Last updated on Jan 4, 2023 by Gamex Studio
Is starting a blog still worth it in 2023? Do I have the right competence to become a blogger? How to start a blog?
Those are just a few questions new bloggers are searching for lately.
You will want to follow this simple step-by-step plan to guide you through the process of blog establishment and further promotion, to make sure to build great fundamentals, and to increase the chances of your blog succeeding.
Can you become a blogger in 2023, is it still worth it?
Is blogging outdated in 2023, when trends are showing that we are switching to video content on Youtube instead?
Even though the media is changing fast, blogs are adapting to reader’s preferences and expectations in 2023. Blogs nowadays are different than they were 10 years ago.
Best blogs manage to keep readers engaged through a longer period– but, you as a blogger need to provide valuable information fast, as the reader comes to your site, to find an answer on the topic he is interested in.
A lot of bloggers are making a decent living with their work while creating valuable content for their group of readers.
There is still a lot of potential in blogging – but, creating an interesting and valuable business model around the blog is now more important than ever before, in case you as a blogger want to achieve consistent results with it!
Learn how to become a blogger in less than an hour by following these simple steps.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Follow when starting a Blog in 2023
We have all been there where there are tons of ideas rolling inside our heads, but as long as you keep them inside, they won’t make any results.
So, if we want to start a business or start blogging today, then we need to get a clear and simple guide to put all the ideas in the right place, right?
To help you out to start your first blog, we’ve prepared a step-by-step guide to launch your blog in 2023.
Here are 6 simple steps to launch your blog in 2023:
STEP 1 – Choose your blog’s niche
STEP 2 – Blog Name + Blog Hosting
STEP 3 – Add WordPress + Pick a Theme
STEP 4 – Add easy blogging plugins
STEP 5 – Write content
STEP 6 – Promote your blog
STEP 1 – Choose your blog's niche
How to choose a perfect niche for your blog??
It depends if you are making the blog as a hobby project, or you are heading into blogging more seriously.
If you are writing your blog as a hobby, you already know what your interests are, so you might find the right theme in no time.
But if you just want to write about something, and don’t have the niche yet, then you’ll need to do a research on your own to find the niche where you feel comfortable writing about.
Why lots of bloggers fail to achieve their goals?
People usually start blogging about the topic they are passionate about but get burned out when the blog is not making them any money.
Think of your blog as a newly established business. A start-up business, where you need to act fast to survive!
Read our full post on how to run your business like a startup, with the benefits of outsourcing.
Why start-ups succeed?
Because they have great ideas!? The idea itself is never enough, the execution is what matters and what makes a difference. And to achieve the state of accomplishment, you need to be consistent, disciplined, hard-working, and surely passionate about the project you work on. It would be unimaginable that a great monetized blog comes from a zero amount of work, right?
So, if you don’t want to be a hobby blogger and would like to make a living out of your blog then the passion for the specific niche or topic you want to write about, might just not be enough.
Before picking your niche, you should do a little research on your own, where you should focus on:
– Keywords (Search Volume) – interest in topics you want to write about
– Audience Revenue Potential
– Affiliate Marketing Potential
STEP 2 - Blog Name + Blog Hosting
How to pick your domain name?
Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it creates the first impression to potential readers of your blog. Our domain name gamex-studio.com was picked from our business name, but you have various options to go with.
Here are some ideas for your domain name:
– YourName.com
– YourBusinessName.com
– YourPetName.com
– BrandName.com
In case you don’t have a clue about your new domain name, you can use Wordoid – a great naming tool with which you can explore and brainstorm to find some ideas to choose from.
Do not buy the domain from their site directly, as you are getting a domain name for free from Bluehost, when you purchase their Basic plan. In case you already own a domain name Bluehost will make it possible to transfer your existing domain during the setup process.
Things to consider when choosing your domain name:
– Domain name should not be too tricky to write
– Keep the name easy to spell and pronounce
– Keep your name broader in case you need to pivot to another niche
After you choose your domain name, you need to sign up for web hosting (to make your website accessible on the internet).
The best overall web hosting service in 2023 that most of the bloggers now recommend is a Bluehost, where you get a free domain for the first year!
