Are you struggling to figure out how to start a blog, make a name for yourself, and earn money from it? Then you’ve come to the right place. I’m here to help you with all of this and more.

The experience is overwhelming, isn’t it?

I know, I’ve been there too. After all, to stand out among the 3 million-plus blog posts written daily, you really have to up your game.

Although many bloggers have been able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from blogging, not everyone isn’t successful.

This is because it takes a significant amount of time to build a dedicated readership.

To help you out, I’ve decided to put together this guide on how to start a blog.

Disclosure: This content may contain a few affiliate links, which means if you click on them, I will get a commission (without any extra cost to you).

What is a Blog?

Before we get into how to start a blog, let’s first try to understand what a blog is.

A blog is essentially a website that showcases your opinions, hobbies, or any other information. Typically, it’s informal, and the content on it is written in a conversational style.

The major difference between a website and a blog is that a website tends to be static and is organized into pages while a blog has frequently updated content.

Due to the numerous advantages of blogs, many websites have integrated them.

For instance, I have a static website with a dedicated blog that’s updated almost daily.

shane barker - blog content

Note how the blog appears different from the website.

blog content

How to Start a Blog in 11 Easy Steps and Make Money

Figuring out how to start a blog isn’t complicated. Here are eleven simple steps to get you started so that you can make money (GUARANTEED).

Step 1: Identify Your Niche

Step 2: Define Your Goals

Step 3: Name Your Blog and Pick a Domain Name

Step 4: Register Your Domain Name and Choose Your Host

Step 5: Register Your Publishing Platform

Step 6: Choose an Appealing Design and Color Scheme

Step 7: Install These important Plugins

Step 8: Optimize Your Blog for SEO and Conversions

Step 9: Write, Write, and Promote it Well

Step 10: Use These Money-Making Strategies (GUARANTEED)

Step 11: Make Money and Keep Innovating

If this is the first time that you’re going to start a blog, then some of these terms may be new to you. However, once you start, it’s easier than it seems, and this free guide is here to help you how to start a blog even if you’re not a computer whiz.

What’s more?

Your decision to learn how to start a blog can be more than personally fulfilling, it can end up being financially rewarding as well.

By following these 11 easy steps, you’ll be on your way to turning your passion into income.

Let’s now take a deeper look at how to start a blog in 2020 and make money (GUARANTEED).

 

Step 1: Identify Your Niche

The first step involved in this guide on how to start a blog is that of selecting your niche. It’s also the most important because you’ll be writing all about it. This means that you should be passionate about it as well.

But why should you pick a niche?

When you want to build an audience, you need to show yourself as an authority on a particular topic. Writing general content may not help you with that.

Once you pick a niche, ensure that you stick to it. Switching niches may be jarring for your audience.

So, let’s look at how to select your niche.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself when selecting a niche:

  • Are you passionate about it?
  • Do you have sufficient know-how about it?
  • Can you write about the topic for a long time?
  • Is the niche too competitive?

Remember, the last question is VERY important. If your niche is too competitive, such as recipes or celebrity blogs, you might find it difficult to rank and get traffic.

You can check Google Trends to get an idea of the search trend as well. This can help you understand if the terms are high-volume ones. You can also figure out if it’s an upcoming or declining trend.

For instance, let’s say you want to write about chatbots. Note how the trend appears to be growing over time.

google trends

Image via Google Trends

Instead, focus on niches that are very specific. These may not have high volume keywords but the competition will be less and the traffic will be more targeted.

Some of the most common niches are:

  • Fitness
  • Beauty
  • Digital marketing
  • Real estate
  • Travel
  • Personal finance

I, for example, decided to start a blog in the digital marketing niche. This is because I’m passionate about it and I have over 20-years of experience in the field, which makes it easier for me to write about it.

shane barker

Image via Shane Barker

Step 2: Define Your Goals

Once you’ve decided on a niche, you need to know how to figure out your goals.

“What is it that you want to accomplish from the blog?”

When people are learning how to start a blog, one of the first questions they ask is, “How can I make money from this?”

But that isn’t the only goal for which you’d start a blog. You might have some other goals too.

Maybe you want to position yourself as a thought leader in the niche? Or, perhaps, showcase your hobbies to people online? You may also want to create a blog to drive traffic to your website and sell your products.

Whatever it is that your goal is, ensure that you have it set in your mind. Without it, you won’t be able to figure out how to reach it.

