How to Start a Blog That Makes Money

The idea of making money blogging has transitioned from being impossible to being a fairly common career option for digital nomads all around the world. A blog allows you to share your ideas with the world and provide a unique perspective on a specific topic. 

Whether you choose to write a blog that educates, informs, or entertains, running a blog can be incredibly satisfying—and lucrative! Of course, there are a few steps between you and running a six-figure blog.

In this article, we will explore how to get yours started.

Step 1: Choose a Great Niche

At the heart of every blog is a dedicated niche. Without a clearly defined niche, you will struggle to find dedicated readers because your audience won’t know what to expect from you.

This will make them less likely to follow up on your future posts. Your niche is the theme or topic that you will focus on in your content. While you might vary your topics from time to time—and you should—you still need a specific point of focus for your content.

Modern Content Niches Include:

• Interior Design
• Marketing
• Social Media
• Health and Wellness
• Fitness
• Writing

Step 2: Find the Perfect Name

Every great blog has a catchy name that speaks to its audience. Whether you choose a single iconic word, or you rely on a powerful phrase, make it count.

Your blog’s name is going to be used anytime that you are promoting content, or even when others speak about it. Try to find a name that is clear, easy to remember, and carries some relation to the niche that you choose.

When choosing a name, always be sure to consider the tone of the blog. Your blog’s name should without question be appropriate for the presence of your brand. 

If you are presenting professional information on a law, you will want a name that is serious and concise to suit that need. However, if your blog is more casual or bold, you might choose a name that is fun or even likely to create a fair bit of controversy.

Once you choose your name, you will be stuck with it unless you decide to rebrand, so make sure that you find the one.

Step 3: Choose a Web Host

To have a successful blog, you will need an online space for your audience to visit. This is where a web host comes in. A web host provides a website with its own space online.

Your web host will be responsible for influencing your website speed, up-time, and can offer you a long list of additional benefits as well. Finding a web host that meets your needs is very important for this reason.

One of the most popular web hosts for bloggers around the world is Bluehost. To secure your online space, you can sign up on their website by selecting a package, choosing a domain name, and providing your website and payment details. 

Step 4: Build Your Website

Web design is a valuable skill that more people are picking up on a daily basis. Creating your own website can be exciting, and it grants you complete control over how your content looks and functions.

While you can certainly hire someone to design a website for you, you can also design one yourself by using a website builder. These powerful tools are easy to use, and they grant you the ability to create a website that is perfectly tailored to your vision in particular.

In the same way that you want to consider tone while choosing a name, you will want to think of your brand while designing your website. Make sure that your website uses appealing colors, offers easy navigation, and has plenty of high-quality pictures or graphics.

Your website should look completely professional, which website builders can help with. You truly don’t need coding experience to make a beautiful website in this day and age.

Step 5: Make a Content Strategy

In order to be successful with your blog, you will need to have a content strategy to go with it. A content strategy is a dedicated plan that governs how you will manage your content. 

Your content strategy will address the kind of topics that you intend to focus on within your niche and the schedule that you will follow when posting.

Scheduling is a very important part of your strategy because it will help to establish your relationship with your audience. All great content creators post on a specific schedule.

This allows your audience to seek out your content because it will be reliable and guaranteed. If they know when you post, they will know to check back in, which will offer them a chance to become a regular reader.

More importantly, consistently posting will help you to produce more content, which means that you will be more likely to attract new readers and rank higher in search engines.

Step 6: Start Blogging

After you have your blog set up and your strategy mapped out, it is time to start generating content. Writing your blog posts is an exciting step to take, and it can be beneficial to write out a few when you get started.

By doing this, you will be able to provide your initial readers with more content, even on day one. You don’t need to fill your website, but having more than one post uploaded at launch will give your first readers a reason to be more interested in your website as a whole.

Your writing process can be broke down into three easy steps.

Brainstorming

The brainstorming process is always fun and will help you to build excitement about your new blog. Sit down and come up with different blog post ideas. While doing this, it really helps to just be as creative as possible.

Even if you don’t use them all, you might find that they inspire more content later. You want a combination of individual posts and posts that relate to one another in a series. The more that you can intertwine your content, the better.

