How to Create a blog with a minimum investment: Creating a blog with minimum investment is good decision on the part of you, because it is the best thing that you can do for your earning as blogging has transformed into a full-time career where bloggers have made a decent monthly income by simply blogging a couple of times a week.
Now is the perfect time for you to start a blog and make it profitable even if you aren’t tech-savvy. After reading this entire article, you will be able to create your own blog within an hour after you use some basic resources and very little guidance, and you will be able to publish your blog within an hour of doing so. I advise you to take your time and don’t rush this process as we will be showing you how to create a blog along with a step by step guide with pictures.
Contents
How to Create a blog with a minimum investment
Let’s begin by understanding what a blog actually is before proceeding any further.
Once you have selected your topic, a blog can be described as a URL or a type of website that primarily targets and includes written content. In blogging, the content is known as a blog post. Bloggers provide their readers with the opportunity to interact with their blog through comments. By doing so, they can also share the reader’s feedback with other like-minded individuals, allowing them to further improve their writing.
Also Read: Top 30 Best Alternatives to Google AdSense for Bloggers
The importance of creating a blog
One of the most common questions that people have is, “Why should I start a blog?”.
Many people have the misconception that if they wish to start a blog, they must be professional and formal writers. But this is absolutely not the case. Instead, you should write it in a conversational style that will connect you with your readers. You need not be an expert on your topic to write it.
There are many people around the world who are perusing their day jobs, and not happy with their current career choices due to their full-time commitment to their current job, however they have the right time and opportunity to explore the tricky world of web development and blogging for full-time employment.
It’s the right time for you to start a blog, especially if you do not want to invest much money into starting a business but would like to earn at least a substantial income from it. It’s not just the income that will encourage you to write a blog, but there are plenty of factors that will motivate you to start.
- By sharing your expertise, knowledge, and experience, you will have a chance to inspire others with your knowledge.
- You will be able to improve your writing skills as well as your ability to think critically.
- Using social media, email, or even commenting in the blog posts on the posts that you are reading on a regular basis will allow you to grow your network and connections.
- The right niche can provide you with a full-time passive income.
- You can enhance your resume by writing a blog with a high traffic level.
- The purpose of your blog is to motivate or inspire the readers.
- By blogging, you may even be able to promote your own product or service.
A blog is an effective tool for achieving your goals as well as for growing your career as a whole.
The difference between a free blog and a self-hosted blog
The first question you should ask is whether to start with a free blog or a self-hosted blog. As you do not want to invest a lot of money to begin your blog, the first thing you should ask yourself is whether to start with a free blog or a self-hosted blog.
You can create a blog free of charge or by paying a fee of $100 for hosting and a domain name. The ability to create a blog for free, however, has many limitations, even though some platforms allow you to proceed with establishing your blog for free, such as Wix.com, WordPress.com, Blogger.com, etc.
You may use these platforms if you wish to solidify and test some ideas for your blog. There is a long list of reasons as to why you should avoid choosing a free option to create your blog, including:
Those who purchase a domain name will see the domain name as ‘YourDomainName.com’, whereas those who obtain the domain name for free, such as through WordPress.com, will see the domain name as ‘YourDomainNama.wordpress.com’. You will not be able to impress your clients or advertisers with such a long domain name, which will make it too lengthy and lower its impact.
You will not be able to monetize your blog using a free service, which negatively impacts your revenue.
It will be a challenge to incorporate the design changes into your blog
The process of switching from a free blog service to a paid blog service can be daunting in the future. It may cause you to lose some traffic and revenue in the process.
The platforms you use to publish your blog do not have any control over it as far as an unexpected error or anything wrong goes up on the blog, these platforms do not have to notify you if their blog was suspended for any reason.
Therefore, very few people, or in some cases no one, choose to start a free blog. Investing in a self-hosted blog is an essential requirement if you intend to start a successful and profitable blog and make decent income from your blogs. Getting one would cost you $100, which might be a burden. However, you do not have to worry because we will guide you through the creation process so that you can begin earning from it in less than 60 dollars.
