how to start a blog essay

How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Blog Post Templates]

Review a step-by-step guide plus useful templates to learn how to write an effective blog post for your target audience and customers.

6 FREE BLOG POST TEMPLATES

Save time creating blog posts with these free templates.

Updated: 04/03/24

Published: 04/03/24

Anyone can connect with their audience through blogging and enjoy the myriad benefits that blogging provides: organic traffic from search engines, promotional content for social media, and recognition from a new audience you haven’t tapped into yet.

If you’ve heard about blogging but are a beginner and don’t know where to start, the time for excuses is over. Not only can you create an SEO-friendly blog , but I’ll cover how to write and manage your business's blog as well as provide helpful templates to simplify your blogging efforts.

What is a blog post?

How to start a blog, writing your first blog post, what makes a good blog post, blog post examples, how to write a blog post.

Let's get started with an important question.

Blogging may mean different things depending on your niche — so let’s begin with this definition.

A blog post is any article, news piece, or guide that's published in the blog section of a website. A blog post typically covers a specific topic or query, is educational in nature, ranges from 600 to 2,000+ words, and contains other media types such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts.

Blog posts allow you and your business to publish insights, thoughts, and stories on your website about any topic. They can help you boost brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, they can help you drive traffic to your website.

But in order to begin making posts for a blog — you have to learn how to start one, first. Let’s dive in.

• Understand your audience.
• Check out your competition.
• Determine what topics you'll cover.
• Identify your unique angle.
• Name your blog.
• Create your blog domain.
• Choose a CMS and set up your blog.
• Customize the look of your blog.
• Write your first blog post.

1. Understand your audience.

Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience. To do so, take the following steps.

Ask yourself exploratory questions.

To discover your audience, ask questions like: Who are they? Are they like me, or do I know someone like them? What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?

Jot down your notes in a notepad or a document. This is the time to brainstorm audience attributes from scratch, no matter how out of left field they may feel. You should also think about your audience's age, background, goals, and challenges at this stage.

6 Free Blog Post Templates

• "How-to" Post
• "What is" Post
• Listicle Post

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Carry out market research.

Doing market research sounds like a big task, but in truth, it can be as simple as accessing a social media platform and browsing user and blog profiles that match with your potential audience.

Use market research tools to begin uncovering more specific information about your audience — or to confirm a hunch or a piece of information you already knew. For instance, if you wanted to create a blog about work-from-home hacks, you can make the reasonable assumption that your audience will be mostly Gen Zers and Millennials. But it’s important to confirm this information through research.

Create formal buyer personas.

Once you’ve brainstormed and carried out market research, it’s time to create formal buyer personas . It’s important because what you know about your buyer personas and their interests will inform the brainstorming process for blog posts.

"Buyer personas aren’t just for direct marketing. They can be a handy way to keep a human in mind while you’re writing. If you’ve got other marketing or sales teams handy, coordinate your personas," says Curtis del Principe, user acquisition manager at HubSpot. "Chances are that your existing customers are exactly the kind of people you want to attract with your writing in the first place. Your sales and service teams can also have great insight into these people’s needs and pain points."

For instance, if your readers are Millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started on social media — most of them already have that down.

You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their social media approach (for example — from what may be a casual, personal approach to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach). That kind of tweak is what helps you publish content about the topics your audience really wants and needs.

Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]
• Guide: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
• [Free Tool] Make My Persona: Buyer Persona Generator

2. Check out your competition.

What better way to draw inspiration than to look at your well-established competition?

It’s worth taking a look at popular, highly reviewed blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to grow in credibility. The purpose of doing this isn’t to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what readers appreciate in a quality blog.

When you find a competitor’s blog, take the following steps:

Determine whether they’re actually a direct competitor.

A blog’s audience, niche, and specific slant determine whether they're actually your competitor. But the most important of these is their audience. If they serve a completely different public than you, then they’re likely not a competitor. That is why it’s important to define your buyer personas before taking other steps in the blog creation process.

Look at the blog’s branding, color palette, and theme.

Once you determine that they’re your competitor, it’s time to take note of their techniques so that you can capture a similar readership. Colors and themes play a huge role in whether you seem like part of a niche — for instance, a blog about eco-friendly products should likely use earthy tones instead of bright, unnatural colors such as neon yellow or pink.

Analyze the tone and writing style of the competition.

Take note of your competition’s copywriting. Is it something you feel like you can successfully emulate? Does it ring true to the type of blog you’d like to create? What do readers most respond to? For most, creating a tech blog might be an excellent idea, but if journalistic, review-based writing doesn’t work for you, then that might not be a good fit. Be aware of what you can feasibly execute or hire freelance writers.

3. Determine what topics you’ll cover.

Before you write anything, pick a topic you’d like to write about. The topic can be pretty general to start as you find your desired niche in blogging .

Here are some ways to choose topics to cover.

Find out which topics your competitors often cover.

One easy way to choose topics for your blog is to simply learn what other blogs are writing about. After you determine your competitors, go through their archive and category pages, and try to find out which topics they most often publish content about. From there, you can create a tentative list to explore further. You might find, for instance, that a competitor only covers surface-level information about a subject. In your blog, you can dive more deeply and offer more value to readers.

Choose topics you understand well.

No matter what type of blog you start, you want to ensure you know the topic well enough to write authoritatively about it. Rather than choosing a topic you’ll need to research as you write, think about those that come most naturally to you. What has your professional experience been like so far? What are your hobbies? What did you study in college? These can all give rise to potential topics you can cover in depth.

Ensure the topics are relevant to your readership.

You may find that you hold deep expertise in various topics, but how relevant are they to the audience you understood back in step one?

Del Principe suggests checking in with sales and service teams as well. "What kinds of things do they wish customers already knew? What kinds of questions do they get asked a thousand times? What kind of objections come up from potential customers, and how do they address them?"

If you’re not serving their needs, then you’d be shouting into a void — or, worse, attracting the wrong readership. For that reason, after identifying the topics you can feasibly write about, ask yourself whether those are subjects your audience would like to explore.

Do preliminary keyword research.

Keyword research is the process of searching for topics using a keyword research tool , then determining whether there is demand by looking at each topic’s (or keyword’s) search volume. If you found the perfect topics that are the perfect cross between your expertise and your reader’s needs, you’ve struck gold — but the gold will have no value unless people are searching for those terms. Only then can you capture the audience that is waiting out there.

4. Identify your unique angle.

What perspective do you bring that makes you stand out from the crowd? This is key to determining the trajectory of your blog’s future, and there are many avenues to choose in the process.

Here’s how you can find your unique selling proposition in crowded blogging niches:

Write a professional and personal bio.

Knowing your own history and experience is essential to determine your unique slant. To get started, write a professional bio that explains, at length, who you are and which experiences most inform your blogging efforts. While I could write a lengthy exposition about my childhood, that history isn’t essential unless I’m launching a blog about raising children.

What unique experience makes you a trusted expert or thought leader on the topic? You can use your answers to that question to find your angle. Use this information to populate your “About me” page on your blog and share more about yourself.

Determine the special problem you will solve for readers.

Your readers won’t trust you or return to you unless you actively help them solve a problem. As you try to find your angle, think about ways you can help your audience surmount challenges typically associated with the topics you’ve chosen for your blog. For instance, if you’re creating a blog about sustainability, then you might help readers learn how they can compost organic materials in their home.

Choose an editorial approach.

Will you share your opinions on trending debates? Teach your readers how to do something? Compare or share original research? The editorial approach you choose will in part be informed by the topics you cover on your blog and the problems you’re helping your readers solve. If your blog is about marketing trends and your goal is to keep marketers up-to-date on the latest changes, then your editorial approach should be journalistic in nature. This is only one example of how to choose a technique.

5. Name your blog.

This is your opportunity to get creative and make a name that gives readers an idea of what to expect from your blog. Some tips on how to choose your blog name include:

Keep your blog name easy to say and spell.

No need to get complicated at all with your name, though it might be tempting, since there are so many blogs out there. While choosing a unique name is essential, it’s also important to choose one that is easy to memorize for readers. It should also be simple to remember as an URL (which will come into play in the next step).

Link your blog name to your brand message.

The more related your blog’s name is to the topics you cover, the better. For instance, DIY MFA is all about writers doing their own Master of Fine Arts in writing at home. The brand’s message is all about delving deep into one’s writing practice without needing a formal degree. Try to do something similar for your own blog name: Alluding to your blog’s message, value proposition, and covered topics in one sweep.

Consider what your target audience is looking for.

Your blog name should tie directly into what your readers want to achieve, learn, or solve. DIY MFA is about writers who don’t have the money for graduate school, but who still want to develop their writing skills. The HubSpot Marketing blog is — you guessed it — about marketing trends and tips.

It’s okay if your blog name feels “too straightforward.” Straightforward names accurately communicate what you’re about and effectively attract the right audience.

If you still need more assistance, try using a blog name generator . One last tip: Make sure the name you come up with isn’t already taken, as it could lessen your visibility and confuse readers looking for your content.

6. Create your blog domain.

A domain is a part of the web address nomenclature someone would use to find your website or a page of your website online.

Your blog‘s domain will look like this: www.yourblog.com. The name between the two periods is up to you, as long as this domain name doesn’t yet exist on the internet.

Want to create a subdomain for your blog? If you already own a cooking business at www.yourcompany.com, you might create a blog that looks like this: blog.yourcompany.com. In other words, your blog's subdomain will live in its own section of yourcompany.com.

Some CMS platforms offer subdomains as a free service, where your blog lives on the CMS, rather than your business's website. For example, it might look like this: yourblog.contentmanagementsystem.com. However, to create a subdomain that belongs to your company website, register the subdomain with a website host .

Most website hosting services charge very little to host an original domain — in fact, website costs can be as inexpensive as $3 per month when you commit to a 36-month term.

Pro Tip: You can connect your custom domain to free hosting with HubSpot’s free CMS or in premium editions of Content Hub. This includes access to built-in security features and a content delivery network.

Here are five other popular web hosting services to choose from:

7. Choose a CMS and set up your blog.

A CMS (content management system) is a software application that allows users to build and maintain a website without having to code it from scratch. CMS platforms can manage domains (where you create your website) and subdomains (where you create a webpage that connects to an existing website).

HubSpot customers host web content via Content Hub . Another popular option is a self-hosted WordPress website on a hosting site such as WP Engine . Whether you create a domain or a subdomain to start your blog , you'll need to choose a web hosting service after you pick a CMS.

Pro Tip: You can get started for free with HubSpot’s free blog maker . Our free CMS offers everything you need to get started– including hosting, a visual editor, and hundreds of free and paid themes to choose from.

Start using HubSpot's Free Blog Making tool to publish blog posts.  

8. customize the look of your blog..

Once you have your domain name set up, customize the appearance of your blog to reflect the theme of the content you plan on creating and your brand.

For example, if you're writing about sustainability and the environment, green might be a color to keep in mind while designing your blog.

Image Source

If you already manage a website and are writing the first post for that existing website, ensure the article is consistent with the website in appearance and subject matter. Two ways to do this are including your:

• Logo : This can be your business‘s name and logo — it will remind blog readers of who’s publishing the content. (How heavily you want to brand your blog, however, is up to you.)
• “About” Page : You might already have an “About” blurb describing yourself or your business. Your blog‘s "About" section is an extension of this higher-level statement. Think of it as your blog’s mission statement, which serves to support your company's goals.

9. Write your first blog post.

Once you have your blog set up, the only thing missing is the content. While the design and layout are fun and functionally necessary, it's the content that will draw your readers in and keep them coming back. So how do you actually go about writing one of these engaging and informational pieces?

You’ve got the technical and practical tidbits down — now it’s time to write your very first blog post. And nope, this isn’t the space to introduce yourself and your new blog (i.e. “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media handles. Will you please follow?”).

Start with “low-hanging fruit,” writing about a highly specific topic that serves a small segment of your target audience.

That seems unintuitive, right? If more people are searching for a term or a topic, that should mean more readers for you.

But that’s not true. If you choose a general and highly searched topic that’s been covered by major competitors or more established brands, it’s unlikely that your post will rank on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs). Give your newly born blog a chance by choosing a topic that few bloggers have written about.

If you need help, you can also use AI to help you create a blog post quickly. 

1. Choose a topic you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

Before you write anything, pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start. For example, if you're a company that sells a CRM for small-to-enterprise businesses , your post might be about the importance of using a single software to keep your marketing, sales, and service teams aligned.

Pro tip : You may not want to jump into a “how-to” article for your first blog post.

Your credibility hasn’t been established yet. Before teaching others how to do something, you’ll first want to show that you’re a leader in your field and an authoritative source.

For instance, if you‘re a plumber writing your first post, you won’t yet write a post titled “How to Replace the Piping System in your Bathroom.” First, you’d write about modern faucet setups, or tell a particular success story you had rescuing a faucet before it flooded a customer's house.

Here are four other types of blog posts you could start with:

• List (“Listicle”) : 5 ways to fix a leaky faucet
• Curated Collection : 10 faucet and sink brands to consider today
• SlideShare Presentation : 5 types of faucets to replace your old one (with pictures)
• News Piece : New study shows X% of people don't replace their faucet frequently enough

If you're having trouble coming up with topic ideas, a good topic brainstorming session should help. In the post I’ve linked, my colleague walks you through a helpful process for turning one idea into many. Similar to the “leaky faucet” examples above, you would “iterate off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics.”

This can be done by:

• Changing the topic scope
• Adjusting your time frame
• Choosing a new audience
• Taking a positive/negative approach
• Introducing a new format

And if you’re still stuck, let’s take a look at some first blog post idea examples.

First Blog Post Ideas

The difference between [niche topic] and [niche topic], explained by a [niche expert].

• The Difference Between SEM and SEO, Explained by a Marketing Expert
• The Difference Between Sedans and Coupes, Explained by a Car Mechanic
• The Difference Between Baking and Broiling, Explained by a Professional Baker

The 10 Best and Worst [Niche Tools] for [Niche Activity]

• The 10 Best and Worst Writing Software for Fiction Writing
• The 10 Best and Worst CRMs for Nurturing Prospects
• The 10 Best and Worst Family Cars for Cross-Country Roadtrips

8 [Niche Activity] Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

• 8 Non-Fiction Writing Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
• 8 Salmon Broiling Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)
• 8 Car Maintenance Common Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

9 Proven Tips for [Niche Activity]

• 9 Proven Tips for Checking Plumbing Problems under Your Kitchen Sink
• 9 Proven Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Bestseller
• 9 Proven Tips for Doing DIY Car Maintenance

Why We/I Switched from [Niche Tool] to [Niche Tool] (Comparison)

• Why We Switched from Pipedrive to HubSpot (Comparison)
• Why I Switched from Microsoft Word to Scrivener (Comparison)
• Why We Switched from iMacs to Surface Studio (Comparison)

[Niche Tool] vs [Niche Tool]: Which [Tool] is Best for You?

• Zendesk vs Freshcaller: Which Call Software is Best for You?
• Air Fryer vs Convection Oven: Which One is Best for You?
• Mazda Miata vs Toyota Supra: Which Sports Car is Best for You?

The Ultimate Roundup of [Niche Activity] Tips and Tricks

• The Ultimate Roundup of Novel Writing Tips and Tricks
• The Ultimate Roundup of Macaroon Baking Tips and Tricks
• The Ultimate Roundup of Solo Traveling Tips and Tricks

Want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on the topic you choose and the audience you're targeting.

2. Target a low-volume keyword to optimize around.

Finding a keyword with low searches in Google (I recommend sticking to about 10 to 150 monthly searches). These topics offer less competition and should therefore allow your new blog post to rank more easily.

To choose a topic, you can either do a traditional brainstorming session or carry out keyword research. I suggest the latter because you can actually see how many people are looking for that topic.

Now, don’t be intimidated by the term “ keyword research .” It’s not just for marketers, but for new bloggers, too. And it’s really easy to do.

To jumpstart your keyword research, first begin by identifying the general topic of your blog.

Say you’re a plumber. Your general, high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67K monthly searches).

Next, put this term into a keyword research tool such as:

• Ubersuggest
• Wordtracker

When you run this term through the tool, a list of related keywords will appear. Scan the list and choose one with a lower search volume. For this example, we’ll use “under sink plumbing” (1.4K monthly searches).

Run that keyword in the keyword research tool again. Look at the related keywords. Find one with a lower search volume. Do that again.

For this example, we’ll settle on “plumbing problems under kitchen sink” (10 monthly searches). That’s the topic for our first post.

TLDR ; Choose a low-volume, low-competition keyword that will ensure your first post ranks.

For more help on keyword research, here are more resources you can use:

• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide
• How to Perform Keyword Research and Rank
• Top Tools For Finding Long-Tail Keywords

3. Google the term to understand your audience’s search intent.

You’ve got your topic — now, you need to check that the user’s search intent would be fulfilled by a blog post.

What does that mean?

If someone is looking for “plumbing problems under a kitchen sink,” they might be looking for a tutorial, a diagram, an article, or a product that can fix the issue. If they’re looking for the first three, you’re good — that can be covered in a blog post. A product, however, is different, and your blog post won’t rank.

How do you double-check search intent?

Google the term and look at the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, you’re good to go. If you only find product pages or listicles from major publications, then find a new topic to cover in your first post.

Consider the term “under sink plumbing bathroom” (30 monthly searches). It seemed like a perfect fit because it had low monthly searches.

Upon Googling the term, I found product carousels, product pages from Home Depot and Lowes, and guides written by major publications. (You’ll also want to avoid topics that have been covered by major publications, at least for now.)

TLDR ; Before writing your first blog post about a low-volume topic, double-check the user intent by Googling the keyword. Also, don’t forget to take a look at who’s written about that topic so far. If you see a major brand, consider writing about another topic.

4. Find questions and terms related to that topic.

You’ve got a highly unique topic that’s been covered by just a few people so far. It’s time to flesh it out by covering related or adjacent topics.

Use the following tools:

• Answer the Public : When you place your keyword into this tool, it will give you a list of questions related to that term.
• Google : Google is your best friend. Search for the term and look under “People also ask” and “People also search for.” Be sure to touch upon those topics in the post.

You can also use these keyword research tools we mentioned above in step one.

5. Come up with a working title.

You might come up with a few different working titles — in other words, iterations of approaching that topic to help you focus your writing.

For example, you may decide to narrow your topic to “Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets” or “Common Causes of Leaky Faucets.” A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.

Let's take a real post as an example: " How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post ."

Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably “blogging.” Then the working title may have been something like, “The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic.” And the final title ended up being “How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post.”

See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.

6. Create an outline.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information — for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the info in a way so readers aren‘t intimidated by length or amount of content. This organization can take multiple forms — sections, lists, tips — whatever’s most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

Download These Templates for Free

Let's take a look at the post, " How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot’s Snapchat Strategy. " There‘s a lot of content in the piece, so it’s broken up into a few sections using descriptive headers. The major sections are separated into subsections that go into more detail, making the content easier to read.

To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. This way, before you start writing, you'll know which points you want to cover and the best order to do so. And to make things even easier, you can download and use our free blog post templates , which are pre-organized for six of the most common blogs. Just fill in the blanks!

7. Write an intro (and make it captivating).

We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post " How to Write an Introduction ," but let's review, shall we?

First, grab the reader‘s attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs — or even sentences — of the introduction, they’ll stop reading (even before they've given your post a fair shake). You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then, describe the purpose of your post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be experiencing. This will give the reader a reason to continue reading and show them how the post will help them improve their work or lives.

Here‘s an example of an intro I think does a good job of attracting a reader’s attention right away:

“Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.”

8. Build out each section of your outline.

The next step — but not the last — is actually writing the content. We can't forget about that, of course.

Now that you have your outline or template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and expand on all points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.

If you‘re having trouble stringing sentences together, you’re not alone. Finding your “flow” can be challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:

• HubSpot's AI Blog Writer : Tools like HubSpot's AI Blog Writer can be a valuable asset for beginners and seasoned bloggers alike. It simplifies the process of creating SEO-friendly and engaging blog content, which is crucial for connecting with your audience and enjoying the benefits of blogging.
• Power Thesaurus : Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a number of alternative word choices from a community of writers.
• ZenPen : If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist “writing zone” designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.
• Cliché Finder : Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.

You can also refer to our complete list of tools for improving your writing skills . And if you're looking for more direction, the following resources are chock-full of valuable writing advice:

• Copywriting 101: 6 Traits of Excellent Copy Readers Will Remember
• How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts
• How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message
• The Kurt Vonnegut Guide to Great Copywriting: 8 Rules That Apply to Anyone
• Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting

9. Publish and promote your first post any way you can.

As a new blogger, you likely don’t have a social media following yet. Thankfully, you don’t need a huge following before you can create a promotion strategy.

A promotion strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content. It helps you take advantage of social and digital technologies to share your business, or in this case, your content. Having a solid promotional strategy offers your audience from different marketing channels more ways to find your blog posts.

Here are more blog post promotion resources:

• 12 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts
• 10 Sites You Can Use for Free Blog Promotion
• 9 Link Building Email Outreach Templates That Actually Work
• Inbound Link Building 101: 34 Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO
• 11 Creative (But 100% White Hat!) Ways to Earn Backlinks

Before you write a blog, make sure you know the answers to questions like, “Why would someone keep reading this entire blog post?” and “What makes our audience come back for more?”

To start, a good blog post is interesting and educational. Blogs should answer questions and help readers resolve a challenge they're experiencing — and you have to do so in an interesting way.

It‘s not enough just to answer someone’s questions — you also have to provide actionable steps while being engaging. For instance, your introduction should hook the reader and make them want to continue reading your post. Then, use examples to keep your readers interested in what you have to say.

Remember, a good blog post is interesting to read and provides educational content to audience members.

Want to learn how to apply blogging and other forms of content marketing to your business?

Check out HubSpot Academy's free content marketing course .

Now, let's dive into some formatting guidelines to use before you publish your blog posts.

Blog Format Guidelines

• Include H2s to arrange ideas.
• Center your Images.
• Add alt text.
• Keep your sentences clear and concise.
• Use media with purpose.

1. Include H2s to arrange ideas.

When you begin typing your blog content, it’s important that you divide paragraphs into sections that make it easier for the reader to find what they need.

If you’re just starting out, then focus on the overarching H2s you want to talk about, and you’ll be able to branch off into subheaders and more naturally as you continue.

2. Center your images.

This is a simple practice that can help your content look more professional with little effort. Centering your images keeps the reader’s attention drawn to the subject — not searching for elsewhere.

Centering also looks better when translating from PC to mobile devices. As formatting transitions to small screens or windows, a centered image will remain the focal point.

3. Add alt text.

So those images you centered earlier, make sure you have descriptive alt text for them, too.

Image alt text allows search engines, like Google, to crawl and rank your blog post better than pages lacking the element. It also leads readers to your blog post if the keywords included are what they searched for in the first place.

Besides SERP features, image alt text is beneficial to readers by providing more accessibility. Image alt text allows people to better visualize images when they can’t see them, and with assistive technology, can be auditorily read aloud for people to enjoy.

4. Keep your sentences short and concise.

When you begin working on the body of your blog post, make sure readers can clearly understand what you’re trying to accomplish.

You shouldn’t feel pressure to elongate your post with unnecessary details, and chances are that if you keep it concise, readers will derive more value from your work.

5. Use media with a purpose.

Break up the monotony of your blog post with some multimedia content where seen fit.

Your reader will enjoy visiting a blog page with images, videos, polls, audio or slideshows as opposed to a page of black and white text.

It also makes it more interactive and improves your on-page search engine optimization (SEO).

Now, do you want some real examples of blog posts? See what your first blog post can look like based on the topic you choose and the audience you're targeting.

• List-Based Post
• Thought Leadership Post
• Curated Collection Post
• SlideShare Presentation
• Newsjacking Post
• Infographic Post
• How-to Post

1. List-Based Blog Post

List-based post example: 17 blogging mistakes to avoid in 2021, according to hubspot bloggers.

