Ever dreamed of sharing your passions from the comfort of home, and earning money from it? You’re in the right place. In this guide, I will give you my best advice for how to start a blog from your couch! From choosing the perfect niche to mastering the art of captivating content, let’s get you started with this amazing income-earning project.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Why I am So Glad I Bit The Bullet and Started a Blog
I started this blog a little over a year ago, and I can tell you, I am so glad I took the plunge into this ever-evolving world of opportunities. Time and money invested has definitely not gone to waste! Having a blog can be incredibly exciting for several reasons:
Having a Creative Outlet
My blog has given me a platform for self-expression and creativity. It allows me to share my thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the world in my own unique voice and style.
Connects Me With Other Like Minded People
Blogging has connected me with my tribe! If I had not started this blog, I would not have discovered the thousands of other people who share my philosophies and convictions. With blogging, you can build a supportive community of readers, fellow bloggers, and followers who engage with your content and contribute to discussions.
Impact and Influence
Blogging has given me the opportunity to make a positive impact on others. You too can use blogging to make an impact by sharing your valuable information, insights, and advice. You can inspire, educate, and empower your audience to make positive changes in their lives or pursue their goals.
Personal Growth
I have grown so much in this year that I have taken up the torch of blogging. It has inspired me to learn, to use my time wisely, to plan and to persevere. Blogging challenges you to step out of your comfort zone, learn new skills, and grow both personally and professionally. It encourages self-reflection, critical thinking, and continuous improvement as you navigate the process of writing, publishing, and promoting your content.
Freedom and Flexibility
Through my blog, I have the freedom to express myself on my terms and share content that matters to me. I also have the flexibility to create my own schedule (around children’s naps and in the midst of chaos!), work from anywhere, and pursue my passions while balancing other responsibilities.
Opportunities for Monetization
Blogging is such an exciting hobby, because you have the opportunity to bring in an income from doing something that you love. While not the primary motivation for every blogger, the potential to monetize your blog through various avenues such as affiliate marketing, sponsored content, digital products, or advertising can be exciting. It allows you to turn your passion into a source of income and potentially even a full-time career.
Recognition and Validation
As your blog grows and gains traction, receiving positive feedback, comments, and recognition from your audience can be incredibly rewarding. It validates your efforts and reinforces the value of your content, motivating you to continue producing high-quality work.
Learning and Discovery
Blogging opens doors to new opportunities for learning, exploration, and discovery. Whether it’s researching topics for your blog posts, networking with industry experts, or experimenting with new strategies, blogging keeps you intellectually stimulated and engaged.
Overall, the excitement of having a blog stems from the sense of fulfillment, connection, and empowerment it brings as you share your voice with the world and make a meaningful impact on others’ lives.
10 Easy Steps to Start A Successful Blog
1. Choose Your Niche
The very first thing you need to do (once you’ve decided to start a blog), is to decide what to write about! It can be challenging to pinpoint the topic you will focus on, especially because a lot of us have wide and varied interests!
For a blog, you want to have a niche that is sufficiently broad (so you can write a lot of articles) and specific (so you can establish topical authority).
Focusing on a niche that you’re passionate about and that has a potential audience is crucial, otherwise you simply won’t provide any value nor get any traffic.
A really useful thing you can do at this stage is to research existing blogs in your niche to understand what topics are popular and what gaps you can fill. Consider your expertise, interests, and target audience’s needs when selecting your niche.
For example, my “niche” is homemaking, which is a really broad topic. There’s lots of things I can write about that falls under the umbrella of Homemaking. This is great, but I need to stand out, too! So that’s why I focus on healthy, budget-friendly homemaking. It’s a bit more specific, plus it’s what I’m super passionate about.
The best thing is, that the more true to you you are, the more likely you will connect yourself with like-minded people, be it followers, readers, and other bloggers.
2. Invest In Learning
From someone who hates asking for help and likes doing everything my own way, I’m going to tell you that you are going to save a lot of time by investing in a blogging course.
