In the light of the New Year that is just around the corner, companies have started revamping and reshaping their marketing strategies, with the ultimate goal of generating more qualified lead obviously in the next year.
Although there are some changing trends in marketing that companies are embracing for their new plans, content still continues to rule the list of effective strategies. Some major trends in the area of content that are likely to remain the same throughout the next year as well are:
- A consistent rise in business blogging
- A higher blogging frequency
- Effectively more leads for a company that has a blog than one that doesn’t
- The attraction of good quality leads for companies that have a blog, as it gains from benefits in terms of SEO and organic search.
It is quite evident how beneficial it is for a company to maintain a consistent and up to date blog. Hence, if you don’t have an active blog yet, then you are missing out on a lot!
Aside from the business perspective of blogs, personal blogs of individuals are also on the rise. This is because more people have started seeing blogs as a platform to express their personal opinions and share their experiences and knowledge with their readers. Blogs also help in earning money in the long run.
So for all those of you who are looking to start a blog of your own, and for business marketers looking to create a blog page, here we have some simple steps and tips for you get started. Before we get into the actual steps, in case you are still skeptical about starting, here are some more reasons why you should start:
- It makes you a better writer and a better person, as it helps to strengthen your communication skills.
- It helps other people, as you put out your experiences and knowledge.
- There can be a million people out there who may have gone through your same experience and who may be looking for the exact information that you have shared.
- There are almost 130 million active blog readers in the U.S as of now, so imagine the level of impact your blog can have!
- Above all, it helps you to earn more money and improve your business
That said; now let’s get into the step.
Setting up your own blog
Even if you are a beginner, I’m pretty sure you will be able to follow these simple steps. Trust me, you don’t need any kind of technical knowledge for this. You will need only less than 30 minutes to do this. So there are five basic steps involved in setting up a blog:
1. Choose your blog platform:
Before you even think about what your blog is going to look like, you need to choose your platform. There are a lot of options for you to choose from like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. What you need to basically look for is one that is easy to set up and use, one that provides helpful features and one that is capable of being customized. In that respect, to help you out here is an interesting fact; over 72 million active bloggers use WordPress for their platform. So according to general user preferences, WordPress rules.
2. Choose a hosting option
This is the most important steps involved in starting a blog. When you are looking for platforms, you might come across ones that are free as well. But it is always better to self-host your blog. Besides, free platforms have their own disadvantages:
Why you shouldn’t opt for a free blogging platform
- First of all, when you use a free platform, you’re not the one that has control over your content. The platform does, and they can take down your content any time they want.
- Secondly, your blog name will be attached to the platform’s name making it longer and less attractive. For example, “Myblog.blogspot.com” or “Myblog.wordpress.com”
- You don’t really own your blog when you rely on a separate host. You don’t get to choose your web suffix either.
- Finally, if you are looking to make money using blogs, then most free platforms do not allow advertising, which makes things harder for you.
Hence, self-hosting is the best option. But how much would it cost to host with your own domain name?
It is only a nominal amount. On average it comes to about $5 to $10 per month, depending on your hosting provider.
3. Choose a domain name and a hosting company
This is where you need to choose a domain name for your blog and the company that will put up all your content on the internet for everyone to see (hosting company). There are a number of cheap and efficient hosting service providers out there like iPage. Most such providers often provide a “one-click” install solution for WordPress too. So you can go ahead and think of a catchy and interesting domain name and approach your hosting company with a nominal amount of about $10-15 in a year.
4. Design your blog:
This is the fun part. Now that you have decided your domain name, your hosting partner and installed your platform, you can start designing your blog in any way you want. You can start by browsing through the themes that are already available on the platform, or go online and download one. However, make sure that the content or intention of your blog and your theme go together. It also needs to be easy to navigate for the readers.
5. Start creating content
Once you are done designing your blog, you can start creating content and uploading it. You can upload as many images and videos as you want if you are self-hosting your blog. You can also display advertisements to earn money.
So those were the 5 steps to creating your own blog. Follow these and you will have your blog up and running in no time.