Some examples of the goals that you should set when you start out are:

  • Get 10,000 unique visitors in the first year
  • Gather 500 email subscribers
  • Generate $100 income
  • Publish 100 blog posts
  • Have 10 keywords in the #1 spot on Google

However, in this post, we’ll be covering the monetizing part of blogging [Podcast]. I’ll help you figure out how to make money from your blog (GUARANTEED!!!)

Step 3: Name Your Blog and Pick a Domain

Now that you’ve picked a niche and set your goals, the next step in this guide on how to start a blog is that of naming your blog and picking a domain name.

These will ideally be the same and people will see your blog as “blogname.com”.

So, it’s crucial that you select a name that is:

  • Easy to remember
  • Short
  • Relevant to your niche
  • Unique

For example, if I were planning to create a travel blog, I could name it hikingwithshane.com or travelwithshane.com.

These keywords are relevant to the niche and give my audience a clear idea of what to expect from my blog.

Come up with a few such domain names that you’d like to have. It’s helpful to create a list as some of these names may already be taken.

Alternatively, you can use domain name generator tools such as DomainWheel, and Instant Domain Search.

In a nutshell, here’s how you can go about the process of selecting a domain name:

  1. Come up with keywords relevant to your brand, including your brand name.
  2. Enter them into a domain name generator.
  3. Filter out the results based on their length and uniqueness.
  4. Cross-check the name availability on social media.
  5. Select the domain name. Ideally, keep your brand name in it.

What’s more?

You should also consider other Top Level Domains (TLDs) apart from .com. Some of the popular ones are:

  • .net
  • .org
  • .online
  • .co
  • .io

Apart from these, there are Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). These are unique for every country. For instance, the USA is .us, Canada is .ca, and India is .in.

Step 4: Register Your Domain Name and Choose Your Host

After selecting and listing your potential domain names, it’s time to get them registered with ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

ICANN is the authority for internet domain name registration. To get your domain name registered with it, you can purchase the domain name from one of the trusted domain registrars.

I personally recommend using GoDaddy and Bluehost for this. Using them, you can check for the domain name availability and purchase it within minutes.

Let’s take a look at how to purchase a domain on GoDaddy.

1. Start by going to GoDaddy.
godaddy

2. Click on Find Your Domain.
godaddy options

3. On the next page, click on the box Start your domain search and type your domain name and select the TLD.

godaddy search

4. GoDaddy will search if the domain is available. It’ll also suggest a few other domains if the domain isn’t available.
godaddy price

5. You can scroll down to see the alternatives.
godaddy domain

6. Click on Add to Cart.
godaddy purchase

7. Among the add-ons, select Full Domain & Privacy Protection.
godaddy check out

8. Check your cart and click on Check Out.
godaddy payment

9. Create your account. You can sign up using Facebook or Google as well.
godaddy account

10. Add your billing information and click on Save.
godaddy account options

11. Add your card payment information and click on Save to complete to purchase.
godaddy payment options

However, purchasing the domain name is just one part of the process.

What more do you need to do?

You also need a server to host your blog. For this, you’d need to purchase web hosting. Fortunately, Bluehost and GoDaddy also provide web hosting.

So, how can you go about this?

Let’s take a look at the step-by-step process of buying your hosting on Bluehost.

1. Start by going to Bluehost
bluehost web hosting

2. Click on Get Started.
bloghot web hosting services

3. You’ll get a list of hosting plans. From there, you can select the one that seems most relevant and appropriate for your blog. I recommend the Basic plan.

One of the major reasons for this is that you’re just starting out. To select the plan, click on the green Select button.

bluehost plan

4. Next, you need to enter your domain name. Type in your domain name in the box under “Create a new domain” and select the TLD from the dropdown menu and click on Next.
bluehost domain selection

5. If you’ve purchased a domain from another registrar, such as GoDaddy, you can enter it in the “I have a domain name” box and click on Next.
bluehost domain name

6. Create your Bluehost account by entering your details such as name, email address, etc. You could also sign up using Google.
bluehost account

7. Choose the relevant plan based on the number of months or years for which you’d like to purchase the hosting Bluehost only provides 1, 2, 3-year subscription plans. They don’t offer monthly plans. I recommend going for the 3-year plan as it gives you the lowest possible price.

bluehost prices

8. Among the extras, I’d recommend going for the SiteLock Security – Essential, if available. You can skip the rest. As you’ve chosen the Basic plan, you can add the CodeGuard.
bluehost package extras

9. Add your billing information and agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service, Cancellation Policy, and Privacy Policy. Next, hit the green Submit button.
bluehost payment info
Now that you know how to purchase a domain and hosting, you're all set to start your blog.

