How To Start A Blog In 2023 And Make Money From It (Ultimate Beginner’s Guide)

In this blog post, I am going to share with you a step-by-step, easy guide on “how to start a blog and make money from it”. This article is going to have a personal touch as these are the exact steps I took when I first started on my blogging journey.

I am not a big-shot blogger yet but I aspire to be one someday.

You must be having second thoughts about starting on this journey. Some people are pretty nervous and question themselves “should I start a blog?” because let me tell you, creating an online presence is not an easy task. It takes a lot of effort, consistency, and patience.

But, believe me, it’s a beautiful journey. And, If I can do it, there’s no reason you can’t do it.

For everyone out there who dreams to be a successful blogger or successful in anything, I have a few lines from one of my favorite songs by The Script:

“Take that rage,

put it on a page,

take the page to the stage,

blow the roof off the place, oh yeah”

So, let’s get started on this guide on how to start a blog and make money from it in 6 easy steps.

Disclosure: Some links in this article are my affiliate links. If you buy any product through any of these links, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Such a commission helps me to stay motivated and produce more such content.

If you are ready to take the leap and start a blog, follow these 6 easy steps.

1) Pick a niche and your blog name

To begin your blogging journey, your first step is to choose a name for your blog and determine the niche you will be focusing on.

Think of your blog’s name as its unique identity, similar to how you are recognized by people around you.

When readers come across your blog’s name (e.g. yourblog.com), it should ideally reflect the broad subjects you plan to write about.

This can be your personal name, the name of your company, a creative wordplay, or something else that resonates with your brand.

The name of your blog will also determine your website’s domain name which I will come to in the next step.

Picking a specific niche is very important. You can’t be writing anything about everything. You need to find a topic that interests you and one you have a decent knowledge of.

Writing in a specific niche also helps Google to find out easily what your blog is actually about. This will further help you in ranking higher in the search results.

Examples of various niches can be travel, food, stock markets, SEO, earning money online, etc.

My niche is a combination of earning money online and blogging tips, SEO, etc. All these topics are interrelated and this way I can find more content ideas than just write about blogging tips.

For example, when I write about how to start a blog, I can also write about SEO techniques that one can use to rank their blog higher in the search results.

Here’s a worthy guide on choosing a profitable niche for your blog

2) Launch your blog online

The next step to start a blog is to get your website/blog online so that people can reach your content on Google and other search engines.

When you are looking to launch your blog online, you need two things – web hosting and a domain name.

I use Hostinger for powering my blog. I have been using it for a while now and it hasn’t disappointed me once!

There’s nothing more I could ask of a web hosting service.

Why Hostinger, you may ask?

And the best part? They’re offering up to 75% discount on their web hosting plans.

But wait, there’s more! I’ve got a special link that will fetch you an additional 20% discount on top of their already discounted prices (on 12-month, 24-month, or 48-month plans; not applicable on monthly plans).

Choosing your web hosting plan

Here’s a simple process for selecting your web hosting plan on Hostinger.

1. Click on the button below.

2. After clicking, you’ll be led to the Hostinger website. Choose your country from the list.

3. It is recommended that you go for WordPress Hosting as WordPress is undoubtedly the best content management system on the internet (more on WordPress later).

So click on WordPress from the menu (prices are the same)

4. And select the plan that suits you the best.

5. Click on Add to cart and choose a period (for availing the 20% discount, choose either 12, 24, or 48-month plan). Choose the 48-month plan if you want additional 2 months FREE (only in the US)

6. Create an account by providing an email or sign up through Google or Facebook

7. Fill in your country details and see that apart from the Plan Discount (company discount), an additional 20% referral discount is applied giving you an effective discount of 80%

Make the payment from the available payment methods.

After that, Hostinger will guide you through a super easy process of setting up your WordPress site.

Related: How much does it cost to start a blog in 2023?

Disclosure: Some links in this article are my affiliate links. If you buy any product through any of these links, I’ll get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Such a commission helps me to stay motivated and produce more such content.

Give your blog a name (domain name)

As mentioned above, your blog’s name will also determine the domain name. For example, my blog’s name is Infoverses and my domain name is infoverses.online.

A domain name will be your blog’s name in terms of a URL like yoursite.com.

