HOW TO START A BLOG IN 2022: A Simple Step-By-Step Tutorial For Beginner Bloggers

 okay welcome hello lovely human beings

welcome back to my channel i am mia and

i run a blog called shoedreamsallday.com

where i strive to empower introverts to

start vlogs

shine online and chase their dreams so

if you're into blogging if you resonate

with being an introvert

or just really into personal growth and

personal development please subscribe

and join the family but hey no pressure

at all i promise and in this video we're

taking it back to the basics and i'm

gonna be teaching you exactly

how to start a blog in 2021 step by step

tutorial how to all the things we're

gonna get into it i'm gonna make it

super easy for you guys so you can start

your own

successful blog this year and it's gonna

literally take you less than 30 minutes

to do this

as a fellow introvert i know what you

might be thinking right now

starting a blog starting an online

business sounds like a lot

sounds overwhelming intimidating and all

of that but really it isn't

it isn't at all anyone can do it and

it's a lot easier than you think

we're gonna break it all down and we're

gonna take it step by step

to you know remove all the overwhelm and

also a little note

on the price of starting a blog you can

start a blog today for less than four

dollars

that's less than a pumpkin soy latte

with extra foam

from starbucks so if you can skip the

latte this month you can start your blog

think about it so before we get into all

the things

i want to talk about my story with

blogging in a nutshell because i do have

other videos on this channel where i go

into

details about how i get started with

blogging and all of that i'm going to

link to a video right here

but starting a blog has been the best

thing that i've ever done

hands down but not in a million years

was it something that i

saw myself doing as a shy introvert who

basically scared of putting herself out

there

especially on the world wide web before

i started my blog i didn't really

understand the power of it and all the

possibilities that would come with it

building a lovely community and a brand

freedom to work from anywhere

sharing my thoughts with the world

making money online

and making an impact while boosting my

own

personal growth and the process are just

some of the lovely perks that come

with blogging and i knew nothing about

blogging before i embarked on my

blogging journey

i really didn't the good thing is that

blogging has nothing to do with being an

influencer and you don't need millions

of followers to be successful you really

don't

i started my blog while working full

time with very little time on my hands

and it was still

possible for me so if i can do this if i

can get on this blogging train

so can you believe you me and the

possibilities with blogging are truly

endless still today still in 2021

blogging is not dead it is not going

anywhere and if you do it right

you can also earn a significant amount

of

money blogging it's not all about the

money though you shouldn't start a blog

just for the money

i do want to say that but when you do

monetize your blog

the sky's the limit a little more pep

talk before we get into the tutorial

i want to say that anyone can make their

blog a success

with the right discipline with the right

commitment to their goals

it's amazing if you put in the work okay

enough babbling let's get into the

tutorial so here's a quick overview over

what we're gonna cover in this tutorial

step one decide on your niche blog name

and brand

step two sign up for hosting step three

install wordpress step four pick a theme

for your website to make it

beautiful step five start blogging

step six create your social media

accounts step

seven write your about page step eight

it's launch time and after that i wanna

share with you

tips on what you should be doing next

after you've launched your blog

as a brand new blogger so let's get into

it these are the exact steps that i took

when i first started my blog and i'm so

excited to share them with you so

without further ado

let's start your blog step one your

niche

your blog name and your brand in order

to start a successful blog

you need to make some decisions you need

to decide on what you're gonna blog

about so your niche you need to decide

on the name of your blog

and you need to decide on what you want

the look

and feel of your brand to be so the

colors the fonts the imagery

what's the look and feel of your brand

and also before i forget you want to set

an end goal with your blog

okay what is the ultimate goal why do

you want to start a blog in the first

place

this why is going to come in handy when

things you know get a little bumpy get a

little challenging

so make sure that you're starting a blog

for the right reasons and that you keep

your reason with you so maybe that's to

be able to leave your nine to five maybe

you want

freedom to work from anywhere maybe you

just want to impact a lot of people

either way just get clear on the goal

with your blog

so right now i want you to take some

time to brainstorm

your niche so the topics that you're

going to be blogging about your blog

name

and your brand and don't worry these

things can change

as i teach blogging is an ever evolving

thing

you can always change things up but

