We'll be honest: earning money through blogging isn't the simplest task. But the best part is that it's doable by everyone and looks fantastic on a resume. All you need to gain traffic and a following is something engaging to say, along with the necessary persistence and commitment. However, how do wealthy bloggers get paid? We spoke with a few of them to learn their money-making techniques. Our manual offers you a step-by-step strategy to launch your blog and turn it into a successful side hustle from home. ways to launch a blog When it comes to actually setting up a blog, you have two major choices: you may use a free blogging platform or build your own website. We'll go over both, listing the advantages and disadvantages of each. free platforms for blogging Best for: Novice bloggers and those who don't care to monetize their blogs. Pros: Free and really simple to start up. Cons: You typically can't add advertisements or utilize affiliate links, you can't ...
How to start a blog may sound like an impossible feat, but luckily it’s easier than you might think. Follow these seven easy steps to create your own personal blog in no time at all! And don’t forget to share this guide with your friends if they’re looking to start their own blogs!
Step 1: Know what you’re doing
If you want to know how to start a blog, the first step is deciding what you want your blog about. Are you interested in sharing your thoughts on pop culture? Covering current events? Providing advice for entrepreneurs? No matter what subject you're writing about, it's important that your content be relevant and interesting enough so readers will want to come back.
The next thing you'll need is an idea of what platform or style of blogging suits you best. Do you prefer traditional blogging software like WordPress? Maybe Tumblr works better with your social media-heavy lifestyle. Or maybe you enjoy the classic pen-to-paper approach. There are many different ways to create a blog and what’s right for one person may not be the right solution for someone else. Consider which type of blogging would fit best with your lifestyle, skillset, and interests before moving forward with this decision.
Step 2: Decide on your niche
Choosing your niche is probably the most important step, and it's also the hardest. You need to find an area that interests you, but also has a lot of interested readers. Try browsing sites like Buzzfeed and Reddit to see what people are reading about these days. Once you have an idea of what you want your blog to be about, it's time to pick your name!
Be sure to pick something catchy and easy to remember so that when people hear it they'll know exactly where they can go for your content. For example, if I wanted my blog to be all about DIY projects, I might call it Diy-Girl.
First, come up with a title for your blog which represents the topic you want to write on. Next, choose whether you want your website as one or more pages or posts on a single page.
Some good blogs will allow you to customize how many posts show per page and some will only show one post at a time. When choosing this option, think about how many updates do you plan on posting? Do you want your followers to be able to read through all of them in order? Or do you just want them to browse through each individual post?
Step 3. Pick your domain name
Decide on a topic: Pick a topic that interests you or is related to your expertise (see below). Start by jotting down some keywords and phrases that are related to the topic area you want to cover. The number one rule is not to spread yourself too thin and try covering everything! Choose something specific so people can find what they are interested in easily. Make sure your domain name is available, then set up an account with Domainracer, Hostpinnacle, etc., whichever service you decide to use.
Choose your web hosting plan
Your plan will look like this below here. Just click the Green “Order Now” button on your plan of choice:
Create your Domain Racer or Hostpinnacle account
Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address.
Select the right hosting plan package
This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to lock in.
—> Click here to head over to Domainracer or Hostpinnacle and hit the “Create One ” button
The top 2 blog hosting alternatives to take into consideration
— HostFiti -Over the years, I've hosted literally dozens of websites on HostFiti (and I still do). Aside from other comparable features like 1-click WordPress installation, a free SSL certificate, and site security, one of the biggest advantages of choosing HostiFiti over other hosting providers is that they provide a true month-to-month plan that enables you to pay for the cost of your blog hosting each month without any restrictions.
— KenyaWebsiteExperts- The excellent quality of customer service and the fact that they also provide a real monthly payment plan (which is helpful if you're starting your blog on a budget) are what set KenyaWebsiteExperts apart from other hosting providers. The fact that KenyaWebsiteExperts is one of the biggest hosting providers and currently powers more than 8 million websites in the region and worldwide makes them a wonderful partner to grow your blog with over time.
