So, you want to start a blog, huh? First of all, that’s a pretty dope idea. In my opinion, it’s one of the most fun and rewarding things you can do.
Blogging allows you to dive deeply into topics that really interest you, improve as a writer, and learn a ton along the way. In addition, starting your own blog has never been easier. The required pieces are readily available. You just have to know how to use them, which is what this post will show you.
We’ll cover the step-by-step process on how you can start a blog basically today. From if and why you should do it, over preparation, getting a website address, setting up and designing your blog, to writing your first blog post and making it ready for publishing.
But wait, isn’t blogging dead?
If blogging had really died as often as people said it did, it would have signed a DNR by now.
But, the truth is, blogging has never really gone away. It has changed over time, for sure, but is still a valid way to attract an audience, drive traffic to your website, and even build a business around.
Need proof?
In Orbit Media Studio’s annual blogger survey, out of 1,000 professional bloggers:
- 77% of participants say they see results from blogging, 20% even say strong results
- 65% use it as a tool to drive SEO traffic to their websites
Yes, they also say it takes more effort to craft blog posts. Participants see the best results when they spend 4-6+ hours per in-depth blog post. But blogging is alive and well.
Okay, so why should you start a blog?
Starting a blog lets you write about and explore anything you want. Whatever your interest or passion, it’s an outlet to curate your knowledge and ideas.
In addition, it’s great writing practice and great thinking practice too. It forces you to properly structure your ideas. Plus, it really helps with learning because, in order to explain something to others, you first need to understand it yourself.
In addition, being creative is simply fun and meaningful. Sharing what you know with others in the hopes of helping, inspiring, and educating them is rewarding.
What’s more, it can actually be a vehicle to build an audience, establish authority in your industry, and position yourself as an expert. And who knows, over time, your blog might turn into a side or even main business. You wouldn’t be the first blogger to start earning money from sharing your knowledge.
Most importantly, a blog is your own presence on the web where you can decide what happens and how. And, especially if you create it with a system like WordPress, you fully own it.
That’s different from, say, a presence on social media, where you can:
- Get banned for violating the terms and conditions, even accidentally
- Lose your reach due to an algorithm change
- Be forced to migrate because you don’t support the new ownership
When you don’t own your outlet, you are at the mercy of those who do.
Ready to sign up with WordPress.com? Start your blogging journey here.
How to start a blog with WordPress.com in 12 steps
Feel motivated yet? Good, then let’s put that energy to good use.
1. Choose a niche and determine what you’ll write about
When considering your blog topic and niche, there are three fundamental factors to think about:
- Your interest – It’s hard to start a successful blog and stay motivated to write about something day in and day out that you aren’t really into, even if it’s a popular topic. So, choose something you actually care about, it will also show in your writing.
- The audience – Is there enough general interest in your topic that you are able to attract an audience? You can use tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, Similarweb, or the Ubersuggest Chrome extension to research this.
- Monetization – Some niches are more suitable for building a business around than others. If that’s your goal, it helps to do some research beforehand. For example, you may check if there are affiliate programs you could sign up for. A simple Google search like “[your topic] affiliate program” is often enough. Other ways to monetize a blog are Patreon and Ko-fi. On WordPress.com you can also accept donations and run ads on your blog.
It’s also important to niche down. Start with broader topics like personal finance, cooking, or travel. From there, dig further, for example:
- Investing for millennials
- High-protein meal prep ideas
- Solo travel for women
You can always broaden your topic later but for the beginning, going small helps you focus.
2. Brainstorm a name for your blog and secure your domain
In naming your blog, you can go different routes. For example, you could use your own name like author James Clear.
This emphasizes who is behind the writing even if it doesn’t give away the blog’s topic yet. You can also use a business name instead of your personal name.
Another choice is to give the blog a title that conveys its topic, similar to Nerd Fitness.
A third option is to do a mix. For example, Chris Guillebeau uses his own name for the domain but his blog is called “The Art of Non-Conformity”
Generally, your blog name should be clear, easy to remember, and unique. This also matters for your choice of domain name. You want to use one that’s the same as the blog name or at least intimately tied to it.
To find out if your desired domain is available, use WordPress.com’s domain search tool.
Input your desired name and the tool will tell you if it’s available, what it costs, and alternatives.
You can also purchase it right then and there. More tips for choosing a domain name.
3. Pick a hosting plan
Hosting allows you to make your blog available for people surfing the Internet. With WordPress, you are free to choose where to host your blog.
Using a managed hosting provider like WordPress.com allows you to outsource many of the more technical tasks of starting a blog, like:
- Installation – You can skip uploading the files to a server, creating a database, or running the installation yourself.
- Speed optimization – WordPress.com’s servers are optimized for WordPress and offer other speed features.
- Security – You get daily security scans, automatic backups, brute-force protection, downtime monitoring, encryption, firewalls, DDoS protection, automatic software updates, and more with every plan. Don’t worry if you don’t know what half of this means. The bottom line is simply that your blog is super secure from being hacked.
All of the above allows you to fully concentrate on content creation and growing your blog. Simply choose a WordPress.com plan to get started.