Simple steps on How to get started:
– Go to Bluehost
– Click on Get Started
– Pick the Basic Plan
– Enter your Domain Name
– Create your account
It’s that easy.
STEP 3 – Add WordPress and Pick a Theme
Bluehost will install WordPress automatically with one click, directly from your hosting dashboard.
You’ll need to pick a theme. Visualize or create a SiteMap, to better understand the needs of your blog and pick the one that will perform best for your topic/niche.
Important: Make sure to pick only from mobile-friendly themes, this will save you a lot of valuable time.
According to TechJury –Mobile users share has increased by over 10% in the course of one year!
55% of page views in 2023 come from mobile phones. Even though you might have chosen a more traditional niche, this trend of mobile users is important to know when picking a theme for your blog.
There is an urgent need for your theme to be greatly adjustable for mobile and desktop users, adjustable for various devices, as you want to keep your readers engaged on your website, and they need to feel comfortable at your site.
Users nowadays expect the sites to be fully mobile-friendly, so you don’t want to ruin their expectations.
So, if we get back to picking themes, you have plenty of attractive free themes to choose from on WordPress.
However, it is possible also to pick your theme later, in that case just skip this step and come to it back later.
Are you ready to start your blog now? Get started for just $2.95/month ≈ 2.55€/month (63% off your hosting plan!) with our link below:
STEP 4 – Add easy blogging plugins
WordPress is offering tons of various free sets of tools, which you can integrate into your blog. But, which one to choose in a flood of tools offered there?
At the complete start, you would want to choose the best ones for SEO and site speed.
Important: Always make sure to remove the plugins you don’t use on the site, as they still might slow down your site.
WordPress Plugins to install:
1. Elementor
– Drag & Drop Elements on your website (Free Basic version or Pro for advanced users)
2. ShortPixel
– Image Optimizer (100 image optimizations/month for free)
3. WP Rocket
– Increase Site speed (premium plugin)
4. Yoast SEO
– Search Engine Optimization tool
5. OptinMonster
– Grow your email list
Remember these tools are meant for those that are serious about blogging and plan to create a decent source of income out of it. If you are a hobby blogger who is just sharing the passion to a niche with a few potential readers, then all those tools are not so urgent to have.
STEP 5 – Write content
And here it is, the king of all - Content!
Without interesting and valuable content your blog might not scale up as desired even though you might be putting tons of hours every day into the project.
As mentioned before, modern blogs are changing, adjusting to readers’ needs and expectations.
Even though the content is king, it won’t do the magic just yet.
That’s like you would have a perfect product to sell, but no one is aware of it.
So, you need to create awareness and reach out to potential readers, to get traffic to your website, who will then decide if your content is interesting and valuable or not.
You probably don’t have an unlimited amount of time and funds available to promote your content, right?
That’s why you need to focus on the organic traffic from search engines, like Google, Yahoo,… etc.
How to get a decent amount of organic traffic from search engines?
Prepare a custom Checklist with Rules you don’t want to miss out in your blog post to ensure the best and consistent results:
– focus on one main keyword
– put this keyword in your blog’s permanent URL
– Include the keyword in the title of your post
– add the keyword to the first or second paragraph
– Include the keyword inside of your deadlines
– add the keyword throughout your blog post
_______________
Are you just there yet, with your blog post now?
– Not yet.
It depends on the length of your blog post, you’ll need to keep your readers engaged.
How to keep your readers engaged?
Do a little test on your own after you write down your article, and see where you are losing focus at your post.
Those are the places you need to put photos, videos, infographics, or something other visually interesting to readers, to keep them engaged.
You can also run a test with family members, colleagues, to check where they lose focus at. Not everyone acts the same, so you’ll need to figure out and decide those points on your own.
Later on, you can also track user engagements by implementing Google Analytics to your blog, and you can re-adjust the post to see how users engage, to get the most optimal post at the end.
Always step in the shoes of the reader...
Ask yourself – Did you get the information you were searching for?
Try to figure out what are the intentions of readers of your post and try to understand the intentions behind the searches.
You probably have thought that you are not perfect in writing, right?
But, no one is!
We improve on the way if there is enough will and strong focus to reach the goals.
