Do you want to start blogging in 2022 and beyond?

Are you scared to try it?

Are you worried it will fail?

Is there something stopping you from starting your blog?

Don’t worry! You can start a blog now and worry about the other stuff later!

Let me show you how to start blogging now.

 

Start Blogging by Choosing Your Passionate Topic

Do you know what a niche is?

If you don’t, it is simply a specific topic. I write blog posts about hiking. The niche is “hiking”. I specifically write posts about hiking in the Shawnee National Forest. So, my “Shawnee National Forest hiking” niche is a sub-niche of hiking.

Your niche is your topic.

But it shouldn’t be just any topic out there. There are two factors to consider when deciding on a blog niche.

1. Choose a niche that you’re already passionate about
2. Make sure the niche has an audience

You want to choose a niche you’re passionate about for various reasons. For starters, you usually know a lot about a topic you’re passionate about. That allows you to gain new ideas to blog about. Secondly, if you try to blog about a niche you know little to nothing about, you’ll burn out from blogging quickly.

But when choosing a niche that you’re passionate about, you need to make sure an audience is present. Not all niches will work, especially when you get deeper into the sub-niche category tackling a specific topic within the main topic. A simple Google search of the niche you wish to blog about will help you determine if there is an audience. I also recommend checking social media as well.

Once you determine a niche you want to write about based on your passions and interests and see an audience, you’re ready to start blogging!

 

Start Writing Now!

Before you ever create your blog website, I recommend you start writing blog posts now.

Just use a word document or something like that.

Focus on an article that is anywhere from 500 to 3,000 words. Use short sentences. Try to keep the paragraphs short as well. Keep it friendly for reading (or skimming) from a mobile device. Be person as if you’re talking to a friend face-to-face. Use words like “you” and “you’re”.

Focus on a specific topic within your niche and mention that topic throughout the article where it makes perfect sense to mention it.

After writing it, re-read it and make edits where needed. You might even have someone else read it to see what they think.

After you’re done with your first article, save it and start writing a new one.

This is homework before you start your actual blog.

Try to write a new blog post every day for a week straight. Write at least every business day. Write. Edit. Save. Write. Edit. Save.

At the end of the week – look at your creations and then ask yourself this:

“Do I want to keep writing new articles all the time?”

If you don’t, then you should stop there. If you do, then congratulations, you’re setting yourself up to start blogging today!

 

Start a Blog with a Self-Hosted Site

Whether or not you plan to make money with your blog, I highly recommend you use a self-hosted blog solution versus a free hosting platform.

The problem with a free hosting platform is that it is rented space. If the blog host decides to cease their services, you lose everything. And they can do that, too! I guarantee you it is on their Membership Terms of Use page.

Imagine spending years writing blog posts, building an audience, and then losing it all because the service goes bankrupt.

That would be traumatic.

Start blogging with a self-hosting solution, and you’ll always have your content, database, and information.

And there are two reasons to do this:

1. It isn’t expensive! A domain name (google.com is a domain name) is about $20.00 a year. A year’s worth of basic shared hosting (which is all you need at first) is about $150.00 for the entire year.
2. If you want to make money blogging, spending money on your blog will help motivate you to want to start earning a profit.

But you should know that the more popular and active your blog gets, the more server resources it will require. That will mean hosting services will cost more. I spend close to $200.00 monthly on my Virtual Private Server hosting solution, but I’m earning more than that from ads and other profit tactics.

If you need a good domain and web hosting solution, check out the host I use, DreamHost. NOTE: That link is an affiliate link, and I’ll get paid if you purchase hosting using that link. Alternatively, you can search for DreamHost and other shared hosting platforms on Google.

There are many solutions for your blog software, such as Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, and others. WordPress is the most popular software, which over 40% of websites use online. WordPress is free, updated regularly, trusted, and widely used. There are many free themes and plugins that you can use to give your audience a unique experience.

I suggest using WordPress self-hosted software when you start blogging.

One more tip before we move on – choose an easy-to-remember domain name that is a dot com. New and cheaper domain extensions such as “.blog” and “.shop” exist. These extensions are neat but commonly used by spammers. The “.com” has been used for almost all of the internet. It is easier to remember.

 

Start Blogging with Your Already Made Content

Start scheduling blog posts with what you previously made.

I told you earlier in the article to create 5 to 7 articles and save them. These are your starter articles.

Being a successful bloggers means that you have to stay consistent when publishing a new post. Consistency refers to how often you post on your blog. Maybe once a month? Maybe two times a week? Maybe just on the third Monday of each month? Whatever you decide, you need to be consistent about it.

This will help Google and other search engines know when you usually post new content. This will also help your readers know when to return for new posts.

I recommend to bloggers just starting out to post at least one article a week.

By having several already made, you can schedule them (WordPress has this feature) to post each week on the day you wish to post. I post on Thursdays at 10:00 AM CST every week myself.

