So, you’ve decided to be brave and make a site on the internet.  You don’t really have much html skills or coding skills, so you go with an easier approach and that’s to make a blog.  Don’t worry, I’m in the same boat as you.  I am horrible at HTML.  Anyways…So, you decide to create a blog.  Now, what could you write about?  That’s probably the hardest part about ever making a blog.  Your best bet for your first blog is to write about something that you love.  I’ll use myself for instance, since I am a college student, and I’ll detail what I would do if I made a blog.

I am a biology/pre-med major.  So, since I love biology and medicine, I would pick as my topic the brain.  So, I sit down and chart out what I want to write.  The first step to creating any site is to have a battle plan.  It’s how Eisenhower was able to create success during D-Day.  You must have a battle plan.  So, since I chose the brain, I would write a few posts about anatomy, a few about diseases and then start to post regularly on things that interested me.  As long as it followed along with the brain, you’d be great.  So, you’ve written down your battle plan.  Now you have to actually get the domain name and hosting.  We’re going to assume you know how to do that, so I won’t go into detail on how.

So, you’ve got it.  You’ll want to install wordpress or what ever blog service you want to use.  A lot of people use wordpress, but people use others.  You can even get a free blog, but it’s advised to get a domain name with your blog.  The hardest part for me besides thinking up an idea is finding a theme for it.  You can either get a custom one made, but since we want to be inexpensive, we go for a free one.  I’d go for one that is either scientific looking or maybe some blue.  Once I have that, I start to write.  My advice for you is to write two or three posts the first few days to really get some content.  Content is KING.  I will say that again.  Content is KING.

Once you’ve posted a few times each day for about three or four days, you’ll have a nice amount of posts.  Be sure to break them up into categories.  I’d break mine up into: anatomy, diseases, psychology, news, and other.  Always have an ‘other’ so that you can have articles that don’t fit to the above categories.  I cannot stress, though, the importance of writing regularly.  If you can’t post every day, then post every other day.  I highly recommend every day, but at least four times a week.  You want to have content so people have a reason to come back and read.  I really stress that posting regularly is important and it will mean the success of your blog.

So, what’s the next step?  Getting people to read your blog.  Now, there are millions of blogs on the net and there are 50,000 more made each and every day.  Think it’s a pretty big market?  It is.  So, how can you get something out of all those blogs?  Search for blogs similar to your topic.  Maybe there is a blog about neuroscience somewhere.  You ask them for a link exchange and then, you start to get more traffic.  People will see it’s an interesting blog and then start to come back more and more.  If you add different feeds, ways for people to read it, then you’ll get even more traffic.  But to get continuous traffic, you need content.  So, content is KING.  Now, how do you make money?

There are a few ways…For me, one of the only ways I could make money is to implement google adsense onto my blog.  But, if you were to have a site about different technological items, such as computers and such, you could set up an affiliate program and then get a commission.  That makes people a lot of money and you could see yourself making a pretty penny each and every time you made a post.  My one piece of advice other than content is KING is that you should never place all your eggs in one basket.  Try to have a few ways to make money.  Have an affiliate program, adsense and maybe a few text links for sale.  That way, you’re sure to make money each month.  Now, I chose neurology as my topic, but that’s what I hope to specialize in when I am a doctor.  There is no limit on what you can write.  Just remember…Choose something you’re passionate about and have fun.  Good luck!