Start a Blog with No Money – Find out if you should start a blog and how it can change your future by following the proper steps.
Did you know there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet? Considering there are around 1.7 billion websites, which is a high percentage. Every day, individuals, organizations, and businesses are leveraging the power of blogging to elevate their products and services.
From the quiet individual living in Northern Maine and writing a blog about snow to the soft sands of California, where significant companies share insight into their methods, blogging is a reliable way of interacting with your audience.
The good news is that this market is not oversaturated. There are always new niches and content angles to take to engage an audience. The average beginner blogger earns between $250-$2,000 per month, with the more experienced ones earning $15,000 or more. The potential value of your blog will have to do with the richness of content you deliver, consistency of posting, and your commitment to persevere.
Should You Start a Blog?
Beginners learning how to get started with blogging often feel they must be expert writers straight from the latest journalistic interns, but that could not be further from the truth. Readers seek out blogs to get insight into specific topics from those with experience in that niche. It does not matter if you are writing about owning a 1980s video arcade or giving tips and tricks for the best makeup. You have a skill that you can offer.
No one is looking for the end all be all expert. They are looking for a unique perspective so they can learn or benefit from your writing. Someone looking to recreate baking a chocolate chip cookie is not going to go with the fanciest recipe. They are going to go with what tastes the best to them and it is easiest to make. That means your recipe from great-grandma delivered in an easy-to-understand format with a touch of personality is going to do better than those from Betty Crocker.
All you really need to be a blogger is a passion for a subject that empowers you to stay consistent with your audience.
Why Start Blogging?
There are many reasons for starting a blog, but a few of the more common are:
- A Chance to Share: With nothing more than words on a screen, you get the opportunity to share your personal story and how it relates to your topic. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about the unique things you have noticed and not feel so alone in your hobbies or interests.
- Monetize Blog: A decent blog with a consistent schedule can earn a full-time income. This means you can maintain your own personal empire without having to report to a boss while sitting in front of your computer in your PJs from home. The only people you have to answer to are your readers, which is easy with consistency.
- Personal Recognition: Plenty of bloggers got their start with a simple single page and a one post per week schedule. Many have moved on to lucrative careers, book deals, social media influence, sponsorship deals, and more. Even a part-time blogger can gather a strong following of people who are genuinely interested in what they have to say.
- Community Building: Blogging is a give and take. Your audience reads the content you create, giving you a platform to connect with the world. Sure, there may be an occasional troll out there, but most people who want to try to follow and interact with you will be good-natured human beings looking to share information. Everyone needs a tribe of their own.
How to Start a Blog
We have gone through the reasons to start a blog and the benefits it can offer to those who commit to providing solid content regularly. Now it is time to get into the practical details and explain the steps to starting a blog.
We will be as detailed as we can, but keep in mind there is a lot of trial and error any blogger will go through as they learn. So be easy on yourself. This is a fun and exciting process where it is perfectly fine to make mistakes.
1 – Find Your Blog Niche & Name
We combined these two into the first step because often, they inspire others. A great name could lead you towards a more focused path like a solid niche will inform your blog name.
A niche refers to the specific topic area you want to write about. You do not want to be too general. Disney is a notable example. There are hundreds of Disney-related blogs out there, but the ones that do the best have an angle like how to tour the parks, dining, character visits, vacation planning, or even where to find the best bathrooms. The point is, get specific to your target niche.
- Pick a topic you like to talk about. Ask yourself if this is a topic you will still be passionate about after you have written another fifty posts in a year or so.
- Make sure there is interest. If you are just writing a blog because it makes you feel good, then go for it! If you are hoping to monetize the blog, you need to ensure an audience. The best way to do this is going to Google Trends and searching for your niche idea. You will see quickly if an audience is willing to learn more.
Never forget that your blog could be a personal one. There are plenty of people out there who would like to read about your personal story and experiences.
As for the name, you want to choose one related to your niche idea. A Disney blog should include the brand name, parks, mouse, Florida, or others. Your goal is to attract visitors with a name that gives them a quick insight into what you have to offer.
Again, if you are writing a personal blog, this could just be your actual name as the title.
2 – Finding a Blog Platform
You will need both a blog host and blogging software. Do not worry. You do not need to be a computer programmer with a team of creatives behind you to get this started. You can usually find both the software you need to run your blog and a place to host your blog using the same company.
Personally, we prefer using Bluehost or A2 Hosting as our blogging platform. They both provide excellent pricing models and all the support you need to get started. You can find templates that are plug, play, and offer automatic installation of the most popular blogging software: WordPress.
