Are you a writer who would like to publish your content online? Or maybe you want to position yourself online with a personal blog? Maybe you want to learn how to create a free blog to support your ecommerce? In any case, you have come to the suitable site.
Whatever your particular situation, if you woke up this morning thinking: “I want to create a blog”, congratulations. You already have 10% done. Now all you have to do is launch yourself into the adventure. In this article, we explain how to make a blog step by step and without complications.
7 Advantages of having a blog
If you are wondering “why create a blog?”, here we list the main advantages of opening a blog in 2023:
- Blogging can be an excellent marketing strategy to support your online store. In it, you can showcase some of your products and show their features and functionality.
- Another advantage of creating a blog is to enrich the relationship with your customers. A blog adds value to your customers by providing content that helps them get the most out of their purchase. Some people decide to start a blog simply to ensure happier customers.
- In the long run, it will help you improve your SEO positioning and convert more customers for free. And the results are almost permanent. For example, a blog post published months or even years ago, but well managed, can still bring potential customers to your website.
- In addition, it can help you position yourself as an expert within your dropshipping or ecommerce niche or even to boost your personal brand.
- Similarly, having a blog that shows the experience and values of your brand helps establish a relationship of trust with your visitors, while boosting loyalty to your brand.
- If you are consistent, you can even monetize your content and end up generating a little passive income. This can be through advertisements, guest posts or advertising mentions.
- But if even blogging is your exclusive activity, if you start to gain more and more readers, you could even incorporate an online merchandising store related to your blog. For example, if you have a sports blog, you could open an online store for sporting goods, clothing, and accessories. Great for getting some money.
The different types of blogs
Before explaining how to create a blog, you should know the different types of blogs that exist.
And for this, we are going to establish two different types of classifications: depending on the costs and depending on the themes.
Types of blogs according to their costs
Depending on the costs involved, blogs can be divided into two different types:
- Free blogs – Free blogs are those that are set up on free platforms like Blogger, Wix, or WordPress.org. They can be a good option to get familiar with the tools, but if you are going to use the blog on a commercial level, this option will fall short.
- Paid blogs: are those blogs that are hosted on paid hosting, using platforms such as WordPress.com. Depending on the type of hosting you choose, you will get better or worse benefits. But keep in mind that a paid blog is a much more professional option, if you want to use the blog for commercial purposes.
Types of blogs according to their theme
Today there are blogs of almost any subject and sector. Therefore, here we are only going to give you some brushstrokes about the main types of blogs that can be created:
- Personal blogs: blogs began as personal logbooks or diaries, in which each one wrote about what was happening to them in their day, reflected on their topics of interest and contributed content to their community.
- Professional Blogs – Over time, blogs have become great tools for professional use. More than anything because they are perfect for you to show your audience that you know a lot about your profession. Also, if you do a keyword study, you will be able to position yourself for more searches on Google.
- Travel blogs: there are many people who write about the trips they take. For this reason, travel blogs have become a great way to monetize hobbies related to tourism and travel.
- Corporate blogs: many large companies use blogs as a kind of press room in which they communicate to their audience the news and developments that are emerging within the company. Blogs have become the favorite site to also publish press releases and releases.
- Fashion blogs: Fashion generates significant business that can be channeled through blogs. Many girls have been able to become influencers thanks to the fact that every day they published, for example, their new look on their blog.
- Blogs for online stores: if you have an online store, you can create a blog with which you can channel communications with your customers and potential audience. In fact, many people prefer these types of channels to social networks. Not to mention that the blog will also help you improve your SEO by attacking more keywords related to your sector.
How to create a blog from scratch?
Now that you know the types of blogs that exist, and what are the benefits of designing a blog, it is time to know how to create a blog step by step and for free:
1. Define your goals
The first thing you have to define to make a blog is your strategy. As if it were a business plan.
And, to outline a strategy, you must first establish your goals. To do this, ask yourself: Why do I want to have a personal blog or with my brand?
The answer to this question will help you establish a general strategy to fill your blog with content, as well as the frequency of publication, the distribution channels and promotion of the article…
Wanting to start a personal blog to boost your individual brand is not the same as wanting to start a personal blog as part of your ecommerce content marketing. Will you be able to post weekly or monthly? Everything is important when establishing your strategy and objectives.
2. Choose a platform to create a free or paid blog
Once you have defined the objectives and content strategy, you must choose a platform on which to create a blog.
If you already have an online store, you can see if the platform where it is set up allows you to add blogs.
For example, on Shopify, stores have a section called News that you can use as a blog for your online store. If your store is on Shopify, you can follow the instructions to add the link to your blog hosted on a third-party platform at this link.
If your store isn’t on Shopify, we recommend looking into creating a subdomain on your website.
This is definitely the easiest option to create a free blog. So if you already have an ecommerce platform, check if it allows free blog creation.
However, if you are looking for how to make a personal blog, that is, without the intention of selling online, you will have to find a platform that allows you to make a blog.
Some of the best known and used platforms to make a blog are:
- WordPress
- Blogger (also known as Blogspot)
- Tumblr
- Medium
- Pulse (LinkedIn’s publishing platform)
In fact, many times users ask us directly how to make a blog in WordPress or blogger, but the truth is that each of these platforms has its advantages and disadvantages when it comes to making a blog.
Ease of use, possibility of creating a blog for free vs. monthly fee, possibility of customizing the hosting. The best thing is that you investigate the platforms a little more and decide which one best suits your needs.
3. Discover how to design a blog
Once you have the platform and domain name for your blog, one of the most important parts is the design.
Depending on the blogging platform you have chosen, there will be different options and design customization possibilities.
Have you ever heard of corporate identity? And what about the brand image?
You must choose a design whose colors, fonts, style… are attractive to your readers and, above all, consistent in all your materials.
Another point to consider is that the design should be clean and help reading. To achieve this, you can opt for a design in which white spaces predominate and a simple typography. And don’t forget that the design looks just as good on mobile devices as it does on desktop.
Perhaps this does not seem important to you now. We understand. You just want to know how to blog. But the truth is that if you want to have a successful blog, these details are essential.
4. Write the content for your blog
You’ve decided to learn how to start a new blog, but the web is already full of content. What value do your articles provide vs. those of the competition?
It is important that if you decide to open a blog, you do so to offer more value to the community. It is useless to write about the same topics that other writers are already writing about. Choose to have a new, different blog that surprises the reader and connects with him.
