How to Start a News Blog: Broadcast the News in Your Own Words!

Nothing keeps the world on its toes quite as news does. Good news, bad news, sports news, current news, breaking news—however you read it, the news is the ultimate source of information in the technology age.

And since the business world has, on a large scale, transcended online, it is no wonder that news blogs are the ultimate go-to information provider of today.

With over 600 million existing news blogs online, the competition is more than fierce.

But, with the right tactics at your disposal and some in-depth blogging knowledge, starting a news blog can turn into a highly profitable business.

For all blogging rookies who are wondering how to start a news blog—below is a detailed guide to point you in the right direction.

How to Start a News Blog: Introduction

Running a news blog requires a Jack-of-all-trades attitude. To keep up with the latest occurrences and also learn how to start a news blog, you need to carry out around-the-clock research, be on top of your blogging game, and go with your gut in deciding which news makes the news—and which doesn’t.

When it comes to starting a news blog or learning how to start a news blog—your primary goal will be to scoop the latest intel and word it in a way that appeals to your desired audience.

What is a News Blog?

In essence, a news blog is a type of news-publishing platform that mainly generates written and current-stories content.

When learning how to start a news blog or starting a news blog, the language used will be different from most other reporting sites or broadcasts, meaning it can be more informal, as long as it captures the news’ essence.

When it comes to local news blogs, these mainly run on published blog posts that concern a certain area.

Such blog posts typically feature crucial info concerning the blog title, as well as expanded elaboration and details on the matter. The language in blog posts is generally more conventional and appropriate to read for all ages.

Starting a News Blog: The Basics

Stellar vocabulary, a functional blogging site, a spotless reputation, and continuous management of your blog are some of the basic things you’ll need to maintain if your goal is to rise to be a profitable and well-known news blog.

Not to mention, your news blog needs to be up-to-date with all happenings—and transparently deliver every piece of information received.

Unlike TV journalists or reporters, the advantage of running a news blog is that you get to be in control of what is published—and how.

In doing so, being non-bias and to the point will enable you to present all news coming your way more transparently, helping you grow and maintain trust with your readership over time.

The initial steps to consider before you even set up your news blog include:

• Identify your niche
• Pick the right name for your news blog
• Assemble your equipment
• Set up all social media

Let’s have an individual look at each of these factors that will need to be ticked off for your journey to start a news blog to be successful.

Identify Your Niche

While you can go for the entire news shebang—and cover topics A to Z—you might benefit more from actually specifying your news niche, and sticking to, say, politics, fashion, sports, or something else entirely.

Let’s look at E-News for example.

It would be strange if they went from reporting on Kim Kardashian’s latest fashion business move to Putin’s military intentions along Ukraine’s border.

Whichever specified field you decide to cover in your news blog, you need to ensure the content is readable, comprehensible, relevant to your niche, and, above all, engaging.

Once you identify your niche, it is time to associate it with a designated audience.

Evaluate Your Target Audience

If your target audience is more mature and cultural, you can feature riper topics of interest in your news blog, like politics, economics, lifestyle, show-business, and if you really want to grab their attention within a growing trend, eco-news.

Should you decide, let’s say, to blog on politics, ensure that you are not partial in any regard—even if you have a political side you lean towards.

As the internet is opinionated already, the last thing you want is to further provoke your audience with biased political news.

Remember, your fundamental goal is to bring impartial news to your audience so they can evaluate it and build their opinion from what they read, not to push your agenda.

When it comes to your audience and retaining it, choosing a suitable niche is paramount. You can easily do that by running your ideas through Google Trends and seeing what’s popping in the news blog realm.

Aside from generating news content, you can consider opening audience discussions on your blog site, so more like-minded (and not) individuals can pitch in and share their two cents on a specific topic.

Pick the Right Name

If you are wondering how to start a news blog, a great place to start is its name.

If your news blog name does not scream attention, relevance, and essence, it will likely go unnoticed by many potential readers. So, after you’ve identified your niche, it’s time to get creative with your news blog name.

A playful, relevant, or professional name will always do the trick, and while at it, you should also consider featuring a relevant keyword in it—like News, Journal, Pundit, etc.

The name you end up choosing should resonate with your blog and your audience and not be overly sales-y, insulting, or symbolic.

The shorter and the more precise the name of your news blog, the better response (generally) you will receive.

Nowadays, people have a lot more trouble remembering names, so a hint of catchiness in your name—think, portmanteau—will do your blog justice. Adding an adjective to a noun is an interesting and efficient way to both spice up the ‘news’ part of the name and provoke the audience’s interest.

Newbie news bloggers are welcome to play with ideas and use our free  business name generator, but the more intuitive and original your name is, the more effective it will be.

Finally, setting up a website for your blog and associating its name with a site will give your entire business a more branded feel.

