How to Start a Blog and Grow Online

Table of Content

Let us talk millions to billions of numbers
How to start your blog
Conclusion

My friends often ask me about this, instead of answering each one individually, I thought I would write a detailed blog post on this topic. As you are about to start your blogging journey, I will try to answer all your questions here in the simplest way so that you can confidently start your blog in 2025.

Hello, Hi, Namaste🙏 future bloggers, my name is Hemanta Gayen and I have been blogging for several years. I have built many websites so far, so it can be said that I have real experience with blogging. My goal is to make this process easy for everyone.

Not waste time talking about me, let us dive straight into blogging! Starting a blog in India or any other country is not a very complicated task. It actually takes effort, dedication and patience on your part. "BLOGGING TAKES TIME". The good news is you don't need to be tech genius or have a computer science degree. All you really need is a laptop or computer, a working internet connection and the willingness to learn.

I can't make you an expert in one post, but I can give you a solid start. By the end of this guide, you will know how to start your own blog.

Let us talk millions to billions of numbers

Did you know there are over 600 million active blogs worldwide? Every single month, more than 70 million posts are published across the internet. That’s a massive amount of content!

The story doesn’t end here… according to ReportLinker, the global content marketing industry is projected to grow by a whopping approx ₹48,76,567 crore INR between 2023 and 2027. That clearly shows how powerful blogging has become in today’s digital world.

Now I know these numbers may seem a bit overwhelming at first. But the point here is that I am not sharing these to scare you. I want you to see the enormous potential blogging holds. So what do you want to do? Want to build a personal brand, earn money online or simply share your knowledge with the world.

But the reality is that starting a blog and running a successful blog are two completely different things. Anyone can create a blog in just a few minutes, but it takes strategy and patience to make it stand out, grow and succeed.

That's exactly why I have put together this A to Z guide on how to start a blog in India based on my own experience, insights from successful bloggers and proven strategies. If you follow this you will learn not only how to launch your blog but also how to make it rich in the long run.

How to start your blog

Starting a blog can seem daunting at first, but breaking it down into simple steps will make it much easier. A blog allows you to share your ideas with the public. Again a blog can be used to build a personal brand, and even be a platform to generate a source of income. So let us take it step-by-step with the strategy of creating a blog.

In this guide I will explain to you the exact process to start your own blog from scratch, even if you are a complete new.

Step 1: Choose a Niche (Blog idea 💡)

The first and most important step in starting a blog is your niche. Deciding what topic your blog will focus on. Your niche determines the type of AUDIENCE you will attract and how successful your blog will be in the long run.

Ask yourself when choosing a niche:

What's my passion or hobby?
Do I have knowledge or skills that I can share?
Is this topic in demand or trending?
Can this niche be profitable?

My tips: If you are just starting out, choose a niche that you really love to do and that you enjoy. Blogging requires consistency and even if the results are slow, passion will keep you motivated.

Examples of a Good Hobby Niche:

Below I have shared with you some solid hobby niches.

🏈 Football Fan Blog: In this type of blog, you can review new matches. If the player is changed can give his update. Fans can share opinions and predictions. Here, sports fans are always hungry for new content.

🌱 Garden Blog: Teach how to create a home garden, how to care for plants or about organic farming.

📚 Education Blog: Give study tips or tell about exam strategies. You can even cover topics like science or coding. For example, I have another coding blog, called codehemu. Here I share coding tutorials. And I love doing that too.

🎮 Gaming Blog: Review new games, like what new features will be coming to GTA 6 or discuss e-sports trends. You need to know that gaming is one of the most profitable places worldwide.

🍳 Cooking Blog: If you love cooking or experiment with your own recipes, share them. New kitchen hacks or healthy meal plans are a great help to new cooks. There is demand for new type of food blogging in both blogs and YouTube.

✈️ Travel Blog: If you are a travel lover, blog about your experiences or local culture.

