How to start a blog is actually only half of the question. A better question would be how to start a blog and how to get it going to make it profitable. When I first started the blogging journey, I read tons of articles and blogs about starting a blog.
I found many guides on buying a domain name, installing WordPress, setting it up, and starting writing, what I did not find what to do once you have actually set up WordPress. What do I do to get traffic and make a living out of it? So you do not have to suffer in the attempt, which happened to me when I started.
Therefore, I will list down what you have to do to set up your blog and what you have to do from there to run it and make it successful.
Here how you can navigate this page:
- PART ONE: SET UP YOUR BLOG
- PART TWO: SEO WRITING – HOW TO WRITE TO GET TRAFFIC AND TRAFFIC METHODS
- PART THREE: MONETIZATION
It is a lot of reading. So, how to start a blog?
Contents
PART ONE: HOW TO START A BLOG AND SET IT UP
If you follow this guide exactly, you’ll have your blog set up pretty fast.
- Choose a great blog platform.
- Choose a web host for your blog.
- Clarify your blog topic
- Start a blog on your domain.
- Publish your main Pages
- Write your first post.
- Customize your blog design
- Must Plugins
- Get Traffic and Make Money
1. HOW CHOOSE A GREAT BLOG PLATFORM?
With which platform one should learn how to start a blog? Choosing where you want to build a blog is pretty much the first thing you have to do. You can choose between website builders or self-host your blog.
I’m going to take a guess and assume you’ve heard of WordPress. Honestly, if you want to create a successful blog, you have to go with WordPress. A website builder can be suitable for other purposes, but not for the purpose and techniques we will list below.
Initially, I did not want to make an effort to learn how to use WordPress. It can be a bit challenging for people who don’t know anything about it. But after time and money spent, I had to go back and start over with WordPress.
Why do the same mistake?
WordPress is a blogging software as well as a framework for web development.
It’s by far, one of the biggest blogging platforms globally, with countless plugins and add-ons and almost infinite ways to design and layout your blog.
In computing terms, a plug-in (or plug-in, add-on, or extension) is a software component that adds a specific feature to an existing computer program. … In other words, plug-ins allow additional functions to be performed on top of the default functions the particular software or website is designed for.
More than 82 million active users of WordPress should tell you and should have told me that this is the best option.
There are free alternatives, but again those are not suitable for creating the business model we are going for:
- Blogger – Definitely the next best thing to WordPress.
- Tumblr – Half social network, half blog. Interesting and very simple to use.
Here are my reasons why you should still go with WordPress:
- Easy set-up and is free to use if you wish to go with the free alternative, but if you want to blog professionally, I do not recommend this solution.
- Tons of free themes and layouts, you can customize WordPress as you want and integrate the platform with many Softwares and plugins. You have unlimited solutions.
- There’s a massive support forum in case you get stuck and tutorials around the web.
- Your blog will be insanely fast, and you can optimize it.
- People can interact with you quickly. Your content can be shared, commented on, and so on.
SELF HOSTING OR A FREE ALTERNATIVE?
It is the most significant decision you’ll have to make before we go any further. It would be best if you decided whether to pay for your blog or grab a free one.
WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger all offer free blogs for anyone. Free versions are perfect for those who aren’t super serious about blogging or want to try it and gain some experience before going professional.
But there are negative points in starting with a free blogging platform. Here a few:
1) You won’t be able to get your OWN domain name
Your blog’s web address (your URL) will be ugly; it is easy to see from a visitor standpoint that the blog is nonprofessional. In short, create a free blog with any other the above free blog services, and it’ll look like this:
- yourblog.wordpress.com
- yourblog.blogspot.com
- yourblog.tumblr.com
Not the best if you are creating a brand.
2) Limits
There are some limits to free blogs. You can’t fully monetize it, and you can’t upload all those videos and images you want to show everyone. You won’t even have access to the free themes offered by WordPress.
