How to Start a Blog in 2023 (The DemandSage Blueprint)

As of April 2022, there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet! 

If you are not one of the 600 million, you are definitely missing out on something good!

Nevertheless, it is never too late to start a blog. Starting your own blog has never been easier, especially with everything available at the touch of our fingerprints. 

Many people refrain from starting their blog, thinking they will have to invest a hefty amount. However, the truth is, you don’t need to rip your bank account!

DemandSage has successfully delivered our blogs, and with this content, we aim to help you kickstart your blogging journey! 

This detailed guide will walk you through a step-by-step process to start a blog and earn money through it. So, read this guide until the end, as you don’t want to miss out on our insider tips!

With that, let’s dig in!

Reasons Why You Should Start A Blog

Here are a few reasons why you should consider starting a blog:

• Share your experience with the world: A Blog is a great way to share your ideas and experiences with the world. Many people are doing it where they share their experience after using a certain product or anything else. You can share your creative ideas, experiences, and expertise on many things through your blog.
• Promote any service or product: If you have a business where you are providing services or selling products, then you should start a blog with it as well. With a blog, you can share more information about your services, products, and the industry you’re in. A blog also boosts the SEO of your website.
• Earn good money: Blogging requires hard work, time, and dedication. Only after that you can start earning some good money from it. If you think that you will start a blog and start earning from it overnight, then you couldn’t be more wrong. You need to put a lot of effort and time into your blog to get decent organic traffic on it which you can convert into some real money.
• Create an online community: A blog is a great way to build an online community where you can connect with people worldwide. Through your blog’s comments section, people can share their ideas and experiences about anything, and you can talk to them directly from there.
• Build a brand: Many people have made a name for themselves only through blogging, which is a great way to build your brand from scratch. People who never even heard your name or your brand’s name, they can get to know you through your blog. 

How To Create A Blog In 2023: (Step By Step)

Creating your blog is no rocket science. You don’t need to hold degrees to master the art of blogging. Starting your blog is a slow and long-term process. You don’t see the results within a few days or months. 

However, when you follow the right approach for your blog, you can ensure a desirable result in the future. While patience is key to successful blogging, here is an easy step-by-step guide to creating your blog. 

1. Lay Down Your Goals

Before beginning your blog writing journey, it is essential to understand why you are starting a blog. 

If you are a business owner, it is evident that your blog would aim at helping users with their problems, providing information, and raising brand awareness. 

Similarly, if you are an individual, you may have other goals for why you want to start your blog. Many people opt for blogging as their passion, while many opt for blogging as their full-time work. Here, the goals vary from one individual to another. 

We are focusing on laying down your goals because having a clear idea of what you are doing and why you are doing it will help prepare a better plan for your blogging journey. 

Whether you are an individual or a brand, lay down your goals regarding blogging. If you are a business organization, work with your internal marketing and sales team to discuss your goals. 

2. Define Your Niche

Once you have set your goals, the next step is to focus on your niche. Now, let’s talk about brands and business first. 

If you are selling products and services, your blog should revolve around the same. Let’s say your business deals with cosmetics, so your niche should be targeted at beauty and cosmetics. 

Coming to individuals gives you more flexibility in defining and picking your niche than brands or businesses. There are hundreds of niches you can target through your blogs. However, while niching down to one particular niche, here are a few things you should consider. 

• What are you passionate about?

There must be a particular niche that you are passionate about. One of the common mistakes people make while choosing their niche is running behind the niche with a higher market than considering their passion. 

The truth is your blogging journey will soon fail if you are not passionate about your niche. When you work on the content you are passionate about, you will likely create engaging content with higher consistency.  To determine your favorite niche, you can think about a specific niche and see how many topics you come up with in the next 10 minutes. Generally, you should come up with at least 10-15 different topics. 

• What is your experience in a particular niche?

Many of us have experience or expertise in a particular niche. For instance, you may be a major in psychology and love to talk about the same. You don’t have to be an expert in a particular field to start blogging. You can share your knowledge and experience so far with your audience. 

• What is the market for that particular niche?

The next crucial factor when picking a niche is seeing the potential market. Many niches have higher demand and possible growth in the upcoming years. Now, another challenge comes in, and you may commit the same mistake. 

Many beginners start by targeting the market currently in demand without studying how it will look in the next five years. Remember, blogging is a long-term plan, not a ‘get rich quick scheme. You do not want to be at peak for a while and fall in a few months. 

Therefore, picking a niche with higher future demand will also help you in the long run and ensure your consistency in blogging. Conduct proper research about the niche and study various aspects of every niche to determine the right one for your blog.

3. Conduct Thorough Competitive Research

Once you have finalized your niche, the next thing to do is see what your competitors are doing. You are definitely not the only blogger targeting a particular niche. There may be hundreds of bloggers out there working in a similar niche as you. 

