How to Start a Blog and Make Money in 2024 (Step-by-Step Guide)

When it comes to side hustle, blogging is one of the most sought-after hobbies. We’ve all seen influencers go from everyday people to a-list celebrities with their blogs. Not everyone wants to be a celebrity but learning how to start a blog for free can help you create a passive income stream.

Whether it’s booking an extra vacation, starting an investment fund, or paying off debt, a blog could change your financial fortune. Learning how to blog online has never been easier.

We’re breaking down the step-by-step process on how to start a blog and make money online. This guide pulls back the curtain and shares the secrets to becoming a successful blogger.

Step 1: Find your niche

Before you can start thinking about a blog name or building an online presence, you need a niche. While some bloggers write about virtually anything, you’re more likely to become successful by choosing a niche. Having a niche allows you to identify a target audience, build a following, and become an industry leader.

1. Choose a niche you’re interested in

It’s a good idea to start with a list of niches. It’s easiest to choose one that you have an interest in. Having an interest in your niche makes it simpler to create content ideas and you’ll find the experience more enjoyable.

You don’t want to choose a niche that you’ll lose interest in after writing your first 10 articles. It’s important to remember that learning how to start a blog and make money takes time – and a lot of patience. You won’t see your first pay day for weeks. Choose a niche that you’re prepared to stick to and see through.

2. See which niche is profitable

Write out a list of possible niches and start doing your research. Focus your search on finding which one has the most potential to create a profitable blog.

• Ask yourself these questions:
• Are there already successful bloggers within this niche?
• Have you identified a gap in the market?
• Are there products or services you could promote within the niche?
• What brands are popular within the niche?
• Could you create a profitable course that relates to the niche?
• Do you know what’s popular within that niche?
• Would you be happy to write about this niche for the next year?

If a niche will tick all – or most – of this list, you’re onto a winner.

3. Consider your target audience

No niche is profitable without an audience. It all starts with identifying your target audience and who will want to read your blog. Your target audience will determine the type of content that you put out.

Understanding your audience allows you to create engaging content that will drive traffic and have your readers coming back for more.

4. Start doing keyword research

Being proactive is key to learning how to make money blogger. Before you settle on your niche, start doing your keyword search. You want to research the most popular keywords that are being used in your chosen niche.

Keywords are the phrases that your target audience are actively searching for with regards to your niche. This research will feed into the content that you create and how you design your blog.

While doing keyword research might sound daunting, there are dozens of tools that you can use online.

The most popular keyword research tools include:

• KWFinder
• Semrush
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs
• Google Keyword Planner
• MOZ Keyword Explorer

These tools will offer you vital insights that will feed into the way you write your blog posts, as well as the topics you choose. They’ll show you the most popular keywords, related terms, and the most commonly searched questions related to those keywords.

Step 2: Choose a name for your blog

Now that you have your niche, you need a name. Every great blog has a catchy name. While you might have ideas whirling around your head, there’s a few golden rules for choosing your blog’s name.

It’s best to brainstorm and get creative with name ideas. Open a word document or take a page and record all your ideas. Even random words or phrases related to your niche could spark a lightbulb moment.

1. Experiment with alliteration

You want your blog name to be memorable. It should sound catchy and be the first thing that comes to people’s mind when they read about your niche after discovering your blog. One easy way to create a memorable blog name is to experiment with alteration.

Alliteration is when you use two or more words that start with the same letters or sound. Saying ‘tasty tacos’ or ‘dancing ducks’ will show you just how memorable alliteration can make your blog name.

2. Create a portmanteau

If you’re a Wordsworth, try and create a portmanteau out of your blog name. A portmanteau is a word that blends the sounds and meanings of two words together. Microsoft is an example of one of the most popular portmanteaus. It’s a combination of the words “microprocessor” and “software”.

3. Don’t be afraid to use humor

Humor is what can help your blog stand out from the crowd. If appropriate, you can use humor when deciding your blog name. It’s an easy way to set the tone for your blog and create a friendly voice for your website. Using humor is an easy way to create a memorable blog name and one that will roll off everyone’s lips.

