How to create your own blog for free and where to start. How to open your own blog How to create your own blogger

Hello new bloggers! Vasily Blinov is in touch and today I am presenting a new large section in which my team of authors and I will examine the question of how to create your own blog on the Internet and make it popular.

There are dozens of ways to create a blog; now there are a lot of different tools for this. Depends on what you want to get. I think most of you are interested in the question, and this is the primary reason why you are reading my article now.

Such an interest is quite normal and, I would say, correct, so there is no need to be shy and deceive yourself that you want a blog for the soul. Money is an indicator of success, a motivator, a force leading to action; without it, as practice shows, not a single blogger has become successful. Remember that the greater the financial result, the more interesting and useful you can do for people and society as a blogger.

Based on this, I set myself the task of showing how to make such a blog and what you need to learn for this.

Where is the best place to blog?

We are all people of different development, predisposition and I cannot give a universal answer here. Some people find it easier to record video, so there are no better options. Some people just want to share short stories and photos, they and other social networks. networks.

And some, like me, prefer to write a story and convey information in text, in the best traditions of blogging, since the times when diaries were written on paper. Combining text and video material on the pages of your blog.

Yes, I think creating your own blog site is the best option. Of course, there are various special services like Blogger.com, LiveJournal ( LiveJournal) and others, they are free, but they have a lot of shortcomings that block the opportunity to become popular and engage in monetization.

Therefore, the ideal option is to create a personal blog on your own domain and hosting, be the complete owner of it and be able to do whatever you want.

Step by step guide

Below you will find step-by-step instructions leading to dozens of lessons and individual articles on the topic. I think this instruction will be useful not only for beginners, but also for those who have been blogging for a long time.

It is still incomplete; we will edit it and supplement it with new questions as we go along. You, too, can take part in improving it and write in the comments questions that you have not yet found an answer to.

I’ll say right away that we won’t touch on some technical issues related, for example, to layout. If you have any problem with the site design or its functions, then contact the layout designers. I’ll tell you in a separate lesson how and where to find a layout designer.

Preparation

• How to choose a niche for a website?
• Lesson in KB " How to choose a site niche».
• Lesson in KB " How to conduct a niche and competitor analysis».
• How to create a site structure (categories)?
• Lesson in KB " How to properly structure a website».
• Come up with a name and description for the site

Blog creation

Setup and optimization

• Setting up the Hyper Cache plugin
• Installing a logo (favicon)
• bread crumbs
• Social sharing buttons
• How to backup your database and entire website
• Customizing the 404 error page

Connecting analytics

• Connecting Yandex Metrica
• Connecting Yandex Webmaster
• Connecting Google Analytics
• Connecting Google Webmaster
• Connecting LiveInternet statistics
• LiveInternet and RDS Bar browser extensions

Basic lessons on working with WordPress

• How to create categories?
• How to create new posts (articles) and edit them?
• How to create a page (adding required pages)?
• How to configure widgets?
• How to customize the menu?
• Drop-down menu for page settings in the admin panel?

Article writing and optimization

• Article structure (headings)
• Collecting keywords for an article
• Competitor analysis
• Review of the Keys.so service. The Keys.so service helps you analyze competitors and collect search queries based on competitor articles.
• How to configure the KeyCollector program?

A blog is an informational type of website, ideal for monetizing traffic. By making periodic entries on the topic, the blogger will attract the audience, make them want to comment, come up with new topics for posts, expand the number of sections, increase the detail and quality of information. The main thing is to clearly understand what and for whom it will be conducted. There's only one small thing left to do: actually, create a blog as a website, not an idea.

You can create a blog with your own hands in several ways. Let’s immediately discard the unrealistic options - write from scratch in a notepad, use frameworks and custom engines - you don’t even have to delve into this topic. It’s complicated, ineffective, and not relevant in our time. You can also order a ready-made blog from a freelancer or a web studio - but this option is also uninteresting for most.

Where is the best place to start a blog?

As we have already said, there are only two paths leading to creating a website - using a CMS or a website builder.

CMS

With engines in CMS format, the situation is obvious - you need to buy hosting and install a distribution kit on it, for example the WordPress engine.

Website builder

There are many theoretically attractive options among website builders, but not all of them are suitable.

So, from everything that happens on the topic of the question, we have two working options: the WordPress engine + hosting and some kind of website builder (we will choose which one below).

Creating a blog on WordPress + Bluehost hosting

The official website of Wordpress.org developers recommends using Bluehost services. This is a large, technologically advanced provider, one of the world leaders in the industry. It has a dedicated line of tariff packages with server and control panel settings optimized for effective work with WordPress.

Let's list the significant advantages of Bluehost:

• Automatic installation of WordPress in 1 click;
• The servers are equipped with SSD drives, which provides high speed and reliability;
• The maximum range of supported technologies (MySQL, PHP, Perl, Zend Optimizer, cron, VPS/VDS, editing.htaccess, etc.);
• Convenient control panel (modified version of cPanel);
• Free testing for a month and assistance in transferring sites from other hosting;
• Failure-free operation of servers, high performance;
• Using cloud storage, CloudFlare CDN technologies - sites on Bluehost in RuNet work as fast as in Europe or America, for example;
• About 120 data centers around the world - one of the largest and most technologically advanced networks in the world, serving more than 2 million domains; Reliable protection against DDoS attacks;
• Abuse resistance - if competitors start complaining and putting pressure on the hoster, your blog will not be closed;
• 24/7 technical support (but only speaks English).

Hosting for 1 blog will cost $2.95 (50 GB of storage, domain for 1 year and SSL certificate as a gift), you can use 100% moneyback within 30 days after payment. If you are interested in seeing the technical characteristics of the hoster’s hardware, additional services, nuances of tariff plans, etc., take a look at the official Bluehost website.

Creating a blog in the uCoz blog builder

Online designers impress with their convenience: you don’t need to buy anything separately, install it, put it together and configure it - hosting, a set of templates for different topics, marketing and SEO tools, as well as other functionality necessary for assembling a website are included. Maintaining such a site yourself is much easier and much faster.

When we talk about a blog, we mean a site containing copyrighted materials on a specific topic: software, cars, music, food, construction or anything else.

