How to Start a Blog and Make Money (Starting Today)
Do you want to know how to start a blog and make money?
Cool, welcome to the party.
It’s true, blogging can be a great hobby to share your knowledge.
Blogging can help you establish authority in your market, build an audience, and all while earning money.
But if you’ve never set up a website before, it can be intimidating.
Fortunately, I’ve compiled everything you need to get your blog up right here.
I’ve covered every step, from choosing a blogging platform to setting up Google Analytics, and lots more!
I’ve left out all the fluff to help you get started on the right foot — without wasting any time.
So let’s get into it.
Pick your blog’s niche and name
On the internet, every website, blog or resource has a unique domain name. It’s like an address — a name typed into a browser to get to your blog.
For example, when you type my domain name ‘hacktheentrepreneur.com’ into your browser, you'll go straight to my home page.
Your blog name is a big part of your brand. Figuring out how to choose a name is tough. Not only does it need to be evocative and memorable, it needs to be available in the first place.
Picking a name for your blog can be overwhelming. You want it to be perfect. After all, the domain name is the first impression people have of your blog before they see any of your writing.
Read on to learn how to get your domain name for free.
Ok, so how do you find the ‘perfect’ name for your blog?
First, start with a niche.
It’s much easier to come up with ideas once you know what niche you want to be in and who you want to target as an audience.
Here's an exercise to try:
- Start with a list: Spend some time writing down words to describe your audience. Focus on how they describe themselves.
For example, if your blog is for dog owners, what kind of dog owners are you targeting? Do they identify with the term "dog mommy" or does that make them cringe? - Combine ideas: Combine a word that identifies your niche with your unique contribution.
For example, my blog serves entrepreneurs. My combination is helping entrepreneurs grow an online business efficiently and effectively.
Hence the name ‘Hack – The – Entrepreneur.'
Try your ideas here to see if they're available:
It's easy to get hung up on trying to figure out the best name for your blog.
While it is essential — it's more important that you decide on a name and move on to the next step.
Do a few searches and see what's available. If you don't get lucky right away, then move onto the next step and we can do this part later.
What’s the best name for your blog?
To help you decide, here are a few characteristics of an ideal domain name:
- Original: Do not try to copy another popular name.
- Short and clear: Keep it simple, so it’s easy to remember.
- Easy to spell: Don’t get too creative with invented words, or people won’t know how to spell it.
- Common extensions: These extensions are common, therefore easier to remember: .com | .co | .org | .io
Pro tip: You know you have a good domain name when someone can understand it over the phone or in a loud bar.
Most people change the name of their blog at some point. Your domain name doesn't have to be permanent, so don’t get hung up on perfection.
8 Easy Steps to Get Your Blog Online
Now that you have a name for your blog, you need to find a place for it to live. If you aren’t ‘techy’, a topic like ‘website hosting’ sounds like rocket science.
But in a nutshell, hosting companies do three things:
- Operate networks of computer servers.
- Store and protect the data that makes up your website.
- Make your website accessible to people on the internet.
Just think of hosting as a place (servers) to store (host) your website (data).
This is why I 100% recommend Bluehost as the #1 WordPress hosting online. Get started with Bluehost for just $2.95/month!
I can’t emphasize enough how important good hosting is for your blog.
Exclusive offer and discount for our readers
We've partnered up with Bluehost to get you 60% off of your web hosting.
Plus, if you take this offer today, you will get a free domain for a year.
The function of a host is to keep the data of your blog safe and accessible.
Let's see why WordPress works great with Bluehost web hosting.
Here’s what to look for in a hosting company:
- Excellent customer support: Bluehost has 24/7 support, so you can get help when you need it
- Economical pricing: For just $2.95/month you can start blogging today. You want to start a blog to make money, not to pay for overpriced hosting.
- Ease of use: Bluehost gives you a 1-Click WordPress Install. You will literally have WordPress up and running with one click of the mouse.
You shouldn’t have to do a deep dive on the technical aspects of servers and web-hosting. You just want your blog to work – and so do I.
