How I’d Start a Blog From Scratch in 2026 (Knowing What I Know Now)

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In this post I’m going to go over exactly how I’d start a blog from scratch in 2026 (knowing what I know now).

Starting a blog is one of those things that feels SO much easier once you’ve already done it.

When you first start blogging you spend so much time trying to work out what you’re supposed to be doing… Things like which tools are needed, what you should be focusing on first and whether you are somehow missing something everyone else already knows lol.

We are all the same at the start.

Fast forward a few years and there are definitely things I’d approach completely differently if I had to go back and start again this year.

I know which things I’d set up straight away, what I’d start working on much earlier and which things really didn’t deserve anywhere near the amount of time or attention I gave them.

And I definitely wouldn’t try to do everything at once.

There is SO much blogging advice out there and a neverending number of tools, plugins, courses and strategies you can try that it’s ridiculously easy to make the whole thing much more complicated than it really needs to be.

If I was starting a blog from scratch in 2026, I’d go right back to basics, get the important things in place early on and spend my time on the things I now know can actually help a blog grow and make money.

So, knowing everything I know now, this is exactly how I’d start blogging from scratch in 2026.

1. I’d Start With WordPress and Proper Hosting

Before worrying about Pinterest, email lists, affiliate marketing or any of the other things that come a bit later, you obviously need an actual blog to work with.

If I was starting again, I’d still choose self-hosted WordPress. EVERY TIME.

There are very few benefits to a free blog aside from it being free. If you want to make money from your blog, self hosted is the way to go.

It gives you so much more control over your site and (more importantly) you’re not going to outgrow it six months down the line when you suddenly want to add something you hadn’t even thought about when you first started.

Also – these go hand-in-hand – I’d also pay for proper hosting from day one.

You definitely don’t need to pick the most expensive hosting package available when your blog is brand new. But hosting is one of the things I wouldn’t try to avoid paying for just to save a little bit of money at the beginning lol. It’s what your entire website runs on…. It’s important lol.

If I was starting again, HostGator is still the hosting I’d use. I started on it and wouldn’t change it. It gives you everything you need to get a self-hosted WordPress blog up and running, without having to spend a fortune when you’re only just getting started. 

If you want to have a proper look before signing up, I’ve also written a full HostGator review where you can see what you actually get and whether it’s right for you and your blog.

Once the Technical Side Was Sorted, I’d Keep Everything Else Pretty Simple

Choose a theme you like [I currently use AshePro as of writing this in Sept 2026), set up your main pages (including the legal pages I’ll explain below) and then get on with actually creating content.

This take is a little controversial…. You will read everywhere things like “Don’t spend three weeks changing fonts, rearranging the homepage and trying to get every tiny detail looking perfect before anybody was even visiting”. I have probably said this myself! But honestly, your blog is new, you will have spent time setting it up and choosing a theme etc so enjoy it! Change all the settings and details you like. Have fun with it! Yes you will keep modifying and editing and changing things but that’s going to happen anyway lol.

(Just don’t install 300 plugins as they will slow your brand new site down too much.)

The more you get into blogging, the more you’ll discover things you want to add, remove or completely redo. So there’s no need to have the finished version figured out on day one, but that doesn’t mean you have to rush the set up process – unless you want to! 

After it’s set up, the important thing is then getting your first posts published as that then gives you something to start building on.

And if you’re right at the beginning and need help with the setup itself, my How To Start a Blog in 2026 post takes you through the whole process.

2. I’d Follow One Proper Blogging Plan Instead of Trying to Learn Everything at Once

There is SO much free information about blogging online, which sounds brilliant when you’re first getting started. And for BEFORE you start, it actually is.

Whatever you’re trying to figure out, there’s most likely a blog post, YouTube video or tutorial somewhere that can help you with how to do it.

The problem is that you can very quickly end up jumping between ten (or 60) different people who all have completely different ideas about what you should be doing first.

One person tells you to concentrate on SEO, somebody else says Pinterest should be your priority and before you know it, you’ve got 26 tabs open and absolutely no idea what you were originally trying to do.

