Context of Blogging Guide (Must Read)
This is going to be your last blogging guide to become a successful blogger because after implementing all these easy steps you do not need to read or watch any tutorial or guide. All the steps described here are not from theory it's from my personal experiment and experience.
Detailed Introduction of Blogging
After reading this post, I promise that you will definitely start blogging and your articles will be on top of google soon because I have covered all the things you need to know before starting a blog as a beginner and writing a blog post. So without wasting time, Let me introduce you to blogging.
What is Blogging?
Blogging simply means to write a post and publish on the website. Post can be a review or story or information or introduction or anything you want to write. Now blogging is not a side or part-time job it's a career and bloggers are professionals with high revenue and salary.
Why Blogging? It's Advantages and Disadvantages.
Now many of you have a question, Why to create a blog? or Why to start blogging?
There is not only a single answer for this question, One can start blogging for earning money which is the most common reason today. Anyone can start blogging to share his experience or you can use blogging to gain an audience for your products which many top companies and brands are doing these days.
I will explain all possible ways of earning from blog in last paragraphs of this post so read it carefully.
So, Let's Start This Step by Step Blogging Guide with the very first step of blogging.
1. Select a Niche of Blog with Research
This is the most challenging part of starting a blog. If you get a perfect Niche, You got a GEM and If you get a bad one then it may be poison for your blogging career. Niche is the root of blogging or you can say the base. It decides the amount of traffic and competition you will face on your posts.
What is a Blog Niche?
Niche means a topic that your website is going to cover. We choose a Niche or particular topic so that we do not face high competition and can get a good amount of traffic. To be more precise, you need to cover only selected topics on your blog posts. It will help to rank your article fast and easily. For example, I have a blog for mobile review or I have a blog for English Teaching etc.
So before starting blog give time to choose a perfect niche, it may take 12 hours to 12 days so don't be in a hurry if need a successful blog. Choose your niche very carefully.
If there is less competition in a particular topic or so-called Niche and you have a quality website with Quality and Thoroughly Content then definitely it's going to rank. But these day choosing a perfect niche for the blog is very difficult work.
How to Choose a Perfect Niche for your blog?
You have to do some research to check about the competition (SEO based and CPC Based), you have to check CPC of your Niche and primary keyword. Before choosing a niche make sure how deeply you know about that particular topic because at the end you have to write a blog post on that topic and if you do not know much about that topic you can not write a quality blog by just researching.
Here is a video that may help you with choosing perfect niche for your blog.
Get ahref, SEMrush and other SEO tools at Cheap Price here
I am using them currently to check competition and traffic.
When you have a niche you are ready to go for second step of starting a blog.
2. Choose Domain and Hosting
The easiest part of blogging that seems too much complicated is choosing a perfect domain and hosting. If you are just going to start a blog go with budget hosting plan with a free domain like Hostarmada, Bluehost and Dreamhost.
What is Domain? Why do you need?
Domain is a address for your blog, like bloggertutor.com
. Before starting your website you need to choose an remembering and meaningful domain. From below you can check availability of your domain.
What is Hosting? Why do you need?
Hosting is a place where your website data and files are going to be stored. In easy words, Hosting is a server for your blog. You need it to store your website files on the internet so that everyone can access the data and information provided by you on your website or blog.
How to Choose Best Hosting for Starting Blog?
The most important thing about choosing to host is, “Hosting depends on the requirement of the website”, I mean If you have an eCommerce website you are definitely going to need a huge server but If you are just a starter in blogging and you have a normal blog website, you do not need a huge server.
For normal blog website I think 10 GB SSD Space (Cloud SSD if Possible) with min 512 MB of RAM and Single core CPU with 100 GB monthly Bandwidth is enough. The above configuration is enough for a blog with Less than 75 Post and daily traffic of 1000.
These days too many resellers provide cheap hosting saying that it has huge resources with high configuration but in actuality, they are lacking everything so be aware of these type of frauds. They just do it by hardware simulations.
Here is a list of all Budget hosting provider that you can choose as a beginner blogger.
Sr. | Hosting Provider | Price/month |
---|---|---|
1. | (Recommended for Beginners) Hostinger | $0.99 |
2. | Bluehost | $2.75-3.95 |
3. | iPgae | $1.99 |
4. | GreenGeeks | $2.49 |
5. | Dreamhost | $2.59 |
6. | Hostgator | $2.75 |
7. | Interserver | $2.50 |
8. | Fastcomet | $3.95 |
9. | Namecheap | $1.58 |
10. | A2Hosting | $2.99 |
11. | Siteground | $6.99 |
12. | Inmotion | $5.99 |
Let me know If you need any help, you can fill this form or directly contact here
3. Choosing your Favorite CMS
After choosing hosting provider you need to install a CMS in your hosting to manage your blog. CMS is something like a photo frame and your blog is a photo inside it. So it depends on you to choose your favourite CMS.
