How to Create a Blog for Free Guide – Blogs are like that hoody shirt in your closet that never goes out of style. It remains a very attractive means of expression for many people to seek to achieve personal or professional success. Creating a blog and getting the public to read it is a tremendously attractive challenge.
Although there are many reasons to start a blog, it could summarize almost all the motivations in need to communicate and share your way of seeing things.
Of course, you want more people to make your blog better, but the number of readers may not be a relevant metric, as you will see in the following examples.
In fact, defining the success of blogging will depend entirely on the goals you have set for yourself and the effort you want to put into it. Sometimes having the right people read to you is more than enough.
What is a Blog?
Let’s start with the beginning. A blog is a type of website dedicated to the periodic publication of content in text format. These contents are usually ordered in reverse chronological order (greater visibility for the most recent ones), and, usually, they have a personal nuance of experience or opinion that their author prints.
The term blog comes from shortening the Anglo-Saxon word “web-log,” where “log” means journal. The word was coined in 1997 and is attributed to the American writer Jorn Barger, one of the first bloggers.
It is not essential to consider it as such, but blog articles usually have comments, which allows the reader to respond by providing another point of view or completing the information. Blogs were considered, for this reason, as the first 2.0 sites.
In these more than 20 years, millions of blogs have emerged throughout the network thanks to the appearance of free platforms that you will see later. And, although we could say that there are almost many types of blogs as bloggers, these are the most common.
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Blog Types
Personal Blog
It was the origin of everything. It is a blog closely linked to the author’s personal brand, and, usually, it has a strong component of his opinion or particular vision.
You can find them on different topics: personal diaries, tutorials, analysis, criticism, humor, news, cooking, sports, travel… everything you can think of has a place.
Corporate Blog
You are reading a corporate blog right now. You can collect content very similar to that of personal blogs, but the approach is no longer personal to assume the identity of the brand it represents.
Often, the corporate blog has multiple authors and a higher posting frequency. The difference from a medium, such as a magazine or online newspaper, can seem a bit fuzzy. Usually, it consists of not being limited to informing, but it includes a dose of analysis and opinion. An excellent example of this could be the humor blog-magazine Cracked.com.
Today, corporate blogging is an essential piece of many brand’s inbound marketing and content marketing strategies.
Ego Blog
Until the arrival of Instagram, an ego blog is a blog focused on the world of fashion where the account holder is the author himself.
Although they are tremendously popular nowadays, some of the most recognized influencers, such as Jannat Zubair Rahmani or Avneet Kaur, emerged from them.
Micro Blog
It is a short content publishing service, usually focused on text, enhancing the publishing formula for mobile phones.
Although the most common example is Twitter, platforms such as the free blog network Tumblr have also promoted these websites.
Vlog
The vlog or video blog became very fashionable with the reaching in every hand of 4G, digital cameras, and, of course, YouTube.
It consists of a site where videos are regularly published where the author shares content equivalent to what you might find in text format: opinion, analysis, tutorials, etc.
Some vloggers have achieved such fame that they even made the leap into television and films. Among the most current, we could include Harsh Beniwal in the student of the year 2 movie.
Photo Blog
Like the previous one, the photoblog is defined by the content format: in this case, the photographs.
In many cases, it reflects a challenge from the author, such as posting a daily photo for an entire year. In other cases, it is a platform to publish your photo reports.
Why do I Want a Blog?
Good question. What can a blog bring you today? Well, you should know that the benefits of blogging are many. Depending on your business or personal goals, it will be anything from a valuable resource to a key tool.
One more particular reason, this is an enjoyable activity if you enjoy writing. Like any creative activity, simply sharing your work with other people can already be very enriching.
Plus, it’s a fabulous way to grow your communication skills. You will expand your vocabulary, you will learn a lot, and you will be able to exchange points of view with your readers, thanks to the comments of the articles.
If you keep fair patience, your blog can become a benchmark in the sector you are dealing with, with all the advantages of bringing to your public image.
The blog is also very relevant from the point of view of the personal or corporate brand. It can help you:
- improve your brand’s SEO;
- place your brand as a leader in its sector;
- endow it with personality, relevance, and credibility;
- disseminate updated content about your products, services, or skills;
- attract recurring traffic from search engines to your site;
- generate content of interest to publish on social networks;
- receive feedback from customers and users;
- attract collaborators;
- earn money with advertising, sponsored posts, or writing for others.
