How to Start a Blog: An Essential Guide to Building and Monetizing a Publishing Website
Starting a blog can be an exciting project. Taking that step to build a platform to share your ideas and passions is a bold and rewarding step. If you want to start a blog or publishing website, we’ve put together this guide for you. The SHE Media Collective monetizes blogs and publishing websites so we understand, the basic pillars of the publishing business. Keep reading.
Table of Contents
Technical Basics
Content Themes & Strategy
Content Distribution and Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Growth and Monetization
Technical Basics for Starting a Blog
To start a website, you have to first understand the basic technical requirements you would need to have a strong foundation. Every website lives on the World Wide Web and has to have a domain name and unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator). A website’s URL is the address of a website. So for starters, you need to establish a domain name with a hosting service.
Hosting Services
There are several hosting services out there some more popular than others. These hosting services listed below are some of the most commonly used and highly recommended by SHE Media Collective publishers.
Bluehost
Dreamhost
PeoplesHost
BigScoots
LyricalHost - top rated
Siteground
Doteasy
Cloudways
Hostinger
Domain Name
Put simply, a domain name is the address of a website. It is the link or URL and is how people will find and access your site. You need to check if the exact domain name you want is available. If it is, then you are lucky, but if it’s already taken you can find an alternative or if it’s taken but not live yet, you can attempt to buy it from the owner. Choosing a domain name for your website is one of the most important aspects of building a your publishing brand. Check if your chosen domain name is available using a domain name checker or domain name generators like Shopify Domain name generator, Go Daddy Domains or Squarespace Domains. Read more about Domain Names.
Themes/Design UX
The design and UX (user experience) of your site is something that might change as you go along with the process. However, it helps to have a basic idea of what you want your website to look like. If you’re not sure what you want or where to begin, start by looking through the web to find websites that you like and that embody what you envision for your site, and use these examples as inspiration. It could be several sites with each having an element that you like. This exercise will help you start to clearly visualize the type of publishing website or blog you want. Always keep the reader in mind when deciding on your website theme and design. You want to make sure your website is easy to browse and navigate and that site visitors can easily find your content. Specifically for a blog, you want to make sure users are inclined to stay on the website and read multiple blog posts and articles and your UX design is crucial to that.
Content Themes, Structure, and Strategy
Content creation is the engine that drives a blog. Writing continuously on a particular topic and sub-topics in that niche and sharing your opinions, and perceptives is what will keep readers coming back to and committed to your blog. To establish your content themes, you need to first answer the following questions:
What is the main topic your website will be about? (Food and Recipes).
What is your sub-niche and/or unique POV on that topic? (healthy but delicious recipes).
What is your “why” i.e. why are you creating this content platform? (You are a nutritionist, you love cooking, they are your family recipes, etc.).
Perhaps you’re a thought leader in your space, you already have a social presence. Communicating your “why” will differentiate you from the rest of the blogs and content creators in your niche and all around the web. No matter what your niche of choice is, you must ensure that you can create helpful, reliable, and people-first content on a regular and consistent basis.
Picking your Niche
Chances are you already know what your site is going to be about. You can choose a niche based on what you are most skilled or passionate about or based on your research on profitable and high-performing niches. If you’re not sure yet about a niche, start by figuring out what you are knowledgeable about and what unique point of view you can bring to the topic and share with your readers. It is also important to consider the level of competition in a particular niche before you decide. Is it a saturated space? If it is, you can still create a blog if you are passionate about the topic, however, it is crucial that you bring a unique point of view and find other ways to make your site stand out to attract (and keep) an audience. Also, ensure it is a niche in which you can produce lots of content with continuous and expanding conversations.
The About Page
For every website, and particularly a new website, the About Page is one of the most important pages you will build. Think of it as a billboard for your business. Readers, collaborators, future advertisers, and brand partners will all flock to your About Page to find out more about you, your site and what makes you unique. The About Page could be a make-or-break factor in people deciding if they want to work with you or continue to read your blog. Make sure that you properly introduce yourself and show your qualifications, be authentic and professional, and leave no questions unanswered. Read more on How to Create the Perfect About Page.
