You will learn how to start a blog in 6 steps that will take you 10-15 minutes. Click here to jump directly to step 1 and become a blogger now.
Follow these steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:
How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 6 Steps: Easy Guide for Beginners
The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Blog and Making Money Blogging in 2023 (New Bloggers)
- Choose your blog name and niche
- Get your blog online (web hosting)
- Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
- Write your first blog post
- Promote your blog to get readers and traffic
- Make money from your blog
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission. When you buy hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link I get compensated which helps make this step by step guide to starting a blog and making money blogging free of charge for you. Please know that I only recommend products and services that I have personally used and endorse.
Follow these 6 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money as a blogger today:
If you’re ready to take the leap and learn how to start a blog that can become a real source of income online, then let’s get started.
1. Choose your blog name and niche
First, it’s time to choose a name and niche for your new blog.
The name of your blog is what readers will see first (like tublog.com), so ideally it should represent the general topics you’ll be writing about, or it could be your own name, your company’s name, a clever combination of words, or something else.
The Your blog’s niche is the general subject area that you will focus your content on. Examples include blog topics like travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and others. Incorporating a word or two that clearly signals what your content is about, within the name of your blog (such as fashionbyjane.com or hikingwithryan.com), will go a long way to future readers of your blog.
2. Get Your Blog Online (Web Hosting)
The second step in starting a blog is actually getting your blog online. That is what a web hosting company will do for you. In this step, you will select the blogging platform and web hosting plan that you will use to put your blog online.
The combination of the blogging platformaddEventListener( “submit”, function (event) { event.preventDefault(); if(Date.now() – lastMove
Top 2 Alternative Blog Hosting Platforms Worth Considering
- Dreamhost – I’ve hosted literally dozens of websites on Dreamhost over the years. over the years (and still do). Aside from all the similar features like the one-click WordPress install, free SSL certificate, and site security, one of the biggest advantages of going with Dreamhost compared to other hosting companies is that they offer a true plan that can pay month to month that allows you to pay the cost of hosting your blog each month without any commitment. Here are some other web hosting companies that also offer monthly payment plans and have 30-day money-back guarantees.
- HostGator: What sets HostGator apart from other companies hosting, is their fantastic level of customer support and the fact that they also offer a true monthly payment plan (which helps if you’re starting your blog on a budget). HostGator is among the largest hosting companies and now has over 8 million websites worldwide, making them a great partner for scaling your blog over time.
If you still want to test more of the top blog hosting providers, then head over to my breakdown of the best web hosting plans for bloggers to check out this year. And if you’ve already taken care of your hosting with Bluehost, this is where you can log into your hosting account with them.
We’re now at the point in this guide where everything from here on out will be based on the We’re assuming you’ve already registered your domain name and picked the right hosting plan, so if you haven’t already, take a few minutes to get set up quickly.
Ready to register your domain name and set up blog hosting?
I made this detailed video tutorial to guide you step by step through the entire process, from choosing your web hosting to launching your blog and publishing your first blog post in the next 10 to 15 minutes:
Disclosure: Please note that when you purchase hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link, I get compensated, which helps me make this ultimate guide to starting a blog for free for you. Please know that I also use Bluehost hosting, and I would never recommend a product, tool, or service that I don’t personally use.com)
WordPress.org:
- Fully customizable layout (using WordPress themes), unlimited plugin options and unbranded
- Your own custom domain name to run your blog (like ryrob.com)
- Full control over your own monetization efforts
- Powerful SEO features with great plugins (so people can find your site easier)
- Let’s start or add an eCommerce store or website e Membership
- Small monthly fee (from the cheap hosting plan to use to put your blog online)
- A free domain name during registration (with most web hosts). blogs ing)
While the choice is yours, if you want to get the most out of your blog, be able to grow it with you, and eventually make money as a blogger, WordPress.org is the way to go ( and the exact process we have followed throughout this guide). It is the CMS of choice that will sit in the background and power your blog.
How to install WordPress (and configure your blog settings)
Here is a step by step video tutorial on how to install WordPress on your new blog, start building your blog pages, and configure the right settings:
Of course, in this video, we don’t cover everything about WordPress, but remember that these are the basics. what to accomplish first.
Take time to familiarize yourself with the admin area of your WordPress blog. You’ll develop a much deeper understanding of how WordPress works and what things can quickly change about the visual appearance and functionality of your site over time.
Choose the best free WordPress theme for your new blog (3 top options )
When you’re still new to starting a blog, I don’t usually recommend buying a paid WordPress theme right away. Once you get some traffic and can justify the investment, it’s smart to go for a premium theme with more features and options. For now though, a complex blog theme will be a distraction from your more important priority of attracting readers to your new blog.
