How to Start a blog in 2022: The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide for a beginner

You might have heard of blogging before and thought it was a big task or maybe you heard it that it is very difficult to do.

Either way, blogs are very simple and powerful marketing strategy that can help you present your ideas, grow your business, generate constant income and connect with your consumers.

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to create a blog in 35 minutes. Yes, you read it right. You can start a blog in less than 35 minutes and I will walk you through the whole process, step by steps. You just need to do exactly what I demonstrated in the tutorial.

This tutorial is specially for beginners and I will use detail pictures to explain every steps so that every steps will be cleared to you without any confusion.
In case, you get stuck during the tutorial, just send me email here and I will be always eager to help you out; I used to take my time to respond to every questions/message sent to me.

Let’s get started. 

STEP 1- Choose your blog’s idea and blog name.

Your blog idea is also called blog niche and it is one of the most important steps for your blog success as it determines the area of specialty of your blog.

Blog idea (niche) is the specific topic or type of content contained in your blog. Let say your blog is about cooking, that means all your blog topics or articles about cooking tips found in your blog are called your blog ideas. Or For instance, if you want to start a blog about Health and fitness, your niche will be on various health’s tips.

Identifying and targeting a specific topic on your blog will help you attract readers who are interested in the same topic.

In summary, let your blog concentrate on one particular area or field. I hope you got that! Good.

Blog name is also called blog domain and it serves as an address people will use to access your website.

 In order word, domain name is what users type into the web address bar to get into your site.

For example, google.com is the domain address of the google and websiteyz.com is the domain name of this blog you are reading now.

A good domain name is short and memorable, but also relevant to your niche or topic. You don’t want to choose a domain name that’s too long or difficult to spell since this will make it harder for people to find your blog. Make sure that you choose something that can’t be confused with another website or trademarked brand. For example, let say you want to blog about cooking, you can have a domain like cookingpalace.com.

A domain has an extension like .com, .net or .org.

A domain with .com in its extension is the most preferable.

To help you further, here are some extra tips of choosing an excellent domain name.

1. Try and choose domain name with .com extension as it is the most preferable.
2. Keep it as shorts as possible and make it meaniful.
3. Avoid using hyphens, numbers and confusable words
4. Make your domain name relevant to your blog topic

In the next few steps, I will tell you how to register your preferred domain without paying for it. Just continue reading….

N.B: If you can’t still decide on a good domain name. Contact me here and I will personally help you to suggest a good domain you can use base on your desire blog type .

If you still confuse on what blog name or Niche you want for your blog, just read the next chapter.

• What of if you still unsure on what type of blog you can have?

If you are still unsure on what to blog about, just use the following criteria to find and decide on your blog topic:

• Hobbies and passions: Hobbies and passions varies from every individual. look into yourself and find out what you know or like best. You can start your blog on what you like or what you do best. For example, if you know how to cook, you can start a blog explaining different cooking techniques and cooking recipes and believe me, many people that want to learn cooking will see your blog as a goldmine.
• Personal working profession: This one is very easier as almost everyone has a profession which he or she has spent many years to learn. For example, if you are a Doctor, Nurse or Physiotherapist, you can have your own personal blog counseling people. Every other non-medical professional can also have their own blog helping people through what they know best about their profession or knowledge. There are many people out there that need help and your skills you already possessed can be of life changer to them.
• Life experiences: If you have past history of how you encounter certain issues and how you come with solution, you can start a blog about it; many people will like to use your exact solution techniques to solve the same problem you once encountered.

Just to get you off brainstorming, here are some popular topics or niches for blogging:

1. Marketing
2. Pets
3. Fishing
4. Travel
5. Beauty
6. Food
7. Technology
8. Health and fitness
9. Sports
10. Business and money
11. Weddings

Good, you just finish step 1

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge to be sure you are truly good to go to next step

STEP 2- Get your blog online with web hosting

Now that you have gotten your domain name and blog idea, it is time to get your blog online.