Once you’ve made the payment on Hostinger, setting up your new website is a breeze. You’ll be guided through a straightforward process that is super easy to follow.

You will be given two options for a domain name –

• Either you can claim a domain name already owned by you

• Or you can get a new one FREE for one year with Hostinger (with 12, 24, or 48-month plans)

Bluehost as an alternative to Hostinger

The only other fitting alternative to Hostinger is Bluehost. Even WordPress recommends Bluehost.

Bluehost is the real deal when it comes to website hosting, with over 2 million websites around the world using their services. It’s hands down one of the best web hosting services out there, especially for newbies who are just starting out.

They make setting up your website a breeze, which is one of the reasons why they’re so well-liked. Plus, if you’re planning on using WordPress to develop your site, Bluehost is a no-brainer choice.

The only difference between Hostinger and Bluehost is that, for almost the same price (even lower), Hostinger provides a lifetime free SSL certificate, up to 100 websites, and of course, my special link will fetch you an extra 20% discount over and above the company discount.

3) Design your blog with a content management system

A content management system or CMP is basically a platform that will help you design your website or blog. You can try and test different looks and designs and choose the one that suits your preference and your blog niche.

WordPress as your content management system

Heard of WordPress enough times? In this section, I’ll throw some light on WordPress and why you should use WordPress for managing your blog. We’ll also see the basic things you need to do in order to set up your WordPress site.

Back when I was into graphic designing, I had a website to sell my services and a blog as well. It was designed and managed by Wix and I thought Wix was the ultimate CMS back then.

However, when I started this blog (Infoverses), I switched to WordPress for managing my website. And let me tell you, I wish I had chosen WordPress from the start. It has been a game-changer for me.

The level of flexibility, control, and customizability that WordPress offers is unmatched in the industry.

Famous websites like Forbes, TechCrunch, Microsoft News, TED Blog, etc. are designed and managed by WordPress.

Choosing a free theme for your WordPress website

As I said, when you complete your payment on Hostinger, you will be guided through an easy process to set up WordPress, and you will even be asked to choose a theme for your site.

I do not recommend using premium themes initially. Once your blog gets wings and you are making money from it, you can invest in a premium theme.

For now, we’ll work with free themes which are also very beautiful and efficient by the way.

If you skip choosing a theme in Hostinger’s process, here’s how you can easily do it.

Head to Appearance > Themes > Add new theme > Popular

Without giving it much thought, choose from these three free themes –

• Astra

• Hello Elementor

• Kadence

These 3 themes are best for free options and when your pocket allows, you can easily upgrade to their premium versions.

After choosing a theme, you can customize your theme to your liking.

9 Essential WordPress plugins you need to install on your new site

1. Rank Math SEO

The success of your blog relies on reaching a wider audience, and that’s where the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress comes in. It allows you to optimize crucial elements like blog post titles, descriptions, content length, and more across your entire blog.

By doing so, it enhances your visibility in search engine results. Yoast SEO is the leading and most trusted SEO plugin available, making it a must-have for your blog.

2. Site Kit by Google (Analytics Dashboard for WordPress)

Site Kit by Google is a free plugin that brings all your important Google data directly to your WordPress dashboard. With Site Kit, you can easily access Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google AdSense, and Google PageSpeed optimization data.

Simply connect the plugin to your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts, and you’ll be able to track visitor data, engagement metrics, and popular blog posts without leaving your WordPress dashboard.

3. Easy Table of Contents

If you want a table of contents at the beginning of your blog posts (like the one in this post), the Easy Table of Contents WordPress plugin is a no-brainer choice.

If your readers want to read a particular part of your post, they can easily skip to it without having to read the entire piece. It also improves your site’s SEO

4. UpdraftPlus

Imagine you wake up one day and find your site attacked by hackers and all your data is lost. I don’t even want to imagine!

That’s why it’s important to back up your site data regularly. UpdraftPlus is the most popular WordPress plugin that allows you to back up your data. You can even set frequencies for automatic backups.

5. Lightweight Accordion

If you want to have the small collapsible boxes present throughout this post and at the end in the FAQ section, then install the Lightweight Accordion plugin.

It’s super easy to create these boxes with this plugin. These boxes can also help your site’s SEO making it likely that you might appear in the People Also Ask section of Google searches.

