Welcome to our guide on starting your own blog and how you can make money!
If you are an Influencer already, or are building a following on Social Media platforms such as Instagram a Blog not only provides another platform for an Influencer but also brings a lot of oppurtunites your way. Having a Blog is also a great way to start working with brands, getting into events, getting added to PR lists and building your network as an Influencer as you had value to what you bring.
In addition a Blog can be a great way to monetise your platform through promoting affiliate links, Google AdSense, working with brands, promoting products, and even selling your own products.
This is a Step-By-Step guide on How to set up your own blog in 5 simple easy steps.
Let’s get started!
Should you start your own Blog? Absolutely!
A common misconception is that you need to be a great writer or expert to have a Blog. That couldn’t be further from the truth, people want to read a Blog to read things from a personal perspective and hear your actual experiences, mistakes included! It’s common to see an informal writing tone on Blogs so don’t be afraid to write as yourself!
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
5 STEPS TO SETTING UP YOUR OWN BLOG
We’ve broken down the process to starting your own Blog into 5 steps, to help you reach your objective of starting your own blog without feeling daunted by the process. So here are the 5 steps broken down and we will go into detail for each below.
STEP 1. CHOOSE A BLOG NAME & CONTENT
STEP 2. FIND A DOMAIN & WEB HOST
STEP 3. CREATE CONTENT
STEP 4. PROMOTE YOUR BLOG
STEP 5. MAKE MONEY BLOGGING
STEP 1: CHOOSE A BLOG NAME & TOPIC
The first step is to find a good blog is finding a topic that you are interested in writing it about. Maybe you’re interested in Fashion or Beauty, or Celebrity Gossip. It could be a mirror of your Profiles on social media already so if you already have a profile as a fashion influencer then it would make sense to have a Fashion Blog to open up for Monetizing oppurtunites.
The trick is to choose something you are passionate about, you’re going to be writing blog posts about it and will have more to say on topics you naturally are drawn to.
Another good way to choose a blog name and topic is to think of your USP- what’s your Unique Selling Point, do you have any quirks or strong opinions? You want your name and topic to stand out so find your Niche.
One thing to keep in mind when choosing you Blog name, topic and content is to keep it PC, especially if you are looking to work with brands or already do.
TIPS TO CHOOSING A TOPIC:
Hobbies & Interests – Cooking, Fashion, Beauty, Sports, Cars, Photography, Crafts
Life Experiences- Dating, Love, Break Ups, Work, Kids
Personal Blog- Mirror your Social Media with posts, and just share your life, day-day thoughts
TIPS TO CHOOSING A NAME:
A good blog name will say what it is instantly in the name- eg. MyFashionMistakes
Include the topic in the name eg. CookingWithLucy
Personalise your Blog – it’s always good to personalise your Blog and include your name.
STEP 2. GET YOUR BLOG ONLINE
The next step is checking if your Domain name is available and signing up to a Web Host. We would recommend signing up to a Self-Hosting site, this means that you will own your own website and all the content which is really important if you want to monetize your Blog. If you self- host you can work with brands, run ads, join affiliate programs and even add E-Commerce into your Blog to sell your own products.
We would recommend Bluehost as a cheap and easy choice for a new Blogger as they make it super simple to sign up a website in 5 minutes.
So first let’s check your Domain name availability. Type in below to see if your desired name is available:
Once your happy with the Domain then you can proceed to the next stage which is Signing up on Bluehost and choosing your plan, the Basic Plan is fine to start with as you can host 1 website and get started really cheaply with your own Blog.
Log in and go to your Bluehost dashboard:
Click where it says ‘My Sites’ and then click the blue button CREATE SITE
You will be prompted to install WordPress. Once installed you can click on ‘Log Into WordPress’ and you will be taken to your WordPress dashboard already logged in.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE NOW SET UP YOUR SELF-HOSTED WEBSITE READY TO POST AND MONETIZE!
Once logged into WordPress go to your Dashboard and familiarise yourself with the layout.
Down the left side you can see tabs to add posts and pages- so lets get started with adding content in the next step…
STEP 3. CREATE CONTENT
Now you’re ready to start adding content to your website!
Before you go live we would suggest having about 4-6 posts up there
STEP 4. GO LIVE & PROMOTE YOUR BLOG
This is usually done simply by clicking the button on your WordPress dashboard asking you if you are ready to go live, and then your site will become visible to the world.
If you haven’t already, set up social accounts for your blog. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest are the big ones.
It is recommended that you post to social media every day.
It can be a huge task but I have some tips on how to automate the process
STEP 6. MAKE MONEY BLOGGING
Once your blog is live it’s time to monetize! So how do you monetize a blog?
Simply put, to monetize means you have added features to your blog that will earn you money.
You should add all of these monetize features to your blog:
Affiliate Links
Sponsored Posts
Ads
Ebooks
Courses
Own Services/Products
AND THAT’S HOW YOU GET STARTED! WE’LL BE SHARING LOTS MORE CONTENT WITH TIPS AND GUIDANCE ON THINGS LIKE COMING UP WITH BLOG TITLES, CONTENT, PROMOTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA + HOW TO MONETISE!