Well, I trust in simple, flexible and feature enriched technology that's why I am going recommend you the most used CMS in world i.e. WordPress. I know WordPress may be very new for many beginners that's why I introduced WordPress below Completely.
Installing WordPress
Here is a Step-by-Step video explaining the process regarding installation of WordPress. You can also follow blog guide mentioned below with Step by Step Image to guide you perfectly. If need more support , fill the form below
Installing WordPress can be done in two ways, first automatic and second is manual. Most of Hosting Provider offer Automatic WordPress installation in their Hosting. But If you need to do it manually let me explain it for you.
Go to WordPress.org and Download WordPress Zip
To install WordPress Manually, first of all you need to Download WordPress Core file form WordPress.org
Upload in File manager under Public_html
Every hosting have a file manager, please open it and you will see a Folder ????named public_html. Open it and Upload WordPress.zip file there.
Extract WordPress.zip in public_html (Root Directory)
Right Click on zip file and you will see an option like unzip or extract, click on it and extract files under Public_html.
Move all Files in Root Directory from extract folder (WordPress)
Now, If you have extracted Zip file in a folder inside public-html, it will look like “WordPress”. Open it and move all files outside of it under public_html.
Create a Database using MySQL
For beginners creating a database is never a easy option as it seems very technical but believe me it is easy as creating tables in MS Word. Goto MySQL option and click on Create Database.
Create a Database User in MySQL
To access that database in MySQL we have to create an user and give it access to that database. make sure you remember all this database name and user name with password.
Attach User to Database and give all privileges
Give power to that user so that it can access the database, you can do it by assigning and user to database and giving him all privileges
Open your Domain and Setup
Now final step comes, which is to setup WordPress. Open your domain and you will see a WordPress setup window, It will ask some info to make your site live.
Map you database during setup and Finish
Now final step comes, which is to setup WordPress. Open your domain and you will see a WordPress setup window, It will ask some info to make your site live.
Map you database during setup and Finish
Your WordPress has been installed Successfully.
Woo-Hoo, your wordpress setup completed.
4. Understanding WordPress Dashboard
The reason, I recommended you to choose WordPress earlier in this blog is because of user friendly and simple dashboard of this huge CMS. Yes, it's a huge CMS with almost every customization you need in your website.
WordPress Terminology
To understand WordPress in easy way here are some terminology and a Dedicated video explaining WordPress Dashboard.
WordPress Dashboard
WordPress Dashboard is a place from where you can control and manage almost every part of your website like posts, pages, users, look, design etc. It can be accessed through yourdomain.com/wp-admin
but you need to log in before entering in the dashboard.
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes are Pre-designed template which decides the overall look of your website. There are millions of free themes available in the market. Don't confuse, I will tell you which theme you should choose later.
WordPress Plugin
Plugins are used to extend the functionality of your WordPress website. These make WordPress limitless in term of functionality and design. Adding a plugin means adding a new function or control in your website.
5. Designing a Normal Blog Website
Creating a basic WordPress blog from scratch can be done by 6 year old baby since you do not have to do any manual work, just install WordPress and you are ready to go. But if you need a awesome looking, multinational blog website, you should customize it manually. To do So you need to follow the Steps give below.
Installing Theme
So here it comes, the first part of our blog or website customization is using your favorite theme or template to give your blog a elegant look. As I mentioned I will suggest you some Themes so here they are..
- Kadence Theme (Free & Paid) [Recommended]
- Ocean WP (Free and Paid)
- Astra (Free & Paid)
- GeneratePress (Free and Paid) [Fastest and Clean]
- Divi Theme (Paid) [Multipurpose, Fast, Clean and Best]
Install any of theme mentioned above but I am going to use Kadence Theme for this Blogging Guide. So to follow ever step of this tutorial you should Choose Kadence them, You can switch it later once you learn everything.
Installing Essential Plugins
WordPress is famous for it's huge repository of free and useful themes and plugins, we are not gonna install all of them :). For now we have to install all essential plugin needed to create a blog. Here they are.
- Gutenberg
- Ultimate Addon for Gutenberg
- Gutenberg Addon by KadenceWP
- Akismet Anti-Spam
- AMP for WP
- Duplicator
- Rank Math
Here are all 8 plugins that we gonna need to create an awesome blog with great User Experience and SEO. Many of them do not need any setup just install and use them. But few of them have setup that I am going to show how to do step by step using video tutorial.
Let's start by securing our blog using Akismet Anti-Spam plugin and setting it up for Free.
Akismet Anti-Spam
Akismet Anti-spam is most used, anti-spam plugin in the WordPress repository. This is required because there are several people using black hat tools to get backlinks by spamming on your website comment section. So as a beginner you should use an anti-spam plugin to avoid spamming from these type of tools. In this Blogging tutorial, I am going to use the free version of akismet as my anti-spam plugin.