To get your blog online, you need only these three things:

1. Domain name.
2. Blogging software platform
3. Web hosting

N.B: One good thing is that once you get Web hosting, you will automatically get the domain and the blogging software inclusive as one package

Domain name: As you already know, is your blog name. I expected you to have one in your mind to use by now. This is because, you will use when you are registering your hosting server for your blog soon and I will also tell you how to get the domain name free; just continue reading

Blogging software platform: This is what you will need to help you organized and manage your blogs like creating new blog pages or editing your existed page. The best blogging software I will recommend is WordPress and it will be automatically available for installation on the web hosting you will get, so don’t worry at all, just continue reading.

Web hosting is an online server that will house or store all your blogs files like images, articles and make your website visible anytime people type in your website address (domain name) on the web. Web hosting is like your power house of your blog because it stores everything about your blog.

Remember, once you get good web hosting, that means, you get all the tools you needed to start your blog right away.

Most of the hosting company charges 10 to 15 dollars per months to host their website. This is too expensive for you as a beginner. Don’t worry, I will show you the cheapest and best hosting company you will use for your blogging. The web hosting I will show you will be less than 3 dollers per month which is very cheap.

To make your blog live, you must have a good web hosting. Don’t worry, next chapter will teach how to get your best web hosting for your blog.

I will explain how you will get your blog hosting server in the next chapter.

How to get your blog hosting

This is the most important step as it determines how serious you are to make your blog available online for people to view it.

The best web hosting I will be using for this tutorial is Bluehost. I strongly recommend Bluehost as your blog hosting company as they will give you all the tools you need for your blogging activities as one package.

With Bluehost, you are getting free domain, cheapest hosting fees and free blog software called WordPress. That means, you will only pay for hosting fees which is the cheapest while you get other required tools free of charge.

Here are the top reasons why you should use Bluehost

1. They will register a domain for you free; your own is to just choose any blog domain name you like and they will allocate it for you so that nobody will be able to use the same domain name again
2. They have Outstanding good customer service

4. They offer free automatic installation of the WordPress blogging software.
5. Their hosting plan is one of the best in the world as WordPress personally recommended it. Remember WordPress is the blogging software you will use to manage and edit your blog.

N.B: This is where I give my special support. After you get your blog’s web hosting from Bluehost from any of Bluehost link on this tutorial webpage, you can always contact me here  in case of any additional help in your blog development, I offer it free of charge.

Now, follow the steps below to get your Web hosting from Bluehost:

1. Click here to get the special Discount on Bluehost hosting(opens up in a new window) and then click host your site.

2. Select your plan. I recommend that the beginners should get the basic plan. Click “select” to choose your plan.

3. To start the registration processes, type in your domain name in the left box and click “Next” .

N.B: Your domain name is your blog name you want to use and I believe, you must have known one to use by now.

4. Fill out your billing details on the registration page.
   

N.B: Make sure you provide your valid email. This is because, after you finish, they will send you email confirming your web hosting details .

5. Choose your hosting package options
   

N.B: As you are just starting as a blog beginner, uncheck everything apart from domain privacy protection as it is only one you need importantly.

Note that Bluehost only offers options to pay 2 or 3 years upfront.

They don’t offer monthly payment options to safe you from high expenses. With more years upfront, you are paying less. And with more years hosting package, you have more year to be happy and successful with your blog online.

6. Complete your payment information, check the box that you agree to Bluehost’s term of service and click submit.
   

When you are done and everything went well, you will see the purchase confirmation message and once completed, you will also receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things.

Woo! It is time for mini celebration.

You have officially completed the most important part in starting your blog.

Now that you have purchased your blog hosting server, click the create account to proceed to set up your blog

Good, you just finish step 2

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge on completed step 2 to be sure you are truly good to go to next step

STEP 3- Install the blogging platform (WordPress)

N.B: You will be able to install blogging platform when you already completed your blog’s hosting purchase, as I demonstrated in the previous chapter. Please, if you have not purchase your blog hosting , go back and try to complete the hosting purchase before proceeding reading.

If you already purchased your blogging hosting as I described in the previous chapter, then continue reading…

Remember, I told you that once you have your Bluehost hosting server, will have all your needs to make your blog available online. This chapter will tell you how to activate the blogging software called WordPress into your Bluehost server.

