Starting a Money Making Blog
Having a blog is an amazing investment! If you have a passion for writing and owning your very own business then blogging is the perfect opportunity for you. I absolutely love my blog and watching it continue to grow every single day is a blessing!
Most people would like to know how to start a money making blog rather then just blog as a hobby, so this article will focus mainly on how to make money blogging as soon as possible!
💡This is also a guide for beginners and it is meant to not overwhelm you, I want this guide to only focus on the main things that WILL propel your blog as quickly as possible.
Personally I have been blogging on and off for over 10 years, it used to be SO difficult to get traffic to your blog before social media really became popular. Lot’s has changed and with so many courses and things to do for your blog I was very overwhelmed and it took me over a year to start seeing results, I now know what I should have focused on in the beginning!
Enough about me, lets get to starting your very own blog that actually makes you money!
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Before you start your blog:
First thing you need to do is decide on what you want to blog about. Make sure you take the time to really decide, because once you choose a topic that should be your life focus!
Choosing a Niche
There are many niches to choose from, naturally you should pick something you enjoy writing about. You will be able to branch out more once you get going but in the beginning you want to try and focus on your main topic.
Here are some ideas on Niches:
- Personal Finance
- Lifestyle
- Crafts
- Mom Blog
- Pregnancy
- Food
- Keto Diet
and so many more.
As you can see there are some broad topics as well as very niched down topics, if you choose a more broad topic such as personal finance you should start out small like focus on budgeting at first then branch out.
Setting up your blog:
Time to get your hosting and set up your blog. Choosing the right hosting shouldn’t be too complicated, they all have their pros and cons. Right now I am with Bluehost because they offer great sign up bonuses and are just an all around great hosting company for new bloggers. They have:
- Free domain registration
- 1 click WordPress install
- 24/7 support
- Free site builders
You can get started for only $3.95 per month right now (some times the prices change due to temporary sales, it will adjust accordingly).
If you sign up through my link I will help you choose your first 5 blog posts!
👉Send your receipt to jess@onbudgetmoms.com and I will be in touch!
Time to decide on a theme:
The fun part is picking a theme and designing your website! You can find some decent themes for free, however it is always best to purchase a theme that comes with support. I will list below some sites to get free themes as well as my favorite site to purchase themes.
Free
- WordPress.org
- JustFreeThemes
- ThemeForest
My favorite go to themes are by Studio Press! I am not very tech savvy but using the Genesis Theme has helped me set up my blog easily, they have great support and tutorials to follow. You can browse these themes by clicking the banner below:
*Make sure you buy the Genesis Framework with the theme if you don’t already have it*
My theme right now is from Pretty Darn Cute, they have amazing feminine themes that are easy to use. They have great support and tutorials to help you set up your theme!
Creating your first pages and plugins you should have:
Once you get some pages created it will give you a bit of content on your blog so you can begin to think about the cosmetic layout you’d like. The first main pages you should have are:
- Disclosure and Privacy Policy
- About page
- Contact Page
You don’t need to go too crazy on your blog pages right away (you can always add to them later). The main thing you will want to be focusing on is your content (blog posts).
Add those pages, keep your about me page simple but include a bit about why you started this particular blog. Try to connect to your audience on a personal level, and again check out other bloggers about me pages to get some inspiration. (DO NOT copy)
Check out my pages and other blogs pages for some inspiration if needed.
💡I suggest keeping your main page your blog posts and not a static, I spent way too long trying to set up a static page!
Plugins you should have:
- Akismet Anti-Spam
- Broken Link Checker
- Easy Google Fonts
- Insert Headers and Footers
- Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover And After Post & Page Content
- Pretty Links
- WP Smush
- Yoast SEO
- *new* GDPR plugin
Those should get you started, you can also browse some plugins that will help set your site up based on how you want it to look.
💡Be careful not to install too many plugins, I have learned less is more over the years and plugins will slow down your site!
Blog Posts
Writing great blog posts IS your main focus, or at least it should be. This is where most of your readers will land, not on your main page, about page, or contact page. They will land on your blog posts!
Keep in mind that writing your posts shouldn’t be quick and easy, there is a lot to go into it which is something I see left out of many blogging courses.
