How to start a blog that makes money (for beginners)

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Why should you start a blog? Is blogging dead? I don’t think so. It is the best thing you can do to your self. The only requirement is you should be able to spend some (a lot of ) time on your blog. Success will not come overnight. It is really lots and lots of hard and smart work. But all the hard work is worth it. I never believed that something like a blog could make money. After reading so many income reports from other bloggers, I started thinking it could make money.

I am writing this blog post only after making some money from my blog. I don’t have tons of traffic. But still managed to make money from my blog. Starting a blog could do so many things for you :

Improve your writing
Your ideas get a shape
You get friends from all over the world
Stop being boring
Creativity flows
It can become your business

Pro tip: Before jumping to start a blog, you should have a plan. It becomes easy to build a blog after you know what do you want from a blog.

If you want to start a blog only as a hobby, you can write whatever you want, but if you’re going to start a money-making blog, you have to write what the readers want. For example, if you’re going to solve a problem, you will not read my daily routine or why I am happy or sad. You will only read my blog if it helps you solve your problem. So the main point is that you must be able to make somebody’s life simple by providing them with the solution to their problem.

How can you help others solve their problem?

And how can you know that you can give so? Do this simple exercise. Take a pen and paper, start writing down your skills, Passions, and the topics you have knowledge about. Even those topics that you love to learn can be a potential topic for your blog. All of us pick some skills, get knowledge about many concepts while studying or working, which others may want to learn. Starting a blog is easy, but growing it to the level where you generate money is a bit difficult. For this, you should be prepared to do the hard work.

You may not earn much in your initial months or even a year, but if you stick to it and analyze what works and what does not work, you will be able to build a blog that makes money.

The first point is to choose the niche or topic of the blog. I do align with the interests you have and the skills you have. There are a lot of niches for blogging that can help you create a blog. The tricky part is to find out the topic that creates a balance between your interest and what others want to read.

Ask WHY YOU WANT TO START A BLOG?

Do you want to make money?
Do you want to just want it for a creative outlet?
Or you have a business and want more customers?

How you will build your blog will depend on this. If you are looking to make some money with your blog, you have to start it the right way.

When you have a clear idea of WHY it will be far easy to choose the subject of your blog. There will be a lot of difference between the topics which you will be writing for your passion and which you want to write for others.

3. Chose your target audience logging

It was different earlier, but now the focus is more towards the niches, which revolve around a similar problem. This also helps you in selecting the target audience. When you know your audience, it is easy to understand their pain point and you will be better equipped to solve the problem.

We see so many blogs created every day on the internet. And we need more. Why? Because everybody has a different story to tell. Everybody’s observing style is different. There is a difference in the way we as individuals tackle the problems in our day to day lives. In modern times we google everything. I love to read about life & death, so sometimes I Google, What do we feel when we die?

I still don’t know the answer, probably because nobody knows.

So the point is we read many articles to get to the point where we can have answers to our problems.

Starting a blog

It is easy to start a blog. On the surface, it seems very easy. But as you dig deeper, you face the real challenge. Maintaining a blog is a considerable work. It takes time and a lot of time. You always have so much to do. What do you feel when you read a beautifully written article? Does it seem easy to write? It requires a lot of work behind the scenes.

A blogger is responsible for everything he/she is doing. I now appreciate what every writer writes. Because it is so easy to find faults in whatever is written. But when you sit down and start writing, you feel lost. It becomes challenging to find words to write. Starting a blog and maintaining it is arduous work.

Start with an Idea

You have an idea of what you want to write. If you don’t have a plan, start writing down what you know. Sometimes we have some great ideas to share, but our mind goes totally blank. If this happens, just write whatever comes in your mind. Say you have got 10 ideas, put them on paper, and rearrange them in different parts. Classify them as

You are passionate about
You know a lot about
Know a little bit about
You know nothing but want to learn

All of these are important. You can choose out of these topics. Now think about the blog name, try to choose an easily memorable name. Though people don’t directly search for your website, it is better to have a memorable name for your blog. When you have selected a name, you have to register it.

Ideas for blog topics

Personal finance
Internet marketing
Health and fitness
Beauty products
Recipes
Organizing and DIY BLOGS
Wedding planning /Wedding makeup/ Wedding dresses
Faith related
Pets/ Pets training
Mommy blog
Travel
Product reviews
Lifestyle and many more

There is a long list of topics. Choose what you know about and you can write a lot of posts.

Start a self hosted blog

I hope you have selected your blog topic by now and you are ready to start a blog. Sign up with Bluehost and get started.

Click here to start a blog and learn here how to go from here.

Choose a plan

Go with the basic plan. You will be able to start a blog on a low price.

Domain Name

Choose a domain name and register here to start your blog.

Choose a domain name that you love and feel happy about. Registering your domain name is important. You don’t want to run into any dispute regarding the brand name. It is best to use a credited service provider. Choosing the domain name is just a first step in starting your blogging journey. Good luck with that.