Each plan comes with unlimited visitors, posts, and pages. You can even start with the Free plan and upgrade later, such as when you want to extend your blog’s functionality with plugins on the Business plan. Plus, if you go for the yearly option, every plan also includes a free domain for one year.
4. Select a WordPress blog theme
Themes control the design of a WordPress blog. Switching from one theme to another can make a huge difference in the look and feel of your blog. There are plenty of blog themes with design and layout elements specifically for blogging, making it easy to start. They even exist for different subjects like food, travel, etc.
To install one, log in to your WordPress blog, go to Appearance > Themes, and click the Blog category at the top.
Click on any theme you like for additional information and also to try out any style variations it comes with.
You can apply it to your blog right then and there by clicking Activate this design. Alternatively, click Preview & Customize to view your current website in the new skin and make adjustments before activating it.
5. Add pages
At this point, you might want to jump straight into customizing your theme design and we’ll get to that. But, in order to do so, it helps to first get familiar with the basic workflow of how to edit content in WordPress.
A good way to ease yourself into it is to create pages. It uses a lot of the same principles but is less complex and, therefore, a good starting point.
You create a new page by going to Pages > Add New Page in your WordPress admin interface. The first thing you’ll see is a prompt with block patterns for different types of pages. They can work as a starting point and you can insert them with a click.
Alternatively, you can also start with a blank page.
Insert page elements
In WordPress, basic design elements are called “blocks”. For example, the editor automatically creates a paragraph block when you write something and press the enter key.
You find a list of all available blocks when you click the big “+” button in the top left corner.
They range from text elements and buttons to layout elements like columns and beyond. A click on any of them inserts it into the editor.
You also have access to more pre-designed collections of blocks in the Patterns tab. Inserting them works the same way.
You can also add blocks by clicking the small “+” button that appears when you place your cursor within the editor. Alternatively, type a forward slash (“/”) in any empty line followed by the block name.
Every element in the editor is customizable. Click it and you’ll find an options bar at the top and additional customization options in the Settings sidebar.
Use the editor to create must-have pages for your blog, such as:
- About page
- Contact page
- Legal pages like a privacy policy
6. Add a menu
Including your new pages in a navigation menu allows your visitors to reach them easily. Sitewide changes like this happen in the Site Editor. Enter it via Appearance > Editor.
You’ll quickly notice that it works the same way as the Page Editor, only that there are more site elements you can work on. For example, your theme likely already has a navigation menu. In this example, it appears as part of the header.
There are different ways to customize it. One is via the Navigation menu. Another is through Patterns and Header. Thirdly, you can also click the header element in the main editing window and then choose Edit.
In all cases, the element you want to edit is the Navigation block. Opening the Document Overview menu helps you find it more easily. Once active, it lets you add and subtract menu items and other elements, rename them, and more.
Note: In some themes you control menus in the Site Customizer instead. Find information about that here.
7. Customize theme design
While already in the Site Editor, you can also start to change the appearance of other parts of your blog.
Change global styles
Changing global design options like fonts, colors, etc. happens in the Styles menu on the right side of the screen.
Among other things, it lets you change:
- Style presets – Switch between style variations your theme ships with.
- Typography – Make changes to the font family, size, appearance and more for all text on your blog, from body copy to links and headings.
- Colors – Define custom colors, try out existing palettes, and change the color of text, backgrounds, links, and beyond.
- Layout – Define content width, global padding, and spacing.
For example, if you go to Colors > Background, you can change the background color of your blog with a few clicks.
Customize page templates
Page templates work like blueprints for certain content types. If you modify a template, the changes apply to all pieces of content of that kind.
You can access them via the Templates menu when you click on the WordPress logo in the Site Editor.
One of the most decisive customizations you can make here is to determine how your posts appear on your blog page. Your theme most likely has a template called Blog Home for that.
Click to start editing it. Find the Query Loop block (again, use the Document Overview) and choose Replace.
This will show you available patterns for displaying the main blog.
Click whichever you like to see it on the page.
Customize it as needed. If you save now, your blog will adopt the new design.
8. Add blog categories
You should now have enough knowledge to customize the look of your blog. From here, it’s time to talk about how to create content, starting with categories.
Categories bring order to your blog posts and also clarify the topics of your blog to search engines. You manage them in Posts > Categories. Click the blue button to add a new category.
Provide a name and, optionally, a description that can show up in category archive pages. You’re also able to create sub-categories this way.
Think of categories as broad topics that your blog is about. For example, a food blog would have categories like Recipes, Cooking Tips, and Product Reviews and from there subcategories like Breakfast, Meal Prep, and Cookbooks.
Start with 3-5 categories. If you have more than that, your blog topic might lack focus.
Later, you assign categories in the Post Editor sidebar.
9. Develop a basic content strategy
In writing blog content, it helps to be strategic and develop a plan that will keep you on track.
The first step is to decide how often you want to publish a new post. This depends a lot on how much time you have available to invest. In the beginning, it’s more important to be consistent than to post often. Once a week or every other week is an okay goal to start with.
As for what to write about, you probably already have a few ideas for blog topics. Spend 10 minutes jotting down as many as you can.
