"Starting a blog is kind of like buying a house: you decide what neighborhood you want to live in, pick a house, and fill it with your stuff. For a blogger, that means deciding on a blogging platform, picking a theme, and publishing posts. "

I assume if you're here, then you must own a blog, or intend to own one (or just want to see what this person has to say).
I've been an active (hopefully) member on the blogosphere for a little less than a year now, experimented with a couple of things and learned lots more. Today I'll try to explain some of the most basic rules beginners/prospective/dissatisfied bloggers could use to get their sites running.

Like the quote above, starting a blog is a lot like owning a house. You need to pay attention to your needs and that of your visitors too.
I'll be keeping each point raised as simple as possible (each one could fit into an individual topic), so if you need further explanation don't hesitate to let me know.

Note: Everything here is based on personal experience/experiments with my own blog Click here

So let's get started:

1. Know why you are here:
People blog for different reasons. It could be for financial purposes, community building, rendering your quota of help to a dying race, advertising your company etc.
So the first thing you need to ask yourself is, "why do I need a blog?"
Do I want to pursue excellence, create something for myself, become more visible on the web, or just because Jack owns a blog too?
If you don't know why you're here, then we don't know either.

2. Choose a suitable platform
Once you've successfully figured out the 'why', the next step is to find an appropriate location to help you actualize your goal. There are so many platforms that allow you create a blog for free. Most common in this part of the world are Blogger/ and Wordpress. If you want a more professional feel and full control over your site, then you can find a suitable web host who charge meager fees annually.
Make sure you study the proposed environment before pitching your tent. Some common questions you might like to ask yourself are: How interactive is this platform? Is it easily assessable? How much control do I have? Is it reasonably safe from hackers? Do I feel at home here?
Once you've gotten the nitty-gritty down, you can pitch your tent and choose a unique address for yourself.

3. Content is everything
Or so the saying goes. Remember you're here for a reason, be it connecting or just plain gossiping to/about the human race. Pay adequate attention to the things you write and how they are presented on your site. Last I checked plagiarism was still an offence, so if you are not going give visitors original content, then have the courtesy to give credit to Mama Emeka who was kind enough to cook it up.
If and when you do decide to create something of your own, then be proud enough to display it. Proof read for typos because no one wants to be hit by roadblocks at every paragraph. I believe there's a writer in everyone, and something must work for you. Find your voice and stay true to yourself.

4. Find your voice
Have you ever heard someone speak, or the sound of their footfall and even without looking, you could tell exactly who it was?
If your answer is yes, then you can create the exact feeling on your blog. Every writer has a voice even though it might take a while to find and hone it. Most times we spend our time trying to sound like someone else--that's a lot like living another persons' life. Finding your voice is like finding yourself, a very unique you. If it helps, you can try free-writing for a couple of minutes (first draft) and do that without editing. When you read aloud to yourself, what does it sound like?
Your readers want you, so give them the authentic version of yourself. There's no point lying to score cheap points--practice honesty without full disclosure if you must.

5. Content loves design
Your theme is your colour book and the one thing that makes your content shine. One rule of thumb is to keep your design as simple as possible, using only very necessary widgets to create the best user experience (including loading time). Remember, your purpose of blogging is for people to pay attention to what you're trying to communicate, not ooh and ahh over your struggle with the rainbow.
Most themes come ready made with template options--headers, widgets, so tweak and play with everything until you find something that feels comfortable and easy on the eyes. Otherwise you could purchase Premium themes to give more options if what's available is unsuitable, or just pay someone to tell you want you need. Also ensure to choose a theme that allows for a cluster-free mobile/tablet view.
If memory serves me well, I tried our over 10 different themes within the course of 8mths all the while publishing posts before settling for what's currently in use.
If you want, you can pick one theme now, start publishing, and then revisit themes again once you have a number of posts on your blog. This will help you see just what is suitable for you keeping your content and readers in mind.
Don't hold back. Your blog will be your home for as long as you decide to keep it running. Choose a suitable design and love it.
P.S There's more to this than I actually said (eg fonts, colour palettes, images etc.) so we can further discuss it if you want.

