These 7 incredibly simple steps are fool-proof ways to start a blog and make money. Starting a blog is incredibly easy and cheap as you'll see below.
Want to know how to start a blog and make money now? Keep reading. Starting a blog is actually very easy and shockingly cheap (I'm talking $3/month cheap!). Blogging is an amazing hobby, but it's an even better career. It offers unparalleled flexibility and freedom along with amazing income potential. By starting a blog, you have the ability to earn thousands of dollars in passive income, all from your computer! This is why I ranked it as one of the top work from home jobs out there.
In this article, I will walk you through the exact steps to start a blog for beginners and help you start making real money from it. Starting a blog is made easy with these step-by-step instructions. These are the exact steps I used to start my own successful blog.
This post is all about how to start a blog and make money.
7 Steps for How to Start a Blog and Make Money
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Step 1. Pick a Niche
The first step to starting a blog is deciding what you want to blog about. In truth, you can start a blog about any topic in the world. However, when your goal is to make money, there are a few things to consider when picking a topic, or niche.
First, is this something you're passionate about? Do you love talking about it? Can you see yourself staying interested in this topic for many years into the future? If the answer is no, I suggest you don't start a blog on that particular topic. You will quickly become fatigued from writing about a topic you don't enjoy. Trust me, you can't force yourself to spend years writing about something you don't like! My advice is to blog about what you can't shut up about. Is there something you love to talk about or research? That's a great place to start. Following your passion is always the most profitable choice.
Next, consider where you want the blog to go. Is your goal to become a full-time blogger? Or are you hoping to use the blog to develop a marketing engine to launch a business? Think of where you want to be in 5-10 years and then work your way backwards. For example, if you want to start an interior design firm, starting a blog in the home decor niche would be a great idea.
Finally, niche down. This means starting with a more narrow category at first. "Cooking" and "fitness" are too broad of topics to begin with because they have too much competition. You'd be competing with every blog that covers these topics! Instead, consider starting a blog with a more specific topic. As your blog grows in popularity, you can expand what you blog about. For example, instead of starting a "cooking" blog, start a blog about a specific type of cooking, like paleo, keto, vegan, cooking for cheap, etc. Starting in a smaller niche significantly increases your chances of establishing a successful blog.
Step 2. Get a Website
Now that you've made the decision to start the world's best toy poodle blog, it's time to establish your website. Now read carefully, because this next step is critical to making money:
You need a self-hosted blog.
Without a self-hosted blog, your dreams of making money off your website are dead before you even start. I'm not exaggerating! The alternative to a self-hosted blog is a website that is hosted by another company (think wix, blogspot, etc). Think about it like this: A self-hosted blog = owning your house and a website hosted through another company = renting your house. This means the landlord (i.e. wix) can do what they like with you! This includes closing your website on a whim, the digital equivalent of eviction. Yikes. If you do not have a self-hosted blog, you will be excluded from nearly all opportunities to make money from your blog.
Okay, now that you're good and scared of the dystopian blogging future I've painted for you, I'll tell you how exactly how to get a self-hosted website that YOU own and control. I recommend starting a WordPress blog with Bluehost. Bluehost is by far the cheapest option for getting a self-hosted website, with their basic plan starts at $3/month. The basic plan will cover everything you need to start (it's what I started with!). They are an established and reputable company with excellent customer service. I had a ton of questions when I first started my blog, and they were so helpful. Other options for web hosting includes companies like BigScoots that charge hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per year. This higher quality hosting is NOT necessary until you have over 200,000 sessions a month on your blog. Start with Bluehost, and then plan to upgrade down the line.
Tips for picking a domain name:
- Keep it short and simple
- NO misspelled words (the time to be punny is not now)
- Do not include your name
- Use a .com domain
Step 3. Make it Professional
Now unless you are an established website designer and programmer, it would be a monumental feat for you to design a professional and aesthetically pleasing website. But you need one. So what do we do?
We pay someone else! Buying a professional looking website theme is the best way to get a professional looking website without having to write a line of code. Changing themes down the line is time-consuming and can be expensive, so choose wisely! Fortunately, there are tons of options for any price range. WordPress offers free themes, but they're pretty ugly if I'm being honest. I mean, there's a reason they're free...
I got my theme from 17th Avenue Designs and l'm obsessed. It has every feature I could want in a website, and they will even install the theme for you. For someone like me who is not tech savvy, this was life-saving! They have many options to choose from for under $50. They are a fantastic option if you're looking for a feminine WordPress theme. Another option is to look on Etsy. Simply search "Wordpress themes" and you'll find thousands of choices that will fit in any budget. When choosing a theme, think about the features and functionality you need on your website.
A theme is an important, if not essential, investment in your blog. The more professional and put-together your blog looks, the more your readers will trust you and want to read your content. The more readers on your blog, the more money you will make.
Step 4. Start Writing
Once you're theme is installed, you are ready to go! It's time for you to officially become "a content creator"! Just like all those teens you see on TikTok- Hoorah!
