Do you want to make money by blogging and communicating with the world with your innovative ideas? Well, then you are in the right place! Here I am going to share a piece of detailed information on how to start a blog that pays!
Blogging is a type of online journal with articles and posts which is based on many niches like food, travel, book reviews, etc, either for their business purposes or as a way of freelancing by monetizing their blog.
In this informative guide, you will find how to make a successful blog and earn money with that.
Creating a blog is very easy and difficult at the same time as it contains many tricks and tips to be on the Google site so that people can notice it easily. WordPress is the most authenticated and trusted site for blogging. Many bloggers take the initiative of starting a blog on WordPress to make money but the creative and wisest one succeeds most in this path of blogging.
I will be sharing these steps on how to start a blog that pays that every successful blogger follows and succeeds in their journey.
How to start a blog that pays (Detailed Step by Step Guide that You will Ever Need)
Discover your Blogging Niche
Choosing a blogging niche is the primary condition on the journey of blogging. Niche is about the topic of the blog. Choose a niche in which you are comfortable and you have enough knowledge to write about any particular topic under this niche. However, writing an article needs a lot of research but knowing something about the topic makes it easier.
A niche that you find appealing to you and your audience as well would be perfect for your blog.
Here are some popular topics that are flourishing on the internet and gaining a lot of views:
- Food Blogging
- Fitness and Health
- Affiliate Marketing
- Productivity
- Fashion
- Lifestyle
- Career
- Blogging
- Freelancing
- Parenting
- Home Decor
- Art and Culture
Keep yourself cool and calm while deciding the niche as it is the backbone of the blog.
However, if you still can’t decide any topics for your blog you can start under multiple niches and explore the topic you are interested in.
Buy your Domain Name
A domain is the name of your website. Decide a domain name according to the topic of the blog which is easy to spell and pronounce.
Here are a few tips before you choose any domain name:
- Make it easy to spell and remember: As there is a wide range of audiences from across the world therefore making it easy to spell and remember is the best way to reach people.
- Choose a niche-based domain: Your domain name should be related to your niche otherwise it will look mismatched.
- Make it within 10-15 characters: As visitors will revisit your website they will type the name of your website on their search engine which if it is not a large name will be easier for them.
- Put .com, .net, .co etc after your blog: For the completion of your URL name you have to put .com, .net, .co, etc, after your domain name. However, .com looks more popular and professional than the other ones.
- Make it very catchy or different from other websites: Your domain name will define the creative perspective of you in your blogs. Therefore it should be out of the box or catchy to the visitors once you decide on your domain name, you have to buy it from a trusted website.
I have listed few platforms which will help you to find your domain name.
You can buy your desired domain name from Google or Namecheap is also a better place to buy a new domain at a considerable rate.
Follow the other steps to complete the setup and know how to start a blog that pays.
Buy a Good Quality Hosting
Web hosting is a space where you will install WordPress or you will place your site files. Hosting provides all the services you need for your website to be viewed on the internet. There are various web hosting companies but I prefer Bluehost hosting for easy access and blogging.
There are various plans under Bluehost hosting. However, if you are a beginner and you are just starting your blogging journey then I will suggest you go with shared hosting.
You can easily operate the Bluehost website by entering your domain name and then filling in your details to pay for the plan.
Choose a Blogging Platform
This is a very important step on the way to blogging. The best way possible is to start a blog on WordPress to make money as it is very convenient and easy to connect on this platform.
To be mentioned WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different platforms. You have to go with WordPress.org after you buy your hosting.
You have your domain name and your web hosting now it is time to install WordPress, follow these below steps to install WordPress into Bluehost.
- Go to the Bluehost website and login with your credential.
- Select the ‘My Sites’ option from the left side panel.
- Click on the ‘Create Site’ button.
- Enter your ‘Site Name’ and ‘Site Tagline’ the click on the ‘Next’ button.
- Select your domain name and click on the ‘Next’ button.
- Wait for a few seconds you can see the message ‘WordPress Installed Successfully!’.
