Imagine a space where your thoughts, expertise, and experiences can inspire readers as well as earn you ample revenue. Yes, I am talking about blogs!
Hi everyone! It’s me, Suman. In this step-by-step guide, I will assist you in creating an attractive blog that can create your brand and earn a good chunk of money online.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Table of Contents
But, what exactly is a blog?
The blog is more than just a platform as it offers a great way to share information, connect with other aspiring people, explore new things, and earn money online.
People publish articles, posts, videos, and other relevant information on their blogs using websites. There are various easy-to-use content management systems available today including WordPress, Blogger, Wix, Medium, and so on. With these CMS systems, you can create a blog in no time, and start publishing articles.
So, are you ready to start your blog, and explore the potential of blogging? If yes, you can continue reading this guide. But before that, let’s understand why you should start a blog, and also explore the drawbacks/myths of blogging.
Should you start a blog? (Explore Blogging Myths)
As we know, blogging has become a great platform for sharing information, professional career development, and income generation. But with all the hype, is it worth starting a blog? By the way, there are various misconceptions or myths surrounding the blogging industry.
Get yourself acquainted with these blogging myths.
Myth #1: Perfect English with Writing Skills Required
People often choose not to start blogging thinking they require strong possession of the English language and excellent writing skills. However, it is not a prerequisite because you can use informal, and conversational style to craft awesome blogs.
People love reading about real-life experiences in the easiest way possible. So, you don’t need to use high-power vocabulary to attract your readers. Instead, use your original voice.
Myth #2: Success Happens Overnight
This is one of the common misconceptions that people keep in their minds. Success never happens overnight!
Blogging requires greater patience and consistent work. If you are in this field, you need to be patient, keep creating helpful content, and promote your blog strategically.
Myth #3: Blogging is Expensive/Requires Strong Technical Knowledge
You might think blogging is expensive as well as it requires strong technical skills. This is only applicable when you believe you don’t have a greater enthusiasm to begin.
Well, you can start a blog with a minimum investment. What you need to invest is your time and effort. Regarding technical skills, you almost require nothing! Watch YouTube tutorials and create an awesome website in just 30 minutes.
With this short information, let’s get on to our main topic which is starting a blog.
Step-by-Step Guide to Create a Blog
Follow these steps to create your blog within the next 20 minutes.
Step 1: Choosing a Niche
Choosing a topic for your blog is the first and foremost part of the blogging journey.
You can choose a niche for your blog depending on your passion, expertise, and enthusiasm. For instance, if you are passionate about finance, you can start a finance blog. Likewise, if you’re interested in cooking and recipes, you can go for a food niche.
However, you don’t need to become passionate to start a niche blog. As long as you can create content on any topic consistently, you can choose that niche and start your blogging journey.
Step 2: Choosing Business and Domain Name
After finalizing a niche, it’s time to choose a domain name that represents the topic or niche of the blog. If you have chosen a finance niche, your domain name could be yourfinanceguide.com. You can also use your name on the domain for personal branding, for example (yourfirstname)finance.com.
Before registering your domain name, you need to check whether it is available or not. For that, you can search your domain name on Hostinger by visiting the link below.
If the domain name you selected is available, you can continue purchasing and registering it. Otherwise, you can try other names, and word combinations that suit your blog topic.
Step 3: Selecting Perfect Hosting for your blog
Once your domain name is finalized, and secured, it is time to choose the best hosting plan. By the way, I recommend using Hostinger which is one of the best hosting providers worldwide. I have been using their services for more than 4 years and till now I am completely satisfied.
Before purchasing the Hostinger plan, you can go through my detailed review along with personal experiences here: HOSTINGER FULL REVIEW BASED ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Hostinger offers separate services for WordPress websites however, I recommend using their Web Hosting service which you can see in the screenshot below.
Depending on your budget, you can choose between Premium, Business, and Cloud Hosting. If your budget is too tight, you can go with Premium which costs $2.99 per month. But, if you can skip your coffee for some days, you can choose Business Hosting ($3.99 per month) which is the most popular, and best for beginners.
Regarding Cloud Hosting, I don’t recommend it to fresh bloggers. First, choose the basic hosting and continue growing traffic. Someday in the future, you will require Cloud hosting after receiving good traffic on your blog.
For now, we are choosing the Hostinger Business plan. If you purchase the Hostinger plan from my affiliate link, you get a 20% additional discount as shown in the screenshot below.