WordPress is the most popular platform for creating a website or blog. You can sign up to write a blog for free through their service, but they will run their own ads on your website or blog, and you will get none of the profits. The best way is to use Bluehost or A2 Hosting that uses WordPress, where you have complete control over the monetization features.
Look around online for deals, and you will end up paying as little as $3-$10/month for the hosting space, WordPress platform, and usually a free domain that they will register on your behalf. Bluehost and A2 Hosting also provide security settings that improve your site rank on popular search engines like Google.
Steps for starting a Bluehost blog:
- Sign up for the service.
- Select a domain name.
- Purchase your hosting plan with WordPress.
- Install WordPress (Bluehost will do this)
- Choose a theme & customize.
- Add features with plugins.
- Create and Publish Posts
3 – Choosing Your Domain Name
The domain name is your online address for your blog. Think about all the places you love to visit. Do you memorize their domains? Do those domain names relate to their industries? When you are selecting your domain name, you need to keep it:
- Short and catchy so people will remember it and make it easy to pronounce.
- You can also use your personal name if it is available.
Always try to get a “.com” domain or at least a “.NET” or “. blog.” These are what will rank the best. Bluehost has a decent domain search tool located here that will tell you if the name you are thinking of is available.
If you have the funds, try to keep your domain name private during registration. You do not want everyone in the world to know your contact information.
Try to avoid purchasing a premium domain name unless you absolutely must. There may be a history associated with that domain in conflict with your niche.
4 – Customize Your Blog Look
For this stage, you will log into your newly installed WordPress blog on your personal site and begin to create a remarkable visual space for your readers. You need to make sure it is:
- Mobile-ready, viewable on a smartphone
- Easy to navigate.
- Clearly outlines the who, what, where, why, when, and how of your interests
Once you have logged in, go to your WordPress dashboard and begin checking out different themes under the “Appearance” tab on the left side of the screen. Here, you can search for free templates that fit your blog and niche’s look, feel, and purpose.
We always suggest starting with one of the pre-installed yearly themes called “Twenty Sixteen” or the like to begin. That way, you can get a feel for how your blog works, and when you do install a unique theme, the information transfers cleanly.
If you feel completely lost on how to mess with the ins and outs of your WordPress theme or installation, you may wish to hire a freelancer to go over the details and do the work for you. Fiverr is a wonderful place to find qualified web design and blogging startup experts.
5 – Writing Your First Post
Take a deep breath; this is the fun part. The easiest way to write a blog post is to simply start. I know that sounds strange but allow yourself the freedom to put any thoughts onto the screen, and you will quickly find a flow.
You can also outsource the writing to a Fiverr expert who can write the article for you based on a subject or title, and then you can later personalize it to your own taste. There is no shame in getting help, especially for people that have a busy lifestyle and still want to start a blog as a side hustle.
The basic outline of a blog post is:
- The headline to grab the attention of readers.
- Sub-Headline to explain what you are writing about.
- The introduction paragraph or two about what you will cover.
- Header + Body Text of 2-3 ideas
- Conclusion in a short paragraph that often includes a CTA or call to action like subscribing or buying something.
To make a blog post in WordPress, go to the left side panel on your screen and click on Posts. There will be one called “Hello World!” that you are welcome to delete. You can then click on Add New and get writing.
For right now, stick to the title and content for your post. We will talk about images, videos, and other content in a bit.
We suggest using two free tools if you need help with topic ideas. The first is answerthepublic.com. Here you can enter your niche topic and search for frequent questions people ask. This way, you can craft your blog post as if you are answering their question.
The second is Pinterest. This is a social media website where thousands of ideas can be found by signing up for a free account and searching for your topic. All the individual “Pins” you get back will give you a good place to start.
If you want help with your writing skills, we suggest Hemmingway and Grammarly. These are both editors that can improve your natural writing ability by cleaning up with the text of spelling errors, grammar issues, and making suggestions to put your writing into an active voice that readers will appreciate.
Shoot for 800-1,200 words for each post. Search engines like a lot of content to explore and register.
6 – SEO Optimization
This is the hardest part and often people stop writing a recent blog. Our best advice is do not overthink this step. It is easy. SEO means search engine optimization. It is placing keywords into your content so that search engines recognize what you are writing about and then rank you higher for those searches related to your content.
For example, if you write a Disney blog but do not include keywords about parks, movies, or some other aspect, no one will ever be able to find it. There are three things you will need to do for your recent blog to get it optimized.
- Sign up for Google Webmaster (this is free) and “Add Property” to your search console.
- Sign up for a free Bing Webmaster account and add your blog.
- Optimize your posts.
This last step is the hard one. You need to add specific keywords related to your topic and niche in the various places of your blog post. First, do the research through the free Google Keyword Planner or the subscription-based Ahref tool. In both cases, you are looking for high searches for keywords with low to medium competition between 1,000 – 100,000 searches a month.
