How to Start A Blog in 2020 An Easy Free Beginner’s Guide to
Create a Blog in 20 minutes

There are two main types of content your blog should provide: static and dynamic content.

Static Content: Each blog should contain a few necessary pages explicitly designed to provide the visitor with the tools they need. The content on these pages is static, meaning – the content doesn’t change, or at least not very often. These are mainly top-level pages that can be accessed via a menu on your blog.

These static content pages should be in place well before you launch your blog to the world.

Important static pages to include:

• About Me (Us) – This page should include a biographical summary of the author(s) as well as a mission statement. Think about the answers to these questions: How did your passion for the subject matter develop? What do you want to convey to the world? What is your ultimate goal?
• Contact Me (Us) – A contact page provides the visitor a place to reach the author which, in turn, provides the visitor with the reassurance that you are a real and reachable author. You can add your physical address, phone number, and custom email address. Or you can utilize a simple contact form to keep your personal identifying information private. You should put links to all of your social media profiles here as well.

Aside from your blog, which is generally introduced on the home/main page, these two all-important pages should be visible on your top (header) menu and easy to access.  You can take a look at the top of this page to see how I have these pages included in the header menu.  See this detailed guide to customizing your blog menus if you need help.

Other static pages that are equally as important but less commonly thought of are:

• Disclaimer Page: If you intend to make money from your blog, you must describe the ways you intend to generate income. This is an absolute must-have page that should not be overlooked, as per FTC guidelines. For example, if you are discussing and endorsing a product, and stand to monetize from affiliate links to this product, this relationship must be disclosed.
• Privacy Policy: If you collect data from your visitors in any way, you are required to add a privacy policy page that tells visitors exactly how you are collecting data, how you are using it, and if you are sharing that data. If you implement Google Adsense or a Google Analytics account on your blog, a Privacy Policy must be used. This page is required by the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
• Terms of Service: If your blog is also running a store or selling services, it is best to have a lawyer draft your Terms of Service page to lessen liability and provide maximum protection.

These required static pages are typically found in the footer of a blog. They should, at the very least, be visible and accessible from the home page.  Again, look at the bottom of this page to see how this looks in practice.

There are other static pages you can choose to include depending on what suits your blog and business. Common static page examples are an advertising page to solicit paid advertisements, a donations page, a resource page to direct visitors to your favorite links within your field, and a page for submitting ideas and content.

Dynamic Content: Your dynamic content is your blog and the most important content you have to offer. This is where you, as the creator, will infuse the blog with your brand of informative blog posts that supply your audience with knowledgeable tips, facts, opinions, and stories. This is how you engage your visitors and keep them coming back for more.

Your blog posts should be regularly submitted at specific intervals. Waiting months to create a post will never build a following. Posting weekly and driving traffic to these posts will help build your brand.

Each blog post should be lengthy, informative, and engaging. It’s not always easy to come up with blog post ideas on a regular basis and you are free to mix up the tone and even the subject matter to keep things lively and interesting. It’s your space, after all. But there are a few elements that each and every blog post should endeavor to include.

Define the Blog Post: Create an alluring post title that stimulates curiosity and encourages clicks. Use the first paragraph of your post to clearly define the topic of your article and provide a possible hook to keep the reader reading.

The Longer the Better – But Break It Up: The more information and detail you include, the better. But readers will begin to skim if the content contains lengthy paragraphs a mile long, and readers will pop out faster than they came in. Readers enjoy tidbits. Keep your paragraphs short with spaces in between, use lists and standout quotes, use images, and always include headers and subheaders so that readers can find what they’re looking for.

Engage The Reader: At the end of each blog post, a common tactic used to engage readers is posing a meaningful question to your audience and asking them to reply in the comments. This simple measure can increase engagement tenfold.

Original Content: Your blog posts should always be original. Never plagiarize – you will eventually be called out on it and could even face consequences. Your content should come from your heart, your brain, your knowledge base, and your experience. You can get topic ideas from others in your field, but make sure the content comes from you.