If you have scheduled content, you are staying ahead of the game. Just don’t take too much of a break. You should still be writing multiple articles to continue to schedule so that you stay ahead and allow yourself to work on other things that will help your blog (more on that soon).

The idea of staying ahead will also help shape you into a better writer.

The more writing you do, the better you will get at writing.

If you write more articles, keep things scheduled, and become consistent about it – it will eventually become a habit, like brushing your teeth.

That is definitely what you want to happen when you start blogging for the first time.

 

Mastering SEO and Grammar

If you’d like to move further into the technical side of blogging, I suggest you start learning and understanding the tactics and strategies of SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

SEO will help you rank your content better on search engines in blogging. Better ranking means that your blog and blog posts will appear on the first page of Google search results. You want this because most people searching doesn’t usually go past the first page of results.

SEO consists of keyword research (which is what you blog about), keyword placement (where you put your keyword on your blog post), and backlinks (relevant websites that link to your blog posts).

I highly recommend installing the free plugin Yoast if you’re using WordPress. That plugin will help you place your keyword better throughout your post. When reading the post, you need to ensure that the keyword placement makes sense. If it is out of place, it could harm your ranking. If you use the keyword too much, it can hurt your rank on search engines.

Next, if you find yourself spending a lot of time on editing, check out the free browser extension, Grammarly. This software will help you edit your blog content by suggesting new sentence structures, adding missing commas, and recommending new word replacements. Don’t take every tip Grammarly throws out at you, but it will still show you a better way of posting things.

Both Yoast and Grammarly help me with time management as a full-time blogger.

 

Marketing Your New Blog

You’re creating new blog posts and want people to start reading them.

Of course, you do, but you shouldn’t worry too much about it at first.

At first, I highly recommend that you focus your efforts on creating new posts, mastering SEO, and improving your grammar. Once you master these aspects of blogging, then you can start moving on to more important aspects of blogging.

When you first start blogging, your primary focus should be creating new content and keeping it scheduled. Consistency is key to content that is king.

Once you have things scheduled, you can focus on other tactics, as I mentioned earlier in the article.

Blog Marketing!

Blog marketing is the act of promoting your blog to an audience of your choosing. Posting about your blog on social media is blog marketing. Inviting people to read your blog through email is blog marketing. Paying to advertise your blog is also blog marketing.

There are many ways to market your blog. Many are free, and many cost money. Some will work great for your specific niche, while others will be a waste of your time. Don’t get upset if a method fails because that is all part of marketing – experimenting with what works and doesn’t.

As a start, find your audience on social media. What network are they on the most? Join that network and focus marketing efforts on just that network at first. If you try to join every popular social network and market, you’ll overwhelm yourself and potentially burn out. Don’t do that!

Create a page or a profile for your blog and start posting. Try to post native content as if the network is your blog. Follow the 80/20 rule of social media marketing content. 80% should be native content/media, and 20% should be promotional links to your blog and its articles. We do this because social media will promote external content less than internal content. They want to keep people on their networks.

Another tactic is commenting on other blogs that directly relate to your niche or closely relate to it. Leave a comment that is engaging and resourceful so that others will take notice of it. Most blogs have a field for your website for the comment.

Whatever marketing tactic you decide to use, make sure you never spam! Spam is going beyond the available promotion features to advertise further. For example, adding your website link directly to a blog comment is spamming.

Spam will destroy your reputation, and Google and other search engines may block your blog from appearing in search results. Spamming is not smart marketing.

 

Start Blogging for Profit

Like I said earlier in the article, you should try to start earning revenue with your blog eventually.

Doing this will at least allow the blog to pay for itself.

But you might even try to turn your blog into a full-time job.

Advertising is one of the best ways to earn a profit with a blog. Whether you sell ad space or use a service such as Google Adsense, this money-making tactic can easily give you quite a bit of profit.

But it takes work!

No one will buy ad space, and Google will not approve Adsense ads on an empty blog or with very cheap content.

What do I mean by cheap content? Content that isn’t genuine and unique is cheap. Content that isn’t resourceful and helpful is cheap. Content that uses too many keywords or unethical SEO is cheap. Cheap content will not result in profit.

Profitable content is information that solves problems. Find the most challenging problems within your niche, create an easy way to solve them, write it out, and you’ll have money-making articles that can earn a profit for years.

Write your blog posts as if it’s your job!

 

And that sums up how you can start blogging in 2022 and beyond. Blogging is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy your passions in life. It allows you to meet others who enjoy the passion and set yourself up to be an expert around that passion. Experts make money. Experts get free stuff. Experts get followers. Do the tips above, and you’ll be an expert blogger in no time. Can you do me a favor? Support me for writing this blog by sharing it with a blogger friend.

About the Author

Shawn Gossman has created content, blogged, ran online communities, and shared a passion for digital marketing for over twenty years. Shawn believes the best way to help content creators, businesses, brands, and marketers is to give away more than you sell. The same advice is recommended for the readers that follow this blog. Shawn also offers a variety of services for extra help in the area of content creation, blogging, forums, and digital marketing.