Finally, you want to step your foot into blogging. Awesome. Welcome you to the world of blogging. You can start a blog for free.
Who doesn’t want freedom? The definition of freedom may be different for different people. Someone wants financial freedom someone wants to express their thoughts to the words and called it as his freedom or some other type. You name it all.
Can you accept me if I say that you will find all these things in blogging? I know this is a big commitment, but the truth is it’s absolutely right. Someone may raise conflict on this, but I will standstill.
No one is a born blogger. Every big name in this industry was like you once. They also once search like you for how to start a blog. Or may have learned to blog from other sources.
So, you can start your blogging journey right now. Do you know you can start your blogging journey for free and in the next 5 minutes?
Yes.
Now you may have the doubt that how to start a blog for free? Don’t worry I will discuss this in detail.
However, as a beginner, you may not want to start blogging with some initial investment. Or you may not have sufficient funds to create a blog. This is completely reasonable. Don’t worry you are not alone.
Before going on the journey just wait some time. I have to clear some points.
As I told earlier, I will discuss it in detail means “in details”.
I don’t know you have searched for this somewhere or not. Or how many ideas you have in this. If you have the knowledge, it’s ok. You can skip some beginning steps. If you have not don’t worry, I am going to start it with the starch.
Are you ready? Let’s begin our journey.
Page Contents
Things to know before you start a blog
I know that some people have a basic idea about the blog. So I am discussing for those who are complete beginners. If you want you can grab some more ideas too.
Although you have decided to start a blog then what? The world is full of exciting works. There is a world exists outside the blogging world.
Why you take such types of decisions. Wait, wait, I am not confusing or demotivating you. A lot of excitement is still to come. Keep your patient.
So, let me clear one thing if you are really passionate about it, then nothing is better than this. I personally respect your decision about starting a blog. If not then you may choose different things in the world.
Are you too busy to know how to create a new blog for free? Just wait. I am going to discuss some of the resigns why should you start blogging. Read these resigns.
If your purpose is present among the list, then go ahead. The world is yours.
Why should you start blogging
Blogging gives you a platform for your voice to be heard
This may be the most important purpose of blogging. Do you think that you are unique and want to teach people or want to express your thoughts in front of people? Then nothing is cool as blogging.
A blog will give you the platform where you can stand straight and express your language. There is no burden or huddles. Your voice will reach thousands of peoples.
You may not have some expert knowledge on any topic, but you have a unique voice. Who knows people are just waiting for a voice like you.
Blogging helps you build trust by proving the value
With blogging, you will have the trust of thousands of people. People will sign-up for your newsletters etc. they just want to hear from you. What an awesome world for you at that time.
The resign is not that you are a blogger. You are providing value to them. You are helping others.
Blogging can give you financial freedom
Let me be 100% honest here. Most people start blogging to make it money-making the machine. Just do some blogging and make hundreds of dollars.
If you have the same kind of thoughts, then the next line will break your heart into pieces. According to a survey done by Blogging.org, 81% of bloggers have never made $100 from their blogging efforts.
Is this hurt you? Now you may find your answer. You may think why they are not making money on this. According to my opinions, they are not as passionate or serious about it.
If you are entering this world just to make some decent income then you have to try something different from blogging. Similarly, if you have the passion or dedication then no one will stop you from making handy money.
Blogging is fun
If you are serious about it then blogging is fun. If this were just another job, people don’t too serious about it. Bloggers enjoy their works. When you start enjoying your work, just remember my words “Blogger enjoy their works”.
Oh, how interesting blogging is?
There are several other regions that may push someone to blog. But as per my experience, these are some of the selected regions of blogging. What is your region of blogging? Leave a comment below. I always respect your voice.
Now you have some basic idea about blogging. Now you have a clear vision of what is blogging. If your vision is clear, then why you are waiting for it. Just start your blog today.
So, as a beginner, you want to start a new one. The region for starting a blog for free may be different in different people, but the vision should be one. To start a blog.
But how to do this?
Well, there are many ways. I am going to discuss some trusted platforms that can you can use.
How to start a blog for free
As you decided to start your blog for free I appreciate it.
There is a number of ways you can create a blog for free. Many beginners like you put their hands on different platforms.
The option to start a blog is a lot. But there are some recommended ways.
If you are looking for a simple free blog, my personal suggestion would be to start blogging with WordPress.com or Blogger.com.