The best thing one can do is learn from other competitors and study their strategies. Check out top competitors ruling your niche and see what they are doing. You can see what topics they are covering, how they deliver the content, the distribution methods, the other factors they focus on, and more. 

If you want to gain authority in a particular niche and want people to consider your blog as their go-to solution for their issues, staying ahead of your competitors is crucial. Additionally, competitor study will also come in handy when preparing a content plan and strategy for your blog. 

4. Decide Your First Blog Post Topic By Doing Keyword Research 

The journey of jotting down your thoughts and giving a thumbs up to your blogging starts from this step! 

Now that you know your goals, competitors, and niche, it is time to pick your first topic. Let’s divide this section into two different parts -for individuals and businesses. 

• For individuals who start blogging as their passion. 

Suppose you are kickstarting your blogging journey as your passion. If you are not initially considering monetization, you can choose a topic you love discussing. The topic can be anything, from personal finance to lifestyle. 

Generally, individuals should not find themselves stuck in finding the right topic for their blog. Since you are passionate about something, give your favorite topic a go!

• For businesses. 

Blogging for a business work differently than that for an individual. If you are selling a product or service, you already have a designated niche you will cover. The real challenge comes when you have to choose topics for your blog. 

You must target your audience’s pain points, fears, questions, and doubts. Let’s make it simpler by considering a few examples. 

What are your audience’s pain points if you are selling beauty products? Your audience will likely have questions about how safe your products are, the side effects of your products, how they will help their skin, etc. 

If we take SEO into the aspect and want recognition for your blog, you can do in-depth keyword research. Our go-to keyword research tool for our blogs is SEMRush. The tool gives you a detailed breakdown of top-ranking keywords, KD, the number of people searching for a particular keyword by geographical area, and more. 

You can use SEMRush to target your next topics, ensure you cater to your audience’s needs, and stay on top of the search engines when someone searches for that particular keyword. 

5. Choose a Blogging Platform

It comes as no surprise that you need to choose a blogging platform. Well, without a blogging platform, you cannot get started -as simple as that! 

WordPress remains one of the most widely used and popular blogging platforms. It gives you complete freedom to design your website, flexibility, and is easier to begin with. Compared to other blogging platforms, we find WordPress easier for beginners. 

However, what works for us may not work for you. That being said, we want you to choose the best blogging platform for YOU. 

When picking the best blogging platform, a lot of factors should be taken into consideration. Here are a few things you need to focus on:

• Ease of Use: Each blogging platform comes with a different learning curve. However, your blogging platform must have a straightforward UI. Choosing a platform with minimal to no learning curve is vital for a beginner, as you can save time and effort in learning the basics of a complex blogging platform. 
• Customization: Your website will be designed according to what you want. Therefore, you need to pick a platform that allows you to design your website however you want. Look at the customization options your blogging platform gives, and also make sure to see if they have any built-in customization restrictions. 
• SEO-friendliness: SEO is an integral part of blogging. Without SEO, getting recognition for your blog is nearly impossible. Additionally, when your website attracts higher traffic, you don’t want your blogging platform to give up and disrupt your site’s performance. Therefore, make sure your blogging platform is SEO-friendly. 
• Budget-friendly: Your blogging platform should not dig holes in your bank account. By this, we mean the platform you pick should align with your budget. At the same time, you should not compromise on the other necessary factors. Ensure your blogging platform provides all the needed features and is within your budget. 
• Tools supported: Your blog will grow as you put in the effort. Therefore, as your blog grow, you want your blogging platform to have needed tools that will come in handy with the growth. Check the built-in and third-party tools your blogging platform supports and ensure it supports all the tools you will need when your blog grows. 
• Monetization: Lastly, check if your blogging platform supports monetization. Initially, you may neglect this factor, considering you do not want to earn money through your blogs. However, once your blog grows and you attract a higher audience, you will need a blogging platform that supports monetization. Without it, you won’t be able to earn through your blogs. 

Our recommendation for a blogging platform: 

There are various popular blogging platforms that you can host your blog with. These include WordPress, Medium, Wix, and more. However, we have been hosting our blogs with WordPress for years, and our experience with it has remained top-notch. 

WordPress offers two options -hosted and self-hosted. The free version of WordPress is an excellent option for newbies. However, it has certain restrictions. You can choose the best host for your site and gain complete control over your website. 

6. Design Your Blog With The Right Elements 

Now let’s talk about the creative part of starting your blog. That is your website designing process. Once you choose the blogging platform, next comes designing it properly. 

Most web hosting platforms offer an in-built feature for designing. On the other hand, you can pick a website builder that offers maximum flexibility and freedom to design your blog. Your website design is one of the most important aspects of your blog. 