Again – we have all been there lol.

If I was starting again, I’d still use free information whenever I needed help with something specific, but I’d choose ONE main plan to follow so I knew what to work on and in what order.

Choose A Decent Course From the Start

That’s why I’d still use and choose this exact blogging course. Instead of trying to piece everything together yourself from completely different sources, you get to have all the main parts of starting and growing a SUCCESSFUL blog laid out for you in one place. No faff, just a LOT of amazing info and tips.

This way you can learn how to set up your blog, create your blog content, work on SEO, start using affiliate marketing and everything else – all in one place, and without randomly discovering six months later that there was something important you completely missed.

I can’t recommend it enough but if you want to see exactly what you get before deciding whether it’s right for you, I’ve written a full review of the blogging course I recommend where I go through what’s included and why I recommend it – and to who.

3. I’d Get the Legal Side Sorted Early

Legal pages are probably not going to be the part of starting a blog that you’re most excited to get stuck into lol.

You may not even realise what they are or if you need them.

(Spoiler alert, you do.)

They are very important and they are something worth sorting out early. Especially if the plan is to eventually make money from your blog.

Even a brand-new blog can start collecting information from visitors through things like cookies, analytics, contact forms and email sign-ups. And if you’re using affiliate links, your readers need to know that you could earn a commission if they buy something you recommend.

You need to declare the use of affiliate links in each post – above any affiliate links.

But There Are a Few Legal Pages You’ll Need to Have on Your Blog

This includes things like a privacy policy, cookie policy, terms and conditions and affiliate disclosure.

Basically, these tell people what information your blog collects and what happens to it, set out the terms for using your site and make it clear when you could make money from a link or recommendation.

The problem is, sitting down and trying to work out what on earth you’re supposed to put in all of those pages isn’t exactly simple. You can of course pay a Lawyer to draft these up for you but that option is a lot more time consuming and a lot more expensive.

That’s why I’d use this exact Legal Pages Bundle. It gives you the legal templates you need so you’re not trying to write everything yourself or wondering whether you’ve forgotten something important.

The entire set of pages was written by a Lawyer, FOR blogs.

The templates are mostly all written for you, you just edit in or out the bits relevant to you and you can have them all live in less than 30 mins.

Get them set up early, add your edited/personalised ones to your blog and that’s one of the less exciting jobs ticked off already! This then leaves you free to get back to writing blog content.

For more information on the legal bundle and why it’s so important, I have a full post here you can go through.

4. I’d Do Keyword Research Before I Started Writing Loads of Posts

This is one of the things I’d start doing MUCH earlier.

When you first start blogging, it’s really easy to think of something you want to write about and then spend hours creating the post and then move straight onto the next idea without ever checking whether people are actually searching for it.

You don’t need to let keyword research completely dictate what you write obviously but it makes sense to do a little research before spending half a day creating a post that noone then ever finds.

Have a look at things like:

• What people are actually searching for
• Whether there are more specific versions of your topic
• What questions people are asking
• How competitive the keywords are
• Whether there are related keywords you could include

For a brand-new blogger, Keysearch is a great place to start. It’s so much more affordable than some of the bigger SEO tools and gives you the main keyword research features you actually need without feeling like you’ve suddenly acquired another full-time job just trying to understand the dashboard lol.

If you want something more advanced, Semrush gives you a LOT more to work with, including much more detailed keyword and competitor research.

I’ve also got a full post explaining what Semrush is and how bloggers can use it for keyword research if you want to see what you can actually do with it before deciding whether you need something that powerful as not everyone will.

5. I’d Start Building My Email List MUCH Earlier

If there’s one other thing I definitely wouldn’t wait around to start this time, it’s an email list.

It’s really easy to think you need to be getting loads of traffic first because what’s the point in having an email list when hardly anyone is visiting your blog yet?

You would honestly be surprised!

Those first visitors are EXACTLY why you want to start one early.

If someone finds one of your posts and enjoys it, having an email list gives them an easy way to stick around and hear from you again.

