How to start a blog and make money in 10 simple steps

So, you want to start your own blog and make money online. Where do you begin? What type of content should you be putting out there? When does the money start flowing in? If you want to turn your writing from a hobby into a career, you need to build your blog, draw in your audience, and secure your first income streams.

In this article, we’ll provide you with a beginner’s guide outlining how to make money blogging: 5 tips on getting started followed by 5 monetization tips for a total of 10 simple steps. Whether you’re seeking a new side hustle or aiming to earn a full-time income as a blogger, these ideas will get the wheels turning so you can soon achieve your goals.

Summary/Overview

How to start a blog

Every successful blog is filled with high-quality content. However, in order to make money blogging, it’s essential to provide value to your audience – this will help you build a loyal following and get the daily page views you need. Your blogging journey is just beginning. Use this step-by-step guide to get yourself situated and begin your new blog to build a robust audience and start earning money.

1. Find a profitable niche

The first step to creating a successful blog is figuring out what you want to blog about. There are countless topics out there, but a crucial step is narrowing down what your blog is going to be about and finding a niche.

A blog niche is a general idea or topic you would focus your content on, such as travel, fashion, cooking, or technology. Creating a blog with no niche and blogging about any topic that interests you can confuse and alienate your audience. Your goal is to build a loyal fanbase that relates to or is interested in your blog niche. Therefore, focus your blog on one general topic.

Your niche is more than just your general topic — it includes your target audience, the style in which you are writing, and the approach you are taking to your blog overall. Ideally, your niche should be something you are passionate about — the most rewarding niches are topics that genuinely interest you and drive you to continue writing new content.

So how do you choose a niche when there are so many things to write about? If you are unsure, ask yourself some of these common questions:

• What are your favorite hobbies?
• What are you most interested in? What are you passionate about?
• What is a dream or ambition you’ve held since childhood?
• What are some values that you would want to share with the world?
• Is there a hobby or craft you want to learn?
• Are there any achievements in your life that you are proud of?

You should already have a few ideas for potential niches just from answering these above questions. But, unfortunately, you can’t select just any niche; you need to make sure it has the capacity for profit .

First, consider if there are enough subtopics within your niche to continually write articles about. For example, if your niche is travel, there are literally tens of thousands of places, products, and best practices for potential blog posts. If your niche is too specific, you might get stuck. Brainstorm as many potential blog posts as possible to determine if you can build a substantial blog within your niche. Do some keyword research to see what is trending around your topic. If you can’t think of a lot of potential blog posts, consider switching or altering your niche.

Additionally, research your audience. You need to ensure that other people besides you are interested in your niche — blogging doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Use free tools for keyword research, such as Google Trends, to see if people are genuinely interested in your topic. If interest is low or declining, consider switching your niche.

2. Choose a name and get online

The next step in creating a successful blog is to choose your blog’s name and get your blog online. Your blog name represent you, your business, your core blog topics, or some combination of the three. If possible, incorporate your niche into your blog title to help people immediately understand what your blog is about. Think about what sort of personality you want your blog to have.

The next step is to get your blog online. To do this, you will need to choose a blogging platform — also known as a Content Management System (CMS) — and a web hosting platform.

A blogging platform is a service that allows bloggers to create, manage, and publish their blog content on the internet (it’s essentially a website builder). Some popular blogging platforms include WordPress, Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace (although there are tons out there). Do some research and find out which one is best for you.

A web hosting platform “hosts” your blog and keeps it secure, allowing people to access it when they click on or use your URL. Some popular web hosting companies include Bluehost, Dreamhost, HostGator, and GoDaddy, but search around and see which one works best for you.

Finally, choose a domain name. You want to choose something that reflects your blog and lets people know instantly what your blog is about. For example, if you are a regional food blogger based out of Chicago, a domain name such as eatingchicago.com lets people instantly know what your blog is about.

