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Sometimes you need to take risks in your business life or in other personal advances. Starting a blog or even diving into a website-builder might just spark some inspiration for you to begin carving an online presence and increase the visibility of your business or your new blog-writing hobby.

So just how do you start a blog?

Pick a blog name

Choosing a descriptive and memorable name for your blog will help attract others to read what you have to say. Make sure it is punchy and summarises just what you’re about and what kind of readers you want to stumble upon your writing. If you’re stuck on how to come up with a name for your blog, have a look at some blogs that already exist and see how they have crafted titles and blog post headings to inspire you to think about your own platform and its target audience. In terms of your domain name, which should be completely unique, keep in mind that you cannot use any spaces or punctuation other than dashes. 

Get your blog online

To get your blog up and running you need two things: blog hosting (also known as web hosting) and blogging software. The good news is that these typically come packaged together. 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. For instance, increasing your brand presence can take the form of rebranding yourself online by using WordPress, Wix, or another wpengine alternative

Write and publish your first post

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. You don’t necessarily have to be an expert on any of the topics you write about to have a successful blog.

For instance, people who are interested in visiting 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.

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 to spend some time promoting it, especially when you first start. The most effective way to achieve this is through social media, or simply by commenting on other blogs and networking through these methods in order to create relationships with prominent bloggers in your community. 

For more information on blog writing or designing a website, check out this really helpful article!