When most people hear about blogging, they might think that it’s just a hobby that people do to pass time or to tell others about their life experiences. While true, blogging can be so much more than that and can provide life changing income if done right.
There are plenty of successful bloggers that make tons of money with a loyal audience. It is not uncommon to hear of a blog that generates $5,000 a month.
That's just the beginning. As a blog becomes more and more successful, the money it generates can grow to $10,000, $20,000, and even well over $50,000 each month!
In this article, we will show you step by step how to set up your first blog on Bluehost. You don't need any coding skills to be able to start a high quality blog that can change your life.
How to Start a Successful Blog Steps
The best platform to start your blog on is Bluehost. Here you can easily set up your web hosting and WordPress website in no time.
You will also be able to select a website design with highly customizable themes. Here are the steps to starting your successful blog.
1. Select a Bluehost Plan
The first step is to select a plan on Bluehost.com. When you are first starting out, it is best to choose the basic plan which is $3.95 per month. This is a small price to pay for something that can be potentially life changing.
When you're planning out your new blog, it’s important to think about the subject matter that you will blog about. When you have chosen a specific blog niche you can move on to the next step which is choosing your website domain name.
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2. Select a Domain Name
After you have selected your Bluehost plan, you can now choose your domain name. The domain name is what people type in when they want to visit your website.
The process of selecting a domain name can be easily done through Bluehost. Infact, after you have selected your plan, you will be taken to the next step where you can choose your blog's domain name.
Website Name Should Be:
- Related to your blog
- Easy to type
- Not too long
- Clever to stand out
3. Pick a Blog Hosting Package
Now that you have an awesome new name for your blog, it's time to choose a hosting package. Hosting simply is where all the code for your website is stored.
For the best price, select the $3.95/month plan for 36 months. This will be all you need to get started as you create your successful blog.
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4. Choose a Theme
All blogs are not created equal. That is because it's important to make your website look beautiful so your readers will want to keep coming back for more.
This is where choosing your blog theme comes into play. A theme is a specific style or layout of your website. There are many to choose from, but a popular theme that beginners start out with is Astra.
Astra is great because it has dozens of free designs you can choose from. And if you ever want to upgrade to other pro blog themes, installing another theme is just a few clicks away.
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5. Setup WordPress
WordPress makes it very easy to set up your website without coding. Thankfully, WordPress is already pre-installed on your blog when you sign up through Bluehost.
This saves you the extra step of setting up WordPress separately. From here, you can create blog post’s and customize your website with features like a custom navigation menu.
Welcome to Your New Blog
That’s it!! This is why setting up a pro blog through Bluehost is so awesome. It's literally the easiest way to make a new blog as it can be done in minutes.
Now that your blog is all set up, you will be able to do anything you want from your WordPress dashboard menu.
Take the time to brush up on your WordPress skills so you can become familiar with all the awesome features included in it.
I have a Blog so Now What?
Now that you have set up a stylish blog, what's next? Well, as mentioned earlier you must have the blog content you want to produce well in mind so you can write about your specific niche.
It's best to not try to write about everything that comes to mind especially since you are a new blogger.
Pick your subject and start creating high quality blog posts that will be of real use to your readers. The best post’s help people to solve problems and provide some kind of real world value.
Make Content People Want
It’s important to remember that when you start your blog, you want to write about things your readers are interested in.
A common mistake for a new blogger is to only write about their life and the things that interest them. While that’s fine if you're just doing it for a hobby, if you ever want to make money blogging this will not work.
Can You Make Money From Your Niche?
In the world of blogging there are certain niches that make great money while others not as much. It's important to know what these are so you dont waste your time playing the guessing game.
It's true that you can make money from any subject you choose to blog about if you create an audience that is interested in your content, but below we have listed some of the most popular subjects to blog about.
Popular Blog Niches:
- Travel
- Lifestyle
- Personal Finance
- Fashion
- Health and Fitness
- Home Decor
- Parenting
Can I Monetize Now?
