How to Create a Blog: 4 Easy Steps

There are four simple steps to creating a blog: choose a blogging platform, pick the topic and name, select a theme or template, and create content for your blog. If you follow these steps, you’ll be able to get your blog live and ready for readers today!

Creating a blog doesn’t have to be as tricky as you think. With a great number of website builders out there with features including AI website builders, it’s never been easier to get started without ruining your budget.

In our research, Squarespace came out on top as the best web builder for blogging thanks to its excellent AI builder, customization options, and easy-to-use platform — with its cheapest plan starting at just $16 a month, or just $14.40 per month with our code ‘TC10.’

We’ll also cover a wide range of helpful blog-building topics that will guide you through the best ways to make a website to suit your goals. You could try building a blog for free as well — we’ll explain later in this guide how to do that (and why we recommend you don’t!).

In this guide:

• 4 Steps to Creating a Successful Blog
• How to Make Money from Your Blog
• How to Create a Blog for Free
• How to Start Blogging Today
• FAQs
• How We Test Website Builders

4 Steps to Creating a Successful Blog

If you think that you don’t have it in you to create your own website, then feel reassured that modern website builders really do make it a walk in the park. There are four key steps to go about building and publishing a blog site:

1. Pick the topic and name of your blog
2. Choose a blogging platform
3. Select a blog theme or template
4. Create content for your blog

In the guide below, we’ll walk you through each of these steps to create a blog, as well as walk you through some of the best website builders and explain how you can create a blog for free.

1. Pick the topic and name for your blog

Choosing a simple, memorable name and topic for your blog will help it stand out from the vast array of blogs out there.

When choosing your topic, think about what makes your business unique. Perhaps you are an expert in a niche field, or you have demonstrable experience solving your clients’ issues. Focusing on what your business can offer specifically will help the right people find your blog.

In terms of names, we would recommend writing out a list of options and seeing which one fits your content most. Keep it simple, and make it easy for your users to remember. It may also be useful to make sure the name is not taken by another website or social media account.

Choosing your website domain

When we talk about a website’s domain, we’re basically talking about the website’s address. For example, Tech.co is the name of our website, and the domain is https://tech.co. You’ll typically want your website’s domain to correspond with the name of your business, blog, or whatever purpose you’re running it for.

Most website builders will give you a free domain to get started with, but they’ll often have the name of the website builder shoehorned in. My imaginatively named cupcake restaurant, Cupcakes, would have the domain https://tomfogden.wixsite.com/cupcakes. Not exactly catchy.

You’ll have to pay to remove this from your domain. Fortunately, with most website builders, this comes as part of the cheapest plan. Should you already be the proud owner of a domain, you can connect a pre-existing domain to the website builder on the site’s settings page.

2. Choose a Blogging Platform

The easiest way to create a website is by using a website builder. These are interactive, browser-based tools that will let you create a website using one of their off-the-shelf templates. You’ll be amazed at just how professional-looking the templates can be, and they leave lots of room for customization at every step of the way.

As for which website builder we would recommend? Based on our expert testing and independent user feedback focused on their blogging functionality, we would vouch for the following:

1. Wix – best for template options and AI features
2. Squarespace – best for ease of use and design options (Use code “TC10” for 10% off)
3. WordPress – best for affordability
4. Shopify – best for growing a platform

You can view more details about each builder below.

From our thorough testing, Wix emerged as the best website builder for blogging. We invited first-time users of website builders, plus more experienced users, to try various platforms and provide feedback on how they found each one.

We also appraised the features, plug-ins, apps, and help & support available when forming our recommendations. From a blogging standpoint, we also measured a number of important features, like comments, user profiles, and search functionality, as well as some indirect blogging perks, like SEO, storage, and restore options.

Still, Wix isn’t the only game in town, and there are lots of other high-quality website builders you can choose from.

Wix – Best for templates and AI features

When it comes to website builders, you can’t get much better than Wix. As the top-rated option from our in-depth research, Wix provides everything a budding blogger could need to get a site up and running to host their blog.

With virtually every blogging feature available in all templates, Wix provides the robust website builder necessary to handle any and all your blogging needs.

In fact, the only feature missing from Wix when it comes to blogging is the ability to reformat or switch templates. So, if you think you’ll be changing the theme or style of your blog often, GoDaddy could be a better option.

Likewise, Wix’s templates aren’t as nice as Squarespace’s, but they still look pretty great compared to other competitors. You’re also guaranteed to find a template that works for you, with over 900 options to choose from.

Wix also provides one of the easiest-to-use platforms, even for beginners, so you won’t have to understand the technical side of website building to get by. Better yet, Wix’s AI features were the most extensive of the builders we tested, offering everything from guided SEO support to text creation functionality.

Simply put, Wix is the best website builder out there, and it provides more than enough functionality to make a great choice for any blogger.

