Are you wondering how to start a blog but you’re not sure how to set it up? This post will show you exactly how I set up my blog in a way that makes money passively.
I say passively because I can still make money while I’m not actively working on my blog. However, the first 6 months of blogging is a ton of hard work but I can guarantee you – it’s 100% worth it.
Who am I?
I started a blog that makes now makes over $1,300/mo passively while working a full-time job. I’m on a journey to reach 10,000/mo blogging. It took me over 1.5 years to reach this point in my blogging journey.
Follow along where I talk in-depth about what strategies I’m implementing to grow my blog and also tell you about the mistakes I made so you can avoid them!
Check out my income reports if you’re interested in seeing how much I make from blogging:
- How I Made $240.21 Blogging in February 2024
- How I Made $838.65 Blogging in March 2024
- How I Made $1318.33 Blogging In April 2024
How To Start A Blog In 6 Steps
- Decide what you’ll blog about.
- Pick a host and use WordPress.
- Pick a domain name.
- Design your website with a template.
- Write and publish your first post!
- Promote it!
Why Should You Start A Blog?
If you’re an introvert who likes the idea of making money online, blogging is the perfect side hustle for you! You don’t need to be in front of a camera and you can work from anywhere.
The income I’m making from blogging has allowed me to add a supplemental source of income that has helped my family with our expenses.
Blogging is also an amazing business model where you can write a blog post, promote it right, and let the passive income roll in for years to come.
How To Start A Blog
1. Decide what you’ll blog about.
If you want to start a blog that makes money, this is super important to think hard and long about. But I also won’t spend months and months thinking about it because you can also change niches.
How do you actually choose a niche? If the niche passes through these three criteria, I consider it to be a good niche:
- Ability to do well on Pinterest
- Has affiliate marketing potential
- Is something you like writing about
There are two main ways to market your blog posts – Google and Pinterest. I focus on niches that do well on Pinterest because Google updates have been extremely volatile lately.
Niches that do well on Pinterest include recipes, DIY, parenting, home decor, travel, personal finance, fashion, and fitness.
2. Pick a host and use WordPress.
This is a 2-step process – you need to pick a blogging platform and a host provider.
For blogging platform:
There are two different ways you can choose a blogging platform – either self-hosted or hosted.
If you plan on taking your blog seriously and making money from it, you need to use a self-hosted blog on WordPress. Note that this is wordpress.org, not wordpress.com!
By using WordPress.org, you have more autonomy over the functionality of your site and integrations with ad networks, email providers, and more. WordPress.org is free to use too.
A hosted platform would be sites like Squarespace, Wix, Framer, Webflow, etc. I don’t recommend starting on these because it’s more expensive, has less flexibility, and you don’t actually own the platform.
For hosting provider:
When you start your blog on WordPress, you need to purchase hosting as well. If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend going with the cheapest possible hosting.
There are many options for hosting, but I only recommend Bluehost.
Reasons why I chose Bluehost:
- Has the most affordable rates out of all hosting providers
- Offers a free domain name when you sign up for the 12-month plan
- WordPress.org recommends Bluehost as their recommended hosting company
In the first year of my blog, I was only using Bluehost and I had no problems with it. The only downside is their customer support can be slow at times but they eventually get to you and always have resolved my issues.
Now that my blog has grown, I’m using Lyrical Host now but it also costs 10x more than Bluehost.
How To Set Up WordPress and Bluehost
- Go to Bluehost.com and pick a Bluehost plan.
If you just need one website, the $2.75/mo plan is more than enough. With this plan, you’ll pay ahead for 12 months.
2. Choose a domain name.
After you click the “select” button, you’ll be taken to a page that prompts you to create a new domain name. If you already have an existing domain name, add that on the right side.
To choose a good domain name, consider these things:
- Choose a timeless name. Will you still like the name 5-10 years from now?
- Choose one that ends in .com since it’s most common.
3. Add your personal information and choose the 1-year plan.
4. You don’t need any of these add-ons.
Once you scroll down a bit more, it’ll ask you if you want these additional services. You won’t need to check any of these. Bluehost offers free SSL – you’ll just need to message them through chat once you have purchased the hosting.
5. After purchasing your host, you’ll be taken to a page to install WordPress.
Follow the instructions to set up your WordPress account. This step is super easy to do!
4. Design your website with a template.
Honestly speaking, the free templates on WordPress are not pretty at all. However, getting a website designer costs tons of money. So what I recommend is to purchase a wordpress template instead.
I purchased my template from 17th Avenue Designs and it’s still the one I’m using today. I bought the Mia theme. I think it’s one of the most inexpensive places to get beautiful templates.
I’ve also bought a template from Restored 316 before but they are most expensive. However, their templates have a bit more functionality than 17th Avenue Design templates.
5. Write and publish your first post!
I always get asked the question – how many posts should I publish before pushing my website live? The answer is 0!
You don’t need to wait until you have a certain number of posts before going live. Believe me, no one will see your site until you start promoting it.
Get your first post up as soon as possible!
6. Promote it!
As I mentioned before- when you’re starting out, there are 2 main ways to promote your blog posts.
The first is through Google SEO. This means you’ll need to add various keywords in your post to make it SEO-optimized so that it has a higher chance of ranking on Google.
The second is through Pinterest. For Pinterest, you design pin graphics to post and when your audience clicks on the pins, they’ll be taken to your blog article.
Google’s algorithm is insanely volatile so I rely on Pinterest to get the majority of my traffic. Currently, I get over 70,000 pageviews per month using Pinterest.
So when you’re starting, I highly recommend focusing just on Pinterest and nailing a solid Pinterest strategy. However, only rely on Pinterest if your niche is popular on Pinterest.
If you blog about a niche that isn’t big on Pinterest like technology and B2B topics, I recommend focusing on solely Google.
That’s all you need to know to set up your blog!
Congratulations! You’re one step closer to becoming a successful blogger.
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