How to easily create a blog in 12 steps?

Creating a blog is a reliable way to meet your needs and those of your family. It requires a lot of work, but many are already taking this path.

Before starting to build your blog, take a break.

There are a few crucial decisions that you will need to make right at the beginning. I learned these lessons the hard way; what I can tell you is that this first part will

I will guide you through the process

How to easily create a blog

1. Choose a category to focus on

2. Trouver un nom de domaine

3. Choisir un hébergeur

4. Pointer votre nom de domaine

5. Installer WordPress

6. Choisissez un thème WordPress

7. Installer des plugins WordPress

8. Installer Google Analytics

9. Configurez votre liste de diffusion

10. Entrez dans le rythme de votre blog

11. Constituer un public

12. Monétisez votre blog

Let's now dive into the process of creating a blog, step by step.

#1 - Choose a category you want to focus on

The most important decision to make when launching a blog is the choice of category.

Why choose a category? Why not write about everything that interests you?

When it comes to building an audience, increasing traffic, and monetizing your blog, you will go much further and much faster if you stick to a specific category.

Let's take an example: Let's say you come across one of my blogs. You find an amazing article on how to turn subscribers into prospects. You like it and subscribe to my subscriber list. Then, I send you an email on how to organize your closet. How do you react? Maybe you also like organization. But not most people. They want more content on digital marketing.

Google also prefers blogs that focus on a single topic. This makes it easier for SEO, ranking, and traffic. In fact, there is

Choose a category and stick to it. If you want to try another category, simply create a new blog!

Here are some popular categories at the moment:

• Personal finances

• Fitness

• Commerce en ligne

• Investir

• Productivité

• L’immobilier

• Carrières

• Préparation aux tests

• Travailler en free-lance

If you have no particular blog idea, why not choose one of these categories?

Categories become challenging when they are super consumer-centric and have an extremely broad audience (e.g. celebrity blogs). There are tons of

One of my favorite categories is the

The category on hobbies can also be helpful, but generally more difficult to monetize. That being said, I have met entrepreneurs who have created six and even seven-figure businesses in leisure fields such as

#2 - Finding a domain name

• Simple and easy to use

• Des prix très bas

• Transferts de domaines faciles

• Essayez gratuitement

Before we dive into searching for and purchasing the right domain, I need to clarify an assumption that I make in this post: I assume that you are starting your own blog on a blog platform that you will own and manage - so, it will be your own website.

Indeed, this is not the only way to start a blog, you can use a blogging platform like Medium, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook. However, if you want to make money with it, you must

I want to start with a brief discussion on how website technology works.

• First of all, there is the domain..

• Un bureau d’enregistrement de domaine est une société à laquelle vous aurez recours pour acheter votre domaine ; elle le conserve pour vous). Elle n’héberge pas votre site ou quoi que ce soit d’autre – elle se contente de stocker votre domaine et de diriger le trafic web vers votre site qui sera sur votre hôte web. Utilisez Domaine.com (ils sont aussi l’un de mes préférés).

• L’hébergeur est la société qui héberge votre site. Votre site sera sur ses serveurs. Voici ma liste mise à jour des meilleurs hébergeurs de sites web dans leur ensemble. La réponse rapide est cependant que pour la plupart des blogueurs, le meilleur choix est BlueHost

• L’outil de création du site. De nos jours, très peu de sites sont construits à la main en utilisant du HTML brut et du CSS. La quasi-totalité d’entre eux sont construits à l’aide d’un outil. Cet outil permet alors de soulever de lourdes charges et facilite considérablement la construction d’un site, surtout si vous n’avez aucune idée de la façon de coder. Pour les blogs, ces outils sont appelés systèmes de gestion de contenu (CMS) et la seule véritable option est WordPress. Une fois que vous aurez installé WordPress sur votre hôte, vous pourrez commencer à construire votre site.

In summary, you purchase a domain from a domain registrar, install WordPress on your host, and then start building your site. I will explain to you how to do each of these things step by step.

Now, how to buy a domain for your blog.

To buy a domain, you must first find one. This domain should be somewhat related to the category you have chosen and must also be available for purchase.

I strongly recommend that you continue searching until you find an available domain. Although it is possible to purchase a domain from someone who already owns one, it is an advanced option that can quickly become expensive.

They can easily go from 10,000 to 50,000 dollars. I have even participated in debates about buying domains for over 100,000 dollars; what I learned is that the most popular domains can exceed seven figures. Not to mention all the hassle we will have to go through to search for the domain owner, negotiate and transfer the domain itself.

Your best bet is to keep searching until you find a domain that you like and that you can handle

Should you use your personal name as a domain?

If this is your first blog and you are not quite sure about the topic you want to blog about, I recommend using your personal name.

