How To Start a Blog and Make Money

Have you ever thought of making money with a blog? 

Maybe you've come across success stories of people earning thousands with their blog, sipping on mai tai's on an island. 

Or maybe you're just miserable with your job and you want to start a business of your own. 

Well, it's absolutely possible! Your dreams are waiting to be fulfilled. 

There is no difference between those who are earning a full time income from their blog and you. 

If they can do it then you definitely can too. 

In this full step-by-step guide, I'll tell you everything I did to start a blog that earns me passive income. 

This month I made just over $1,000 of passive income.

If you're ready to get started, I'll show you how easy it can be to get your own website up and running. 

WHY YOU SHOULD START A BLOG

There are so many reasons why others start a blog. 

Some create one because they get inspired by others who earn income from their blog. 

Others start a blog as a hobby to either spread their ideas and message. 

For me, I started one because I dreamed of being able to work from home, doing what I love, and to earn money from it. 

It was the best decision ever. 

What started out as a side hobby turned into a passion that earns me passive income.

Basically, I make money in my sleep.  

Creating a blog of your own can transform your world. 

It can open doors for you and help you create the life you've always wanted. 

When I first started blogging, there was so much information out there and no one to really help me. 

It was frustrating to try and figure everything out myself. 

I created this guide as a tool for you to skip all the loads of information out there and get to the good stuff as easy as possible. 

Now, if you're ready let's get started!

1. Pick a Niche

Before you get started, you'll want to pick a subject that your blog will be about. 

Now, think carefully because you will be writing content (blog posts) about this subject or niche so it should be interesting to you. 

Some niche ideas:

• Travel
• Food
• Personal Finance
• Fitness
• Crafts / DIY
• Video Gaming

There are such a wide range of niche ideas you can choose from. 

Choose a Blog Name

Now brainstorm some ideas for your blog. 

Keep in mind that you don't want something so long or complicated. 

You'll want to come up with a website name that is easy to work with. 

Anywhere from 1-3 words should be good. 

Checking Your Blog Name 

Nothing's worse than coming up with what you think is an awesome blog name and finding out later that someone on Instagram has it, or even on Pinterest. 

You'll want to make sure the perfect name you came up with will be available across the social media platforms you intend to use. 

You can use Namechk to verify if your blog name will be available before moving forward.

2. Tech

Alright, so now you have your niche and blog name ready to go. 

Now this is where the fun begins. 

In order to start your blog, you'll need a web host.

There are a lot of them out there. 

However, the one I highly recommend is WPEngine. 

Webhost

When you have a blog, you'll need to sign up with a webhost.

When you create your site/blog, it's going to need a serving host so that you can make it viewable online. 

Otherwise, you'll just have a website and no one will be able to see it. 

Picking the right webhost is very important!

Things I've learned along the way (don't make the same mistakes as me):

• Fast speed for web hosting of your website/blog
• Need great customer service
• Easy to use and customize website/blog

I really recommend going with the best web hosting provider from the jump. 

Trust me, it's going to save you so much time and headache when you start with the right one. 

I've landed on WPEngine after trying the low-cost hosting providers and WPEngine is by far the best web host. 

When you're starting up your website/blog, the last thing you want is to think about all the technical stuff that goes into it. 

WPengine has a startup plan that takes care of all the essential back end stuff for you so that you can just hurry up and focus on creating your best content. 

WPengine offers:

• Fast load times of your site
• 24/7 customer service
• 10 premium website themes
• Secure website hosting
• Easy to use staging environment

WPengine has been amazing for me so far and I highly recommend them for you to start your website and blog!

WordPress

Once you get your blog all set up on the backend with WPengine, now it's time to get to the good stuff. 

WordPress is where you'll go to add all your content. 

Theme

It's going to be exciting to know that you have your blog/website up and running. 

Now, you're going to learn a whole new aspect of creating the look you want for your site. 

You are more than welcome to use the free themes provided to you. 

To be honest, you don't need to go crazy trying to make your website look perfect by hiring web developers or even spend tons of money to make it look right.

