How To Start A Blog In 2021

Written By John Ravi

On September 29, 2021
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In this article, I will walk you through the whole process of starting a blog in 2021. This tutorial will show you how to create a blog without spending anything more than $200.

Let’s get started.

Start a blog: Start with some niche research.

Excellent research refers to the study of a topic suitable for your blog.

Why is that so important?

I am assuming that you are starting a blog to make money online. So, it would help if you found a niche that’s not too competitive for you to penetrate.

If you choose a competitive niche, you might not make any money for the first two years. Given that you publish at least four articles every week for two years straight.

So, you need to either narrow down or find a niche that has little competition.

How do you find such a niche?

Niche research is the key to selecting the perfect niche to start any blog.

You don’t need any premium tools to conduct niche research.

I use the following process to find a good niche to start a blog.

  • Write down all of your passions and fields of expertise. You have to be passionate enough not to need any motivation to churn out quality content regularly.
  • Find out which one of these niches has the most earning potential.
  • Start a Google search to see which one out of these is the least competitive niche.
  • Is the selected niche relevant, and will it hold its relevancy five years down the line?
  • Does your niche blog solve a particular problem?
  • Analyze your competitors and their domain rankings. This will tell you’ll be able to outrank them or not.

That being said, if you don’t want to make any money. And, the sole purpose of launching this blog is to share your expertise, document your achievements, and don’t bother doing any niche research.

Start a blog: Decide which website builder or blogging platform to use

Website builders or page builders are software tools that you can use to build robust and good-looking websites without touching a piece of code.

In today’s market, there are many decent page builders and website builders out there.

My top website builders for blogging are:

WordPress is an open-source content management system. You can download WordPress, modify it and even sell the revised version.

You get complete control over the content management system, and you can easily manipulate anything on the front end of the website.

I would strongly recommend you to use WordPress as it is by far the best platform for blogging.

Since the latest block-based editor, Gutenberg Editor, WordPress has become a fully-fledged website builder.

The best part? WordPress is completely free.

Wix is an alternative to WordPress, but it is not readily recommended for bloggers and content marketers. It comes with blogging capabilities and hundreds of free templates that you can use to build your blog.

Squarespace is similar to Wix, and it targets brands, blogs and e-commerce businesses.

Start a blog: Select a domain name

Getting the right domain name for your new blog is a vital step. If your website doesn’t sport a memorable domain name, visitors might not return.

How do you choose the best possible domain name?

  • Go for top-level domain names such as.COM, .NET or something similar.
  • Don’t copy established business’ domain names. Whenever someone searches for your website, Google might show them your competitor’s website.
  • Keep the domain name simple and easy to remember.
  • Don’t add special characters or numbers in your domain name.

What are the best domain name registrars?

Today, you can register a domain with any given domain registrar and get the same level of quality. But I prefer these domain name registrars:

You can go with any of the domain mentioned above name providers for the best quality services.

Start a blog: Get the best web hosting and install WordPress

Although WordPress is a free platform, you still have to pay for a web hosting service to host your WordPress blog online.

There are thousands of web hosting companies today.

Some of the most reputable brands are:

I am going to use Bluehost’s signup process in this tutorial. You can sign up with any of the hosting companies. Sign up process may differ slightly.

How to choose the best web hosting service for your blog?

An ideal blogging web hosting service should have these qualities:

  • Fast performance: Your website should load in under 5 seconds.
  • Affordable pricing: for a personal blog, you don’t need an expensive dedicated server.
  • Good customer support: You should be able to resolve your technical issues within 5 minutes.
  • One-click WordPress installation: Otherwise, you’ll have to install WordPress manually. It’s a hassle.

How to install WordPress on Bluehost?

Please follow the YouTube video below to see how you can easily install WordPress on Bluehost within 5 minutes.

Step #1: Head over to Bluehost Web Hosting.

I would recommend you to sign up with BLUEHOST.COM and not the regional version of the website.

As soon as you land on the website, you will have to choose a web hosting plan. Select the “Basic” program and proceed to the next step.

If you want, you can sign up for other plans as well.

start a blog

Step #2: Enter your domain name and proceed with the registration process.

You can either enter a new domain name or enter the domain name that you already own.

Step #3: Now comes the account setup process. Put in your information and billing details.

start a blog

You can also opt for signup using your Google Account.

There are some package extras such as Domain Privacy and premium SSL. You can uncheck those.

Step #4: Once to punch in all your information, your signup process will be completed. Within 15 minutes, your hosting account will be set up and ready to go.

Check your email ID to see if the process is completed or not.

Step #5: Now, you can proceed with WordPress installation. Since we selected WordPress hosting, you might get a default WordPress installation that’s ready to go.

Else, you can install WordPress by navigating to the CPANEL and finding the “WordPress” Install icon.

start a blog

Insert all the information and complete the process.