6. Shared Counts

If you want your blog posts to go viral and be shared on social media, then this plugin is the best option for you. It puts social share buttons at your desired places in your blog posts so that people can share them.

7. Bunny CDN

When it comes to speed, Bunny.net offers an excellent WordPress plugin-based CDN that ensures lightning-fast loading of images and other static elements on your blog.

8. Smush

Smush is a WordPress plugin specifically designed to automatically optimize and compress images as you upload them to your blog posts without compromising their quality.

By utilizing Smush, you can significantly save storage space on your web server while simultaneously enhancing your website’s performance.

9. Simple Author Box

It’s a user-friendly and stylish solution for showcasing author info. You can customize it to display names, bios, social media links, and even profile pics. With this plugin, you’ll make your content more credible, engaging readers and building trust.

Learning WordPress requires a whole other blog post. But, trust me, when I started WordPress, I didn’t know a thing about it. I watched YouTube videos and learned everything and surprisingly, my website/blog was ready in 3 days (the basic design). It’s that simple.

Hurray! Your blog or website is ready!

Now, all it needs is some really informative and valuable content.

4) Write your first blog post

A blog is not read because it is attractive or updated frequently (though they both assist).

What really matters is the content that grabs your attention and keeps you coming back for more. Valuable content is the secret sauce that can turn your blog into a money-making machine.

Now, here’s the thing: pumping out a ton of low-value posts won’t do you any favors. Copy-pasting stuff from other sites? Nope, not gonna cut it.

Quality trumps quantity, my friend. Believe it or not, some top bloggers only write one killer post a week and still rake in massive traffic.

So, if you want readers hooked and begging for more, serve them up with some seriously helpful and high-quality content.

Remember, Content is King!

Now in order to write your first blog post, I would like to re-emphasize the importance of choosing a niche. Your niche will decide what your first (and subsequent) posts will be about.

Here are a few questions you can yourself to decide on your blog’s niche:

• Do you have any hobbies or hobbies that you want to learn?

• What is the one thing that you have the most knowledge of?

• What would you love to share with people?

• What do you think is interesting for both you and the people who are going to read your posts?

Now, you also need to make sure that in order to make money, you need to select a niche that people are really searching for on search engines.

You cannot expect to earn a lot of money writing about how to repair a roof.

Here are some profitable niches you can choose in 2023:

• Digital Marketing

• Blogging and making money online

• Health and Fitness

• Personal finance and investing

• Recipes and food

• Personal development and Self-care

• Travel

After choosing your niche, you need to find a particular topic in your niche to write your blog post on.

Deciding on the topic of your post

To decide on a blog post topic, without giving much thought, simply head to ChatGPT.

And type in this prompt > Suggest 10 blog post ideas for the “your niche” category

You will easily find interesting topics to write about.

You can also find blog topics through keyword research

Keyword research is the process of finding keywords that people are searching for on search engines. You need to incorporate these keywords in your blog posts to rank them higher on search engines.

It wouldn’t make sense to write about the keyword research process in this post. So I have a separate blog post which is the ultimate guide to keyword research (bookmark for later).

I highly recommend checking it out when you know how to start a blog.

Some basic tips for writing a post

Recommended read: How To Write A Blog Post That Actually Gets Traffic

Creating a new post in WordPress

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Posts > Add new

On the next window, you’ll see a space called the Gutenberg editor. Here you will write your actual post. Give a title to your post and start writing your wonderful post.

5) Promote your blog – The most important step

What do you do once you’ve hit publish on your first blog post? It’s time to learn how to promote your blog content.

Spend more time promoting your content than writing it if you want to start a profitable blog.

Here are the top ways to promote your blog.

Social Media

Social media is a beginner blogger’s best friend!

Creating a strong online social presence will go on to help you a lot in the long run. Most bloggers drive the majority of their traffic from their social media handles. And that includes me!

The majority of traffic to my blog comes from Twitter.

You can also create a page on Facebook and promote it. Provide quality content to the members of your page so that they start to trust you and share your posts externally out of Facebook.

Pinterest is a hidden gem if you are a blogger writing about graphic designing, food and recipes, gardening, arts, etc. The best thing about Pinterest is that it only allows you to post images (really attractive ones).