Assemble Your Equipment

A proper news blog will conduct its research, film its own happenings, and have its own resources. Investing in news-related equipment is pivotal if you want to do it all—film, record, interview, and showcase.

As for what your basic news equipment should feature, consider acquiring a powerful camera, microphone, hard drive(s), and interview recorders.

If this investment is a stretch for your budget, you can always resort to the good ole pen and paper and use your smartphone to capture all notable events.

Set up Social Media

No news blog, or any blog for that matter, should run solely on a blog site.

Therefore, it is exceptionally useful to channel your blog across social media and interlink your presence across various social platforms to get maximum exposure.

Plus, all big news nowadays surges on social media faster than on blog sites, so this sort of online presence only brings you closer to a wider and more specified audience.

Social media platforms exist in abundance, with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube leading the pack.

Out of the three, Twitter is the most appropriate for fresh news, whereas Facebook and Youtube thrive on relevant news videos and podcasts.

Another factor to pay attention to is the type of news you plan on publishing.

Specifically, some news may require frequent traveling whereas others will require you to be on the ground in your community all the time.

Whether you opt to run a local news blog or a worldwide news platform, ensure that you always have access to steady WiFi and a functional laptop, as well as a neatly planned budget.

How Do Most News Blogs Evolve?

Initially, most baby news blogs will become highly recognizable because of their celebrity-driven content.

To be fair, most news blogs start off with celebrity gossip and relevant stories and later expand onto more ‘essential’ topics.

News blogs in their early days are usually written from a personal point of view, meaning the narrator offers their own perspective on the reported event.

Another advantage that makes news blogs highly popular is their ability to employ freedom of speech.

News blogs usually allow comments, discussions, and sharing opinions from the readers.

This is why readers are attracted to blogs in the first place—it gives them a sense of forming a more personalized relationship with the broadcaster.

Building trust with your readers and visitors is of utmost relevance when evolving your news blogs.

The more relevant you are, the more you listen to their suggestions and the more you deliver your target audience what it asked for, the faster you will connect to your readers and make a profit.

The Benefits of Starting a News Blog

The possibility to share ideas with like-minded people is the number-one benefit of starting a news blog. After you’ve built your loyalty and trust, you will have readers flooding your site daily.

If your news blog comes with its website, this gives you yet another massive advantage—the ability to attract an even larger and more potent fanbase.

And, with a loyal fandom under your belt, your news blog will continue to grow and thrive.

Some of the key perks of running a local news blog or a worldly news blog are as follow:

• The opportunity to share every story
• Work from home or remotely
• Gain reputation
• Build a community of like-minded individuals

The Opportunity to Share Every Story

A real news blog will allow its visitors to share their stories through the provided channel.

By giving the audience a voice to be heard, you allow them to take initiative and trust your news blog to be the utmost go-to news listener and sharer.

As more readers discover that anyone’s relevant story can make it on your blog, you are bound to witness a more growing presence on your site, more traffic, and more contributions from your readers.

You can also give your blog a personal touch by sharing the stories you believe will aid society in a way. With a personal point of view and lots of facts, you will give readers a glimpse of the most up-to-date news online and stories worth reading.

Work from Home or Remotely

News blogging can turn out to be quite profitable, when and if done correctly.

If you own the right equipment, know how to film a scene or two, and understand how a microphone works, you have the chance to make big bank from your news blog—all from the comfort of your own home.

Working from home has countless perks.

It immediately puts you at any spot, and at any given time. You can choose your hours, save money and make your breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and use your own toilet.

It also allows you to reevaluate your blogs more carefully and without third-party influence and helps you connect more often to the outer world.

Plus, news blogging from home is a more affordable option in terms of transport and extra expenses, so if you are a newbie, starting a news blog remotely might be your fittest option.

Gain Reputation

A successful news blog depends on building a top-notch reputation and credibility.

The validity of your news blog starts with providing quality content, meaning that sharing trustworthy and accurate stories and news with your readers is of the utmost importance.

To ensure a spotless reputation among your loyal readers and followers, avoid being biased and overly opinionated, and whatever you do—steer clear of clickbait content!

Build a Community

To become a sublime news blogger, one must empathize with their audience. Forming a bond with your readers is crucial if you want them to return.

At the end of the day, you are not only starting a news blog but also gaining a loyal community that wants to partake in your journey.

When starting a news blog, such a community can be built by paying attention to your most frequent commentators, your most devoted readers, and those who need any assistance when navigating your blog.
News blogging is based on interaction, so informality, personal expressions, and experiences are welcomed—as long as you don’t go overboard and stick to the subject at hand.

How to Start a News Blog: Type of Content a News Blogger Creates

Not every successful businessman knows how to start a news blog, and not every blogger can be a successful businessman, so talent has very little to do with the actual success of your news blog.