These are the two best blogging platforms you can start your journey. A lot of bloggers have started their journey with these platforms and now became a successful blogger.
You will not a successful blogger overnight. There is a number of things to learn in it.
As these platforms are free, these have some limitations. I will discuss it in detail in a few moments.
Once you have some handful of blogging experience, you can go with a self-hosted WordPress blog.
First, let me discuss Blogger.com. Then I will discuss WordPress.com.
How to create a blog on Google Blogger
Before I start talking about how to create a blog on blogger for free, let me clear some points.
Blogger (Blogger.com) is a blogging platform powered by Google. It gives you a platform to start a blog without any cost. But all your images will be hosted by Picasa (also part of Google). You can create your free blog in the next 5 minutes.
Step by step guide process
To create your free blog on Google Blogger, just visit Blogger.com.
The interface will look like this.
Then click on the CREATE YOUR BLOG button.
It will redirect you to the Google accounts login page. If you have a Gmail account then just log in (Probably have). If not then create one for free. With one Google account, you can create 100 blogs.
After login to your Google account, It will prompt you a screen like this. This means you are inside Google blogger.
The first thing you need to do is add a title and select your domain. Be creative and pick your domain name.
You may face some error message when adding your domain name.
Don’t be harass. Most of the name was already taken. This does not mean you are so late. This means a creative name just waiting to name.
Avoid using your personal name as the domain name (Someone chooses his name as a domain name and makes it as a brand. But rarely).
Choose a good title and domain name and then select a template. There are hundreds of templates, you can change it any time you want. Then click on the Create blog button.
Note that I have just picked a name for example. You name your blog according to your passion or creativity.
Then Blogger will prompt a screen like this.
This means you can search a domain matching to this domain. Nowadays Google also started selling domains. If you are not interested in the blogspot.com domain extensions then you may go for a custom domain.
If you want to buy a domain name from Google and then just press Search.
As we are discussing the free methods, So we can skip the step. You can buy a custom domain later and can connect it later.
So you have just press close button.
Now you are inside of your blog (In this case – Blogging Journey Started).
Congratulations!
Your blog was successfully created.
Are you excited to see your blog how it looks like? Then why are you waiting for?
Just click on the View blog option on the left side top of the page.
Your blog will open in a new tab.
In my case, the first looks like this. In your case, this may vary according to your template.
This seems quite simple and nothing showing here right? Yes, you are right, there is no post or pages.
You have to add posts, pages widgets as per your requirement.
For that, you have to go to the backend of your blog. Just visit where you were before and start editing.
Now you need to edit the templet and look of your blog. Just head over to set. You will find every option.
As a beginner just plays with the blog. Nothing wrong with this because the more you try the more you learn.
This may not be possible to explain all the functionality of a Google Blogger in this article. So this is the basic.
You have just created your blog. Try hundreds of different options on this. When you start tiring you will face some problem.
Just Google your problems. You will find your answer and try to fix your problem. In this way, you will learn more and more.
When you have enough posts on your blog then you may think about earning. Google blogger also includes an option named Earnings.
You can put ads on your blog and earn money from this.
As you see this is currently showing “Your blog doesn’t currently qualify for AdSense.” You may understand this.
It also shows you the guidelines on how to qualify for AdSense? AdSense is a free, simple way to earn money by placing ads on your website. It also owned by Google.
So these are the steps you can follow. In this section, I have discussed how to create a blog on blogger for free.
Limitations of Google Blogger
Like everything in the world, the Google Blogger platform also has some disadvantages.
- The domain name contains a blogspot.com extension.
- Blogger owns your whole blog. You have no control over
- A lesser number of plugins/widgets and customization options.
- Limited template available for your blog
However, this just the first phase of our discussion. This means we have created a free blog using Google Blogger.
Awesome.
Let’s move to the second phase of our discussion. I.e. how to start a blog on WordPress for free?
So let’s discuss it step by step.
How to start a blog on WordPress
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS). You may have the doubt that what is a content management system (CMS)?
Well, A content management system (CMS) manages the creation and modification of digital content. This means CMS provides a complete environment where you can manage your blog. It is the most famous CMS that powers 31% of the internet.
It seems a little bit technical, right? Yes, it is.
But here is the twist.
Do you know that there are two different platforms in the same name? One is WordPress.com and another one is WordPress.org.
Many beginners confuse the two which leads them to choose the wrong platform.
So what is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?