Forums

Forums and message boards are another smart way to promote your content. There are many forums like Reddit, WordPress forum, and a lot of others on the internet. You can easily find good forums.

Get in the mix and engage in lively discussions on forums like a true champ. Remember, it’s all about giving more than you take. Don’t treat a forum as a dumping ground for your affiliate links or blog post promotions.

Show some love by providing valuable insights and helpful tips to your fellow members. Earn their trust and respect first before you even think about asking for anything in return.

A good example of a forum can also be Facebook pages. Join Facebook pages related to your niche which have 5k+ members. Post valuable content there and interact with the members.

Remember, no one trusts a spammer. A spammer can easily be detected.

Email newsletter

I regret not starting an email list sooner! Your email list subscribers are your most loyal audience. no one signs up for emails that they don’t wanna see.

You can send updates about your new blog posts through your email newsletter.

I use MailerLite for building and managing my email list. They have a FREE plan that offers so many features and flexibility that you won’t need to pay for an email list for at least a year or two.

Guest blogging

Guest blogging is another popular way to promote your blog. Usually, it is used to build backlinks to your website but it can also generate traffic for your website if you manage to publish guest posts on popular websites.

Recommended: 10 Best Content Syndication Platforms In 2023

6) Make money with your wonderful blog

Okay! Now the wait is over. We learned how to start a blog. Now, it’s time we talk numbers.

Most of you are here to know how to start a blog and eventually make money from it.

There are a plethora of ways you can start to make money from your blog.

Let’s get to each of them one by one!

Affiliate Marketing

Suppose you have a website where you post content. In affiliate marketing, you promote a product or service to your website visitors and when they purchase from any of your affiliate links in your content, you get a commission from the owner of the product or service.

As a beginner, after you start a blog, you will want to look for brands that accept your affiliate proposal without any review. Big brands don’t trust beginners as they don’t have the kind of promotional resources such brands are looking for.

There are certain big brands like Bluehost, Godaddy, Namecheap, SSLs.com, and NordVPN that accept applications immediately without any assessment. But, you will need to fulfill one condition, which is having a website. Boom! you have it now.

Amazon affiliate is also a very common and popular affiliate program for Amazon products.

Here are some extremely useful resources related to affiliate marketing

• How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money In 2023

• 63 Best Affiliate Programs of 2023 (High Paying)

• 16 Best Travel Affiliate Programs Of 2023 (High Paying)

• 10 Best Affiliate Programs for Beginners To Make Money (No Approval Required)

• The 8 Best Pay-Per-Lead Affiliate Programs (6th Is The Best)

• The Best Autoresponder For Affiliate Marketing – 2023

• 10 Best Affiliate Marketing Tools For Bloggers

• 20 Tips To Increase Your Affiliate Sales (Always Works)

Ad Banner Advertisements

If you want to make some cash from your website, you can put some code on there and get those sweet network ads up and running. Google Adsense and Media.net are the most popular ad networks to put ads on your site about what your visitors have been searching for.

These ad networks will pay you based on either impressions (per 1,000 views) or every time someone clicks on an ad (that’s called cost per click, or CPC).

But hold up, let’s keep it real. While ads are a popular way to make money from your website, they might not be the most effective, in my humble opinion. Oh, and here’s a heads-up: these ad platforms won’t give you the green light if you’re a total newbie.

Most of these platforms will want to see at least 100 visitors per day on your blog before they approve your account.

Welcome Guest Posts

If you go to a website and ask the owner if you can write a post on their website, there are good chances that they will let you do it for a fee. Sometimes, people may even let you do it for free as it is a win-win situation.

They get more content on their website, perhaps about a topic they don’t have knowledge of but is very useful to their audience. On the other hand, the person writing the post gets to leave links to his or her site, known as backlinks which will increase their website’s authority. This is known as guest posting.

Guest posting is gaining immense popularity nowadays when it comes to earning money from a website.

Similarly, you can welcome guest posts from other people and ask them for a fee for doing so. This will provide your site with good quality content and increase your visitors, hence more ad revenue or affiliated revenue.

For this to happen, your blog needs to be popular and worth writing a guest post for!