🎨 Craft Blog: Teach creative projects on your blog. For example, from home decor to handmade gifts. Pinterest is a gold mine for this type of content.

Choosing a profitable niche:

The second method is to choose a niche to make money from. These niches are niches where people are already spending money.

But the truth is that profitable niches usually come with stiff competition. This means you will need patience and a sound content strategy.

Some of the profitable niches in 2025 include:

Finance & Investing
Health and fitness
Technology & Gadgets
Online Business & Digital Marketing
Home Improvement
Product Reviews & Affiliate Blogs

Why is profitability important?

The main goal of most bloggers is to make their blog a source of income. If your niche:

This will not happen if there is little or no search volume.
"OUT OF TREND".
Very low CPC (cost per click) means advertisers don't pay much.

Try to balance passion + profitability + demand when picking a niche. A blog that excites you and has earning potential will give you the best chance of long-term success.

My tips: Use free tools like Google Trends, AnswerThePublic or Ubersuggest to check if demand for your niche is growing.

Things to consider before choosing a niche

Choosing the right niche is not just about your preference, it is also about making sure people will actually read it. Before starting, here are a few things to consider:

1. Audience Size:

Take some time to figure out the potential audience size before you go to a specific niche. The best thing to do is find a niche that isn't too crowded. But not so small that no one has to read your content. You need sufficient traffic to make the effort worthwhile, but not so much competition that it seems impossible.

2. Know the competition:

Every niche has competitors and that's actually a good sign. It means there's an audience. But you need to know how strong your competitors are. You must check:

Domain age:- Older domains are better.
Content amount:- How many posts do they already have.
Keyword Ranking:- A paid SEO tool will help you see what keywords they rank for (not for beginners).
Social media:- Followers and engagement show how popular they are.
Traffic estimates:- Tools like Semrush or Ubersuggest can give you an idea of their reach.

Doing this research manually may seem like extra work, but it will give you an idea of what to expect. Do research because you will get an idea of what is needed to succeed. I am suggesting some youtube videos on how to choose a niche for a blog.

You can watch these videos for detailed information if you like.

Step 2: Choosing the Right Domain Name (Website address🔍)

Think of your domain name as your blog permanent identity on the Internet. It is like the nameplate outside your house. It tells people who you are and what to expect on the inside.

I like to compare it to being admitted to a school. Once you are admitted it is your place. Of course in blogging you can change your domain later but believe me it is a hassle. It can hurt your SEO and confuse your readers. So it is better to take your time and do it right the first time.

Tips for choosing a great domain name:

1. Keep it simple:- Short and catchy names are easy to remember (like "SmartGardener.com" instead of "AllAboutGardeningAndPlantCareBlog.com").

2. Use keywords:- Adding a keyword related to your niche (such as "fitness" or "travel") can help with SEO. Using keywords can make your blog purpose clear.

3. Avoid hyphens and numbers:- These are difficult to remember and can confuse viewers. For example "my-blog-101.com" looks less professional.

4. Use dot com:- While there are many domain extensions (.net, .org, .blog), but people naturally trust .com.

5. Think long-term:- Choose something that can grow with you. For example if you name your blog "HealthyKetoTips.com" you can later expand into the health and fitness field.

Some Example Domain Names:

Example Domain Name	Audience	TLD	Notes / Usage
GardenGenius.com	Home gardeners	.com	Perfect for plant guides.
FootyFanatic.co	Football fans	.co	Great for match reactions.
StudySnap.ai	Students	.ai	AI study tools.
HealthyWallets.com	Young professionals	.com	Focus on budgeting and beginner investing.
UrbanKitchenLab.com	Home cooks	.com	Recipe blog with small cooking hacks.
NiftyTechReviews.net	Tech shoppers	.net	Affiliate tech deals.
TrailTales.blog	Hikers	.blog	Travel and hiking stories.
CodeCrafted.dev	Coding students	.dev	Tech tutorials and developer resources.
MindfulMinutes.org	Wellness seekers	.org	Mindfulness blog and community content.
GadgetScout.shop	Gadget lovers	.shop	Curated product lists.

