How to Launch a Blog and Actually Make Money From It

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission on qualifying products at no additional cost to you.

Blogging is a great way to earn money online in a number of ways, all from one convenient place. Whether you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur who’s looking for different ways to sell your products and/or services online, or you just have a lot you’d like to say and you want to earn money from your website, keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how to start a blog and make money from it!

how to start a blog and make money from it

How to Start a Blog and Make Money From It

From selling e-books to coaching sessions to paid promotions and more, there are dozens of ways in which you can make money as a blogger. But first, you’ll need to get all set up. Here’s how!

Figure out What You’re Going to Blog About

If you’ve started doing any research on launching a blog, you’ve likely seen the advice “choose a niche,” over and over again. While you don’t need to niche down to a point of an ultra-select audience if you’re just starting out, you at least want to have some idea of what kind of blog you’re going to have. For instance, are you going to blog about your life? That’d be lifestyle blogging. Or, perhaps you’re going to be blogging for business. Maybe you’re a beauty or food blogger, etc., or maybe you’re an activist looking to build up a solid online presence for the work you’re doing.

Get Some Posts Together

While you can launch a blog with a single post, if you want it to look professional, you’re going to want to accumulate at least 5-10 posts or so before going live. Content is queen, after all, and blogging is all about the content. If you want to skip this step for now, at least create a list of 5-10 post ideas, so you have an easy reference point to begin your content creation at a later date.

Choose a Web Host

Since you’re here on Mondays in PJs, I’m going to assume that you want a professional-looking blog that drives repeated traffic and lets you really connect with your target market. And, to do that, you’ll need to choose a web host to get started creating your blog. I have really enjoyed working with Hostinger, because not only are they affordable (catch them on sale and you’ll pay less than $1/month,) but they’re reliable and they have great customer service. They also help you get set up with WordPress, which is the next step. But, there are hundreds of hosts out there for you to choose from, just make sure you do your research to find out which one is best for you.

Set up Your WordPress

WordPress.org is hands-down the best content management system when it comes to building and managing websites, which is why it powers over 35% of the internet – that’s huge! You don’t need to know how to code to use WP, but if you do, it doesn’t hurt. If you can code, great, but if you don’t, there’s a plugin for everything, and they’re some of the main reasons why WP is so incredible! Once you’ve gotten your WP installed, you’ll want to search the platform for a theme that will work for you. This brings us to the next step…

Load up on Plugins

Plugins are basically apps for your website, and you know the saying “There’s an app for that,” well, it can also be applied to plugins. Anytime you need to do literally anything for your website, you can count on there being a plugin to do it for you. This goes from changing the look and design of your site to all of the functions you’re looking for to hiding things you don’t want, to letting you better connect with your users and SO much more. Just be sure you’re downloading them directly from WordPress, and that you’re deactivating any that you aren’t using at any given time because using too many can slow your site down. When you need to find a plugin, Google is your friend.

Upload Your Content

Now that you’ve got your platform all ready to go, it’s time to learn how to start a blog and make money from it by designing your site using custom text, images, and videos. You’ll do this both in the form of posts and pages, which have their own respective sections on your WordPress admin panel. Make sure that you’re using plenty of visuals as well as text if you want to keep site visitors engaged.

Create a Social Media Presence for Your Blog

After you’ve uploaded your content, people aren’t just going to magically find your posts, unfortunately. You’ve got to generate a buzz and get them interested in reading them, or at the very least, let them know that they exist! One easy (and free) way to drive traffic to your blog is by creating and managing a social media presence. Find out which platform your target market frequents most and focus your energy there, as opposed to trying to juggle four or five accounts. And, once you’ve got your profile all setup, make sure you’re posting regularly to build up your audience!

Add Social Sharing Buttons

Here’s one of those genius things there are several plugins for. Adding social sharing buttons to your content is a MUST if you want other people to share your work. No one is going to take the time to copy and paste links these days, so if you don’t have sharing buttons, you’re going to miss out on those actions. Luckily, all you have to do is install a plugin like Social Snap, or one of the many others, and choose which buttons you want to feature on your page, and where you want them to appear! If you want to see what they look like, just scroll up or down above or below this post (and please share away when you find them!)

Use SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a crucial method of ensuring your website is visible online when your potential customers go searching for the products or services you have to offer. More than 92% of all organic web traffic comes through Google, and using SEO means making sure that your website is being found before your competition! There are a number of ways you can use and improve the SEO on your blog, but one of the main things I’d recommend in the beginning is to use a plugin like Yoast or Rank Math, which will make things easy for you if you’re unfamiliar with the process.

Choose how to Monetize

Well, now that you know how to build your site, it’s time to learn how to start a blog and make money from it! There are a number of different ways that you can monetize a website, from selling your products and services to affiliate marketing. You’ll just need to decide which will work best for you. For selling products, whether they’re physical or digital, you’ll need to use a plugin like WooCommerce to get your online store’s interface up and running.

Become an Affiliate

As an affiliate marketer, you’ll need to sign up with your favorite brands (they should have a link at the bottom of their website,) and share the link within your articles. This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to earn money from a blog. You can become an affiliate for everything from online surveys to clothes or makeup, to furniture, and SO much more. Then, you’ll want to create engaging and interesting posts that you’re able to drop the link in, in a way that doesn’t seem like you’re just pedaling affiliate links.

When some are first learning how to start a blog and make money from it, they’re interested in knowing how to get paid (aside from affiliate marketing) to post about products they love. For this, you’ll need to put in a bit more work and reach out to these brands. For the most part, unless you have a major social media following, etc., you’ll need to wait until you build up a substantial audience before brands are interested in paying you to post about their products.

More Ways to Make Money Blogging

I’ve created another post all about the different ways you can make money from your blog, which includes live coaching sessions, e-books, donations or tips, selling ad space, and more! Check out that post here to see more ways to earn money from your website.

Pin it for later!

How to start a blog and make make from it Pin
More | + posts

Erika Sellmer is a digital content specialist with a passion for remote work and empathic design.