List-based posts are sometimes called “listicles,” a mix of the words “list” and “article.” These are articles that deliver information in the form of a list. A listicle uses sub-headers to break down the blog post into individual pieces, helping readers skim and digest your content more easily.

As you can see in the example from our blog, listicles can offer various tips and methods for solving a problem.

2. Thought Leadership Post

Example: how hubspot's customers are shaping the next normal.

Thought leadership posts allow you to share your expertise on a particular subject matter and share firsthand knowledge with your readers.

These pieces — which can be written in the first person, like the post shown above — help you build trust with your audience so people take your blog seriously as you continue to write for it.

3. Curated Collection Post

Example: 8 examples of evolution in action.

Curated collections are a special type of listicle blog post. Rather than sharing tips or methods for doing something, this type of blog post shares a list of real examples that all have something in common in order to prove a larger point.

In the example post above, Listverse shares eight real examples of evolution in action among eight different animals — starting with the peppered moth.

4. Slide Presentation

Example: the hubspot culture code.

HubSpot Slides is a presentation tool that helps publishers package a lot of information into easily shareable slides. Think of it like a PowerPoint, but for the web. With this in mind, SlideShare blog posts help you promote your SlideShare so that it can generate a steady stream of visitors.

Unlike blogs, slide decks don't often rank well on search engines, so they need a platform for getting their message out there to the people who are looking for it. By embedding and summarizing your SlideShare on a blog post, you can share a great deal of information and give it a chance to rank on Google at the same time.

Need some slideshow ideas? In the example above, we turned our company's “Culture Code” into a slides presentation that anyone can look through and take lessons from, and then promoted it in a blog post.

5. Newsjacking Post

Example: ivy goes mobile with new app for designers.

“Newsjacking” is a nickname for “hijacking” your blog to break important news related to your industry. Therefore, the newsjack post is a type of article whose sole purpose is to garner consumers' attention and, while offering them timeless professional advice, prove your blog is a trusted resource for learning about the big things that happen in your industry.

The newsjack example above was published by Houzz, a home decor merchant and interior design resource, about a new mobile app that was launched just for interior designers. Houzz didn‘t launch the app, but the news of its launching is no less important to Houzz’s audience.

6. Infographic Post

Example: the key benefits of studying online [infographic].

For example, when you're looking to share a lot of statistical information (without boring or confusing your readers), building this data into a well-designed, even engaging infographic can keep your readers engaged with your content. It also helps readers remember the information long after they leave your website.

7. How-to Post

Example: how to write a blog post: a step-by-step guide.

For this example, you need not look any further than the blog post you‘re reading right now! How-to guides like this one help solve a problem for your readers. They’re like a cookbook for your industry, walking your audience through a project step by step to improve their literacy on the subject.

The more posts like this you create, the more equipped your readers will be to work with you and invest in the services you offer.

8. Guest Post

Example: your bookmarkable guide to social media image sizes in 2021 [infographic].

Additionally, these posts give your blog variety in topic and viewpoint. If your customer has a problem you can't solve, a guest post is a great solution.

If you begin accepting guest posts, set up editorial guidelines to ensure they're up to the same standards as your posts.

So we’ve gone through the different types of blog posts you can make, but how do you consistently make quality blog posts that your viewers will enjoy?

• Draw from your buyer personas and what you know about your audience.
• Pull from your content strategy and/or brainstormed topics.
• Identify what's missing from the existing discourse.
• Choose what type of blog post you're writing.
• Generate a few different titles and choose the best one.
• Create your outline and designate keyword-rich H2s and H3s.
• Write your blog post!
• Proofread your post.
• Add images and other media elements to support your ideas.
• Upload your post into your CMS.
• Determine a conversion path (what you want your audience to do next).
• Add calls to action to guide your audience to take action.
• Link to other relevant blog posts within your content.
• Optimize for on-page SEO.
• Publish and promote the blog post.
• Track the performance of the blog post over time.

1. Draw from your buyer personas and what you know about your audience.

Before you start writing your blog post, make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience.

Ask questions like: What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?

This is where the process of creating buyer personas comes in handy. Consider what you know about your buyer personas and their interests while you're coming up with a topic for your blog post.

For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start a business, you probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started in social media — most of them already have that down.

If you haven’t developed buyer personas yet, I’ve found that it’s easiest to get started by gathering the information you already have about your audience and looking for trends. Sending out feedback surveys and interviewing followers can also be helpful.

Does your blog attract a specific age group? Does your audience live in a certain region? How do readers typically discover your content? Finding answers to these questions can help you get a better idea of who your buyer persona is.

2. Pull from your content strategy and/or brainstormed topics.

If you already have a pre-existing portfolio to look back on, it would benefit you to pull from those brainstormed post ideas or previous content strategy.

One thing that’s been helpful for me is specifically looking at content performance data when brainstorming ideas. In doing this, I’ve discovered which topics tend to resonate with my audience (and which ones don’t) and created content around them.

By focusing on your core blog topics, or clusters , you can establish yourself as a thought leader, gain the trust of your audience, rank better on search engines, and attract new readers.

3. Identify what’s missing from the existing discourse.

Fill in the gaps of the existing discourse in the topic of your choosing.

You want to meet a need that hasn’t already been met in your topic cluster. Otherwise, you run the risk of writing content for topics that are already over-saturated.

It’s hard to beat saturated search queries when you’re trying to rank against high authority publications — but not impossible if your content is answering the queries the competition hasn’t.

To discover what’s missing within a topic, I conduct a competitive analysis to see what my competitors offer in their content and how I can make my blog post better. Here are some things to look out for:

• Unanswered user queries
• Content depth
• Content freshness
• Media richness
• User experience

If your competitors are lacking in any of these areas, you can use that to your advantage and focus on them when writing your blog post.

Another way to differentiate your blog is by offering original data, quotes, or perspectives. Some of my best performing posts have come from getting a unique quote from an industry expert.

4. Choose what type of blog post you’re writing.

There are several types of blog posts you can create, and they each have different formats to follow.

Six of the most common formats include:

• The List-Based Post
• The “What Is” Post
• The Pillar Page Post (“Ultimate Guide”)
• The Newsjacking Post
• The Infographic Post
• The “How-To” Post

Save time and download six blog post templates for free.

5. Generate a few different titles and choose the best one.

Your blog title should tell readers what to expect, yet it should leave them wanting to know more — confusing, right?

This is why when you’re coming up with a blog post title that you should brainstorm multiple ones instead of just one. I find it helpful to share these titles with a couple coworkers to get their feedback and see which one is most engaging to them.

I’ve also enlisted the help of ChatGPT to generate sample blog post titles by inputting a prompt like, “Write a list of blog titles about [topic].” Even if it doesn’t give you exactly what you want, it can still get ideas flowing.

6. Create your outline and designate keyword-rich H2s and H3s.

When outlining, you need to center your main ideas with keyword-rich H2s and H3s. These are going to be your headers and subheaders that readers typically search for, and the information that Google crawls when indexing and ranking content.

I use keyword research tools, like Ahrefs and Semrush , to find the best words for my blog post. To find the right keywords, I focus on the following elements:

• Relevance to topic and search intent
• How authoritative my blog is on the topic
• The amount of search traffic my blog could gain

Remember, your outline should serve as a guide to make writing your blog post easier, so make sure you include all the important points you want to discuss and organize them in a logical flow.

7. Write your blog post!

I already told you how to build out your outline earlier in the post, so we'll quickly go over the main points once more.

You‘ve already outlined your main headings and subheadings, so now’s the time to add the body.

Write about what you already know, and if necessary, conduct additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, while providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. When you do, always try to find accurate and compelling data to use in your post.

This is also your opportunity to show personality in your writing. Blog posts don‘t have to be strictly informational, they can be filled with interesting anecdotes and even humor if it serves a purpose in expressing your ideas. It also factors into creating and maintaining your blog’s brand voice .

Don‘t be discouraged if you’re having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your “flow” can be challenging, but there are many tools to ease the process. Software such as HubSpot's Free AI Blog Writer can help you generate copy for your blog post. You can even use it to outline and generate title ideas.

8. Proofread your post.

The editing process is an important part of blogging — don't overlook it. I tend to self-edit while I write, but it’s essential to get a second pair of eyes on your post before publishing.

Consider enlisting the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist and ask a grammar-conscious co-worker to copy edit and proofread your post. I also really enjoy free grammar checkers, like Grammarly , to help proofread while I’m writing.

If you're looking to brush up on your self-editing skills, turn to these helpful posts for some tips and tricks to get you started:

• How to Become a (Better) Editor: 13 Editorial Tips
• How to Become a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process
• 10 Simple Edits That'll Instantly Improve Any Piece of Writing

9. Add images and other media elements to support your ideas.

When you're finished checking for grammar, shift your focus to adding other elements to the blog post than text. There’s much more to making a good blog post than copy, here’s some following elements to add in support of your ideas:

Featured Image

Choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your post. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content.

For help selecting an image for your post, read " How to Select the Perfect Image for Your Next Blog Post " and pay close attention to the section about copyright law.

Visual Appearance

No one likes an unattractive blog post. And it‘s not just pictures that make a post visually appealing — it’s the formatting and organization of the post, too.

In a well-formatted and visually-appealing blog post, you'll notice that header and sub-headers are used to break up large blocks of text — and those headers are styled consistently.

Here's an example of what that looks like:

Screenshots should always have a similar, defined border so they don‘t appear as if they’re floating in space — that style should stay consistent from post to post.

Maintaining this consistency makes your content look more professional and easier on the eyes.

Topics and Tags

Tags are specific, public-facing keywords that describe a post. They also allow readers to browse for more content in the same category on your blog. Refrain from adding a laundry list of tags to each post. Instead, put some thought into a blog tagging strategy.

Think of tags as “topics” or “categories,” and choose 10-20 tags that represent all the main topics you want to cover on your blog. Then stick to those.

10. Upload your post into your CMS.

You filled out your blog post with all the optimized content you can, now is the time to publish it in your content management system.

I also use this step as an opportunity to double check my post for any errors that were potentially missed during the proofreading process. It’s especially important to preview your post before publishing to make sure there aren’t any formatting issues.

You can opt to post your content immediately, save it as a draft, or schedule when you want it to be posted live in case you adhere to a posting schedule.

11. Determine a conversion path (what you want your audience to do next).

A conversion path is a process by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead. It sounds simple enough, but creating an effective conversion path requires a clear understanding of your target audience and their needs.

Having a conversion path is important because when you share your content on the web, you should have an idea of what your audience should do next, or in other words, provide them with a path forward.

The HubSpot Flywheel model is a great example of this as it shows how our organization gains and maintains leads.

12. Add calls to action to guide your audience to take action.

Call to action (CTA) are a part of a webpage, advertisement, or piece of content that encourages the audience to do something. You can add them to your blog post to guide your reader with “next steps” or a conversion path.

Different types of call to actions include asking readers to:

• Subscribe to your newsletter to see when you publish more content.
• Join an online community in your blog domain.
• Learn more about a topic with downloadable content.
• Try something for free or discount to convert readers to customers.

To get a better idea of how to make a CTA that readers want to click, we have a whole list of effective call to action examples for you to check out.

13. Link to other relevant blog posts within your content.

When you’re completing your blog post, you should link relevant content throughout it. An effective way to do this is to link within the same content cluster.

One thing I do to make finding relevant links easier is going to my search browser and typing “site:website.com: keyword.” By doing this, you can find all the posts you have published on that topic.

Keeping relevant content throughout your post can provide your readers with more helpful information, and potentially boost search engine rankings with corresponding longtail keywords .

But we’ll talk more about how to improve your ranking in the next step.

14. Optimize for on-page SEO.

After you finish writing, go back and optimize the on-page elements of your post.

Don‘t obsess over how many keywords to include. If there are opportunities to incorporate keywords you’re targeting, and it won‘t impact reader experience, do it. If you can make your URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don’t cram keywords or shoot for some arbitrary keyword density — Google's smarter than that!

Here's a little blog SEO reminder about what you should review and optimize:

Write your meta description.

Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the post‘s page title on Google’s search results pages. They provide searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking into it. They are ideally between 150-160 characters and start with a verb, such as “Learn,” “Read,” or “Discover.”

While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google‘s keyword ranking algorithm, they give searchers a snapshot of what they’ll get from reading the post and help improve your clickthrough rate from search.

Optimize your page title and headers.

Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. But if you've followed our formula so far, you should already have a working title that will naturally include keywords or phrases your target audience is interested in.

Don‘t over-complicate your title by trying to fit in keywords where they don’t naturally belong. With that said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords you‘re targeting to your post title and headers, feel free to take them. Also, try to keep your headlines short — ideally, under 65 characters — so they don’t get truncated in the search engine results.

"The first component of a good title is that it needs to be scannable. People aren’t reading every word of your thoughtfully crafted headline. If you’re following a search-focused strategy, make sure to include the keyword at the beginning," Del Principe says.

Consider anchor text best practices as you interlink to other pages.

Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page — either on your website or on another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain keywords.

It‘s also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking pages that you want to rank for a specific keyword. You could end up getting it to rank on Google’s first page of results instead of its second page — and that isn’t small potatoes!

Write alt text for all of your images.

Alt text conveys the “why” of an image as it relates to the content of your blog post to Google. By adding alt text correlating to the topic clusters and keywords of the post, Google can better direct users’ searches to you.

Check that all images are compressed for page speed.

When Google crawls different websites, a page’s load speed holds weight in page ranking. Make sure the images you include throughout the page aren’t unnecessarily large to shorten the duration it takes to load.

Use apps like Squoosh to minimize the size of your images without losing the quality.

Ensure that your blog post is mobile friendly.

More than 60% of organic visits are carried out on a mobile device. As such, having a website with a responsive design is critical. In addition to making sure your website‘s visitors (including your blog’s visitors) have the best experience possible, optimizing for mobile will score your website some SEO points.

15. Publish and promote the blog post.

Share your post across all the marketing channels in your repertoire. The further the reach, the more of a possibility that readers will find it.

Channels to expand your blog post promotion strategy include:

• Social Media Marketing : Sharing your content on the most popular social media networks like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
• Email Marketing : Sharing the newest post with your email subscribers to find.
• Boosted Posts or Paid Ads : Allocating budget toward advertisement on search engines inorganically.
• Word of Mouth Marketing : Actively influencing people to read your content organically.

16. Track the performance of the blog post over time.

Your post is published for the world to see, make sure you’re keeping an eye on its performance over time so you can see if your blog post strategy is working well enough for your goals.

Here are some blog KPIs I like to keep track of:

• Total traffic per post
• Average CTR
• Average SERP position
• Traffic source breakdown
• Number of search queries per post
• Average comments per post
• Social shares per post
• New blog leads
• Conversion rate

There’s a plethora of website traffic analysis tools that you can take advantage of to better understand your audience’s behavior on your blog posts.

Quick Blog Writing Tips

If you’re feeling stuck as a new writer, don’t give up. It gets easier with practice. Whether you’re struggling with writer's block or wanting some ways to add depth to your content, here are some quick tips I compiled to help take your blog writing to the next level:

If you don’t know where to start, start by telling a story.

When you’re facing writer’s block, start with what you know. Not only will sharing personal anecdotes help you get ideas flowing, but it can also keep your readers engaged with what you’re saying.

Stories can simplify complex concepts and make your content more relatable. Plus, they add a human touch and help set the tone for the rest of your blog post.

Include interesting quotes or facts for emphasis on the subject.

When you back up your ideas with unique, expert quotes or share facts from reliable sources, it shows that your blog post is well-researched and trustworthy.

If you don’t know where to start with finding quotes, think about the people you know and their expertise. For example, I’m lucky enough to have incredibly knowledgeable coworkers here at HubSpot that I can reach out to if I need a quote.

I’ve also reached out to connections on LinkedIn to see if they can provide a quote or know someone who can. HARO can also be a great resource if you need a quote in a pinch.

Make your content skimmable; break it into digestible chunks.

There’s nothing that turns readers off more than opening an article and seeing a large wall of text. Think about it: most internet users have a short attention span and tend to skim through content rather than reading every word.

That’s why I recommend breaking up your blog post into smaller chunks to make it more digestible. You can do this by utilizing subheadings (H2s, H3s, H4s, etc.), bullet points, and short paragraphs.

Not only does breaking up your content make your blog post more visually appealing, it also helps readers quickly find the information they’re looking for without getting lost in a sea of text.

Paint a full picture with images, graphics or video.

Aside from aesthetic appeal, visuals can help convey complex ideas in an easier way and help readers remember the information you share.

I recommend reading through your blog post and putting yourself in your reader’s shoes. Is there anything you wrote about that would be better explained with the support of an image or graphic?

For instance, whenever I write about the pros and cons of something, I like to create a graphic that shows those pros and cons in a side-by-side comparison.

I also look at search engines results when determining what images to add to my post. Does the SERP for the keyword you’re targeting have an image pack? See if you can add in images and optimize them with alt text to increase the chances of appearing in those results.

Each sentence should convey a single idea.

Keep it simple, stupid. There’s no reason to write overly complex sentences that confuse your readers. Instead, opt to convey your message in a simple and accessible manner. At the end of the day, readers just want to find the answers they’re looking for, and writing in a straightforward manner can effectively meet this need.

I like to use the Hemingway App to make sure that my writing doesn’t get too dense.

Use active voice.

Although your writing should captivate the reader, you should avoid overwhelming them with fluff. Using active voice can help keep your writing clear, concise, and energetic while still getting your point across.

For example, instead of saying something like “the product was loved by customers,” write “customers loved the product.”

Ready to blog?

Blogging can help you build brand awareness, become a thought-leader and expert in your industry, attract qualified leads, and boost conversions. Follow the steps and tips we covered above to begin publishing and enhancing your blog today.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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How to Write a Good Blog Post: A Complete Step-by-Step Process

You pull up a blank document, ready to write a blog post, but the white emptiness stares back. How do you begin?

We’ve all been there, staring into that vast white space, wondering where to start. I’ve felt that subtle anxiety too. Yet, with the right approach, that daunting task can turn into a delightful journey. With an established process, writing becomes less about filling the space and more about connecting deeply with your readers.

Dive into the steps in this post and uncover the secrets to crafting a blog post that truly engages and resonates with your audience.

Table of Contents

How long does it take to write a great blog post?

Step 1: identify your topic, original research, topical research, competitive research, how-to guide, feature article, product review or comparison, link/article roundup, expert roundup, step 4: create an outline, introduction, body content, step 6: pen a headline, step 7: edit and proofread your content, step 8: add your meta data, step 9: publish your post, it’s all about practice.

As you get into writing blog posts, you might wonder how long you should take to write a good one. Are you taking too long? Should you spend more time?

Orbit Media Studios found that bloggers take an average of four hours and one minute to complete a blog post in their 2022 survey . For reference, these folks wrote an average of 1,416 words per blog post.

But think of this number as an estimate. It takes everyone a different amount of time to write a blog post based on factors like:

• Personal writing speed: All bloggers write at a different pace, and they’re all valid.
• Subject matter knowledge : It’s faster to write about a subject you know over one you don’t.
• Topic complexity: Most people will need more time to write about piezoelectric ceramics than how to blow a bubble with gum.
• Research requirements : It’ll take longer to put together a blog post that weaves together original interviews than one with a few online sources.

Plus, Orbit Media Studios discovered that bloggers who spend more time on their blog posts get more success. Thirty-three percent of respondents who spent six or more hours per blog post reported “strong results.” Compare that number to the 22% benchmark.

You’ll see that the first steps to writing a blog post involve careful preparation. Start by choosing a topic to write about.

Get as specific as possible when you pick your subject. Specificity lets you differentiate your content from blog posts on similar topics and helps you cover an idea in-depth. Let’s say you want to write about how to cook a steak — you could narrow that down to how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill.

After you decide on a topic, establish the angle you want to take. Going back to our example of how to cook a T-bone steak on a grill, you could come from a scientific angle. For your blog post, you could consult a scientist on why certain techniques make a better steak.

Step 2: Do your research

Now that you know what you want to write about, you can research your topic . Blog post research falls into three categories:

Original research comes from data you generate yourself by consulting other people. Not every blog post needs to have original research to have high-quality content, but it can contribute to truly unique writing.

Try these tactics to get one-of-a-kind sources for your post:

• Surveys: Use a free tool like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to ask people questions on a large scale. Find people who know about your topic at your organization, subscribed to your mailing list on the subject, or in an online community.
• Polls: Polls work well for asking a broad audience a single question. Many social media and communication apps have built-in poll features, such as Twitter and Slack.
• Interviews: Ask experts on your subject for an interview over email, on a video call, or in person. Reach out to your colleagues and network to see if they know anyone. You can also use a service like Help a Reporter Out to get expert quotes.

Topical research is the research you conduct around the internet. Use your preferred search engine to find online sources with these traits:

• Authoritative: The author or website should have plenty of experience or credentials on the topic. When applicable, they should use solid research to back up their claims.
• Recent: Aim for resources written three or fewer years ago when possible.
• Helpful: When your reader clicks through to your source, they should get value out of it and understand how it connects to your article.

This type of research often flies under the radar for newer blog post writers. Competitive research involves evaluating other articles on your subject. By understanding the other content out there on your topic, you can find ways to improve upon it.

Don’t just look for what ideas the other blog posts include. Instead, think about what they’re missing. Maybe they don’t cover a point you feel is important, or you could format your content more clearly than them.

Step 3: Choose the type of blog post you’ll write

With knowledge of your topic on hand, it’s time to decide how you’ll present it. Some popular blog post genres include:

List blog posts organize information into a list with headings naming each item. They often come in the form of numbered lists with a title featuring the number of items, such as “5 Ways to Fold a Towel.”

When you write a list blog post, you don’t have to make your list the only content. HelpScout’s 13 Best Practices for Improving Online Customer Service introduces online customer service, then digs into its items.

A checklist blog post provides a checklist for readers to follow to perform a task.

These posts often provide a simplified checklist to follow and then provide more details for each item, like our blog post checklist .

A how-to guide walks the reader through the steps it takes to perform an action.

These blog posts rely heavily on lists and images to help readers understand each part of the process. Melly Sews’s how-to guide to sewing a flat-felled seam uses both.

An interview blog post showcases an interview the author has with someone who has insights to share about the article topic.

You can go about one of these blog posts in two ways. Either list out your questions and answers in a Q&A format or use your interview answers to tell a story. Notion did the latter in Three-time YC founder and first-time mom finds flow in Notion .

A feature article brings together original research and interviews to explore a subject. Since features often involve interviews, they can overlap with interview blog posts.

Some blogs take a feature-first approach to posting, such as Microsoft’s Unlocked blog. One example of one of their features is Can an alphabet save a culture?

In the context of blog posts, an essay presents the author’s argument or opinion. The writer uses research and evidence to back up their points.

Media Strategies Aren’t as Crazy as They Seem from the Animalz blog features real-life examples that back up a unique perspective.

News posts share news from your community or company.

On business blogs, a lot of news posts relate to company and product updates, like SparkToro Now Has 50% More Podcasts from SparkToro.

A case study tells a success story about a product or service. It generally focuses on one event or customer.

This type of blog post requires original interviews with the customer involved so you can get their perspective on your work. With some products, you can share the results of how you helped the customer. Take Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, sharing posts from its customer in this case study as an example.

Product reviews and comparisons evaluate the usefulness of products for the reader. Reviews focus on a single product, while comparisons compare the features of multiple products.

Some of these product posts come in the form of a list ranking the best products in a category, like Zapier’s email newsletter software roundup .

Link and article roundups bring together links to online resources or articles on a specific subject.

Some of these roundups are more purchase-focused, such as Good On You’s roundup of eco-friendly fashion deals .

Expert roundup blog posts present opinions on a topic from multiple subject matter experts.

