Are you wondering what a blog is, what it is for, and how to start a blog for free? Then read on. You will also learn what to write a blog about to be successful with your readers.
With blogs of all kinds, lately, the bag has been torn open. And it’s great to have your place on the Internet where you can freely express your opinions, present your ideas and maybe even inspire others.
You can have one, too, in a few minutes if you’re interested in blogging or in building a blog for free.
Today, having your blog is as easy as having your email address. You will discover how to create a blog in the guide that follows, even if you have no prior technological experience.
Let’s Start with how to start a blog for free and without ads: where and how to start blogging.
What is a blog?
If you do not know what to imagine under the term blog, then, for example, one of the largest blogs on the Internet is the news portal Wikipedia.org.
A blog is a website containing articles on a similar topic. It is a magazine as we know it in paper form, with the difference that a blog is published on the Internet.
Anyone can create a blog with this guide.
Articles or posts can be classified into different categories by topic or author. The newest articles are usually displayed first.
A blog does not have to serve only news purposes. We often come across company and fashion blogs, and more and more people are also starting their blogs.
A blog is often part of a website. Why?
Imagine you have a construction company. Pages such as Introduction, Contact, Portfolio, and Pricelist are so-called static pages, i.e., that form the invariable basis of your website. These pages are usually listed in the navigation bar at the top of the website.
If a construction company wants to present its activities, it sets up a blog on its website, which it can call, for example, “Recently realized actions.”
The blog will include articles with individual orders. After the completion of each contract, the construction company will publish an article about the implementation, including photos.
In this way, future customers can more easily get an idea of what such a construction company can do, how many orders, and to what extent it carries out.
A list of the latest blog articles can be inserted right on the website’s front page.
Why have your blog
Now that we know what a blog is, the question is: Why have your blog?
As I mentioned in the previous point, a properly maintained blog will support your business. Please read our guide on how to blog for a business.
Company blog
The most common reason for blogging is to promote your own business.
But be careful. The company blog’s content should be articles that will be useful to your customers. Offer valuable content, show people what you can do, build trust, and offer solutions to their problems.
Additionally, a search engine-optimized blog can bring in customers from organic search. This means you don’t have to pay for any advertising. People will find you the moment they need your services. You can read more about SEO and search engine optimization here.
A good example of a company blog is, for example, Neil Patel‘s Blog.
A fashion blog
A blog about fashion or make-up is behind the success of many young women and girls. If you discover this type of talent in yourself, feel free to start creating a blog.
Many companies use the services of bloggers (those who have their blogs) to promote their products.
For example, Nike does not hide the fact that it pays influencers who have enough followers considerable sums to demonstrate how to use their products correctly.
Travel Blog
Who among us has not looked for inspiration for trips and unusual experiences? You can read useful advice on how to buy cheap tickets, behave in a foreign country, and what to pack with you on the trip, for example, on the travel blog trip.com.
Recipe blogs
Of course, the most famous types of blogs are those with recipes. You must have never looked for a recipe on the Internet. There are many different kinds of cooking blogs.
I also have my little cooking blog, where I share my proven recipes with my friends. I find it easier to find a recipe on the Internet than to look for it in a cookbook. At the same time, I can easily send someone a link by email or put a recipe on Facebook.
Personal blog
While the types mentioned earlier of blogs focus more on how to make money from a blog, a private blog or a personal blog is used to ventilate one’s rights, communicate one’s opinions and observations, and also A nice example of a personal blog is, for example, the Blogging Category based on this platform.
As you can see, you can blog on different topics, and each of us can put a different style on our blog or appeal to different readers.
Politicians, journalists, and writers have their blogs. There is also a great demand for, for example, bloggers from the field of construction.
A blog is a place that is reserved just for you. Here you can present yourself or write, for example, fairy tales for children. You can test whether your writing style catches the reader’s attention and publish a book.
Anyone can start a blog.
You don’t need any technical knowledge to start a blog these days. You don’t need to be able to program or know HTML code.
It takes a few minutes to create a blog, and you can even create a blog for free to see if you enjoy writing it.
You shouldn’t be distracted from your creative work by setting up site security, backups, or redirects. Then the blog will not serve you and your readers, but you will be a slave to the blog.
Where and how to start a blog
You can create a blog in several ways. Each method has its pros and cons.
So, before starting a blog, you should be clear about what you expect from creating a blog and who your readers will be.
Also, be clear about what the goal of your blog is: to share your thoughts or to make money from your blog. Do you want to blog to support your business or publish a book? Will you be the only one writing the articles, or will more people be contributing to the blog?
The blog template should also match the type of blog you will create. A political party blog will be visually different from a fashion blog.
When choosing where to start your blog, consider your availability in terms of time for blogging and how technically and artistically skilled you are.