The first step is the title:
you want a catchy title that grabs your readers attention. Also use easy-to-read formatting throughout your post. Break up your posts using lists, photos, or bold text, but keep those the main points of your post.
Here is a list of things to keep in mind when writing your posts:
- Catchy Title.
- Easy to read.
- Use H1 heading once, then H2 headings and so on to break up your posts.
- Link to your other posts throughout the post when relevant.
- The more words the better. Aim for 3000 or more. (you can make smaller posts for Pinterest traffic)
- Keep SEO in mind. (More about that below)
- Add alt text to your images!
- Make your posts shareable. (plugin)
Next step is to learn a bit about SEO, you will want to implement this right at the beginning because it will help drive even more targeted traffic to your blog later on.
Having the yoast plugin will help make this easier. For the keyword you will want to use a long tailed keyword as it is very hard to rank for the shorter ones. Here are some steps to help you find the perfect long tailed keyword:
Step 1: Sign up for a free account on SemRush. Find a popular blogger in your Niche and put their link into the search. Scroll down to where is says: Top Organic Keywords, then click View full report. Here you will see a list of the keywords they are ranking the best for. Make a list of a few.
Step 2: Go to google and use a keyword as a long tail search. Example, Envelope System. In google search I typed in Envelope System and seen what the suggestions were, I then added for and a bit down the list was: Envelope System for college students. I clicked that and there were a few posts similar to that search but none with the exact title. I found my keyword!
( Envelope System for college students)
Next you want to include the keyword in the post title. Best Envelope System for College Students: Get Your Finances Under Control
Next you will want to include your keyword in H1 heading and as many H2 headings as possible and throughout your blog post. (Use the yoast plugin to help with this).
Another thing to keep in mind when using long tailed keywords is that you won’t get a ton of traffic from them since they are more defined. What you can do is target more than one long tailed keyword. (YES you can do this!) Here are the steps:
Go to Ubersuggest.com
Pick a keyword similar to your main topic: Saving money college student, go over to the left of the screen and click on “Keyword Ideas”.
Click the filters and Search volume put from 100-3000, and enter.
Under the column SD you will want to look for low numbers. “How to make money in college” is actually really low, use that keyword throughout your post also. Now you have another post you can focus on “How to make money in college” and link back to your envelope system post.
How to get traffic to your blog:
Back in 2010 when I first started to learn about blogging, traffic was very difficult to get. You had to be a whiz at SEO and basically come up with untapped Niches to be successful right off.
Now is such a great time to start a blog, Pinterest should be every bloggers secret weapon. 90% of my traffic comes from Pinterest!
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are also very popular, when just starting I suggest choosing Pinterest and one or two others. Focus all your energy on promoting your content on those platforms.
The course that changed my blog when it came to traffic from Pinterest was Anna’s Ebook Making Pinterest Possible.
Your Goals:
Traffic is so important when it comes to blogging, you NEED traffic to make any money. So here is a list of what should be your first goals to getting your first $1,000 monthly paycheck!
- Write Blog Posts
Try to always have blog posts ready to go, and be consistent, try to choose specific days you will publish a new post. Also the more blog posts you have the more traffic you will get, some posts may perform WAY better then others but it is always hard to know which will so that is why you should write as many posts as you can.
2. Create Pins
Create 3-4 pins for EACH post, try out different colors and fonts, make sure your pins have a good key-worded description. Take a Pinterest course so you know all the ins and outs. I have taken about 4 different Pinterest courses (I know! Crazy!) and out of all I found Anna’s to be the best!
3. Get to 25,000 page views
Once you hit 25,000PV you can apply to Mediavine which is a very popular ad network, they pay very well.
Affiliate Marketing
We cannot leave this out! It took me a very long time to start gaining traffic but since I learned about affiliate marketing early on and had all my posts optimized I earned a decent amount of income with only a small amount of traffic! 😃
This means you can too!
What is affiliate marketing?
When you promote someone’s product or program and a person visiting your blog clicks your affiliate link and purchases or signs up you get a commission! 🎉
Finding affiliate programs to promote isn’t too difficult and the ones below usually accept new blogs:
Shareasale
Awin
Panthera Network
Those should get you started for any Niche.