At the time of writing this, Hostinger is offering 3-month FREE offer. So, grab your deal now.
Step 4: Creating and Designing Website
After purchasing hosting, you need to log in to Hostinger and click ‘Add Website‘ where you will see options for WordPress, and other relevant designs. Click ‘WordPress’ and there you can choose Blog, and follow the instructions to create admin details for your WordPress website.
If you have already purchased your domain, select ‘Use an Existing Domain’ otherwise, choose the ‘Buy a domain’ option, and secure your domain name.
After completing these steps, you can follow all the instructions to create your WordPress website. It is not as complicated as you think! No coding is required just click and craft your website.
One thing you need to focus on is the clean and elegant design of your blog website that enhances a greater user experience. For that, choose fast-loading, and elegant themes like GeneratePress.
You can watch the following video by Hostinger:
Step 5: Start Creating, and Promoting your Content
Now your blog website is ready, you can start publishing articles based on your niche. Once you start publishing content consistently, you need to focus on generating traffic for your blog.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing, and Social Media are the key strategies to drive traffic to your website. You need to work consistently on crafting SEO-optimized content so that it gets ranked on Search Engine results pages of Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.
READ THIS GUIDE TO GROW YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC FOR FREE: How to increase website traffic for free? (Fast Traffic)
Moreover, you can work generating traffic via Social Media including Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Medium, and so on.
Now, it’s time to explore how to make money with blogging.
How to make money with blogging?
Blogging is not only a way to share your knowledge and experiences, but it is also a goldmine for earning ample revenue. Successful bloggers make more than $100,000 per month from blogging. So, how do bloggers get paid?
Running Display Ads
One of the most common methods of monetizing a blog is by running display advertisements. Beginner bloggers can apply for advertising platforms like Google AdSense to start earning from their websites.
After reaching a certain traffic threshold, bloggers can apply to premium advertising networks like Ezoic, Mediavine, and AdThrive. Besides, there are lots of other companies offering traffic monetization opportunities.
Once your site is approved by these monetization platforms, you can start showing ads, and earn revenue every month. You can see in the screenshot below, that I am earning good revenue from Ezoic, and AdSense ads on my websites.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is all about earning a commission by promoting the products of another person or company. Bloggers, content creators, and advertising experts can earn huge revenue through affiliate marketing by targeting audiences as per their niche.
READ THIS GUIDE TO GET STARTED WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING: How to start affiliate marketing for beginners? (6 Key Steps)
Affiliate Marketing is executed by finding affiliate products, getting the affiliate links, promoting it or getting traffic, and finally earning a commission after viewers purchase the product.
FIND HIGH-PAYING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS HERE: 10 Highest Paying Affiliate Programs for Bloggers
You can search for affiliate products based on your blog niche, and promote products on your website. As you become able to sell products through affiliate links, you earn a certain commission.
Sponsored and Guest Posts
As your blog gets recognized and builds a good audience over time, various companies or other bloggers reach out to you asking for sponsored and guest posts.
Depending on your niche, and website traffic, the amount of money offered on sponsored posts ranges from $10 to $1000+.
Here in this example, I was paid $110 for a guest post requested by a travel company to promote their content on my website.
Selling Digital Products
If you run a blog niche that has the potential to sell digital products, you can earn more! For instance, you can sell physical merchandise, online courses, ebooks, templates, and so on depending on your niche.
EXPLORE 10 DIGITAL PRODUCTS YOU CAN SELL ONLINE AND MAKE MONEY
In the case of the finance niche, you can sell personal financing courses, stock market hacks, and finance ebooks.
Final Takeaway
Throughout this guide, we explored the meaning of blogging, myths, reasons to begin blogging, a step-by-step guide to starting a blog, and methods of monetization.
I am pretty sure after reading this guide you are well aware of starting a blog and making money online.
Before ending this guide, I would like to remind some important points.
Be yourself: Write in a way that feels true to who you are, and let your personality show in your writing.
Keep posting: Add new stuff to your blog regularly to keep your readers interested and wanting to come back for more.
Talk to your readers: Make friends by replying to comments, chatting on social media, and getting to know the people who read your blog.
Keep learning: Blogging changes a lot, so stay curious, try new things, and keep learning how to be better.
Have fun: Remember to enjoy yourself! Blogging should make you happy, so make sure to have a good time while you’re doing it.
ALSO READ THIS DETAILED GUIDE BEFORE STARTING YOUR BLOG: How can I start blogging as a beginner?