You need to create a unique and eye-catching design for your visitors. Let’s think from a reader’s perspective! 

If you are visiting a blog and see a dull design, you will likely skip it and move to a site that appears better regarding its design. This is the basic psychology of any reader. Besides your information, your reader will also look at your website design. This is why you need to spend time designing your website. 

If you need our recommendation in choosing a website builder, we suggest trying Elementor! Elementor has helped us create stunning designs using the right elements. You can also install WordPress themes and customize them according to your needs. 

Remember, when designing your website, ensure all the needed options are visible clearly, and your site is easy to navigate. Having all the options in front of your reader’s eyes will allow better access and experience for your audience. 

If you are going with Elementor, you can view their detailed tutorials that will assist you in designing your site. You can also opt for their pre-made templates and add elements on the go. 

7. Get a Domain Name 

Your domain name is one of the most important parts of your site. Your domain name is your website address or name in the search bar. Without a domain name, you cannot get your website live. 

You can find free domain names or get a paid one. However, we do not recommend using a free domain name as they do not have better authority. Usually, you should go with the domain names .com or .net as they have better chances of getting recognition from Google than other unpopular domains. 

You can either register with a domain registrar like GoDaddy or purchase one from your hosting provider. Many hosting providers offer free and paid domains. So you can save the time and hassle of manually going through the process. 

8. Choose A Hosting Provider

Once you have the domain, the next step is getting your site live. You must have a robust hosting provider for your blog to go live. Your web hosting provider is the one who will take care of your blog and ensure it is up and running. This is why you need to be careful when picking a hosting provider. 

Hundreds of web hosting providers offer exceptional functionalities to keep your site going. However, before you trust any hosting provider, here are a few factors you should consider while the selection process: 

• Performance: Your website loading time will be vital to your success. According to research, people do not stay on your website if it takes more than three seconds to load. If your site takes longer to load, you will lose your potential audience. Therefore, check for the performance features of your hosting provider and ensure it provides lightning-fast loading time. 
• Security: The internet is fast, and so are hackers. Your website’s security should be your top priority. As a hosting provider, your host must offer all the security features to ensure your site is always safe. Some security features you should check in your host include an SSL certificate, automatic backups, two-factor authentication, DDoS protection, and more. The higher the security, the safer your blog will be. 
• Support: A good hosting provider must come with good technical support. Even if you go with managed hosting where the host is taking care of your technical aspect, there are chances of getting stumbled-on issues. Access to a support team 24/7 will help you overcome any issue you face in between. 
• Price: Last but not least is checking if the hosting provider offers all the features within your budget. Generally, you should avoid hosting overpriced providers. This is because you can find a good and reliable hosting provider within your budget. 

*We can add our hosting article here* 

Which Hosting Provider Is Best?

There are hundreds of web hosting providers on the internet. Over the last few years, we have worked with various hosting providers to find the best one for our needs. Each hosting provider offers unique features that cater to different users. 

However, after going through various hosting providers, here are a few hand-picked hosting providers we recommend: 

• BlueHost

BlueHost ranks on our list of the top web hosting providers. The hosting providers offer various hosting plans according to different needs. Additionally, it has all the needed features you need for beginners as well as large businesses. Bluehost offers top-notch security, excellent performance, and 24/7 customer support. Furthermore, you can also rely on the hosting provider in the long run. 

Price: The plans are affordable, starting at $2.95/month. 

• SiteGround

Another name officially recommended by WordPress is SiteGround. With millions of users trusting the hosting provider, SiteGround offers excellent hosting plans for beginners to large business owners. Since you will host a blogging site, you can enjoy all the features your blog will need in the long run through SiteGround. 

Price: $3.99/month

• WPX Hosting

If you are looking for the most powerful web hosting provider, we recommend trying WPX hosting. It offers a completely managed hosting solution where the hosting provider takes care of your site’s technical aspects while you focus on writing your blogs. Additionally, it comes with all the powerful security features, performance, support, and more. 

Price: $24.99 for three months. 

9. Write Your First Blog (With SEO Optimization)!

Now that you are ready to start, it is time to write your first blog. Since you have already done your keyword research, it is time to turn your ideas into words. 

The key to a successful blog is consistently ensuring you write high-quality and unique content! 

When writing your blog, remember to keep your audience as a priority. When writing for a business blog, you must ensure you write according to your target audience. A few things to remember when writing your blog are: 

• What are you aiming for with this content?
• Who is your target audience?
• What are the basic questions your audience may have? Answer them through that post!
• Keep your blog engaging. 
• Write content that your audience can relate to or connect to. 
• Use a friendly tone throughout your content. 
• Include pictures wherever needed.

Remember, the sole aim of writing your blog as a business should be to provide users value and solve user intent. A blog without helping someone would not help you in the long run or give the desired result. 