4. Use words that relate to your niche

Remember that list of keywords? Look back at it to see if it can serve as inspiration for your blog name. Choosing words that relate to your niche can help boost your SEO and make it easier for your target audience to discover your blog. You want to ensure that the words you choose are instantly recognizable within the context of your niche.

You also want to avoid choosing words that might be easily misinterpreted as something else. Ideally, your audience should read your blog’s name and instantly connect it to your niche.

What to consider when choosing your blog name

By now, you should have a shortlist of ideas for your blog’s name. Start by saying them out loud. You want your blog name to be one that’s easy to say and spell. If your blog name is too complicated, it could be easy for people to misspell or misinterpret your niche.

Now is a good time to bring in a fresh set of eyes to your list. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family what names sound best. They’ll be able to point out any blog names that sound confusing or are difficult to spell.

If you’re still struggling for blog name ideas, there is a shortcut. Blog name generator tools can serve as inspiration for potential ideas. You could use one of the names suggested by these websites or allow them to inspire a lightbulb moment.

Some of the most popular blog name generator tools include:

• Blog Name Generator by Themeisle
• Zyro Business Name Generator
• Namebounce
• Wordoid

You want to reference your list of words associated with your niche to get the best results with a name generator. Using specific keywords will help you generate more relevant name suggestions that could inspire the perfect choice for your blog.

Step 3: Register a domain

When you’ve found the perfect name, you need to register a domain. Your domain is the address for your website. It’s just as important as your home address. Your domain is what directs the user through a link and to your website.

It’s always best to choose a domain instead of using a free domain provided by sites like blogger or WordPress. Using a domain is one of the most important steps in our guide of ‘how to start blogging’ as it helps to build authority for your website.

Types of domain names

While there are several types of domain names that you can choose from, you want to focus your search on a top-level domain. A TLD is the last part of your domain and comes from a short list of predefined suffixes.

Examples of TLDs include:

.com | one of the most popular choices for blogs and commercial websites
.org | the TLD used for organizations, such as nonprofits
.net | networking organizations

TLDs fall into two categories – either a genetic top-level domain (gTLD) or a country-code top-level domain (ccTLDs). A gTLD is the more generic form of domain and includes the examples mentioned above. A ccTLD is a two-letter extension for a domain that is specific to a country or geographical region. Examples of a ccTLD include .uk or .ie.

You want to keep your domain as simple as possible by choosing a suitable TLD. While .com is always a good idea, you can choose a ccTLD if it works with your niche. If you’re writing about restaurants in France, you’ll want to use the .fr as your domain extension.

Mistakes to avoid when choosing your domain

While choosing your domain may seem straightforward, there are plenty of mistakes that people main along the way. You might be tempted to keep it simple and choose your own name for your domain.

Although, this may sound like the easiest option, you might want to sell your blog in the future. It’s not uncommon for people to build successful blogs on their journey to make money online before selling them on.

You may find that a brand within your niche wants to buy your blog and repurpose it or themselves. Keep your options open by choosing a creative name instead of using your own.

There are several things that you want to avoid when choosing your domain name.

• Using numbers at the start of your domain
• Domain names that include hyphens
• Domain names that contain words that start and end with the same letter
• An excessively long domain name

If your domain name contains any of these, it can make it confusing and difficult to remember. Numbers at the start of your domain name can make it appear like spam, while hyphens can lead your followers to going to the wrong website.

If you’ve thought up a clever blog name, you want to make sure two words don’t start finish and start with the same letter. An example of this would be ‘SammysSouthern’. Your followers may forget the second ‘s’ and find themselves getting an error message.

The most important thing to consider when choosing your domain is how easy it will be for your audience to remember the name. The longer the domain, the more difficult it is to remember. Try to keep your domain name to no more than three or four words, depending on the character number.

Domain generator

Are you still struggling with finding the right domain for your website? You can try using a domain generator. While not every suggestion will hit the nail on the head, it can be a great source of inspiration. Two domain generators that we recommend are Domainwheel and Nameboy.

Future-proof your domain name

When you’re building your blog, you always want to be considering its future. Considering things like future-proofing your blog can help you avoid expensive mistakes or having to rebrand in the future.

Choose a reliable domain registrar

You can’t under-estimate the importance of your domain name. You want to find a reliable domain registrar that will support your website and streamline the process. Look out for domain registrars that offer auto-renewal to keep your website active and ones that offer privacy protection for your personal information.

