This is the complete guide for people who are willing to start Blogging in 2018. I have guided everyone willing to start blogging with all the big-small knowledge that they need to start a successful blog in 2018. I gave a detailed overview of blogger as well as wordpress in this post.

Introduction

Times are changing. The global world is getting connected. Now, anyone can start profitable blog in 2018 easily and earn unlimited amount of money.

So, do you want to start blog? But, how will you get started? Are you afraid that you will mess things up? Or, are you confused by the unlimited amount of information available here on the internet? Whom do you listen to?

If you have been wondering how to start a successful blog in 2018.....

Well, let me ensure you that you are at the right place.

You will get here all the necessary knowledge that you must know about starting a successful blog in 2018. I guarantee that after reading this guide on "How to start Blogging in 2018", you will just rock the internet.

Do you think that it is too late to start a blog in 2018? Heck no. It is even easier than you can imagine.

I promise to keep all this super simple, straight forward and easy to understand. Sounds good?

Let's begin.

Why You Should Start A Blog?

Before moving towards the further discussion about setting up a successful blog in 2018, You must have your "Why".

Why do you want to set up your blog? Why do you want to become a blogger? This will help you in your journey as a blogger.

Given below are some statistics which will definitely help you to find your "Why" and show you a little bit glance about the importance and future of blogging:

1. 53% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority. (HubSpot)

2. Websites with a blog have tend to have 434% more indexed pages. (source)

3. The Number of Bloggers is expected to reach 31.7 million in 2020. (Statista)

4. Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts. (source)

Besides these statistics there are some other factors too which will help you and keep you inspired in your blogging career:

• Blogging makes you a better, calmer and a creative person.
• You can share your thoughts and knowledge with people all over the world.
• It enables you to pursue your passion and ambitions.
• You can work at your terms from anywhere and do the job you like.
• The best reason is that you can make a lot of money (And, I mean that).

I think that you have figured out that why you want to become a blogger. Now, let's proceed further.

Choosing a Blogging Platform

The first thing that you have to do in the process of setting up your blog is to choose your preferred blogging platform.

Nowadays, setting up a blog has become very easy. In fact, you do not need any knowledge of coding. Cool, isn't it?

There are a large number of blogging platforms available out there. Some of them are : Wordpress, Wix, Weebly and Blogger. But, the two most popular blogging platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. 

With that said, we will now discuss about both the platforms - Blogger and Wordpress in detail. So let's dive into it.

Blogger - Pros And Cons :

In this section, we are going to discuss about the pros and cons of using blogger as a blogging platform.

Blogger is a free tool by Google, which offers a free blogging platform. Some of the advantages of using blogger are:

1. It is very easy to use and you can start blogging with little or no technical skills.
2. Blogger is completely free tool and it also offers free theme.
3. It is easily customisabe and you can customise the template without CSS.
4. It is a product of google which increases its reliability to 110%.
5. Your website never slows down, even after a lot of realtime traffic.
6. It is completely secure.
7. Blogger sites index fast on Google and faster indexing means traffic to your blog will start coming comparitively earlier.
8. It has easy to understand interface and editor.

 

Now, let's talk about the cons. Some of the disadvantages of using blogger are:

• It will be next to impossibe to rank your blog on the first page of google because of the ugly site address like "Yourblog.blogger.com".
• You can lose years of hardwork on your just because you broke a small rule (even if you didn't knew about it).
• You cannot customise your blog the way you want because blogger websites are'nt  highly customisable.
• You will find it expensive to switch platforms because it requires hours of manual work and formatting.
• Your hardwork will be wasted because free platforms like blogger reserves the rights to show their advertisements on your blog posts, making your posts ugly and you are not even getting paid for it.
• Blogger giver you only 1 GB space.
• SEO is hard on Blogger.