The free themes should be just fine especially when you're first starting out. 

Don't spend too much time working on the look of your website because in all actuality, most people are checking out your site from their phone anyway. 

So, even if you spend lots of money or time on the look of your site, people may not even care. 

What truly matters is the content and how it resonates with your readers. 

Now, for those of you who actually really want to really learn and customize your own site, I highly recommend Thrive Suite. 

Yes you can go ahead and use the free themes available to you. 

One thing to keep in mind is the customization and the ease of use. 

I chose to go with Thrive Suite because it's been an amazing theme so far. 

Thrive Suite lets me customize my site whenever I want and makes it too easy to do with drag and drop features. 

It's a perfect tool for people who aren't professional graphic designers. 

Plus it just saves me a whole lot of time and money because I get to design aspects myself. 

So for those of you who want that ease of customization, I definitely recommend Thrive Suite. 

What You Need to Know

When you're first starting out, try not to get lost with the technical aspect of starting your blog. 

I can tell you from experience that you can literally go down a rabbit hole when you start fixating on irrelevant matters. 

From first hand experience, I've tried Bluehost for my webhost and multiple themes for this site. 

I finally landed on WPengine and Thrive Suite as my ultimate go-to arsenal for having a site that's super fast and so incredibly easy to customize. 

I'd say that I save a lot of time and headache because I use the best, in my opinion. 

Here's a quick summary:

• WPengine - Webhosting service for your blog. 
  • Fast load speeds
  • Great customer service
  • They will help you set up your blog from scratch 
• WordPress - Where you go to add new blog posts, pages like your homepage or contact, etc. 
  • It's free and WPengine can help set it up for you
• Thrive Suite - Amazing drag and drop webpage builder
  • Create a site with no web design experience
  • Best website builder I've used 

3. Making Money with Your Blog 

You can absolutely make money with your blog!

What's great about having an income from your blog is that it's passive. 

Yeah, you'll have to create a way to earn money with your blog but once you do, money will be coming in when you least expect it. 

I'm making nearly $1,000 of passive income this month.

Here are some ways you can earn money with your blog:

• Affiliate- Earn a percentage when you recommend products or services
  • Amazon Associates- Great affiliate program for new bloggers where you can earn a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link for a product.
• Ads- Earn money with an ad network depending on how many views you have
  • Ad Networks
    • Google Adsense - No minimum views
    • Ezoic - Minimum of 10,000 views per month
    • Monumetric - Minimum of 10,000 views per month
    • Mediavine -Minimum of 50,000 views per month
    • Adthrive - Minimum of 100,000 views per month
• Sponsors-  Get paid when you recommend certain products or work with certain brands
• Digital Products- Create and sell your own products online to earn an income
• Courses- Create a course and earn income
• Memberships- Create a tribe and get paid for whatever service you provide

There are so many different ways you can go about earning money with your blog. 

Here are some examples of bloggers who earn from their blogs:

• Single Moms Income - Finance blog earns over $64,000 a month
• Horkey Handbook - Freelance writing blog earning over $127,000 a month
• Pinch of Yum - Food blog earns over $90,000 a month
• It's A Lovely Life - Family lifestyle and travel blog earns over $170,000 a month
• Smart Passive Income - Passive income blog earns over $200,000 a month

All these people started from 0 and grew their online business to amazing numbers. 

If they can do it, so can you!

4. Traffic Streams

After you create your blog, you need to create a way for your audience to find you. 

There's social media like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and search engines like Google and Pinterest. 

When you first start out, it may be best to try Pinterest and work on Google also. 

How did you come across this blog? Most likely from Pinterest right? 

The great thing about Pinterest is that it acts as a search engine. 

Create eye pleasing pins and let your audience find you. 

You'll most likely gain a whole lot more traction from Pinterest than Google SEO in the beginning. 

Google SEO is also know as Google Search Engine Optimization. 

All this may sound technical but don't worry it's no big deal. 

Basically, you'll create posts that your audience is looking for by using keywords. 

