5 Ultimate Steps To Creating An Effective Blog

There are many advantages to creating a blog instead of a website, so if you are interested in sparking interest in your business, then starting a blog can help.

But where do you start? It’s simpler than you imagine…

Simply incorporate the following steps and they can help you to create a stable platform to launch from and make blogging incredibly easy:

1. What do you want to blog about?

   
   

   There are already a lot of bloggers on the internet, so if you are genuinely interesting in attracting a large readership, you need to make yourself look credible.

   
   

   This means, you need to be careful about what you blog about. It can’t be about just anything. You should choose a topic that you are not only passionate about but that you have a lot of experience with.
2. 
   

   To host or not to host, that is the question: Hosting is one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make as a blogger as you can either choose to host yourself or allow a free blogging service to host it for you.

   
   

   - Hosting your own blog: it is possible to use WordPress free blog software to host your blog for a cost of up to £30 a year. And we thoroughly recommend it as it will give you the freedom to do what you want such as choose your own domain name.

   
   

   - Free blogging services: yes these are free but you won’t be able to get your own domain. Instead you will have to share it with 100s of other blogs. More importantly you won’t actually own your blog so should you choose to move to your own domain you won’t be able to take your readers with you.
3. Pick a domain namePicking a domain name is incredibly fun, but make sure that it refers to the theme of your blog in some way and isn’t completely random.
4. 
   

Find a web hostWhen searching for a web host for your blog, opt for a hosting company that offers ‘1 click installs’ or instant installations for blogging and forum software. This will make it easier for you to get content up fast and without delay.

Top ones include:

• Dreamhost Hosting
• GoDaddy Blog Hosting
• 1and1 Hosting

1. 
   

   Install WordPress - No blog is really complete without WordPress. It is relatively easy to do, simply make sure: your host meets the requirement; you’ve got a database ready with a proper username and password and you download and unzip WordPress.

   
   

   Now if you are not a computer whizz, don’t worry. WordPress actually provides you with detailed guides on how to: configure WordPress, install your directory and download a theme, so you really can’t go wrong.

   
   

   NOTE: to run WordPress your host needs a PHP version 4.2 or greater and MySQL version 4.0 or greater.

And that is it!

The hardest thing you will have to do is install WordPress, but after that it is plain sailing.

However, if you are interested in producing a unique blog, then getting the assistance of a digital design agency can help.

With their support they can help create a bespoke theme seen nowhere else as well as manage your SEO and content. So if you are keen to get your blog ranking, why not consider a design agency?

This article was written by the web design agency, Soula Ltd