How to start a blog in 2021

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Welcome, with this step-by-step beginners guide you will learn how easy it is to start a blog in 2021 and hit the ground running in less than 30 minutes!

Sounds too good to be true? Try it yourself!

4 easy steps to create a blog from scratch

Step 1: Decide your blog name and niche

First, know what is a niche and decide one to start a blog on.

A niche is a topic on which you will be creating the helpful content for your readers on your blog.

For example travel, news, lifestyle, home decoration tips, parenting, gardening, etc.

How do you pick best and profitable blog niche?

The best blog niche is the right mix of profitability and your passion. So ask yourself:

  1. Do I enjoy writing content around the topic (passion)?
  2. Does the niche have monetization potential (traffic and growth)?

Must read –> “How To Pick A Winning Blog Niche In 4 Steps?”

Step 2: Buy your domain name & hosting

Once you’ve decided what niche to blog on, forming a name for your blog becomes easier. Try to brainstorm names from the niche you’ve picked or take the help of dictionary to run some words.

Also why not try 

  1. Your full name (Example: Neilpatel.com)
  2. Power words from your niche

Naming your blog is crucial but don’t let it pick your head hard. Just keep in mind to select an easy and memorable name for your blog.

After finalizing the name for your blog, you will have to register it online.

Let’s buy domain and hosting to start your blog

Follow the below steps:

#1. Visit Hostpapa (this is the hosting currently I use to manage this blog)

#2. Go to WP starter under “WordPress hosting” and click on “Get started”

#3. Add/remove add ons and click on “Next step”

#4. This is where you grab the free domain offer

#5. Input your account details and make the payment via credit card

Congratulations! You are all ready to have a self-hosted WordPress blog and that’s your first step to success.

Next,  you will receive “Invoice” and “Welcome email” with credentials to your cPanel.

Step 3: Blog installation

Do you prefer quick video tutorial or step-by-step text procedure?

I have both.

Let’s start with the video tutorial first

Step-by-Step procedure to install WordPress blog on Hostpapa hosting:

#1. Login to your cPanel account with the credentials that you have received.

#2. Search for “WordPress” or scroll down to “Softaculous” section, choose “WordPress” and click install.

#3. Enter desired username, password and email ID for your new WordPress admin account.

#4. Scroll down and click on install button to start the blog installation process.

#5. In a few moments, you will see the success message with a link to your WordPress admin panel.

That’s all, click the link, enter your admin credentials to login to your WP admin dashboard.

Step 4: Design your blog (Theme, Plugins & initial settings)

Now you shall see the WordPress dashboard with a wide variety of features. Something like this…

Yup, that’s your dashboard where you get to design your blog with a theme and plugins, write/edit articles, create pages, do the initial settings and the whole blogging thing.

First, Let’s Just Install a theme

WordPress has 5000+ FREE themes, which one to choose?

My personal recommendation is Astra Premium theme. Since you’re just a beginner, it is perfectly okay if you go with its free version or any other theme that you have in your mind.

Because, you don’t have to invest energy and time on worrying about theme for your new blog. As a beginner, your primary focus should be on creating helpful content and growing readership.

How to install a WordPress theme and design your blog?

  • Go to Appearance–>Themes–>Search and explore for themes and install one.
  • Click on Appearance–>Customization, here you will be able to customize the blog design as you want.

Below are the handpicked guides that will help you further in the process of starting and growing a blog:

FAQs about How to start a blog and make money in 2021

#Q 1. How do I make money from blogging?

Understand your audience base, build helpful content for them, and build a loyal tribe. Then start finding the relevant and reliable products and promote them via your blog space.

As I always say, invest yourself in learning before you jump in to the monetization part.

Once you are good to go, make sure to check out my below guide on blog monetization to start making money.

How To Earn Money From Your Blog In 2021

#Q 2. Can I start blogging for free?

Yes, you can start a blog with free of cost using blogger.com, wix.com, and WordPress.com, etc. But free blogging doesn’t give you control over the design, customization, and monetization. So it is better to start blogging with a self-hosted WordPress blog (the process I mentioned above).

#Q 3. Is blogging worth it in 2021?

It’s not too late to start a blog and share your knowledge with the people around you. There’s never been a better way and time to start blogging.

With the dominance of YouTube, it’s okay if you get this doubt about starting a blog. Statista makes you understand the blogging reality.

#Q 4. How do I get more discount with Hostpapa?

There are three ways:

  1. Check out if they have seasonal offers with their sales team using “live chat” option.
  2. Go for 3 year term to avail maximum benefit.
  3. Purchase on “Blackfriday sale” period that usually starts at the end of November and run for a week.

#Q 5. I want to share my personal stories once in a while. Should I go for self-hosted blog or free blog?

It depend on what you want to achieve through blogging.

If you want to build audience, reputation and money – A combination of WordPress + HostPapa is the right choice. Otherwise, just go with a free blog like blogspot.com or wix.com.

#Q 6. How long does it take for a blog to generate revenue?

