How to Start a Blog and Make Money – Free Beginner's Guide for 2023

Today, I am going to show you how to start a blog and make money online. This is going to be a comprehensive guide to help you start your blogging journey.

This side hustle is earning a full-time income, and is one of the best hustles you can start online.

I am not a techie or a professional writer, just a work-at-home mom of two kids. I have learned and implemented many things through my blogging journey, but the first step that I am very happy I took was starting a blog.

On my blog, I have always talked about money-making side hustles. This one has proved to be a great income earner for me.

Today, I will show you all how to start a blog to make money even if you are a beginner or a non-techie.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money?

To make it easy for you to start your blogging journey with the least investment, you can sign up for website hosting for a cheap price of $2.95 (remember this price is only through my link). That’s over 60% off the usual price!

Now that’s almost equal to nothing, right?!!

I am not sure how long this low price will be available. If you don’t grab this now, you end up paying $7.99/month for the same plan.

You also get a FREE domain name when you sign up for a 12-month plan with my link. Signing up for a longer term can save you a lot of money.

But that’s not all.

I am giving away a detailed mini-guide on how I went from $0 to $1,000 with a new blog without having any special skills.

roadmap to go from $0 to $1,000 with a new blog

How can this guide help you?

It will show you the exact steps I took to go from scratch to my first $1,000 so you can implement similar strategies. This guide can kickstart your brand new blog earnings.

Just send me your domain details (to crowdworknewz@gmail.com) after signing up and your mini-guide will be on its way.

Blogging is a great work-at-home option, and it is suitable for anyone who has no expertise at all. It has the potential to become the primary income earner for you.

It can give you the independence to pursue your passions and still make money passively.

Starting a Blog – My Journey

I started blogging in July 2016 and haven’t looked back since then. I am already making a full-time income with my blog, and you can do it too.

My journey has been an amazing one from day one, and I totally love what I am doing. Blogging has given me the security of having another income. It allows me to spend time with my family and pursue my passion for helping others.

Coming to the money-making aspect, I started making money from my blog in the third month, and now I am earning a full-time income from my blog. What I love about this is it has been a mostly passive form of income.

All this would not have been possible if I didn’t take the step to start a blog.

I never thought that making such an amount of money from blogging would be possible. So if you want to take the first step to starting a blog and becoming a successful blogger, today is the day.

In this post, I will show you the step-by-step process of starting a blog to make money and share the tips to drive traffic to your new blog.

But first, let me answer some questions that may be on your mind.

So what exactly is a Blog?

A blog is like a digital journal where you talk about your passions or interests. It is a place where you share and help others with your expertise and talk about what you love.

You need to choose your niche and your area of interest. My blog, Crowd Work News, is all about side hustles, work-at-home jobs, and money-making tips.

Choosing your niche can be a long process because it has to be something that you are interested in. Use this trick when selecting your niche: if you can come up with around 30 post topics in your niche, then it is a good one.

Can anybody start a blog?

Absolutely. Blogging is one side hustle where you don’t need any expertise to start, and you can still make a considerable income from it.

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a student or a retiree or someone looking to supplement your income, you can start a blog to explore your options of making money online. You don’t need any technical or special writing skills for blogging.

Making money from blogging doesn’t require special skills, but it does require the same amount of hard work and dedication as any other work-at-home job.

What can you write about in a blog aka blog ideas?

Ask yourself “What do you love doing?”

I like finding new ways of making money online. I have been working from home for eight years now, so I wanted to help others to choose a location-independent income option.

That’s when my blog got kicked off. You should always blog about what you love. So try to brainstorm what you are good at.

Are you good at making desserts or cooking?
Do you just love talking about your lifestyle and your mom life?
Are you good at organizing things?
Do you love money management?
Are you a fashion junkie?
Are you an expert in web design?

There are millions of blogs on every topic, so anything is a possible blog niche. Here is a list of 50 successful blogs in every topic imaginable. Some inspiration for you to get started!!

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How much money can you make blogging?

It totally depends on many factors, but it is possible to make a good income from blogging.

My life totally changed when I started earning in the 3rd month of my blog. Though it was a small amount, it has been growing every day. Now, I am making much more than that.

If you use the right strategies, then making money with your new blog is surely possible. In some cases, it might take time, but it’s possible.

Check out my monthly reports to understand those strategies. Of all the side hustles or work-at-home jobs, blogging can give you a great possibility of making money online.

Do you need to spend a LOT of money to start a blog?

Absolutely NOT. You can start a blog for a price as low as $2.95 per month (only through my link for a limited time!). That’s almost equal to nothing when compared to the possible income you can get from your blog.

You can start a profitable blog for an extremely low price and then earn significantly more than that.

Bluehost is the hosting provider I recommend, and you can start your blog quickly for this low price and get a FREE domain as well. Bluehost also has a money-back guarantee, so you can remain stress-free.

Let’s get into the details of how to start a blog and make money.

#1. Brainstorm a Good Domain Name

It is the first step you take when you start a blog. A domain name is pretty much like your address on the web. For example, my domain name is crowdworknews.com.

Choose a domain name that relates to your niche. This might take some brainstorming because not all the domain names you want will be available.

You can register your domain name with any registrar such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions or you can register the domain name directly with Bluehost.

I would suggest you go with Bluehost so that it’s not too complicated for you and you have both your domain name and hosting with one company.

You get a domain name FREE if you sign up with Bluehost for a 12-month plan.

There are free web hosting options like WordPress.com and Blogger.com, but if you are serious about making money from your blog, then you need to go with a self-hosted option.

With a self-hosted blog, you can monetize it fairly quickly, and you own all your content. If you want to start your blogging journey on the right foot, then go with self-hosted.