3) You DON’T OWN your blog
You don’t own your blog. It’s hosted on someone else’s web property, and it can be deleted without any advice. They have done so in the past. It means all your hard work on your blog, all those countless hours of writing blog posts might have vanished within seconds.
On the other hand, with a self-hosted blog on your own domain name – you are the REAL owner of your blog. You’ll be able to name your blog whatever you want, for example, “YourName.com” or “YourAwesomeBlog.com.
You can end it with .com, .co.Uk, .net, .org, or virtually any other web suffix. Add to that unlimited bandwidth for videos, images, and content plus the free themes, and you have a winning combo.
Basically, we agreed to start with a self-hosted WordPress. Or at least I hope I convinced you.
2. CHOOSE A WEB HOST FOR YOUR BLOG?
So how much is hosting and a domain name? It usually works out to about $5 to $10 per month, depending on your hosting provider, which is less than a couple of coffees.
You can find plans for cheaper starting from $1 or less.
I give you the top used platforms, so you do not have to go mad, figuring it out. However, I also place a link to over 20 alternatives if you want to check around and arrive at your own conclusions.
- TOP BLOGGERS’ CHOICE: BLUEHOST
- FAST AND CHEAP: HOSTINGER ( START AS LOW A $0.99)
- GIANT BRAND WITH GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE: GODADDY
If you want more alternatives: Find a Web Hosting plan that fits your needs.
I am personally using a Managed Word Press from GoDaddy.
Why Managed? In this way, I do not have to do any technical work or update, and it is very beginner-friendly. I do like Godaddy for their customer service. If I run into any bug, I can chat or call, and they always help. Also, it is effortless to use.
Their web hosting service comes with a free domain. Now that you selected a hosting plan before you get to the checkout, you have to choose a domain name. It would be best if you had an idea of your niche or website topic.
3. CLARIFY YOUR BLOG TOPIC
What to start a blog about? Possibly if you are looking to start a blog, you already have a pretty good idea of your niche. However, if you are contemplating starting a blog but not sure what to write about, then we have to get this cleared, so you can choose a domain name that fits the niche.
However, if you want to get started and define a better topic later, you can select a domain name that doesn’t limit your future writing. For example:
Yourname.com. If you name a domain with your name, this may leave many doors open. There may be other creative domain names you can use that leave open possibilities, for example:
- myideas.com
- mycorner.com
- mynamesolitions.com
Do you get the idea? You can have a general domain name so that you are not stuck with a niche. However, if you just want to write about a niche and create a niche website, it may be easier to choose a domain name.
If you’re part of a business, company, or organization, your blog should be related to the product(s) or service(s) you provide or the cause you promote.
There may be another way to choose a niche. You can look at it from the monetization viewpoint, and search in google what people are interested in and start a blog based on traffic and monetization strategies.
Here are some ideas for you to research a niche before getting hosting and domain name:
- HOW TO FIND A MICRO NICHE KEYWORD: BEST METHOD, AND IDEAS
- REVOLUTIONARY CLEVER TRAVEL BLOG NAMES (IDEAS, SUGGESTIONS, TIPS)
As soon as I create more articles on finding and choosing a niche, I will add to this list.
4. START A BLOG
So far, we have seen and decided on a platform, Web Host, domain name, and a niche. Let show you how to get onto a hosting platform, and choosing a domain name looks like.
You can choose one web hosting platform based on the needs you have, most probably, though. If you are starting now, you need assistance, customer care, and leave out the technical aspects.
If you don’t care about assistance and don’t want to go looking, use Bluehost, one of the most web hosts used by bloggers. If you want to get started and go right away into writing and be assisted, select a Managed WordPress hosting by GoDaddy, it is already tailored for a WordPress site. No need to back up or technicalities; let’s start writing.
Domain: The domain is basically the URL of your website—examples: google.com (Google.com is the domain), Facebook.com (Facebook.com is the domain). See? Simple!