consider going into a hot market so

meaning there is proof of profits

and people are already blogging about

that topic

because if you want to monetize your

blog eventually you'll want to make sure

that

you're in a niche that's actually

monetizable

monetizable anyway people are making

money in that niche

and it's always better to start up broad

so for example if you want to blog about

personal development and then

you find out that your audience is

really interested in productivity maybe

you'll niche down and become a

productivity blogger so

start out broad with your niche and then

narrow down over time

and when it comes to your blog name

seriously spend 20 minutes on this

max use your own name use a thesaurus

use songs on your spotify playlist even

that's how i came up with my name

branding go to pinterest create a

pinterest board

with colors and moods that you really

like

to spark ideas for your brand and the

colors that you want to use

on your blog take some time and

brainstorm your name your niche and your

brand

and make the decision this is the

hardest part

making these decisions okay so if you

can do this

you're halfway there step two sign up

for hosting

once you have a plan in place it's time

to get technical

and sign up for hosting which is

essentially where your blog is gonna

live on the internet

the home or the house of your blog so to

speak

my number one tip for all newbie

bloggers is to sign up for bluehost

it is what i started with when i started

my blog and it's super

easy to set up bluehost currently hosts

over 2

million websites so in other words it's

crazy popular and there's a reason for

that

if you go for bluehost you'll also get a

free domain name

to go with your hosting package it's

just 395

a month which is like i said less than a

fancy starbucks latte

so buy one less coffee a month and

you're gonna become a business owner

easy peasy in all transparency i

am an affiliate for bluehost so if you

sign up using my link

in the description below i do get a

small commission at no

extra cost to you i only recommend

services that i have used myself

and i've had a good experience with so

good vibes only

but i wanted you to know that why

self-hosting is a must now you might be

thinking hmm this sounds a little

complicated maybe i'll just go with

tumblr or blogger or

wordpress.com hold your horses and

please don't go there

okay self-hosting is a must if you're

serious about blogging and you want to

eventually make money blogging and you

want to turn it into a business

you need to self host you need to own

your own domain name

also tumblr is so 2010 right i'm not

hating on tumblr

i just if you're serious about blogging

gotta buy your own domain name because

going with the free option

it's gonna come with a lot of

limitations and it's gonna be hard to

monetize

a free blog the free version of

wordpress is wordpress.com

and what we want to go with is

wordpress.org i know this is a bit

confusing but

wordpress.org is what we want and there

are a couple of reasons why i love

wordpress.org and why i recommend it so

much

it is free when you sign up for bluehost

okay it's gonna automatically

install after you've signed up for

bluehost bluehost and wordpress.org

are super compatible because

wordpress.org is so popular there are

tons of tutorials on it there are a

million beautiful themes to choose from

plugins all the things you need to make

your blog a success

wordpress automatically optimizes your

blog so it's going to be easier to find

by google hello blog traffic now

obviously wordpress.org

is what i use for my blog as well and

what i currently use

and it is what i recommend that you use

as well to make your life a little

easier then again it's a free country if

you want to go with something else

you do you honey but keep in mind that

this tutorial is going to teach you how

to set up your blog using bluehost and

wordpress.org

okay okay let's get you signed up for

bluehost let's go

so first click on the link in the

description she dreams all day dot com

forward slash bluehost if you're at any

point confused or you need more help

or you have any questions please let me

know in the comments below and i will

get back to you as soon as i can

let's do it when you click the link in

my description click on the get started

button

next up you're going to select your plan

now since you're just starting out the

basic plan

should be a good fit the basic plan is

also what i started out with

you can always upgrade your plan later

but honestly i don't think you need to

so most likely if you're just starting

out today you will not have a domain

registered

already so in that case once you get to

this page you'll just type in the domain

that you want to set up in the first box

on the left

create a new domain click next next

you're going to fill out your account

information so your first name your last

name your country

all that stuff and then your billing

information

so the best value for your box would be

to go with the

36 month plan which you can see right

here

this is going to lower your monthly

costs and you don't have to think about

money leaving your account for over

two years so it is important to note

that bluehost will

charge you for the entire amount upfront

but this is how they're able to offer

