How To Start A Blog – Complete Guide

I often get asked this question a lot by my awesome YouTube viewers and on Rankknar’s telegram channel. So instead of answering everyone personally i thought why not make a detailed blog on this topic. Since you are beginning to embark on your blogging quest i will try to answer all your questions in this post on how to start a blog in the simplest way possible. So that you can swiftly start your blogging journey in 2024.

Hello future bloggers 🙋my name is Vikas Kumar and i have been blogging since past 5 years. So its safe to say that you are in right hands. And i know what i am talking about.. LOL After combining my expertise and knowledge i goal is to make blogging easy for everyone.

Enough about myself lets quickly start the blog. 

Starting a blog in India or any where in the world is not very hard and not very simple it all depend upon your effort and dedication and most important patience because “BLOGGING TAKES TIME“. You don’t need any technical knowledge or technical background to be a blogger all you need is a laptop or computer and working internet connection and we’re all set.

While I can’t magically make you a blogging expert in one post, I’ll do my level best to give you a solid foundation. I’ll try to scratch the surface of everything you need to know to start your own awesome blog!

Let’s Talk About Some Numbers

• There are more than 600 Million Active Blogs. (Growth Badger)
• More than 70 Millions are published each month.
• From 2023 to 2027, the global content marketing industry is expected to grow by $584.02 billion (ReportLinker).
• Anyone can become a blogger. (Rankknar)

I know these numbers can be a bit intimidating at first but trust me i mentioned these points just to motivate you and let you know about the immense potential blogging holds.

See starting a blog and running a successful blog both are completely different. Everybody can start a blog or website but not everyone can make it successful. So with the help of my experience and some successful blogs I am going to provide you A to Z guide to help you that how to start a blog in
India?

How To Start A Blog Step By Step

Step 1-Choosing A Niche

Choosing a niche is a key factor when it comes to blogging success. According to me before doing anything this is the first and important part before starting a blog. The main objective of this analysis is to find your interests and knowledge. It helps you to choose a niche or theme for your whole blog.

When it comes to choosing the niche for your first blog it is really important that we get a good start because your blog success will depend upon it. There are many way in which you can select a winner niche for blog.

1. Your hobbies or interest
2. Money making niche
3. Your knowledge
4. Market demand
5. Trending topics

I suggest if you are complete beginner stick with something that you love because even you are not earning anything for months you might still be motivated and that’s important because most people will either get bored or simply quit if you are got getting good results down the line.

Examples Of A Good Hobby Niche Can be –

1. A Football Fan Blog
2. Gardening Blog
3. Educations Blog

The second way that i suggest for choosing a niche is to simply go for a profitable niche. But keep in mind that the high earning topics will generally be much more competitive hence making it difficult to succeed in.

But the main purpose is to start a blog is to make money. So you can’t make money if you choose a niche that is out of trend, low search volume, low cpc etc. Whether its your field, hobby or interest but you must try to choose a niche that can make you money.

Some Examples Of A Profitable Niche

1. Finance
2. Crypto
3. Share Market
4. Business

Things To Consider Before Choosing a Niche

1. Evaluate The Audience Size
   • Before selecting any niche its important to gauge the potential size of audience. And i always try to find a balance a perfect balance: one that isn’t so saturated with competition that it decreases our chance of success, yet still possesses enough traffic potential to ensure a viable audience for my content.
2. Competition
   • To know how competitive your niche is plz find your competitors
   • Research your potential competitors to find about these:-
     • Domain Age
     • Total Number of Blogs Published
     • Total Number Of Keywords Ranking – Could Require A Paid Tool
     • Social Media Followers
     • Estimated Traffic
   • You can do this research manually to how strong the competition is and this will also give you clarity on how hard you have to work in order to make your blog successful.
     • All this will help you in choosing a right niche.

A while back i also created a video on this topic how to choose a blog niche. So do check the video for detailed information.

