Starting a blog is one of the finest ways to grow an audience, get your thoughts out there, and maybe make some money while doing something you enjoy. People start blogging for various reasons and with different aims in mind. Below are a few things to consider before starting your home decor blog
Motivation to start your home decor blog
Many people may wonder what motivated you to start a blog. You’ll most likely give up if you don’t know why you’re beginning a blog. Blogging isn’t simple, and it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. When spending 12+ hours a day on your computer, staying up late, or sacrificing time with your family, you’ll need a reason to keep you going.
Some of the benefits of owning a blog include working from home, paying off debt, and traveling without restriction. There are a number of reasons to start your own home decor blog, so make sure that you recognize yours. It will keep you going when blogging becomes difficult.
Is your blog a side project or a business?
Once you’ve determined why you want to start a blog, you must decide if you want it to be a pastime or a business. If you don’t want to make money from your blog and just want to keep an online journal for family and friends, then this series may not be for you.
We’ll be concentrating on developing a business blog, which entails investing in your site and treating it like a business from the start.
Choosing the right argument for your blog
Before you begin all operations, you must select a blog topic that interests you. Moreover, the experience and principles discussed in this article apply to any blog topic.
Ready to start? Here are a few steps to get you started.
Commence Writing
We recommend writing the first ten articles for your home decoration blog before setting up your website. This is important due to the following reasons.
- Writing a few articles can help you come up with the best ideal names for your blog.
- It helps assess your interest in certain topics and how much you can contribute.
- Finally, it helps to discover other interesting topics that can help expand the focus and direction of your home decor blog.
Target a minimum of 1,000+ words for each article. However, if your articles contain heavy images, you can write as low as 400 words or more. The more you write, the better it gets when it comes to blogging.
With time, you’ll need to start paying attention to the format and arrangement of paragraphs in your blog posts, e.g., long paragraphs.
Pick a Name For Your Blog
As soon as you’ve completed the first few articles for your decor blog, you must develop an ideal brand name. Nevertheless, it is important to choose a brand name that is catchy, short, and memorable. You must also ensure to check if the name is free as a domain before making your final decision. You can use our blog name generator if you encounter difficulty coming up with an ideal brand name.
Related: 16 best tips — How to come up with a blog name
Purchase Your Domain & Hosting
You need a domain name and good web hosting services to set up your home decor blog. Using a WordPress.com domain or a free Blogspot is unprofessional and will limit you to a few advertisements & affiliate marketing networks that can help you earn more.
Technically, you are not the owner of your blog when you use free blog providers like Blogspot, WordPress.com, and Wix. These platforms are capable of closing your blog when any issue arises. Therefore, it’s best to invest in a web host that can help protect and store all your documents, texts, and images. It would be best to go for a web host that stores all business-related items in one place. However, web hosting requires the most expenses when setting up a blog.
Several hosting providers like Bluehost offer free domain names after purchasing a hosting plan. Many hosting providers offer free domain names when purchasing your first hosting plan. This is a great deal if you’re a first-time blogger. If you’re planning to set up a second blog, we recommend buying your domain from Namecheap. This provider offers coupons every month, and their prices are great!
As mentioned, a host aims to protect and keep all blog-related items. e.g., files, images, and documents. When requested by your website visitors, they quickly provide these items from their servers. Furthermore, a good host updates and backup all data on a regular basis to prevent loss of data and efforts. Nevertheless, we advise you to go for a host situated in your website visitor’s country.
Web Hosting is not that pricey. You can get this service for as low as $3/month! That being said, you want to choose a reliable and helpful host. We recommend Bluehost. This provider offers a free domain name for 12 months and is the first web hosting provider recommended by WordPress, and it is located in Utah.
If you plan to profit from your blog business, we strongly advise against using free services like WordPress.com or Blogspot. Although they may seem good for a start, you’ll wish you had purchased a real hosting service as soon as your blog starts doing well.
When considering the period of your hosting plan, we suggest that you pay for a minimum of a 12 months plan. To be a successful blogger, you need at least a year of devotion and consistency. If you are not sure you can dedicate such time to your blogging activities, it is best not to get started.
Install WordPress
You may be surprised to find this section after we just advised against registering for a free WordPress blog. There are two WordPress services available. They are WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress.com is used to host blogs for free on WordPress servers. Typically, these blogs have WordPress.com at the end of their addresses e.g (blogsample.wordpress.com). WordPress.com is used mainly by casual bloggers who don’t plan to make money off their blogs.
On the other hand, WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform used by publishers and real-time bloggers to manage content and generate income. Thus, WordPress.org is the golden standard when it comes to blogging. In fact, it currently powers around a third of the entire web!
We recommend WordPress.org because of its numerous plugins, integrations, and other features. Plugins are software add-ons built by several developers to enhance your blog in a simple way. Additionally, there is a plugin available for every feature you’d like to see in your blogs.