I have hosted my blog with Bluehost, and I never had any issues with it. It offers the lowest price for hosting, and I am very pleased with its support.

#2. Get Started

After you go to the homepage of Bluehost, you will see this screen. Click on “Get Started now.”

Then you will come to the web page below, where you have three options for hosting namely Basic, Plus, and Prime. I am with the Basic plan and that is more than enough for me. You can always update the plan later if you need to.

Another reason why I recommend the 36-month plan is you save a lot of money when compared to paying month by month.

It covers many things along with a FREE domain when you sign up for a 12-month plan, and this is just for $2.95/month!

#3. Register or Connect Your Domain Name

Now is the time to register the domain name that you chose earlier. If you have your domain name with another hosting provider, you can always transfer it here.

#4. Choose Your Package

After you have given your details, you come to this screen where you have to choose your package. I started off with a 36-month plan at $2.95 per month. If you don’t want to go for a long-term plan, then you can go with a 12-month plan. It saves a lot of money when compared to paying monthly.

As a beginner blogger, you don’t need to worry about the extras. If you need them, you can always add them later.

#5. Install WordPress

And now for the best part: Bluehost automatically installs WordPress after you sign up for hosting so that you don’t need to do any techie stuff!

You just have to login with your WordPress credentials.

Your blog is ready!!

You need a theme to make your blog look good. You have to log into WordPress and then go to “Themes.” There will be some free ones that are available to you.

You can always use a free theme to design your blog, but if you want to go with a paid theme, then I suggest Genesis. My blog is with the Genesis theme, and I highly recommend it if you want to go for a paid one.

Time to Start Writing for Your New Blog

The important thing I did, and what I would advise you to do, is to have rough drafts of at least ten posts before you launch your website.

That way you have your content ready, and you can focus on promotion when the launch happens.

Try to understand what your readers want. Read their comments and get to know what they need. Writing and promoting go hand in hand.

Writing a post can be relatively easy when you know a lot about your niche, but solving a reader’s problem is something that is going to get returning traffic.

One thing I do is go to forums and places like Reddit and Quora. There are discussions here, and they can be a gold mine for your blog post ideas. You can also sign up for Google Trends. There you will get top trending news about your niche, which can be good post topics.

How to Get Traffic to Your Blog

When I first launched my blog, I followed all the steps as mentioned above and started promoting it heavily, and I ended up getting over 16,000 page views in the first month of blogging.

Content is the king, but promotion is the audience.

Here are some tips to start getting traffic right from the launch of your blog:

1. Before the launch, let your friends, family and others know about your blog launch. That way, right from the first day of your launch, you can see some good traffic.

It is also an excellent time to start growing your list. You can have a landing page where the readers can sign up for your list.

2. Set up your social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram from the start. I started with these platforms and StumbleUpon.

Share your blog news on social media and promote it on all of them at first to see where you get more traction. Once you figure out where you are getting most of your traffic, focus more on that channel. Don’t try to be on all platforms; it is going to be very tiring for you.

3. Join Facebook groups relevant to your niche and start promoting in them if the group rules allow it. As you have a targeted audience in these groups, you can see a rise in traffic.

Share your posts regularly on your FB page. Most of the Facebook experts say sharing 4–5 posts shows good reach on Facebook.

4. Use Pinterest a lot. I didn’t focus on Pinterest in the first two months of my blog, but after the third month I started using this platform and saw my traffic numbers go up exponentially. Pinterest has been great for many bloggers, and it can do wonders for you as well.

It can be very overwhelming to get into the Pinterest game. You can use tools like BoardBooster or Tailwind to schedule pins. I use both of them along with my manual pinning.

5. Always test different social media channels with different timings and types of posts and see what works. I have experimented a lot with my schedules and the types of posts I share.

When I first started with Pinterest, the growth was very slow. I researched what worked on that social media channel and started pinning that content.

No two social media channels are the same, and one strategy might not work for another.

6. Getting organic traffic is a more stable way to keep your traffic numbers up. SEO takes time and you need to learn a lot. I am just starting with SEO and will keep you updated about my traffic.

Update: Right now, more than 70% of my blog traffic is organic. The best way to get started with organic traffic is by doing good keyword research through tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Long Tail Pro. Keyword research is the first step in getting stable search engine traffic.

Ways to Make Money Blogging

There are many ways to monetize a blog such as display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, product sales, etc.
How much you can make from each of these methods depends on your traffic and reach.
I love affiliate marketing, and most of my blog income comes from affiliates. It is the most passive way to make money with a blog.
You have to apply as a publisher with affiliate programs like iGain, Flex Offers, ShareASale, and MaxBounty. Once you are accepted, you choose your brands and start promoting. These are the affiliate programs I am with, and I have seen good conversions with them.

I will share a detailed post about what are the ways that you can make money from blogging, especially with affiliate marketing.

Things to keep in mind before you start a money-making blog:

Blogging is not going to make you rich overnight. It takes a lot of work and learning to start a profitable blog just like any other online business. It will take some time to see the money but if you keep at it, you won’t be disappointed.
You should be ready to invest money to learn and support your online business. There are so many amazing courses and products that can help you scale your blogging journey.
Always try to diversify the ways to earn money blogging. Like I mentioned above, you can earn money via affiliate marketing (my personal favorite), display advertising, selling products, providing services, doing paid workshops/webinars/events, etc.

You are all set to start a blog now!

Blogging is a very profitable side hustle, or for that matter, a full-time income earner. It has given me the freedom to pursue what I love instead of trading my time for work.

It has proven to be a very flexible and profitable money-making option for me (I am a total non-techie), and it can work great for you too.

So don’t wait anymore; go ahead and brainstorm all your ideas and start your money-making blog today!!

How to Grow Your Traffic as a New Blogger

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