How to Start a Blog in 2024 and Grow Your Audience

By: Michael Keenan

Finding an Idea

Companies of all kinds are starting blogs as a way to build a long-term audience. But the reverse is also true, as more and more bloggers are starting businesses as an extension of their blogs. This makes sense.

One of the biggest challenges facing new companies is building an audience for their products. Meanwhile, new bloggers typically work in reverse: building an audience first by regularly publishing good content, then exploring ways to monetize their traffic.

Starting a blog is easy if you only want to work on the side. But if you’re thinking of creative ways to make money as a blogger, you’ll need to be strategic about how you set up your blog for success.

This guide will take you step-by-step through how to start a blog and develop it into a source of traffic and income. While our guide is aimed at those who haven’t started a business yet, it is also useful for any existing companies looking to get into the blogging game.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website that consists of content, usually focused on a specific topic, that is updated regularly. Unlike media and other publications, blogs tend to take a personal tone, helping them connect more deeply with their audience.

People start their own blogs for various reasons, including:

Sharing opinions and passions or glimpses into their lives
Teaching others what they know
Building an email list
Developing a personal brand as an expert
Making money online
A mix of any of the above reasons

For these reasons, a blog can be immensely fulfilling – especially when complete strangers start consuming your content – but it is also a commitment. Whether you post daily, weekly, or monthly, it’s important to be as consistent as possible, not only in your posting frequency but also in the quality of the content you publish.

It is very rare for bloggers to see results from their personal or business blog immediately, so it’s crucial to stay motivated in the early stages and keep your eyes on the prize.

How to Start a Blog

Starting a blog involves the following steps:

Finding a way to make money from your blog
Choosing a specific niche for your blog
Choosing a platform and template for the blog
Choosing a name for the blog and domain
Planning a publishing strategy
Regularly attracting readers to your blog

The hardest part of blogging is finding the time and ideas you will need to do it regularly. However, starting is relatively easy.

If you’re wondering why we start our guide on how to start a blog with the topic of monetization, it’s because you need to think more like an entrepreneur rather than just a blogger to make this venture profitable. 1. Find a way to make money from your blog.

This might seem counterintuitive, but if you’re looking to make money through blogging, you should start with the financial side first and content second. A strong monetization strategy comes before your first blog post because it determines the types of content you will publish and how you will grow in the long-term. So, to begin, you want to think of your new blog as a business rather than a creative outlet.

There are many ways to make money from your own blog, depending on the type of blog you decide to start. For example, you might have a small business idea paired with a blog, which creates a sustainable way to grow at a low cost besides your time and energy.

Many people think that using something like Google AdSense is the only way to start making money from blogging. But while ads can help generate income, they require large amounts of traffic before they become economically viable. Fortunately, there are many other ways to start a blog and monetize it quickly, without needing to have a massive audience.

In the latter part of the guide, we will discuss how to implement these ideas.

Here are six ways to make money:

Sell a Book
Affiliate Marketing
Digital Products
Physical Products
Services
Subscriptions

The truth is there are better and faster ways to make money from your blog that don’t require a massive amount of daily page views. This is doubly true if you can build a loyal audience, not just a large one.

Of course, your most important concern will be the identity of your audience and how to serve them.

Choosing a Niche for Your Blog: What is Your “Thing”?

There is no shortage of content on the web. It may seem difficult to stand out, but there are two ways you can compete: by choosing a specific niche to focus on and by creating content that contains something readers can’t easily find elsewhere.

It’s important to choose a niche that is narrow but deep. This will ensure you can create content regularly without running out of ideas, and it will impact your blog’s name (which we will cover later).

You also need to ensure that the niche you choose attracts an audience that aligns with your blog’s monetization strategy. What products or services might this audience be interested in purchasing?

You can do this in several ways:

Focus your new blog on a specific location (e.g., New York)
Focus your blog topic on a specific sector within a larger category (e.g., not just recipes, but vegan recipes)
Present your blog posts in a different style or voice (e.g., humor)
Compete on quality (e.g., detailed posts about a topic that no one else wants to tackle)

For example, BlogTO covers a wide range of lifestyle topics but focuses specifically on the diverse city of Toronto.

The niche you choose will determine not only whether you can serve your audience sustainably with a continuous flow of content but also how you can monetize it.