Using Wix, I found it beneficial having a checklist of what I needed to do to get my website up and running, as well as links to how Wix could help me. Source: Tech.co

What’s new for Wix?

• Rive, a graphics and animation tool, has been added to Wix’s app roster and can now be integrated into Wix Studio, its advanced platform. (May 2025)
• An adaptive content feature that uses AI has been introduced, which aims to personalize the website experience for users by using visitor characteristics and instructions. (May 2025)

Squarespace – Best for ease of use and design options

Don’t underestimate the power of a good-looking website when it comes to creating a blog. First impressions are everything, and a beautiful template could keep readers on your blog for a lot longer than you think. With Squarespace, you are not only getting a good, high-functioning website builder with lots of features, but you also get access to some of the most aesthetically pleasing templates available from website builders.

Squarespace offers most of the core features when it comes to blogging as well, including writer profiles, display categories, comments, and social media integrations. However, there are a few limitations that are worth noting, including no option for archiving and a lack of meaningful analytics, which can be a dealbreaker for blog creators who need to know how they’re doing.

Overall, though, Squarespace is one of the best website builders out there, and its blogging functionality is up to snuff for the majority of use cases. Plus, those templates really put it in a league of its own.

Once I’d selected my plans to make a travel blog, Squarespace gave me a text sample based on the brand personality I chose, which was Professional. Source: Tech.co

What’s new for Squarespace?

• You can now generate and download QR codes for any page on your Squarespace website, helping drive your visitors to certain key pages. (May 2025)

WordPress.com – Best for affordability

If you’re looking into blogging, there’s no chance you haven’t heard of WordPress. As arguably the most well-known website builder in the world, WordPress accounts for nearly 500 million websites online today, and it has a lot of loyal followers in the business community.

The basic layout is easy for beginners, and the affordable price is accessible to individuals and small businesses, so you can get started on WordPress fairly quickly.

WordPress offers the majority of blogging features, like writer profiles, comments, social media integrations, and post scheduling. WordPress is also SEO-friendly, which is a great addition for bloggers looking to grow their audience as much as possible, as it helps you make your site discoverable on search engines.

However, while the basics are easy to understand, becoming a WordPress expert may require consulting one of the many YouTube tutorials out there.

Still, at the price, WordPress is absolutely a website builder to consider for blogging, if only because the community is so large and, outside of SEO, has a wide range of other tools to get you noticed online.

At Tech.co, we use WordPress, and find it suits our website perfectly. Source: WordPress.com

What’s new for WordPress?

In April 2025, WordPress released its 6.8 version, and it comes with a ton of new features. Here are a few:

• The Style Book, a feature in the Site Editor, has a new layout and clearer labels, making it easier to edit your site styles all in one place.
• Two new commands have been added to the Command Palette, including ‘Add New Page’, which allows you to create a new page from anywhere in the Site Editor, and ‘Open Site Editor’, which allows one-click navigation to the Site Editor from Page or Post Editor screens.
• The cut function is now available in block options, making it easier to move and edit sections within your content.

You can explore more about this update by accessing the full 6.8 press release.

Host a blog yourself

Building a website is infinitely easier with a website builder. However, if you’re technically proficient enough to code and build a website yourself with a CMS, more power to you.

The process is decidedly more difficult, particularly if you aren’t familiar with coding, but it can save you money, so this methodology is often free through providers like WordPress.org. If you came to this article wondering how you create a blog on WordPress, this could be the option for you.

However, you’re still going to need to host your website, and that won’t be free. Most website builders provide free hosting, but if you build it yourself, you’ll have to find a web hosting provider.

Our top recommendation for web hosting providers is BlueHost, a popular, easy-to-use option that won’t cost you too much.

3. Select a theme for your blog

We’re going to be using Wix as an example here, as it’s our top choice for blogging. While it might not be exactly the same with every website builder, the experience isn’t that different.

Getting set up

First, you’ll be asked who the website is for – yourself, your friend or your business, or a client as a freelancer.

Next, you’ll be taken to Wix’s AI chat builder, which can easily get you started based on information about the site you’re creating, and will then customize your dashboard with everything you’ll need to manage it.

If you’d rather do this yourself, don’t worry – there is also the option to set up the page without Chat.

Swerving the AI route, Wix will then ask you for the type of website that you want to create, will it be an online store for customers to peruse your products, or maybe a page for your restaurant.

In this case, I’ll select blog, and from there, I’ll get a series of options about the kind of blog, including mindfulness, education, and technology.

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you’ll be prompted to pick a name, but don’t worry if you haven’t chosen one yet, as you can easily skip this step and move on to choosing your site goals and integration preferences.

Then, you’ll be taken to your dashboard, where you can begin to design your site.

I was grateful when starting to create my website that I had the option to skip choosing a name, as I was still deciding on one. Source: Tech.co

To begin designing your blog using Wix, you can either choose and customize one of their many, many templates, or generate a template with AI. Sticking with my Cupcakes restaurant, I could be tempted by the food blog template.