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What do I Need to Create a Blog
Have you already decided on a type of blog for your project? Well, then let’s see what you need to create a blog step by step.
There are two types of aspects that you must define: editorial and technical.
Choose a Topic For Your Blog
Within the first set of aspects, you must choose the topic you are going to write about.
Keep in mind that you have to be rich enough to come up with ideas to write about for years. But it should also be concrete sufficient to become a specialist on the subject, and your opinion should be relevant.
It can be a topic that you master, but it can also be a topic you would like to delve into. In this way, the blog will be a way to accompany you in your study. In fact, many bloggers start out by using the blog as a mere notebook.
Do not pick a topic because it is hot or because someone told you that countless readers are interested in it. If you choose a topic that you are not interested in, it will be very difficult to write even a few months, and you will leave.
An excellent way to tell if your chosen topic will suit you is to create as long a list as possible hypothetical future articles. How many weeks will you have an idea to post about?
Choose a Title For Your Blog
It can be something as simple and clear as your own name or brand, but you can also use something more unique to attract attention.
You could also think about SEO factors when writing the title, your brand, or your area of knowledge.
You will have to look for a free domain, although I already anticipate that it will not be easy at this point. This point is crucial, so spend as much time as necessary until you find a domain that fully satisfies you.
Set a Tone For Your Blog
Your blog’s tone or communication style is a decision that depends both on your personality and the level of trust you want to establish with your reader.
If you want to position yourself in the professional environment as an expert, you may need to use a more serious tone than that of a kitchen blogger, for example.
In any case, think that the tone of your blog should represent you, be direct, honest, and comfortable enough so that you can communicate fluently.
Defining it a priori will help you to be more logical in your articles and to maintain a common style in the content.
I warn you that almost all bloggers start with an excessively serious tone and a bit cold due to lack of confidence, but very soon, you will find a much more particular style that gives your articles more personality.
Choose a Platform For Your Blog
Regarding the technical aspects, the possibilities of publishing a blog are of two types: external platform vs. own.
As for third-party platforms, you have two classics that have been with us for many years: WordPress.com and Blogger. However, others are gaining a lot of weight in recent times, such as Medium.
Blogger
The dean of blogging, the Google platform, is not exactly the most up-to-date, but it offers you all the basics you may need for free and very few complications. In addition, there is a lot of tutorial with tips on the net on how to use it.
You will avoid investing time in system administration, updates, and configurations. In just a few minutes, you will be writing and publishing content. As if this were not enough, it is totally free.
Disadvantages? Evolution is very limited. As soon as you need some functionality that leaves the established blog, you will find yourself at a dead end.
The possibilities at the web design level are also relatively poor, so it is not a recommended solution if you want to have some control over your visual identity.
WordPress.org
This section is for the person who continous searches ‘how to create a free blog on wordpress’.
The other great free alternative is WordPress.org. It saves a lot of time, and you will have a fast and powerful website with much more growth potential than Blogger.
On the negative side, its interface is somewhat more complex, and some advanced options are only available for paid accounts.
Over time, you will discover that an advanced service on WordPress.com costs almost the same as maintaining your own self-hosted website if your needs become more complicated.
Medium.com
Medium is a mix between a blogging platform and a social network. Created by the founders of Twitter, it is based on a super minimalist publishing tool. Its goal is 100% focused on your writing and your readers, without further distractions.
This means that you will be able to publish your blog in just a few minutes and that your site will hardly be visually distinguished from others hosted on the same platform.
In addition to its simplicity, it has two advantages that you should assess. It has a monitoring and notification system that works to increase the number of readings and has a content monetization program. You can start making money from your articles if people are interested in reading them.
On the other hand, it has the same problem as the rest of the commented third-party platforms: your content must conform to their standards and is stored on other people’s sites, not yours. If they block your access to your account, you will have lost content, followers, and channel.
In this sense, they differ little from networks such as Facebook or Linkedin, which also can publish content in blog format.
There are their own platforms to avoid this problem, where the undisputed king is WordPress.com (not to be confused with the WordPress.org service).