Some blogging platforms require the intervention of a graphic designer, while elsewhere, the style is already preset using templates.
In the following table, you can see a comparison of individual programs for creating a blog. Some platforms offer a blog for free, even unlimited time on a 3rd-order domain ( https://financebode.blogger.com ).
Since there is a high probability that your blog will be successful, we will evaluate only those platforms where you have the possibility to switch from a 3rd-order domain to your domain ( https://financebode.com ):
| Platform | Free blog | Blog with own domain from | For whom |
| WordPress | it is | $2.5/ month | For comprehensive websites (hundreds of pages), at least a partial orientation in blog creation is required |
| Blogger | forever on the 3rd order domain | you only pay for the domain | seems a bit dated |
| Wix | forever on the 3rd order domain | between $10 and $45 per year | Free personal and business blog (visitors primarily from the US) |
Let’s look at the individual platforms where you can start a blog in a little more detail. We’ll also review the pros and cons of starting a blog for free.
Blog at WordPress.org
WordPress.org is an editorial system that, according to the latest statistics, is used by 34.3% of all websites in the world.
WordPress allows you to have your blog thanks to a large community of users. You can easily get advice such as how to use social sharing plugins, which hosting is best, how to speed up your site, how to back up your blog, and so on.
WordPress is best suited for very large websites. So, if you plan to post daily and earn from advertising, then WordPress is the right choice.
But also take into account that, in addition to the domain and hosting, you need to purchase a quality template, and you may need to set up some things from the programmer from the beginning.
You should also regularly download updates and educate yourself, as WordPress sites are often the target of hacking attacks.
How to start a blog on WordPress?
You can set up a website on WordPress through a hosting provider. Among the cheapest hostings on the Internet is this one. Quality hosting already has WordPress pre-installed, so you need to buy a domain and start a blog in a matter of hours.
Blogger
Blogger is a platform owned by Google. On Blogger, you can create a blog for free on a 3rd-order domain. The web address of the blog will look like this: https://financebode.blogspot.com. When you like writing a blog on Blogger, you can connect your domain to it.
I also started a blog on Blogger, but I wouldn’t say I liked it visually, and especially the pages were not very well optimized for search engines, so I abandoned this solution.
How to blog in Blogger?
You need to have a Google account to have your blog on Blogger.
Wix
Wix is probably the most popular free website creation program worldwide. You put together your blog using the catch-and-release method. You can have a blog for free on the 3rd-order domain https://financebode.wix.com. If you want your domain, you will have to pay significantly more.
Wix has servers in the United States, so if you have readers in Europe, all data is sent halfway across the globe, which can cause pages to load slower.
The high price for my domain and the distance of the servers led me to start a blog in the following editor.
How to create a blog: a step-by-step guide
How to start a blog for free
Imagine that we wish to start a blog that features gluten-free cooking.
We choose the name of the blog at our discretion. Learn more on How to choose the best blog name. I chose “Recipes bode” for the example. This name will automatically become part of the 3rd order domain: https://recipesbode.blogger.com.
Next, enter your email address and a 6-digit password. When you want to add articles, these will be your login details for the blog administration.
Starting a blog for free is a matter of 5 minutes.
You will receive a confirmation that your blog has been created, a link to the URL address of your new blog, and a video tutorial on how to work with the blog.
If you already have your domain registered, you can connect it at any time, and instead of a 3rd-order domain, your blog will have an address such as https://recipesbode.com. Don’t know which domain name to choose? This post will teach you how to choose a domain name.
Starting a blog
In the next step, choose the type of pages you want to create.
Choose Websites. Even if you plan to sell ebooks or physical goods on your blog in the future, you can always add an online store later.
We choose templates for the blog.
You have almost 100 modern blog templates to choose from.
You have a large number of blog templates to choose from.
For better orientation, you can select appearance in the side menu and view templates ready for just starting a blog.
The Preview option appears when you hover your mouse over a specific template. You can have a good look at all the templates.
You don’t have to limit your template selection to just blog templates. I chose the Baby care blog template, which I think is imaginative, easy to edit, and perhaps ideal for a blog. You can find it under the “appearance” tab.
What to watch out for while selecting a blog template?
WordPress templates are easily customizable.
Most things can be modified, added, or removed. You can add pages, insert an e-shop, and add a full-screen splash image.
You can choose blog templates with either side or top navigation. It depends on what suits you better.
Try different templates before you start inserting text and images. View them on mobile, tablet, and desktop before choosing the right one.
The process of creating your blog
So we have the template selected, and now we will try to modify it:
You can start editing your blog name. Mouse over the text “Recipes from Klára” and rewrite it with your blog name. Editing text is similar to rewriting text in Word. A short instructional video on how to start a blog for free can be viewed here.