WordPress comes with plenty of free blog themes to choose from, so get started. with one of the options you like in AppearanceHowever, to help you cut out all the noise… here are the must-have WordPress plugins to install when you start publishing today:
- Yoast SEO: The more people can find your content, the better your blog will perform. The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress helps you optimize your blog post titles, descriptions, content length, and other elements throughout your blog so that search engines can find you more easily. This is by far the best SEO plugin on the market, and it’s worth installing on your blog first.
- WPForms: You want your readers to be able to get in touch with you easily, which I highly recommend, as it will encourage other bloggers who want to collaborate with you to have an easy opportunity to communicate. WPForms is an easy to use plugin that allows you to drag
Permalinks (URLs)
Clean Up Your Default Site URL
Set your Blog Home Page (custom page of latest blog posts)
Set up your blog menu (header and footer menus)
Okay, let’s go We’ve covered the basics of dialing up your blog’s WordPress settings. Now, let’s dive into creating some of your blog’s main pages.
Create your blog’s main pages: About, Contact, Hire (on WordPress blogging platform)
From the moment you start a blog, you want to display basic information about yourself. Who are you. Why people should listen to you. How they can contact you if they have questions or want to work with you.
These pages are all pretty standard, but they’re also a great way to have fun and let your readers get to know you. In fact, I use my own About page to not only introduce who I am and tell my story, but also to explain my value proposition (for potential clients looking to hire me as a freelance content marketer) and showcase recent achievements.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to write an About Me page that also does this on your blog:
How to write an About page for your blog
You might Don’t think about it too much, but your About page can quickly become one of the most popular pages on your blog.
Use your About page to showcase the value you’re creating for your readers—and it works hard to gain that attention.
How to Write a Contact Page for Your Blog
Another often overlooked page that you’ll want to include early on when starting a blog, it’s a simple way for people to communicate with you.
Whereas mine is m More detailed, your contact page can be as simple as having your email and social media accounts listed on one page.
Think about what types of content you want to share with your readersWhat this means is: Are people actively searching for what you’re writing about? And can you add value and help them in a way that makes you money?
To build a business out of your blog, you have to solve a real problem for people. To do this, I use a simple spreadsheet I call the Niche Demand Checker (you can get a free copy in my course right here), which will help you make sure you create content that your target audience will find it useful.
Take the blogging niche you’re thinking about and come up with 5-10 keyword phrases or blog topics within that niche that you would write about. So if we wanted to start a blog on how to play the guitar, you could choose keywords like “best guitar books”, “how to play guitar”, “guitar chords for beginners”, “what guitar should I buy”, etc.
Note also that some of the new AI writing tools on the market these days can provide a lot of help in ideation, research
Luckily for you, I built a free blog title generator tool that will give you unlimited blog title ideas for the topics you want to cover.
Try my AI free -Powered blog title generator tool to get dozens of SEO friendly headline ideas to make your blog posts stand out today.
So, let’s say you’ve determined that your hiking blog (like Hike with Ryan) breaking down some underrated hikes in Yosemite, compiling a list of the best hiking boots on the market, rounding up gifts for the hiker in your life, and talking about when to visit Yosemite throughout the year. Next, click the “Add Title” bar on your new post’s page and write a title like…
As a starting point for writing a strong title, learn by looking at the headlines of others. successful bloggers in your niche:
- Do you often start with numbers?
- How many of your article titles include parentheses?
- Does it seem best practice to capitalize the first letter of every word?
Check out some of the most recent headlines from my blog so you can get some inspiration on how you can structure your titles (be sure to read my ultimate guide to writing blog titles and my quick tips for impactful blog titles).
If you’re still not sure how to title a new post, then do a Google search for the target keyphrase that want. search and gather inspiration for the ways in which other titles are written; make sure you don’t directly copy other bloggers, but that will steer you in the right direction.
Choose an SEO U RL-friendly blog post
It’s extremely important that you customize the URL ( blog link) of your new post, if you expect it to rank well in Google’s organic search results.
Create a compelling introduction to your new blog post
You have a or two sentences to convince readers that your new post is worth their time. Here’s a sample blog post introduction I just wrote in under two minutes for our hiking example:
As you learn how to write a blog post that keeps readers engaged, here are some do’s and don’ts for creating a strong intro (and my free blog post templates you can follow and use in your own content creation process).