Blogging is a big beast, and before you even start publishing posts, there are a few technical things to walk through. Investing in the right course is going to save you time, stress, and dramas later on.
Before I started my blog, I purchased the Create Your Blog Dream Blogging Course, run by Lisa from Farmhouse on Boone. Lisa walks with you, hand in hand, as you navigate blogging platforms, hosting, content planning, marketing and monetization. It’s a great course that set my blogging dream up in the best way possible.
I would have had no clue where to begin had I not invested in learning, straight away. Because of this, I was able to set up my blog with less hassle and could start writing within days.
Investing in a blogging course is the best thing you can do before you’ve even started. It will minimize mistakes and get you on the right track, straight away.
3. Select a Blogging Platform
Choosing a blogging platform sounds confusing, and it would have been for me, had I not had Lisa’s blogging course to guide me. The right platform to choose can be overwhelming due to the abundance of options available. Each platform has its pros and cons in terms of customization, ease of use, and cost.
Generally, WordPress is the best blogging platform that you’ll find most bloggers recommending. Just be sure to invest in the self-hosted platform (wordpress.org). While you’ll need to find and pay for separate hosting and be more involved on the technical side to build and maintain your website effectively, your site will look more professional and brands will be more willing to work with you.
4. Pick a Domain Name
Finding a memorable and available domain name can be challenging, especially with so many already registered. It’s essential to choose a name that reflects your blog’s identity and is easy to spell and remember.
You could use domain name generators and brainstorming techniques to come up with creative ideas. A lot of bloggers simply use their own name, which is a great option for when you want to expand or pivot your niche later on (without having to invest in a new website).
5. Set Up Hosting
Understanding hosting options and technical requirements can be daunting, especially for beginners. Selecting a reliable hosting provider is crucial for ensuring website speed, uptime, and security. If you have decided to go with a self-hosted WordPress.org site (and I hope you will!), then you will need to choose a hosting company to partner with.
When I started my blog, there was a deal for a WordPress.org/Bluehost combo, which was the cheapest at the time. Bluehost had come with many recommendations, and so far I have found this to be a really great combination.
Look for hosting providers that offer 24/7 support, easy WordPress installation, automatic backups, and scalability options. Because of the combo, Bluehost was perfectly compatible with WordPress. Bluehost also has a really helpful online chat box if you experience any issues, and they can quickly take care of technical malfunctions.
I would definitely recommend Bluehost for when you’re just starting out. If you do decide later on to invest in a more expensive hosting company, BigScoots is also one that most big bloggers recommend.
6. Design Your Blog
Now we get to the fun part: Making your blog look pretty! Honestly, you could spend so much time jazzing up your blog, so my tip here is to keep your branding clean and simple. I wasted so much time with different colours and fonts, and learnt the hard way that the best thing is to make sure your blog is easy to read and navigate.
Purchasing a theme will make this process way more enjoyable. For my birthday, I treated myself to a Restored 316 theme. I am so glad that I splurged! These themes are a bit more pricey than average, but it made my site look as professional and feminine as my heart desired.
I think the design of your blog will effect how happy you are, as a creator, to keep working on it. Once my blog started looking pretty and professional, I was more inspired by my brand, my niche and my overall objective! We can’t inspire others if we aren’t ourselves!
7. Create Compelling Content
It’s time for the meat: your blog posts. This is why we are here! Generating fresh and engaging content consistently can be time-consuming and challenging, especially while juggling other responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom.
To help, I suggest planning your content calendar in advance to ensure you are sticking to your niche and establishing topical authority. Focus on providing value to your audience through informative, entertaining, or inspiring content that addresses their pain points and interests.
As a general rule, the more content you produce, the more quickly your blog will grow. Platforms like Pinterest love fresh content, plus giving your readers something to binge on will keep them coming back.
A lot of bloggers suggest mapping out a month’s worth of content, but to be honest, I have never done this. For me, content planning happens weekly. I like to produce 3-4 articles a week, which I map out on a Monday.