such a good deal for under four

dollars a month but in the long run

you'll save money this way

so make the commitment to blogging now i

went for the 36 month plan as well but

this is

of course completely optional choose the

plan that fits you the best

and you want to make sure that you take

the domain privacy protection

that's the only thing that i do

recommend that you set up

i don't think you need the site lock

security the code guard basic

just get the domain privacy protection

because this is gonna keep your

information

private so that you know nobody's gonna

call you nobody's gonna

be able to google your domain and find

your address

you don't want that all right and then

you're gonna create a password for your

bluehost account

nice work they say so your account is

ready to go and you can

log in to your bluehost dashboard

they'll log on in

and let's create a website it's gonna

ask you for the name of your site and

what your site's

tagline is you don't have to fill this

out right away you can do this later now

you can always change it just type in

your blog name

and if you have a tagline you can type

that in as

well now this part isn't really that

important but

toggle on the things that are relevant

to your blog next bluehost is going to

ask you to pick

a theme that inspires you you don't need

to do this right now you can click on

skip this step and you can always change

your theme later i'm going to suggest

that you go with something else for a

theme

which we're going to get into later in

this tutorial but doesn't matter just

pick a theme and click

next and now great work we are at step 3

and bluehost is now going to install

wordpress for you so when you've

installed wordpress you should see

this screen right here click on start

building

and you're going to be taken to your

wordpress dashboard which

now looks a little something like this

and you can start to familiarize

yourself with your wordpress dashboard

and you are now officially

a blogger congratulations so this is

where you can

customize your theme you can add pages

write your blog posts and so on

there are plenty of great tutorials here

on youtube where you can go

into depth on how to navigate your

wordpress dashboard

so i do suggest that you spend some time

now to familiarize yourself

with your wordpress dashboard next click

on launch

and decide on a site title and a short

description and you can obviously change

this as well

it doesn't really matter just click on

launch and you're done

you are ready to start blogging step

number four

it's time to pick a beautiful theme for

your blog on to the fun stuff

this is the fun stuff right designing

your blog picking your colors adding

images

making it look professional and dreamy

all at the same time for that to happen

my number one

theme recommendation for newbie bloggers

is the divi theme from elegant themes it

is the theme that i started out with

as well it's a drag and drop builder so

you have a lot of control

over how you want your blog to look and

you don't need to know

coding or anything like that you simply

drag and drop

i do want to give you a little bit of

advice when it comes to designing your

blog

i suggest that you don't go overboard

when it comes to colors

fonts and images and stick to two to

three main colors

two to three main fonts that you use and

that are

cohesive with your branding i know how

easy it is to get sucked

into this design bubble and just spend

you know a million hours of your day

working

on making your blog look perfect don't

do that

don't get sucked in no you should be

spending your time

on what's really important and that is

your content your blog posts

but trust me i've been there i've been

in that design bubble it's just a lot of

waste of time when you should be

focusing on

writing blog posts divi is also super

affordable

so i'm gonna link to this theme in the

description below

so you can check it out once you are

happy or semi-happy with your design

it's time to start blogging you did it

you've successfully

started your blog and you are here by an

entrepreneur

and a hashtag girlboss you are you are

high five i need to stop doing high

fives in my videos is it awkward

i think it's quite fun so with all this

technical stuff out of the way

you are ready to start blogging and

creating content for your audience

before you launch your blog and tell all

your family and friends that you've just

started your blog

i suggest that you set up your static

pages your about page your contact page

your legal pages

any page that isn't a blog post and

maybe write

one to two articles so that when you do

get traffic to your blog there's

actually something for the reader to do

and a reason for the reader to stick

around to learn more about what you're

about

step number six create your social media

accounts

because you need a place to share your

amazing content now

it would be ideal if your social media

handles

are the same as the name of your blog

for the brand cohesiveness right

so if that's possible that would be

ideal you can go to this link right here

to check the availability for your blog

name on

several social media platforms and here

are the social media platforms that i

recommend that you

start out with as a blogger instagram