Almost every blogger nowadays uses simplified language to reach their audience, and since we’re talking about blogging, a dash of informality in your content can keep your readers engaged and familiar with the content they’ve just read.

As for the type of content a news blogger can cover, it could include:

• Opinion blogs and reviews
• Current news blogs
• Video tutorials
• Helpful guides concerning recent news or event
• Discussion pieces
• Industry news
• Health updates and news
• Inspirational stories
• Interviews
• Podcasts
• Resource blogs
• Problems and solutions
• News quizzes
• Surveys and polls
• Event summaries

To maximize the use of your blog, you should also consider guest posts. Having someone guest star on your news blog gives you the chance to build your reputation among other prominent news bloggers, and expose your news blog to a wider audience as well.

Audience Engagement

If you truly want to build a reputation and a name for your news blog—engaging content is the fast track to success.

Engaging your readers is what will get them commenting, sharing, and coming back for more.

For better engagement, give your audience what journalists call the ‘hot scoop’. If you hear about something interesting, don’t sit on your hands and write about it tomorrow, get it to your audience ASAP.

With news blogs, you have more room to present any story in your own way and deliver it to the kind of readers that are in tune with your content’s essence.

Also, don’t sugarcoat anything for your readers—they are here because they trust your news blog is transparent, to-the-point, and open-minded, so tricking them into believing a false narrative might end up costing you the credibility of your business.

Staying Relevant

Another life force when starting your news blog is staying relevant. After all, you are working with the latest news, regardless of the industry, so you need to be on time, in check with the latest developments, and on top of trending news.

Keeping up with the trends might mean that you’ll need to become a news junkie yourself and possibly shuffle through different sources to acquire the best and most accurate content.

If you’re running a local news blog, staying relevant means not branching out to global news. Otherwise, your audience might get confused and resort to other and truly local news bloggers.

If your blog is international, staying relevant will mean keeping your eyes open for the newest developments, facts, and findings globally, which will then help you generate more adequate and precise content for your news blog.

Being relevant also means being original and doing your best not to derail from the actual news and risk misreporting any part of it.

Instead of distorting information, you can provide a personal and deeper analysis, and let your audience know the content presented is of a personal opinion—nothing more.

Becoming a Successful News Blogger

A successful news blogger should be three things: prompt, informational, and diverse.

Below are some other positive traits a good news blogger should aspire towards.

• Be able to provide facts, but doesn’t need to an expert in a field
• Has to be on time, be it blog scheduling, posting, providing audience support, etc
• Add a personal touch to each news blog written and published
• Allow inter-reader interaction and create a community where the audience can gather and share their thoughts
• Is extremely passionate about their line of work and committed to only providing the most accurate and vouched for news
• Think in advance and keep up with the latest news and trends

No news blogger needs to be an expert on the topic they’re reporting on. If you own a news blog, you don’t have to be a cook to publish the latest cooking gossip and recipes.

Your audience likes to read what you think on the topic you’re knowledgeable and interested in.

Out of the above traits, we believe there’s one personal trait that every news blogger must abide by—staying passionate about the reported topics.

Think of news blogging as a way to share the biggest worldwide or local news, but through your own eyes and with a personal touch.

If you truly want to start your news blog small and build it over time, opting for a local news blog might just do the trick.

Speaking of local news blogs…

Starting a Local News Blog: How to Do It Right?

Running a local news blog is the first step countless successful global news blogs took when they first started.

Publishing your neighborhood news is a good way to attract a smaller yet invaluable audience to your blog, as well as family, friends, and relatives.

It gets your foot in the door and is a great place to cut your teeth in the news blogging world.

Local blogging makes one way to think about the bigger picture while encompassing a minor clientele. What’s more, it’s your first attempt to draw in as many readers and followers as possible.

It also provides excellent and unique monetization strategies, but we will cover that later.

How to Start a (Local) News Blog: A Step by Step Guide

If you decide to go big by starting small, you need to consider a few steps before launching your local blog.

Similarly to a global news blogger, the things you need to do for your local blog include:

• Consider the statistics
• Launch your blog
• Customize and design your blog
• Write and publish your first post
• Get your blog in front of readers
• Monetize your blog

Consider the Statistics

Blog statistics exist so future and existing news bloggers can have an insight into just how efficient the industry is. Some of the statistics to consider when launching a news blog are:

• 46% of users will consider a news blog’s recommendation (great for marketing opportunities)
• Only 37% of blogs use expert quotes, not nearly enough as readers would like to read (opportunity to get your head above the crowd)
• Blog quality is considered the number-one factor for success among 32% of readers (keep this in mind when writing your blogs)
• Around 23.84% of readers note that bad content will crush a blog’s credibility (highlights the importance of proofreading and editing)
• Longer blogs are more profitable, and on average, generate 3x more social media engagement, 9x more leads, and 8x more page views (Write long-form content)
• News blogs that publish content daily have 57% more chance for success (be consistent!)