3. Design and optimize your blog

Create a consistent design

Having a good and consistent design for your blog builds trust; it communicates to your audience that you care about your blog enough to put in a genuine effort to make it appear engaging or professional. However, that does not mean that you should crowd your blog with wild graphics and formatting. Instead, sticking with a crisp, clear, and easy-to-read format is a solid starting point. Many people are visual learners, meaning that whether they intend to or not, they will judge your blog and its perceived functionality immediately upon seeing your webpage. Even if you are producing good content, if your blog is difficult to navigate and visually confusing, people will associate your blog with the messy visual aspects rather than the actual content. In short, design matters. Here are some design tips to follow:

• Make sure all your posts are readable — consider font type and size (for example, try using a crisp sans-serif font).
• Use subheaders to break up your text. Section out your blog article in shorter easy-to-read sections.
• Use text stylings to emphasize certain parts of your text — think of underlining, bolding, and italicizing.
• Put a relevant photo at the top of your post — this will visually draw people in and immediately let them know what the post will generally be about. If possible, include photos throughout your article as well. Check out this guide if you are looking for free images.

Create your blog’s main pages

Your blog needs content. But even before taking that step, you should create the two main pages every blog needs: About and Contact.

Your About page is meant to showcase basic facts about yourself. This is a space for you to explain who you are, what you do, and why people should listen to you. Here is a list of some items to include on your About page:

• Basic information: An introduction to who you are, personally and professionally, and what your blog is about
• Your story: Explain what in life has brought you to create this blog and how you got started
• Value proposition: Why people should read your blog and what value you are creating for them
• Recent achievements that give you and your blog credibility
• Fun facts: Let your audience get to know a bit more about you as a person rather than as a blog or a brand
• Where to start and where to go next — if your blog has a particular flow to it, include CTAs to posts for first-time viewers and where your audience should go next.

Your Contact page provides your audience with instructions on how to get in contact with you. This page can be used as an avenue for your audience to directly interact with you and for people or businesses to hire you. If you are offering specific types of services for a fee — more on this later — make sure potential companies or buyers can get in touch with you. Add a contact form so you can streamline the process. Feel free to divide these pages into a Contact page and a Hire Me page.

Optimize for SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of optimizing your website so that search engines can more easily find you and better understand your content. Specifically for blogging, optimizing for SEO helps search engines identify your blogging content, which helps more people organically find your blog.

First, it’s important to get indexed by search engines. You need to let Google know that your blog exists in the first place. To do this, you need to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. Once your blog is indexed by Google, this also opens up the ability for you to track your blog’s metrics (which we will talk about in a later section).

Next, you want to optimize your posts on the keyword level. Use free resources such as Google Trends or Google’s Keyword Planner to search for trending keywords with high search volume. Make sure to include those keywords in the headers. These headers will catch people’s (and Google’s) attention. Make sure to describe what your blog post will be about in your header title. Use subheaders to divide your blog and explain what each subsequent section will be about.

Lastly, make sure to create SEO-friendly blog URLs for each post. These URLs should contain the primary keyword or phrase your blog is about and for what you are trying to rank. Here are some best practices when creating an SEO-friendly URL:

• Keep your URL short — try to stick to fewer than five words
• Avoid using numbers — if your article is a list of the 10 best hiking spots in the Bay Area, you don’t need to include the 10 in your URL
• Separate each word with a hyphen — this helps your audience to better understand just from your URL what your blog post is about

Using the above example of a blog post titled “The 10 Best Hiking Spots in the Bay Area,” some bad URLs would look like this:

• www.myblog.com/besthikingspotsinthebay
• www.myblog.com/the-best-hiking-spots-in-the-bay-area
• www.myblog.com/10-best-bay-area-hikes

A good URL would look like this:

• www.myblog.com/best-bay-area-hikes

4. Get on a schedule

One of the critical parts of creating a successful blog is regularly putting out new posts. The more content you put out, the more traffic you will receive. Additionally, search engines consider how often a website produces new content and how frequently it is updated. Now, there is no such thing as over-blogging, but how much blog content should you create?

When starting out, aim for 1-2 blog posts per week. Once you get the hang of blogging and better understand your niche and your target audience, aim for 3-4 blog posts per week. Ideally, aim for at least 12 blog posts per month. This may seem daunting, but the key is to stay organized.

To stay on top of your work, hold yourself accountable, and make sure you post consistently, create an editorial calendar. At the beginning of each month, brainstorm blog topics and schedule your content into the calendar. Don’t be overly ambitious – set realistic goals. You can use a spreadsheet tool or an online calendar to keep yourself organized. Include the publishing date, current status, title, and keywords.

5. Track your metrics

Tracking your metrics is a vital part of growing and guiding your blog – you can see which blog posts drive the most traffic and what type of content your audience is most interested in. In step 3, we discussed signing up for Google Search Console (GSC), so your blog can get on the map. Now, it’s time to use this tool to track your metrics and get in-depth with the data.