The reason is that if you change domains later, you will have to start over. There are many mistakes in blogs that can be corrected later; having the wrong domain is not one of them!

Let's say you choose a domain like fitnessfordoctors.com. Then, after six months, you realize you prefer to blog about doctors' personal finances. You would need a new domain and start over from scratch.

Personal domains are much more flexible - it's just a name after all. If you switch from one category to another after a few months, it's not a big deal. Remove all old content that doesn't match your new topic, start publishing new content, and you're good to go.

That being said, personal domains have two major disadvantages:

1. Scalability

2. Vente – Les blogs personnels, même s’ils génèrent beaucoup d’argent, sont beaucoup plus difficiles à vendre. Les acheteurs potentiels veulent un site qui ne dépend pas d’une seule personne.

These are quite problems

#3 - Choosing a web hosting provider

Every site needs

Some recommendations:

1. Best WordPress hosting for beginners

For your first blog, you want a host

BlueHost

• $7.99/month

• Domaine gratuit et certificat SSL

• Recommandé par WordPress

• Garantie de remboursement de 30 jours

• Essayez gratuitement

2. Best WordPress hosting for advanced bloggers = WP Engine

There was a time when I managed blogs with hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors per month. They contained thousands of posts. We always used

The WP Engine has many additional hosting functions to ensure security and scalability. For sites of this size, you need to do much more maintenance. WP Engine takes care of all of this for you. Its support team is also world-class. They do an excellent job.

But there is a major drawback: it is more expensive. The lowest plans start at $30/month. That's 7 times the price of other hosts.

• 30 $ per month

• Tarification mensuelle

• Domaine gratuit et certificat SSL

• Garantie de remboursement de 30 jours

• Essayez gratuitement

#4 - Point your domain name to your host

You now have a domain and a host for your website.

The next step is to point your domain to your host so that people end up on your site when they visit your domain URL.

Each host has slightly different settings that you will need to configure with your domain registrar. There is of course a support document that explains in detail what needs to be done (depending on the chosen host).

If you have any problem, contact your host's support team and they will guide you through the exact steps.

#5 - Install WordPress

You will need a content management system (CMS) to build your website and manage your blog articles.

There is only one option for this:

Seriously, it's not even a decision. Use WordPress!

A few years ago, WordPress had some competitors: Joomla, Typepad, or Blogger.

No one is currently using those platforms anymore

It may sound a little harsh, but every time I hear about someone using one of those old WordPress competitors, I can't help but laugh. It's hard to take them seriously.

WordPress is responsible for 30% of all websites. In short, it is very popular.

Due to the popularity of WordPress, most hosting providers offer a

And if you have decided to opt for WP Engine, it is pre-installed because WP Engine is a specific hosting company for WordPress.

#6 - Choose a WordPress theme for your blog

There is a simple way to customize the appearance of WordPress without having to code anything yourself.

WordPress uses "themes", small packages of code that can be swapped out. Every time you change your theme, your site also changes. The content of your blog posts will not change, rest assured. So, it is very easy to evolve your site over time without having to rebuild it entirely from scratch.

For now, you need to choose your first WordPress theme.

The number of topics covered is overwhelming. There are... a lot..

When I choose a theme for one of my blogs, I go straight to

If you want a wider selection of WordPress themes at standard prices,

After purchasing your theme, log in to your WordPress blog, go to

You will be able to manage all the themes that you have published on your WordPress blog from your Themes section

#7 - Installing WordPress plugins

One of the best aspects of WordPress is that it is infinitely customizable. Since it is open-source, you can modify it to do whatever you want.

WordPress plugins are small software packages that you can install in WordPress to get additional features. This is how you can add a whole bunch of extra features to your site without having to code anything yourself.

Pay attention here and try not to go overboard.

Some bloggers install dozens, or even hundreds of plugins on their blog. This can cause a lot of problems later on. Not only can plugins cause unexpected conflicts between each other, but there is also a security issue. Plugin owners may not ensure maintenance over time. When you have so many plugins, you will never know which plugin is causing a particular problem.

I like to keep my plugins limited to 5-10. Here are some of my favorites:

• Akismet

• Yoast SEO – Le plugin SEO le plus recommandé, il gère automatiquement un tas de tâches SEO pour vous et rend toutes les tâches SEO beaucoup plus faciles.

• Formulaire de contact 7 – Le formulaire de contact le plus populaire. Créez une page de contact sur votre site et utilisez ce plugin pour créer un formulaire de contact (il vous enverra un courriel chaque fois que quelqu’un remplira le formulaire).

