Starting your blog isn’t hard these days. It takes only 10 minutes to set up a brand-new blog site.
But making money with your professional blog is a little bit hard for a newbie.
To become a good blogger you need to do a lot of smart work to out-stand in this competitive online market.
For that, you need to know your niche, some basic writing skills, and good blog post ideas.
Many bloggers make a living with their blogs.
Some of them make a 7 figure income like Moz, Copyblogger, and TechCrunch.
But don’t worry here is our step-by-step guide on how to become a blogger and make money online.
HOW TO BECOME A BLOGGER?
First of all, to become a blogger you need to understand the meaning of “blogger”.
In simple words, you have knowledge about something and people are looking for it on the internet.
You provide them with the required information in the form of words.
And to start blogging you need to purchase a good domain name, good hosting, and some plugins(most are free).
For example-
Your blog is like an offline shop.
While a domain name is your shop address and hosting is a shop place where you keep your items safe. And your published posts are like the items that are available in the shop.
Now let’s get started-
To become a good full-time blogger 10 easy steps lead you towards becoming a professional blogger.
You should always keep these points in mind while blogging.
Points to keep in mind while blogging
- Choose your niche
- Buy a good domain name ( related to your business/ niche )
- Buy a good hosting ( recommended Bluehost Hosting )
- Choose a great schema optimized theme
- Install some great plugins
- Keep your blog design very simply ( including clear navigation on site )
- Start writing better blog posts than your competitors
- Make amazing back-links
- Promote your content
- And ultimately make money from blogging
All these things are required for professional blogging.
CHOOSE YOUR NICHE
Before starting your blog you need to decide on your blogging niche.
Niche means a specific and focused area about which you write a blog post covering every aspect of that particular thing.
And now the question comes-
Why you should choose a niche?
So, the answer is niches are more specific about any product.
And the people who search for those products that means they are in buying intent and they have some basic knowledge about the product and thing.
So, your sales will increase and you will be making more money from blogging.
Let’s understand it with an example-
Niche Category | Keywords | Buying intent |
Broad niche | leather shoes | Buying intent is very low |
More Specific | Black leather shoes | Buy intent low |
Micro niche | Black leather shoes for men | Buying intent is very high |
Now you can easily understand the power of selecting a niche.
The more micro you go the more money you will make via blogging.
Now the second biggest question is-
How to find a perfect niche?
To find out the best niche there are 5 types of methods available.
Quora–
Quora is the biggest platform where people ask questions and get their answers.
So, you can choose Quora to find out what kind of question is being asked by the people.
Then start your blog around that category submit your URL in your answer and get free traffic from Quora.
Amazon best seller–
Yes, Amazon Best Seller can help you to find out which items in every category a bestsellers.
So, choose any category as per your wish and find out which products are doing well in that category.
Then build your blog around those items. Then start writing good quality, genuine blog posts about reviews, how to use guides.
And start making money with your blog.
Amazon books–
Amazon books also can give you better ideas to find out your niche. Check out which books are doing well make a blog around them and start making money online.
Flippa
Flippa is one of the biggest platforms where blogs, websites, and apps are being sold and bought.
So, what you can do is go to flippa and check what those blogs have been sold recently.
Here, you can apply some amazing filters like age one year, pricing $1000, or earning $1000 per month.
By applying these filters you will get a list of blogs from where you can take ideas that these blogs are one year old and were making $1000 per month.
That means there is potential in this category.
So, take a step ahead and start building a blog and write a blog post and monetize your blog.
Tools
There are many kinds of tools available in the market which can help you to find out the best niche.
These tools are also capable of telling you the keyword difficulty around them, keyword overview, content ideas, competitor analysis, back-link analysis, and much more.
We suggest you use ahref, and semrush which are paid and both tools are outstanding.
These are essential for your blogging journey to write a better blog post.
If you have a limited budget then you can choose ubersuggest which gives you 3 research per day free.
You can also choose Google Question Hub to find good blog post ideas.
Buy a good domain name ( related to your business/ niche )
The second step while registering a blog is buying a good domain name. Your domain name is your blog address.
In our case onlineincomegenrator.com, is our domain name.
There are some rules that you should keep in mind while creating a brand-new blog.
Your domain name should be related to your business or niche. Keep your domain name simple.
It must be easy to remember for your audience. Always try to grab a domain having an extension of DOT COM.
If your niche is country-specific then you can take country-specific extensions like ( .in, .usa,.uk,.ca ).