Let us dig deeper and find out other things required for running a successful blog.

Hosting

Now you have a good domain name. Next step is to choose a hosting plan. I recommend again using Bluehost hosting.You can create a free blog. But it is not a good idea and is not recommended. Your free blog name would bexample.wordpress.com.If you will have your blog hosted with a paid hosting plan then it would beExample.com/.net/.org whatever you will choose.For hosting, you can use Bluehost as your hosting. Bluehost has a very good hosting plan which is very good for new bloggers.A free blog doesn’t look professional. You will have less control over your blog. And everything could disappear from your website. I have heard this happening to people. So it is not recommended. One of my friends was blogging with this type of hosting. But she had to pay the price. All her hard work disappeared and she could not do anything.

Check here for Bluehost hosting plans

Select a price plan for hosting your blog. Sign up with a basic plan and you can upgrade anytime in the future.

If you have already registered with your blog name, you can start with adding your domain name, or you can create a new one here on Bluehost.

If you are still not sure but want to sign up for hosting, you can do so by clicking on I’ll create my domain later.

Fill up your personal information during sign up and get ready to build your online space.

Don’t click on extras as this will add up the cost. Just add the basic plan.

Sign up by paying the money through your credit card. Don’t worry at this point as you have one month money back guarantee.

Support is always a must for people like me who are not very technical. It is easy to set up a blog but sometimes you just get stuck at even on small things. It could take a long time to figure out. But with the support, you can have answers in minutes.

The theme makes your blog look branded and beautiful. If you have the money, you can get it done professionally but if you are on a budget, buying the theme is the best option for you.

How to chose best blog theme themes

The theme you choose for the blog should be responsive and clean looking. There are plenty of themes. Some of them are free. But again you cannot have good support with free themes. If you get stuck somewhere with free themes, it is difficult to come out of that. But with the paid themes, you get good customer support which you will definitely need if you get stuck somewhere.

I personally use Genesis and I love it. Genesis themes are easy to customize. And they have themes for everyone. Easy to use and they are also mobile responsive. Most of the designs are minimalist and clean.

Plugins

Yes, you will need some of the plugins. It becomes easy with the plugins to customize the website. You don’t need every plugin right there but some of them are very helpful.

As a beginner, it is difficult to customize with HTML codes but plugins make things easy.

Design of blog

It is up to you what kind of design you want. But keep it clutter-free. Minimalist themes are better for design. They appeal to eyes and are easy to navigate. Like sometimes we come across the websites which are not easy to navigate. Nobody wants to spend time on such kind of creepy websites.

A beautiful site is easy to navigate and is mobile responsive.

Content is king

As the adage goes. Content is everything. If you will not have good content on your website, It would be difficult to retain readers. Write compelling content. Your content should solve some problems. Everybody surf the net to solve a problem.

Those posts are always shared more which revolves around solving some problem. And everybody wants quick fixes ( including me). Though there are no quick fixes. As you will start your blog you will be able to figure out so many things on your own.

Writing style improves as you start writing. Easy for born writers but if you have to learn writing, just start writing.

Blogging takes time to build

But believe me, you will emerge winner after accepting those challenges. And then you feel like why you didn’t start it earlier? I am also in the same boat and always think about why I didn’t start earlier. So instead of waiting for the right time to come, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and sit with your laptop in front of you to figure out this blogging thing.

I am also a starting blogger who have a few thousand page views. And sometimes I feel like I want to write something and then have a blank mind. I could not find words to express my thoughts. Though things are changing a bit but still I feel overwhelmed with the daily challenges.

Don’t get disheartened and take every challenge a day and as it comes. Learn one thing daily for a month, you will master WordPress. I mean for running your own blog.

If you are not a writer, it will be a little bit difficult to write but it will come to you gradually. I have studied science and engineering. So making stories and explaining with emotional touch is sometimes difficult for me.

But I have learned a lot in the process. Now I can write better. English is my second language, I feel like I think in my own language and then process the ideas to English. When I proofread my post, I could sense it. I write the way I think in my own language.

But things are improving and if you feel stuck at ideas, read other blogs. Don’t copy anything but it will give you ideas. Ideas may be in your mind but sometimes they are difficult to process.

Take action

There is no other way to learn better than taking action. So take action now and you will be better at everything later on. Even if you feel like you cannot write well ( I am a terrible writer), English is not my first language( I have to use online tools for proofreading). But I know one thing, I can make anything complex very simple even if it is difficult for me to write in English.

I am good at basic technical stuff and can simplify even Maths and physics. But when creating a story comes into play, I am not very good at that.

I have learned a lot after taking action, and I feel that I write better than my earlier posts. Even as a not so good writer, I can solve your blogging problems, and if you have one, you can reach out to me.

I just want to inspire you to take action and become the master of your imagination and putting that image into words.

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