The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog
How to create a blog from scratch
I’ve been blogging for FIVE years now and I failed miserably the first two times around. Yes, I’ve renamed my blog three separate times. That much change is terrible for establishing a base of readers and followers, but I didn’t know what I was doing! I wish I had a detailed guide (like this one 😉 ) that could have helped me do it right the first time around.
Because I made so many mistakes, I learned so much about blogging, writing blog posts, social media marketing, graphic design…everything. This guide is for all of those looking to start a successful blog, from the ground up, the first time around. Or if you already have a blog, this guide will help you take it to the next level.
This guide will take you through every detail of blogging. Here’s an outline of my seven blogging stages:
- Purpose
- Branding
- Build your Website
- Design
- Create Content
- Sharing and Social Media
- Grow
I’ll dive deep into each of these steps, providing questions and resources for each. I hope you find this useful! Warning: this thing is an absolute monster. I’ve listed every single thing I could think of that might help you on your blogging journey.
If you are debating whether to start a blog, just do the thing. Start it! You won’t know until you try. I absolutely love blogging and it has brought me such happiness. And let me tell you, it is never too late to start something. Are you afraid it’s already been done before? Well, maybe but not by YOU.
Purpose
1. Passion
When it comes to your purpose, passion is everything. You have to find something that you are seriously passionate about sharing because when things get tough and you don’t want to do it anymore, your passion for this will see that you keep going.
What is my passion?
I for one love reading but I dislike writing book reviews. I would make a terrible book blogger because although I love to read books (and edit them and write them), I don’t like to write reviews about them. And realizing this makes all the difference. For my blog, my passion is sharing my creative projects.
This stage is really about asking yourself a series of questions. Get out a notebook and jot them all down. So what is your passion? What do you want to share with others? Is it solo-travel, photography, crochet patterns, fashion, lifestyle? Or a little bit of all your passions. My favorite things: all things creativity and sustainability. So crafts and sewing projects that help reduce waste, bullet journaling for mindful and intentional living, while sharing my travels and writing experiences along the way.
2. Establish an Audience
You essentially want to write with your audience in mind. This closely aligns with your purpose. Why should people read your blog?
Who is my target audience?
Are you a mom hoping to reach other moms? Teachers or students? Millennials on a budget? It helps to envision who your ideal reader is.
What will I write about?
Now how will you reach that audience? What will you write about to reach them? Is it recipes on a budget? Young adult book reviews?
How can I do it differently?
Everyone can offer their own personal experience, and that’s how we can do it differently. But you can go one step further and ask yourself how you can do it differently to set yourself apart, to offer that which is fully you.
3. Write your Purpose
What is your WHY?
This is the hardest part for me (and still continues to be a struggle). Distilling your purpose into one interesting and cohesive message can be really tough.
What are you giving or offering people? Is it tools? Inspiration? Recipes? Sewing patterns? Blogging tips? 😉
It’s okay to tweak your purpose as you grow and change. What you start out doing might not be what gives you success. Keep adapting to what your audience wants and returning to or uncovering your passion.
I love this article that walks you through writing a mission statement. Try to distill your final your purpose into these four key elements: why, who, what, how.
Here was my first mission statement: I’m here to share my creative journey and to show you that living the life you choose is the bravest thing you can ever do. With journaling and slow, sustainable living, you can pursue your passions and live a life of your own design.
Now, my mission statement is bit more generalized: I’m Hayley, author, editor, and blogger, sharing my stories on a footpath to a conscious and creative life. This blog is a cozy place for others seeking refuge from the rush where we can rest and reconnect as we follow our creative dreams.
I still think my WHY needs work. It’s an evolving mission statement as I continue to grow and reflect on my dreams, ambition, and perspective.
Branding
1. Choose a Name
Naming your blog is the most important part of establishing your brand. And a bit stressful!
You want something that’s a little bit flexible or general. Don’t pigeon hole yourself into a name that cannot evolve with you. For example, if you start out blogging about photography and slowly expand to include art, naming your website “Camera tutorials” isn’t going to work.