Original Photos: While it is easy to include stock images from free image sites, it is even better to include your own photos and graphic work. Another idea is to take free images and manipulate them with a free photo editor.

Edit Your Work: Make sure your blog posts are sufficiently edited. Nothing says unprofessional like several typographical and grammatical errors. If you need a few refresher courses in grammar, consider using a writing application.

The very first people who should become aware of your blog are your inner circle. This includes family, friends, and colleagues within your field. Encourage them to become followers, ask them to mention your new blog, and – most importantly – thank them.

While you don’t want to overdo it, you still want to create accounts with the “biggies” like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.  You should post each new blog post on your accounts, but you can also post relevant news and links to other sources that your readers may find interesting.  Don’t forget to use hashtags and engage with your followers!

One of my favorite ways to get readers to my blog is to post links on my social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. This is great, because not only do your friends see the link, but if your friends share the link with their friends it automatically multiplies your readers. If you have created high-quality content on your blog then social media is a way for your blog to go viral.

Find other blogs in your community and engage with them. Using the comment section, introduce yourself and leave engaging and constructive comments. Many will allow you to leave a link to your blog. After creating relationships with prominent bloggers in your community, you will find yourself within their ranks quickly.

When your readers leave comments on social media posts or on your blog, always engage with them. Reply to their comments and questions, give them “likes” and affirmations. When it is obvious that the author cares about his/her community and readership, visitors are naturally encouraged to return.

Become enmeshed in your blogging community by collaborating with respected members of your field. Collaborating includes guest posting, promoting each other’s blogs and products, and regularly interacting through comments and social media.

Post Regularly

Post content regularly. Create an editorial calendar and stick to it. A good blogger posts at least once per. If you have long lapses between posts, your followers will drop off and your growth will be severely hampered. It’s not easy to post on a schedule, but it’s something you absolutely must stick to.

In addition to getting new readers to your blog, you will also want to make sure your current readers are coming back. This is where email marketing plays a big role. By collecting the email addresses of your visitors (with their permission of course), you can then notify them when you post something new on your blog. This keeps people coming back to your blog, which not only gives you more readers over time, it also allows you to build a closer relationship with your visitors.

Email marketing is too big a topic to cover well here, so I created a separate guide to email marketing for those who are interested (hint: every blogger who wants more readers needs to read this guide).

You want search engines to include your blog in their search results as soon as possible.

Google: Sign up for a Google Webmaster account and open the Search Console. To add your blog, click “Add Property” and follow the steps to add your blog.

Bing: Sign up for a Bing Webmaster account and add your blog.

SEO is the process of optimizing your blog to receive traffic from search engines like Google.  Submitting your blog to search engines is the first step.  However, keep in mind that with a brand new blog your traffic from search engines will be minimal to start with. However, this will change over time as long as you continue to add informative and relevant content on a regular basis.

With regards to SEO, each blog post should include these fundamental elements:

1. Header Tags: Section headings and subheadings should be wrapped in header tags.  To do this, click on the left item of the block you are writing in and change it to “Heading”.  You can then choose from H1, H2, H3, etc.
2. Categorization: Search engines depend on hierarchy. Your posts should be clearly categorized into specific and relevant categories.  In the post editor screen, click on “Document” on the right menu, and then go down to “Categories” and “Add New Category”.
3. Permalinks: Each blog post “slug” is the end portion of the URL. You want to make sure each blog post has a defined slug and doesn’t end with an article number. You can easily change this in your WordPress dashboard by going to “Settings” -> “Permalinks”. Select the “Post Name” option and click “Save Changes”

There are many more factors relating to SEO, such as installing something like the Yoast SEO plugin, but these are the big ones that will help your blog appear in search engines sooner rather than later.

Once you have a popular blog, advertisers will be hounding you for the opportunity to advertise. The best way to take advantage of this situation is to use Google Adsense. Google finds the advertisers for you and all you have to do is place the Google Adsense code on your blog to start running ads. Google Adsense takes all of the hard work out of the process and just cuts you a check.

