At last count, there were 1.7 billion websites online. A good chunk of those sites are personal and business-oriented blogs.

Why is blogging such a popular activity? Because A) It’s fun and B) In commercial situations, blogs have the power to drive transactions.

No matter what your intention is behind blogging, if you’re serious about starting a blog and aren’t sure what first steps look like, you’re in the right place!

In this post, we explore all the key things you’ll need to know in order to run your blog successfully. We hope that after reading this post, you’ll be able to chart your course from your blog’s inception to its profitability. In addition, to run a successful blog, one should have good blog planning.

Understand Your Goals

How you approach starting a blog will depend on what you want to achieve.

Do you want to make money? Are you just interested in blogging for expressive purposes? Who do you want to read your blog?

The more questions you ask yourself, the more clarity you’ll get on where you want to go. That clarity can empower you to pick the right content management system, templates, legal terminology, and more.

Note that goals can change as your blog evolves. It’s just important to have an aim from the get-go.

Be Realistic About Profitability

Most people we talk to about starting a blog are interested in making money. That’s great and certainly a possibility when it comes to blogging.

Understand though that profitability isn’t something that happens easily in the world of blogs. Reaching a point where you can generate a meaningful income off of your blog will likely take many years and may be contingent on your ability to develop products.

Let your passion for writing be your primary motivator to start when you pursue your blogging ambitions and the money will follow thereafter.

Get Familiar with Content Management Systems

When you launch your blog, you’ll probably do it on the back of a content management system. Content management systems are pieces of software that enable non-website-developers to build stunning, easy to manage sites.

The most popular of all of the content management systems on the market is WordPress which lets you start a blog for free. If you’re interested in getting started with WordPress, you can explore this WordPress guide.

Explore Web Hosting

Your blog has to live somewhere online in order for people to find it. That virtual home is usually going to be provided by a web host.

Web hosts are businesses that provide your website with online real estate in exchange for a monthly fee. When shopping for web hosts, know that pricing can vary substantially as will the performance hosts will enable your blog to exude.

Be sure to read web host reviews carefully when starting a blog as connecting with a poor host could mean a slow, glitchy, and expensive blogging experience.

Commit to Writing Tons of Content

This shouldn’t come as a surprise but in order to have a successful blog, it needs to feature lots of meaningful content. As a matter of fact, we like to say that bloggers should expect to write 50, high-quality posts before seeing any traction as far as readership goes.

It can get discouraging when writing to see that nobody is viewing your content. Rest assured though that as you start building your writing portfolio, search engines will begin to take notice and fans will start to flood in.

Know a Thing or Two About Marketing

If your goal is to build a big following for your blog, knowing a thing or two about marketing can’t hurt.

Social media is a great place to get started spreading the word about your blog. You can do that by sharing posts or by advertising your blog via paid ads.

You might also choose to engage influencers that have large followings in your niche to connect with their audiences.

Dip Your Toe in the Legal Stuff

Any time you put stuff out online, you run the risk of running into opportunistic lawyers that are going to try to shake you down for money.

For example, you might share an opinion on something and receive a notice for damages via a foreign country related to unconstitutional libel laws. You might alternatively share a photo to illustrate a point that a lawyer will claim copyright infringement regarding.

All of that to say that you should dip your toe in the water of what legal pitfalls exist when it comes to blogging to do your best to side-step adversity.

Engage with Others to Form Communities

More valuable than the potential to make money from a blog is the potential to make friends. As you start sharing your insight, you’ll find other people that share your thoughts and ideas.

Engage with those people! Blogs can serve as a wonderful bridge towards lifelong, rewarding friendships.

Starting a Blog Is a Lot Easier Than It Sounds

If you’re reading all of these steps and find yourself overwhelmed by the prospect of starting a blog, don’t be. Just take one step at a time and if you ever get caught when trying to overcome a hurdle, take a few moments to research solutions.

There is a wealth of resources available online concerning the launching of blogs!

If you’d like to explore more content on how to start a blog or related topics, our blog is a resource worth exploiting. We post new content frequently and would love for you to dive into everything we have to offer.