In the last year, our blogging gross income exceeded David’s salary 9-5 job.
If we can make money blogging, so can you!
Starting a blog is it’s fairly inexpensive compared to starting other small businesses, and the best part is, that it continues to make money even when you sleep!
For just a few dollars a month and a little hard work, you can get your blog up and running.
How To Start Your Blog Today
If you’re looking to start a blog, you first need to think about a web hosting service.
To understand web hosting, think of the internet as a city. Within the city, there are different neighborhoods (web hosting services), and in one of those neighborhoods is your house (your blog).
Your blog is formed on a web hosting server so that it can be shared on the internet.
I know, I know, It’s all starting to make sense now isn’t it.
Like neighborhoods, there are the web hosts you want to be in and ones you just want to avoid.
SiteGround is one of those web hosts you want to be with! SiteGround is one of the best, if not the best, web hosting sites.
We use SiteGround for our web hosting, and it’s been a great experience!
There are so many things to love about SiteGround. Some of the reasons you shoulduse SiteGround include:
WordPress is FREE and can be installed with 1-click
24/7 tech support that is super quick to fix issues
You get a much more professional look to your site
Why SiteGround
Now you’re probably asking yourself, why would I pay for WEB HOSTING when there are sites that offer it for free?
Let me just say, nothing that’s good in life is free. You can kick off your blogging career with a free hosting service, but you’ll quickly realize that was a mistake and be heading to Siteground shortly afterward.
SiteGround is going to offer better privacy protection that you WILL NEED. If your blog takes off, you don’t want others to be able to access your home address and other personal information about you online.
Privacy protection is a must!
SiteGround also makes sure monetizing your blog will be SO MUCH easier.
Many advertisers look at blogs set up on free hosting sites as too risky due to the less professional look or lack of security.
If you want to make money with your blog, you will find it very hard to get ads and affiliate links for your site if there’s a solid security net on it.
If your goal is to make money, invest the few dollars a month in a good web host because what’s an extra $3.95 a month if it sets your blog up for success?
SiteGround also offers free WordPress when you choose them for hosting. Using WordPress for your blog will make your life and setting up your blog, so much easier.
WordPress is powering over 74 million sites, so I’m not the only one that thinks it’s great!
Before we go any further into the tutorial, now is the time to decide. Do you want to Start A Blog, or does it seem overwhelming? If it seems overwhelming, hang in there.
Keep reading to see just how easy it really is to start a blog.
If you’re ready to start your blog and want to follow along with the Tutorial then use ourSiteGround linkand click the “Get Started” button to choose your plan.
When you get to the SiteGround site and are choosing your hosting plan, there are several options.
You’ll see StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek plans available to choose from.
I recommend choosing the StartUp package. This is the cheapest plan and has everything you will need for your brand new blog.
Don’t spring for the more expensive plans yet, and you can always change them later. For now, choose the StartUp one, and you will be good to go.
Once you select your plan, it’s time to register your domain name.
The domain name is your web address. For example, our domain name is LivingLowKey.com.
When starting a blog, take some time and think through your domain name before registering it. Once you register your domain name, you can’t change it.
We probably spent two weeks going back and forth on different names until we decided on Living Low Key. It just stuck with us, and we kept coming back to it.
So make sure to take your time! Remember, your domain name is one thing you can’t change.
Things to Keep In Mind When Choosing A Domain Name:
Find a domain that you love and then give it a day to think it over.
Do research on the domains you like to make sure they aren’t taken yet.
You can do a domain search here! Just type in the domain you want, and it will tell you if it’s taken.
Keep in mind that you will want your domain name to be something that will relate to the niche your blog belongs to.
Step 2: Choose Your Hosting Plan
Once you register your domain name, you will have to choose your hosting package and pay.
There are several different account plans to choose from. You can pick a 12, 24 or 36-month plan. There is an option for a 1-month trial, but honestly, it might take you a month just to get your site set up.
When You Sign Up Using Our Link Here, I recommend doing the 24-month plan to see if you like blogging. This also guarantees your domain belongs to you for two years.
You can always renew at the end of the year if you wish to continue, which I hope you do!! Blogging is a long game, and you have to give it time to grow in order to see the big returns.
There are several extra options you can add to your plan. We have both the SG Site Scanner because we believe strongly in protecting our site for our users and we also have the privacy protection to keep our identity safe.
Like I mentioned above, Privacy Protection will prevent your personal information from being spread around the internet.
We had to learn this the hard way, take our word for it, and get the protection upfront.
You’ll have to pay the whole amount upfront, so be ready for that. Here is what it should look like when you are choosing your hosting package. Make sure you select the correct plan.
Step 3: Installing WordPress
This is the step where things start getting exciting!! When you sign up with SiteGround, they make this step very easy, and best of all, it’s FREE!
The first thing you will need to do is create a username and password. Write these down somewhere, so you don’t lose them.
Next, SiteGround is going to direct you on how to install WordPress. I’ll let you in on a secret, it’s really easy.
Once WordPress is installed, you’ll want to pick a theme for your webpage. The theme is essentially a package of coding that creates what your website will look like to visitors. There are a few free themes on WordPress.
If you don’t like any of the free themes on WordPress, you can choose a paid version. Search the internet for blog themes you love!
We opted to go with the Pretty Chic theme fromPretty Darn Cute. Lindsey makes some really creative themes, and her customer support is great!
We started the 2nd blog, and we went back to Pretty Darn Cute for another theme. We’ve had a really awesome experience using her themes, so it was an easy decision.
If you want an amazing looking theme that is simple to use, you have to check out Pretty Darn Cute! Lindsey has step by step instructions for formating her blog themes.
Choosing a pre-made theme is the easiest and quickest way to get your site up and running.