Step 5: Register Your Publishing Platform

When you start a blog, hosting and domain registration aren’t enough. You also need a publishing platform or a Content Management System (CMS) in place.

Its prime purpose is to manage and publish your content with ease. The most popular CMS out there is WordPress. Its use is so widespread that it currently powers over 35% of all websites on the internet.

Apart from this, there are others as well, such as Squarespace and Wix. However, as most blogs run on WordPress, we’ll look at how to start using it.

The best part about WordPress is that it’s free and open-source. Additionally, most hosting providers, including Bluehost and GoDaddy, offer one-click WordPress installation.

However, when it comes to WordPress, it offers two versions:

  • WordPress.com (hosted platform)
  • WordPress.org (self-hosted)

The first is a hosted platform, which, while being free to use, offers limited flexibility. You could also opt for paid plans, which provide better flexibility.

The single biggest advantage of WordPress.com is that you don’t need a separate hosting plan.

But it comes at the cost of flexibility and features.

On the other hand, WordPress.org helps you create a free blog and offers unlimited features without any restrictions.

What’s more?

It requires you to self-host your blog, hence the need to purchase hosting from Bluehost. This also means that you have complete control over your hosting, and that’s why this version is preferable.

The process of installing WordPress on Bluehost is pretty straightforward. You can directly install it from your dashboard with a single click and get started.

Here’s how you start using WordPress on your blog.

  1. Login to your Bluehost account.
  2. Click on My Sites on the left sidebar.
  3. Tap on Create Site.
  4. Enter your website name and the tagline.
  5. Select the target domain on which you want to install your website.
  6. Choose the directory and click Next.

That’s all. You’ve successfully installed WordPress on your website.

Now that you know how to get your platform ready, it’s time to start setting it up.

Step 6: Choose an Appealing Design and Color Scheme

Now that you know how to start your WordPress blog, you need to select a website theme for your blog. With the theme, you can decide how your blog will look.

WordPress offers loads of free and paid themes. When you start off, I wouldn’t recommend using a paid theme instantly.

If you’ve got some plans laid out, then I’d recommend going for a paid theme as it can offer you numerous features and customization options that free themes usually don’t.

For paid themes, you can check out theme stores like Envato, TemplateMonster, and aThemes. You can find loads of themes based on your niche.

After purchasing your theme, you’ll be provided the option of downloading it. Once it’s downloaded, you need to head to WordPress to add it to your blog.

So, let’s look at how to do so.

1. To start, you can head to Appearance -> Themes-> Add New.
wordpress theme

2. Next, tap on Upload Theme.
wordpress theme update

3. Once uploaded, you can select the theme to implement it.

Alternatively, for a free theme, you can select any of the themes displayed below. You can also filter them based on popularity and recency.
wordpress features

I recommend using Bimber, Divi, and Astra.

But why is your blog’s theme so important?

It’s because the blog’s appearance impacts the visitor’s perception of your blog. If it’s not designed well, the chances are that your visitors will bounce away from the blog.

Alternatively, a well-designed blog with a smooth layout and navigation can be a pleasure for the visitor to browse.

Some of the factors that you should consider when choosing a theme are:

  • Theme design
  • Relevance to your brand and niche
  • Size of the theme
  • Features offered by it

Now that you know how to select the theme, you need to customize it according to your requirements. This can be done by going to Appearance -> Customize.

 

Step 7: Install These Important Plugins

After you’ve personalized your theme, you need to extend its functionality by adding new features to it.

For a regular blog, it can be a task to do so as you’d need to know how to code. However, thanks to WordPress, this process is simplified through the use of plugins.

What are WordPress plugins?

WordPress plugins are software solutions that can be considered add-ons for themes and they can add extra functionality to your blog.

There are plugins that can help you with SEO, analytics, email marketing, and more.

