A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Personal Blog
A personal blog is a great way to connect with people.
Most people have a thought or opinion that they want to share with the world but don’t know how. Starting a personal blog is an excellent way to do this! It’s easy and fun too.
It provides an outlet for creativity and self-expression, as well as something that can be shared with the world.
In the age of smartphones and social media, personal blogs are an excellent way to share your favourite recipes, parenting tips, travel advice, or any other topic you want to talk about.
This article will provide you with some tips on how to start your own personal blog!
Personal Blog Meaning: What is a Personal Blog?
A personal blog is an online journal you create to record your thoughts and opinions about topics that interest you. It’s usually made up of multiple posts – like diary entries, each with its own date – that the blogger has added over time.
Though your blog may take on a life of its own (and grow to the size of thousands of posts), you’ll probably start it by simply wanting to post about one or two things that interest you.
You might write about how to make quilts, for example, or why you love cupcakes. Personal blogs are a great place to share your thoughts and ideas, or just have a space where you can be creative!
You don’t need any special knowledge to create a personal blog – it’s easy to get started!
For those who are looking for an opportunity to share their thoughts, a personal blog is a perfect platform.
This type of blogging can be used as a diary for those who want to express themselves in an open forum. It can also be used as the voice of an organization or company – enabling them to reach out beyond their customer base and attract new customers from different demographics.
Personal Blogs vs. Professional Blogs
Personal blogs are different from professional blogs. Professional bloggers are paid to write for their blog, inviting advertising and usually writing about a larger variety of topics.
Professional bloggers make money through advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate links/programs or merchandise sales.
It’s very common for professional bloggers to be paid by companies in return for writing about a product or service.
Professional blogs usually have a wider audience, while personal blogs are meant to be more focused and niche.
But that doesn’t mean personal blogs don’t make money.
There are many personal blogs that earn thousands of dollars every month from their blog visitors using different monetization techniques.
Benefits of Starting Your Own Personal Blog
A personal blog can benefit you in several different ways:
Self-expression
A personal blog is your creative outlet. It’s somewhere that you can write about whatever you want in an original way. It’s a great place to express yourself and show the world what you’re interested in!
Networking
By starting your own personal blog, you’ll be joining millions of other people who have already started their own blogs. This means that when your blog is ready, you can connect with these other people and get to know them better. This could lead to great things! You could make connections that will help you in your career or provide leads for jobs and more opportunities.
Community
Another benefit of having a personal blog is that it encourages community amongst its readers. They’ll often comment on your posts and start conversations with you. This can be a great way to meet new people!
Getting published
Some personal blogs are so good that they get picked up by larger websites or even traditional media publications such as Huffington Post, Forbes and more.
Many professional journalists use personal blogs to write about their experiences on the ground – making it more real and helping to bring the news to their readers.
Different Types of Personal Blogs and Which One is Right for You
There are several different types of personal blogs, here are the main ones:
Niche Blog
A niche blog is all about one specific topic.
It’s usually a very targeted and particular subject that you’re passionate about! If you love fashion, then your blog could be all about the best places to shop for clothes, the best local boutiques around you or even fashion shows!
These blogs are usually very focused and can be built around a particular topic. They’re also much easier to manage than general-purpose blogs because they stick to one subject area.
The problem with them is that unless your blog becomes super popular (lots of people read them), they can become a little bit repetitive and boring for the reader.
General-purpose Blog
A general purpose blog is one that covers a wide range of topics, or no particular topic at all!
This type of blog probably won’t have a niche audience – it’ll be something that can be enjoyed by anyone who comes across your blog.
You can use this type of blog to write about your interests and share them with the world. It’ll be a great place for you to document memories, post photos or even just share important (or not-so-important) life events!
Which Type of Personal Blog is Right for You?
Think about what you’re interested in, what matters to you and the things that make your life so unique. Look at other people’s personal blogs to get inspiration for your own blog.
Once you’ve figured out the type of blog that would be most beneficial to you, it’s time to actually start blogging!
How to Start Your Own Personal Blog
Now that you know what a personal blog is and the benefits of starting one, let’s talk about how you can start your own!
Here are 4 easy steps:
#1: Think of a Name for Your Blog
You’ll want to choose a unique blog name – it should be something catchy and memorable.
Make sure that it’s spelt correctly and is easy to find on the internet (for example, if you’re starting a blog about fashion, something like ‘Fashionista Jane’ makes it very simple for people to find your blog).
#2: Get Your Domain Name
You should consider registering an official domain name for your blog. You can register a .com or a .net – it’s completely up to you!
You’ll want to go with something short and easy to remember, as well as descriptive of your blog’s content. For example, if your blog is about fashion but also includes beauty products, then something like ‘fashionandbeautyblog dot com’ could be a good fit.
Here’s how to choose and register a domain name.
#3: Get Your Hosting Plan
You should sign up for web hosting before you start your blog. This is where all of the files and media (such as photos) will be stored on the internet.
You’ll need to choose between shared, VPS or dedicated hosting. There are also managed WordPress hostings. As a beginner, shared hosting is your best choice.
Shared hosting means that there are multiple websites being hosted together on the same server. However, this is usually more affordable and can be just fine for starting out. You can get shared hosting for as low as $2.95 per month.
#4: Setup Your Blog!
You now have your blog name, domain name and hosting plan – all you need to do is set up your site. Everything that you’ve worked hard for starts here!
Most blogs on the internet today are powered by WordPress.
WordPress is easy to use, highly customizable and helps beginners create a great looking website without having to learn any difficult coding languages. All of this makes it the ideal blogging platform for beginner bloggers.
*You can also check other content management systems(CMS) like Joomla, Drupal, etc. if you are an advanced blogger or developer then you can use them too.
But as a beginner, it is better to go with WordPress. Nowadays, most hosting companies have 1 click WordPress install options which makes it easy to set up your WordPress blog in minutes.
Now that you know the basics of starting a personal blog, why not get started today?
Some of the Popular Personal Blogs
It’s hard to deny the impact that personal bloggers have had on society over the past decade.
From celebrities to politicians, and even average people – you can find the most influential writers in the world of today on a personal blog somewhere.
Here are just a few of our favourite influencers and their blogs:
Get Busy Living
Get Busy Living is a blog that will help you get out of your comfort zone and explore what it means to live life on the edge.
It will show you how to do things differently than everyone else, rebel against routine in order for you to learn something new about yourself – like how awesomely unique each one of us really is!
Fly Lady
FlyLady is an innovative blog that will guide you through baby steps to help set up routines, get rid of your clutter and put life in order. With Flylady’s approach working for thousands it’s no wonder people are coming back again and again!
Tech Savvy Mama
Tech Savvy Mama is a blog that combines the knowledge of child development, psychology, education, tech and parenting to provide useful advice for families about digital parenting topics.
The Slow Roasted Italian
The Slow Roasted Italian is a family-friendly food, drink and travel blog focused on making life simpler. This is a personal blog started by Donna and Chad.
Conclusion
Your Personal Blog is an extension of you, so it makes sense that your blog should reflect who you are! Starting a personal blog can be one way to get in touch with what matters most to you and share this message with the world.
There are many benefits to starting your own personal blog including getting more exposure for yourself or your business, giving people insights into how things work behind the scenes at your company, attracting new followers that align with similar interests and building trust through transparency.
The type of personal blog you choose will depend on what content best fits your expertise/interests as well as how much time/energy you want to put towards maintaining it each week.
It is time to take the plunge and start your personal blog.
