How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 2023 -The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Start Blogging and Make Money in 6 Steps

 

 

How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 2023 

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Start

 Blogging and Make Money in 6 Steps

 

This is my easy, step-by-step guide to learn how to start a blog and make money from it. This is the best way to start blogging (and soon make money from your blog) in 6 steps that’ll have you create a blog in 10 to 15 minutes.

 

How to Start a Blog and Make Money on the Side

Follow these steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:

1.Pick your blog name and niche

2.Get your blog online (web hosting)

3.Design your blog with a free WordPress theme

4.Write your first blog post

5.Promote your blog and get readers

6.Make money from your blog

 

How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 6 Steps: Beginner's Guide to Start Blogging in 2023

What is a blog?
Should I start a blog?
Can I start a blog without any technical experience?
Is it still possible to make money from a blog today?
How much does it cost to start a blog in 2023?

Follow these 6 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:

If you’re ready to take the leap and learn how to start a blog that can grow into a source of real online income, then let’s dive in.

 

1. Pick your blog name and niche

First, it’s time to pick a name and niche for your new blog.

Your blog’s name is what readers will see first (like yourblog.com), so it should ideally represent either the general topics you’ll be writing about—or it could be your own name, that of your business, a clever combination of words, or otherwise.

 

Your blog’s niche is the general topic area that you’ll be focusing your content around. Examples include blog topics like travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and otherwise. Incorporating a word or two that clearly signals what your content is about, within the name of your blog (like fashionbyjane.com or hikewithryan.com)—will be very helpful for your future blog readers.

 

What if I can't decide on a blog name (or topic) yet?

What happens if the blog name I want to use isn't available?

Can I change the name of my blog later?

 

2. Get your blog online (web hosting)

The second step in starting a blog, is actually getting your blog online. That’s what a web hosting company will do for you. In this step, you’ll be selecting the blogging platform and web hosting plan you’ll use to get your blog online.

 

What is web hosting?

How much does web hosting cost?

What's the best web hosting service to use?

The combination of blogging platform & web hosting I personally use (and that most other bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost. WordPress is a free publishing platform that’s been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet. Bluehost is one of the most established, reliable companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we’ll be using to start your blog. Now, let’s get your hosting set up.

 

 

Choose your web hosting plan

First, you’ll select a hosting plan (inputting your blog name comes next). Personally, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan because it comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number and home address) from being published anywhere online.

 

Choosing your plan will look like this right here. Just click the green “Select” button on your plan of choice:

 

How to Select the Right Hosting Plan to Start a Blog

I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you’re getting the Domain Privacy feature that’ll protect your personal information online, but any of these plans will do as you’re starting your blog—and you can add the domain privacy in later during the checkout process for around $1/mo.

 

Pick your blog’s domain name

Next, you’ll get to the page where it’s time to choose your blog’s domain name:

 

Create an Account and Getting Your Domain Name with Bluehost to Host Your Blog

Once you get to this step in the checkout process, just type in the name of the domain name that you’d like your blog to have (mine is thedailycreative.com).

 

If you want to run a quick search to see if your domain name is available, you can do it quickly right here:

 

Check if your domain name is available:

Search for an available domain name:

Search for available domain names...

 

SEARCH DOMAINS

If your domain name of choice isn’t available, you can either try another option that comes to mind—or (what I recommend) select the option to choose your domain name later after getting the rest of your account squared away and taking a little more time to think the name through. Plus, later on down in this guide, I expand some more on how to choose the right name for your blog if you’re not decided yet.

How to Choose Your Domain Name for Your Blog Later if You Can't Decide

After either choosing your domain name or opting to select it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign up process—creating your account.

 

Create your Bluehost account

Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address (it’s super important to use an up-to-date email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent) and address. If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Either works!

 

selecting Your Package Details and Blog Hosting Plan Duration

Note : That Bluehost only offers options for you to pay 1, 2, 3 or 5 years upfront. They don’t offer a monthly payment option (because most hosting companies that do offer monthly payments tend to charge a bit more). Even still, with whichever plan you choose, the price works out to be a great deal for starting your own blog and getting it online today.

 

Which web hosting plan & pricing is best to start a blog with?

Personally, I recommend you to choose the “Prime 36 Month Price” if you want to lock in the lowest possible price for your new hosting plan. It secures your blog hosting at their lowest rate (and gets you domain privacy) for the next 3 years. And because this low pricing for new customers only applies to the first payment you make, if you were to choose the 1-year plan, your pricing may go up after that first year.

 

That’s why if you choose the 36-month plan, your pricing will be locked in at this rate for 3 years. For that reason, I recommend going with the longest duration plan that your budget can spring for.

