you want to focus on.
You can get the above framework as Google Sheets template (Hit File and Make a Copy):
The platform is where you will build your blog. The technical name for it is Content Management System (CMS) and you’ll see this banded about and it may sound complicated. In reality it’s not; it’s just a platform that will turn your sparkling words into a blog format. By far the most popular blogging platform is WordPress. It’s also the platform we use for (i) Blog So Easy, (ii) our main niche site and (iii) recommend to others.
We love WordPress because it’s so easy to use and it’s also intuitive – you can pick things up as you go without even realising.
It also gets installed automatically at the next stage of the process.
Step 4: Select Your Web Host Provider
The next stage of the process is one of the most critical; selecting which web host to use. A web host is a service that simply puts your website online and does what’s needed to keep it up. Every website needs one. The one we recommend, use ourselves and recommend to others also happens to be one of the most popular web hosts out there: Bluehost.
Their setup process is super-easy, fast and includes WordPress automatically. And for peace of mind they also have a 30 day money back guarantee.
How much does it cost? A Bluehost account works out to around $3.95 per month when you split the annual payment. You pay for the subscription in one go at the start which is quite good with helping you get committed and more importantly stay committed.
Can I start my blog for free? You can easily start a blog for free and we’ve actually tried to myself in the past. However, you’ll only get a small subset of the features you can with paid options and it can be tricky trying to switch later on. It also usually means you have to have advertising that’s beyond your control on your website.
Select the Get Started button and then choose which plan you want to go for. If it’s your first site the Basic plan will probably be good enough to get started.
You can always switch later if you need to.
Step 5: Choose A Domain Name
A domain name is the address of your website (e.g. blogsoeasy.co.uk). If you already know the name of your website you can enter here if not just choose “I’ll create my domain name later”.
How do I pick a good domain name? Selecting a good domain name can be daunting but don’t sweat it too much. Try to remember the following:
Keep it simple
Make it easy to remember
Don’t make it too long – 15 characters or less is ideal
Try not to use hyphens as they tend to be associated with spammy tactics
Try make it relevant to the topic
Step 6: Enter Your Account Information
Enter the necessary account details (name, email address etc) to get you setup and payment information for processing.
At this stage if you opted for the Basic or Plus package in step 2 be sure to select the “Domain Privacy Protection” – this will help keep your website more secure.
Step 7: Set Up Your Password
The next stage is to set up your account and password.
Step 8: Select A Theme For Your Blog
Once you have your account setup and you log on for the first time, it will be time to pick a theme for your website. Don’t worry too much if you can’t find the perfect one for you as you can always change it later.
If you’re unsure about which ones to go for, just look for something simple without too many colours at this stage.
What Comes Next
You now have functioning blog! That feels good doesn’t it! But what now? Let’s take a look at some of the first things you need to do with your shiny new blog.
Log Into WordPress
Now it’s time for you to login to WordPress and get cracking with building your shiny new blog. Click the WordPress button from the last step above. If you can’t see it go back to your email and select the WordPress link from there.
You’ll be taken to a screen that looks like this:
The WordPress dashboard is your control centre and where you’ll spend a lot of your time building your site.
It’s where you’ll write your posts (articles), manage your pages and all parts of your blog.
If you need to re-login into later, you can go back to your Bluehost main account, head down to “My Sites” and then hover over your website name then select “Log into WordPress”.
Have A Look At Your Shiny New Website
If you want to see what your new site looks like to visitors simply type in the address into a browser or from the WordPress dashboard hover over the house icon at the top with your website name and click visit site:
Don’t worry if you’re site looks very basic! That’s because you haven’t put your own touch on it yet and crucially it doesn’t have any content!
If you can’t see your site, make sure you try through the WordPress login because before you launch it, you’ll see a “Coming Soon” page.
Update Your Domain
When you first get started with Bluehost your site will have a temporary domain. Now it’s time to remove it and get started with your actual domain. The way to do this depends on what you selected during step 5.
Created A New Domain: If you created a new domain then you just need to activate it. You should have an email with instructions on how to do this – click the link in the email and Bluehost should do the rest.
Chose To Create It Later: Go to the Bluehost account area and hit Domains. Then select “Register”. You should then be able to search for a new domain and add it to your card. Your domain name is included in your sign-up so you should see a free credit – if not contact Bluehost support before purchasing it.