Publishing Frequency
After your new website has gone live, it has to be regularly updated with new content to keep your audience engaged and coming back and to garner new audiences. To do this, you have to determine your publishing frequency and set up a publishing calendar. When determining your publishing frequency, one key word to remember is ‘consistency’. Consistency makes your blog reliable, and so users will know to return for new and fresh content.
Set up a publishing frequency that you can keep up with. You could publish, monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, daily, or multiple articles a day. For individual bloggers (if you’re going to be running your site by yourself) consider your bandwidth. Don’t over-promise and push out all your content at a frequency that you can’t sustain. We usually recommend individual publishers to start by publishing once a week and gradually increase the frequency to 2-3 times a week. For larger publishing teams, or those who intend to hire freelance writers, start off with the minimum publishing frequency you are sure you can maintain and eventually build up. It is important to establish and maintain a publishing cadence so your audience knows what to expect and when. This will build trust and loyalty in your readers. If your publishing frequency is erratic and you go for long periods of no new content, you will lose repeat visitors.
Hiring Writers/Contributors
As mentioned above, you can hire writers and contributors to create content on your site. You can also seek guest posts from fellow bloggers and writers who are seeking to expand their reach. To find writers, you can put a call out to websites like Fivver or Upwork. You can also make announcements to find guest authors and freelance writers in Facebook writer groups, blogger groups etc. Don’t forget to tap into your network as well. If you intend to use contributing writers as the primary source of content on your website, take time in choosing and hiring your writers. In order to ensure quality and a regular publishing cadence you should hire reliable and quality writers.
Content Distribution & Marketing
No matter how great your content is, it will do no good if no one sees it. Marketing your content is a crucial step in running a website. In this section, we are going to cover the various content redistribution platforms you can use to get your content out there and reach an audience. Putting together a marketing plan for your blog will ensure that you have strong distribution and reach a wide audience with your new venture. There are various ways you can market your blog. In this article, I’m going to focus on 4 main ways.
Social Media Marketing
Email Newsletter
Collaboration & Press
Syndication Platforms
Social Media Marketing
Social media channels are the most popular and obvious channels for redistributing content. However, it is important to study the different social media platforms available to you and formulate a strategy for each platform you choose to use for your blog. One thing to note is you don’t have to have a presence on every social media platform. Actually, I would advise that you choose two or three platforms to start with depending on how much time you have. And then formulate a strategy peculiar to each of your social media accounts. What works as an effective content distribution strategy for Facebook will not work for TikTok, Instagram, Threads, or Pinterest. Make sure to study the different formats for each platform and optimize your content for each. In constructing a social media strategy for your blog, here are some tips to keep in mind
Choose two or three platforms to have a presence on and make sure you are consistent
Get a handle for your brand name/website name on all top social media platforms even for the ones you don’t plan to have an active presence on
Use scheduling platforms
Facebook and Pinterest are top 10 traffic drivers and could perform well for our publishers
LinkedIn/LinkedIn Newsletters are great for brand building and getting more eyes on your content with LinkedIn Newsletters
Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is a blogger's most reliable tool to grow and maintain an audience. With a newsletter, you can drive target traffic to your blog regularly and reach your subscribers anytime with new updates and content recommendations. While social platforms are great, your audience or followers on these social platforms are not fully yours and they can be redirected away from you by an unexpected algorithm change or if you lose your account. An email newsletter is a sure way to grow and keep your audience. If you have to main just one content distribution channel, let that be your email newsletter.
Collaboration and Press
Another tried and true way to get more eyes on your blog is to collaborate with other bloggers. Write guest posts on blogs in the same or adjacent niches from other bloggers and creators. Doing so will let you reach their audience and will yield backlinks which will help boost your site’s SEO. You can also reach out to other publications by putting out a press release about your new venture. Pitch yourself for interviews and features to get publicity for your new venture, and yes more backlinks. The SHE Media Collective regularly features our members in our industry-leading publications Stylecaster, Sheknows, Flow, Soaps, and Blogher— which is another perk of being a member of our Collective. Our publishers also get other feature opportunities such as article backlining, quotes, social media collaboration, and content syndication.
