Do you want to know how to start a blog?

I guess the first question should be – why would you want to start a blog?

There are many reasons to start a blog. You can start one to bring community awareness to your business. You can start a blog as your business. You can start a blog to help boost your writing skills. Finally, you can create a blog to share your thoughts with the world.

Your reason is that you need to know how to start a blog and when to start a blog.

Most people stop at the “when” part of starting a blog. After that, no one knows how to move forward.

Maybe it’s a challenging task?

If it is, I have a solution. I have a five-step process showing you how to start a blog.

Let’s dig into that process now.

How to Start a Blog: Decide on a Niche

First, you have to decide on a niche for your blog.

A niche is a topic that you’ll write about. Some people also call it an industry.

Many beginner bloggers make the mistake of choosing a niche based on what’s trending rather than going with something they know a lot about.

If you don’t know much about the niche, how will you keep your blog active?

Before you learn how to start a blog, you need to have chosen your niche.

Your niche should be something you genuinely care about. It should be something you love to take part in. It should be something you love learning more about every chance you get.

Your niche should be your passion. That’s how you decide on a niche for your blog.

How to Start a Blog: Choose a Name

Now you choose a name for your blog.

You can sometimes do what I did and use your actual name. For example, my name is Shawn Gossman.

But the problem is that you must be sure that you want to be known for that niche. So when people see my name online, I want them to associate it with digital marketing and content creation. I want them to associate it with blogging and online community development.

So, using my name works because I want my name to be associated with my niche.

If you want your name associated with your niche, then, by all means, use your name.

Otherwise, you need to create a name specific to your niche. People should see the name and immediately be able to associate it with the niche.

And then, you should make sure you can get a domain name with that name.

How to Start a Blog: Pick a Platform

Now you want to pick a platform to keep learning how to start a blog.

I will be blunt with you. WordPress self-hosted software is going to be your best platform to choose from. Get a paid hosting service (shared hosting is cheap), a domain name, and install WordPress. WordPress is free and so powerful that over 43% of websites online are powered by its software.

There are other free platforms like Tumblr and Blogger, but you don’t own those platforms like the database that your WordPress installation creates. If Blogger or Tumblr wanted to close down for good, they would, and you’d probably lose everything you’ve worked for.

To me, that’s a horror story in the making.

That’s why I’m going to suggest self-hosted software like WordPress.

How to Start a Blog: Write 20 Posts

The next thing you want to do is write 20 blog posts.

If you want to know how to start a blog, the best way to learn is to write.

These 20 blog posts are going to help you out. You’re not launching your blog until these 20 articles are created.

Spend time writing these posts. Work hard on them. Make sure to edit them precisely. Make them the best things you’ve ever written. Take note of how long it takes to write and perfect your article. If it takes a month to write all these posts, it will take a month.

It’s not your job right now to wonder how long it will take to write these posts. It’s your job to write them and finish the task.

After you’ve written all 20 posts, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I like writing blog posts?
• Could I write a blog post like these every single day?
• Could I write a blog post like these once a week?

If you can answer yes to the first question and yes to one of the last two questions, then you know how to start a blog.

In most cases, you’re going to write a blog once a week. So, you have 20 blog posts. That’s 20 weeks of content. WordPress has a wonderful feature called Post Scheduling. You can schedule all 20 posts to post once a week.

But you must commit to writing more posts daily or every other day. This is so you can keep up and stay ahead of the game.

To be a successful blogger, you need to be consistent about when you make public whether its once a day, once a week, or four times a year. It doesn’t matter how many times you post; what matters is how consistently you post.

How to Start a Blog: Launch Your Blog

After you’ve scheduled your 20 posts and have begun creating more content, you can also focus on launching your blog.

Share it with everyone.

Share it on your social media pages. Share it with your friends. Share it with your family. Get the word out that you’ve started a blog and launch it for everyone.

And that’s how you start a blog in five simple steps.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, please share it with your blogging friends. If you’re new to my blog, consider following me on Twitter for more blogging tips and resources.

About the Author

Shawn Gossman has created content, blogged, ran online communities, and shared a passion for digital marketing for over twenty years. Shawn believes the best way to help content creators, businesses, brands, and marketers is to give away more than you sell. The same advice is recommended for the readers that follow this blog. Shawn also offers a variety of services for extra help in the area of content creation, blogging, forums, and digital marketing. Learn more about Shawn Gossman by clicking here.