even if you don't plan to make instagram

your soul focus

you should still be on there because it

is a great way

for your audience to get to know you

more to build that

like know and trust factor with your

readers so you can share more from your

personal life you can

hop on instagram stories to talk to your

audience

it's just a great platform for further

connection

pinterest okay i have an entire video

explaining why pinterest is amazing for

bloggers so you can check that out

here if you want to but pinterest you

gotta be on there this

is the number one platform for bloggers

especially when you're just starting out

it is the best way to drive traffic to

your blog consider creating a facebook

group

for your audience a place where people

can get to know you

even more and where you can engage with

them on a more personal level

facebook page linkedin if that resonates

with your audience and if your audience

is

on linkedin and i'm not even gonna

recommend

clubhouse or tiktok because i'm still

not on those platforms and i to be

honest i don't know

what they're all about but if you're

into that go ahead and sign up for

clubhouse and tick talk

as well step number seven write your

about page

so for me whenever i'm browsing the web

and i've just landed on a new blog that

i haven't

read before the first page that i go to

that i click on

is the about page because i want to get

to know who's behind this blog who's

writing this amazing content

so your about page is really important

your about page is going to set the

stage for your blog and is

it is where your valuable relationship

with your audience

begins step number eight launch

woohoo we have launched you have set up

your blog you have set up your

social media accounts you are ready to

do this

congratulations i am so happy for you i

really am

i remember how excited i was when i

first started my blog it's just

i was nervous i was excited i was

feeling all the feels

if you just started your blog let me

know in the comments below and share

your domain share your blog so i can

check it out

this video is going to be really long

guys but i hope you're finding it

valuable so

a few things to keep in mind when you're

on the blogging train

blogging is a long term game and it's

gonna take a little time

to build up domain authority on both

pinterest

and especially google have patience keep

going

stick with it blogging requires

consistency

to show up weekly for your audience and

to grow your audience

i alluded to this a little bit before

but don't overthink your blog's design

it won't be perfect in the beginning and

you're gonna get better at it

stick to the theme and the design that

you have chosen

for at least six months and focus on the

things that matter which is writing blog

posts and providing your audience with

amazing value in other words

avoid perfectionism i know it's hard but

we gotta avoid it

stay away i know how easy it is to feel

a little bit overwhelmed in the

beginning because with blogging there's

just so much to do right

tackle one thing at a time and learn as

you go

you're not gonna start out knowing all

the things about blogging

blogging is a long learning process

it's a journey and you need to enjoy

that journey self-doubt and fear is

normal but don't fall for it it doesn't

mean that anything has gone wrong

stick to your why and keep going and

know that you can grow your online

confidence

and presence over time you don't have to

shine online

right from the get-go and also you can

totally do this

next steps so once you have successfully

set up

and launched your blog your next focus

should be on

growing your audience and driving

traffic to your blog

and eventually monetizing it do yourself

a favor and don't go after all the

things

at once don't try to monetize your blog

at the same time

that you're driving traffic and building

a social media presence

start with traffic monetization comes

later

make sure that you spend some time

getting familiar with the blogging world

write your first blog posts drive

traffic from pinterest

before you monetize your blog basics

first you want to build the foundation

first

if you start out wanting to monetize

your blog who's gonna buy

your product where are you gonna earn

the money from if you don't have an

audience

right so audience first traffic comes

first

and as you know i recommend pinterest

for all new bloggers so

when you're ready to drive traffic to

your blog go on pinterest

watch this video and off you go i do

want to talk about how to make money

blogging and

i think i'm going to create a separate

video for that so watch out for that one

coming to a youtube channel near you

soon but i am so excited for you you

just started your blog

i am over here cheering you on like

kirsten dunst and bring it on please

don't make me feel

old and tell me you've watched it if you

want to learn more about blogging

how to make money blogging more details

on how to drive traffic to your blog

i have a free blogging course called

start your dream blog

for introverts and dreamers i'm going to

leave a link to that free course

in the description below and i hope

you'll join us there

and here's to you doing amazing things

aka starting a blog this year thanks so

much for watching i will see you in the

next one bye for now