The First Step of Blogging – How to Start?

Today, I liked to remember those days. The days when I was so new and shining. New and shining because, domain names, hosting, scripts, CMS and most importantly SEO, all  sounded like strange and too technical to understand.  I don’t know how, but come to know that it is possible to earn some money through blogging. Because everything was so new, I was not less skeptical than anyone of you who has never earned online money.

Its been so long. Today, I liked to remember those days. I liked to remember, because I received payment check today and I’m going to bank tomorrow to deposit it in my account. I’m earning good money. Its good when you look from US eyes but its Great for me. I’m in Nepal and a $400 is our Rs. 30,000. Which is double of a starting Government Officer.

Why should you keep reading this post? The shortest answer – Don’t waste time as I did. Take a short-cut, skipping mistakes and reach the destination quick. I’ll be explaining with sufficient details of each step. It’s not only possible, but its most prominent. Pro Bloggers like Risley, Hawie and Darren makes US Standard full time earning. They make six digits US $ earning! I don’t dream so lot yet, there is ‘a long way to go before I sleep’ as Robert Forst wrote in his ‘Stopping by Wood’. But I know you can make it if you are passionate, dedicated and not afraid of hard work.

If I were called by somebody and asked to build a website for them, it would be Wai-Wai instant noodle – boil water, pour on bowl, dip noodle and ready after 2 minutes.  Because the most important part – contents falls all on their head. Rest I know it very well. When you plan to start blogging the first question pops up is about what? Then there might be series of further distracting feelings like, I’m not an expert. I don’t know much the technology, and so on. Yes these are the confusions powerful enough to stop you from blogging. But I’m sure you know lot more thing than millions of people. Just remember, for how many people you gave suggestions today? Did anybody called you and asked something? Did you try to answer him/her? How you reacted for something you liked or did not like today? I appreciate Risley when he says “if you know and using Facebook, Twitter, Emails, you are already ahead of millions who are still coming tomorrow in this world.

Just find out what you are interested on, know something about it and decide if it is popular? Don’t be scared of competition. A niche where there are already some players is popular. What’s the use of a large Hoarding Board where nobody goes never?

If you are still confused, I recommend you to read Howie Schwartz’s Suggestions on which niche is best for my new blog. You can find a link to download Howie’s eBook ‘15 Niches’ on that post. I wish you don’t miss it. He has explained it very well how you should study your market.

What? Pay at the beginning? Yes. Domain name costs but believe me this is most profitable. Don’t ever get tempted on having domain name owned by weblog or others like subdomain. Invest about $10 in the beginning. This will be your property and you will never regret.

A short, catchy, meaningful domain name are ideal. Try to include your niche in the domain name. This is most beneficial for Search Engine Ranking and let me tell it from very beginning that search engine traffic (known as organic traffic) are the best customers and clients.

If you need help about domain names please refer to Antti’s post on How To Choose a Domain Name for a Niche Site . To participate and learn more about domains name the best forum in my experience is NamePros.

Should I say free hosting? or WordPress hosting. Well, it depends on your pocket and how long you can keep paying without earning. Should you use free hosting, consider using blogger platform. Blogspot supports your own domain name and provides fairly sufficient tools to start your blog. I’m using blogger platform for my ICT Trends blog. But for serious minded blogging you should pay for hosting. After all you are going to earn considerable amount of money soon.

Contact Baba at Medost for your hosting needs. He provides free hosting as well as paid hosting suitable for all types of pockets. I’m hosting my PS Exam site with them and I found its great.

WordPress. Yes, a self hosted WordPress blog script is best and most essential for a website if you really intend to make real money. Blogger is not less popular but I did not like due to its lack of SEO features. You need scratching the template HTML to implement widgets. WordPress is best for blogging. You might feel but I’m not biased. To compare WordPress and blogger please read WordPress Vs Blogger.

From the first day your site goes live, you should have a mailing list. This is a great tool for any blogger who wishes to make a sale and earn good money. It is very necessary to contact visitors and convert them into customers and for this a smart mailing list management system is a must. My personal recommendation is Aweber. But they charge around $14 per month. Yes this is huge money for somebody who has just started blogging and never earned anything. Here again, I say, after all you are going to earn soon. Initial investment in the beginning will help you grow sooner than you waste time searching for cheaper services. Believe me you will not find any other service equaling the quality, services, reliability and security as them.

Great! you have come long way up to here. I must congratulate you if you completed these within two days. In my next Sunday Post (that’s on coming Sunday) I’ll be talking about the way to develop content, some must have plug-ins and widgets, implementing Ads in your blog and so on. Let me take a rest at this point. As always, I’m expecting your comments. Bye and happy blogging!