How to start a blog in 2020 and make money
How to Start a Blog in 2020 (and Make Money): Easy Guide to Start Blogging Today
If you’re looking for an easy, step-by-step guide to learn how to start a blog and make money from it, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been blogging for 10+ years and I’m here to show you the most simple way to get started.
You’ll learn how to start a blog today in 8 easy steps that’ll take about 10 to 15 minutes.
How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 8 Easy Steps
Follow these 8 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:
- Pick your blog’s name and niche
- Get your blog online (web hosting)
- Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
- Write your first blog post
- Promote your blog and make money
- Develop a successful blog content strategy
- Commit to a regular publishing schedule on your blog
- Use free photos and designs to make your blog posts stand out
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. When you purchase hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link, they compensate me, which helps make this guide free of charge to you. Know that I only recommend products and services I’ve personally used and stand behind.
Follow these 8 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:
If you’re ready to take the leap and learn how to start a blog that can grow into a source of real online income, then let’s dive in.
1. Pick your blog’s name and niche
First, it’s time to pick a name and niche for your new blog.
The name of your blog is what readers will see first (like yourblog.com), so it should ideally represent either the general topics you’ll be writing about—or it could be your own name, that of your business, a clever combination of words, or otherwise.
Your blog’s niche is the general topic area that you’ll be focusing your content around. Examples include topics like travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and otherwise. Incorporating a word or two that clearly signals what your content is about, within the name of your blog (like fashionbyjane.com or watchryanhike.com)—will be very helpful for your future blog readers.
2. Get your blog online (web hosting)
The second step in starting a blog, is actually getting your blog online. That’s what a web hosting company will do for you. In this step, you’ll be selecting the blogging platform and web hosting plan you’ll use to get your blog online.The combination of blogging platform & web hosting I personally use (and that most other bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost. WordPress is a free publishing platform that’s been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet. Bluehost is one of the most established, reliable companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we’ll be using to start your blog. Now, let’s get your hosting set up.
Choose your plan
First, you’ll select a hosting plan (inputting your blog name comes next). Personally, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus planbecause it comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number and home address) from being published anywhere online.
Choosing your plan will look like this right here. Just click the green “Select” button on your plan of choice:
As I said above, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you’re getting the Domain Privacy feature that’ll protect your personal information online, but any of these plans will do as you’re starting your blog—and you can add the domain privacy in later during the checkout process for around $1/month.
Pick your blog’s domain name
Next, you’ll get to the page where it’s time to choose your blog’s domain name:
Once you get to this step in the checkout process, just type in the name of the domain name that you’d like your blog to have (mine is ryrob.com).
If you want to run a quick search to see if your domain name is available, you can do it quickly right here:
If your domain name of choice isn’t available, you can either try another option that comes to mind—or (what I recommend) select the option to choose your domain name laterafter getting the rest of your account squared away and taking a little more time to think the name through. Plus, later on down in this guide, I expand some more on how to choose the right name for your blog if you’re not decided yet.
Here’s where you can click to choose your domain later (it’s a popup that will appear if you hover on this page for long enough or move your mouse up toward the top of the page):
3. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
Now that we’ve gotten through the crucial setup phase of starting a blog, it’s time to have a little more fun.
Designing your WordPress blog is when you might start to feel a little friction with this process though (if you’ve never worked on a blog before), but I promise this won’t get too technical.
Plus… the last thing I want is for the very minor technical side of starting a blog to derail your progress today. That’s why, in my free course How to Build a Blog in 7 Days, I break this technical setup process down into an even more actionable, step-by-step checklist for you.
If you want to start a blog and make money from it, WordPress is your smartest option.
Let’s cover some basic terminology, so you understand why WordPress is the right platform (also known as a Content Management System or CMS) to run your blog on.
Since I first started blogging over a decade ago, I’ve been running my blog on WordPress and I couldn’t be happier with the amount of flexibility, control and long-term growth potential that decision has afforded me.
Now, one thing you need to be careful of, is that WordPress comes in two very different platforms. There’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They have almost the same name, but there are very big differences between the two:
WordPress.com:
- Is free to use (with heavy restrictions)
- Doesn’t let you pick a custom domain name (i.e. 👉 yoursite.wordpress.com)
- Has very limited monetization options (you can’t sell your own ads)
- Doesn’t let you upload plugins (for email capture and other things)
- Has limited theme support so you’re stuck with very basic designs
- You have to pay to remove WordPress branding and get your own domain like yoursite.com
- Limited SEO and analytics
WordPress.org:
- Fully customizable design, unlimited plugin options, and no branding
- Total control over your own monetization efforts
- Powerful SEO features (so people can find your site easier)
- Let’s you start or add an eCommerce store or membership site
- Small monthly fee (from the cheap hosting plan you use to get your blog online)
While the choice is yours, if you want to take full advantage of your blog, be able to have it grow with you and eventually make money from it, WordPress.org is the way to go when learning how to start a blog (and the exact process we’ve followed throughout this guide). It’s the CMS of choice that’ll sit in the background and power your blog.
How to install WordPress (and configure your blog settings)
Naturally in this one video, we don’t cover everything about WordPress, but remember that these are the basics you need to accomplish first.
Spend time familiarizing yourself with the admin area of your WordPress blog. Explore and test things out. You’ll develop a much deeper understanding of how WordPress works and which things you can quickly change about your site’s visual appearance and functionality. This is when the fun really begins!
Choosing the best (free) WordPress theme for your blog
When you’re just getting started, I don’t usually recommend buying a paid WordPress theme right away. Once you have some traffic and can justify the investment, then it’s smart to choose a premium, paid theme with more features and options. For right now though, a complex theme will be a distraction from your most important priority of actually bringing readers to your new blog.
WordPress comes with a ton of free themes to choose from, so start with one of the options you like in Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme > Popular without spending much time on this for now. You can always come back and change it later.
I recommend either the Hello Themeor Astra (both of which are 100% free and have the ability to upgrade more later).
I like these two WordPress themes because they’re both crisp, clean, simple and will get you to a great starting point without needing to invest in a paid theme as you’re starting out. Later, you can evaluate more of the other WordPress themesout there.
What if I want to choose a different WordPress theme (or switch later)?
Why design is so important when learning how to start a blog
Even if you don’t really care about design yourself, your readers will shift their behavior quite dramatically based on the features of your blog layout. In fact, during a 2012 studyfrom Google and the University of Basel, researchers found that users judge a website’s aesthetic beauty and perceived functionality in 1/20th — 1/50th of a second. Plus, thanks to a little psychological bias called the Halo Effect, people will extend that judgement to all aspects of your blog.
What this means, is that in less time than it takes to snap their fingers, a reader has decided whether or not to trust your blog.
How to Start a Blog in 2020 (and Make Money): Easy Guide to Start Blogging Today
If you’re looking for an easy, step-by-step guide to learn how to start a blog and make money from it, then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been blogging for 10+ years and I’m here to show you the most simple way to get started.
You’ll learn how to start a blog today in 8 easy steps that’ll take about 10 to 15 minutes. Click right here to jump straight down to step #1 and begin now.
