How to start a blog and make money

So you want to start a blog but are worried you can’t make any money in this saturated market? Well, I am here to tell you-you can! There are so many ways for you to make money as a blogger from linking products on Amazon to sponsored posts to selling actual products and everything in between. I was a bit skeptical about making money as a blogger especially when I had to pay upfront without a guarantee of making anything!

Well, guess what? I earned everything back that I paid for starting my blog in my first two months and have continued to grow my revenue every month! So even though it is hard work and scary you know what? A year from now you will wish you started today! When you are done setting up your blog check out my post on how you can make money as a blogger. So how to do you set up a blog? Let’s do this!

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Get a self-hosted site!

So what does this mean? Basically, you can’t monetize a blog unless you own it. Most companies don’t want to work with you unless you actually own your domain. How do you get one? Through Bluehost! They offer hosting with your domain name for as low as $3.95 a month! You can get your domain name and host for the price of one Starbucks latte… a month. And if I am being honest I drink way more than once a month so that’s a great deal!

So how do you get a self-hosted site? First, you Click on Get Started below.

 

You will be taken you to this homepage.

 

 

 

Select a plan

Click the green “get started now” button to select your plan (see below). You have three different options from basic to prime. If you are a brand new blogger and will definitely only have one site then I would probably just stick with the basic plan. If you are going to have several different sites, or if you will have staff and need several email addresses then I would definitely get the prime plan. The prime plan also comes with tons of freebies! There are several add-ons you can add to your plan I would add the privacy one if you can. It keeps your personal information private (like your address and phone number) and lists Bluehost’s address and phone number. This is a must for new bloggers so you don’t get scam calls and people selling your information.

 

 

Pick your name!

Next step is to pick your domain. This is the fun stuff! Picking a domain is so fun but make sure you pick a domain that won’t easily be misspelled. Like if you want snoozymomma.com (obviously that’s already taken by yours truly) don’t switch it to snooozymomma.com or snoozyymomma.com because people will likely end up at my page because they are using the typical spelling and you will lose traffic. You can try to switch to snoozymama.com something that is an everyday spelling so people won’t miss out on your amazing content! My final recommendation is to use a .com from everything I have learned it is best for getting traffic and monetizing

Next step is to add your payment information.

Set your password and login to Bluehost!

Design your page

Now back to the fun stuff! Pick your theme. I could spend years designing my website I love looking at different layouts, colors, and themes. Before you pick your theme I would check out some other blogs that you love so you can get an idea of what layouts and looks you like. You can change your theme later on but it is a serious pain in the butt. So really look through the themes and find one you love.

There are a ton of free themes and others that you can purchase. My theme was a free theme called PhotoBlogster and I love it! I am all about photography so it’s the perfect theme for me. Just take your time and find your theme soulmate.

Login to WordPress and start building

Next, you will log into WordPress and see the WordPress dashboard. Where you can add pages, new posts, activate plugins and more! Bluehost also offers a lot of features.

Launch your blog!

Finally, last and but certainly not least launch your blog and get your amazing content out there! My recommendation is to not officially launch or start publicizing until you have 10 posts up. The more established your site appears the more traffic will come and be likely to come back. That’s it! You are now a blogger!

Get support and get your blog started off right!

Once you get your blog started, check my post on how I got almost 10,000 page views my very first month blogging and get started off on the right foot! Also check out my post on how you can make money as a blogger.

I also just started a Female Bloggers Support Group on Facebook. Join here