Draw up a short-list of the most popular domain registrars before starting to compare their features.

Look for a domain registrar company with an affiliate program

If you want to learn how to start a blog and make money, you’ll quickly see that there’s more than one way to earn money. Affiliate marketing is by far the most popular option – but more on this later in our guide.

You want to consider a domain registrar company that offers an affiliate marketing program. If you plan to sell a course on your website, you can promote your affiliate link and earn extra cash for your business.

Most of the domain registrar companies that fall into this category also offer website hosting. These multiple services mean that you can maximise the affiliate marketing potential.

You can start by exploring these domain registrar companies:

• Hover
• Domain
• NameSilo
• Network Solutions
• GoDaddy

Complete the domain buying process

Once you’ve settled on your domain name, it’s time to complete the process. You want to purchase your domain name through your chosen company and complete their registration forms.

Every provider is different, but you’ll usually be asked to provide some basic personal information. You’ll have to verify ownership of your domain, usually through an email confirmation portal.

Buying a domain from another person

You may have found the perfect domain name – then tragedy strikes. Someone else has already beaten you to it. All hope isn’t lost though. It’s not uncommon for people to buy domain names for the purpose of selling them in the future.

Start your mission by visiting the domain name to see if its currently in use. If a website hasn’t been built, you’ll usually see the information for the domain registrar company instead. Some of these companies will act as a broker to help you buy the domain from the current owner.

You can also find out who owns the domain by using a ‘WHOIS’ service. The information you’ll be able to access will depend on the security features that the domain provider uses. At a minimum, you’ll be able to see when the domain was registered and through which registrar.

Before you send an email or start the wheels turning, you want to determine how much you’re comfortable paying. If you want to keep your costs low, it’s likely that you’ll want to simply choose another domain.

The safest way to buy a domain is by going through the domain registrar. It’s the best way to avoid any potential scams and to streamline the ownership transfer.

Step 4: Choose a webhost

Your domain needs a home. That’s where web hosting comes in. Your web host is the real estate agent who offers your blog a place to live online. When you use a webhosting platform, you’re essentially buying a space online for your website to live.

Your webhost provides the technology that you need to allow your website to run and for visitors to view your website.

Why it’s important to choose the right web host

When you’re learning how to start blogging, you always want to be thinking about the future. Making the right decisions now is the best way to avoid expensive mistakes in the future.

If you choose the wrong webhost, you may experience times when your website is offline, resulting in a loss of revenue. Unsecured web hosting platforms can also pose a security risk for your website. Perhaps the most important reason of them all is that a good web host will help to boost your SEO. If “content is King”, SEO is the Queen.

Choosing the right web host can make it easier to solve problems when they pop up on your website. Legitimate webhosts will usually offer 24/7 customer support and provide guides on solving the most common problems for blogs and websites on their platform.

The webhost features you want to consider:

While we could write an exhaustive list, these are the most important features to look for when choosing a webhost.

• Available storage as this will determine how much you can post and store on your website at once.
• Bandwidth
• Cost
• Customer service
• Data security
• Mobile capability
• Monthly traffic
• Payment methods
• Server type
• Loading speed
• Uptime

The best webhosting companies for your blog:

Are you not sure where to start your search for a webhosting website? These are our recommendations for the best webhosting websites that will help you create a profitable blog.

• A2 Hosting
• Bluehost
• Cloudways
• Kinsta
• Inmotion Hosting
• Liquidweb
• SiteGround
• WP Engine

You can find reviews for all these websites online. It’s always a good idea to start by looking at websites that are hosted by these platforms to get a feel for how your blog will look and perform for your own audience. Don’t forget to look out for webhost platforms that offer affiliate programs to help you earn commission by referring your audience to the webhosting site.

Step 5: Choose a content management system

Before you can start building your website, you need to choose a content management system. The CMS is the software that you’ll use to bring the website to life, including managing and creating content. It’s the backend of your website and what you’ll be using to create your content.

Consider the needs of your blog and what other features you might benefit from. Every CMS is different. You can use YouTube videos and online reviews to give you an idea of what these systems are like before committing your time to a CMS. While you can change your CMS further down the line, its better to find the right one early on.

