All kinds of businesses including new and small ones start blogging as a way to build up a long-term audience. But today even the reverse is also happening, with an increasing number of bloggers wanting to learn how to start a business as a part of their blog & it does make sense.
One of the biggest challenges new businesses face is creating an audience for their products. New bloggers, on the other hand, often do the opposite, first building an audience by constantly posting good content, and then looking for ways to monetize their traffic.
If you just want a part-time job, setting up a blog is easy. But if you’re finding creative ways to make money as a blogger, you need to have a strategy in place on how to get your blog up and running successfully.
This guide covers in detail what you need to know in order to set up a blog and turn it into a source of traffic and income for your small business. And while our guide is for those who haven’t started their own business, it is also suitable for any job that wants to start blogging. But first, let’s answer the most obvious important question.
What is a blog?
The blog of a website contains content that usually focuses on a specific topic that you can update regularly. Unlike publications and articles, blogs tend to give a personal touch that helps you communicate effectively with your readers. People turn to blogging for a variety of reasons, including:
- Sharing their views, interests, or a peek in their lives
- Creating a list of emails
- Growing a personal brand
- Selling their product and services
These are some reasons why blogging can be incredibly satisfying, especially when people you don’t know start consuming your content but it surely demands a lot of commitment.
Whenever you post it is very important to be consistent not only in how often you post, but also in the type of content you post. You won’t see the results right away but it’s important to stay motivated early on by reminding yourself again and again about why you’re doing it.
How to start a business blog
For an Existing Business Website
For an existing website with no blog, you’ll have to first check the capabilities your CMS (content management system) for blogging.
If you are on WordPress, you are golden!
Originally created as a blogging platform, WordPress features are so much more robust now that it has become THE best platform for blogging.
WordPress is not only set up for SEO (search engine optimization), but the interface for creating blogs is very easy to use. It’s been my favorite website management system to use and develop on.
If you are not on WordPress, you can find out from your service provider about adding a blog to your website.
For a New Business Website
If you’re starting from scratch, here is a step-by-step process for starting your own small business blog today:
- Choose a blog name and domain name
- Choose a blogging platform
- Buy Your Hosting
- Choose and Install a Theme for Your Business Blog
- Create Essential Pages & Logo
- Get people to read your blog consistently
- Plan your publishing strategy
So, let’s deep dive into steps for a better understanding!
1. Choose a blog and domain name
Once you’re clear of your business goals and have finalized your niche, you should consider selecting a name for your business that you can use to buy a domain name e.g., myblog.com. You can use a hosting company like GoDaddy, Namecheap to find available names
Shopping for a domain name gives you time to think about what you’re going to call your website. Choose something that’s catchy, easy to remember, easy to type, and isn’t already taken by any other brand.
When choosing a domain name, aim to make it:
- Easy to remember
- Fun to call out
- Spells easy
- Unique
Choosing a name for your blog can be tedious, but a good brand name makes a memorable impression on readers and allows them to know what to expect from your company.
2. Choose a blogging platform
Before you write your first business blog post, you need to set up your blog hosting and content management system. This is where many bloggers get stuck if they’re not exactly sure which platform they should invest their time and money in.
When it comes to choosing a blogging platform, it usually boils down to one of these choices below:
Free Platforms
Free platforms include Blogger, Wix, and Squarespace, among many others. But, before you sign up on any of the free platforms, it’s important to note that they come with some drawbacks which may limit your ability to grow and monetize your tech blog in the future.
Drawbacks of Using Free Blogging Platforms
- They have Limited Theme Options
- When you use a free blogging platform, you cannot select a custom domain name, and you will get stuck with an unprofessional looking name
- You won’t be able to integrate important marketing tools tha twill leave you with limited functionality
- You will have very little to almost no control over your own website
- Very Few Monetization Options
- Free blogging platforms also have limited analytics and support
Well, the bottom line is that free hosting undermines the quality of your blog, which will make it really hard for you to get people to spend money on your tech blog.