6. Interact with the blogosphere
If your purpose of blogging is to create a diary or make money, then please jump to 7. If you are interested in community building, please read on.
There is something extremely boring about living in housing estates: Nobody wants to see their neighbors, or feel the need to see them to begin with. If that's the kind of environment you want--a blog without comments or life--then by all means be a loner.
Otherwise you can get out of your hole and find people.
It's a rich community out there, and if there's something I've learned, it's that people want to talk. Seriously. It might be difficult to find one blog in a sea of a million, but when you start getting those likes, shares, comment and appreciation mails, it's accompanied by a warm fuzzy feeling.
Chances of people locating you are really slim, but you can speed things up by visiting others sites and leaving meaningful comments. And by "meaningful" I don't mean 'nice one', 'cool', 'ok'....no. Say something that tells the author you've actually read their post, you understand exactly what they are talking about, or that you don't get what's going on but you wish things will go well for them in the future...or share your story too.
Emotions is a universal language and people connect through it (something our politicians have on lockdown)....take advantage of that and you'll see people--authors and their guests-- returning the favour by visiting your site to get more of you. Life is give and take. And so is blogging.

7. Take advantage of social media
When the stats monkeys on WordPress sent my annual report for 2014, I found that my top referring sites were Nairaland, Facebook, Twitter and of course other blogs I'd visited. This tells me there are people out there who are curious enough to click on links, like what they see and share with their community too. It's basic networking and you can get that to work for you. Just add those share buttons to your site and encourage your readers to share whatever they like. They might not be saying much but at least you know they're coming. Also remember to tell your friends about your blog and request their support. You can only be so good to attract people like bees, but you also need to make them feel needed.

8. Find support
You are not all-knowing and the epitome of supreme knowledge. Even after following these, you'll still need a second and third opinion, beta readers and explanations for all the techie stuff that'll improve your site. Best way to approach this is by seeking help from people who are more knowledgeable and don't mind extending a helping hand.
When I started my blog I got super confused at some point that I had to ask some nairalanders for help. What I got in return was priceless.
If you don't know where to turn, find someone from the webmaster section of this forum, create a thread stating your difficulties, consult search engines or contact support from your host platform. The world is filled with people who want to extend their knowledge and skills to others.

9. Be patient
We all like to believe miracles happen--and sometimes they do--but they don't always come when we want it. The best gift you can give yourself is patience. It can be a bit daunting waiting for something big to happen, but it will happen if you stay true to yourself and work a little harder. Everything comes with a price and yours will be time and dedication. If you put in effort to improve your site, content and relationship with people, I bet you'll see results.

10. Remember how small you are on the web. There will always be people who write better than you, communicate better and are way better at blog-hopping. When you see those stats displayed at the bottom of their page, or the 50-200 comments, you will wonder when and if you'll ever be as big as they are. But never forget how big you can become. Push yourself, experiment, have fun, steal ideas (duh!), buddy up and for goodness sake love your blog. If you can't love it, then neither can we.

Note: I am not a pro-blogger (or whatever those are called)....just one person among billions discovering a new community and enjoying it. You'll get more tips when I'm done tweaking and exploring (no, you can't call me a lab rat )

Questions, Comments, Additions, Subtractions.....??

Please don't quote the entire post. If you want to get my attention, just type my name. Thanks


cc Mizmycoli, Kidprogrammer, Ebukasoso

I enjoyed dis article especial d "patience preachin" so professional just lyk a cousellin section....... Pardon ma ignorance, who pays bloggers abi blog owners?

Deductions are so on point. If you go into blogging with the aim/sole aim of money making, you may not go far. I blog as a person to keep my community informed. Blogging is fun!

nice piece of information you have Uj

wow! Just what I wanted. I just started blogging January 1st to be precise and this piece will go a long way. Thanks UjSizzle

Ujsizzle Nice One U Got There. I Love Your Blog. It Is Interesting And Educative. Have learnt some stuffs here today. Waiting for more to come from you.

AgapeCharis:
wow! Just what I wanted. I just started blogging January 1st to be precise and this piece will go a long way. Thanks UjSizzle

You're welcome What's your blog addy?

Greyworld:
I enjoyed dis article especial d "patience preachin" so professional just lyk a cousellin section....... Pardon ma ignorance, who pays bloggers abi blog owners?

Thanks! So many people remember to give patience to others, but don't extend the courtesy to themselves.
Normally when a blogger registers for Adwords, they get paid by the host (google etc) for placing ads on their blogs.