Example of Top Level Domain Extensions:

Here are some popular top level domain extensions(TLD) details.

TLD	Usage	Best For	Notes
.com	Commercial websites	Businesses	Most recognized.
.org	Organizations and communities	Nonprofits or NGO	Often linked with credibility.
.net	Networks and services	Tech companies	Best option if .com is not available.
.co	Company or corporation	Startups	Easy to brand globally.
.io	Tech and software	Startups or developers	Popular in the tech world.
.ai	Artificial Intelligence	Machine learning tools	AI startups.
.blog	Blogs and personal sites	Writers	Blog from the start.
.shop	Online stores	E-commerce or product sellers	Online shopping and retail focus.
.dev	Developer focused	Coding projects or portfolios	Great for tech portfolios.
.info	Informational websites	Guides	Good for knowledge bases.

Country Domain Extensions:

Extension	Country	Price Range (per year without GST)
.in	India	₹483 - ₹758
.uk	United Kingdom	₹643 - ₹992
.us	United States	₹612 - ₹864
.ca	Canada	₹698 - ₹960
.au	Australia	₹791 - ₹1,112
.de	Germany	₹595 - ₹915
.jp	Japan	₹950 - ₹1,210
.cn	China	₹651 - ₹914
.fr	France	₹595 - ₹862
.br	Brazil	₹699 - ₹984

Step 3: Choosing the Right Hosting (server 📂)

We will divide the selection of the right hosting into 2 parts: Free and Paid.

As a new I always suggest to choose a hosting provider that is from your country. Since starting a new blog does not require a lot of resources, you should get a basic hosting plan with minimum storage and RAM.

Why is shared hosting ideal for beginners?

Shared hosting is available at an affordable price.
It can handle the traffic of a new blog easily.
Once your blog starts growing you can upgrade to faster hosting like cloud hosting.
Google considers it a ranking factor so choosing hosting with good server performance is important for SEO.

Some important points to consider before choosing a hosting provider:

1. Server Location

Choose a server that is close to your target audience. As a result in faster your website loading.

2. Storage and RAM

For beginners usually 10-20GB storage and 1-2GB RAM is enough.

3. Uptime Guarantee

Find 99.9% uptime to ensure your blog stays online.

4. Security features

Requires free SSL certificate, daily backups and basic malware protection.

5. Support

Make sure your host offers 24/7 customer support.

6. Budget

Shared hosting usually starts from ₹150-₹500/month.

Popular Hosting Providers (2025):

Hosting Platform	Country	Plan Name	Promotional Price Range	Notes
Bluehost	USA	Basic Shared Hosting	₹199-₹299/month	Long term commitment required for lowest price.
Hostinger	Lithuania	Single Web Hosting	₹89-₹149/month	Very low promotional pricing available for long-term commitments. Renewal rate is around ₹289/month.
SiteGround	Bulgaria	StartUp Plan	Often around $3.99 USD.	Promotional price is much less than standard renewal price.
BigRock	India	Starter Linux Hosting	₹199-₹399/month	Initial rates are competitive.
A2 Hosting	USA	Startup Shared Hosting	Often around $1.99 USD.	The lowest rate is a significant promotional discount for new subscribers.
GoDaddy	USA	Economy Plan	₹199-₹499/month	Expect a general promotional price range for long-term subscriptions.
InfinityFree	Netherlands	Free Hosting	₹0	A free tier is available permanently but has limited resources and includes ads.
000WebHost	Cyprus	Free Hosting	₹0	Owned by Hostinger Group. Offers a free tier.
Blogger	USA (Google)	Free Blog Hosting	₹0	Owned by Google.
WordPress.com	USA (Automattic)	Free Plan	₹0	Paid plans start at a lower price.