Bluehost is incredibly simple to use, and is best-in-class for anyone interested in starting a blog and making money.
Let’s walk through the Bluehost and WordPress set up together.
Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the green “Get Started” button
Step 1: Pick your hosting plan
First thing you’ll do is select a hosting plan.
Personally, I recommend selecting the Choice Plus plan because it is the best value.
Choice Plus comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number and home address) from being made public online.
Once again, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you’re getting the Domain Privacy, site backups, and unlimited websites.
But really, any of these plans will do as you’re starting your blog. If you are just excited to get started, and only want to start with one blog right now, then any of these plans will work for you.
Step 2: Choose your free domain name
Earlier on, I told you I’d show you how to get your domain name for free. Here’s where we do just that.
If you are going to use a new domain name, type it into the “create a new domain” box, and click next.
If you already have domain, type it into the “use a domain name you own” box, and click next.
My domain is hacktheentrepreneur.com, so I would type that into "use a domain you own."
Don’t get stuck here. If you can’t find the domain name you want or you’re still choosing between a couple of different names, don’t worry, you can easily do this later on. So don’t let it hold you up now.
Here’s a little trick...
Slowly move your mouse to the top of your screen until you see this popup. Then simply click the green button to choose your free domain later.
After either choosing your domain name or opting to choose it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign up process — creating your account.
Step 3: Create your Bluehost account
Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address, and your home (or business) address.
Go ahead and fill in the necessary fields, I’ll wait. Once you’re done, move on to step 4.
Step 4: Select the right hosting package
At this step, you will choose the account plan that you want.
Bluehost only offers options for yearly pricing – which gives you the peace of mind in knowing that you’ve got the best pricing. Choose the one that best suits your needs.
Plus, by paying in advance, you get the option to lock in your pricing for 1, 2, or 3 years.
Step 5: Choose your package options
If you choose Choice Plus as your hosting plan, then Domain Privacy is included for free. If you chose another plan, I’d add Domain Privacy now.
All the other options listed here can be skipped without any worries.
As for SEO, and getting traffic to your website, I’ll show you further on in this guide where you can get free and cheap plugins and tools for your new blog.
The total you now see is the amount you’re going to pay today.
Remember, you won’t have to pay again for 1, 2, or 3 years depending on the package you chose. Plus, Bluehost gives you a 30-day money back guarantee just in case you change your mind later on.
Step 6: Enter your payment info
Now enter your payment into the secure form below.
Once you’ve read and agree to the terms and conditions, check the small box and click the green submit button.
Woohoo! You are now the proud owner of a brand new blog!
With the sign up process complete, we can move onto the next stage – getting your blog set up and optimized.
For this next stage, I will walk you through the step-by-step process of getting up and running on Bluehost.
If you haven’t already, click here to head over to Bluehost and register your domain.
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We've partnered up with Bluehost to get you 60% off of your web hosting.
Plus, if you take this offer today, you will get a free domain for a year.
Step 7: Check your email and create a password
Go check your inbox, and look for the email from Bluehost. This email will include the login details to your Bluehost account and web hosting control panel.
Click the link in the email. You will be taken to a page like this to set up your password.
Step 8: Name your blog
Once you have created your password and logged into your Bluehost account, you can find your site under the “My Sites” tab on the left side of the page.
Bluehost makes it really easy to install WordPress. When you log into your customer area for the first time, you’ll be taken straight to a page called “Let’s create a website!”
Simply enter the name you want to give your website, and (optionally) you can add a tagline for your website. You can update or change both your site name and tagline in the future, if you wish.
Then you'll go on to a second page that will ask you a few simple questions about how you plan to use your website.
There are no right or wrong answers here, this is just to help Bluehost make your life easier in the future.
When you click continue, you will launch Bluehost’s 1-click WordPress install wizard.
The installation wizard will do the rest — just follow the steps and set up your WordPress account.
It will take a few minutes to complete your installation. Once it’s done, you will see a message telling you that it successfully installed WordPress for you!