Google the name! Make sure it’s available. Make sure it’s the same across all social media platforms for complete synchronization that will help you establish yourself as a brand. Name recognition is everything! If someone is seeing three different variations of the same name across different platforms it will be hard to remember it. Take it from someone who changed the name of their blog three times, if in doubt, just use your real name.
2. Slogan
“Conscious and creative notions” is one thing that has remained the same across all my different name changes/rebrands. I think it has stuck because it really encapsulates my purpose and my content. And using the word “notions” makes it sound a bit whimsical!
It could be something like a simplified purpose like “Tools that make your life better” or a description of who you are/what you do like, “A solo female travel blog.” I know like legit three blogs that use that tagline so maybe pick another one 😉
Build your Website
I have built this website three times, but I also created the website for Dandelion Revolution Press. It’s something that can easily be overwhelming but with the right platforms and support, you can do it yourself. It might be tempting to pay someone else to build your site for you, but I would encourage you to try it yourself first. If I can do it (and do it five times over), it’s something that’s definitely possible.
You should self-host your site. With self-hosting, everything is in your control. Hosted website platforms, on the other hand, trade customization for ease of use, which is nice in the short term but may limit you in the long term.
WordPress.com is hosted while WordPress.org is a self-hosting platform. WordPress.org is free for anyone to use, all you need is a domain name and web hosting, hence you are hosting yourself on WordPress.org.
Reasons you should self-host your blog:
- Ownership: You own everything! Sites like Wix, Blogger, and Tumblr own whatever content you create and can shut you down.
- Ability to monetize: If you are looking to make money (or even if you’re simply wanting to make ends meet when it comes to blogging expenses), having a self-hosted site means you can make money. Free sites won’t let you (generally speaking). Whether by ads, affiliate marketing, or sponsored posts, most brands will not work with you if you’re not self-hosted and/or a free site simply won’t allow you to advertise. With a self-hosted website, you can also set-up on own online shop through Woocommerce.
- Professionalism: It allows your readers (and potential future business partners) to take you seriously.
If you are looking for something easy but not as flexible, consider creating a WordPress.com site. It’s simple to set-up and automatically updates. But it’s limited. You cannot upload and customize premium themes or plugins. If your blog really expands, it’ll end up costing you a ton to keep it running on WordPress.com. You have to pay for every little upgrade you need. If you are simply creating a personal blog for families and friends, this is probably not the guide for you. I first created a WordPress.com blog because I didn’t know any better. And it was great for me during my first year because I was blogging about my experience teaching English in Spain. My audience then was mostly my friends and family.
If you already have a WordPress.com blog, never fear! It’s actually quite simple to transfer your content onto a self-hosted site. This article shows you how to transfer from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.
Okay, so now that I (hopefully) convinced you to self-host your site, here’s how to do it!
1. Hosting
I switched to Bluehost and could not have been happier. Bluehost has seamless integration with WordPress.org! What’s great about Bluehost is that you can purchase your domain and host in the same platform.
WordPress.org recommends these hosting sites:
- Bluehost
- I definitely recommend Bluehost above all others! It is the most reasonably priced and they have 24/7 tech support! Whether by chat or phone. This has been invaluable and their dashboard interface is easy to navigate.
- DreamHost
- SiteGround
- This was the first web host I used. It’s was not as user friendly as I was hoping, but they did have a pretty good support.
How to Get Started with Bluehost
It’s easy to sign up for Bluehost and cost-effective. Just choose the most basic plan! You can always upgrade later. But even I (after all these years) haven’t ever needed to upgrade!
Time to create your domain! On the left is where you get your own domain. If you have already purchased one (through something like GoDaddy), then you can enter that on the right.
Next, you’ll fill out payment and other information.
2. Set-up on WordPress.org
I only have experience with WordPress so I’m not sure how you would go about setting up on another platform. I would not recommend using Wix. Squarespace and Blogger are okay. But if you are looking to seriously grow and expand, WordPress is the best option.