I go into the full details of how to set up Google Adsense for your blog here.

An affiliate program is a commission-based way to advertise. When one of your readers clicks on a link on your blog, they get sent to an advertiser’s site and you earn a commission if they purchase. Affiliate links are a nice way to earn income through the use of product reviews. However, you must remember to disclose that your content contains affiliate links.

Selling Products and Services

Selling your own products and services directly on your blog is a great way to increase your income. As your blog grows and you begin to see a wide audience, your products and services will begin to sell themselves.

Use the sidebar of your blog to increase the visibility of what you sell using visual images and a link to your storefront page.

Digital Downloads

Ebooks, video tutorials, and e-courses are the most commonly consumed digital materials sold by bloggers. With little to no overhead and no shipping costs, you can keep the price low and inviting.

If you are extremely knowledgeable in your field, an ebook can practically write itself. Give it a try, you might surprise yourself!

Another way to monetize is by creating membership options on your blog. This allows you to offer members more exclusive content only available with a paid membership. For example, you could offer unlimited downloads of digital goods, free consultations, a private network or forum where community members can mix and mingle, and private content available to members only.

There are many ways a blog can capitalize on popularity and traffic. Choosing the way you monetize from your blog depends on your goals and the purpose of your blog. Those who are selling services, physical goods, and digital goods, for example, may not want to participate in affiliate programs where traffic could be lost to another site.

Take the time to explore the many ways you can make money from blogging. It will take time before you ever see your first penny. But with dedication, love, and attention, the income will spring forth.

You. It is your passion, your creativity, your knowledge and expertise, and what you bring to the community that makes a blog successful. As long as you provide content that is interesting, informative, and engaging to the readers you’re looking to connect with, your success is only limited by the number of posts you’re able to produce.

Keep writing, keep interacting, keep engaging, and your blog quickly become one of the success stories. As long as you’re passionate about the subject matter, the sky is the limit.

Time, passion, and a clear goal.

Blogging is nearly a full-time operation. A successful blogger commits to posting lengthy and detailed articles at least weekly. Promoting the blog must also be done regularly across social media sites and through peer interactions.

Equally important is the passion behind your blog. To come up with great content on a regular basis your blog should revolve around a topic that you are obsessed with. You don’t have to be the leading authority on the subject matter. You only need to possess passion, excitement, dedication, and deeply rooted opinions.

You also need a clear goal in mind. What is the main objective of your blog? Is it to inform the public? To make money? To eventually retain paid subscribers? With a clear final objective you can grow a blog that satisfies these goals in the long term.

Answer these questions: What are you passionate about? What do you think about daily? What topic do you annoy all of your friends, family, and co-workers with on a regular basis? What do you find yourself dreaming about? What do you find yourself constantly researching? What do you read about?

If there is a common denominator in your answers to these questions – THAT is what your blog should be about.

Your blog should be about what interests you – what you’re passionate about. And once you begin to build your blog, no matter what the subject material, you will find a community of people who are interested in what you have to say.

If you know the general topic for your blog, a simple way of making your niche more profitable is by narrowing the niche to eliminate competition.

For example, let’s say you’re passionate about food and you want to create a recipe blog. You’ll be competing with a million recipe blogs. So let’s narrow that topic down to something that is more manageable yet still important to a lot of people. Making the topic of your blog more specific such as “Inexpensive Keto Recipes” will help to eliminate a lot of competition and elevate your blog results in search engines for more specific queries.

This can ultimately be a fun exercise.

As an example, let’s say your blog will be about custom pet gift baskets. In this instance, let’s list all the main words this blog will be about.

Now let’s list some variant synonyms of these words. Use a thesaurus if need be!

Now list nouns and adjectives that apply to you as the creator.

Now start putting words together, introduce new words, and keep playing around until you come up with a name you like!

If you are still struggling you can always try using a blog name generator for additional ideas.

If the domain name you want is taken and the full domain name is your trademarked business name, you can assert your trademark rights and privileges and eventually get this domain handed over to you. It is a lengthy process that will involve lawyers and hefty fees, but as long as the name is trademarked by you, you would likely win the domain name.

