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A beginner’s guide on how to start your own blogging business in 2022 You want to learn how to start your own blogging business and make some money, right? Awesome, because it is easier than ever to start a blogging business. We would be delighted to help you get started. This guide can be used for business purposes but it can also be used if you want to learn how to start a blog for pleasure or for your hobby. Although starting a blog is not difficult, there are a few things you need to consider before you launch your blog. You will need to choose the hosting, domain name, and platform to use. Don't worry! We will guide you step-by-step. This guide will help you set up your blog in just 30 minutes. To get the best out of it, open a new tab in the browser so that you can quickly switch between them when setting up your blog. Let's get this done! Anyone can start a blog Anyone with an internet connection and a computer at home can create and manage their own website or blog. You can also set up a blog for free these days. It is nevertheless recommended that you invest a bit to get your domain name and web hosting. We'll discuss why that is later in the article. Is it possible to make money by starting a blog? Running a blog can be very profitable. However, it is important to remember that starting your own blog and seeing success with it takes time. It takes patience, hard work, and perseverance to get your articles/blog posts to rank in Google. But, if your blog is a passion project, you can make a difference in your life. Your blog can be a cash-maker and a strong business asset for many years as long as you keep publishing new content. This is illustrated by a few screen dumps of successful blogs that publicly displayed their monthly "income reports". Although the results may not be typical, it is a good example of how a person can create and grow a blog that will become a long-term business venture. You can always sell your blog if you become tired of blogging later on. You can sell websites and buy new ones on different marketplaces online. Start a blogging business in 6 steps Okay, let's get to work. Let's set up your blog together using the six steps we used to create our portfolio of blogs. Launching a blog or website isn't rocket science. Millions of people have done it before you. Step 1. Choose a niche for your blog (blog idea) This is a fun first step. Now it's time to determine the topic of your blog and possibly your business field for many years. A "blog topic" is an area of interest that you have chosen to focus your blog content around. It is a great idea to start writing down your passions, interests, and ideas about what your dream business could look like. Managing a blog is a long-term project. It's important to choose a topic that you are still passionate about ten or more years down the line. Once you've chosen your topic or niche, it is time to implement that idea. Verify if the topic is sufficiently popularBefore you start a blogging business, it is important to confirm your idea’s potential. It's not fun to create a blog full of great content and then realize that not enough people are interested in the topic. This is something we wouldn't worry about too much, as there are often (but not always) many people in the world who share your interests. It is a good idea to investigate it further by searching the internet for your subject. Check out blogs, magazines as well as YouTube channels around your niche. If you do find these things, then there is interest in your topic. Tip: If you perform a Google search on your topic, for example, "urban gardening", Google will show you what other people have searched for. You might also see longer search phrases (long-tail keywords in blogging terminology). Scroll down a bit on the search results page to see other people's searches. Scroll down to the bottom to see Related Searches. These combined results will give you a good idea of how popular your topic is and provide suggestions for keywords that can be used in your future blog posts and in their titles. Have a look at the competition Competitors are included in the game. There will be many competitors in almost any niche. This doesn't mean that you cannot be successful. Contrary to popular belief, niches with competitors can also indicate a potential audience and great income. This also means that there are many people who can inspire you in your niche. It is important to look at the competition before you start a blogging business on a particular topic. Even though the competition might be fierce, we prefer to blog about what we love, even if it takes longer to achieve success. Blogging about something you don't love, simply because there is less competition, is not a good idea. It is easy to get bored with the topic and lose interest in growing your site. How can we tell if there is crazy competition? Go to Google and search for keywords that are related to your niche. Next, take a look at the search results page. You might see a lot of authoritative and well-established websites in the niche. On the other side, smaller blogs, forum posts, Quora posts, or Pinterest pages may be showing up. This is good. If you write a solid blog post, you should be able to rank on the first page. How can my blog be monetized? If you're starting a new blog with the goal of making it profitable and turning it into an online business, it's a smart idea to consider what monetization options are available. This will be covered in more detail in the last section. The main options for monetizing blogs are ads, affiliate marketing, and creating digital products to sell. Ads can be placed on almost all blogs