Have you ever tried looking up a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog and make money from it? If you have, then you’ve no doubt seen the plethora of blog posts and information out there on how to get started. I remember when I wanted to start a blog and got super overwhelmed.
What I’ve realized is that most of the so-called tutorials used terminology and jargon that I’d never seen before. I got super confused for a while and ended up wasting time and money just to start my first blog.
Now here we are, and I’m going to do it right! So you want to start your own blog and make money from it? Then you’ve come to the right place! I’m going to take the time and show you exactly how you can get a WordPress blog started on Bluehost in 30 minutes or less! Yep, I tried this with the timer 🙂
Click here to start your own WordPress Blog
Why should you consider blogging?
I remember before I ever got started, I used to ask myself if blogging was even worth it. I mean, what would I get from writing articles anyway? What I’ve realized over the years is that I was asking the wrong question. The question should have been “do I have something I want to share with the world?“
If your answer is yes, then blogging is absolutely worth it! Not only can you start a blog as a wonderful hobby, but it can make you a significant amount of money if done right!
Blogging is the easiest and best way to share your thoughts and experiences with the world. You don’t need a fancy camera, a fancy microphone, or even a fancy computer to get started. Heck, you could even start blogging using just your phone! Gotta love technology!
Like I mentioned, it literally does takes 30 minutes or less to set up a blog. You can start sharing with the world in no time! Do you know what the best part is? By blogging consistently and passionately, you can actually get paid to share your thoughts and experiences!
With that said, I genuinely think blogging is something every single person should consider doing. So look no further if you’re trying to figure out how to start a blog and make money from it. I’ll show you how 😉
Blog ideas
All right, now that to you’re super pumped to get started, it’s time to figure out what type of blog you want to create. There are loads of ideas out there, so this might be where you’re getting stuck.
I remember before I even got started blogging I got stuck on trying to figure out what kind of blog to create. Don’t overthink it. Let me give you some ideas to start with.
Examples of blogs
Lifestyle Blog
Are you a person between the ages of 16 and 90? The answer is probably yes. In that case, a lifestyle blog is definitely something to consider.
The thing about life is everyone experiences different things. You might be young but have experienced great travel spots. Maybe you’re super trendy and love fashion. Or maybe you’ve got some life lessons you want to share. Oh, maybe you love cooking? On the other hand, if you’re already retired, then you’ve also lived a long life and have quite a bit of life experience under your belt!
See, instead of keeping that amazing life, you’ve lived a secret, why don’t you write it down and share your experiences? Boom, lifestyle blog.
Personal Finance Blog
Oh yes, how about you start a blog just like mine? 🙂 Alright, maybe not just like mine, but a personal finance blog nevertheless. Maybe you have taken courses and classes relating to personal finance. Or maybe your career relates to personal finance. If so, then a personal finance blog might be just for you.
There is never enough information out there when it comes to personal finance. Anybody and everybody have their own personal experiences when it comes to money. A different and fresh perspective will always be helpful to someone!
Fan Site Blog
Are you a super fan of something? Maybe it’s Marvel, or maybe it’s a certain genre of music. Or maybe even Dragon Ball Z! No matter what you absolutely love talking about, you can actually blog about it!
This is especially true if you have extensive knowledge about it. Take a second and think about something that you always love and can’t stop talking about. What do you always have something to talk about? If you have that thing, then that thing might be your first blog!
Don’t overthink it. If you can think of an idea, Google it, and find other blogs talking about it, then you have a winning idea. It doesn’t matter if they are our other blogs out there that talk about your awesome topic. Every perspective is different, and so your blog will be unique!
Reviews Blog
Are you super techy? Or maybe you just love cars. No matter what topic you might think of, there is always room to write reviews about it.
We live in a super-connected world where people base their purchase decision on other people’s opinions. This is where you come in! You can start writing reviews about literally anything and everything. You can almost guarantee that somebody out there will Google a review about it and bump into your blog!
Other types of blogs
If you don’t want to start a blog about any of the topics I mentioned, let me give you a nice list to go over:
- Travel
- Health
- Fitness and sports
- Hobbies
- Food
- Entertainment
- Gaming
- Finance
- Relationships
- Family and home
- Education and career
- Social networks
- Politics and society
Nice healthy list to get you started! Don’t get stuck at this point. Your niche has to be something you thoroughly enjoy talking about. Imagine writing 1000 blog posts about a topic you don’t even love? No thanks! 🙂 Hope this list helps
So how much can you make blogging?
An Unlimited Amount. That’s not an exaggeration either!
If I was to ask you how much you are earning at your job right now, what would it be? $35,000? Maybe $70,000? Whatever the number is, it’s pretty static. You basically have to wait for your annual raises or maybe a promotion to change that.
