How to Start a Blog and Earn Money – The Complete Guide

Are you the kind of person who loves to write and wants to share your literary works with the world? Or are you the kind of person who has so many business ideas or products that you would like to sell, but sadly doesn’t have a personal platform to advertise? Or do you like to review things on the internet and share your ideas and opinions with the world? The purpose is limitless, but the means is the same. Go blogging! It’s as simple as that.

How to start a blog and earn money – The Complete Guide

Blogs allow one to reach out to the world with their own platform. This has been since the early 90’s when websites were expensive. Plus its relatively easier to manage a blog. Also, initially most sites allow users to create blogs for free. So unleash your creativity and build your online castle. Blogs are a growing trend nowadays. But what’s best about blogs is that if your blog manages to draw a lot of attention, you can start making a lot of cash.

Blogs are a really awesome way to earn money while doing what you do best. So the real question is: “How to start a blog and earn money?” Do not worry, for this article is very specifically created to help guide you in the art of starting a new blog and in the ways to make money through it. So prepare yourself as you read ‘The Complete Guide’ to start a blog and earn money!

STEP 1: Baby steps

Now, have you ever used a blog before? Or will this be your first time? If this is going to be your first time, you might want to start out with a free blog. There are lots of free blog creators available online. This is a really great place to test the depth of the blog-verse that you are going to join shortly. You can see the various features and first-hand user handling with a real blog. Of course, this comes with its own limitations: you won’t be able to make money or gain recognition with a free blog, especially since your blog’s domain will be under that of the site that helped you create the free blog.

STEP 2: Make your first official step

Now that you are battle-ready, let’s go official. Purchase a hosting plan from a website that offers the service and get a self-hosted blog. With a self-hosted blog, you are the one in control of your blog. The site practically sells the webspace to post your content and offers its tools to manage your blog based on a pay-and-use-plan. But remember that you can’t make money in the beginning. Like all businesses, even blogs require investments.

STEP 3: Find what you are best at

Decide upon what you are really good at. If you are good at cooking, write a blog on cooking. If you like sports, create a sports blog. If you are an aspiring writer, post your works online! A blog is your gateway to the World Wide Web. So choose what you are best at and jump in straight ahead. If you still have no idea about what you are good at, its always best to do a SWOT analysis to find out your strengths and weaknesses.

STEP 4: Go domain fishing

Try to choose a domain that is very literal, catchy, and easy to search and remember. There are some websites where you can actually buy domain names, like Namecheap.com. So once you have an attractive and easy to search domain, the next step is to find a good web hosting site.

STEP 5: Find your web host

A web host is a website that offers one the service to create and purchase their own blog. These websites offer a wide range of plans to choose from. Each plan offers a set of tools and functions which you can use once you have purchased the plan. The next step is to add in the domain name that you have purchased and thereby make your blog official.

STEP 6: Building blog

The host site offers every self-hosted blogger a set of tools to design your blog and choose how it is to appear to viewers. Chooses a nice theme and all the other necessities to make your blog user-friendly for the viewers. A blog needs to have the following:
● Blog Page
● Contact details (including social media platforms the blog has an account in)
● About the blog (its purpose or function)
● Services
● Privacy Policy
So once your blog is geared up, make it go online.

STEP 7: The first roar

The first roar is the first post that you make. It needs to be amazing and spectacular. The first impression is always the best impression. And how can you make a really good post? By using keywords. Choose the most popular keywords; keywords that are in trend at the moment. One can find keywords by using specially designed tools that are available online. Its always great if your blog is very informative, with 1000 and above words. Make sure that you do a plagiarism check to ensure that your blog is unique. You might need to do some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) research work to find good and appropriate keywords. So, chop-chop! You have a lot of work to do!

STEP 8: Spread the word

A good blogger is one who has an active social media presence. One who keeps sharing his or her work on social platforms. One who actively engages in discussions with viewers who make comments. One who uses a lot of hashtags! It is important that you also rely on paid-services provided by social media platforms that help garner attention towards your work on social media. These ‘Boosters’ can help gather a larger audience and indirectly invite people to visit your blog.

STEP 9: Making some moolah

How do you make money with your blogs? There are three ways to do that:
1. Advertise your own products on your blog and make it a legitimate business.
2. Some advertisers will be more than willing to pay you to advertise their products on your blog.
3. Go for affiliate marketing; selling someone else’s products on your blog and receiving a commission for the product sold.