However, there are numerous plugins out there to choose from. To help you start your blog off right, I’ve compiled a list of must-have plugins:

1. Yoast SEO: When you’re talking about your WordPress blog’s SEO, the one plugin you can’t do without is Yoast SEO.

This plugin helps you write SEO-friendly content, assists with page titles, meta descriptions, and more. You don’t even need to know how to submit an XML sitemap to Google as it does that for you too.
yoast seo

2. Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress: It’s essential to integrate Google Analytics with your WordPress blog to view its analytics.

The simplest way to go about it is by using this plugin. It also shows you all the analytics right on the WordPress dashboard.
wordpress analytics

3. UpdraftPlus: It’s always better to have a backup of your website in case of any trouble. This is where UpdraftPlus comes into the picture.

It backs up your website regularly so that you can restore it to a previous date at any time. It’s also a free plugin.
updraftplus

4. WP Super Cache: Your website’s loading speed is of paramount importance. If your website’s too slow to load, you might lose valuable traffic.

Caching is a great way of increasing your loading speed. For this, you can use WP Super Cache.

This plugin is developed by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and it’s a free plugin too.
wp super cache

5. Insert Headers and Footers: If you want to add code snippets into your header or footer, you might need to add them to the code of your theme.

However, this can be challenging, especially if you don’t have any technical knowledge. In such a situation, this theme can help you insert the snippets with ease.
wordpress plugin

6. Jetpack: Jetpack is yet another plugin designed by Automattic. It offers a host of features to help with your blog’s security.

You can also add content delivery network (CDN) services, social buttons, contact forms, and more, using this plugin.
jetpack

7. Akismet Anti-Spam: Akismet is a great plugin that can help you avoid getting plagued by spam comments and forms. Every comment and form that’s added to your blog goes through it.

The plugin filters out the ones that look like spam. You can also see the URLs so that you can spot hidden links.
akismet anti-spam

8. Simple Sitemap: While Yoast SEO helps you set up your XML sitemap, Simple Sitemap helps you create your HTML sitemap. You can seamlessly generate an HTML sitemap of your website without any shortcodes using this plugin and improve your blog’s SEO.
simple sitemap

Step 8: Optimize Your Blog for SEO and Conversions

Now that you know how to start a blog and how to write a blog post and promote it, let’s look at how you can use SEO to drive traffic to your blog.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important channels through which you can drive traffic to your blog.

It’s a set of methods that you use to help your blog rank higher in search results on Google.

It has two main components:

  • On-Page SEO
  • Off-Page SEO

When you start a blog and begin publishing content, you should try to optimize it for SEO to make the most out of your efforts.

But, how can you do that?

Let’s find out.

On-Page SEO

This deals with all the optimization that can be done on your blog.

There are eight major parts of on-page SEO optimization. They are:

  • Google Search Console Audit: You need to audit your Google Search Console to see if you’ve got any manual action if any pages are blocked by robots.txt, page not found errors, and more.
  • On-Page Audit: This looks at the different parameters of your pages such as the H1 tags, meta tags, title tags, structured data markups, and content quality.
  • Website Architecture: You also need to look at the way your website’s architecture is laid out. Without a good website structure, the search engines won’t be able to crawl your website well.
  • Findability: It’s necessary to figure out how easily the information on your website can be found by both search engines and humans. So, you need to check your indexation status, robots.txt, server uptime, and more.
  • Social Media Analysis: Social media doesn’t directly affect SEO but does overlap with it. You can establish credibility through Google My Business, Facebook Open Graph, and Twitter Card Snippet.
  • URL Analysis: You also need to check your URLs to figure out if they’re well-optimized. You can use Screaming Frog SEO Spider to analyze them.
  • Link Problems: Links are crucial for spiders and humans to discover new pages on your blog. You need to check both external and internal links to find out if there are any issues with the linking on your website.
  • SEO Equity: It’s crucial to check for the authority of your website and see how well it’s distributed across the blog. You should check for redirects, nofollow links, and more.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page optimization deals with all SEO-related activities on websites other than yours.