If that step seems overwhelming, don’t forget about Fiverr. They have plenty of professional experts willing to help you with SEO optimization and finding keywords.
Once you have 1-2 main keywords and 2-3 relative keywords, begin peppering them into your blog post. Place your primary keywords:
- In the post title
- In the first two hundred words of your content
- 7-10 times naturally throughout the content article
- In the last paragraph
Your relative keywords only need to be used once or twice in the entire article. Do not stuff too much into a small space. Use natural-sounding language whenever starting a blog to get a better result.
Finally, install the Yoast SEO plugin and follow the suggested steps to optimize your post. This is a learning process and a free tool that will help get your rank higher.
7 – Promote Your Post
Promoting your blog post only takes publishing it in certain areas. We try to stick to 1-3 platforms per blog as trying to keep up with more than that can be overwhelming. Consistence is way more important than the breadth of exposure. A solid base of 1-5K readers dedicated to following your work will do more than 500K, barely paying attention.
The best places to promote your posts will be:
- Medium
- TikTok
- YouTube
- Podcasts
- Email Lists
Always have an email list sign-up feature on your blog. This will be the best way to engage with your readers. We highly recommend using MailChimp as your free resource. They have a beginner-level account that is easy to set up and free to use. Don’t forget about the pros at Fiverr that can help set this up for you and manage your promotion schedule.
8 – Monetize Your Blog
It is always a clever idea to start the monetization process of your blog from the beginning. You never know when you will start to build traction. It could take a few months or a few days, and you want to get that momentum going as soon as possible. There are a number of ways to make money from your blog.
Advertising Space
This is the most common method of monetizing your blog. The easiest way to do this is the sign up with Google Adsense and then place different sized ad spaces into your blog. You can download a free plugin through WordPress to do this or put them in manually yourself. As always, you can also employ a Fiverr expert to help get ads put into your site for a low price. The more people that visit your site and click on these ads, the more you earn.
Affiliate Products
Running affiliate ads is the same as Google Adsense. Most products in the world have some sort of affiliate program associated with them. Go to the products you like the most relevant to your audience, niche, or topic, and you are bound to find an affiliate system. When you sign up, they will give you a unique link to plug into your posts and website through text and images. When visitors click on those links, you get a percentage of the sale they make. The most straightforward system to start using is Amazon Affiliates.
Sell Your Own Products/Services
If your blog is associated with a service like copywriting, marketing, or some other digital enterprise, you can market that service through your blog to drum up more business. You can also integrate print-on-demand products or Etsy stores. The easiest way is to have digital products that can be sold through your website. If you are looking for a decent plugin integration for WordPress, we suggest WooCommerce.
The goal is to offer engaging content that attracts customers and then encourages them to click on whatever sign-up, ad, or product you are offering. Of course, there are other ways to monetize your site, but these are the most common and excellent places to start.
9 – Visual Media
Your readers want attractive and visually appealing photos and video content. The more they feel immersed in your content, the more they will subscribe to your new posts and share your information across their own social media channels. The best friend to write a blog is having UGC (user-generated content). These are the reviews and social shares of your readers. They will propel you higher in search engines.
The general rule of thumb is one photo for every 150-200 words of content. Do not be overwhelmed. You can find free photos at places like Pexels and learn how to edit and manipulate them with text using the free tool Canva. Both platforms give you access to relevant imagery that you can insert into your content.
These are excellent resources for posting to social media. You are going to want an image associated with your post that will resonate with your readers. Use this opportunity to test what does and does not work by trying out different photos on different platforms.
The same is true for video media. Pexels has plenty of stock videos for you to test out and strategically place throughout your blog.
10 – Have Fun!
This may seem campy, but the truth is how you feel about the topic you are blogging about comes through in the content. You want to target a market of people that actively engage with your blog and want more. That means you need to deliver on entertaining and educating them with each post. This does not mean you have to be a scientist giving a lecture but add some facts and have some fun.
Let your personality flow into your writing and the images you select. You are creating a digital home for readers to enjoy; make it invite and let your passion speak for itself.
Conclusion
We hope this guide has given you an excellent foundation to start building your blogging career. Do not worry about the details yet. Just get a platform and start writing. As you go, you will notice the nuance of building an audience and getting the word out about your recent blog. Stick to 2-3 social media platforms that you know you will post regularly for marketing and try to post at least 1/week, preferably more.
The real trick to the blogging kingdom is engaging content your audience wants on a regular basis. Be consistent with writing a blog, have fun, and explore this world with an open mind to learning, and you will go far!