Ask yourself: What products or services does your blog audience want to buy? Whether you plan to monetize through display ads or the other strategies we will mention later, it is a critical question to ask when choosing a niche for your blog.

You don’t want to skip this last step. Analyzing the competition can help you build your brand and create a unique voice in the niche. The key to a successful blog is finding a gap in perspectives and filling it.

Choosing a Blogging Platform and Template

Before you write your first blog post, you’ll need to set up blog hosting and a content management system. This is where many potential bloggers get stuck if they aren’t quite sure which system to invest their time and money in.

Options typically boil down to a hosted or self-hosted platform:

Self-hosted

These platforms provide more customization options, but you will need to host the site yourself by paying a separate monthly fee to a hosting company. In addition to this cost, a web hosting plan requires some initial setup. WordPress is the preferred open-source platform if you’re considering going the self-hosted route.

Hosted

A hosted site will allow you to set up your blog more quickly. For example, Shopify includes hosting in all of its plans. However, unlike Shopify, some hosted sites, like Blogger or Wix, may limit customization options.

When choosing a platform, you’ll want to select one that meets the following criteria:

Easy to use
Does not require programming or HTML skills
Will be able to grow with you

During your blogging journey, there will come a moment when you may want to change the look and functionality of your site as your brand grows and your traffic increases.

You’ll also want to ensure your blogging platform provides a healthy environment of plugins and apps – which can make a big difference in optimizing your site’s performance, running site backups, marketing your new blog, and streamlining tasks.

Choosing

Blog Name and Domain

Companies like Bluehost will give you a free domain name if you sign up for a hosting plan. Bluehost also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the service.

When shopping for a domain name, it’s a good time to think about what you will call your site. Unless you are trying to build a personal blog or a portfolio site, I recommend not using your personal name as a dedicated domain. You can still be the face of the blog, even if your personal name is not in the URL, and it’s much easier to build a strong brand when you come up with a creative name that reflects your message.

Look at the Black Girls RUN! blog by Ashley Hicks-Rocha and Toni Carey. The blog, although a collection of Ashley and Toni’s personal experiences as Black runners, falls under their brand name, Black Girls RUN!

When choosing a domain name, try to make it:

Easy to remember
Fun to pronounce
Easy to spell
Unique

Choosing a name for your blog can feel daunting, but a good brand name leaves a memorable impression on readers and allows them to know what to expect from your company. Building a Blog on Shopify

Shopify is a hosted platform that includes an e-commerce website builder and a blogging platform, with add-ons like hundreds of plugins and apps to help you grow and sell physical/digital products or services right away. You can start your free trial today.

Once that’s settled, you will also need to choose a theme for your blog.

A theme is just a template for the design of your blog, the layout, and the features of your site. There are many great Shopify themes available for free that you can set up with just one click, regardless of the platform you choose. You can select a theme in the “Online Store” tab in your Shopify dashboard, under themes.

But if you’re not satisfied with those options, consider paying a one-time fee for a premium theme, as it can greatly affect the overall user experience.

Your site design can also impact search engine optimization (SEO) and engagement metrics on your blog content. Readers make a quick judgment on a site’s credibility based on how it looks and feels.

Look at The House That Lars Built. Just one look at this blog for interior design and crafts, you’ll know you’re in for a delightful experience.

From the fast loading times to the soft colors and playful illustrations, The House That Lars Built is a candidate to attract readers who are interested in arts, crafts, and design.

Most of us can also recall landing on a poorly designed website and quickly moving on when it became difficult to find what we were looking for. Take some time when choosing a new theme, as it can make a big difference in your blog’s performance.

Some Shopify apps that can extend your blog’s functionality include:

Blog Studio, to enhance your blog posts using a drag-and-drop article builder
Blog and Page Builder, to convert blogs from Google Docs
Philyra, to create sleek product pop-ups based on keywords in your blogs
Yoast SEO for Shopify, to optimize your website’s SEO

Building on WordPress

A self-hosted WordPress blog is a great place to start for new bloggers. Note that WordPress is only free if you use WordPress.com: if you’re using WordPress.org, you will need to pay for hosting and your own domain (you can do all of this with Shopify).

