How to Start a Blog and Make Money | Beginner's Guide

Did you know that 77% of internet users regularly read blog posts? That’s a lot of people! If you are someone who is in the beginning stages of learning how to start a blog then you’ve come to the right place!

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start a blog — https://jerrilynrene.com/start-a-blog/

People start blogging for all kinds of reasons. Personally, my reasons for blogging sparked from wanting financial freedom to live a life worth living, but most importantly to take care of my family.

I am the youngest in my family, a first-generation college graduate, and a full-time teacher. Needless to say, I chose a profession that while I enjoy doing it, doesn’t bring in nearly enough money to help my family in the way that I would like to.

So, I started this blog. More specifically, my goal was to learn how to start a blog and make money. There is a lot out there on the web on how to start a blog, but I find that it’s not super helpful in regard to making money while blogging.

This post is all about how to start a blog for free, how to start a blog for beginners, how to start a blog and make money, and how to start a blogging business.

What Do I Do First? | Start a Blog

1. Pick What You’re Going to Blog About

Let’s start with the facts. It takes an average of 3.5 hours to write a blog post, so think about that for a second. If you’re going to spend this much time doing something, you better enjoy doing it!

This isn’t to intimidate you by any means. Just keeping it real.

Blogging does take time to do, but it’s totally doable if you enjoy what you blog about and if your intentions for blogging are at the forefront.

My blog is about personal development (it’s fitting of my teaching background), apartment living (since I’ve been living in an apartment/on my own since I was 18), and how to start a blog (I’m simply documenting my process).

Am I an expert at these things? No. This is why I think it’s even more important for me to write about it because I’m just like you. I’m trying to figure it all out too.

2. Create an Account

You should go straight to WordPress.com to create your website account. It’s a no-brainer. 70 million new posts are published on WordPress each month. It’s also worth knowing that 34.5% of all websites are powered by WP.

WordPress is also FREE. Creating an account is just as easy as creating a Facebook or Twitter account. Literally!

Go to WordPress.com, follow the prompts, and BOOM you’re one step closer to learning how to start a blog for free.

3. Pick Your Website Name and Host

ty important. You need to go to Bluehost.com and signup for this to host your site. Hosting your site simply means making it live on the internet and to the public.

If you only have a WordPress account, you’ll be able to write posts, but with no website or anything to publish it on.

You need to do this immediately to claim the title/name of your website. If you’re trying to pick a name that someone else already has, it won’t let you do it, so get in there right away and pick your name.

The first year of hosting your site is FREE, but after the first year, it costs only $2.95/mo.

Hopefully, after a year of blogging, you make enough money to cover the $2.95, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Claim your site and domain here, before someone else takes your idea.

Let The Fun Begin | How to Start a Blog

4. Design and Customize Your Website

Here is the fun part! Yay! So you have a website now. Let’s make it yours!

This is the time for you to design your website!

Pick the colors
Get a theme
Choose your fonts,
and make it yours

This part of my process took me DAYS because I tried to do it all from scratch. I thought that maybe if I watched enough Youtube videos I could save myself some coins and do it myself.

Maybe you are a graphics designer and know your way around this stuff… I was not. I watched 30-minute videos over and over again trying to design it to my liking but it never looked the way I wanted it to. There was always something wrong.

All this to say if you want to go ahead and design it yourself, go for it! I initially used Elementor themes and designed it that way, but then I became super serious about blogging and realized that I’d be saving myself time and money in the long run if I just went ahead and purchased a theme.

17th Avenue - Feminine & Stylish WordPress Themes

I purchased this lovely theme you are reading on from 17thAvenueDesigns. What I absolutely LOVE about 17thAvenueDesigns is that you still have the option to save coins by using their super clear instructions on setting up and installing the theme yourself.

If you would like for someone to set up your site for you, 17thAvenueDesigns offers this service as well.

I’m currently using the Amelia Theme, but there are several options for you to use.

5. Create Content | Start a blog

65% of content creators say they have a documented content strategy. Now, in the beginning, it’s hard to know what your strategy should be.

No one tells you these things either. I started writing blog posts about things that I was currently doing like moving out of state.

It was my very first blog post. After moving out of state, I wrote a blog post about all of the first apartment essentials I needed.

While I had no idea what I was doing, those posts were actually pretty popular because so many people were also moving out of state and needed advice. Once I hit a roadblock, I decided that I need to actually figure this thing out so I began investing my time in blogging courses.

It sounds so weird for me to even say that because I WOULD NEVER spend my money on someone’s blogging course… like? No ma’am!

My thought was ‘I can just watch Youtube videos.’ But when I tell you that enrolling in these blogging courses COMPLETELY changed EVERYTHING for my blog and my confidence with this whole internet thing. I would not be this far in the game without those courses.

It taught me how to make money blogging, how to actually start blogging, and how to promote my blog to get more eyes on my material.

The trick is enrolling in the right courses! So many people are offering up their advice, but not everyone is worth listening to. I only took three courses. One was a bundle deal and the other was to help me learn how to monetize my blog.

Here are the blogging courses that turned my hobby into something that can potentially earn you a 6-figure income and helped me get to where I’m at today!

6. Legally Protect Your Blog

If you wish to actually make money blogging, it is so important for you to have legal documents running on your site. This part sounds way scarier than it actually is BECAUSE there is an extremely EASY way to get these legal documents.

Here are 3 extremely important legal pages you need for your blog.

I was introduced to this website called A Self Guru by the person whose blogging course I took. (Life-saver!)

Amira is a lawyer AND a blogger. This is someone who is literally on our side! There are so many bloggers in the world who are using Amira’s 3 Legal Pages you need in order to not get sued for blogging.

You can always hire your own lawyer and go over this stuff with them, but it’ll cost you a lot more money and time.

I would suggest starting with these 3 Legal Bundle Pages and going from there. At least you’ll be able to blog freely instantly!

Here are the 3 legal pages I used from Amira if you’re interested!

7. Publish & Promote | Start a blog

This is the order in which I did my blog. There is no right or wrong way to do things. Yes, I published content on my site before getting the legal documents, but I made sure to get those pages immediately after getting declined by Ad agencies and not knowing why.

My site was missing those key factors.

Now that I have the very basic necessities needed to run a blog, my main focus has been to create quality content, come up with a strategic plan, and focus on one platform at a time: Pinterest.

Click here to see what my goals were during my first month of blogging.

Closing

This is the basic process I went through with starting my blog. I am currently making $.14 per day (which is more than a lot of people start out with) doing this- remember I’m only in my second month of blogging seriously. I’m thinking of it as a hobby until it really gets going.

I know the potential that having a blogging business can bring and I am taking you on this journey with me.

This is completely organic and honest. Each month I will be writing about my goals for the month, my daily and weekly routines, and how much money I’ve made (because I am confident that I will turn this hobby into a strong business!).

Stay tuned if you’d like to see what I’m up to or how it’s going.

Here is my first month blogging monthly report.

If you have ANY advice, please feel free to leave a comment below to help me and anyone else who may be reading.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money | Beginner’s Guide