The easiest strategy To write a compelling introduction is to answer who, what, where, when, and why as quickly as possible. This may sound counterintuitive, but another trick is to start with your conclusion first. In the age of short attention spans, people have grown tired of wasting time on clickbait blog posts that lead nowhere.
The faster you can establish relevance to your reader, give them a solid reason to believe that they will. If they find what they’re looking for in your blog post, they’re more likely to dig deeper into your article and share it with others.
Optimizing the design and layout of your blog post
Ultimately, what looks “good” is subjective and up to you, depending on what you think your (future) readers will resonate with the most. But one of the most important lessons I learned from starting my own blog is that design is very important.
These five time-tested design principles will go a long way in creating a compelling blog design. (That’s easy for readers to swallow.)
Click Publish on your first blog post
Once you’ve written your first blog post (and ideally it reaches to the 1,000 word range) you’re almost ready to publish!
Take a few minutes to check Yoast SEO suggestions and make sure your blog post is SEO friendly, which will give you the best chance to rank well in organic search. .
After checking your SEO settings, choose which “Category” this new post will belong to and check that box. So, you’re ready to publish!
And boom! It’s that easy if you let it 🎉
Now, if like me, you appreciate great design, before you hit publish on your first blog post, there’s one last step you can take.
Studies show that blog posts with images get 94% more views than those without. And when it comes to posts that are shared on social media, tweets with photos get 150% more retweets than those without one, while Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement. Adding a few visual elements can nearly double the number of views and increase the number of shares of a blog post.
Free Blog Photo Resources (stock images)Every photo that makes it to Unsplash is curated by their team to make sure it’s high-quality content. Under the Unsplash license, you don’t even have to attribute the photographer (however, they recommend that you do), making Unsplash the easiest choice for free blog photography.
Other great resources free blog photos worth mentioning
- Wikimedia Commons: 21 million photos and images from all over history that are now in the public domain and free to use.
- Life of Pix: Awesome free usage (open source) donated by an ad agency in Montreal, Canada.
Bonus: creating a blog content strategy
I have been lucky enough to work for some fantastic companies and get paid to learn about the importance of having a comprehensive blog strategy and content marketing strategy for your blog. I have successfully applied those same lessons to my own blog, making many adjustments and additions along the way. And if you’re having trouble with your content planning efforts, grab my free blog planner pack and check out my other pack of free blogging resources to kick things up a notch today.
Here’s how to create a plan basic blog content strategy today:
- Define your blog goals: What is your purpose for starting a blog? What do you want to achieve with the content of your blog? Your blog goals may change as your blog grows, but it’s still important to know from the start.
- Get to know your blog readers (and where they hang out): Your readers will determine if your blog is successful or not. To write for them, you need to really understand them, so it helps if you write for yourself as well. It’s helpful to do some research on the audience you’re writing for. Think about the demographics and psychographics of your target audience. Demographics are the quantitative traits of your readers (age, gender, location, job title) and psychographics are the more incommensurable traits like values, interests, attitudes, and belief systems. Once you’ve written down these qualities, you can begin to come up with an audience persona, a fictional version of your ideal reader.
- Decide on the main content pillars of your blog: When it comes to deciding what you’re going to write about, it’s good to have some guiding categories that you’ll refer to. I like to call these content pillars, as they are the foundation that supports the rest of your blog. For example, if you’re starting a personal finance blog, your pillars might be: personal finance tips, expert interviews, industry news, debt settlement, or other. Each of these pillars can have hundreds of blog posts written under them. They all also work together to show that you’re a thought leader in your niche.
- Map out the content you’ll create soon after starting your blog: Shortly after Al launching your blog, it’s worth taking a little time to plan your content stream for the next few weeks (possibly months). You never know when your first blog post might go viral. In that case, you’ll want to have at least a game plan in place to quickly attract the new readers you get. Even one or two blog posts on each of your main content pillars is enough to get you started, ideally in the form of evergreen content that will stand the test of time.
We’ve now come a long way path in this guide. You’ve gone from learning the technicalities to publishing your first blog post.
Time to talk about what happens after you’ve published your first blog post… promoting your content, driving traffic, and eventually make money with your blog.
Do you want my free course: How to start a profitable blog in 7 days?
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5. Promote Your Blog to Get Readers and Traffic
As we head into 2023, we can look back and see that my blog drew 4.4 million readers last year alone. We are going to use my experience to go from starting a blog to quickly attracting millions of readers to my content. What do you do once you hit publish on your first few blog posts? It’s time to learn how to promote your blog content.
This is why companies like LinkedIn, Zendesk, Adobe, Close, Intuit and more hire me as a consultant to write content for their blogs. , teach them how to promote their content and attract new readers.
