Starting a blog
To start a blog you don't need that much. A web hosting package, a catchy domain name and you're good to go. However, there is still some content to be added. We will explain this in more detail in this article.MijnHostingPartner.nl has a lot of customer blogs under its care.
From blogs about book reviews, to artists who keep a blog and people who blog about their passion. Often they do this as a creative outlet to share their thoughts. To share information they have discovered for themselves in their hobby. Or to keep track of a vacation trip. There is room to blog about everything.
Reasons to blog
There are also several reasons to start a blog. Whether you want to give yourself peace in your head by putting it on modern paper. Or you want to recommend products through affiliate marketing, offer ads or share the latest developments of your business. The possibilities and reasons why are also endless.
What our reason is for blogging is for sharing what we see as useful information in the field of web hosting and what comes with it. To attract new customers and a way of communicating with our existing customers. Therefore, every website nowadays has some blog section where articles are shared.
Starting with brainstorming ideas and the layout
You will probably already have a vague idea of what you want to blog about. Whether it's for your hobby or for one of the reasons mentioned earlier. Put that on a notepad for a moment and think of terms to go with it. For example, a love of technology might involve building computers. To build a computer, you need a laundry list of components. Think about a graphics card, processor, memory, SSD and so on. All those related parts and terms that go with them you can use to further break down your blog to become more successful. Since in every niche imaginable you will have a competitor trying the same thing as you.
For example, instead of putting together a general website about computers, you can put up a specific website about graphics cards. Or you could become the dedicated memory guy or gal. In this way you can always find not only more targeted audiences, but also almost always free domain names and articles on which there is not yet so much competition.
For finding a domain name, two to three terms are usually the sweet spot. In this, you can come up with a catchy domain name that is not too long, and easy to remember. Try to have a brainstorming session with someone else to come up with a domain name. And of course keep our domain name checker next to it to see if it is still available!
Domain extension is also a factor. This is easy to exclude by thinking about the following.Are you going to work in Dutch? Then choose a .nl domain name or if you're from Belgium a .be. In English for the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Then choose a .com. For a specific country? Then go for a country extension like .ca etc. You get the thinking.
Set up a plan for the initial stages of your blog and what your end goal is
This may be difficult to determine in the beginning what you expect from your blog after a year. However, it is smart to put down a larger plan. This not only keeps you from tunnel vision. But also for what your ultimate goal is with your blog. For example, is it to attract 1000 extra visitors per month to your website? Or keep more contact with your customers. To drive more sales for your webshop. And so on. Put this on paper and keep statistics on your website to actually keep track of this.
Checking off the first steps to creating a blog
To start a blog you need a web hosting package. At MijnHostingPartner.nl it is just a few clicks before you have one. But then? Then comes the actual building of your blog. And how do you do that? As a beginner, we really only recommend a few options. Go for WordPress like thousands before you. Or take a look at the options that Joomla, Umbraco or DotNetNuke have available for you. All of these applications, fortunately, can be installed within a few clicks through our web app gallery.
Set up some initial things like we covered in an article earlier, and write your first 30 articles at a rapid pace. Content remains important. As you write more you will figure out ways to do it efficiently. Neater and more useful to the eventual reader. A good tip is to follow some well-known names on social media. Subscribe to the YouTube channels of the SEO Gurus. Although this should always be seen with the some suspicion. And read the Search Engine Guidelines. Plus take a look at your neighbors who have been around longer than you.
Document the statistics with Google Analytics, that way you can also track what works and what doesn't. And that way you can see if there are improvements on a monthly basis.
Develop your skills and prepare for the long haul
What a blog might offer best is to develop your skills in a lot of areas. Writing, of course, is a logical one. But also technical things that previously seemed a mystery to you are now minute work. You learn, for example, how to make changes in the code, how to clean up a database and how to fix errors. Experience in this field is also good for your personal development.Blogs, however, take a long time to develop. The bloggers who become an overnight success are the exception not the rule. So give yourself time for this too and keep the rhythm for a year. Who knows what you will learn, earn or improve.