Self Hosted
If you want to build a great-performing blog that you can grow over time, then a self-hosted WordPress blog is your smartest option.
WordPress is a publishing platform that has been around for ages. Over the years, it has continued to grow in popularity and now powers over a third of the blogs on the Internet.
Hosted
There are plenty of web hosting companies that help you get started now. Some are free, like GreenGeeks, GoDaddy, Namecheap.
When choosing a platform, think about the future and how you want to monetize your blog eventually. Not all platforms will give you everything.
3. Buy Your Hosting
Now that you have chosen your blogging platform and domain name, it’s time to buy the domain and a hosting service for your business blog. Hosting refers to the service that will actually get your blog online so that your audience can access your content. It can be likened to the online real estate on which you will build your blog.
You need a reliable web hosting company that will provide you with quality, affordable services.
So, when someone types in your website URL, then GreenGeeks (the host I recommend for beginners) will show your blog to the individual who searched for it. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can purchase web hosting on GreenGeeks:
Step 1:
First, we will visit the website of GreenGeeks and hit the ‘Get Started’ button.
Next, you will have to choose a hosting plan according to our requirements. The prices keep on fluctuating. So, you might see different rates on the website right now!
I went with the ‘Lite Plan’ because its features are almost similar to the Pro Plan. The only difference being that Pro Plan offers unlimited websites support, and enhanced performance!
Step 2:
Now, set up your domain name. We can either register a new domain name on GreenGeeks, or add the domain name you already bought while selecting your blog name. I always recommend buying domains from established domain registrars… I already have a domain, so I’m going to add it here.
Step 3:
Now, you will fill in the basic account information, package information and under server location, make sure you select ‘Europe’ because it’s the nearest to India.
If you want an annual plan, you can select it under the ‘Account Plan’ tab.
Finally, we will add our Credit Card details and hit the ‘Create Account’ button.
Step 4:
After completing our payment, we will receive a confirmation message that includes the order number. Once the verification is complete, we can log into our hosting account.
Step 5:
Finally, we will receive a mail comprising our login details after they complete the verification. Your dashboard will look something like this.
4. Choose and Install a Theme for Your Business Blog
Now that you have gotten through the essential setup of creating a blog, things will start becoming a touch a lot of fun. This next step involves selecting and installing a theme for your website and blog.
A theme is software that determines the look of your business blog, the design, and layout of the various pages on your blog. You only have a split second to convince people that your business blog is professional, authoritative, and trustworthy, and the right theme will go a long way in helping you achieve that goal. You can choose a free or paid theme
I personally recommend Astra and Envato Elements as they have the largest storage of unique, easy to use and budget-friendly themes.
But there are certain things that you should consider when choosing a theme.
- Choose a clean and simple theme for your business blog.
- Choose stylish theme with professional-looking templates
- Select a theme that is fast.
- Easy Customization
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Reliable Support
- Reviews and Ratings
5. Create Essential Pages & Logo
Every business blog or website should exhibit some foundational information, such as who you are, why people should read your blog, and how they can get in touch with you if they want to work with you or get their questions answered.
So, after the technical setup of your blog is completed, it’s time to create the main pages of your blog and your logo. These include the About page, Contact page, and Privacy Policy page. Below, I go into a bit more detail on what you should include on each of these pages.
About Page
The about page will normally include a longer description of who you are or about the company. This is where you can describe your ethos and the history of the company, for example. Explaining what makes you different from the competition will often convince visitors to stay on your website or make a purchase from you.
Contact Page
There is no point in having a great website if your customers can’t figure out how to get in touch with you. This is where your contact page comes in. Typically, you want to include your phone number, email address, mailing address, and social media channels. It is also common to include a contact form that sends an automatic reply message or general information to the applicant. While having a clear and easily accessible contact page is crucial, you should also include your primary contact information in places like the footer and/or header of your website.