Select the right blog hosting plan package extras (skip all but one)

Choose the Right Package Extras with Hosting with Bluehost

I recommend keeping the Domain Privacy Protection extra, but you can get away with skipping the rest. Later on in this guide, I’ll show you the many free and cheap plugins & tools you can use for things like SEO optimization, additional security and site back-ups, rendering most of the other package extras not necessary.

As I mentioned earlier though, having the domain privacy extra keeps all of your personal contact information (your name, email, phone number and address) private. Now, if you chose the Choice Plus Plan on the previous screen, then your Domain Privacy Protection will be listed as “Free”

If you chose a Basic or Plus Plan, then you’ll want to check the box to add Domain Privacy Protection to your order for around $1/mo.

 

The total you’ll now see is the amount you’re going to pay today. Remember though, you won’t have to pay again for 1, 2, 3 or 5 years depending on the package you chose. Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned with your blog.

 

Enter your billing information

Final Step of Billing Information on Bluehost

Now you’ll input your billing information, check the box that you agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service and then hit the green “Submit” button.

 

Woo! It’s time for a mini celebration ??

 

You’ve officially completed the first major step in starting a blog.

 

With the initial signup process complete, it’s time to move into the next stage of getting your blog fully setup and optimized.

 

On the next page, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the process of getting WordPress installed on your blog through Bluehost—and later on in this guide, I’ve got a ton of helpful tips for optimizing your blog, free and cheap plugins you can install to help get your blog looking great, and more.

 

Now we’re at the point in this guide where everything from here on out will be built upon the assumption that you’ve already registered your domain name and chosen the right hosting plan—so if you haven’t done so already, take just a few minutes to quickly get that set up.

 

I know first-hand that starting a blog on WordPress can be a daunting process.

While the first crucial step to getting your blog started today is registering your domain name and setting up hosting, my free course expands into actually growing your blog. Throughout this 7-day course, you’ll go from zero to publishing (and promoting) your first blog post. I can’t recommend it enough.

 

3. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme

How to Design a Blog with a Free WordPress Theme 

Now that we’ve gotten through the crucial setup phase of starting a blog, it’s time to have a little more fun.

 Designing your WordPress blog is when you might start to feel a little friction with this process though (if you’ve never worked on a blog before), but I promise this won’t get too technical.

 

If you want to start a blog and make money from it, WordPress is the best blogging platform

Let’s cover some basic terminology, so you understand why WordPress is the right platform (also known as a Content Management System or CMS) to run your blog on.

 

What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

What is WordPress?

Should I start a blog on WordPress (and is WordPress free)?

What if I want to create a blog with Wix instead?

What is a blogging platform?

Since I first started blogging over a decade ago, I’ve been running my blog on WordPress and I couldn’t be happier with the amount of flexibility, control and long-term growth potential that decision has afforded me. And while it’s been a fun journey, don’t be mistaken—blogging is hard work.

 

Now, one thing you need to be careful of, is that WordPress comes in two very different platforms. There’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They have almost the same name, but there are very big differences between the two:

 

Wordpress.com vs WordPress.org Comparison Chart When Choosing How to Start a Blog

While the choice is yours, if you want to take full advantage of your blog, be able to have it grow with you and eventually make money from it, WordPress.org It’s the CMS of choice that’ll sit in the background and power your blog.

 

How to install WordPress (and configure your blog settings)

Here’s a step-by-step guide how to install WordPress on your new blog, start building your blog pages and configure the right settings:

Spend time familiarizing yourself with the admin area of your WordPress blog. You’ll develop a much deeper understanding of how WordPress works and which things you can quickly change about your site’s visual appearance and functionality over time.

 

Choose the best free WordPress theme for your new blog 

When you’re still new to starting a blog, I don’t usually recommend buying a paid WordPress theme right away. Once you have some traffic and can justify the investment, then it’s smart to choose a premium theme with more features and options. For right now though, a complex blog theme will be a distraction from your most important priority of bringing readers to your new blog.

 

WordPress comes with a ton of free blogging themes to choose from, so start with one of the options you like in Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme > Popular without spending much time on this for now. You can always come back and change it later.

 

I recommend choosing Kadence WP, Elementor for WordPress or Astra (all of which are 100% free blog themes—they’re lightning fast and also have the ability to upgrade to their premium theme versions at affordable price points later on).

 

How to Choose a WordPress Theme for Your New Blog

I like these fast WordPress themes most because they’re crisp, clean, simple and will get you set up without needing to invest in a paid blog theme as you’re just starting your blog. Later, you can evaluate more of the other WordPress themes out there or upgrade these ones to their premium themes for more features.

