Do you want to start a blog and share your thoughts with the world? If yes, then don’t worry – I’ll teach you how to start a blog and get traffic to your site without paying anything.
Blogging is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your specific area. Start a blog today and see why so many other people are already using blogs to generate traffic to their websites.
Starting a blog requires little investment and takes less time compared to starting a business or a new venture. It also gives you more flexibility to write what matters to you. The only thing you should consider before launching is whether you’d like to go paid or free blogging.
Have you ever considered starting your own blog? It’s such a fun project that provides tons of benefits. Not only does it allow you to share your experiences with the world, but you also get paid for every page view. As a blogger, you’ll get to write articles and promote them via social media. You’ll earn cash from ads placed on your site or through affiliate programs where you sell products.
Blogging has become extremely popular over the years, and it seems like everyone wants to start their own blog. If you’ve thought about creating your own blog before, then you might want to consider starting now. There are lots of tools out there that make it easier to create your own blog. For example, WordPress makes it very simple to publish content.
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Learn how to start a blog
What is a blog?
A blog is a website to share content about a topic or topics that you are passionate about. A blog consists of both written and visual content published in an article that your visitors can read.
How much does it cost to start a blog?
Here is a brief overview of bluehost’s hosting plan and the extras you get when you sign up.
Bluehost offers 2 hosting plans a 12 month and 36 month plan and are billed annually. These 2 plans will cost you between $2.95 to $18.95 for your promotional term after that plans will cost between $9.99 to $26.99.
depending on your the hosting plan you choose, here is what you will get:
- Website and storage
- Domain Name for a year.(If you register your domain with Bluehost)
- Custom Themes
- 24/7 Customer Support
- WordPress
- Free CDN included
- Free SSL
- Custom Email
- Unmetered Bandwidth
- MySQL
1. Picking a name and niche
The first thing you need to do is to pick a name and niche for your Blog.
The name of your Blog should be something catchy. A blog name should represent what your Blog with be about. That will bring us to the second part of step one in how to start a blog.
Your blogs niche is the general topic are of your blog. This is what you will base all your content on. The top niches are travel, food, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, technology.
2. Purchase your domain name and Web Hosting
Once you have a blog name it is time to purchase your domain name. You can purchase a domain name by it self or purchase your domain name with web hosting included. I recommend bluehost.
Domain Name Purchase Tip
If there is a domain name that you like and is available but nowhere near ready to build a website or blog. Just purchase the domain name now. Check out my tutorial.
Should I use a free blogging site?
As tempting as it may be, it is important to understand that free stie blogging sites such as blogger or Tumblr come with limitations.
- Your blog name will be a subdomain. For example, travislaytonunlimited.blogspot.com or tumblr.com/travisunlimited.
- you will have to follow their rules and regulations.
- Free options do come in handy as a testing platform.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the URL your vistors will type in their to view your blog.
For example, my domain name is travislaytonunlimited.com.
Here are a few things to consider when choosing a domain name:
- Your domain name should be catchy. A domain name that is catchy is easily remembered and will keep vistiors coming back.
- You can use a combination of your name.
- Get your “.com” extension domain name first. It is the most popular and the memorable. If the name of your blog stands out better with another domain name extension, then by all means, go for it. If you want to you can also purchase then other extensions that you see fit and you pont your webstie to one single domain name extension.
- If you have a name you like, find out if it is available.
Read More — Please check out my article on our top picks for best domain registrars.
What is web hosting?
To make your blog visible to your readers you will need web hosting. Web hosting is a service that stores all the files that make up your blog.
You will need to purchase web hosting for you blog. This is where all the files will live that make will make up your blog.
We recommend bluehost.
Click here to visit the Bluehost website. Then click “Host Your Site”.
Here are the steps to purchase web hosting with Bluehost:
Choose your plan
Enter your chozen domain name
Create your bluehost account
Select hosting package
Select package extras
Enter billing info
Read More — Check out my article on my top picks for best web hosting services.
4. Install WordPress
When you set up your account with bluehost WordPress is automatically installed out of the gate.
Here are the steps to setup WordPress with Bluehost.
5. Select a theme for your blog
WordPress is preinstalled with 3 themes. The “Twenty Twenty-One” theme is typically installed and activated by default. But maybe you don’t want to use that theme.
There are many sites out there that offer WordPress themes for free and for purchase.