These are the most popular content management systems for bloggers:

• WordPress (our top recommendation)
• Blogger
• Drupal
• Hubspot
• Squarespace
• Joomla
• Wix

Step 6: Install WordPress or another system

As we recommend using WordPress, we’re focusing on it for this section of our ‘how to start a blog’ guide. One of the reasons why we recommend WordPress is because of how easy it is to install. It has a user-friendly CMS, making it the most popular choice for bloggers in every niche.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a free, open-source software that you can install on a web host of your choosing to power your blog or website. It’s a content management system that is famous for its easy-to-use interface.

WordPress is the CMS used by over 40% of the top 10 million websites on the internet. You’ll be in good company with most household names choosing to use WordPress for their content management system.

What to know before installing WordPress

There are a few things that you should know before you install WordPress. You want to ensure that your chosen web hosting platform is able to meet the software requirements and conditions for using this CMS.

Your website server will need to operate with PHP 7.4 or greater, along with MySQL 5.6 or MariaDB 10.1 or greater. You can find this information on your hosting platform’s website.

There are also several requirements for your local device when using WordPress. You’ll need to create a login account connected to the server via shell or FTP.

Your local system will also need a text editor. The text editor will edit the main configuration file. For Windows users, this text editor will be Notepad. For OS X users this will be TextEdit.

Another thing you’ll need is an FTP program that will allow you to upload files and set their relevant file permissions. FileZilla is the FTP program that WordPress recommends for its users.

How to Install WordPress

Follow the instructions below or read our step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress here.

1. Download your WordPress package and unzip the file.
2. Use your web server to create a database. You’ll need a MySQL user who will have all the necessary privileges for your WordPress website.
3. You can choose to rename your wp-congif-sample.php to wp-congif.php and edit the file, adding your database information. This step is optional.
4. Upload your WordPress files to your desired location on the server. You can integrate WordPress into your domain by moving and uploading all the unzipped WordPress contents into your web server’s root directory.
5. Run your WordPress installation script by accessing the URL through a website browser. You want to use the URL for where you’ve uploaded the WordPress files.

Step 7: Choose a theme that matches your niche

Now you can start building and customizing your blog. It all starts with choosing a theme. When you use WordPress, you have the option to choose from free and paid themes.

Free vs. paid WordPress themes

While free themes are a cost-effective way to start blogging online, paid themes appear more professional and are fully customizable. What we love about free WordPress themes is that there’s no strings attached to them. Although they won’t perform as well as their paid counterpart due to their lack of features.

If you’re willing to invest as little as $100 into your blog, you could find a WordPress theme that levels up your blog.

Pros and cons of a free WordPress theme

The biggest benefit of using a free WordPress theme is that it’s the most cost-effective way of creating a high-quality blog. The free themes that are offered through WordPress go through a strict quality-control review to ensure that they’re up to the standard of the platform.

While these benefits sound great, using a free WordPress theme comes with drawbacks. You’ll only have limited support and won’t be able to access the best features and functionality options for your website.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of them all is that free WordPress themes aren’t unique, and you’ll be running a website that looks similar to thousands of other blogs. You’ll also not get any support from the designs if problems arise with the free theme or if it’s no longer compatible with WordPress updates.

List of free WordPress Themes

While there are dozens of free WordPress themes for you to experiment with, several are commonly used by bloggers. These free themes are a great way to create a sleek and easy to navigate blog without spending money.

Our favorite free WordPress themes include:

• Astra
• Hestia
• Hueman
• Sydney
• Neve
• Quill
• Vantage

The perks of using a paid WordPress theme

If you’re prepared to invest in your blog’s theme, you can take advantage of dozens of benefits. These perks of a paid WordPress theme can help boost your blog’s performance and allow you to scale your audience faster.

Some of the most popular benefits of using a paid WordPress theme include:

• 24/7 customer support
• Mobile-responsive designs
• Added security
• SEO optimization
• Page builder support
• Quick speed and loading times
• Enhanced performance

Our recommendations for paid WordPress themes

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you start exploring paid WordPress themes. There are hundreds of website designers and coders who specialize in selling WordPress themes. A quick search on Etsy will give you hundreds of results.