Here is a view of the Bluehost home page. They even have a step-by-step guide to help you build your site.
Once you log in to WordPress, this is your blogging dashboard. You can get to WordPress anytime by clicking the WordPress link on Bluehost.
Congratulations! You’re now a blogger! You can actually wait to officially “launch” your site until you have things set up as you like it.
Familiarize yourself with the interface
These are the main areas you’ll be using when you first get started with WordPress.
- Dashboard: site overview
- Posts: drafting, scheduling, and publishing blog posts
- Media: for uploading pictures
- Pages: drafting, scheduling, and publishing pages
- Appearance: where you can change the look of your site
- Themes: What you’ll use the most at first. Themes is where you can upload purchased/downloaded themes
- Customize: where you can edit the look to your site
- Widgets: these are for newsletter signups, sidebar areas, and the homepage
- Settings: this is where you can name your site, put a tagline, and adjust basic settings like time stamps, etc.
Plugins
Adding plugins to your site allows for further customization. This isn’t Pokemon, you don’t have to collect them all. Here are some I recommend:
- Akismet Anti-Spam: reduces spam
- Site Kit: Google’s plugin that allows you to connect Google Analytics and AdSense to your blog with ease
- Jetpack by WordPress.com: allows you to connect to WordPress.com
- Ninja Forms: for creating a contact form, etc.
- WordPress Uploader: required if you are uploading content from an old WordPress site like I did! I transferred from a WordPress.com to WordPress.org by simply downloading a file and re-uploading via this plugin. This plugin might also be required for some themes if they have demo content.
While you’re getting familiar with WordPress you can start thinking about the next stage (my favorite)!
Design
I loved planning the design of my blog! I branded everything myself and looked to other websites/blogs for inspiration.
1. Get Inspired and Create a Color Scheme
I think this is the fun part! Create a vision for your blog. I went to my favorite website (Pinterest!) and made an inspiration board with all the AESTHETICS ever.
This is a great time to explore a color palette on Google’s color picker or Paletton. My blog palette is sage/teal and blush tones! I just adore that color combination, as you can see. Here’s a snapshot of my Pinterest when I had 700 followers. Oh, how it has grown!
Then I started messing around in Google Drawings to find fonts that went well together and to document what colors I like, recording their hex.
Here is my brand design kit I created in Google Drawing:
2. Theme
Invest in a quality theme for a reputable company. You do not have to spend a lot to get a high quality feeling theme. And if buying a theme isn’t in your budget, no worries! There are so many free ones out there. You’ll just have to spend some time looking around, downloading and trying different ones until you find the right fit (or should I say look?).
My website is built on the Genesis framework. You’ll find a lot of website designers require the Genesis child theme as a foundation to their parent theme. 17th Avenue Designs is great because the Genesis framework is built into the price! The first time I bought a theme, I had to buy the framework myself which basically doubled the amount I had to spend.
(Some) places to purchase themes:
Feminine Boutique Design Shops
- 17th Avenue Designs
- My theme is from this company! I absolutely love the feminine, light themes that they make. I have their Amelia theme. Each theme is so customizable! 17th Avenue Designs also has amazing site documentation and support if needed. Although everything was so laid out, I had no trouble.
- Hearten Made
- Restored 316
Other Shops
- Etsy
- 17th Avenue Designs even has its themes for sale on Etsy! Just make sure when you buy from Etsy, the company or creator has good documentation and support so you won’t have trouble installing your theme.
- Pinterest!
- I found my second theme by browsing Pinterest. It can lead you to small businesses designing websites.
Pro Tip: Scroll ALL the way down to the bottom of some of your favorite blogs/websites and see if they list the site designer or company in the footer.
3. Logo
Ah! I love my logo(s) so stinking much. They are all drawn by Maggie Malloy and I purchased them in a bundle from Creative Market.
(Some) places to purchase logos:
- Canva
- I bought my first logo off Canva (a simple branch) for only $1. They have very affordable logos and easy templates you can follow!