This format can overlap with other formats, like in Databox’s blog posts that synthesize expert opinions into lists. The Heroes of Business Transparency is one example.

Many people skip or rush through this step even though it’s just as important as the actual writing. A detailed blog post outline gives your article structure and lets you evaluate your overall argument before you write out the full post.

It also helps combat writer’s block. At the outline stage, you only have to get a basic idea down, taking off the pressure of writing a complete idea. Then, when you get to the writing stage, you’ll have your outline to reference when you don’t know what sentence to write next.

Follow these steps to write an outline:

• List each section and subsection of your blog post. Each section could cover a list item, a point in your argument, a step in a process, etc.
• Add up to three main points per section. Here’s where you’ll start forming the ideas you’ll cover. As you practice making outlines, you might find it helpful to get even more detailed at this stage.
• Include any links and examples you want to include for your points. Place your sources where you plan to reference them so you can add them easily in the writing stage.

Here’s a hypothetical outline for a blog post by my cat on why I should feed her a second dinner:

You can go more in-depth with your points in your outline, but here’s how the formatting should look.

I recommend writing your outline in a separate document and copying any headers and links over to your draft document. It can be tempting to write your outline and fill out your draft from there, but your document will get disorganized quickly with this approach.

Step 5: Write your post

Onto the writing itself!

Make sure to follow web writing best practices when you write your content.

People read 25% slower onscreen, and they skim rather than read. Web text should be short, scannable, and structured as linked, topical pages. Nielsen Norman Group

Shortening or “chunking” your content helps readers skim, so try to keep your sentences to 25 words or fewer and paragraphs to three sentences or fewer. Make sure to follow the style guide for your blog if you have one as well.

A blog post consists of three main sections that require different approaches:

Integrate your blog post’s angle and an emotional hook into your introduction. This technique establishes what makes your post unique from the start and draws in the reader.

For example, in this blog post, I’m trying to provide a comprehensive process so you never feel lost when writing. I explained that angle in the second paragraph of my intro.

As for the emotional hook, try putting yourself in the reader’s shoes or telling a story. I used the example of staring at a blank page wondering what to do next because I’ve been there and know others have, too.

You could also use the Animalz technique of using an unexpected hook and referencing it throughout your blog post. This method takes practice and careful thought, but that hard work really pays off.

Whichever hook you use, keep your introduction concise — about three paragraphs or fewer. An intro that goes on too long can lose the reader’s interest.

A quick side note: You don’t have to write your introduction first if it comes easier to you after you write the rest of your post. Mark it for later and revisit it when you have more context to work with.

Your body content consists of all the words between the introduction and conclusion.

As you write this part of your post, try to cover all the information important for your reader to know. If you have a word limit to stay within, consider linking out to resources on complicated sub-topics.

Speaking of linking, include links to other posts on your blog and trusted sources throughout your body content. Search engines prioritize websites that link relevant pages to each other. Plus, it works as a way to cite your sources when you use outside information.

Just make sure that any site you link to is relevant to your post. Adding links for linking’s sake will make it harder to establish authority and search engine performance.

Lastly, make sure your writing is crisp, clear, and concise by keeping paragraphs three sentences or less, and each sentence 25 words or less .

Here’s an example of a well-structured post’s body content.

Time for the grand finale. You have multiple ways to go about writing a conclusion, such as:

• A summary: Summarize the key points you covered in your post.
• A takeaway: Provide a takeaway from the ideas you presented in your post. You could go back to the angle you established at the beginning, for example.
• A redirection: Connect your blog post to another post on your blog and direct your reader there for further reading.
• A bonus tip: Offer one final tip for the reader to use as they apply the knowledge in your post.

When it feels appropriate, you can also add a call to action to subscribe to your newsletter, try your product, or perform another transactional action. Connect your call to action back to the rest of your conclusion so it doesn’t feel pigeonholed.

After you finish writing your first draft, give it a headline . You can write the headline before your post if you like — there’s no hard and fast rule. For this blog post, we’re writing the headline after the content so you have your draft on hand to inspire your headline.

Follow these steps to craft a top-notch headline for your article:

• If you write blog posts with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, grab the top keyword for your article. This keyword should have a direct relation to your subject.
• Write down 25 versions of your headline to give yourself plenty of choices to consider. Make sure your keyword feels like a natural part of each headline if you include it.
• Narrow those 25 options to your five favorites.
• Choose a “winner” from your five finalists.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer Studio can help you identify what headlines will hook readers and work for SEO. It has a Google Chrome extension and WordPress plugin. If you don’t have a plan that supports plugins, the extension provides a prompt alongside your WordPress headline.

Every blog post needs editing to shine, no matter how talented the writer is. Give your content plenty of this TLC to create quality results.

Start with a basic spelling and grammar check using your word processor’s tools. Then, you can use a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway for more in-depth fixes. While Grammarly performs an advanced spelling and grammar scan, Hemingway checks sentence structure, like so:

After you perform these checks, you should still read through your writing manually. Your human eyes will catch mistakes the computer misses. Plus, your editing should focus as much on the quality of your ideas as it does on your spelling and grammar.

We provided some tips to make the manual editing and proofreading process easier in an earlier WordPress blog post. I also suggest asking yourself these questions as you go through your content:

• Do my logic and arguments make sense?
• Did I use my SEO keywords? Did I insert them naturally?
• Do I notice any words being used frequently that I can mix up with adjectives?
• Did I vary my sentence structure for more dynamic reading?
• Will my blog post be readable for my average reader?
• Did I follow my blog’s style throughout the post?

Your blog post’s title tag, meta description, and URL all influence how people find and understand it.

The title tag and meta description are the title and description you see for a page in search results. By default, WordPress uses your headline as the title tag and your excerpt as the meta description. But, if they aren’t the proper length for search results, they can get cut off.

It’s best practice to write a separate title tag and meta description so you know they’ll look good. In WordPress, you can edit this data by changing your post’s code or using a plugin .

Yoast and All in One SEO are two popular plugin options. These plugins add a box below your content in the WordPress editor where you can manage your title tag and meta description. They also guide you through writing those search specs well.

Your URL slug is the unique string of words that appears at the end of your URL.

For example, this blog post’s URL is:

Its slug is:

That’s the part of the URL that’s different for each blog post.

WordPress pulls your URL slug from your headline, but that slug usually isn’t optimized for search results. According to Ahrefs , a good slug follows keywords and summarizes the essence of the blog post.

No need for a plugin or fancy coding to edit your URL slug. Go to the Block tab in the right-hand menu, then edit your URL using the URL option. Save your draft or update your blog post to save your new slug.

Now that you have your meta data set up, you can finalize your content for publishing. Copy and paste your blog post from your word processor to your WordPress post. The formatting will carry over to the block editor.

Or, you may have written your blog post within the blog post editor. I generally don’t recommend this approach in case you accidentally click “Publish,” but I know some writers get by just fine doing it. You do you.

If you paste your content from a Google Doc or another online text editor, go through your post and re-upload your images from your computer. The images you paste from another source are kept on your editor’s website, and you’ll want them on your WordPress site for safekeeping.

Once you establish a solid process for writing your blog posts, the next step to mastery is practice. As you adjust your system to your workflow, you’ll know what to do next instead of hoping words will magically appear on your blank page. And we’ll be with you as you practice. Just use this guide to help keep you on track.

Pair your airtight writing process with a good topic generation system , and you’ll become an unstoppable blogger. We can’t wait to see what you write!

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About the author, melissa king.

Melissa King writes actionable blog posts about content, marketing, and productivity for tech companies. Find more of her work at melissakingfreelance.com.

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Business growth

Marketing tips

How to write a good blog introduction

A content marketer shares her four-part formula for writing introductions—and creating more effective content..

The pressure is on. 

The spotlight is blazing, the microphone is on, and everyone is watching me expectantly. 

No, it's not an open mic night at the local coffee shop. It's just the inside of my brain every time I write a blog post introduction (like this one). Getting someone hooked from the get-go is essential if you want readers to see the content you worked so hard on to the end. 

At times, though, coming up with an interesting introduction feels like fishing in a dried-up well. For times like those, it helps to have a few formulas or thought starters up your sleeve to kickstart the process. 

Let's explore tips you can use the next time your creative brain has its OOO autoresponder on. 

What a blog post introduction needs to achieve

Understanding what an introduction needs to do helps you gauge whether you've hit the mark (and can call a draft "done"). I have three goals each time I start a blog post:

Excite readers and give them a reason to read more

Introduce a new perspective on the topic

Set expectations about what a reader will learn

Keep this in mind, though: your blog post intro should achieve these goals quickly. After you've written your introduction, read it through again and see if you can delete any sentences—or even paragraphs—without losing any meaning or effect.

A 4-part formula to make writing introductions easier

I've broken down the intro-writing process into four components. Review these best practices, try using the formula, and then adapt it to your writing style. 

First up: a line or two to catch someone's attention. If you struggle to come up with a great first sentence, wait until the draft is ready. Then write something that plays off an angle in the content.

Do use a personal story or analogy to make it interesting.

Don't state the obvious. Sentences along the lines of "We've all seen…" or "X is a well-established trend…" are redundant. 

Next, you need to let readers know why they should care about what you're about to say. Describe the issue, make a relatable joke, include an expert quote, or give some background on how the problem came to be. 

Do think about who will read the post and how the topic affects them. 

Don't lean on worn-out, over-dramatic, or outdated stats to build up the problem to be bigger than it is. 

3. Solution

Now it's time to address the reason someone would read your blog post in the first place—a solution. Set up the antidote to the problem, and go ahead and work your primary keyword in here. 

Do opt for clarity over cleverness here.

Don't abuse your keyword privileges by stuffing every search term into a sentence. 

4. Expectations

Finally, I like to include a sneak peek of what's coming up. Ideally, you can state what a reader will be able to do once they're through with reading. Readers want actionable content. 

Do focus on the positive outcome for the reader. 

Don't slip into the "five-paragraph essay" trap of saying "Today, I'll be writing about X,Y, and Z." 

Example blog post introductions

So far, we've just been talking the talk. It's time to see how four-part blog post openers work in the wild, putting my own writing under the microscope. 

Storytelling with ConvertKit

ConvertKit helps creators build their businesses, so I always try to put myself in the reader's shoes in the introductions . 

My goal: Help creators see themselves in the story and say "hey, that's me!"

What I wrote: "Your podcast downloads are climbing up and up every week, and you just landed a dream guest. It feels like your podcast is growing—and that's a wonderful feeling."

My goal: Have readers think critically about their business. 

What I wrote: "Do you know what's really making all the difference, though? Could you pinpoint what percent of customers converted because of your podcast? Are you aware of which promotional channels are bringing in the most listeners?"

My goal: Reassure readers since it could be a sensitive or frustrating topic.

What I wrote: "If you don't, you aren't alone. Making sense of how your podcast helps you grow your business doesn't come easily for podcasters both new and experienced. You deserve to understand how your efforts are paying off, though. That way, you know what to double down on—and what to cut loose."

Expectations

My goal: Reiterate that the post wouldn't just be a list of metrics without any next-step guidance. 

What I wrote:  "With a little strategy and set up you'll be on your way to tracking podcast success like the savvy creator you are."

Ideal outcomes with Great Question

The brief for this blog post noted that customer research recruitment is a roadblock for teams, so I aimed to illustrate that "catch."

My goal: Explain what you gain with research instead of saying "research is valuable."

What I wrote: "Customer research can offer a gold mine of insights. You gain new perspectives, confirm hunches, and get feedback on developments before you're too far down the rabbit hole."

My goal: Tease the ideal reality they could have, and introduce the monster standing in the way of the quest. 

What I wrote: " There's a catch, though—you need to have enough people participate."

My goal: Position research incentives as the hero in the story. 

What I wrote: "It would be great if customers wanted to be a part of your UX research out of the goodness of their hearts. Since that isn't a universally applicable strategy, we use customer research incentives to boost participation."

My goal: Preview upcoming sections that outline which incentives are best for various scenarios. 

What I wrote: "Instead of blindly throwing cash at a project, it's helpful to consider what type of incentive is best for your audience. Here's what you should know."

Intro inception with Zapier

My goal: Address the pressure I was feeling during writing that readers can relate to. 

What I wrote: "The pressure is on. The spotlight is blazing, the microphone is on, and everyone is watching me expectantly. No, it's not an open mic night at the local coffee shop. It's just the inside of my brain every time I write a blog post introduction (like this one). Getting someone hooked from the get-go is essential if you want readers to see the content you worked so hard on to the end."

My goal: Use imagery in place of saying "writing is hard."

What I wrote: "At times, though, coming up with an interesting introduction feels like fishing in a dried-up well."

My goal: Introduce the way to work around a mental block. 

What I wrote: "For times like those, it helps to have a few formulas or thought starters up your sleeve to kickstart the process."

My goal: Help people understand when the information could come in handy. 

What I wrote: "Let's explore tips you can use the next time your creative brain has its OOO autoresponder on."

The best way to improve your writing is to write more

If you don't read your blog posts from two years ago and cringe a little, you aren't pushing your writing forward enough. You wouldn't be here if you weren't a passionate content marketer, so now all that's left to do is get out there and write.  

Related reading:

Content refreshing: How to update old content and boost your traffic

How to write SEO-driven blog content

How to create a content brief (with template)

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Steph Knapp

Steph Knapp is a freelance B2B + SaaS content marketer that loves educating and empowering curious humans. When she's not typing away, you'll find her volunteering at the animal shelter and obsessing over a new hobby every week.

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10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

“The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn’t induce him to continue to the third sentence, it’s equally dead. Of such a progression of sentences, each tugging the reader forward until … safely hooked, a writer constructs that fateful unit: the lead.” — William Zinsser, On Writing Well

With respect, I must disagree with Mr. Zinsser. We all know the most important part of any article is the title . Without a compelling title, your reader won’t even get to the first sentence. After the title, however, the first few sentences of your article are certainly the most important part.

Journalists call this critical, introductory section the “lede,” and when properly executed, it’s the bridge that carries your reader from an attention-grabbing headline to the body of your blog post. If you want to get it right, try one of these 10 clever ways to open your next blog post with a bang.

1. Be Short and Direct

Minimalists rejoice. Less is more in some cases. This method seems to be especially useful for list posts with a compelling and descriptive title.

Example From: 7 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Shared On Facebook by Dan Zarella “Want to maximize sharing of your content on Facebook? Here are seven tips that are sure to help.”

2. The Quirky/Funny Opening Sentence or Paragraph

A little personality goes a long way, especially on a business blog. So don’t be afraid to let loose now and again. When done tastefully (and sometimes not so tastefully), it’s bound to make people take notice.

Example From: Who The Hell Are YOU? by Naomi Dunford “It will please some of you to know that I almost titled this article ‘What’s My Name, Bitch?’ it will please the rest of you to know that I realized not everyone spends as much time watching hardcore porn as I do and begrudgingly decided against it.”

3. Ask a Thought-Provoking Question

When someone asks you a question, you almost can’t help but think of an answer . Your reader will do the same thing, and you’ll immediately engage them in a conversation. Be careful though. Avoid any questions that can be answered with “no” or “who cares.” In other words, always make your question relevant to your reader’s needs.

Example From: How to Make People Love You When You’re Not Around – Be A VIP ! by David Wright “What do people say about you when you’re not around?”

4. Ask a Multiple Choice Question

A variation on the question technique above, the multiple-choice question is another great way to engage your reader. I don’t know about you, but I love multiple-choice questions. It’s like responding to a poll. As above, make your question relevant to your reader and the article itself.

Example From: How to Change Your Mindset for Growth by Ali Luke “Pop quiz. Which of these do you agree with? Intelligence is fixed at birth. Some people are creative, others aren’t. You can become a world-class expert through enough practice, whatever your starting point. You can change your personality. “If you agreed with the first two statements, you’re coming from a fixed mindset. If you agreed with the second two, you’ve got a growth mindset.”

5. Share a Shocking Fact or Statistic

If you’ve ever read the cover of a supermarket tabloid like the National Enquirer , or the New York Post , you know how powerful this approach can be. Sensationalism sells, especially when it’s true.

Example From: ‘ Infomania’ worse than mairjuana “Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed.”

6. Share Something Personal

This is a great way to establish a deeper connection with your readers. Assuming that’s your thing. Use with caution, however. This is not something that should be used as a “tactic,” but rather as a true expression of your own personality and desire for transparency. Also, if you have a history of writing posts that are all business, you may want to ease into a post that delves into personal stuff.

Example From: How Cancer Changed My Blog by Karl Staib “I was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. Yes, the dreaded c word. It’s probably not what you are thinking. I don’t look at this health issue as an anchor. I look at this as an opportunity for growth.”

7. Withhold a Compelling Piece of Information

Sometimes known as “the tease,” this approach is a little sneaky, but especially powerful. The trick is to withhold a key piece of information till later in the piece so the reader is compelled to keep reading.

Example From: How to Pull Readers Into Your Content Instantly by Derek Halpern “How’d you like to learn how to pull your audience into your content by taking advantage of an innate human behavior? “What if I said that every TV network, movie, blog, book, and other forms of media use this same tactic? “Better yet, what if I showed you how to leverage this tactic to attract more subscribers and earn more sales?”

8. Debunk Conventional Wisdom

This is one of my personal favorites. The blogosphere is often criticized as being one big “echo-chamber.” That may or may not be true, but the bottom line is, any time you write something that goes against the status quo, it’s bound to get some attention. Just be sure the rest of your article can back it up.

Example From: 11 Smart Tips for Brilliant Writing by Dean Rieck “Do you sound smarter when you use big words?” “According to a study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, the answer is no.”

9. Lead With a Success Story

What’s more compelling and inspiring than reading about someone else’s path to success? This is a tried and true approach to hooking your reader. It’s also great for linkbait (but that’s another article). The cool thing about this is the success story doesn’t even have to be your own.

Example From: 10 Simple Tips To Get 250,000 Page Views Per Month by Niall Harbison “When we started our business 16 months ago we decided to use a blog as the central marketing tool for our business. We did it because we didn’t really have any money for advertising and we never really believed that attending networking events would work for us. We placed the blog at the center of our website and only had one commodity on our hands to make it a success….time. “It’s been a long journey but 16 months later we now get 250,000 pageviews to our site per month, in the last year we have brought in over $500,000 in business as a direct result of the blog and the business operates in 2 countries and our content has been picked up all over the world.”

10. Start With a Reader’s Question

Reader questions are great. Mainly because you can usually be sure other people share the same question. Also, it’s so much easier to address a specific question rather than have to pull content out of your own head.

Example From: How to Create More Content for Your Blog and Kill 2 Birds With 1 Stone by Darren Rowse “Darren, do you have any tips for creating more content for my blog? I have grown my blog to become reasonably successful but as it grows find myself with more and more requests and questions from readers that take me away from writing content. What should I do?” —William “Hi William and thanks for the question. I do have one tip that comes to mind that I hope you find useful. It certainly helped me keep my inbox load light and create more content!”

11. Unadvertised Bonus Opening: Share a Quote

As a post opener, quotes are one of the best. When done well, they not only add credibility to your work, but they also form a solid foundation upon which you can build the rest of the article. For an example, just go back to the top of this post.

The next time you’re stuck on how to open a blog post, roll out one of these eleven beauties, and you’ll be well on your way to clicking the publish button.

There are 139 brilliant comments

Good points! Thank you for sharing it. 🙂

Was working on a new article and then got stuck crafting a hook

Guess what I found searching the web for help? This blogpost 😊

Thank you so much for putting this tips and examples together. They were super helpful to me!

I really like your article since I’m about to launch a website for my new company and will be posting blogs to increase traffic. It’s a great idea to start a blog article with a thought-provoking question since it will grab the reader’s interest instantly.

I am always having trouble on thinking of the perfect title for my article or subject line. I often end up using the keyword focus, which is not always interesting to the readers.

Whenever I read a blog entry, I immediately go to the main body of the text and skip the introductory paragraph.

That were some really great examples! Super Simple yet fun to read. Thank you!

I found this post very informative and helpful. There is a knowledgeable topic for them, the contents of your blog is really amazing.

Thank you for a great article! Very informative with some useful and practical ideas. Love the examples.

What a great article just at the right time! The most difficult niches can become the easiest to penetrate through such wisdom. Thank you so much.

I really find this article helpful because I’m planning to open a website for my planned business soon, and I’m going to posts blogs on it to drive more traffic to the site. Your tip and starting a blog post with a thought-provoking question is such a wise idea because I agree that it would catch the reader’s attention quickly. I’ll try to look for more tips on how to start a business blog, but thanks a lot for this!

Thank you so much, these tips will really help me in the opening of my new blogs. There were some important points which i was missing but you reminded me, thanks for that.

This was awesome I’m trying to start my own blog and I thank you for the ideas

Nice and useful. Thank you for taking the time to write and post this material.

Good job writing them in this blog post 😉

Hi buddy I really like your work and your blog is very interesting . I must appreciate your work and efforts . it is incredible.

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• Schools & departments

How to write an engaging blog

Find some specific resources to help you in the writing of your blog.

General best practice on writing a blog

(1) The importance of a title  -  Writing a catchy title  can help people get interested in your post. In an academic context especially, it might be good to show your audience that your content can be just as entertaining as a good book or social media. Make sure you reveal the theme of your content in those first words. Be wary: being catchy does not mean turning to clickbait. It is favourable if your reader knows exactly what they will be reading about in this context.  

(2) Spoilers can be good! -  This counts for more than your title. Don't tease your audience and wait to tell them exactly what they'll be reading about: state your theory, argument or theme from the very beginning. You might want to use headlines and summaries to give readers a little snapshot of what your writing will consist of. 

(3) ' You talkin to me?' -  Decide on a tone for your blog. It is true that writing for an academic blog is not like writing a dissertation. However, this does not mean it is the same as writing a caption for an Instagram picture of your holidays. It is crucial that you reflect on who your audience is going to be and adapt your tone to match that. Make sure your blog posts are honest and relatable – if people are reading a blog about your theme and not an article, it is to get a sense of the author as well: don't forget to be you.   

(4)  Make your content scannable -  How are you going to organise your thoughts? There are different ways to blog. Some might prefer to directly address the audience and mimic direct speech whilst others might want to narrate in a reflective manner. This is a decision you can make based on the type of blog you will decide to use. A key point to structuring and formatting your blog is to  make it scannable : people will get a visual idea of your blog before they even get to reading it.  

(5) 'Oh I just skimmed through...' -  Keep your paragraphs and sentences short: most people only read 20% of a page. Having fun with language can be fantastic but simpler writing will help people relate to what you are telling them whether they know about the subject at hand or not. Use headings to break your page up so it is easier to scan.  Find out more about how people read on the web . 

(6) What is that about?  - Asking your readers questions can be a great way of involving them. When writing, ask yourself 'why should they care?'. You don't only want to be recounting your thoughts, you want to be sharing it with other people. Making the reading experience more interactive will make people feel involved and interested. 

(7) Make it visual! -  Adding media  to your blog can be another great way of making readers relate and feel part of your experience. Visual tools can help your reader see what you are describing, but they can also give them the opportunity to relax from the reading effort. This is especially the case if your writing is a quite dense academic text. Images add an interesting opportunity for formatting, structure and narration. 

(8) Proof-read, get critical and edit! -  This is perhaps most people's least favourite part. Sadly for you it is essential: proof reading and editing your text will help you cut out pieces that aren't useful. Getting a friend/colleague to read it for you will give you another perspective on your work and enable you to assess whether you have written for the right audience. Do not be afraid to ask for feedback. Getting feedback should be a very constructive and helpful process.

(9) Archiving appropriately - There is nothing more confusing for readers who are looking through your content than having a monthly site archive and no search bar. Make sure people can find what they are looking for without having to click a million times. Categorising and tagging posts is not time consuming and can be really helpful for your audience.

