Are you thinking about how to start a blog in 2023 to make money online? Alright, the idea on your mind itself will be the first initiation for your success. And be assured you have landed at the right place here.
You may be afraid of some rumors that you need professional skills to start a blog. But, actually not. You can begin your blogging career even if you are not so skilled or a good content writer. No one is perfect here. So, learning by doing strategy will be a hidden secret of success in the blogging field.
But of course, you need some percent of passion, some percent of creativity, some percent of continuity, and some percent of patience. The integration of those attitudes definitely builds up your blogging potential.
Blogging has created huge opportunities to share your ideas, creativity, and innovation with the world. In return, you can make a generous income online. That’s why the craze of blogging is spreading rapidly.
CoachBloggers will guide you through awesome tips, tricks, and ideas to start a blog and make money online from a variety of platforms. We have created this free guide to help you learn how to start a blog without any coding skills and professional ideas.
Why do You want to Start a Blog?
Blogging is the easiest and quickest way to express your ideas online. Being an immense area of opportunity and potential, more people are joining the blogging community than ever. So why should you start a blog? Before jumping to the steps, first of all, you have to be clear about your blogging objectives. Let’s do brainstorm on these questions:
- Do you want to express your experience and ideas?
- Do you want to build a community?
- Do you want to expand your brand?
- Do you want to increase your marketplace?
- Do you want to make money online?
A blog can help people to express, communicate, educate, promote and even sell your ideas, and products, but only if you are clear about your primary goal to start it.
Hence, take some time to identify the purpose of your blogging idea. In the meanwhile, here we mentioned the trending factors why many people start a blog and enjoy blogging in recent days:
- To enhance thinking and writing potential
- To establish expertise
- To increase self-confidence
- To build up the people’s trust
- To market a business
- To network with others in the industry
- To make money online
However, various surveys show that 90% of bloggers are motivated to start a blog with the intention of making money online. There are several ways to make money online by creating your own website.
Most bloggers are generating sound income through Google Adsense, Affiliate Marketing, and Digital Marketing, and selling products and merchandise online or promoting others’ products and services from their blogs.
This article is helpful for newbie bloggers, students, housewives, and part-time job seekers who want to work from home and earn money online as other bloggers do. Let’s move on.
How to Start a Blog? Step-by-Step Process
We will cover the step-by-step guide for blogging on 10 major topics to create a money-making blog. You have to follow these steps in order to start your blogging career. If you follow the guide exactly, you’ll have your own website set up in 1 hour or less.
- Step 1– Identify a Content Idea and Blogging Niche
- Step 2– Research for a Perfect Domain Name
- Step 3– Choose a Blogging Platform
- Step 4– Setup a Blog/Web hosting
- Step 5– Publish Your First Blog Post
- Step 6– Design/Customize Your Blog
- Step 7– Optimize Blog for Search Engines (SEO)
- Step 8– Drive Traffic from Social Media
- Step 9– Get Involved in Blogging Community
- Step 10– Monetize your Blog and Start Earning
We’d like to guide you with a step-by-step process that you need to follow to publish your first blog. Also, you will provide tips and ideas to get traffic to grow and to monetize your blog.
Step 1– Identify a Content Idea and Blogging Niche
The very first step to start a blog is finding the right content idea and blogging niche. Blogging niches are the core subject matter or topic of any content in which you are going to publish a blog.
According to Google “Content is King” for every blog. Google loves quality content. But, it doesn’t matter how well you write. But the essence is how much you write on a unique subject. The more unique your content, the more people will be attracted to you.
So, if you write blog posts based on specific topics and interests of people, then no one can stop you from succeeding in blogging. Now, take a moment to think deeply about what to write about in blogging. It will be best for you to choose a topic that you are experienced with.
For example, the most profitable blogging niche and content ideas are:
- Traveling
- Education and Career
- Health Care and Fitness
- Sports and Games
- Finance
- Hobbies
- Fashion
- Music
- Lifestyle
- Food
- “How to” Question and Answer
You can choose any of the blogging niche ideas to start your blog and make money online. Again, consider one thing: the more specific and unique content you write, the more visitors you attract to your blog.
Step 2– Research for a Perfect Domain Name
Your domain name is the name that identifies you online. You can also purchase whichever domain name you have available. But it will be even more effective if you use keywords related to your blog content.
If the right domain name is used, search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yandex can read your domain and the content on it and display it on search engine result pages. The use of blog content-related keywords or niches in your domain name will enhance your search engine optimization (SEO) factors.