I am not promising you any time frame. Blogging success depend on the efforts that you put in.

#Q 7. I’m not good at English, Is blogging is for me?

Keep practicing every day: offline or online. No one is perfect in the beginning, keep the flow going. Use tools like Grammarly to write better and thoughtful.

#Q 8. How often should I publish content on my blog?

There is no thumb rule for that.

Few bloggers publish daily and few once in a month. At the end, quality plays a king role than quantity. So just focus on delivering the best content consistently to your readers.

Conclusion

Now that I have outlined how to start a blog from the scratch guide with easiest procedure it is the time for you to show some magic.

Have anything to discuss? Please let me know in the comments.

83 thoughts on “How to start a blog in 2021”

  1. Shaheer Farooq

    Very informative!
    Thanks for showing the best ways to make money from the blog. Imnew in blogging career, this post really helps me out and show me the right path.

    Reply
  2. Carolina

    Really nice tips for anyone blogging. Just be you and write about topics you enjoy and are really interested in. Then you have a much better chance being successful then. I have a blog at hostinger, just writing about some of my travel experiences which I more than enjoy but I still got some great advise from your article thx.

    Reply
  5. Paul

    A very detailed step by step tutorial! Right now its wise if we have our own online presence. Great job for sharing this! Very helpful for beginners!

    Reply
  8. Nikola Roza

    Hi Mudassir,
    great guide on starting a brand new blog. If I was starting one today, this guide is all I’d need to guide me:)
    You mentioned necessary plugins and I’d like to chime in on that.
    Content table plugin. Tables of content are great for breaking up post into digestible chunks, they offer great UX, and they even have proven SEO value for a website. I covered it on my site on one of the articles,
    Cheers!

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hey Nikola, If you are following this response feel free to share the link of your article on my Twitter. I will add. Thanks for the appreciate.

      Reply
  10. Azhar

    Thanks you so much Mudassir for you effort to present such a information rich and helpful guide about starting a blog. You just clearly describe all the steps on the article to understand easily every things. like it.

    Reply
  11. Maria Jibran

    This is really informative article. This is really useful for those who want to start blogging. I really appreciate your effort. Thank you for sharing this kind of post with us.
    Thank You!!

    Reply
  12. Maria Luisa

    I am really happy with articles quality and presentation.and I really enjoy reading this post. The points are clear and easy to implement. Adding value to your audience by creating quality and informative content is a unique way to stand out Thank you so much

    Reply
  14. Bishnu

    Such a fantastic informative article on how to start a blog.
    You put almost everything that anyone needs to start a website from scratch.
    It’s definitely helped lots of beginners to start their online journey
    Thank u

    Reply
  16. Raushan Kumar

    You have written very good information but I have a question that how long does it take for a website to be ranked in Google

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      I am glad you find it useful. Technically, it takes 1 to 14 days or even more to be ranked on Google based on many ranking factors like Content quality, UX, niche-keyword competition, and so on. Connect with me on Twitter DM, happy to help more!

      Reply
  17. Jeangam Kahmei

    Hi Mudassir,

    Well, My answer to your question is, I started blogging to share the knowledge with people and when I get to know that you can even make money from blogging so the curiosity has arisen.

    I couldn’t agree more with your point of not having the right blogging attitude. Having the right attitude of blogging with real passion and consistency are the only factors that will work to be successful.

    This article is a good guide. So simple and practical. Keep on sharing your knowledge. 🙂

    Regards,
    Jeangam

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hi Jeangam,

      Blogging is similar to planting a fruit tree; choosing soil, seed, give a good amount of water, and sunlight. Eventually, the seed sprout into a tree. Patience with the right blogging attitude plays a key role to enjoy success.

      Thanks for your kind encouragement buddy.

      Reply
  18. Amit Garg

    Hi Mudassir,

    This is really a nice post who are looking for starting a blog.

    What I liked most about this post is the motivational section, Don’t quit.

    Thanks

    Reply
  19. Marketerector

    I recently started my blog after procrastinating for so many years, It has always been my dream. This is so comprehensive and it is helping me through the early phase. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  20. Moss Clement

    Hi Mudassir,
    Your article is a well-rounded post filled with valuable details. It is a great resource for bloggers, especially wannabes. I like how you structure the content. Good job!

    Reply
  21. Mudassir

    Hello Arvind, thanks for asking. I have newly added the details in the Blog installation section. Feel free to ask if you have any further questions, glad to help.

    Reply
  23. Raushan Khuswaha

    Hey I want to make a micro niche blog but I don’t know much about it. Can you tell me about micro blogging below?

    Reply
  24. Gurjit Singh

    Thanks for the sharing of information. You have explain this in very detail. This is very useful for new and medium bloggers to get new idea and skill to improve their blog ranking and traffic. Well explained.