Select A Theme For Your Blog
A theme is a set of files that improves the appearance of your blog, making it easy to navigate. Moreover, your blog’s theme influences how information is presented to your readers on the front-end portion of your blog. There are better themes for visual content, and there are themes suitable for written content. Nevertheless, most themes are pretty good at providing both aspects.
You can get many great themes for free through WordPress and various developer websites. However, if you’d like to purchase a more advanced theme, then I recommend looking through Creative Market and Etsy.
To upload a theme to your blog website, click the “appearance” function at the black left-hand admin panel. You can choose to either upload a theme, or explore different themes available in the WordPress repository.
Drive Traffic
It would help if you found a way to attract traffic to your website as soon as you finish setting up your blog. There are several ways to increase your website traffic. They include:
- Composing guest posts for blogs.
- Sharing your posts on social media.
- Commenting on other blogs.
- Optimizing your content on Google and Pinterest.
Platforms like Google & Pinterest have constantly changing algorithms that can make you gain or lose traffic monthly. Due to this, many business owners prefer to create a list of customers they can market to via email. Unlike Google and Pinterest, where you can’t change your whims and interests, you can always manage and edit your email list. Additionally, it is essential to register for Mailerlite, Mailchimp, or other email newsletter services. Using this different platform will enable you to collect your readers’ email addresses easily.
Create a Monetization Strategy
After publishing a few posts, it would be best to design a monetization scheme to manage the income you generate from your blogs.
There are several ways you can monetize your blog. However, you must find the best approach to this, and you must also consider your audience and the type of blog you are running. For example, is your blog informational or product-focused?
Typically, the simplest way to generate income from informational blogs is by using displayed ads. Google’s AdSense is a platform that provides easy ways for new bloggers who wish to display adverts and generate income via their blogs.
If your blog is product-focused, then you can monetize through affiliate marketing. This strategy allows bloggers to include links to products for which they receive a commission whenever a purchase is made.
Asides from ads & affiliate marketing, you can also project yourself as a freelancer to big publications. This enables you to sell courses and ebooks or provide conferring services to your readers on a particular topic.
Experienced bloggers usually adopt these monetization approaches mentioned above strategies. Still, it will be best to know them even in the early phase of your business to help you brainstorm excellent and profitable products to market in the future.
How many blog posts do I need to launch?
The most common question is, “How many posts do I need to begin my home decor blog?” Unfortunately, the truth is that there is no correct answer, and every article will tell you something different.
It takes Google 6-12 months to begin delivering traffic to your website.
Suppose you have a significant audience to debut, such as a large Instagram following. We advise you to publish your site after the first post and then wait until you have at least three entries before announcing your blog. This will provide your followers with a better understanding of what your site is about.
Opt-In Email
Your email list is the final piece of the jigsaw. This is something you can learn more about as your blogging career progresses.
You own an email list, which is why it is so valuable. You have no control over Instagram, Pinterest, or Google’s algorithms or upgrades. They could all be gone the next day. You do, however, have control over your email list, and even if all of those tools disappear, you will still be able to reach out to your contacts.
You should also include an opt-in option. It might be a free printout, an e-book, a list, or a planner. The options are limitless. This will be a freebie for signing up for your email list.
Content
We are sure you have a lengthy list of ideas ready to offer, but there are a few things you should consider before you begin. The most important question is whether this will solve the problem for your target audience.
You should be problem-solving for your audience if you want to build a successful blog that generates cash. These are the posts that will be the most successful for you and are essential when you initially debut. You don’t want your first post to be about what you did over the weekend. And even after your debut, you’ll see that this style of article is still popular.
Top #3 Home Decor Bloggers
#1 Debbie Doo’s
This blog is dedicated to thrifty decorating on a budget, presented by a woman who is direct and talks in a warm, inviting tone. Readers can learn how to decorate with goods they have at home, or at a thrift store. This blog is filled with posts and photos, making the tips and tricks easy to follow.
Thrifty decorating is a good niche because people want to decorate on a dime. Whether they have a low budget or are trying to save money, these types of blogs have the potential to attract a big audience. Think about a budget blog with a different niche.
#2 Garage Decor and More
This blog is focused on primarily garage decorating. This is a good niche because the garage is often forgotten about when it comes to home decorating. The garage is just a place to store your car and other goods, right? Actually, it can be a place for you to be creative, and this blog can show you how.
If you have a garage, this blog is definitely worth checking out.
#3 The Inspired Room
Founded by Melissa Michaels, this blog is dedicated to quick, inspiring home decorating tips, and more. The appeal of blogs like hers is that it’s ran by one person, and it makes housewives and home decorators feel like they’re talking to a friend who is trading them home decor tips and tricks.
Conclusion
Now that we have given you the necessary tips on how to successfully start your own home decor blog, it is up to you to take these steps to success. Doing something you love and still making money off it is something everyone aspires to do. Best of luck to you!
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