How to Start a Successful Money-Making Blog for Beginners!

A step-by-step guide for the beginner blogger (no experience needed!)

Are you thinking about starting a blog but don’t have any experience or have any clue where to start? I was just like you only a year ago. If I can do it, so can you! Let me teach you how!

*This post contains affiliate links. Using them may result in a commission for me at no increased cost for you.*

Can you Start a Blog?

A few months ago, our family started to struggle financially. I was often working 60 hours a week as a night shift intensive care nurse, while my husband worked a maintenance job, signing up for all of the overtime that he could. We budgeted, cut costs, managed our debt, and STILL felt like we weren’t making progress. I remember thinking “I need to be able to make money while I’m sleeping.”

So, I started looking into passive income options. Passive income is any income that can be made, well, while you’re sleeping.

There were many SO MANY OPTIONS. Investments, stocks, businesses…but they had a major problem in common. We had to invest a certain amount of money or there was a significant start-up cost…which we didn’t have.

I needed a profitable side hustle that would grant me some immediate passive income. And preferably something that I at least somewhat enjoyed.

The answer: BLOGGING.

I started reading story after story of bloggers who were making THOUSANDS a month. These weren’t “famous” YouTubers or influencers…they were people just like me writing things and sharing things online just like I could. And, in most cases, their blog income ended up completely replacing their career income. Many of these bloggers were moms, who then were given the option to stay at home with their families while still earning an income.

What was the catch? It was very little start-up cost and a chance to earn limitless income. I could do everything on my terms, create exactly what I wanted, and answer to no one but myself. I read blogs (just like this one!) and learned everything I could, then I just went for it. With very little money on the line, I felt like I had nothing to lose.

While the first few months were slow and I had moments of doubt, everything started happening all at once. We have been able to pay off debt, restore our savings, and actually afford Christmas gifts for our kids this year…all thanks to the gamble I made 6 months ago.

I promised myself that if I ever felt like I had figured something out in this blogging world, that I wanted to pass on what I knew to someone else just like me. I wanted to share the very basics that I needed to know to JUST GET STARTED, which was really the hardest step to take.

The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Profitable Blog (No Experience Required!)

1. Choose Your Niche

If you want to make money from your blog, you will want to make sure you choose a niche, or a topic/genre that can earn a profit!

Blogging for fun or for a narrative of your life is different than blogging for profit. Social media has taken the place of narrating our daily lives, so your blog can truly be about anything! However, you will want to choose a topic that you are somewhat knowledgeable about and have some interest in. This will be your income and could bring lots of opportunities for you in the future, so you don’t want to create a whole platform based on something you dislike.

The most popular blogs give something to the reader. Tutorials, inspiration, motivation, education, etc. It really it not a personal story about you unless it is to motivate, inspire, or relate to your reader.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Niche:

• Is this a topic I’m interested in?
• Is this a topic that can help or serve the reader in some way?
• Am I passionate about this topic (could I turn this into a future career?)?
• Is this something I know more about than the average person? Can I educate others?
• Is this topic a popular one that gets searched for often (i.e. makeup tutorials, budgeting advice, health and wellness, DIY, etc).
• What problems can I solve for potential readers?

Potential Blog Niches for You that May Be Profitable

• Home Organization
• Health and Wellness
• Finance
• Budgeting
• Food and recipes
• Parenting
• Travel
• DIY Projects
• Real Estate
• Beauty and Makeup
• Fashion
• Lifestyle
• Motherhood
• Home Renovation/home projects
• Business advice
• Gardening/agriculture/landscaping
• Homeschooling/education
• Gaming

2. Choose A Blog Name aka YOUR DOMAIN NAME

Honestly…don’t get hung up on this!

There are SOME CRAZY BLOG NAMES! And truly…not a lot of people pay attention to the name of the blog. They are reading your specific posts and want to make sure the set-up of your site is easy to read. The name isn’t a big deal, and if you end up hating it, you can always change it!

My only advice: TRY TO MAKE THIS SIMPLE. You want the spelling to be as standard as possible, the words to be simple, and the site name to be easy to remember.

When I came up with “Dust Less, Live More”, I wanted my readers to understand that they weren’t coming to read about everything that made me “perfect” and “put-together”, but rather all the hacks and time-savers I had learned to do so I could spend more time actually enjoying life rather than getting bogged down with “chores”.

If you are stuck, Bluehost lets you start your blog and choose your domain name later! This is an awesome feature!

3. Purchase a Web Hosting Plan

Before you start building a website for your blog, you need a web host. This is very important and truly the only “investment” (even though VERY affordable at only $2.95/month currently) you need to make to start your blog! Free IS NOT better in this case, as you don’t actually own your blog, therefore you cannot make money from these platforms.