 

What if I want to choose a different WordPress theme (or switch later)?

Why blog design is so important when starting a blog

Even if you don’t really care about design yourself, your readers will shift their behavior dramatically based on the features of your blog layout. In fact, during a 2012 study from Google and the University of Basel, researchers found that users judge a website’s aesthetic beauty and perceived functionality in 1/20th — 1/50th of a second. Plus, thanks to a little psychological bias called the Halo Effect, people will extend that judgement to all aspects of your blog.

 

Good blog design builds trust. It tells people that you care enough about your blog to make it look nice. This doesn’t mean you need crazy animations or tons of fonts and colors. In fact, the best designs are simple, clear and easy to read.

 

Once you’ve settled on the right theme for your WordPress blog, it’s time to dive into the world of WordPress plugins, to help unlock even more customizations of your blog design & functionality. This is the necessary prep work in order to give your blog a chance of developing into a real business over time.

4.Write your first blog post in wordpress

Assuming you already have a Wordpress account set up, here are the steps to create your first blog post:

1. Log into your Wordpress dashboard: Go to your website's URL and add "/wp-admin" to the end. Enter your username and password to access your dashboard.
2. Click on "Posts" in the left-side menu and then "Add New".
3. Enter a title for your blog post in the title field.
4. Write your blog post in the editor. The Wordpress editor provides a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, which means you can see exactly how your post will look as you write it.
5. Add any media, such as images or videos, by clicking on the "Add Media" button above the editor. You can upload new media from your computer or select media from your media library.
6. Choose a category for your blog post from the "Categories" section on the right-side menu. This will help organize your blog and make it easier for visitors to find similar posts.
7. Set tags for your post by entering keywords in the "Tags" field. This will help visitors find your post when searching for specific topics.
8. Preview your post by clicking on the "Preview" button to see how it will look when it's published.
9. Once you're satisfied with your post, publish it by clicking on the "Publish" button. Your post is now live and available for visitors to read.

Congratulations, you have successfully created your first blog post on Wordpress! Keep in mind that Wordpress offers many customization options, so feel free to explore and make changes as you go along.

5.Promote your blog and get readers

 

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your blog for search engines by using keywords in your post titles, meta descriptions, and throughout your content. This will help your blog show up higher in search results and attract more organic traffic.
2. Social Media Marketing: Share your blog posts on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Engage with your followers by responding to comments and sharing relevant content from others.
3. Guest Blogging: Reach out to other bloggers in your niche and ask if you can write a guest post for their blog. This will help you reach a new audience and drive traffic back to your own blog.
4. Content Promotion: Promote your blog content on websites and forums that are related to your niche. Share your posts on Reddit, Quora, or other sites where your target audience is active.
5. Email Marketing: Build an email list and send regular newsletters to your subscribers promoting your latest blog posts. Offer incentives, such as exclusive content or early access to new posts, to encourage people to sign up.
6. Influencer Marketing: Partner with influencers in your niche and collaborate on content that promotes both of your brands. This can help you reach a wider audience and attract more readers to your blog.
7. Paid Advertising: Consider using paid advertising options, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, to reach a wider audience. You can target your ads to people who are likely to be interested in your blog's content.

Remember, it takes time and effort to build a successful blog with a large readership. Be patient, consistent, and focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your readers.

6.Make money from your blog

Once you've built a substantial audience, there are several ways you can monetize your blog and start earning money:

1. Advertising: One of the most common ways to monetize a blog is through advertising. You can sell ad space on your blog to companies or individuals who want to reach your audience. You can also join ad networks, such as Google AdSense, which will place ads on your blog and pay you a portion of the revenue they generate.
2. Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services from other companies on your blog and earning a commission for any sales made through your unique affiliate link.
3. Sponsored Content: You can also earn money by creating sponsored content for brands. This involves writing blog posts or creating other forms of content that promote a brand's products or services.
4. Selling Products: If you have a product or service that is relevant to your blog's niche, you can sell it directly to your audience. This could be a physical product, an e-book, or an online course, for example.
5. Offer Premium Content or Services: Consider offering premium content or services to your audience for a fee. This could be an exclusive newsletter, a membership site, or one-on-one consulting services, for example.
6. Donations: Finally, you can also ask for donations from your readers to support your blog. You can use platforms like Patreon or Ko-fi to collect donations and offer rewards to your supporters.

Remember, it's important to only promote products or services that you believe in and that align with your blog's mission. This will help build trust with your audience and ensure that you're providing value to them.

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