Here are some of the best ways to start sharing your blog posts and showing them to new readers. And if you want even more strategies, here’s my guide to learning how to drive traffic to your website, where we dive even deeper into the tactics I’ve used to grow my blog to millions of annual readers.
Using Social Media to Promote Your Blog
The obvious first place to go when you want to find readers is social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are some of the biggest networks today. Whichever platform best suits your niche and audience interests is the one for you. And that’s an important note. There’s no point in trying to promote your blog posts on every social media platform.
Look for the social channels that give you the best performance
The key idea here is that you I’ll have to experiment and see which networks will work best for you.
Guest blogging on other relevant blogs and sites like Medium, QuoraAlso, I’ll be the first to tell you that these kinds of revenue numbers are not typical for blogging, and it took me 6 years to get to this point in my blogging business.
There’s a reason why I earn money from your blog is at the end of this guide to starting a blog. Unless you already have a large audience somewhere, you can’t expect to make money right away – monetization shouldn’t be your #1 focus right now, but rather something to work towards.
Also, the The way you monetize your blog will be different depending on the type of blog you have. For example, a lifestyle blog will follow different monetization strategies than a personal blog, mom blog, food blog, or travel blog.
Still, it’s good to have an idea of What ways would you like to make money blogging as you go on this new adventure, especially if you prioritize passive income. Some of these monetization strategies will be easier to implement than others as your readership continues to grow.
1. Freelancing (selling your services)
If you want to start earning from your blog as quickly as possible, then selling your services (by getting blogging jobs, freelance writing jobs, or selling your expertise as a service) is the easiest option by far. In fact, until very recently, I was still working as a blog monetization channel for my own business:
All you really need to land a freelance client is a strong enough pitch, which is where you choose to start. a blog (first) will help significantly. You’ll want to create your key pages (About, Contact, Hire Me) and show at least a couple of examples of the type of work you’ve done that you’ll soon be featuring to freelance clients.
If you don’t already have those samples of work… don’t let that stop you. Create those sample articles, layouts, or other deliverables and host them on your own blog as if they were a project you were paid to build.
If you have a skill that you can sell as a service, then you’re all set to Get out there and start introducing potential customers. That skill could be something like…
- Writing (one of the best blogging skills you’ll want to master)
- Design
- Photography
- Marketing (whether content marketing, digital marketing, or other)
- Development (check out these WordPress developer job sites)
- Public Relations
- Social media management
- Virtual assistance
- Community building
- SEO or paid advertising campaigns
- Business strategy or management of projects
- The list goes on… because any skill can be monetized
Today, I continue to regularly book new freelance clients (like LinkedIn, Zendesk, Adobe) for $5,000/month or more and I was hired to advise and execute on creating blog marketing campaigns for your organization.
If freelancing sounds like your cup of tea, you’ll want to grab my collection ( free) of all my best rec Courses, tools and templates for freelancers. That resource pack is the culmination of over 8 years of refining my freelance contract template, proposal template, cold email templates that convert new clients, and more.
I’ve also put together a detailed guide for getting started with freelancing you’ll want to read and another great essential read on how to develop a pitch process that works for your type of business, is my freelancer’s guide to cold emailing. And if you want to try some of the websites where freelance clients are already looking for talented help, here are my lists of the best blogging job sites and best freelance job sites.
2. Affiliate Programs
Each month, I earn a substantial amount of passive income from the affiliate programs I am a member of (sometimes over $50,000). For example, here’s a screenshot of my blog’s income from a single affiliate program (Bluehost) for the first 5 months of last year.
Since I started a blog here 10 years ago, Affiliate income has gradually grown to be the biggest source of income for my business, and I have structured my blog to generate affiliate income because of how passive it is once you have done the (difficult) work of finding a source of income. sustainable traffic for your content. I highly recommend looking carefully at affiliate marketing in your blogging niche.
Most major brands have affiliate programs. Think companies like Amazon, to key players in specific niches like online education, where brands like CreativeLive and Udemy have lucrative programs. Here’s a snapshot of my recent earnings from just a couple of other programs:
Once you build a small readership, you can go out and negotiate a more advantageous affiliate deal with companies that have relevant products that you want to promote to your audience.For MUCH more on the topic of monetizing your blog with affiliate income, check out these guides:
- 57 Best Affiliate Programs For Bloggers (To Earn Affiliate Income)
- 10 Ways Affiliate Marketing Can Completely Transform Your Blog
- How I Make An Extra $1000/Month With Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Although all sources blog revenue will be subject to market changes at any time, affiliate marketing has proven to be one of the most sustainable over almost a decade of blog monetization here, and I’m constantly testing new affiliate programs to keep growing revenue from my blog.
