How to Start a Blog in 3 Easy Steps (and what to do next!!)

Have you ever thought about starting a blog, but you just didn’t know where to start? Maybe you know where to start, but you don’t know what to do next? If this is you, I’m here to tell you that it’s not as hard to start a blog as you may think… you can start a blog in 3 easy steps. I’m serious.

Whether you want to start a blog to have a creative out, to promote a business, earn an income, or to meet others who share your interest, everyone starts in the same place. You have to figure out how to start a blog before you can move on to your reason for blogging.

Figuring out how to start a blog can be a bit overwhelming if you don’t know where to begin, but I’ve done the research already and want to share with you how to start a blog in 3 easy steps!! Taking it one step further, I even included tips for what to do after you start a blog.

**This post contains affiliate links, which means that I will receive a commission if you click on a link and make a purchase. This is at no additional cost to you, it only helps me keep my blog up and running. I fully back the products that I recommend.**

How to Start a Blog in 3 Easy Steps

1. Decide what you want to blog about.

You can’t blog about everything, so you’ll need to think about what you’ll primarily be posting before you start a blog. My blog is primarily about parenting and marriage. Those are two vague topics, but they tell my readers what they can expect to find on my blog.

Keeping my topics a little more vague (but still making my general topic obvious) gives me the freedom to post ALL things regarding parenting (crafts, parenting tips, kid-friendly recipes, activities, etc.) and not just one parenting topic. Same with marriage… I am able to post whatever I want about marriage and my readers know to expect that, but at the same time, my readers also know they aren’t going to find a random book review thrown in because the topic of my blog isn’t books or book reviews.

2. Choose a blog name.

Obviously, before you start a blog you have to decide on a name. You need a name picked out before you start a blog because you’ll need your name to be on your blog and in the URL.

Since I blog about parenting and marriage, my blog name was easy for me, Mom Wife Wine. Simple, catchy, and it helps prospective readers know what to expect when they come to my blog.

You can make your blog name whatever you want, but it helps to come up with a name that will allow people to get a small feel of what your blog will be about.

3. Set up your blog.

Honestly, out of the 3 steps to start a blog this one might be the easiest. It can be hard to decide what parts of your life you want to blog about, and it’s even harder to come up with a blog name, but setting up your blog is SO easy. This is where you actually start a blog.

You could always start a free blog, hosted by a website like WordPress or blogger, but it can be tricky to do it that way. I’ve heard many bloggers say that they won’t even read a blog if it isn’t self-hosted and they can see this by looking at the blog link. If your blog name is followed by .wordpress.com or something similar, it is clear that you are using a free blog service.

Just for the record, I do read blogs that aren’t self-hosted, I just know lots of bloggers who won’t.

Another reason using a free site can be tricky is because it’s hard to monetize your blog that way, and the hosting website can shut your blog down for any reason, without warning, and you could lose ALL of your content.

It was an easy decision for me, but only after I researched SO MANY web hosting services. Once my research was complete I knew that BlueHost was definitely the one for me, and I was confident in this decision.

Some of the benefits of Bluehost include:

• Free domain
• Free security technology
• You can install WordPress to use with Bluehost with just one click.
• Low prices
• 24-hour technical support

I think it’s important to emphasize that Bluehost is so inexpensive, which was important to me because we only had one income at the time, and the quality is top notch. More than a year later, and I still love it.

I have never had any issues with Bluehost and I’ve found it SO easy to use. I’ll literally never change to anything else. WordPress is really great, too, so it’s awesome that you can install it so easily with Bluehost.

Once you’ve gotten to this point, the rest is easy. You simply choose your Bluehost package, and then Bluehost will walk you through the rest of the setup. I don’t know if other web hosting websites walk you through the setup, but I know Bluehost does and it was so easy.

***Important Note*** Do not make your blog “live” right away. I’ll get to that more in the next section, but you need content first.

****CLICK HERE TO START A BLOG WITH BLUEHOST****

What to do After You Start a Blog

So you have now created your blog, but the next steps can be a little daunting as you’re getting everything going. It doesn’t have to be, though!! Take it one step at a time and work your way through the list until you’ve got everything done. Some steps take longer than others and that’s okay!

1. Design your blog.

Some people pay for a cute layout, but there are free ones available and are pretty easy to find. I use a free layout myself that I found on WordPress, I just created my own logo using Canva and made some minor changes to the rest of the layout. Your blog should look good and the layout should be easy to navigate if you want viewers to return.

2. Create content.

This is obviously the most important step when you are just starting your blog (or anytime, for that matter). I mentioned in the previous section that you should not make your blog “live” right away. I say this because if a visitor comes to your blog and you only have one or two blog posts, they aren’t likely to come back again.

You want to have AT LEAST 25 blog posts on your blog before you go live. This gives readers many posts to click around on and decide if they want to come back and read your new stuff later on.

3. Promote blog.

You want to start promoting before your blog even goes live. Set up a Twitter account, Instagram account, a Pinterest account, etc., and start gaining followers and hyping them up for your blog release.

Twitter is my favorite social media platform because you can get lots of support from other bloggers on Twitter. I get the most views from Twitter and Pinterest, so I focus on those areas more than the other.

Before you go live, start making connections on social media. Make friends who are interested in your blog topic, write tweets with “sneak peaks” about your posts, and post a countdown to the day your blog will go live. Work on building followers on social media and the views will start coming in as soon as you go live.

4. Go live!!!

Make a big “event” out of this on social media. Tell everyone how excited you are and ask them to check out your blog. Be active during this time so you can interact with new viewers.

5. Get more traffic.

After you get your initial traffic from social media, you’ll need to start branching out and finding new sources of traffic. You can do this by writing guest posts for other bloggers or by increasing your following on social media. Make awesome graphics for Pinterest, because lots of traffic can (and will) come from there. You can start an e-mail list to help increase your viewers, too.

6. Monetize.

So, this is the last step because, in order to make money, you have to have consistent blog views. Once you think you are ready you could start monetizing through affiliate sales (like Amazon) and Google AdSense. I’ll be writing a separate post about monetizing (and what to do next) at a later time, so sign up for my e-mail list if you want to be notified!

Other Thoughts On How to Start a Blog

And, I guess you could count this as another step to both lists; you have to constantly learn. You should always be researching ways to improve your blog and grow your following.

There are blog courses available online, or you can just do your own research to figure things out if you prefer. It is always nice to have a mentor, however (someone who has been blogging longer and has already done all of these things), and you can likely find friends like this on social media. You can ask them questions and get advice from them, which will save you time and frustration.

Final Thoughts On How to Start a Blog in 3 Easy Steps

I hope this guide has helped you and given you some peace of mind with your blogging adventure. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask in the comment section. I reply to all comments and would be more than happy to help you in any way that I can.

I mentioned a mentor of sorts before and, if you reach out to me, I’d love to help you along the way! If I don’t know the answer I can help you figure it out!