It’s difficult to start a blog from scratch when you are the only person in charge. You have to write, promote, build links, do the design, and take advertisements and all other things required. It’s hard but it’s not impossible. I built my blog from scratch and no one was there to help me out.
For every beginner bloggers, the number one problem is the lack of a coach and guidelines. You’ll find free articles, resources and ebooks on how to start a blog and make money but in most cases, these are not gonna work for you.
So now you have to follow a guideline where you can build your blog from scratch, all by your own and with minimum investment. You have to follow the guide written from the person who has succeeded to create a blog from scratch (like me!)
What is minimum investment?
Blog can be done for free with the help of free platforms such as Blogger and Wordperss but I recommend Blogger. Blogger supports a range of customization and the scope to publish ads.
You can start with a domain name that requires $10 (500-800 TK in BD) and you can use this domain with blogger (no hosting required) Read this guide on using a domain with blogger.
If you can afford a domain and $10 every month for web hosting, then go for a self hosted wordpress blog. And then you have to invest a lot of time to research, lots of creativity, tons of patience and effort.
Brainstorm a killer topic to blog about!
After you have decided to start a blog, it’s time to take a topic and launch your blog. Read this guide on how to start your first blog. After you’ve done all of the things mentioned on that post, come back and read below.
When choosing a topic, try to think about your target audience. People will come to your blog and read it. Do they know how to use a PC and internet? Yes, because they are already on the internet and looking for something. Now ask yourself, what would you like to find on the internet and can you able to provide a better solution? If the answer is YES, then start with that topic.
Write 10 blog articles
Write 10 article concepts and post them one by one on your blog. It doesn’t matters how long you take to post them. Just write short 200 word articles and get started. Don’t waste your creativity to write a post like, “Hi, this is my first blog” type posts. At this point, no one is reading your blog.
Now write one new article everyday on your blog. If possible, write more articles and post them in different times of the day. When you have more than 10 good articles, start promoting your site. The reason I said to write 10 articles is because when a new person will come to your blog, they must find enough articles on your blog.
Promote your site
If you have accounts in facebook or twitter, then ask your friends to take a look at your blog. Get started with new social sites such as twitter, facebook, digg, stumbleupon, reddit and find people who share the same interests. For an example, if you write about iPhone, try to search links about iPhone. Add those people into your list because they might be interested in that topic.
Take a search on google, technorati or blogcatalog and find blogs on your topic. Comment on the posts and make good relationship with the readers and author. In this case try to locate the small blogs around you.
Social media traffic comes only when you shake them. This means you have to be active on those sites to get regular traffic flow.
Design your blog
Having a nice and simple design is required in blogging. If you’re using blogspot, then take a look at this post about setting up a custom template. If you google, you’ll find lots of interesting blogger and wordpress themes. You can also create your own blogger theme from scratch.
Please don’t spend too much time on improving your blog design. Set a new template and be happy with it. In the beginning, try spending more time on content writing and promotion.
Income source
Trying to earn money with your new blog is just like sending your new born baby to work without making him mature. Maximum people try out blogging to earn money and that’s okay because we all want to have a part time income. Now at the very beginning, bloggers want to earn the high numbers which is fairly impossible.
Income with a blog depends on your blog topic, traffic and conversation rate. There are lots of methods to make money online, lots of money making opportunities and that’s the main problem for newbie bloggers. Beginners don’t know where to go and what model will work best for them. For beginners, try out google adsense and as you explore the internet, you’ll find other ways of money making.
More advanced topics
The more you’ll learn about internet blogging, the more you can do better with it. It’s hard to build a blog from scratch but it’s not impossible. Here are other aspects of blogging for advanced bloggers,
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Blog branding strategies
Get more blog comments
Mistakes that new bloggers should avoid
Choosing a domain name
Tracking visitors of your blog
More articles can be found here
Share your experience
You must be a new blogger or an experienced blog author. Please do share your experience, tips and strategies with us. What you did when you were about to start your first blog? What challenges you’ve face in blogging?
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Boy that was a good post.
Creating a blog is not going to make the money. As you said, you need to have a good design, and as much ways to monetize your blog. Without adding sources of income, you’ll never be able to make money from your blog.
By the way, I read your other posts and I really like your blog. Keep up the good content coming.
Mike G hersh
IMBlogging.com the make money online blog
In beginning, you should add more resources which is the hard part. For the monetization method, you should try them one by one to figure out which one works for you. And then it needs time and effort! No luck involved, only pure hard work.
most of the new bloggers think about income first. But I think design, content and the ability to reach to the audience should be the prime terget. the equation is simple
Content=Traffic(subscriber too)=Money :)
Another fact is that motivation and coaching works like a simulator.
anyways, thanks for nice post
Your definition is correct! If you build it, they will come! But JohnChow says: If you build it, they won’t come. (Evil)
I wrote some articles last year that is sending me traffic via google over time and that’s the proof.
Nice article as always, i have build my blog from scratch by designing my self and with help of my one friend, it help you to learn a lot . Thanks :)
Wish you best of success buddy! you’ll learn while you build it up.
Great tips for beginning bloggers! And even for some that are more established, but not getting the response they expected.
~ Kristi
Ps. Thanks for the logo design! I plan on updating it tomorrow or Friday. :)
Kikolani’s latest blog post..Benefits of Blogging – Building a Community
Wow! Your site looks great! I guess the logo is the main inspiration behind the great new look of Kikolani. Happy me!
great tips. i have enjoyed reading this post. i’m blogging for about a year but i still consider myself a beginner as i am far away from my blogging goal and every tip i get helps me a lot.
i tried to make money through my blog “Life as i know it” but adsense didnt send me the PIN code so i decided to switch to bidvertiser. now my 2 other blogs show ads but “Life as i know it” shows none. i am hoping to add some (maybe 4) advertise spaces for others to advertise. how can i do it?
irtiza104’s latest blog post..Change the Time: Reminder to Bangladesh
Adsense didn’t spent me the PIN either but in most places of Dhaka, the check and pin has received. I now use another adsense account located at France. Bidvertiser doesn’t shows much ads because they don’t have much.
Great tips as usual.One question how can I make a photo like that one?Hope you tell me
Patricia’s latest blog post..¿POR QUE SERA?
@Patricia, Just a stock photo with some work in photoshop
@Tamal Anwar, Thanks Tamal for your quick answer.See you around
You can download PhotoScape from photoscape.org. It has all the built in options for doing those effects without using PS.
I definitely have to say – a paid, self-hosted blog is the way to go. It is always annoying having to tell your friends “yea, my blog is at …blogspot.com or …wordpress.com”. It really isn’t that impressive if you can’t OWN your blog.
I have setup well over 30 blogs by now and have gone through the technical setup process so many times I could do it in my sleep : ). If you would like me to set it up for ya, I do it for free.
Happy Blogging!
– John