To create such a site, the engine must meet a number of requirements. Often, platforms with a visual WYSIWYG editor (such as uKit) are not entirely suitable for large, proper blogs, because they are not convenient for frequent publication of text content. If you need to give free rein to your thoughts once a week, posting your impressions of a movie you watched or a new book, then almost any construction set will do.

If you are planning a serious blog, progressively growing in volume, with sections, a developed media grid, a convenient commenting system, subsequent promotion and monetization, then you need a reliable, functional site builder.

Make a blog yourself or order a turnkey one?

The answer is obvious - It’s better to create a blog yourself. From a technical point of view, the task is simple; absolutely anyone can start a blog - even a schoolchild or a pensioner. The main thing is to have computer skills at a general average level, navigate the Internet, be able to type, think logically and follow instructions.

You can order a ready-made blog if you have extra money or you are so far from working with a PC that the idea of ​​creating a website is associated in complexity with mastering nuclear physics from scratch or so. That is, you need a blog, but even in your fantasies you cannot imagine creating it yourself. And you firmly do not want to do this. Well, or you are a celebrity who needs a reliably strong result to be sure to meet the expectations of the audience.

For most people, it does not make sense to order the creation of a turnkey blog for an nth amount of money from third-party developers who will assemble it on the same WordPress/builder and configure the output of publications. You can do this yourself in one evening - there is nothing to pay for.

By working on your own, you can save a decent amount of money - about 5-7k rubles when ordering work from a beginning freelancer; it will be much more expensive from experienced developers and web studios. Based on the ratio of investment of time/effort to this amount, the undertaking will turn out to be very profitable. It is better to spend the money saved on promotion, purchasing a premium template or contextual advertising.

A blog is clearly not the type of site that is worth buying ready-made. In the process of work, it is important to learn how to maintain and maintain a blog yourself; it is real and not difficult. Constantly paying someone to add posts and administer your blog? This is not rational, at least you will agree. It's also expensive and slow. A blog is a type of website that is not ordered, but created and maintained independently.

How much does it cost to make a blog?

You won't be able to create a blog completely free of charge. At a minimum, you will need to buy a domain name. Domain registration is always paid - the price depends on the zone.com, .net, .pro. On the uCoz constructor, you can buy a domain (from $11/year) through the control panel of your website. And if you subscribe to the “Optimal” tariff for a period of one year, you can receive any domain free of charge as a gift of your choice.

The basic cost of running a blog on WordPress will cost approximately from ~$40 to $200 per year: Bluehost hosting ($31/year) + domain (approximately $8/year) in the.com zone. The expense item can be supplemented by a purchased unique template (from $40), paid plugins (there are many of them) and, possibly, the services of a specialist - the creation of some kind of module, modification of the template, some other coding or configuration.

The cost of maintaining a blog on uCoz differs depending on the tariff and the one-time renewal period (for a month, a year or 2 years) and ranges from ~$28 to $153 per year. For example, if you pay for two years you will receive a 30% discount, if you pay for one year at once - 20%. You can also get a guaranteed 50% discount by paying for a suitable tariff plan in the first two days after registering your site in the system.

Creating a blog on WordPress and uCoz has approximately the same cost. The difference is that for the money uCoz is much more ergonomic, allows you to manage the process from one control panel, has a wide range of modules out of the box, templates, and gives you a domain. Just don’t forget about the -50% discount at the start. This is the recipe for a happy blogging life.

How to blog so that people read it

There are different blogs. Initially, this concept meant something like a personal diary. The person shared his knowledge, experience, opinion about the events around him, and all the entries were arranged in chronological order, forming a news feed. Nowadays, a blog means a website whose content is displayed in a news feed format. This could be a thematic resource like ours, where we are not talking about personal experience and impressions of any events, but describe a certain niche from an expert point of view. The author's personality may fade into the background, the most important thing is useful content. It turns out something like the author's encyclopedia on the selected profile.

The general point is that you must understand the topic of the blog, be able and want to regularly write in its direction. Otherwise, your passion won’t last long. And stability is important. If a blog is for the soul, and you don’t think about monetization in advance, then write according to your mood. However, rare publications are unlikely to gain you an audience. Lack of demand can also discourage blogging. So combine approaches for the soul and for business, pleasure and discipline - this is the best combination.

The blogging industry has undergone significant changes recently. And there are even more questions about how to create your own blog and make money from it in the new realities.

And if you are now on this page, it means that you are most likely also interested in this question and would like to find not just an answer to it, but to receive detailed and step-by-step instructions. Is not it?

If this is really the case, then I hasten to please you - right now you are in the right place and here you will learn absolutely everything you might need in the topic of creating, promoting and monetizing your own blog. From scratch to serious results.

But before that, let me immediately answer the question that may arise at the very beginning: “Why can I actually tell and teach you this?”

The fact is that I have been a professional blogger with more than 5 years of experience, and during this time I have created more than 100 projects, both for myself and for my clients. In various niches and topics. Some were successful, and some were failures. But one thing I can say for sure is that during this time I have accumulated a very large amount of experience, which I share on the pages of my blog.

Now let's get to the fun part. A huge request: turn off everything that can distract you and pay very close attention to the content of this post. This is a complete step-by-step instruction that will answer all your questions about blogging, but will require a certain amount of time to read.

The Internet is developing at a very high speed. It is now literally in every apartment and in every corner of the planet. And every day it is gaining more and more momentum.

With the increase in users, the demand for completely different niches and topics also increases. And as we know, demand creates supply. And in this regard, hundreds of new Internet projects, including blogs, appear on the Internet every minute.

The main goal of most blogs is to make money. After all, really, why not. In fact, a blog is one of the most profitable and effective platforms for making money in various ways, which we will talk about a little later.

But not always and not for everyone, a blog is only a source of income; there are some other tasks that your own blog can solve. For example: If you already have a blog, then please write in the comments your opinion, why do you need a blog? It will be very interesting to find out.

Since the most common and pressing task of a blog is making money, and many are interested in this very question, let’s look at the real numbers of how much you can earn by having your own high-quality blog.

As you can see from my screenshots above, approximately the average income from the SeoKos blog alone is about $1000, although I plan to increase this figure at least twice by the end. And this is absolutely real.