Hosting: Hosting is basically the company that puts your website up on the internet so everyone else can see it. Everything will be saved there. Think of it as a computer hard-drive on the internet where your blog will be saved
Let me show you the process on choosing a domain name and get into your WordPress area.
HOW TO START A BLOG WITH GODADDY (IT IS SIMILAR WITH OTHER WEB HOSTING PLATFORMS)
For this example, I will choose GoDaddy, take into account that if you select a different host, the process is still similar. But for now, we are going to use GoDaddy to show you how to start a blog.
If you select GoDaddy from this page, you have up to 89% discount and get started for $1 for the first months!!!!! Go to the GoDaddy Managed WordPress hosting:
Once you arrive to this page, scroll down and select a plan:
You can start with the $1 plan; you can have up to 25k visitors, which is more than enough to get started. When traffic increase, you can update later.
Select “Add to Cart”
Here is where you get to choose your domain name. I will just pick a random one for this example.
The domain I want is available; GoDaddy will suggest below other variations, which is excellent as you can write something on the search bar and get suggestions if you are not too sure.
Now click on select
Now click on Continue to cart, and you are going to get the following screen:
You can choose how many months you want to pay for. As you can see, with $12, I can cover up to one year with this promo code.
You also get one year of email hosting with your domain name. If you want, you can add protection. The domain name is not free in this case because I selected a domain name a bit more advanced, which did not qualify for a free year. But in your case, if you choose a .com, you can have a free domain name for a year.
Therefore with $12, you can have a year of hosting covered with a Managed WordPress ( usually, these plans with other Hosting platforms are costly).
Now, pay and go into GoDaddy Dashboard and enter into your WordPress dashboard from here. You can start creating your site. It looks like this inside, but with no data and a clean dashboard.
Let’s go now to the next step to see actually how to start a blog by creating pages and blog posts.
You want to see a video tutorial on how to buy domain names and hosting on GoDaddy? Here are some video tutorials:
5. PUBLISH YOUR MAIN PAGES
Alright, now that you are all set up, your settings are correctly configured, and you have a good idea of what you’ll blog about, let’s put your information on your site by publishing some content.
When you are learning how to start a blog, you want to know the basics terms, I was initially perplexed, and I have spent a lot of time figuring it out.
First, a quick explanation of terminology.
Your WordPress site is made up of Posts and Pages. Anytime you write your own words on your website, you will write them on either a Post or a Page.
Here’s the difference:
- Posts are what we commonly think about when we think of a blog. These are individual articles on specific topics. When we talk about adding new content to our blogs, we are usually referring to publishing a new post. And when we scroll through a blog, we are generally scrolling through the posts.
- On the other hand, pages contain more permanent or unchanging information, like a Contact page or an About page. Pages don’t show up automatically in the blog portion of the site alongside posts. Instead, they are accessed through direct links in the navigation bar, sidebar, or footer. Some pages are standard on all blogs, like a Contact page and an About page, but some bloggers include other pages like Tools, I Use page or a signup page for an email newsletter.
To create a new post or page, make sure you’re logged into WordPress, then click the + button at the top of your screen. Choose Post or Page from the dropdown like this:
You can also use the menu on the right side and click on post or pages:
The great thing about GoDaddy is that you have tutorials already installed when you enter your WordPress dashboard.
When you click on Tutorials you will see the following:
If you do not know anything, it is better to go through those videos; it will take some time, but it is time well spent because you will learn what to do and move faster later.
Create some key pages first. Before you start writing your posts, it’s a good idea to get your basic pages set up. That way, when you start getting visitors, they’ll have access to more general information about you and your site. This helps your blog look more credible and trustworthy.
The pages I recommend creating first are:
- Home
- Blog
- About
- Contact
- Privacy Policy
- Services ( if applicable )
- Others (when applicable), like Resources or main pages you want to show in the menu.