Step 2 – Choosing The Right Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is like getting an admission in to a college, Once your admission is done you can’t change it. Well in blogging case you can but it will be a hassle. So i always recommend that you take your time in choosing the right domain name.

Tips For Choosing your First Domain

1. Keep It Short and Memorable: A shorter domain name is easier to remember and less prone to typos. *But keep in mind that short domain names are generally very costly.
   • I suggest try combining 2 words to make single domain name. Like – gamereview, pubglover, nlfguide etc.
2. Make It Brandable: Your domain name should reflect your brand’s personality. It should be unique and stand out in your audience’s mind.
3. Avoid Hyphens and Numbers: These can be confusing and are often misunderstood. People might forget if a number is in numeral or spelled out, and hyphens can be overlooked or misplaced.
4. Use Keywords Wisely: Including a keyword can help with SEO, but don’t force it. Overusing keywords can make the domain sound generic or spammy.
5. Choose the Right Domain Extension: While .com is the most popular and memorable, there are many other TLDs (Top-Level Domains) like .net, .org, or industry-specific ones like .tech or .blog. Choose one that fits your brand and purpose.
6. Consider Your Target Audience: If your blog is aimed at a local audience, consider using a country-specific TLD (like .uk or .ca) to connect more directly with local readers. This can also help if you are looking to start an international blog.
7. Check for Trademark Issues: To avoid legal problems, make sure your chosen domain name doesn’t infringe on any existing trademarks.
8. Think Long-Term: Changing your domain name in the future can be a hassle and hurt your brand. Think about how your domain name will serve you in the long run.
9. Easy to Pronounce and Spell: Ensure your domain name is easy to pronounce and spell. This makes it easier for people to pass along by word of mouth and remember.
10. Check Social Media Availability: Ideally its good to have same username on social media as your domain name. Check the availability on social media sites and don’t worry if you can’t find the same username other usernames will work just fine.

Some Example Of Domain Names

Examples Of Top Domain Extensions TLD’s

1. com (commercial & Global)
2. net (network)
3. io (often used for tech startups)
4. org (organization)
5. info (information)
6. biz (business)
7. edu (education)
8. gov (government)
9. Represent specific countries or territories.

Country Domain Examples

1. us (United States)
2. uk (United Kingdom)
3. fr (France)
4. in (India)
5. jp (Japan)
6. de (Germany)
7. ca (Canada)
8. au (Australia)

Step 3 – Purchasing The Right Hosting Provider

As a beginner i always suggest you choose the hosting provider which is close to your country and easy on your wallet. Since you wont be using too much resources in the beginning a basic hosting plan with decent storage and RAM should do the trick for us.

Shared hosting plans are good option if you are just starting out because these plans are affordable and almost every hosting provider has them. One thing to note here is that shared hosting can easily handle traffic of a new blog and you can always upgrade to a more faster and robust cloud hosting once your traffic increases. Afterall speed is a important ranking factor if you want to rank #1 on Google.

Some Key Points To Consider Before Choosing A Hosting Provider

1. Always choose a reliable hosting with good user reviews.
2. Try to look for free trial.
3. Should have a good customer support.
4. Should provide enough storge and Inodes. (Inodes means total number of files and folders you can have in your hosting. More the merrier because as your site grows this number increases fast).
5. Search of coupon code and deals for additional discount.
6. Buy 1 year plan so you wont have to pay every month.

Note: If in the beginning you don’t have a budget to purchase a hosting, you can consider using Blogger. It’s a free platform to host your website, provided by Google. And don’t worry, just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s not effective it is still used my millions of blogger.

In fact, many many bloggers just like me started with blogger then later moved on to WordPress. Sure, it may have some limitations when it comes to customization and resources, but once you start generating a good income through your blog, you can always switch to a paid hosting service.

