Your Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog

If you’re interested in starting a blog, you’re in the right place! Here you can find all you need to know about how to start a blog in different niches, as well as what makes for a successful blog right off the bat.

As a budding blogger, setting up a blog may seem intimidating (especially if you’re not tech-savvy). But let me dispel those worries and assure you that starting a blog with our guides couldn’t be simpler.

Anyone can start a blog, so long as you have the drive to do so. You don’t need to be super good with a computer; you don’t need to know how to code. All you need is an idea and, with some guidance, the rest will fall into place.

Starting a blog is a great idea if you have a passion or knowledge that you’d like to share with the world. It’s also the first step to starting an online business, as blogging is a rapidly growing industry with real money to be made.

If you’re interested in learning more about how much it costs to start a blog, or even down to the actual steps you need to take, give these articles a read and follow along with the steps… you’ll have a blog up and running before you know it!

Is it Too Late to Start a Blog?

While you may be wondering “is blogging dead?”, the short answer to this question is NO WAY! 

The longer answer is that the blogging industry is absolutely booming. More and more people are leaping at the opportunity to work for themselves and actually profit from their passions, the way we’ve been doing with our travel blog, Adventure in You, for the past 5 years! 

While the old school “dear diary” blogging style may be outdated, the kind of blogging we’re talking about here is very much still alive… and growing every single day. 

In fact, since 2015, there has been a 12% increase in the amount of active bloggers in the U.S., coming to a whopping 31.7 million individuals. Beyond this, actually one third of all websites online are blogs! If it’s too late to start a blog, then ask yourself this: why is the blogging industry exploding?

Well, what people have realized in recent years is that blogging is actually a sustainable source of income and a long term employment solution. With the right strategy, blogging can go from a simple website into a full blown business, earning an enviable amount of money regularly. Beyond just being a creative outlet, blogging is the top way to make money by utilizing your strengths, passions, and unique knowledge.

When you start to doubt yourself and wonder “should I start a blog?”, just know that it’s never too late to profit from your passions through a website of your own. 

Starting a Blog

When it comes to starting a blog, it’s easy to come up with excuses about why you can’t do it. 

• “I’m not good with technology.”
• “I don’t know what to write about.”
• “It’s too expensive.”
• “I just don’t know where to start…”

These objections are common but totally unnecessary! Because the thing is, anyone can start a blog, even if you’re not the best writer in the world or struggle with technology or are low on funds.  

To help with the process, we’ve put together a large collection of guides to help you (and anyone who’s interested) through the process of starting a blog.

Besides just showing you how to start a blog of your own, we actually have full resources when it comes to findinging your blog niche and sorting out general blog costs, even if you’re on a tight budget. 

With a little bit of help to point you in the right direction, you’ll find that starting a blog is much simpler than you may have imagined. 

Featured Posts

Niche Specific Guides for Starting a Blog

Want niche specific recommendations on how to start a blog?

Take a look at the articles listed below which have step-by-step instructions (including videos) on how to start a blog. We also give specific tips and plugin recommendations that are relevant to different niches.

Blog Hosting Recommendation

No matter what kind of blog you plan on starting, to set yourself up for success down the line, it’ll need to be a self-hosted blog.

While you can start a blog on a free platform, you’ll find that there are tons of restrictions when it comes to ownership of your content and monetization options.

To get around these terms and conditions, it’s much better to purchase hosting and start a self-hosted blog with a content management system like WordPress.org.

With a self-hosted blog, you have complete control over what you can do with your website (i.e. write what you want and make as much money as your heart desires), and completely own your blog and what’s on it. This is the ultimate key to turning your blog into a business! 

When it comes to hosting, our number one recommendation is Bluehost, which is the most affordable hosting provider out there.

Besides being the best option in terms of price, some other reasons we love Bluehost are:

• FREE domain name included for a year
• Able to get hosting before deciding on a name
• 24/7 customer support
• One-click WordPress install
• Free 30-day money back guarantee

With our Bluehost discount, you can start your blog for less than $3 each month… that’s barely the price of a cup of coffee! If you’re starting a blog on a budget, there isn’t a more affordable option out there.

Finding the Perfect Name for Your Blog

Based on experience, one of the things that takes the longest when starting a blog is coming up with the perfect name.

Contrary to popular opinion, for us, a name is just a name… until you build it into a brand. You can spend weeks trying to come up with the perfect name but if you don’t take time to put in the work and create incredible content, your blog won’t really grow.

That being said, there is a method to help you come up with a name for your blog in a few quick and easy steps!

Check out our article all about how to name your blog, or dive into one of our niche specific blog naming articles, full of ideas that you can use and inspiration from existing bloggers.

If you already have a blog name in mind, use the widget below to make sure that it’s available:

Once you find a blog name that you love (and that’s available), register it right away so that no one can snag it out from under your feet. 

Posts on Naming Your Blog

Choosing a Theme for Your Blog

If you want to make your blog look slick and fresh, we recommend getting a premium theme right from the get-go.

A theme is basically a website template created by a developer so that anyone can start a website. Instead of having to design and code the entire thing yourself, now all you have to do is choose a theme, import it onto your website, and edit it with your own information.

This has been a total game changer because it means that anyone can start a blog, even without any technical skills. Thank you developers!

Since there are so many themes out there, we’ve taken the time to dive deep into all of the options and find the themes that truly work best for bloggers. We went through the good, the bad, and the ugly so that you don’t have to. 

The articles in this section are complete guides to picking a WordPress theme for different niches. Even if your blog doesn’t fall into one of these categories, you’ll still be able to find a theme that will work well for your purposes. And trust me, you’ll be so glad that you did.

Not all WordPress themes are created equal, and in our eyes, Divi reigns supreme. This WordPress theme comes with its own page builder and allows for unlimited customization options. Coupled with more than 800+ website templates to choose from and elements completely unique to Divi, we believe that this is the ideal theme for any blogger, beginner to advanced. 

Posts on Best WordPress Themes