Home page
This only applies if you chose to put your posts on a different page. If you opted to have your blog posts on your homepage, you could skip this! Some blogs list their posts on their homepage (or main page).
Other blogs, like mine, have what we call a “static” homepage. (Go to my website homepage to see what I mean). A static homepage usually provides an overview of the site and includes a link to the blog (where the posts are listed) and links to other parts of the website.
Example
Side note: In some instances, you might want a static site without blog posts at all. In that case, create pages and be done. Now that you know the difference, what do you want on your homepage? Blog posts or a static page?
You can customize how you want your Homepage by going in the Menu into your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance. Then follow the instructions.
Blog page
To check if you have a blog page already, go to Pages > All Pages. If your homepage is a static page, and you need a blog page, go to Pages > Add New. Title it “Blog” or something similar. Do not type anything in the post window.
Hit Publish. Additionally if you write a blog post, automatically goes into your blog’s page.
Example
About page
Your About page is one of your site’s essential parts and is often one of the most visited pages. I did not like to appear on my blog initially, but then I found myself when I went online to look at other bloggers about page. Then I realize how important it is.
It’s also one of the first places a visitor goes to decide whether or not your blog is worth their time. Writing a good one is essential.
Ensure a visitor will know within the first few lines of your About page how your site will help them. They’ll want to understand why they should stick around. But of course, they also want to know who you are and how you got there.
Then, once you’ve told them why they should read, next show them what to read. Anticipate what a new visitor would want to know. Please provide links to other pages on your site (once you have them, of course).
Contact page
Providing contact information to your visitors is essential. Blogging is a form of social media, and building relationships is critical.
Privacy Policy page
These days, privacy is important to us all. Having a privacy policy is important.
Go to Settings > Privacy to get more information and start creating your Privacy Policy page. You can use the drafted page already set up for you as a template, or you can use a generator like this one or this one.
Other Pages
The following are additional pages you might consider creating, although you could hold off on them until you get a tiny bit further along in the process. But you are a business and have a product already; you may want to have a service page.
- Tools I Use/Resources: Many of your readers will appreciate a list of the tools and resources you use and recommend. Additionally, this is an excellent source of affiliate income.
- Service page: this is the page where you offer your services, if you have one.
- Email list signup page /Newsletter: These pages are used when someone signs up for your email list.
- Disclosure Policy. When you start making money, you must have a disclosure policy. You can use a disclosure policy generator like this one to create this page when you’re ready.
6. WRITE YOUR FIRST POST
Now that you’ve got your main pages set up, you’re ready to start posting! Writing and publishing a post in WordPress is pretty straightforward. Here are the necessary steps, as well as some handy tips.
Ideas for your first post(s)
I recommend having 2 or 3 full, in-depth posts when you launch with over 1500 words, and 7-15 more posts in various stages — drafts to be edited, outlines to flesh out, and topic ideas ready to write.
The most important thing is that when you launch, you can keep publishing to get some momentum within a short period of time—ideally 20 post minimum the first month, or such similar activity.
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for your first post, type your main topic or niche into Google, see what others have written, or be researched the most in Google, meaning what people want to know.
More to come on this, read down below for a full tutorial.
Alright, now that you have some ideas for your first post, let’s get writing!
Open the Add New Post window. Make sure you’re logged in to WordPress (type yourdomain.com/admin in your browser to log in).
From your Dashboard, go to Posts > Add New in the left column. Alternatively, you can hover over the “+ New” link at the top of your screen and choose “Post” from the dropdown menu that appears.
Add a title. My tip here is to title your post what people will search for to find it.
For example, I titled this post “How to Start a Blog” because I figured that’s what someone would type into Google if they wanted to know what I’m explaining in this post.
Check your permalink. Before publishing your post (not after, otherwise, you may break your link!), check and edit the permalink if you’d like.