One of the most popular places for paid WordPress themes is ThemeForest. While the platform specializes in website themes and templates, their WordPress themes are amongst their best-sellers. The website is a great place to explore different themes and to get ideas for plug-ins that will enhance your blog.

Some of the best-selling paid WordPress themes on ThemeForest include:

• Avada
• The7
• Betheme
• Enfold
• Flatsome
• Salient

Most of these themes sit comfortably under $60, making them an ideal investment for your first blog. These themes each have hundreds of thousands of sales and come with extended support that give you access to future updates and quality checks.

If you don’t want to fiddle around with customizing your blog, a paid WordPress theme can be a worthwhile investment to speed up the process.

Step 8: Take your blog security seriously

One step that people overlook when they think about how to start a blog for free is security. The last thing you want is to spend weeks or months building your blog to have someone compromise or hack your website.

Free and paid security plugins for your blog

While it’s easy to get overwhelmed by plugins, there are a few that are vital to securing your blog. Here are our suggestions for the best security plugins:

• Wordfence (our top recommendation)
• All In One WP Security & Firewall
• BulletProof Security
• Google Authenticator
• Jetpack Security
• iThemes Security Pro
• Sucuri
• WPScan

Other steps to take to secure your blog

You want to ensure that you’re always following best practice to keep your blog secure. Most people find that mistakes with their blog are often of their own making. You need to have a strong username and password for your account. Don’t use the same username and password that you use elsewhere and regularly change your password.

It’s always best to be proactive and backup your blog regularly. If you have drafts saved to your website, make a duplicate copy on a cloud server. Backing up your website content is the best way to safeguard your blog and avoid losing your hard work.

Step 9: Start customizing your blog

Once your blog is secured, you can start adding your personal touches to the website. This part of the process for how to start a blog is what everyone looks forward to. It’s a chance for you to get creative and start to experiment with themes and plug-ins.

Choose a theme

By now, you should have decided between choosing a free or paid theme. Although we’ve highlighted a few best-sellers of each kind, there are thousands of options online. Take your time and find a theme that matches your vision for your blog.

You want to consider the type of content that you intend to post on your website. While articles and blogposts might be your main content, if you’re interested in video posts, you’ll want a theme that can support this.

Create your own logo and favicon

Your website needs a logo. It’s a way of making your blog appear more professional and it can help build credibility if you want to work with brands in the future. While you could pay a graphic designer to create a logo, there are affordable ways to do it yourself.

Websites like Canva are your best friend when building a blog. You’ll find thousands of easy-to-use templates that are available for free through the platform. Most bloggers start out with a free logo from Canva before investing in a custom paid logo once their blog becomes profitable.

You may also find that you don’t need to upgrade your logo if you create one that works with your niche and blog idea.

Add plug-ins for your blog

A plug-in is a software-based add-on that can be installed onto your website to enable a specific feature. Plug-ins are a great way to customize your website and help you get the most out of your blog.

Our top recommendations for plug-ins include:

• BrandFolder enables you to quickly grab and place assets on your pages.
• Page Builder allows you to create responsive column-based content.
• Ninja Forms helps you build and design your website without coding.
• MailMunch captures leads from your website to grow your audience.
• InSite helps with audio analysis and is ideal for audio-based blogs.
• WebKite is an open-source browser engine.
• WP-Chatbot allows you to add a Facebook Messenger chat to your website.
• WP Lightbox 2 improves the way that your pictures are displayed.
• WordPress Social Login allows your readers to share and comment on your posts using their log-in information for popular social media platforms.

Step 10: Research and choose blog topics

The easiest way to build your blog is to create a content bank. You want to start researching and choosing blog topics that will build your online presence. Your list should have a mix of trending and evergreen topics.

Turn to your audience for content ideas

If you’re not sure what content to make, turn to the people who will know the answer. Your audience. Ask your readers at the end of every blog post about what content they would like to see from you. It’s a great call to act (CTA) that will engage your audience and give you content ideas.

Your audience on social media can also help you come up with content ideas. If you haven’t built your audience yet, start by asking your friends and family. In the early days, these people will be your audience. Find a friend or two who interested in your niche and turn to them for ideas.