WordPress is the most popular and best platform for a blog and fortunately, Bluehost system will install WordPress automatically and yours is to only activate it .

Follow these steps to activate the WordPress into your Bluehost server.

The next thing is to create your Bluehost account.

• Step 1. Click the “Create your account” button .
  

• Step 2. Enter your password or use the password generator, and complete the account set up.
• Step 3. Your account is ready to go. Click the “Go to login” button.
  

Once you done the above step and login, you will be redirect to installation page and click skip this step as I highlighted below to automatically install your blogging software called WordPress:

You can as well login to WordPress by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser and enter your same username and password you provided when you created account.

After you login into your WordPress dashboard, you are now ready to start designing your blog interface

You are now set to beautify your blog by giving it good appearance and this will take us to the next step called Designing your blog interface with WordPress theme.

Good, you just finish step 3

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge to be sure you are truly good to go to next step.

STEP 4- Designing and customization blog interface with WordPress theme

Remember People differ in how they want their blog interface to look like and you should know that one man meat is another man poison. In all ratification, using the standard blog that will appeal to your blog viewer is the main focus and that is what I will explain to you in this chapter.

One of the best things about WordPress is that you can change or customize your entire layout and interface design with just a few clicks. In WordPress, blog layouts are known as “Themes”.

What is a blog theme? Themes control the entire design of your WordPress blog.

To apply or change your blog interface , you need to install the themes template and it is this theme that will now represent your blog interface .

When you install new theme to your blog , it will comes with some default images , text and navigation’s menu in which you will just edit into your desirable needs.

To change your blog theme, there are two methods :

1. Installing from third parties theme directory
2. installing by uploading the theme file directory into your blog
   

In this tutorial I will demonstrate with method 1 which is installing from third party theme directory and the third party theme I will use for this tutorial is Astra as they offer good free theme and very easy for a beginner to use.

Now, let’s keep the story short and show you how to change your blog appearance with method 1 which is installing from third parties theme directory :

Login into your WordPress dashboard and in the upper left, click on the plugin and you will be redirected to a page below:

N.B: The plugin you accessed will enable you to install ASTRA component to enable you to install ASTRA themes (Remember, ASTRA is the third party theme we are using for this tutorial).
Plugin in WordPress, helps to install extra functionality to enhance the WordPress capability.

After you clicked plugin , click add new plugin as shown below :

Enter ‘Astra’ into the search box in the top right corner to search for Astra starter templates

Now, once you see the Starter templates , just click ‘install now‘ as demonstrated below:

After you install it , you will also click ‘activate‘ to activate it

Once you activated it , your Astra theme now ready to be installed on your blog .

Now go back to your WordPress dashboard and in the upper left, hover on the “Appearance” tab and then click ‘Starter templates‘ .

And now, you are in Astra themes directory where you can choose any theme you want from thousands of available themes.

N.B: In this tutorial , we will assume that our blog will be on cooking and that means, the niche to use is all about cooking tips and, the theme we will be using will be familiar with cooking.

Now , enter ‘Recipe blog’ in the search box and choose Block Editor in the upper right corner. You will see many good cooking and recipes theme available for installation. In this tutorial, we chose the encircled theme below called “Recipe blog“. Click it to start the installation process

Click ‘Skip and continue‘

Scroll down and still click “Continue“

Leave the names ,email and other form details and tick all the advanced Options and click “Start and build my website” as I demonstrated below:

And finally you will see a congratulation message that your website is ready.

You have successfully changed your blog appearance .

If you have problem in your blog setup as i described, just contact me here and I will help you out

In the appearance theme compartment, you will see several free WordPress themes are already installed on your blog. That is, WordPress comes with a ton of free themes to choose from,

For this tutorial, I will demonstrate one of the three best free WordPress themes you can use:

Now, click Add new

>> then click popular

The three best free WordPress theme I will recommend are Kadence WP, Elementor for WordPress and Astra (all of which are 100% free, fast and have the ability to upgrade later for more extra features).

These three best free WordPress themes are well-designed, clean-looking themes that can work for just about any type of blog. In fact, many of the world’s top bloggers use one of these themes.