Wordpress - Pros and Cons :

Now, let's discuss about the pros and cons of using Wordpress as a platform for setting up you blog. Some of the advantages of using wordpress are:

1. It is beginner friendly.
2. Allows you to have your own attractive domain name.
3. It is highly customisable.
4. A number of plugins available out there makes it even more customisable and user friendly.
5. It comes with 5000+ free themes and you can also even upload a theme of your choice using wordpress.
6. You are the owner of your blog and you can fully monetize it.
7. There is a msassive help and support forum out there, in case you get stuck.
8. Your blog will be professional and will be insanely fast.
9. You can rank your articles relatively easily on the first page of google.
10. Wordpress offers more space than Blogger.
11. SEO is easy in this platform.

Now, let's talk about the cons. Some of the disadvantages of choosing wordpress to set up your blog are:

• It is paid.
• For a beginner, its may be a little bit difficult to get started with wordpress.

Which Platform Should You Use?

It totally depends on you. 

You can use the above facts to choose which platform is better for you.

If you are a person who cannot invest money in paid blogging then Blogger is a great choice for you. But keep in mind that:

• In blogger, you are not the owner of your blog, I might sound silly but it's the fact. You are one someone else's web property and they can delete your blog whenever they want.

My personal recommendation for you is make a little investment and use Wordpress as your blogging platform and you know the reason why I am telling this (Refer Advantages of Wordpress).

You can start a Wordpress blog in less than $10/month and the blog made will be completely yours.

Now, that you have decided which platform to use, we will be discussing how to start a successful blog in 2018 on both the platforms - Blogger and Wordpress.

Creating A Professional Blog Using Blogger:

In this section, we will be discussing about how can you make a professional looking blog in blogger. Steps are as below:

• Navigate to blogger by clickinghere.
• Click Create Your Blog Option right in the middle.
• Sign in with your Google Account using which you want to create your blog (if you don't have a Google account, Create One).
• For a first time user, you will see an option to use the identity from your Google+ Profile. I recommend using Google+ profile instead of Limited Blogger Profile, but you can use either.
• Click on Continue to Blogger button.
• Select "Create Your Own Blog" button.
• Now fill in Title - "YourBlogTitle".
• Now in address register your domain.
• Select a theme as per your choice (It can be changed later).
• Click on "Create Blog".
• Your Blog is Created you can check it with the help of "View Blog" button.
• Now, the first thing you need to do after creating a blog is to add 'About Us', 'Privacy Policy', 'Disclaimer' and 'Terms of Service' Pages for this you have to click on "Pages" option. You can write them yourself or there are many free generators on google.
• Go to settings and fill in all the empty blanks there.
• Make sure that you are using HTTPS redirect.
• Now, click the Themes option on the left side of your screen and choose your favourite theme from all the themes available out there. You can also use Customise option to check out other themes as well. You can search google for "Blogger Themes" as well.
• To customise the theme go to the Layout Option between Pages and Theme.
• Now, Click on "New Post" and then you can create a blogpost on whatever topic you want and then click Publish.
• Congratulations, you are a blogger now, you've published your first post.

We just created your first blog and it's completely free. You can customise your theme as much as you want from the layout option. You can start posting now.

Gradually, you will start gaining visitors because as I've told you earlier Blogs made by Blogger rank soon.

Now, let's proceed towards paid blogging through wordpress. For paid blogging you need a domain name and a hosting package. We will be discussing about them in the next section.

Choose a Host for Your Blog :

When it Comes to Hosting, three things MATTER the most:

• Uptime : You want a host which won't go offline all the time because it effects your Google ranking as well as it also worse the customer experience.
• Help and Support : If something goes wrong or you are stuck anywhere you need quick support from experts.
• Price: You Deserve The Best At The Lowest Price

There are a lot of great hosting providers like Namecheap, Bluehost, Godaddy, Bigrock, etc. You can choose hosting packages from any of the mentioned Hosting Provider.

I personally use Namecheap.com hosting services on all my blogs because according to my personal experience they are the best on the three factors mentioned above. I remember the days when I was a beginner, once I messed up my whole blog. Then, the customer support of Namecheap helped me out. This process took almost 6 hours. So, according to me Namecheap is the best. You can choose any hosting service you want.

I recommend you to use shared hosting on your blog and once you start getting traffic, you can switch to premium hosting packages.

