How to create a blog? [Guia Completo 2020]
Having extra income has become increasingly important, especially with the current pandemic leaving many unemployed. One of the best options for this, however long-term, is learning how to create a blog.
If you want to know exactly how to do this, keep reading this guide and see all the necessary steps, plus some tips at the end.
1. Why should I create a blog?
One question you may be asking yourself is this. It is important to know exactly why you are doing this before learning how to create a blog.
Having a blog gives you credibility
Something that successful blogs guarantee, that other media formats turn out to be weaker, is the credibility and authority in the area that your blog deals with. This is because the public will read your content and interpret it as coming from an expert.
Having a blog helps in your trade
If you have a store, be it a physical store or an e-commerce, or even an influencer who wants to start selling products, creating a blog will help you a lot in your sales.
For this, it is necessary that you focus on keeping the blog active, which will make readers loyal, which will create strong connections, something very important when the goal is to sell. Of course, your products must be of high quality, or else it will only alienate future readers.
Having a blog gives you visibility
No matter how good your products are, if you have no visibility and are not found in searches, you will not reach anyone. Creating a blog is an excellent way to have a good audience, especially if your content is of high quality.
That being the case, people who read them will feel confident in recommending your blog to friends and acquaintances, which will serve to increase your traffic.
Having a blog can help you
If you have communication problems, knowing how to create a blog can be very good, as this form of media tends to help a lot in communicating and writing better and to help your reasoning ability.
In addition, you are also better at doing online searches, since for all content you write, a search process will need to be done.
2. How to have a successful blog?
There are several ways that someone who wants to have a blog can do so. It can be from the area you want, on one of several platforms, created in various technologies, and written in any language. The traffic can be organic (which comes without your involvement), directed from social networks … anyway.
In order to achieve this goal, a concrete strategy is necessary, using the topics of this article, having well-written and quality content, having a good design and much more. So, read below and find out everything it takes to make your name with a blog!
3. Decide what your market will be
This part of the blogging process can be quite complicated, given the myriad niche options you can choose for your own blog.
To decide which one is right for you, it is not enough to select one that has a smaller number of competitors, it is necessary that your choice is one in which you are comfortable not only writing about, but also learning and studying it with ease.
So, if you choose a topic that you don't understand much or like very much, your blog has a great chance of failing, because of the frustration that will take you over.
As per the study that generated the list below, conducted by Wpromote, these are the most popular categories for blogs. It is easy to see that writing a music blog means you will have a lot more competitors, while an economy blog will have a lot less.
However, keep in mind that the numbers vary widely from country to country, in addition to what you need to really like what you are writing.
4. Choose which platform to use to create a blog
It is possible to find a large number of platforms to create it, such as Blogger and WordPress (which has two versions). In addition, you can use Medium or LinkedIn Pulse, which are hybrid and less focused for professional blogs.
- Blogger: This is the oldest platform of its kind, created in 1999 and purchased by Google in 2003. To this day it is one of the biggest and best blogging platforms and is where newbies in the field tend to start, but it ends up offering few options , being quite limiting.
- WordPress.com: It is currently the largest blogging platform in the world, being used by more than 28% of projects on the internet. However, it is its own platform, which means that it is also very limiting and complicated if you want to scale your blog.
- WordPress.org: Finally, we have the most recommended platform. In it, you will find the WordPress.com content manager to use in your own hosting. To use it, just download it, install it on a hosting server and create the contents. It is the best option for long term.
Therefore, for those who want to create a successful blog that has a future, using WordPress.org is the best alternative. Even Apptuts is created with him!
5. Choose your blog domain
Before you can install WordPress on a hosting service, you need to know which domain you want to use. The domain is the name that your blog will have on the internet, added with some extension, such as ".com.br", ".com", ".net", among others.
The extensions are not all the same, nor do they serve the same purpose. For example, “.com.br” is called a ccTLD (country code top-level domain, or country code top-level domain), which means that all the sites that accompany it are associated with Brazil.
International extensions, such as ".com", ".net", ".org", are called gTLD (generic top-level domain). To use them, it is necessary to determine in the search console which country you want to target your users. This means that your content will only be indexed in Google searches for that country.
To find the right domain for you, you need to go to a website like Registro.br to check if it is available. If you want an international extension, using Hostgator is a good option.
Choosing a good domain involves a few steps. The main thing is that you have a name that is easy to remember, that is simple. Avoiding using two identical letters together is also recommended. For example, "informaticaatual.com.br" is a bad choice, as the two "a" in a row can be confusing when reading.
