1. Personal Blog: Meaning & Example
This page will serve as your personal blog guide: It will explain what a personal blog means, teach you how to create one, and give you links to all the blogging tools you need for your blog to become one of the rising personal blogs on the internet.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a small fee (at no cost to you).
1.1 Personal Blog Meaning
A personal blog is an online platform on which you express your personal thoughts. Blogging gives you the freedom to express your ideas and share them with as many willing readers as possible. Honestly, the best feeling in the world is when you start seeing your readership grow.
You can write a personal blog on a wide variety of topics, or you can pick a niche. Picking a niche for your personal blog is, in my opinion, the best thing to do. Be careful not to choose a niche that’s too narrow. An example of a personal blog on a very narrow niche is “strawberry deserts.” A strawberry desert niche is too narrow because you are excluding chocolate deserts, vanilla deserts, etc as well as cakes (both design and how to make a cake) and a lot more. A more appropriate niche would be deserts. It’s narrow but it’s not too narrow.
In this blog, I write on personal development. Personal development covers a large area of topics from productivity, habits, entrepreneurship and online business and blogging. I think it fits me well because it allows me the freedom to write on the topics that I am passionate about without feeling too restricted.
If you want to start a personal blog on personal development, I would be happy to help you do just that. Feel free to use my blog as a model for yours.
1.2 Personal Blog Example
If you are still unsure what a personal blog is, here is an example of one that I recently came across.
It’s called Brute Reason.
The author of Brute Reason talks about social justice issues. The blog combines a mix of personal views, contemporary issues, gender and a lot more. Check it out if you want to get another feel for what a personal blog is all about.
You too can start a personal blog on a topic that you care about and share the message with your readers. The great thing about starting a personal blog is that you can decide just how personal you want it to be. For example, you can start a personal blog to sell your own personal brand, or to promote awareness regarding topics that are near and dear to your heart, or even to document a certain personal journey – of starting a business, beating an illness, losing weight, etc.
There is really no limit to what to write your personal blog about.
2. How to Start a Personal Blog
To start a blog, you need two things:
A hosting provider + blogging platform.
Your hosting provider will be the company with which you will “host” your blog. It will be on their servers.
Your blogging platform will be your content management system (CMS). This is the place where you get to determine what goes into your blog – in terms of posts, pages, images and videos.
The best combo for a personal blog is BLUEHOST + WORDPRESS (links below).
2.1 Hosting Your Personal Blog
Bluehost is one of the best budget hosts you can find on the internet. If you choose Bluehost, you will have the chance to be attended to by a great company, and – as a disclosure – I will be compensated by Bluehost because you are using my referral links.
2.1.1 How to Start a Blog with Bluehost?
First, go to Bluehost.
Then, click get started as shown below.
When you click “get started”, you will be directed to a page where you will see their available plans.
I personally host my blog with BlueHost using the “Choice Plus” plan.
Why?
It comes with domain privacy.
This helps protect my site from spam and unsolicited emails thus keeping my inbox clean of unwanted emails.
You don’t have to go with a “choice plus” plan when you are first starting out. You can start with their basic plan and then upgrade as the need arises.
If you start with a basic plan (or any of their plans), Bluehost will pay for your domain name for the first year. Yup, you will get that for free for a whole year.
To create a domain name, choose the plan you want and you will be directed to a page that looks like this:
If you don’t want to settle on domain name now, you can skip this step and come back later when you have found a domain name that you like.
The page will look like:
Now enter your personal information and you’re almost there.
The first part of the page will look like this.
After completing the above, scroll down and you will see “package information” as shown below.
The default account plan is 36 months. You may change the duration to 24 months or 12 months for a slightly higher price per month (like an extra dollar or so per month).
If you choose 36 months, you get to keep paying the discounted amount per month for three years. For this reason, I recommend going for the 36 month plan.
Feel free to skip the “package extras”. You can blog successfully without the extra stuff.
For the “Basic” plan you get this:
For the “Choice Plus” Plan, you get this:
Once you made your choice, scroll to the bottom of the page. Here, you will be asked to put in your payment information (their payment processing is super secure by the way).
Once complete, check the box as shown blow and click submit.
Congrats! You have just hosted your blog with a great host!
2.2 Choose a Blogging Platform for Your Blog
The blogging platform that I and all of my friends use is WordPress.
WordPress is secure, reliable and powers a whole lot of blogs on the internet.
2.2.1 How to Connect Domain to WordPress?
It’s actually quite easy, and here’s how (with pictures):
First, go to Bluehost’s login page and type in your domain name and password as shown below.
Then, click log in.
Once you are logged in, click on hosting on the uppermost bar and then cpanel as show below.
From here, you will see the following page: Click on “Install WordPress” as shown below.
From here, you will be taken to a page asking you to type in your domain name (that’s after you have picked and registered a free domain name through Bluehost. Here, type in your domain name and click next.
Voila! You will now receive confirmation, and you’re all done!
Your WordPress Dashboard will now look like this:
Congrats! You have just created a brand new blog!
Now unto the fun part: let’s pick a nice theme for your blog.
3. Best Personal Blog Theme
If you want a theme that goes great with a personal blog, I recommend the “reader” theme from MyThemeShop.
I like this theme because it has a nice blend of bright and light colors – making it easy for readers to spend hours on your blog without strain or discomfort.
The “reader” theme is also SEO-friendly, fully optimized and easy to navigate. This is the clean simple look that makes for a beautiful blog.
While there are free themes that you can use once you connect your domain to WordPress, I honestly don’t recommend it. Free themes are not always upgraded, they are not fully optimized and they are trouble to move from to premium theme. I always recommend starting with a premium theme from day ONE.
4. Tools and Resources
Now that you have a blog up and running, I want to include a list of articles and resources that you can use to help you with your blogging needs:
- Want a quick introduction to blogging? See How to Become a Blogger
- To start a fully optimized blog in no time, see 8 Must-Have Blogging Tools
- For a tutorial on how to start a blog with pictures, see How to Start a Blog in 2019 Guide.
- For all of the blogging tools (including relevant product comparisons), see Blogging Resources.