For instance, let’s say you choose Kadence WP as your theme. To install and activate it, just hover over the theme and click the “Activate” button. That’s it! You have changed the entire design of your blog with just one click!

Once you have installed your theme as I demonstrated above, you can as well customize to further sooth your taste by clicking on the Customize link beside the activated button.

One beautiful thing about installing theme on your blog is that, it will save you a lot of time in the blog designing. This is because most of what you want to add has almost added to it; yours is to make changes to it to suit your needs.

There will be built-in widgets and customization options that lets you tweak your blog design in the customization area of the blog.

You can watch the video below to see how I used Astra as the blog theme and how I customize the interface of the blog :

VIDEO HERE

Congratulation as you just changed your blog interface to more fascinating look!

 You can recheck your beautiful blog by type in directly your domain name on the browser to view it. You are happy right!

Now, that you have a nice-looking blog, it remains on how to add contents to your blog so that your blog’s viewer can come to read it over. I will teach you about that in the next chapter.

Good, you just finish step 4

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge to be sure you are truly good to go to next step.

STEP 5- How to write your first new blog post and publish it.

Now that your blog is online and running, it is time to make it active as a blogger!  You need to add content into your blog and at the same time , you need to arrange your posts in such away it will be organized.

Remember, that all the new blog post you added into your blog will sit on the already installed theme on your blog and in this tutorial, we have already installed ASTRA theme.

To write a new post and publishing it online, follow these steps:

log in into your WordPress dashboard and in the left side panel click ‘post‘

Then click ‘new post‘

You will now redirected to a post page to add the post tittle and the post main article content

After you have added your post title and the post main article , you can add image to your post as well:

After you added image to your post, you can now click publish to make your post alive.

Congratulations ! You have written and publish your first post .

After you have learnt how to write and publish a blog post , you need to know some tips on how to create a good blog contents.

Here are some tips on how to create content for your blog:

1. Write about what you know: The best way to create content for your blog is to write about topics that you’re familiar with. This way, you won’t have to do a lot of research and you’ll be able to write more naturally. Of course, if you’re passionate about a particular subject, you can definitely branch out and learn more about it. But in general, it’s best to stick with what you know.
2. Use Artificial intelligence writer web application: If you know that you are not that prolific writer, you can sign up for Artificial intelligence writer to help you generate and write your blog post for you.
   The Artificial intelligence writer I recommend is copywriting tool called Copymatic powered by AI . Copymatic is able to write high converting engaging articles. Boost your blog post by generating a good valuable contents and blog ideas.
3. Be honest and authentic: Readers can tell when someone is being phony, so it’s important to be genuine in your writing. Be yourself and write from your own perspective. This will make your blog more relatable and enjoyable to read.
4. Keep it interesting: No one wants to read a boring blog post, so make sure your content is interesting and engaging. Write in an informal, conversational tone and use images or videos to break up the text . I wrote a special article on how to write a good blog content; read it here
5. Keep it short and sweet: People don’t want to read long blog posts. It’s best to keep your content short and sweet, even if it means writing more posts on a similar topic.
6. Don’t try too hard to be funny: Humor is an important element of blogging, so you want to make your blog stand out with its sense of humor. However, you don’t want to overdo it because your blog may end up coming across as offensive or annoying instead of funny and entertaining.
7. Post regularly and consistently: People want to know when you’ll be posting new content, so you need to keep a regular schedule. If you don’t update your blog at least two times a week, people will stop visiting it and they won’t trust what you’re saying because they never see you post anything .
8. Build up an email list: A mailing list is one of the best ways to build your audience on your blog and keep them interested in what’s going on with your company. It’s also a great way to connect with people interested in what you have to say about SEO and digital marketing because it allows you to share helpful information with those who subscribe without anyone else being able to read it
9. Respond to comments and feedback: People love to talk about a blog when they like it and comment on what you’ve written. Take the time to respond to comments and thank people for their feedback. Not only is this good blogging, but it’s a great way to build relationships with your readers because they’ll feel appreciated and listened to.
10. Host giveaways or other things that will help you increase traffic to your blog: You can host contests on your site or survey people and give out prizes if they let you know how they found yourself and why they’re interested in your company or business .
11. Don’t think of your blog as just a tool for getting new customers but also an opportunity to connect with current ones by writing useful articles that provide value for everyone who reads them.