Blogging on the other hand is like running a business. You start off with making $0 and slowly grow to $1,000 a month. As you grow your readers, you can end up making tens of thousands of dollars every single month!
Your income is directly related to the number of readers you have. Don’t start a blog with the sole intention to make money. Instead, provide a good resource of valuable information and readers will flock to it. Once you have loyal readers, the amount of money you can make with your blog can literally skyrocket!
Steps to creating your first blog
Now that we’ve cleared the air, its time to dive right in and get you going! 30 minutes and a computer is all you need to get started. So here are 5 Easy Steps you should take to creating your very first blog!
Step 1: Pick a blog niche
This is probably the most important step that you’re going to take. Picking a niche. Take a second to think really hard on what you enjoy talking about. You don’t want to end up blogging about a topic that you don’t even enjoy. I made that mistake when I first got started. It was a pain in the butt!
Let’s use me as an example. I absolutely love talking about personal finance and money. It’s just a passion of mine. I could probably go on and on about investing, the stock market, and spend 95% of my day browsing Zillow looking at rental properties for fun 🙂 What can you talk about on and on without stopping? Your answer is what you should blog about!
The idea here is to not get burnt out by blogging about something you are not deeply passionate about. Don’t pick a niche just because the internet says it’s popular. If there isn’t any passion in your words, your readers can tell! Trust me!
Step 2: Register your domain name
Your domain name is your web address. That is what you type into the address bar to be taken to your blog. Super easy to do 🙂 I promise.
Once you click on “This Link to get started” you’ll be taken to the BlueHost landing page. This the best hosting site out there, by far! I’m sure you see it being recommended far and wide, there is a reason for that!
Pick a plan
Once you get to the landing page click to Get Started. You’ll be asked to select a hosting plan. Since you’re just getting started, go ahead and pick the cheapest option! You can always upgrade at a later time 🙂
The basic plan will offer you loads of features, probably more than you need! The biggest things to take note though are:
- 50GB SSD Storage (you don’t even need even 1/5th of that!)
- Unmetered Bandwidth (this is perfect! No matter much traffic your blog gets, you’ll never be limited)
- Free SSL Certificate (other hosts charge you a fee for an SSL certificate! One less thing to worry about)
Set up your new domain
Once you pick your plan, then comes the part that you set up your new domain.
Type in what domain you would like to use, and see if it’s available
Here is some really invaluable advice! Always use a .COM domain! I know, there is advice floating around out there that says it doesn’t matter what you pick. Trust me, .com is where it’s at!
.COM domains appear more authoritative to readers and it’s easier to trust a .COM domain. It’s also much easier to remember too!
Create your new account
Once you pick your awesome new domain, then you enter a bit of information about yourself. Boom, Easy as pie!
Here are some important tips to remember when picking a domain name
- Always keep it short. The shorter it is, the easier it is to remember. 3 words max
- Always use a .COM domain. Easy to remember, and easier to trust
- Don’t use hyphens or underscores. It makes it harder to remember and looks a bit unprofessional to some. Avoid those
Another thing to consider is to not put yourself in a corner when picking a domain name. Pick something that allows you to blog about your topic and things related to it.
For example, if your blog name is bananarecipes.com you’re kinda stuck just doing banana recipes. What if at some point you want to write about coconuts? Or crock-pot meals? In that case, supereasyrecipes.com would probably be a better fit. So make sure you pick a name that’s a bit more general 🙂
Step 3: Purchase a hosting plan
Once you’ve picked your domain, the next step is to pick a hosting plan. Hosting is basically where your website lives. Your domain is the home address, and the hosting is the house. Think of it that way.
Once you enter your information from the end of Step 2, just scroll down and you’ll see this info:
Want to save the most amount of money? Go with the 36-month plan for sure. If you’re serious about blogging, then definitely pick this option. It shows search engines that you’re going to be around for a while, and gives you the motivation to keep going! Committing to something creates better consistency 🙂
If you can’t pay for that, then go ahead and pick a shorter commitment. No worries, it works either way. Just costs a few more bucks per month is all.
Here are the extras I recommend picking:
- Domain Privacy: This keeps your personal information away from prying eyes. This is so that people don’t know your email or your address 😉
- Codeguard Basic: This creates automatic daily backups of your blog. In case of an emergency (like your site gets corrupted), you can always roll back and save yourself from starting again from scratch!
- Site Lock Security: Can you imagine if your site gets hacked, and you lose your entire blog?! Devastating! There are horror stories out there, and you don’t want to be one! Highly recommended
One more thing that can get confusing is if you need the Microsoft 365 Mailbox. Skip that, you don’t need it, promise!
