How To Start A Blog in 2021

Are you looking for a way to start a blog to generate more traffic and leads to your business?  If you’re looking for a free, easy, and step-by-step guide to follow on how to start a blog for your business, then you’ve come to the right place. I’m here to help guide you through this. At the end of this article, you’ll have everything you need to have your own blog… And don’t worry! Building a blog from scratch is easier than you think. You’ll learn how to start a blog today in 7 easy steps that’ll take you about 15 minutes to start blogging now.

Why Should You Start A Blog For Your Business

One of the biggest advantages of blogging is that it generates more traffic for your business and it extends your reach of potential customers. Blogs can result in a 434% increase in indexed pages and a 97% increase in indexed links. Plus, companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites. Research conducted by Hubspot found that businesses that focus on blogging are 13X more likely to see a positive return on their investments. And according to DemandMetric, companies that leverage a blogging strategy received 67% more leads. Plus, having a blog that works for you will help increase your revenue and massively boost your customer lifetime value (CLV), as you’ll be able to communicate in a meaningful way with consumers on an ongoing basis. Related Articles:

• How To Scale Your Ecom With A Business Blog
• How To Generate More Leads For Your SaaS With A Blog
• Top 12 Web Hosting For Your Business Blog

How To Start a Blog In 7 Easy Steps

A lot of people get really caught up in the technical aspects of blogging. One of the best career choices I’ve ever made was to learn how to start a blog. My decision to learn how to start a blog and begin making money from it (on the side of my full-time job), is what led me to make my first $1,000 month, then my first $4,000 month, and so on. And now I’m on the path to self-sufficiency thanks to blogging. After that, friends who were running ecommerces, SaaS, and agencies started asking me for blogging advice. They could see the potential of having a blog to generate more traffic and leads to their store, SaaS product, and agency services page.  After all, having a blog is the reason why SaaS companies like HubSpot, Slack, and Buffer have been able to scale so fast and build huge audiences of raving fans who now consider them the authorities in their market. Ecommerce stores like BestSelf.co, REI, and Survival Life, and other huge brands have successfully leverage their blog to generate huge traffic and build their email list faster. And today, we’re going to walk through an easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions to starting a blog. In this free How To Start A Blog guide for beginners, I’m going to show you everything you need to know when it comes to learning how to create a blog and eventually profit from it. Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links that may provide a commission to me at no cost to you if you purchase a paid plan. However, the links are for the best software and tools you need to start a successful blog. For more information, you can read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy. Ready to launch your blog with Bluehost? Get started for just $3.95/month (51% off your hosting plan) with my link here. But first…

How Can You Create A Blog When You’re A Beginner

Today, starting a blog is by far one of the easiest, most accessible ways to launch your own business and earn an income online (from anywhere in the world). The best part? You don’t need to be a professional writer in order to start a blog (look at how many spelling mistakes I make). The thing is because people who read blogs crave the more relatable, conversational tone of a blogger. So just to make sure, here is what you absolutely don’t need in order to start a blog:

• You don’t need any credentials.
• You don’t need to know how to code.
• You don’t need to know copywriting.

You can truly start a blog regardless of your age, location, and experience level. So, if you’re ready to take a leap and learn how to start a blog that will generate traffic to your ecommerce, SaaS, or agency, let’s get into this simple, step-by-step tutorial for new bloggers.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money

To begin making money blogging, you simply have to start, here’s how.

The Best Foundation to Start Your Blog – Fast

In order to get your blog up and running, there are 3 things you need to get started. You need:

1. A domain name
2. Hosting
3. A way to add posts to your new blog

Once you have these three things, you’re launched!

Step #1- Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog

First, it’s time to pick a name for your new blog. We’ll also select the blogging platform and web hosting you’ll be using and in order to get your blog online. The combination of blogging platform & web hosting I personally use (and that most other bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost.  WordPress is a publishing platform that’s been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet. And Bluehost is one of the longest-established companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we’ll be using to start blogging within this guide. So, let’s get started with choosing your blog’s name.

—> Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the green “Get Started Now” button

Your domain name is the name of your website. If you already have a domain for the business you want to scale with a blog, you’re already set and can skip to step #3! If you don’t yet have a domain or you don’t want to use the same, don’t worry. Choosing and setting up a new domain for your blog is super easy as you’ll see. How? Choose a domain name and try not to overthink it 🙂 ! You don’t want to get stuck in this phase because without a domain you really can’t start.  It took me about 15 seconds to decide on this blog’s name (FreedomSeeker.co). Haters will say it shows (and they’re probably right) but the thing is you should not waste a lot of time thinking about this step. Here are some things to keep in mind when buying a domain name:

• Make it something that’s easy for people to pronounce
• Don’t make it too long [ImSoAwesomeYouShouldBuyMyStuff.com]
• Make sure there aren’t any weird phrases or words hidden in your domain name ex. speed of art – speedofart.com or experts exchange – expertsexchange.com

Step #2 – Best Web Hosting For Your Blog

After either choosing your domain name OR opting to select it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign-up process—creating your account. Create your Bluehost account Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address (it’s super important to use an up-to-date email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent), and address. If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Either work! Select the right hosting package. This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to lock in and how far in advance you’ll pay.

Choosing the right package extras (skip all but one)

I highly recommend keeping the Domain Privacy Protection extra, but you can get away with skipping the rest.  If you chose a Basic or Plus Plan, then you’ll want to check the box to add Domain Privacy Protection to your order for around $1/mo. Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned with your blog. Next, enter your billing information. Now you’ll input your billing information, check the box that you agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service, and then hit the green “Submit” button! Great! You did it! You’ve officially completed the first major step of how to start a blog. With the initial signup process complete, it’s time to move into the next stage of getting your blog fully set up and optimized.

—> Click here to head over to Bluehost and register your domain if you haven’t already.

This article will guide you step-by-step through the process of getting WordPress installed on your blog through Bluehost. I’m also going to share with you other helpful tips for optimizing your blog, free and cheap plugins you can install to help get your blog looking great, and more.

Step #3 – Choose A Blogging Platform

If you want to open a restaurant, you need a kitchen to prepare food. If you want to start a blog, you need a blogging platform to prepare words. There are many blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly are a few. All have pros and cons, but WordPress is by far the most popular (source), and for good reason. It’s flexible, functional, has a large community of users, and works great if you want to make money. I use and recommend WordPress. Most bloggers do. But if you’re interested in looking at other options here’s a review of Top 12 Web Hosting For Your Business Blog. As I said, if you want to open a restaurant, you need a kitchen to prepare food. But you also need a dining room to serve your guests, right? Similarly, if you want to start a blog, you need a blogging platform to prepare words, but you also need hosting, a place to “serve” your words (blog posts) to visitors.  Put another way, a blogging platform puts your words into blog form. Hosting makes your blog live and accessible on the internet.  Let’s recap:

• Kitchen + dining room = restaurant
• Blogging platform + hosting = blog.

With me so far? In short, do not go to WordPress.com to start your blog BEFORE you’ve created your Bluehost account. Let me explain. When you choose WordPress as your blogging platform, you have two options for hosting:

• Hosted WordPress blogs, sometimes called WordPress.com blogs, are hosted by WordPress themselves. These blogs are free, but in exchange, you get less control and your income potential is limited. (Sad.)
• Self-hosted WordPress blogs, sometimes called WordPress.org blogs, are hosted by a host you choose yourself. These blogs cost a little money but give you much more control, plus your income is not limited. (Hooray!) 

Sidenote: Even though a self-hosted WordPress blog is sometimes called a WordPress.org blog, you do not have to use a .org at the end of your name. Alright, moving on… This guide teaches you how to start a self-hosted WordPress blog, the kind of blog preferred by beginner and veteran bloggers alike. As we said, to start your own blog, you need two things: a blogging platform + hosting. Let’s get both at once, shall we? It’ll take about 15 minutes.

Step #4 – Get Started With WordPress

At this point, you should have two sets of login information (sent via email): 

1. WordPress, where you write your posts and manage your blog.
2. Bluehost, where you manage your hosting account and pay your hosting bill.