Step 7. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
The easiest way to create a website is by using the WordPress platform. It's free, customizable, and has millions of plugins that you can use. Once you've found your perfect theme, install it on your website with just one click. You'll be able to customize everything from colors, backgrounds, fonts, menus, widgets and more! You'll also want to make sure you're protecting your site from hackers with free protection plugin such as Jetpack.
I've been operating my sites on both Blogger and WordPress since I first started writing more than 5 years ago, and I couldn't be happier with the level of adaptability, control, and opportunity for long-term growth that choice has given me. While the journey has been enjoyable, don't be fooled—blogging is a lot of labor.
One thing to keep in mind is that blogger is straightforward and on the other hand WordPress is available on two quite distinct platforms. WordPress.com and WordPress.org are available. Although they practically share the same name, they differ greatly from one another:
WordPress.com:
Use of it is free (with heavy restrictions)
does not permit the selection of a custom domain name (such as yoursite.wordpress.com).
has extremely few ways to make money (you can't sell your own advertisements)
not allowing you to upload plugins (for email capture and other things)
has little support for blogging themes, so you're left with relatively simple designs.
To get your own domain like yoursite.com and to remove the WordPress branding, you must pay.
Limited analytics and SEO (search engine optimization) WordPress.org:
Unrestricted plugin choices, a fully adjustable style (using WordPress themes), and no branding
Your own personalized domain name for your blog (like Jobsearch.com)
complete authority over your own attempts to monetize
Strong SEO features and fantastic plugins (so people can find your site easier)
enables you to launch or expand an online store or membership website.
minimal monthly cost (from the cheap hosting plan you use to get your blog online)
a free domain during registration (with most blog hosting platforms)
While the decision is yours, WordPress.org is the way to go (and the exact procedure we've followed throughout this article) if you want to fully utilize your site, be able to have it grow with you, and eventually make money from it. It is the CMS of choice that will run your blog in the background.
Installing WordPress (and configure your blog settings) a video tutorial showing you step-by-step how to set up WordPress on a new blog, create your first blog pages, and adjust the settings
For your new blog, pick the best free WordPress theme (3 options)
I don't typically advise purchasing a premium WordPress theme right away when you're first starting a blog. It's wise to select a premium theme with additional features and options after you have some traffic and can justify the expenditure. However, for the time being, a challenging blog theme will serve as a diversion from your top aim of getting visitors for your brand-new site.
Start with one of the free blogging themes you prefer in Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme > Popular and don't spend too much time on this for now. WordPress has a ton of free blogging themes to pick from. It's always possible to go back and make changes afterwards.
I suggest selecting Neve, Elementor for WordPress that goes with Astra, or Hestia (all of which are completely free blog themes; they're blazingly fast and also have the option to upgrade to their premium
Install these 9 crucial WordPress plugins right away on your blog.
WordPress plugins are critical to the operation of your site, therefore it's important to get the most crucial ones configured as soon as possible. This will help your blog serve both your audience and search engines.
These are the essential WordPress plugins to set up when you start blogging right now, though, to help you cut through the noise:
Yoast SEO: Your blog will perform better the more people who can find it. You may improve your blog's titles, descriptions, content length, and other aspects to make it easier for search engines to find you by using the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. Installing this plugin on your blog initially is recommended because it is the most well-known and effective SEO plugin available.
WPForms: You'll want to make it simple for your readers to contact you, which I highly recommend because it'll inspire other bloggers who want to work with you to get in touch with you. With the help of the simple-to-use plugin WPForms, you can easily drag and drop contact forms into any page of your blog.
Site Kit by Google (Analytics): You can view all of your pertinent Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google AdSense, and Page Speed data right inside your WordPress dashboard thanks to this 100% free plugin created by Google. To find out who is visiting your website, how long they stay, and which blog entries are the most popular, connect the plugin to your Google Analytics & Search Console accounts.