You have a direct way to share information/new content and they don’t have to remember your blog’s name to find it again so it’s a win from both sides.

And one of the easiest ways to encourage people to sign up is by creating a freebie that fits in nicely with what they came to your blog for in the first place.

It could be a (niche specific):

• Checklist
• Printable
• Short ebook
• Template
• Workbook
• Resource list

You Don’t Need to Spend Weeks Creating Something Huge Either

A smaller freebie that’s genuinely useful can be more than enough to get started. Even just a page.

As an example, if you write about budgeting, you could create a savings tracker. Or if you write about meal planning, you could put together a simple weekly meal planner etc.

The idea is just to give your readers something useful to take away with them while also giving them the option to hear from you again.

I use MailerLite for my own email list and it’s what I’d choose again. You can start off on whichever plan suits you best (there is a totally free plan) and then upgrade as you go which is exactly what I did.

You can create your sign-up forms, landing pages and automated emails all in one place (different plans have different features), which makes getting everything set up much easier when you’re new to email marketing.

I’d Also Set Up a Simple Welcome Sequence From the Beginning

That way, when somebody joins your email list, they can automatically receive their freebie followed by a few emails introducing them to you and some of the other useful content on your blog or whichever other helpful info you have included.

Even if you’re only getting a few new subscribers at first, they all add up over time. Starting early means your email list can grow alongside your blog rather than reaching the point where you’re finally getting regular traffic and wishing you’d given all those earlier visitors a way to subscribe too.

It also helps get your own confidence up in sending emails when you have a small list initially and you can of course ask for feedback too.

And if you’ve never set up an email list before, my Email Marketing for Beginners post takes you through how to get started and what you can actually send once people begin subscribing.

6. I’d Start Using Pinterest From the Beginning

I wouldn’t rely completely on Google to start sending traffic to a brand-new blog.

Google can obviously be an amazing source of traffic, but Pinterest gives you another way to start getting your posts in front of people fairly instantly. And you can do this – for free – while you’re working on growing your Google/search traffic too.

Getting good traffic can take a lot longer for a few reasons, but especially for a brand new website you will get stuck in Google’s Sandbox for a period of time initially! (Nothing scary, but explains why there can be a delay before getting an audience from Google itself.)

Set up a Pinterest business account, link it to your website, create boards around the main topics you’re going to write about (you can modify and add more later so don’t overthink this bit) and then you start creating pins for your blog posts as you publish them.

You’ve already spent hours researching and writing the post, so you might as well give people more than one way to actually find it!

I’d Also Recommend to Use an Online Tool to Create All of Your Pinterest Pins

Canva makes it really easy to create different designs/templates for the same post without having to start completely from scratch every time.

And you’ll probably find yourself using Canva for plenty of other things on your blog too lol. Including things like:

• Blog graphics
• Email freebies
• Ebooks
• Checklists
• Workbooks
• Digital products

The free version is honestly more than enough to get started with as well. Some people never need to upgrade from the free plan either. So this is another one where you don’t need to immediately add a new monthly expense which is always a win.

And if you’re completely new to Pinterest or want some more in-depth info, my Pinterest Marketing for Beginners in 2026 post goes through how to get started and how you can use it to bring more traffic to your blog.

7. I’d Set Up My Free Analytics Tools and Let Them Collect Data

Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two things I’d get connected to a new blog pretty much straight away.

They sound scary but are really simple to set up and are SO important to be able to see real time analytics.

They’re both completely free and as your blog starts getting traffic, they can give you SO much useful information about what’s actually happening with it.

Google Search Console can show you which searches your posts are appearing for in Google, how many impressions, their positions and clicks they’re getting and which pages Google has indexed etc.

Google Analytics lets you see more about the traffic actually coming to your blog, including where your visitors are coming from, which pages they’re looking at and how people are finding you.

The only thing I wouldn’t do is set them up and then spend the next three weeks checking them every five minutes. (Again, we have all been there lol, especially with the realtime tracker for people who have been on your site in the last 5/30 mins lol.) 

