This post is originally posted at kimarodriguez.com

Starting a blog is not an easy decision. You have to consider a lot of things on how can you manage and maintain your blog. Also, there are so many different platforms that offer a good start to host a blog.

Blogging is a great way to share experiences, thoughts, ideas, and stories with others and be creative on how you wanted it to look in a place that you own.

In my case, starting a blog is one of the best decisions I ever made. It’s not easy to choose where to host your blog, what domain name you will use, what template or themes to use because it is connected with your topics, or what kind of blog or website you planning to build.

Today, I’m going to teach you how to start your blog so you can start writing and discovering a new hobby that can help you grow, learn new things, and meet new people around the world. So these are the basic things you might consider to start a blog.

• Niche

• Domain

• Hosting

• Platform

• Design

Niche

Blogging won’t cross your mind if you don’t have something to share or planning to grow. We all start small and grow until we reached our goals without noticing because we’re enjoying it.

Once you think and choose your niche, it is easy as 123 to start a blog. As for me, I started recently with my lifestyle blog. I don’t have plans yet in my mind to enter the bigger world of blogging because I believe I will going to cross that path someday yet if opportunity knocks, I will surely grab it.

What I do now is to focus, maintain, learn, and enjoy blogging. These are just a few things to consider when blogging. You must have that urge to do it, focus on your niche, maintain the habit, and as the process goes by you will not only grow your blog but you will grow as a person too.

Once you learned those things, blogging would be easy for you because you are now committed to what you do.

And that’s what of the main secret I’ve learned from successful bloggers.

We all start small and it’s in our hands how to make it grow bigger

Do you want to be successful in blogging? Then start now and work for it!

Domain

Choosing a good domain is a little bit critical for me. It depends on the availability and the price range of the domain you planning and what kind of blog/website want.

For personal blogs, the blogger’s name is commonly used as a blog/website name. Here are some examples:

• Binca King (biancaking.com) – a blog about lifestyle, foods, and travel
• Aura Azarcon (auraazarcon.com) – a blog about lifestyle, tutorials, and medical journey
• Saab Magalona-Bacarro (spellsaab.com) – a blog about lifestyle, travel, and music

So these are my top three favorite bloggers that inspire me to do more, grow more, and be more. And as you can see, they all use their names on their blog/site.

For businesses blogs/websites, the business name is commonly used. Here are some examples:

• Kim Store owned by Kim Lato (kimstore.com) – an online gadget store
• Linya-Linya (linyalinya.ph) – an online visual creative designed basic shirt and other products. (I like their shirts with hugot lines too)
• RYR Chocolates (ryrchocolates.com) – an online chocolate grocery store

So these are some of my favorite business websites to check for their new promos, discounts, and sales. As you can see their domain/website names depend on their niche and business.

Hosting

I have a self-hosting blog now and I am very happy with my decision. Hosting a blog/website is one of my so-called achievements unlocked! Since I started from free platforms before, getting a self-hosting blog is a growth that I consider. Meaning, I am finally engaging myself in blogging.

The only things to consider choosing a hosting partner for your blog/website are budget and services.

Is it worth the hype? Is it reliable to start your investments? Because starting a blog is a form of investment that your future self will thank you for doing that. So you must decide carefully where would you invest your blog/website. There are so many companies out there that offer cheaper but better services.

I’m currently hosting at Dreamhost and I will make a separate blog post about my thoughts and experiences with this hosting company.

There are different options that hosting companies offer. For personal blogs, small business or a beginner they have the “Shared (Starter) Plans and if you have a bigger business blog/site that contains thousands of visitors/traffic and in need of more powerful services then you can ask your hosting company to offer the best plan for your needs.

Platform

There are a lot of platforms to choose from and this part is the most difficult decision I made on starting a blog. I had a hard time deciding what platform shall I use because I have to consider few things and think about it.

• What kind of blog – since it’s a lifestyle blog, I don’t need so many features on building a website
• Budget – well if you plan to start a blog that you want to earn money from it, you have to invest in it but if you’re out of budget and a beginner wants to blog as a pastime or hobby then there are free platforms available for you.
• Commitment – well blogging is like a “relationship” that you must update and love. If you love what you’re doing, what happens? It grows right?
• Why do you want to start blogging? – in my case, I want to have my own space where I will share my experiences and journey in life that I can look up to in the future.

Once you finally think about your reason(s) for starting a blog, then choosing a platform becomes easier.

I want a “lifetime” blog so I decided to choose the “self-hosting” platform that offers the things that can help me and my blog. Currently, I am using WordPress.org hosting by Dreamhost. I will make a separate blog post about these two.

Free platforms are good for beginners, especially for short-term blogs, like academic portfolios or school projects. It is also a good start if you just want to share your thoughts and ideas without minding traffic, growth, and ownership. On free platforms, you don’t own your blog/website. It can be lost anytime, you have no assurance. As long as you’re ok with it and it’s not an issue, then there’s no problem using free platforms.

I also started using free platforms before and for my recommendation, I highly recommend “Blogger” to start a new blog.

Design

The design is all about you, your taste, and your niche. If you plan to put up a blog/site about foods, then the ambiance of your design and theme must compliment your photos and content.

WordPress offers thousands of free and premium themes that you can use to set up your blog/site.

Some free platforms offer free and premium themes/templates as well, such as Blogger. I used premium templates before and it is cheaper yet looks modern and responsive.

In my case, I just want a minimalist blog design. Fewer colors for a pure and clean look. I prefer premium themes over free themes for the responsiveness, updates, and technical support. If ever I broke some codes, at least I can contact the theme creator to help me solve my problem.

I am not a professional blogger and these are based on my experiences. I hope this blog post helped you decide and start a blog. Good luck! ❤️