You’ll also get an email confirmation from WordPress. Click on the link in the email and it will take you to your WordPress admin area.
And that is it, you have successfully installed WordPress on Bluehost and launched your blog!
From now on, you can manage your website by logging in to your WordPress admin panel at: yourdomainname.com/wp-admin
You’ll notice that your blog is live, but it looks really plain. Don’t worry, we are going to tackle that next.
Choose the Right WordPress Theme
Now that you have a domain name and hosting, it’s time to get to the fun stuff — designing your blog!
There are two ways to go about this:
- Hire a WordPress developer (expensive)
- Get a WordPress theme (fast)
Developers are expensive. I don't know about you, but I don't recommend investing in a custom design when you’re just starting.
With a theme, you can make a great-looking blog without hiring a developer.
In fact, I use a StudioPress theme for HTE – it cost me less than $100 and I’ve built my entire business on it.
Before we get any further, let’s clear up any confusion.
What is a WordPress theme?
In a nutshell, a WordPress theme defines the look and feel of your blog.
Most importantly, it gives you the ability to create a website without writing a single line of code.
Some premium themes, like StudioPress or Astra, operate more like design software, with drag-and-drop blocks for text, images, and other elements.
You can click here to read our in-depth StudioPress themes review.
The theme you choose will determine:
- The visual design of the website
- Typography
- Colors
- Page layouts
- Styles for your articles
All you need to do is add your logos, text, and images to set up any pages you want on your blog.
The theme will ensure that your pages work together to create a visually appealing and functional website.
Now here’s the thing: Not all themes are created equal. There are both free and paid WordPress themes – some are good and some are terrible.
Free vs. paid WordPress themes
The WordPress theme industry has thousands of themes, and many of them are free.
Why not save money and go for a free WordPress theme?
4 Most Important Factors in Choosing a WordPress Theme
Reliable code
There's a lot that goes into making a WordPress theme, but that’s just the first part. There’s also ensuring everything continues to work and remains compatible.
Theme companies have developers on staff to fix bugs and update code so it keeps working as internet technology changes.
With a free theme, you don’t have anyone working on the back end and this often leads to compatibility issues. That means bugs, errors or worse — your website crashing!
Dedicated support
Most people who use WordPress themes for a blog lack technical knowledge — we’re bloggers, not web developers.
Paid themes offer customer support, with some extending to live chat. This is a life-saver for anyone who is not a developer and just wants to make a nice blog that works.
SEO ready
Without SEO, you have no traffic. Without traffic, you can’t make any money blogging. You need a theme that is rock-solid, reliable, and fast.
Page speed is important for SEO and user experience — nobody likes a site that takes forever to load! A theme with unreliable and clunky code slows everything down.
Easily customizable
Paid themes offer a higher degree of customization than free alternatives.
Although themes are created by developers, they are designed for regular people to use — without learning how to code. A good theme can make your blog look exactly how you want.
The bottom line is, while paid themes cost money, they offer advantages you'll miss out on with a free theme.
Best WordPress theme for bloggers
To pick the right theme for your blog, you’ll have to sift through a ton of options. I’ll save you some time: there are only a handful of theme developers worth your money.
I recommend (and use) StudioPress.
StudioPress is a top WordPress developer. It has more than 200,000 happy users, thanks to its beautiful and reliable themes.
The blog you are reading right now uses the Maker Pro theme from StudioPress.
If you like this theme, you can get it here.
Read our full StudioPress themes review to get the inside scoop.
Now that you’ve chosen the theme that you are going to get started with, let’s move onto setting up some key pages on your website.
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We've partnered up with Bluehost to get you 60% off of your web hosting.
Plus, if you take this offer today, you will get a free domain for a year.
4 pages every profitable blog needs
I know you’re excited to start blogging. But learning how to start a blog is just the beginning. Before you start writing, you need some basics on your website so readers know what you’re all about.
It doesn't matter if you want to start selling online courses or blog about your travel, these same five pages are necessary.
The four pages you need are: Home, Contact, About, and Privacy. Let’s walk through each of them.