You also need to know some basic and necessary posts you may need to add to your blog.

What are the basic types of content you need in your blog?

Remember, you will need different types of blog post of different tittle heading and content. Therefore, you need to first know some important and basic content you must add in addition. I will explain them below:

About Us(Me) – This page should include a biographical profile of yourselves and your mission statement. Think about the answers to these questions: Why you want to help people with your blog, how did your passion for the subject matter develop? What do you want to convey to the world? What is your ultimate goal? Remember, a visitor first lands on your website, you’re a stranger to them. They have to get to know you in order to want to read your blog posts

• Contact Me (Us) – A contact page provides your blog’s visitor a place to reach the author which, in turn, provides the visitor with the reassurance that you are a real and reachable author. You can add your physical address, phone number, and custom email address. Or you can utilize a simple contact form to keep your personal identifying information private. You should put links to all of your social media profiles here as well.

Don’t worry, I will teach you how to add contact page to your blog later with contact form. Just continue reading.

• Privacy Policy: To avoid violating some normal ethics and norms, if you collect data from your visitors in any way, you are required to add a privacy policy page that tells visitors exactly how you are collecting data, how you are using it, and if you are sharing that data. If you implement Google AdSense (I will explain it later) or a Google Analytics account on your blog, a Privacy Policy must be used. This page is required by the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and is included by default on your WordPress blog.

• Terms of Service: If your blog is also running a store or selling services, it is a good idea to have a Terms of Service page to lessen your potential liability.
• Disclaimer Page/Medical disclaimer: If you intend to monetize your blog or your blog is about medical/health related, you must describe the ways you intend to present your ideas. This is an absolute must-have page that should not be overlooked, as per FTC guidelines. For example, if you are discussing and endorsing a product, and stand to profit by linking to the product, this relationship must be disclosed.

Now, let’s move to how to add and arrange your posts into your blog.

How to arrange your posts into navigational menu and categories in your blog?

Now that you know that your blog will contain different posts with different contents, Therefore, it is a good idea to arrange your contents in a more presentable grid for your blog’s visitors.

A navigational menu is a fantastic way to make your site user-friendly and easy to navigate. With the navigational menu, it’s not necessary for you to hover around every page on your website to find what you need. It includes all the links of your website in just one place. It’s essentially like a map that makes it easier for people who visit your site to find what they want!

A navigational menu link can be place on the upper part of the blog ,footer part of the blog or side part of the blog. A navigation menu link at the upper part of the blog is also called primary menu and it is the most common used navigation menu link .

See examples of navigation menu links below :

Now that you have understood what navigation menu link , let’s move to how to create navigation link and arrange the blog post with it.

In this tutorial, I will be using our already installed cooking recipes blog as an example .

Follow these steps to add the navigation links to your blog :

Go to your blog dashboard and hover on ‘Appearance‘. ThenClick ‘Menu‘

You are now in navigation menu. From the below image, the encircled part is the group menu link of four posts which serve as primary menu that will appear in the upper part of the blog as a navigation menu; when a user click on each link on your blog , it will redirect them to the main post of such link you have already created. You can add to the menu list by clicking the post at the left panel and to To add the post to the menu list , just click the post in the left panel and choose from your available blog post. See the image below:

From the image below, the post we want to add to the menu link group is the ticked one , just tick it and click ‘Add new‘

You will be redirected to a page below where the new post has already added. you can edit the post name by clicking it as demonstrated below.

After you done , you can click save menu

when you check your blog again, you will see the changes has been done to your blog navigation. See the image below:

Congratulation as you just finished adding your navigation menu.

Now, What about post category ?

You need to understand how to add categories and tags.

Why post category and tags ?

Post category is a way to group together similar posts. This can be helpful for organizing your blog, and for your readers to find the posts they are looking for. Plus, it can help you keep track of your content and plan future posts

I will show you how to easily add categories and tags to your blog posts now.