- Etsy
- Creative Market
- My lovely logos were purchased from Maggie Molloy! I have volume 15 which includes the branch, book, and other designs I use. Here’s a cheeky search on Creative Market for feminine logos. Oh, hey look! It’s the one I purchased on the right:
4. Font
Pick a font! Some themes come with a preinstalled font. My theme, for example, already runs with Libre Baskerville which I love. But I had to download the font to my Mac.
Sites to download fonts:
- FontSpace (free)
- This website is so cool because you can create a folder and save your favorite fonts as you search
- Google Fonts (free)
- Font Squirrel (free)
- Creative Market ( $ specialty/artistic fonts that could also be used for your logo)
Create Content
Now that you’ve created your website and customized the look, now it’s time to get to the actual blogging!
1. Create Main Pages
Now that things are mostly set-up, you can get to create some basics pages on your site. These can always be added to and expanded later on.
- About page: this is where you can give a little information about yourself and state your purpose for the blog. This is one of the first pages new readers will look so make sure it sparkles. But then again, just having a basic bio is great too!
- Contact page: using the Ninja forms or WPForms plugin, create a contact form and add it to your contact page. You don’t need anything fancy, just functional 🙂
2. Categories
The first thing you have to decide is what your categories you will have. These are pillars of content if you will. When you first begin, choose 2-3 to focus heavily on. I wouldn’t recommend having more than 7 categories.
You’ll learn what you love to write about. Over time, (the more you write/create content) you’ll gravitate towards certain things.
Some ideas for categories:
- Beauty
- Career
- Craft
- Family
- Home
- Lifestyle
- Self
- Style
- Recipes
- Travel
- Photography
You get the idea. I have six categories: craft, journal, living, reduce, travel, write. Of the six, I focus on craft and journal the most.
Again, this is where you’ll have to remind yourself of your passion and your purpose. I mean I love food. I eat it every day! But I don’t blog about food. I have no interest in posting recipes. There would also be no way for me to blog about food in a way that is different. Sometimes it’s about knowing what you don’t want to talk about as much as it is what you do want to talk about.
2. Brainstorming and Planning
Every blog post should be helpful. This connects back to your purpose and back to your audience. For every blog post you ask yourself:
Why should someone read this post?
Are you offering a personal reflection, story, or experience? That in and of itself is helpful. Humans are curious and I’m always interested to read about other people’s lives.
Keep a running list of blog post ideas. Whether in a notebook or digitally, jotting ideas down as they come is a great strategy that you can refer to if you need ideas. I plan by category, brainstorming a post idea by whether it falls under “craft” or “reduce” etc. If you are struggling to come up with ideas for blog posts, get inspired by other bloggers and see what they are writing about. Even a simple Google search of “blog post ideas/topics” might help you get the ball rolling.
You can see my blogging bullet journal spreads here!
3. Quality Images and Graphics
A personal decision I made was to use all of my own photos. There’s also something about being a creative and artist that wants all of the media on my website to be entirely mine. Plus, I love photography and challenging myself to get better at taking pictures. It’s definitely more work but there is reassurance knowing I own and have created everything you see on this blog.
I tend to follow other blogs that use only their own photographs. There’s something homemade and genuine about it. I’ll take someone’s personal, crappy picture over an inauthentic stock photo any day. This is totally personal! The content and message are what matters at the end of the day. But my blog is almost entirely about visuals so I think that’s why I place so much importance on it. My traffic is driven by my visuals on Pinterest and other visual platforms.
Taking your own Pictures
I have made it my mission that every picture on this website/blog is my own. I own all the rights to every photo you see on this site. This is a ton of work and might not be something you want to do yourself, which is totally fine! But I love to take pictures and learning photography has been a lovely skill to practice.