Go ahead and plop in your payment information at the bottom of the page, and submit. The next page will ask for a password then log in. We’re almost there 🙂
Step 4: Install WordPress
WordPress is completely free and by far the best platform to use for blogging! It was designed specifically for bloggers, so 90% of personal blogs you see out there use WordPress. It’s super easy to set up, I promise.
Once you log into your newly created account, setting up your shiny new blog is just a few steps away! Just enter a few details about the blog. Don’t think too hard here, you can always change all of this later, so don’t sweat it.
Once you put in your details, you will get the option of picking a free theme to get started with. Again, themes are easy to change at a later time, so get one close to what you’re looking for.
Free themes are awesome and all, but you’ll never really get that professional look and invaluable features that paid themes come with.
Since you’re just starting out, don’t worry about it. At some point in the future, you’re probably going to consider a more premium theme.
Once you got a theme you like (you don’t need to pay for one, you can always pick a free theme) then click Start Building.
Step 5: Explore your new blog
Boom! You’re in! At this point, you officially have a WordPress blog. This just step one of your fun and exciting journey of blogging. Of course, it’s going to take time and effort to write high quality and engaging posts, but the first step is always the hardest! So congratulations!
If at any point you have an issue with the process of setting up your blog, you can reach out to the Bluehost support. They are rock-solid and very helpful! I can answer any questions you have as well, so shoot me an email at hello (at) digestyourfinances (dot) com.
Now that you’re ready to rock and roll, click Posts on the left, select Add New, and write your very first blog post! You can have your first post be a little bit about you. You can write about what you want the blog to be about, your motivation, and anything else you want to share.
That will give you a good idea of the basics of how to start your blog and carve a path to make money with it. So have fun with the process! 🙂 It’s exciting!
Make a logo for your blog
Now that you’ve got your domain set up, and your hosting up and running, time to make an awesome logo for your blog!
If you’re like me, and not very good with photoshop and all that stuff, then definitely check out Canva. This handy tool lets you create logos for free! You can make really good looking logos using this.
If you’re a bit more savvy and can design your own logo, then go for it too! I’ve used Canva for so many projects, and couldn’t recommend it enough!
So how do you start a blog to make money?
Blogging is not only a creative outlet but can also become a very profitable side income for yourself. There are loads of stories out there of people that have turned blogging into a full-time income. Enough to pay for your mortgage, bills, food, and even to travel!
Can you imagine working for 4-5hours a week, and earning enough travel and have free time to do what you want? Blogging can become that if done right! There are ways you can monetize your passion for writing into something profitable.
1. Displaying ads on your blog
The first and easiest way to earn an income blogging is by displaying ads on your blog. You might have noticed that this very blog has ads placed around it. That is the easiest way to start making some money on your new blog.
Services like Google Adsense are super easy to get started with. Before signing up with Google Adsense, make sure you have at least about 25 articles written to better your chances of getting approved!
Once you’re more established and have thousands of visitors a day, you can sign up for Ad Agencies like Mediavine. They also display ads on your website but are much more tailored to your specific audience. Using ad agencies pay much more than Google AdSense, so make it your long term goal to use one.
2. Affiliate marketing
This is where you can potentially start to make a significant amount of money from your blog. Affiliate marketing is when you get paid commission if you convince someone to make a purchase.
For example, let’s say you talk about dogs and dog bread. If one of your posts is reviewing a particular kind of dog collar, you can use an Amazon Affiliate link to that product. If your readers click that link and make a purchase, you are paid commission for that purchase! You’re getting paid for giving genuine advice and recommending products and services!
You can make thousands of dollars every single month with affiliate marketing alone. This, combined with displaying ads, can result in a significant income!
3. Sell your own products
This is the bread and butter of how to start to make good money on your blog! When you sell your own products, you’re free to set whatever price you want. You create something once and sell it over and over again. Genius!
Things like short courses, eBooks, and even printables, are all things that you could sell on your blog. If you want to maximize how much you earn with your blog, this should be your long term goal!
As you are just starting out, try to get lots of content on your blog first. This makes the site more trustworthy and full of content. Nobody wants to buy something from a blog they don’t trust, so provide helpful and quality content first 🙂
Develop a strategy for your blog
Don’t worry, developing a strategy isn’t as complicated as it might sound. On the contrary, it might actually make your blogging life that much easier! So what does developing a strategy mean?
A strategy simply means that you have a written plan that you’re going to follow for your new blog.
