How to Start a Blog in India?


Juhil Mendpara
Content Manager


Building a blog improves the online visibility of your personal brand or organisation. You can increase your blog’s digital viewership and share niche-relevant information with large audiences looking for solutions to common queries.

Researching frequently searched topics allows you to develop pictorial and textual content and become a one-stop-shop for your audience’s questions, in turn making additional income from search engines like Google.

In this article, we share a guide for aspiring bloggers in India looking to learn how to start a blog. This step-step guide highlights the essential steps in creating a high-traffic blog, whether it concerns catering to specific search intent, shortlisting blog or domain names, hosting choices or content management platforms. 

How to Start a Blog in India (Step by Step)

If you’re searching for an easy-to-follow guide on how to generate an added source of income by creating a blog, these six steps might help you achieve your blogging goals:

Step 1: Decide the Blog’s Niche & Purpose

The first step to creating a blog is deciding on a niche to choose your target audience and getting an idea of what topics will you write about. Based on the niche, ideating a blog name becomes easier. 

Some common blog niches include travel, technology, gardening, career development, healthcare, and finance. Try choosing a niche in which you have expertise. This makes it simpler to provide authoritative content.

Simultaneously, avoid choosing multiple niches as it may confuse your audience and make it challenging to manage the categorisation of content and blog marketing tactics at your disposal.

Here are factors to consider when choosing your niche:

1. Market Demand for Popular Niches

If you have particular niches in mind, study the market demand and frequency of search engine queries on the niche. Apart from conducting surveys to check for niche popularity, you can rely on Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner to gauge the possible profitability of your blog.

Studying your niche’s audience potential helps you understand the current interest your niche gathers. Once you figure out which prospective industries have lesser competition and higher chances of desirable search engine rankings, creating content calendars on blog topics becomes easier.

2. Prioritise a Niche You’re Interested in

While being an expert in a niche enables you to create high-value content, there is no shortage of experts online. Your openness and receptiveness to learning on the job bring fresher perspectives that audiences and search engines are looking for.

If you see high competition to rank for a specific niche, try breaking the niche down and creating a blog focused on subtopics. For example, suppose you want to create a blog about films. Considering the number of blogs doing well in this niche, you can choose a sub-niche such as thriller or comedy films.

3. Analyze Your Competitors

Perform some market research to study what competitors in your niche are posting. You can identify whether they stick to one content type or use combinations of multiple types such as how-to guides, listicles, comparison pieces, product reviews, etc.

Such information gives you insights into whether you can sustain your interest and be consistent with posting on your blog. 

Step 2: Choose a Blog and Domain Name

Stay away from free domains for your professional email address or brand’s website as they aren’t secure and do not display professionalism.

Besides lacking credibility because of their no-cost model, it becomes easier to become a hack attack victim and face a data breach.

Here are additional reasons to keep distant from free domains:

  • They sell information since you don’t own the website.
  • They display irrelevant and poorly optimised advertisements.
  • They spoil the user experience because of longer load times.
  • They offer limited space, making your content load slowly and increasing bounce-off rates.
  • They risk your SEO efforts since Google prioritises top-level domains (TLDs).
  • They come with hidden expenses that multiply over time.

1. Blog Name

Your blog name could contain exact match or partial match keywords of your preferred niche or your brand name or words synonymous with your industry. Since this name is what visitors will type in the search bar, choose a name with a higher probability of being typed.

We’ve outlined some tips to remember when finalising your blog name:

  • Picture your target audience’s typing in specific search queries and keyword phrases
  • Compile a list of successful blogs in your industry for inspiration
  • Confirm your purpose of creating a blog
  • Make the name self-explanatory of the industry

2. Domain Name

Blogging aspirants can either purchase a domain name from a domain registrar offering you budget deals or through web hosting providers providing this as an add-on service.

For best results, look for a domain name that is easy to recall. Even better, you can leverage domain name extensions distinctive from .com and choose something with a .net, .org, or .in domain address extension if you’re in India. 

We recommend using Hostinger’s domain name checker to test the availability of your preferred domain, choose from alternative domain extensions, and book what fits your blog’s goal best.

hostinger domain name checker

Step 3: Choosing a Web Hosting Provider

Web hosting is a digital service offering you the essential resources to manage and build a website with all data stored online. Once you secure a tried and tested web hosting provider, you can comfortably rent space on their servers and utilise their tools to grow your website. 

Beginner bloggers must make a sensible compromise between premium performance and the web hosting provider’s pricing to pace their growth and keep sufficient room for design, SEO, or website usability errors.

Why should you avoid Free Hosting?