Make sure your photographs are up to snuff. To be competitive, you really need to have high-quality pictures. You don’t need to have top-notch equipment to accomplish this. I took all of my pictures on my blog for the first four years on my iPhone 7 plus. Every single one. The trick for beautiful images is in the edit! I guarantee that almost all the pictures you see online have been edited in some way. It could be as simple as brightening. I have purchased some presets that have helped me edit quicker. Generally, the more you do something the better at it you’ll become.
My favorite FREE editing apps:
Some quick photography tips:
- Try to take photos in natural, diffused light
- Crop out “noise” or distracting things in the background
- Follow the rule of thirds
- Take pictures on posterboard for professional backgrounds
- Again, always edit 😉
Finding Photographs to Use
If photography isn’t your thing, there are plenty of websites out there to find free high-quality, royalty free images.
Graphics
I create all of my pins for Pinterest on Google Drawings. It’s basic but I love that I can make a copy of so the template is the same for all my pins.
- Google Drawings (free, requires a gmail account)
- Canva (free)
- I have recently gotten into Canva, and it’s phenomenal. It’s very user friendly and they have a ton of free templates and graphics.
- Photopea (free)
- This is a great place to edit PSD or Adode Photoshop files. This is what I used to transform the logo bundle I purchased and make it the colors I wanted.
- Adobe Products $$
- Pro-create Pocket App ($4.99, one time purchase)
- Love this app! It’s fun to draw with and I use it for Instagram story graphics.
Here are some examples of my pins made with Google Drawing:
4. Proofread
As a copyeditor, please proofread and edit your posts. Maybe it’s the former English teacher in me but with today’s spell check it’s easier than ever to have clean writing. I highly recommend installing the Grammarly plugin for your browser.
5. Have a schedule
Consistency, consistency, consistency. This is one of the most important things about blogging. This will tell your readers when to expect more content. Even if you only ever post once a month, make sure you post on the same day each month. Give your followers something to look forward to.
Having a schedule also gives you deadlines. I used to post every Thursday and there is nothing so motivating as having a deadline. Treat your blog like a job and give yourself the time to dedicate to it. One day it could turn into your job!
Sharing & Social Media
You cannot blog into a void. There are very few people that can become successful without sharing their work.
1. Establish an email list
Email is a long term game. It can take a little while to build up a good reader base but the following of a good email community is amazing for getting regular traffic to your blog. And down the line, selling products.
Emails are also so much more personal! I am subscribed to many newsletters and love getting to know what other creatives are up to. Emails build community 🙂
If you are using WordPress, Jetpack has a sort of blog subscription. People can “follow your blog via email” which means they will get an email every time you have a new blog post. It’s not exactly a newsletter because you can’t send an email to your followers. Each follower will get an email of your blog post in their inbox.
Create a newsletter and decide on your sending schedule. You don’t have to send one weekly, even sending one monthly or seasonally will still build connections.
Email subscription platforms:
- MailChimp: free up to 2,000 subscribers
- This is the one I use! It’s probably one of the better free email platforms. I ended up switching from TinyLetter to MailChimp because I can send an automated welcome email.
- TinyLetter (by MailChimp): free up to 5,000 subscribers
- Super cute and easy to use! It’s clean and simple and you can easily download your email list and transfer to another platform. I would recommend this one to all just starting out!
- Sender: free up to 2,500 subscribers
- MailerLite: free up to 1,000 subscribers
- ConvertKit: free up to 500 subscribers
2. Social Media
I would not create separate social media accounts for your blog and your personal life because you might spread yourself too thin.
I would suggest creating your own separate email account. I use gmail (and docs and tasks and all the Google things). It’s best to have a personal email (for ya know paying bills and talking with friends) and another for your blog/website/business. I did not do this at first and it was a pain to go back and change my email later. Easier than I thought but still tedious. You can use your personal email at first, but I would highly recommend creating an email with the name of your blog.
Social media is the probably the best and far reaching tool to use to get others to visit your blog.
What social media platform works best for your brand?
The answer to this question changes depending on your audience and your content. I for one get almost all of my traffic through Pinterest, so I spend the majority of my “social media energy” sharing my content with this platform.