(10) Don't let readers forget about you! -  Posting regularly and promoting your work is especially important if you want people to visit your blog regularly. Creating a schedule might help you keep on track – because posting regularly means you have write regularly. Thankfully, there are many ways for you to promote your work other than relying on loyal readers. Social media links and enabling search engines to index your blog can help so make sure that you explore your settings to maximise your crowd.    

Want to learn how to create a blog post step by step?  Try this Lynda course about writing a compelling blog post .    

Guidance for specific types of blogging

Do you need more personalised guidelines? We have put together some writing tips based on professional, research, community and learning & teaching type blogs. 

Blogging for professional development 

• Scrap the title - This blog, as opposed to research or community, is meant to represent you above all: your name is the best option for a title. 
• The importance of your blog structure  - Structuring your blog is especially important as you want to look professional, accessible and easy to contact. If content is hard to find, people are more likely to simply leave your page. Make your readers' browsing experience as easy as possible by inserting a header with different pages: a bio, contact details, role, track record.... Make sure your content is extremely scannable and potential employers can find your contact details at any moment.  
• Opting for a professional tone  - As you are showcasing your professional potential here, it is important that you match your tone to what you are saying. While you want to demonstrate a positive attitude and motivation it is important to show a reflection of what is acceptable within the workplace. 
• Writing a great bio  – This section might be the only one employers consult: it is crucial that you spend time writing a bio that is compelling and matches the sector you work in. While it might be optimal, for example, for a radio presenter to make multiple puns, a recently graduated student might want to write more professionally. This is your decision to make depending on what you believe will showcase your potential best. 
• Details -  It is crucial for you to include as much detail as possible in your pages and posts. Write the full titles of recent posts or studies, include the department or School and stay consistent with spelling and capitalising.  
• Formatting for clear, concise information -  There are many ways to make your content scannable whilst being precise: consider breaking long sentences into bulleted lists, for example. Use headings liberally. Make your blog look nice using other, non-text, media.
• Being employable also means being approachable  - Linking external professional profiles can be a great way to expand your readers' experience. Contact past schools and employers to ask if you can link them into your blog – this will help employers to get an idea of your past workspaces. 
• Remember your digital footprint -  These days, employers will not be afraid to do some research on potential employees: holiday photos might not be your most flattering facet so make sure you are aware of your digital footprint. Updating and editing your different social media outputs is an idea to consider. Want more information about your digital footprint? Learn about it through the [University's guidance page] on how to present yourself online. 
• Make sure you update your profile -  It would be a shame for you to forget to mention your latest achievement just as it would be a pity for an employer to come across information that is expired. Make sure you update your profile every month or so.  

Blogging for teaching, learning and assessment

• Consider platforms that might help you assess work - we have many different blogging platforms available to you. Some might be better than others depending, especially, on what assessment features you require. Consult our [Blogging Advice] for more information on what they offer.  
• Consider using dynamic and interactive plug-ins for embedded quizzes, forms... -  Our new blogging platforms offer many different ways for you to add a fresh dimension to your teaching/learning experience. You could create interactive quizzes or forms embedded within your blog. This is a way to chop up the reading experience and make viewers collaborate. 
• Monitor comments and published content -  In a learning and teaching environment especially, it is very important that rules are established concerning comments and content. Be aware to inform students of plagiarism and copyright laws as well as our [Take Down Policy] rules. A good way of doing this is to monitor content carefully. 
• Set expectations -  Using blogging as an assessment or reflective method for assessment can be best managed if you set time and word limits for your students. Help them understand what is required from them by outlining clear expectations. Why not write guidelines personalised to the particular task at hand? 
• Consider your privacy options -  It is worth thinking about whether you want the wide public to access your learning and teaching blog or whether you would prefer the content to stay within the scope of your class. [Read more] about our different blogs to know which privacy options are available to you. 
• Link interesting material  - Whilst a blogging platform is the perfect space for students to express themselves, it is also a platform for you to share additional content. Don't hesitate to illustrate by using multimedia or embedding interesting links. 
• Consider personal journals/diaries - Blogging can come under different forms. It could be interesting for you to set a journal/diary assessment to increase your students' literacy as well as expanding your grading methods. 
• Your blog does not replace the classroom  - Do remember that learning and teaching blogs should be an extension of the classroom, not a replacement of it.  

Make sure you consult our [exemplar Learning and Teaching Blogs] for an idea of how these work.

Blogging for research

• Decide how you want to hook readers - Making the description of your research clear while still being compelling is important: many readers will know very little about your research topic, so you should keep that in mind when writing for your blog. A good title will help draw readers in.
• Presenting your topics and projects clearly - This part goes hand in hand with a compelling title. It is important for your introduction or headline to be very clear: stray from complicated vocabulary and make your posts clear for anybody to understand. 
• Accessibility - Define complicated terminology or arguments that might not be self-explanatory. You might additionally want to embed images or videos to make your case more compelling and posts easier to read and digest...
• Referencing -  This is an essential part of all research blogs: fellow academics or potential employers will be expecting well-referenced sources to consult. Make sure you make the most of footnotes and bibliographies.
• Link additional material - Where did you get your inspiration? Are there any articles or videos people could consult to expand their knowledge on the subject you have raised? Adding a 'More Information' page is an optional possibility to expand your readers' experience. 
• Consider building a profile section -  If you are in charge of the whole blog, consider building yourself a profile section. This could be a space for your readers to explore your academic profile or consult external professional platforms such as LinkedIn.   

Blogging about community or student experience

• Be personal! - It may be possible for you to stray from the strict Academic style you might have to use in other blogging instances. Let a little bit of your personality shine through while staying professional. 
• Reflect on your own experiences –  This is an account of your personal experience. Try to base it on things that have happened to you rather than outside sources or peers' ideas. People want to read more about this community through your own eyes. 
• Remember you are writing for a group –  While we want the writer's tone to be explored, do remember you are writing about your experience within a larger group. Don't forget to reference your community, whether College, School, departmental, unit or student based.  
• Help people understand what your community is like from the outside - Explain specific terminology, abbreviations and sayings as others might not be aware of what these mean.     

• Blog Tutorial

How to Start A Blog in 2024 Create a Blog in 20 Minutes

Updated January 2nd, 2024

Are you looking for an easy guide on how to start a blog ?

The step-by-step guide on this page will show you how to create a blog in 20 minutes with just the most basic computer skills.

After completing this guide you will have a beautiful blog that is ready to share with the world.

This guide is made especially for beginners. I will walk you through each and every step, using plenty of pictures and videos to make it all perfectly clear.

If you get stuck or have questions at any point, simply send me a message and I will do my best to help you out.

My name is Scott Chow, and I am going to show you how to start blogging today. I have been building blogs and websites since 2002. In that time I have launched several of my own blogs, and helped hundreds of others do the same.

I know that starting a blog can seem overwhelming and intimidating. This free guide is all about blogging for beginners , and will teach you how to become a blogger with just the most basic computer skills. So whether you’re 8 or 88, you can create your own blog in 20 minutes.

I am not ashamed to admit that when I was first learning how to build a blog I made a ton of mistakes. You can benefit from more than a decade of my experience so that you don’t repeat these same mistakes when you make your own blog. I created this free guide so that a complete beginner can learn how to blog quickly and easily.

So, just how do you start a blog?

Learn how to create a blog in about 20 minutes following these steps:

How to Start a Blog in 6 Steps

• Pick a blog name. Choose a descriptive name for your blog.
• Get your blog online. Register your blog and get hosting.
• Customize your blog. Choose a free blog design template and tweak it.
• Write & publish your first post. Share your thoughts with the world. The fun part!
• Promote your blog. Get more people to read your blog with the proper marketing.
• Make money blogging. Choose from several options to monetize your blog.

Should you start a blog?

One of the misconceptions about starting a blog is that you need to be a great writer to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth. People read blog sites to get a personal perspective on things, so most bloggers write in a very informal and conversational style.

And because of the format, many successful bloggers will write about a variety of topics on the same blog.

In addition, you don’t need to be an expert on any of the topics you write about to have a successful blog. For example, visitors to a cooking blog don’t want to read a textbook from a food scientist, they want to hear the experiences of someone who has actually cooked some real meals, mistakes and all.

To be successful as a blogger there is really just one requirement: a passion for your topic.

At its heart, blogging is about sharing your knowledge with the world. Writing about things that you are passionate about makes the process of starting a successful blog so much easier. As long as you are writing about things that you are genuinely interested in, your passion will shine through and keep your visitors interested.

So why would you go to the trouble of blogging? There are a few reasons:

• Share your story. A blog allows you to have a voice and be heard. You can share your story with the entire world if you so choose. One of the most common ways blogs are used are as a diary where the blogger writes about their daily experiences so that friends, family, and others can all be a part of their lives.
• Make money from home. Blogging can be quite lucrative if done correctly. The top bloggers in the world obviously earn quite a bit, but even a part-time blogger can expect to make a nice profit if things are done correctly. The best part about it is that blogging is a form of passive income, since you can spend just a few hours a week writing a piece of content and then continue to profit from it long after the the writing is finished. I go into much more detail on how to blog for money later in this guide.
• Recognition for yourself or your business. No, you probably won’t have paparazzi following you around because of your latest post. But a successful blog makes your idea into a reality, and can gain you a ton of recognition in your respective field. Many bloggers are known as experts just because of their blogs, and some have even gotten book and movie deals based on their blogs.
• Find a community. Blogging at its heart is interactive. You write a post and people comment on it. This is a good way to connect with people who are interested in the same things as you are. Blogging allows you to teach these people based on your experience, and it gives you the opportunity to learn from your readers as well.

Ready to begin? Click here to go to Step #1 of the guide

What is a blog anyway?

In short, a blog is a type of website that focuses mainly on written content , also known as blog posts. In popular culture we most often hear about news blogs or celebrity blog sites, but as you’ll see in this guide, you can start a successful blog on just about any topic imaginable.

Bloggers often write from a personal perspective that allows them to connect directly with their readers. In addition, most blogs also have a “comments” section where visitors can correspond with the blogger. Interacting with your visitors in the comments section helps to further the connection between the blogger and the reader.

This direct connection to the reader is one of the main benefits of starting a blog. This connection allows you to interact and share ideas with other like-minded people. It also allows you to build trust with your readers. Having the trust and loyalty of your readers also opens up the door to making money from your blog, which is something I discuss later in this guide.

The good news is that the internet is exploding with growth right now. More people than ever are online. This explosion in growth means more potential readers for your blog. In short, if you are thinking about starting a blog then there is no better time than right now.

Let’s start your blog!

Step 1: Pick a blog name

If you are not sure what to name your blog, or what topic to blog about, skip to the next section .

If you’ve already got an idea for the name of your blog, you can check to make sure that no one else has already registered it:

See if your blog name is available:

Note: You cannot use any spaces or punctuation other than dashes in a domain name.

If you find that the name you wanted is already taken there are a few things you can do:

• Try a different domain extension. If the .com version is already registered you may still be able to get the .net or .org version of the name.
• Add small words. Words like “a”, “my”, “best”, or “the”. For example, this site is called TheBlogStarter.com instead of BlogStarter.com.
• Add dashes between words. For example, scott-chow.com

How to Choose a Blog Topic & Name

If you don’t have an idea for a name already, the first step is choosing your blog topic.

If you’re not sure what to blog about, there are a few ways to find a good blog topic :

• Life experiences. Everyone has lessons they have learned through life experience. Sharing this knowledge can be incredibly helpful to others in similar situations. For example, I recently helped a woman start her blog about being a fireman’s wife. She has a lot of experience and knowledge to share with others about this topic, and it has helped her connect with others in similar situations. Think about the things you have experienced in life. This could be related to your family (example: a blog about being a stay at home mom), work (a blog about experiences dealing with clients), or other life experiences (a blog about dealing with a troubling time such as a disease or divorce, or about a happy time such as preparing for a wedding or a birth of a child).
• A personal blog. A personal blog is a blog all about you. This will include a variety of topics, from things you do on a daily basis, to random thoughts and musings. This is a great way to share your thoughts with the world without having to stick to just one topic.
• Hobbies & passions. Hobbies or other interests you are passionate about are a great place to start. Cooking, travel, fashion, sports, and cars are all classic examples. But even blogs about more obscure hobbies can be successful, since the your audience is literally anyone in the world with the internet.

Once you have a topic it’s time to choose your blog name, also known as your domain name.

A good blog name should be descriptive so that potential visitors can instantly tell what your blog is about just from the name.

If you are blogging about one specific topic then you will definitely want to include that in some way when you pick a domain name. Try not to get hung-up on just one word though. For example, a cooking blog doesn’t necessarily have to have the word “cooking” in it. The words “food”, “recipes”, and “meals” would also let people know that your blog is about cooking.

If you are planning to create a personal blog where you discuss a variety of topics then I recommend using your name, or some variation of it, since your blog is all about you. For example, I own the blog scottchow.com. You can also add your middle name or middle initial if you find your name is already taken. Or you could use a variation like “Scott Chow Blog” or “Blogging with Scott”.

Can’t decide on a good name for your blog? Contact me and I will help you personally (for free)!

Once you have some name ideas you will need to choose a domain extension . A .com domain extension is the most preferred, but .net or .org work as well. It is also important to note that for the purposes of a blog domain you cannot have any spaces between words. So “Blogging with Scott” becomes bloggingwithscott.com

Step 2: Get your blog online

Now that you’ve got a name picked out it’s time to get your blog online. This might sound hard or technical, but the steps below will walk you right through and make the process easy .

A blog host is a company that stores all of the files for your blog and delivers them to the user when they type in your blog name. You must have a blog host in order to have a blog .

You also need to have the software to build your blog. In this guide I will be showing you how to build a blog using the WordPress blogging software, because it is the most popular, customizable, and easiest to use.

The web host I recommend, and the one I show you how to use in this guide, is BlueHost . I personally use BlueHost and I recommend them for all new bloggers because:

• They will register your custom domain name for free , making sure no one else can take it.
• They have a 30 day money back guarantee if you are unsatisfied for any reason.
• They offer a free, automatic installation of the WordPress blogging software (which I show you how to use in this guide).
• They offer reliable web hosting that has been recommended by WordPress since 2005 and they currently host over 2 million blogs and websites.
• They have helpful 24/7 customer service via phone or web chat.

Use any BlueHost link on this site to get the special discount price of $2.75 per month.

Disclosure: BlueHost compensates The Blog Starter when you purchase through this link , so my services are free of charge to you! In fact, if you have any trouble at all setting up a blog with this tutorial, just contact me and I will do it for you (free!) .

1. Click here to get the special $2.75 per month rate on BlueHost and then click “get started now”.

2. Select your plan. I recommend that beginning bloggers get the basic plan. Click “Select” to choose your plan.

3. Type in your domain name in the left box and then click “next” to start the registration process.

• If you already own a domain name and want to use it for your blog, type your existing domain in the right box and then click “next”. Only use the right box if you have previously paid to register a domain!

4. Fill out your billing details on the registration page.

5. You will also need to choose your hosting package and options.

• Every BlueHost account plan has everything you need to get your blog up and running, including a free custom domain name, easy WordPress installation, web hosting, and custom email addresses (e.g. [email protected]).
• I uncheck the boxes next to the package extras except for “Domain Privacy & Protection” .  While not strictly necessary, domain privacy keeps your personal information (name, address, phone, email) hidden from the public database of registered domain owners.

6. You will then need to create your BlueHost account and password.

Once you do that you will be taken to an installation helper.  Since you are following this tutorial you can just click “Skip this step” on the next few pages to be taken directly to the dashboard.

7. Install the WordPress blogging platform.

Now the system will install WordPress automatically. Once the install is complete click the “Log into WordPress” button on the top right to be logged-in to the administrator area of your blog.

Having trouble installing your blog? Get help here .

Step 3: Customize your blog

The video above should answer a lot of questions you might have about how to set up a blog and get it customized. Here is a step-by-step break-down of some of things I show in the video.

If you are not already logged-in from the previous step, go to Bluehost.com and click “Login” on the top right to bring up the login screen.  You can then login using your domain name and the password you set in the previous step.  If you have misplaced your password you can reset it by clicking the “Forgot Password” link.

Once you log-in you will be taken to your BlueHost Portal.  From the portal you can click the blue “WordPress” button to be logged-in automatically to your WordPress blog.

Changing your blog design

Once you login you will be in the WordPress dashboard. This is where you can make any changes you want to your blog.

Everyone has a different idea of how they want their blog to look. One of the great things about WordPress is that you can change your entire layout and design with just a few clicks.

In WordPress, blog layouts are known as “Themes”. What is a blog theme? Themes control the entire design of your WordPress blog. To change your theme you are going to click on the “Appearance” tab on the left menu.

You will see several free WordPress themes are already installed on your blog: Twenty Seventeen, Twenty Sixteen, etc. These are well-designed, clean-looking themes that can work for just about any type of blog. In fact, many of the world’s top bloggers use one of these themes.

Unless you have a very specific design in mind for your blog, I suggest you use one of these themes to start with . For our example, let’s use the “Twenty Sixteen” WordPress theme. In order to activate the theme on your blog, hover over the theme and click the “Activate” button. That’s it! You have changed the entire design of your blog with just one click!

If you don’t like any of the themes that are already installed you can easily choose from thousands of other free WordPress themes. To install a new WordPress theme, click on the “Appearance” tab on the left menu and then click “Add New Theme”.

Once the theme is installed click “Activate” to activate the theme on your blog. To see your new theme in action, go to your blog and take a look!

Changing your theme is the simplest way to customize your WordPress blog, but there are lots of other customizations you can do. Check out my full post on customizing your WordPress blog for an in-depth step-by-step guide . You can also watch the video above to see me completely customize a WordPress blog from scratch.

Step 4: How to write a new blog post & publish it

Now that your blog is up and running it’s time to actually do some blogging!  Let’s create your first piece of content.

You are now on the post editor screen. Enter the title of your post in the top box and then begin writing your post in the lower box.

If you would like to add a picture to your post, click on the “Add Image” icon and click “Upload” to upload a picture from your computer. You can make adjustments to the picture size on the next screen. When you are ready click “Insert into post” to add the picture.

Once you have finished your post just click the “Publish” button on the top right side of the screen to publish the new post.

Content That Should be on Your Blog

There are two main types of content your blog should provide: static and dynamic content.

Static Content: Your blog should contain a few necessary pages explicitly designed to provide the visitor with the tools they need. The content on these pages is static, meaning – the content doesn’t change, or at least not very often. These are mainly top-level pages that can be accessed via a menu on your blog.

These static content pages should be in place well before you launch your blog to the world.

Important static pages to include:

• About Me (Us) – This page should include a biographical summary of the author(s) as well as a mission statement. Think about the answers to these questions: How did your passion for the subject matter develop? What do you want to convey to the world? What is your ultimate goal?
• Contact Me (Us) – A contact page provides the visitor a place to reach the author which, in turn, provides the visitor with the reassurance that you are a real and reachable author. You can add your physical address, phone number, and custom email address. Or you can utilize a simple contact form to keep your personal identifying information private. You should put links to all of your social media profiles here as well.

Aside from your blog, which is generally introduced on the home/main page, these two all-important pages should be visible on your top (header) menu and easy to access.  You can take a look at the top of this page to see how I have these pages included in the header menu.  See this detailed guide to customizing your blog menus if you need help.

Other static pages that are equally as important but less commonly thought of are:

• Disclaimer Page : If you intend to monetize your blog, you must describe the ways you intend to generate income. This is an absolute must-have page that should not be overlooked, as per FTC guidelines. For example, if you are discussing and endorsing a product, and stand to profit by linking to the product, this relationship must be disclosed.
• Privacy Policy : If you collect data from your visitors in any way, you are required to add a privacy policy page that tells visitors exactly how you are collecting data, how you are using it, and if you are sharing that data. If you implement Google Adsense or a Google Analytics account on your blog, a Privacy Policy must be used. This page is required by the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), and is included by default on your WordPress blog.
• Terms of Service : If your blog is also running a store or selling services, it is a good idea to have a Terms of Service page to lessen your potential liability.

These required static pages are typically linked to in the footer menu of a blog. They should, at the very least, be visible and accessible from the home page.  Again, look at the bottom of this page to see how this looks in practice.

There are other static pages you can choose to include depending on what suits your blog and business. Common static page examples are an advertising page to solicit paid advertisements, a donations page, a resource page to direct visitors to your favorite links within your field, and a page for submitting ideas and content.

Dynamic Content: Your dynamic content is your blog and the most important content you have to offer. This is where you, as the creator, will infuse the blog with your brand of informative content that supplies your audience with knowledgeable tips, facts, opinions, and stories. This is how you engage your visitors and keep them coming back for more.

Your blog content should be regularly submitted at specific intervals. Waiting months to create content will never build a following. Posting content weekly and driving traffic to these posts will help build your brand.

How to write great blog content

Each post should be lengthy, informative, and engaging. It’s not always easy to come up with new blog post ideas on a regular basis and you are free to mix up the tone and even the subject matter to keep things lively and interesting. It’s your space, after all. But there are a few elements that each and every piece of content should endeavor to include.

Define the Content: Create an alluring post title that stimulates curiosity and encourages clicks. Use the first paragraph of your post to clearly define the topic of your article and provide a possible hook to keep the reader reading.

The Longer the Better – But Break It Up : The more information and detail you include, the better. But visitors will begin to skim if the content contains lengthy paragraphs a mile long, and will pop out faster than they came in. Visitors enjoy tidbits. Keep your paragraphs short with spaces in between, use lists and standout quotes, use images, and always include headings and sub-headings so that visitors can find what they’re looking for.

Engage The Reader: At the end of each post, a common tactic used to engage visitors is posing a meaningful question to your audience and asking them to reply in the comments. This simple measure can increase engagement tenfold.

Original Content: Your content should always be original. Never plagiarize – you will eventually be called out on it and could even face consequences. Your content should come from your heart, your brain, your knowledge base, and your experience. You can get topic ideas from others in your field, but make sure the content comes from you.

Original Photos: While it is easy to include stock images from free image sites, it is even better to include your own photos and graphic work. Another idea is to take free images and manipulate them with a free photo editor.

Edit Your Work: Your blog content should be sufficiently edited. Nothing says unprofessional like several typographical and grammatical errors. If you need a few refresher courses in grammar, consider using a writing application.

Publishing Your Blog

Even after you have written a post your blog may still be showing a placeholder page.

When you are ready to make your blog public for the first time, just click “Home” at the top left of the menu in your WordPress dashboard, and then click “Launch with confidence”. Click the blue “Launch your site” button to remove the placeholder page and launch your blog.

Congratulations! You now know how to start your own blog and publish content!

Step 5: Promote your blog

Creating a well-designed blog and writing great content is just the start. In order to get visitors to your blog you will need spend some time promoting it, especially when you first start.

The strategies below will help get your blog in front of more readers. You don’t need to use every strategy – try out a few and see what works well for you.

Alert Your Inner Circle

The very first people who should become aware of your blog are your inner circle. This includes family, friends, and colleagues within your field. Encourage them to become followers, ask them to mention your new blog, and – most importantly – thank them.

Use Social Media

While you don’t want to overdo it, you still want to create accounts with the “biggies” like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram.  You should post a link to your newest content on your accounts, but you can also post relevant news and links to other sources that your readers may find interesting.  Don’t forget to use hashtags and engage with your followers!

One of my favorite ways to get visitors to my blog is to post links on my social accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. This is great, because not only do your friends see the link, but if your friends share the link with their friends it automatically multiplies your visitors. If you have created high-quality content on your blog then social media is a way for your blog to go viral.

Comment on Other Blogs

Find other blogs in your community and engage with them. Using the comment section, introduce yourself and leave engaging and constructive comments. Many will allow you to leave a link to your blog. After creating relationships with prominent bloggers in your community, you will find yourself within their ranks quickly.