Create And Sell Online Courses

Creating and selling online courses is another lucrative approach to monetizing a site that has fewer than 1,000 visits per day. To profit from your first online course, you don’t need many leads or clients.

Here’s the trick: start small and work your way up.

Find out exactly what your blog’s viewers desire if it gets at least 50 visitors per day, then build a course around that. In actuality, your first course might not be all that “amazing,” but that’s alright.

One can always get better. It’s time to stop making excuses and get going.

Online courses are narrowly focused on a certain topic or subject. They are prepared for action and well-organized.

The course can be added to Udemy to reach a larger audience, or it can be automatically distributed via your email newsletter to individuals who have subscribed using their email addresses.

Furthermore, it is not necessary to provide paid courses. You can also provide free courses so that the value factor increases even more.

When you have a free course on your website, you will get even more visitors than before, and your earnings through affiliate products and ads will increase exponentially.

Sell Digital Products

Digital products like podcasts, eBooks, printables, graphics, and templates can all help you generate recurring passive money from your website.

Selling digital products is a really effective way to monetize a website in terms of the potential amount of revenue you can earn.

A 5,000-word eBook may cost roughly $2.99; while this may not seem like much, 20 sales of eBooks per month add up quickly.

Sell Physical Products

Make use of your website as a platform to sell your own tangible goods as well. For instance, you may design mugs or t-shirts with your site’s branding on them if you think customers will buy them.

Additionally, you can make handmade goods to sell on eBay or other online marketplaces like Etsy.

You’ll immediately have an advantage over other platform vendors if you link to the marketplace from your website, regardless of where you’re selling.

Donations

Add a straightforward PayPal donation button to your website and request that visitors who value your material contribute a few bucks—the price of a coffee. 

Some of the most popular websites, like your friend and mine, Wikipedia, are supported entirely or primarily by donations.

In the end, you won’t get what you don’t ask for.

Sponsored Content

An effective method to generate income from your blog is by incorporating sponsored content. However, attracting sponsors requires the establishment of a well-recognized blog.

The main challenge lies in finding suitable sponsors.

On the positive side, you have the freedom to select your collaborators and set your own rates.

Creating an advertising page that showcases your rates for banners and sponsored content is a great starting point.

Additionally, it is essential to develop a media kit to share with potential sponsors. This kit should contain information about your blog’s traffic, social media following, email list, demographics, target audience, and more.

Sell your Website (Flipping)

Once you have a website that’s already monetized and receiving good levels of traffic, you’ll have an asset.

As with any asset, your website can be sold and, when the time is right, websites like Flippa and the aptly named BusinessesForSale.com are there to help you find a buyer.

It may not be a way to earn money from a website as you will be selling the website, but it has the potential for huge profits.

I sold my graphic designing website for $150 (not a lot of amount as the website had no traffic). I had hardly spent $25 on the website.

People have reported selling their websites for thousands of dollars, some even millions!

Expect to earn two to three times your website’s annual profit if you decide to sell.

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Ready to start your blog?

Are you ready to take the leap to learn to start a blog and make money from it starting today? Tell me in the comments below!

And don’t forget to grab the extra 20% discount besides up to 75% company discount on Hostinger with my special link below!!

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How to start a blog and make money: Final takeaway for beginners

Growing a successful blog ultimately comes down to being enthusiastic and involved with your new site. Give readers a cause to read your writing if you want them to do so.

Connect with others in your niche, create engaging material, and aggressively promote what you’re working on.

Everything else, including traffic and revenue, will come after.

The decision to create a blog has been one of the most empowering and life-changing ones I’ve ever made, which is why I wrote this guide.

And I also hope that you now have the self-assurance to start your own blog and that the answer to the question “How to start a blog and make money from it?” is delivered.

Quick summary of how to start a blog and make money from it in 2023

To sum things up, you need to:

• Pick a niche and your blog name

• Launch your blog online (web hosting and domain name)

• Design your blog with a content management system like WordPress

• Write your first post

• Promote your blog

• Make money from your blog

These are the exact steps you need to follow in order to start your blog and make money from it starting today!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section or ping me at [email protected]

I promise I will respond soon!

And finally, if you found this post helpful, consider sharing it on your social media and make my countless hours more meaningful!