If your name isn’t trademarked, don’t attempt to buy the .info or .biz variation of the domain. Instead, try a slight variation of the domain name such as adding a dash between words, or inserting the word “the” or other nominal words.

In some cases, the domain is owned but isn’t being used. Trying searching for it in the browser. If the URL is pointed to a different domain, it isn’t being used, only redirected. You may be able to buy the domain for the right price from the current owner. If the domain is parked, you may also attempt to purchase the domain.

In the tutorial on this page I show you how to create your blog using BlueHost and WordPress.org.  This is the combination I personally use for this blog and it’s what I recommend to all my readers.  When you sign-up with BlueHost you get a free domain name, and WordPress.org will be automatically installed on your BlueHost account. You can customize and begin blogging as soon as your account is set up.  Just follow the steps in the tutorial on this page.

You can make a blog for absolutely nothing. It doesn’t cost one red cent.

But let’s be realistic. If you want your blog to be taken seriously, you can’t just get a subdomain from Blogspot. You’ll want to pick a domain name and register it. Domain names cost around $15 per year, on average. So now you’re a whopping $15 in the hole.

But the best way to start your blog is through one of the many web hosting companies. The best web hosting choice is a WordPress hosting account through Bluehost which is $2.75 per month and includes free domain registration, so your total cost for 1 year is just $33.

These are your main costs associated with starting a successful blog. Of course, you may incur other costs with additional services such as email marketing. As with any business, the biggest expenditure is often advertising, but this would be a cost incurred later on down the road if you choose to go that route.

Bloggers have the ability to make a full-time income from blogging alone. Some bloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. While it isn’t easy to become a highly paid blogger, it is quite possible. As with any business, it takes a lot of hard work and plenty of time.

Many bloggers give up on their project after just a few months. They become discouraged when the money doesn’t come in right away, and it almost never does without an instant and immediate following that comes from being a high profile persona. Therefore, time and patience are needed to reach “influencer” status. Those who make money online are the ones who stick with it.

There are several ways a blogger can earn money:

• Advertisements: As your blog gains traction and brings in a healthy amount of daily visitors, advertisers may pay good money for a well-placed ad on your blog.
• Contextual Ads: With Google Adsense a small piece of code can be placed on your blog that dynamically shows ads related to your content. When one of your readers clicks on an ad the advertiser pays Google, and Google sends you a percentage.
• Affiliate Programs: Affiliate ads are a very popular way to monetize a blog. These ads lead visitors to a product or service on another website. If a sale resulting from a click on your blog is made, you get a commission, and some commissions can be very high. Affiliate programs can be found on individual stores, or on large-scale platforms such as Amazon.
• Sponsored Posts: Advertisers can pay a smaller fee to sponsor individual posts rather than advertising on the entire blog. This is a great method for making money on fledgling blogs.

Bloggers are most commonly paid by advertisers. How the blogger is paid varies depending on what type of ads are used.

• CPC: CPC or “Cost Per Click” ads generate revenue simply through clicks. CPC ads are generally highly targeted and rotational. Ads appear on specific blog posts and are related to the content of that post. The number of clicks you generate, which trends upward as your traffic increases, will ultimately determine the amount you are paid.
• Flat Fee: If a blog’s traffic is high, advertisers may pay a monthly flat fee for ad space on the blog’s website. That ad space could appear all over the website, within a section, or just a few pages. The money comes directly from the advertiser.
• Commission: Ads from an affiliate network use affiliate links. These links track visitors that come from your blog to the advertiser’s site. If a purchase is made by a visitor who originated from your blog, you receive a commission.