• TinyMCE Advanced – Il y a actuellement un tas d’améliorations à l’éditeur WordPress qui rend l’écriture beaucoup plus facile. Ces jours-ci, je passe ces éditeurs. J’écris tous mes articles dans Google Docs puis je les mets en forme dans WordPress en utilisant son éditeur HTML par défaut.

• WP Super Cache – Un bon plugin pour accélérer votre site.

• MailChimp pour WordPress. C’est le moyen le plus simple de connecter votre site WordPress à un compte MailChimp, de créer un formulaire d’inscription pour les courriels et de commencer à collecter des adresses mails.

• Messages populaires de WordPress – La façon la plus simple d’ajouter une liste de vos messages les plus populaires à la barre latérale de votre blog. La liste sera mise à jour automatiquement.

There is a plugin for just about everything you could want to do with your WordPress site. Use the plugin page on your WordPress blog to search for anything you need.

When you have found a plugin that you want, install and activate it from WordPress.

#8 - Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free website analysis tool from Google. Even though it is free, it is the best analysis tool available.

Analytics is a whimsical word that refers to data from websites.

Yes, the analysis can become quite complicated and overwhelming.

That's why we are going to ignore most of what is in Google Analytics for now.

You just need to create a Google Analytics account and install it on your blog. There are two reasons for this.

First of all, Google Analytics stores your data over time. When you are ready to dive into it later, you will be grateful to have collected data from the beginning.

Secondly, it is thrilling to see people visiting your site in the beginning. I remember the first time Google Analytics recorded a visitor on my first blog. I thought it was a mistake. "Someone has visited."

Seeing these first visitors arrive will give you huge motivation. Even if you only check Google Analytics to know your total traffic, it is well worth the time it takes to set it up.

It is also quite easy to set up.

Go to Google Analytics and set up your account. Once your account is created, you will be provided with a unique JavaScript tracking code for your site. When you copy and paste this code onto your site, Google Analytics will start collecting data for you.

#9 - Create your mailing list

Sooner or later, you will hear such a statistic:

Email marketing has a return on investment 22 times higher than any other marketing channel!

Technically

The response from email will always dominate any other channel you try to run a campaign on. But you must acquire those emails from the start - they have already been filtered for the most receptive people. In other words, email is inherently more responsive.

Every marketing engine I have built for businesses has relied on email.

Of all the marketing channels that have come and gone over the years, nothing compares to the power of a high-quality email list.

Even if you don't know what to send to your subscribers, it's okay!

By using

Mailing lists can be a gold mine once you have a few thousand subscribers, and the money really starts rolling in once you have 10,000 subscribers or more.

Even a simple email address collection option in the sidebar of your blog is enough to get you started.

• Constant Contact is an email creation software with drag-and-drop capabilities

• Plus d’une centaine de modèles adaptés aux téléphones portables

• Des outils d’automatisation simples

• Essayez gratuitement

#10 - Get into the rhythm of your blog

Writing blog articles is not a sprint, it's a marathon or rather a journey of several days.

The best bloggers settle in one place

Here are a few

• At the very least, find a way to post

• Les blogueurs sérieux posteront 2 à 3 fois par semaine.

• Les sites plus importants atteignent rapidement 5 à 7 publications par semaine. Cela nécessite plusieurs rédacteurs.

• Les gros bonnets qui poussent les choses à leur limite feront 25 à 50 postes par semaine. Sans blague, c’est pour les grandes entreprises qui utilisent le marketing de contenu comme principal canal d’acquisition de clients. HubSpot en est un exemple classique.

When I look at this graph of blog posting frequency, taken from the Orbit Media survey of over 1,000 bloggers, I am not surprised that 21% of bloggers do not write regularly. (Let's be realistic,

I know it's not easy to write. After writing blog articles full-time for three months, I always feel like throwing my MacBook out the window. It's a chore. That's why I recommend one post per week. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your site for the majority of your time, while giving you a break from writing your articles.

A very good article should take you two days. The first day is dedicated to research and outlining, as well as writing as many documents as possible. The second day is dedicated to writing, editing, and integrating the article into WordPress.

It is also necessary to push quality as far as possible. The key to building a website and traffic over time is to write messages that have

#N°11 - Building an audience

There is a super famous article in blogger circles: 1,000 true fans.

In essence, having 1000 true fans means you can make a living from your blog. You can quit your job, work wherever you want, and have total control of your life. All by reaching a very achievable goal of 1,000 true fans.

With a blog, you will build your audience of 1,000 true fans slowly and consistently.

As long as you continue, you will get there. Generally, it takes a few years.

Here is what you need to focus on to achieve it faster:

• Post an article

• Commencez à poster 2 à 3 fois par semaine si vous le pouvez.

• Sur chaque poste, insistez sur la qualité autant que possible. Cherchez le sujet sur Google et voyez ce que d’autres personnes ont fait, puis demandez-vous comment vous pouvez écrire quelque chose d’encore mieux.