If you are an author or book blogger, Twitter and Goodreads are probably platforms where your audience hangs out a lot. If you are good at videos (or keen to learn to make videos) YouTube is an amazing platform for almost any audience! Of course, social media is constantly evolving. TikTok has really transformed the game and I enjoy making short form videos about my writing on there.
What social media platform do you like the most?
Sometimes it can be that simple. I loved Pinterest long before I got into blogging. As a creator, there’s something to be said about getting inspired by other people’s creations.
Social media scheduling programs:
- Planoly (free)
- This is my favorite app ever! It’s a clean and, frankly, beautiful platform for managing Instagram and/or Pinterest. The free version is perfect for me but they also have upgrades available.
- Buffer $
- Hootsuite $$
Cross Posting
Cross posting is when you post the same message across different platforms or media channels. It’s good to cross-post but not too much. Just once a week on each Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Another thing to keep in mind with cross posting is that you have to tailor your content to the different platforms and the audiences on those platforms. Don’t just copy the caption of your blog post to each of your social media platforms. Get personal on each post and tell your followers why they might be interested in your content.
3. Network and engage with your audience
Networking is not my thing. I think it’s my introverted nature that hates reaching out to people and establishing connections, even digital ones! I just feel like such a nuisance. Which is really just my own insecurity and imposter syndrome.
One of the easiest ways to do this is with hashtags! Follow some of your favorite hashtags and engage with them an hour or so before you post.
It takes time. It takes time to connect with others, but I’ve made life-long friends through the internet! It’s so wonderful that we can connect with others no matter where we are in the world.
Grow
How does one grow? By learning, never stop learning! That’s the secret to life, but it applies just the same for blogging and business. This guide was the culmination of five years worth of failing. Hard. I made so many mistakes along the way, but I learned from them and grew. And there is still so much I’m still learning about blogging. I’m just getting into writing code and HTML to further customize my blog.
And in terms of growing your blog or your business:
Follow the signs of life.
This is one of the best pieces of advice I heard listening to a business podcast. Whatever is doing the most popular, reaching the most people—do more of that. That’s what your audience wants so why not give the readers (give the people!) what they want.
1. Learn the basics of SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s what makes you discoverable by search engines. You can download the Yoast SEO plugin to help with this. I am definitely not an expert on this topic and there is so much to learn but here are a couple of tips to get you started:
- Include internal links (to your own related content) and external links
- Utilize headers and titles
- Diversify your language within the blog post’s content (aka keywords)
- For example, when writing about bullet journals, I’ll also use terminology like bujo, journal art, and dot grid journal.
- Have an SEO friendly-site that can be easily navigated
2. Offer something for free
Nothing gets you more subscribers than by offering a free product or service! I offer a free floral calendar printable to everyone that subscribers to my newsletter. Offering a free workbook or other tool is a great way to attract and retain followers.
Hosting giveaways is another way to get people to check out your content. I gave away a copy one of my anthologies to help me increase the number of people subscribed to my newsletter.
3. Guest blog post
If you can, get featured on somebody else’s blog or website. Reach out to them and ask if you can do a guest post. This is a great way to provide free content for them and direct some traffic your way.
I was featured by The Good Trade in their newsletter The Daily Good and it increased traffic to my site by over 2,000 in two days!
4. Have a media kit and start earning
Having a blog (especially a self-hosted one) costs money. Even if your goal isn’t to make a living from blogging, it can be nice for it to be able to pay for itself. Once you have gained some momentum, it’s time to start reaching out to brands and getting sponsored!
Ways to earn money:
- Advertise with Google AdSense
- Join Affiliate programs
- Get sponsored or write product reviews
When reaching out to brands, you should present them with a media kit. A media kit gives insight into your blog including what services you offer and your site statistics.
Click HERE to get my media kit template!
Final Thoughts
Creating a blog and website and business is a long process. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t burn yourself out. Take care of yourself as you continue to create and build your brand. It’s important not to compare yourself to others. It takes time. And don’t forget… Dream big.
Happy Blogging-
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