A step-by-step guide to creating your blog
Following your understanding of the differences between free and self-hosted blogs, let us show you how to set up a blog that requires the minimum investment in 2022. From the time you take a domain name to the point where you publish it, the entire process is not difficult, and you will find it very easy and engaging to learn how to set up your blog. Let us take a closer look at the steps listed below:
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1. Choose a blog name or topic
You will need to choose your blog topic based on your life experiences, hobbies, and passions before you begin writing any blog, or you may decide to write a personal blog about yourself. A blog title should always be descriptive, as that is the only thing that you need to consider.
2. Selecting the right content management system
There are a variety of CMS options, including Joomla, WordPress, Wix, Typepad, Drupal, and many more. CMS examples include Joomla, WordPress, Wix, Typepad, and so on. WordPress is the most renowned blogging platform out of all of the CMS. According to a survey conducted, over 90% of bloggers are currently using WordPress as their blogging platform of choice.
3. Register your domain name
It is important to choose a domain name that is appropriate to the topic of your blog (for example- www.DomainName.com). Your domain name represents the niche in which your blog is located, so selecting an appropriate domain name is an important step.
In every case, you should choose the ‘.com’ extension rather than a ‘.org’ or ‘.info’ or ‘.net’ extension, as the latter is more easily remembered and pronounced by the users. Also, you should never choose domains containing dashes or numbers.
4. Choosing a web hosting provider
The selection of the best web hosting provider is essential regardless of the CMS you have chosen. The hosting of your blog is the process by which all your blog’s content will be stored, such as text files, images, videos, CSS files, etc., that makes all the users of your blog able to view it online.
As one of the leading web hosting service providers, Bluehost offers its customers a free domain name for the first year of their web hosting address, making them one of the best providers in the industry. Aside from being reliable, fast, and streamlined, it is also much more reliable than other web hosting services.
This application provides a number of additional features that are particularly useful for first-time bloggers. This platform is also known for offering a 30-day money-back guarantee, a free SSL certificate, and exceptional 24/7 live support customer service, which is why it is used by more than 2 lakhs of websites across the globe. Additionally, it offers a one-click installation option, making it very simple to start your blog.
5. Choose a plan and create a password
You should also be aware that web hosting includes an SSL certificate which will ensure and keep all visitors’ information secure. Having selected the web hosting provider, the next step is to select the web hosting plan and complete the registration process.
Choosing the BlueHost ‘Prime’ plan will benefit you in that it comes with an SSL certificate for free from ‘Let’s Encrypt‘. This also improves your engagement and assists you in earning some Google points. A screenshot below shows all of the price plans available in BlueHost, along with Basic, Plus, and Choice Plus. You can select any plan based on your requirements and budget.
The long term subscription is always recommended if you are seriously considering blogging as a source of income. When you choose a web hosting package such as Bluehost or any other provider, it will be more costly if you choose a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual plan. Among all the plans, a 36-month package offers the lowest subscription fee. If you wish to terminate the subscription, you may contact the company for a refund at any time.
After selecting the plan that meets your needs, you can complete the registration process and proceed to the checkout process using your credit card, debit card, or internet banking account.
Your next step after completing your registration is to create your account password, as shown in the image below:
By creating an administrator account once your registration has been completed, you are able to customize your blog temporarily with a basic template that you can easily change later to suit your needs. In addition to the template, an administrator account can be used to change any theme, plugin, page, category, post, and user.
Your administrator username and password must be very strong. Additionally, it is suggested that you do not write or approve any comments through the admin account and not publish any pages or posts through the admin account. The editor account should always be used to perform these activities. The steps for creating an editor account are:
- Add a new user by clicking Users -> Add New User.
- Create a new user account by entering a username, email address, first name and last name.
- In the case of WordPress, the CMS will suggest a password that is robust for you to use. You can either use this password or create your own.
- Select the ‘Editor’ role from the drop-down menu.
- Please click on the Add New User button.
It is now up and running, but isn’t it a little basic? Let’s explore how it can be customized and designed to make it look eerie.
6. Design and customize your blog
Creating a blog requires customizing and designing it in accordance with certain parameters.
a) Create and manage blog posts and pages
Once you have navigated to Dashboard>Posts>Add NewEnter, you will be able to edit or add content to your first blog post.