Privacy Policy Page
With ever stricter data protection regulations, a data protection declaration is a must on every website. You must describe what data you collect from your website visitors and how they are passed on, stored, and processed. It is also important to educate the users of the site. how to get a copy of all the data your website collects from them.
Just as important as a privacy policy page is a terms and conditions page. This page explains the rules that visitors must follow when using your website. You want to specify how your website works and the rules and guidelines for its use. They should also include information about what country law applies to the agreement, disclosure of any applicable intellectual property or copyright laws, and a clause stating that you will not do so. responsible for all links to third parties.
Create a Logo
If you have not yet thought about a logo for your business blog, it’s time to focus on creating a logo. If you are looking for a professional and meaningful logo for your small business, we can help you with that. Just get in touch with us by clicking here.
6. Get People to Read Your Blog Consistently
We usually talk about growing your audience after you’ve started posting, but if you want to build momentum quickly you need to think about it before you even start. You need to get the most out of every post you make.
Start collecting emails as soon as possible
It doesn’t matter what platform your blog is on; you should focus on getting email subscribers. Each new subscriber is a sign that you’re doing something right and is a potential regular reader that you can easily reach. But it is not enough to have a subscriber list.
A good habit is to embed contact forms right into your content or landing page, with a call-to-action to subscribe. You can even embed one in an exit popup to turn abandoned visitors into subscribers.
Many email marketing solutions allow you to easily create and use these forms. You can even create a link that will take you to a separate contact page that you can link to on your blog posts, social media, and email signatures.
Visitors won’t subscribe to your blog if you don’t ask and make the process easy for them.
Always remember to go after Search Engine Traffic
You can get an insight into how much search volume there is for particular search queries in your niche through simple keyword research. The higher the number, the more demand there is for that topic and the chances of getting more traffic in the long term for your business blog
The easiest way to do this is by using SEMrush and entering search terms from the point of view of your audience and try to unearth interesting post ideas. Queries starting with “how-to” or “best..” is always the best place to start.
Even if you don’t land a spot on the first page of the search engine results, you’ll have a content idea with proven demand.
Set up your social media strategy
When starting out, every small business owner thinks that being on every single social media platform is a smart move but that gets hard to manage fast and isn’t always effective.
Instead, research first and find out the channels where your audience spends the most time. Depending on your niche and your resources, your choice of channels will vary.
A Facebook page is a good resource for any business blog willing to pay to promote its content. On the flip side, a budget-conscious food blogger is likely to get a lot more free engagement on Pinterest and Instagram than on Twitter.
Understand analytics to understand your audience
The best opportunities are hidden in your data.
Depending on what platform you choose you’ll have different metrics to look at, but you’ll at least see the number of views and where your visitors are coming from, which can tell you a lot about your performance.
Whichever platform you are using, take some time out to set up Google Analytics on your site (it’s free). You can get deeper insights, like the average amount of time people spent reading your post, the quality of the readers coming from different sources, and even the number of readers in real-time.
7. Plan your publishing strategy
Every business needs to keep a healthy supply of ideas, and it helps if you plan ahead to ensure you never run out.
I highly recommend you create a content calendar to help you keep track of your ideas (and keep yourself on track, too).
You can use a simple spreadsheet to plan your content calendar, but I recommend Asana since it’s free and also makes for a good place to dump ideas and organize them.
Thinking about your content mix is also important to get a sense of the scope of your blog and what categories/tags you might use to organize it all as you add more content in the future.
Keep in mind that you won’t grow your audience overnight. You’ll have some hits and some misses, but you need to keep going to keep growing.
Start building your blog today
Whether it’s your first blog or you’ve done this a million times, it’s your audience that ultimately determines the success of your journey. Focus on growing this audience as you add new content on a regular basis and you’ll see your traffic and reach grow as well.
Blogging isn’t just fun and fulfilling—it’s also one of many paths to entrepreneurship. If you think like an entrepreneur when you start your blog and aim high when it comes to growth, you can build a valuable audience that can help power your business for a long time to come.