The important thing is to produce a content plan that you can realistically keep up with, because the internet does not favour a feast-or-famine approach. Producing 2 articles, every week for a year, is better than 15 one month, then none at all for the next 3. Know your limits, and set realistic goals.
8. Promote Your Blog
Promoting your Blog is probably the most difficult part of the whole blogging process, because it takes time, testing, and a lot of trial-and-error. Building an audience and driving traffic to your blog can be slow and frustrating initially, especially without a marketing background.
In general, the promotion/content balance is an 80:20 ratio: 80% promotion, 20% content production. Knowing this from the outset is going to help you manage your expectations around promotion success.
Pinterest is Your Ticket to Success!
For beginner bloggers, the best way to promote your content is via Pinterest, which is a free platform where you can essentially advertise your articles. Pinterest is a blogger’s dream, a visual search engine that puts your articles before lots of eyes (almost 500 million users per month!).
While you should be optimizing your articles for Google from the outset, it does take time to rank and therefore get traffic from this search engine. Pinterest is a quick way for new bloggers to rank in search results and get traffic, straight away. I invested in the popular Pinteresting Strategies Course, by Carly Campbell. This course helped me to use Pinterest to skyrocket my traffic. I wish I had invested in it sooner! Had I done so, I would have set my Pinterest account up correctly from the outset – and could have experienced larger traffic volumes a lot sooner. I definitely made my money back within a month of purchasing the course.
Later on, once your site is a more established, you can utilize other forms of promotion like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube to generate traffic to your site. Your email list will become a crucial traffic driver to any link you are wanting to promote, and guest posting on other popular sites will put your content before an audience that hasn’t seen you yet.
The fun thing about Blogging is that the more you engage with your audience and participate in relevant online communities, the more you will build relationships, increase visibility, and develop a loyal community that will keep coming back to your content.
9. Monetize Your Blog
This is the exciting part: getting money from your Blog! Honestly, there are so many ways to earn money once you begin blogging. Once you have an established brand and content, you can re-purpose it into podcasts, YouTube videos, Ebooks, and more. You can craft branded products to sell on Amazon or Etsy. The sky is the limit!
The best thing is, you can start earning money, right away, by allowing ads to be placed on your site. Now, ad placement on a beginner blog is a controversial topic. A lot of people don’t like ads cluttering up their content and causing users to leave straight away.
Personally, I wanted ads on my site from the beginning so there was no ugly “transition” period from beautiful, ad-free content to annoying pop ups and distracting side bars. I thought that transition would be more damaging for an audience who had learned to trust my site as an ad-free go-to.
Ads and affiliate income are the best ways to earn income as a beginner blogger. Once you have a devoted audience, you can foray into other avenues of monetization that align with your audience and niche.
The key to monetization success is to focus on providing value and maintaining authenticity. To get people to buy from you, you need to have their trust. People can sniff a scam a mile off, and you are going to lose followers if you try to sell them something you do not believe in. Stay true to you, and your followers will seriously consider anything you have to offer them.
10. Learn and Improve
Blogging is an industry that is constantly evolving, with algorithm updates, AI, and trends and world events (remember Covid?). Keeping up with industry trends, algorithms, and best practices requires never-ending learning and adaptation.
If you’re serious about making a full-time income from blogging (and you should be!), stay curious and proactive about learning new skills. Experimenting with different strategies, and constantly analyze your results.
As I said before, the best thing you can do for your blog is to invest in it with both your time and your money. Learn from the best, and you will see exponential blogging success. There are so many online courses (that are legit!), webinars, and blogging events you can take part in to stay connected and inspired.
Remember that growth takes time, so be patient and persistent in your efforts to improve and evolve as a blogger. I personally guarantee that you WILL see success, as long as you stick with Blogging through the highs and the lows.
Still have questions about Blogging? Drop a comment below so we can get to the bottom of it!