How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 8 Easy Steps
Follow these 8 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:
- Pick your blog’s name and niche
- Get your blog online (web hosting)
- Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
- Write your first blog post
- Promote your blog and make money
- Develop a successful blog content strategy
- Commit to a regular publishing schedule on your blog
- Use free photos and designs to make your blog posts stand out
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. When you purchase hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link, they compensate me, which helps make this guide free of charge to you. Know that I only recommend products and services I’ve personally used and stand behind.
What is a blog?
Should I start a blog?
Can I start a blog without any technical experience?
Is it still possible to make money from a blog today?
How much does it cost to start a blog in 2020?
Follow these 8 steps to learn how to start a blog and make money today:
If you’re ready to take the leap and learn how to start a blog that can grow into a source of real online income, then let’s dive in.
1. Pick your blog’s name and niche
First, it’s time to pick a name and niche for your new blog.
The name of your blog is what readers will see first (like yourblog.com), so it should ideally represent either the general topics you’ll be writing about—or it could be your own name, that of your business, a clever combination of words, or otherwise.
Your blog’s niche is the general topic area that you’ll be focusing your content around. Examples include topics like travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and otherwise. Incorporating a word or two that clearly signals what your content is about, within the name of your blog (like fashionbyjane.com or watchryanhike.com)—will be very helpful for your future blog readers.
What if I can't decide on a blog name (or topic) yet?
What happens if the name I want to use isn't available?
Can I change the name of my blog later?
2. Get your blog online (web hosting)
The second step in starting a blog, is actually getting your blog online. That’s what a web hosting company will do for you. In this step, you’ll be selecting the blogging platform and web hosting plan you’ll use to get your blog online.
What is web hosting?
How much does web hosting cost?
What's the best web hosting service to use?
The combination of blogging platform & web hosting I personally use (and that most other bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost. WordPress is a free publishing platform that’s been around since 2003 and now powers more than 60% of all blogs on the Internet. Bluehost is one of the most established, reliable companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we’ll be using to start your blog. Now, let’s get your hosting set up.
—> Click here to head over to Bluehost and hit the green “Get Started Now” button
Choose your plan
First, you’ll select a hosting plan (inputting your blog name comes next). Personally, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus planbecause it comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number and home address) from being published anywhere online.
Choosing your plan will look like this right here. Just click the green “Select” button on your plan of choice:
As I said above, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you’re getting the Domain Privacy feature that’ll protect your personal information online, but any of these plans will do as you’re starting your blog—and you can add the domain privacy in later during the checkout process for around $1/mo.
Pick your blog’s domain name
Next, you’ll get to the page where it’s time to choose your blog’s domain name:
Once you get to this step in the checkout process, just type in the name of the domain name that you’d like your blog to have (mine is ryrob.com).
If you want to run a quick search to see if your domain name is available, you can do it quickly right here:
Check if your domain name is available:
If your domain name of choice isn’t available, you can either try another option that comes to mind—or (what I recommend) select the option to choose your domain name laterafter getting the rest of your account squared away and taking a little more time to think the name through. Plus, later on down in this guide, I expand some more on how to choose the right name for your blog if you’re not decided yet.
Here’s where you can click to choose your domain later (it’s a popup that will appear if you hover on this page for long enough or move your mouse up toward the top of the page):
After either choosing your domain name or opting to select it later, you’ll be taken to the final step in the sign up process—creating your account.
Create your Bluehost account
Start by filling in your account details like your name, email address (it’s super important to use an up-to-date email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent) and address. If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Either works!
Select the right hosting package
This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to lock in and how far in advance you’ll pay.
Note that Bluehost only offers options for you to pay 1, 2, 3 or 5 years upfront. They don’t offer a monthly payment option (because most hosting companies that do offer monthly payments tend to charge a bit more). Even still, with whichever plan you choose, the price works out to be a great deal for starting your own blog and getting it online today.
Which pricing plan is best to start a blog with?
Personally, I recommend choosing the “Prime 36 Month Price” if you want to lock in the lowest possible price for your hosting. That’s what I use. And it secures your blog hosting at their lowest rate (and gets you domain privacy) for the next 3 years. And because this low pricing for new customers only applies to the first payment you make, if you were to choose the 1-year plan, your pricing may go up after that first year.
That’s why if you choose the 36-month plan, your pricing will be locked in at this rate for 3 years. For that reason, I recommend going with the longest duration plan that your budget can spring for.
Choosing the right package extras (skip all but one)
I recommend keeping the Domain Privacy Protection extra, but you can get away with skipping the rest. Later on in this guide, I’ll show you the many free and cheap plugins & tools you can use for things like SEO optimization, additional security and site back-ups, rendering most of the other package extras not necessary.
As I mentioned earlier though, having the domain privacy extra keeps all of your personal contact information (your name, email, phone number and address) private. Now, if you chose the Choice Plus Plan on the previous screen, then your Domain Privacy Protection will be listed as “Free” just like this screenshot above shows—it’s included in that plan.
If you chose a Basic or Plus Plan, then you’ll want to check the box to add Domain Privacy Protection to your order for around $1/mo.
The total you’ll now see is the amount you’re going to pay today. Remember though, you won’t have to pay again for 1, 2, 3 or 5 years depending on the package you chose. Plus, there’s a 30-day money back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned with your blog.
Enter your billing information
Now you’ll input your billing information, check the box that you agree to Bluehost’s Terms of Service and then hit the green “Submit” button.
Woo! It’s time for a mini celebration 🙂
You’ve officially completed the first major step in starting a blog.
With the initial signup process complete, it’s time to move into the next stage of getting your blog fully setup and optimized.
On the next page, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the process of getting WordPress installed on your blog through Bluehost—and later on in this guide, I’ve got a ton of helpful tips for optimizing your blog, free and cheap plugins you can install to help get your blog looking great, and more.
—> Click here to head over to Bluehost and register your domain if you haven’t already.
Now, if you haven’t yet set up your web hosting and want to check out some other options—there are other web hosting providers worth considering.
The 2 best alternative blog hosting platforms worth considering
- Dreamhost — I’ve hosted literally dozens of websites on Dreamhost over the years (and I still do). All similar features like 1-click WordPress install, free SSL certificate and site security aside, one of the biggest pros of going with Dreamhost compared to other hosting companies, is that they offer a true pay-per-month plan that allows you to pay for the cost of your blog hosting each month with no strings attached. Here are a few other web hosting companies that also offer monthly payment plans.
- HostGator — The thing that sets HostGator apart from other hosting companies, is their fantastic level of customer support and the fact that they also offer a true monthly payment plan (which helps if you’re starting your blog on a budget). HostGator ranks amongst the largest hosting companies, now powering over 8 million+ websites around the world, making them a great partner to scale your blog with over time.
If you still want to evaluate more of the top blog hosting providers, then head on over to my breakdown of the best web hosting plans for bloggers this year.
Now we’re at the point in this guide where everything from here on out will be built upon the assumption that you’ve already registered your domain name and chosen the right hosting plan—so if you haven’t done so already, take just a few minutes to quickly get that set up.