Now, let’s talk about individual blogging. If you are blogging for a side hustle or your passion, you don’t necessarily need to solve your user intent. Again, this depends on what you are delivering and the niche you are targeting with your blog. If you want your blog to be personal and want to share a story, you can publish it according to your needs. 

However, ensure it is catchy enough to keep the readers hooked to your blog until the end. 

SEO optimization in your blog. 

Publishing an SEO-optimized blog is key to gaining higher traffic and being recognized by search engines. While it may sound rocket science to optimize your blog for SEO, you can take a few steps to ensure your content is SEO optimized. 

• Use appropriate keywords within your content: Besides writing high-quality and unique content, ensure you include relevant keywords within your topics. You can use the free tool UberSuggest to find relevant keywords for your blog or go with paid tools like SEMRush. 
• Write a catchy title: Your title also plays an essential role in SEO optimization. You also need to capitalize your title accordingly. Captilizemytitle allows you to write SEO-optimized headings. 
• Write appropriate and catchy meta description: Your meta description should not exceed 150 characters. Keep your meta description catchy and short to attract readers and search engines. 
• Use internal and backlinks: Interlinking your blog posts helps improve performance. However, since you will be writing your first blog post, you won’t be able to interlink your blog. Therefore, you can add links to official and higher authority sites with reliable information. For instance, if you mention data, you can add credits or sources by linking the other website with higher domain authority. 

10. Be Consistent And Promote Your Blog. 

We cannot emphasize it enough, but you must be consistent with publishing your blog post. Consistency is the key to a successful blog no matter which niche you are targeting. You cannot see results overnight after optimizing your blog for search engines. 

You can take various steps from your end to promote your blog across multiple channels and ensure a maximum number of people read it. Here are a few ways to ensure your blog reaches a maximum number of people: 

• Share your blog links on different social media channels: You should mostly prefer targeting your audience’s social media channels. 
• Use newsletters and emails to send your blog links: Emails and newsletters have remained a popular medium to reach your audience. You can subtly promote your blog through your weekly newsletters or email marketing to your audience. 
• Write guest posts for others: When you write guest posts for others, you can promote your brand through your guest posts and encourage readers to check out your blog. Additionally, you can also invite guests to your blog so that they can share their experience with their audience, driving their traffic to your site. 
• Reach out to influencers on social media: As a beginner, getting an audience to read your blog is challenging. Fortunately, you can collaborate with influencers with a good built-in audience to promote your blog through their social media channels. 
• Build a reward system: Ask your audience to refer a friend to your workshop or webinar. If the friend joins, you can offer them free merchandise promoting your product. Rewards can be a great marketing technique to lure people in and gain an audience. 

Monetizing Your Blog: Easy Ways!

Once your blog is up and running, you may want to monetize it for a side income. Monetizing your blog depends on the traffic and your social media presence. Therefore, ensure you have a solid social media presence before monetizing your blog entirely. 

This is the same for individuals and brands. Building an audience is a slow process, but you can see the results sooner than expected when you implement the right strategies. 

1. Display Ads on Your Blogs. 

As your blog gains higher traffic, you can endorse brands to promote themselves on your blog. You can advertise their products or services as displayed on your website. This means readers can see the advertisement display when they visit your site. If they want to learn more, they can click on the advertisement, redirecting them to the official site. 

2. Write sponsored blog posts. 

Not many people like the idea of displaying ads on their blog posts. Since it can create a cluster and leave a negative impression on the readers, you can write sponsored blog posts for brands where you can promote their products or services. 

Brands and businesses generally pay a lot to bloggers to write sponsored blog posts. You only need the right strategy to target the brand you want to work with. 

3. Affiliate. 

Affiliate income is one of the most widely used by bloggers. This method gives you an official affiliate link to add to your blog. If your reader purchases the product using your link, you earn a commission on each product purchase through your link. 

Small to large brands collaborate with bloggers for affiliate marketing. You can reach out to brands to endorse yourself in their affiliate program. 

4. Paid Membership. 

Another great way to earn from your blog is by creating paid membership website for your audience. You can decide the fee structure -monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annually. You can charge a subscription to your audience in return for your services. The service can include coaching, access to detailed resources, webinars, community, and more. 

5. Sell Products. 

Another way to ensure you earn through your blog is by selling digital products on your blog directly. The digital products can include eBooks, courses, PDFs, learning materials, and more. You can create your products and sell them directly to your audience. You can also turn your blog into an eCommerce store and sell physical products. 

Wrapping Up!: How To Start A Blog (2023)

So, that was all about starting a blog. Since you have made it to the end with us, we assume you know how to start from scratch. 

Whether you want to start your blog as your side hustle or to take your business to the next level, you can follow this guide!

Be patient and consistent with your blogging journey; the result will follow!

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