Five Step Guide To Starting Your Own Blog

I started my blog just over a decade ago and a lot has changed in that. I had no real idea what I was doing when I started, and earning money from it was far from my thoughts. Writing was my passion and my day-job was marketing in the legal sector, so pretty boring. Becoming a blogger is a great way to express yourself online. And if developed effectively can give you the opportunity to make some extra money. I wish I’d looked for some advice on starting your own blog, but ultimately I’m happy with the journey I’ve had.

My end goal has never been to quit my job and go freelance full time. But I know plenty of people who are freelance content creators full-time. I get asked all the time about starting your own blog, and how to do it. So I thought I’d pull together all my thoughts from the past decade in the hope it can help some of you.

Starting your own blog

Before you actually start it’s worth thinking about:

1. What your blog is going to be about? What niche or specific topic are you going to write about? Very few people can get away with just writing about their life, unless they’re well known or there’s a specific hook.
2. Why are you looking to start blogging? Is it just a creative outlet, or are you specifically doing it to try and make money.

Once you know what you want to write, and why you’re writing you can follow these steps to create your blog.

Choose the content system to use

Every website needs a content system which is a home for your website and your content. There are loads of different options out there, but WordPress is one of the most popular ones. And you can get a version for free.

WP allows you to create, design, write and manage your own website without needing to be particularly tech-savvy. Once you have signed up you can choose an initial theme design, but you can change this later. There are plenty of free options, or you can pay for a premium one.

Until you buy your domain (more on this below) you will have a website URL like name.wordpress.com. This is a great option to start off with but if you want to make money, or to look more professional you’ll want to buy your own domain name.

Before I started with WP I used Blogspot and if I’d looked into it properly I’d have started with WP from the off.

Starting your own blog means choosing a name

A domain name is how you get a specific URL. For example my domain name is rhianwestbury.co.uk and there are a wide range of domain name extensions such as .net or .org etc.

You can head over to a website such as 123reg (where I buy my domains) to find out what’s available. When trying to choose a domain name try and go for something simple, easy to spell and something that summaries’ your blog. When I set up my blog I was just writing about me, hence why I chose my name.

Once you have your options you can check the availability of your domain using this tool. If someone else already has the .com or .co.uk version you may want to come up with an alternative.  I also have the .com variation of my domain name bought so that no one else can buy it.

It’s also worth making sure the social media usernames are available. I don’t have separate personal and work Instagram accounts so I didn’t have to think about this too much.

Set up web hosting

Now you have a website set up and a domain name you’ll want to find somewhere to physically host your website. Web hosting is a business that provides the services needed for your website to be viewed on the internet. You can often buy your domain and hosting as a package deal from a hosting provider which can save you some money.

Websites are hosted – or stored – on special computers called servers. But choosing a good hosting provider is so important. If you don’t choose a good one your website may experience downtime, be less secure or you may not get a good service from them.

I’ve used a few different hosts before, but have used Lyrical Host for the past six years or so and they’ve been great. And they go above and beyond to help with things that other hosting companies may not. They’ve fixed issues I’ve had with comments, my layout and various HTML bits.

If you want to use Lyrical Host you can use the code ‘RHIAN10’ to get 10% off your first hosting plan.

Starting your own blog with quality content

Next comes the fun part of starting your own blog, and that’s the writing.

Content is key when starting your own blog, so start off by researching what you want to write about. It’s rare I’ll ever write a post off the cuff usually I’ll plan out a month or two’s worth of content in advance.

Look at content within your niche and consider search engine optimisation (SEO). Ultimately you want people to find your content when they’re browsing online. But you need to know what they’re searching for so you can try and appear for that term.

There are lots of places you learn about keywords, but I would recommend the SEMRush Keyword Research Course.

Promotion

Alongside people finding your posts via search you need to promote the content. Building social media pages should be your main focus when promoting.

Firstly find out where to find your audience, are they on Facebook, Instagram, X, Tik Tok etc. Not all audiences will be on the same channel, so focus on the best fit for your audience.

To start off with it’s beneficial to focus your energy on one or two channels rather than spreading yourself thin. If you promote on X use hashtags, and if you’re going for Facebook create a group or page so people can find your content easier.

You can use Pinterest to grow your traffic, make sure your posts have pin-able images and add them to group boards in your niche.

Starting your own blog to make money

Once you’ve built up a following, have regular traffic and good domain statistics there are ways you can make money. There are plenty of ways you can get paid blogging work so I won’t go into them all here. But some of the most common ways to make money include:

• Sponsored/ guest content
• Affiliate marketing
• Product reviews
• Social media promotion
• Freelance writing