Are you searching for how to start a blog and make money? If your answer is yes then welcome to my blog. All the information on how to start a blog found here is free. You may ask, why should I give out such information free?
The answer is simple, I make good money from the blog you are reading now and I have other blogs that generates some cash for me. So, why do you think I can’t give out free all I know about blogging?
In this post I am going to reveal to you 8 things you need to start and run a successful blog online. Before going into details proper, what is a blog and how can you make money from blogging?
What is a Blog?
A blog is a form of website where individuals or small group of people present information in form of discussion and hosted on a world wide web. Blog post are arranged in reverse chronological order, which means the most recent post appears first on the web page.
It is an all inclusive discussion platform that is why the reader has a section to comment or air his or her view on the topic.
There are various ways to make money from blogging, which you’ll learn as you continue reading down this post.
1. Passion For Blogging Not Niches or Topics
The first thing to do on how to start a blog on any blogging platform is to have the burning passion for blogging. In my early days in blogging, most bloggers I read their books then kept telling me that I must have a passion on a niche to be successful.
But I can boldly tell you that it is wrong. All you need is passion for blogging not niche. If you have passion for blogging then you can blog about any niche.
In addition, passion for blogging will keep you working no matter the challenges until you succeed. Passion will help you build winning mind and winners never quit or say no.
What is a Niche?
In simple terms, a niche is an area of interest or topic. For instance, if you love pets or sport, or dating or health related matters then one may say you’re interested in these niches or topics. Blogging on the niches you’re knowledgeable on makes blogging easy. But what if there are no much people interested in your niche? It’s obvious you’ll have few readers, which translates to making little money.
That brings us back to my first point, that you must have passion for blogging because that is the only drive that will make you blog about any topic in life. This means you can find niche where millions of people are interested on and blog about it, as long as they will see your post.
2. Get a Mentor
Blogging is like every other business you can think of in life. To make money from blogging you need a comprehensive blogging plan. The plan will contain how much time and money you’re willing to spend building your blog. Whether you’re to start a free blog or a paid and how to produce or outsource your content. Above all, your plan will contain how to promote your blog for maximum exposure.
To get all these things done right, then you need a mentor who has been doing it for some time. The mentor will reduce your learning curve by 70%. In fact, if you’ve a good mentor on how to start a blog, then your chances of making money online is high.
3. Chose Area of Specialization
Your mentor should be able to teach and work with you on other areas of starting a blog. In case you don’t have a mentor then the next step after passion for blogging is choosing area of specialization.
Area of specialization is the same thing as choosing a niche. This is very important because your niche will greatly determine your success. My candid advice is that you should always go for evergreen niches.
Evergreen niches are areas of human life that we cannot survive without. Such areas or niches are:
- Make money niche
- Health niche
- Personal finance
- Parenting
- Marriage
- Sport
- Fashion
- Entertainment and many more.
One top secret is that each niche listed above have thousands of sub-niches under them. For instance, some of the sub-niches under the health niche are:
- How to lose Weight
- Natural treatment of diabetes
- How to end high blood pressure and many more.
Remainder: You must not be a doctor or health practitioner to write on the health niche. All you need is passion for blogging and you can blog about any niche.
4. Choose Blogging Platform
Some of the common questions I do get from my readers are how can I start a blog on wordpress? Or how do I start a blog on Facebook? Or how to start a blog on Instagram? These questions show that you need a platform for present you content.
There are hundreds of platforms to blog on but the most commonly used is wordpress. In my opinion the reason for using wordpress is because of its flexibility of usage. And the ability to install plugins that help it ranks faster than any other platforms.
Another important factor to consider is whether to start with a free blog or paid blog. With free blog you don’t need to buy a domain name. Also you need to buy a hosting package. Both your domain and hosting is free from wordpress.
There are lots of limitations in using free blog. You’ve no complete authority over it and you may lose it any time.
As for the paid blog, you’ll buy a domain name and you’ll equally buy a hosting package. I usually advice my students to buy domain names with their hosting company. It makes managing of the site easy.
5. Installing and Configuration of Your Blog
This is another crucial stage of how to start a blog. This involves installing wordpress on your hosting package. It doesn’t look technical as it sounds. It is simple but if you can’t try it then contact your hosting company and they will do it for you.
When it comes to buying of domain name and hosting namecheap.com is my favorite. I tried so many hosting companies before I found joy in using namecheap.com
After installing wordpress on your hosting plan then you need to configure your blog for maximum exposure. CLICK HERE TO READ 3 THINGS YOU MUST DO AFTER INSTALLING WORDPRESS.
6. Produce Your Content And Publish
There is this popular saying among the internet marketers, which is “Content is King”. The information you dish out determines if people will read or not. Therefore, producing quality contents is the most important factor on how to start a blog.
Must you be a writer to become a successful blogger? No is the answer. But being a writer will greatly help and you must not be a professional. In fact, if you can pass information or communicate in writing that is all.
Click Here to learn how to write 10,000 words in few minutes.
In addition, if you feel you can’t write at all, then you can outsource your content. The most affordable place to get good writers is fiverr.com
One big question I expect to be running in your mind now is, how can you know what people are interested to read.
That question leads us to what is known as keyword research.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the act of using some specialized tools to find out how people are searching for information online. One of the best tools is the Google keyword planner. For instance, a diabetic patient may go on Google and search using the terms “How to Cure Diabetes Naturally”
If you want to write article on diabetes and use the keyword planners as a guide, it will tell you that people want to read article on “how to cure diabetes naturally”. So, with proper keyword research, you will be writing articles people are ready to read.
7. Promoting Your Content
How to promote your content or blog is a whole lot of topic. But as a beginner seeking for how to start a blog then the easiest way to promote your content is by sharing it with friends on social media. Ask your friends to help you share your content with their friends. In that case you must make sure your content is educative.
The two basic social media I use are Facebook and twitter. With few shares your content will go viral and so your website traffic grows.
8. Monetize Your Blog
If you follow all the steps on how to start a blog and make money listed above then there is no way you’ll not get the desired traffic to your site. Monetizing your blog means making money from it. There are various ways to monetize you blog, but the basic two I will discuss here are:
- Adsense
- Affiliate marketing
Adsense
Monetizing your blog with adsense means renting out some space on your website to Google. Google will be placing ads on it and paying you monthly. The higher your content ranks the more money you make. Above all, the more the content on your blog the more your chances of making more money from Google.
Affiliate Marketing
Monetizing your blog with affiliate means placing some links that will lead your visitors to a merchant site. If they buy from the merchant then you earn commission for it. So, affiliate marketing is a commission based business. This means you will affiliate with the merchant to send buyers to their site while you make money.
How to Start a Blog- Conclusion
This is a comprehensive post on blogging for beginners. It reveals the mindset you need to posses in order to succeed. Also it talked of the best blogging platform among the blogging platforms. Hope you’ve gained much on blogging today.
Please share with friends if you enjoyed the post. Thanks as you do
I am open for one on one mentoring. So, if you’re interested then contact me via the contact me link above.