Use keywords and make it as close to the way someone would search for your content on Google. If you want to change the permalink structure of a post or page, simply click the “Edit” button next to the automatically generated permalink on your post or page and change it to what you want.
The permalink is the full URL you see – and use – for any given post, page, or other pieces of content on your site. It’s a permanent link, hence the name permalink. A permalink could include your domain name (www.yoast.com) plus what’s called a slug, the piece of the URL that comes after the domain name. This might consist of a date or a category or anything you please. A simple permalink makes a URL easy to understand and share. (Ref. Yoast Seo)
Compose your post. You can write directly in WordPress, but many people choose to write in a text editor and then paste their completed job into WordPress when it’s done. A significant benefit to this is not slowing down your site while WordPress constantly autosaves as you go.
However, if you like to see how it looks while you are doing it and customize it, better edit it using the WordPress editor and all the integrated tools you may have installed.
Add a link. To create a link in your post, highlight the text you want to link and click the link icon (looks like a chain link) in the formatting options box. A popup will appear where you can paste the URL of the page you want to link to.
Select the category (or categories) and tag(s). On the right side of your screen, you’ll have the option to select or add new categories and tags for your post.
Categories are used to define the general topics on your blog. Ideally, your blog will only have 5-7 categories, so choose them thoughtfully. Well-chosen and well-used categories can make a reader’s experience on your blog pleasant. They also provide a basic structure or “outline” for your content.
Tags are more specific — too specific to be categories themselves. Use as many as is necessary to keep your information organized without getting messy.
Preview. Once you’re done writing, hit the Preview button in the top right of your screen to see what your post will look like.
Save, schedule, or publish your post. WordPress has an autosave feature, which automatically saves your writing every few minutes.
Keep a post in Draft mode and come back to it later if it’s not ready to go live. See all your drafts by going to Posts > All Posts.
If your post is ready to be published, you can publish it immediately or schedule it to be published at a future day and time.
To publish it immediately, make sure “Immediately” shows next to Publish in the Status & Visibility box (top right). Then hit the Publish button at the top of the screen. To schedule it to publish later, click “Immediately” next to Publish and choose the day and time you want it to go live.
Don’t forget to set your timezone first (Settings > General)! Also, setting the date and time is not enough. You must also click the “Schedule” button at the top of the page.
Post visibility. You have other options in the Status & Visibility box as well. You can make your post public, private, or password protected.
The “Public” option is normal and makes it available to all. Private keeps it, well, private, allowing access to only site admins and editors. Password protected means anyone who wants to see the post has to type in the password you set before seeing it.
7. CUSTOMIZE YOUR BLOG DESIGN
Now that you’ve got some content, you may want to change your blog’s design. It took us this long to get to design because it’s easier to see what a design will look like with it filled out a bit. Many tell you to work on the design as soon as you enter WordPress, but I am not of the same advice.
It is even better to publish more than one post to see the different effects and how it looks like a specific theme. I have changed the theme and the look of my website so many times. It is difficult to see how something is going to look like if there is no content. A bit of experience may help in finally find what you really want.
In WordPress, this is done by installing a new WordPress theme. There are a lot! However, it’s easy to go overboard.
Your site should be fast and should work well on all devices, from phones to tablets to desktops. Premium themes are better maintained, often have helpful documentation or tutorials, and usually offer support.
Find the theme you want on its site and purchase it. You’ll be given instructions to download it to your computer after purchase. You can also find new themes from your WordPress Dashboard by going to Appearance > Themes.
Search if you know the name of your desired theme or click the “Add New” button at the top of the page to browse.
After several research types, I conclude that GeneratePress Theme and DIVI theme (by Elegant Themes) are the best to use. I use both.
Divi gives you also social media integrations and subscriber forms included in the package. Great for cost-effective reasons. GeneratePress is fast loading, and DIVI has so many layouts, elements, customer care, support, documentation that a new blogger can appreciate. Not only new bloggers.
