How To Start A Blog

Complete Step-By-Step Guide

How To Start A Blog with David Sandy

Do you want me to setup your blog for free?

Hey there!  Are you ready learn how to start a blog of your own and start crushing it online?  

I created this entire step-by-step guide with you in mind.

I provide the EXACT tools I’m currently using along with all the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and blogging tips and tricks I wish I knew when starting out…  

Let’s do this! 👇

David Sandy

Affiliate Disclosure:  Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend your money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals. Enjoy!

How To Start A Blog Step 1: Select A Niche For Your Blog

It’s critical for this first step that you go into it with the mindset of creating a business where you’re selling both other company’s products through affiliate marketing and your own digital products.

Your blog’s niche is essentially the topic your blog centers around.  Let’s take a look at the diagram I created below.

How To Start A Blog - Blogging Niche Selection with David Sandy

The blogging niche you select should be something that you’re passionate about and would be willing to write about even if their were no readers coming to your site.  Which in reality, there will only be a handful the first couple of months as you get your blog off the ground.  However, once you’ve written enough posts then Google will take notice and so will your readers.

Once you’ve determined something that you’re passionate about and would enjoy writing, you want to ask yourself this question:

Does my passion align with being a profitable niche?

This is where a little bit of research might come in…

Look up some blogs on Google centered around your passion:

  • Are they making substantial income from their blog?
  • What affiliate products are they promoting?
  • Do they have their own digital products (e-books, courses, membership sites)?

If you find a blog in your niche that does income reports, then that will be a great indicator of what you can expect.

All in all, your blogging niche will be continually refined as you figure out what you enjoy writing about more and how it aligns with the interest of your readers. 

Your blog is a continuous cycle of finding your passion, testing, and expanding upon what works!

Here’s a list of niches to get the creative juices flowing:

Blog Niches List

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What’s cool is that just about any niche is profitable when you’re doing affiliate marketing and promoting other people’s products when starting out and having an end goal of creating your own.

 

How To Start A Blog Step 2: Come Up With A Website Name (Domain Name) Related To Your Niche 

David Sandy Official SERP Result

Type in your desired website name below to check and see if it’s available!

Go for a “.com” domain name instead of .co/.net/.org/.io.  Search engines can favor “.com” at times and over 46% of sites use it.  

Head here to search for a domain that’s available.

Once you’ve figured out what you want, head to Step 3 to get hosting and register the domain.

How To Start A Blog Step 3: Sign Up For Web Hosting To Start Building Your Website

How To Start A Blog: What-Type-of-Web-Host-Should-i-choose

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You now need to register your chosen domain name and sign up for hosting.  I personally use Bluehost for my hosting and they’re recommended by WordPress as well, which powers over 35% of sites on the internet.

You get an exclusive 33% OFF discount ($2.95/month) when signing up for Bluehost below using my affiliate link.  Also, you will get your domain name registered for free for the first year upon signing up.

 

How To Start A Blog Step 4: Build Your Website With WordPress Using Elementor

How To Start A Blog: Website Builder

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Now that you’ve got a domain and your hosting setup, the good news is that WordPress is automatically installed for free when signing up for Bluehost. 😊

Add A Page Builder Plugin To Your Website

I personally use Elementor and built the current site your on as well using it. 

The best part is that it’s free to start using but I’d recommend getting the Pro version (Elementor Pro), so you’ve got all of the web design features and templates.

You can grab Elementor below.

OR

 

How To Start A Blog Step 5: Get A Logo Made For Your Site Brand

The best place to get a logo done for cheap is Fiverr.

Fiverr is my go-to place for getting things done for my business that I personally don’t know how to do myself or do not want to spend the time doing. 

It’s a marketplace of freelancers who outsource their skills to professionals and business owners like you and me.

A professional logo on Fiverr is only $5, so you just can’t beat it.😉 

Fiverr Logo

 

How To Start A Blog Step 6: Choose An Affiliate Program To Start Promoting And Earning

There’s two main affiliate programs that will work for just about any niche: Amazon Associates and Commission Junction.

Why I love Amazon Associates: There’s a plethora of products to choose from.  You can promote and sell just about anything that’s already selling on Amazon.  It’s pretty sweet.

Why I love Commission Junction: There are tons of big name brands that you can start promoting just by creating one account with Commission Junction.

 

How To Start A Blog Step 7: Choose A Product To Promote And Get The Affiliate Link

 Let’s take a quick look inside the Amazon Associates back office for affiliates.

The main way you’re going to find your affiliate links is simply by searching the name and then it’s just a matter of getting the link.

How To Start A Blog:  Amazon Associates Affiliate Product Search

How To Start A Blog: Amazon Affiliate Link

How To Start A Blog Step 8: Create Consistent Epic Content

How To Start A Blog: Content Writing

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Now, it’s finally time for the fun part: Content Creation!

My favorite method of creating content is simply doing a Google search for the keyword I want to rank for and looking at my competitors.

I look through the word count of the pages, when the content was last updated, and if there’s anything else I feel is missing from a majority or all of them.

Next, it’s just a matter of me taking the time to sit down and write a post that exceeds the quality and info of the others shown on the first page.  In other words, create EPIC content.

How To Start A Blog Step 9: Drive Traffic To Your Content

How To Start A Blog: drive-traffic-to-websites

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Here are a few recommendations I have for learning how to rank your site on Google with Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

I personally have simply been able to go through these resources and have had great success with ranking my site from the get-go.

Note that as a new blog it will take longer to go up in the rankings and be recognized by Google.  At some point you’ll want to consider building backlinks (external links) to your site to increase your site’s authority.

This is a whole other topic that you can easily learn about by using the resources I mentioned above.  I recommend writing 30 blog posts before you begin trying to build any backlinks. 

Using Paid Ads As A Traffic Alternative to SEO

With paid ads, you have the benefit of a doubt that you’ll be receiving clicks on your site and viewers showing up.

My recommendation is to build specific landing pages to run paid ads to that are optimized for conversions.

The main advertising platforms out there are Facebook and Google (YouTube ads are included in the Google umbrella of paid advertising).

It is my personal recommendation to focus on doing paid ads since the person is already looking for a specific type of content based upon their search query.  Facebook ads are different because you have to disrupt the flow and the person is not actively searching for something.

How To Start A Blog Step 10: Build An Email List For Customer Follow-Up

Your email list is a vital asset for your business.  It’s one of the few things you can truly say you OWN.  I’ve been using ActiveCampaign for my email autoresponder to follow up with people who optin for awhile now and they have my highest recommendation.

You can get started with a 14-Day Free trial of ActiveCampaign ($9/month after if paid yearly). 

I hope you enjoyed this step-by-step guide on how to start a blog!  Be sure to check out my favorite marketing tools here as well and more of my most recent blog posts.

If you did, give it a share on your favorite social media platform! Now, it’s time to launch your blog to success.  Go create! 😊🚀

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