How to Start a Blog - Free Guide

Blogger.com

Blogger.com is Google’s own free blogging platform where you can create a free of cost blog with the blogspot.com subdomain (for example, yourblogname.blogspot.com) or you can buy a domain to have your perfect website (for example, www.yourblogname.com).

 Advantages of starting a blog on Blogger.com

Creating a blog on Blogger.com is free and easy to launch.

This platform Blogger.com is owned by Google, so you have that trust and credibility.

Though there are a lot of free blogging platforms like WordPress.com, Weebly, Tumblr, Blogger.com is the best of them all giving you freedom and features.

You can earn money to monetize your blog with Google AdSense and other programs like affiliate marketing easily unlike other platforms.

Now let's see how you can start your own blog with step-by-step guide below.

Step By Step Guide How To Start A Blog On Blogger.com

There are six main steps you need to create and start your blog. If you follow these step perfectly,you will set up your own blog within 60 minutes.

1.Creating a Blogger Account

2.Choosing Blog Name and Theme

3.Optimizing Your Blogger Blog

4.Editing The Theme And Layout

5.Publishing Your First Content

6.Monetizing Blog With AdSense

Let’s Start Now!

STEP 1

Creating A Blogger Account

Go to Blogger.com, site and you will see a beautiful landing page which prompts you to create a free blog.

Blogger.com is a product by Google, you can easily create a free account by signing in with your preferred running Gmail account.

After you log in, you will be asked to use blogger as your default Google plus profile or if you’d like to continue with a limited blogger.com profile.

I will suggest you to choose the former for added benefits like connecting your blog with your Google plus social profile.

On the next screen, click on “Create your blog” button again to launch your  blog.

STEP 2

Choosing A Blog Name And A Theme

In this screen, you need to select a domain for your  free blog.

Domain name,is an address through which people across the world can access your website.

Choose a domain name (suggest you to choose a short domain name)  that is relevant to your blog topic.

Here is a complete guide how to choose the best domain names for your blog.

Now, choose a suitable theme for your blog and click on “Create blog” button. (you can anytime change your theme(how your blog looks) later.

STEP 3

Optimizing Your Blogger Blog

After creating your blog, it’s need to optimize it for more search engine visibility and better user experience.You find it on the left hand side panel.

Click on the option named “Settings ” and you can optimize your blog as below in

1. Adding a description to your blog

Adding a description to your blog helps readers and search engines to know what your blog is about. You can add it by selecting the basic settings option under the “settings panel.”

2. Optimizing your post section.

This section will optimize your home page and how things like in your single post settings.

These settings are self-explanatory, and if you have any issues, then you can click on the help symbol /question mark symbol to get more details about it.

3. Optimizing your blog for SEO

Here, you optimize your blog for search engines.

Meta tags: You need to write a good summary about your blog her because it will appear on search engines and will attract people (readers) to your blog.

Read this guide to know how to write an effective meta description.

Custom page not found: When people visiting to your website through a URL that no longer exists, you can set a message to visitors that the page doesn’t exist. You can set any text or HTML message instructing them what to do now.

Custom redirects: If someone links to any of your pages or post and you delete that page, or they link to a wrong URL that in really doesn’t exist, you can use this option to redirect all such back links to any single desired page. Ideally, this should be your homepage.

STEP 4

Editing The Theme And Layout

Now, we will edit the layout of our blogger template.

Blogger.com already has a range of free templates that are basic and simple. But, if you are looking for a different blog template then you can download these from a simple Google search.To know more about web templates click here

However, in this article, we will go with the default blogger template.Yet you want to download responsive designer templates click here

1. Adding a logo

A logo is what defines and identifies your brand.

Setting a custom logo for your blog is allowed by Blogger.com and it is very ease

In the starting days of your blog you don’t need to get an expensive logo design. You can create a simple logo by your own using a free tool like Canva and Cool text

After that,  go to the layout option and select “edit” link in the header box.

It has a options to set a logo, choose a custom image to upload the one you designed.

2. Removing the navbar

The navbar is a navigation bar on the top of your every page that has links to sign out and visit to other blogs.

I recommend removing this because it gets your reader to go to the other blogs through the next blog link.

For remove it, click on “edit” link on the box that reads navbar and in the next popup window, turn it off.

3. Adding a custom gadget

Gadgets are tiny pre-made code snippets that is why it is very easy to add various functionality in your blog.

You can use these to add social media buttons, a search option, contact form, visitor stats, a custom menu or anything via custom HTML.

If you want to add a custom gadget to your blog, then you need to select the “layout” option, and you will find small hyperlinks that read “add a gadget.” Clicking on this will open default blogger gadgets, and you can choose which one to add I your blog.

With this, you have set up a professional blog for free of cost on Blogger.com. All you need to do now is to create pages write posts that drive traffic to your blog

STEP 5

Publishing Your First Content

Now you are to create your about page, privacy policy and disclaimer page and Contact US Page and any other such information that always remains constant.

1. Creating an about us page for blog

The about page is probably will be the most visited page of your blog because every reader  would want to check out who you are, what your mission is and what they can expect from your blog.

Writing about us page for your blog is simple, you just need to give an introduction to yourself and what about your blog is.

After that, you tell about your blog and topics what the readers can expect from it.

If you are running any services or business deals, it is also good to mention these here and link them to separate pages you create for them.Add your social channels like facebook page or Twitter handle to get readers to follow you over there.

2. Writing your privacy policy and disclaimer page

Privacy policy and disclaimer pages is to add legal clarifications as how your website uses your visitor data.These are important pages that you should create before launching your blog publicly or applying for any monetization programs like Ad Sense

These pages can be easily created or generated ,there is no need of  much technical skill and knowledge.

You can know here how to create your privacy policy and disclaimer pages in minutes.

3. Writing your first post

Now you blog set up done and it is time to write posts or articles that you want people to read on your blog.

These articles can be on topic in which you have expertise that you want to rank for when people search them on search engines.

For writing a articles or post, go to your blogger dashboard and select the option “New Post.” under the “Post Tab.”

However, here are some tips to optimize your articles for better SEO and rankings.

I recommend writing at least 4-6 posts before launching your blog publicly or sharing it with friends.

When you have decent number of posts on your blog will give enough idea to your visitors about what your blog is going to be like and what they can expect from it.

STEP 6

Monetizing Your Blog With Google Ad Sense

Now you can earn money from your passion

There are large no of ways with which you can earn money via your blog like providing services, selling products, affiliate marketing etc.You can check here complete list of blog monetization methods here.

When you have a decent number of blog posts and a good readers, you can definitely use Google AdSense to earn money from your blog.

You can easily apply for AdSense via your blogger dashboard and get approval.

To apply for Ad Sense via Blogger.com, go to your dashboard, click on “Earnings” and click apply for Ad Sense.