How To Start A Blog & Make Money
Blogging has always been a popular way for people to make money. I think it’s been on the back burner with how big social media has gotten in the past decade, but blogging is the OG.
I don’t think people realize how big blogging really is. Think about it. When you type a question into Google, what comes up? Blog posts come up with all of the answers to your questions.
Blogging is not just about writing articles. You can make a serious income blogging.
It is not a get rich quick thing, but if you are willing to put in the work, it can be very rewarding for you. Starting a money making blog is pretty simple and I will break it down for you. Enjoy!!
How To Start A Blog & Make Money
Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links which means I may get a commission at no extra expense to you. Please know that I only recommend things that I have used and love!
Step 1: Choose A Niche
First things first, what is your blog going to be about? Some say it’s essential to niche down and others say you don’t need to.
In my opinion, when you are first starting, I do think it is important to niche down. Choose something you know a lot about or are passionate about.
This could be travel, motherhood, fashion, health, food, etc. Niching down will really help you stand out and build a name for your blog early on.
Once your blog is established, you can add more things you want to talk about.
For example, my niche is marketing & making money online. I am a marketing manager for female entrepreneurs so I talk about marketing, starting a business, & making money online.
Step 2: Setting Up The Blog
Now that you know what you’ll be writing about on your blog, it’s time to set it up. First you’ll need to decide which website platform you want to host your blog on. Read this blog post to figure out which website platform is right for you.
Choose your domain name
This is the web address for your website. For example, mine is www.sydneync.com
You can find a domain on Godaddy
When choosing your domain, think of something related to your blog. If you are blogging about travel, you can choose a name like “sydneys travel diary” or “that girl travels”. Get creative! Picking a name is always fun.
There are also a lot of AI softwares out there now that can help you choose a name as well. Just remember to choose something related to your niche and if you cannot decide, you can always just use your name!
Pick your platform
As I mentioned earlier, you’ll want to decide which website platform you want to use such as Wordpress or Squarespace. There are others but I recommend one of these. To learn more about them, read here.
Design your blog
This part is always so fun! Depending on which website platform you choose, you have the opportunity to design it.
With Wordpress, you can choose a theme & with Squarespace you can choose a template. Both Platforms have many options for you.
Choose one that best suits your blog and that is user friendly. I suggest starting with a simple theme/template to get started.
You do not have to spend too much time designing.
Step 3: Create High Quality Content
With step is so so important. If you want your blog to do well, you will need to be creating content that people want to read.
When you are writing, you are writing for the people. Write about things that are helpful & valuable to your readers.
To find out what your readers might be interested in, do some research in your niche.
Check out other bloggers and see what kind of content they are putting out (but never ever copy someone else's work!!).
Do some Google searching and find out what is trending and what people are wanting to know. You can also look on Pinterest as well.
Pro Tip: Google Trends & AnswerThePublic are great resources to find what people are searching for in your niche
You’ll also want to aim for 1000-2000 words per post. I know this may seem like a lot, but it is important to rank high.
If you outline your blog post correctly, you’ll reach this number without even thinking about it!
Check out some of my other posts and see how I break down the content. You can also email me if you want some more help and guidance!
Also, I would suggest having about 3-5 blog posts written before you launch your blog!
That way, when you start driving traffic to your site, you’ll have plenty of things for your readers to check out.
Step 4: Drive Traffic To Your Blog
In order to make money blogging, you need an audience. You can write the most amazing content, but if no one is reading it, you won’t be making money.
Don’t get scared off just yet! Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it. I know it can sound scary and impossible at first, but I started driving traffic to my site the day it launched. Believe in yourself, you can do it too!!
There are 3 popular ways to drive traffic to your site:
SEO
Social Media
Networking
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is an essential skill for bloggers. I recently learned about SEO and it completely changed my life.
The short answer is using keywords and related words in your content. Depending on your niche, you’ll want to do keyword research to find out what is trending.
Think about hashtags and how hashtags help people find you on social media. It’s a similar concept.
Social Media
Sharing your blog posts on social media platforms is a great way to grow your audience. You can use Instagram, Tiktok, Pinterest, etc.
I highly recommend using Pinterest for blogging. It is the best platform to drive traffic to your blog. If you enjoy posting video content, then Tiktok or Youtube might be your route.
I would suggest picking one platform to use and focus on that. Once you start adding to many platforms, it gets hard to keep up with.
Networking
Networking is great for growing an engaged audience. If you already have a network of people in your niche, this might be the way to go. If you are apart of a lot of mom groups, you can share your blog posts in your community.
Facebook groups are great for this. Find Facebook posts in your niche, and start connecting with people. Remember to build genuine connects & help others as much as possible. This will really help build trust with people and they will want to read what you have to say!
You can also use Facebook groups to ask the audience what they need help with or want to learn more about.
Step 5: Monetizing Your Blog
Now let’s talk about monetizing. There are many ways to monetize your blog so let’s go through them and see which ones are right for you.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is when you promote a product or service on your site and when someone buys from your link, you get a commission. For example, Amazon Affiliates, ShareASale, & many more.
Sponsored Posts: This is similar to how influencers make money posting about their favorite products. Once you have an audience, you could work with brands to promote their products in your blog posts. Once you have a large audience, this can be a great source to make money blogging.
Your Own Products or Services: You can create an ebook, course, or online services such as writing, graphic design, coaching etc. Whatever skill you have, you can create your own products to make money blogging! ( I actually started this blog to drive traffic to my site to find clients for my marketing services)
Ads: There are networks such as Google Adsense that you can add to your blog to make money. You will need a decent amount of traffic in order to make money with ads though.
Step 6: Consistency & Patience
As I said earlier, blogging is not a get rich quick thing. It does take time and effort in order to be successful. But honestly, that’s with everything in life right?
If this is truly what you want to do, put in the time in the beginning and watch it grow.
It’s like planting an apple tree. When you first plant it, you don’t see much but overtime it grows to something beautiful and continues to produce something valuable.
The same thing with a blog. Be consistent & patient and watch how your tree will flourish! Be consistent with your high quality blog posts, show up for your audience, & continue to grow.
As you can see, it is very much possible to make money blogging. If you are consistent, post high quality blog posts, drive traffic, and correctly monetize your blog, you’ll be making money blogging faster than you think!
I hope you enjoyed this post! See ya in the next one :)