WP Rocket: Websites that load quicker provide better user experiences and perform better in search results. MaxCDN: Speaking of speed, MaxCDN makes images and other static elements of your blog load faster as well, earning this plugin top marks to consider as an addition to also using WP Rocket. WP Rocket: Speaking of speed, WP Rocket caches your blog pages, reduces your file sizes, and does much more to ensure that your blog loads faster for everyone.
Insert Headers and Footers: You may occasionally need to add code snippets to your header or footer to make changes to your blog layout. However, putting it in your theme's code can lead to problems. With the help of this plugin, you can quickly add short pieces of code to certain places on your site.
UpdraftPlus: Once more, mistakes will occasionally occur on your blog and they won't always be entirely within your control. It's usually a good idea to have a backup plugin that will regularly store all of your hard work, and this free one excels much beyond the competition.
Lightweight Accordion: If you enjoy how I design the collapsible content boxes throughout this tutorial and in the FAQ section near the bottom of this post, I suggest installing the free plugin I use to bring those content widgets to life: Portable accordion You can easily add collapsible FAQ box capability to your WordPress site with just a few clicks with this plugin.
MightyShare, you can automatically create photos for social sharing. This free plugin creates attractive social photos utilizing a variety of layouts, fonts, colors, and extensive customisation in place of the dull social share image that your site uses by default. All post types are supported, there are several templates, and new templates are released each month.
Learn the fundamental WordPress blogging platform settings right away.
Let's examine a couple of the settings in your WordPress dashboard that affect the overall picture.
Permalinks (URLs) (URLs)
How to improve the permalink settings in WordPress (click to expand)
Make your default site URL cleaner
How to make your default site URL cleaner
Your blog's home page (customized page or latest blog posts)
How to change the home page of your blog
Create a menu for your blog (header and footer menus)
Creating a menu for your WordPress blog
It's time to fine-tune the WordPress settings for your blog.
Step 4 : Set up your blog page
In order to set up your blog, you'll need to create an account on one of the many blogging sites. There are two main types: hosted and self-hosted. Hosted blogs include services like Wordpress, Tumblr, and Wix; you sign up for an account and then have access to their free templates for building your site.
Self-hosted blogs typically require you to download some software, but they allow more customization than the hosted options. The majority of bloggers use Wordpress (it's the most popular) or another platform that's compatible with it, so this is what we'll be using today.
While there are other options, WordPress has plenty of themes and plugins to choose from so you can design your blog however you want it without any hassle at all.
Step 5: Get some great content ideas
What you'll need: An idea of what type of content you want your blog to be about and at least five different topics you want your content to cover. These could be topics for posts, articles, or even questions.
You should also have an idea of the goal of each topic. For example, if your blog is about traveling then one topic might be Best destinations for solo travelers. Your goal with this post might be to help people decide where they should go on their next vacation. You may also want to come up with some other related questions that people can answer like What's your favorite place?
You'll know that you've come up with enough ideas when you find yourself thinking I should put this on my blog.
Step 6: Research keyword ideas
You'll want to research what keywords are relevant and popular for your niche. This will help you know which words and phrases people are likely to search for when looking for information on your topic. Popular keyword tools include Google Trends and Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Another great way to find potential topics is to see what other bloggers in your space write about, but that's not the only place. Use social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest to get an idea of current trends and hot topics by searching hashtags related to the topic of your blog or monitoring conversations on those sites.
Step 7: Work out how much time you have available
Figure out how much time you have available. If you're looking to build your blog into a full-time job, the time commitment will be significant. However, if you're just looking for a side gig that's only going to take up an hour or two of your week, then this might be more feasible. It all depends on your own situation and what level of commitment you are comfortable with.
Write your first blog post
1. Decide what your blog is about and who your audience is.
2. Create a compelling headline that would make people want to read more.
3. Figure out the type of content you want to post (examples: photos, quotes, links) and how often you'll post it (examples: every day, once a week).