Here are some steps to find, install, and activate a WordPress theme.
Here are a few tips to help you choose a theme:
Make sure the theme is responsive.
Make sure your theme is SEO optimized.
Has a good design.
Here are a few WordPress Themes to Help get your started
Astra
Divi
Check out Divi WordPress Theme here.
Read More — Check out our article on our top picks for best wordpress themes.
6. Install Plugins
You now have installed WordPress and selected and installed a WordPress theme. It is now tie to install plugins for blog.
Some themes out there have a group of plugins that are proprietary to that theme and are required to be installed to use that theme.
Pro Tip: Be careful not to install too many plugins becuase it will greatly reduce the speed of your site. Another tip is keep plugin is updated that compatible with your version of WordPress. Also make sure plugins that you are not using are disabled and deleted.
What is a plugin?
A plugin is add-on software you can install in WordPress admin panel to help optimize the functionality of your blog.
Read More — Check out my article on my top picks for best wordpress plugins.
WordPress Plugins you should install and setup right now
Below are plugins that I recommend to install for your blog.
YoastSEO
YoastSEO is my go to plugin for SEO. The YoastSEO plugin will help write and keep up-to-date your page title, post title, descritions, content length, and other elements across your whole blog.
To download the Yoast SEO click here. To learn more about the Yoast SEO plugin click here.
Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is great for forms.
To download the Contact Form 7 click here.
Insert Headers and Footers
You will need to add a little snippet of javascript here and there on your blog. Insert Headers and Footers will allow to add that snippet to either the header or footer section of your blog. You can also use Insert Headers and Footers to add Google Analytics code to your blog.
To download Insert Headers and Footers plugin click here.
UpdraftPlus
Sometimes things will go wrong with your blog whether you get malware or have a bad plugin. Having a backup plan is the way to go.
To download the UpDraftPlus plugin click here.
Read More — Check out my article on my top picks for best wordpress plugins.
7. Customizing your Blog
Customizing your blog is the most important. This is where you apply your content and your brand.
8. Publishing your First Post
Read More — Check out our article on How to Create pages in WordPress.
Read More — Check out our article on how to write a perfect blog post.
Read More — Check out our article on blog content and strategy.
9. Optimize for SEO
Your blog will need to be optimized for SEO. This helps search engines find your blog faster and easier.
10. Monetize Your Blog
Once you have your blog up and running you will need to monetize your blog. There are a lot of ways to make money from your blog. I have listed below for you some ideas that are the most popular to monetize your blog.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the most popular way of making money with your blog. This is a useful way to monetize your blog especially when your starting out and you don’t have your own products or services to sell. All you need is great content that greatly conicide with affiliate you want to include. Affiliate marketing will make a great stream of passive income.
Anytime you link to an affiliate program you will need to add a note at the top of the post per the FTC. Also when signing up with an affiliate program you will be agreeing to include a notice somewhere on the page or post.
For some ideas for great affiliate programs to help you make passive income. Check out my article below.
Read More — Check out my article on the best affiliate programs.
Advertising
Advertising on your blog is a great way to make money with your blog. Whether it’s a sponsored ad or pay-per-click you will still be making money. The number of readers will impact the amount of money you make. Having 10,000 readers will make some amount of money and having 100,000 readers is even better.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is probably the most important asset for your blog. It is a powerful tool for you to spread the word through email about new blog posts, new courses, new digital products, ebooks. By utilizing email marketing you are sending these items directly to your readers inbox rather your readers visiting your website and searching for something new.
Sell eBooks
eBooks is a great way to make a little extra income from your blog. eBooks are relatively simple to develope and create.
Sell Courses
Selling courses is another great way to make money on your blog. By developing, creating, and selling online courses that offers value to your readers. Find what your good at and go from there.
Sell Digital Products
Selling digitasl products such as printables and other digital product can help you add to that extra income. You can build webinars, printables such as resources, guides, software components, WordPress plugins, WordPress Themes, videos, etc.
Sell Coaching Services
Selling coaching services can earn you a significant income. Even with a handful of clients can still earn you income.
Sponsorships
Sponsorships is a great way to make money on your blog. Before you can make any significant amount of money you need traffic, a.k.a readers. When you create a sponsored blog post you will need to label it as such per the FTC.
Are you willing to take the leap to learn how to start a blog and start making money today?
Let me know how it is going in the comments below.
If you need assistance, you can schedule a consulation.