Of course, it is impossible to unambiguously answer the above question, because... Earnings directly depend on the author of the blog and will be different for everyone, but I can say one thing - you will earn an additional 10-15 thousand rubles per month in any case if you approach the development of your blog correctly.

Do you need your own blog?

At the very beginning, before you start creating a blog and carrying out various work with it, your task is to decide whether you need this blog at all or not.

Yes, indeed, it also happens that people create blogs for themselves, but they absolutely do not need them and therefore, accordingly, do not bring any benefit or income.

Therefore, to understand whether you need your own blog or not, please answer the following questions:

1. Do you have your own online business?
2. Do you have experience in any niche that you can share with others?
3. Are you ready to constantly learn new things and develop yourself?
4. Do you want to have an additional (or even permanent) source of income?

Choosing a niche for a blog

One of the most important points in blogging is the correct choice of topic (niche). A lot depends on this. After all, if at the very beginning you choose the wrong topic, you will definitely abandon your blog soon, no matter how sad it may sound.

Therefore, take your choice of niche seriously.

Now we will look at the image with which we will work in the future.

We see three key points: “Like it, Profitable and Professional.” Based on them, you should choose a topic for your blog.

First of all, the topic should Do you like it: You should just be thrilled that you created a blog on this very topic. That is, as many say, you should be “bursting” with it. You write an article - you feel good, you created a course - you feel even better.

Do you like building houses with your own hands? Great, blog about this topic, the topic of DIY construction. Are you a good child teacher? OK, no problems. Are you an excellent cook preparing super-delicious salads? Congratulations, you are now also a blogger.

The second thing you need to understand is the topic of the blog. must be profitable. That is, in addition to the fact that you like to do it, it must also be well monetized.

But here, in most cases, no problems arise, since at the moment almost all topics are profitable - that’s a fact. BUT! Some topics bring more profit, others less. Therefore, pay your attention to this fact too.

Here is a list of the most profitable blogging topics:

• Tourism
• Education
• Health and beauty
• Relationship
• Self-development
• Technique
• Construction
• Medicine
• Business and finance
• Cooking
• Women's theme
• Sport

And third: you must be professional in this topic. That is, in addition to the fact that you like it and it is profitable, you must be a master in this topic. Otherwise, 99% of the time, you will burn out.

How to check what topic you are an expert in? Everything is very simple. Take a piece of paper from your notebook and divide it into two equal halves.

Next, on the left half, write 5 topics (if you can, more) in which you understand better than your 9 friends. Even if you understand only 10% -15% better, then you still already understand this area, you just need to improve and you will become a professional.

Next, ask a few of your friends or family, have them write 5 topics that, in their opinion, you understand better than others. After all, it’s always clearer from the outside. And write frequently recurring topics on the right half of the piece of paper.

After that, all you have to do is compare the left and right halves and choose ONE from the 10 resulting topics. The one in which you are truly a professional. Here, when choosing, focus only on yourself, which topic you like best.

Also, when choosing a topic for a blog at the final stages, you need to pay attention to competition and demand. I will discuss these and other aspects of choosing a niche in more detail in one of the following articles, so I definitely recommend subscribing to the blog newsletter so as not to miss this post.

Purpose and mission

Very few blogging experts talk about the fact that it is very important and absolutely necessary to take care of the goals and mission at the beginning of blog development.

If you don’t know what you want, then you won’t get anywhere and you won’t achieve anything, because... Actually, you don’t know what you want. This is logical, this is the truth.

Immediately after choosing a topic, your task is to take a piece of paper, write on it the main goal and secondary ones. And now I will tell you about those points that need to be applied when setting goals.

And the first thing I would like to draw your attention to is that the main goal should be ONE. That is, what you want to achieve as a final result. For example, my main goal is to teach as many people as possible about blogging and information business through a blog.

Also, there may be subgoals, that is, some secondary goals that perfectly complement the main one, without interfering with moving towards it, or that help to get closer to it.

If you don’t have a goal yet, then quickly take a notepad, pen and read on. I recommend using a notebook.

So, take a notepad and write the main goal, following the following rules:

1. The goal must be specific.
2. The goal must be measurable.
3. The goal must be realistic.
4. The goal must be relevant.
5. The goal must be tied to a specific time frame.

That is, in essence, we set goals using a well-known technique called SMART.

What can you write as a goal?

Do you want to become a successful and popular blogger? Write like that. Do you want your blog to become your source of income? Write. Do you want to make your blog a converter of visitors into clients? Please.

But under no circumstances write for the purpose of “I want to earn a lot of money.” This is not a goal... You will only fill your brain with the thought of this, and besides earning money you will not think about anything else. After all, if you become successful and popular, then there will be money, isn’t it logical? There will be an audience, visitors, subscribers, they will order advertising, some reviews, etc.

Also, in addition to the main goal, it is necessary to set secondary ones.

Therefore, we turn to the notebook again and below we write 10-15 secondary goals that ALLOW us to get closer to the main one.

In addition to goals, I ask you to pay special attention to such an equally important element as the mission. It is important not only in life, but also in blogging. Many, and not only beginners, simply lose sight of this, but in vain. Now I will explain why.

The mission of a blog is the strategic direction of the development of your blog, the reason for which you run it.

Just don’t confuse plans and goals with the blog’s mission – they are completely different.

The mission is why you created your blog and what benefits it should bring to people.

The mission of the blog should be a brief but clear definition of what you want to teach readers, that is, what result to bring them to. And most importantly, your mission should contain one cool idea that the mission is why you took up blogging in the first place.

Also, another important point when creating your own blog on the Internet is creating a strategy for its development. This is exactly what I would like to tell you about right now.

In fact, the future fate of the project, as well as your earnings, will directly depend on the strategy you choose and create. Therefore, take this step carefully and seriously.

There are several strategies that everyone uses for their projects. Some of them are more effective, some less. Some are very easy to use, some are not. And the most important thing is that they have different tasks and goals.

This strategy is called “Blog for information business.”

Everything is very simple. And the name speaks for itself.

Yes, perhaps someone will now shudder at the word “info business” and will reach out to close the tab and my blog, but do not make hasty conclusions. Unfortunately, the reputation of the information business has recently been damaged and many people treat it with caution and caution. But let’s agree that by this phrase we will understand exclusively the white information business, which really brings benefits and results to others.

