Today we’re explaining how to start a blog and get paid for it. When I tell people I own a content website, one of the most-asked first questions is, ‘can a blog make you money?’ Yes, of course, it can, but you have to do it right, and it has to be more than a blog.
Blogs that make money are the ones that have high-quality content and clear goals. It’s not easy to make money blogging, but many before you have done it; Me included, which is why I’m sharing these tips today.
Whether it’s a business strategy blog or a mommy blog on cooking tips, you must ensure that your content is good. It must be well written, free of grammar mistakes, and have a unique angle. The angle is the hard one because that’s where you have to get creative.
Do you have a new way to present information excitingly? Or do you have information that nobody else does? You may already be an experienced creative who can make unmatched video explainers or ebooks that people will love sharing.
So, the goal is to have or do something different, preferably better, than the others.
How to start a blogging business
This is the part that cannot be easier – starting an online blog can take you less than 5 minutes. Of course, it will not do much for you if you don’t write and promote your content, but you will have your website up and running in no time.
The first step is to choose the right blogging platform. There are many platforms, but I’d like to narrow it down to three – WordPress, Wix, and Weebly. I am only mentioning these three platforms because I have experience with them. All are beginner-friendly and SEO (search engine optimization) optimized.
You will find anything you need for blogging on one of those three platforms, but keep in mind that WordPress is the only fully customizable one.
If you aim to start a simple blog where you can share your thoughts with simple contact, about, and a couple of other pages, any of these will suffice. WordPress, complex as it is, may even be overkill if you only have twenty articles.
Weebly is fast, easy, and even has a drag-and-drop builder and mobile app. So it’s an excellent option for someone who is not interested in the code and maintenance but only the blogging and marketing part.
More about WordPress
WordPress is a perfect choice for a blog planning to run ads, affiliate programs, quizzes, polls, and maybe even sell something. With over 1 million active plugins that you can quickly implement into your website, it’s no wonder WordPress powers over 30% of the world’s websites.
This also comes in handy when you hit an obstacle, and there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people who had the same problem before. Finding an answer to your problem is often a Google search away.
We have to share one tip – use the WordPress plugin sparingly. Use only the plugins that you need and use, and delete all the inactive plugins. WordPress plugins often have poorly-optimized code you won’t even use that will unnecessarily slow down your website.
Before installing a plugin, ask yourself if you really need that functionality on your website and if the plugin is the best way to implement it. There have been cases where I have replaced the plugin with two lines of code.
If you know how or have a friend that does, you can, more often than not, implement these features yourself. When you’re deciding on a plugin, make sure to find one that’s regularly updated and from a reputable developer.
When you have decided on the platform you will use to start your blog, the next step is creating a brand and getting hosting and a targeted domain name.
We have always used and recommended Namecheap for our domains, and you can even use its hosting if needed. They are stable, reliable, and won’t jack up the prices after the first year ends. GoDaddy, I’m looking at you.
If you’re after high-performance premium hosting, it’s hard to match WP Engine‘s services. They offer the fastest and most reliable WordPress hosting, with some of the most secure protocols. In addition, if you get their annual plan, you can get three months free, and they offer 60-day money back guarantee.
Although WP Engine’s services are hard to match, there is another hosting that manages to come close – Pressable. Some even dare to call it better. It is made by WordPress professionals and guarantees 100% uptime (yes, they mention on their website that 99% is not enough).
Comparing the two hostings’ speed and performance is problematic, as many factors can affect it. What I can tell you from using both, the differences are not drastic, and they are both excellent. You will not go wrong if you pick between WP Engine and Pressable.
Pressable charges a fee per 12,000 visits, so in the end, WP Engine’s overage fees end up being higher. If you regularly need more resources, it is also cheaper to upgrade.
Our recommendation as a cheaper alternative for hosting is to use Mocha Host, which also offers a site builder, 24/7 support, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and a 100% uptime guarantee. In addition, prices are only $1.95 per month.
When it comes to hosting, what you pay is what you get. Depending on your needs and the traffic you plan to generate, decide on the best platform.
Know that a $2 server will never perform like a $50 server. You don’t need a $50 server for a simple blog, but the $2 one might need to be stronger for a good user experience. We gave you one option in each tier, so choose wisely.
Is it too late to start a blog today?
It is not, but it’s much harder than it was in the past. Back in the day, you could have spammed the whole post with keywords and still ranked high on Google.
Nowadays, robots are intelligent as us, if not more competent, and SEO has become more complex. For example, the engine can read through your text and determine if the writing is good. It can compare your content against millions of other pages in your niche and determine if plagiarism is involved.