Ready to register your domain name and set up blog hosting?
I made this quick video tutorial to walk you step-by-step through the entire process in just a few minutes:
Disclosure: Please note that when you purchase hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link, they compensate me, which helps me make this ultimate guide to starting a blog free of charge to you. Know that I also use Bluehost hosting, and I would never recommend a product, tool or service I don’t personally use & advocate for 🙂
I know first-hand that learning how to start a blog can be a massive undertaking.
And if you need a little more detailed guidance, I put together a free master course that spreads all of this work out into a series of action-packed lessons, and goes into even more granular detail than this tutorial.
While the first crucial step to getting your blog started today is registering your domain name and setting up hosting, my free course expands into actually growing your blog. Throughout this 7-day course, you’ll go from zero to publishing (and promoting) your first blog post. I can’t recommend it enough.
Want my Free Course: How to Start a Profitable Blog in 7 Days?
Enter your name and email address and you’ll get instant access to my course that’s been featured on Forbes, Business Insider and Entrepreneur.
3. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
Now that we’ve gotten through the crucial setup phase of starting a blog, it’s time to have a little more fun.
Designing your WordPress blog is when you might start to feel a little friction with this process though (if you’ve never worked on a blog before), but I promise this won’t get too technical.
Plus… the last thing I want is for the very minor technical side of starting a blog to derail your progress today. That’s why, in my free course How to Build a Blog in 7 Days, I break this technical setup process down into an even more actionable, step-by-step checklist for you.
If you want to start a blog and make money from it, WordPress is your smartest option.
Let’s cover some basic terminology, so you understand why WordPress is the right platform (also known as a Content Management System or CMS) to run your blog on.
What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
What is WordPress?
Should I start a blog on WordPress (and is WordPress free)?
What if I want to create a blog with Wix instead?
Since I first started blogging over a decade ago, I’ve been running my blog on WordPress and I couldn’t be happier with the amount of flexibility, control and long-term growth potential that decision has afforded me.
Now, one thing you need to be careful of, is that WordPress comes in two very different platforms. There’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They have almost the same name, but there are very big differences between the two:
WordPress.com:
- Is free to use (with heavy restrictions)
- Doesn’t let you pick a custom domain name (i.e. 👉 yoursite.wordpress.com)
- Has very limited monetization options (you can’t sell your own ads)
- Doesn’t let you upload plugins (for email capture and other things)
- Has limited theme support so you’re stuck with very basic designs
- You have to pay to remove WordPress branding and get your own domain like yoursite.com
- Limited SEO and analytics
WordPress.org:
- Fully customizable design, unlimited plugin options, and no branding
- Total control over your own monetization efforts
- Powerful SEO features (so people can find your site easier)
- Let’s you start or add an eCommerce store or membership site
- Small monthly fee (from the cheap hosting plan you use to get your blog online)
While the choice is yours, if you want to take full advantage of your blog, be able to have it grow with you and eventually make money from it, WordPress.org is the way to go when learning how to start a blog (and the exact process we’ve followed throughout this guide). It’s the CMS of choice that’ll sit in the background and power your blog.
How to install WordPress (and configure your blog settings)
Here’s a step-by-step video walkthrough of how to install WordPress on your new blog and configure the right settings:
Naturally in this one video, we don’t cover everything about WordPress, but remember that these are the basics you need to accomplish first.
Spend time familiarizing yourself with the admin area of your WordPress blog. Explore and test things out. You’ll develop a much deeper understanding of how WordPress works and which things you can quickly change about your site’s visual appearance and functionality. This is when the fun really begins!
Choosing the best (free) WordPress theme for your blog
When you’re just getting started, I don’t usually recommend buying a paid WordPress theme right away. Once you have some traffic and can justify the investment, then it’s smart to choose a premium, paid theme with more features and options. For right now though, a complex theme will be a distraction from your most important priority of actually bringing readers to your new blog.
WordPress comes with a ton of free themes to choose from, so start with one of the options you like in Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme > Popular without spending much time on this for now. You can always come back and change it later.
I recommend either the Hello Themeor Astra (both of which are 100% free and have the ability to upgrade more later).
I like these two WordPress themes because they’re both crisp, clean, simple and will get you to a great starting point without needing to invest in a paid theme as you’re starting out. Later, you can evaluate more of the other WordPress themesout there.
What if I want to choose a different WordPress theme (or switch later)?
Why design is so important when learning how to start a blog
Even if you don’t really care about design yourself, your readers will shift their behavior quite dramatically based on the features of your blog layout. In fact, during a 2012 studyfrom Google and the University of Basel, researchers found that users judge a website’s aesthetic beauty and perceived functionality in 1/20th — 1/50th of a second. Plus, thanks to a little psychological bias called the Halo Effect, people will extend that judgement to all aspects of your blog.
What this means, is that in less time than it takes to snap their fingers, a reader has decided whether or not to trust your blog.
"In less time than it takes to snap your fingers, readers decide whether or not to trust your blog."
CLICK TO TWEET
Good blog design builds trust. It tells people that you care enough about your blog to make it look nice. This doesn’t mean you need crazy animations or tons of fonts and colors. In fact, the best designs are simple, clear and easy to read.
Once you’ve settled on the right theme for your WordPress blog, it’s time to dive into the world of WordPress plugins, to help unlock even more customizations and must-do prep work in order to give your blog a strong chance of developing into a full on business.
7 essential WordPress plugins you should install on your blog today
WordPress plugins play an absolutely crucial role in how your blog will function.
The only problem is that, there are literally thousands of different plugins and blogging tools to choose from. To help you cut through all the noise… these are the 7 must-have WordPress plugins to install when you start a blog today:
- Yoast SEO: The more people that can find your content, the better your blog will do. The Yoast WordPress plugin helps you to optimize your blog post titles, descriptions, content length and other elements across your entire blog so that you can be found easier by search engines.
- WPForms: You’ll want your readers to be able to get in touch with you easily, which I highly recommend—as it’ll encourage other bloggers who want to collaborate with you an easy opportunity to reach out. WPForms is an easy-to-use plugin that allow you to drag & drop contact forms onto any page of your blog.
- Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress: This is a 100% free Google Analytics plugin that allows you to see all of your relevant
- analytics data directly inside WordPress. Connect the plugin to your Google Analytics account (you can sign up for a free Google Analytics account right here) to find out who’s coming to your site, how long they’re sticking around, and what your most popular blog posts are.
- UpdraftPlus: Again, sometimes things will go wrong on your blog (and it won’t always be totally in your control). It’s always smart to have a backup plugin that’ll save all your hard work on a regular basis, and this free one stands high above the rest.
- WP Rocket: Faster websites rank better in Google and give your readers a better experience. WP Rocket is a plugin that caches your pages, reduces your file sizes, and does much more to ensure that your blog loads faster for everyone.
- MaxCDN: Speaking of speed, MaxCDN makes images and other static elements of your blog load faster as well, earning this plugin top marks to consider as a complement to also using WP Rocket.