After that, take another 10 minutes to score those ideas with numbers 1-3, the highest number being the best. Take your 3s and input them into tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ubersuggest. This will help you validate demand and also refine your exact key phrases.
Then add all those left over to your calendar.
10. Write your first blog post
If you’ve made it this far, it’s finally time–you are going to start creating your first blog post. This can be a bit overwhelming at first, so let’s break it down into manageable steps.
Create an outline
A blog post outline gives you an overview of the general content and structure of your blog post. Here’s an example:
It helps you determine the topic, angle, and main points. You can actually create it right in your WordPress blog. Go to the WordPress Post Editor (Posts > Add New Post) and open the Outline feature in the document overview.
This shows the heading structure of your future post. Use h2 headings to determine main sections, then h3 headings to further divide them, and so forth. You can also create a list of points you want to make in each section if you already know them.
Start researching
The research phase is where you collect all the raw information you will mention in your blog post and bring it into the right order.
This usually involves a lot of googling and reading the material that’s already out there. But you can also use books, your own expertise, or other sources.
You don’t need to write complete sentences here. Incomplete sentences and key phrases are enough.
Write a first draft
The main objective of your first draft is to turn your research notes into a cohesive text. This won’t be the final version and nobody else is going to see it, so shoot for volume rather than conciseness and speed over precision.
Seriously, you just want to vomit enough text onto the page that you have something to work with, so avoid sweating over specific sentences or editing while writing.
Edit and format
The editing phase is the most important part of the process. This is where you polish your draft, clarify your points, make sure the post progresses logically, and refine your writing. Besides research, this is where most of your effort should go and it often helps to do several rounds of editing.
Part of editing is formatting to ensure readability. Here are a few suggestions and best practices for that:
- Include no more than 25 words per sentence
- Use around three sentences per paragraph
- Try to express one idea per paragraph
- Keep sections short (under 300 words)
- Use numbered and unnumbered lists
A great help is to input your content into the Hemingway App. On the Business plan and above, you can also install plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math that have a readability analysis.
Add visuals
Visual content breaks up text, makes it more interesting, and clarifies and emphasizes your points. It can take many different forms, such as:
Note that you can directly embed images from Openverse and Pexels via the Block Inserter’s Media tab.
Just search for a keyword and click when you find an image that you like to insert it.
Refine your headline
More people read your headline than will read the rest of your post, it can really make or break your article. To make sure it is the best it can be and get some practice, challenge yourself to write 25 of them.
If you are drawing a blank, feel free to plug it into your favorite AI tool for some input.
For example, Jetpack AI can also help you create a headline for your post.
In addition, you can use a free headline tool like Easy Peasy AI to further refine your ideas.
11. Optimize your post for SEO
The aforementioned SEO plugins also help you optimize your blog post for search engines. For one, they allow you to set custom page titles and meta descriptions.
These show up prominently in search results.
Customizing them makes sure they are engaging, inspire clicks, and don’t get cut off. You can also use Jetpack for this purpose.
SEO plugins additionally often come with content analysis models. When you input your main keyword, they tell you how well-optimized your post is.
An Important part that they will alert you to is using your keyword in your post slug, meaning the end of its URL.
It’s best if you make it concise, no more than 3-5 words. Ideally, it should just be the main key phrase.
You can also further customize the entire URL structure of your blog under Settings > Permalinks.
Including categories can help further clarify your blog topics to search engines but it’s not a must. Just be sure not to change the permalink structure of an established blog because it will neutralize established links in search engines and lead to 404 errors.
Finally, make sure to include internal links in your blog post to related blog articles and other relevant pages. It will help visitors discover more information and also helps spread SEO value throughout your entire site.
Good starting points to learn more about SEO are Positionly’s blog SEO best practices and Moz’s Beginner’s Guide. You’ll also want to learn about image SEO.
12. Promote your blog posts
Besides SEO, additional promotion channels like social media and building an email list help you get your blog writing in front of more people.
All WordPress.com plans come with Jetpack, which you can find under Tools > Marketing > Connections. It allows you to automatically publish new blog content to selected social accounts.
You can also easily add social sharing buttons to your content using the Sharing Buttons block to make it easy for your readers to further spread the word.
In addition, WordPress.com has native functionality to build a newsletter. It allows you to collect subscribers, automatically send out new posts via email, schedule them ahead of time, and even monetize your newsletter.
You find options for that under Settings > Newsletter. It lets you offer different subscription options throughout your site and content. You can also set them up manually with the Subscribe block.
In addition, you customize the content and features of your emails as well as set up a welcome message to new subscribers. Detailed instructions in the documentation.
Make This the Year When You Start Your Blog!
Creating a blog, whether as a hobby, to build a personal brand, or to grow a business, is a rewarding experience. It allows you to share your passions with the world and claim your own spot on the web.
The process may seem overwhelming at first, but if you take it step by step, it’s both accessible and achievable for anyone willing to put in the effort. So, why wait? Bring your ideas to life, and start building something meaningful today. Launch your blog in just a few clicks on WordPress.com.