1. Homepage
Your home page without a doubt is the most important page on your blog.
Why?
Because it’s the most visited page, and usually the first thing new visitors see.
Your home page should describe what your blog is about and draw visitors deeper into your blog.
As you can see my home page clearly portrays who I am and what I do:
I establish trust by showing some online publications I’ve written for. I also ask people to go deeper by subscribing to my email list.
2. Contact Us
Your blog will open the door to many opportunities. Over time people will be interested in working with you while others may want to get in touch.
But how do they contact you?
Posting your email address on your blog is a terrible idea. You’ll understand why pretty quickly — your inbox will get spammed.
That’s why you need a page with a contact form. Nothing fancy, just a simple form and a message about how quickly you usually respond is fine.
Here's a great example from SoulSalt's contact page.
3. About us
People like to know what’s going on behind the scenes, or rather who’s responsible for the content they’re reading.
They are more likely to trust your website (and your business) if they see a face behind your blog. Making it easy for readers to identify you also helps you follow Google's E-E-A-T and YMYL guidelines.
For example, Gemma and Alistair Clay from Class: PR, strike a perfect balance between storytelling and social proof and is an excellent example of an about page.
Having an "About Me" page helps visitors learn more about you, and establishes a personal connection.
4. Privacy Policy
In the age of GDPR and privacy concerns, this page is essential to every blog.
Here you outline the personal information you collect from your visitors — for example, emails and names collected via opt-in forms.
Once again, don’t overdo it. I use a simple text page that clearly displays my privacy policy without any fluff.
If you plan to use a third-party ad network, you'll have to mention the use of cookies clearly within your privacy policy page.
Note: You need to have a privacy policy page if you want to display ads from Google and other networks.
Here are a few tools to help you create a privacy policy page.
https://www.shopify.in/tools/policy-generator
https://www.freeprivacypolicy.com/
There are endless other pages you can (and will) add to your blog in the future. But for now, with these four pages, you are ahead of 80% of bloggers out there.
Essential plugins for bloggers
With your website launched and essential pages in place, you're ready to start blogging.
While most beginners avoid using plugins, they are a necessary part of the blogging process.
If you don’t pay attention to optimizing and maintaining your website, it won’t work as well as it should.
You’ll have a hard time getting traffic, and converting traffic into customers — both essential if you want to make money with a blog.
That’s where plugins come in.
What is a WordPress plugin?
Plugins are bundles of code that add functions to your WordPress blog. They also automate some administrative processes so you can focus on more productive things, like writing awesome blog posts.
While plugins are great, adding too many will end up slowing down your blog.
To get you started on the right foot, I've listed the best plugins for a new blog:
1. Yoast for SEO (Free or Paid)
Yoast will optimize your blog for search engines.
Getting on the first page of Google is one of the main ways to get more people reading your blog.
Now, while many ranking factors go into SEO, optimizing content for search engines is essential. Yoast helps you make sure your blog posts are written and formatted properly for search.
2. Ninja Forms (Free or Paid)
Ninja forms is a form builder that helps you collect information from your readers, like on your contact page.
This plugin makes it super easy to create beautifully-designed forms and drop them anywhere you want on your website.
For example, you can use Ninja Forms to create a quote request, event registration form, or even a simple contact form.
2. Site Kit by Google (Free)
Site Kit is the official WordPress plugin from Google for insights about how people find and use your site.
Site Kit is the one-stop solution to set up, manage, and get insights from critical Google tools to make the site successful on the web.
Don’t worry if you don’t have Google Analytics installed, I will walk you through this later in the guide.
4. Social Warfare (Free or Paid)
Social Warfare gets your blog shared on social media. Social Warfare adds lightning-fast social share buttons to your blog — and they look great on every screen size.
That means sharing your content on social media will be fast and easy for your readers, which is great for off-page-SEO. Here’s what Social Warfare looks like in action.
Write your first blog post
When I was starting a blog, I didn’t think I could write. I struggled with every aspect of writing — procrastination, spelling, grammar, and focus. I needed a system.