So, the main task of such a strategy is to obtain free traffic from search engines using content, communicate with visitors again through content, then convert into subscribers and clients.

This is a long-term business. But it is maximally profitable, efficient and ready to generate profits for years.

This is what the blog development scheme looks like, which I suggest you use:

In the near future, another very useful and voluminous post will be released, in which I will talk in more detail about this strategy, how to implement it, use it, and also share my methods and secrets on this issue, which I have accumulated over 5 years in the field of profitable blogging.

In order not to miss this post, I strongly recommend subscribing to the newsletter for announcements of new posts and blog site news. To do this, use the corresponding button under the article.

Technical part

One of the main problems of most new bloggers is neither choosing a niche, nor strategy, nor creating content, but rather the technical side of it all.

And although in fact, this stage can be completed in literally a couple of days, some people “stretch out this pleasure” for several months, or even years, constantly tweaking or changing something.

It’s important to understand here that you shouldn’t worry too much about the technical part. This is not the most important thing you should spend your resources on: strength, nerves and time. Moreover, for good reason, this is the work of technicians and programmers. And if suddenly you need to implement or correct something specifically in technical terms, then find a good specialist and delegate it to him.

But not all. Issues such as registering a domain, hosting, installing and configuring WordPress are quite banal, simple and can be done by absolutely everyone, even a beginner. Therefore, you can solve such issues yourself, and now I will help you with this.

Domain selection and registration

Since this stage requires clarity and a practical example, and not a set of letters, I decided not to describe all the steps of choosing and registering a domain, but to provide you with video lessons from my paid training course.

Choosing and registering hosting

Choosing and registering hosting is a little more complicated than with a domain name, but still quite easy and fast. Moreover, again, I have prepared a visual video lesson for you.

Installing and Configuring WordPress

The domain has been purchased, hosting has been registered, what next? And then we need to install and configure the platform on which we will actually create our blog.

In fact, the number of such platforms (engines or CMS, whichever is more convenient for you) is very large. And each time their number increases. They differ in tasks, functionality, cost, etc. There are a lot of factors.

But for blogging it is customary to use the popular free engine – WordPress. Which is truly a leader in its category and is used by millions of projects, incl. blogs.

You can learn how to install and configure WordPress from these videos:

Also, in addition to the settings that I talk about in the lesson, you need to install and configure several required plugins. Unfortunately, within the framework of this article I will not be able to talk about setting up each of them, but I will provide a link to the list itself.

Project appearance

If the last few stages were of a technical nature, then now is the time to switch to the creative wave, because we have reached the external component of the blog.

There are various rumors going around here. Some say that appearance and design play a huge role in the development and promotion of a blog. But someone, on the contrary, argues that this does not play any role and there is no point in spending your time and money on developing some unique design and fussing over every element of it.

And I partly agree with both opinions.

Design does play a role, but you shouldn’t put all your efforts into developing it and bringing it to perfection.

Most likely you know that there are a huge number of blogs on various topics on the Internet and their number increases by tens of thousands every day. And a person, when he comes to any project, immediately looks at two things: the text and the design, after which he makes a conclusion - whether he will continue to be there and read the articles or not.

But this does not mean that you need to order a super powerful, cool design for your blog for 100,000 rubles with hand-drawn elements and a bunch of all sorts of graphic elements. In fact, this is unnecessary. And a little further we will talk about this in more detail.

Blog structure

The most important thing in the appearance of a blog is its correct structure. One that will not only appeal to visitors, but also communicate with them using various elements.

A cap.

It is this element that the visitor sees immediately when he switches to your project. And here it is very important to show him right away what you offer and whether you will be useful to him.

This can be done using the following elements:

• Logo and blog name
• Short description
• Top menu with list of pages

Your job is to ensure that all three of these elements reflect the overall mission of your blog and succinctly convey what he learns about on its pages.

And one more important point that few people use - install a subscription form in the header for your main lead magnet or a button for the subscription page. This will increase the chances of capturing contacts from your visitors several times. The most important thing is that this element fits elegantly into the overall design concept and does not scare people away.

Content part.

This is the main part where your content is displayed. And here, too, there are rules for how best to use this area. Let's get started.

On the main page of the blog, the content part looks almost the same for everyone. This is a list of recent article announcements. It can be in one column, in two, in three, with thumbnails, without them, etc. Or maybe even a static page with a description of your project. This is everyone's business. I recommend using announcements of the latest posts, this is the most reasonable solution.

Inside the posts, the content part looks a little different and it may be different for everyone. But the most important thing is to adhere to the following structure: title, content, post itself, social media buttons, subscription form, comments. You can also add various banners and blocks to attract visitors to take some targeted action.

On static pages, the structure is almost identical to pages with posts, so we won’t pay special attention here.

Sidebar (sidebar).

This part of the appearance is either to the right or to the left of the main content part (or maybe both). But I still strongly recommend using a sidebar to the right of the content; this makes the most sense in terms of usability and convenience for visitors.

The design of the sidebar can be completely different, it all depends on your imagination or the imagination of the designer from whom you want to order a design, and in fact there is not much difference. The most important thing is that this part fits into the main design concept as ergonomically as possible and only complements it, and does not focus all the attention of the visitor on itself.

The main task of a sidebar is to place additional elements to communicate with the audience without distracting from the content. And here I recommend including the following: search, subscription form, one or two thematic banners, sections. Nothing extra.

Basement.

Now we have reached the final element of the appearance of any blog. This element is located at the very bottom of the project, hence the name - footer or basement.

It may be completely absent, which happens on many projects where there is nothing else at the bottom except “All rights reserved”. And I think this is the most wrong action. It is very stupid not to use the capabilities of the footer for your own purposes to improve the comfort and conversion of your blog.

What I mean? Yes, even a simple subscription form or a button on the subscription page is better than nothing. And also be sure to duplicate the top menu with links to the main pages so that any user can click on them without unnecessary movements.

Just look at how the basement is made at least on my blog or other successful projects and model it for yourself.

Design

Now let’s talk in just a few paragraphs about the graphic design of your blog.

What should it look like, is it important to have a unique and original design, should you order it for 50,000+ rubles, or can you get by with a regular free template from the WordPress stock catalog?