- Insert Headers and Footers: Sometimes to edit your theme, you’ll have to add code snippets to your header or footer (it’s not as scary as it sounds). However, doing it in the code of your theme can cause issues. This plugin lets you add small snippets of code easily to select locations around your blog.
- Bonus — Lightweight Accordion: If you like the way I create the collapsible (accordion-style) content boxes here throughout this guide and in the FAQ section near the bottom of this post, then I highly recommend installing the free plugin I use to make those content sections come to life: Lightweight Accordion. In just a few clicks with this plugin, you can quickly add collapsible FAQ box functionality to your WordPress blog.
- How to Change Font Size on Your Blog
- How to Change Font Color on Your Blog
- How to Make a Clickable Link
- What is a 301 Redirect?
- What is an RSS Feed?
- How to Add Images in WordPress
- 12 Blog Layout Examples (and Best Practices)
4. Write your first blog post
You don’t read a blog because it looks nice or because they publish frequently. (Although those both help).You read a blog because you care about what it says. Creating strong content is what will bring you readers and help you to eventually make money blogging.Before you get too far down the road of creating a blog business plan, laying out your content roadmap and writing your first blog post—you need to answer one simple question… Why?- Why do you care for the topic you’re blogging about?
- Why should other people listen to what you’re saying?
- Why is this a topic that you can add value to?
To answer these questions, I like to think of a blog like any other business and re-emphasize the importance of picking a clear niche.What is a blog niche?
Does my blog need to have a niche right away?
"When you write to everyone, you're writing to no one. If you start a blog, it needs a clear niche."CLICK TO TWEETNow, if you’re unsure, or if no niche comes to mind right away, that’s OK. We can coax it out with a few questions.Ask these questions to determine a smart niche to start a blog in:
- What’s an interest or dream from your childhood that you find exciting?
- What’s the absolute best part of your day?
- Do you have any hobbies or hobbies that you want to learn?
- What is a deeply held value of yours?
- What’s one achievement that you’re incredibly proud of?
Right away, you should have an idea or two for a clear niche you couldstart blogging about. It’s ok if your niche grows, evolves and changes over time.Taking it a step further: How to know if there’s a business opportunity for your blog niche
If you want to make money from your blog, you’ll also want to do a bit of research to see if there is a market demand for your niche. What this means is: Are people actively searching for what you’re writing about? And can you add value and help them in a way that makes you money?In order to create a business from your blog, you need to solve a real problem for people. To do this, I use a simple spreadsheet I call the Niche Market Demand Checker (you can get a free copy of it in my course right here), which will help make sure you create content that your target audience will find useful.
Take the blog niche that you’re thinking about and come up with 5–10 keyword phrases or topics within that niche that you would write about. So, if we wanted to learn how to start a blog about playing guitar you might choose keywords like “best guitar books”, “how to play guitar”, “beginner guitar chords”, “what guitar should I buy” and so on.Now, let’s do a little keyword research. Enter one of those keywords from above into your Google search. If there are tens of millions (or more) results, that’s a pretty strong indicator that people care about your topic. But to be extra sure, I like to use a free tool like Twinword Ideas to check the Monthly Search Volume (how many people are searching for this term each month).Do this for each of your keywords and look at the results. If all of your top keywords have a Monthly Search Volume of 5,000 – 10,000, you’ve definitely got a potentially profitable niche. If you’re too much over that up into the high hundreds of thousands of Monthly Searches, you might want to get more specific with your niche rather than competing with much larger, established websites on more popular subjects.Brainstorming smart blog post ideas (using keyword research)
Even once you’ve established the niche you’re going to be blogging about, you have to do smart keyword research in order to generate the right blog post ideas that’ll actuallybring you readers.So, what about the actual posts you’re going to write? The good news is you can honestly write whatever you want! This is your blog after all, and one of the major benefits of learning how to start a blog for yourself—is that it’s your platform to speak and share. But, I can say from experience that the ideas don’t always come naturally.This is where I believe a simple editorial calendar is so important. It’s just a basic document to fill out that’ll give you a roadmap to always knowing what you’re writing next. It frees you up to spend more time on the fun of actually putting posts together—not banging your head against the wall trying to come up with smart blog post ideas.5 ways to come up with clever blog post ideas
Here’s a simple process I use for coming up with the specific blog posts I write for my own blog.5 ways to come up with unique blog post ideas (click to expand)If I’m still left needing more ideas, I’ll turn to a few more creative tactics…- Seeing what other bloggers in my niche covered (and what did well).
- Taking a look at my most successful posts to see what readers like most.
- Doing more quote roundup posts (like my posts about business advice and online business tools) that don’t require a ton of original thought and effort from my end.
- Chatting with bloggers in my space and brainstorming fresh ideas.
- Talking about specific lessons I’ve recently learned (and my advice).
- Reflecting on the blogging mistakes I’ve made and the tactics that work today.
By this point, I’ve usually got a fully restocked content calendar.Still need some more content inspiration? Here are 201+ winning blog post ideas
What’s important to keep top of mind when deciding how to prioritize which posts you should write first vs last, is how much potential traffic you could stand to drive from eventually ranking well in organic search for that topic—hence the importance of doing your keyword research first.Now you’re ready to write your first blog post
Once you’ve decided on the first blog post you want to write, you’ll navigate to the “Add New Post” section from your WordPress Dashboard.Go to Posts > Add New which will look like this right here:
Next, you’ll be taken to a brand new article page that’ll look like this (a totally blank canvas 🙂):
Writing a blog post headline that encourages readers to click through
One of the reasons you chose to start a blog was to attract readers, right?Well, it pays dividends to put some time and concerted effort into learning how to write a headlinethat’ll be interesting, engaging and most importantly—deliver on the promise of what your blog posts are actually helping the reader to accomplish.So let’s say after doing some keyword research, you’ve determined that your hiking blog should start by breaking down some underrated hikes in Northern California.You’d click into the “Add Title” bar on your new post page and type in a title like…
As a starting point to writing strong blog post titles, learn by observing the headlines of other successful bloggers in your niche.- Do they often lead with numbers?
- How many of their article headlines include parentheses?
- Does it seem like a best practice to capitalize the first letter of every word?
Check out a few of the most recent headlines from my blog so you can get some inspiration on how you might want to structure your headlines.4 essential best practices for writing a great headline (click to expand)If you’re unsure whether or not you’ve written a strong headline, take it for a test drive by using the free headline analyzer tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute. It’s super cool—you just paste in the headline you’re thinking about using, and it gives you a score on a scale of 0 to 100 (with 100 being a truly perfect headline), based on their analysis of millions of headlines.
You’ll get better at writing blog headlines as time goes on and you do more of it.But if you’re really unsure of how to title a new post, then do a Google search for the target keyword phrase you’re going after and gather inspiration for the ways other titles are written—be sure not to directly copy other bloggers, but that’ll point you in the right direction.Choosing an SEO-friendly URL
It’s extremely important that you customize the URL of your new post, if you hope for it to rank well in organic Google search results.How to set an SEO-friendly URL for your blog posts (click to expand)Crafting a compelling introduction to your new blog post
You have one or two sentences to convince readers your new post is worth their time. Here’s a sample blog post introduction I just wrote in less than two minutes for our hiking example:
As you’re learning to write a blog- The easiest strategy for writing a compelling introduction is to answer the who, what, where, when and why as soon as possible. This may sound counterintuitive, but another trick is to start with your conclusion first. In the age of short attention spans, people have grown tired of wasting time on clickbait blog posts that go nowhere.The quicker you can establish relevance to your reader, give them a strong reason to believe they’ll find what they’re looking for in your blog post, the more likely they’ll be to dig into your piece and share with others.