Install your new WordPress theme. If you found a theme via your WordPress Dashboard, simply click the Install button.
If you purchased a premium theme elsewhere, it would come packaged in a zip file. (The zipped file is what you will need for the following step, so if your computer automatically unzips zipped files, locate the zipped version on your computer before moving on.)
In your WordPress Dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme. Find the zipped file and upload it.
To activate a new theme, go to Appearance > Themes. Hover over the theme you want and click Activate.
Customize your theme. Once your theme is activated, go to Appearance > Customize. If the Customizer doesn’t work with your chosen Theme, I will not use it as it’s probably not kept updated. The Customizer will allow you to tweak things like color, fonts, and other things. Options will vary depending on your theme.
Set up widgets & menus. WordPress widgets allow you to quickly put chunks of information in your sidebar, footer, or other places on your site. Your options for widgets will depend on the theme you use. Go to Appearance > Widgets. Drag and drop widgets from the left side of the page to the sidebars and footer on the right side. Use the tiny down arrows to edit the content within. Always save!
Menus are used to put navigation bars on your site. They can also be found by going to Appearance > Menus.
Again, menu options will depend on your theme. If you’re using a premium theme, consult the help documentation for instructions to set your menus up.
8. PLUGINS
There are a few plugins that I am always adding to any site, which are must-have. While you need to know how to start a blog in itself, you also need to add some functionality to WordPress to make it run better. Remember that you can’t just add plugins at will; they may slow your site down, so install the one you need as you go and read the rest.
Here are plugins you may want to get:
The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps, and much more. It is a must. You have to have some SEO guidance to get your articles ranked on Google.
I started with Yoast and then moved to RankMath for reasons of speed. It is easier for me to use. They are both FREE. They may have some premium services if you get to that point where you need it.
b) WPForms
Every website needs contact forms to interact with visitors. What is the contact form? It is a form field where one can add information and ask a question and can be used to collect subscriptions, payments, get questions, and so on.
I always download MonsterInsights to check the site’s daily traffic and performance overall, and you can have the statistics on who has visited your website right inside WordPress. It is free for the most basics functions that you need.
Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. Your site is fully configured and being protected, even while you sleep. It is not free.
It allows you to insert code or text in the header or footer of your WordPress blog. You will need this if you are putting ads on your site and other instances to place a code across your site. It is Free.
f) Kadence Blocks – Gutenberg Page Builder Toolkit
Advanced Page Building Blocks for Gutenberg. Create custom column layouts, backgrounds, dual buttons, icons, etc. After learning how to start a blog, you may want to learn how to build beautiful pages with customizable blocks. Free for most basics functions.
g) LiteSpeed Cache or Hummingbird
High-performance page caching and site optimization from LiteSpeed. There are tons of those types of the plugin to make your site faster. At some point, you have to deal with the issue of site speed. Free for basics functions.
A powerful yet user-friendly plugin that automatically creates a table of contents. It can also output a sitemap listing all pages and categories.
i) Short Pixel
You have to optimize your picture to avoid slowing down your site. Please don’t do like me and wait to have thousand of pictures on the site, to the point it became slower than a turtle. I had to optimize over 10000 pictures with ShortPixel. It took about a day. Better have it from the beginning. This is one of the plugins I install at the beginning, along with the others above.
9. GET TRAFFIC AND MONETIZE
There are ways to drive traffic if you do not want to wait for Google to rank your content. Now you need to speed up the process to increase your site domain authority, backlinks, and work on SEO.
Now if you are totally new this is greek for you. Let’s try to clarify some of the points:
Domain Authority: From Google’s perspective, domain authority is like your website’s reputation as a thought leader. The search engine uses your domain authority to ensure you can provide the highest-quality content about your specific subject matter. If you do, you’ll have proper domain authority, and Google will boost your content’s rankings. If you don’t, you’ll have lousy domain authority, and they won’t rank your content.
and let’s clear also
A backlink is any hyperlink on a website that points back to your website. It is a form of citation in which someone talking about a topic related to you, your service, or your product wishes to refer to your website. Backlinks are one of many metrics used by Google to measure the value of a page. Backlinks are sometimes referred to as incoming links, inbound links, in links, or inward links.