First and foremost, move away from free blogging platforms, also known as hosted platforms. Though they let you sign up, acquire a domain, and kickstart your website for free, all your website data is managed and stored on your chosen platform’s servers. 

Though the initial costs are absent, you will probably have to pay for storage space as your blog grows.

Moreover, having the blogging platform’s name as your domain name extension doesn’t look professional.

For example, imagine a website called yourcompany.wordpress.com or yourcompany.blogspot.com. This can spoil your brand’s reputation and make customers consider you a weak information provider. 

Some added disadvantages of hosted platforms include:

  • Limited capabilities concerning access to themes and functions – resulting in poor engagement
  • Fewer advertisement options limit your ability to earn through ads – which is a significant income source for blog owners
  • Disturbed user experience because of limited memory space for content – increases bounce-off rates
  • No violation warning which can lead to direct deletion of your website – turning into a complete loss of data

Which Hosting provider do we recommend and why?

We recommend Hostinger for your web hosting.

Hostinger’s time-tested servers and extended network of user websites have proven to help website owners achieve their financial goals without too many discrepancies. Their backend architecture comes with years of expertise in managing and optimising servers to improve the output of their systems.

Hostinger has launched a new data center (DC) location in Mumbai, India which makes Hostinger even a better choice for Indian bloggers. Its a important factor to consider that where your website is physically hosted and where is your target audience.

This has enabled top-notch server performance to support small to medium businesses and bloggers to continue their website growth strategy and earn a considerable side income. What’s best, this fusion of high performance and reliability comes at cost-effective pricing, making it one of the most affordable web hosting choices for beginners in the blogging space.

Best Affordable Hosting

Based on the data above, beginner bloggers can save considerable money and reserve a web hosting provider (Hostinger) for their domain name at only 69 INR a month for 4 years. This saves up 77% of the cost of one month.

Additionally, if you decide to purchase your web hosting with Hostinger, buying a plan for 1+ years comes with a no-cost domain name for the same period.

Here’s a coupon code that expires 24 hours from now. Reserve your spot within Hostinger’s server space and start planning your blog ideas immediately.

Note: Hostinger’s web hosting rates can rise at any given point in time. Book your spot today.

Step-by-Step Guide on Purchasing Your Single Web Hosting Plan With Hostinger

Follow these steps to leverage the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of reserving a hosting plan with Hostinger.

  1. Choose one of the four offers from here.
  2. Create a new account or log in with Facebook or Google.
  3. Choose either a credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Rupay), UPI, PayTM, Net Banking, PayPal, Google Pay, or CoinGate.
  4. Add your coupon code.
  5. Make your payment.

Note: If you wish to opt for some other hosting provider in India, you can check out our list for the Best Web Hosting in India.

Step 4: Choosing a Content Management System (Blogging Platform)

We recommend WordPress as your website creation platform. Below we will explain why.

Why You Should Choose WordPress as your Blogging Platform

Beginner bloggers in India can benefit from using WordPress’s self-hosted service because of its cost-effective built and extensive repository of functions. These functions offer unending capabilities in design, SEO, user experience optimization, and website development aspects.

Choosing WordPress gives you:

  • Liberty to choose from a multitude of WordPress themes and plugins, be it from the platform’s list of plugins or third-party vendors.
  • Features to make websites scalable if you choose a hosting plan providing you with enough resources.
  • Complete ownership of all data and resources on your servers.
  • Freedom to combine custom code into your files and modify the database.
  • An abundance of monetization options.
  • A beginner-friendly interface to smoothly initiate your blogging journey.

Many Hostinger offers have WordPress-specific plans to provide one-click installations.

Step 5: Installing WordPress

If you made up your choice to use WordPress, then the next step involves WordPress installation and the process is simple using Hostinger's hPanel.

Here’s a guide for reference:

How to Install WordPress – Video Tutorial

How to Install WordPress With Auto Installer

1: Open the website and click on Auto Installer.

Setting up WP at Hostinger -autoinstaller

2: Look for the WordPress tab and click on Select.

select wordpress from auto installer

3: Fill in the form in the pop-up window. After verifying your domain name, input the Administrator Username, Password, and Email. The details inputted here shall become standard for logging into your WordPress dashboard.

4: Input your website title/blog name. If you wish to change this name later, navigate to the Site Identity settings on the dashboard.

5: Decide your language of choice.

6: Choose “Always update to the latest available version,” and you get access to the upgraded features and security fixes.

7: Click Install

Step 6: Customize Your Blog

After installing WordPress, you can select a theme and design your blog.