Here is step by step video guide to setup it
AMP for WP
AMP means Accelerated Mobile Pages and AMP for WP is a Plugin to create a specially designed lightweight and Fast Pages to load quickly on mobile phones and it really helps in Ranking. You just need to install it and set up it accordingly.
Duplicator
Duplicator is my favourite backup and migration plugin for any type of website. Install Free version of it to create local backups but I will recommend you to go with Duplicator Pro for Google Drive Schedule Backups which is more secure and safe.
Rank Math SEO
Again very very important plugin for any type of website or blog, which is Rank Math SEO Plugin. Install it and activate it on your website. If you are Yoast User I will recommend you to go with it. It offers all Yoast Premium Feature in it's FREE plan.
Customize Theme
The customization of the theme depends on the choice of using a theme. In this blog, I am not going to teach you how to customize any theme so just search on youtube and you will find many tutorials on your favourite theme to customize it.
But make sure you create a simple, clean, elegant and lightweight blog to make it simple to render and fast to load. Also, it's not only speed which matters, but you also need to care for your moving elements and other dynamic objects so that google see it as a clean and fast loading website for User.
6. Adding Blog to Search Console
I have a separate article and a dedicated video on how to add your blog to Google search console, You can check blog here and video (Hindi) is embedded below.
After adding your website on search console you need to submit a sitemap. If you are using Rank Math your sitemap will look something like yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml or yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
You just need to submit it in Sitemap section of google search console, For fast indexing of your posts and article, you can use the API method. Here is a video explaining how to setup Instant Indexing API.
7. Keyword Research Post
After you complete designing of your website, Now you have to start writing a post in a proper way. So the proper way of writing any post start with keyword research.
In keyword research, you have to analyze the search volume (Search Query per Month), Organic Competition, Paid Competition, Search Intent and CPC.
To analyze all these fancy stuff there are many fancy tools available there in the market but as per my experience, none of them are 100% Accurate (Even Google Trend).
Personally, I am using Ahref and SEM Rush for keyword research and I found that Ahref is way more accurate then SEM Rush in term of keyword Research. But all these tools are too much costly but you can but them at a cheap price from .
8. Creating SEO Optimized Post
According to my experience “Writing a blog post is similar to creating an artwork.” 90% of newbie blogger do not know how to write a proper SEO optimized blog post.
I have a separate blog post on How to write SEO friendly Article which you can read here.
I have mentioned some points you should remember while writing a blog post.
Think About
To Do
Not to Do
9. Do some basic On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is the only key for your new blog to get ranked because in a new blog your domain does not have too many backlinks that may help in ranking so you are fully dependent on On-page SEO. Read this Complete Guide on On-page SEO.
On Page SEO Checklist
10. Do Some Basic Off-Page SEO
Basic OFF Page SEO includes sharing a post on social media and creating profile backlinks. You must create all social account of your website and add URLs, Posts and Images on theme continuously making google realise you and your website as an active blog.
11. Add Site on Analytics
After creating a few in-depth post content you will need to monitor how a visitor interacts with those content to further edit and optimize it as per visitor interest. For this purpose, google have its own tool called Google Analytics which can be integrated on your website by putting a simple code in your theme header file or by using Rank Math SEO.
I will recommend you to check your analytics at least once a day to know about your content flow and visitor interest.
12. Understanding the Search Console
Google Search Console is the only place where you can get maximum accurate data analysis of your domain and SEO Ranking. All your website SEO problems and analyzed report can be seen in GSC. You simply need to understand all its terminology and feature.
I will add a few here with my video on search console later.
13. Monetize Blog
Monetization of the blog seems to be very easy for many newbie bloggers and that is because they do not know the actual meaning of Proper Monetization. While choosing any monetization platform like Google AdSense or other like any Affiliate Network, you must know your visitor interest in order to get better in same traffic.
Sometime you may think that AdSense is the only best way to monetize any blog then you are wrong. On my blog “bloggertutor.com” I am not using any publisher network but generating huge profit in very low traffic. This becomes possible only due to Proper Monetization.
Use Link Cloaking and Auto Keyword linking
Link Cloaking and Auto keyword linking are two most helpful tool for Affiliate focused website.
Link clocking is very similar redirection, here you will redirect your blog link to affiliate link like bloggertutor.com/hostinger will redirect you to my hostinger affiliate link. So without showing your visitor that it is your affiliate link you can create fancy anonymous links redirect to your corresponding affiliate program.
Next is Auto Keyword Linking, In this feature, any particular keyword on your website get automatically hyperlinked with your chosen affiliate link. So Let me show you with few examples, I have created all hosting name as Auto Linking keywords so when I will mention their name anywhere in my blog they will get linked without my interfere like Hostinger, Hostgator, Bluehost etc.
All these features are available in Pretty Link Affiliate Link Management Plugin.
Enjoy Your Blog and Support Us
This is all I wanted to let you know while starting your Blog. Please Support Us bu sharing this blog with your friends who are interested in blogging.
This is very informative and ideologycal