There is a lot of difference between the two. Here you can find the complete list of differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a hosting service created by the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg.
It offers some plans like this.
You can choose the first plan and start your blog for free.
WordPress.org
You can term the WordPress.org as the “the real WordPress”. It is open-source and 100% free for anyone to use. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. Just install WordPress CMS in your domain and go. This is why it is also termed as self-hosted WordPress.
So we have to continue our journey with WordPress.com
Step by step process
To create a free blog just go to WordPress.com and click on Log In.
If you don’t have an account then just create one. It’s free.
On the next screen, you will see a page like this. Here you have to fill the details like the name of your blog, what is your site about, etc.
Fill all the details and press Continue.
The next screen will ask you to enter your blog’s name or keyword. In this case, I am going with the same name I used in Google Blogger. I.e “Blogging Journey Started”.
You can pick any name as you wish. This will be your URL with the wordpress.com subdomain extension. Why? Because we are in a free plan.
If you want you can buy a custom domain and place it. You can do this step later.
It will show you various options with domain extensions. This shows your exact match domain with various extension options.
You can buy a domain name from here and use it or do it later. Now we will go with the free domain provided by WordPress.com i.e bloggingjourneystarted.wordpress.com.
As indicated the image picks the Free one and press Select.
The next screen shows you like this. Here you have to choose a plan. Because I mentioned earlier that WordPress.com is a hosting service provider in which you can go with the free plan.
Click on Start with Free as indicated on the image.
If you completed the whole process right then you will show a message like this.
Just press Continue.
Congratulation! Your blog was successfully created.
You will see a page like this.
Now you are inside the backend of your blog.
The first page suggests you complete some of the steps. Complete the steps.
This complete interface is called the Admin panel. With this admin panel, you can do customizations of your blog.
With this admin panel, you can add new pages, posts and much more.
As I said in the Google Blogger section. This is just the beginning of your journey.
I have given you the step by step guide for starting a new blog without any cost. It is for absolute beginners.
Limitation of WordPress.com
There also some limitations on WordPress.com free plan.
- The domain name contains wordpress.com extension
- Earning Limitations
- You can’t upload themes and plugins
- Change of account suspension (It is very strict to their terms of service)
These are the steps you can follow to create a free blog with Google Blogger or WordPress.com. I think you are now very clear about it.
Which one should I choose as a beginner?
This may be the most asked question in the blogging industry.
A lot of new bloggers like you find himself in this double-cross.
To say frankly there is no golden answer to this question. Blogging is based on which platform you choose or not.
A lot of bloggers have started their journey on both of the platforms.
But as per my experience, I have seen a lot of famous bloggers have started their journey with Google Blogger.
As we are on a journey to create a blog for free, we are only talking about free options.
Don’t waste your time finding the right platform to start blogging. Take one platform and just start with it.
Google Blogger is a famous blogging platform you can start your journey. It is a bigger friendly platform and ready to go.
You can start your blog in the next 5 minutes and starts publishing posts on Google Blogger.
If you are very serious about blogging and want to put your soul in it, then I recommend going with paid options. Buy a domain and hosting and start blogging.
Now you may have clear understating what to do next.
Conclusion
Oh, after a long journey, now you know how to start a blog for free. Finally, we are in the conclusion. It is a long journey is no it?
To say frankly, if you have a passion for blogging then dive into it you will find that it’s fun. I have been blogging for several years and I found that it’s fun for me.
Or sometimes the passion came after blogging for some time. A strange force attracts someone toward blogging.
I have seen that people come to this industry (blogging) and after working for 1 month or 2 months they left it completely. Why? Because they are not passionate about it.
When someone asks them should I start blogging, their immediate answer is no.
There is no straight high-way to be a success in blogging. It takes time to grow in this field. You have to spend a handy amount of time on it. The time you spend on it will never valueless.
The majority of people start blogging to earn a decent income from the beginning. Think a bit logically, If this really happens then why should people are doing other jobs. They may leave their jobs and just start a blog and earn from it. Is it right or not. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.
This may be hard for you but that’s the truth. The truth is always bitter.
So, don’t come to blogging for earning only. You will be tired too early in this journey. No one is a blogger from day one. Try to learn something each day and implement it in your blog. In these ways, you will grow as well as your blog.
The world gets noisier each day. If you have a genuine interest in this don’t waste your time just start your blog today. If you are late you may miss the last boat towards your destination.