Please see the following instructions for adding or editing content from your blog:
After clicking the ‘Add Block’ icon in the Gutenberg editor, you can add various types of content blocks to the editor. In addition to the blocks, you can also add some visual appeal for the readers. The Featured Image tab appears on the right-hand side of the screen. To upload and save the image, click on it, and then click on Save.
If you wish to add a Welcome Page to your website homepage, navigate to Pages, click on ‘Add New’, enter the title of the blog, and then click the ‘Publish’ tab. You may add additional pages to your blog in the same manner and hit the tab ‘Publish’ after every addition.
b) Select a theme or layout
To install a new theme, navigate to Appearance>Themes from the top of your website’s dashboard and click on Add New from the top:
For a better idea of how the themes will appear on your blog, you can click on Live Preview to preview them. By using the feature filter option, you will be able to locate other themes such as the Latest themes, Popular themes, featured themes, etc. After you have found what you are looking for, you can activate it by clicking on the ‘Activate’ button.
Your site will be installed as soon as it is activated.
c) Customize your blog by installing useful plugins
Installing and adding plugins is one of the best ways to enhance the functionality of your website as well as to increase traffic to your website so that you can generate a higher profit revenue each month.
Many CMS platforms, including WordPress and external sites, offer a wide variety of free plugins and libraries. The plugins can be installed by clicking on Plugins> Add New. In order to obtain further information about the plugins, click the ‘More Details’ tab and then click the ‘Install Now’ tab. The plugins need to be activated once they are installed.
In addition to the many plugins available, some of the most popular ones include Contact Form 7, Akismet, Yoast SEO, Classic Editor, Smush Image Compression, Jetpack, and WP Super Cache.
In this case, let’s assume you have installed WordPress’ Contact Form 7 plugin. In the dashboard, you will see a new menu titled ‘Contact’ once this plugin is activated. You must access several contact forms generated by this plugin, and then select ‘Contact Form 1’ from the list to modify the new form.
It is important to ensure that you receive all email notifications sent from the form and that the mail template is functioning properly. To accomplish this, you must go to the ‘Mail’ tab and change the email address that appears in the ‘T’ option.
As a next step, you should copy the ‘shortcode’ under the contact form’s name, which looks as follows:
contactform-7 id=”25″ title=”Contact form 1″
When you create a new page titled ‘Contact us’, you need to copy this shortcode and paste it.
For this, you should always keep in mind that customizing your blog is very important. You will be able to change the fonts of your website if you download more than one plugin.
You can customize your theme by going to the theme customizer once you have downloaded all of the required plugins. For your reference, ‘Easy Google Fonts’ is one of the best plugins for customizing your theme. You will be able to preview your theme in real-time as you customize it. You will have full access to change your website’s identity, menus, widgets, colors, CSS, and even homepage settings.
It is also possible to see a new option under Easy Google Fonts, namely the Customizer: Typography. This tool enables you to change your website’s fonts and to offer complete control over how it appeared.
7. Publish!
You will be ranked according to how many people read your blogs. To achieve a good ranking, you must write and publish at least two to three blogs per week. You will attract more readers and traffic if you write useful, original posts. Depending on the topic you choose, the length of your first blog post should vary from 500 to 1000 words.
The process of publishing a blog begins with adding your first blog by clicking on ‘Add New’, then clicking on the ‘Add Title’ section, and then pasting your post into the text box. Once the post is finished, click on the ‘Publish’ button and the blog will be published.
Best wishes!
8. You should promote your blog
8. You should promote your blog
In order to promote your first blog, you need to make sure readers know about it before they read it. Especially if it is your first blog, you will need some time to spend marketing it.
As soon as the customization is complete and your blog has been published, you will be able to share it on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. As well as searching the plugin search page for “Social Share”, you may also download the plugin that is appropriate for your needs and that captures your interest by typing the keywords “Social Share” into the search box.
The other option is to utilize email marketing, which will allow you to assess whether your existing readers are returning. Collecting your readers’ e-mail addresses and informing them as soon as you post your new blog will provide you with this information.
If you have any questions or concerns related to the creation or publication of your blog post, please feel free to contact us at the email address provided below.
You are now ready to write your blog post. What are you waiting for? Just get going!