When it comes to buying domain names we recommend you again BLUEHOST.
Because here, you will have your domain free of cost for the first year which will save a lot of your money in the beginner’s stage.
So, register your blog with Bluehost and get a free domain name.
After purchasing a domain name now it comes to buying hosting.
Buy a good hosting
Hosting means your online space to store your data or content on the server.
Many hosting companies exist in the market.
And some of them are very cheap also but it doesn’t work well.
Because they don’t have proper space on servers and your hosting will crash often.
It is my personal opinion that being a newbie buys good and reliable hosting.
Because if your server is not able to handle your traffic then how can you make money? Your blog site speed and uptime will be low and it gives users a very bad experience.
Many of the time your site will be down. So, invest for one time because it’s your asset that is going to make you more and more money.
So, here Bluehost and WPX hosting come in roles. Both hosting companies are great having amazing features.
If you are just starting then prefer Bluehost and if you are an intermediator and looking for perfect hosting for your blog then WPX hosting is for you.
Now it’s time to set up your hosting-
Visit the Bluehost web hosting by clicking this link. And you will land here, on this page.
Here, you need to go Hosting menu. Here, you will see three sub-menus shared, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting.
You being a newbie selected for shared hosting.
After clicking on this submenu you will be redirected to their plan page. Here, you can see their affordable plan.
Select as per your choice and budget.
If you want to start your blog then first go for a basic plan or go for a choice plan.
Once, your blog starts earning then you can switch your plan and also your hosting plan. You can upgrade later easily.
After that simply click on select and you will be redirected further to this page.
Here, it will ask you to create a new domain.
It means you can choose your domain name whatever you want with an extension.
If you have any domain name then simply put your domain name in the second block. Which is to use a domain you own.
After this process click on next then it will show you this page.
Here, you need to fill in your details which are as shown in this image.
Fill up this form will accurate details like name, last name, country, ZIP code, number, and e-mail address.
After filling form scroll down and here it will show you your package information like your account plan, and your hosting plan.
We recommend you if you buy hosting for 36 months it will save you half of the cost. So, save your money for blogging.
Here, you can see all the billing details. Also, check out your domain, and an SSL certificate for one year is free.
And here, in package extra, you can remove whatever you don’t want just by unchecking it.
After this step, it is time to make a payment for starting a blog.
Here, it will ask you to give your credit card number. You can also make payments from your PayPal account as well.
Make payment and take the first step ahead for blogging to give a different meaning to your life.
Now your blog is ready and live.
Set your username and password to log in to your hosting account.
PRO TIP- Always enable two-step authentication for your blog. You can install the Google authentication app for that where you can time-based OTP to log into your account. And never save the password on the hosting website.
Choose a great schema-optimized theme
Here, word schema optimized means the proper arrangement of the section in a blog post so that Google can easily identify that this is the header area, this is content, and this is the author area.
Themes play a vital role in your whole blogging journey.
So, it is important to understand that if you don’t want to leave your money on the table then the selection of themes should be done carefully.
Because a lightweight theme will take less time to load which will increase user engagement and experience.
While a heavyweight theme will take more time and users will step away from your blog.
According to a survey if your blog site is taking one second more then you are leaving approx 15-25% money.
So, keep this thing in mind.
There are many lights yet the best theme available in the market like generate press, kinsta, and WP Astra which are good. We recommend you use one of them for your blogs.
Generate press, Astra themes are available in free and paid variants. You can use their free version on your blogs.
Learn how to add a theme to your blog website-
First, go to your blog dashboard. Then go to Appearance, and select the theme option. Simply click on Add new theme.
Choose any one simple theme for your blog. Click on Install to install the theme.
You can also check what this theme looks like by clicking on the preview. It is going to take 1 minute to install.
After installation simply click on activate to activate the theme on your blog. Now the theme is live on your blog.
Install some great plugins–
Plugins are like small software which makes your work easier to do.
After building a blog now it turns to installing some great plugins.
Most of the plugins are free of cost.
Here, is the list of some plugins that are necessary for you to install.
Some of them are for your blog security and some of them are to help you in your blogging journey.
To install any plugin you need to visit the dashboard area of your blog which looks like that.
Then go to the plugins option. And click on that then click on Add New. Then a new window will pop up like this.
Search for any plugin you want to install and click on activate. Now your plugin is activated on your blog.
Here, is the list of some of the essential plugins which you must install on your blogs.