For your off-page SEO optimization, you need to do the following:

  • Brand Mentions: You should try to get more brand mentions on high-authority websites. This shows the search engines that your blog is valuable and authoritative.
  • Guest Posting: Reach out to high-authority blogs and websites to publish your guest posts. The backlinks from these posts can help you improve your SEO and build your brand too.
  • Commenting: Leave relevant comments on posts on other blogs to get some nofollow backlinks. This can also help you build relationships with other bloggers.
  • Forums: Participate in forum discussions and provide your blog’s link as a reliable resource, wherever relevant. Look for forums that allow you to add do-follow links.
  • Influencer Marketing: Reach out to influencers and partner with them. Use their influence to get your brand out there and get quality backlinks from their blogs as well.
  • Social Networking: Increase the reach of your content by posting it on social media platforms.
  • Broken Link Building: Find websites with broken links and approach them with your resource as a replacement for the broken link to get backlinks.
  • Questions & Answers: Go to websites like Quora, Stack Overflow, etc. to find people who’ve asked questions relevant to your industry. Answer those questions and include links to your blog posts in your answers.
  • Newsletters: Newsletters help you promote your content to your subscribers with ease. You can regularly send them newsletters and add CTA buttons to them to drive traffic to your blog too.

Step 9: Write, Write, and Promote it Well

Now that you know how to start your blog. It’s time to write your first blog post.

Remember, content is the reason why people will want to come to your blog and stick around. This means that getting your content right is of the utmost importance.

You need to write high-quality blog posts to attract your audience and hold their attention.

Some of the things that you need to remember before writing your first blog post are:

  • It needs to be relevant to your niche
  • It must be engaging
  • It should be free of grammatical errors
  • It must have actionable tips or insights
  • It should be valuable for your audience
  • It must provide all the information that your audience seeks

These are general guidelines for all your blog posts and you should try your best to adhere to them.

Next, let’s move on to how to write your first blog post. Before you can start writing the post, you need a topic. For this, you can conduct keyword research.

Go to a keyword research tool such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or LongTailPro, and enter your primary keyword.

The tool will come up with a list of relevant keywords. These keywords can serve as topics for your blog posts.

You can pick any relevant topics from the list and then write about it. You can list multiple ideas in a document so that you’ve got enough content planned for your blog.

Once that’s done, you can move to the next step, and that’s writing your blog post. Here are the steps involved.

How to Write Your First Blog Post

Here’s how you can write your first blog post on WordPress (step-by-step process)

1. From the left sidebar, navigate to Posts. In that, click on Add New.
wordpress dashboard

2. This will bring up a new blog post page where you can enter a page title and write your blog post.
wordpress posts

3. Come up with an attractive title for your blog post and enter it on the bar that says Add title. Note how I’ve added, “How to Start a Blog” here.
wordpress blog

4. In the box below, write a compelling introduction to your blog post. Remember, this needs to entice your visitors to read the post. So you must try to write engaging introductions that can catch the attention.
wordpress post update

5. Include loads of visuals in the blog post to make it colorful and attractive. You can greatly benefit from using images and videos in the post. To design such visuals with ease, I recommend using Canva.
canva

6. On the right-hand sidebar, select an appropriate category for the post. Add a new one by clicking on Add New Category.
wordpress blog publish

7. Once that’s done, you need to optimize the post for SEO as well. For this, scroll down to Yoast SEO. There, enter your focus keyphrase first.

yoast seo keypharse

8. Next, scroll down to and enter your SEO title, slug, and Meta description. Make sure that the bar below the SEO title and Meta description turns green. Above it, you’ll also be able to see how the listing will appear on Google.

yoast slug

9. Below this, you’ll find a list of optimizations that you can do to improve your SEO even further. Make these changes until the circle turns green.

yoast analysis

10. Hit the Publish button.

wordpress blogs

Some of the other things that you should keep in mind while writing your blog post are:

  • Keep your sentences short. Try not to exceed 20 words per sentence.
  • Don’t write long paragraphs. Restrict them to about three to four lines.
  • Ideally, write blog posts that are at least 1000+ words long.
  • Proofread the post before publishing.

You should follow this process for all your blog posts to ensure that they’re of the highest quality possible. To help with proofreading and editing, you can use Grammarly. This tool can help you detect grammatical errors with ease.

But that’s not all.

To ensure that your blog remains active, you need to keep publishing new posts regularly. This will give your audience a reason to keep checking it for the latest updates.

However, writing high-quality content regularly will not bring you traffic if you don’t put any effort into promoting it.

So, how can you do it?

Let’s find out.

Promoting Your Content

To attract your target audience, you need to come up with a plan to promote your content. Simply writing blog posts won’t attract a readership directly.

Content promotion can help you put your content in front of your audience so that they take an interest in it and come to your blog. Here are some methods of promoting your blog.