If we now find a dozen blogs and analyze them based on their appearance, we can notice their maximum similarity in graphics. This is because most blogging experts who teach it produce “copies” in their training programs, like an incubator.

Especially, as I already said, this is noticeable in the graphic design of the design itself.

And it turns out that the main task of design - to stand out and emphasize authorship - simply stops working. Because there are hundreds of thousands more like you who want to stand out. And in the end, all the blocks still have a very large number of similarities.

But what to do?

In fact, the most important thing in design is to focus on convenience and signature elements. That is, a unique header, logo, simple navigation, unique thumbnails for posts and your photo in a prominent place - this is already quite enough in the current realities.

Therefore, there is no point in ordering a hand-drawn design for 50,000 rubles or more, but you can either remake some free or inexpensive template yourself (if you have such skills), or order a simple but original design from some trusted specialist for 5 000 – 10,000 rubles and that’s more than enough.

Content – ​​90% of success or not?

Have you also heard that content is the king of any website or blog? Do you think this is really the case?

Actually yes. Unconditionally. But you won’t get far on content alone. It's just fuel. Which generates new visitors for your project. And the more quality fuel you prepare, the further and more interesting your blogging journey will be.

The most important thing to understand here is that content for the sake of content has not worked for a long time. There is no need to rivet a hundred articles using the “Saw-copied-pasted” method and hope for a return. It is pointless.

In the harsh reality of information sites, content plays a huge role. It should be of high quality, as close to unique as possible, written by people for people, and most importantly, not only answer the visitor’s question, but also give him more than expected. This is exactly the kind of content that is working now and will continue to work in the next few years.

How to write an article that will bring traffic

Unfortunately, this topic is very broad and requires at least a series of posts, not just a couple of paragraphs. Therefore, let me now write a short checklist on writing and optimizing articles and at the end I will give a link to my more detailed cheat sheet on this issue.

The entire process of writing an article can be divided into three stages:

• Introductory stage;
• Creative stage;
• The final stage.

Each of these stages includes many more steps that need to be completed so that your blog article turns out not just like a text footcloth, but really high-quality material that will not only appeal to search engines, but will also spread across the Internet by word of mouth.

Introductory stage.

1. Creating an avatar for an ideal visitor;
2. Creation of a semantic core;
3. Creating a content plan.

The most interesting and pleasant thing here is that this stage does not need to be completed before writing each article. It is performed only at the very beginning of your journey, and then from time to time it is adjusted and brought to the ideal.

Creative stage.

But here everything is a little more complicated, but at the same time more interesting. It is this stage that implies the writing, optimization and design of the article itself.

1. Choosing a topic for a future article (content plan to help);
2. Selection of key phrases (main and additional);
3. Drawing up the final goal of the post;
4. Drawing up an outline for the article;
5. Comes up with a title (I recommend it before writing the article itself);
6. Let's start writing the article;
7. After writing, be sure to read it and polish it to perfection;
8. We create a post, add videos, pictures, etc.;
9. We optimize the post (keys, number of characters, entries, title, description, linking, etc.);
10. We add a new article to the service from Yandex “Original Texts” (required before publishing the article on the blog);
11. We are publishing a new finished article.

It often happens that at first, this stage, namely the writing of the article itself, can take quite a long time and not be enjoyable. And that's okay.

On average, for beginners, writing an article can take up to 3-5 days. And the quality also leaves much to be desired. But all this develops over time. Therefore, the main rule here is the following: write articles more often and gain experience.

The final stage.

1. Adding the URL of a new article to the add-ons of search engines Yandex and Google ( and );
2. Posting an article announcement in search engines and in the mailing list;
3. Further monitoring of post positions in the issuance of PS;
4. We read the comments, respond to them in a timely manner and rejoice.

That's all, in fact, there is nothing particularly complicated here. The most important thing is to follow certain rules and steps, and then everything will work out 100%.

Now, as promised, for those who want to delve into this topic in even more detail, I recommend downloading and studying my free cheat sheet for writing first-class blog articles.

Plus, as a bonus, I decided to post for you my original book entitled “How to write a first-class article and bring it to the TOP.”

To receive the kit, you need to click on the button below and confirm your consent to download the material. After which a window with the promised information will open. It's free.

Blog promotion

Here we are little by little approaching the final chapters of our voluminous post, and to be more precise, even step-by-step instructions on how to create your own blog. And if you have read this far, I hasten to congratulate you, you have done a great job and are on the right path!

Okay, the blog has been created, you’ve learned how to write articles, but what to do next, how to get visitors and how to work on promotion?

In fact, when your blog already has a decent number of high-quality articles optimized for keywords, the number of visitors will gradually increase naturally and without any unnecessary movements.

But there are some nuances here. First, it must take time. Secondly, relying on and having only one source of traffic – search engine – is a road to nowhere. For various factors and reasons.

Therefore, it is very important to use different tools and opportunities to get visitors to your blog. Moreover, there are a large number of such tools and most of them are free and accessible.

The most effective traffic sources for a blog are:

• Search engines.
• Social media.
• Own newsletter.
• Guest posts.
• Comments on thematic blogs.
• Forums.
• YouTube.
• Retargeting and remarketing.

In fact, there are many more sources, but these are the most basic and effective. What tools can you recommend? Please write your suggestions in the comments.

And of course, the best source of traffic is word of mouth. Do it efficiently and for people, and then your articles will be shared among themselves, posted in different corners of the Internet, and your blog will grow by leaps and bounds.

I will tell you in more detail about blog promotion using different methods, methods and tools in one of the following articles.

Blog monetization

Now let's talk about the fun part - making a profit from your project. After all, this is precisely why most people create their blogs, in order to receive good money from them in the future.

In fact, there are many ways and options for making money through blogging. Some bring really decent amounts, while others just pay for hosting and domain.

But before that, let’s briefly look at what are the most profitable ways to make money on a blog.

contextual advertising

One of the most popular and sought-after ways to monetize an Internet project is to make money from contextual advertising. Most often, this is Yandex.Direct or Google AdSense.

Most often, this method of monetization is not used immediately from the first days of the project’s existence, but after at least six months, when the blog already has 300-500 unique visitors per day.

