How to Start Blogging

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If you’ve never created a website before, it’s best to start with free options. You don’t need to buy a domain or a hosting plan right away. Sometimes a hobby seems exciting at first, but after a month, you might realize it’s not for you.

If you purchase a 3-year hosting plan to “save” money and then realize within the first 30 days that you don’t enjoy blogging, you haven’t saved anything — you’ve wasted money.

Start with free platforms like:

  • Medium – They can be quick to ban users (as happened to me), so it’s not my top recommendation. However, if you write about cats, dogs, or praise left-wing politics, you can publish pretty much anything. The platform is clean, user-friendly, and comes with a built-in audience and some monetization potential.
  • Substack – A better option than Medium if you want to write critically about politics. It doesn’t seem to have the same built-in promotion features as Medium, but it gives you more freedom.
  • Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress – These services typically offer free plans so you can test the waters. Some even allow free blogging indefinitely. However, free plans often come with ads, and if you post content the platform disapproves of, they may suspend or delete your blog.
  • Social Media Blogging – X/Twitter now supports long-form content. Some writers report success using LinkedIn, and Facebook remains another option to consider.

Start for free. If you find that blogging is something you want to do long-term, you can always upgrade to a paid solution later.

What I Use For Blogging

I currently use Hostinger. This isn’t a sponsored recommendation, and I can’t say it’s better than other providers — I just got a great deal at the time. One thing I do appreciate is their large learning academy, which walks you through how to set everything up:

I’ve Created My Contact Page With Another Plugin

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I recently looked into creating an author page on Goodreads. Many authors whom I like have their own. Readers can ask questions about writing and specific books on there, which is cool. It’s basically a social media platform for writers and readers to connect.

One of the requirements to get an author page on Goodreads is to have a website with a contact form. So I set up a contact form on this website.

It was a bit annoying to set up the mail that sends the message over to me, but I think I figured it out in the end. Everything else was easy to do with a plugin called Contact Form 7.

I’ve Added a Search Bar to My Archives Page

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This site runs with WordPress which is a content management system for blogs like mine. If you want to have your own site, I’d recommend checking it out. It’s easy to use and offers so-called plug-ins that you can add to your site easily.

Yesterday, I added a search function to my archives page with a plug-in called “Search in Place”. It can be used to search my website easily and I think it’ll help with accessibility of my content – especially in the future, when there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of posts on this site.

The search bar can be placed on any page or post and it looks like this:

If you run a blog (or think about running one) check out the plug-in, you can find it here: WordPress Search in Place

Creating A Resources Page

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I used to run a bigger website. One of its main features was a collection of resource links — a personal roadmap to the internet filled with videos, articles, websites, books, and courses I found helpful.

It wasn’t just about writing. It covered all kinds of interests: from writing to graphic design, video editing, fitness training, philosophy, and more.

People found it useful. So now, I’m thinking about rebuilding it here on my current site. It’ll be a work in progress, expanding over time. Whenever I come across something valuable, I’ll add it.

What will be part of it?

  • Writing
    Author blogs, helpful tools, books, and YouTube channels about writing better books — and marketing them.
  • Graphic Design
    I used to make most of my income as a graphic designer. These days, I’m transitioning to teaching design tools on YouTube. I’ll share links to my own courses and other great resources for anyone wanting to learn design for personal projects or to start freelancing.
  • Video Editing
    One of my mid-term goals is to start vlogging. I already have a good handle on Premiere Pro and CapCut. After Effects is a different beast — still working on that one.
  • AI
    I use AI tools for editing and creative work. I’m familiar with Midjourney, and the long-term goal is to create AI-generated comics and films.
  • Social Media
    I’ve learned quite a bit about YouTube over the years. Twitter/X and Instagram still confuse me, but maybe that’ll change. I’ll document the biggest lessons I learn as I figure out how to grow on each platform.
  • Fitness
    I used to work as a personal trainer, so I know what I’m talking about. My health isn’t what it used to be, but I still train regularly to stay in shape. I believe everyone should. I’ll share the tools and routines for it.
  • Religion / Philosophy / Politics
    The older I get, the more I realize these three are deeply connected. My current perspective falls somewhere between Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, libertarianism, and Christianity.
  • Advice to My Son
    My father was a hardworking man, but apart from instilling a strong work ethic, he didn’t teach me much. I don’t want to repeat that mistake. This section will collect the most valuable life lessons I’d want to pass on to my son(s).
  • Making Money
    Everyone wants to make money — especially those who say they don’t. I’ve worked many jobs. I failed at many, succeeded at enough to live a good life. Here I’ll share what I’ve learned from making a living online, investing, and the corporate life.
  • Entertainment
    All a man needs is danger and play, Nietzsche said. Life without play and entertainment is dull. I love James Bond, Reacher, Star Trek, (non-Disney) Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Kill Tony, Anthony Jeselnik’s comedy, and more. I’m a casual gamer and still enjoy watching the NBA Playoffs, NFL, Formula 1, and football. I’ll share my favorite books, movies, shows, comics, anime, YouTube channels — all the things that entertain me.
  • International Living
    I was born in Germany, but I don’t want to die here. One of my mid-term goals is to leave this overtaxed, bureaucratic mess for a better life elsewhere. Once I start this chapter, I’ll share everything I learn: living abroad, multiple passports, driver’s licenses, foreign bank accounts, and more.
  • Other Hobbies
    I’m currently learning Spanish for fun. In the short term, I want to get into motorcycle riding. I’d like to try canoeing. One of my bolder dreams is to become a pilot and build a homestead on my own farm. I don’t know which of these goals will become reality, but once they do, I’ll share what I learn.