Note: You can start with Blogger.com if you don't have rupees to buy hosting at the beginning. It is a free platform from Google that allows you to host your website without spending a single rupees. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's useless. In fact millions of bloggers still use it today.

Many successful bloggers (needevery is still on blogger.com) started their journey on blogger and later moved to wordpress. Although it has some limitations in terms of design flexibility, it is still a good way to start. Once your blog starts earning money, you can easily upgrade to paid hosting for more control.

Step 4: Setup Your Website (Installation ⚙)

I will show you the setup of top two platforms blogger.com and wordpress.com. So stay with me.

If you use WordPress:

So we finally get to the exciting part. Now let us set up your blog. In this guide I will be using WordPress as the platform of choice first. Why? Because it is one of the most popular CMS tools that powers over 43% of websites on the Internet.

If you are installing WordPress on a hosting account for the first time, it might seem a bit overwhelming at first. But don’t worry, I’m here. After completing the process you will realize that it is much easier than it looks.

Just follow these simple steps and you will have your first blog up and running in minutes!

STEP-BY-STEP WordPress Installation:

1. Log in to your hosting account

Go to hosting website > Log in to your account. (I'm using Hostinger hosting for this guide, but the steps are pretty much the same for all providers.)

2. Open hPanel

After login, open your hPanel(Hostinger Custom Control Panel).

3. Find the WordPress Installer

Find the Websites section in hPanel and click on Auto Installer.

4. Choose WordPress

Select WordPress from the list of apps.

5. Setup WordPress Details

Domain.
Administrator email.
Username and Password.
Website Title.

6. Select language and version

Select your preferred language (English, हिंदी).
Leave as the latest WordPress version.

7. Complete the installation

Click Install and wait a moment.
Hostinger will automatically set up WordPress on your chosen domain.

Congratulations you have successfully installed WordPress.

Give your blog a personal touch:

Next you will log in to your WordPress dashboard.

You can do this: 👉 https://yourdomain.com/wp-admin (just replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain).

Enter your login details and you will be taken to the WordPress dashboard.

Now let us change two important settings:

1. Blog Title

This is the first thing visitors will notice about your site. Make sure it clearly reflects the content of your blog.

2. Permalink Settings

Go to Permalinks from Settings and select the Post Name option. This makes your blog URLs shorter and SEO-friendly. (example: yourblog.com/?p=123 to yourblog.com/my-first-post).

3. Blog theme

There are thousands of WordPress themes available, some completely free, some paid. Again there are many themes that follow the freemium model (where the basic version is available for free but you have to pay to unlock advanced features).

I will share a few themes that I personally like. But I still recommend exploring the WordPress theme library to find something that truly matches your niche.

Here are some WordPress themes you can start with:

GeneratePress:- Great for bloggers who want simplicity.
OceanWP:- Highly customisable.
Astra:- Another very popular light theme.
Neve:- Perfect if you want modern design.
Hestia:- Blogs that need a polished look.
Kadence:- Customization without slowing your site down.

How to Install a Theme:

Go to Appearance in your WordPress dashboard > Click on Themes > Type the theme name in the search bar > Click on the theme of your choice > Finally click on Activate.

4. Install Plugins

A plugin is basically a small piece of software that adds additional features to your website. Think of it like a browser extension. Just like you download extensions to make your browser more functional, you can install plugins to enhance the functionality of your blog.

Just like themes, WordPress has thousands of plugins to choose from. But to get started I will share few important plugins that every blogging website should have.