The main, but far from the only, advantage of this method is that you practically do not need to do anything for this. Once set up, make a profit. Of course, you will have to test ad blocks from time to time to select the most effective places and options, but this is not such a difficult job. The main thing here is the quantity and quality of visitors to your blog. Those. When choosing such an earnings strategy, you should place the main emphasis on informational articles.

The downside here is two important factors. Firstly, this method is applied only after a certain time after creating a blog, this is especially critical for those who want quick results. Secondly, if you are positioning yourself on promoting your name and brand, are engaged in providing your own services or training others, then this method will not suit you either. Because will “lead” a certain number of people from your blog to your competitors by simply clicking on an advertisement on the blog.

Banner advertising

This monetization method is a little similar to the previous one. This is the same third-party advertising on your project with some offer, but in the form of an image (banner).

This option can be used immediately from the first days of the blog’s existence by using some service for providing banner advertising with payment per impression (CPM) or per click (CPC). But you should immediately understand that if no one visits your blog yet, then there can be no talk of making money.

The advantage here is that, again, it is easy to customize and can be used without any restrictions. And when the blog becomes visited and popular, you can independently sell space on it for banner advertising, either manually (by placing the necessary code), or using services (for example, Rotaban) or scripts (LineBro).

The disadvantage here is the same as with contextual advertising, it is the possibility of losing your potential visitor. Also, if there are a lot of such advertisements on the blog, then it will automatically become like a “Christmas tree” and will begin to scare off a large number of people.

Advertising posts

When your blog begins to be visited by approximately 300-500 people per day, then advertisers appear who, for a certain amount, want to place an advertising post or review of their service/product/project on you. Also, you can and should look for such advertisers yourself and offer them to post on your blog.

The main pro here is that it is one of the most profitable and easiest ways to monetize a blog without providing any services or selling products. With the right approach, you can earn from 10-15 thousand rubles a month solely by writing and posting advertising posts.

A very significant disadvantage here is that the blog is clogged with “leftist” content and, again, there is the possibility of losing a visitor, especially if you are advertising a project of a similar or the same topic.

Selling links

Oh, and this method made a lot of webmasters and bloggers rich in their time. If you place a link in a new article, you get money. Why not enjoy it? However, due to the latest innovations from search engines, selling links on a blog is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Otherwise, you can forever forget about the existence of your project and start all over again.

—

Therefore, I will not write about selling links. Just remember that if you want to earn really good money, then forget about this method and concentrate your attention on other options.

This is where it starts to smell like large sums and high incomes. As you most likely guessed, the essence of this method of monetizing a blog is that you must provide some of your services for blog visitors. For example, for me it is blog creation, web design, technical work, etc. Every niche has something you can do to help your audience for a fee.

Plus: If you love what you do and provide services in this particular area, then it will bring not only money, but also pleasure. You can generate a decent number of orders per month, thereby acquiring full-fledged remote work.

Disadvantage: If you are not a full-fledged specialist in the field that you write about on your blog, then you will have to work hard and learn this to the status of “Specialist” in order to have the right to provide services. Or find a person who is well versed in this, delegate all orders to him, and take a percentage for yourself.

Paid training

Or in other words – “Infobusiness”. So many things revolve around this word. And lately, not entirely positive. Therefore, now we will talk exclusively about the correct information business using white methods.

If you are a first-class specialist in any niche and have the skills to teach others, then you can create your own courses, trainings and full-fledged online training schools. Thus, earning a living. And the blog will play the role of a conversion tool from an ordinary visitor to clients, i.e. in simple words – a source of traffic.

There are actually a lot of advantages here. I would like to highlight just a few. Firstly, this is the most highly profitable type of blog monetization, especially if you have not just some product in your arsenal, but a full-fledged line of your own information products. Secondly, this is a long-term and stable income; it will work as long as you carry out training.

One of the disadvantages here is that it is not as simple as we would like and as it might seem at first glance. You must first learn at least basic knowledge of the information business yourself, create one or more information products, and only then begin the process.

Partnership programs

This is quite a broad topic and a lot can be written here. But let's just get to the point. This method is that on your blog you advertise someone’s goods, products or services and for each sale you receive affiliate (commission) rewards.

The most common products for affiliate PR are information products of infobusinessmen and services related to your niche.

The advantage here is that this method of monetizing a blog, like an information business, is highly profitable and high-margin, despite the fact that you do not need to invent or create anything yourself, you only need to correctly present other people’s products to your audience.

Of the minuses: You may lose your potential clients who purchase this or that affiliate product and stay with it. But this, in fact, is not so scary, because... This situation happens extremely rarely.

Okay, we’ve looked at the most popular, relevant and effective methods of monetizing your blog, and now let me share my strategy, which I’ve been using for several years now.

I called this system “Competent sales funnel for a blog” and it looks like this:

That is, the most important and key element on your blog should be CONTENT, no matter how trivial it may sound. It is thanks to the content that your blog will constantly be provided with a flow of new traffic, which in the future will be subject to some more actions, namely:

• Involving a new visitor in the topic;
• Warming up the visitor to complete the target action.

And later, when a person read the article, became involved in the topic, was warmed up and took a targeted action, for example, subscribing to a newsletter, we come into closer contact with him and bring him to a paid offer.

Unfortunately, because This topic is very broad, and the article turned out to be so voluminous that it will not be possible to talk about everything here. But don't be upset. I wrote more about this monetization method in my article “”.

What tools will help you create a blog?

Most likely, after reading this article, you may think that all this is difficult, long and time-consuming. This is partly true. After all, making money with a blog is the same business as the classic ones, but only online. It also requires various resources and is not built overnight. This needs to be understood.

But there are some things that can be speeded up. Fortunately, the Internet now has a huge number of different tools for bloggers that can help both beginners and experienced ones in creating, developing, promoting and monetizing projects.

And especially for you, I decided to prepare a small list of such tools that you can use and make your life easier. It is very comfortable.

To receive materials, you need to click on the button below and confirm your consent to download. After which a window with the promised information will open in front of you. It's free.

To sum it up - How to create your own blog

So, summing up this article, we can say with confidence that we have created the most detailed and step-by-step instructions. And I sincerely hope that you will appreciate it, leave your comment, share with colleagues and subscribe to the blog by clicking on the appropriate button under the post.