Follow these steps to add category to your post :

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and in the left-hand sidebar, hover over the “Posts” link and click “Categories.”

2. On the Categories page, enter the name of the category you want to add in the “Add New Category” field.( I entered baked in the category name as a demonstration) and optionally, you can also enter a description of the category.

4. Click the “Add New Category” button.

That’s it! Your new category will now be listed on the Categories page.

Anytime you are adding new post into your blog, you can select the category for the post.

You can as well edit your previous post to add the category to it .

Follow these steps to add category to your already created post

Go to your blog dashboard and click all post

Hover over the post you want to add category and click the beneath quick edit

Add the category to the post by clicking the category you want from the category list and click update to save it

Congratulation ! You have learnt so far how to create new post and how to categorize your post.

In the next chapter, I will teach you how to optimize and promote your blog .

Good, you just finish step 5

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge to be sure you are truly good to go to next step.

STEP 6- How to optimize and promote your blog to gain more audience

In order to make sure that your blog posts get the visibility and promotion it deserves, you need to know how to optimize and promote it properly. To help you out, I will walk you through lists of useful tips for optimizing and promoting your blog, which will hopefully help you get off on the right foot!

Below are some best way to increase your blog traffic:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of optimizing your blog for the search engines. This involves using the right keywords and phrases in your blog posts, as well as in your titles and descriptions. By doing this, you make it easier for people to find your blog when they search for topics related to what you write about.
   SEO is a science on its own , I wrote a separate article on it . Read it here

2. Social Media : Social media is a powerful tool for promoting your blog. By sharing your blog posts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can reach a wider audience and get more people to read what you write.
   
3. Email Marketing: Another great way to promote your blog is to email your subscribers whenever you publish a new post. This ensures that they always see your latest content, and it also helps to build a relationship with them. Email marketing is also a science on its own , I wrote a separate article on it . Read it here

4. Guest Blogging : Guest blogging is when you write a blog post for another website or blog. This is a great way to get exposure for your own blog, as well as to build relationships with other bloggers in your niche.

Why you need to promote your blog

There are many reasons to promote your blog posts. By promoting your blog posts, you can increase traffic to your website and therefore establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Promoting your blog posts can let people see you as their hero especially when you share high-quality content on a regular basis, people will begin to see you as a trusted source of information. This can help you attract new readers and followers, as well as earn the respect of your peers.

Finally, promoting your blog posts can help you generate leads and sales. This is because when people click through to your website from your content, they are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. If you have a product or service that is relevant to the topic of your blog post, you could generate some sales from the traffic that you drive to your website.

In the next chapter, I will teach you how to make money from your blog .

Good, you just finish step 6

Wait ! I need to test your knowledge to be sure you are truly good to go to next step.

STEP 7- How to make money from the blog

You’ve heard the hype. Numerous blogs, articles and videos are telling you that YOU can make money blogging. But how do you turn all the information out there into actionable steps you can start taking today? Discover my 5 step process for making money from your blog.

There are a number of ways to make money blogging, but some are more common than others. Here are some of the most common blog income sources:

1. Advertising – One of the most popular ways to make money from a blog is through advertising. You can sell ad space on your blog or work with an ad network to place ads on your site.
2. Affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is another popular way to make money from a blog. You can promote products or services on your blog and earn a commission when someone clicks on one of your links and makes a purchase.
3. Sponsored posts – Sponsored posts are basically ads masquerading as blog posts. Brands will pay you to write about their products or services in a positive light.
4. Products and services – If you have a product or service to sell, you can use your blog as a platform to promote it. This could be anything from a physical product to an online course.
5. Consulting – Many bloggers use their platform to build their personal brand and eventually land consulting gigs. Companies will pay you for your expertise and advice on various topics.

Wait ! I still need to test your knowledge to be sure you have truly understood the last STEP 7.

Good, you just finish the whole steps of developing blog !

Try and take note of these points:

Learning is a continuous processes. I will be always ready to assist you incase you have any blog issues; Just contact me here

OR

If you have already purchased your Bluehost blog hosting server and you could not able to develop your blog finish, I can be of help to develop it for you free of charge , Contact me through this form