1. Social Media

Social media is a great way to reach your audience with ease. Combined, there are over 3.8 billion social media users worldwide.

A good chunk of them may be your target audience too. By building your presence on social media, you can connect with them and get your content in front of them.

You should frequently share the content that you’re publishing on your blog on your social media accounts.

When your audience notices this content, the chances are that they might want to check it out. This can bring valuable traffic to your blog.

Based on the type of content your audience likes, you can choose from the top social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more.

There, too, you should ensure that you post content consistently. For this, you can leverage tools such as Buffer and HubSpot. Knowing how to build your audience on social media can go a long way to help you grow your blog.

Note how I regularly share the links to my blog posts on social media.

twitter

Image via Twitter

2. Guest Posting

Guest Posting is yet another way to get your blog posts in front of your target audience and gain a wider reach. It can also help you build your brand as it involves posting on multiple websites and blogs.

You can reach out to other websites and blogs for guest posting and this works as a great strategy to get traffic to your blog.

By writing guest posts, you can reach the engaged audiences of other blogs. The other blogs benefit from getting a high-quality blog post for their audience.

At the same time, writing guest posts on multiple websites can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

To write guest posts on prominent websites, you need to do outreach well and build a rapport with them. This can help you win their trust.

It is, however, crucial that you know how to convince them to let you post on their websites.

You could offer a barter guest post option where they can publish a guest post on your blog in return for one on theirs.

Alternatively, you can publish or republish your content on websites such as Medium. You can publish posts on it for free and add links to your blog to drive traffic.

See how I’ve written for multiple websites and blogs online.

guest posting

Image via Google

3. Email Newsletters

Email marketing is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. However, for this, you need to know how to build an email list. You can add a signup form on your blog for this.

You can add it on your homepage, sidebars, and at the bottom of your posts too. Alternatively, you can use popup sign up forms. From these forms, you can collect the information of your visitors and add it to your email marketing platforms such as MailerLite or AWeber.

Then, you can send out emails to your subscribers every time you publish a new blog post. Add a call-to-action (CTA) button in your email with a link to your blog post to drive traffic to it.

Over time, you can grow your email list and get your subscribers to read your content regularly.

I regularly send newsletters to my subscribers whenever I publish a post on my blog. This helps me drive traffic to it.
email newsletter

4. Forums and Q&A Websites

Forums and Q&A websites give you the opportunity to promote your blog to a more private community.

By becoming a part of forums dedicated to your niche, you can easily promote your blog to people who might be interested in reading your content.

You could cleverly insert links to your blog posts in the answers to questions posed by fellow members of the forums.

Similarly, Q&A websites such as Quora can help drive traffic to your blog too. You can search for questions relevant to the topics that you’ve written on your blog.

Then, you can answer these questions in detail and insert a link to your blog post in them. All those who’re looking for the answer to the question may read your post. This traffic is highly targeted and can help you grow your blog.

I regularly write answers on Quora and this helps drive traffic to my blog.

quora shanebarkerImage via Quora

Now that you know how to write and promote your blog posts, it’s time to understand how to make money from it.

Step 10: Use These Money Making Strategies (GUARANTEED)

Now that you’ve got your blog up and running, and have some traffic, the next step in this guide on how to start a blog is that of monetizing it.

There are numerous ways through which you can make money blogging (GUARANTEED). However, do remember that to derive substantial income from it, you’ll need to put a lot of hard work into it.

The methods below will show you how to make money from your blog (GUARANTEED).

They’re GUARANTEED to work as they’re proven methods and I’ve made good money using them, and so have many other bloggers. However, it’s of the utmost importance to follow the strategies below very carefully.

Disclaimer: When I say that these methods are GUARANTEED, it means that you need to follow these steps over a long period of time consistently and honestly. You’ll need to put these efforts dedicatedly for a minimum of one year to start seeing results. It’s only then that you’ll be able to make money (GUARANTEED). Else, you may not be able to make much money blogging.

Also, none of the methods below will work well if you don’t have enough traffic. So make sure you put effort into building that up first.

How can you make money from your blog?

Let’s find out.

1. Blog Advertisements

One of the simplest ways of monetizing your blog is through traditional blog advertisements. You can join any popular ad network, such as Google AdSense, Media.net, Carbon Ads, and more.

Before you apply to these places, you must know how to get your account approved. For this, make sure you have a good amount of content on your website, else your application may be rejected.