and websites, but it is worth looking into affiliate marketing networks and products within your niche. Also, there are opportunities to create your own products (eBooks, courses, etc.). Step 2. Choose a name and register a domain Once you have an idea for your blog, it is time to choose a domain name. You might already have a name in your head (if so, great!). Here are some tips if you don't have a name in mind. For example, keep your domain name short but memorable.racingcentral.com, homeworknow.com or Annablogs.comIt can be difficult to change the name later. If you aren't sure what your topic is, try annablogs.com. With such a name you can blog about other things, but it may prove difficult to sell later (if the name reflects your private name).It can be difficult to find names that have not been taken yet, but it is worth your time to look for .com addresses instead of .net, etc. These addresses will appear the most professional. Okay, how do we find out if the domain name that you are interested in is still available for registration? It's easy! Just use the box below to type your suggestions, and then see what it says! A domain name typically costs about 10 dollars per year. However, we will in a minute show you how to get your domain name free for the first year. Step 3. Get your blog online with solid hosting It is essential to activate website hosting for your blog in order to get it online. Hosting is crucial if you want to create a professional blog and keep it online 24 hours a day, as well as turn your blog into a business. I'll show you how to get a cheap and great hosting plan that allows you to start a blog and have it up and running in minutes. There are many free blogging platforms that you can choose from. You can always use Blogger.com and Tumblr.com. But, these are not great options if your goal is to build a serious blog you can turn into an actual business. With free blogging platforms you can only do certain things and you’re very limited. Ads might not be allowed on your site. They can also shut down your site at any time for different reasons. Reliable website hosting for bloggers A reliable, self-hosted blog is essential for every blogger. This will make your blog look ten times better and is the best option if you are looking to start a long-term blogging business. Bluehost is the hosting company we use for all our blogs. They are amazing. Our websites are online 24/7 without any problems. Bluehost hosts a vast number of websites. It is an affordable but reliable choice. Bluehost offers a free SSL certificate (https security lock) for all new websites. They are extremely helpful to beginners and offer 24/7 chat support which is very useful when you start a blog. Bluehost will help you register your domain name, free of charge for the first year after you sign up for hosting. You can then also install WordPress (market-leading website builder) from your account dashboard. Hosting websites usually costs between 8-10 dollars per month. You can get hosting, domain name, and an easy-to-install WordPress website builder for as low as $2.95/month (regularly $8.99 per month). Activating hosting for your blog The steps and images below will help you get started with setting up your blog using Bluehost. 1. Your discounted hosting plan To secure your discounted hosting package: click this invitational link (Bluehost's homepage opens in a new tab). Once you have been redirected to Bluehost, click on the "Get Started” button. The next page will display the available hosting options. If this is your first blog/website, we recommend you start with the basic plan. Click the "select button." 2. Registering your domain name (free) Next, enter your desired domain name into the box to the left and click "next". Bluehost will inform you if your preferred name is already taken on the next page. They also offer alternative names. Maybe you have a domain name already registered with Namecheap, Godaddy, or another company that you wish to use. If this is the case, select the box to the right. You don't have to choose a name just now. Just click the button at the bottom, and you can move on to the next step. 3. Adding account information Just add your name, email, and country. 4. Choosing account plan You can choose the account plan that you like, as shown in the below image. The 36-month plan is the best as it will provide you with the lowest price for the long term. Moreover, blogging is a long-term endeavor, so this option is a suitable choice. 5. Optional package extras You can add extras to your hosting package. These extras are optional and not necessary when you start a blogging business. However, you can add them later if you wish. These boxes can be unchecked and the overall package price will drop. However, we recommend that you purchase Domain Privacy Protection. This will protect your personal contact information from being exposed to the worldwide database of website owners. 6. Information about payment Please fill in the information below. You have two options for payment: PayPal or credit card. Next, click on the Submit button and tick the TOS box. Bluehost will confirm your purchase by email. In order to activate your domain name, you'll be sent an additional email. Congratulations! You have successfully purchased a domain and hosting to get your first blog/website online. 