Expand on current blog posts

Have you written a few blog posts then hit a brick wall? One of the best ways to come up with content ideas is to expand on current blog posts. You can create a follow-up post or turn an existing blog post into a series. If you’ve written a blog post about red roses, why not follow up with a second article on white roses?

It’s also a good idea to look back at other ideas or drafts that didn’t make the cut. Your best content ideas will often come from looking back at what you’ve done before.

See what the competition are doing

When you’re learning how to start blogging, it’s important that you see who your competition is. You need to acknowledge that there are other bloggers who are already posting in your niche – even if it’s not an exact match. While we suggest looking at their content for ideas, you don’t want to directly copy.

The chances are that your audience also reads your competition’s blog posts. You don’t want to be accused of plagiarism or of not creating original content. Instead of copying, you want to create a better version of the content your competition posted.

Turn to your competitors for ideas of evergreen content – with the goal of creating a blogpost that will rank higher than theirs. Search their URL on Google and note down their first 10 to 15 blogposts that appear in the results.

Take inspiration from other blogs

Go outside your niche and look at other blogs for ideas. You might find a style of blog post that you’ve never thought about and that might work with your niche. Looking at blogs outside your niche is a great way of coming up with ideas without inadvertently copying exactly what your competition has done.

You may find trending topics from other blogs that you could repurpose for your niche. Other blogs are also a great place for inspiration on the style of writing that you want to use for your blog.

Use Udemy courses

One way that you can invest in your blog is by taking online courses through Udemy. This platform is a marketplace of over 185,000 courses with almost 50 million students. You’ll often find courses for as little as $20.

Start investing in your blog post by taking Udemy courses that focus on blog writing and offer ideas for content creation.

Focus on building your blog categories

Coming up with blog post ideas can be difficult. The easiest way to streamline your ideas is by creating blog categories. These categories should act as the pillars of your website. You want them to cover every aspect of the niche that you’re writing about.

It’s usually a good idea to have at least three to five categories on your blog. Dividing your ideas into categories can help you come up with ideas and ensure you don’t focus too much on one type of topic. Your blog categories can also feed into your content scheduling.

Look for ideas amongst your current blogposts

One of the best places to look for ideas is within the content you’ve already posted. Did you mention a concept or topic that you didn’t fully explore? Write a new post on the topic and link it to the original blog post.

It’s a great way to direct new readers to older posts and to refresh your content. You’ll always be able to find new ideas amongst your current blogposts – whether you’ve written ten or a hundred posts.

Step 11: Write and publish your first post

One of the scariest aspects of starting a blog is hitting ‘publish’ on your first post. Once your first post is live, you want to start building a bank of content to get your blog ranking on search engines. Start your blog with an evergreen topic that interests you and one you can link to in future blog posts.

Write your early articles yourself

Start your blog by writing your first articles yourself. It’s a way of allowing you to research your niche and get a feel for the most popular topics. Writing your first articles can also help you determine the tone and ‘voice’ for your blog.

Your early articles should fall into one of two categories: evergreen and trending. Evergreen content is blog posts that will always be relevant and include the most popular keywords related to your niche.

A trending topic is something that your audience is actively looking for during that period and a topic that has skyrocketed in popularity.

Finding a balance of these two topic types can help you write your early articles and get ideas for future content

Download grammar checking apps

Not everyone is a master of storytelling. Most people haven’t written a piece of long-form writing since they left school. It’s worth downloading grammar checking apps to act as your virtual editor. These software apps will highlight any errors in your writing and help you create a high-quality article.

The quality of your writing feeds into the SEO strategy for your blog. Using a grammar checking app gives you extra peace of mind that your content will perform well.

Our top recommendations for grammar checking apps include:

• CorrectEnglish
• Grammarly
• Ginger Software
• Hemingway
• Whitesmoke

It can take some trial and error to find the app that is right for you. Most of these apps can be installed as a plug-in for your web browser.

Hire freelancers through Fiverr

After writing your initial articles, you may want to pass the job onto someone else. Freelancer marketplaces like Fiverr are an ideal way to find writers for your blog. There are writers who specialize in every niche.

Once your blog starts to become profitable, you can reinvest your earnings back into your blog by hiring a freelancer. It helps to turn your blog into a form of passive income and reduces the time you’ll spend working on it.

