If you want to learn how to start a blog in Kenya, it probably means that you are ready to publish blog posts in a topic or two you have in mind, knowing that someone somewhere doing their search on Google, Bing, Yahoo, Duckduckgo or any other search engine of their choice will find your articles, videos, podcasts, ebooks and course useful.

It also means that you have a strong reason for why you want to start a new blog in the first place and create content for your audience in your particular niche.

Walter Akolo, a Kenyan blogger with a successful freelancing blog, I previously interviewed shared a lot of tips you can use to get you started with your own blog.

Not to forget, another Kenyan blogger, Harriet Ocharo (Savvy Kenya), also did share some great tips you might find helpful as someone getting started with their own blog.

So, how do you go about starting a blog in Kenya and turning into a successful site with every new article you publish, even if that means writing and publishing 3 blog posts a day (90 posts per month)?

That’s what we want to look at below.

Why start a blog in Kenya in the first place?

The reasons to launch a new blog range from the desire to share ideas, give in-depth answers to questions a searcher may go to Google for (obviously hoping to get an in-depth answer amongst the many results the search engine returns).

Start a blog in Kenya: Use this paid guide to get started if you like. Read it here.

You can also start your blog to share your thoughts and increase awareness about something (topic, theme, product or service) or someone (like leaders and people who inspire you) – think about writing opinion pieces, reviews of products and services, experiences and news commentaries.

There is always a common theme, regardless of the direction you want to take – and that is to bring to other people’s attention something you are thinking.

It could be an idea, something not many people are paying attention to, a solution to a particular problem that you or someone else have thought of, a better way to do something…

Blogging in Kenya is hard work and takes a lot of time

Blogging is hard work, takes a lot of time, requires tenacity and the ability to stay consistent while thinking long term.

Meaning? No one, at least most people wants to spend hours upon hours every single week on something that may not attract even that many readers (unique visitors) every single day.

The blog should be able to make some money, enough to at least cover web hosting fees and domain name renewal charges.

There are also people who want to go beyond this and make even more: earning money by placing Google AdSense ads on their blog, making online income with affiliate programs, selling a service or product on their blog or just by using their site to generate leads.

Does that describe you and what you want to do in any way?

To answer the question ‘Why start a blog in the first place?’, learn more about some of the concerns of Kenyan bloggers – you’ll learn a lot from this post.

Also learn how to start a news blog | business blog | county news blog | agribusiness blog | gossip blog | author blog.

How much does it cost to start a blog in Kenya – in Kenyan Shillings?

To answer this question, we might look at questions like how much does it cost to construct or buy a house in Kenya.

The answer? It depends – on a lot of things.

There a lot of variables.

One which isn’t always taken into consideration is time.

Take another second and think about this – the time it will take you to build that blog you want – and grow it.

Web hosting and domain registration charges for blogs in Kenya

But you can easily get a domain name with a .com, .net, .org, .co.ke, .biz or a .or.ke extension registered right now for 1,200 – 1700 Kenyan shillings then get web hosting for an amount ranging between Kenya Shillings 3,000 and 10,000 Kenyan Shillings – or more depending on how much traffic your blog gets from search engines, other websites linking to your posts and traffic from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Pinterest … and messaging platforms like WhatsApp.

If you know how to setup things yourself, you may probably need just KSh 4,000 to start blogging in Kenya.

But if you need help and someone to guide you so that you don’t end up frustrated whenever something doesn’t work as you planned, you may have to pay more for peace of mind – which means you will also have more time to dedicate to writing and publishing new articles and a little more left to spend with your loved ones and on other activities.

The main costs are for the domain name, web hosting, internet (you can use your modem, laptop, tablet, a computer in a cyber café, your phone or a combination of all these) and training (for example online courses or ebooks to learn what to do when it comes to blogging – specifically launching a new blog.)

Before you learn how to install WordPress, here is where you can install the free script on your domain once you buy hosting

Say, you have a domain where you want to install WordPress CMS script, there are three places you can install the script: on the domain root, on a subfolder / subdirectory or on a subdomain.

Using Niabusiness.com domain as an example, here is how your blog’s or website’s address will look like depending on which route you take:

• Niabusiness.com – in this case WordPress is installed in the root of the domain.
• Niabusiness.com/blog – in this case WordPress is installed on a subfolder called ‘blog’. I’ll show you how to do this below using one-click install software that most web hosting providers make available to their clients – like Softaculous or Quick Install, which are found in your cPanel admin area – and are free to use in installing various free scripts to power a blog or website.
• blog.Niabusiness.com – in this case WordPress is installed on a subdomain called ‘blog’. I’ll show you, below, how to create a subdomain that can later be used for WordPress installation.

Note that for the subdomain or subfolder examples above, you don’t necessarily have to use the word ‘blog’ when installing WordPress. You can use any other word you like. For example: shop, kb (for knowledge base), downloads, documentation, news, interviews, tutorials, reviews, faq (for frequently asked questions) among others.

