During the lockdown period, many newbies want to establish their own business and become self boss. So, today in this post, I will guide you on how to create a blog for free and make money online with zero investment. And also I will guide you on how to write blog posts and blog pages on your site.
- What is a blog and how to write a blog article
- How do you start a blog to make money
- Choose the best blogging platforms to make money
- Choose a unique domain name and configure your blog
- How do you set-up your blog on Google Blogger Blogspot for free
- How do you Customize a blogger theme
- Start creating your unique and useful content that serves readers
- Learn basic SEO and settings and use these in your blog
- Monetize your blog and earn money
What is a blog and how to write a blog article
There are two main types of the online log. One is Blog and, another is V-log.
Blog: A blog is a type of online diary or a website where people regularly share their thoughts with other people through the internet.
The blog is the short form of Weblog, where people share their thoughts in written form, although nowadays, maximum bloggers have posted videos also. But it is not a bad experience.
V-log is the short form of Video log, where people have interested to share their thoughts and daily activities through video formats. V-log is the most effective way to communicate with others.
What you can write on a blog post
Before knowing how to write it, you should know what your strength and where you have interested. You can write anything that you know. Such as if you have skilled in cooking, then you can write for cooking-related content. And if you have skills in teaching, then you can write for teaching or educational blog content. But it means not that you could not write for gaming. You can write what you want. I have shared some blog types for you that are given below.
Let take a look at the most popular types of blogs that exist, and match your skills.
Most popular blog types in 2020
Fashion blogs
One of the most popular blogs in the internet world. These types of blogs best for creative people who keen on style and fashion.
Gaming blogs
These days gaming blogs becoming more popular. Gamers keen to know the latest updates and new gaming types. Also, Gamers share their reviews on those blogs.
Food blogs
Another most popular blog. People share their experiences and reviews about foods. It attracts many readers, who are interested in recipes, healthy eating, and other food-related stories.
Travel blogs
In these blog travelers, share their experience, tips, advice, and destination guides. Other travelers are interested in regularly visits those blogs and gain knowledge about the new destination.
Finance blogs
On these blogs, finance experts share advice, finance-related updates, and much more. Those types of blogs help a lot in our life.
There are some other blogs most popular also. These are- Lifestyle blogs, DIY blogs, Sports blogs, Educational blogs, How to blogs, Business blogs, and News blogs, etc.
Root tips to write a blog post
Understand your customers (Readers)- Know your user’s behavior by asking the question to them and accept their opinions as feedback.
Write for users, not for you- it is the soul of writing. If you write for you, it might not make sense to users. Know what they want from you and fulfill their needs.
I am sure that you have understood how to write a blog article, but I would like to share a basics guide on it. Also, I want to walk you through the technical way, how to write blogs, and earn money. So, walk with me in the complete guide.
How do you start a blog to make money
I am sure that you have looked at the above blog types. If, not please take a look at it. There are many reasons to start a blog in 2020. But the challenge that faces, all newbies bloggers is how to create a blog for free and make money.
7 Easy steps to become a blogger in 2020
Find your niche and work on it.
Choose the best blogging platforms.
Find your unique domain name and configure your blog.
Install a mobile-friendly theme and keep it simple.
Start creating your unique and useful content that serves readers.
Learn basic SEO and settings. Use these and optimize your blog.
Monetize your blog and earn money.
Now I will guide you step by step on each of the key points to start your first blog.
Step 1:
Find a blog niche that best suits you.
To start a blog, you should need to find your niche before posting anything. But the challenge is how to find a blog niche. You do not have to worry about it. You could easily find your niche after following the ideas given below.
Use online tools like Quora. Write a question and answer on Quora and observe what type of content people want to read from you.
Use blogger.com or any other free Blogging platform and write random posts and ask for feedback to the readers.
Finally, find your strength from your content and use it in your niche blog.
Step 2:
Choose the best blogging platforms to make money
To start blogging, you will need to select a Blogging platform. When it comes to choosing a platform, a lot of free, and paid platforms available on the internet.