7. Create an account It's time to create an account and log in to your blog. Step 1 Click the "Create an account" button. Step 2 Create a strong password and enter all information. Step 3 Click the "Go To Login" button. Step 4 - Enter information in the "Email address or Domain name" (and "Password") fields. That's awesome! We are now ready to create your blog. Here's your discounted link for hosting packages if you missed it earlier. Step 4. Activate WordPress on your blog Websites and blogs are often built using Content Management Systems (CMS). Using WordPress CMS is the most popular way to build a website or blog. It's free and easy to access via your Bluehost account. WordPress is used by around 40% of all websites worldwide at the moment. WordPress is the platform that we are using for this blog. WordPress is great because you can create websites exactly how you want them to be, and also add "plugins", which allow you to access different functions. We'll get to that later. Let's now activate WordPress! Login to your Bluehost account Bluehost now offers a 4-step guided WordPress activation. If you have previous experience, you can skip this step. If this is your first blog, and you don't know how to set up WordPress from scratch, we suggest you follow the four steps I'll show you below. 4-step WordPress activation process Step 1. We answered that we are creating a personal blog. You can answer the same or choose another answer that best suits your website. Step 2. The second question is about any optional features you would like to include in your blog. Before you move on, we recommend that you click the "Blog", "About Me", and possibly the logo. These questions are being asked by Bluehost to help you install your basic blog structure. However, you can always add more features later. Step 3. Here they ask for some more basic info about your site, you can edit this information later if necessary. Step 4. Bluehost offers a variety of WordPress themes you can use to enhance your blog's appearance. The process of installing a theme on your blog is similar to choosing a layout and design. It is possible to change the theme and add pictures. You can choose one or two, and we'll discuss this more in a moment. That's great! After you are done, you will be taken to the BlueHost dashboard/account pages. WordPress is now installed. Your basic blog structure has been created. Step 5. Now that you are logged into Bluehost, you have the option to do some settings for your blog. To log in to WordPress, you can click on the "Launch My Site" or "WordPress” button. Since you can preview your site right from the WordPress Dashboard, I'd recommend logging in first to WordPress. You can there make changes to your blog layout and add content. Finally, you can publish your site directly from WordPress when you are ready. Click the blue button to log in to your WordPress dashboard. There is also another way to login to your WP dashboard (which is much more practical from now on) and that is by typing the following in to your web browser search bar: https://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin Simply delete the "yourdomainname", and enter your new domain name. Enter your email/username, password and then click log in. Note: Now you have two accounts for your blog. The Bluehost account is for billing and hosting matters. The WordPress account is where you'll build and manage your blog. Once your blog is live, you won't really need to log in to Bluehost. If you need help, please use the Bluehost 24/7 Support function located on their main website. Good work! Now comes the fun part, building your blog! Choose a theme and be creative It is fun and exciting to choose a theme for your blog when you are learning how to create a blog. However, it is important to keep good functionality in mind. There are many premium and free themes available. You can also change your theme at any time if you're unhappy with the one you chose. Your blog content (blog posts, images, etc.) will follow if you switch to another theme. You can also preview themes before activating them on your blog. However, it is difficult to gauge how the theme will look on your site if there is no content on it at the time of selection. Start your blog with a free theme if you're just starting out. They work great and will help you get started. Make sure your theme is mobile-friendly. A lot of your traffic will come from people browsing on their smartphones. How to activate after installing a theme Go to your WordPress dashboard and hover over "Appearance" before clicking "Themes". You can see now that Astra is our active theme. There's a free version of it. It's a very good theme. Click to view "Theme details" if you hover over it. You can also see another theme to your right that is not active, but was pre-installed. It's called Twenty Twenty-One. This theme is a basic WordPress theme and it’s great for beginners. Click on "Add New" to see more themes or make a selection for your blog. You can see on the next page that we are looking at themes in the “popular” category. You can find information about various themes here, click to see them in action, and then you can also install them. Find one you like and one that offers the functionality you are looking for. It is important for the theme to be responsive (mobile-friendly). A theme should also not load too slowly in browsers (it should be lightweight). Premium themes can also be purchased on many websites. You will need to pay for the theme, then download it to your computer and click the "Upload theme” button in the top menu. You can always modify the theme later, so pick a theme and install it. Once activated, move on to the next step. Customize your blog Once your new theme is activated, it's time to customize your blog and theme. In other words, Adapting it to suit your needs, preferences, and blog's purpose. You might also want to modify the menus or add pages, sidebars, cover images, and other features. You can usually do this in a few different ways, but for now, you should be familiar with the "Customize” option under "Appearance" on the left menu. Click it. Note: Different themes have different customization options. Before you move on to the next step, take a moment to get familiar with your theme's customization options. Creating or finding a logo It is not necessary to create a logo for your blog when you are just starting out. You can write your blog's name in the top menu of most themes. To make your blog stand out as a brand, you may later want to create a logo that is unique for your site. You can create logos free of charge using tools like Canva.com, or just search (on Google) for "free logo maker" to see a lot of options. You can also buy logos online from several sites, including Fiverr.com. Add essential plugins to your website WordPress plugins are small add-ons that have different functions and purposes. There are plugins that will allow you to add particular features to your website/blog. There are premium and free plugins. However, most plugins include a free option. You might be tempted to download many plugins to your website in order to offer functionalities that you see on other sites. It is important to remember that the more plugins it has, the slower your site loads. Slow sites are not good for SEO and Google ranking. Google loves fast websites so it is a good idea to limit the number of plugins you have. We limit the number of plugins that we use on this blog to under 10. If we feel that a plugin is not necessary anymore, we’ll delete it. Google PageSpeed Insights can help you determine the loading speed for your new website. How to find and install plugins You can go back to the left menu on your WordPress dashboard. Click on plugins and then click the "Add new" button. You can then browse popular plugins, or search for a specific plugin to locate it quicker. Once you have found it, you will be able to read more about it and then click on the "Install Now" button. After downloading it, you can activate it. You can also download and buy plugins on websites, just like themes. You can download the plugin and upload it to your WP New plugin area using the "Upload Plugin". These are some great plugins we recommend you install: Although WordPress comes with its own editor that allows you to write blog posts, many people don't find it very user-friendly. Elementor is a great alternative “block building” page editor. You can design pages and blog posts as you wish with Elementor. Monster insights Connect this plugin to your Google Analytics account (more on that in a minute). You'll be able to track and analyze the traffic to your blog. RankMath is an SEO plugin that you can use to optimize your WordPress blog pages and posts in order to get better search engine rankings. This plugin is especially useful for beginners who have little experience in SEO. It is compatible with the Elementor page builder. Akismet A simple and important anti-spam plugin. Your blog will be most vulnerable to spamming via contact forms and comment spamming if you don't have anti-spam plugins. Contact Formula 7 All websites should have a contact form. Use Contact Form 7 to have website messages sent directly to your email address. Social Snap allows you to place social sharing buttons on your posts and pages. Your readers can share your articles easily on social media by clicking a button. Updraft plus A blog that is popular can attract hackers. It is a good idea to regularly back up your blog in case of unfortunate events. Backups are easy with Updraft Plus. Step 5. Write and publish your very first blog post We have finally reached the "blogging" part of the guide. This is the fun part, you will start writing your first blog post! Before you begin writing, make sure you know your main keyword and title. If you do not have a clear keyword, it will be difficult for people to find your site on Google. At the beginning of this article, we showed you how to analyze your niche, and how to find main and long-tail keywords through Google search. This same concept can be used again, unless you have previously already written some titles for blog posts. Perform the following manual keyword research 1. Perform some Google searches on your topic. Take a look at the "Related Questions" and "People also asked" sections to see what other people have searched for. You can write down some of these, and then do a search for them, one by one. 2. Look at the competition for each keyword in the search results. Are the first results big websites or magazines? 3. Are there any good articles in the 1-5 results that include your keyword or a variation thereof in the title? 4. To see the number of words used in each article in the top results, and to determine if it is high-quality, click on them, then copy their text and paste it into Microsoft Word (to see the word count). 5. If you see that the top articles are only 1000-1500 words long and of average quality, write 2000-2500 words and create a better Article. 6. Conduct proper research, then begin writing. To avoid spelling errors, you can either write in Microsoft Word or use the popular online spelling tool Grammarly, which works in both your browser and in WordPress. 