- To login to your WordPress dashboard, click on the ‘Login to WordPress’ link.
Setup the Blog with a Theme
Now as your website is ready you have to give it a professional look with nice themes and responsive design of the page.
GeneratePress is my choice in case of WordPress theme and it has some great features like.
- Super fast and lightweight theme
- Schema built-in which will help you in SERPs
- Responsive
- Awesome support
Activate WordPress Plugins
Activate WordPress plugins to add an extra bunch of facilities to avoid the help of coding for the future.
5-7 plugins are best for the website to function properly without any conflict. Here are some popular plugins:
- Elementor to build a custom page
- UpdraftPlus for backup and restore
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer to optimize your images
- Akismet to filter spam comments
- Yoast SEO is to tackle the ONPAGE-SEO
- WP Super Cache to speed up the website
- MailChimp for WordPress to connect easily to emails
- WP Popular Posts to add a list of popular posts on the website on the side of a particular blog
Setup Google Analytics
Google analytics is very important as it keeps the record of the visitors if your website it provides
- Demographic information of the visitors.
- Which blog and articles are receiving the most attention?
- How many people are visiting the website per day and month
- In which social media the blog is most active.
To activate it log into Google Analytics and sign up to see the results of your blog.
Setup your Email List
The email list is one of the best ways for earning money and gaining audiences for your blog. Your audiences are your followers. They are the readers, they will add comments on your post, and share your content on various social media platforms.
Therefore when you get nice followers they want to know you more and read more of your contents and having an email list approves all these criteria. You can share more personal things on the list to let people know what is going on in your life behind the scenes. Every event like podcasting, new blog posts, consulting, etc can be pitched if you have your email list.
Build an Audience
Building an audience is the most important task on the journey of starting a blog and making money. There are a few steps on attracting audiences for your blog:
- Post consistently such as twice or thrice a week for some time.
- Give great quality SEO based content
- Use plagiarism free content.
- Use catchy titles and subtitles.
- Use your innovative perspective.
- Make it authentic as much as you can.
- Share it as much as possible on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.
These are the few strategies that will evolve as you will experience and explore a lot in this field.
Monetize your Blog to Earn Money
This is the most important point on the journey of how to start a blog that pays.
There are few ways of monetizing your blog such as
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is promoting a product and when someone purchases it through your unique affiliate link then you will get the money as a commission.
- Advertising: This is used by most bloggers. Google ad sense is a convenient way of placing ads on your blog. Also, google a sense approval takes some time and traffic to your blog.
- Freelancing and Consulting: To find customers and clients and earn money these blogs are used.
- Selling Digital Products: This way consists of E-books, online courses, membership courses. For that also you need a good amount of traffic that is readers and followers.
So these are some basic monetization methods on how to make a blog that earns money. Although it seems easy some people make a lot of mistakes while blogging which creates complications on their way of gaining followers and traffic.
Learn SEO in detail to rank better in Google search result.
Here are 5 mistakes that you should not attempt:
- Don’t cover too many topics.
- Don’t ignore SEO.
- Plagiarism check on every article is a must. Don’t steal content.
- Handling website speed matters a lot.
- Don’t invest in unusual stuff.
FAQs
How much time does it take to earn?
It depends on the type of content but on average it takes almost 6-8 months to earn.
Do I need to know to code to develop blogging site?
If you are using WordPress then you don’t have to code at all but if it is a different platform say blogger then you need to know to code for few settings.
Can I start a website for free and still earn money?
Yes, you can make a website for free on Blogger powered by Google, but if you serious then I recommend to choose WordPress.
How much time should I invest in blogging?
If you are very serious about your website then keep making content and share it and if it is a side business or a hobby with other things to do then you can spend 30 minutes to 1 hour after your website in a day.
Conclusion
Blogging is a very popular method to earn money online. Every good thing takes time and with proper care and attention and hard work always pays off. By blogging one can learn a lot as well as can spread a lot of knowledge on a wide range. Hope you got the answer on how to start a blog that pays.