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Home » The Famous Blog » The Impatient Newbie’s Guide to Starting a Blog

Start a Blog

The Impatient Newbie’s Guide to Starting a Blog

July 20, 2016 - Last Modified: February 28, 2023 by David Leonhardt

Yesterday, you decided to start a blog.

Tomorrow, you want your first post to go viral.

I get it.  You are eager.  You are motivated.  You are impatient.

Tomorrow might be a bit ambitious to get that first post out, and certainly going viral isn’t easy.  But there are ways to cut the time from Hey-I-want-to-blog to Yee-haw-look-at-my-first-post way down.  This is your step-by-step guide.

First, buy a domain. 

Yes, you could host your new blog on Blogger or WordPress.com or Weebly, but this is the one shortcut  that I do not recommend.  A domain is forever, so grab the domain you want right away and start promoting it with your very first blog post. I use Dotster and I’ve been happy with them for over a decade.

Second, get hosting.

I’ve been using Phastnet for hosting almost as long as Dotster for domains. You can read my review of Phastnet here.

Third, get WordPress.

Download WordPress content management system, and upload it to your domain.

WordPress is ubiquitous.  It is free.  It is easy to use.  It is constantly being upgraded to keep up with the rapid pace of technical advances.  There is a huge support community and you will never have a hard time finding tech help if you need it. This explains WordPress in detail.

Stop!

These first three steps are the ones you want to do only once, and do them right.

You can always change domains later, but what a pain.

You can always change web hosting later, but what a pain.

You can always switch CMS later, but what a pain.

Do these foundation steps right the first time. Yes, they cost money, but not much.  Yes, they might take you a few minutes longer (or they might end up saving you time). Don’t take shortcuts on these.

Neil Patel, in his seminal guide on how to start a blog, will tell you that I missed a step.

A very important step.

And he is right:  “Figure out the whole point of your blog.”

Others agree. Jane Sheeba writes:

Don’t say you want to start a blog because everyone else is doing it. Yes blogging seems to be popular recently and more and more blogs are started every day.

And yes you might have read the success stories from various bloggers. But don’t start a blog just because you are motivated by seeing the happenings in the blogosphere.

You should have your own message to the world.

I guess I assume that if you are impatient to start blogging, you already know what you want to blog about.

You have an idea.

You are itching to tell the world.

Am I assuming too much?

Everything from here on can be tweaked and upgraded fairly easily over time.  In fact, you probably will tweak most of the following steps many times.

This is where you can start to take short cuts.

Fourth, install a theme.

A “theme” is simply a way to organize your blog visually.  It is the layout and the design, but the design can be customized later on.  Even the theme can be switched up later on.

Here you have two choices.

My pick is to install a framework, such as Genesis Framework, that many developers work in, then pick a compatible theme.  Genesis costs about $60 these days.  Many of the compatible themes are free, although many are not.  Make sure to get a “responsive” theme, so that posts show well on all devices and in Google.

There is some time involved.  And to customize, you’ll probably need to hire a coder at some point. And I highly recommend customizing.

But you are impatient, and you probably want the fastest choice.  And the totally free option.

OK, run with the pre-installed WordPress themes.  There is one for each year, and any will do. Once your first post is live, you can customize the theme with your own images and such until you are ready to install a more robust theme.

Twenty Fourteen default WordPress theme

Fifth, customize

Customization can be a bottomless pit, and not something you will complete on an impatient schedule.  But at least change the top header image to something related to your blog.  Pay someone five dollars at Fiverr to create a banner for you, or do it yourself for free at PicMonkey.

Replace any other images to match your blog topic. You can always replace them later and make fancy customizations.  As I mentioned earlier, you can even change the theme.

Just get the visuals on-topic and you are ready to start.

Sixth, write!

Yes, you are ready to write your first blog post.  Make it good.  The first post is your first impression.  Never, ever, ever post something of sub-par quality. You can follow these tips.

Did I mention never, ever?

Never.

There is a lot more to blogging than just getting started.  That because blogging is a huge project.  As Neil Patel puts it,

“Blogging is a big deal. It’s kind of like starting your own business. There are a lot of moving parts, choices to make, systems to implement, and creative tasks to be done.”

In fact, there are a lot of other things that ideally you will do before you get started.  Things like:

  • Plugins
  • Security
  • Backups
  • Editorial calendar
  • Social media accounts
  • Tribes for comments and sharing
  • Mastermind groups for opportunities and troubleshooting
  • Monetization (assuming your want your blog to generate income)

But these can wait, if you are impatient.  You don’t need any of them to get started.

That being said, don’t wait too long.

Security and backups are important to protect your blog and what you have written.  Once you get started, you don’t want to lose the work you have done.

And the sooner you get on with social media accounts and tribes, the faster your blog will grow.  If you are impatient, you’ll want to move fast on both of those.

Monetization probably doesn’t matter while your mother is your only reader. But the faster you get traffic, the sooner you’ll want to monetize.

Plugins add functionality.  In fact, they can help with backup and security, with social sharing and commenting, and with pretty much everything else.  You’ll probably tinker with them for the rest of your blogging career.

So get started, but don’t worry about rushing it.

Now you’re ready for a quick start, and the long haul that follows.  If you are impatient, you know what to rush and what you can take your time with.  If you are more patient, you can these things more methodically with the long-run in sight.

