Last updated on May 31st, 2020 at 05:56 pm

Thinking of how to start a blog? You may want to check out my step by step guide to ensure you do it like a pro.

Maybe you have a blog already, you got discouraged because couldn’t get the desired results. Whichever, let’s get started!

Going back, when anyone wanted to share any knowledge or idea with the world through written words, they had to become a journalist with a magazine or newspaper. Or they had to be an author depending on a publishing company to accept their work, publish and market it.

But today we are several miles away from that, you can learn how to start a blog, write your articles, hit the publish button and the whole world will see it. We have seen the same trend even in Nigeria.

The blogosphere has been jam-packed with bloggers everywhere, one would think almost every human is trying to own a blog especially in Nigeria my country.

However, the introduction of news blogs daily into the blogosphere is not a bad idea, I think it is a good one – It helps build the blogging industry. Nevertheless, it is not enough to just learn how to start a blog, blogging must be done the right way to be successful.

Blogging seems casual but it is one of the best business models that exist today. It gives one quite a significant control of his time – that alone to me is worth diamonds. That is not all, you get to have location freedom and the ability to scale your income rapidly or sequentially depending.

Blogging is an uphill I must confess, most people fail at it because they get started with a sprint in mind, not knowing, in reality, it is a marathon. In this article, I would share 7 basic tips that will take you beyond learning how to start a blog but blogging the right way that can guarantee financial success.

You may want to consider reading this article I wrote: 7 Awesome Things You Are Losing Because You Aren’t Blogging

How to start a blog the right way – my 7 golden tips:

Tip 1: First Things First; Get Started, Most People Won’t

Learning how to start a blog can simply remain an idea in the head and dies there.

Most people would always wish they own a blog, they just love the idea of sharing their thoughts or expertise, unfortunately, that is all they do. Some just have a false idea that it takes heaven to come to earth for them to have their blog. When in reality, starting a blog is a piece of cake.

For you to be successful at blogging, you need to first learn how to design a blog, go beyond learning to start the blog. Well, there are quite a few things you need to know and have to get started; register a domain name, buy a web hosting account, install a blog, publish some articles and drive traffic to the articles. That sounds too simple, right? Unfortunately, it can get more complex than that, I have put together a 15 video series to assist non-tech readers to set-up their blog. Click here to take this course for FREE or do that below.

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Tip 2: It’s not enough to start, you have to start right

I have seen folks and a whole lot of them starting a blog – which is good!

Something is just lacking in the starting process which is doing it the right way. the successful ones are the ones that do it like a boss.

If you want to have a blog and build a career out of it, or you want to have a relevant blog that can pay you full-time or at least some reasonable amount of money in passive income, then you need to start right.

I have always told people who asked me, never start a blog that is not self-hosted. Having a free blog with (.blogspot.com) or (.wordpress.com) single you out not to be a professional, people know you are unable to buy yourself a hosting account and a domain name, hence they would not take you seriously.

I have also got people asking me what is the best ways or strategies to earn online, my answer is always simple and singular: find a proven business model that has worked and emulate.

That way you can be guaranteed of earning on your blog in no time. There are several models around blogging, these models have different approaches to them – there is never an only way to earn on your blog. It’s your responsibility to find one person who you know has earned money on his blog and learn his business models. Learn from this persons success strategies and skills, learn his mistakes and never repeat them and many more.

Unfortunately learning this may mean you have to take their course or enrol to be coached by them, this will cost you some money. Trust me, you will be glad you did if only you can invest wisely, it will save you the time of wasting years to figure it all out yourself.

Sadly most new bloggers just dabble, they get random information on Google and YouTube from different authorities, giving them different strategies and eventually they become lost. If it did not work for you, you just have not learned the trick, that stuff you learned online is not the problem but the right implementation of them.

Tip 3: Treat Your Blog Like A Business

It is the truth that until you see your blog as a business, then you are far from earning on your blog. Another truth is that people blog for different reasons which could include just for personal journaling. I am not addressing such people in this article, this is primarily for those who intend to either blog full-time or earn active and passive on their blog as I do.

You may also want to read: 7 Amazing Benefits of Creating Passive Income Online

What I see most people do professionally is to treat their blog like a job, they invest in having one, work for X hours and earn Y income.