5. Finding Content Ideas

Don't make the mistake of randomly posting blog posts of what you ate for dinner or what clothes you plan to wear for the day. 

Because in all actuality, people are looking for answers to their needs.

You'll want to create content that your audience is interested in. 

Let's say you want to start a garden blog and don't have an idea of what exactly it is you want to talk about. 

You can do keyword research by using free tools like: 

• Ahrefs
• SEMRUSH
• MOZ

For example: 

Say you have a gardening blog and you're trying to come up with a keyword. 

You come across 'how to fill a raised garden bed' by doing some research with the tools. 

You see that there is a volume of 1,200 people searching for that specific keyword and you also have a traffic potential of 2,700 just from that one keyword. 

Using those tools helps you find the keywords you need also analyzes them for you so it'll give you an idea of how much traffic you can get if you start ranking. 

Now, keep in mind that Google is a lot slower when it comes to giving you traffic as a new blog. 

That's why your best bet will be to start promoting your articles on Pinterest.

Pinterest

You can get traffic to your site a whole lot faster than going for Google in the beginning. 

Steps to find keywords in Pinterest:

1. Type in general keyword in the search bar
2. The second bar underneath has expanded keywords based on your main keyword

Once you find your keyword, create a Pinterest pin for that keyword and hopefully it is also related to your blog post. 

Creating Pinterest pins are super easy and no, you don't have to be a graphic designer.

Use free software like Canva to create your pins. 

I'd recommend making several versions of your 1 pin so that you have more chances of capturing the attention of your audience. 

You can then figure out which pins are doing better and create more similar designs that your audience seems to like. 

Pinterest will help you get the ball rolling when it comes to getting those pageviews as a new blogger. 

Another program I use that helped me grow my Pinterest to over 300,000 views is Tailwind. 

Tailwind

Tailwind is a scheduling tool that helped me send out Pinterest pins on auto pilot. 

Using Tailwind, I can schedule Pinterest pins to go out several times a day for months out. 

It literally helped me save so much time which would've been wasted trying to pin throughout the day. 

Unfortunately I just don't have the time during the day to do that. 

Am I saying you won't have success if you don't you use it? Absolutely not!

However, Tailwind will be a life saver when you really don't have much time to begin. 

I really believe that Tailwind really helped launch my site to getting over 300,000 Pinterest views.

Tailwind Tribes

Tailwind Tribes is also another aspect of this app that I absolutely love and so grateful for. 

This is where other content creators go to share their content. 

You can find a Tailwind Tribe for any industry from:

• Food
• Art
• Spirituality
• Auto
• Health
• Finance

Basically it's a space where other creators gather to share one another's Pinterest pins.

But what's amazing about it is the amount of audiences you can potentially reach when someone in the group shares your pin. 

Do you see the amount of re-shares and potential audience that my Pinterest pin can be available to? 167 re-shares and 1.9 M reach!

Tailwind Tribes helps your Pinterest pins spread like butter!

If you're just starting out and don't have much time to be pinning on the daily, I would HIGHLY recommend Tailwind to give your site a boost!

Summary

Making money with your blog is absolutely possible. 

Start treating it as a business because essentially isn't that what a business is? 

Set aside time in your life, maybe after work or on the weekends to get this blog thing going.

 You never know where this journey will lead you.

If you're feeling stuck in life and need a change, give blogging a shot.

It can unleash a whole new world of unlimited potential. 

Remember when you start your blog, don't get stuck on irrelevant things. 

• Find your niche, get your blog name (get an easy one people can remember)
  • Check your blog name on Namechk
• Get your site up and running fast with WPengine (6 months free for my readers)
• Use a good easy to use theme, I'm using Thrive Suite
• Do your keyword research using tools like SEMRUSH, Ahrefs, etc.
• Try Pinterest to get the ball rolling with pageviews to your blog
• Get the ultimate boost to your Pinterest and Blog by using Tailwind (My readers get a special 50% off now)
• Dream big because this is your one life to live, give blogging a go!

Wishing you all the success in this lifetime!