As I said, this will be a lifelong project — constantly changing, always expanding. I plan to blog for the rest of my life. So this resources page will grow along with me. Let’s see what it becomes.

For now, you can check out the (almost) empty resources page right here.

What Should I Write About On My Blog?

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When I started this site, I wanted to be prepared for the day Medium bans me. That day came—much sooner than I expected.
What I wasn’t prepared for was Germany turning into a disaster of a country, where people get thrown in prison for criticizing politicians.

A lot of my blog writing used to be just me venting. Or poking fun at the absurdity of modern politics as it unfolds. Writing like that is mostly off the table now—I’d like to stay out of prison for as long as possible.

So, I had to think: What should I write about on this blog?

Writing

Since I want to take my fiction writing more seriously, I’ll definitely write about that:

  • My writing progress
  • What I learn about writing better fiction
  • Book marketing
  • Finding an audience
  • The publishing process
  • Using AI for editing and translations (and maybe audiobooks?)

AI

Another project I’m excited to explore is creating AI-generated comic books. I already gave it a shot a few months ago and made two short comics. The results were… okay. Not terrible, but nothing to brag about either.
AI is improving rapidly, and as it does, I’ll use it to create better comics. I’ll publish them here and share updates on how I made them and what I’ve learned.

At some point, I also want to experiment with using AI to create anime, shows, and movies. No one knows how long it’ll take until AI is powerful enough to let regular people with a laptop create decent-quality productions. But I’ll try to stay on track.

Social Media

I’ve had some success on YouTube—I am close to 10,000 subscribers now. Not a huge success, but it’s something. I’ve learned quite a bit over the years, and I’ll share that.

One of my lifetime goals was to get into vlogging (starting with moto vlogging). I’m not there yet, but when I am, expect some posts about it.

My success on other platforms? Non-existent.

Instagram? No clue what to post.

Twitter/X? Every time I think about using it more, I end up ranting about politics, which I’m trying to avoid these days. Also, Twitter is fun when you have an audience—otherwise, it feels like shouting into the void. I mostly use it to laugh at memes and stay informed on social/political issues nowadays. If I ever find an audience there, maybe I’ll post more actively.

Facebook? Don’t care.

Alt-tech platforms are interesting—especially for video content (e.g., Rumble). I might mirror my stuff there in the future.

Personal

Blogs are personal by nature. I enjoy reading “documentary blogs,” so writing one seems like a natural fit. But I do wonder: Do people still read these?

I once followed a blog by a guy who wanted to lose weight. He ended up writing about quitting to blog to become a baker. He was passionate and happy about it. It was oddly interesting to read—though I can’t really explain why.

What I can explain is that social media, Google, and now AI are pulling audiences away from such blogs. People either read books or tweets. Not much in between. The majority of content they’ll get from YouTube and TikTok in video form.

Still, I’ll write about personal things from time to time. I’ve got hobbies and interests that I want to explore more deeply. I’ve got things on my bucket list. Writing about them will push me to learn—so even if nobody reads it, that’s still a win.

Entertainment

I like George R. R. Martin. I don’t like that he’ll never finish Game of Thrones. But I still like him and his work.

Did you know he has a blog? He calls it Not a Blog, but it is a blog—name aside. Since I like him and I like reading blogs, I read his. He’s a huge football fan and writes about it, suprisingly.
Before social media, this was how people shared their thoughts, even about sports.

So yeah, writing about movies, shows, books, comics—and maybe sports—is definitely on the table. NBA playoffs are coming up. I follow both footballs (the American one and the real European one—I’ll never call that “soccer”). Sometimes I even watch F1 races and UFC.

I also stumble across interesting YouTube channels and non-fiction books. Why not share a link or two?

Thoughts

And finally, the part that always drags me back toward politics: thinking about life.

I grew up in a time when politics happened in the background while everyone was busy living their lives.
Those days are over. Now politics are everywhere. And it sucks.

I still want to share thoughts about life—things I wish I’d known earlier, mistakes I could have avoided, wins that could have come easier. When it gets political, I’ll try to keep it abstract.

For example: I’m a laissez-faire capitalist with a strong libertarian leaning. I believe all forms of socialism eventually lead to communism. And I don’t want to live in communism. It brings starvation, death, and misery.

I can still write these lines in Germany without getting arrested. But I can’t write about specific socialists—because they’re part of the ruling class now. These fine folks have already made it a crime to “insult people of public interest” to protect themselves from critique, satire, or being questioned.
You put crazy people in charge, you get crazy times to live in.

What Do You Want to Know?

I’ll also use this blog to connect with you. Comments are open. I’ll delete spam, nasty stuff, and trolls. But if there’s a serious question or comment—go for it. I’d love to hear from you.