Let’s summarize things so far:
- You have decided on your Niche.
- You have chosen a domain name and hosting platform.
- You got the main pages worked out and on line.
- You got a few posts.
- You have customized your site.
- You have installed the needed plugins.
- Now you have to get traffic and monetize.
Here is where everything gets exciting. What can we do to get traffic? There are many basics to go over for this point alone that a new blogger should know.
Let’s go into part two for an in-depth guide.
PART TWO: SEO WRITING – HOW TO WRITE TO GET TRAFFIC AND TRAFFIC METHODS
The most obvious and common traffic method is using Google. Meaning one is writing a post that can be searched in Google by users; they come to your blog post to find the answer. You monetize through ads, affiliate marketing, selling your own products, and dropshipping, amongst the top monetization methods.
If you have a new website, the chances are that your articles are not going on Google’s first page. It can take months and years to get up there. Google gives the first spots to sites with high DA (Domain Authority). When you start a site, your DA is a big 0!
Additionally, Google gives higher places in search engines to sites that have high DA and high-quality backlinks. This is why you see many bloggers reaching out to other website owners asking for a link to their site. It takes time, a lot of no answer, and a lot of writing the so-called guest posts for other people’s websites so that you can link it back to your site.
Does it mean that everything is lost? It will take years for my site to be found?
NO and NO.
Fortunately, Google is evolving and cleaning out space from spam and people who try to build links with shady methods. There also tons of people writing excellent original posts to other people’s sites for a link back.
In modern times, Google gives more space to the original content and in-depth articles, with the SEARCH INTENT of the user in mind. Does it mean you can get on top of everyone without backlinks? Not necessarily, if you have other people going for the sale topic or tons of competition.
OK, now that I managed to confuse everyone here are the traffic methods
SEO WRITING – GOOGLE
With a new site, you have to look for low competition keywords or Long Tail Keywords. Some people decide to start websites because the niche has lower competition than other niches.
For example, Health and Wellness is a niche with tons of competition; a niche like cookware can be less competitive.
You have to do what is called keywords research or search analysis. You have to find what are the questions and on what topics people have questions.
There is a lot to know about the subject, and you will get better and better at it doing it. Here some articles you can read that can give you an idea of how to get going. Those techniques are great to rank a new website faster:
- KEYWORD GOLDEN RATIO METHOD: HOW IT WORKS, TIPS, EXAMPLES
- HOW TO RANK A WEBSITE FOR A COMPETITIVE NICHE, SUGGESTIONS, AND TIPS
- HOW TO FIND A MICRO NICHE KEYWORD: BEST METHOD AND IDEAS
I am going to add to this list as soon as I get to it. As soon as I get tutorials out, I will add to the list.
If you want to get results in Google with a new website, you can try the Income School Alphabet Soup Method to find topics and search queries that you can use for your articles.
When you apply this method to find keywords to go after, remember always to look at the competition. If too many people have written about it, better skip it and come back later to it. Start first with articles with keywords that you can rank (low competition).
Here is an example of the Alphabet Soup Method. Let’s say my niche is cats. I go to Google, and I start searching for what people are asking. I could start with typing ” Do cats a…?” and see what the Google autocomplete tells me:
People are searching in Google if “Do cats and dogs dreams,” if ” Do cats actually have nine lives,” and so on. They are great article materials. You can continue searching with “Do Cats b…”, then “c.”
After you complete this, you can continue with ” Are cats a..” or ” What cats a…” and so on; you got it, right?
This is the alphabet soup. In the articles I suggested you read, you can find data about looking at the competition and judging keywords competition.