But to be real, there probably isn’t going to be anything particularly exciting happening in Google Analytics on Day 4 of a brand-new blog, and that’s completely normal!

Get everything connected, check that it’s working properly and then leave it collecting data in the background while you get on with creating more content for your shiny new blog.

Once your blog starts getting more traffic, you’ll then have access to all of that information, sitting there ready to have a look into and you can start using it to see what’s working, which posts are getting found and where your traffic is actually coming from.

What I Wouldn’t Do If I Started Blogging Again

As well as all the things I’d start earlier, there are definitely a few things I’d spend a LOT less time worrying about if I was starting again too.

I wouldn’t wait until the blog looked perfect before publishing anything. No one will see your initial posts anyway unless you share them to specific people so it’s a good way to practice.

I wouldn’t sign up for every tool I saw another blogger recommending or pay for three different things that basically did the same job. 

Do your research, read up on what will work for YOU and go for that.

I know I mentioned this earlier but I would NOT install loads of random plugins. Just the essential ones as you will grow your plugin library as you go. And on that note, please do not ever hit “update all” for your plugin updates. You don’t want to know how badly it can crash your whole website (talking from experience) lol.

I also wouldn’t write post after post without doing any keyword research first, and I definitely wouldn’t wait until I was getting loads of traffic before starting an email list.

But probably the biggest one would be trying to do absolutely everything at the same time.

There Is ALWAYS Something Else You Could Be Working on With a Blog

SEO, Pinterest, email marketing, affiliate marketing, digital products, social media, updating old posts, writing new ones… the list never really ends lol.

And if you try to work on all of them at once, it’s surprisingly easy to spend an entire day being really busy while somehow getting absolutely nothing finished that will actually help your blog to grow.

You don’t need to have every part of blogging figured out from the beginning. A lot of things will come up as you go and you can adjust as that happens.

Initially, concentrate on what makes the most sense for your blog right now, get that working and then add more as you go.

And when you’re ready to start making money from the content you’re creating, my Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: First £1,000 post will take you through how to get started with affiliate marketing and work towards those first commissions.

The Blogging Tools I’d Actually Use

So although there are hundreds of blogging tools available, my actual setup would still be pretty small.

I’d use:

• WordPress to build the blog
• HostGator for hosting
• Blogging course to give me a simple but highly effective step by step roadmap
• AshePro Theme to make your blog look professional from the start 
• Legal Pages Bundle to get the legal side sorted
• Semrush for keyword research and SEO
• MailerLite for my email list
• Canva for graphics, pins and freebies
• Pinterest for another source of traffic
• Google Search Console and Google Analytics for data
• Plugins – But research exactly which ones YOU need

(If anyone has questions on which plugins I use, feel free to reach out or leave a comment and I can go into my list in more detail.)

Some of the things on the do cost some money (such as Hosting) which is to be expected with any business. But some have free options and some are completely free.

If I Really Had to Start From Zero Tomorrow…

If I had to wipe everything clean and start a brand-new blog tomorrow, the biggest thing I’d do differently wouldn’t actually be choosing different blogging tools (aside from the Blogging Course which I would get asap to save SO much time).

It would be how I spent my time.

I’d get the blog live without spending weeks trying to make every tiny detail perfect. You can still spend the time changing all the little details, but if you do it AFTER the blog is live, it gives Google a headstart in knowing that there’s a new website it should be aware of! Google can’t find a website if it’s not live lol.

I’d have one main plan to follow, do keyword research before spending hours writing posts and start my email list MUCH earlier.

I’d also use Pinterest from the beginning so Google wasn’t the only way I woul be relying on people to find my content.

And when it came to blogging tools, I’d only add something when I actually had a reason to need/use it. There’s not much point having 15 different tools (yes this includes those plugins lol) sitting there if half of them are solving problems you don’t even have yet.

If I was starting a blog from scratch in 2026, I’d keep things as simple as possible, concentrate on creating useful content and give myself more time to actually work on growing the blog and enjoy the process.

Everything else can be added as you need it.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out!

Speak soon!

Katherine

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