WordPress.com
With WordPress.com, you will have absolute control over the aesthetics and characteristics of your blog. It is a tool that was born to publish blogs. Although it has evolved a lot, and today it is a much more complete content manager, it still has a blogger soul.
The objective of this tool is to make content accessible to everyone. It has thousands of collaborators around the world who help in its development. Today, 40% of the websites are powered by this technology.
The internet is full of guides, tutorials, and tips to exploit your site with WordPress. If you opt for this tool, you will need to register a domain, hire a hosting, and install and configure WordPress.
WordPress.com is a limitless tool. Whatever you want to do, whether it ends up evolving into a corporate site, e-commerce, a forum, or even a social network, WordPress will continue to give you a good service, and it will hardly be too small for you.
In addition, you can implement all kinds of content monetization systems if you feel like it: subscription, banners, donations, articles from sponsors, etc.
It is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to learn new things, although that may not have been your goal when you started writing, and you don’t want to pay anyone to do it, of course.
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Keys to Achieve Success With Your Blog
You can spend years writing on your blog, and your activity goes unnoticed without having a good strategy, among the infinity of content published daily on the internet.
There is nothing wrong with your efforts unless you have a practical goal to accomplish. In fact, the concept of success does not have to be exclusively related to a large monthly readership.
For some, it has helped them fulfill their dream of writing a book. Others allow them to regularly get clients for their consulting service. A few live off affiliate or advertising revenue from their site traffic. And it has allowed all of them to create a powerful and recognized personal brand.
But if you look at what their blogs have in common, you can draw some interesting conclusions.
Consistency
Consistency and patience are the fundamental keys. Success rarely comes overnight. The vast majority of blogs have been publishing for many years and with very high publishing routines.
Some titans post every day, others once a week, and very few succeed with one post a month unless the content is absolutely brilliant. There are no shortcuts. Write, write and write.
Specialize
Try to focus on a specific topic. Sure there are many things you want to write about but, if you’re going to have a loyal audience (and that is essential), they have to know that everything you write will interest them.
Think About Your Target Audience
Determine the type of person you want to read to you and try to solve their needs or pain points with your content.
This is particularly essential when you use the blog to attract visitors to your site to offer them something, such as your professional services or products. How could you help the people who would buy them from you?
Take Care of Your Writing Technique
Your technique will improve as you practice. In just a few months, you will acquire your own style, but it is advisable to study a little to improve the way you write on your blog.
That will make you more efficient, you will write faster, and the impact will be more significant. Lean on copywriting and SEO to write your content.
In this sense, do Google searches on the topics you will cover to see which articles are better positioned and how you could improve them. This will help you create more compelling titles, more profound content, and more relevant keywords.
Don’t Neglect the Images
Although the visual content is not the most important thing on your blog, but do not forget the graphic section. In particular, the featured image is displayed as a thumbnail when sharing an article on social networks.
Within the article, the images will help you make the content breathe and not be excessively heavy.
Encourage Subscription
Although a reader loves what you have written, it is difficult for them to remember you. We receive too much information every day and only what deeply impacts us seeps into our memory.
Therefore, you must rely on systems such as subscription methods to your blog to make it easy for that user to reread you.
You can use the subscription system offered by each platform (at least it will be RSS), use tools such as Feedly, or use systems that allow you more control, such as Mailchimp.
Conclusion
So I hope this guide will help you a lot regarding your queries such as “how to create a blog for free” and “how to create a free blog on wordpress”.
Publishing a blog is very simple nowadays. Getting people to read it is a bit more complicated and requires some effort. Achieving success with your blog is a task only available to the most committed bloggers.
The content in text format continues to be the one with the most presence and importance in search engines (even if it is very pressured by video) and on which you can find the greatest competitiveness.
Therefore, being within everyone’s reach to start with a blog will require you to give yourself everything to achieve your goals. In return, you will receive the recognition of many people, the continuous improvement of your skills, and the enormous satisfaction of helping your readers.
If you are also want to make money online, blogging can become an exciting professional activity.
Best of all, the financial investment is minimal, zero in some of the platforms you have seen, and you can experience everything you want.
In the worst case, you will have wasted a bit of time. And I assure you that, even so, you will have learned a lot.
So I can only invite you to try, write, experiment, learn and enjoy the exciting world of blogging. ¡Long life to blogs!