Rank math- Rank math is one of the best plugins for SEO points of view on your blog.
It can easily analyze your post SEO score and readability score. You can also edit your post snippet like title, URL, and meta description.
Contact Form 7- This is a great plugin where you can easily create any kind of form like the Contact Us form or whatever you want.
Akismet Anti-Spam– Want to protect your blogs from spam comments? then this plugin is for you. It protects your blog from spam comments by filtering them word by word.
Here, you can mention words, phrases, and sentences, if any comment has such things this plugin will block them automatically.
Broken Link Checker– These plugins help you to find out any broken links on your blogs.
Manually it is hard to search one by one link but this plugin made it very simple to find out and remove them with just one click.
Keep your blog design very simple ( including clear navigation on the site )
Always keep your blog design very clear. Don’t culture things.
Make sure your site navigation is smooth so that any visitor or user can easily navigate.
Always design your blogs keeping user experience in mind. You should properly place the home button, and logo ( If you have one).
Always try to have fewer categories on your blogs.
And yes, don’t forget to create an about us page, contact us page, privacy policy page, and disclaimer page. These pages are very essential to gain Google’s trustworthiness for your blog.
Essential pages for your blog
About us page- On this page mention yourself, your social contact details, and a brief overview of your blog.
Contact us- On this, you can mention how can a user contact you. For that, you can provide your e-mail address, office address, and phone number or you can add a form.
Privacy Policy- On this page, you can mention the workflow of your blog. You can mention the rules, regulations, and responsibilities of users to visit your blog.
Disclaimer- On this page, you can tell your visitors if use any ad network or promote any items using affiliate links. It is a kind of, to be honest with your visitor. So, that they can’t blame you in future.
Start writing better blog posts than your competitors
Presently content is king. It is the content that beats everything. So, try to write better than your competitor’s.
First, analyze what kind of content on that particular topic wins. Then find a better way and compete with everyone else.
In the initial stage make sure you write at least 5000 words in a post. Try to cover every point of view.
Give detailed knowledge to your visitors. Be original, don’t try to copy anyone.
Because Google is very smart today if you copy any single sentence then also you will be caught.
Avoid doing keyword stuffing in your blog posts.
So, write unique, better, lengthy content than your competitors.
I suggest you first write on low-keyword competition keywords. If in the initial time, you will try to write or compete on hard keywords then your chances are most likely to fail.
So, first, write about long-tail keywords with less keyword difficulty and less search volume. It is completely OK for a beginner.
As you progress and your blog traffic starts increasing then move towards high search volume keywords. It should be in a progressive mode like you walk on a slope.
Some tools can help you to write better content like ahref, and semrush.
Semrush can help you to find out key difficulty, matching terms, and keyword phrase matches.
Also, you can discover back-links, domain authority, and ratings of your competitors.
we suggest you choose keywords for which under 40 domain rating websites are ranking in the top 10.
Then try to make more quality backlinks and great content, and very soon you will be in the top 10.
Also, you can switch to the Google Question Hub where people post real-time questions to get answers. Select your topic search for a question write a good post about that and submit.
And you will be getting free, organic traffic.
If your budget allows you then you can also hire content writers for you from freelancing websites like Upwork, freelancer, and Fiver.
Here, you can place any job offer depending on your budget and get better content delivered to your hand.
This kind of blogging investment will give the best returns in the future.
Make amazing back-links-
Backlinks are an indication of trust in your website. The more backlinks you have the more trust you will gain from Google.
Backlinks are one of the ranking factors. So, make quality backlinks. But make sure whatever back-links you make should be related to your niche then it will benefit you more.
Suppose you have a blog about farming and you get a back-link from a medical or fitness blog then it is like spam.
So, avoid these mistakes.
Now the question comes-
How to make backlinks?
So, the answer is-
Guest Post- Guest post is a very easy way to get back-links but for that, you need to set your work/ content as an example.
Then only any blogger will accept your guest post. To find such blogs that accept guest posts you can search on Google.
Many websites accept guest posts.
The sponsored post–
This is another way to make backlinks for your blog.
You can pay an acceptable amount to another blogger who accepts sponsored guest posts in your niche.
Profile back-links- Yes, it is also a great way to make backlinks.
You can make your profile on each social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, and YouTube. And you can link your blog URL in your profile.
Forum backlinks- Presently there are many forums available on Google about every niche.
Search them on Google simply by typing your main keyword+forum. And you will find many forums.
Create your profile there and take a back-link from there also.