In summary:
- START WITH LOW COMPETITION KEYWORDS
- WRITE AS MANY ARTICLES AS POSSIBLE AS SOON AS YOU GO LIVE WITH YOUR WEBSITE; YOU CAN SLOW DOWN LATER
- YOU CAN TARGET MORE COMPETITIVE KEYWORDS AFTER YOUR SITE HAS GOTTEN SOME TRAFFIC AND TRACTION FROM THE PREVIOUS 3 POINTS
Normally, Google will start sending you decent traffic on average after 6 months or sometimes longer. Depending on your niche, keywords, how good are your articles, site speed, and other factors. It can go faster if you are good a keywords and are in a not so competitive niche.
Backlinks can make it faster, but more and more bloggers are going for this model, preferring to attract links naturally, meaning without outreaching for it.
I wish I knew it before. It is an under-estimated traffic method. Some bloggers are ignoring Google and are getting traffic in high numbers from Pinterest. Some are known to get 100k+ monthly visitors to their sites using Pinterest. It is some work. But some bloggers make it to decent numbers within 3 months, to then go too crazy numbers in the 6 months range.
Crazy? Yes. But it is great for us, and I hope Pinterest doesn’t change anything. It is a way to move faster. It is also a way to have another source of traffic, not to rely only on Google.
You could target other social media, but no other platform will send you this crazy traffic. I did some investigation into this, and here are my findings, read: HOW TO USE PINTEREST TO DRIVE BLOG TRAFFIC (REALLY)
BACKLINKS
You have to target high DA sites related to your niche, find out if they let you write on their site, with the possibility to put a link back to your site. It is called Guest Posting. You can search the web for places where you can find such sites.
Write into google: ” sites were to write Guest Posts,” “Write for Us sites,” and any other variations. Backlinks help increase your DA and thus the traffic you are getting from Google, since your DA is going to increase as well, and you will rank higher.
You have to link to high DA sites, go for sites with 40+ or similar. If you are in a very competitive niche, this may be a necessity. Remember that Google doesn’t allow any unnatural link building. If they find out that sites are exchanging links, Google may penalize the site, and it may never rank again.
Besides Guest Posting, you can also comment on other people’s blogs, where they use the CommentLuv plugin to gather comments. In most cases, you are getting a backlink. You can try with forums as well.
Another famous technique is the Skyscraper technique.
Link building is really time-consuming; you have to write for your site, write a guest posting for other sites, and outreach to other people. If you do not have a budget to hire writers, it is going to take forever. In the alternative, using the first 2 methods described above, you can skip the whole link building practice and go for low, competitive keywords to build your site. Combine it with Pinterest, and you are done.
PART THREE: MONETIZATION
Finally, we are getting traffic. Therefore you can start monetizing. The most immediate and most passive method of monetization is ads. You can sign up for affiliate networks and get commissions via sales made through your site, selling your own products or courses.
I list here the biggest and most common affiliate networks you can join. Look if they are a fit for your site, and apply:
- ShareASale
- Clickbank
- JVzoo
- Warrior Plus
- MaxBounty
- Connection Junction (CJ)
- Rakuten
- Amazon Associate
About advertising networks, you may be familiar already with Google Adsense. There are premium networks that pay more, but you need to have a certain amount of traffic. For example, Ezoic requires 10.000 monthly page views; others like AdThrive or Mediavine requires 50.000 or 100.000 page views.
You can create courses and sell them, there are some free platforms you can use to create your courses, and you can create ebooks or digital products that can be sold through your site. There are more ways to monetize, but those are already a lot, and it is a good start.
Voila’.
CONCLUSION
There is a lot to learn and do when you start a blog for the first time. If you got all the way down to this point, well done! You are serious about it. You can’t apply all of this in one day; you may have to come back here over and over.
If you have more questions let me know, I will answer. Post it in the comments below.