• Écrivez des sujets qui n’ont pas encore été abordées. Trouvez un nouveau point de vue sur vos sujets que d’autres personnes n’ont pas encore abordé.

• Trouvez votre style et soyez authentique afin que les gens puissent vous connaître. Cela permet d’établir plus rapidement des liens avec votre public. Pour cela, il suffit de faire comme si vous écriviez à ami proche.

• Pour pousser encore plus loin, soyez actifs dans d’autres communautés en ligne. Postez dans des groupes Facebook, Twitter, faites des interviews en podcast… Soyez aussi utile que possible dans ces communautés.

As your blog audience matures, you will want to make changes to your

#12 - Monetize your blog

There are really only two ways to monetize a serious blog.

Yes, only two.

Bloggers try a ton of different ideas, maybe a dozen. Out of this dozen, only two are effective. What are they?

Affiliates and infoproducts.

Check out this list of 21 bloggers who are making money through their blogs, to motivate you.

Out of the entire list, all except three or four derive the majority of their income from info products, affiliates, or a combination of the two.

How do info products work?

I could write a book about it. For now, let's keep it simple:

1. Showcase your website.

2. Sur votre site, donnez-leur une raison de s’inscrire à votre liste de diffusion.

3. Une fois qu’ils sont abonnés au courrier électronique, faites-les passer dans un entonnoir de lancement. Ce sont des entonnoirs de courrier électronique spécialement conçus pour la vente d’infoproduits. En général, il s’agit de cours qui comprennent un ensemble de leçons vidéo.

4. En fonction de votre volume et de votre marché cible, vous transformerez environ 0,5 à 1 % des nouveaux abonnés au courrier électronique en clients, pour un prix de 500 à 2 000 dollars pour votre cours.

Now, this seems too good to be true. Although there are some difficulties.

First of all, you will need to be extremely skilled at convincing...

Secondly, it is useful to be in the right category and, therefore, target the right people.

How do affiliate programs work?

It's quite simple: You strive to create as wide an audience as possible. Then, throughout your content, you recommend products that are useful to this audience. When your audience clicks on the link of this recommendation, they get a special tracking code. If they end up making a purchase, you earn a portion of the sale.

The main drawback is that only a small percentage of people will click and an even smaller percentage of people will make a purchase. It is therefore very useful to have a

Monetizing a blog for beginners

Are these really the only two options? Is there something else for beginners?

Yes, there is one.

If info products and affiliates are the main ways to seriously make money, you also need serious traffic to make them work. At least, if you want them to work well enough to make six figures per year...

And to get as much traffic, you will need a lot of time on your blog. Although I love blogs, starting a new blog does not make dollar bills rain down right away.

Instead of trying to turn your blog into a completely passive money-making machine, go the other way

Start working as a freelancer and advising people. To make money quickly, this is the easiest option. In any case, you should know that the first freelance missions can change people's lives.

I have experienced this change myself.

Anyone can create a blog and use it to generate leads as a freelancer. Just build a clientele that pays you $3,000 to $5,000 per month. That's enough to quit your job.

And it's a much easier goal to achieve than an affiliate marketing or infoproducts machine. Anyway, you always have the option to build that kind of thing later.

What about all these other monetization methods?

Most of them are a waste of time. The impact on revenue is marginal, it's a total distraction. A few are worth doing for marketing and brand strategy. The rest should be completely ignored. Here is the list that bloggers always try at some point:

• Books

• Événements. Ici, il y a beaucoup de risques (tout type de contrats bloqués à l’avance par exemple : réservation de salle…). Rien ne garantit pourtant que vous allez en tirer des bénéfices. Même si vous gagnez de l’argent, les marges ne sont pas souvent assez.

• Bannières publicitaires (Google Ads, anciennement Adsense, par exemple). De nos jours, je ne suis même pas sûr qu’il soit possible d’obtenir des bannières publicitaires pour couvrir la facture d’hébergement.

• Prise de parole – Si elle est bien faite, la prise de parole occasionnelle peut être un excellent moyen de créer une marque. Et si cela semble incroyable d’être payé 20 000 dollars par conférence, c’est loin d’être aussi incroyable lorsque vous apprenez que la plupart des conférenciers ne sont jamais payés, qu’il faut des mois de travail pour créer une conférence qui coûtent ce prix, qu’il faut vraiment un best-seller du New York Times pour faire payer de vrais frais, et que vous en aurez tellement marre des chambres d’hôtel après la première année que vous ne voudrez plus jamais voyager. Mon conseil : faites des conférences lorsque les opportunités se présentent ; ne construisez pas une entreprise sur ces bases.