4. Find someone to help you with design, formatting and posting if needed.
5. Start writing! The more you write, the better your posts will be. If something sparks an idea for a future post, write it down on a piece of paper or in Evernote so that you don't forget about it when you sit down to write.
6. Post on your blog! Write at least one new post per month.
7. Promote your blog by linking to it from other social media platforms, emailing bloggers in your industry, asking friends to share your posts and attending blogging events in person.
ideas for smart blog posts: how to come up with them
Here is a quick approach I employ to generate the exact blog posts I create for my own website.
Five techniques for creating original blog post concepts
If I still lack inspiration, I'll try a few more original strategies.
looking at the topics that other bloggers in my industry covered (and what did well).
examining my most popular articles to determine what subjects interest people the most.
doing more quote roundup posts, which don't demand a lot of original thought and work from my end, like my blogs about business tips and internet business tools.
conversing with other bloggers in my area and coming up with new ideas.
I'll discuss some of the lessons I've recently discovered (and my advice).
I'm thinking back on the blogging errors I've made and the strategies that still work today.
You are now prepared to compose your first new post.
Once you've chosen the first blog post you want to write, go to your WordPress Dashboard and find the "Add New Post" area like this below
.
After that, you'll be directed to a fresh article page that looks like this.
Create blog post headlines that tempt people to click.
You blog, right? And one of your goals is to draw readers. It is beneficial to invest some time in understanding how to craft a title that will draw readers in and, more significantly, fulfill the promise of what your post will actually enable readers to do.
Start by studying the headlines of other popular bloggers in your field to get an idea of what makes a powerful title:
Do they frequently start with a number?
How many of their article titles have bracketed text?
Does capitalizing the first letter of each word seem to be best practice?
Make your blog post URL SEO-friendly.
Customizing the URL of your new post is crucial if you want it to rank highly in natural Google search results.
How to make your blog entries' URLs search engine friendly
Make a strong opening for your newest blog post.
Readers must be persuaded in one or two phrases that reading your new content is worthwhile.
Answering the who, what, where, when, and why questions as soon as you can is the simplest technique for crafting a captivating opening. Another strategy is to begin with your conclusion first. This may seem counterintuitive. People are sick of wasting time reading pointless clickbait blog content in the age of short attention spans.
The more quickly you can establish relevance for your reader and offer them good cause to think they'll find what they're looking for in your blog article, the more probable it is that they'll read it and share it with others.
Answering the who, what, where, when, and why questions as soon as you can is the simplest technique for crafting a captivating opening. Another strategy is to begin with your conclusion first. This may seem counterintuitive. People are sick of wasting time reading pointless clickbait blog content in the age of short attention spans.
The more quickly you can establish relevance for your reader and offer them good cause to think they'll find what they're looking for in your blog article, the more probable it is that they'll read it and share it with others.
Improve the look and feel of your blog article.
In the end, what "looks good" depends on you and what you believe will appeal to your (future) readers the most. But one of the most significant things I've learned from beginning my own site is how much design matters.
Spend a few minutes verifying the Yoast SEO recommendations and making sure your blog post is SEO-friendly to increase your chances of ranking highly in organic search.
There is one more thing you could do before publishing your first blog article, especially if you value outstanding design like I do.
A few graphic features can practically quadruple your blog post's views and increase its shareability.
Free resources for blog photos
Using gorgeous images and designs is among the simplest methods to give your blog posts some visual appeal. Thankfully, in recent years, a number of excellent content websites have emerged that provide stunning photography that is totally free to use for your blog; my two favorite are Unsplash and Pixabay.
The best online source for totally free, user-uploaded images for your site is Unsplash. The Unsplash staff carefully selects each photo that appears there to ensure that it is of a high caliber.
Promote your blog and get readers and Make money from your blog
Promote your blog by letting friends and family know about it, adding social media links, and joining any related Facebook groups. Submit articles to other websites that accept content from bloggers.
Make money from your blog by using Google AdSense or Amazon Associates, advertising on other blogs with Google AdSense ads, or creating your own product and hosting an affiliate link for it on your site.