Outlining

After you know what you want to write about, it is time to make a plan. For the best possible content, you want to write with intent. Having an outline can help you to keep your blog post focused on the topic and goal the entire way so you never lose your meaning.

Your audience will appreciate the flow and clarity of your posts, and it will make your drafting process much easier. 

Posting

After the content is ready to go, you can post it. Keep in mind that you might benefit from using certain keywords or adding certain formatting to make your blog posts shine.

Use high-quality images and be sure to preview the content before you let it go live. 

Step 7: Share & Promote Your Blog

When you post your blog, it will be on your website—but it shouldn’t only be there. If you want to grow organic traffic and reach a wider audience, it can be helpful to focus on promotion.

Promoting your blog will help you to get it in front of more people, which means that they will be more likely to regularly check out your content. You can promote blog posts in a few easy ways.

Social Media

Social media is an effective—and free—promotional tool that can help you to connect with your audience. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter can be great for sharing your content in a simple way.

Even better, you can build a following in those places and connect with others in your niche, both of which can give your blog a performance boost.

Ads

Ad space is always an option, even on social media. For a small fee, you can promote your content to your preferred audience and reach people all across the internet.

This is an effective way to really boost your numbers. 

Word of Mouth

Too often, we are afraid to share our passions and successes with those around us. If you are running a blog with a goal to monetize, you should be proud! It takes a lot of hard work and it can be intimidating to share your voice with the world.

Those closest to you can be so helpful for sharing the content as well. Let your friends and family know what you are up to so they can promote you too. Don’t underestimate the power of that one distant aunt or friend from high school!

Step 8: Pursue Revenue Streams

Making money should never be the sole purpose of running a blog, but we can all agree that it is a fairly enticing goal. Your blog will not generate money on its own completely, but with the right revenue streams, your blog can pay in several big ways. 

There are plenty of bloggers that make six-figure incomes from their blogs—and some even make more!

Affiliate Marketing

One simple and effective way to monetize a blog is the use of affiliate links. Affiliate marketing has been around for a good long while and focuses on using your blog to share someone else’s products or services.

An affiliate link is a special link that you can place in your posts directing your audience to another company’s site. When the individual uses the link, or when they invest in one of the services, you will receive a payout from the company.

Products and Services

No rule says making money on a blog has to be limited exclusively to content creation. You can use your blog to entice your audience to invest in your products or services as well.

Modern bloggers are known to sell various kinds of goodies to their audience, and it can bring a big income boost. Since your audience already likes your content, you can safely assume that they will be interested in any related products or services.

Bloggers make money selling a long list of helpful goods. Some bloggers sell books or classes where they teach about their topic—or even how to succeed in blogging.

Others prefer to sell retreats or physical items related to their niche. For example, a camping blogger might sell anything from waterproof stickers to customizable tent storage.

To find the best offerings, consider what your audience would be interested in. Running a successful blog is also a great way to build credibility in the world of writing, which means you can work as a freelance writer on the side as well!

Selling Ad Space

Plenty of blogs bring in a regular income by offering ad space on their blogs. If you have a blog with a lot of traffic, chances are that others in related industries might want to reach the audience that you have already established.

Ads can pay out simply for being presented, or they can offer more when visitors to your blog follow the links to those other websites.

Multimedia Ventures

Every day, more bloggers are entering additional creative spaces to create a strong brand and reach other advertising opportunities. You might benefit from condensing your blog posts into Instagram Reels or TikToks.

Succeeding in these spaces can help you to reach interested sponsors who might want to work with you and can offer monetary benefits.

Promotional Posts

When you run a blog with a lot of traffic, people generally pay attention. Promotional posts allow you to leverage this for your benefit. You might be paid to talk about a specific product or service that fits within your niche, which can be very exciting.

The bigger your audience is, the more likely you are to land big brands that want you to promote them.

Conclusion

There is a lot of work that goes into running a truly successful and lucrative blog, but it is far from impossible. With the right strategy and a lot of commitment, you can find your audience and share your voice in a way that allows you to build your income with time.

You never know what blog post will go viral next, so do what you can to make sure that it is one of yours.  You will love the outcome!