Switching An Existing Domain: If you have an existing domain that you would like to use, you need to point it to your new website. Bluehost very helpfully guide you through this process here. Alternatively you can get in touch with their support team and they’ll walk you through the process.
Change The Way Your Blog Looks
One of the best things about using WordPress is how easy it is to change the layout and design of your entire blog in just a few clicks.
The look of your design on WordPress is known as a “Theme”. Themes dictate the entire look of of your blog.
To get to themes and change your existing one, scroll down to Appearance on your WordPress dashboard and then hover over Themes.
You’ll then get to see all the themes that have been installed on your blog. Some of the ones you may see like Twenty Fifteen, Twenty Sixteen etc are very well designed and are used by some of the world’s most popular bloggers.
To get started it’s advisable to use one of these excellent themes. Once you are up and running and know your way around WordPress like a pro (which no doubt will come!), then you can play around even more.
You can preview your theme before you activate it to see what it will look like. Just hover over a theme and select Live Preview.
Once you have found the theme you are are happy with select Activate. That’s it; all done. You have now changed the theme of your entire blog to suit your own tastes!
Install A New Theme
If you don’t like any of the themes installed, you can find a completely new one in WordPress’ catalogue of thousands of themes.
You can use the Preview button to check how a theme appears before you choose to Install it. Once you hit Install the theme you select will be uploaded onto your blog.
Make Sure Your Site Is Secure With SSL
Next you need to make sure your site is secure with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL is a type of encryption that makes sure that the connection between your website and its users is secure.
It gives users the confidence that their information is in good hands and Google will appreciate it too.
If you’re site is not secure you’ll like see a “not secure” at the beginning of the web address on your browser or a little warning depending on the browser. Once you have secured it you’ll see a little padlock symbol.
You can also tell if a site is secure by looking at the full web address. An unsecure site starts with http:// but a secure one starts with https:// (like Blog So Easy).
If you opted to create a new domain or register it later you can secure your site via the Bluehost dashboard. If you go to My Sites then hover over your site and then select “Manage Site”.
Then select “Security” at the top and then toggle the off button next to “Free SSL Certificate” (this is included as part of your domain from Bluehost).
If your domain is registered elsewhere then get in touch with the registrar’s support desk to find out how to secure your site.
Write Your First Blog Post and Publish It
Now that your blog is nicely set up it’s time to actually get blogging!
You can now write your very first post. To do so, make sure your in the WordPress dashboard and on the left hand column click “Posts” and then Hit Add New
You’ll now be taken to the post editing screen where you can write your post. The first thing you need to do is add your post title.
Once you’ve done that you can get to writing. If you want to add a photo, there’s a little icon with a picture frame you can use to add them.
If you need to add paragraphs or sections you can click the plus “+” symbol on the left (Add Block) and it will give you a choice of the types of sections you’d like to add. Blocks are basically, well, the building blocks for your posts! You can add different types depending on how you need to structure your articles.
Once you are happy with your content, you hit the Publish button and get your blog out there to the world.
Launch Your Website
Before the world can see it though you need to actually launch your website.
Go to the “Coming Soon Active” at the top of the dashboard screen and follow the prompts to get your website launched.
Publish Content Regularly
Now that your website is up and running, be sure to publish new content regularly. Once a week is a great target and will keep your audience engaged. Prioritise quality content over quantity though.
Whatever you do, just keep publishing and keep at it! Sometimes the whole process will feel overwhelming and like an uphill climb but just stick with it and just focus on the next task, the next article.
Do I need a web host to start my blog? The short answer is yes you do need a web host to start your blog. Simply put you can have a blog or website live on the internet without a web host.
If you intend to build a solid foundation for your blog or website then you’re better off investing in a reliable web hosting partner from the off.
Let’s take a look at what web hosting actually is, why it’s important and some of the potential options you have.
What Is Web Hosting?
Simply put web hosting provides a home for your website. It’s where all of your websites content and data is stored (written content, media files, HTML, CSS and much more). Web hosting stores all of the things that allow your website to operate and stay live on the internet. Without a host, you wouldn’t have a place for your website to take shape.
Web hosting companies offer server space for you to rent for your website. In exchange for a fee they’ll provide everything necessary for your website to function and be found by anyone on the World Wide Web.
But in order for your website to be found, it needs to have any address. That’s where a domain name comes in. A domain name is like the address in your rental property – whenever someone types in the address they will be directed to your website.