Optimizing the design and layout of your blog post
Ultimately, what looks “good” is subjective and up to you—based on what you think your (future) readers will resonate most with.5 rules to structuring the perfect blog post layout (click to expand)These five time-tested design principles will be immensely helpful in constructing an appealing blog post layout (that’s easy for your readers to digest).Hitting publish on your first blog post
Once you’ve written your first blog post (and ideally get it to the 1,000+ word range) you’re almost ready to publish!Take a few minutes to double check on the Yoast SEO suggestions and ensure your blog post is SEO-friendly, which will give you the best chance of ranking well in organic search.
After your SEO settings are dialed in, choose which “Category” this new post will fall under and tick that box.Then, you’re ready to hit publish!
And boom! It’s that easy if you allow it to be 🎉We’ve come a long way in this guide. You’ve just gone from the technicalities of how to start a blog all the way through to publishing your first post.Now, it’s time to talk about what happens after you’ve published your first blog post… promoting your content, driving traffic and eventually making money from your blog. 5. Promote your blog and make money
Now that we’re well into 2020, we can look back and see that my blog brought in 4.4 million+ readers last year. We’re going to use my experience in going from starting a blog—to quickly driving millions of readers to my content.If you’ve made it this far, you should already be in fantastic shape on your journey to fine-tuning your blog and picking up the basics of writing compelling content.But there’s one last piece of the puzzle that hardly any other bloggers openly talk about: Promotion.What do you do once you’ve hit publish on your first blog posts? It’s time to promote your blog content.This is the exact reason I’m hired as a consultant by companies like LinkedIn, Zendesk, Adobe, Close, Gusto, Intuit and more—to not only write in-depth content for their blogs, but to teach them how to promote their content and bring in new readers. I’m a strong believer that you should spend more time promoting than you do writing.But where do you start? Here are a few of the best ways to start sharing your posts and getting them in front of new readers. And if you want even more strategies, here’s my guide to learning how to drive traffic to your website where we dig even deeper into the tactics I’ve used to grow my blog to millions of yearly readers.Using social media to promote your blog
The obvious first place to turn, is social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are some of the biggest networks today. Whichever platform best suits your niche and audience interests, is the right one for you. And that’s an important note. There’s no point in trying to promote your blog posts on every social media platform.Look for the social channels that give you the best return
How to choose which social networks to promote your blog on (click to expand)Using YouTube to grow your blog audience (click to expand)
3 tools to help manage your social media promotion (click to expand)The key insight here, is that you’ll need to experiment and see which networks will perform best for you.Guest blogging on other relevant blogs and sites like Medium, Quora & Linkedin
One of the best things about starting a blog is that you’re joining a community of other bloggers that love to help each other out. Guest blogging on other relevant sites is the #1 best way to connect with an already established audience. Check out my ultimate guide to guest blogging for a full walkthrough, but we’ll cover the highlights here.I’ve written literally hundreds of guest posts over the past six years, and it’s been the single best strategy for promoting my blog content (and building my own audience).
I’m not the only who’s been successful with this strategy, either. As Laurence Bradford of Learn to Code with Me shared in her podcast interview:“When I first started my blog, I started guest posting really early on. I’d make spreadsheets and reach out to editors and other bloggers. It definitely took a while to gain traction. I went through a lot of rejection, but over time it became easier because I’d built this portfolio of other things I published.”Laurence started by going after smaller coding blogs and sites with a similar audience to the one she wanted to build.How to land your first guest blog post (click to expand)
How to republish your content on other sites (click to expand)
The key point to all of this, is that you want to look for places where your audience is—and be present there. Whether that’s other blogs, communities, or social platforms.Forums and message boards for bloggers
Often, just throwing your ideas out into the social media void isn’t very effective.Instead, being a part of targeted forums and online communities can give you a way better return on your time—if you find the right ones. Start by browsing through relevant groups on Facebook to see if there are any clearly vibrant communities that’d be a good starting point.How to find the right forums and message boards (click to expand)Now, if your search doesn’t come up with any Facebook Groups with a decent number of members (5,000+) there are other options. Look for more general groups that relate to your niche on Facebook, LinkedIn or Reddit.My favorite online groups for entrepreneurs (click to expand)Remember, forums and message boards aren’t just places to dump links to your blog posts. You need to provide value before you ask for anything in return. So start by building relationships and engaging with people there.You never know, you might come up with some great topic ideas (and ways to help your audience) in the process.Using an email newsletter to grow your blog audience
One of the best forms of promotion for your blog isn’t to other audiences, but to your own.An email newsletter is probably the most powerful way to keep readers engaged and excited about the work you’re doing and one of the things you should set up as soon as you start a blog.Building your email list can be relatively easy, too. Simply put a signup form within your posts and across key pages of your site. Or, do what Learn to Code with me founder Laurence Bradford did and offer special content for people in return for their email address:“If you have a blog post on your site and you have some sort of checklist or book they can get just by giving their email that can work really well. I still get around 50 new email subscribers a day just from old posts that have these content upgrades.”Personally, I use a tool I love called ConvertKit to manage the 130,000+ email subscribers on my blog, but Mailchimp is the best free email marketing tool to get started with.Not sure which email marketing tool to use when starting a blog?
Read through my detailed comparison of ConvertKit vs AWeber vs Mailchimp for my take on where you should start and when to upgrade to more robust email marketing tools.I send my community an update whenever I post a new blog post, have a resource I want to share, or when new podcast episodes go live—and this now ensures my content will quickly be seen by thousands of people right off the bat.Email marketing has by far been the biggest driver of growth and revenue for my blog, and something I can’t suggest enough.Other ways to promote your blog and get more traffic
Outside of promotion on social media, groups, email and guest posts—here are a few other techniques I’ve personally used to grow my blog audience quickly.4 more creative ways to promote your blog (click to expand)Remember that the only thing standing in the way of growing your blog is you. It’s easy to say that you don’t have time or you’re tired from work or that it’s too much effort.But that effort you put in today, tomorrow and next week—is ultimately what makes building a profitable blog so worth it in the long run.Now, let’s talk about how to (eventually) make money from your blog.