For example, you could create a how-to guide and sell the information as an e-book on your blog's website. The only catch is that you will have to use the above the fold banner space on the home page of your website to advertise your product so that people can find it quickly when they go there.
Here are a few of the most effective methods for spreading the word about your blog entries and attracting new readers.
- The use of social media to advertise a blog
Social media is the logical first place to look when trying to find readers. Some of the most popular networks now are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. You should use whichever platform best matches your audience's interests and your niche. And that's a crucial point. It serves no purpose to attempt to promote your blog entries across all social media channels.
posting guest listicles on relevant blogs and websites, such as Medium, broblogger, Quora, and LinkedIn
Starting a blog allows you to become a part of a supportive community of bloggers, which is one of the best things about it. The greatest method to engage with an existing audience is to guest blog on other relevant websites.
- Message boards and forums for bloggers
It's not always effective to just broadcast your ideas into the social media void.
Instead, if you find the correct online communities and forums, participating in them might provide you a much better return on your time. Look through related Facebook groups to see if there are any active groups that might make good places to start.
- Using an email newsletter to increase the number of blog readers
One of the finest ways to promote your blog is to your own audience rather than to other audiences (over time). The most effective strategy to retain current readers interested in the work you're doing is to create your own email list (or email newsletter), which you should do right away.
Example of How to Build an Email List of Blog Subscribers (ConvertKit, Mailchimp etc)
Create an email list right away with your blog; it can be surprisingly easy. Include a signup form on all of your site's important pages and within your posts. Although I manage the 150,000+ email subscribers I currently have on my site using ConvertKit, Mailchimp is the greatest free email marketing service to start with.
Utilize your blog to earn money
You shouldn't expect to start making money right immediately unless you already have a sizable audience somewhere; instead, you should be working toward monetization rather than making it your main priority right now.
Even so, it's a good idea to have a plan in place for how you want to earn money from your blog as you embark on this new journey, particularly if passive income is a priority. While your readership is still expanding, it will be simpler to execute some of these revenue techniques than others.
1. Freelance work or rather (Selling Your Services)
Selling your skills (by finding blogging jobs, freelance writing projects, or other ways to provide your expertise as a service) is by far the simplest choice if you want to start making money from your blog as soon as possible.
2 Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate programs are offered by the majority of major brands. Consider businesses like Amazon all the way down to important players in particular niches.
Once you have a modest following, you can approach programs that make things you think your audience will find useful and negotiate a better affiliate contract with them.
3 Featured Blog Posts
It will take some time to build up your readership to the point where sponsored material is a realistic possibility for profitability, unless you already have a sizable audience on your blog (or social media accounts).
4 Advertisements (Ad Networks)
CPC or CPM advertising is not a suitable monetization channel to focus on in the short term if you're only hosting a few ads in your blog sidebar because it doesn't become extremely successful (at least as a realistic source of considerable blog income) until you're attracting more like 1 million+ monthly readers.
But when you first start a blog, it might be one of the simplest methods to monetize your audience without putting in much extra work. Just be sure to have realistic expectations at first.
5 Online Programs
When you have a skill (or experience) that other people are interested in learning, it's relatively simple to compile your best recommendations, strategies, and tutorials into an online course that people can access for a fee to accelerate their learning much more quickly than they would otherwise do by bumbling through the process of learning through trial and error.
6 Online shopping and software tools
Selling physical goods or software tools to members of your community is another excellent way to monetize your audience. This is especially true if you're starting an eCommerce store (with the right eCommerce website builders) to sell goods that are related to what your readers need. This is conceptually similar to launching an online course to your blog audience.
7 Podcast advertising
Launching a (basic) podcast for your viewers is another excellent approach to start making money from your site. Utilize your traffic and early listener figures to secure sponsorships from companies looking to connect with your target audience of readers and listeners.
Ultimately, you'll be on the right track if you follow this step-by-step guide to beginning a blog.
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