There are two best Blogging platforms are WordPress and Blogger.com. WordPress is partially free and, Blogger.com completely free of cost.
Now you are thinking about where to start a blog?
This answer is simple, Blogger.com is for beginners, and WordPress is for intermediate or advanced level.
Why you should start a blog on WordPress
WordPress is a free CMS (Content Management System) where you can easily set-up a website and run it. Although, you do need to make a small investment to buy a unique domain and secure hosting. Nowadays, almost 80% of bloggers are using it.
It provides full ownership to you so you can use it how you want.
You do not have to need technical or coding knowledge to maintain it.
You can customize your site within a single click.
You can add unlimited plugins that you need.
You do not have to need mastery of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If, you have little knowledge of it, that enough for you. You could easily do SEO with the help of plugins like Yoast SEO and many more.
It is a reliable and secure blogging platform form. Although, you do need to buy an SSL Certificate and keep it up-to-date to maintain security.
You can use free templates to design your blog and give a beautiful look.
It has a vast industry of tools providers, service providers, and developers around it that will help to customize your blog in many ways.
Why you should start a blog on blogger.com
Blogger.com has been owned by Google since 2013. It is a free CMS ( Content Management System).
In blogger - you can easily create your blogger blog and run it.
You do not need to buy a hosting service and a domain but, if you add a unique domain name, it could be better.
You can use a free Blogspot subdomain and monetize the blog with a free subdomain.
You can use free blogger templates to design a blog and give a beautiful look.
You do not need to buy any external SSL certificate to maintain security. It is running by Google. So, it comes with a by-default SSL certificate.
Limitations of blogger.com
You do not get full ownership. Although it provides partial ownership to you.
You could not add many plugins like WordPress. Although, you can add through HTML code.
You have to need a little knowledge of HTML to make a beautiful blog.
You have to need a little knowledge of SEO because it does not provide plugins like WordPress.
Step 3:
Choose a unique domain name and configure your blog.
A domain name is the door of your blog. A unique domain can help you in many ways.
Choose a domain from the human perspective.
Use a short domain for readability and ease to remember it. Also, a short domain name shows your branding.
For the SEO perspective
Use the best SEO keywords when you come to purchase a domain. And keep it simple.
For the Brand perspective
I have mentioned above about the short domain. Uniqueness matters a lot when it comes to using for branding. It says about you. So, match it with your brand and keep it simple.
You could purchase a domain in many ways. GoDaddy and Bluehost are the best and least expensive site to buy a domain. With a few dollars per year, Bluehost provides hosting along with a domain name.
Note: Here, I mentioned purchase an external domain name for advanced bloggers, but I like to walk you through the free Blogspot subdomain as a beginner. So, now I will show you how to configure a blog on a blogger with a free Blogspot subdomain.
How do you set-up your blog on Google Blogger Blogspot for free
You can start blogging with Blogspot, but first, you need to create an account on Google. I assume you have a Google account. So, I am starting the next step after creating an account on Google.
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>To create a blog open, Google Chrome and search blogger.com.
>Click on sign in and select your desired Gmail account.
>Enter your password to continue farther.
>Choose a name for your blog and click on Next.
>Choose a URL and click on Next.
>Confirm your display name and click on Finish.
Your blog configuration has been successfully done. Now time to write your first post.
Step 4:
Install a mobile-friendly theme and keep it simple.
In google blogger, you can use the in-built blogger template, or you can install a template from outside.
Here I will use an in-built blogger template Notable Light and show you how to install it.
To install a theme-
>Open blogger dashboard and >Click on Theme.
>Select a theme from here>Preview and Apply it.
>Click on 3 dots>Click on Restore>Click on Upload>Select your downloaded theme from your computer or mobile >Click on OK. (This step for outside theme)
How do you Customize a blogger theme
For becoming a next-level blogger you need to customize the template. But here I will tell you the basics of it because it’s a little lengthy process.
>Click on Customise.
>To add a background image click on the Background image.
>Choose an image from here and>Click on Done or
>Upload an image from the outside>Click on Upload image>Click on SELECT IMAGE and select one from your computer and>Click on Done.