8 best ways to make money blogging (monetize your blog)
Last year alone, my blog generated $449,107 in revenue (ignore the $0 in expenses here, you can see those details in my blog income reports).I share this not to brag, but so that you’ll understand I know what I’m talking about when it comes to starting a blog and making serious income with it.Moreover, I’ll be the first to tell you that these kinds of income figures aren’t typical with blogging—and that it’s taken me 6+ years to reach this point in my blog business.There’s a reason why monetizing your blog is toward the end of this guide. While you’re still just getting started, monetization should not be your #1 focus.You need to find your readers, start building relationships with them, forming a community around your blog and keep delivering value (in the form of content) before immediately trying to sell them on an online course, hiring your freelance services, or otherwise.Blogging is a long-term investment that can pay massive dividends
Even still, it’s good to have an idea of which ways you’d like to make money blogging as you go into this new adventure. Now, keep in mind that when you’re just getting started, some of these monetization strategies will be easier than others while your readership is still growing.Let’s dive in!1. Freelancing (Selling Your Services)
If you want to start earning from your blog right away, then selling your services (by landing blogging jobs, freelance writing gigs or otherwise selling your expertise as a service) is going to be the easiest option by far. In fact, I still freelance as a blog monetization channel today:
All you really need in order to land your first freelancing client, is a strong enough pitch, which is where a blog will help significantly. You’ll want to build out your key pages (About, Contact, Hire Me) and showcase at least a couple examples of the type of work you’ve done that you’ll soon be pitching freelance clients on.And if you don’t have those work samples yet… don’t let that hold you back. Spend a few days right now to create those sample articles, designs or other deliverables and host them on your own blog as if they were a project you got paid to produce.If you have a skill that you can sell as a service, then you’re already prepared to go out and start pitching potential clients. That skill could be something like…- Writing
- Design
- Photography
- Marketing
- Developing
- Public relations
- Social media management
- Virtual assistance
- Community-building
- SEO or paid advertising campaigns
- Business strategy or project management
- The list goes on… because any skill can be monetized
Today, I still regularly book new freelance clients (like LinkedIn, Zendesk, Adobe) for $5,000/mo or more and I’m brought on to advise and execute on creating content marketing campaigns for their blogs. But that’s where I am today… not where I started.How I went from charging $250/article to $5,000 as a freelancerIf freelancing sounds like your cup of tea, you’ll want to grab this (free) collection of all my best resources, tools and templates for freelancers. That resource bundle is the culmination of more than 6 years of refining my freelance contract template, proposal template, cold email templates that convert new clients and more.I also put together an in-depth guide to getting started with freelancingthat you’ll want to read and another great foundational read about how to develop a pitching process that works for your type of business, is my freelancer’s guide to cold emailing. And if you want to try out some of the websites where freelance clients are already looking for talented help, here are my lists of both the best blogging job sites and the best freelance job sites.2. Affiliate Programs
Every month, I earn a substantial amount of passive income from the affiliate programs that I’m a member of (sometimes in excess of $50,000+).For example, here’s a screenshot of my blog income from just one affiliate program (Bluehost) for the first 5 months of last year.
Since starting this blog a little over 6 years ago, affiliate income has gradually grown to become the largest revenue source for my business—and I’ve structured my blog to generate affiliate income because of how passive it is once you’ve done the (hard) work to find a sustainable traffic source for your content.How do affiliate programs work?
Some of the biggest brands have affiliate programs. Think global companies like Amazon, all the way down to key players in specific niches like online education where brands like CreativeLive, Skillshare and Udemy all have lucrative programs. Here’s a snapshot of my recent earnings from just a couple of these programs:
Start by evaluating the affiliate opportunities you find on the major networks like ShareASale, Rakuten, Flex Offers, Commission Junction, Amazon and others that have products relevant to your blog audience.Once you’ve built even a small readership for yourself… if they’re engaged and tuned in to what you have to say, that’s ammo to go out and broker a more advantageous affiliate deal with individual business owners, startups and brands that want to surface their products to your kind of audience.For a LOT more on the subject of monetizing your blog with affiliate income, check out these guides right here on my blog:- 53+ Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers in 2020 (to Earn Affiliate Income)
- 10 Ways Affiliate Marketing Can Completely Transform Your Blog
- How I Earn an Extra $1,000 a Month with Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Now, let’s talk about generating income from sponsored content.3. Sponsored Content
Unless you already have a decent sized audience on your blog (or social accounts), it’ll take you some time to grow your readership to a point where sponsored content is a viable monetization option.What's sponsored blog content?
How much traffic do you need in order to get blog sponsors?
The best way to do sponsored content without alienating your readers, is to weave it into your typical publishing style (like I’ve done with this sponsored post and this one too), of which I charged $2,500/ea to write and publish for Skillshare and Slidebean.Tune in to my podcast episode with Preston Lee from Millo.co, who’s mastered the art of landing blog sponsorships for his blog… he regularly books $15,000/mo in sponsorships from top brands in the freelancing and design industries.4. Online Courses
Once you have a skill (or experience) that others also want to learn, it’s relatively easy to package your best advice (like my blogging tips), strategies, tactics and tutorials into an online course where people can pay for access to accelerate their learning much quicker than they otherwise would going through the stumbling process of learning through trial and error.Last year alone, I generated over $40,000 from the launch of my premium blogging course, Built to Blog.
What’s great about online courses as a monetization path for your blog (or like I’ve done with selling blogging books too), is that you don’t need a huge audience—in order to earn from online courses, or if you choose to learn how to write an ebook and sell that digital product to your audience.How to launch a profitable online course (click to expand)
5. Traditional Blog Advertisements (Joining Ad Networks)
On a handful of the most trafficked posts on my blog, I place small advertisement widgets throughout the content that earns me around $1,000/mo.
I’m a member of a small ad network called Carbon Ads, that partners with bloggers and pairs them up with ads from high-quality startups like Slack, Asana, Freshbooks, Monday, Upwork and other targeted brands that my audience is already familiar with.How much can I earn from blog advertisements?
What are the best ad networks for bloggers to join?
All in all, traditional CPC or CPM advertising doesn’t become very profitable (at least as a viable source of meaningful blog income) until you’re driving close to a million monthly readers, so it’s not a great monetization channel to focus on in the short-term. But if you figure out the right levers to start generating massive amounts of traffic, this is a very quick way to flip a switch and start monetizing your readership in a pinch.Check out my interview with Grace and Silas Moser of Chasing Foxes, who regularly earn around $20,000/mo in income largely from ad networks. They’ve cracked the code to driving insane amounts of traffic from Pinterest very quickly, and offer up a lot of actionable advice.6. Podcast Sponsorships
Another great way to start monetizing your blog is by launching a (simple) podcast for your readers… and use both your traffic & early listener statistics to go out and book sponsorships from brands that want to reach your type of readers & listeners.Here’s the growth trajectory of my podcast over it’s first year:
You can even combine podcast ad placement offers with sponsored blog posts on your site to sweeten the deal.What I like most about podcasting, is that it gives me an excuse to interview some of most interesting people in my industry, and depending on the niche you’re blogging about, it may be relatively easy to start booking interviews with some of the figures you look up to in your space.How to make money with podcast sponsorships
For much more on the mechanics behind launching a podcast alongside your blog, check out this episode on my show with Michael Sacca of Rocketship.fm, whose grown his show into a $10,000/mo source of side income while he still holds onto his day job in sales and marketing. It’s a true masterclass in starting a podcast that you don’t want to miss.7. Physical Products (eCommerce) and Software Tools
Similar in concept to launching an online course to your blog audience, another great way to monetize your audience is by selling a physical product or software tool to the people in your community—especially if you’ll be starting an eCommerce store to sell products that are related to what your readers need.At the end of the day, this one all comes back down to solving the problems your blog readers have.How the We Rate Dogs blog monetized with eCommerce salesWhat once used to be a much more labor intensive business, eCommerce has become a great way to monetize an audience of readers on your blog.And on top of just selling to your own audience, you can leverage loyalty programs that incentivize customers to invite friends to purchase with offers like first-time customer discounts, free one-month trials, gifting programs and more. These channels create opportunities for amplifying your message and spreading your products through word-of-mouth marketing efforts that won’t cost you anywhere near that of similar advertising fees.How to (simply) launch a product to your blog audienceTune in to my interview with Hiten Shah, who’s used his personal blog to connect with his audience and release several profitable software tools as a result of the validation conversations he’s had with them.8. Business Partnerships
Of all the ways to monetize your blog, this is the most ambiguous. Who knows who you’ll meet as a result of building your blog? What about future guests on your podcast? The possibilities here for stumbling into partnership opportunities are endless.As a result of sticking with my blog for several years, I’ve been able to use it as a tool to meet some incredibly talented entrepreneurs.- I’ve collaborated with my friend Jory (a writer and content marketer) that I met originally because of my blog, on growing a $10,000/mo content marketing agency together that we both still run as a side project to all of our other work.