If you are looking for a system, check out our complete guide on how to write a blog post.
What is a blog post? More importantly, what makes a good one?
For a blog post to be functional, it must cover the basic necessities:
- For you: To communicate your ideas.
- For readers: To understand what you are talking about.
These are both easier said than done. Especially if you are doing everything on your own.
It’s much easier when you understand the parts of a good blog post. These parts work together to attract readers and keep them interested right through to the end of your post.
Here are the seven parts of an effective blog post to use a template every time you start a new article:
- Strong headline: It doesn’t matter how great your content is if nobody clicks on the headline.
- Compelling first sentence: The first sentence must be short, but compelling, so readers continue on to the main body of your article.
- Short introduction: Readers are there to learn what you promised in the headline. You risk losing attention if you go on too long in the introduction.
- Subheadings: Subheadings are like miniature headlines inserted throughout the article – they make your article easier to read.
- Main body copy: All the writing that fits underneath the subheadings is the main body of your blog post.
- Summary: This is your tl;dr of your article, and it’s essential to drive your main points home in one simple place.
- Call to Action: Tell your readers what you want them to do next. Whether it’s to sign up for something, become part of your customer base, or join your audience, ask readers to take action.
Using a framework can seem restrictive — but it’s just a mindset. I use constraints in my article writing to drive creativity. Restrictions enable you to be completely free within defined parameters.
With blog posts, you’re already working with a natural constraint — the attention span of readers.
With a structure to follow, not only is it easier to write good blog posts, but it’s easier for readers to consume.
How to make money from your blog
Is it still possible to make money online with blogging? Yes, it is.
Now, I won’t lie to you. It takes time and effort to learn how to start a blog.
It only took you a few hours to set up your first blog, but It will take you a lot of work to start seeing decent passive income.
You may even second-guess yourself for working so hard on something with an uncertain outcome. But once it starts, you are off to the races. Trust me — once you get that first win, things start to change pretty fast.
Blogging can help you establish authority in your subject while earning money in a variety of ways.
There are many ways you can monetize your blog. We have written a complete guide on proven ways to make money online.
But for now, let’s go through the essential ways to make money from your blog.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning money by promoting other people’s products. It's a proven online business idea for getting started.
As an affiliate marketer, you find and promote other people’s products. The owners of the product pay you a commission for every sale or lead you send to them.
If you're new to selling online, you can use affiliate marketing to test your ideas and find your ideal customer base.
At the same time, you'll learn about internet marketing and start making money without the pressure of building your own products first. Eventually, you can take what you learned and create and sell your own products, like online courses.
With affiliate marketing, all you have to do is promote existing products and get paid.
This performance-based system means the more successful your marketing efforts are, the more money you can make.
Create and sell online courses
There’s never been a better time to make a living by selling your knowledge at scale. And creating an online course is a great way to do this.
You can get started with little to no up-front investment, you can start small and grow over time, and you can get paid to help people solve a problem they have.
To make money selling online courses, aim to solve a problem for the intended audience.
Instead of thinking, “What’s a good idea for my online course?”
Ask yourself, “What challenges does my audience face that I can help with?”
Successful online courses are results-oriented and unambiguous.
They promise to solve a specific problem for a specific audience to achieve a specific result.
When framed this way, you’ll spend less time judging potential course ideas and more time focusing on the real goal: delivering something of value – and making money from your blog.
Sell advertising
Like it or not, ads are what pay for most websites we use.
The key to success with advertising is treating it like a partnership and keeping your audience in mind when you accept advertisers. When done right, advertising can be a win-win-win for everyone involved.
Launching your blog is just the beginning of your journey. You now need to practice and keep learning in order to grow your blog.
Now I want to share two bonuses with you. Two things that often get missed when starting a blog – and can have a profound impact on whether or not you succeed.
These two things are: Google Analytics, and Google Search Console. Both free products from Google that make it easy for Google to find and index your website.
[Bonus #1] Google Analytics set up guide
Google Analytics gives you valuable insight into your website traffic.