>To change background colour click on the Main colour theme and select your desired colour.
These are the basics of customization.
Step 5:
Start creating your unique and useful content that serves readers.
I hope that you have configured your blog successfully and carefully read all the steps mentioned above. You have started a blog, but yet you are not a blogger until you start writing some useful content for your readers or blog!
You need to create some content for your blog, but unfortunately, I am unable to say what to write for your readers on your blog, because I do not know what your strengths are, but I have mentioned above some tips that can help you a lot.
There are two types of content that you can write for blog readers - ‘Pages’ and ‘ Posts’.
Pages - are the static content on your blog that you couldn't change that much. Pages you link to your blog menus and navigation areas on the blog. Your first page should probably be an ‘About us page’. It's a page that tells readers about you and your brand. If you have no idea how to write an ‘About Page’ - check out our previous guide on how to write an About Us Page?
Posts - are a little different from pages. They are dynamic content that you can update regularly. You invest maximum time in writing a post for your blog. Posts usually show on the homepage on your blog once they are published. A blog post allows you to shows the author name, written and modified date, and the number of comments on it.
How do you add a page on your blog and link it with navigation areas
To add a page on your blog, first, you need to write a page.
>Open your blogger dashboard > Click on ‘Pages’ > Click on ‘+’.
> Give the title ‘About me’ or ‘XYZ’.
>Set your Page settings to click on 'Page settings'> to hide comments and make a beautiful page, Check-in ‘Do not allow, hide existing’.
>Click on ‘Preview’, to show how it represents in front of readers. And publish it, click on ‘Publish’.
Add your bog page to the navigation area.
>Copy page link and again open dashboard.
>Click on 'Layout'> select ‘Add a Gadget’ on Sidebar
> Click on ‘Pages’
> Check-in ‘About me’ (or add an external link)>click on ‘Save’.
Your page is ready to show on the sidebar navigation area.
Note: Before clicking on save, take a look at ‘Show Pages’ whether it checks in or not. If not, kindly check in it.
How do you write your first blog post and publish it
To write a post open blogger dashboard.
>Select a ‘New Post’>write a title > write or paste your content.
>add a level> Preview and Publish it.
Step 6:
Learn basic SEO and settings and use these in your blog.
My dear readers, now I’m going to guide you with some basic SEO that can help a lot.
What is SEO and why it is important for you
Search Engines Optimization (SEO) has become a popular subject over the past few years. It is an art, by creating useful content that is more easily appears on the search result.
Many people have a misconception about it. They think only keywords stuffing is SEO, but practically it has a day-night difference. When comes to say SEO it matters on many factors. I really can’t say how many factors depend on it, but many Search Engine Optimization experts claim that it depends on almost 200+ factors. Google suggests us to keep natural content with enough keyword. So, how we can do optimize our content for search engines (Google bot). Let’s know-
Basics of on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Almost 70% depends on on-page optimization and the remaining 30% depends on off-page optimization. So, here I will go for on-page.
- Research your keywords and group those with smaller topics.
- Use long tail and specific keywords.
- Avoid short tail keywords as possible.
- Use your primary keywords naturally. (2 to 5%).
- Do not forget to use a title.
- Try to use subtitles also.
- Do not stuff keywords, otherwise google will penalize you.
- Use Heading 1(h1), Heading2 (h2) and Heading3 (h3).
- Make findable parma links.
- Use Rich snippet schema markup. ( It is a part technical SEO).
- Use image and optimize it with your keywords.
- Change by-default theme language with your desired one.
These are the roots of on-page optimization.
Step 7:
Monetize your blog and earn money
When it comes to saying blog monetization and earn money with it. There are many possibilities where you could earn money with your blog. Here I mentioned some of those.
- Google AdSense:
- Affiliate marketing.
- Freelancing.
- Sponsorships and advertising.
- Create online courses.
- Selling e-book or digital products.
I will explain these in the upcoming posts.
Please leave your opinion on the comment section and tell us how can we improve our work.
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