If you sign up for a Bluehost account, you can automatically install WordPress from your hosting dashboard. If you want to start a free WordPress blog, you can choose a theme on WordPress.com. There are many free WordPress themes to choose from, including those specifically for blogs.

If you do not want to choose a theme right away, click “Skip Now” at the top of the page. You will be redirected to a new page where you can start building your blog. Click on “Your Site Name,” then fill in your information and click “Save Settings.”

After that, you will want to choose your WordPress theme, whether it’s a free or paid theme if you have some money to spend. Look for a free theme in the WordPress dashboard under the “Appearance” tab in the sidebar, as shown in the image below.

Or search for great WordPress themes for blogging on marketplaces like ThemeIsle or ThemeForest. To install an external theme from a site like ThemeIsle, go to “Appearance,” then “Themes,” and click on “> Install Theme.” There are also many plugins for WordPress blogs that you can install to help market your blog pages.

Do you want to turn your WordPress blog into a small eCommerce site? The Buy Button from Shopify allows you to sell products on any WordPress site or blog for just $5 a month. All you need is a product to sell, and you’re ready to get started in just a few clicks.

Planning Your Publishing Strategy

Every blogger needs to maintain a good availability of ideas, and it helps if you plan ahead to ensure you never run out of ideas. Create a content calendar to help you track your ideas (and stay on track as well).

You can use a simple spreadsheet to plan your content calendar, but I recommend using Trello, as it’s free and also a great place to brainstorm and organize ideas. Your content calendar should include:

What content you are creating
Which audience you are targeting
The distribution channels you will be publishing on and on what dates

You can use a simple spreadsheet to plan your content calendar. However, there are many effective tools available. Trello, Airtable, and Asana are good options as they make organizing content more intuitive.

From a conceptual standpoint, mixing your content is also important to get a sense of the scope of your blog and the categories/tags you can use to organize all of that as you add more great content in the future.

Some types of blog posts to include are:

Evergreen content
Current content
Curated content
Featured articles
Visual content
Interactive content

Personality quizzes can be a great way to increase engagement, such as time on page, and to gain deeper insights into your audience.

Try to plan each blog post at least one month in advance and publish them according to a regular schedule so your audience knows when to expect new blog posts. You can always adjust the calendar if a timely story comes up that you need to publish quickly.

Before writing your blog posts, start with an outline. While this step may be skipped by some bloggers, writing an outline is an effective way to cover all the points you need to focus on. It will help ensure you include any relevant keywords and free your mind from the final destination so you can focus on the journey.

Once you finish writing your blog post, before clicking “Publish,” there are a few simple things you should do:

Edit your work
Organize your blog post with subheadings
Craft catchy titles and social media post images

Remember that your audience will not grow overnight. You will have some successes and some failures, but you must keep going to grow.

Attract Readers to Your Blog Regularly

We usually talk about growing an audience after publishing. But if you want to start a blog and build momentum quickly, you should consider your strategy before launching.

…

Many bloggers struggle with content distribution for two main reasons:

They lack a defined and repeatable distribution strategy within their publishing process.
Publishing a new blog is already a daunting experience, and widening your reach makes it even scarier.

The latter is something you will ultimately overcome, but the former requires some initial thought and time investment before launch.

So let’s explore some ways you can plan for growth and make the most out of every blog post you create. Start collecting email addresses as early as possible.

Regardless of the platform you use for your blog, you should focus on collecting email subscribers. Every new subscriber is a sign that you are doing something right, and they are a potential repeat reader you can easily reach out to.

Even if you change platforms in the future or decide to start something new, your email list will stay with you. But it’s not enough just to have a list of subscribers. You need to capture these email addresses at every opportunity, and you can do this using contact forms.

A good habit is to include contact forms directly in your content or on your homepage with a call to action to sign up. You can even include them in a pop-up when visitors leave the site without purchasing anything to convert them into subscribers.

Many email marketing solutions allow you to easily create and use these forms. You can even create a link directing to a separate contact page that you can link to in your blog posts, social media, and email signature.

Remember that people won’t subscribe to your blog if you don’t ask and if you don’t make it easy for them. Each time you publish a new blog post, you should send it to your email list – a task you can automate later as you get more familiar with things. Creating opportunities to drive traffic
Source: https://shopify.com/blog/how-to-blog-and-get-read