How much you want to blog is entirely up to you, one of the joys of self-employment. However, in order to make money, I recommend posting at least once per week. The more you post, the faster Google will become familiar with the type of content you put out. Your goal is to get Google to like you, and Google likes weekly consistently. This means that it is important that you stick to a schedule. It is far better to post once weekly on a consistent basis than to post 5 times in one week and then not post for 3 weeks after. Pick a weekly quantity and stick to it. Google is sensitive and doesn't like being ghosted.
Pro-tip: When writing your blog, always be thinking about your reader. Ask yourself how you can create the most-helpful blog post on that topic. This is a fundamental key to your longterm success! High quality content = high earnings.
Step 5. Invest in a Course
Investing in a course about blogging is the best investment you could ever make for your future income. If you really want to know how to start a blog and make money- it's courses. Blogging is not difficult, but having a successful blog requires head knowledge. There are strategies and techniques that will drastically increase your chances of making thousands of dollars a month from your blog, and the best way to find them is not by years of struggle on your end, but by investing in a course. The decision to invest in a blogging course was critical to my success, as I was able to save myself years of trial and error by simply following the tried and tested formula of a massively successful blogger. If you want to be successful, find someone else who is producing the results you want and copy their strategies.
I have taken many blogging courses, but by far the most valuable was Perfecting Blogging by Sophia Lee. It is taught by Sophia Lee, who currently runs a multi-million dollar blog. This course might as well be titled "How to start a blog and make money". This course taught me everything I needed to know about how to start making money from my blog. Compared to other courses I've taken, it is by far the most thorough and most helpful. She walks you step-by-step through the exact strategies you need to have a profitable blog.
Blogging courses are the #1 investment you should make in your blog. Make taking courses a #1 priority in your first year of blogging, and you will see massive increases in traffic and ultimately, in revenue. If you want to know the nitty gritty of how to start a blog for beginners and see quick success, this is the course for you.
Blogging courses will drastically increase your income, and so they aren't exactly cheap. If you can't afford to invest in a course right now, don't worry. Keep blogging and start saving. I worked extra babysitting jobs and picked up overtime shifts so I could pay for my first course, and it was more than worth the sacrifice. However, I don't recommend starting with cheaper courses first. Perfecting Blogging covers everything and more than other courses I have taken. It's better to pay a higher price for a one-stop comprehensive course than waste money on cheaper courses that won't cover everything you need to know.
Step 6. Get on Pinterest
Pinterest is the best social media site to market your blog and start getting traffic. You will need to create and post original pins in order to get people to your blog. Pinterest is the most effective way to get readers to your blog, as they simply have to click your pin, and it takes them right to your site! Do not waste time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. Just use Pinterest to start.
PRO TIP: I post a bunch of pins with each blog post, which at first took me HOURS of time. I now use a Pinterest pin scheduler that lets me spend just 30 minutes per week scheduling dozens of pin! If you have the budget, I highly recommend using a scheduler. Pinterest also offers a free scheduler, but it is very limited. I used it at first but quickly switched to Tailwind which is a night and day difference for me in terms of efficiency.
Creating beautiful and clickable pins is made easy and simple with Canva. You likely don't need the premium subscription, although it offers some perks.
Like blogging, there are strategies and techniques to gaining popularity and traffic using Pinterest. After you have invested in a blogging course, I highly recommend you make your next goal taking a course on Pinterest strategies for your blog. This is the one I took that literally changed everything about how I ran my blog. It's the course I wish I had when I first started! It's taught by Sophia Lee, who runs a multi-million dollar blog. She has the most knowledge of any blogger I know about how to make the most money using your blog. Her course is super detailed, and the strategies she uses were surprisingly simple but incredibly effective.
Step 7. Make Money
Now you know exactly how to start a blog, now it's time to learn how to start a blog that makes money. The final step to getting rich from blogging! You might be wondering how much money you can make blogging, and the answer is: as much as you want (and way more than you'd think!). I know tons of bloggers that are making over $100k a year just from their blogs. How are they doing it? There are three primary ways you will make money on your blog. They are ad revenue, sponsored posts, and affiliate marketing.
1. Ad revenue comes from, well ads! Ad agencies will pay you a tiny amount every time someone clicks on their ad from your blog. The amount per click is small, but with lots of people coming to your blog, the dollars quickly add up! Applying to an ad agency is a fantastic goal for the first year of your blog. Ads are one of the highest paying forms of passive income because you don't have to do anything to make money from them.
2. Sponsored posts or brand posts are when a brand pays you a flat fee to write a post about their product, which will essentially serve as an advertisement. Set up a contact page to make sure that brands can contact you for sponsorships.
3. Affiliate marketing is when you are paid a small commission each time a reader buys a product using a link on your blog. Once you have consistent visitors to your blog, you can apply to become affiliates for different brands. This is also an amazing form of passive income, as all you have to do is link the product.
Affiliate marketing can be confusing and complex. I was super confused when I first started, and so I took a course about it that was super helpful. You definitely don't need this course until you have consistent traffic to your blog. I'd recommend taking it after you have 500 monthly visitors to your blog, which will take a few months. If you want to know how to become a blogger and get paid, this course is it.