Engage with Your Visitors

When your readers leave comments on your posts, always engage with them. Reply to their comments and questions, give them “likes” and affirmations. When it is obvious that the author cares about his/her community and readership, visitors are naturally encouraged to return.

Collaborate with other bloggers

Become enmeshed in your blogging community by collaborating with respected members of your field. Collaborating includes guest posting, promoting each other’s blogs and products, and regularly interacting through comments and social media.

Post Regularly

Post content regularly. Create an editorial calendar and stick to it. A good blogger posts at least once per week to start. If you have long lapses between posts, your followers will drop off and your growth will be severely hampered. It’s not easy to post on a schedule, but it’s something you absolutely must stick to.

Create an Email List

In addition to getting new visitors to your blog, you will also want to make sure your current visitors are coming back. This is where email marketing plays a big role. By collecting the email addresses of your visitors (with their permission of course), you can then notify them when you post new content on your blog. This keeps people coming back to your blog, which not only gives you more readers over time, it also allows you to build a closer relationship with your visitors.

Email marketing is too big a topic to cover well here, so I created a separate guide to email marketing for those who are interested (hint: every blogger who wants more readers needs to read this guide).

Optimize your blog for search engines

You want your blog to appear in search results as soon as possible.

Google: Sign up for a Google Webmaster account and open the Search Console . To add your blog, click “Add Property” and follow the steps to add your blog.

Bing: Sign up for a Bing Webmaster account and add your blog.

Submitting your blog is the first step in process known as search engine optimization (SEO).

Keep in mind that with a brand new blog your traffic will be minimal to start with. However, this will change over time as long as you continue to add informative and relevant content on a regular basis.

To optimize this process, each page of your blog should include these fundamental elements:

• Permalinks: Each blog post “slug” is the end portion of the URL. You want to make sure each post has a defined slug and doesn’t end with an article number. You can easily change this in your WordPress dashboard by going to “Settings” -> “Permalinks”. Select the “Post Name” option and click “Save Changes”

There are many more factors relating to consider, such as installing something like the Yoast WordPress plugin , but these are the big ones that will help improve your search rankings sooner rather than later.

For more tips on promoting your blog make sure to check out my in-depth guide to blog promotion .

Step 6: Make money from your blog

Once you have put in the effort of creating great blog content and promoting your blog, making money from your blog is actually the easy part.

Blogs have the potential to be extremely lucrative, but don’t assume that you’re going to start making money in the first week, or even in the first month. It could take six months to a year to start seeing a steady stream of income. Blogging takes work and dedication, but once you develop a large enough audience, there are several methods you can employ to monetize your blog.

Sell advertising space

Once you have a popular blog, advertisers will be hounding you for the opportunity to advertise. The best way to take advantage of this situation is to use Google Adsense. Google finds the advertisers for you and all you have to do is place the Google Adsense code on your blog to start running ads. Google Adsense takes all of the hard work out of the process and just cuts you a check.

I go into the full details of how to set up Google Adsense for your WordPress blog here .

Sell affiliate products

An affiliate program is a commission-based way to advertise. When one of your readers clicks on a link on your blog, they get sent to an advertiser’s site and you earn a commission if they purchase. Affiliate links are a nice way to earn income through the use of product reviews. However, you must remember to disclose that you are an affiliate for the product.

Sell Products and Services

Selling your own products and services directly on your blog is a great way to increase your income. As your blog grows and you begin to see a wide audience, your products and services will begin to sell themselves.

Use the sidebar of your blog to increase the visibility of what you sell using visual images and a link to your storefront page.

Sell digital downloads

Ebooks, video tutorials, and e-courses are the most commonly consumed digital materials sold by bloggers. With little to no overhead and no shipping costs, you can keep the price low and inviting.

If you are extremely knowledgeable in your field, an ebook can practically write itself. Give it a try, you might surprise yourself!

Sell memberships

Another way to monetize is by creating membership options on your blog. This allows you to offer members more exclusive content only available with a paid membership. For example, you could offer unlimited downloads of digital goods, free consultations, a private network or forum where community members can mix and mingle, and private content available to members only.

There are many ways a blog can capitalize on popularity and traffic. Choosing the way you monetize from your blog depends on your goals and the purpose of your blog. Those who are selling services, physical goods, and digital goods, for example, may not want to participate in affiliate programs where traffic could be lost to another site.

For more information see my full guide to making money blogging here

Need more help?

I hope this guide has answered any questions you had on how to start your blog, but if any of the steps were unclear to you, you can find a more detailed version of each step by using the menu at the top right of this page (or at the bottom of this page if you’re on a smartphone).

More specific tutorials can be found on my blog page . Here are some of the most popular tutorials from my blog:

• How to add custom logos or images
• How to see how many people are visiting your blog
• How to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
• How to make a website with WordPress
• How to automatically share your new content on Facebook and Twitter
• How to choose the best website builder
• How to link to other sites from your blog
• How to change text size and color
• How to make your blog private

Contact me if you have any issues at all and I will personally respond to your email. The step-by-step guide on this site should give you everything you need to get started, but if you run into some issues, or just want some personalized advice, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time. Blogging is my passion, and I would love to talk with you about it!

Blogging FAQ

Still have some unanswered questions about blogging?  Below are the most common questions I get about starting a new blog.  If you can’t find an answer to your question here, feel free to send me an email via my contact page , or leave a comment below.

Click on a question to read the answer:

What makes a successful blog?

What do you need to start a blog.

Time, passion, and a clear goal.

Blogging is nearly a full-time operation. A successful blogger commits to posting lengthy and detailed content at least weekly. Promoting the blog must also be done regularly across social accounts and through peer interactions.

Equally important is the passion behind your blog. To come up with great content on a regular basis your blog should revolve around a topic that you are obsessed with. You don’t have to be the leading authority on the subject matter. You only need to possess passion, excitement, dedication, and deeply rooted opinions.

What should my blog be about?

Answer these questions: What are you passionate about? What do you think about daily? What topic do you annoy all of your friends, family, and co-workers with on a regular basis? What do you find yourself dreaming about? What do you find yourself constantly researching? What do you read about?

If there is a common denominator in your answers to these questions – THAT is what your blog should be about.

How do I find a profitable niche for my blog?

If you know the general topic for your blog, a simple way of making your niche more profitable is by narrowing the niche to eliminate competition.

How do I name my blog?

This can ultimately be a fun exercise.

As an example, let’s say your blog will be about custom pet gift baskets. In this instance, let’s list all the main words this blog will be about.

Now let’s list some variant synonyms of these words. Use a thesaurus if need be!

Now list nouns and adjectives that apply to you as the creator.

Now start putting words together, introduce new words, and keep playing around until you come up with a name you like!

What do you do if your domain name is taken?

If the domain name you want is taken and the full web address is your trademarked business name, you can assert your trademark rights and privileges and eventually get this domain handed over to you. It is a lengthy process that will involve lawyers and hefty fees, but as long as the name is trademarked by you, you would likely win the domain name.

If your name isn’t trademarked, don’t attempt to buy the .info or .biz variation of the domain. Instead, try a slight variation of the domain name such as adding a dash between words, or inserting the word “the” or other nominal words.

Where is the best place to create a blog?

How much does it cost to start a blog.

You can make a blog for absolutely nothing. It doesn’t cost one red cent.

But let’s be realistic. If you want your blog to be taken seriously, you can’t just get a subdomain from one of the free blogging sites like Blogspot. You’ll want to pick a custom domain name and register it instead. Domain names cost around $15 per year, on average. So now you’re a whopping $15 in the hole.

But the best way to start your blog is through one of the many web hosting companies. The best web hosting choice is a WordPress hosting account through Bluehost which is $2.75 per month and includes free domain name registration, so your total cost for 1 year is just $33.

Do bloggers make money?

Bloggers have the ability to make a full-time income from blogging alone. Some bloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars. While it isn’t easy to become a highly paid blogger, it is quite possible. As with any business, it takes a lot of hard work and plenty of time.

Many bloggers give up on their project after just a few months. They become discouraged when the money doesn’t come in right away, and it almost never does without an instant and immediate following that comes from being a high profile persona. Therefore, time and patience are needed to reach “influencer” status. Those who make money online are the ones who stick with it.

There are several ways a blogger can earn money:

• Advertisements : As your blog gains traction and brings in a healthy amount of daily visitors, advertisers may pay good money for a well-placed ad on your blog.
• Contextual Ads: With Google Adsense a small piece of code can be placed on your blog that dynamically shows ads related to your content. When one of your readers clicks on an ad the advertiser pays Google, and Google sends you a percentage.
• Affiliate Programs: Affiliate ads are a very popular way to monetize a blog. These ads lead visitors to a product or service on another website. If a sale resulting from a click on your blog is made, you get a commission, and some commissions can be very high. Affiliate programs can be found on individual stores, or on large-scale platforms such as Amazon.
• Sponsored Posts: Advertisers can pay a smaller fee to sponsor individual posts rather than advertising on the entire blog. This is a great method for making money on fledgling blogs.

How do bloggers get paid?

Bloggers are most commonly paid by advertisers. How the blogger is paid varies depending on what type of ads are used.

• CPC: CPC or “Cost Per Click” ads generate revenue simply through clicks. CPC ads are generally highly targeted and rotational. Ads appear on specific blog posts and are related to the content of that post. The number of clicks you generate, which trends upward as your traffic increases, will ultimately determine the amount you are paid.
• Flat Fee: If a blog’s traffic is high, advertisers may pay a monthly flat fee for ad space on the blog’s website. That ad space could appear all over the website, within a section, or just a few pages. The money comes directly from the advertiser.
• Commission : Ads from an affiliate network use affiliate links. These links track visitors that come from your blog to the advertiser’s site. If a purchase is made by a visitor who originated from your blog, you receive a commission.

Should I start my blog on WordPress?

If you’re new to blogging and you don’t have much experience with HTML or coding, then yes – self-hosting a WordPress blog is the best choice for you! When it comes time to choose a blogging platform, the pros turn to WordPress.  And even though WordPress is used by millions of smaller blogs, it also powers many of the biggest sites on the internet.  In fact, WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) in the world with over 75 million blogs and websites currently using it. And there are many reasons why:

• Easy to Use : WordPress is remarkably easy to use. Theme customizers help to easily design your blog, change colors, and add images. Once your design is complete, all you need to do is write your content. The internal blog editor records your posts and displays them for you.
• Blog Anywhere : As long as you have Internet access, you can edit your WordPress blog and write new posts. WordPress provides you with an administrative backend where you may log in and work on your blog from anywhere in the world using a PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone.
• You Don’t Need To Know How to Code : WordPress gives you easy tools to set up a blog that looks stunning without knowing a single line of HTML code or hiring a web developer. This makes WordPress a great option for those who don’t want to deal with technical issues.
• Built-in SEO : Google favors blogs built with WordPress. The out-of-the-box SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which comes packed with WordPress delivers impressive results over time in search engines. This translates to more readers for your blog.
• Free Themes : The WordPress CMS is connected to a repository where thousands of free themes (blog layouts) are available to browse and upload. Directly from the backend of your blog you can browse a multitude of themes with varying styles and functionality. These free WordPress themes can be installed with one click, and then easily customized by a total beginner.

Is WordPress free?

Yes! A self-hosted WordPress blog is a open-source, which is completely free. And there are two different WordPress options, both free, but COMPLETELY different, which you should be aware of.  Choosing between them is one of the most crucial decisions you will make.

WordPress.org : This option is completely, 100% free.  WordPress.org is the blog platform I show you how to use in the tutorial on this page.  While it is completely free to download, it doesn’t run on its own. You will need a web host (see the step-by-step guide ) and you’ll also need to buy a new domain name. Because you need your own web hosting plan, this option is known as a self-hosted WordPress blog. So while WordPress is technically free, there are fees involved with getting your new self-hosted WordPress blog up and running (less than $3 per month).

How often should I blog?

If your goal is to eventually make money from your blog, you’ll want to start blogging as often as possible – at least once per week. Blogging can be casual if your goal is solely for personal pleasure. But if you’re seeking a large audience and wish to become a leader in your field, blogging weekly is a must.

While frequency is important, it should not come at the expense of quality.  Not every piece of content needs be 2,000 words, but all of your posts should be informative and of value to your audience. This is no easy feat. However, if you’re able to stick with blogging on a regular schedule, it will become easier! As with anything else, the more you do it – the more skilled at it you become.

Why do blogs fail?

Almost any blog has the potential to become a success, yet most blogs fail. And there are many reasons why. Here are the most common reasons why a blog fails:

• Giving Up Too Fast – The most common reason why a blog fails is simply that the content creator gives up before his or her blog even has a chance to become recognized. Before you begin a blog, you should realize that most blogs take months and even years to gain traction. It’s quite an investment. If you fail to gain visitors or make money within a month don’t stop!  Continue to focus on creating quality content and getting your name out there via social media and networking.
• Intermittent Blogging – When there are long “silent periods” between posts it is difficult to build a solid following. People looking for information on your topic usually want a steady stream of new information to keep them interested. When a blog fails to deliver fresh and updated content people get bored and look elsewhere.
• Poor Content – Some bloggers think they can beat the system with auto-generated content or with duplicate content that is reworded. Readers know fluff when they read it. They know when an article has absolutely no value or when it is simply clickbait. A blog with poor content will never be successful.
• Too Many Ads – Blogs with dozens of ads obscuring most of the content will deter visitors from returning. People don’t come to your blog to be visually harassed by ill-placed, blinking advertisements. They come for information. While ads a good option to monetize, don’t overdo it.

This was super helpful in getting my blog set up. I was able to get the basics done in a less than an hour, and then took my time over the weekend to tweak the design based on your instructions.

I am pleased with how professional it looks, and now I am starting to work on my content plan. Thank you for making this guide!

Very helpful! I’ve been wanting to create a billingual blog (french and english) but didn’t know where to start. Thanks for the detailed information 🙂

Thank you Scott for writing an excellent blog…I’ve been researching to see if blogging is something I want to get into…I am at a beginner level. I am looking for some guidance on where to start and your blog appeared. Very informative post. Thanks once again.

Hi Scott. Thanks for the valuable information. I’m concerned about the usage of images/licenses. Can we use creative commons images in our blogs if we are unable to take the photos ourselves? There’s a filter on Google when image searching for “Commercial” and then “Creative Commons” images and wondering which is the safest bet of images to use on a blog. Don’t want to get in trouble!

Yes, I would suggest only using images with a Creative Commons license to avoid any copyright issues. You can easily search for images at search.creativecommons.org

Your tutorials have been really helpful so far in getting my blog up and running. WordPress is tricky without someone to walk you through it. Thanks so much!

Hi Scott. I’ve been thinking about setting up a blog for a while now but didn’t really understand how to go about it. Your guide is really informative and has given me the confidence to give it a go. Thanks a lot 😊

Hi Scott, Thanks for the great info on starting a blog. I am about to set up a blog that will be mostly political commentary. I also have numerous papers and presentations I have written over the years that I would like to post and make accessible to visitors, apart from my periodic blogging. Do you have advice as to how I can upload them on separate pages?

If you have them in PDF format, then I would suggest embedding them into your posts. Here is how to do that: https://www.theblogstarter.com/how-to-embed-pdf-files-in-wordpress-posts/

I just found you on the right time. This is all I needed to start a blog. The very best informative tutorial I have found. Thank you Scott.

Thank you for such helpful content. I’m just starting my blog and your insight is greatly appreciated.

Number one for me in a new blog host is if it has autosave. I currently have a wordpress.com blog which has autosave. But I don’t like the ownership of wordpress.com, so I want to start a new home. Do you know of any blog hosts other than wordpress.com that offer autosave? Thanks, Susan

The process I show in the tutorial on this page will help you start a blog that is self-hosted with BlueHost. It has an autosave feature enabled by default.

I have finally started a food blog and I’m excited to learn more from here.

Thanks so much for this info. I am really wanting to start a blog, but I’m concerned about the legal stuff. How do I make sure I am doing everything legal?

You will want to make sure you include a Privacy Policy page on your blog. WordPress provides a Privacy Policy generator by default, so it is very easy to add when starting your blog. Beyond that, just make sure you are being transparent with your visitors if you are collecting any information about them.

You may have specific legal issues depending on the topic you are writing about, but for most people just adding a privacy policy page is enough.

This is wonderful! thank you so much for your helpful advice! I am going to try to do my first blog!

Hey Scott. I always wanted to start a blog but never had a clear idea how to do it. After reading this content, I feel so confident that I would want to start writing now. Thanks a lot.

Glad you found it helpful. Feel free to contact me if you have any trouble.

So far Bluehost is good. My friends told me to use them as well. I used another web host before, but now I see that Bluehost is much better than the web hosting I had before.

I just barely created my blog and I would like to make it organize by categories. How do I add that to my blog page? Ex: Place (one category), Family (one category), Home (one category) etc.?

Thank you so much for your insightful post.

When you are in the post editor screen of the WordPress dashboard you will see an option on the right-hand side to choose a category for the post you are writing. You can also create a new category for your post in that same place.

Let me know if you have any trouble finding it.

I had a suggestion (from my vascular surgeon, believe it or not) to start a blog. I imagine a bio theme (70 years). How would I protect the privacy of those I mention?

The simplest way would be to change their names and remove any other personally identifiable information. You may also want to consider the tips here: https://www.theblogstarter.com/how-to-blog-anonymously/

Thank you… I’ve been having a yearning to write. I am not a writer but when I do especially on my social platforms, people frequently comment that they wished I did it more. I’ve recently decided that I want to start blogging and have been doing tons of research. This is by far the best “how to” I’ve come across. Excited to follow theses steps and give it a try. I appreciate your willingness to be available to those of us ready to give it a GO!

Awesome Shauna! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

This is an excellent and very comprehensive tutorial, Scott. One of the best step-by-step how-to’s I’ve seen on the topic. I’ll be recommending it on my newsletter.

Thanks Rick!

Thank you very much Am starting my blog and what I read was helpful thank you

I would like to first of all say thank you for all the wonderful and great information you sent to all of us and this is very useful to me and I will and have been looking at this for a long time now but because of your information I really feel like I’m ready. Unfortunately I have a few very simple questions that you possibly can answer in a second but I need to ask them because of my lack of knowledge. I live in Japan and my blog is meant for Japanese and Europeans and Americans and for everyone really and I will probably be doing some translation at the same time so my question is this. is there a different way to registering a blog in Japan or blogging the rest of the world will my domain name be registered to me even in Japan or other parts of the world. If you have any answers for me please let me know. Yours truly, Yves Gagnon

Domain registration applies worldwide. For example, the domain name for this site (theblogstarter.com) is registered to me and can’t be used by anyone else. No matter where you are in the world, when you go to theblogstarter.com this is the site that comes up. I hope that answers your question.

Thank you so much for your blog. I found your explanations particularly clear, concise, and helpful.

I am setting up a blog right now and chose the plan with the lowest up-front cost.

Should I be concerned that the expiration for my basic web hosting is 12 months? Is there any way to alleviate the issue?

Hi Douglas,

You will have the option to renew before it expires. You can also extend your package for a longer duration at any time from your BlueHost account.

Hi Can you have multiple people belong to one blog And post at any time or is it restricted to a single blogger only, thank you

You can create multiple users for your blog. Just log-in to the WordPress dashboard of your account and then go “Users” on the left sidebar menu. From here you can add new users. You can also give each user different permissions if you so choose. For example, you could be the only administrator of the blog, while still giving other users the permission to write new content.

Hi Scott, can you use the wordpress from your laptop, tablet and phone to write on-the-go?

Yes, you can easily blog from any internet-connected device. For your phone, I would suggest using the WordPress.org app: https://wordpress.org/mobile/

Do I need a privacy policy on my blog if I am just a personal blogger? If so How do I go about doing that?

Hi Shannon,

It’s not strictly necessary if you are not collecting any data about your visitors, but it’s so simple to do that I recommend it for all new blogs. From the WordPress dashboard, go to “Tools” on the left sidebar menu and then click on “Prviacy”. This will take you to the privacy page generator and help you add it to your blog.

Very easy indeed. Thanks Scott. As a web designer, I often get asked how to start a blog. I’m definitely bookmarking this for sharing. 🙂

I would like to thank you for the information on your site. You have included a wealth if helpful information. This is my first search for how to start a blog, I have learned a lot from your presentation. I have learned a lot, I’m not sure that a blog is my interest or i need something different. I am 75 years young, and have never met, or talked with anyone who have experienced a lifetime such as I. I would like to get my story out there for entertainment, and comments from others who may be able to relate. Thank You for your very informative information. I assure you that I will come back to your site if I decide a blog would fit my purpose. Thank you very much for the great education you have served me.

Hi William,

A blog sounds the perfect medium for what you want to do. You can easily write your story and have others comment on it.

Let me know if you have any trouble getting started. I would be happy to assist.

Thank you for this very informative blog. When setting up the comments section of my blog, is it necessary to ask for a piece of personal info such as the email of the address of the person making the comment? If I let people comment anonymously, this may encourage more people to comment.

You can set it up either way. You are correct that you will get more comments if you don’t ask for an email address, but you will also get more spam comments as well.

Fantastic, and very help. Thank you for such a great help and guidance. You made something impossible possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thanks for sharing

Can I start a blog with my phone?

Yes, the steps for how to start a blog are the same for phone, tablet, or computer.

Very informative post. I am grad student thinking strongly about starting a blog and wanted to know if you could speak to a respectful posting frequency and how many posts are enough before launching?

Can you point me to some form of blog management information? I am trying to determine if this is something I can commit to.

Thank you in advance

When first starting out I suggest posting once or twice a week. After you have built up a solid readership then you can decrease the posting frequency. Some really popular blogs only post every couple of months.

When you first start a blog I recommend launching it as soon as you finish your first post. This gets you started on growing your readership from day one.

Great synopsis Scott!

Great synopsis of a really BIG subject Scott! Good info for those looking to start blogging.

What an excellent blog… I’ve been researching to see if starting a blog is something I want to get into.. I’m retired and do crafts for friends and family. But ,don’t want to be limited to just blogging about that area. I’m also an author (inspiration-Christian) and wanted to know if you can have sections when establishing a blog?

Yes, the easiest way to do this is to categorize each post. Your post will then automatically go to the correct category page on your blog.

Hi Scott, This is some great help! But I have a question…. If I start a blog is it considered a “side gig”? Or do i have to register a “Business”? How would I report my income?

You can do it either way. Most people just start with it as a side hustle, and then as it grows you can consider setting up a business. It would be best to talk to a tax accountant once you get to that point though.

Hey Scott. I really appreciate the info, however, both you and BlueHost advertise the cost as “monthly.” When I went to sign up, it gave me a total cost which was the total cost for the contract. Before I give my payment information, I’d like to clarify if I’m paying monthly for the service, or if I have to pay a lump sum. Thanks.

Yes, you will pay up front for the full length of your plan. So if you do a 12 month plan then you pay for 12 months up front. You can cancel at anytime and get a pro-rated refund for the unused months on your plan.

Thank you for all of this information. I’m motivated to start blogging. I am confident that things will go smoothly with all the info that you provided.

Thank you Scott. I am so grateful for this enlightening information you have given to me here. I now know how to set up my own blog. But I have a question. Which method of payment does bluehost support when you are paying for the hosting service? And can you choose to pay monthly, or must it be paid yearly? Thanks once again. Please i am expecting your reply.

A one year package is the shortest option. BlueHost accepts credit cards or PayPal. Feel free to contact me if you have any trouble getting started!

Hi, Scott! Wow! I think this just might be what I was looking for. I don’t do social media. No tweeting, no Facebook, none of that…. But, I know many people that do. I think they can help get my blog out into the public. A couple of questions – will the basic set up allow for comments? can I prevent users from leaving comments and delete horrid comments? I am excited and want to be sure I can control some things before I get rolling…. Thanks!!!