If you have never written a blog post before, that’s ok. The first post will take more time to write it to the version you’ll be confident enough to share, but the second one will be easier to finish, as you have written one before, and now you know what it takes to write it up.
Keep practicing and writing!
6 Tips & Tricks for a successful blog post
1. Value, value, value…
(keep repeating this word, it is more important than you might think right now!)
If you understand what kind of content your readers are searching for, and you are providing them a great value, they will keep coming back to your site
2. Don’t be boring with 5000+ words with zero images, videos, just plain text.
It depends on the niche you are writing for, but most likely if your post will be just plain and boring text, you won’t get the attention you deserve.
3. Fonts
Choose those that are easily readable
4. Add bullet points
5. Bold those parts of the texts that are crucial, those that you don’t want the reader to miss out.
But never bold the whole paragraphs.
6. Double-check for typos and grammatical errors
You want your blog to look professional, right?
Before launching your blog, you should focus on your main note, and sharing your vision/ mission with your readers.
Build trust, be transparent with your project/blog – present your goals to a reader, and let them know how you want to complete them.
Also share a bit about yourself, hobbies, personal life, and share your experiences in the fields you are writing about.
That’s how your readers may connect quicker with you.
STEP 6 – Promote your blog
Organic traffic won’t come over just right after you publish your blog. At least, you won’t hit a decent amount of traffic in the next few days as well, if you don’t promote your blog posts.
For bigger amount of traffic, you’ll need to work on the various fields, so that your results will show up.
A consistent and hard-working dedication to your blog is something that you need to get into your everyday rhythm to progress and scale-up.
As soon as you are confident with your first blog posts, start working on building backlinks to your site, to increase the blog’s authority. Share the link of your blog post on your social media channels, between Facebook, Linkedin Groups, Quora, forums, blogs,… or boost the traffic with Fiverr.
Link Building
The best and the easiest way to gather new backlinks to your blog is to write the best possible content.
Like we mention before, content is still the king!
In that case, others will refer to your content – and the blog post will become ”linkable”.
Get ideas and check what your competition is doing to see from which sites they are getting backlinks.
Guest Blogging
An additional option to get more links to your website is to write guest posts. Some blogs are searching for new content, willing to post your post at their blogs, and in exchange, you can get backlinks to your website. This is a free traffic generator, you build backlinks that way, but you need to invest time to write up quality guest posts.
How to Start Guest Blogging?
Research and find the sites that are interested in publishing your guest posts, or better find those interested within your niche, and contact them directly. Try to find similar blogs or blogs within the nice where the audience is already searching for related content.
Link building is a growth process. It will not end up after you write a few posts and reach out to other’s website owners to put the links of your website on their blogs. Link building is a continuous process, with which you increase the net of your connections while expanding the audience reach attracting new visitors to your blog.
A successful link-building strategy will help you attract a new audience, that is willing to read your content. So, implementing links on quality and high DA sites will help you reach more traffic to your blog and help you scale it up further.
Conclusion
People are shifting to mobile devices, from which 55% of page views were made in 2023! In the course of one year, the mobile users share increased by 10%, and the trend is still up. Modern bloggers need to adjust to those trends with mobile-friendly themes and adjustments.
In the flood of information, users want to find the detail they are searching for fast.
You want to keep readers engaged by writing up quality content including interesting images, infographics, videos, or any other related visually attractive elements.
Blogs are not dead yet in 2023. Quite the opposite, some blogs are now making more than ever before. But, it is true that the modern blogs indeed need to adjust the fast tempo of living.
The objective of a successful blogger is to try to understand readers’ behavior, what are they searching for, why they came to your site, what are their goals, and the answers to the questions they want to solve right away.
Do not write boring text-only blogs, but try to give something more in your posts. Readers love images, videos, researches, infographics. So try to make custom and unique content that is nowhere to be found to scale up your blogs in 2023!
So, if you are just starting a blog follow these simple steps:
STEP 1 – Choose your blog’s niche
STEP 2 – Blog Name + Blog Hosting
STEP 3 – Add WordPress + Pick a Theme
STEP 4 – Add easy blogging plugins
STEP 5 – Write content
STEP 6 – Promote your blog