Beginners Guide: What is blogging? How to start my first blog ? — Blogging Basics !
Currently, if you are going through this article, then you have some kind of interest in blog/blogging. You might have a lot of questions/queries related to this topic – What is blogging? If you are a beginner or a newbie, then you might be wondering to know how to start blogging…
Perhaps, that’s the reason you have searched the word “Blog / Blogging / what is blogging” in Google search bar and have landed over here.
Let me help you getting all your queries answered through this beautiful article step by step in a very simple manner.
Do you love to read and write? If you know this , then you already have your answer! Hopefully , this article will make you even more specific today.
If I describe a “Blog” in a layman’s language then it’s nothing but a “Diary” or a note book – that many of us use to write our memories, stories, experiences, daily activities etc.!
Have you ever maintained a Dairy of your own – writing every day before going to bed or if you know someone maintaining this in your family and friends! If yes, then you can better understand this term.
For me, a blog is a digital form of a diary where people love to write about something that others love to read for having better knowledge, skills and experiences. It’s nothing but an online journal published by the owner for different readers through an online open platform called a blog / website.
The regular articles that the owner of the blog publishes are called the “blog posts”. Similarly, the writer/owner of these blog posts is called as a ‘Blogger’.
And the whole thing / activity a blogger usually do on a regular basis at this online platform is broadly called “Blogging”. The activities a blogger normally do are writing informational blog posts covering a wide range of topics, interests & audiences and maintaining his blog by doing proper SEO, linking and sharing his posts at different platforms.
So for you , I can make it even more simpler!!
The article that you are currently going through is a blog post which is being published in a online platform called as bloggingtweet.com – It’s a Blog of mine. Being a Blogger, I am regularly writing posts in this blog and the whole activity of mine in this regard is called Blogging.
Hopefully this sounds good and justified your landing here…
As of now, if you are enjoying reading this blogpost, then let’s dive into the world of blogging…
How does blogging work for beginners in 2021?
Blogging is an evergreen platform to express someone’s view on a certain topic. It’s called “Content”.
There is always a shortage of quality content in the internet world on every topic. Google loves quality and fresh content.
So there is ample scope in blogging for beginners in 2021 and times to come. Newbies can choose blogging as their career also if they have time, patience & motive.
From blogging, they can also earn money online if they invest quality time and do need-based research timely.
History/Evolution of blogging
Justin Hall is recognized as the first blogger for his very first blog named links.net. By the time of his 1st blog post during 1994, he was a college student of Swarthmore college. He just called this as his personal homepage as the term “Blog” was not being coined by this time.
Blog – The term came from the word ‘weblog’ during 1997. The term was created by Jon Barger to narrate the process of logging the web as he browsed his early blog named “Robot Wisdom”.
Weblog was shortened to “blog” in 1999 by Peter Merholz.
LiveJournal was the most recognizable blogging platform during the early stages of concept.
Then the very popular blogging website Blogger.com was launched during late 1999. After that Google had acquired this in February 2003. Again in the same year, May 2003, WordPress had released its first version of blogging platform.
Now –a –days, WordPress has become the most popular blogging platform boosting over more than 40% of websites on the internet.
In general, Blogging is of two types as below
Types of Blogging
1.Personal Blogging:
It’s a kind of blog where a person or an individual shares his own thoughts, experiences, stories, etc on regular basis. Basically, it’s an ongoing online diary where an individual manages of his own. You can find a lot of personal bloggers and blogging sites on the internet.
A personal blogger is commonly called a hobby blogger. If you have your own story or experience that you want to share with others / with your readers, then you are doing personal blogging.
For example, celebrities like film stars, cricketers etc. write about themselves, their social presence without any proper script plan. Their main motive behind this is to maintain their fan following but not to earn money through blogging. It’s purely based on random posts without any proper plan that they like to share.
2.Professional Blogging:
For this one needs expertise and thorough knowledge on a particular subject or topic. He must be a professional or should have a keen interest in that particular topic.