They write quality content, create videos, some even have a podcast for their blog, share their articles on social media and so on. But they never re-invest the revenue from their blog back to scale but the process, that is how to start a blog the wrong way. These people see their blog as a money-making machine, this is the biggest mindset problem of blogging.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you need to have lots of money as an investment before you can have a successful blog, quite frankly you have to have something, businesses just do not take a life of their own, it comes with investments and necessary nurturing. With the little you can from the beginning, invest and never stop investing. Keep it a habit to reinvest nothing less 80% of any income made on your blog at least when you just start. This way you will be able to scale-up the business.

Tip 4: Niche Down

There are so much noise and competition in the blogosphere, the “general” you are the more the chances you will be missing in the crowd if you do not learn how to start a blog the right way by having a targeted audience.

The right way for you to get noticed is for you to niche down your blog into a particular topic. I struggled with this with my very first blog – I had a whole lot of topic I could write about, I had a passion for entrepreneurship, productivity, faith, etc. I knew juggling all of this into a blog was not fitting. I know I am not left alone in this, but bloggers must resist every temptation never to niche down to a single topic on their blog.

Many bloggers try to be everything to everyone. That’s a big recipe for failure. You have to focus on a narrow topic and become a leader in that market. For example, my area of focus will always be on digital marketing and region-wise, I will be focusing mostly in Nigeria and Africa. My goal is to get recognized as the top digital marketer in Nigeria and maintain that position.

Another point to note is to choose a topic where there is a combination of your passion, talent, and market opportunity. Those three things are equally important to becoming successful, having one or two alone out of the three may be a total waste of time.

Tip 5: Read And Learn A lot

I am always shocked at how few bloggers develop their skills by reading. Very few read any marketing, strategy, business, or self-development books. Running a blog is running a business, and if you don’t go to “school” and constantly learn, you’re going to fall behind. Every successful person I know is a voracious reader and learner. They constantly try to improve their skills and knowledge. You must always be a student. You must always learn – this is how to start a blog the right way.

Personally, reading a book can be more difficult for me, nevertheless I train myself to always read, but one habit you cannot take away from me is learning models online. I invest in digital products mostly courses online to learn from people who have what I need.

Read what experts have to say, learn what works, and apply the tips you pick up to your blog. If someone has been there and done that, why try to learn that through trial and constant error? Read the best way to do it… and do it! This is mostly the secret behind the success I have had in my little 2 years of blogging experience.

Tip 6: Understand The Needs Of Your Readers And Solve It

Just like I’ve already mentioned, blogging is a business. Every business must understand the needs and wants of their customers.

Your first customers are your readers.

Ask them what they want and depending on their answers, meet their need.

Getting this done as a new blogger can be quite difficult as your posts don’t get engagements and you probably do not have good numbers on your mailing list, that is if you have at all.

My technique to tackle this would be to find a problem first before writing after the articles are written share the link with those who have the problem, that way you can build not just blog readers but raving fans, to learn this more, enrol for my FREE blogging course, I did a good job on how to do that. Click here for instant access, how to start a blog the right way is made easy already.

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This understanding will also lead to monetization opportunities. For example, I understood that many of my readers wanted to learn to blog and how to earn online. My blog articles were not enough for them. So I launched courses on these topics.

If you want to catch a fish, you should put a worm on the hook. Fishes want worms, that’s what they are attracted to. You shouldn’t put a candy on the hook because you like candy. Similarly, you shouldn’t blog about the topics that you like. You should blog about the topics that your readers would want to read. Else, you cannot get readers for your blog and people would just ignore you.

Tip 7: Create Products

Businesses sell something — and so should you.

Whether it’s a course, a book, t-shirts, your skills, or just other people’s products via affiliate marketing, allow your audience to buy from you. Many products offer value to your readers by going more in-depth and in detail than a blog post usually allows, people who have read your posts and want more would be ready to pay for your premium service.

I was liberated when I learned that at every time in life you are either buying or being sold to, this knowledge became a paradigm shift. If you want to earn something significant online then you must sell not just that, you must love the art of selling. I usually don’t like the idea of selling, but right now I am becoming better.

Conclusion

What is stopping you from learning how to start a blog? Do you fear failure? Do you think by starting a blog and not getting any traffic to it would be a failure? Is that what you fear?

Fear not getting started at all. Fear of not failing at all. Because we all fail, then we learn and then succeed. Every step of the way, you succeed in small ways even in something that seems to be a failure.

Get the first 100 visitors to your blog. Then get the first 1000. Earn your first $100 and then your first $1000. That’s how you become a successful blogger.

Have you started and yet you have challenges? you may share them with me in the comment section below, I reply almost all comment if not all.

Cheers.?