Once approved, you’ll be asked to add the code to your website. You can select the spots where you want the ads to be displayed.

What’s next?

Whenever your visitors see or click on the ad, you get paid based on the cost per click (CPC) or cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM).

However, do remember that you’d need a lot of traffic to make a sizable income out of this. Nonetheless, it’s a handy mode of passive income.

If you decide to use blog advertising, consider native ads over display ads as they tend to get 53% more views.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is yet another lucrative passive income source that can drive more revenue than ads if implemented well.

In affiliate marketing, websites or businesses use affiliate programs to drive their sales and revenue. They partner with multiple websites or bloggers to promote their products or services.

When you join an affiliate program, you’ll be provided with a special tracking link. You need to add this link to various places on your blog.

Whenever your visitors click on the link and purchase something from the other website, you will get a commission. This is typically a percentage of the total amount spent by the customer.

But, how can you get started with it?

Based on your niche, there’ll be loads of affiliate programs out there. All you need to do is head to Google and type “affiliate program [niche name].”

You could also check out affiliate networks such as ShareASale, Impact, Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate), and Rakuten, among others.

It’s important to know how to select the right affiliate programs. There are certain things that you need to keep in mind. Here are the factors you should consider:

  • Commission: Choose affiliate programs that offer better commission rates.
  • Cookie Policy: Various programs offer differing cookie policies. Ones with longer cookie policies are better.
  • Payout Structure: You should also consider the payout duration and the minimum amount required to withdraw. Shorter payout duration and low minimum amount requirements are helpful.
  • Affiliate Networks: Brands that are a part of affiliate networks are easier to manage.

For instance, I’ve partnered with brands like Bluehost, Envato, SEMrush, and more.

However, there’s one important thing to remember when it comes to affiliate marketing. Whenever you recommend a product or service, do ensure that it’s something you believe in or have used.

Recommending sub-standard products that aren’t useful may alienate your audience and can negatively affect your credibility. So be sure that you are very selective about what you choose to promote.

3. Freelancing

A great way to make money blogging is by promoting your services. Create “About Me,” “Contact Me,” and “Hire Me” pages to get the attention of potential clients.

What else?

You could add information about your services on sidebars like I’ve added on my blog.  Be sure to mention the projects that you’ve worked on or the brands you’ve worked with to establish your credibility.

Based on your niche, you could sell services relevant to it. Some of the services that you can offer are:

  • Writing
  • Marketing
  • Photography
  • Designing
  • Development
  • Business strategy
  • Virtual assistance
  • …and more

The best part about freelancing is that you can land good gigs even when you don’t have massive traffic.

4. Sponsored Content

Sponsored content isn’t a viable option for monetization when you’ve just started your blog. It can, however, be a great monetization method once you’ve developed a good readership.

It’s very useful as it works better than display ads. Readers spend about 36 seconds reading branded content. On the other hand, they look at display ads for only about 1.3 seconds.

What is sponsored content?

Essentially blog posts that a brand or individual pays you to write. The posts are written so that the sponsor can get their brand or content in front of your audience. And that’s why it’s necessary to have a strong readership before you can land any sponsored posts.

While it may take time to build this readership, you can land numerous sponsorship deals after that.

However, just like affiliate marketing, you should be very careful about whom you choose to promote. You don’t want to alienate your readers.

Additionally, you should ensure that the sponsored post is similar in tone and style to your regular posts. This can help keep your readers engaged.

What’s more?

You should be transparent about the sponsored content with your audience. Make sure that you clearly mention that the content is sponsored. Being honest with your readership can help you build trust.

Lastly, based on the domain authority (DA) of your website, you can decide on your pricing. A study by PointVisible found that the average fee is highest for websites with higher DA.

point visible

Image via PointVisible

5. Online Courses

Yet another way of making a sizable income from your blog is through online courses.

Once you establish yourself as an authority figure in your niche, there will be people who’ll want to learn the skills that you possess.

While you can convey this information through detailed blog posts, online courses are a much better mode of doing so.

In them, you can include your best advice, strategies, tips, and more so that people can learn everything they need to know about a particular topic.

The best part about online courses is that you can command a premium for your knowledge that you share with the people.

What’s more, you ask?

It’s not necessary to have a massive readership to launch your online course. You just need to know how to attract an engaged audience that’s keen to learn the skills that you possess.