    Reply
  25. Aadarsh Roy

    Hey Mudassir,

    Excellent post as usual. Many thigs to consider. I like your post especially the step-by-step guide that you have included. Blogging is an amazing and trending art. Blogging field requires a good writing skills, ideas and knowledge. Blogging provide us several benefits, as blogging platform provide us an opportunity to meet new people, share or ideas, knowledge and opinions. It also helps us to build connection and relationships and trust with other great blogger, improve our writing skills. We can also generate a good income through it if we are having a great writing skills, knowledge and ideas. It give us a chance to learn new things and stuff.

    Your 5 key points to consider while starting new blog really rocks and helpful. As this post will helps several users, people and readers

    Truly helpful post and thanks for sharing

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hello Aadarsh,

      I appreciate your insights on blogging and I strongly agree with you that blogging is a profitable stream if we develop decent writing and research skills. Your appreciation means a lot to me, thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  27. Vishal Rana

    Hi Mudassir,

    You have dome a Great Job.

    Your article is full of valuable information about “How to start a blog”.

    Well written and your blog have a beautiful layout.

    Thanks for sharing such great content with us.

    Cheers,
    Keep providing great content like this.

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hello Vishal,

      Welcome! I’m glad that you liked the content and UX. Thank you for stopping by and please keep visiting!

      Reply
  28. Avtar Singh

    pls add detailed information on back links because its too hard for beginners to create back links & everyone knows the value of back links

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hello Avtar Singh,

      I am glad to hear this. Yes, backlinks are so much important to rank well online. Moreover, hard to earn quality backlinks these days.

      I will drop a comment here once I publish the backlinks guide.You can also subscribe to my content through email ID. Thanks buddy!

      Reply
  29. Anil Verma

    This guide is really helpful for newbie who want to start their own blog. Thank you so much for sharing such an informative article.

    Reply
  30. Venkat Randa

    Niche selection is very important in blogging. you explained very well.

    yes, starting a blog with Siteground is good action.

    Thank you for this post. keep come up with this awesome stuff.

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hello Venkat,

      Welcome to Nettyfeed, Glad to have you here.

      I agree your point on picking the right niche is one of the important steps for a blogging growth.

      Reply
  31. Sayem Ibn Kashem

    What a beauty of the content. I always love to read your content. The way you explain something is very easy to understand and has its own beauty. keep it up, brother.

    Reply
  35. GyAAnigk

    You have dome a Great Job.

    Your article is full of valuable & great information about “How to start a blog” & earn money online through blog.

    Well written and your blog have a beautiful layout.

    Thanks for sharing such great content with us.this is useful for us..😘😘😘

    Cheers,
    Keep providing great content like this.

    Reply
  36. Amit Nair

    Hey Mudassir,

    This is an awesome and detailed blog post. It is the ideal guide for anyone trying to get started with blogging. Well done!

    I particularly like the section ‘Promoting your articles as a beginner’. Just creating great content is not enough, people must see it. It’s akin to someone having the finest Pizza in town. But unless people know where to find it, they will never know how it tastes!

    This line from your post is so much fun, yet very much relevant.

    ‘Most bloggers say, “Content is king” and I say “Promotion is Queen” and “backlinks” are people.’

    Keep up this great work!

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hey Amit,

      Welcome. Very well said, Promoting content is equally important as creating.

      Thank you for this amazing comment.

      Reply
  37. Sathish Arumugam

    Hey Mudassir,
    Great work! This a wonderful article which must not be missed. Undoubtedly, it will help every reader on starting the own blog in 2020.
    Good start…long way to go!!
    Cheers:-)

    Reply
  39. Mohammed Toufiq

    Hey, Mudassir!

    I landed here from your Twitter(follow me back if you don’t mind) handle.

    I must say, you kept the things very simple as much as possible, so the newbies can understand easily without getting confused. You covered everything required to get started with Blogging.

    I enjoyed reading the complete article.

    Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  40. Prateek

    Thanks Mudassir, I have just purchased domain and hosting after reading this article. I will follow the steps you have mentioned, please tell me how can I reach you if I want any other help in setup.

    Reply
  42. amit

    hey mudassir ,

    bro i have daily page view around 60-80 . but in this page view im only able to generate around 2 dollar per month bro .actually this low traffic is result as i have only posted 24 articles from 9 month and due to job stress i stopped posting but right now im daily posting .just waiting for some ideas which i can implement to gain traffic and to generate some money 30$ a month kam se kam ..thank you bro 🙂

    Reply
    1. Mudassir

      Hey Amit, With the no. of views you mentioned, I’m sure you can earn more than $30/month. It all depends on various factors, to name a few: quality of your traffic, your engagement with your audience, etc. Start focusing on one article to be ranked on Google instead of 24 at once. Learn and implement SEO the right way, and most importantly, keep the patience, it is a long way.

      Make sure to check out this article to learn various ways to increase your new blog’s traffic – https://www.bloggingexplained.com/drive-blog-traffic/ All the best!

      Reply
  43. Rupam Sardar

    Hello,

    First of all thanks for sharing this good post. Indeed so insightful post ,and I am really benefited from this content.

    Besides, the design of this blog is so beautiful and caught my attention when i entered.

    Keep rocking!

    Rupam Sardar

    Reply

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