If you need help on how to start a blog, you’ve come to the right place! I started this blog at the end of 2014 and have learned so much along the way.
In just 10 months, I went from a newbie blogger with 1,000 page views a month to 160,000 page views a month. I also made over $13,000 in this time period from my blog. That’s crazy!
Now I work for myself full time on this blog and as a freelancer. I even started my own business that helps fellow bloggers – check out my services here.
Why should you start a blog?
If you have been on the fence about starting your own blog, I strongly encourage you to do so! Blogging can provide an outlet, a way to be creative and a place to connect with other bloggers and readers.
When I started blogging, it was because I was so inspired by other bloggers. I loved reading what people were writing and had around 30 totally different blogging sites in my bookmark bar. They were all different types of blogs too – like lifestyle, fashion, cooking, personal finance, pets, travel – pretty much every topic you could think of.
What’s so great about blogging is you can literally start a blog about anything. This blog originally started as a blog to get out of debt. Since then, I’ve written posts about budgeting, side hustling, blogging and freelancing.
If you start a blog, it could change your life
If you start blogging today, who knows where you can be a year from now. I never expected my life to change as much as it did, and it’s all because I took a chance on myself. I started making a small income within 4 months of blogging. It was a small amount – about $40 a month, but you have to start somewhere. Within six months of that first online income report, I was making over $4,000 a month. That’s crazy!
Here are some other reasons to start a blog:
Make friends
This is the best part of blogging if you ask me. Before my blog, I started commenting on blogs I followed. I was totally nervous but everyone was so nice. When I started my blog, bloggers were so nice to visit my blog and welcome me to the community.
Today I feel fortunate to have developed some awesome relationships. Later this year I am even going to my first blogging conference and can’t wait to meet everyone in person!
Have your own place to write
When I started blogging, it was great to be able to write things, share my journey (kinda like an online diary) and share some of the ups and downs of getting out of debt. I liked being able to record and document things. This was helpful especially if I was having a bad day – I could look at my blog and realize how far I’d come and not get discouraged.
Make money
You should never feel guilty making money! If you can share valuable tips, educate readers and share things for free to your readers – that is amazing. I know when I was reading blogs and I read something useful, I would gladly click on a product or service because of them. I was happy they were able to receive credit for it all because they provided me free information.
Use your blog as a launching pad
I started my own small business thanks to this blog. Today I help bloggers and businesses create images for their website and social media, manage their Pinterest accounts (to help grow their traffic) and conduct one-on-one chat sessions with newbie bloggers.
If you want to start a business or a freelance career, your blog is a great way to get established.
How to start a blog
There are a few different factors that go into starting a blog. You have to:
- Pick a name for your blog and get the domain name
- Use Bluehost or GoDaddy to host your blog (here’s a tutorial)
- Install the Genesis theme and pick out a child theme that you fancy (this is my favorite part! I use Restored 316 Designs for my blog’s theme)
- Install everything onto WordPress
- Start writing!
Starting a blog is easy – if I can do it, you can do it. It’s not hard and pretty easy.
For all the step-by-step instruction on how to start a blog, you can just download my free ebook. It walks you through the entire process with tutorials. It’s pretty easy to follow and anyone can do it! Best part? It’s free!
Here’s a sample of what it looks like!
What’s included:
- A price comparison between Bluehost and GoDaddy
- The difference between a “parent” theme and a “child theme” – and why you need both!
- How to install themes in WordPress
- Plugin recommendations
- and more!
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