Different domain registration companies are available in the market. You can purchase a .com domain with the best support and service-providing company that costs $10-$15 annually. Because the .com domain is the most prevalent on the Internet. But you can also buy .net, .org, .info, .edu according to the nature of your blog content.
You can check for your domain name using the online tool provide below and register your first domain name at Bluehost. It is one of the most trusted and popular domain registration and web hosting company in the world.
Step 3– Choose a Blogging Platform
Choosing a blogging platform is another important decision factor for you. There are free blogging and self-hosted paid blogging is available.
If you want to go for a free option, then hosting a domain in blogger is the best alternative for you. Blogger is the first preference for every newbie blogger. But there are some limitations you will face ahead, like:
- If you don’t link your purchased domain on Blogger it will look like YourBlogName.blogspot.com. It will be very lengthy to read for you visitors
- You are provided very limited designs and layouts and daily post quantity [may be 50 posts daily]
- Monetization in blogger is quite difficult nowadays and your efforts may go in vain
- Domain/hosting transfer from blogger to the paid platform is tedious and you might lose your search traffic which causes a drastic fall on your revenue.
- It is thought as less trustworthy
- You don’t have full control over your own content because it is controlled by the blogger. You may be suspended if anything went wrong on your blog.
On the other hand, if you spend some bucks on web hosting then you can experience the biggest blogging platforms in the world, with plenty of plugins and add-ons that let you infinite ways to create, design, and layout your blog.
So, WordPress is the best blogging platform for bloggers. I assume you’ve heard about WordPress, and this is the platform I prefer. It’s awesome, user-friendly, and customizable as your need.
Step 4– Set up Web hosting
If you have chosen to go for a free hosting plan, then you need to set up your domain in Blogger.
How to Setup a Custom Domain on Blogger
If you have purchased a domain from Bluehost then follow these steps to link your domain name in Blogger.
- First of all, create a Blogger account [you can create using Gmail account]
- Create a blog: You have to create a blog [Example: www.yourblog.blogspot.com]
- Find the CNAME records: You have to navigate to your blog’s Settings=> Publishing=> +Setup a 3rd Party URL for your blog section
- Enter your domain name in Third party domain settings box
- You will be provided to CNAME records as shown below
- Log in to your Bluehost account
- At your control panel, click on the Advance Zone Editor which you can find under the Domains section.
- Select the domain to which you want to add CNAME records.
- Add CNMAE records correctly as shown below
- Now add further A Records in the fields provided format, as shown below. You have to add the following 4 IP addresses for the A Records to configure your Blogger Domain one-by-one :
- 216.239.32.21
- 216.239.34.21
- 216.239.36.21
- 216.239.38.21
In this way, both the www and non-www versions of your blog would load your website correctly. If you skip this step, blog visitors who don’t type the “www” before your domain name on the browser will see an error page or a different site (depending on your current A record).
- After adding the DNS records, save the settings in your Blogger and allow up to 24 hours for the DNS settings to be fully propagated.
Alternatively, it is possible to redirect blog visitors from non-www to www version of your website. If you use this method then A records would not be required to enter in DNS settings. It can be done after your domain settings are saved:
- Press the Edit button in Blogger Settings
- Check on Redirect as shown below then click on Save.
In this way, you can connect your domain to Blogger hosting platform.
How to Start a Blog on WordPress?
More than 76 million blogs run on the WordPress platform globally. And, every second 7 new posts are published on WordPress websites. It is free for anyone to use, WordPress has all the essential plug-ins, tools, and features you need to set up and execute a self-hosted WordPress blog. You don’t need any development experience or coding skills to start a blog on this powerful blogging platform.
Follow these steps to set up a WordPress self-hosted blog:
Purchase a Web Hosting Plan
You can buy a web hosting plan from a trusted and highly-rated WordPress hosting provider. I prefer Bluehost for you because the actual price of a year of hosting with a domain is $85 if you purchase directly from their website. But, if you purchase through this special Bluehost Discount link then you will get the hosting plan for just $60. Plus, you will get a Domain name for free.
So, get your discounted domain hosting plan on following the steps:
- Click here to get web hosting on discount, it will redirect you to Bluehost website
- Click on “Get Started” button
- Now you can see major four hosting plans offered by Bluehost [Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, Pro]
- You can select the Basic Plan if you want to start just one blog.
- If you are planning to run multiple blogs and websites in future, you can select Plus, Choice Plus or Pro plans. So that, you can launch other blogs using the same hosting account without paying further amount.