From this point, we’ll spend most of our time in WordPress. Welcome to the WordPress Dashboard. You’ll spend a lot of time in the Dashboard, publishing posts and managing all aspects of your WordPress blog. It’s the nerve center of your blog. The black column on the left is a good indicator you are in the WordPress Dashboard. The rest of the screen might look different. Not to worry. The key is the black column! Black column = WordPress Dashboard. Alright, let’s get important settings in order first. Check your permalink structure.  In the black column, go to Settings > Permalinks. Make sure “Post name” is selected. If it’s not, read What Are Permalinks and How Do You Choose Them? Check your username to make sure it’s not admin. ​In the black column, go to Users > All Users. Make sure your Username is not “admin” like it is here: If it is “admin” like the image above, read these instructions to change it. If it’s something other than “admin” you’re good to go. Read on! Install important plugins.  There is one plugin I always install right away: Yoast SEO. It is widely recognized as an SEO plugin. (What is SEO?) To install a plugin:

• Go to Plugins > Add New.
• In the search bar up top, enter the name of the plugin you’re looking for. Find it in the list and click Install Now.
• Once it’s installed, you have to Activate a plugin before it will start working. Otherwise, it lies dormant on your site in its deactivated state, which is not ideal. Either activate or delete a plugin. To activate, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click Activate under the plugin name.
• Once installed and activated, you will be able to access its features as you write your posts (like Yoast SEO), unless it’s a plugin that runs in the background (like Antispam Bee).
• Also once activated, configure a plugin’s settings if needed. You can often tell if there are settings for a particular plugin by going to Plugins > Installed Plugins and looking for a Settings link under the plugin name. You might also see a plugin listed in the black left column of your Dashboard. Yoast SEO is accessible this way. Most plugins come with a default configuration which is fine to start with. If you want to dive into the configuration, Yoast has a Configuration Wizard you can find under SEO > General. Antispam Bee has a settings link under Plugins > Installed Plugins.
• If you ever search for a plugin but it doesn’t appear as an option, no worries

Delete unnecessary plugins. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins. I delete all of them except the Bluehost and WPForms Lite plugins. A plugin must be deactivated before it can be deleted, so if you hover over a plugin you may have to choose Deactivate, then hover again to see the Delete link. Plugins can always be added back later if you want. Edit some general settings. Go to Settings > General.

• Site title and tagline. Your site title doesn’t have to match your domain but it likely will. Your tagline is a short phrase that describes your site or mission well. Again, these can be changed at any time.
• Email address. If your main email address is not entered here, go ahead and put yours in. Notifications will be sent to this address.
• Timezone. A wrong timezone won’t break anything, but scheduled posts get published according to this setting, so if it’s not set correctly, you’ll wonder why your posts aren’t going live at the times you expect.
• Don’t touch your site URLs! You may be wondering about those URLs. If you change them now, it will mess things up. Your blog starts on a temporary domain. This is normal. Let’s talk about how it gets switched to your permanent domain…

Step # 5 – Complete Your Domain Setup

Did you enter a new domain?  Activate it.  Check your email inbox to find the domain activation email. Click the button inside to complete the activation process. Simple. Now just wait. Bluehost will automatically switch it for you. Did you enter an existing domain?  Point it. Edit the name servers where your domain is registered. Here are instructions by the registrar. If you get stuck, call Bluehost and they’ll walk you through. Did you click the link to choose your domain later?

1. ​First, decide on a domain.
2. Then, in the black column of your WordPress Dashboard, go to Bluehost > Back to Bluehost.
3. Click on Domains in the left column.
4. Then click the Register link (an option in the left column).