Themes are pre-designed templates for WordPress websites, and you can continue customizing them. Depending on whether you’re ready to spend some extra cash to finalize the theme of your website, you can choose either free or premium options. While WordPress’s directory has approximately 8400 themes available, third-party platforms like ThemeForest have additional options.

Try opting for premium themes as you get the freedom to customize its usability and the support of an expert customer representative team. Since free themes have multiple limitations, look for these factors when choosing a premium theme:

  • Costing: Ensure to validate their costing with competing themes and look for one which matches your aesthetic needs and comes with a better feature suite.
  • Design: Picture your blog’s tone of voice and visual identity and compare it with the theme. If you’re a beginner, try sticking to simpler designs.
  • Features: Look for a theme with SEO-friendliness, responsive page designs, and plugin compatibility.
  • Blogger reviews: Research some reviews to understand the experience of other bloggers.

Download Plugins

WordPress plugins are code snippets that improve your website’s usability on the user and back end. The platform’s developers have made the process seamless, allowing users to simply attach and detach plugins at the click of a few buttons.

Further on, plugin usage can vary from SEO, analytics, data backups, grammar checkers, email collections, and so much more. Beginner bloggers can consider installing the following plugins:

  • Yoast SEO for optimizing your headlines, links, and content.
  • Akismet to keep spammers away and vet your contact form submissions.
  • Smash Balloon to direct your social media onto your website and increase follower count.
  • Pretty Links to perform link management and capitalize on monetization opportunities.
  • OptinMonster to help you convert prospects who visit your website into long-term customers.

Tip: Shared hosting blogs should use no more than five plugins simultaneously. This ensures your site doesn’t slow down because of excess load by the plugins.

You can also watch the below video to learn how to start a blog.

Tips for Making Your Blog Successful

We’ve curated a bunch of tips for beginner bloggers to apply and make their blogs successful:

1. Quality Content

As many entrepreneurs in the marketing domain says, “Content is King.” Though your website’s design and user experience account for recurring visitors, it’s the content that piques their interest. Moreover, when search engines and web crawlers study your content and get a green light on the uniqueness of your information and the accuracy of your statements, they allow you to rank on Google’s first page.

Look to give to-the-point, correct answers and elaborate upon a topic based on what your visitors are searching. Once you complete researching frequently searched queries, create content buckets and briefs that cater to these queries.

This includes using multiple sub-headings (H2, H3, and H4) and creating a content flow based on how the audience’s questions develop as they get deeper into the topic. It’s best to study your audience's search intent and use the keyword phrases they type into search engines.

Did You Know: Search intent is your customer’s purpose of searching a particular query online. If you know their search intent and create quality content that answers their questions, you develop authority in Google’s eyes

Additionally, add images and graphics to make your content highly engaging. Adding an image under every sub-heading makes the reading experience more visual for your audience.

2. Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Gathering traffic on your blog is vital to increase viewership of your content and show Google your consistency in posting content and updating your website. You can do this through guest blogging, search engine optimization, email marketing, blog forums, and social media.

Guest Blogging

Guest-blogging is the concept of posting content on other blogs in return for a backlink to your blog. Once your content is published on other websites, your website gains greater exposure, and the footfall increases.

Stick to guest posting on blogs that offer a high degree of relevancy to your blog. This guarantees your guest post attracts the most suitable target customers for your blog.

Also, create guest post pitches that convince web admins of your SEO and industry knowledge. This may make it easier for them to accept your future pitches.

Tip: Only guest posts on blogs with a high Domain Authority (DA) score.

Email Marketing

Once you collect 20+ emails, try starting an email marketing strategy with newsletters or time-sensitive content that redirects viewers to your website. Considering email marketing has the highest ROI compared to other marketing techniques, look for a high-quality email marketing tool such as Convertkit and Mailchimp.

You’ll need an email hosting provider to display your domain name with each newsletter you send. Once acquired, identify which newsletter plugin fits your email marketing requirements. Try putting pop-up email entry forms on your blog’s homepage, contact us page, and premium blog content. This lets you grow an email list and offer additional content in the form of videos, brochures, ebooks, or workshop materials.

Bloggers sending well-written emails with clickbaity headlines and well-placed CTAs can redirect readers to their blog. Use email marketing strategies to convince your readers to sign up for a paid monthly newsletter.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO can be divided into on-page and off-page SEO, which helps increase your blog’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). Since the majority of traffic comes from organic searches, raising your website’s link to Google’s top pages is influential in succeeding as a blogger.