3. Sponsored Blog Content
Unless you already have a decent sized audience on your blog (or social accounts), it will take some time to build your readership to the point where Sponsored content is a viable monetization option.
The best way to make sponsored content without alienating your readers is to weave it into your typical post style (as I’ve done with this sponsored post and this one as well). .
4. Online Courses
Once you have a skill (or experience) that others want to learn too, it’s relatively easy to package your best tips (like my blogging tips), strategies, tactics, and tutorials into one online course. line where people can pay for access to accelerate their learning much faster than they otherwise would by going through the difficult process of learning through trial and error.
Just last year, I generated over $60,000 with the launch of my premium blogging course. , Built to Blog, which takes students far beyond just starting a blog and into advanced strategies for building readers
Take my AI-powered content creation platform, RightBlogger, for example, which I launched with a friend to help solve a major problem for new bloggers: giving them affordable access to great tech tools to speed up their growth. content creation process.
On the physical product front, it used to be a much more labor-intensive business to open an online store and enter electronic commerce. However, it has become increasingly easy with platforms like Shopify and can be a great way to monetize an audience of readers on your blog, especially with the proliferation of drop shipping and order fulfillment services.
In addition to only selling To your own audience, you can take advantage of loyalty programs that incentivize customers to invite friends to buy with offers like first-time customer discounts, one-month free trials, gift programs, and more. These channels create opportunities to amplify your message and spread your products through word-of-mouth marketing efforts that won’t cost you anywhere near similar advertising fees.
Tune in for my interview with Hiten Shah, who went from teach yourself how to start a blog, how to now use your personal blog as a way to connect with your audience, and launch profitable software tools as a result of the validation conversations you’ve had with them.
8 . Trade Partnerships
Of all the ways to monetize your blog, this is the most amorphous. Who knows who you will meet as a result. What about future guests on your podcast? The possibilities here to stumble upon partnership opportunities are endless.
As a result of sticking with my own personal blog for over a decade, I’ve been able to use it as a tool to meet some incredibly talented people. entrepreneurs Here are some examples of how my decision has turned into profitable partnerships:
- I have collaborated with my friend Jory (a writer) who I met through my blog, to win $20,000/m marketing from contentsHere are my answers to the most common blogging questions for beginners that people also ask when they start blogging.
Getting Started as a New Blogger FAQ
Questions Frequently Asked Questions on How to Get Blog Traffic
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Make Money Blogging
Whew! Alright, I’ve answered a lot of questions, but keep answering in the comments below.
Quick Summary of How to Start a Blog and Make Money in 6 Steps Today
In short, you should :
- Choose your blog name and niche
- Put your blog online (web hosting)
- Design your blog with a free theme WordPress
- Write your first blog post
- Promote your blog and get readers
- Make money with your blog
That’s it! Follow this step-by-step guide to starting a blog and you’ll be on the right track. Now, if you’re looking for additional reading to help you on your blogging journey beyond my guide on starting a blog, here are my top hits to read (and bookmark) today:
- How To write a blog post (people will want to read it)
- How to Name a Blog Smartly: 25 Blog Name Examples
- How to Choose a Blog Niche (60 Profitable Blog Post Ideas) blog niche)
- 16 Best Web Hosting Plans for Bloggers (This Year)
- Guest Blogging 101: How to Invite Blog Posts for SEO
- How to finding your target audience (for your blog)
- 10 SEO strategies for blogs to get more organic traffic
- 32 best ways to drive traffic to your blog (increase blog traffic)
- How to Market Your Blog: 12 Strategies to Get 584,863 Readers
- 202 Best Blog Post Ideas That (Actually) Get Readers
- How to Create a business plan iOS for a Blog (Free Template)
- 27 Best Blogging Courses (For Beginner and Intermediate Bloggers)
- 21 Best Blogging Courses Books All Bloggers Must Read This Year
- 50 Blogging Tools to Improve Marketing, SEO, Writing, and Research
- 12 Ways to Make Money Blogging and Earn $451,238 This Year
- 20 Blogging Examples to Learn About (Successful Blogging Case Studies)
And if you’re still looking for more, here’s a collection of all my blogging content.
Would you take the leap to learn how to start a blog (and become a blogger) today?
Now, I also want to know how your blogging journey is going. Good luck!
Write me or ask any questions in the comments below!
Want my free course: How to Start a Profitable Blog in 7 Days?
Enter your name and email address and you will get instant access to my course that was featured in Forbes, Business Insider and Entrepreneur.
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