Then, you can create a course around those skills and promote it to them.

To launch your online course, you can use platforms like Teachable and Learnworlds.

Based on the knowledge and skills I’ve acquired during my numerous years of experience building a personal brand online, I’ve come up with a course, How to Be An Influencer, which is launching soon. As the name suggests, it’s the ultimate course that teaches you how to become an influencer.

how to be an influencerImage via How to Be An Influencer

Step 11: Make Money and Keep Innovating

Now that you know how to start a blog and how to make money from it, you’re all set to start building your readership and making money.

However, while all the points mentioned above are valid and relevant, you must remember that growing your blog is a continuous process.

If you want to continue making a sizable income from it, you must keep innovating regularly and figure out how to grow your blog.

Keep experimenting with different tools and promotion methods, incorporate new ways of monetizing your blog, and never stop learning.

You could incorporate chatbots into your blog, start a podcast, sell branded products, and so much more — the options are endless.

As people’s preferences change, you should keep innovating to cater to those preferences so that you can remain relevant.

It’s crucial to do this to ensure that your blog and brand continues to flourish.

FAQs

Q1. How do you start a blog for free?

A. There are many website building platforms that allow you to create and launch a blogging website for free. WordPress is one of the most popular sites among bloggers as you can use it to create a feature-rich blog for free. And, if you don’t want to pay for hosting, then you can use a free WordPress domain name to start your blog.

Q2. How do bloggers get paid?

A. Bloggers get paid primarily by displaying ads on their websites. You can sign up with services like Google AdSense to make money by displaying ads on your blog. However, this is only feasible for blogs that get a good amount of traffic.

Other than this, bloggers can also get paid for writing sponsored content for brands and posting it on their blog.

Q3. How do you start a blog for beginners?

A. The simplest way to start a blog is to join a blogging platform like WordPress or Blogger and create a blog. These platforms provide ready-to-use blog templates that make the process so simple that even beginners can do it themselves.

You also need to choose a niche and do some topic research before you start creating content for your blog.

Q4. Is it worth starting a blog?

A. Blogging is something that has been popular for a long time and will continue to remain that way in the future. It is a good way to direct traffic to your website, establish yourself as an authority on a subject, or simply engage your audience. Blogging provides many benefits and not just an outlet to share your thoughts anymore.

So, yes, it is worth starting a blog any time.

Q5. What is a blog example?

A. If you go to Blogger or WordPress, you will find thousands of examples of different kinds of blogs. Here’s are a few examples of blogs hosted on WordPress, but with their own domain name.

  • Just Homemade
  • 99U
  • TechCrunch

Q6. What is the best site to start a blog for free?

A. WordPress, Blogger, Wix, and Weebly are some of the best options for starting a blog for free. WordPress, however, is a clear winner when it comes to popularity and has millions of blogs on their platform.

Q7. How do I promote my blog?

A. You can promote your blog on social media by adding a link in your bios or sharing excerpts from your latest posts. You can also choose the option to automatically share a social media post whenever you publish a new blog post. You can also promote your blog on other platforms like Quora, by sharing content that links back to your blog.

Q8. How are blogs written?

A. To write a blog post, you must first do some topic research and select one that is relevant to your audience. Then, you should research the topic at length and make a list of key points to cover. Create an outline first and then start writing.

Q9. What makes a good blog?

A. A good blog should be focused on one or a few key niches and should cater to a specific target audience. It should have useful, updated, and relevant content on topics from those niches, in an easy-to-read format.

Q10. What type of blogs make the most money?

A. The main eligibility criteria for blogs to make money is the amount of traffic they get. So, any kind of blog can make money as long as it gets a significant amount of traffic.

How to Start a Blog: Final Thoughts

Blogging is a great way of establishing your authority online, building your brand, and generating a decent income.

However, you must remember that when you start a blog, you must be passionate about it. The idea of growing your blog and sharing your expertise with your audience should excite you.

In the end, everything depends on the content you create. You should know how to create it such that it piques the interest of your audience and should make them want to keep returning to your blog regularly.

Get this right, and traffic and income will follow.

I’d recommend bookmarking this post on how to start a blog so that you can keep returning back to it whenever you need to take a quick look at the marketing or monetization methods. I’ll keep updating it regularly to keep it relevant to the latest happenings in the market too.

Do you have any questions about how to start a blog, market it, or promote it? If so, write them in the comments below.

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