Why create a blog

I am about to set up a blog that will be mostly political commentary. I also have numerous papers and presentations I have written over the years that I would like to post and make accessible to visitors, apart from my periodic blogging.

Do you have advice as to how I can upload them on separate pages? If you have them in PDF format, then I would suggest embedding them into your posts. I just found you on the right time. This is all I needed to start a blog. The very best informative tutorial I have found.

Thank you Scott. Thank you for such helpful content. Number one for me in a new blog host is if it has autosave. I currently have a wordpress. Do you know of any blog hosts other than wordpress. Thanks, Susan. The process I show in the tutorial on this page will help you start a blog that is self-hosted with BlueHost.

It has an autosave feature enabled by default. Thanks so much for this info. How do I make sure I am doing everything legal? You will want to make sure you include a Privacy Policy page on your blog. WordPress provides a Privacy Policy generator by default, so it is very easy to add when starting your blog. Beyond that, just make sure you are being transparent with your visitors if you are collecting any information about them.

You may have specific legal issues depending on the topic you are writing about, but for most people just adding a privacy policy page is enough. This is wonderful! I am going to try to do my first blog! Hey Scott. I always wanted to start a blog but never had a clear idea how to do it. After reading this content, I feel so confident that I would want to start writing now.

Thanks a lot. So far Bluehost is good. My friends told me to use them as well. I used another web host before, but now I see that Bluehost is much better than the web hosting I had before.

I just barely created my blog and I would like to make it organize by categories. How do I add that to my blog page? Ex: Place one category , Family one category , Home one category etc.? When you are in the post editor screen of the WordPress dashboard you will see an option on the right-hand side to choose a category for the post you are writing. You can also create a new category for your post in that same place.

I had a suggestion from my vascular surgeon, believe it or not to start a blog. I imagine a bio theme 70 years. How would I protect the privacy of those I mention?

The simplest way would be to change their names and remove any other personally identifiable information. I am not a writer but when I do especially on my social platforms, people frequently comment that they wished I did it more. Excited to follow theses steps and give it a try. I appreciate your willingness to be available to those of us ready to give it a GO! This is an excellent and very comprehensive tutorial, Scott. Unfortunately I have a few very simple questions that you possibly can answer in a second but I need to ask them because of my lack of knowledge.

I live in Japan and my blog is meant for Japanese and Europeans and Americans and for everyone really and I will probably be doing some translation at the same time so my question is this. If you have any answers for me please let me know. Yours truly, Yves Gagnon. Domain registration applies worldwide. For example, the domain name for this site theblogstarter. No matter where you are in the world, when you go to theblogstarter.

I hope that answers your question. Thank you so much for your blog. I found your explanations particularly clear, concise, and helpful. Should I be concerned that the expiration for my basic web hosting is 12 months? Is there any way to alleviate the issue? You will have the option to renew before it expires. You can also extend your package for a longer duration at any time from your BlueHost account. Hi Can you have multiple people belong to one blog And post at any time or is it restricted to a single blogger only, thank you.

You can create multiple users for your blog. From here you can add new users. You can also give each user different permissions if you so choose. For example, you could be the only administrator of the blog, while still giving other users the permission to write new content. Yes, you can easily blog from any internet-connected device. For your phone, I would suggest using the WordPress. Do I need a privacy policy on my blog if I am just a personal blogger?

If so How do I go about doing that? This will take you to the privacy page generator and help you add it to your blog. Very easy indeed. Thanks Scott. As a web designer, I often get asked how to start a blog. I would like to thank you for the information on your site. You have included a wealth if helpful information. This is my first search for how to start a blog, I have learned a lot from your presentation.

I am 75 years young, and have never met, or talked with anyone who have experienced a lifetime such as I. I would like to get my story out there for entertainment, and comments from others who may be able to relate.

Thank You for your very informative information. I assure you that I will come back to your site if I decide a blog would fit my purpose. Thank you very much for the great education you have served me. A blog sounds the perfect medium for what you want to do. You can easily write your story and have others comment on it.

Thank you for this very informative blog. When setting up the comments section of my blog, is it necessary to ask for a piece of personal info such as the email of the address of the person making the comment? If I let people comment anonymously, this may encourage more people to comment. You can set it up either way. Fantastic, and very help. Thank you for such a great help and guidance. You made something impossible possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks for sharing. Very informative post. I am grad student thinking strongly about starting a blog and wanted to know if you could speak to a respectful posting frequency and how many posts are enough before launching? Can you point me to some form of blog management information? I am trying to determine if this is something I can commit to. When first starting out I suggest posting once or twice a week.

After you have built up a solid readership then you can decrease the posting frequency. Some really popular blogs only post every couple of months. When you first start a blog I recommend launching it as soon as you finish your first post.