GSC shows you lots of information, but first, focus on the Performance tab on the left-hand side. Here, you can look at

• Total clicks: how many times a user has clicked through to your site
• Total impressions: how many times a user saw a link to your site in search results
• Average click-through rate (CTR): the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click
• Average position: average position of your site in search results
• Top queries: what your audience is searching for that drives them to your site
• Top pages: which of your blog posts are performing the best
• Countries: where your audience resides
• Devices: desktop, mobile, or tablet
• And so much more.

All of the information that GSC provides is vital in better understanding your audience, meaning you can create more targeted content and optimize your blog.

For example, here is the GSC view for one of our blog posts, The Best Logo Fonts and How to Choose Your Own. Here we can see how this blog post has been performing and what people are searching for that lands them on this article.

These insights help us better tailor blog posts in the future – when we know what our audience is searching for and what they’re clicking on, we can optimize our blog for our viewers.

Additionally, Consider diving into Google Analytics – a free tool that collects your website’s data to create reports, providing you with valuable insights about your business.

Tracking your metrics is also essential for proving your growth and value as an influencer so you can start landing advertising and brand deals (which we will get into in the next section).

How to make money blogging

Once you’re confident that your blog is prepared to launch consistently great content, you’re ready to learn how to make money blogging and truly create an online business. But monetization can be a tricky thing. Don’t worry; we’ve got you! Get started with these five tips to help guide your monetization strategy:

6. Promote your blog

Nowadays, a big part of learning how to make a living blogging is learning the art of digital marketing.

While marketing tactics like search engine optimization (SEO) and Google advertising can help you get plenty of page views, digital marketing helps you build relationships by allowing your audience to interact with the authentic you. With strong relationships comes greater loyalty, which enables you to influence your followers’ purchasing behavior — and influencers can access some of the best-paid opportunities out there.

Promoting your blog is the first step to building a substantial audience (which you need in order to have a profitable blog). Consider these four tips for building your blogger brand on social media.

Choose the right channels

Being a blogger means you’re already spending a lot of time building out your editorial strategy and writing every post. To maximize the time you set aside for social media, make sure you’re choosing the social media channels your audience is actually on.

For example, if your blog is focused on marketing tips or freelancing, choosing a business-focused platform like LinkedIn is definitely smart. If you’re starting a travel or food blog, Pinterest can be a powerful platform for driving readers to your blog. If your target audience is Gen Z, consider TikTok.

Some social media channels and forums to consider include

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Reddit
• Snapchat

Find out what social media sites your audience is using the most and which ones fit your niche, and promote yourself on those channels. Join relevant online communities (like LinkedIn or Facebook groups) and use those to promote your blog.

Additionally, consider guest blogging. Taking up freelance work allows your name to be displayed on other websites, increasing visibility and potentially driving traffic to your blog.

Keep your branding consistent

When people visit your social media pages, they should feel like it’s an extension of your blog. Your blogger brand should be one cohesive experience, so the relationships you build on social media translate into results on your website.

Part of this is keeping your voice and tone consistent in every caption, as well as making sure your blog name, domain name, and social media usernames all match. Beyond that, your visual branding should match your blog aesthetic. Use the same logo or headshot for your profile picture, and utilize complementary photography styles and color palettes.

Promote yourself, not just your blog posts

While you definitely want to promote each of your blog posts on your social media channels, you should also give your followers a look at the blogger behind the keyboard. Whether you’re replying to comments or sharing a personal update, show off your personality, interests, values, and hobbies!

Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories are super engaging ways to share more about yourself and interact with other users. Authenticity is important – give your audience a little insight into who you are!

Build an email list

Building an email list and creating a newsletter is a great way to keep existing readers engaged. Create sign-up opportunities on your blog (at the end of your blog posts, on your homepage, etc.) and start building out your list. Consider using an email-marketing service like Mailchimp to help automate the process.

7. Run ads

Making money online as a new blogger can be tricky, but on-site advertising — the most traditional way to earn a blogging income — will likely be the easiest opportunity early on. Make sure your website can accommodate ad space – consider putting ads on your sidebar or in a pop-up. Ad networks like Google AdSense and Media.net connect you to paying advertisers. Their ads show up in designated areas of your site and allow you to get paid based on views and clicks.