MizMyColi:
Errr
It's totally okay to book space here I think.
Lawd! I am so excited!
I'll be back to read properly and comment.
You should consider making this a blog post by the way

I will lol. Each post is tailor-made for an audience. So if I decide to make one for my blog, then it'll take a different format (most likely broken down into single detailed posts and sprinkled with a story of how frustrated and weird doing the actual thing was ).
Waiting for your comments.

Cc UjSizzle , I Noticed Something, People Do Comment On Wordpress Blogs More Than On Blogger/ Blogs. Why??

ebukasoso:
Ujsizzle Nice One U Got There. I Love Your Blog. It Is Interesting And Educative. Have learnt some stuffs here today. Waiting for more to come from you.

Thank you. I hope you remain a regular visitor

ebukasoso:
Cc UjSizzle , I Noticed Something, People Do On Wordpress Blogs More Than On Blogger/ Blogs. Why??

Glad you asked this.
Unlike blogger, WordPress is more than a blogging platform. It also runs a tad like a forum....meaning there's a wider 'community' and general ease of reaching other blogs within a niche.

P.S That's just my observation though, and why I chose to start my blog on WordPress.

Blogger though has it's unique advantage. Since it's hosted by google, it's the ideal spot for bloggers who want to make money and increase the numbers since it avails you more visibility.

@Mizmycoli

Talented kwa? Lol I'm flattered. Thanks

The facebook page is a bold move. Not bad at all.

Talk about anything that interests you in the world, even politics. People want to connect, so they will

UjSizzle:
You're welcome What's your blog addy?

rhemadiet..com

Constructive criticism is welcome pls

AgapeCharis:
rhemadiet..com

Constructive criticism is welcome pls

Thanks! Cool site, nice content too (view on mobile though).
I think your tagline is pretty lengthy though. You can consider shortening that, and making I more detailed in your 'about page'.
That way your header isn't clustered and anyone can get a quick info of what your site's about at one glance

AgapeCharis:
rhemadiet..com

Constructive criticism is welcome pls

Bro, U Need A lot Of Work On Your Blog. Your Jump Break Should Come After Like 4 Or Five Lines Of Every Post. Also Place Your Image And The Centre. Modify Your Description And Make It Attractive. Then Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly. Just Take Out Time Like Two Hours To Carefully Design Your Blog And Make It Your Taste

UjSizzle:

Thanks! Cool site, nice content too (view on mobile though).
I think your tagline is pretty lengthy though. You can consider shortening that, and making I more detailed in your 'about page'.
That way your header isn't clustered and anyone can get a quick info of what your site's about at one glance

ebukasoso:

Bro, U Need A lot Of Work On Your Blog. Your Jump Break Should Come After Like 4 Or Five Lines Of Every Post. Also Place Your Image And The Centre. Modify Your Description And Make It Attractive. Then Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly. Just Take Out Time Like Two Hours To Carefully Design Your Blog And Make It Your Taste

wow! Thanks I'm grateful. Will work on it

AgapeCharis:
rhemadiet..com

Constructive criticism is welcome pls

Just Did

A+

AgapeCharis:
wow! Thanks I'm grateful. Will work on it

You should try different themes and see how that works out.

prof800:
A+

Thanks

KidProgrammer:
i trust u,nd you did it,what a gud post you have up there,really love it,nice 2 have you here.

Thank you

UjSizzle:

You should try different themes and see how that works out.

Aiite

Greyworld:
I enjoyed dis article especial d "patience preachin" so professional just lyk a cousellin section....... Pardon ma ignorance, who pays bloggers abi blog owners?

for your info,blog owners are also called bloggers,anyway you call it.as a blogger there are many ways to make money with your blog,before you can make m0ney with your blog you need to have good traffic,high visits and good search engine rankings.a well designed blog+good content+good traffic/visits=More ads clicks/more affiliate sales/more income/more revenue...here are some ways you can make money as a blogger or blog owner.{1.}Placing Ads-there are many ads networks out there that allows advertisers to advertise their products or sites and also allow blogs or websites owners to make money from their blog or website by placing ads[text/link or banner] on their website or blog and get paid when a visitor clicks on the link/banner.the number of visitors on your blog determine the rate of your ads clicks,remember more ads clicks=more income...if you have a blog with high traffic volume[targeted traffic],you will get more ads clicks..when trying to make m0ney with your blog,have it at the back of your mind that traffic matters most.low traffic=low ads clicks=low revenue..you cant compare the revenue of a blog that has th0usands of daily visits with a blog that recieve hardly 100visits per day...
Here are the few ads networks i know. (a)Google Adsense(b)Kontera(c)Adbrite(d)Adgenta(e)chitika ..