Yes, comments are turned-on by default. You have full control over the comments on your blog. For example, you can have comments automatically approved, or you can choose to manually approve only those that you want. Of course, you can also turn-off comments completely if you prefer.

To change your comments setting simply go to your blog dashboard and go to “Settings -> Discussion”

Hi Scott, Thank you. This is very informative. Can you please help me with narrowing down a name and topics please?

Sure, just send me a message through my contact page with more details on the topics you are interested in.

Very informative and easy to follow! I read to the end and then watched video.

Scott thanks, the tutorial was most helpful. It took me a while but I got there in the end. Good stuff. I used the format you show as it seemed good for me.

Hi! Thank you so much for this! Your guide is so thorough that I am working on getting my blog up and running! Quick question: How do you create an email with your domain name? I Googled it, but I don’t see the same options in my side panel. On the WordPress article I read, it says to go to Store > Dashboard > Manage emails, but I don’t see that. Thank you for your help!

Hi Valerie,

Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a custom email address for your blog .

Hi. Thanks for the tutorial.

Can you do this whole process for a blog with your smartphone?

Yes, you can do the whole process with your smartphone.

Hi Scott. Thank you so much for this info. I am very eager to make my own blog but really haven’t a clue where to start or what to blog about. Do you have any recommendations on how to figure out my niche? TIA!

The best niche for you is something you have an active interest in. Think of the things you enjoy spending your time doing and/or learning about. Travel, fashion, fitness, and food are all popular topics. Once you figure out what sounds most interesting to you, your job as a blogger is to provide your unique perspective and experience with that topic. For more detailed info check out this post on finding your niche .

Your tutorial was so helpful and you are so easy to follow and you have a very good speaking voice.

Thank you so much for taking the time to have this website, you tube and making yourself available for questions.

Hi Scott Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. I want to do a blog about fitness and health diet recipes but am not an expert or anything it’s just something i do on daily basis and I feel like I want to start blogging about it even though I know there are tons of fitness blogs out there but I know this is me being me and the routines i go through and I want to know what you think about it. Thanks

Hi Christiana,

A blog sounds perfect for your situation. People enjoy learning about things from someone who is actually doing it, not some armchair expert.

Yes, there are a lot of fitness blogs already, but that is only because there are also a ton of people who want to read great fitness and health content!

Best of luck, and let me know if you need any help along the way.

Newbie question: so what’s the difference between a blog and a website?? Some blogs seem to be “embedded” in a website. Should one create a website first? Then how do you connect the two? Thanks ahead.

A blog is a type of website. You are correct, you can have a traditional website and then have a separate section of the site for a blog. If you are looking for a more traditional website you can follow my guide to starting a website here . If you follow the tutorial on this page you will have a blog. No need to create a separate website first.

Fantastic, and very help. Thank you for such a great help and guidance. You made something impossible possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you so much for your blog. I have had so much fun setting mine up and it might never have happened without your blog. I particularly found the video very clear, concise and helpful.

Hey. I want a blog but have so many things it’s like to cover…I need help with a name… Could you help me?

Sure, just send me a message through my contact page with some more details on what your blog will be about.

Hi. I’m thinking I may have signed up for the wrong type of blog. I’ve just created a wordpress.com personal blog site (ancestry). I’m just starting the site but am getting notifications that to use ANY plug-ins I need to upgrade to a business account (yikes not inexpensive!). Should I have signed up for WordPress.org??

Yes, WordPress.org is what you want. Just follow the steps in the tutorial on this page to create a WordPress.org blog using BlueHost.

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Step 1: Get Started >>

• The Minimalists
• What’s Minimalism?
• 30-Day Minimalism Game
• Our 21-Day Journey
• Popular Essays

How to Start a Blog

• Media Praise
• Hire to Speak
• Simplify Everything
• How to Write Better

How to Start a Successful Blog in 2024

Learn how to start a blog in less than an hour. Become a blogger today by following the steps we used when starting our blog, which now has reached more than 20 million people and has been seen in the New York Times , TIME magazine, and on the TODAY show.

You can start a blog in just 5 simple steps.

• Choose your blog name and hosting.
• Build your blog with WordPress.
• Pick your design to make it your own.
• Add SEO and track stats.
• Write compelling content.

Do you want to start a blog fast?

This is a long essay and you may want to start your blog without all the detail.

This is the first how to quickly start a blog guidepost.

To start a blog fast simply:

• Look for these boxes.
• Follow the brief steps.
• Click the link to jump to the next box.

Click here to go to the first step.

How We Started This Blog

Want to create something meaningful? Why not start a blog? Why not become a blogger? Creating this blog is one of the best decisions Ryan and I ever made. After all, our blog is how we earn a living . We make money blogging, but more important it’s how we add value to other people’s lives.

So you’re thinking about starting a blog, but you don’t have any idea where to start, right? Guess what—neither did we! Before we became “The Minimalists,” we wanted to start a blog to communicate our thoughts and express our feelings, but we were overwhelmed with options.

Clueless, confused, and confounded with choices, we had no idea how to start a blog or how to be a blogger. When should we start? How do we register a domain name? What is hosting? Which blogging platform should we use? How do we choose a blog theme? What should we write about? Heck, we could hardly spell HTML, let alone build a blog!

But good news: it turns out that starting a blog is much easier than you think. We’ve learned a ton of lessons during our ascent to millions of readers, and now you can learn from our pain and suffering to avoid much of the tedium involved in setting up a blog.

How to Become a Blogger: Video Tutorial

If you prefer to watch our process for setting up a blog, we’ve created a step-by-step start a blog video, How to Become a Successful Blogger Today , which shows the entire starting-a-blog undertaking. Otherwise, read on.

How to Start a Successful Blog in 5 Steps

• Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting.
• Start your blog by adding WordPress.
• Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own.
• Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats.
• Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love.

While there are other blogging platforms out there like Blogger, Squarespace, and Wix, nearly every serious blogger uses a self-hosted WordPress site because of its creative freedom and flexibility.

It’s not only because it’s the easiest blog to set up. The Minimalists uses WordPress because it gives us greater control over the look and feel of our blog—more creative control than any other platform. Oh, and WordPress itself is free !

These are the exact steps we took when we created this website. If you follow these five steps, you will learn how to set up a blog in less than one hour.

Step 1 Choose your blog name and get your blog hosting

The first thing we did when starting our blog was go to Bluehost and register our domain, which is free with hosting. We’ll explain hosting in a moment, but let’s talk about your domain name first.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 1

In this first step you will choose your blog name (domain name) and buy your blog hosting.

• Go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button.
• Select the Basic plan .
• Pick your domain name and enter it into the New Domain box.
• Create your Bluehost account.

Click here to jump to the next step.

Choose your domain name

Your domain name is an important part of your blog because it creates a first impression—it is the name of your blog. Also known as your URL, your domain is also your address on the web. For example, our domain name is www.theminimalists.com.

So, what do you want to call your blog? Maybe it’s YourName.com. Maybe it’s YourBusinessName.com. Or maybe it’s a creative brand name you thought up. If you’re having a hard time thinking of a good domain name, try Wordoid , a wonderful naming tool that will give you plenty of great options. Just make sure you don’t buy the domain from them since Bluehost will give you a free domain. (If you’ve already purchased a domain elsewhere, that’s okay, too, because Bluehost will make it easy to transfer your existing domain during the setup process.)

Set up blog hosting

Once you’ve decided on a domain name, you’ll need to set up hosting for your blog. While WordPress itself is free (see Step 2 below), you need a reliable place to host your WordPress blog (your blog needs to be on a server somewhere on the Internet).

For hosting, we recommend Bluehost for several reasons:

• We Use Bluehost. We personally use Bluehost to host The Minimalists . If you recommend a company, you better be willing to use their product yourself. We also use them to host several other websites of ours.
• Great Pricing. TheMinimalists.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, which means that in addition to using their service, we also receive a commission for referring new customers. To be fair, though, we would still use Bluehost even if we weren’t an affiliate—we’ve used them for a long time. Ergo, we don’t recommend Bluehost just because we’re an affiliate (every hosting company offers a similar affiliate program); we recommend Bluehost because they are the best, most reliable option. Plus, because we’re a partner, Bluehost offers a more than 50% discount for The Minimalists readers: only $2.75 a month for the first year.
• Free Domain. When you sign up for hosting, Bluehost will give you a free domain name, which allows you to avoid the upfront and recurring fees associated with purchasing a domain on your own. If you’ve already purchased your own domain name, don’t worry; you can still use your domain with Bluehost (it’s just one extra step).
• Money-Back Guarantee. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk if you change your mind.
• Reliability. Bluehost’s facilities are world class. They have their own custom-built 20,000-square-foot datacenter with enough backup generators to power a city.
• Friends & Family. Many of our friends and family also use Bluehost to host their blogs.

Now that you’re ready to get started, go to Bluehost and click the Get Started Now button.

Next choose your hosting plan.

You’ll see that prices range from $3 to $6 per month, depending on whether you want a basic, single blog hosting plan or a more robust plan that allows you to create multiple blogs.

Once you select your plan you’ll choose or enter your domain name.

If you don’t own a domain name simply enter your desired blog name into the New Domain box.

If you’ve already own a domain name simply enter that into the I have a domain name box.

Click Next .

Finally create your blogging account.

And click Create your password to complete your blog hosting setup.

Just like that you’ve nearly become a blogger!

How to Start a Blog Ebook

Pressed for time? Learn how we started our successful blog using this free ebook.

Step 2 Start your blog by adding WordPress

Next you will install WordPress, which is free. Don’t let the word “install” intimidate you, though. It’s much easier than it sounds and Bluehost does all the work for you.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 2

Next you’ll install WordPress.

• Click the Log In button.
• Click Skip This Step on the Pick a theme screen.
• WordPress is now installed, click Start Building to go to your dashboard.

To begin simply click Log In .

Bluehost provides several blog design options, but simply scroll to the bottom and click Skip This Step (you’ll see why in a moment).

WordPress is now installed. Simply click Start Building to go to your new blogging dashboard and continue to Step 3.

Step 3 Pick a simple theme to make your blog your own

A theme allows you to pick a design for your blog without the need for coding expertise or design knowledge. In other words, a good theme helps you to design your blog exactly how  you  want it to look. If you’re not a coder (I’m certainly not a coder), then a theme makes the design work a million times easier.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 3

Next you’ll choose and install your blog’s WordPress theme.

• Go to BYLT .
• Purchase the theme that fits your style (we use the tru Theme).
• Download and save your theme’s .zip file to your Desktop.
• Return to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Themes .
• Click Upload and then Upload Theme .
• Click Choose File , select your theme .zip file, and click Install Now .
• Click Activate .

Our blog design is from BYLT, a platform created by our good friends at SPYR. They have several beautiful, simple WordPress themes to choose from, and, in fact, you can purchase the same theme we use if you like.

Simply go to BYLT and find the minimalist WordPress theme that best fits your desired aesthetic. Their themes are feature-rich; plus, once you buy your theme, you will have the same team supporting your work that we trust to support ours.

Once you purchase your theme you’ll be able to download your WordPress theme (a .zip file) from your BYLT Dashboard . Save this file to your Desktop because you’ll need to upload it to WordPress in just a moment.

Remember how easy it was to install WordPress? Well installing your blog theme is just as simple.

First return to your WordPress Dashboard.

You should already be logged in, but whenever you are signed out go to my.bluehost.com , enter your new domain name (or username), your password, and click Submit .

From here, go to My Sites and click on Log in to WordPress .

Next, in your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes .

Next, click the Upload button.

Then, click the Upload Theme button followed by the Choose File button.

Find the .zip file you downloaded from your BYLT Dashboard (this is your theme file) and click Install Now to install your new simple blog design.

Finally, click Activate and your blog theme is installed.

Step 4 Add two key blogging plugins to find your readers and track stats

Plugins are third-party appendages that add additional functionality to your blog.

Blogging Quick Start – Step 4

In the final setup step you’ll install two plugins that will improve your blog’s features.

• In your WordPress Dashboard go to Plugins > Add New .
• Search for Yoast SEO . Click Install Now followed by Activate .
• Click the Add New button to add one more plugin.
• Search for MonsterInsights and click Install Now followed by Activate .
• Click the Launch the Wizard! button to configure MonsterInsights.

It’s best to keep your number of blog plugins to a minimum and install only the best ones, because too many plugins—as well as unreliable plugins—can slow down your site. We use very few plugins at The Minimalists .

In this section you’ll install and activate the following free plugins:

• Yoast SEO  is the defacto standard SEO plugin for WordPress. For details and everything you’d ever want to know about WordPress SEO read  Yoast’s Definitive SEO Guide .
• Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights  allows you to track your blog’s traffic easily and with lots of interesting data: overall traffic, traffic sources, views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews.

In your WordPress dashboard go to  Plugins > Add New .

Search for Yoast SEO .

Then click Install Now followed by Activate and your blog will immediately have improved SEO.

Next search for MonsterInsights .

Then click Install Now followed by Activate .

Next click Launch the Wizard! and follow the steps to complete the MonsterInsights setup.

Finally, so people can receive our blog posts via email, we have an email newsletter. For a feature-rich email-subscription service we recommend ConvertKit (affiliate link). (By the way, if you don’t already, subscribe to  The Minimalists’ blog via email .)

Step 5 Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers love

Congratulations! You started a blog, and now it’s time to start blogging. This is where the fun begins.

Now that you have your own blog, you get to make it yours ; you get to turn your vision into a reality.

• Content . Start writing and publishing the content for your basic pages: create an About Page, Contact Page, Start Here Page, and any other page you want in the header of your new blog.
• Photo . Add a photo of yourself (pro tip: you can start with a well-lit selfie, but when you get a chance, get some professional photos taken; they’re well worth the cost because people identify with other people more than they identify with logos).
• Logo . Create a basic logo using a program like InDesign, Photoshop, or a text editor (note: even though we have no design skills, we were able to use Apple’s Pages application to create our simple logo after downloading some free vector art  and choosing the typeface that best suited our aesthetic). Or you can find someone on a site like Fiverr or hire a designer like SPYR to create a professional logo.
• Images . Spice up your blog posts with high-quality stock photos and images: Unsplash (free), Library of Congress (free),  iStock  (fee-based), Shutterstock (fee-based).
• Comments . Determine whether or not you want comments on your blog; they are often a useful way to receive feedback and directly engage with your readers.
• Social . Establish a social media presence on X (Twitter) , Facebook , or Instagram (or all three).
• Publish . Start writing new blog posts. Publish at least once a week, especially when first starting a blog, so you can build an audience. Below you’ll also find 20 blogging tips to improve your writing in the How to Blog section, as well as 15 reasons you should start a blog and 3 reasons not to start a blog.

We hope you have loads of fun expressing yourself on your new blog. We’re certain it will be a huge growth experience for you during the coming months. You have now officially become a blogger. Wherever you’re going, make sure you enjoy the journey ahead.

How to Blog: 20 Blogging Tips to Improve Your Writing

We receive many emails asking how to blog, about blog topics, and about creating meaningful content. The bulk of this essay explained how to start a blog, but that’s just the initial step. Now it’s time to start writing and publishing your content.

Here, to answer the frequently asked “How can a beginner start blogging?,” are 20 tips for beginners on how to blog .

• Find Your Niche . You needn’t have a niche, but it helps. When learning how to be a blogger, it’s important to ask yourself what you’re passionate about. Running? Cooking? Being a parent? Have you found your passion? If so, whatever it is, write about that. If not, then you must first find your passion . Note: We generally recommend that people don’t start a blog about minimalism or keto or any other heavily saturated topic. But what we really mean when we say this is: don’t create a blog about something unless you have a unique perspective. If you’ve embraced simple living and have a unique perspective, then by all means have at it.
• Define Your Ideal Readers . Once you’ve found your niche, you need to know who will be reading your blog. For example, we blog about living a meaningful life with less. Thus, our ideal readers are people who are interested in exploring minimalism so they can clear the path toward more meaningful lives. If you want to write about your newborn baby growing up, that’s wonderful: your ideal readers are probably your friends and family. If you want to write about restoring classic cars, that’s cool, too. Tailor your writing to your readers (whether it’s your family or local community or whoever else will read your blog).
• Add Value . Your blog must add value to its readers’ lives. You want to help people solve problems. This is the only way you will get great quality readers to your site (and keep them coming back). Adding value is the only way to get someone’s long-term buy-in. We both learned this after a decade of leading and managing people in the corporate world. With everything you write, it’s worth asking: Is this adding value?
• Be Original . Yes, there are other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Question: So why is your blog different? Answer: Because of you . You are what makes your blog different. It’s about your perspective, your creativity, the value  you add.
• Be Interesting . Write interesting blog posts. Especially if you want people to share it with others.
• Be Yourself . Part of being interesting is telling your story. Every person is unique, and your story is an important one. The important part of storytelling, however, is removing the superfluous details that make the story uninteresting. A great storyteller removes 99% of what really happens—the absorptive details—and leaves the interesting 1% for the reader.
• Be Honest . Your blog needs to be authentic—it needs to feel real—if you want people to read it. You can be your blog, or your blog can be you. That is, do you really embody the stuff you write about? If not, people will see through it.”Be the change you want to see in the world,” is the famous Gandhi quote. Perhaps bloggers should build the blog they want to write for the world.
• Transparency . Being transparent is different from being honest. You needn’t share every detail about your life just for the sake of being honest. Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what you’re writing. (Because everything we write must serve the greater good, you won’t ever see pictures of us using the restroom—that’s simply not relevant.)
• Time . Once you’ve learned how to start a blog, you’ll learn that blogging takes a lot of time, especially if you’re as neurotic as we are. That said, once you have your design set up, don’t tweak it too much. Instead, spend the time on your writing.
• Vision . The reason our site design looks good is because we have a great host , we have a great theme , and, most important, we had a vision of how we wanted our blog to look. Once we had the vision, we worked hard to make that vision a reality. (Note: neither of us had any design experience before starting a blog.) It’s hard to create a beautiful blog if you don’t know what you want it to look like.
• Find Your Voice . Over time, good writers discover their voice and their writing tends to develop a certain flow, one that is appealing to their readers. Finding your voice makes your writing feel more alive, more real, more urgent. For additional reading, check out our blog post about Finding Your Voice .
• We Instead of You . Use the first-person plural when possible. Statements of we and our are more powerful than you and your , especially when talking about negative behaviors or tendencies. The first person comes off as far less accusatory. Think of it this way: we’re writing peer-to-peer—we are not gods.
• When to Post . Question: When is the best day and time to publish a blog post? Answer: It doesn’t really matter. We don’t adhere to a particular time-of-day schedule, but we do publish at least once a week because consistency is important. You needn’t get bogged down in the details, though.
• Social Media . Yes, we recommend using X (Twitter) , Facebook , and Instagram to help connect with your audience and other bloggers, but don’t get too caught up in it. Focus on the writing first, social media thereafter.
• Ignore Negative Criticism and Stupidity . Sure, we get a lot of negative comments and stupid questions from ignorant people who aren’t really our readers (“You’re not real minimalists!”). We call these people seagulls : They fly in, crap on your site, and fly away. But we pay them no mind, because we didn’t start our blog for them. Delete their comment and move on.
• Research . Spend time researching what you’re writing about. The reason we are able to use so many helpful, relevant links in our essays is because we put in the time to research our topics.
• Keep It Simple . This is where minimalism can be applied to starting any blog, irrespective of its genre. No need to place superfluous advertisements or widgets all over your site. Stick to the basics and remove anything you don’t need—remove anything that doesn’t add value.
• Picture . Put a picture of yourself on your blog. People like to see the face of the person who’s writing the blog. If two goofy guys from Dayton, Ohio aren’t too afraid to put their pictures on their site, then you have nothing to worry about.
• Comments . If you’re going to have comments on your site, then read The Five Words That Kill Your Blog by Scott Stratten.
• Live Your Life . You’re starting a blog about your life (or about certain aspects of your life, at least), so you still need to live your life. There are things that we always put before blogging: exercise, health, relationships, experiences, personal growth, contribution. Simply put, live a life worth writing about.

15 Reasons You Should Start a Blog

We were inspired to research and write this blog post after reading Joshua Becker’s 15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog , in which he discusses 15 great reasons why you should start a blog.

Why is the keyword here. Crucially, Becker writes about the purpose of blogging, not just how to start a blog. That’s what many of these other “blogs about blogging” seem to miss: they miss the purpose— the why behind starting a blog.

Here is a summary of our three favorite reasons from Becker’s list:

• You’ll become a better writer . “At its core, writing is communication. It is about recording thoughts on paper and compelling others to agree with them,” writes Becker. “To that end, writing (just like every other form of communication that has ever existed) improves with practice. Blogging will not force you to become a better writer, it’ll just happen as you do it. And becoming a better writer holds important benefits for the rest of your life—whether you are creating a book, a presentation, a resume, or an anniversary card for your spouse.” Spot on! Writing blog posts is not only a great way to improve your blog writing, it’s a wonderful chance to improve everything you write—from business emails and text messages to that novel you’ve been dreaming of penning.
• You’ll meet new people . “Whether it be through comments, emails, or social media, you may be surprised at how quickly you meet people online,” writes Becker. That’s true! The Minimalists’ blog is responsible for many of the most important relationships I’ve developed over the past decade—long-term business and personal relationships birthed from this very blog
• You’ll become more confident . “Blogging will help you discover more confidence in your life,” writes Becker. “You will quickly realize that you do live an important life with a unique view and have something to offer others.” So true! Writing helps us better understand the lives we live and the consequences of our actions.

3 Reasons You Should Not Start a Blog

So now you have 15 reasons why you should start a blog, and we’ve shown you how to start a blog, step-by-step, based on our personal experience.

But after giving you those detailed instructions, which could save you hundreds of hours of wasted time, we also want to give you some good reasons why you should not start a blog. (Keep in mind that these reasons are just our opinions, and we do not pretend to offer them up as a collection of empirical blogging maxims.)

• Money . You should not start a blog to make money. We need to get that out of the way first. If your primary objective is to replace your full-time income from blogging, forget about it. It doesn’t work that way. Do you think that Jimi Hendrix picked up his first guitar so he could “supplement his income”? No, he didn’t. Rather, he did it for the love of it, for the joy and fulfillment he received, and the income came thereafter—much later actually.
• Notoriety . Don’t plan on getting “Internet famous” right away. Not every site grows as fast as ours did, but that’s okay. The truth is that we kind of got lucky. We found a great domain name, we cobbled together a logo and site design that people liked, we write fairly well, and our content connected with people in a unique way. We didn’t start this site to become “famous,” though. That’d be ridiculous. We started this site to become bloggers and share a message. Our popularity came as a surprise to us, and it was a result of a little luck and a lot of hard, passionate work.
• Traffic . Not all traffic is good traffic , so don’t worry about getting thousands of readers right away. Spend your time producing meaningful creations and eventually the audience will show up if you are helping people solve problems. In other words, focus on adding value, not increasing traffic.

The funny thing is that all these things can happen. You could make a full-time income from building a blog. We do it and so do many others. And you could become an Internet famous blogger like Leo Babauta .

But if these are the sole reasons you start blogging, you’ll be miserable because it will seem like a job. And if it feels like a job, you won’t be passionate about it, so you’ll either hate it or fall flat on your face (or both).

Instead, become a blogger and write because you’re passionate about it…

4 Blogging Resources

If you want to learn more about blogging, publishing, writing, and SEO, then check out these additional resources:

• What Kind of Media Counts?  (Seth Godin)
• How to Publish an Indie Book (Asymmetrical Press)
• How to Write Better: Online Class (Joshua Fields Millburn)
• Some Funny Thoughts on SEO (Exile Lifestyle)

How to Start a Blog Infographic

FAQs When Starting a Blog

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• Do you have a question that we didn’t answer?