To simplify your doubts, I am just sharing some professional blogging category – cooking, photography & Camera, a particular game / sport, technology, education, fashion, travel, pet etc. You can find so many professional blogs in the internet which are guiding people in solving their problems with the help of their quality posts. Professional bloggers always interact with their audiences by answering their quarries. In other words they love to do so.
Most of the beginners do mistake here – in choosing their blogging topics (Niche). Generally, they get biased while choosing their niche by just looking at someone’s traffic without having ample of knowledge and interest on that niche. In this case, one can neither write for a longer period nor find any interest in that topic in the long run. As a result, that blog will be discontinued at some point of time.
You must agree with me that – Content is king. Unless and until your blogpost has good content, you cannot reach to larger mass. People and search engines will start avoiding your post and blog as well. Finally, your post won’t rank and you will be frustrated.
So before starting a blog, you must be very specific about the niche on which you are going to write.
So if you love writing then of course blogging is for you !
How to start your first Blog !
I hope you have become a little bit comfortable with the word – blogging as of now !
Now, when it comes to starting our own blog through a web address, then we must do some homework before starting this! Prior to starting writing/creating a blog on the internet with a proper domain (web address), we should be well versed with some facts that will make you successful in blogging.
Facts of Blogging – Before you start!
1.Select a Niche:
Blogging starts with your interest. If you are interested in writing then you will produce better articles. The audience will love to read your articles. So before starting blogging, you must find your area of interest. In this manner, you can satisfy the reading needs of readers under the same interest area. Choosing a Niche is a must before starting your first Blog!
2.Always love reading different blogs:
This will help you to know the blogging world in a better way. So start reading blogs present in your niche ( Particular Interest area). This will make you aware of current and upcoming things that your audience wants to know under the niche that your blog comes. Secondly, you will know how your competitor thinks and maintains his or her blog to cater to the reading needs of the audience. In a blogging career, it’s more important to make yourselves habituate in “Reading and Writing”!
3.Always make your content unique:
In this context, I will suggest writing your content of your own. That will manufacture unique content. Google always loves unique content. It is a part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Uniqueness makes your content different from your competitors and helps to rank in a better way. You will find a lot of articles present in Google on the same topic that you want to write. In that case, if you copy an article from google and again publish it on google, then your article won’t rank.
So it’s my sincere request not to become a “copy Cat”. It’s better to gather ideas and knowledge from the existing articles. Then do research work with this knowledge and produce a unique article that the audience loves to go through.
4.Consistency is a key to success:
You must be consistent in publishing new blog posts. Also, you have to update your existing posts as per the current need or change. For this, you have to update yourselves always through continuous reading different articles under the same niche. Google loves consistent bloggers and ranks their posts. Knowingly or unknowingly you are simply doing a better SEO of your blog through consistent blog posting at a regular interval. So please be a consistent player in this blogging field.
5.Your blog needs branding:
Make your blog a “Brand” through different social media platforms. These are the platforms where your readers spend maximum time in a day. If you publish your articles in these areas strategically in a continuous manner then your blog post will drive more readers to your blog. Gradually your blog becomes a more popular brand. Then people will follow you automatically.
What do you need to start a Blog ?
The most basic thing that you need to start your first professional blog are
- Domain
- Hosting
Friends, don’t get panic. I will help you out. Let me give some basic knowledge regarding the above-said requirements!
A) Domain:
Most of the time beginners become confused with the domain name and how do they work! Similarly, if you are a beginner then you might have heard that you need a domain name to start your own blog. It’s just like a name and address for your website. More specifically, the domain name is the address of your blogging website.
Like your house address, the domain is your address through which your audiences reach your website by typing this at the google search bar. For example, www.bloggingtweet.com is the domain name of this website/blog. Whenever you type www.bloggingtweet.com in any search engine bar, you will enter this site.
First, you have to think of a domain name suitable for your blog. Then you have to purchase these domain names from a domain selling site as per their availability. Currently, the following sites are the most popular and trusted ones where you can purchase your domain name.
Namecheap , Godaddy , Bigrock , Bluehost , Hostinger , Hover etc
Among them, I would suggest Godaddy and Namecheap as the best domain name service providers during the current time. You can go to these sites to register your domain name for your first blog.