Also, you can buy backlinks from freelancing sites.
Find a good one and make backlinks for your blog. But here, is a warning for you don’t take backlinks from any private blog networks.
Promote your content-
Now after doing that much of a job, you need to promote your content. Because it doesn’t matter how much better your content is.
Unless people see it. In the initial time, you can promote your content once you get a good number of subscribers in your e-mail list then it is not that much required because people already know about you.
So, to promote your content you can choose free blogging promotion methods or you can choose paid blog promotion.
Free blog promotion- In this method, you can share your content on all free platforms like Pinterest, Facebook groups, quora, and forums. where people can notice your blog content.
However, it is not that effective because the people who will see your content might not be interested.
After all, they are not targeted. But for a start, it is best for newbies.
Paid promotion- In paid promotion, you can target people by their age group, gender, country, and area.
So, paid promotion in blogging is more effective. For paid promotion, you can run Facebook ads, Instagram ads, YouTube ads, link-din ads.
But the returns will be great. If you don’t know how to run ads then you can hire anyone from up-work or fiver. Where anyone can do this job for you.
Collaborate with a micro-influencer- If you want to promote your blogging content then you need to collaborate first with small influencers in your niche.
It might happen that the big influencer will not accept your proposal but a small one will do. Pay them what they charge and this way get people’s attention on your blog.
Search engine optimization- Yes, you can SEO your blog to get more organic page views from Google.
In search engine optimization on-page and off-page are included. On the page, you need to update your content frequently, image optimization, etc.
While in off-page SEO link building, profile optimization is included. So, optimize your blogging content to become a stunning blogger.
This is the way how to become a blogger systematically with perfect strategies.
And ultimately make money from blogging-
Everyone who starts a blog always provides valuable content first and then makes money. So, the ultimate is making money from blogging.
So, if you are not able to monetize your blog then you are failing in the professional blogging field.
So, there are many ways to monetize your blog and make money from blogs. Here, some of the popular ones are listed which you can easily use.
Affiliate marketing- This is the best and easiest way to earn money from your blog.
Simply you need to write better content about products, post your reviews, and insert your affiliate link.
Whenever anyone buys through your specific link you will make some commission for generating sales.
There are many affiliate networks available like Share a Sale, impact, and self-hosted affiliate programs. Join anyone and start making money.
But, yes it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It is not that easy. You must have a piece of great knowledge about that field then only you can convenience people to buy that product from your link.
Amazon associate- Yes, amazon is the biggest opportunity to earn money from home.
Just find a good product build a blog around it and promote it.
Sell your product- If you do have your physical or digital product you can sell them on your blog and can make a decent amount of money.
Sell your blog space to advertisers- Yes, you can sell some space on your blog post to advertisers to advertise on your post. And you make some money from it.
Google ad-sense- It is one of the legitimate ways to monetize your blog. But here, you need to keep your blog under Google policies to get approval for ad-sense.
Sponsored post If you get a good amount of web traffic then you can also get offered any sponsored post.
From here you can also make some money. Here, you can collaborate with brands to post reviews about them on your blog.
This was the complete process of how to become a blogger. Apply these tricks and techniques to your blogging career and become a better blogger.
SOME FAQ-
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Does it require any special skill to become a blogger?
Well, not clearly but yes, you might have some knowledge about your niche.
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How do bloggers get paid?
Most bloggers get paid by pay-per-click or pay-per-impression.
Where in pay per click when any visitor clicks on ads the only advertiser will pay to the blogger while in pay per impression, it is fixed how much amount blogger gets paid on a fixed impression of ads on visitors. -
How can I start blogging without any money?
Well, there is a free option available which is Google Blogger. Where you can start your blog without any money.
But here you will get your domain with a blog-spot extension. Suppose your domain is yourname.com then in blogger, it will be yourname.blogspot.com -
What is the best platform to start blogging?
WordPress is the best in all the means. WordPress gives you full access to customize your blog. Also, WordPress is easy to use. Here, you can easily install plugins and edit posts. WordPress interface is also very amazing to use.
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How can you make money as a beginner in blogging?
For a beginner google, ad-sense is the best available option to make money with your blog. Because in the initial stage when you have less traffic affiliate network might deny you approval.
Once, your traffic increase then you can switch to affiliate marketing. -
How to write a better blog post?
To write a better blog post you need to research first about the topic. For that, you can take the help of books, google, YouTube videos, and Wikipedia then make your own best notes and then write in simple words.