Launch Your Blog

Once your news blog goes online, you’ve officially found your place in the industry.

However, before you launch it, you need to first register your blog and get hosting for your site.

Hosting services are usually package deals, together with corresponding blogging software. The host makes sure that whoever types in your blog’s name gets to their preferred destination immediately by forwarding your website to your domain.

We recommended news bloggers to go for BlueHost as their preferred blog host provider.

Namely, BlueHost allows registering the domain name for free, alongside a 30-day money-back guarantee and a free automatic installation of the WordPress software.

This makes BlueHost a fantastic option for those looking for an inexpensive entry when they are starting a news blog.

Customize and Design Your Blog

There’s a plethora of different designs and templates available for your news blog.

If building your website on Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, we recommend opting for templates designed specifically for magazine or news content sites, so your content is displayed as best as possible.

Tweaking your design and outline is also possible and will actually help you provide your readers with a more tailored user experience.

Ultimately, you want to choose templates that reflect the type of news you’re publishing.

That said, don’t go overboard with using bright colors or too-big fonts that may just distract your readers.

Write and Publish Your First Post

As with any blog, the most important step towards building your news blog’s reputation is creating the content for it.

You can be inspired by news from other sources but avoid plagiarism at all costs.

Instead, give the news you publish your feelings and always specify when you’ve shared a personal insight rather than a fact.

Speaking of facts, double-check your research for accuracy, and don’t spin your words too much.

Before launching your news blog altogether, ensure that you have at least 10 pieces of news ready to go, instead of just generating content one piece at a time.

Make sure your first written piece is error-free and rich with valuable information and facts. Don’t send your readers to different sources, and ensure you include enough content and visuals (hello, images and graphs!) so your audience gets a better grasp on the information you are giving them.

Promote Your Blog

If you want your news blog to explode with clicks and visits, let the word of mouth do its thing, especially if talking about a local news blog.

To do that, you will need an adequate marketing strategy and a detailed business plan. One way to promote your news blog, and a sublime one, is to take your blog on social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you have a younger audience and are in suitable niches, consider TikTok as well.

If you have a personal account, ensure you post your work there as well. Hashtags are your best friend at targeting the right audience and getting your blog in front of your target audience.

And, as always, engage with your followers, visitors and readers—comment back and help them navigate your blog better.

Monetize Your News Blog and Make Money Blogging

There are a few key ways to start earning from your news blog, including:

• Sell advertising spaces using Google Adsense
• Sell affiliate products (earn income with product reviews and links)
• Promote various services
• Sell digital downloads (eBooks and video tutorials)
• Offer membership (members-only are allowed access to exclusive content)

Make sure to identify your target audience before you start making news content.

Once you get a clearer objective on who you’re preaching to, you’ll know the news they want to hear. Always focus on what your target audience actually needs and wants, rather than what you think they need and want.

That way, you’re truly accomplishing the goal of reporting quality news, and your readers will recognize and appreciate it.

Other Ways to Profit Off Your News Blog Site

Although profits are on your mind, as a news blogger, you first need to build the perfect resume—the one of a true professional.

Once your image is built, you can start thinking about monetizing your business, namely through:

• Guest posting. You can ask to guest post on other news blogs and have others guest post on yours. By collaborating with similar blogs and outlets, you increase the chance of getting paid for your contribution. Most freelance journalists operate this way.
• Add advertisements to your news blog site. Whilst you don’t want to oversaturate your blog with ads only, these are crucial in making your blogging journey worth it, financially speaking.
• Sign up for Patreon. Patreon is typically used by online content creators, to make money from their exclusive content from a smaller paying audience. Patreon requires little investment each month, and with your audience paying to get the latest scoop straight to their inbox, the profits will start piling. To promote people to follow your Patreon, offer some high-quality free content, but have the most interesting half under a paywall. If your content is engaging enough, readers will want access to all of your content.
• Look for paid sponsorships. Sponsors are one way news bloggers can make money, as some companies may like to pay you for a review. Always look into your sponsors and what they represent, so their values align with yours.
• Attend events. If you garner lots of attention and have built a loyal audience, you might be invited to speak at events. Take this as an opportunity to travel, meet like-minded bloggers and get your brand out there.

Running a News Blog: Pros and Cons

As you begin to find your pace with news blogging, you are bound to face both the good and bad sides of the business.

Despite your top-notch content, there will always be readers who may disagree with your opinion on a matter or some who will even want to provoke a reaction from you.

On the flip side, there are also your loyal followers, your growing blog, and your profits.

Try to focus on the pros of starting a news blog. For thoroughness, however, we thought we should warn you of both sides of the coin before you start on your news blog journey.

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