For more in-depth knowledge regarding the domain name , you can refer to my Domain related articles in this blog.
B) Hosting:
In a simple way if I tell you then hosting is a storehouse/place where all data of your blog get stored safely. If we take the previous example, then the rooms of your house are the hosting. These are the supercomputers that store your data, pic, videos for a longer period of time that can be accessed by you and your audience as well.
So many companies provide hosting at a certain price point for a certain period of time . You have to choose hosting for your first blog or for other blogs/websites as per your own need/requirement , price and level of expertise.
Some of the best hosting providers are Bluehost , Hostinger , A2 Hosting , Hostgator , Godaddy etc .
For more in-depth knowledge regarding the hosting , you can refer to hosting related articles in this blog.
Blogging mistakes every beginner should avoid
If you are new to blogging, it is unavoidable to make some mistakes. In fact, even the best bloggers have already made missteps. Most of them started learning as blog experts on the go, while some of them learned their best practices through experimentation, and they often let it be done transparently.
In any case, there are some immoderate oversights that can leave a lasting impression on your blogging profession or even destroy it. Here are 3 major things that you should definitely keep yourself away from.
i) Adapting too soon
In case you’re not kidding about blogging, you can profit from it. Notwithstanding whatever other reason, you’ll need the cash to recharge your facilitating account to keep your website running. To do this, adapting your site is the best wager. In any case, you need to go about this the right way.
You have to manufacture great notoriety and increase the certainty of your group of onlookers before you begin applying you’re adapting procedures.
ii) Copyright infringement
I have considered many bloggers to be duplicate glue bloggers, who can copy tricky articles from various sites and put them all on a blog alone without authorization.
Enjoying this, you can sue for copyright infringement or get penalized through a web crawler. At the end of the day, you are actually hurting your notoriety. When they find that you steal every one of those dedicated blog entries, they collide with your counter-arguments.
No, you cannot truncate another person’s words in your online magazine without his/her consent.
iii) Presenting your web journal to security dangers
Making your web magazine defenseless against attacks is a deadlock between the most inappropriate mix-ups you can make as a blogger. This may prompt the programmer to fully control your web journal or submit it for risky malware or spam content. It would be a nightmare, especially on the off-chance that you have contributed a substantial measure of time and cash to it.
Thinking to demonstrate that individuals using WordPress CMS are basically more willing to attack, in light of the fact that it represents more than 25% of sites worldwide. In any case, how will you protect your WordPress blog from attack?
To avoid this you can take the help of many security measures, like
Use solid passwords,redesign your modules and topics in a timely manner, continuously filter your site, and make reinforcement for your site content.
As you gain ground in your blogging vocation, you’ll get the opportunity to learn different things that would make you more intelligent than when you initially began.
Hopefully, this article has somehow given confidence to the all my readers , especially the beginners to start their first ever blog. You can also go through some of my other articles related to blogging and online money making tips that will definitely boost up your confidence in your blogging journey.
Thanks for going through . Expecting your valuable comments/suggestions that will encourage me !
Signing off !
FAQs
How does blogging work for beginners in 2021?
Blogging is an evergreen platform to express someone’s view on a certain topic. It’s called “Content”.
There is always a shortage of quality content in the internet world on every topic. Google loves quality and fresh/updated content.
So there is ample scope in blogging for beginners in 2021 and times to come. Newbies can choose blogging as their career also if they have time, patience & motive.
From blogging, they can also earn money online if they invest quality time and do need-based research timely.
What is blogging ?
If I describe a “Blog” in a layman’s language then it’s nothing but a “Diary” or a note book – that many of us use to write our memories, stories, experiences, daily activities etc.
A blog is a digital form of a diary where people love to write about something that others love to read for having better knowledge, skills and experiences.
It’s nothing but an online journal published by the owner for different readers through an online open platform called a blog / website.
What do you need to start a Blog in 2021 ?
The most basic thing that you need to start your first professional blog are
a) Domain Name
b) Hosting (Free or Paid)
Apart from this, one needs quality time, patience & a proper motive to start a BLOG!
This is the basic things that you need to start a blog in 2021.