The first thing as a beginner may come to our mind that why I should start a blog and what benefit may I get by starting a blog. And if you have anyhow decided to start a blog then the next question will arise how to start a blog. So in this article we will discuss these two points, Why and How to start a blog, in a simplistic manner mostly towards beginner’s point of view.
Table of Contents
- Why to start a blog
- How to start a blog
- Start a blog with free Blogger
- Create a blog on WordPress.com
- Create a Blogging website using WordPress.org
- Conclusion
Why to start a blog
Here are some points but not limited to these only, that could be a reason for you to start blogging or a blog website yourself.
- If you are a student, businessman, job holder, working professional, housewife, unemployed or from any background and want to earn some side income online.
- If you are a professional who provides services to customers and wants to provide information and description about your products and services or want to advertise your products & services online.
- If you have expertise knowledge in any field and want to share your knowledge to others who may require it and you may want to monetize it and earn some side income online.
- If you have some basic knowledge about online works, have some knowledge in any field which could be monetized and have the interest and ability to gain expertise knowledge in that field. And earn some side income by sharing your knowledge online.
- If you have or acquired good knowledge in any field and have the ability to express your knowledge in words in written format or articles, and wants to earn money by sharing your knowledge online.
How to start a blog
Then the next question will arise how to start a blog. There are various options available to start a blog and they all have different types of requirement like skills and starting investment depending upon which option you choose. Although starting a blog don’t require much more skills or money but there are some basic minimum requirements.
Depending up on ease of doing, minimum requirement of skills and minimum requirement of funds to invest, there are three most popular options to start a blog or blogging website.
- Blogger.com
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
Here we have given these three only because they are easy to use, suitable and best for a beginner, and most popular also. There are a lot of options available to start a blog and you can study about them by searching on Google.
So, let’s understand what are the basic requirements and differences between these options, and then you can choose which option would be suitable for you or you may decide to explore any other option except these.
Start a blog with free Blogger
Blogger is the most popular free platform, provided by Google, to start and host a blog. Their designing platform is very simple, easy to use and you don’t require to purchase and hosting service. Blogger provides both the website designing and hosting services free of cost.
You just require a free Google account or you may know as Gmail account, which almost all of us have. As it is the first necessity for an Android phone user, and most of us may using android phones.
You have to login to Blogger.com using your Google account and there you have to design your blog pages and post blog articles. In the beginning you may not require making any setup; you can start with default theme and designing and can directly write blog articles and post them. Later when you become familiar with it and learn how to setup themes and design pages then you can do it.
And you can also start a blog with Blogger from your mobile phone. Just download the Blogger app, sign in with you Google account and start writing blog posts.
If you want a professional advanced blog then you can design your blog website by changing theme and designing pages. You can customize your blog theme if you have some knowledge about it, otherwise you can also use customized, professional good looking blogger themes.
Blogger will provide you a free domain name as “yourblogname.blogspot.com”. This will be your blog website address. If you want to give professional name to your blog then you can use custom domain name (web address) by purchasing it from any service provider like GoDaddy, Hostinger or you can purchase from Google domain also. Then you can setup this domain name to your blogger blog as your website address.
You can use Google Search console, Google Analytics for your blogger.com blog to check the traffic and analyze your blog traffic statistics. And can monetize your blog with Google Adsence to earn from your blog.
The main disadvantage of using Blogger is, as it provides a simple platform to write blog posts, hence you will get very limited options to design your blog and also to optimize your blog SEO (Search Engine Optimization) prospects. Although if you have good knowledge of web designing coding like HTML, CSS & JavaScript then you can design your blog appearance but making SEO is slightly difficult in blogger.
If you want a professional good looking blog website without any coding, if you want to focus on SEO and want to easily optimize your blog and you are ready invest some money on your blog then you should go with WordPress.
Create a blog on WordPress.com
If you want a free WordPress blog website without purchasing any hosting then you can go with WordPress.com. They will provide you the same WordPress CMS software to make your blog website with some limited plugins and features. You will get a “blogname.wordpress.com” domain name or web address. You can use any domain name you have purchased from any domain name service provider and setup with your WordPress.com blog. You can choose from various free themes for your blog and use some default plugins like Jetpack with limited features.
But the same problem is here also, for using advanced themes, using plugins for SEO optimization like Youst, Rankmath or AIO SEO etc, or any other plugins for specific purposes, you have to purchase any paid plan of WordPress.com.
With wordpress.com paid plans you will get hosting services, option to use premium themes and plugins and a custom domain name free for one year. In order to monetize your blog with Google Adsence or any other Ad service provider and to use Google Analytics you have to purchase Premium plans.
Although with WordPress.com premium plans you will get a lot of option to design and customize your blog, but you won’t get full control of your blog website, there would be some limitation. Hence to get full customization and monetization controls on your blog, you have to choose WordPress.org website with a hosting provider.
Create a Blogging website using WordPress.org
Although WordPress.org is a free and open source platform for blog & website building, but you require a hosting server to host your website online. WordPress is a CMS (Content Management System) software using which you can build amazing professional websites and blogs, then you have to host it online through any hosting provider.
There are so many hosting service providers available online like Hostinger, Bluehost, GoDaddy etc. you have to choose as per your budget. We use Hostinger for our blogs, as their services are fast and user friendly and plans are suitable for us and affordable for any beginner also.
In order to start a WordPress blog, first you have to purchase a hosting plan and a domain name. Then you have to install the WordPress CMS software on your server. With most of the hosting providers like Bluehost or Hostinger you will get WordPress already installed, you have to just make some basic setup. They also provide a free domain name and free SSL.
After install and setup of wordpress, you have to setup a theme and choose some plugins those are useful for a blogging website. Hence to start a WordPress blog you have to learn the basic concept to setup, customize and use it and this is not so difficult.
There are so many blog articles, YouTube Videos and online courses are available on how to use WordPress and how to start a blog. You can use them and we will also describe about how to start a blog with blogger and basic simple steps to start a blog with wordpress in our next articles.
Conclusion
According to my view if you are a beginner and want to start a blog to make some money online then you should go for a WordPress blog. Although you have to spend some money for hosting but nowadays it is not much more expensive. Learning about WordPress is also not difficult and you will get a lot of option to design and you can easily monetize your blog and earn from it.
Although for monetization you have to gain good traffic, for which you need proper SEO of your blog and most important is good content. Always remember “Content is the King” for any blog to become successful and all other parts are secondary. So, you have to focus on your content, research and acquire more & more knowledge and have to practice regularly. You may not get success in few months, so starting few months would be your practice period through which you would get proper practical knowledge. There are a lot of ways to make money from blogging, but you have to start earlier. And spend some time & effort on research on your topic, practice and acquiring proper knowledge. That’s all from my side and best of luck.