Plugin Name	Functionality	Active installations	Visit Link
Yoast SEO	Helps in optimizing your blog posts for search engines.	10+ lakh	Visit
WP Super Cache	Improve site speed by creating static HTML files.	1+ lakh	Visit
Akismet Anti-Spam	Automatically blocks spam comments.	6+ lakh	Visit
Elementor	Drag and drop page builder for easy customization.	10+ lakh	Visit
UpdraftPlus	Backup and restore your site with one click.	3+ lakh	Visit

If You Use Blogger:

If you are a new blogger then this is a good option. Because here you are only spending money on buying a domain. Blogger does not charge you for hosting. But the problem here is that you cannot fully customize your website.

STEP-BY-STEP Blogger Installation:

1. Create a new blog

Go to blogger > Sign in with your google account.
Click on Create new blog.
Choose a blog title, address and template.
Click on Create blog.

Congratulations you have successfully create a blog.

2. Linking Domain to Blogger

Go to your Blogger dashboard.
On the left menu, click on Settings.
Scroll down to the Publications section.
Click on Custom Domain.

You will see an error message. Don't panic! Blogger will now show you two special CNAME records that you copied to notepad.

My advice: Save these CNAME in a text file. Then save the text file to your Google Drive.

How to Set Up CNAME Records for Blogger

Log in into your domain purchase account. [Note:- I am using GoDaddy. Don’t worry this steps are pretty much the same for all providers.]

To connect your GoDaddy domain to your Blogger blog, you need to add CNAME records to your domain DNS settings. These records basically tell the internet that your domain is connected to Blogger servers.

So first go to "My Products" > Locate your domain and open the Manage DNS section. Click "Add" to create a new record in DNS settings and select CNAME as the record type.

We have already received two CNAME records from Blogger. Which you need to add exactly as shown.

The first usually has "www" as the name or host and points to ghs.google.com. Then we will add two unique CNAMEs that we got from blogger. After entering both CNAME records, save the changes. These DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to propagate to the Internet. Once the records are properly set up, Blogger can verify your domain and your blog will be accessible using your GoDaddy custom domain. If you are still having problems setting up a custom domain, visit Google support.

Step 5: Boost Your Site with Social Media (branding 📢)

Having a social media presence is essential to building your brand. Every month, billions of people use Facebook, Instagram for different purposes. This makes it very important for your blog to be active on these sites. By using social media you can bring direct traffic to your blog. Connect with your audience and build brand recognition for your new blog.

Social Media Platform	Global Monthly Active Users(2025)	Type of Platform	Link
Facebook	307+ crore	Social networking	www.facebook.com
Instagram	300+ crore	Photo and Video sharing	www.instagram.com
Twitter (X)	56+ crore	Microblogging	www.twitter.com
LinkedIn	100+ crore	Professional networking	www.linkedin.com
Pinterest	50+ crore	Photo sharing	www.pinterest.com
WhatsApp	300+ crore	Messaging	www.whatsapp.com
YouTube	250+ crore	Video sharing	www.youtube.com

Step 6: Writing Your First Blog post (writing 📝)

Now is the time to write your first post. Here you can share your ideas with the world. Don't worry if it seems hard work at first, every great blogger started with a blank page just like you.

When writing your first blog post, start by choosing a topic that interests you. This can be an introduction about yourself or a guide to your niche. The key is to keep it relevant to your audience and write in a way that feels natural.

Once you have selected a topic, structure your post properly. So how to create a blog post that readers will love?

Interesting title.
A description that explains what the post is about.
The body where you share useful information.
A conclusion. Which motivates readers to comment further on your blog.

Use short paragraphs to help your content be easier to read. Adding images also breaks up the text and can increase the interest of your readers.

Conclusion

Now that you have all the tools at your fingertips, stop waiting and start your blogging journey. At first it may seem hard work, but trust me it is a big step in your life.

Blogging is not just about writing posts, it is about sharing your opinion. Whether you want to tell your personal story or teach people something new, blogging can open doors you never imagined. You can also get financial freedom. GO GO, YES You Can Do It. Hit publish on that first post and start your journey.

Remember that if you need guidance or someone to share your progress with, I am always here for you. I would love to hear about your journey.