What I would like to say in conclusion for you... Friends, the era of “Old Blogging” has already passed and is now literally living out its last moments. The time has come for “New blogging”, “blogging at a new level” and I would like you to not only create your own blog, but to do it really with dignity and with the highest quality possible. Let's make the blogging world a better place together?

Well, I want to wish you success in all your endeavors and know that you will achieve this, it is in your hands. blogging is your first step into online business. I look forward to your comments and questions.

Thank you for your attention.

Do you want to learn even more on the topic of creating and developing a profitable and effective blog?

Then I invite you to my online intensive “The Alchemy of Profitable Blogging”, which will take place on October 7 and 8, 2017. This is a practical step-by-step instruction for implementation. Right during the intensive course, you will create your own plan for creating your profitable blog in real time.

We will walk you step by step through the entire path of creating your own profitable blog, starting with finding an idea and creating the foundation, ending with its promotion and effective monetization.

For convenience, the intensive program is divided into several days into semantic modules. And traditionally at the end of each day I will answer all your questions without any time limits.

Best regards, Konstantin Belan.

Working 634570 Russia, Tomsk region, Tomsk, +7 952 160 36 17

Today blogs are gaining popularity. Many celebrities create them. And there is nothing surprising here, because the Internet is a great opportunity to communicate with a large number of people at the same time, and create a blog, means to realize this opportunity.

Officials, popular artists, and athletes have blogs. In general, almost everyone does. Do you have it?

If not, and you don’t know where to start, then below I will provide you with step-by-step instructions for creating your own diary. After reading it to the end, you will imagine how you can create a blog for yourself in a short time.

Step 1 – Domain and Hosting

Domain and hosting are integral attributes of any blog. Without them, in principle, its functioning is impossible. First, we need to choose hosting. Hosting is a service for hosting a resource on a web server, or providing the service of hosting someone else’s web server on one’s own “site.” Website hosting is in greatest demand, since hosting someone else's web server is necessary only for large websites. There are two types of hosting – free and paid.

If you don’t know where it’s best to create a blog, then first I advise you to create it on free hosting. You will not pay money for it, but you will simply experience certain restrictions. This could be an advertisement that will subsequently be displayed in your online diary. In addition, you are completely dependent on the administration of the free blog service (hosting), because they can ban your diary at any time and all your work will go to waste.

This was once the case with my first diary, which I created on LiveJournal (livejournal.com). But still, for beginners who don’t know where it’s best to create a blog, I would recommend free hosting (blog service) to start with. You just practice, learn about some promotion features (seo, smo, etc.), see if you can write posts and whether you like this process.

I will describe some free blog services.

Livejournal.com is a great platform. LiveJournal has a large audience, so creating a personal blog in this blog service, in my opinion, is promising. There is a lot of functionality here: the ability to add friends, the ability to earn money by placing Google AdSense contextual advertising and many other opportunities. But, as you can see, active promotion of a blog on LiveJournal is punishable by a ban, so you should act very carefully. You can read in detail about LiveJournal blogs in my post

Blog.ru– in fact, I myself once started with it. As far as I know, blog.ru has now blocked all outgoing links from blogs posted on their blog service from being indexed by search engines. This suggests that there are no prospects for making money from various types of selling links, so the service can be chosen solely for training

Ucoz.ru– also suitable for a novice website builder. There is no need to install any modules or engine here. The interface is intuitive. No support for PHP and MySQL databases

Narod.ru– free hosting from Yandex. Probably the most popular. Anyone wishing to create a blog is provided with unlimited space for a personal diary. The hosting does not support scripts and PHP. In general, there are an incredibly large number of free blog hosting services. You can always find them by entering the request “Free hosting” in the Yandex or Google search bar. It will give you a lot of results.

By the way, the popularity of such services according to Yandex can be viewed at blogs.yandex.ru. If you already have some knowledge and are confident that you will not abandon your blog, then it is better to create it immediately on paid hosting. The advantage is that there will be no annoying advertising, but there will be a large number of different functions.

Below is a list of some paid hosting services:

majordomo.ru– good hosting. But it's paid. There are quite a lot of positive reviews about this hosting on the search engine (forum.searchengines.ru). The service is gradually gaining momentum and I think it has excellent prospects. Support works quickly, many functions are implemented. By the way, this service is one of the five largest hosting providers in Russia. They currently have four tariffs in total. The price per month today ranges from 99 to 450 rubles per month. My blog once also huddled on this hosting. By the way, for everyone who registers using my referral, a bonus will be awarded when registering on hosting

Best-Hoster.ru– another good paid hosting. They have a total of 4 tariffs to choose from. The only difference is the amount of disk space provided. True, there have been cases of hosting failure.

When creating a blog, you need to consider some more nuances:

Paid hosting provides the ability to receive an unlimited amount of traffic (this is in general)

• All paid hosting supports PHP and MySQL databases
• Using paid hosting, you get the opportunity to create a subdomain for your blog

Many paid hosting providers provide their clients with ready-made technical solutions. These can be various scripts, etc., that improve the work of the created blog and its functionality

You can find paid hosting services in the same way as searching for free ones. Just enter the query “paid hosting” in the Yandex or Google search bar. Let's say you like some hosting. Don't rush to order a service from them. Be sure to check if there are reviews about this service. Go to at least the same service and in the forum search bar type the name of the hoster you are interested in. You will definitely be given some topic where the work of this hoster will be discussed.

The only exceptions can be hosting providers operating not in Russia, but somewhere in America or Canada. Such hostings can also be used, just know that they will work somewhat slower than ours, since we need to make allowances for distance.

Now that you have finally decided where it is best to create a blog, let’s register for hosting. After this, you will be provided with passwords and data from the panel to your FTP account. Be sure to save this data. Preferably on removable media. In general, this is where the choice of hosting ends.

Domain for a personal diary

Now that we already have hosting, all that remains is to choose a domain. If you are going to work for a Russian audience, then it is better to purchase a domain name in zone.ru. You can also consider the option of .com and .net zones. I don’t recommend the rest for the Russian-language segment of the Internet. Most hosting providers provide the opportunity to register a domain through them.