7. To make your post richer in content, you can embed YouTube videos related to your topic or images from Pixabay.com. 8. Once you are happy with your blog post, publish it (and your blog as well) Sometimes keyword research can be the most difficult part of blogging. You need to practice it, and there are many ways to do it. You may not rank every blog post on the Google first page. But that's okay! Keyword research can be done in batches. You might collect 10 to 20 article titles in one go. Then you can concentrate on writing. Your blog will be difficult to rank at the start because it has zero Domain Authority. When your blog’s been around for some time, has many blog posts, and has some authority, it will be easier to rank. Don't lose heart, keep going, and don't quit! Keyword Research Tools A keyword research tool is also an option to have, to do keyword research quickly when you start a new blog. A keyword research tool can be time-saving and allow you to focus on content creation. Keyword research tools are also useful for finding more relevant keywords that have a higher likelihood of being ranked for more articles. There are many keyword tools available on the market. Some are expensive (100+ dollars per month), but others are much cheaper and some are even free. Ubersuggest is a free tool that we recommend you use when you are just starting out. Although the free plan does have limitations, it works well. Click here to go to the website and type in a keyword or topic (as we did below). You'll then see a list with related keywords. It is best to look for keywords with low SEO difficulty (the green ones in the column to the right). Don’t pay too much attention to the stated search volume, as these are rarely accurate and there is always more traffic volume than what it says. In our example below, we would choose a blog post in which we would include the keyword "urban gardening" or a close variation, in the title. Here we would go for the “best vegetables for urban gardens” - it will most certainly have enough search volume, and it is very low in SEO difficulty, to be worthwhile. Maybe we would title this article "The 8 best vegetables for urban gardens". Also, we’ll make sure to include the main keyword several times in the article's text. For our subheadings, we would most likely also use keywords from the section "People also ask". Search Console and Google Analytics Google Analytics allows you to monitor your website's traffic, the number of visitors, and their origins. To use the MonsterInsights plugin mentioned earlier, you will need to link this service with your website. This video shows you how to link to Google Analytics (analytics.google.com) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWSrpXQDSbk Google Search Console is another tool you will need to link your website to. You can use Search Console to find issues and errors on your website and help get your blog posts indexed faster by Google. This video shows you how to link to Google Search console. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l6733dDx9Q Step 6. How to monetize your new blog This blog post's title states that this guide on how to start your own blogging business aims to help you find a variety of ways to monetize your blog once you have started it. Before you even think about monetizing your blog, we recommend the following: Create a decent looking blogCompleted "About Me", and "Contact" pagesPublished 10+ blog postsLink your blog to Google Analytics and Search ConsoleAdded Privacy Policy, and/or Terms & Conditions (there's a lot of free templates that you can download and modify by simply googling "Free Privacy Policy" etc.). First, get traffic to your blog Let's suppose you have completed all the steps and still see no visitors to your blog. You are disappointed and wonder why this is happening. Don't worry! It's normal. Google won't trust your blog yet if it is newly built and may be reluctant to send you traffic. This is also informally known as the "Google Sandbox" (being placed in it). This means that your site won't see much traffic for the first few months of operation, even if you regularly publish blog posts. It can take 6-8 months for new articles to start seeing traffic on a new blog. It is essential to be consistent and persistent with your blog posts. Traffic will start to flow in your direction if you're consistent. It will take some time, and that is okay when you start out. While you wait for organic traffic to your site, there are other things you can do to drive traffic to your website. Low traffic to a blog will make it unprofitable. It is therefore important to learn how to increase your visitors. Here are some things you can do to increase your blog's traffic: Example 1. Leverage other traffic sources In order to drive traffic to your blog, you can and should leverage other social media platforms and online communities. If you already have a following on social media. Use it! Post links to your homepage and blog posts. YouTube can be used for traffic purposes. It works well with blogs and is a great way to build your brand by combining text and video content. Quora is another popular platform among bloggers. It's a forum that allows people to ask questions about anything and others can answer them. Answer a question related to one of your posts and include a link back to your article to provide a more detailed answer. Depending on your niche, you can also use Pinterest to attract visitors to your blog. Pinterest is a popular platform for bloggers. Consistency is key to a successful Pinterest strategy. Example 2. Doing content syndication Syndicating your blog content is another way to drive traffic to your site. You can post articles to your profile page on major platforms like Medium and LinkedIn. After you've published an article to your blog and it has been indexed using Google Search Console, you will be able to copy portions of or the entire article but wait a week or so before doing it. It can then be posted on your Medium profile or LinkedIn profile, along with links to your blog and the original article. This will allow you to attract visitors to your blog via these social media platforms. This will work best if you already have followers and viewers on these