- I’ve also launched new websites (like SmartWP) with other established bloggers who have similar audiences as my own.
- There’s even a former podcast guest who’s helping me build a software tool I’ve envisioned for years.
It’s true that there aren’t as many ways to authentically engineer the creation of these types of partnerships, aside from growing your personal brand and the reach of your blog… and then being receptive to the creative people & ideas that come your way as others discover your blog.On the flip side, if there’s someone in your space that you really want to collaborate and work with, strategize on a way you can add value to their business.Build a community of people you know they’ll want to reach too—and then start building a relationship with your influencer before pitching them on a collaboration ideaAlmost every guide about how to start a blog stops long before this point.But, that’s not helpful if you’re here to build a real, sustainable blog business. From here on out, I’m going to equip you with the tools (and proven strategies) to go from starting out—to building a true business around your blog—based on my experience growing this blog to more than 500,000 monthly readers and $50,000/mo in revenue.I recommend bookmarking this guide to blogging for beginners, so you can come back to it regularly as your blog grows.6. Develop a successful blog content strategy
Over the past few years, I’ve grown my blog from a small side project to a profitable site that brings in millions of readers a year.And that wasn’t by accident. I’ve been lucky enough to work for some fantastic companies and (get paid to) learn about the importance of having a content strategy for your blog. And I’ve successfully applied those same lessons to my own blog—making many tweaks and additions along the way.Moreover, I’ve learned how to come up with winning blog post ideas that my audience loves to consume more of.What is a blog content strategy?
Creating a blog content strategy might sound like a complex, time-consuming, buzzword-laden process requiring an MBA and a keg filled with coffee. But it’s really not.What is a blog content strategy?
When do I need to create a content strategy for my blog?
Here’s how to put a basic blog content strategy together:1. Define your blog goals
What’s your purpose for starting a blog? What do you want to achieve with your blog content?- Is it to drive traffic and get readers?
- To get people to sign up for your email newsletter?
- To get them to download a book you wrote or join a paid course?
This goal might change as you grow your blog, but it’s still important to know it early on. As prolific blogger and marketing guru Seth Godin explains:“You have the freedom to make these choices at the beginning when they’re free, fast and easy. Not later on when you’ve made commitments.”Once you understand your bigger goal (i.e. why you chose to start a blog in the first place) you can start to define the mini-wins that’ll help you get there.2. Get to know your readers (and where they hang out)
Your readers determine whether or not your blog is successful. And to write for them, you need to really understand them—which is why it helps if you’re also writing for yourself. This guarantees at least an audience of one.I’m a firm believer that who you write your blog posts for, is equally as important as what you write about.In a lot of cases, you’re going to be your ideal reader, which makes this process easier. But in almost every case, it’s useful to do a bit of research around the audience you’re writing for (heck, you might even learn something about yourself!).How to research and understand your blog readers (click to expand)3. Decide on your content pillars
When it comes to actually deciding what you’re going to write about, it’s good to have a few guiding topics that you refer back to. I like to call these content pillars as they’re the foundation that holds up the rest of your blog.Having a few set pillars like this helps keep your blog focused. It also gives you a lens and a voice that you can write from. For example, if you’re starting a personal finance blog, your pillars might be:- Personal finance tips and tricks
- Interviews and stories from people who’ve found financial independence
- Your take on important financial industry news
- The basics of personal finance
- How to pay off your debt quickly
Each of these pillars can have 10s if not 100s of blog posts to be written under them. But they also all work together to show that you’re a thought leader in your niche.4. Map out the content you’re going to create before you start a blog
Shortly after launching your blog, it’s worth taking a little time to plan out your content pipeline for the coming weeks (possibly months).This is especially relevant if you have a decent sized audience on a social network that you plan on alerting once your blog launches—because you never know if your first post might blow up and go viral. In that case, you’ll want to have at least a game plan to quickly engage the new readers you get.As Grace Moser of Chasing Foxes told me on the podcast recently:“I think it’s important to create a number of blog posts before you launch. We did 40 and put them all up on our site when we first launched. If you want to get lots of viewers right up front you need to create that content beforehand. People want instant gratification.”Now, you don’t have to go all-out like Grace did and write 40 pieces of content before you launch. It helped that she was working full-time on her blog for several weeks leading up to their big launch day.Even just a post or two under each of your major content pillars is enough, but if writing comes easily to you, it’s ok to do a little more. Remember though, it’s always better to start small and grow consistently.You’ll learn more about your audience, your process, and what works well as you write and publish more. Lastly, remember to have fun and be interesting with your content. If you picked a niche that you care about, remember why you care about it. People want to hear your voice and get your take on things.That’s how your blog and your content will stand out in the end.The best content strategy and management tools to use on your blog
Putting together a blog content strategy (and sticking to it) can be a bit daunting at first.Luckily, there are tons of fantastic tools to help you stay organized, motivated, and on track. Here are a few of my favorites:- Trello (free)
- Google Docs (free) & Google Calendar (free)
- CoSchedule (paid)
- Airtable (free limited with paid upgrades)
Personally, I prefer using a combination of Trello and Google Docs to manage my content pipeline. Trello because it’s so visually appealing and easy to wrap my head around—but a Google Sheet is where I track much of the ongoing promotion work I do to make sure my articles rise in organic rankings.Here’s what my Trello board for managing my blog content looks like:
You can see there’s various different columns, indicating the stage a post (or even page/post updates) is currently in. From ideas to chosen, in-progress, scheduled and published, I like Trello so much because I get a quick visual snapshot of my content pipeline without having to wade deep into a Google Sheet.After I decide an article is approved in my editorial process, it does make it’s way into my Editorial Calendar Google Sheet, like so:
From here, I’ll take to the more granular management of writing up a description of my approach to tackling this topic, confirm my keyword research, and this is where I’ll spend time updating the status of the post even after it’s published (when I get an article featured on a press outlet or publication).7. Commit to a regular publishing schedule on your blog
If you want readers to consistently come back to your blog, you need to give them a reason to.Consistency is one of the least celebrated, yet most important aspects of starting a successful blog. Even more, research supports this claim.There are a couple of reasons why consistency is key. Writing consistently:- Sets expectations with your readers: People know when to come back and check out your blog and will check in regularly for new content.
