How to Start a General Blog

Blogging is here to stay! With over 2 million blog posts published each day across 500 million blogs on the internet, there is no doubt that people are achieving their goals by blogging.

Many bloggers choose to take the niche blogging route. That means their blogs are focused on a very specific topic. A general blog can be successful too though.

If you’re not sure what the difference is between a general blog vs a niche blog, keep reading.

General Blog vs Niche Blog

A niche in the blogging world is another way of saying a topic. Niche blogs have a specific audience. The audience is defined by things like location, industry, product, or lifestyle.

There are blogs for almost every niche you can imagine. If there is a group of people interested in a topic you can likely find a niche blog to go with it.

A general blog, sometimes called a multi-niche blog, has many topics. Some people like to run general interest blogs because they have diverse interests. A general knowledge blog can have three topics or twenty.

General blogs are great for people that have a diverse array of interests. They are curious about many topics and they like sharing their knowledge.

Start with a Name for Your General Blog

The first thing you have to do is come up with a name for your blog. Since there are many general blog topics that you’ll write about, you should choose a brandable name. It should be memorable and interesting.

You don’t want a boring blog name. The name of your general knowledge blog should reflect the fact that there are many topics covered. Try to keep it short so that people can easily type it in.

Some people like to brand their general blog with their name. That makes sense because your blog is about your interests.

Purchase a Domain and Choose Hosting

Once you’ve decided on a name for your general blog, purchase a domain. There are many places where you can buy a domain. Try to find a .com, .biz. .net, or .org extension. These are easier to optimize for search engines.

Hosting a blog doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You can find hosting for as little as a few dollars a month. If you purchase a year of hosting upfront, you can likely get a lower price.

Direct your domain to your web host. You’ll need to find the DNS from your web host and then go to the place where you bought your domain and point it at the DNS servers.

If getting your blog set up is too stressful for you, consider working with a company like Automation411.com.

Install WordPress and a Theme

Most web hosting companies make it easier for you to install WordPress. If your web host provider has a WordPress feature, it can be as simple as a few clicks.

Once your DNS has propagated and your WordPress installation is complete, you should be able to log in to your blog and set it up. The first thing you can do is choose a theme.

There are many thousands of free themes available through the WordPress content management system. If you want something more unique, you can purchase a theme.

One of the advantages of paid themes is that they won’t have links to the sites built into the theme. Free themes often have links that you can’t even see built into the code.

Customize Your Blog

You can do many things to make your blog look unique. Widgets, which show in the sidebar of your blog, can draw the readers’ attention to your favorite posts, pages, or your social networks.

Many themes allow you to change colors, add sliders, or put featured posts in a prominent position. Some themes even allow you to show off the top posts from various categories. When you have a general blog, this can draw viewers into your various topics more easily.

Brainstorm Topics

Since there are going to be many categories on your general blog, it’s a good idea to know what you’re going to be writing about. You can add categories later but it’s nice to have some basics to start with.

What topics are you passionate about? Do you have a specific audience in mind? How will you categorize your topics?

These are starting questions to ask but don’t rule anything out at the beginning. Take a day or two to come up with every topic you can imagine. You can always rule them out later.

Start Writing

It’s a good idea for a new blog to have some blog posts written and ready to publish before you start sharing them with the world. Readers are unlikely to come back to a blog that only has a handful of posts.

Try to write at least one post for each of the general blog topics that you plan to cover.

Plan Your Calendar

Search engines like it when you post on a regular schedule. If you post on the same days and same time of day on a consistent schedule, search engines will know to send out bots to index your blog.

If you have several posts written ahead of time you can schedule them for the days you want to publish.

You may also consider publishing specific kinds of content on holidays. December is a good time to publish Christmas content. October is ideal for Halloween content.

Think About Monetization

If you want to make money from your blog you’ll have to find a way to monetize it. There are many ways you can do this.

Google Adsense is one of the most common monetization tools. Amazon is a great way to make affiliate income. You can sell sponsored ads or even sell your own product.

Good General Blogs Take Time to Build

Don’t expect to get piles of traffic to your general blog and become internet famous overnight. Many bloggers take years to be noticed.

If making money is your goal, don’t expect to quit your day job in the near future. Have a realistic timeframe. Be ready to put in hard work and be patient.

If you liked this post, check out the Digital Marketing section of our site to learn more about blogging.