Choosing a domain name for your blog :

A domain name is nothing but the address where people can find your blog at, like www.xyzblog.com.

I strictly recommend you to buy '.com' domains, even if they are bit expensive.

Where can you buy domains?

You can buy a domain from whichever site you want. It really doesn't matter.

For my blogs I use GoDaddy and Namecheap domains, just because they are cheap.

Don't forget to buy Domain Privacy (it is an extra which your domain provider will be asking from you at the time of transaction) otherwise you will be spammed because while buying a domain, your contact details are added to public database by law. By buying privacy, the details of your Domain Provider are listed on the database, preventing you from spams.

Now, you have to link your domain with your nameservers. The dashboard of different service providers are quites different so, I am, for reference taking an assumption that you have taken Domain as well as hosting from namecheap.

How to link Namecheap Domain With Its Nameservers?(Source : Namecheap)

• Sign in to your Namecheap Account.
• Select Domain List from the left sidebar and click the Manage button next to your domain.
• Find the Nameservers section and select your Namecheap Basic DNS from the drop-down menu. Click on the green checkmark to save the changes:

Nameserver changes do not propagate instantly. Once your nameservers are changed, it may take up to 24 hours (more, in rare cases) for local ISPs to update their DNS caches so that everyone can see your website. 

How to install wordpress?

Once, Nameservers are propagated you may now install Wordpress. This can be done as follows:

1. Login into your cPanel. (Login info is sent to your email by your hosting provider)
2. Select Softaculous Apps Installer icon.
3. Click the Wordpress logo.
4. Click install button to proceed further.
5. Choose the domain and click install.

Setting Up Wordpress :

Login to your Wordpress account.

On the first screen, you will be asked to pick a theme, pick any theme from them (for now).

Welcome to your Wordpress Dashboard!

On the left side of your screen, you will see a few different tabs. Some highlights about them are:

• Posts : This is where you can write and edit your blog posts.
• Media : You can check out photos and files you have uploaded and you can also add more.
• Pages : Create Static Pages.
• Comments : Check and manage the comments on your posts.
• Themes : Select new themes or edit and customise your current theme.
• Users : You can add your other content writers (if you have) so they can write and edit your blog posts.
• Plugins : You can add and remove plugins to give your blog new features.

First Things You Need To Do After Signing in To Your Wordpress Account:

1. Go to edit my profile and fill in all your information correctly in the blank spaces over there.
2. Now, the first thing you need to do after creating a blog is to add 'About Us', 'Privacy Policy', 'Disclaimer' and 'Terms of Service' Pages for this you have to click on "Pages" option. You can write them yourself or there are many free generators on google. This helps in the SEO of you blog.
3. Its the time to change the theme, You can change the theme on wordpress by clicking the Appearance -Themes option in the left hand side of your screen.
4. Its the time to install plugins, Go to the plugins option and download the following plugins:

• W3 Super Cache 
• SEO by Yoast
• Google XML Sitemaps 
• WP-Optimize
• Mailchimp for Wordpress
• Social Icons
• Contact Form 7

Then, Customise your theme according to you and its done. Just explore the different options available out there.

Now you can add as many posts as you want your blog.

Some Quick SEO Tips:

It is a very big topic and we will discuss about it in another article, till then remember one thing that "Every pro blogger was once a Beginner."

• Yoast SEO will guide you with all the SEO Techniques
• Your Content should be minimum 1500 words.
• Also use Heading Tags wisely.
• Ensure that your readability score is good.
• Bold your tags.
• Use great permalinks and meta descriptions.
• Choose your title wisely. It should create urgency and try to ad numbers in your title.
• Use Google Keyword Planner, Google Search recommendations and Google Related searches for keyword ideas.

Conclusion

Now, you know that how can you start a successful blog in 2018.

But, the main thing is to start. Do you know? A lot of people just keep thinkingabout starting their blog and never start one.

It's not about learning, it's about executing. In this blog I gave you each and every information about starting your own blog in 2018 but if you will not execute it. It will be worthless.

All the best for your blogging journey.