If you don’t like any of the templates provided, there is also the option to start from scratch with blank templates.

4. Create content for your blog

So now you’ve picked your template, we’re onto the actual website-development-y part of the process. The template will be pre-loaded with stock words and images, which you can chop and change to your liking.

Click on the image below to see the Wix website editor in action!

I was really pleased at how quickly I was able to pick up the Wix website editor, and the process of designing my blog’s landing page felt smooth and interactive. Source: Tech.co

Adding Images

Uploading an image is as easy as it is when uploading one to Facebook or Twitter. If you don’t have any to include, you’re typically loads of stock images to choose from as well.

Editing Text

Changing the text is, again, pretty straightforward – all you have to do is click on the bit of text you’d like to change, and you’ll be able to type straight into the text box.

You can also adjust the size and style of each bit of text, but it’s worth remembering that each font will generally be consistent with the template, so making radical changes might make it look a bit odd.

Drag and Drop

Wix, like most other website builders, uses a grid-based, drag-and-drop system for page editing. This means that it’ll be straightforward to keep each element on your page in line, and when you want to add a new text box, image, or any other type of element, you’ll be able to see, at a glance, how to fit it onto your page.

You’re also able to change the pages on your site, whether they scroll straight into one another, and a host of other site-wide factors from the settings or pages menu, rather than with the grid-based editor.

This can feel slightly confusing at first, but it works to keep the page-specific content separate from the overall site navigation and usability.

Extra Tools and Functions

You’ll also be able to add elements beyond text boxes and images with Wix and other website builders. These might include, for example, restaurant menus, contact forms, or social media feeds.

Again, you’ll be able to drop these onto the page and line them up using the gridlines. You might find that some apps and functionality are reserved for paid-for plans, but typically this is for ecommerce functions such as stock tracking and shipping costs.

Drawing Attention to Your Blog

Once your blog is up and running, you can draw readers to your site via many different channels. Try shouting out your blog on your Instagram story, or including the blog in any business emails you send to clients. This will make your customers aware that your blog is out there and draw them into reading.

How to Make Money from Your Blog

While individual users are often just setting up a blog for the sake of getting content out there, most businesses launch a blog in hopes of making a bit more money from it.

But how do you do that? Fortunately, we’ve done a bit of research to help you find out how to create a blog and make money. Take a look at a few tips we’ve come up with below:

• Display ads – You’ve likely seen them all over the internet, but online ads can be a great way to create some passive income from your blog. You’ll need to get enough traffic to earn enough to make it worth it, but once you do, you’ll be on your way.
• Write sponsored posts – Again, if your traffic is consistent enough, companies may hire you to write sponsored posts on your blog, which can make you a good chunk of change
• Use affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is a common means of revenue for bloggers. You just input links in your content to specific products, and if someone uses those links to buy said product, you get a small percentage of the purchase.
• Write reviews – If you want to keep your blog as independent as possible, reviews are a great way to make money from your blog without using ads or sponsored content.

As we mentioned, many of these methods for adding revenue to your blog experience will require enough traffic to warrant advertisers’ interest. Still, if you can get those visitor counts up, you’ll finally know how to create a blog and make money, which could seriously add value to your business as a whole.

How to Create a Blog for Free

There are various ways of publishing a website for free, including using a website builder platform. However, the downsides mean you’ll have to accept a lot of limitations.

Yes, you can publish an entire website for free, without paying a dime. And sure, this may sound great, but you’ll end up with a substandard website because of all the compromises you’ll have to make.

In fact, we’d go as far as to say that you should never create a website for free.

The Pitfalls of Using Free Website Builders to Build Your Blog

If you’re running a business, you might even lose customers due to the limitations of free website publishing. That small saving upfront could cost you in the long run.

Your site will be covered in adverts, and you won’t be able to get a custom domain name, leaving you with something generic and ugly. Here’s an example of the domain name you’ll get with a free website:

What about making a Facebook or Substack page?

Building a Facebook page for your business is definitely a good idea, particularly for bloggers looking to find new readers. The same can be said for Substack, another big game in the blogging arena.

While Facebook is a good shout for businesses looking to gain followers and establish their brand, limiting your online presence to a single page means you’ll be missing out on building an audience in a more substantial way.

Substack, on the other hand, allows users to easily build and manage an email list, and its rich networking and community features mean your blog can quickly find its audience.

However, again, it lacks the features that businesses might need, such as in-depth analytics and customization options.

For both platforms, you run the risk of your business looking a little amateurish and unprofessional if you are using Facebook or Substack as an alternative to a website.

And, you’ll be missing out on the many features website builders have to offer, such as user profiles and SEO functionality, which could greatly impact how high your site appears on Google’s rankings.

How We Test Website Builders