To be precise, almost 65 percent of India’s population comprises millennials. Millennials are the ones who favor flexible work hours, coupled with innovative job roles. Rising work pressure and hectic schedules have persuaded the millennial generation to start their own business.
This is also why the present age or the millennials are exploring how to start blogging in India. The blog is a medium through which you can express your thoughts and knowledge in a proper manner. Your reviews and experience can act as a perfect solution for your readers.
How to start Blog in India?
One of the most popular career choices for those who want to start an independent career is blogging. To be frank, blogging in India is growing at a rapid pace and is finally being considered as a mainstream career.
Many new young Indians are now looking forward to blogging and a vast majority of them earn which even surpasses the annual income of executive level employees. So are you a blogger who want to start your career in this innovative field? Let’s take a glance at the various ways with the help of which you can kickstart your career in blogging.
The processes involved in setting up a blog
Before you can set up your blog, there are specific things which you should consider. But you have to be confident to stay in the blogging niche. You shouldn’t let self-doubt bog you down. Here are some of the ways with the help of which you can start a blog of your own.
Find a Niche
Selecting a subject or a niche is one of the preliminary steps in blogging in India. Note that India has a vast majority of young population. If you don’t choose your preferred niche, the popularity of your blogs would decline rapidly. Don’t blindly select a niche thinking you can make a lot of money by blogging about it. Here are some of the factors you should consider before starting your blog.
- You should find out your passion in respective fields
- Your ability to be compliant with the latest trends
- Knowledge of Indian culture
- Your expertize in adding value to a particular blog topic
Once you have analyzed all the above aspects, you are all set to become a blogger for that niche. Your niche can be anything, such as, travel, fashion or affiliate blogging.
Selection of the blogging platform
Selecting the ideal place to blog is one of the most crucial decisions you can ever undertake. Nowadays, if you want to start blogging in India, you would come across various platforms. Here is the list of some of those platforms that are ideal for blogging in India.
- WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms in India. No doubt it is one of the biggest platforms in the world for bloggers as it comes with numerous plugins and add-ons. You can also select from a vast array of layouts and designs for your blog.
- Blogger is another good platform from where you can start blogging. It is also known as the second most popular platform after WordPress.
- Tumblr is another interactive blogging platform which integrates the fun of social media and blogging. Being interactive, it is popular among the vast amount of youth population of India.
Nowadays, a lot of budding bloggers select Instagram as their blogging platform. As it is a free platform, you can test your expertize before finally paying for a blogging platform. Instagram is also a great way to build your initial follower base before you opt for a dedicated platform.
Choosing a Web Host
While the platforms as mentioned above are great to start with, they do come with certain disadvantages. For instance, you cannot fully monetize the blogs. Moreover, you would also not be able to upload videos and images for your Indian readers. It is so because a free blog means you are not the actual owner of the blog.
On the other hand, a self-hosted blog provides you with great freedom and functionalities. You can select any blog name you like as per your preference. You would also have complete freedom in selecting your own domain name. For instance, .com, .net, .in, etc. are some of the popular domains for Indian bloggers. You would find various web hosting service providers as per your preference too. Here is the list of some of the popular web hosts for Indian bloggers.
You can take part in flash sales like Black Friday Web Hosting Deals 2020 to get hosting accounts at the cheapest possible price, so that you don’t need to put a huge investments.
- Dreamhost
Dreamhost is a popular name in the Indian blogging domain with more than 400000 active users. It is one of the best web hosts in India which provides cheap and effective services. The single shared web hosting plan would cost you around $2.59 per month.
- WP Engine
WP Engine is a web host service managed by WordPress. It was one of the first few providers of web hosting for bloggers in India. It takes care of all the technical aspects and allows you to concentrate on your blogging activities. But note that its main area of specialization is WordPress. The startup plan is from $35 per month. On the other hand, the most costly plan starts from $290 per month.
- Hostinger
Hostinger is one of those web hosts which provide the cheapest and affordable hosting plans to budding bloggers in India. Hostinger and its web hosting plans are on par with some of the best web hosts out there. You can opt for single shared hosting starting from just $0.80 per month.
Putting Content on your Blog
If you a first-time writer, then you would face some difficulties in putting content to your blog. But always remember that you have to update your blog section frequently so that you don’t lose readers and visitors. Irrespective of the niche you belong to, if you don’t put compelling content, you would lose readers. Quite interestingly, your rank would also drop from the SERP.
Writing two to three quality blogs per week is a great way to maintain the flow of writing. Always keep in mind the niche of your blogging portal before starting to write. Make sure that you write in such a manner that a variety of your audiences can understand what you are trying to say. The Indian readers would love to read if you write English in a lucid way. Always write in a conversational tone so that your readers can easily relate their situation with your blog. It is a great idea to write on the latest trends of whichever niche you have opted for. For instance, if your niche is fashion, you can write blogs on the latest trends of several types of fashion.
Customizing your WordPress Blogs
The preliminary step to customize your WordPress blog is to delete the pre-added content. Note that WordPress installation has its own pre-added content. Make it a point to delete all those as they resemble like dummy text. In the next step, you have to select SEO-friendly theme for your WordPress blogs.
Start installing the WordPress theme so that there are no underlying issues later on. Once the theme is activated, delete the pre-added themes from the themes folder. Make sure that you install the plugins which are most needed. As a beginner, you can start with free themes and plugins for your Indian readers. Note that the default time zone of WordPress belongs to the US. Hence, you have to set the time zone to India to start your blog successfully.