Step 12: Learn the ins-and-outs of SEO

If you want to know how to make money blogging, you need to learn how SEO works. Search engine optimization – known as SEO – is what will help drive organic traffic to your website by allowing it to rank on popular search engines.

What is SEO?

SEO – search engine optimization – focuses on a strategy that improves the quality and volume of the organic traffic that finds your website. Unlike ads, SEO is about gaining organic traffic through search engine results. It’s all about increasing the visibility of your blog and making it easier for your target demographic to find your website and specific blog posts.

Every search engine uses bots that crawl the internet, connecting information about your pages to create an index. This index is analyzed by the algorithm that decides where pages should appear in the search results for a given key term.

You can think of this process as being like a bot reading every possible book and then recommending the most relevant ones depending on what the searcher is asking for.

SEO is one of the most vital aspects of digital marketing and something that every blogger should take the time to research and understand. When you’re learning about SEO, you need to uncover its different aspects, including local and ecommerce SEO.

SEO tips and tricks

While we could write an in-depth into SEO for blogs, here are a few things every blogger should know.

• Utilize keywords using tools like Semrush to determine the best options.
• Meta descriptions for every page and post on your website.
• Add internal and external links to build credibility.
• Create user-friendly URL structures that are easy to share.
• Add optimized images that are high-quality and relevant to your topic. Don’t forget to add meta-tags to your photos.

Use SEO Plug-ins

An easy way to wrap your head around SEO is to use plug-ins. These plug-ins are an ideal way to double-check your blogposts and find ways to boost the SEO. Using plug-ins are a way of testing the SEO rating of your blog posts before you hit ‘publish’. They’re also a way to fine tune your SEO skills to make it easier to create high performing content in the future.

Five SEO plug-ins that you should consider using include:

• Yoast Plugin
• Rank Math Plugin
• SEOPress
• SEMRush
• SEOquake

Step 13: Create a posting schedule

The key to success is a schedule. The number one tip you’ll see when learning how to start a blog is to be consistent. By posting consistently, you can build an engaged community and start seeing results online.

When you learn ho

Use tools and plug-ins

w to start a blog for free, you’ll quickly discover that there is a plug-in for everything. Tools such as Coschedule, Publishpress, and Strive can boost your productivity and keep you on track with a posting schedule.

Not everyone is comfortable with scheduling posts to auto-publish using plug-ins. You can even keep it simple and use your Google Calendar or another online calendar to plan your content. The key with this system is to ensure that it sends you reminders of when to post.

Research social media algorithms

The best way to grow your blog is to repurpose every piece of content that you post. It includes sharing your content to social media as soon as you post it. Starting a blog means that you’ll want to learn how social media algorithms works.

When you leverage social media, you can drive traffic to your website and begin converting visitors into clicks and purchases. Don’t forget to consider your audience when looking at social media algorithms. You want to determine what time of day they use social media and how they use platforms. Understanding social media algorithms include learning the winning formula, such as how many times to post per day for the best results. You want to incorporate social media algorithms into your posting schedule.

Download free schedule templates

When you start blogging for the first time, you might prefer to keep everything as simple as possible. A free schedule template is an easy way for you to plan for your blog and create a consistent posting schedule. You want to be planning your content at least two to three weeks ahead.

Whatever tips you use, the most important thing to do is to decide on a posting schedule and to stick to it. Most bloggers choose to pick a few days during the week to post. They’ll then release a new blog post on that day every week. It creates a consistent routine for your audience, who will quickly come to expect a new post from you on these days.

Consistency will build credibility for your website and will turbocharge your SEO to give you the best results possible.

Step 14: Start promoting your blog

Organic traffic isn’t enough to make your blog profitable. You want to spread the word and put your blog in front of your target audience. Getting ahead of the game and doing this early will pay off in the future. You need to promote your blog from day one, as soon as your first post is live. You want to encourage people to explore your website, click your links, and subscribe to your blog.

Add and bulk links to your site

You want to start sharing the links for your blog as widely as possible. Backlinking is one of the most vital parts of SEO. Spreading the word about your blog will encourage others to link to it on their own websites. Don’t forget to include a link to your blog across all your social media.

