You may have considered starting a blog in order to earn income online. If that is the case, I would say to you that it's a great idea. Blogs are easy and inexpensive to start and have the potential to earn a great income from the comfort of your home.
Start A Blog In 8 Simple Steps
Step 1: Choose A Niche
Choosing a niche involves deciding on what market you want to specialize in. Example of niches include health and wellness, relationships, financial, pets, etc. Broad niches such as what I just mention can be narrowed down to make targeting your ideal customers a bit easier. For example, instead of choosing the pet niche, it can be narrowed down to pet fish which can narrowed down even further to Betta.
Step 2: Decide On A Domain Name
The domain name is simply the internet address for your website. For example, jobslayer.net is the domain name for this website. In our case, the website name and domain name are the same.
Sometimes, the domain name that you decide on will be unavailable for purchase because it has already been taken. It may be necessary to add an addition word to find an available domain or change the name of your website altogether if you want the blog and domain name to be the same.
Try to keep your domain names short and easy to remember. Choose a .COM if possible, but a . Net will work fine as well. Be sure to avoid characters like numbers and hyphens because they make your domain name hard to remember. Imaging telling someone to visit your website at mr.blog-man587.com.
The domain registrar that I use and recommend is Namecheap.
Step 3: Get Hosting
Website hosting provides a home for your website so that others can get access to it online. Hosting companies store your website files on secured servers and is a must if you want to have a blog or any other type of website online. The hosting company that I recommend is and use is Dreamhost.
Step 4: Install WordPress
WordPress offer a free blog platform and a self hosted one. The issue with having a free blog is that you don't own the blog. Now that you have purchased a domain name and got hosting for your blog, it's time to install WordPress and make your blog live.
Step 4: Install WordPress
WordPress offer a free blog platform and a self hosted one. The issue with having a free blog is that you don't own the blog. Now that you have purchased a domain name and got hosting for your blog, it's time to install WordPress and make your blog live.
Step 5: Choose and Customize Your Theme
WordPress themes are predesigned layouts for your website. Page headers, footers, and other elements of your site can be customized with a theme. I recommend and use is the Astra theme which comes in both a paid and free version.
Step 6: Install Plugins
Pluggins are software that integrate with your website which allow you to add more features. Below are a few recommended free pluggins you should add to your blog.
Yoast SEO
Key Features:
- Optimize posts and pages using keywords and meta descriptions.
- Easily make improvements and see how well your content is currently optimized
- Provides tips to improve your content’s readability
Updraft Plus
Key Features:
- Create automatic or manual backups of your website.
- Store your backups locally or on the cloud.
- Restore your website to a previous state
WP Total Cache
Key Features:
- Reduced page load time
- Improvements in search engine result page rankings
- Improvement in overall site performance
Elementor
Key Features:
- Beautiful prebuilt built templates from the Elementor library.
- Simple drag and drop
- Build fully original designs for your website.
WP Forms
Key Features:
- Create an attractive contact forms
- Pre-built form templates
Step 7: Create Content
The content on your blog is what will keep your website visitors coming back for more. There are two ways to get content for your blog, write it yourself or let someone else write it.
Many bloggers prefer to write their own content, but for those that have multiple sites in various niches, may choose to hire ghost writers. A ghost writer is a paid writer that will allow you to take credit for content they write when you purchase content from them.
Many bloggers prefer to write their own content, but for those that don't like to write or have multiple sites in various niches, may choose to hire ghost writers.
A ghost writer is a paid writer that will allow you to take credit for content they write when you purchase content from them. You can find ghost writers on sites like Freelancer.com or Upwork.
Step 8: Get Visitors To Your Blog
In order for people to see the content on your blog, you will need to take takes for people to find your website. This can be done with social media, paid ads and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Platforms like Facebook, Google, and Bing allow you to pay to get website visitors to your content and offers. Paid traffic is a fast way to start getting traffic to your content but can burn a hole in your marketing budget if your site is not set up properly to monetize your visitors. Also, sending traffic to the wrong audience will affect your results with paid traffic.
Free traffic using SEO provides steady visitors once you can get ranked in the search engines for keywords that people are searching for. The key to getting traffic with search engines is to create content around topics people are searching for using easy to rank, low competition keywords.
Social media sites such as YouTube and Pinterest also provide a great source of free traffic to your blog. Once you have created content for your blog, the same content can be repurposed for YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
HOW DO BLOGS MAKE MONEY
Ads
Blogs can generate income by placing ads on the site using programs such as Google AdSense. Ad space can also be sold to those that want to drive traffic to their site or offer by placing banners on posts and within the blog for a fee.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is another method for a blog can generate income. Affiliate marketing is a way to get paid by promoting other people's products or services for a commission.
Sponsored Posts
Some companies will pay a blogger to create content around a specific product or service know as a sponsored post. Blogs that monetize with sponsored posts are usually seasoned sites with a decent amount of traffic.
Products
Many bloggers generate income by creating their own digital products and courses. Having knowledge on a particular subject can pay off when it provides solutions people are willing to pay for. Bloggers can also sell physical products such as books and other types of merchandise.
Services
Services such as personal coaching or consulting services can be promoted with the use of a blog. Creating content for a blog lets you showcase your expertise on a subject matter also and helps establish you as an expert.
Conclusion
Making money with blogging is a great way to earn income from home. However, you won't earn one penny if you don't get started. So, what do you think about becoming a blogger? Have you considered it or do you currently have a blog? Let me know in the comments below.
Disclosure: Jobslayer.net provides links to an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees and affiliate commissions.