This gets you started on growing your readership from day one. Yes, the easiest way to do this is to categorize each post. Your post will then automatically go to the correct category page on your blog. Hi Scott, This is some great help! But I have a question…. How would I report my income? You can do it either way. Most people just start with it as a side hustle, and then as it grows you can consider setting up a business. It would be best to talk to a tax accountant once you get to that point though.

Yes, you will pay up front for the full length of your plan. So if you do a 12 month plan then you pay for 12 months up front. You can cancel at anytime and get a pro-rated refund for the unused months on your plan. Thank you for all of this information. I am confident that things will go smoothly with all the info that you provided. I am so grateful for this enlightening information you have given to me here. I now know how to set up my own blog.

But I have a question. Which method of payment does bluehost support when you are paying for the hosting service? And can you choose to pay monthly, or must it be paid yearly? Thanks once again. Please i am expecting your reply. A one year package is the shortest option. BlueHost accepts credit cards or PayPal. Feel free to contact me if you have any trouble getting started! Hi, Scott! I think this just might be what I was looking for. No tweeting, no Facebook, none of that….

But, I know many people that do. I think they can help get my blog out into the public. A couple of questions — will the basic set up allow for comments? I am excited and want to be sure I can control some things before I get rolling…. Yes, comments are turned-on by default. You have full control over the comments on your blog. For example, you can have comments automatically approved, or you can choose to manually approve only those that you want. Of course, you can also turn-off comments completely if you prefer.

Hi Scott, Thank you. This is very informative. Can you please help me with narrowing down a name and topics please? Sure, just send me a message through my contact page with more details on the topics you are interested in. Scott thanks, the tutorial was most helpful.

It took me a while but I got there in the end. Good stuff. I used the format you show as it seemed good for me. Thank you so much for this! Your guide is so thorough that I am working on getting my blog up and running!

Quick question: How do you create an email with your domain name? Thank you for your help! Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a custom email address for your blog. Thank you so much for this info. Do you have any recommendations on how to figure out my niche?

The best niche for you is something you have an active interest in. Travel, fashion, fitness, and food are all popular topics. Once you figure out what sounds most interesting to you, your job as a blogger is to provide your unique perspective and experience with that topic. For more detailed info check out this post on finding your niche. Your tutorial was so helpful and you are so easy to follow and you have a very good speaking voice. Thank you so much for taking the time to have this website, you tube and making yourself available for questions.

Hi Scott Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. A blog sounds perfect for your situation. People enjoy learning about things from someone who is actually doing it, not some armchair expert.

Yes, there are a lot of fitness blogs already, but that is only because there are also a ton of people who want to read great fitness and health content! Should one create a website first? Then how do you connect the two? Thanks ahead. A blog is a type of website.

You are correct, you can have a traditional website and then have a separate section of the site for a blog. If you are looking for a more traditional website you can follow my guide to starting a website here. If you follow the tutorial on this page you will have a blog.

No need to create a separate website first. I have had so much fun setting mine up and it might never have happened without your blog. I particularly found the video very clear, concise and helpful. Sure, just send me a message through my contact page with some more details on what your blog will be about. Should I have signed up for WordPress. Yes, WordPress. Just follow the steps in the tutorial on this page to create a WordPress.

Your email address will not be published. Skip to content Updated November 1st, Are you looking for an easy guide on how to start a blog? Click here to skip the intro and start building your blog now My name is Scott Chow, and I am going to show you how to start blogging today. So, just how do you start a blog? Learn how to create a blog in about 20 minutes following these steps: How to Start a Blog in 6 Steps Pick a blog name.

Choose a descriptive name for your blog. Get your blog online. Register your blog and get hosting. Customize your blog. Choose a free blog design template and tweak it. Share your thoughts with the world. The fun part! Promote your blog. Get more people to read your blog with the proper marketing. Marketing automation software. Free and premium plans. Sales CRM software. Customer service software.

Content management system software. Premium plans. Operations software. Connect your favorite apps to HubSpot. See all integrations. We're committed to your privacy. HubSpot uses the information you provide to us to contact you about our relevant content, products, and services. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

For more information, check out our privacy policy. Written by Corey Wainwright. With almost 4 billion people worldwide currently connected to the internet, there has never been a better time for businesses to include blogging in their marketing strategy. Not only does blogging drive website traffic and promote your products and services, but it also helps you build trust with your potential customers.

Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc. One question many people ask after starting a business is whether blogging is worth it in So, how can you attract new traffic or readers to your site?

You can through blogging and optimizing your site for search engines. Think about how many pages there are on your website. Probably not a ton, right? And think about how often you update those pages.