Hopefully, your desired domain will be available. It should be at the top of the list. Add the domain to your cart by clicking the cart button. If you chose a plan that came with a free domain, at checkout, the balance should be zero because the credit for a free domain was automatically applied to your account. Also at checkout, you can add domain privacy if you didn’t choose it before (which I definitely recommend). Once you have the domain, go to Domains > Assign. Use a domain associated with your account. Choose it from the dropdown menu. Wait a few hours for your domain to propagate.  That’s a fancy way of saying it takes a while for your WordPress blog and your domain to find each other on the world wide web and solidify their connection. Once they do, anyone should be able to type your domain into a web browser and your blog will appear! If you’re wondering if they’ve found each other, type your domain into your browser’s address bar (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) and see if your permanent domain sticks without forwarding it to your temporary domain. If so, you’re set! Sidenote: Your blog will look horrible at this point. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered there too. More on that below. Add SSL (from HTTP to HTTPS). Once your permanent domain is working, make it secure. What this does is adds an S to the end of HTTP. This gives visitors peace of mind. It also keeps your site on Google’s good side. To complete this step, you’ll need to activate an SSL certificate or turn on your free Bluehost SSL certificate. Don’t be intimidated by the fancy term. It’s easy. Again, how you proceed depends on what you chose back on the domain screen way back in Step 4. Did you enter a new domain or choose one later? Follow these instructions. (Did you enter an existing domain? Contact the company where your domain is registered. Tell them you want to secure your site with an SSL certificate.) After adding SSL, give your domain a bit of time to catch up. Eventually, when you type your domain into a browser like Chrome, you’ll see a secure icon: An insecure site will have an “i” with a circle around it. If your site doesn’t show the HTTPS after 24 hours, call Bluehost (for new or chosen later domains) or your domain registrar (existing domains) so they can find the problem.

Step #6 – Get Ready To Launch Your Blog

This is where you take over and start making your blog your own. I recommend doing things in the following order. Publish some pages and posts.  Adding content to your blog makes customizing your design easier since it won’t be empty like a deflated balloon. Also, readers will have something to read. I recommend having at least 2-3 excellent posts published when you launch. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for your first post, type your main topic or niche into Google and see what others have written. Don’t copy of course, but use those posts as inspiration. Make your post even more thorough. ​ It’s good to have solid content available if visitors find you, but at the same time, don’t get bogged down writing a dozen or more posts before you publish anything. Get your blog off the ground as soon as possible!  Customize your design.  If you’re like most, you’ll want to customize your design. A lot of new bloggers get really excited about all the design options available. However, less is more. The more fancy your theme, the more moving parts. The more moving parts, the more there is to break.  What is the best free WordPress theme? If you’re not ready to pay for a theme yet, Astra and GeneratePress are my favorite free themes. What Is The Best Theme For Beginners And Pros? If you want to start out right from the get-go consider investing in ThriveThemes. Psst, ThriveThemese also allows you to build your email list (with opt-ins). ​It’s like a blogging multi-tools.​​ Remove the Coming Soon page.  Bluehost automatically starts your blog with a Coming Soon page: When your pages and posts are published, and your design is customized to your liking (it’s always changeable!), click the button at the top of your Dashboard and follow the prompts to remove the Coming Soon page: Congratulations, your blog is live!

Step # 7 – How To Make Money From Your Blog

Blogging is so important to increase your sales that I’d go as far as recommending it regardless of whether you run an ecommerce, SaaS, or agency. Why? Because not only will your blog bring you more traffic with SEO and social media shares, but it will be better quality traffic of likely-to-buy audience as we’ve seen. Plus, when done right, website visitors who came to your blog will likely come back, either by organic search, or from your email list, or from your retargeting campaign. This gives you a chance to promote your SaaS and ecom’s product or agency’s services from a different angle, suggest another one, and even upsell them. As you communicate with consumers on an ongoing basis you’re establishing your credibility, trust, and relationship with them, and almost effortlessly increasing your customer lifetime value. Remember, there is a reason why the research at HubSpot found that companies that focus on business blogging are 13X more likely to see a positive return on their investments. Another none negligible way that’ll increase your revenue with a business blog is that you’ll build your email list a lot faster. According to some email marketing has an R.O.I of 4,300%. So it’s definitely worth spending some time on. Most people who come to your blog will not be ready to buy your product right away, and that’s okay and still very much profitable. Most who don’t buy will not subscribe to your email list either, that is still okay as you can retarget them with a relevant offer, blog post, lead magnet later on. BUT some people (around 2% of your visitors) will decide to opt-in to your email list. And this list is GOLD.

Case Studies – Successful Blogging Business

How AppSumo Makes $37 Million A Year With Email Marketing

AppSumo is a daily deals website for digitally distributed goods and online services.  Whether you are a SaaS founder or an online entrepreneur, you’ve probably already heard about AppSumo and its incredible growth. In 2021, the company founded in 2010 by Noah Kagan plans to make over $74 million in annual revenue, and already has plans to hit the billion-dollar mark down the way. But, what’s really fascinating about AppSumo is that get 49% of their annual revenue from their email marketing strategy.