• Creations . By building an audience who finds value in our message, we’ve been able to offer our three books and our documentary, Minimalism , to an audience who is willing to support our creative work. Consequently, all three books have been bestsellers and are now translated into more than a dozen languages; and thanks to Netflix, our documentary is available in 190 countries. (For more information about our book-publishing process, read this blog post series: How to Publish an Indie Book .)
• Audience Contributions . Since we refuse to clutter our blog or popular podcast with ads, we depend on audience support to fund production of our podcast. With more than 5,000 supporters on Patreon and many others via PayPal, The Minimalists Podcast is fully funded with audience support, which means we’re able to pay for our podcast producer, filmmaker, and studio space without advertisements on our platforms.
• Speaking . As we built our audience, many organizations, universities, and conferences began contacting us about speaking at their events. At first, we starting speaking for free just to build a name for ourselves. Then, we started charging a few hundred dollars per event. Now, we’re able to charge significantly more money because the demand for our talks is high. So far, The Minimalists have spoken at Harvard, Apple, Google, Allstate, SAP, SXSW, TEDx, and many other organizations. We speak about a wide array of topics, from simple living and “simple work,” to health, relationships, writing, publishing, social media, personal growth, and contribution—and it all started because we started this blog. (Anyone who is interested in hiring us to speak can visit our speaking page for details.)
• Tours . Over the past eight years, The Minimalists, have embarked on eight speaking tours , including 2017’s 50-city “Less Is Now” theater tour, which attracted an average of more than 1,000 people a night, with considerably larger audiences in bigger cities. Our 2014 “Everything That Remains” bookstore tour spanned 119 cities in eight countries and attracted 75,000 attendees.
• Writing Classes . I get countless questions about writing, so I’ve been able to transfer that skillset to help hundreds of students improve their writing over the years. I teach a four-week online writing class designed to improve the writing of people at any skill level—beginner, intermediate, or professional.
• Amazon Links . If The Minimalists recommend a product like this photo scanner , and then a reader purchases that product, we receive a small commission for that sale at no additional cost to our audience. We’re careful about what we recommend, however, because, as minimalists, we want you to consume less and to consume intentionally.
• Affiliate Sales . When we recommend services such as Bluehost and ConvertKit , we receive a referral fee. Once again, though, that’s obviously not why we recommend these services. Virtually every hosting company has an affiliate program, so we think it’s best to recommend the companies we trust.

Through these various means, Ryan and I are able to earn a full-time income through blogging. But it’s worth noting that making money from your blog is not the best place to start.

While there’s nothing wrong with making money—which you can do through affiliate links , advertisements , and your own products and services—the best reason to start blogging is because you have something to express.

If you make money along the way, that’s great. In fact, if you help people solve their problems, you’re all but guaranteed to make money from your blog—eventually. Let’s just remember there are at least four resources that are more important than money: skills, time, energy, and attention.

That said, let’s not kid ourselves by acting as if making money is irrelevant—it’s not. Making money from our blog is simply not the primary driver for our creativity or why we became bloggers. Although people often think of money as the ultimate resource, it is the least important of the five mentioned above.

Money won’t necessarily improve your life, but it will amplify your existing behaviors. If you have bad habits, then more money will make your life considerably worse. And if you’re already a generous person, then more money can help you be more loving, caring, and considerate.

Personally, I write one or two blog posts per week, usually in the evenings, or on weekends, so it doesn’t get in the way of my other activities. That’s the nice thing about blogging: you get to write whenever you want-no one tells you what to do, when to do it, or how much must be done. Within five months of learning how to blog, you’ll find your own rhythm that works for you.

Writing a blog does not require a degree or special training. In fact, all you need is a desire to communicate with an audience. If you have that, then starting a blog is ideal for you.

According to Wikipedia , a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of “discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts).” The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger on December 17, 1997. The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog in 1999.

Today, blogs have many shapes and sizes. Many are public journals people use to express their feelings. Others, like this blog, exist to help people think critically and solve problems.

There are blogs that cover nearly every topic, ideology, and interest—from sports and politics to religion and travel and everything in between. Even the world’s largest news organizations—ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBC—all have their own blogs.

Here are five reasons WordPress is better than Squarespace:

• Design (Themes) . Squarespace provides some beautiful templates, but they’re limited by the number of designs that are available. Since WordPress is a free, open-source blogging platform, there’s an ecosystem of tens of thousands of themes ready to satisfy every want and need. While this variety is a benefit, we know full well that too many options can lead to a paradox of choice. This is why we recommend starting with the premium themes designed and supported by our friends at SPYR. We’ve worked with SPYR since the early days of The Minimalists and continue to recommend their products and services. (This is not an affiliate link—SPYR just does great work.)
• Features (Plugins) . While Squarespace has a rich feature set, no blogging platform can compare with the immense scale of features that WordPress offers. WordPress has a library of over 54,000 free plugins that can handle any task. While we suggest that you keep the number of plugins on your blog to a minimum, the level of customization provided by WordPress is unmatched. Plugins aside, one key feature that’s built in to WordPress, but not Squarespace, is version control. Version control tracks your changes and allows you to compare revisions and revert back to a version of your Page or Post from any point in time. I use this feature all the time because I know that if I’m unhappy with anything I’ve changed, I can quickly revert back to the previous version. This feature provides a failsafe that allows bloggers to compose, draft, edit, and publish their posts within WordPress itself, making it a complete blogging solution.
• You Own Your Content . Owning your content means that you have full control over what you express on your blog—and complete access to take that content and use it anywhere that you wish. To enable the latter, WordPress provides tools to export your data for use on any hosting provider that you choose to use. With Squarespace you can never truly download a complete copy of your server files or database, but with WordPress you can create an exact replica of your blog, at any point in time. This is most valuable for maintaining backups or in case you choose to restart a blog with a new hosting company . With WordPress you have 100% ownership of your content, files, data, and design—and everything can be backed up.
• SEO . Out of the box, both WordPress and Squarespace are search engine friendly. But with a single plugin WordPress elevates your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A plugin we recommend for every blogger is Yoast SEO . This free WordPress plugin allows deep customization of your on-page SEO, but, more impressive, it provides automated content analysis. This helps guide you to improve and optimize your content for better readability and improved reach in search engines. While SEO isn’t everything, we all start our blogs in hopes that people will read what we’ve written. Following proper SEO practices can be a differentiating factor in reaching new people.
• Growth . WordPress is extremely robust and customizable. It allows you to build a blog exactly as you’d like. But what happens as your new blog grows? If you outgrow the off-the-shelf option, maybe it’s time to work with a design partner to create a fully custom website that’s tailored to match your brand and image. Since WordPress provides you with complete ownership of the platform, it also provides a designer with the freedom to build and create your blog design without restriction. Nothing is off limits.

The answer is in the question: the only way to become a blogger is to start a blog. This might sound overly simplistic, but that’s because it’s not that complicated. If you follow these steps you’ll become a blogger and start blogging today.

There’s an old truism, “Writers don’t like writing; they like having written.” I think the opposite is true for bloggers: because of the instant gratification of the WordPress “Publish” button, I find that bloggers enjoy writing because they’re constantly sharing that writing with the world.

The barrier to entry is gone, so start blogging if you want to become a blogger. It really is that simple.

While the lines have blurred over the years, the simplest way to put it is that a blog is a type of website, one that catalogues, over time, the personal or professional thoughts and beliefs of a person or organization.

As your thoughts, beliefs, and ideas change, so will your blog. It’s nice to have a time capsule of our thoughts, as they’ve evolved over the past decade.

No, blogs are not “dead.” In fact, blogs are more alive than ever!

As a matter of fact, our blog has grown every year since 2010 and now boasts more than 3.78 million readers and an email list that continues to grow every month.

Millions of people read our blog every year-and our audience continues to grow because, thanks to our blog, new people find our work every day. But it’s not just The Minimalists who are successful. Blogs are popular all over the world, and they are the simplest way to publish content without middlemen or gatekeepers.

Blogging is the opposite of a waste of time. If you have a genuine desire to share your creativity with the world, then it’s one of the best “time investments” you can make. Our blog is simultaneously our practice space-where we share new ideas and writings with the world-as well as an announcement board that keeps our audience abreast of any new developments in the world of minimalism.

Starting a blog is arguably more important than ever. Whether you want to publish your writing, build an audience, open a business, or start a podcast , your blog is the home for your creative projects.

Once you’ve started a blog, you are no longer reliant on other people’s platforms. There’s nothing “wrong” with having an Instagram or TikTok account, but those platforms are ephemeral. If they fall out of relevance, then so do you (remember MySpace). That’s not the case with a blog, though. Because you own your blog, it stays with you no matter where the culture sways.

The best time to start a blog was a decade ago. The second best time is now . If you have an idea you want to share, get started!

You don’t have to pick one over the other. You can start a blog and start a podcast. That’s what we did. After starting our popular blog, which is now read by millions of people, we started a similar podcast, which, at the time of this writing, has more than 100 million downloads. Frankly, our podcast would not have witnessed the same success if we didn’t also have a blog. So if we had to pick one, we’d start a blog. But thankfully, you can choose both if you’re compelled by both creative outlets.

No, you don’t need a business license to start a blog. Even if you start earning money from your blog, you can claim that income on your personal taxes under your name and social security number. It was several years before Ryan and I turned The Minimalists into a limited liability company (LLC).

Blogging is still a career for many people, a great way to make supplemental income for even more people. But Ryan and I don’t look at blogging as a career. Rather, for us, it’s an opportunity to add value to people’s lives. Of course, if you add enough value, income tends to follow. Blogging has also enabled us to showcase our books, podcasts, films, social media, and other projects that add value to our audience.

While new forms of media continue to enter the picture-podcasts, newsletters, social media-nothing replaces having a home for your creative work. The Minimalists have a podcast, an email newsletter, and several social media accounts, but none of them could ever supplant our blog. Instead, we use our blog to point to these additional resources.

We often hear people say that you should blog about what you’re passionate about. That’s great advice if you know what that passion is. Maybe it’s technology, finance, baking, music, or rock climbing. If so, write about that!

If, however, you don’t know what you’re passionate about, don’t worry. Passion isn’t simply stumbled upon; it is cultivated.

Here are six questions to ask yourself to help you determine what you should blog about:

• What are your values? Whatever you write about, you want it to align with your values.
• What excites you? There will always be drudgery, but if you find something that excites you, you will be able to drudge through the drudgery.
• What makes you angry? If you aren’t excited by something, then anger is often a great motivator. If there’s something in the world you want to change, write about that. It will help inform and strengthen your values.
• How can you solve problems? You will feel fulfilled if you can provide solutions to people’s problems. Coincidently, if you write about solving your own problems, that will help other people solve those same problems, too.
• What if money wasn’t important? If money wasn’t a factor, what would you do with your life? Yes, you need to make money, but, just as important, you want to do something meaningful. Write about that.
• Who is the person you want to become? Your writing should help you become the person you aspire to be. Write as if you’re writing to make your future self proud.

A blog is used for two things: to express and to communicate . A good blog is able to marry communicative writing and expressive writing to create blog posts that are informative and entertaining.

When considering how you want to use your blog to communicate and express yourself, ask these questions:

• What message am I attempting to communicate?
• Does the writing express the emotions I want to the reader to feel? What are those emotions?
• Does this sentence serve a purpose?
• Can I cut this line and still preserve my message?
• How can I make this more concise?
• Do I need all these modifiers and qualifiers? (Hint: no!)
• If I killed the first two paragraphs, would this piece be better?
• How could I restructure this sentence/paragraph to make it more climactic?

You get to define what success looks like for your blog. Maybe your goal is to reach a thousand true fans, publish a blog post every day, or build a large audience so that you can sign a book-publishing contract with a major publisher. It is possible to accomplish any of these feats with your blog (I’ve done all three). Blogging has brought me more success than I ever expected: New York Times -bestselling books, millions of readers, international book tours, an Emmy-nominated Netflix film, speaking at Harvard, and much more. None of these achievements fit my original idea of success, but as I added value to an audience, I discovered what was possible.

While it is best to blog about subjects that interest you, these are some of the most searched blog topics:

• Relationships
• Career advice
• Local interests
• Food and beverage

In short, what do you find compelling? Blog about that! Your blog is more likely to become popular if you’re passionate about the topic.

The good news is that starting a blog is free with WordPress. All you need to pay for is hosting, as outlined in the step-by-step instructions above .

There are also other “free” amateur services like Tumblr or Blogger that allow you to start a blog on those company’s platforms. Just be careful, because you may not own your content if you’re posting it on someone else’s website. That’s one of the many reasons why we use WordPress.

When talking to my writing students, I recommend writing every day and publishing a blog post at least once a week. We usually publish two blog posts per week on this blog. Seth Godin blogs every single day.

Whatever you decide, we recommend you stay consistent. Setting a weekly schedule helps you create accountability partners (your readership) so you feel compelled to write even when you don’t want to write.

Avoid grandiosity. Avoid throat clearing. Your first blog post needn’t be a grandiose mission statement. And your first blog post doesn’t have to be a vapid, self-involved introduction to your blog.

Instead, find one thing that interests you today and write about that. Use the prompts in the “What should I blog about” section above.

For reference, you can read the first blog post on this blog, circa 2010: Be on the Mountain .

Don’t worry about introducing yourself in every blog post. Instead, create an “about” page that new readers can reference if they want to learn more about you, your life, and the projects you’re working on. See The Minimalists’ About page as an example. Our friend Derek Sivers also has a wonderful Now page that could work for you.

There are at least three reasons blogs fail:

• Some bloggers have poor expectations. If you start a blog today and expect a million readers overnight, you’re setting yourself up for failure. But if your motivation is sincere-if you want to add value to the world-then you’ll find your expectations shift.
• Some bloggers don’t add value. Instead of metrics like subscribers or follower counts, The Minimalists focus on adding value to our audience. If you help people solve problems, the success will spring from that-not the other way around.
• Some bloggers put money first. There’s nothing wrong with earning a living from your blog (we do), but it needn’t be the main objective. Good blogs make money; great blogs make a difference. Said another way: we allow money to have a seat in the car, but it’s never the driver.

Bluehost bills annually, so when you use our link to receive the discounted rate of $2.75 per month you will be billed for the entire first year.

That said, if for any reason you decide that it’s not right for you, Bluehost offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

A blog (short for “weblog”) is a written communication by an author or creator that is meant to communicate with an audience; a vlog (short for “video log”) is a video version of a blog.

Blogs and vlogs are both excellent ways to reach an audience. However, a blog has a lower barrier of entry (no cameras, lighting, or microphones required), which makes it easier to start blogging today.

The word “blog” is an abbreviation of the term “weblog.” So the B in blog doesn’t stand for anything specific; it is merely a shortened form of the original term.

I’ve made significantly more money from blogging. Yes, The Minimalists create both blog posts and vlogs, but the dynamic nature of our blog has allowed us to reach more people and retain an audience, which is significantly more difficult with vlogging alone because with vlogs you don’t have direct access to your audience like you do with your blog.

It’s worth noting that we also use this blog to share many of our YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok vlogs with our dedicated blog audience, which amplifies our creations much better than social media alone.

Yes, you can make money solely from your blog. There are at least seven ways The Minimalists make money with this blog .

A blog can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. Successful blogs mirror the personality of their authors. For example, this blog is aggressively simple because, well, we are “The Minimalists.” Other blogs deploy bright colors and elaborate designs that mimic the quirky character, style, and disposition of its author. Either way, a WordPress blog grants you and your blog the flexibility to be as ornate or austere as you desire.

You do not need a license to run a blog. However, when you begin earning money from your blog, it can make sense to set up a separate LLC (limited liability company) for your blog. Alternatively, if you don’t want to establish an LLC, you can also claim any earned revenue from your blog under your personal social security number (I did this for the first few years of this blog, before finally registering The Minimalists, LLC).

You do not need to copyright your blog because you already own the intellectual property of everything you create. Your blog and all of its contents, blog posts, photos, images, and written words are already considered “copyrighted” the moment they are published. As long as you can prove that you are the author of a piece of content, a copyright is granted by public law without the need to file additional paperwork.

Unlike other blog and social-media platforms, your WordPress blog allows you to download and save all of your blog contents so that you can protect your photos and written words. Personally, I keep a backup of all my photos and written content on a separate hard drive, as well as a cloud storage account (e.g., Google Photos or Dropbox) for double redundancy. This isn’t required, but it gives me a piece of mind that I can’t get from social media.

Registering your blog name is free and easy. In fact, registration is a built-in part of the simple setup process outlined in the instructions within this blog post.

When you use Bluehost to host your blog, you’ll receive a free domain registration, which allows you to choose any blog name you want. If you can’t think of a good blog name, Wordoid is a free tool that can help you pick an effective name for your blog.

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office , you are not required to register your trademark, but where or whether you decide to register your trademark can determine the scope of your rights. Specifically, you can rely on common law rights or file for state, federal, or international trademark registration.

Because of the monetary and time costs associated with filing a trademark, The Minimalists did not trademark our blog name for the first several years. Once we began selling products using our blog name (“The Minimalists”), it made sense to trademark that name because, according to the USPTO, there are several benefits of trademark registration, including:

• Trademark is listed in USPTO’s database of registered and pending trademarks. This provides public notice to anyone searching for similar trademarks. They will see your trademark, the goods and services on your registration, the date you applied for trademark registration, and the date your trademark registered.
• Legal presumption that you own the trademark and have the right to use it. So, in federal court, your registration certificate proves ownership, eliminating the need for copious amounts of evidence.
• Can use your registration as a basis for filing for trademark protection in foreign countries.
• Right to bring a lawsuit concerning the trademark in federal court.
• May use the federal trademark registration symbol, ®, with your trademark to show that you are registered with us. This may help deter others from using your trademark or one too similar to yours
• Record your registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They can stop the importation of goods with an infringing trademark.

Yes, it is perfectly reasonable to use stock photos on your blog, as long as they are obtained lawfully from a creative commons website such as Unsplash or Pond5 . Just make sure you credit the photographer.

It is not acceptable to simply use Google Images on your blog; those photos are copyrighted. If you’re not careful, reusing photos from Google Images can lead to a costly lawsuit.

It is a good idea to use your full name and photo on your blog. Why? Because people connect with human beings, not faceless avatars. That’s why I use my full name—Joshua Fields Millburn—on this blog.

Alternatively, if you’re worried about maintaining anonymity because of your job, family, or the divisive nature of your blog’s content, then a pseudonym can be an adequate substitute for your real name. Just understand that blogging pseudonymously can make it more difficult to build trust with an audience. It’s not impossible to connect with others using a fake name, but it is an uphill battle.

While WordPress allows you to establish a home page for your blog, most blogs don’t need a home page because a home page creates one extra step for new readers to read your newest blog content. That’s why we removed our home page on this blog—we want readers to get right to the good stuff without any friction. Then, if a reader wants to learn more about our blog, they can always visit our about page.

Once your blog is public, anyone can see it. This is a good thing. As a writer, you want the opportunity to connect with new readers, even when you’re sleeping. A public blog is the best way to connect with a fervent readership.

However, readers can’t see your unpublished content (drafts, deleted posts, etc.); only your published blog posts are available for everyone to see.

Any sentence that makes the reader want to read the next sentence is a great sentence. The best opening lines force readers to ask questions. For example, how does the following sentence make you feel?

The average American household contains more than 300,000 items.

That sentence might lead to several questions and doubts in the reader’s mind:

Wait, what?

No way, that can’t be true!

Tell me more!

As soon as a reader is hooked, the sentence has done its job. I call this writing technique Narrative Urgency .

More Blogging Questions

Do you have a question about becoming a blogger that isn’t answered above? Post (Tweet) to @theminimalists with your question and a link to this essay.

Ask Your Question

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Reflective writing and blogs: How to write a blog

• What's in this guide
• What is the difference between reflective writing and blogs?
• What is Reflective Writing?
• Working through an example of reflective writing

How to write a blog

• Working through a blog example
• Additional resources
• What is a blog?
• Types of blogs
• Structure of a blog

TYPES OF BLOG POSTS

There are generally four types of blogs used for assessment tasks. However, blog post assessments and expectations will vary across disciplines and lecturers. Always ask your lecturer for clarification.

From:  Hamilton College (2019) Writing Academic Blogs. Retrieved from: https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/writing-academic-blogs

How to structure a blog

It is important to think about the structure of your blog before you start writing. Consider the following tips:

• Planning : Make sure you understand the assessment task and have carefully read all the course information. Ask yourself, why are you being asked to produce a blog, what is the topic and subject you are making the blog about?
• Select your topic:  This may be dictated from your course materials (you might be given a number to select from). If you are given a choice think carefully about you would like to write your blog post on. 
•  Research:  make sure you research the topic and have collected information and sources from reliable sources and that these sources are referenced according to your referencing style. Our referencing guide is useful here
• Create an engaging title for your blog:  This will connect your blog title to the content you have created. This will also engage your audience with your blog post. This is especially useful if you have been asked to post a copy of your blog onto your course discussion forum.  
• Write your blog:  Start writing your first draft and start with the introduction. Consider the word count for your blog post and set time aside to complete. At first you might find that it is difficult to get words onto the paper, especially when you are new to writing. However, like most skills, the more you do it the easier it becomes.
•   Paragraphs and sentences  are often shorter in blog posts than standard academic writing. This makes it easier to read the blog post and engage with the audience (reader).  Top tips for writing well  is an excellent additonal resource to support the development of your writing skills. 
• The use of images:  You can also choose to use images in your blog post to support the content of your blog post. However, remember to keep your blog post simple and free of clutter. If you are using images, cite them correctly in your work.  (It is always a good idea to check the requirements for the layout of your blog post with your course co-ordinator/lecturer).
• Edit your blog:  Plan enough time to edit your blog, this includes looking carefully at spellings, grammar, and the overall content of the blog post. Try to avoid repeating word choices throughout the blog (we all have our favourite words we like to use!).   Consider if your points come across well, have you stated your position (if you have taken one), does your blog provide enough detail and information for the reader? Having another set of eyes to look over your work can also help too.

BASIC BLOG STRUCTURE

If you would like to use specific blogging apps, why not try this one:

Blogger.com : Google backed blogging app that is simple to use.

https://www.blogger.com/about/

A blog (short for “weblog”) is a personal journal on the web where you integrate your personal experience with evidence and analysis. You may be asked to submit a blog entry as part or all of an assessment task. Typically students submit their blog entries to an appropriate location on the course BlackBoard site.

Blogs are different to reflective journal writing because:

•  They are written to share with other people.
• They require frequent updating.

Note: Sometimes the terms 'reflective writing' and 'blogs' are used interchangeably. If unsure, check with your lecturer to see if they want a piece of reflective writing completed online, or a blog.

• Are less formal than essays and reports.
• The argument you put forward includes evidence, but also your own perspective.
• Allow you to be creative with the structure (unless you have been provided with a structure from your lecturer).
• Use short paragraphs, bullet points, bold text, italics, underlining, and headings. 
• Use images, videos, and links to demonstrate your thinking.
• Require referencing.

Why use a blog?

• To log your progress on a particular course or independent learning task
• To use as a collaborative blog with other students or as part of group work.
• To reach a wider audience on a particular topic or subject (via a published blog post on a website or University discussion forum)

Pathways and Academic Learning Support

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• Last Updated: Apr 27, 2023 4:29 PM
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How to Write an Essay Introduction (with Examples)   

The introduction of an essay plays a critical role in engaging the reader and providing contextual information about the topic. It sets the stage for the rest of the essay, establishes the tone and style, and motivates the reader to continue reading. 

Table of Contents

What is an essay introduction , what to include in an essay introduction, how to create an essay structure , step-by-step process for writing an essay introduction , how to write an introduction paragraph , how to write a hook for your essay , how to include background information , how to write a thesis statement .

• Argumentative Essay Introduction Example: 
• Expository Essay Introduction Example 

Literary Analysis Essay Introduction Example

Check and revise – checklist for essay introduction , key takeaways , frequently asked questions .