Or you can register it with a third-party registrar, which specializes only in providing domain registration services. Choosing a website domain name is a simple procedure. The main thing is to come up with a name for it in advance.

Today, to register a domain in zone.ru, you will need to provide the registrar with your passport information and also indicate your place of residence. In addition, the newly created domain will need to be assigned the DNS server of your hosting. You will find this data in your hosting control panel.

DNS (Domain Name System)– domain name system. It is designed to convert domain names to IP addresses. Or maybe vice versa - it is intended to convert IP addresses into domain names. DNS are designed for domain delegation. Once you register the domain and you have assigned the DNS servers, you will need to park the domain to your hosting.

Depending on the hoster, the name of this service may vary slightly, but usually in the control panel there is a “domains” tab, where there is an option to “park a domain”. Here you need to enter our registered domain in the appropriate field, and then wait. By the way, domains are discussed in detail in the article. That's it, this step is finished. Now the next step in creating a blog is installing the WordPress engine.

Step 2 – Select an engine

Now it's time to choose an engine for the blog we created. As with hosting, you can create a personal blog using either a free or a paid engine (CMS).

One of the popular engines is DataLife Engine. This is a paid engine. If you don’t know where is the best place to create a blog, then simply evaluate the capabilities of paid engines and draw conclusions. Many additional modules have been created for this engine, so you can build almost any website on this CMS.

Installing this engine is not difficult. For this we need the Total Commander file manager. We upload files from the archive with our engine to the server via FTP, and then run the installation file. This is usually done by typing in the address bar an address like _http://your site/install.php. Nothing further is required from you except follow the instructions provided. When installing the CMS, you will need to create a MySql database. You can do this through your hosting control panel.

In principle, every archive with the engine should always have installation instructions, so you can’t go wrong. After installing the engine, go to the settings. True, I will not describe this, since this is a separate topic for discussion. You will need to install a theme, plugins, etc.

The next popular engine is WordPress. I recommend this CMS to all beginners. This is perhaps the best blog engine. WordPress is a free blogging engine. You can download the distribution kit on the website mywordpress.ru, or the Russian-language and modified version from Lecactus (lecactus.ru). Installing the engine comes down to the fact that we need to upload files via FTP to the server, fill in the MySql database data into the “wp-config-sample” file, and then run the installation.

This can also be done by typing the address _http://your site/install.php into the address bar of your browser. In general, the archive with the engine must contain installation instructions, so you’ll figure it out. The engine is intuitive. I myself started with it once, when I knew nothing at all, but gradually I figured it out.

And the last popular engine that webmasters use is Joomla. This engine weighs slightly less than WordPress. This CMS is installed like DataLife Engine. As for functionality, Joomla does not shine at all, but despite this, many webmasters like it. This concludes the second step of creating your blog.

Step 3 – Fill the created blog with content and carry out internal optimization

The first two steps are very important. But this does not mean that they are the main points. Creating a personal blog is one thing. It’s something completely different to promote it. One of the most important components of promotion is filling it with unique content. Content refers to all the material on a website – pictures, texts, videos, etc.

It is very important to maintain the uniqueness of the content. That is, all the material you post on your blog should not have exact copies on other sites. Material can be obtained by rewriting or copyrighting. I wrote about what this is in the article.

A rewritten text is, of course, also good, because it is unique. But such content is mainly filled with those online diaries that are intended primarily for earning money. If you want to create a high-quality author’s project, then, of course, it would be better to write texts that have not been published anywhere before. It is the uniqueness of information that attracts people. It is important to understand simply the fact that if the text is unique to search engines, this does not mean that it is unique to people. If the idea is not new, then your blog is unlikely to gain much popularity.

Previously, as an experiment, I created one of my first diaries on the blog service blog.ru, and then, out of ignorance, I simply took and copied materials from other sites. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that after some time my blog was banned by Yandex and Google. Hence the conclusion: there is no need to steal content, this can lead to a ban in search engines or a lower ranking in search results.

Now about internal optimization. Creating a personal blog is not difficult, but after that you simply must delve into the basics of search engine promotion and optimization.

Below I will give some tips for on-page optimization:

• The first thing you need to do is select the keywords under which you will promote your resource.

After you decide on your queries, you need to select the most relevant pages for each query.

You should not optimize one page for many requests at once. 1-3 is enough

• Keywords must be written in the page title and in its description

The main thing is not to overdo it with the number of keywords in the text. If you make a text densely stuffed with keywords in such a way that the readability of the text is lost, then search engines will quickly determine this and the page will fall under the “You are spam” filter.

• Keywords can be highlighted with tags And
• You also need to include keywords in the alt tags of pictures.

At the end of each article, include a list of similar articles. This will increase the coherence of the text material and also increase the number of page views

• It is advisable to indicate the most popular articles in a prominent place in the sidebar

Navigating the site should be simple and convenient. All blog pages should be accessible in 2-3 clicks from the main page

It is advisable to provide each article with icons of social networks so that visitors can add those materials that they like to social bookmarks or other social services

• Be sure to make a separate page with your contact information

Step 4 – Promotion and monetization

If you think that you already know perfectly well how to create a blog, then you are mistaken. Let's assume you created it, filled it with content, and carried out internal optimization. But what next? Do you think that visitors will immediately flock to you? Not at all. Promotion is perhaps the most difficult process in this whole business.

There are many promotion methods, but I will give only those that you will need at the initial stage:

1. First, add your blog to search engines:

2. In order for new pages to be indexed faster by search engines, run each new post in social bookmarks.

3. One of the most popular methods of website promotion today is article promotion. This is a rather expensive and time-consuming method. One of the most popular article exchanges today is Miralinks.ru. If you have a certain capital and are ready to invest money in the development of your website, then I recommend this exchange

4. You can promote your newly created blog using services such as Blogun.ru, GoGetLinks, Sape, etc. There are many more ways to promote, but at the initial stage this will be enough. After your site has crossed the bar of 300 visitors per day and the indicators TIC>20 and PR>1, you can begin to monetize it. Read more about selling links using a blog through specialized services in the article. Here we are at the finish line.

Now we know how to create our own blog, where it is better to create it, and we have the initial skills of SEO optimization. If this knowledge is not enough, then I advise you to look at the article