Share your blog on social media

It’s a great idea to create a separate social media profile for your blog. These profiles will allow you to repurpose your blog content onto social media to drive organic traffic and build a community. Make sure that your social media handles are as close to your blog name or domain as possible.

You can use Canva to create infographics or social media posts to promote your website and blog articles. It’s possible that you can repurpose these graphics in your blog articles to get the most out of your designs. You can use social media to build connections with brands and other bloggers within your niche.

Scheduling tools like Later can help you coordinate your blog and social media postings to automate your schedule as much as possible. These apps mean that you’ll never miss your posting schedule.

Start posting and answering questions on forums

Every niche has a forum. They’re the ideal place to find your target audience. Look out for forums that are relevant to your niche and start posting there. You can link your blog to answers to popular questions or directly promote your blog through forum posts.

Using forums is a great way to build up backlinks to your website to help boost your SEO. It will also help get your blog in front of your target audience.

Step 15: Monetize your blog

While most people take up blogging as a hobby, everyone knows it has the potential to be a lucrative side hustle. If you can do it right, you could make blogging your full-time job or pivot to launch your own business.

There are two ways that we’ll teach you how to make money blogging. These are affiliate marketing and selling a course. While it’s possible to do both, most bloggers choose to stick to affiliate marketing and course selling isn’t for everyone.

Affiliate marketing

Most of the revenue that bloggers make online comes from affiliate marketing and not ad revenue. Affiliate marketing is when an online retailer or platform pays a blogger commission for directing traffic to their website and generating a sale. This referral is monitored through a specific link that the blogger will have for the website.

The beauty of affiliate marketing is that it’s quickly becoming the leading form of online marketing. Instead of waiting for a brand to sponsor you, affiliate marketing can help you earn money by promoting products you already use and enjoy.

If you want to learn how to make money blogger, it’s a good idea to choose a niche that will facilitate affiliate marketing. Most bloggers will add at least one to three affiliate marketing links to their posts.

When you’re choosing your niche, you want to ensure that there are products or services that relate to it. For example, you’re unlikely to make regular commission on selling cars through review posts. However, you’re more likely to make commission by promoting products from websites like Amazon for using inside your car.

When you learn how to start blogging, you’ll quickly discover easy ways to incorporate affiliate marketing seamlessly into your blog posts and content.

Another form of affiliate marketing is when a brand sends you a product and pays for it to appear in your content. It’s not too dissimilar as you’ll typically receive the same style of referral link to earn commission.

Once you nail your blog’s SEO, your affiliate marketing links can earn you passive income for years to come. You’ll want to think about links when working on your content calendar. Almost every marketplace and major retailer runs an affiliate marketing program that can quickly make your blog profitable.

Design and sell a course

The other way that you can earn money through your blog is by selling a course. This form of monetization won’t work for everyone as it’ll involve you becoming the fact of your brand. While creating a course will take more work than affiliate marketing, you can earn a higher payday from a successful course.

Unlike blog posts, once you’ve created your course, it’s out there in the world. Courses are one of the most popular forms of passive income as you can automate everything from ‘thank you’ messages to follow-up emails. While you can start affiliate marketing right away, most bloggers wait until they have an audience before they release a course.

If you’re interested in designing and selling courses, you want to consider this when choosing your niche. Not every niche lends itself to courses. Service-related niches are often the best choices when looking at course creation.

Final Thoughts – How to Start a Blog Today

Now you know how to start a blog and make money online. This guide will have shown you that you don’t have to break the bank to create a profitable blog. While it will take time and effort, you will start to see results quicker than you might expect.

Following these 15 steps will help you create a blog that will find an audience and allow you to make an income online. Whether you want to earn extra income through a side hustle or build a business, blogging is the best way of growing your online presence.

Once you’ve learnt how to start a blog and gotten your first one up and running, you can take these lessons and build other blogs to expand your portfolio. Blogging remains one of the most lucrative online income streams and the perfect way to create passive income.

Are you not sure where to go next? Check out our article ‘How to Make Money Blogging’ for our comprehensive guide on monetizing your blog. What advice do you want about building a blog and passive income streams online? Leave your questions and requests in the comment below!

Do you want to learn more ways to make money? Check out these 37 apps that pay real money.