Content Syndication Platforms/Partnerships
Content syndication is the process of placing your site’s content (articles, videos) on a news and content aggregator platform. Some notable aggregator syndication platforms are Apple News, MSN, Google News, Newsbreak, Smartnews, Flipboard, etc. These platforms reach millions of people with aggregated content on different topics and niches (not just the news). Getting your site’s content placed on any of these platforms puts you in front of an entirely new and far-reaching audience. Content syndication can increase a site’s visibility, SERP credibility, and authority, generate backlinks, and yes grow traffic! It gives publishers a chance to get traffic with internal linking and grow their audiences as users follow the content trail to the site. In the SHE Media Collective, we’ve seen syndication sites work as a growth tool for sites bringing in significant traffic and new users. In addition to these platforms, you can also establish content syndication relationships with other publishers. SHE Media Collective partners have access to exclusive commerce syndication opportunities as well as access to form syndication relationships with other Collective members.
SEO
Understanding the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is crucial to run a successful publishing site and blog. SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s content and technical configurations to make it more findable on search engines. The best SEO strategy ensures that your site follows the best practices for search engines while also maintaining its uniqueness and flare. Most SEO efforts are for optimizing on Google because Google has the higher market share of all search engines in the world controlling about 83.49 percent of the global desktop search market. Ranking well on Google guarantees your site has steady and growing traffic. When starting out with SEO, your content has to be relevant to search queries so that it can populate premium poisons on the pages of Google and redirect visitors to your site.
At the SHE Media Collective, we host monthly webinars and produce educational content and resources to provide SEO support and training to our publishers. Google’s SEO Starter Guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough on fulfilling the SEO basics for your site. If your site is on WordPress you can also employ SEO tools that act as an SEO assistant to walk you through the steps as you publish your content and help optimize your site. We recommend the AIO SEO Plugin, Yoast SEO Plugin, and many more.
Read About SEO: Google Search Essentials | Core Web Vitals | Search Central SEO Fundamentals | Webinar: How to Use the Right Keywords | Webinar: How to Use Organic SEO to Grow Traffic and Increase Earnings
Growth and Monetization
Ad Monetization with Display and Video Ads
For a new and growing website with great content, monetization is the next step. This is where the SHE Media Collective comes in. By joining an ad monetization network like SHE Media, you can earn income from display and video ads placed on your site. The more your site grows, the more you earn. Read about the SHE Media Collective | Member Guide
Affiliate E-commerce
Another way to monetize a website or blog is by placing affiliate links on the website. Affiliates give you the chance to earn a commission on any purchase made on your site. See an extensive list of affiliate programs and affiliate best practices. A common affiliate program is Skimlinks which automates the linking process and gives publishers access to several programs. Members of the SHE Media Collective also get access to several exclusive affiliate deals with brands like Target, Walmart, and Amazon. These programs bring in higher than market rate commission rates for SHE Media Collective members. We also have Collective Commerce — an affiliate marketing program where you can place editorial articles from our flagship brands Stylecaster and Sheknows and earn commission on any purchase made. It’s also a way to get great content on your site.
Media Kit
If you already have a significant presence on social media, chances are you already have a media kit. If you don’t already have one, creating one for your site is a crucial step in the marketing and publication of your blog. As you grow you will start to add your growth statistics to the blog. However, for starters make a media kit that is branded and professional stating your mission statement, audience demographics, press mentions, and other notable interesting facts about you and your blog. Send it to brands, media organizations, and other websites. By sharing your media kit you spread the word about your site and you just might get a feature or a brand deal. It’s not too early to start.
Concluding Thoughts
Starting a blog takes dedication and consistency. You have to be patient and consistent to see your efforts start to bring results and growth. For individual bloggers, a key advice is to focus on a few solid strategies and be consistent in producing quality content and marketing that content. Start building a newsletter list from day one because that is how you cultivate an audience.
More resources:
A comprehensive take on How to Find a Blog Niche
SHE Media Collective Member Lady Boss Blogger has several courses on how to become a paid content creator
SHE Media Collective Member The Blog Societies is a resource for bloggers just starting out