Beyond how many people are visiting your site, this essential tool breaks down tons of information:
- What pages they visit
- How long they stay
- What they click on
- How they found your website
- What countries they’re in
This data is essential to learn the inner workings of your website, so you can assess whether it is accomplishing its purpose.
While this data may not mean much when you don’t have much traffic, it's essential to integrate it from the beginning. Collecting valuable data right from the start helps you avoid gaps.
There’s a ton of data in your Google Analytics account, and you don’t need to dig too deep at the beginning.
Tracking these three metrics will help guide your decisions around what to write and how to promote your blog:
- Overview report: A quick glimpse of your blog's audience for a certain period.
- Most Popular Posts: This helps you find out what type of content is resonating most with your audience.
- Referral traffic: Gives you the top 10 websites sending you traffic. These are sites linking to your blog within their content.
Setting up Google Analytics
Now you know Google Analytics is a must — but setting it up can be tricky.
This section walks through the entire process of setting up Google Analytics to your WordPress website step-by-step.
Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics
Fill in the required information, and click ‘Get Tracking ID.'
Step 2: Get the tracking code to your blog
Once you add the website, you will get a Tracking ID. Under this, you'll find the ‘Global Site Tag.’ It contains a code snippet which is your tracking code.
Step 3: Add the tracking code to the header of your blog
Copy the tracking code, and paste it into the <Header> section of your blog.
If you’re using a StudioPress theme, the Genesis Framework makes it easy. In your WordPress dashboard:
- Find Genesis in the menu along the left side
- Click on Theme Settings
- Scroll down until you see the field <Header Scripts>
- Paste your tracking code into the field
If you’re not using Genesis, you can either:
Contact support for the company that made your theme: Ask them where to manually add your tracking code to the header.
OR
Install free plugin Insert Headers and Footers: Use the plugin to add your tracking code to any theme.
That’s it!
You’ve just added Google Analytics into your website.
[Bonus #2] Google Search Console set up guide
Google Search Console is another essential data tool. In particular, it provides data on how your blog performs on search engines.
You want people to find your blog when they search for information on Google. The data in Search Console helps you to know when you’re on the right track with your content.
Search Console provides valuable data like:
- What keywords and queries bring in traffic?
- What are your top performing keywords?
Google Search Console helps you understand how effectively you are targeting and optimizing your content for SEO.
Setting up Google Search Console
Here's a step-by-step walkthrough on how to set up the Google Search Console for your blog.
Step 1: Create an account with Search Console
Go to Google Search Console and click ‘Start Now’ to create an account.
Then click ‘Add a Property’ and enter the domain name of your blog.
Step 2: Get your verfication code
There are several ways to verify your blog, but I recommend using the Yoast SEO plugin.
All you have to do is copy and paste the HTML tag into the plugin:
Step 3: Add the code into your blog
Find Yoast SEO on the left side menu of your WordPress dashboard.
Go to ‘General’ settings and paste the code you got from Google Search Console.
Step 4: Verify with Google Search Console
Once you add the code click ‘verify' and you should get the confirmation.
Congratulations, you’ve successfully connected your blog with Google Search Console!
Final thoughts on how to start a blog and make money in 2020
Now that you have everything set up to start your blog the real work begins — writing blog posts and building an audience!
I won’t lie to you. It’s going to take a lot of work and time (maybe months) to see a noticeable change.
You may even feel stupid for investing so much time on something with an unpredictable return. Remember -- every successful blog started from zero, published a lot of content, and took time to see results.
It took me 7 months before I made my first sale but after that, my website took off.
While blogging has many advantages, it's definitely not easy. There's a lot of work to be done.
And no matter if you want to become a professional blogger like James Altucher or simply write about your favorite recipes, blogging is a great skillset to learn.
But for now, give yourself a pat on the back for doing something awesome — starting a blog!
IF you haven't yet, grab your free domain and discount
We've partnered up with Bluehost to get you 60% off of your web hosting.
Plus, if you take this offer today, you will get a free domain for a year.