What is a Personal Blog?

Published on November 13, 2022 by Kevin Graham

There are lots of reasons why you’d be thinking about starting a blog. Perhaps you’ve been writing for years on your favorite topic and published it here or there, but now you think it’s time to share it from one place that’ll be entirely yours. Or you’re just starting out and need a platform that’ll let your creativity develop freely.

Whatever it is, starting a personal blog is a great idea! It’s cheap, it’s creative, and very importantly – it’s informative, and it enables you to connect to a worldwide audience with whom you can share and exchange your experiences and knowledge further.

The good news is that creating a personal blog is very simple and involves only a couple of steps. There are plenty of platforms out there that will help you do it quickly and easily.

So, if you want to start your own blog, make sure to stick around!

What is a Personal Blog?

A personal blog is a place where (usually) a single author writes articles about a particular hobby, experience, opinion, topic of interest, or area of expertise. Hence, a blog post would be the article or text posted on the blogging platform.

These authors are usually called bloggers, and they have full control over the content they create, manage, and post on the site.

How Do Personal Blogs Work?

As I said earlier, writers use personal blogs to write about a certain topic of interest. Sometimes, authors will try to monetize the thing they’re writing about. When they do this, they will often try to build a blog persona or a private brand so it can become more recognizable online and make it easier to sell whatever they’re writing or promoting.

And this leads us to our next topic!

Can Personal Blogs Make Money?

The answer is – yes, they absolutely can! Plenty of bloggers find ways to make money out of their writing.

This can be done in a lot of ways: through affiliate marketing, advertisements, as well as offering services, expertise, or consultations for a particular fee.

Making money from your blog writing may take time since you must build your persona and online credibility first.

Reasons and Benefits of Starting a Personal Blog

There are many reasons why you should start a blog and plenty of benefits! Let’s take a look at some of them here.

1. Sharing With Others

Some people start blogs because they want to share what they’re passionate about with others like them.

Personal blogs can be especially apt for niche interests and topics (like bookbinding, for example) that otherwise don’t get much attention.

Blogging can be a great way for people to connect, get together online, and share their common interests and passions.

2. State a Personal Opinion

One of the first uses of the blog was telling an opinion or recounting an experience, sort of like an online diary.

These opinions can range from the state of the world today, politics, comic life experiences, personal struggles and frustrations, cooking blogs, relationship advice and opinions, and so on.

3. Network With Other People

Blogging is a great way to network with other people, especially if you’re trying to monetize from writing. It can also be used to build an online community of people with whom you share common interests.

4. Use It as a Ground for Your Future Business

If you’ve just started out in a particular field, blogging can help you put yourself out there and make yourself present either as a person that can get hired or a person who’s looking to develop their own business.

It’s not uncommon to see bloggers offering services or products to their audience; a blog can be a great place to start developing your next business venture.

Contents and Features of a Personal Blog

The choice is all yours in terms of what you will discuss and include in your blog. The same goes for the form.

But, generally speaking, there are some features that you should definitely consider as blog staples for easier site navigation and easier usability.

Essential Features for Your Personal Blog

Blogs should be easy to get around with, which means they should be readable – the font should be easy to read, the color pleasant to the eyes, and the letters large enough for a regular reader. You have to ensure that the links you provide in the blog always work.

In terms of the categories on your blog, no blog should do without the following:

  • About – here you inform your readers about who you are and what you do, aka a short bio (depending on your overall blog tone, it can be playful or more serious and business-like).
  • Contact – here, you provide a way for your readers to reach you. You can provide an email address, a social network profile, a phone number, and even a physical address. The choice is yours.
  • Archives – this is a place on the blog in which all your past blog articles are being kept and available for access by your readers.
  • Terms of Service – you can also find this section going by the names Terms & Conditions or Terms of Use. This is not a mandatory section but it is a good idea to have it. It helps to explain the rules and terms concerning your blog’s use and the content inside it.

Other optional sections:

  • Products or Services
  • Privacy Policy
  • Employment page
  • Disclaimer

Every page on your blog makes an impact on your reader, so you have to make sure that everything’s in order with them. Also, if a page doesn’t have a purpose or no longer serves a purpose, then it’s best not to have it on the blog for easier navigation.

What Kind of Topics Can You Cover on a Personal Blog?

A personal blog allows you to cover any topic. Whether it’s a cooking passion, sharing recipes, preparing a cookbook, or travelogues, as well as how to best care for your pet, to book and film reviews, there’s not a topic in the world you can’t write about.

As long as you’re passionate about it that’s all that matters.

How to Start a Personal Blog

You’re not exactly sure about the process of starting a blog? No worries. Next, I’ll tell you about the basic steps you can take to start your own blog.

1. Pick a Name for Your Blog

First thing first – picking a name for your blog. You can’t do anything without a name, so naturally, you must tackle this before everything else.

Now, when picking a blog name, it’s a good idea to have several names in mind instead of one because it might be possible that the first name you wanted won’t be available.

2. Register the Domain Name

The next step is to register the domain name for your blog. The blog name and the domain name don’t always need to be exactly the same. You can put an abbreviation of the blog name instead of the whole name if it’s too long, like for example, “The New Boston Review” can be “nbr” as a domain name.

When choosing your blog name, check the domain name’s availability in parallel so you know they can match.

3. Find a Host

A good idea for blog hosting is to get a managed WordPress host, such as WP Bolt. WordPress is one of the best platforms for bloggers because it’s very customizable and can be used for all kinds of blogs. WP Bolt includes an easy one-click WordPress installer alongside 24/7 available support and superb site loading speed.

4. Install a Theme

Themes define the visual identity of your site, so when choosing a theme, you have to keep in mind that it reflects your brand design (if you have an existing one).

Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit for the best theme, but keep being consistent once you find the right one. Make sure it’s easy on the eyes of the reader and that it makes reading pleasurable and not a strain.

5. Now You Can Start Writing!

And that’s pretty much it. I mean, yes, there are many other things you can do, and will do, as you develop your blog (installing plugins, for one), but when it comes to starting it, it’s pretty straightforward.

A word of advice – make sure you have a couple of already written and finished texts before you launch your site. It’ll make it easier for you to catch up on new content as the weeks go by. And yes, if you want your readership to stay and grow, keep the blog regularly updated!

Conclusion

As you can see, creating a personal blog is not that hard. You can write about anything, and it’s a great way to put yourself out there for any future projects.

By following the steps above, you’ll be able to start your own blog in no time!

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