NetHosted Blog

Blogging is a big part of many internet users day to day lives now. People use blogs for many different reasons, from just an outlet for your thoughts and ideas to a business platform. However, it is difficult to make money off a blog if this is your only aim, so we’re going to just run you through a few tips to get your blog up and running and hopefully get some interested visitors to it.

1. Pick a topic

As basic as this might sound, you need to think this over carefully as it’s the most important part of your blog. A passing interesting in a particular field probably means your blog will die a quick death. Pick something that interests you, if you’re an expert on something this would be a great topic to write about, but equally interesting can be if you’re taking up something new and writing about your experiences learning it as many people will be in the same situation. Of course, you could talk about your life, but if you’re looking for an interested audience, you need to pick a niche which you can write on that you won’t get bored with in a few days.

2. Choose a web host

NetHosted offer suitable blog hosting packages, in most instances our Basic Plan will offer plenty of disk space and bandwidth to get you started. This costs £34.95 a year which works out just £2.92 a month, you can also purchase your domain through us which will give you everything you need to start out writing your blog. One thing that people find intimidating about starting off blogging is actually installing the blogging software, WordPress is by far the most widely used and easy to use but the installation procedure can still be difficult if you are new to setting up websites and baffled by lots of the acronyms through about such as PHP, MySQL etc. We offer Installatron which is a simple application installer, this will do all the necessary things like creating the database, downloading the files to your webspace, setting up the configuration and creating your admin account. This is all done in just a few clicks with Installatron, simplifying the install process greatly, and in future it lets you upgrade your site to the latest version of WordPress with just one click!

3. Choose a template

It may not be possible to compete with the best looking websites out there today when you’re just starting out, but you can come pretty close with some mind blowing free templates out there for various blogging platforms (the most popular being WordPress). The one thing that always puts people off of a site no matter how good the content is if it is poorly designed. Hard to read text, unappealing colours and inappropriately sized images can be a headache for any reader, so make sure you have a good looking template to match your high quality content.

4. Start writing

Once you have all the above set up it’s time for the most important part – start writing! As for subjects to write about you should try and write about things that you have some expertise in, perhaps you solved a common problem a lot of people may be having, if so that’s a great topic to write about. Keep up a regular flow of content, if you start getting regular readers they will be checking back on your blog so you need to keep them engaged. There’s no need for multiple posts a day, in fact it’s too much as many will get missed, but a few times a week is enough. You can also spread the word about your blog by putting it in forum signatures and discussing it on Twitter and Facebook! Attracting an audience has as much to do with fluid and informative writing as with advertising, so keep that in mind before you start promoting your site too much, you need good content for people to read.

Blogging is a fun idea, especially if you are in it just for the interest you hold in the niche. If you work hard, you might just start attracting enough audience to earn something from your writing but until then simply write passionately and let your creative juices flow.