They’ve been able to grow their email list mainly with their blog where they help their readers with starting and scaling their business. Growing an email list in your early days is one of the hardest things in any SaaS business. But AppSumo is living proof that this is possible. They started by creating simple above fold and footer opt-in forms. 

The other one that dramatically increased their opt-in rates was to add an opt-in pop-up like the one below:

Data from marketingsherpa show that 91% of people love to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with. And sending promotional emails helps companies improve their average purchase rate and make more money :).  AppSumo created automated email campaigns that trigger based on their subscribers’ behavior, so they barely have to touch their system for it to keep increasing profits.

How would you like to have such a revenue-cultivating machine that keeps purring in the background as you tend to other parts of your SaaS business?

Brainstorm with your team about ways you can entice your readers to opt-in to your email lists. Here’s a list of lead generation ideas to help you:

• Small helpful guide
• Email course
• Educational videos or training videos
• Checklists
• Coupon
• free trial
• etc

The most important thing when it comes to creating the right lead magnet is relevancy. How is this RELEVANT to what your audience is reading right now on your blog post and WHY should they be motivated to give you their email address? See how AppSumo offer their readers a RELEVANT lead magnet on their blog post titled “Social Media Report Template: How to Create One for Your Business”

If you’re looking to create a social media report for your business and you stumbled onto this blog post, how likely do you think you’ll be enticed to download AppSumo Social Media Report Template? Very likely, right? Why? Because the offer is RELEVANT to your search intent (social media report). The second most important thing when creating your lead magnet is to figure out a way to position your SaaS product as the only solution to their problem. So that when you suggest it to them it makes complete sense and doesn’t appear as you’re pushing it. It has to be effortless and natural. If you want a great example of that, look no further than at the bottom of their blog post:

“If you are looking for tools to help you manage your social media and track your analytics, you should check out the AppSumo store. We have several affordable lifetime and annual deals on some of the top software.” See how they are easily linking their AppSumo store as a way to help their readers to better manage their social media and track their analytics. Here’s an other example of a successful ecommerce email marketing strategy.

How Kewl Shop Increase Its Revenue By 22% With Email Marketing

The Kewl Shop sells dresses, shoes, and leggings online. They’ve been able to grow their email list mainly with their blog where they help their readers to improve their style (see the blog posts’ titles above). The Kewl Shop’s CEO Charles Fitzgerald grew his ecommerce company’s revenues by 22% in 12 months with minimal added costs. They continuously convert 5% of email prospects into customers. Kewl created automated email campaigns that trigger based on their subscribers’ behavior, so Charles barely has to touch his system for it to keep increasing profits.

How would you like to have such a revenue-cultivating machine that keeps purring in the background as you tend to other parts of your business?

Brainstorm with your team about ways you can entice your readers to opt-in to your email lists. Here’s a list of lead generation ideas to help you:

• Small helpful guide
• Email course
• Educational videos or training videos
• Checklists
• Coupon
• Samples
• etc

The most important thing when it comes to creating the right lead magnet is relevancy. How is this RELEVANT to what your audience is reading right now on your blog post and WHY should they be motivated to give you their email address? The second most important thing when creating your lead magnet is to figure out a way to position your product/offer as the only solution to their problem. So that when you suggest it to them it makes complete sense and doesn’t appear as you’re pushing it. It has to be effortless and natural.

Next Steps

From here, focus on consistently publishing new posts. One post a week is a good starting point, but the quality is more important. It is better to post fewer but better posts. You will feel overwhelmed, especially at the beginning. This is normal. When it comes to starting a blog, there is a steep learning curve, but don’t give up. Push through!  In conclusion, not only does having a business blog will help you in driving more traffic to your website, but it will also help you build your email list faster, and help you increase your ROI on ad spend. If you would like to know how you and your team can execute your own Business Blogging Strategy to:

• Increase Your Revenue Potential: And pull your ideal prospects towards you.
• Scale Your Backlink Acquisition: So you can get passive inbound leads and customers.
• Build Revenue Predictability: With an audience of ideal prospects who like your content and subscribe to your email and SMS list.

Then you’re welcome to join me and other ecommerce owners inside my free Business Blogging Course. Simply enter your info below and then click on the big blue “Sign Up” button.