How To Start A Blog In Jamaica

Starting a blog in Jamaica is not rocket science. It’s as easy as ABC or 123. So, how to start a blog then? First thing is that you must have a topic, in a particular niche, to write about.

A niche is like a sub-topic of a main topic. For example, you want to know how to start a blog. A blog would be your main topic of interest, however, there are many types of blogs that you can create.

Some types of blogs are: fashion blog, health blog, auto blog, gossip blog, making money online blog and the list goes on and on. Also, within each of those niches there are many other sub-niches.

For example, fashion blog, you might want to blog about hair style and within your hair style blog you might want to concentrate on natural hair and within natural hair you might want to concentrate on short natural hair. Do you get the gist now about a niche? OK, so if you do, let’s move on.

By now you should have thought about your niche. The next thing you want to think about is getting your blog on the internet. There are basically three (3) ways in which you can get your blog online:

• By self hosting your blog
• By hosting on a shared domain OR Free hosting
• By submitting your blogs to a blog website

I will now explain each of these form of blogging methods below:

Self Hosting is a paid service which means that you would register a domain name and buy hosting service from a Web Hosting and Domain Name Provider like Name Cheap.

I deliberately said register and not buy a domain name because that is what you do. You register a domain name for one (1) year and at the end of each year you have to renew your domain name or you will lose it.

One good thing is that you can register you domain name for a few years in advance so that you don’t have to bother with annual re-renewal.

The cost to register a domain name is approximately JM$1350 per year, cost varies with different Web Hosting and Domain Name Provider.

A general guide to buying a domain name is that it is recommended that a good domain name has a maximum of about fifteen (15) letters.

You should also make your domain name memorable and easy to spell. avoiding spelling such a bolgz, kidz, fashion-blog, domain4u, or cars4sale. Keep you name simple, catching and easy to remember.

Self hosted blogs are the most popular and I would recommend that you start your blog this way if you can afford it.

As for web hosting, you can buy web hosting services for a year, six (6) months, three (3) months or one (1) month. You also have the choice of buying web hosting services for a few years in advance and forget about it for a while.

The cost to host a domain name is approximately JM$750 per month, cost will vary with different Web Hosting and Domain Name Provider.

Hosting your blog on a shared domain OR Free hosting is when you sign up for an account with blogging platform such as Blogger.com and WordPress.com.

Your blog would be hosted free and you don’t have to worry about domain name renewal or web hosting fees. While a cost-free blog is good, there are some disadvantages to it. These disadvantages are:

• You will not have a clean domain name like ShortHairGossips.com, instead your blog name would be ShortHairGossips.blooger.com or ShortHairGossips.wordpress.com.
• You will have limited control over your blog, in that, you will have to agree to there terms of use. In case you published any content that breaches their terms of use, thy can close down your blog for good.
• If your blog gets really popular and profitable and you would like to sell it because of some reason, then that would be difficult to do. This is because you do not own the domain you are blogging on. A domain name is like a raw piece of land and the moment you start writing blogs and published on it, it will increase in value. That is just like building a house on a piece of land that you own.

You can submit your blogs to blog websites such as MyBlogGuest.com and Atcontent.com. Most times, when you submit blogs on a website, you have to abide by their guidelines and the blogs you submit then become their property. Your blog must also be original and cannot be published anywhere on the internet.

To set-up a blog on a shared domain is pretty easy with little technical work to do. However, to host your own domain will require some minor technical set-up. Once you are set-up, you’re good to go.

Blogging requires consistency and you will have to prepare to write blogs as often as possible. You can write and publish blog(s) everyday or once per week or whenever you want.

To be successful primarily, it depends on your consistency and the amount of interest you put in it. Blogs can be on a professional terms where you make money or as a hobby where you blog every now and then.

Usually people give up on their blogs early because they expect thousands of visitors by the end of the first week.

This is a false expectation because nothing really becomes successful overnight. Therefore, you should not get caught up in that mindset either.

Again, the important thing about blogging is consistency. You will learn the ins and outs as you go along and the little technical tweaking here and there. You should not only dream about having a big successful blog but you must TAKE ACTION to start one.

If you find this blog useful, please leave us a comment or share your experience for other readers to see.

In subsequent blogs I will tell you more about the little intricacies of how to start a blog.