A web host is basically your own little piece of the internet that you rent where you will build your blog. It truly is very affordable and very much worth the few bucks a month it takes to get started. Bluehost is the web host of choice, especially for new bloggers or business. It’s easy to use, affordable, and has FANTASTIC 24/7 customer support!

Right now if you sign up with Bluehost, you can SAVE 45% on the BASIC PLAN making it ONLY $2.95/MONTH! This includes 1 website, 10 GB SSD Storage and Chat support 24/7! PLUS a FREE DOMAIN YOUR FIRST YEAR!

What is WordPress?

IMPORTANT DISTINCTION: WE ARE DISCUSSING WORDPRESS.ORG NOT WORDPRESS.COM.

WordPress.org is a free software that you are able to install on your web host, which is all part of your plan with Bluehost. You just need to install WordPress!

WordPress is the software that you will actually be using to create the website that is visible to your readers! It is very user friendly, and there are so many great tutorials out there! The great part is that once you sign up with Bluehost, there is a great basic walkthrough so you can get a site up and running immediately!

4. Choose Your Blog’s Appearance

There are so many themes to choose from! My advice is to just stick with the very basic template that WordPress starts you out with and recommends at the beginning. These are so easy to change later! And truly, until you have a handful of posts…it’s difficult to get a feel for a good setup that works for your unique blog.

You can play with this as often as you want! There are PLENTY of FREE options. Once you become a more advanced blogger, you can even pay for templates! But again…it’s not worth it when you’re just starting out! Stick with the FREE!

5. Create the Basic Blog Pages

Before you GO LIVE with your website and start publishing posts, you need a few basic pages. Of course, you can always add more, but here’s a few to get you started. These will give you pages to navigate your readers around to so they can stay on track and organized.

Pages to Include

• Homepage: the first page of your site! Make a good first impression!
• About Me: tell your reader all about you! Who you are, why you’re here, and what they can expect from your site.
• Contact Me: how to get ahold of you and how to sign up for your email list
• Privacy Policy: WordPress offers a premade privacy policy template you can edit based on your niche topic!
• Disclaimer: this is a disclaimer page stating you are not legally responsible for anything you write or publish on your blog.
• Terms and Conditions: this lets your readers know how they are allowed to use and pay for your services.

6. Starting Writing and Publishing Posts

As discouraging as this sounds…your first few posts probably won’t get many views. THAT’S OKAY!

Just think of these as great practice! No blogger looks at their very first post and thinks that it was a masterpiece. You will learn along the way!

The most important thing is once your blog is live, to get posting and to “drive traffic” to your blog. This means…just get people to head to your site and look at it. In order for them to do that, you need posts to catch their attention.

7. Promote Your Blog and Drive Traffic

Once you have a few posts that you feel good about (at least five), start promoting your blog! Social media is a great way to do this: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.

As a blogger, your real best friend is going to be Pinterest. You will want to set up a Pinterest business account (free). While you can pay for ads, DO NOT! Stick with the free advertising for now!

You will use Canva to design your pins. Canva Basic is FREE.

When you’re ready, automated programs like Tailwind are available for a small monthly charge to help you create and automatically post pins. Honestly, this is one of my best investments and completely worth the $12.99/month in time I save manually creating and posting pins!

7. How to Make Money Blogging ASAP

Once your an established blogger with a TON of page views a month, you’ll be able to run ads on your page for a noticeable profit.

When you’re just starting out, however, most of your income from blogging will come from things like affiliate marketing. This is when you recommend a product that you love or that you believe will be useful to your readers and share your personal link with them. When your readers make a purchase using your link, you will receive a small commission at NO EXTRA COST to them!

Once you have a few posts, you can apply to different affiliate programs. Some have stricter requirements than others, so many sure you read their applications before applying! Here are my recommendations for brand new bloggers:

• Amazon affiliate program: they accept you almost instantly. You do have to make a certain number of sales in a specific time to maintain your affiliate status.
• Impact: this is a partnership management site that helps content creators (like bloggers!) and companies get connected. Most of the brands you know are included on here: Walmart, Old Navy, Target, Hello Fresh, various airlines, hotels, beauty brands, etc…

You can also sell your own products or services directly to your readers. These are things like eBooks, online courses, or printables. You’re essentially cutting out the third party selling!

Are You Ready to Start Your Blog?

You may be thinking “Can I actually do this?”

The answer is YES!

I new NOTHING about blogging when I started, and now I’m writing a how-to guide AND putting together MY OWN BLOGGING COURSE (COMING SOON!). A year ago, the thought of being a “blogger” wasn’t even on my radar, and now I’m teaching other people!

Where could you be in a year?

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