- After deciding the Bluehost hosting plan, click on “Select” button
- Now you have to enter your free domain and click on “Next” button. We have already discussed about how to choose a perfect domain in Step–2.
Or, if you already have a domain, enter it on second box “Use a domain you own” and click on “Next”
Or, if you want to add you domain latter, click on “I’ll create my domain later”. - On the next page, you have to add your Bluehost account information.
- Enter your full name
- Address
- Mobile Number
- Account Plan: Select 12 months if you want to host for only year. Next year you will be able to extend your hosting plan again. But, if you are planning for more than two year then you would better to choose for 3 years. You will get extra saving benefits.
- You also get a free SSL certificate for your blog which makes your blog more secure and trustworthy for visitors. Secured websites are ranked on Google search engine very quickly.
- Package Extras: You can select extra services offered by Bluehost, but, you can uncheck all extra packages to minimize your hosting expenditure.
- Payment Information: Now, you have to provide your payment information for billing purpose of hosting plan. You can pay through credit card or PayPal (by clicking on “more payment options”)
- Check on the Bluehost terms of service
- Click on “Submit” button
- After that you will get success message of hosting plan you purchased, then click on “Create Account”
- On the next page, you are asked to create your Bluehost account password. You have to create a strong and secured password as suggested there.
- Now, click on “go to login” button
- Enter your Bluehost account password just created before, and click on “login”.
- On the next page, you have to setup your blog by adding Blog Name and Blog Tagline. Then enable ‘Do you want a blog?’ option and click on “Continue”
- On the next page, it will ask “Tell us a bit more about you”. So, you can select any option you want to complete their survey. Then click on “Continue to theme selection”
- Now, you are able to select a free them for your blog. You can skip this step if you want to install other theme later. It will automatically install default WordPress theme.
- On the next page, On the next page, your blog will be displayed on a temporary. Your actual domain will be connected to your hosting within 2-3 hours. Bluehost recommends some basic settings, you can set what you want.
- Then click on ‘WordPress‘ button, you will land on WordPress admin panel and dashboard.
- Now you can create your post, design your blog using unlimited feature and plug-ins.
(You have to log in to your WordPress account by adding “/wp-admin” to your domain and entering your email and password. The default link of your WP login page is yourblogdomain.com/wp-admin)
Install WordPress through “cPanel”
You can download WordPress software free from WordPress.org and install it yourself.
But, most web hosting companies include a one-click WordPress installation feature with their hosting plan. To install WordPress automatically using the “Softaculous Apps Installer” feature, follow these steps:
- Log in to your cPanel area provided by your hosting company
- Scroll down to “Softaculous Apps Installer” section
- Click on WordPress
- Click on Install
- Enter necessary site settings, eg: Site Name, Description
- Enter Admin Account details, eg: Username and Password which will be used to log in to your WordPress admin area from where you can design your website, create post and manage other website settings.
- Enter Admin e-mail address
- Select any available theme, later you can change according to your need
- Click on Install
Congrats! Finally, the “one click,” installer sets up a WordPress blogging platform for you. Now, the website is live globally and you are ready to publish your first blog post.
Step 5– Publish Your First Blog Post
After WordPress is finished installing, you will be given a URL to login to your WordPress administrator page.
In most cases the URL will look like this (depending on where your WordPress installed folder is):
Tip: Bookmark this URL, because you will very often be logged into wp-admin to manage your blog.
Security Tip: It would be better if you change this login URL to another one for security purposes (such as –domain.com/login ). It will be easier if you use a security plugin like iThemes Security.
Now, go to this admin URL and login with the username and password that you created earlier (the one you entered when you installed your WordPress previously), and there, you are now in the WordPress Dashboard area. In this WordPress admin area, you can set up, write, edit, install themes and plugins, upload images, and much more.
Here is the latest WordPress Admin (version 4.1.1) dashboard looks like the image below and looks pretty cool, right? And you are ready to publish our first post.
To write and publish a new article, you can use the navigation or menu on the left sidebar, click on ‘ Posts »Add New ‘ and you will be directed to a page where you can write the article. Click ‘ Preview ‘ to see the results of your writing before you publish it, and if you are sure to publish your writing, then just click ‘ Publish ‘, you can also publish your writing at the time you want by scheduling, changing the date and month above the ‘ Publish ‘ button.
Finally, you have published an article. After that, you can use it to design a blog or install a cooler WordPress theme, add plugins and make your WordPress site SEO Friendly.
The customization to the Monetization process will be updated soon. Keep Visiting.