- Sets expectations with yourself: It can be easy to get out of the habit of publishing regularly if you miss a couple days. However, if you decide on and commit to a schedule, you know when you have to publish. We all do better with a few deadlines in our lives.
Not only this, but publishing consistently helps you test and understand what types of content work with your readers. As Grace Moser of Chasing Foxes shared with me during her interview, they grew their blog to millions of monthly readers by putting out 4–6 pieces of content a week for several months in a row before getting real traction:“Even if the majority of your posts don’t go viral, the more you publish, the better the odds that one will send a lot of traffic your way.”Now, there’s a fine line to walk when you first start a blog and want to set a rigorous publishing schedule.You might have a ton of ideas and enthusiasm, but over-committing is the easiest way to kill both of those. Instead, you should commit to the minimum amount you want to publish—say once or twice a week—and try to stick to that religiously.As author and blogger James Clear said in an interview on my podcast, “Sacrifice the scope, not the schedule.” If you can’t write a 1000-word post every week then write a 500-word post instead. Just make sure you’re consistent.Perfectionism is a deadly killer when it comes to projects like maintaining a blog. So remember, done is better than perfect.This is where having a clear content calendar becomes so important. If you can spend a couple hours each month mapping out all the posts you want to write, you’ll always know what you should be working on and when it’s due. This can be in a simple Google Doc like the one in my free blogging course, or by using a tool like Trello that lets you track posts through the whole process from idea to writing to published and promoting.Just like when you’re working out at the gym or investing money in the stock market—the more consistent you are with investing time into your blog, the bigger returns you’ll get.8. Use free photos and designs to make your blog posts stand out
Before you hit publish on your brand new blog posts, there’s one last step you should take.Studies show that blog posts with images get 94% more views than those without. And when it comes to posts getting shared on social media, tweets with photos get 150% more retweets that those without one, while Facebook posts with images get 2.3X more engagement.Simply adding a few visual elements can almost double the amount of views and significantly expand the shares a post gets.In fact, including high-quality images was one of the main things that former celebrity chef and founder of What’s Gaby Cooking? Gaby Dalkin says made her blog explode in popularity:“It wasn’t until I hired two of my best friends—who happened to be a food photographer and food stylist—that my blog really took off. Because people eat with their eyes. And it allowed me to focus on what I love to do, which is developing recipes and engage with my readers.”Now, it’s pretty unrealistic to think that you’re going to hire a professional photographer to work on your new blog. That’s not the goal today.And that’s totally fine (hint: I don’t either!). There are some incredible free blog photo and design resources you can use to enhance your posts from the moment you learn how to create a blog—even if you’re not very design-focused at all.Free blog photo resources
One of the easiest ways to add some design elements to your blog posts, is with images.While the words “stock photography” might make you think of cheesy photos of awkward people in a fake office with their thumbs up… in recent years, there have been a number of much higher quality sites pop up that offer incredible photography that’s completely free to use for your blog. Here are my favorites:3 best websites for free, high quality stock photos (click to expand)Free blog design resources
Along with stock photos, there are a ton of great design resources out there that can elevate the design of your posts.And you don’t need a deep understanding of Adobe Photoshop, or even a creative bone in your body to use them. Here are a few of my favorites:3 best websites for free blog design resources (click to expand)How to Start a Blog in 2020: Final Takeaways for New Bloggers
Ultimately, growing a successful blog all boils down to being excited and engaged with your new blog. If you want people to read what you’re writing, you need to give them a reason to.Write exciting content, connect with people in your niche and enthusiastically share what you’re working on.The traffic, monetization and everything else will follow.Wow. I know. We got through a lot here.I wrote this guide because starting a blog has been one of the most empowering, life-changing decisions I’ve made in my life.And I hope that by now you feel confident enough to go out there and start a blog of your own.I’d love to have you in my free 7-day course that expands on the teachings of this guide. We also dive even further into topics like driving traffic, my personal writing process, monetizing your blog and more.Quick Summary of How to Start a Blog in 8 Easy Steps
To sum things up, when you’re learning to start a blog, you need to:
- Pick your blog’s name and niche
- Get your blog online (web hosting)
- Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
- Write your first blog post
- Promote your blog and make money
- Develop a successful blog content strategy
- Commit to a regular publishing schedule on your blog
- Use free photos and designs to make your blog posts stand out
That’s it!
Basic WordPress blog settings you want to become familiar with now
There are many different reasons to start a blog and just as many unique goals you may have in mind. Regardless, it pays to have a basic understanding of the broader aspects of how WordPress functions, so that you can control the visual appearance of your blog.
Let’s dig into a few of the bigger picture settings that you can find in your WordPress dashboard.
Permalinks (URLs)
How to optimize your WordPress permalink settings (click to expand)
Cleaning up your default site URL
How to clean up your default site URL (click to expand)
Setting your blog homepage
How to set your blog's homepage (click to expand)
Setting up your blog’s menu
How to set up a menu on your WordPress blog (click to expand)
Alright, we’ve covered the basic foundations of getting your WordPress settings dialed in. Now, let’s dig into creating a few of the main pages on your blog.
Creating the main pages of your blog (about, contact, hire)
Every blog needs to showcase some basic, foundational information. Who you are. Why people should listen to you. How they can get in touch with you if they have questions or want to work with you.
These pages are all pretty standard, but they’re also a great way to have some fun and let your readers get to know you. In fact, I use my own About page to not only introduce who I am and tell my story, but also to explain my value proposition (for potential clients looking to hire me as a freelance content marketer) and show off some of my recent achievements.
Here are step-by-step instructions for how to write an About Me pagethat does the same:
How to write an About page for your blog
You might not think much about it, but your About page can quickly become one of the most popular pages on your blog.
How to write your blog's about page (click to expand)
Use your about page to show the value you’re creating for your readers—and work hard to earn that attention. No matter how you craft your about page, don’t forget to think about the context of the person you’ll be talking to there.
How to write a Contact page for your blog
Another often overlooked page that you’ll want to include on your blog is a simple way for people to contact you.
While mine goes into more depth, your Contact page can be as simple as having your email and social media accounts listed on a page. Or, if you’d rather not have your personal email out there for anyone to find, you can include a contact form.
How to create a contact page for your blog (click to expand)
Think about what types of communication you want your readers to use and for what. You can use your Contact page to set those expectations right away.
New to Starting a Blog with WordPress? Check Out These Technical Tutorials
If you want to spend a little more time tuning up your new WordPress blog and experimenting with all of your settings, then check out these quick WordPress tutorials:
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