[b]{2.}Becoming An Affiliate.[/b]an affiliate is someone who promote or sell other people's product for a commission,understand?..becoming an affiliate is quite easy,when you become an affiliate,you will be able promote other people's goods,get them sold,and get a commission for dat.how does affiliate system work? When you as a blogger register with konga affiliate program(4 example sake)to promote their products,you will be given a special link[affiliate link] along with banner of the product you are promoting,put the link alongside the banner in your site:when a visitor in your blog who is interested in the product click the link,he/she will be redirected to where he/she[the buyer] will pay for the products and other details,after successful payment,you will be n0tified and you will recieve your commission[m0ney/cash]..selling other people's products right from your bedroom,sounds cool! ryt? .if you are targeting global audience,here are some trusted affiliate programs to stick to. (a)Amazon Associates(b)Link Share(c)Commission Junction(d)Ebay Affiliates and if you are targeting local audience(nigerians),check (a)Konga(b)Jumia based on my experiences with them,there are many out there,just do a little google search.


{3.}Sponsored Post/Review:as a blog owner you get paid for reviewing products.interested companies will contact you to write a review about their latest product and get paid for doing so,they want to let your visitors kn0w abt their products,if you own a blog with low and untargeted traffic,no wait for companies to mail you for a sponsored post or review o.E.G you own a Tech Related Blog and you are expecting companies like Cherie Noodles,HoneyWell Flour,Dangote Noodles..oh mr blogger it can never happen:do i say never,WHY? How is a tech blog related to food-diets-health blogs,these companies would rather mail these blogs for sponspored post/review instead of yours,your traffic is not targeted at those looking for heathy living,for good diets but at those looking for how to root their android phones,how to protect their computers from hackers,etc .if your traffic aint targeted,mr blogger you are failing...

{4.}Sell Your Goods/products-you are a blog owner and you just import some products[importation biz] put it up for sale on your blog and make sure the product aint expensive, or you just compiled an ebook and willing to sell it,just write a post about it on your blog,make sure you dont charge much,give discount,give early-bird bonus,money back guarantee,and also give free reports,people always want things for free,even rich people like "awoof",give them free reports,tips and advices and at the end try and sell your products to them.N:B-make sure what you are offering for sale solves your buyer's problem and not crap..follow the tips and you are good 2 go..

{5.}Sell Ads Space On Your Blog-you have good content and traffic,and you wanna make money with your blog,sell ads spaces on your blog,by selling ads space on your blog,you allow advertiser to advertise their products/blog/website on your blog for a fee..you were n0t approved by google adsense or other ads networks try selling ads space on your blog...

Here are those that works wella and can consistently start generating money 4 u as a blogger even when sleeping{AUTOPILOT}.Remember making m0ney online via blogging or other ways is all about getting traffic,get real and targeted traffics to your blog and see the money coming..if you own a blog and you work hard,in 4-6months,see the m0ney flowing,it took that linda of ikeji alm0st 4yrs b4 she start making m0ney with her blog,u neva heard she buy #1m dress last year,datz the blog MONEY. all websites listed above are in .com domain extension,i would have listed up there alongside the extension,but it is against NL Rules.../comments/enquiries are welcomed.. #

Hope I'm not coming late.


One key thing about blogging successfully is finding quality niche. A green area where a lot of people haven't explored.
Then blogging for passion is also an ingredient for success.
My very first blog was about automobiles and I used it to advertise the Kia brand, at that time Kia was gaining popularity in Nigeria. I sold my first car, a Kia Cerato 2009 to a Nairaland member who traveled all the way from Calabar. That was towards the end of the year.

Then I created another automobile blog basically for the latest trends in the industry and I hit over 40,000 page views in a couple of weeks.

I later became a serial blogger but I was relatively young for the industry. lol! So I diverted to other interests which included designs and coding.

Then I became a geek. I'm finding myself back again to my passion.

@Brandnew2

Then I became a geek.I'm finding myself back again to my passion.

I hope your passion finds you too

UjSizzle:
@Brandnew2



I hope your passion finds you too

Amen to that my sister.

I'm here

UjSizzle

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