After successful installation, your WordPress will be ready for customizing and modifying.

Note: You must store the username and password of your WordPress installation. In addition, please use a strong password for WordPress security.

Start a blog: Get the best WordPress theme.

WordPress themes are used to customize the look and feel of a WordPress website. WordPress is a content management system, and it only comes with a default WordPress theme that most people might not find appealing.

Don’t worry; you can change the default theme easily and install paid or free WordPress themes.

Where do you get the best WordPress themes?

start a blog

You can get the best WordPress themes from these free and premium theme marketplaces:

  • WordPress theme repository: This is where you’ll find the most reliable free WordPress themes. Also, you can access the WordPress theme repository via your WordPress theme panel.
  • Themeforest: It is the largest premium WordPress theme marketplace. In addition to WordPress themes, you can find templates for almost all the CMS and online platforms.
  • Template monster: Templatemonster is also a premium WordPress theme marketplace.
  • Elegantthemes: Elegantthemes doesn’t host third-party themes. All the themes and plugins are developed and managed by Elegantthemes.
  • StudioPress: Just like Elegantthemes, Studiopress is also a theme developer that powers and maintenance Genesis Framework. Compared to Elegantthemes, Studiopress has more themes and better customer support.
  • GeneratePress: GeneratePress is a developer-friendly, performance-centric freemium WordPress theme. I recommend GeneratePress to budding bloggers.
  • Astra: Astra is also a performance-centric freemium WordPress theme.

Please select your favourite theme and install it via the WordPress theme panel.

A few tips for choosing the best theme for your blog:

  • Never purchase a magazine WordPress theme just to run a simple blog. Magazine themes usually come packed with a lot of features. Your shared WordPress hosting plan might fail. Still, if you want to use a Magazine, you can use CloudInnovare to optimize your WordPress website.
  • If you have the budget, commission a custom WordPress theme for your blog. It will only have the features that you need. This makes your website fast.

Start a blog: Most essential WordPress plugins to install on your blog

As a rule of thumb, you should not install more than five plugins on a shared hosting platform and ten plugins on a managed WordPress hosting.

Here are some plugins that you must:

That’s it.

Many newbie bloggers install hundreds of plugins that they don’t necessarily need. The more plugin you install, the most problem your blog will face.

Start a blog: How to make your WordPress website secure?

WordPress security is a serious issue. Here are some highly-recommended WordPress security tips:

  • Create a strong username and password. Change passwords regularly.
  • Don’t install plugins from unreliable sources.
  • Don’t install the theme from unreliable sources.
  • Choose a reliable WordPress web host.
  • Don’t share your login information.
  • Use password managers for one-click log in.

How to write the first blog post on your blog?

Your first blog post doesn’t have to be an info related blog post.

Instead, you can publish an article introducing yourself to the public. Many blogs get right to the point and start posting content left and right.

I believe a blog is a personal venture, and people who come to read your blog posts will relate to an introductory blog post.

That said, if your blog is related to an authority niche such as marketing or web design or something similar, you can start publishing high-quality long-form content.

Here’s a list of tutorials that you can use to craft your very first blog post:

How to promote your blog posts?

In the starting days, you will not get any traffic from Google or any other search engines.

Google keeps all brand-new blogs in a sandbox phase. During this phase, most blogs and websites aren’t ranked on the search engine results page.

So, how do you drive traffic to your website in the starting days?

You can use social media platforms and online communities to drive targeted traffic to your blog.

Here’s a list of all the social media platforms that you can use to drive traffic for free:

  • Facebook – This social media giant doesn’t like it when you take users out of its platform. But Facebook is still a powerful tool for networking and building & participating in groups. Some groups will let your share your content with thousands of users. This way, you can quickly get 50 – 100 visitors to your blog in those starting days.
  • Pinterest – On more than one occasion, I have mentioned that Pinterest is a powerful traffic generation tool. There is a successful blogger who owes their success to this platform. The best part is that you don’t have to stay in any sandboxing phase.
  • LinkedIn – highly recommended to professionals and bloggers who blog in professional niches such as office culture, start-ups, business and marketing.

Start a blog: When should you expect traffic from search engines?

For a regular blog with a once-a-week publishing schedule, stable traffic should start coming from the second year of blogging.

How can you fast track your blog growth?

You can increase the content publishing frequency and start networking with fellow bloggers aggressively.

In addition, you should focus on brand building aspect rather than making money with blogs.

If your blog grows, you will be able to generate revenue through various sources, including:

  • Consultation: You can use Trinitio for schedule planning and calendar planning.
  • Blog writing services: offering paid writing services to authority blogs.
  • Display advertising
  • Affiliate marketing

Conclusion: How to start a blog in 2021

In this article, I have shared a complete tutorial on blogging and starting your blogging career.

I hope you have an excellent blogging career. Drop your comments in the comment section below and start a conversation below.

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