An introduction is the opening section of an essay, paper, or other written work. It introduces the topic and provides background information, context, and an overview of what the reader can expect from the rest of the work. 1 The key is to be concise and to the point, providing enough information to engage the reader without delving into excessive detail. 

The essay introduction is crucial as it sets the tone for the entire piece and provides the reader with a roadmap of what to expect. Here are key elements to include in your essay introduction: 

• Hook : Start with an attention-grabbing statement or question to engage the reader. This could be a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or a compelling anecdote. 
• Background information : Provide context and background information to help the reader understand the topic. This can include historical information, definitions of key terms, or an overview of the current state of affairs related to your topic. 
• Thesis statement : Clearly state your main argument or position on the topic. Your thesis should be concise and specific, providing a clear direction for your essay. 

Before we get into how to write an essay introduction, we need to know how it is structured. The structure of an essay is crucial for organizing your thoughts and presenting them clearly and logically. It is divided as follows: 2  

• Introduction:  The introduction should grab the reader’s attention with a hook, provide context, and include a thesis statement that presents the main argument or purpose of the essay.  
• Body:  The body should consist of focused paragraphs that support your thesis statement using evidence and analysis. Each paragraph should concentrate on a single central idea or argument and provide evidence, examples, or analysis to back it up.  
• Conclusion:  The conclusion should summarize the main points and restate the thesis differently. End with a final statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. Avoid new information or arguments. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write an essay introduction: 

• Start with a Hook : Begin your introduction paragraph with an attention-grabbing statement, question, quote, or anecdote related to your topic. The hook should pique the reader’s interest and encourage them to continue reading. 
• Provide Background Information : This helps the reader understand the relevance and importance of the topic. 
• State Your Thesis Statement : The last sentence is the main argument or point of your essay. It should be clear, concise, and directly address the topic of your essay. 
• Preview the Main Points : This gives the reader an idea of what to expect and how you will support your thesis. 
• Keep it Concise and Clear : Avoid going into too much detail or including information not directly relevant to your topic. 
• Revise : Revise your introduction after you’ve written the rest of your essay to ensure it aligns with your final argument. 

Here’s an example of an essay introduction paragraph about the importance of education: 

Education is often viewed as a fundamental human right and a key social and economic development driver. As Nelson Mandela once famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” It is the key to unlocking a wide range of opportunities and benefits for individuals, societies, and nations. In today’s constantly evolving world, education has become even more critical. It has expanded beyond traditional classroom learning to include digital and remote learning, making education more accessible and convenient. This essay will delve into the importance of education in empowering individuals to achieve their dreams, improving societies by promoting social justice and equality, and driving economic growth by developing a skilled workforce and promoting innovation. 

This introduction paragraph example includes a hook (the quote by Nelson Mandela), provides some background information on education, and states the thesis statement (the importance of education). 

This is one of the key steps in how to write an essay introduction. Crafting a compelling hook is vital because it sets the tone for your entire essay and determines whether your readers will stay interested. A good hook draws the reader in and sets the stage for the rest of your essay.  

• Avoid Dry Fact : Instead of simply stating a bland fact, try to make it engaging and relevant to your topic. For example, if you’re writing about the benefits of exercise, you could start with a startling statistic like, “Did you know that regular exercise can increase your lifespan by up to seven years?” 
• Avoid Using a Dictionary Definition : While definitions can be informative, they’re not always the most captivating way to start an essay. Instead, try to use a quote, anecdote, or provocative question to pique the reader’s interest. For instance, if you’re writing about freedom, you could begin with a quote from a famous freedom fighter or philosopher. 
• Do Not Just State a Fact That the Reader Already Knows : This ties back to the first point—your hook should surprise or intrigue the reader. For Here’s an introduction paragraph example, if you’re writing about climate change, you could start with a thought-provoking statement like, “Despite overwhelming evidence, many people still refuse to believe in the reality of climate change.” 

Including background information in the introduction section of your essay is important to provide context and establish the relevance of your topic. When writing the background information, you can follow these steps: 

• Start with a General Statement:  Begin with a general statement about the topic and gradually narrow it down to your specific focus. For example, when discussing the impact of social media, you can begin by making a broad statement about social media and its widespread use in today’s society, as follows: “Social media has become an integral part of modern life, with billions of users worldwide.” 
• Define Key Terms : Define any key terms or concepts that may be unfamiliar to your readers but are essential for understanding your argument. 
• Provide Relevant Statistics:  Use statistics or facts to highlight the significance of the issue you’re discussing. For instance, “According to a report by Statista, the number of social media users is expected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025.” 
• Discuss the Evolution:  Mention previous research or studies that have been conducted on the topic, especially those that are relevant to your argument. Mention key milestones or developments that have shaped its current impact. You can also outline some of the major effects of social media. For example, you can briefly describe how social media has evolved, including positives such as increased connectivity and issues like cyberbullying and privacy concerns. 
• Transition to Your Thesis:  Use the background information to lead into your thesis statement, which should clearly state the main argument or purpose of your essay. For example, “Given its pervasive influence, it is crucial to examine the impact of social media on mental health.” 

A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, or other type of academic writing. It appears near the end of the introduction. Here’s how to write a thesis statement: 

• Identify the topic:  Start by identifying the topic of your essay. For example, if your essay is about the importance of exercise for overall health, your topic is “exercise.” 
• State your position:  Next, state your position or claim about the topic. This is the main argument or point you want to make. For example, if you believe that regular exercise is crucial for maintaining good health, your position could be: “Regular exercise is essential for maintaining good health.” 
• Support your position:  Provide a brief overview of the reasons or evidence that support your position. These will be the main points of your essay. For example, if you’re writing an essay about the importance of exercise, you could mention the physical health benefits, mental health benefits, and the role of exercise in disease prevention. 
• Make it specific:  Ensure your thesis statement clearly states what you will discuss in your essay. For example, instead of saying, “Exercise is good for you,” you could say, “Regular exercise, including cardiovascular and strength training, can improve overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.” 

Examples of essay introduction 

Here are examples of essay introductions for different types of essays: 

Argumentative Essay Introduction Example:  

Topic: Should the voting age be lowered to 16? 

“The question of whether the voting age should be lowered to 16 has sparked nationwide debate. While some argue that 16-year-olds lack the requisite maturity and knowledge to make informed decisions, others argue that doing so would imbue young people with agency and give them a voice in shaping their future.” 

Expository Essay Introduction Example  

Topic: The benefits of regular exercise 

“In today’s fast-paced world, the importance of regular exercise cannot be overstated. From improving physical health to boosting mental well-being, the benefits of exercise are numerous and far-reaching. This essay will examine the various advantages of regular exercise and provide tips on incorporating it into your daily routine.” 

Text: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee 

“Harper Lee’s novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ is a timeless classic that explores themes of racism, injustice, and morality in the American South. Through the eyes of young Scout Finch, the reader is taken on a journey that challenges societal norms and forces characters to confront their prejudices. This essay will analyze the novel’s use of symbolism, character development, and narrative structure to uncover its deeper meaning and relevance to contemporary society.” 

• Engaging and Relevant First Sentence : The opening sentence captures the reader’s attention and relates directly to the topic. 
• Background Information : Enough background information is introduced to provide context for the thesis statement. 
• Definition of Important Terms : Key terms or concepts that might be unfamiliar to the audience or are central to the argument are defined. 
• Clear Thesis Statement : The thesis statement presents the main point or argument of the essay. 
• Relevance to Main Body : Everything in the introduction directly relates to and sets up the discussion in the main body of the essay. 

Writing a strong introduction is crucial for setting the tone and context of your essay. Here are the key takeaways for how to write essay introduction: 3  

• Hook the Reader : Start with an engaging hook to grab the reader’s attention. This could be a compelling question, a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or an anecdote. 
• Provide Background : Give a brief overview of the topic, setting the context and stage for the discussion. 
• Thesis Statement : State your thesis, which is the main argument or point of your essay. It should be concise, clear, and specific. 
• Preview the Structure : Outline the main points or arguments to help the reader understand the organization of your essay. 
• Keep it Concise : Avoid including unnecessary details or information not directly related to your thesis. 
• Revise and Edit : Revise your introduction to ensure clarity, coherence, and relevance. Check for grammar and spelling errors. 
• Seek Feedback : Get feedback from peers or instructors to improve your introduction further. 

The purpose of an essay introduction is to give an overview of the topic, context, and main ideas of the essay. It is meant to engage the reader, establish the tone for the rest of the essay, and introduce the thesis statement or central argument.  

An essay introduction typically ranges from 5-10% of the total word count. For example, in a 1,000-word essay, the introduction would be roughly 50-100 words. However, the length can vary depending on the complexity of the topic and the overall length of the essay.

An essay introduction is critical in engaging the reader and providing contextual information about the topic. To ensure its effectiveness, consider incorporating these key elements: a compelling hook, background information, a clear thesis statement, an outline of the essay’s scope, a smooth transition to the body, and optional signposting sentences.  

The process of writing an essay introduction is not necessarily straightforward, but there are several strategies that can be employed to achieve this end. When experiencing difficulty initiating the process, consider the following techniques: begin with an anecdote, a quotation, an image, a question, or a startling fact to pique the reader’s interest. It may also be helpful to consider the five W’s of journalism: who, what, when, where, why, and how.   For instance, an anecdotal opening could be structured as follows: “As I ascended the stage, momentarily blinded by the intense lights, I could sense the weight of a hundred eyes upon me, anticipating my next move. The topic of discussion was climate change, a subject I was passionate about, and it was my first public speaking event. Little did I know , that pivotal moment would not only alter my perspective but also chart my life’s course.” 

Crafting a compelling thesis statement for your introduction paragraph is crucial to grab your reader’s attention. To achieve this, avoid using overused phrases such as “In this paper, I will write about” or “I will focus on” as they lack originality. Instead, strive to engage your reader by substantiating your stance or proposition with a “so what” clause. While writing your thesis statement, aim to be precise, succinct, and clear in conveying your main argument.  

To create an effective essay introduction, ensure it is clear, engaging, relevant, and contains a concise thesis statement. It should transition smoothly into the essay and be long enough to cover necessary points but not become overwhelming. Seek feedback from peers or instructors to assess its effectiveness. 

References  

• Cui, L. (2022). Unit 6 Essay Introduction.  Building Academic Writing Skills . 
• West, H., Malcolm, G., Keywood, S., & Hill, J. (2019). Writing a successful essay.  Journal of Geography in Higher Education ,  43 (4), 609-617. 
• Beavers, M. E., Thoune, D. L., & McBeth, M. (2023). Bibliographic Essay: Reading, Researching, Teaching, and Writing with Hooks: A Queer Literacy Sponsorship. College English, 85(3), 230-242. 

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How to Start a College Essay to Hook Your Reader

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What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of the college essay introduction, tips for getting started on your essay, 6 effective techniques for starting your college essay.

• Cliche College Essay Introduction to Avoid

Where to Get Your Essay Edited for Free

Have you sat down to write your essay and just hit a wall of writer’s block? Do you have too many ideas running around your head, or maybe no ideas at all?

Starting a college essay is potentially the hardest part of the application process. Once you start, it’s easy to keep writing, but that initial hurdle is just so difficult to overcome. We’ve put together a list of tips to help you jump that wall and make your essay the best it can be.

The introduction to a college essay should immediately hook the reader. You want to give admissions officers a reason to stay interested in your story and encourage them to continue reading your essay with an open mind. Remember that admissions officers are only able to spend a couple minutes per essay, so if you bore them or turn them off from the start, they may clock out for the rest of the essay.

As a whole, the college essay should aim to portray a part of your personality that hasn’t been covered by your GPA, extracurriculars, and test scores. This makes the introduction a crucial part of the essay. Think of it as the first glimpse, an intriguing lead on, into the read rest of your essay which also showcases your voice and personality. 

Brainstorm Topics

Take the time to sit down and brainstorm some good topic ideas for your essay. You want your topic to be meaningful to you, while also displaying a part of you that isn’t apparent in other aspects of your application. The essay is an opportunity to show admissions officers the “real you.” If you have a topic in mind, do not feel pressured to start with the introduction. Sometimes the best essay openings are developed last, once you fully grasp the flow of your story.

Do a Freewrite

Give yourself permission to write without judgment for an allotted period of time. For each topic you generated in your brainstorm session, do a free-write session. Set a time for one minute and write down whatever comes to mind for that specific topic. This will help get the juices flowing and push you over that initial bit of writer’s block that’s so common when it comes time to write a college essay. Repeat this exercise if you’re feeling stuck at any point during the essay writing process. Freewriting is a great way to warm up your creative writing brain whilst seeing which topics are flowing more naturally onto the page.

Create an Outline

Once you’ve chosen your topic, write an outline for your whole essay. It’s easier to organize all your thoughts, write the body, and then go back to write the introduction. That way, you already know the direction you want your essay to go because you’ve actually written it out, and you can ensure that your introduction leads directly into the rest of the essay. Admissions officers are looking for the quality of your writing alongside the content of your essay. To be prepared for college-level writing, students should understand how to logically structure an essay. By creating an outline, you are setting yourself up to be judged favorably on the quality of your writing skills.

1. The Scriptwriter

“No! Make it stop! Get me out!” My 5-year-old self waved my arms frantically in front of my face in the darkened movie theater.

Starting your essay with dialogue instantly transports the reader into the story, while also introducing your personal voice. In the rest of the essay, the author proposes a class that introduces people to insects as a type of food. Typically, one would begin directly with the course proposal. However, the author’s inclusion of this flashback weaves in a personal narrative, further displaying her true self.

Read the full essay.

2. The Shocker

A chaotic sense of sickness and filth unfolds in an overcrowded border station in McAllen, Texas. Through soundproof windows, migrants motion that they have not showered in weeks, and children wear clothes caked in mucus and tears. The humanitarian crisis at the southern border exists not only in photographs published by mainstream media, but miles from my home in South Texas.

This essay opener is also a good example of “The Vivid Imaginer.” In this case, the detailed imagery only serves to heighten the shock factor. While people may be aware of the “humanitarian crisis at the southern border,” reading about it in such stark terms is bound to capture the reader’s attention. Through this hook, the reader learns a bit about the author’s home life; an aspect of the student that may not be detailed elsewhere in their application. The rest of the essay goes on to talk about the author’s passion for aiding refugees, and this initial paragraph immediately establishes the author’s personal connection to the refugee crisis.

3. The Vivid Imaginer

The air is crisp and cool, nipping at my ears as I walk under a curtain of darkness that drapes over the sky, starless. It is a Friday night in downtown Corpus Christi, a rare moment of peace in my home city filled with the laughter of strangers and colorful lights of street vendors. But I cannot focus. 

Starting off with a bit of well-written imagery transports the reader to wherever you want to take them. By putting them in this context with you, you allow the reader to closely understand your thoughts and emotions in this situation. Additionally, this method showcases the author’s individual way of looking at the world, a personal touch that is the baseline of all college essays.

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4. The Instant Plunger

The flickering LED lights began to form into a face of a man when I focused my eyes. The man spoke of a ruthless serial killer of the decade who had been arrested in 2004, and my parents shivered at his reaccounting of the case. I curiously tuned in, wondering who he was to speak of such crimes with concrete composure and knowledge. Later, he introduced himself as a profiler named Pyo Chang Won, and I watched the rest of the program by myself without realizing that my parents had left the couch.

Plunging readers into the middle of a story (also known as in medias res ) is an effective hook because it captures attention by placing the reader directly into the action. The descriptive imagery in the first sentence also helps to immerse the reader, creating a satisfying hook while also showing (instead of telling) how the author became interested in criminology. With this technique, it is important to “zoom out,” so to speak, in such a way that the essay remains personal to you.

5. The Philosopher 

Saved in the Notes app on my phone are three questions: What can I know? What must I do? What may I hope for? First asked by Immanuel Kant, these questions guide my pursuit of knowledge and organization of critical thought, both skills that are necessary to move our country and society forward in the right direction.

Posing philosophical questions helps present you as someone with deep ideas while also guiding the focus of your essay. In a way, it presents the reader with a roadmap; they know that these questions provide the theme for the rest of the essay. The more controversial the questions, the more gripping a hook you can create. 

Providing an answer to these questions is not necessarily as important as making sure that the discussions they provoke really showcase you and your own values and beliefs.

6. The Storyteller

One Christmas morning, when I was nine, I opened a snap circuit set from my grandmother. Although I had always loved math and science, I didn’t realize my passion for engineering until I spent the rest of winter break creating different circuits to power various lights, alarms, and sensors. Even after I outgrew the toy, I kept the set in my bedroom at home and knew I wanted to study engineering.

Beginning with an anecdote is a strong way to establish a meaningful connection with the content itself. It also shows that the topic you write about has been a part of your life for a significant amount of time, and something that college admissions officers look for in activities is follow-through; they want to make sure that you are truly interested in something. A personal story such as the one above shows off just that.

Cliche College Essay Introductions to Avoid

Ambiguous introduction.

It’s best to avoid introductory sentences that don’t seem to really say anything at all, such as “Science plays a large role in today’s society,” or “X has existed since the beginning of time.” Statements like these, in addition to being extremely common, don’t demonstrate anything about you, the author. Without a personal connection to you right away, it’s easy for the admissions officer to write off the essay before getting past the first sentence.

Quoting Someone Famous

While having a quotation by a famous author, celebrity, or someone else you admire may seem like a good way to allow the reader to get to know you, these kinds of introductions are actually incredibly overused. You also risk making your essay all about the quotation and the famous person who said it; admissions officers want to get to know you, your beliefs, and your values, not someone who isn’t applying to their school. There are some cases where you may actually be asked to write about a quotation, and that’s fine, but you should avoid starting your essay with someone else’s words outside of this case. It is fine, however, to start with dialogue to plunge your readers into a specific moment.

Talking About Writing an Essay

This method is also very commonplace and is thus best avoided. It’s better to show, not tell, and all this method allows you to do is tell the reader how you were feeling at the time of writing the essay. If you do feel compelled to go this way, make sure to include vivid imagery and focus on grounding the essay in the five senses, which can help elevate your introduction and separate it from the many other meta essays.

Childhood Memories

Phrases like “Ever since I was young…” or “I’ve always wanted…” also lend more to telling rather than showing. If you want to talk about your childhood or past feelings in your essay, try using one of the techniques listed earlier (such as the Instant Plunger or the Vivid Imaginer) to elevate your writing.

CollegeVine has a peer essay review page where peers can tell you if your introduction was enough to hook them. Getting feedback from someone who hasn’t read your essay before, and thus doesn’t have any context which may bias them to be more forgiving to your introduction, is helpful because it mimics the same environment in which an admissions officer will be reading your essay. 

Writing a college essay is hard, but with these tips hopefully starting it will be a little easier!

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How to write a Band 6 Module B Critical Study of Literature essay

If you're looking to write a kick-ass Mod B Essay for the HSC you're in the right place. Let us show you exactly what those pesky markers are looking for in a band 6 mod B essay.

2 days ago   •   5 min read

Rubric Breakdown

In Mod B you are focusing your efforts on one big and pretty challenging text (or in the case of T.S Eliot, several confusing poems but still think of it as one body of work). This is where, in my opinion, Advanced English really distinguishes itself from standard.

In Mod B, you are exploring a body of literature that confronts the complex nature of humanity and continuously challenges pre-existing notions in society. And these texts do this by presenting abstract or obscure ideas that contain substantial ambiguity - enough to provoke thought and reflection in the reader.

So in summary, your job here is to deconstruct a text that past literary critics have viewed to be 'revolutionary' and explain how its style, structure and content have made it become such a significant text still studied today.

Things you must consider in your essay

Because you are studying the text 'critically' you are expected to have extensive knowledge about how every part of this text contributes to its meaning. While you should be doing this in every module, it's particularly important that you study up on these dot points and refer to them in your essay.

• Textual Integrity & Significance
• Form and Structure
• Style and Use of Language Techniques

You should already be familiar with context; it is that setting, time or culture in which text is brought about. It is what motivates a text to be constructed and what ultimately decides how the text is presented.

To write a good Mod B essay, you need to understand why the text was created. For example, in simple terms, T.S Eliot was angry at the existential state of society during the 20th century and wanted to reinvent the way people perceived religion, death and existence. And once you understand their motivations, you can better understand the construction of their text.

Textual Integrity - Mod B's favourite term

NESA describes textual integrity as 'the unity of a text; its coherent use of form and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.' In simple terms, a text has textual integrity if all the different features of a text (structure, language, tone, etc) come together to convey a strong coherent message relevant to its audience.

Significance

This one is a little more straightforward. Is your text universally relevant to the modern audience and has it made a profound impact on society?

Generally, you won't have to worry about whether you've discussed textual integrity or significance or not because most if not all Mod B essay questions will be asking you if your text has Textual Integrity or Significance (in their roundabout way of course) and your job will be to prove that they do. Scroll down to see 2023's essay question breakdown for the proof.

Unique Interpretation

Markers will be flipping through hundreds of essays all on the same text. It is crucial that you can form your own interpretation of the text and not produce an argument that can be found on cliff notes and Litcharts.

Now this doesn't mean that you need to have an obscure interpretation of the text - but make sure it's not surface-level.

To do this you are going to have to do research! As implied by the name, the module "Critical Study of Literature" is going to require you to read up on some Academic articles and see how critics have viewed the piece. Given that 90% of your cohort will be relying on LitChart summaries, this will give you the band 6 edge you need. A good website to use is JSTOR . Ensure that you read multiple articles to encompass a wide variety of perspectives and opinions before forming your own argument or interpretation.

2023 HSC English Essay Question Breakdown

"Evaluate how your personal and intellectual engagement with your prescribed text has been intensified by its construction."

Like I said earlier, your Mod B question will be asking you about the prescribed text's significance and textual integrity... just in a not-so-obvious way. So how do we approach this band 6 style?

In your thesis statement you need to answer two sub-questions;

• What is your personal or intellectual takeaway from your prescribed text (How has reading the text impacted your perception of humanity, existence or society),
• And, how was this intensified by the form, structure, register and stylistic devices used in the text?

This question really forces you to have a personal interpretation and extensive understanding of the text's textual integrity.

Thesis example:

"Intellectual engagement with TS Eliot's modernist oeuvre was intensified by its fragmented and abstract construction, forcing his readers into a personalised introspective journey that exposed the timeless importance of individuality in shaping existential meaning."

The thesis statement focuses on answering the question while also subtly referencing textual integrity and significance. It outlines what the engagement was, an introspective journey, and how it was intensified by the text's modernist construction (its textual integrity) AND it emphasises the text's engagement is one that is timeless (a.k.a significant).

What should you start doing as you study Mod B

• Build study notes early and clarify your ideas as you go.
• Have an extensive understanding of the text's context - What motivated the composer to construct the text? What was their opinion on the current state of society and what did they want to see changed?
• Expand your understanding by reading academic articles and discussing your opinions with your peers and teachers.  
• Construct a quote table with an in-depth analysis of the techniques and stylistic devices used by the composer. Ensure to discuss why the composer wanted to use such devices and what was its impact on the overall meaning of the text.
• Edit, Edit, Edit - for a band 6 Mod B essay you will need a super refined and extensive base essay (one that you can adapt going into the exam). You're first Mod B draft will be messy so ensure you've given yourself plenty of time to receive feedback to polish it off.

How many paragraphs are in an HSC Module B essay?

Module B essays normally follow the structure of; an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. For T.S Eliot, it is advised to do three paragraphs, either doing three poems with a paragraph for each or two poems with paragraphs being, poem 1, poem 2 and last one both poems together.

How long is a band 6 HSC essay?

In your exam, you should be aiming for about 6+ handwritten pages (1000 words) for a Band 6-worthy essay however there is no strict guideline - you will be marked based on the quality of your essay content, not its quantity.

Want more personalised tips to drastically improve your English mark? A private tutor can make the biggest difference!

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