platforms. Example 3. Scale the content creation Creating a blog from scratch is not enough. You need to regularly publish quality blog posts in order to successfully start a blogging business. One blog post per week should be the minimum goal. More than 100 blog posts per year would be an even better goal. By writing all of the content yourself, you can easily become a professional blogger. But, you can also outsource blog content writing to start a blogging business much faster. If you don't have the time or resources to write content, outsourcing is a great option. Many bloggers are successful because they outsource writing or parts of their writing. You need to write a lot of blog posts in order for your blog to grow rapidly. Outsourcing your writing to a ghostwriter, will increase your traffic and make it easier for you to start making money with your blog. Is it difficult to outsource blog writing? It's not. There are many agencies that you can choose from. Simply give them the title of your article and your preferred length. Within a few days, you will have an article professionally written by a native English speaker ready for publication. Buyselltext.com is an agency we recommend. It's a highly regarded one with good prices. They offer three levels of quality writing, all of high standard. Affiliate marketing for beginner bloggers Affiliate marketing is the best way to earn your first dollar when you start a blogging business. There are hundreds of affiliate marketing programs available today, in every niche. As an example, you could use the Amazon affiliate program to promote more or less any physical product you can think of. You can make a nice passive income using this. Signing up for Amazon's Affiliate Program is simple and you will have access to millions of products that you can promote and earn commissions from. A blog that is focused on a niche with many digital products could prove to be even more lucrative. Affiliate marketing allows you to promote software and programs and earn recurring commissions. You can start by going to Google and typing "antivirus affiliate programs" into the search box. There are many options available for promoting antivirus services (just an example). Having ads on your blog Ad networks can place ads on your blog to make you revenue. Once you've reached the minimum traffic requirement, you can sign-up to have ads from Mediavine, AdThrive, or Ezoic on your blog. Each network has its own requirements. Google AdSense is another option, but their payouts tend to be much lower. The bottom line is that the more traffic you have, the more money you can make with the advertising networks. Sell information products through your blog You can sell digital information products on your blog if you're good at a particular skill. This can also be a lucrative opportunity since you can create high-ticket courses around your knowledge. After your blog is established and your brand is well-established, it's easy to create your own course on something you love, using a platform such as Teachable. Sell physical items on your blog You will be able to sell physical products on your blog if you are in the business of physical products. Many themes and plugins are available to make your blog/website look more like an online shop. However, it is important to create lots of blog content in order to increase traffic and sales. Offer services on your blog You might be working as a freelancer. If so, your business blog could be built around a service that you offer and your blog can showcase these services. You can also use plugins to make it easy to process payments for your services. This was a difficult task a few years back, but now it is easy to sell your services online. Have a paid membership option on your blog It is possible to make recurring income by building and growing membership websites. It will be easier to start your membership site if you already have an audience. If you don't have an audience or following online, you can still create a successful membership site that is hosted on your blog. To make it worthwhile for potential members to pay a monthly, or yearly fee, you need to create special content or a forum for exclusive discussion. It will be easier for you to offer your exclusive membership to more people as your blog traffic increases. Sell your blog to earn big money Today, selling and buying websites is a common practice. People pay a lot to purchase websites and blogs that function well and generate steady traffic and revenue. Many people also start blogs and make money by selling them as a business model. They then simply repeat the process. If your blog isn't named after you or linked to you as a person, then you can sell it later if you get bored of running it. So, how do you buy a website? It's easy, simply visit Flippa and follow their instructions. Their valuation tool allows you to get a free valuation for your website. You can then see the potential selling profits and make a decision. Last note on how to start your own blogging business That's all! Congratulations for making it this far! Now you know the basics of how to start your own blogging business. You know how to set it all up, how to choose a theme and design, and what to do to grow it and make it profitable. Keyword research is key in turning your blog into a business. Don't worry if you get stuck on any of these steps. There is always help to get. Bluehost offers 24/7 support for hosting questions. If you have any other questions, just Google your question or search YouTube for WordPress-related information. You can find videos and articles covering any type of blogging problem you may encounter. Best of luck with starting your blogging business!