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Google knows if the visitors to your website have enjoyed the content or bounced to another site immediately. You can’t cheat the system.
The only way to good rankings is to tell good stories and have high-quality content, leading to targeted consumers, who will then share that content further.
So, how to make money then?
You will get paid for bringing as many people who want to read your content to the website and then showing them ads or recommending products with affiliate links.
If you’re unsure what I’m talking about, don’t worry; we’ll explain it in the following few paragraphs. Let’s begin with advertising.
Ad provider companies like Google’s AdSense or Ezoic will pay you to show their ads on your website. They will pay you a small amount if someone clicks an ad through your blog. This can become a nice payday when you reach a more significant number of daily users.
AdSense is good for the beginning but later, move to other networks as you scale to get paid more. With over 10,000 daily views, AdSense doesn’t pay as much.
Suppose you have got ways to find some clients. In that case, you could show traditional banners on your website without using any third-party ad provider company. You will have complete control over the ads you show, and they can all be perfectly implemented into your website’s style guidelines.
With AdSense or Ezoic, as much as they try to narrow their targeting, you never know which ad your user will end up seeing.
What is affiliate marketing, and how does it work?
The other thing I mentioned is affiliate product links. This is even easier than showing ads.
Find the products you like that fit your website’s content, and recommend them to your readers. You will get a small commission if your readers decide to buy that product. Of course, like ads, you must have many people read your posts daily to make them worthwhile, but it can be lucrative.
Make sure to only recommend good products that your readers will be satisfied with (to your knowledge, at least). Otherwise, you might divert people from trusting you in the future.
Many affiliate programs exist, but my favorites are Amazon for physical products and ShareASale for digital products and subscriptions.
Amazon’s commission ranges from 3% to 10% for sales, while ShareASale has some high-paying programs that pay over 25%. ShareASale even offers recurring payments if those users keep renewing their subscriptions. That means you can get paid years from now for a post you write today.
As you can imagine, you have to sell a bunch of $100 products with a 5% commission to make the real dough, so make sure to grow your list and find more and more people to reach.
ShareASale has higher commissions than Amazon, meaning you will earn more. In addition to physical products, they also have a range of digital products you can promote and expand your sales channels.
If you want to try ShareASale and share their product links through your website, you can do so by clicking below:
To grow your reach, find a new audience, and build your newsletter, it would be best if you used some marketing tools, so let’s get on it.
Best tools to improve your website
One of the tools you can use to further improve the user experience is the live chat option. Users love it when they can contact you on a whim and get the information they want. It’s a great way to build and grow connections and increase the perceived value of your brand.
LiveChat is one of the best tools for the task we use on every website that needs live customer support.
You have to decide if you want live chat support on your blog. Suppose you are selling your own products through the website. In that case, it’s always best to be available to your potential customers 24/7/365, and LiveChat offers just that.
It allows you to use predefined templates and flows by answering any pre-answered questions your buyers might have before connecting them to you.
Next, make sure to use a caching plugin. Caching is a critical plugin for WordPress as its complex technology ensures your website runs really fast. We recommend you use WP Rocket if you’re after a premium, paid plugin or WP Super Cache if you want a free version. Both will do the job right, although WP Rocket, officially the number #1 plugin for WordPress on the market, will do a bit better.
As for other essential tools, we recommend you install several plugins:
- SEO plugin (Yoast),
- image compression tool (TinyPNG),
- marketing forms and integrations (HubSpot, MailChimp),
- spell-checking and grammar tools (Grammarly, Linguix)
You can do your own research on competitors and choose which products you like most. Still, we wanted to give you recommendations from our experience. All these plugins can be free versions and work well enough.
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Don’t forget about the personal about me page
This is the first page visitors will read when they want to learn more about you, your mission, and your vision. This page serves one purpose – to show the world who you are and why they should give you their time.
Make sure to create a friendly ‘About’ page to deepen the connection with your readers and create loyal consumers. Look at it as your journal, and try to spill as more as possible about yourself. If you want to know more, check out our guide on how to write an ‘About Me’ page for a blog for simple tips.
The finish line
So, this is how you start a blog and make money.
Create a nice website, fill it with attention-grabbing content, and promote the hell out of it. If it’s not going for you immediately, don’t let your emotions get in the way. Become a better writer and communicator, and your readers will appreciate it.
Keep going and ensure you are productive – this is a business that takes time. Yet, starting a blog and getting paid for it has always been challenging but never more accessible than today. When you grow your business, because you won’t give up, enjoy the moment to reap the rewards. Rinse and repeat.
Can a blog make you money? Hell yes.
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