Since this is an organic approach to driving more significant traffic, you’ll be relieved of reserving investments for advertisements. To add on, here are some tips for improving your SEO:

  • Study keyword research: Use free online tools like Moz or Ahrefs. You can also read SEO blogs (Backlinko, Ahref blog, Moz blog, Amazon India Keyword Tool etc.) highlighting how to use short and long-tail keywords. SurferSEO and SEMRush are additional resources to help your keyword research.
  • Use an SEO plugin: An SEO plugin provides a helping hand and highlights areas you can improve. Be it sections of content, image optimization, or building a solid linking strategy on your website, SEO plugins provide almost automated support. Every Digital Marketer in India needs these SEO plugins like Rank Math SEO, Yoast SEO and ALL in One SEO (AIOSEO).
  • Deploy on-page SEO: Adding alt tags, meta descriptions, keyword phrases, external links with high domain authority (DA) scores, and using images relating to the content increases your blog’s on-page SEO ratings.
  • Speed up the website: The quicker your web pages load, the better SEO ratings. Either choose a server that can handle extensive data or use images and other content that isn’t data intensive. You can use speed up your website by using a CDN, optimizing image (using smush or ShortPixel plugin), Using a Caching plugin, Plugins to minify CSS and JavaScript, etc.

3. Monetize Your Blog

After setting up your blog, creating and publishing content, and improving your search engine rankings, you can start applying monetisation opportunities. Earning extra income from your blog is easier if you're consistent with one or more of these methods:

  • Visitor subscriptions: Reserving a specific section of your blog for premium quality content and information that people cannot find elsewhere gives you an upper hand. Create a subscription model and ask your visitors to pay a one-time, monthly or yearly fee to access such content.
  • Affiliate marketing: Countless brands and businesses are offering affiliate programs, allowing bloggers to generate extra income through affiliate links. Simply put, each time a visitor purchases through your link, you’ll earn a 10-30% commission on the money spent. Amazon affiliate program is one of the most popular affiliate programs for bloggers worldwide and specially Indian Blogger's first choice.
  • Sponsored posts: If your blog has a large amount of traffic and frequent visitors, contact brands to offer them a post on your website. You get paid for writing on their product and uploading it on your website.
  • eCommerce store: eCommerce stores like WooCommerce linked to your blog are an excellent way to offer digital and physical products or services on sale. While digital products can include ebooks, workshops, or videos, physical products include clothes, electronics, household items, etc.
  • Paid ads: Registering for an ad network connects you with brands looking to post ads on websites from their industry. One famous ad network most beginner bloggers use is Google AdSense. Among the other popular ad network which has more RPM are Ezoic and Mediavine. 

Conclusion

Starting a blog is essential in growing a digital business and making most of your income online. Besides teaching you discipline, the amount of knowledge you gain improves your career development pace. Lastly, what better way to mint money other than multiple sources of income from a single website?

Keep a safe distance from free domains and free blogging platforms – they’ll eventually put you in a spot, and most probably, you’ll have to start your blogging journey from scratch. On the brighter side, partnering with famous hosting providers like Hostinger has been a successful choice for Indian blogs looking to scale their online businesses.

This coupon is here to offer you the best price for a limited time.

Once you’re consistent, you can begin tracking different metrics of your traffic and website income sources. Begin making changes and developing content for the audience that is most responsive. Also, start making more significant efforts for audience sectors that show the potential of becoming a large income source.

FAQ

Here are some additional info with these facts and queries to help you clear the miasma of any misunderstandings related to blogging.

Is it worth starting a blog in India 2022?

Yes, since approx. 400 million people surf the internet regularly and read billions of blog posts; it’s 100% worth starting a blog in 2022. 

Is blogging easy?

Blogging is easy if you show up consistently and maintain discipline with respect to uploading regular content, tweaking your website, upskilling your SEO application, and staying aware of Google’s updates.

Can I start a blog without any technical or coding experience?

Yes, owing to web hosting providers such as Hostinger and blogging platforms such as WordPress, you can easily start a blog without any technical or coding experience. The rise in technology has made designing your website a drag-and-drop affair.

Can I start blogging for free?

While you can start blogging for free on hosted platforms, paying for a long-term domain name and web hosting provider to build your website is in your best interest. Self-hosted platforms ensure your data is safe, provide a broader scope of customization, and give you complete control over your information – which is not the case with free platforms.

Should I choose a paid domain or hosting?

Yes, choosing a paid hosting and domain simplifies your blogging journey because of access to an ocean of monetization opportunities and absolute freedom to modify code, databases, server resources, etc.

How much does it cost to start a blog in India?

If you take a hosting plan with Hostinger in India, you can start a blog for as little as 69 INR a month with a 4-year plan.