There’s not much use having a hosted site without a domain and likewise having a domain name without a place to host your website is also pretty useless.
When it comes to creating websites and blogs you always have the option of choosing free platforms as well as paid.
Do I Need A Web Host To Start My Blog?
So now we know what web hosting is; do you really need it? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why it’s important to have a web host.
1 – Complete Control
One of the most important reasons for hosting your website on a platform like Bluehost is that you have full control of your blog or website.
When you opt to launch on a free platform in order to carry on operating you have to abide their terms and conditions.
If for whatever reason you inadvertently break one of their rules you could find your website taken offline and losing visitors as well revenues in the meantime.
2 – Take The Hassle Out Of Web Hosting
When you sign up to a web hosting package you are getting rid of the headaches that would come with trying to host a website on your own. If you don’t have a highly technical background and the experience to match it, hosting your own website would be near enough impossible to do well. If you’re just starting out on your online journey then signing up with a web host like Bluehost is the best option.
3 – Brand Recognition
When you sign up for a free blog hosting platform in most (if not all) cases you won’t be able to create your own unique website name. You’ll have to take whatever name is available from their list and then add the platforms overall address in the URL (web address). So for example if you wanted to started a blog about flavoured teas you might find only flavouredteas21.platform.com (platform = the provider). This may result in visitors not taking you seriously. It will also mean you can’t develop a brand image as easily separate from the overall platform. This not only hurts your credibility but will also limit how much you can customise your site.
It also often means you’ll have whatever adverts they want running on your website. This will limit your own ability to earn ad revenues as the site grows. With some free options you won’t be able to place your own adverts at all.
In addition, as you don’t pick the adverts that run on your blog they may go counter to the message or articles your trying to promote.
When you have your own paid hosting plan you’ll be able to fully customise your website and opt only for the type of advertising you wan.
4 – Full Access To Plug-Ins
A major plus for having your own hosted package for your website is the complete access you get to plug-ins. On free options you’ll only get limited access to plug-ins. This can seriously impact your site’s ability to grow in all kinds of ways. For example there are certain plug-ins that will help you to optimise your site for search engine traffic (SEO); a lot of these aren’t made available on the free hosting options and this could make or break your efforts.
With a full hosting package from Bluehost for example you get WordPress installed automatically and have access to its full range of plug-ins.
What Type of Web Hosting Do I Need?
Once you’ve made the decision to purchase web hosting services, you’ll notice there are a number of different types of plans available.
What would be best for you will depends on what you’ll need in terms of technical knowledge required, storage, technical support, speed and how much you want to spend.
Let’s take a look at the types of web hosting available.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is usually the cheapest option available and the one that requires the least technical knowledge upfront. Because of this it’s probably the best option for you if you’re just starting out with little or no previous experience of setting up a blog or website.
Shared hosting is based on website owners sharing server space with lots of other site operators space from a web host. A server is shared amongst all of the websites on that particular server.
For the price you pay and the little technical knowledge needed, it’s where we’d recommend you get started if you’re new in this space.
Shared hosting works best for static websites (e.g. blogs and information sites) that don’t require much interaction. If you need to load high quality files and media eg image galleries etc then you may want to look at a VPN option.
Best Shared Hosting Provider
#1 – Bluehost: They get our vote as the best shared hosting providers. They’re the only webhost we use and they proven to be great for our needs.
Cloud based hosting is a setup where your site is hosted on a network of servers. Simply put your site uses the resources from a collection of servers for its needs.
The collection or cluster of servers is termed as the “cloud”.
This can be a good option for websites that expect to get a high level of traffic.
This is because the load of your server is distributed over a number of different servers.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting plan is based on a certain number of users sharing a server but each having allocated resources to share between them. Whereas on a shared hosting plan multiple users share server space with no guarantee of resources, on a VPN plan users share allocated memory, space and hardware.
Each user as part of a VPN has their own virtual machine running a copy of an operating system.
This type of web hosting is well suited to website owners who have outgrown a shared hosting plan but don’t want to pay for a dedicated server for hosting.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Hosting via a dedicated server is the ultimate form of hosting if you want complete control and customisation.
Unlike the other hosting types, with dedicated server hosting you site is the only one on the server. This gives you access to more resources and a higher level of performance than the other types of hosting.
This is the most expensive type of web hosting and tends to suit websites that have high levels of traffic (think millions of visitors a month) and need significant resources to run at their best.
Do I Need A Web Host To Start My Blog?
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