How To Start a Blog In 2024
You are a special person: a confluence of your perspective, thoughts, experience, skills, and knowledge. Nobody else on planet Earth is exactly like you. You are unique.
Everybody has their own story to tell. Everybody has value to bring to the world. Everybody has something to teach or share.
So why not start a blog?
A blog, or web log, is a great way to use your writing to communicate your ideas to a global audience.
Blogs can be written for fun, for educational purposes, to increase one’s publicly perceived authority on a topic, and for profit.
This article discusses how to start your own blog in 2024.
Top 5 Types of Blogs
1. Personal Blogs
Personal blogs are written by an individual. These can take the form of online diaries, travel journals, articles delivering information and commentary, or anything else an individual feels like writing about.
2. Collaborative Blogs
Collaborative or group blogs are written and published by multiple authors. These blogs usually have a uniting theme, such as technology, politics, or fashion.
3. Microblogs
Microblogging is a form of blogging in which users post small pieces of digital content, such as text, images, videos, and links. Examples of microblogging sites include social media platforms such as X and Facebook.
4. Corporate and organizational blogs
Organizational blogs are run by businesses and not-for-profit organizations. They can be internal to the organization (on an Intranet) or external and public facing (on the Internet). Businesses with an external blog get 55% more website visitors than businesses that do not.
5. Vlogs
Vlogs, or video logs, are comprised of video content instead of written content. Vlogs are popular on video platforms like YouTube.
Choosing a Blog Niche
Before you start writing a blog, you should consider your niche.
A niche is your intended audience and their interests. It is what you will be writing about. For example, I run a technology blog for people who are interested in maximizing aspects of their life using technology. That’s my niche.
Top 20 Blog Niches for 2024
Here are my top 20 blog niches to help you decide on a niche for your content:
- Journal/diary blogs
- Travel blogs
- Technology blogs
- Tutorial blogs
- Political blogs
- Health blogs
- Gardening blogs
- Book blogs
- Fashion blogs
- Beauty blogs
- Lifestyle blogs
- Legal blogs
- Pet blogs
- Music blogs
- Education blogs
- Art blogs
- Music blogs
- Psychology blogs
- Family and home-making blogs
- Personal development blogs
Choosing a Platform for Your Blog
Once you have chosen a niche, you will need a platform for your blog.
Top 10 Blogging Platforms
1. WordPress
WordPress.org is my favorite blogging platform. It is powerful and flexible and allows a user to create and own their own self-hosted website. WordPress allows a website designer to control every aspect of their site and add additional functionality through plug-ins. Additional functionality might include e-commerce capability, contact forms, and easy search engine optimization (SEO).
Download WordPress from this link.
2. Medium
Medium is a great platform for people who lack the technical know-how or desire to build their own website. Writing and publishing a blog post on Medium is as easy as writing in a word processor. You can even monetize your content by putting it behind a paywall, although this requires a paid Medium Membership.
Visit Medium at this link.
3. Squarespace
Squarespace is a WYSIWYG website maker with a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to make a website, with a blog, without any coding knowledge. Squarespace is not as flexible as WordPress, with a limited range of extensions, but the extensions they do have are high quality. Squarespace also comes with built-in e-commerce and podcast capabilities.
Visit Squarespace using this link.
4. Wix
Wix is another drag-and-drop WYSIWYG website maker for people with no coding experience. It is the most beginner-friendly website maker on this list. Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence system will create your website for you if you answer a few questions. Wix also allows you to write blog posts from your phone. The downsides are that is not as customizable as other platforms like WordPress, some features are restricted to paid accounts, and it can be difficult to migrate your website to another platform if you ever want to move to another site.
Visit Wix at this link.
5. Blogger/Blogspot
Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google. You can log in with a Google account, configure your site with an intuitive setup flow, and begin posting immediately. Blogger integrates with Google AdSense for easy monetization. A free Blogger account gives you a Blogger subdomain (e.g. yourname.blogger.com), and you can also connect a custom domain to your blog.
Visit Blogger with this link.
6. Tumblr
Tumblr is free and very easy to use. It is a microblogging and social networking platform, allowing users to follow other blogs, like and repost posts, and it has a private messaging system. Tumblr is a very visual platform and is ideal for posting content with images or videos (although it has a 100MB upload limit.)
Visit Tumblr using this link.
7. Write.as
Write.as is a blogging platform with a focus on the writing aspect over technical details and design. It has an auto-saving text editor with the bare minimum features necessary to write and publish your blog. Write.as has free and paid plans, as well as their own monetization methods such as donations and exclusive paid content. The minimalist nature of Write.as may make it too simple for many people’s desires.
Visit Write.as at this link.
8. Notion
Notion is powerful note-taking software that can be downloaded for free, but it also allows users to publish content to the Internet. Unfortunately, Notion has few options for visual customization, no themes, and no support for including ads for revenue.
Download Notion using this link.
9. HackerNoon
HackerNoon is a blogging platform specifically for technology enthusiasts, containing content on a diverse range of tech subjects. You can subscribe to topics, get a daily brief customized to those topics. The site is free to use and read with no paywalls but can be monetized through micropayments and affiliate links. Your posts must be approved by editors to ensure a high quality of writing throughout the site.
Visit HackerNoon using this link.
10. Hashnode
Hashnode is a blogging platform specifically for software developers. It is free with no ads, allows custom domains, and has options to customize the design and insert your own CSS. Hashnode even integrates with GitHub so you can back up your articles.
Visit Hashnode at this link.
How To Monetize a Blog
There are several popular ways to monetize blogs. These include advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and selling products or services.
Top 4 Ways To Monetize Your Blog
1. Advertising
To begin with you can monetize your blog through Google AdSense. Then you can either insert ads into your web pages or have Google do it automatically for you.
If your blog becomes successful you may want to find a more lucrative advertising deal with advertisers like MediaVine.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is linking to the products and services of others and getting paid a small commission for every sale. Many websites have affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates.
3. Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is any content created or endorsed by a brand and published online with the intention of promotion or advertisement. If you review a brand’s product or service, they may reach out to you and ask you to make sponsored content. If you are interested in this avenue, you may wish to reach out to your favorite brands yourself.
4. Selling Products or Services
One of the best ways to make money online is the same way you would in the real world: by selling products and services. Popular products include digital products like e-books or online courses, and physical products like merchandise. Popular services include membership and subscription models, freelance services, consulting and coaching, and online webinars or workshops.
Conclusion
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I wish you all the best in your journey of learning and self-discovery.