To qualify for AdSense specifically, your blog needs to have:

• Unique and interesting content
• An organized navigation bar
• Some key static pages, like a contact page and privacy policy page

Though there are no official guidelines regarding traffic, sites that are approved for AdSense typically have a handful of quality posts published and consistent page views. So, build your audience and metrics for at least six months before you apply.

Earnings from ad networks admittedly might not be super high in your first year. But once you work your way up to 50,000 monthly blog views and have substantial website traffic, you could easily start earning thousands per year. Use this Google AdSense revenue calculator to get an earnings estimate based on your location, blog category, and monthly views.

8. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most common income streams for professional bloggers. This earning opportunity tasks you with promoting a third party’s products — usually using a link or promo code that’s unique to your blog — in exchange for commission earned on each affiliate product sold.

It’s a great way to earn passive income by providing companies with content marketing services on your blog. Just by writing one blog post, you can continuously earn commission on sales from visitors over time, especially if your post is optimized for Google search, with relevant keywords throughout.

Most affiliate programs do require a minimum number of monthly blog visits and sales volume, and some may require a social media following too. Some popular affiliate programs you can join include:

• Amazon Associates: earn anywhere from 1-20% commission depending on the product type.
• eBay Partner Network: earn between 50-70% commission depending on product type
• Commission Junction: commission varies depending on the advertiser but is typically between 5-10%
• ClickBank: earn between 50-70% on average

But this is just a short list of a few popular affiliate programs – there are many others you can look into. If you select higher-paying programs or sell more expensive products, you don’t need a lot of people to buy to make your first $1,000.

9. Sell digital or physical products or services

Once you have a robust following, consider creating an eCommerce platform within your blog. Sell products related to your blog or what your readers need. For example, if you are writing a fashion blog, consider creating your own line of loungewear that your audience can purchase. Think about a problem your audience may have and try to solve it by selling your own physical products.

Additionally, consider creating a paid-membership community or opportunity. If you have experiences or skills that could benefit others, create workshops or guides with all of your best advice and sell them to your audience. Consider packaging all of your strategies, tactics, and tutorials into an online course or digital product. Maybe you can host an online workshop to connect directly with your audience and help guide them in a specific aspect of their lives or professional careers.

The great thing about this avenue is that you don’t need a massive following to get this up and running – you can create physical or digital products or services from the get-go and sit back as you watch your channel grow.

10. Partner with brands

In addition to joining affiliate programs and selling your own products or services, successful bloggers frequently pitch directly to brands. But before you start aiming for brand partnerships, having a media kit prepared for the people and businesses you want to work with is a must.

Create a media kit

A media kit is a document that summarizes who you are and why the other party should work with you. It typically includes an intro about you, your mission, and your values, as well as details about who your audience is, with some key stats, if possible.

Perhaps, most importantly, it should include information about your blog traffic, social media following, email list size, and any other relevant (and impressive) details. These metrics will convince business owners to partner with you more than any introduction.

With Adobe Express, you can create a beautiful media kit within minutes, so you can show up to your next pitch prepared like the pro blogger you are. Tap this example to start browsing through media kit templates that you can easily customize to reflect you and your blog.

Partner directly with brands

Now that you’ve got a professional media kit in hand, it’s time to put it into action. You can start pitching brands to earn from sponsored posts, product reviews, and even long-term blog partnerships.

Compile a list of brands that you want to work with — specifically those that fit your niche — so you stay true to your brand and successfully convert as many readers as possible. Of course, be realistic about your prospects throughout this process. We recommend that you start writing to small businesses first, not pitching a Fortune 500 brand right off the bat.

Next, craft your sponsorship proposal. Be specific about what you’re offering and why they should work with you, and don’t forget to follow up. While we wouldn’t recommend focusing on costs until you’ve started chatting with the brand, make sure to have your base rates calculated and clearly provided for when you further the conversation.

When you start winning bids from brands and combine that income with your ad revenue and affiliate marketing commission, you could be making a large amount of money through your own freelance writing venture. Your new blog may even earn you sponsorship offers directly from brands as your audience grows! With our tips on how to make a living blogging — and some hard work on your part — you could be quitting your day job and focusing on your passion soon enough.

As you make your way toward a solid part-time or full-time income, don’t forget to continue nurturing relationships with your audience, as well as current and potential partners. Browse through more blogger templates on Adobe Express to create designs that help you to continue building your brand and engaging the people who matter most!

This blog post was updated on January 8, 2024.

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