Step 4- Setup Your Site – Using WordPress

So finally we are ready to take out first step in setting up your blog. In this mini guide i will be using WordPress platform because its one of the popular platform and powers 43.1% of the web. If its your first time using a hosting to install WordPress it might look a bit intimidating but don’t worry it gets easier with time.

You’ll just have to follow these simple steps and before you know you’ll have successfully installed your first blog within minutes.

Steps By Step WordPress Installation

1. Log in into your hosting account. [ Note:- I am using Introxexus Hosting ]
   • Don’t worry this step will be similar in all hosting platforms.
2. Click on cPanel.
3. Scroll to the “Website” section and select Install WordPress
4. Choose the domain name to install it to.
5. Set a Username and Strong Password.
6. Add a recover email address.
7. Read through the license and service agreements (don’t forget to check the boxes)
8. Click the “Install Now” button

That’s it! Your first blog is live now.

Step 5 – Basic WordPress Setting

Now lets give your blog a personalized touch for that you have to log in into your WordPress dashboard. You can access your dashboard or admin panel by simply going to this URL – https://youdomain.com/wp-admin just replace youdomain.com with your domain and you should see a login page.

Simply enter your login details and you should see your WordPress dashboard.

Once your dashboard is open we just need to change 2 settings.

• Title of the blog :- This will be the first thing that users will see when they search you site in google.

• Permalink Setting :- This settings is to make your URL’s more readable and it also makes them SEO friendly.

Step 6 – Choosing A WordPress Theme

There are literally thousand’s of WordPress themes to choose from. Some are paid while some are completely free while few works on freemium model, where you have to pay a certain price for accessing few features.

Below i will suggest some of the best themes which i personally like but i suggest you to explore the WordPress Library and find themes which are according to your niche and liking.

The two themes you can choose for your blog are :-

1. GeneratePress : – It is one of the fastest and widely used wordpress theme.
2. OpeanWp :- It’s an highly customizable and lightweight theme for WP.

Both the themes offer a paid and premium version but the free version is also more then sufficient for a new blogger.

How to Install The Theme :-

1. Click on Appearance
   • Then click on Themes
2. Enter theme name in Search Bar on the right side.
   • Click on Install
   • Then click on Activate
   • Done.

Step 7- Install Important Plugins

Plugin is basically a small piece of software that enhances your website functionality. Think of it as an iOS or Android app just like you can download various app in you mobile phone to enhance your functionality and add new feature to your smartphone. Using plugins you can also add various functionalities to your blog.

While just like themes there are thousands of plugins available on WordPress i will mention some of the essential WP plugins required for your blogging website and later on as you become familiar with the platform you can always install new plugins.

Step 9- Social Media For Branding

Its is very important that your brand is present on Social Media Platforms every month billion of users uses these platforms for various purposes. So its becomes very vital for a blog to be present of these sites. Utilizing these social sites you can easily drive direct traffic to your blog and it helps in long term growth and branding for your new blog.

Step 10 – Writing Your First Blog post

“Writing an post can be starting of something magical” I wont lie i heard it somewhere. But seriously if someone were to ask me ( What Is The Most Important Factors In A Blog Success ) content writing is defiantly number 2 on my list just after keyword research.

So you might be asking how to write a killer content for blog? Instead of just reading about it you should learn by watching it. I have created a very long almost 1 Hour 30 Minutes long video on this topic.

Conclusion

Now that you have all the necessary tools at your disposal, it’s time for you to take action and create your own first blog! I know it might seem difficult a first sight but trust me its rewarding as hell.

Whether you want to share your personal experiences, educate people on a particular topic or simply express yourself creatively, blogging can become a door to your financial freedom. So go ahead and make that first post – And don’t forget to tell me about your journey.

Over the past year or so i have built a small community of blogger over YouTube and Telegram becoming a part of community is crucial for growth and support. So join my Telegram Channel and Subscribe to my YouTube channel for More Amazing Videos.

And as always, feel free to reach me out for any further guidance or just to share how your blogging journey is going.

I would love hearing from you.