Want to start your own blog to make money? Starting from scratch can feel overwhelming but it really boils down to having a good strategy with maybe a few sneaky SEO tactics to get your blog off to a running start!
1. Choose a Topic, Any Topic
Stick to what you know. When deciding on what to blog about, make sure it’s something you are knowledgeable about. Will you be able to find resources for fresh content and posts? For example, I would never blog about fishing because I don’t the first thing about it other than that I like mine with tarter sauce!
Narrow it down to a Niche. The broader your topic, the broader your competition will be. Ideally you will want to hone in on a niche so that you have a better chance beating out the existing competition in search engine results and being the big fish in a small pond. The way to determine whether your topic is something that people are interested in and to size up your competition is to plug in your target keyword into Google. If there are over 1,000,000 results, you may want to rethink your keyword because that would be a pretty saturated market. How about “Golf Putting Tips” instead of just “Golf Tips“? Big difference.
2. Domains and Hosting
Keep it simple. If you want your blog to have longevity, spend some time on this step because the catchier the name, the better. If you can work a keyword into your domain, great, but it’s not going to make or break you with SEO. I read a blog called “Mashable” and it has nothing to do with mash potatoes but the name is easy to remember 
Whatever you do, don’t buy some crappy looking domain like www.golfputtingtips4u.com because it looks spammy. Once you do decide on your primary domain, then you can buy some junk domains (.info, etc.) that are keyword heavy to link to your blog. This reinforces your content and relevancy to searches with Google and other search engines. I’ll come back to the importance of quality back links later.
Pick the host with the mostest. That doesn’t mean you have to spend a small fortune…just make sure your basic needs are met by a dependable company. I spend a whopping $7/month for 6 domains that have traffic ranging from 20-300 visitors a day and upgrading is easy if I ever need more bandwidth or disk space. Choosing a web host can be a bit dizzying but it’s worth taking the time to really make an informed decision. If you aren’t sure of who to go with, don’t hesitate to ask around on forums like Digital Point and get a feel for the company through other people’s experiences with them.
Stay tuned for:
3. Building Your Blog - Design and Platforms
4. Your Blog Rocks. Content Rules.