Probably not that often, right? Every time you create and publish a blog post, it's one more indexed page on your website, which means one more opportunity for you to show up on the search engine results page SERP and drive traffic to your website in organic search. We'll get into more of the benefits of blogging on your SEO a bit later, but it's also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active, and they should be checking in frequently to see what new content to surface.

Blogging for your business also helps you get discovered via social media. Every time you create a new article, you're creating content that people can share on social networks — Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest — which helps expose your business to a new audience that may not know you yet.

Blog content also helps keep your social media presence going. Instead of asking your social media manager always to create brand new content for social media or creating that content yourself , your blog can serve as that repository of content. Eventually with a lot of trial and error , your blog posts begin ranking on page one of Google for terms like "web design", "website builder", and "e-commerce website".

Then, one day, you search "web design companies in X city" and find your company is now on page one. This is likely due, in large part, to your consistent blogging efforts. Take a look at How HubSpot Uses Blogging to Rank 1 on Google to learn more about specific strategies you can implement to rank on search engines. In , Boston-native Matt Kepnes quit his job and began traveling the world. He documented his travels in his now infamous blog, NomadicMatt.

Matt also created e-books, and used sponsorships and affiliate marketing to make money. Now, Matt's blog attracts 1. If you want to become known as an expert in a topic that interests you, from fashion to blogging to fitness, you can -- and, oftentimes, it starts with a blog. There's only so much traffic you can get from the homepage or About Us page of your company's website.

Of course, those pages are critical for leads who are already interested in your products -- but they often won't attract traffic from top-of-the-funnel. That's where your blog comes into play. Your blog can be a general resource to help your website visitors even before those visitors are ready to purchase from you. For instance, let's say you sell products for e-commerce stores.

You might attract some e-commerce owners who are already searching online for your products, but in most cases, the e-commerce owner isn't going to be ready to buy right out of the gate. Alternatively, if you begin blogging about tips to help the retail owner who is just starting out -- like "How to start a retail website", or "Benefits of e-commerce vs.

Then, when those site visitors' e-commerce stores begin growing thanks, in part, to your blog , they'll already know about your brand and already trust it as a helpful source. That's when they'll check out your product pages. At the very least, you might create a blog to engage with an online community of readers with similar interests.

Maybe you start a food blog and ask readers to share their own recipes with you. Alternatively, perhaps you start a blog that focuses on DIY projects. You post the fun, DIY projects you've completed in your own home, and you ask your readers to share their own DIY tips in exchange.

When you're starting your own blog , it's important to think of your target audience. Who are you creating the blog for? And who do you want reading your blog posts?

Before you can get started, you have to consider the niche you're writing about and what topics you'll cover and why. Brainstorming your target audience is similar to creating a buyer persona for your company. Plus, this will give you an idea on what kind of content you want to produce. Once you've started a blog, you'll want to churn out high-quality, consistent content on a regular basis.

This isn't always easy. Creating content is a time-consuming task. You want to ensure your content is something your readers would be interested in and hopefully can help with your SEO — more on that in a minute. To begin brainstorming content, consider what your competitors are doing. Look for gaps in their content that you can fulfill. Additionally, you should also do SEO research to verify that users are searching for and interested in the topic you want to write about.

In order to host your blog, you'll most likely use a CMS. A CMS is a tool you can use to design, manage, and publish on your website. Once you've decided to start a blog, figure out if your current CMS has all the capabilities of hosting a blog.

If not, you'll want to review CMS options that might integrate with your site or look for an entirely new CMS to migrate your site on. You can try out our CMS here. Just like creating a business, you can't create a blog without a strategy in mind. Your strategy should answer questions like:. Then, create an editorial calendar to keep you organized and on track. A calendar will help you track what posts are coming up, ensure writers are meeting deadlines, and assure you have enough content ideas for the foreseeable future.

When you're writing your blog posts , it's important to consider the article structure. For instance, are you using subheads to break up the post so it's easy to digest? Are you using bullet points and images that make the post easy to scan? These are important factors that will help keep your reader on the page. Additionally, you'll want to make sure that you're using calls-to-action CTAs , that will guide the reader on what you want them to do next.

This is how you can start making money and generating leads from your blog. Another element of blogging is marketing and promoting your blog posts.

It's like the age-old adage -- "When a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Consequently, if you write a blog post but nobody reads it, will it have a positive impact on your company or brand?

Probably not. That's why you'll have to market your posts. You can use social media, SEO, your website, or your email newsletter to reach current and potential customers.

Like I mentioned above, you want people to read your blog posts. One way to do that is to get organic traffic through SEO. If you want your blog to be successful, learn how to research keywords, how to rank in search engines, and how to build an SEO strategy.