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Filed Under: How To Blog

About David Leonhardt

Follow @amabaie

David Leonhardt is an Ottawa based SEO consultant. When not guest blogging he occasionally finds the time to update his own SEO marketing blog. Or you can follow him (Amabaie) on Twitter and most social bookmarking websites.

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{ 27 Responses }

  1. StrengthBody says:
    Thank you very nice article
  2. Dencil Pumps says:
    Great post. I will share this info to all my friends. Thanks for sharing valuable tips.
  3. Odira says:
    Simple and straight to the point. Love that.
    • David Leonhardt says:
      :-)
  4. RAMIT says:
    Hi David! It might sound easy to start a blog. However, it is important to be successful. You have covered all the points for starting a "successful" blog. Great post Indeed! Regards. Ramit
    • David Leonhardt says:
      Thanks, Ramit. It does sound easy. And we tend to make it sound easier than it is for most newbies. I'm not sure that all newbies are really prepared for all that's involved.
  5. Andri Putra says:
    Hello David, This is another great post and helpful for them to start blogging :) I agree about taking action while you have an idea in your head and so does blogging. The next step is quality content and promotion. I'll be waiting for your next article, David.
  6. Lisa David says:
    Much obliged for this article. Coincidentally, would it be alright in the event that I begin blogging with a free record and choose later on facilitating the online journal? Will the move be sufficiently simple to move from a free record to a paid one? Trust you could reveal insight into the question. Much obliged to you.
  7. Shahadat says:
    It's Recommended article about helpful information about to starting a blog for newbies . I look forwards to more same article from your website . Thanks
  8. Mark Stephen says:
    Yes ! I am completely agreed. In order to have a perfect blog you have to take into account so much things. First to buy a domain & hosting- then publishing content on it. The more unique content you will publish the more it will be beneficial. Thanks David Leonhardt for sharing this great info . Its really beneficial and informative...
  9. Gary Campbell says:
    What if you don’t want to blog? What I mean is, if you have a very small topic with about 30-50 articles on the suject can you just create a static website kind of site and spend the rest of the time driving traffic to it?
    • David Leonhardt says:
      Hi Gary. That's called a website. Plain an simple. Nobody says you have to blog. Well, actually most of us do imply that, but do what you gotta do.
  10. Steve says:
    Lol, nice article. So many newbie bloggers think that blogging will give them a lot of money easily not knowing it takes time and dedication.
  11. viki debbarma says:
    Sir, quality content is required. Thanks for sharing an effective post...!
  12. Ravish Sundriyal says:
    A simple guide can help the newbies to find the right way to start a blog. Keep on writing, great article.
  13. Mayank Mittal says:
    This is really very fantastic job to write these wonderful guidelines for newbies, thank you very much for sharing this blog here with us.
  14. Daniel J. Chappell says:
    Thanks for this article. By the way, would it be okay if I start blogging with a free account and decide later on hosting the blog? Will the transition be easy enough to migrate from a free account to a paid one? Hope you could shed light on the query. Thank you.
    • David Leonhardt says:
      If you are serious, start on your own domain. There is no "free" or "paid". You buy your domain (well, actually you rent it) and you pay for hosting. If you can't put $100 - $200 into a year of blogging, then it's really just a hobby. That's fine, as long as you're OK with that.
  15. Richard Kearsey says:
    Hello David, Nice article and you have included all points for one who wants to start a new blog.I just wanted to say If you are using WordPress platform you can also use Bluehost,Hostgator,Dreamhost etc.. Thanks for the article.
    • David Leonhardt says:
      You can use (almost) any hosting company to host WordPress. This is 2016.
  16. Nicoli Redmayne says:
    Here is my suggestion: Before you start a blog, make sure you have some ideas what to write about. If you don't have any think about your hobbies or things you're passionate about. This helped me to find my niche/topic for my blog.
  17. akshay kattam says:
    Hi david, It was a superb head "Impatient newbies", and really they are, many of the new bloggers get's excited and they want all the results to happen like a miracle in a month, which is not possible actually, thank you for the post.
  18. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi David, This is an excellent, concise and to the point starting guide. Love it. Neil Patel speaks the truth. This is a business. All moving parts, thoughts, shifting, changes, all that good stuff must needs be accounted for to make it pop. Example; big shift on my blog recently from posting to business prospects to overhauling my blog design. I was chatting with my developer on Facebook 5 minutes ago. He'll work on my blog from Sunday through Tuesday while we're getting accustomed to Istanbul, our next stop on the Blogging From Paradise tour. It'll be down but it's all good. More planning, meeting, scheduling, and it really never ends. But the benefits of running a business/blog are so immense. Super post! Signing off from sunny Cyprus. Ryan
    • David Leonhardt says:
      Hi Ryan. I look forward to seeing the new look of Blogging From Paradise.
  19. Taufeeq Umar says:
    Very nice and helpful information about to starting a blog for newbies. Thanks for sharing this blog here with us.
  20. Ben says:
    Hi David. I usually tell people to go the impatient route that you described. When it comes down to it, a lot of people are afraid to get their own voice out there, so I want them to get over that sooner rather than later. Also, Google needs some content to index before they will put you into their search database, so the sooner you get content out there the better.
    • David Leonhardt says:
      Right. Start fast, then tweak it all along the way. That's how some people take their vacations, their careers, their families, etc. It's one way to do things.

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