Before I show you how to install WordPress, here are…

7 web hosting companies I recommend for your WordPress blog or website – web hosting plans to buy

1. HostGator. Hatchling or Baby plan. More about all these plans here.
2. HostPinnacle Kenya. Great hosting, with cPanel, Softaculous free script installer, free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for domains and affordable web hosting plans – with room to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server down the road if your site grows big and starts to receive lots of web traffic from search engines and various social media sites. Learn more about their hosting plans here.
3. Kenya Web Experts. Another great web hosting company in Kenya you can use to start your own blog. Read more about them in this article.
4. Bluehost. Sister company to HostGator. You can find similarly priced hosting plans at Bluehost.com. The hosting company seems popular with bloggers here in Kenya.
5. Namesilo and Namecheap. These two companies were mostly used by businesses and bloggers to register domain names. But they also started offering great hosting plans.
6. A2 Hosting. Another hosting popular with bloggers the world over.
7. Niabusiness Hosting Kenya. Starting at 6,000 – 7,000 Shillings a year for its Starter plan, Niabusiness can help you get a domain, hosting and help you launch your blog. Learn more here or contact me to see how I can help you with everything from web hosting , domain registration, and WordPress installation and setup.

And in case you are wondering where to register your blog’s domain name, here are…

5 websites to register a domain name for your WordPress blog or website

1. Namesilo. Register a .com domain name for only US$ 13.95 a year. Use PayPal to pay for it or use a debit card (credit card). Some debit cards like KCB Me Cash prepaid card can be loaded via Safaricom M-PESA, and then used to purchase whatever you want online. Once on Namesilo website, use the coupon code BP to get a dollar off. That means you’ll only be charged $12.95 a year for the domain registration.
2. Namecheap.
3. Kenya Web Experts.
4. GoDaddy.
5. Niabusiness.com – cost of domain registration is bundled in Niabusiness hosting plans. Learn more here or contact me to see how I can help.

Of course you can also register a brand new domain name for your blog with any of the hosting companies I’ve listed above when ordering a hosting plan – in which case you won’t have to change nameservers.

However if you go with domain registrars like Namesilo, you’ll have to change your domain’s nameservers to reflect those shown to you by the email sent to you by your hosting providers. Changing nameservers is easy.

Here is how to do it on Namesilo for example:

How to pay for the services offered by these domain registrars and web hosting companies even if they are not in Kenyan Shillings but in US Dollars

Payments can be made in Kenyan Shillings using a debit card where you load funds (say from your bank account, Safaricom M-PESA, KCB Mobi, Equity Eazzy account) and use for online shopping. It can be VISA, MasterCard, Discover etc.

Go get a KCB Me Cash debit card for this, if you want to make payments to any of these companies (that charge in USD) using your debit card. You can also later use the KCB prepaid to verify your PayPal account.

Via PayPal. If you have a PayPal account, use it to pay for your hosting bill and domain registration fees. If you don’t have money in your account (PayPal balance), use any of the services of reputable PayPal to M-PESA withdrawal services in Kenya to help you load funds to your PayPal – and use the top up amount you receive in your PayPal to pay for your hosting and blog’s domain.

How long does it take for your blog to be online?

Does it take long for a blog you start to be found on the internet?

Actually, once you pay for the domain and registration you can start working on your blog immediately once your hosting company sends you the cPanel username and password for your new site – changing the design, adding functionality, verifying it with search engines like Google and claiming it on Alexa and publishing new blog posts.

You can even have some articles ready so that once you setup your blog, say, using self-hosted version of WordPress (which I highly recommend instead of going with the free blogs on WordPress.com or Blogger.com), you can publish and schedule some to auto-publish at future dates.

What topics can you write about on your blog

If you don’t already know what you want to blog about, do the following:

• Make a list of all the things you like (books you like, topics that fascinate you, Facebook Groups you have joined, your hobbies.
• Read this Niabusiness article on some of the types of popular blogs in Kenya.
• Check the various categories available to users on sites like Quora.com and Reddit.com.
• Check the categories of top winners in past BAKE awards. Read this Niabusiness article for some ideas.
• Use keyword research tools like Keywordsheeter, Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest to get ideas on what you can write about. You can also use Ahrefs or SEMRush.

Add your blog to BAKE and connect with other Kenyan bloggers

Once your blog is up, make sure to add it to the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) website. This is not a must though.

The BAKE website allows you as a blogger in Kenya to sign up to their website and add your blog’s RSS feed so that whenever you publish new articles, a title to the article and a link to it is displayed on the bake.or.ke website.

You can meet many bloggers by going to the Bloggers Association of Kenya site and make it easy for people who go to the site to find your blog.

NOTE: To activate your BAKE account, you’ll need to pay a KSh 1000 membership fee via Safaricom’s M-PESA otherwise your blog post titles won’t display on their site whenever you update your blog with new articles.

If you are interested in a blogging course or ebook to get you started…

…then you can take this blogging e-course (ebook) available on Niabusiness.com.

Learn step by step how to choose a domain name, web hosting company, a niche or topic, install WordPress, install a WordPress theme, install plugins to your WordPress blog, write and publish blog posts and more.

Summary on how to start a blog in Kenya

• Decide on a web hosting company – one in Kenya or another country. You can host your blog with Niabusiness.com Hosting Services Kenya.
• Decide on a name you want to use for your blog and register it as a domain name.
• Pay for web hosting and install WordPress and setup your blog or get someone to help you. Niabusiness.com helps you do all this if you host your blog with us.
• When you are done doing that, write and publish new articles to your blog. Get step-by-step guidance in Niabusiness.com online course, How to Start a Successful Blog.
• Verify your blog with search engines like Google, Yandex and Bing and submit a sitemap.
• Continue publishing new articles and promoting your blog.

If you want to start your blog and host it with Niabusiness hosting service learn more here. If something is unclear and you want an answer, feel free to use the comments section below to ask your question.

Head to Niabusiness.com blog to read recent articles (related to starting a blog in Kenya) published on the website.