- Understand why you’re blogging
- Figure out your target audience
- Set a schedule on how when you’re going to create content
Randomly posting long articles on your blog without having some kind of strategy behind it is not a good long-term strategy. Imagine those times that you’re probably going to feel super unmotivated, what then? If you don’t have your goals and strategy clear as day, it’s easy to veer off course and lose focus.
Another important piece that nobody taught me was to figure out my target audience. Are you writing specifically for teen readers? Or maybe it’s for retirees. No matter what your Niche is, you probably have to define a target audience for your content. This way, you will know exactly how to write your articles in a way that resonates deeply with your readers.
You don’t have to do this on day one, but definitely after your first few posts. This is done after you’ve got a good idea of how much you can actually write, what your content looks like, and what you’re capable of. Just remember to do it, you will thank me 🙂
Here is an awesome trick to make sure that your blog posts are written correctly and accurately. I use a little app called Grammarly that does automatic spell checks and grammar checks. A definite must-have for any blogger. Definitely check it out.
Commit to a publishing schedule
I’m going to expand on this one a little bit. Do you know what happens when you have a blog but don’t have some kind of schedule to write new content? Weeks and months go by without any new content. Believe me, I’ve done exactly that.
It’s easy to put the blog aside and not publish any new content for a while. Without having some kind of publishing schedule set in stone, you don’t create some kind of accountability for yourself.
Publishing on a schedule and consistency has huge benefits:
- Sets expectations for your readers: Your readers will know when to expect new content on your blog, and creates a loyal following.
- Creates accountability: If you set yourself some kind of deadline, you’re more likely to see it through. Try it
- Better rankings on Google: Google is going to be the biggest source of traffic for your blog. It favors blogs that publish fresh new content often, so make sure you do that and you’ll rank higher!
For me personally, I write two or three articles the week. It really depends on the week in question. This schedule works for me, and create some kind of accountability for myself. Sure, I might miss a week, but I try to make it up by doubling the amount of articles I write the following week.
Figure out what you’re comfortable with. It can be once a week, once every two weeks, or even once a month. The frequency really doesn’t matter, but the consistency does.
Promote your blog
Now that you’re up and running, it’s time to get readers on to your blog. Only take the step after you have written a few good quality blog posts. You don’t want readers to come over to your blog and have nothing to read. Instead, you want them to explore a bit and enjoy your content so they come back.
Your blog will not promote itself, well, not at the beginning at least. Once you start your blog, you can’t make money unless visitors visit it. So this step is vital, or else your blog will be buried deep under millions of others.
You can promote your new blog in lots of different ways. Here are the most effective ways of promoting a new blog
Use social media
this one has been the tried-and-tested way of promoting a new blog. You don’t want to overdo it and make every single social media account under the sun. Do you know what a jack of all trade is? Knows lots of things, but master of nothing. You don’t want to be a jack-of-all-trades.
Instead, focus on two or three social media sites max. Especially when you’re just starting out. The obvious ones are Facebook and Twitter accounts. If your blog is very visual, like a travel blog, then Instagram would be a good fit as well. Just make sure to use hashtags and engage with your followers.
Create an email list
Getting readers to your blog is one thing, but getting them to come back is another. This is where email marketing comes in. If anybody ever told you that emails are dead, or are not an efficient way to market yourself, then they were completely wrong!
By collecting emails from your visitors, you have a way to remind them about your blog and keep you top of mind. This allows you to build a close relationship with your readers. It also creates loyalty to your blog and entices them to share your blog with others. Think of it as a domino effect!
For this, I personally use Convertkit to collect emails from readers. Definitely check them out when getting started. They are super easy to use and offer a free tier plan for beginners.
Submit your blog to search engines
Since your blog is brand new, chances are if you tried to search for it, no results would pop up. This is because search engines don’t know about your blog yet. You basically have to tell them.
For this, you need to definitely submit your block to Google and Bing. These are the two major Giants when it comes to search engines. Adding your block to these search engines is super simple:
- For Google: Sign up for a Google Webmaster account and open the search console. Once there, click “Add Property” to submit your blog’s information
- For Bing: Sign up for a Bing Webmaster account. Once logged in, there will be instructions on how to submit your blog
Don’t worry, this is all free. So make sure you do this.
Final thoughts
This step by step guide is there to help you start your first blog and start making money from it. Once the blog is up and running, it’s all up to you to carry it to the finish line!
As you can see, it’s super easy to get a blog started, but a lot of focus and determination to make it successful. Your first few posts are going to seem like you’re talking to yourself. You’ll have 0 visitors for a while. But with time, consistency, and effort, you’ll reap the rewards!
My blog started with 0 visitors for a while. Yet, here we are, and you’re reading this! Just takes time is all 🙂
I know if I can do it, you can too!
Good luck!
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