You should set up various types of information about yourself which would enable your readers to know about you. Disclosures should be clearly mentioned from your end so that there are no online legal issues in the future. Quite interestingly, never forget to add social sharing buttons at the blogs. This would help you to share your content directly on various social media sites straight from the WordPress blog section.
For beginners, WordPress blogging is quite ideal. When you learn the various ways to monetize and earn, you can opt for a separate web host. This would help you to generate handsome income and would make you a popular name in the blogging industry.
Driving Traffic to your Blog
The aspects as mentioned above have helped you to know in starting a blog in India. But if you expect to generate income from your blog, you have to make people visit your website. Hence, the next thing which demands immediate attention is increasing traffic and building a following of your own. Always remember that a successful blog is not just made out of great and creative writing. In other words, you need an effective marketing plan too which would drive a greater number of audiences to your site. Here are some of the best ways to drive traffic to your site.
- Always ensure that others know about your presence
You have to comment on other blogs and stay active on social media platforms and groups. This would help greatly in bringing traffic to your own site.
- Opt for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a great marketing tool with which you can increase the visibility of your blog. You can make your blog SEO optimized by including keywords and meta-descriptions. This way your blog would appear on the top of the results page of search engines. And when it would appear on the top, more and more people would click on it. You can also use Google Analytics or any other traffic statistics software to monitor traffic.
- Promotion and Marketing
People should know that you have a blogging portal. As mentioned before, you can let others know by posting on Instagram or other social media sites with the direct link of your blog. Social media is an ideal place from where you would get most of the followers and visitors.
- Opt for Guest Blogging
You can opt to write articles and blogs on other websites with a link that would redirect readers to your own blog post. You would also gain new followers who would visit your blogging page. Make sure that you write guest posts in such a manner that new audiences follow you.
Monetize your Blogs
By following the steps as mentioned above, you now have a blog which can become successful in attracting readers. However, it is still not ready to generate income for you! You have to follow various measures to attract Indian readers with your Indian blogs. Let’s take a glance at some of the best ways with the help of which you can monetize your blog.
- Freelance
If your blog on a specific niche gets popular, many offline newspapers and magazines would approach you to write for them. In India, bloggers can find an array of e-news portals where they can write to get extra income. For instance, if you have a fashion blog, you can write on fashion blogs for other websites. In this manner, you would be paid for something which you were doing for free all the while.
- Become an influencer
Note that the concept of influencer marketing is getting quite popular in India. Influencer marketing refers to the situation when the big brands connect with popular blogs and influencers to promote their products and services. As an influencer marketer, you would be expected to promote products of those brands through your blogs and articles. With increasing internet penetration in India, it is the right time to opt for an influencer marketer’s role.
- Opt to run ads on your Blog
Running ads is a sure shot manner with the help of which you can monetize your blog. Once your blog starts generating a decent amount of money and traffic, you can start directing ads on it. You can select which ads would be displayed on the blog. You can even set a price for these advertisements.
Note that the advertisers would contact you directly on case they need to display direct ads. This would save you the cost of a mediator. You would be paid a commission every time the reader clicks on the ad. You can opt to charge these advertisers on a weekly and monthly basis. Google AdSense is one of the best alternatives for displaying ads for bloggers.
Things to Consider Before Starting a Blog
Blogs or Weblogs is an increasingly popular activity among the residents of the world. The complexities of any standard or traditional website are invisible with blog sites. Blog site creation is relaxed, friendly, and flexible. Every hosting provider uses a variety of automation tools to install interactivity on the Blog platform.
Starting a new blog site involves rigorous decision making, and budding bloggers find themselves bamboozled in the initial stage of creating their platform for expressing themselves. Assistance is not always present with them. To make things easy, here is a list of tips that can act as a guide to blogging.
The overwhelming tips to start a blog
The first option of starting a new blog is whether to go for a charge-free one provided by Blogger, Tumblr, etc. or to register your domain and pay the price for private hosting. Initially, charge-free blogs are the best way to gain experience. It is important to note that blogs are the best way to nurture creativity.
You are entitled to get better results for choosing the paid service because search engines prefer domains that are private, flexible, and more functional. The bloggers have the freedom of promotion. A new Blog involves the process of thinking about the look and functionality. The developer will also back you up with support if any problem occurs.
The practicality of these blogging platforms
The massive number of blogging platforms acts as help for budding bloggers. WordPress powers not only sites but also new websites on a daily basis. WordPress is flexible, supportive and friendly for users, in comparison to other platforms. It is an excellent choice for a newbie blogger to start expressing views. After opting for the WordPress platform, another useful tip is to make wise and broad decisions about plug-ins.
From administration and privacy to the security of a newly started Blog, it is an efficient way to reduce any drawback for the Blog site. Examples of Plug-ins are Spam free WordPress for identifying spam contents, Secure-WP for security and W3 Total Cache for improving the opening speed of the site. Picking a topic of genuine interest is a crucial factor for the popularity of blogs on various trending niches.
Your blog gives you the window to express your opinions about the things you are interested in, without any interference or any criticism. But one thing you will always have to keep in mind, your readers are your assets. Readers are the ones whom you had to stay engrossed and latched onto your world. Retention of blog readers is indeed a huge challenge which you have to face every day.