In the upper right corner, notice the navigation PAGE / SETTINGS / PUBLISH / 👤 .
Click PUBLISH and your blog are live!
So far, only on the 3rd order domain, and this is an opportunity for you to look at the blog on a mobile phone or computer.
If you are not completely sure about the chosen template, try several. Click on the character image 👤 in the upper right corner, choose My Projects and then Create Pages.
Some tips on how to start blogging and what to blog about
What to blog about to engage your readers?
Blog about what you know well and enjoy so much that you need to share it with others.
If a blog is to be successful, it must bring value and some benefit to its readers, whether it’s a nice story to unwind, your experience of overcoming a serious illness, or advice on losing weight.
Here are some tips on The 32 Ideas to blog about.:
1. Focus on your readers
The main difference why one Blogger is successful and another not is that the successful one focuses on their blog readers while the other blogs mainly about themselves.
He writes about what interests him, not thinking about how he can inspire or help others.
The biggest shift towards a successful blog is a change in the approach to blogging. So if you want to make money from your blog at the same time, take a critical look at your blog and think about the value it brings to others.
Offer valuable content, show people what you can do, build trust, and offer solutions to their problems.
2. The success of the blog depends on the audience
The success of a blog depends on its audience, and by that, I don’t mean just any audience, but a targeted audience that you can help.
Do you know your audience? Can you describe it, name it? Do you know what problems they solve?
You can find your readers through SEO, Facebook, Instagram, or paid advertising.
Ask your readers what they care about, listen to them, and create blog posts about what they care about. If you’re not quite sure what they want, ask them in a Facebook group, for example.
And pay attention.
Use other options as well. Use tools like keyword research to learn what people want to know and what their problems are. Create the content that your audience wants, whether it’s blog posts, custom products, or emails.
3. Persevere
Perhaps the initial enthusiasm has left you, or it seems that few readers visit your blog.
Persistence is perhaps the most difficult step not only when creating a blog.
Sometimes you may feel like you need to handle a thousand things at once: technical things around the blog, writing articles, responding to readers, editing images, and tracking traffic.
You will be asking yourself, should I post on Facebook or Instagram or pay for advertising?
In order not to burn out but to persevere, focus on only one thing at a time. For one channel to promote your blog. One way to make money is by blogging. Learn how to edit pictures first and then maybe shoot videos. Do one thing at a time.
Once you start getting results with that channel, repeat the process over and over again before moving on to something new.
How to make money from a blog
The great news is that you don’t need a big audience to make money from your blog. You need the right one.
When you have readers who resonate with you, who devour your articles because they feel you understand their problems, you’re half the battle won.
When you know your audience, as we discussed in the previous point, you know what they are dealing with and what they are interested in. This is a big plus because you will save a lot of time and energy creating articles that no one will read or ebooks that no one needs.
Here are some ways to make money from a blog, even if it doesn’t have high traffic.
The best option is to sell your products. As I mentioned at the beginning, a blog will support your own business. Through the blog, you can offer the following:
- physical products: e.g., tailor-made children’s softshell trousers, reconstruction of housing cores, custom furniture production
- services: financial or nutritional advice, wedding photography, catering services
- info products such as ebooks: books, travelogues, manuals of all kinds
- e-courses: e.g., how to edit photos
and a lot more.
Other ways to make money blogging are:
- commission sales: when someone clicks on a link on your blog, goes to a site such as a tour seller and buys a tour, you get a reward
- advertising
- selling links
- publication of an advertising article
There are no limits to imagination. Be creative. When you start blogging, a lot of options will present themselves.
But always, before you start writing a new blog article, clarify the goal of the given text. Then choose the structure and call to action accordingly:
Do you want people to buy something from you? Tell them that.
Do you want to get regular readers of your articles from adventure trips around the world? Collect email contacts.
Invite them to send you a request for, for example, the creation of new websites.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to show you the way to start blogging. You have learned about different options, how to start a blog for free, where to blog, and how to monetize a blog.
I think if you want to have a modern blog where you don’t have to deal with any technical issues, then the free blog from Blogger is the right choice for you.
Frequently Asked Question
Is it easy to start a blog (not only) on WordPress?
Yes, starting a blog is a no-brainer today, thanks to the intuitive tools available. Our guide will guide you through setting up a blog on WordPress, step by step.
What does it take to run your blog?
You don’t need much – you need to start with three simple steps: setting up your domain, hosting suitable for running WordPress, and at least an hour of your time.
How much does it cost annually to maintain a blog?
Running a blog will not burden you financially. It can cost a few hundred a years with everything. However, it also depends on the kind of blog you establish and the objectives you have for it.