Focus on having a blog with a short, easy-to-write name. Creating a blog with a complex domain will alienate your readers, because no one will want to write the whole name (besides memorizing it is complicated). For example, “TudoSobreTecnologiaHojeEmDia.com.br” is very complicated, but “TecnologiaHoje.com.br” is a good choice.
Taking great care of trademarks is essential, not including names like Facebook, Google, Apple or Microsoft in your domain.
6. Choose the hosting service
This is one of the most important aspects, since stable and secure hosting services are necessary for your blog to have constant high traffic, without ever dropping, which results in the need for international hosting.
Highly recommended for anyone looking to create a blog, Hostinger is one of the best options, being a highly reliable and well-established company. It has a very low cost, with the cheapest plan costing only R $ 6.95 per month. See everything about them on their website.
7. Install WordPress
With your domain purchased and hosting signed, now you need to install WordPress on the hosting server. To do this, it is highly recommended to use the one-click installation service, which will make the job much easier.
If you prefer, it is also possible to install step by step, but this turns out to be much more complicated, not intuitive, and even impeding for those without technical knowledge. To do so, follow the step by step below.
First, download WordPress through the official website. Now, unzip the files using a program like WinRAR or 7-Zip. You will need to change the name of one of the files, the wp-config-sample.php. Rename it to wp-config.php.
Race uploading all files extracted in your hosting account, through Cpanel, in the folder public_html. In the Cpanel options, click on the option “MySQL database” to create your database. Choose the name you want and save the name, because you will need to use it later.
To be able to create a blog, you must have a user to manage the database, choosing a strong password. Afterwards, associate the user with the database and grant him privileges.
Go back to the folder where you originally extracted the files, open the wp-config.php with the notepad and fill in the data correctly. Save it and upload again, replacing the other file of the same name.
Finally, just enter your domain to finish the blog creation process. It is recommended that you check the box that says "Prevent search engines from indexing this site" if you are just starting the blog, unchecking it when the blog is presentable.
8. Choose the theme for your website
On the left side of the WordPress control panel, you will find all the navigation menus. There, go on "Appearance" and then on "Themes". Then, you can search through the layouts to find one that fits your blog. If you want recommendations, we have the selections of the best WordPress themes for your site and the best WordPress themes to create portfolios.
You can refine your search in the menu “Characteristics filter”, where you can define what types of themes you want. You can easily choose the default color, mode and more. After selecting, the theme will be automatically applied to the blog. Now, just make all the settings to leave exactly as you want.
9. Write great content
In the process of creating a blog, writing texts and content of the highest quality, always relevant is absolutely essential. If you don't, no one will accompany you.
Above all, you need to know how to create new content, without always following what competing blogs are doing. After all, why would anyone stop reading the blog they already follow to read yours, if the content is the same?
Therefore, writing deep and enlightening texts is very good. However, it is also good to keep an eye on what others are doing and, whenever you can, create even more complete articles.
Finally, maintain consistency, always writing, for example, a new article per week, a new one per day, or some predetermined number. Without it, you will lose readers.
10. Opt for a monetization model
After all, one of the main reasons for creating a blog is to make extra income and work from home and over the internet. Therefore, making the choice of how to monetize your blog is important.
Indirect monetization
Indirect monetization occurs in personal and professional blogs. In this model, the intention is that you are called for lectures or face-to-face training, for example. In general, the income comes from sources external to your blog.
Direct monetization
In this model, which is the most common, it is necessary to work with affiliate programs or Google ads, in addition to some other options. This is particularly effective for article blogs, which work with other brands.
11. Final considerations
Here, we’ll cover some additional important points on how to create a blog.
- Learn SEO: The first one is the need to learn SEO. In short, SEO is how its content is optimized for search services, in order to appear at the top of users' searches, generating organic traffic;
- Determine your goals: It is important that you have concrete and realistic goals for your blog. For example, the number of visitors you receive, whether through organic, direct or social traffic;
- Have a newsletter: This is a good strategy to retain readers, as they will be notified by email when new articles come out on your blog, so they will never forget you. It is good to offer options to receive emails daily or weekly, for example;
- Invest in the blog: If your goal is really to earn extra money, investments will be needed to make the blog professional. Hiring a designer to make the logo, buy your own theme and subscribe to marketing software are examples of possible investments.
So, what did you think of our complete guide on how to create a blog?
Leave your opinion about it in the comments, saying if we can help you with this process. Don't forget to check out our guides on how to make extra income online and how to create websites without the help of an expert!