Now we all know that one of the best parts about blogging is seeing money come into our bank account from all of the hard work we put in.
Before you start to make money from your blog it’s important to consider legally making it an official company.
Get Your LLC
When your blog makes money, you are an official business, so it’s absolutely vital to legalize your new company with an LLC (limited liability company).
An LLC will protect you if you happen to be sued and will not allow someone to come for your personal bank account.
It will also give your blogging business a tax Id number which is referred to as an EIN. This will insure that you are all set up for tax purposes.
The easiest way to obtain your LLC is to do it online through a company like IncFile. They will do all the paperwork online for your new blogging business and send it to you.
They will also set up your business bank account while providing you with a personal banker. It's important to remember that having your personal bank account and your blog bank account as the same account is a huge no no. This will invalidate your LLC and leave you with no financial protection.
Make Money with Your Blog
Now that you have properly established your blog as a business, it’s time to talk about how to monetize your blog.
There are various ways to run a successful blog that makes you great money. The key is finding out what's best for you and running with it.
Affiliate Marketing
A very popular way to earn money on your blog is through affiliate marketing. This is where you partner with other companies to promote their products.
When a sell is made, you then get a percentage. Your commission could be anywhere from a couple of dollars, to $100 or more depending on what you are promoting.
The best way to do affiliate marketing is by joining the popular affiliate networks that pay the most. An affiliate network has hundreds of companies inside it that you can partner with all while managing your commissions from a dashboard menu.
Best Affiliate Networks:
- Impact Radius
- FlexOffers
- ShareASale
- CJ Affiliate
- Amazon Associates
Paid Ads on Your Blog
Another popular way to make money is to place ads on your blog. The more traffic your blog has, the more you will be paid by these ad companies.
Best Ad Companies to Join
Google AdSense is great for beginners but doesn’t pay much. It is easy to join and great for gaining experience.
Mediavine is the highest paying ad company out there. To qualify, your blog will need to have about 60,000 visitors per month.
AdThrive is another high end ad company that pays well, but you will need to reach 100,000 visitors per month on your blog in order to qualify.
Sell a Course on Your Blog
Once you have built trust with your readers, you can offer them paid courses to teach them a new skill. This can be extremely profitable.
You can also sell e-books and other teaching tools to give value to your readers in what they are trying to learn.
Sell a Service
You can literally sell any number of services from your blog. You can offer your writing skills for a price to other content makers, and you can also get paid as a consultant.
In reality, whatever you think of to sell as a service can be done on your blog as it is the perfect way to drive sales.
Run a Blog Podcast
A clever way to monetize your blog is to start a podcast for your readers. As your listeners grow, you can partner with companies and advertise on your blog podcast as well.
Paid Guest Post
As your blog grows, others will want their content shown on your website. This is a great opportunity to charge for a guest post on your blog.
You can set your own price and decide if the content a customer wants you to write about is good for your blogging brand.
Marketing a Successful Blog
It is good to prepare yourself in advance that while your blog is still brand new, it's not likely to have a ton of visitors.
It may take you anywhere from 3 months to a year to see a large number of readers each month. Marketing and brand building is vital because put simply, without traffic it is impossible for your blog to make any money.
Ways to Market Your Blog:
- Post quality content regularly
- Join blogging Facebook groups
- Experiment with paid ads to get traffic
- Use Pinterest with Tailwind to bring in traffic
- Reach out to other quality blogs to work with
Conclusion
So now that we’ve seen how to start a successful blog, there's only one thing left to do and that's to get started now. Bookmark this page as a guide and come back to it along your blogging journey.
We talked about how to set up your blog using Bluehost quick and easy. We also learned the importance of making your blog an official company by obtaining an LLC.
When your blog is set up and you begin making quality content based on your niche, you can then choose which monetization methods work best for you.
So take action now and start a blog that can potentially change your financial future. One thing is for sure, and that's if you put in the work needed to start a successful blog, you will never regret it and you will have the freedom to live life on your own terms.
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