If you’re new to blogging and you don’t have much experience with HTML or coding, then yes – WordPress is the best blogging platform
for you! When it comes time to choose a blogging platform, the pros turn to WordPress.  And even though WordPress is used by millions of smaller blogs, it also powers many of the biggest sites on the internet.  In fact, WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) in the world with over 75 million blogs and websites currently using it. And there are many reasons why:

• Easy to Use: WordPress is remarkably easy to use. Theme customizers help to easily design your blog, change colors, and add images. Once your design is complete, all you need to do is write blog posts. The internal blog editor records your posts and displays them for you.
• Blog Anywhere: As long as you have Internet access, you can edit your blog and write new posts. WordPress provides you with an administrative backend where you may log in and work on your blog from anywhere in the world using a PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone.
• You Don’t Need To Know How to Code: WordPress gives you easy tools to create a stunning blog without knowing a single line of HTML code. This makes WordPress a great option for those who don’t want to deal with technical issues.
• Built-in SEO: Google and other search engines favor blogs built with WordPress. The out-of-the-box SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which comes packed with WordPress delivers impressive results over time in search engines. The powerful SEO in WordPress blows away the competition, clearly distinguishing itself from other CMS systems.  This translates to more readers for your blog.
• Free Themes: The WordPress CMS is connected to a repository where thousands of free themes (blog layouts) are available to browse and upload. Directly from the backend of your blog you can browse a multitude of themes with varying styles and functionality. These free themes can be installed with one click, and then easily customized by a total novice.

Yes! WordPress is an open-source blogging platform which is completely free. And there are two different WordPress options, both free, but COMPLETELY different blogging platforms, which you should be aware of.  Choosing the right blogging platform is one of the most crucial decisions you will make.

WordPress.org: This option is completely, 100% free.  WordPress.org is the blog platform I show you how to use in the tutorial on this page.  While it is completely free to download, it doesn’t run on its own. You will need a web hosting account (see the step-by-step guide) and you’ll also need to buy a new domain name. Because you need your own web hosting plan, this option is known as a self-hosted blog. So while WordPress is technically free, there are fees involved with getting your new self-hosted WordPress blog up and running (less than $3 per month).

WordPress.com: WordPress.com is a different blogging platform that lets the user create a free blog on a subdomain of WordPress.com. If you would like to enable some basic options, or have your own domain, you will have to upgrade your account to a paid one.  For this and other reasons, I don’t recommend WordPress.com.

If your goal is to eventually make money from your blog, you’ll want to blog as often as possible – at least once per week. Blogging can be casual if your goal is solely for personal pleasure. But if you’re seeking a large audience and wish to become a leader in your field, blogging weekly is a must.

While frequency is important, it should not come at the expense of quality.  Not every blog post needs be 2,000 words, but all of your posts should be informative and of value to your audience. This is no easy feat. However, if you’re able to stick with blogging on a regular schedule, it will become easier! As with anything else, the more you do it – the more skilled at it you become.

Blogging weekly also helps improve your traffic from search engines. When you first begin blogging your latest posts will take time to show up on search engines. As you continue to post regularly you will naturally have more blog posts showing up in the search results, which means more traffic to your blog.

Almost any blog has the potential to become a success, yet most blogs fail. And there are many reasons why. Here are the most common reasons why a blog fails:

• Giving Up Too Fast – The most common reason why a blog fails is simply that the content creator gives up before his or her blog even has a chance to become recognized. Before you begin a blog, you should realize that most blogs take months and even years to gain traction. It’s quite an investment. If you fail to gain visitors or make money within a month don’t stop!  Continue to focus on creating quality content and getting your name out there via social media and networking.
• Intermittent Blogging – When there are long “silent periods” between blog posts, it is difficult to build a solid following. People looking for information on your topic usually want a steady stream of new information to keep them interested. When a blog fails to deliver fresh and updated content people get bored and look elsewhere.
• Poor Content – Some bloggers think they can beat the system with auto-generated content or with duplicate content that is reworded. Readers know fluff when they read it. They know when an article has absolutely no value or when it is simply clickbait. A blog with poor content will never be successful.
• Too Many Ads – Blogs with dozens of ads obscuring most of the content will deter visitors from returning. People don’t come to your blog to be visually harassed by ill-placed, blinking advertisements. They come for information. While ads a good option to monetize, don’t overdo it.