However, if your budget isn’t quite ready for a paid theme, a pre-made free theme will work just fine and is provided for you once you are signed up.
Step 4: Building your Website
You did it!!
You signed up for hosting, installed WordPress, chose a theme, and now you’re ready to start designing your site and sharing content.
But where do you start?? That was the first thing we asked ourselves when we started, how do we use this thing we just created.
It may seem overwhelming, but we are here to help!
I’ll walk you through how to use some of the functions on your WordPress blog.
The first thing you will see when you log in to your site is your Dashboard.
The Dashboard is where you will do all your behind the scenes work on your website. You’ll want to get very familiar with the dashboard and what you can do with it.
Let’s get into some of the tools you will find on the dashboard so you can build a foundation of knowledge to work off of.
Creating Pages: Before you start writing content you need to have places to put it on your site. Let’s start by creating pages.
If you look at our site, Living Low Key, you will see a row of Title Buttons at the top of the homepage. Each one of those buttons are “pages.”
When you’re in your WordPress dashboard, you’ll see options on the left-hand side. One of those options is Pages.
Click the pages button and create a new page.
You’ll need to create a page title and decide how you want to put posts on the page. Make the title something catchy and Search Engine friendly.
We use a Plugin called Content Views to arrange our posts on each page, but I will get to those plugins later.
When you’re creating pages on your site, try to create groups that fit in your niche. For us, our areas of focus are SAVE MONEY, MAKE MONEY, and FAMILY FINANCE.
The groups that you create for each page will tie into creating the posts later in more ways than you might think.
These groups should be distinct so that when Google crawls your site, it knows exactly what you’re all about.
Creating Posts: This is what you’re here for, it’s time to start writing great content and getting it out there for the world to see!!
On the left-hand side of your dashboard, you will see a “Posts” option. Hover your mouse over that and click “add new” to add a new post.
Once you create a new post, you need to give it a title and then start writing!!
Things to keep in mind when writing posts:
– Keep the focus on helping your readers – Make it engaging – Make it easy reading, keep paragraphs short – Use correct grammar and spelling – Use Search Engine friendly titles and keywords – Write at least 1500 words, the more, the better – Use pictures in your posts
Once you have the content of your post created, make sure you hit that PUBLISH button so your readers can see it.
When you’re creating posts, you should be writing them for one of the pages you created above. Think of those pages like grain silos, and your post is the grain. You want the right grain in the correct silo.
You’ll want your posts to end up in the right silo so that your readers can find the right info they need. You should also create categories. This option can be found under the posts button on the left side of your dashboard.
I recommend you create category titles that match your page titles.
Here is how this will help you.
Say you have Finance, Start A Blog, and Start Here pages on your blog and you write a post that falls under Start A Blog. How do you get it to go under your Start A Blog page?
If you create categories that match your pages, all you have to do is look at your screens right side. There is a box called categories.
If you made categories that match your page titles, just check the box like the picture above, and it magically appears on that page.
Simple as that!!
Adding Pictures: If you want to add pictures to your blog posts (which is highly recommended), here is how you do it.
First, create a block made for images
Click the Upload button
Upload an image from your computer
Fill in the Alt Text box with words that are optimized for Google Searches
Choose the size of the picture (your blog theme should have specific image sizes that work best)
Click insert into post
Plugins: Plugins are essentially little tools you can use to customize your site. Unless you know how to code, plugins will be your best friend.
They’re little packages of coding that can be used to add new functions to your site or change the look of it.
Neither one of us is very good at writing coding yet, so we use a handful of different plugins on Living Low Key.
When you see things on our site like Pinterest and Facebook share buttons, those are part of a plugin. When you see our email subscribe boxes or popups, those are part of a Plugin.
If you want something done with your site but don’t know how to do it, I guarantee a plugin can make it happen.
One of my favorite plugins that we use is the WP Rocket plugin. This plugin makes our site a lot faster, which is crucial for ranking in Google Searches.
Search Engine Optimization: This is a really important step, and you should invest time in learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
You need to be good at SEO in order for your blog to be found on search engines like Google and Bing.
Keywords and titles will play a big role in how easily people can search for your blog or how high it ranks on a Google search. Doing proper keyword research should be the first thing you do before you even start writing.
After you finish writing your post all the way at the bottom of the page is a box that has SEO information called the Yoast Plugin.
Here you can update the Meta Description (what people see when they find you on Google, the Slug (your post URL), and Post Title.
Yoast also gives you an idea of how your post is set up for SEO, but keep in mind it doesn’t guarantee it will rank, so don’t put too much thought into the scoring.
There is a lot to learn about SEO so take the time and learn about it.
If you want to learn more about SEO and driving traffic to your blog, we highly recommend checking out Stupid Simple SEO. That is the most in-depth course on SEO and helped us take our blog from 0 organic searches per month to over 10,000!!
Start an Email List: When we were learning how to start a blog, we kept hearing about starting an email list, and you will too!
Your email list is where you will connect with your followers. So we highly recommend you work on your email list from the very beginning!
We’re using Convertkit for our email list, and it has been easy to use so far. The customer service has been very responsive to the questions we have, and we don’t have any complaints about it.
We’ve been growing our email list every week since we started this journey. I would highly recommend checking out ConvertKitwhen you want to start growing your email list.
ConvertKit has many different functions that will help you build your email list. The most important thing it does is set up subscription boxes on your webpage. That’s how you get email followers, they subscribe.
You can also give away freebies to entice people to subscribe.
If you’re looking for a really great course on email sales funnels, check out the Six-Figure Blogger.
Privacy Policy and Disclosure: This page is a very important one. Your blog needs to have a Privacy Policy and Disclosure page.
This page should cover what information you collect from readers, how you intend to use that information, whether or not you intend to share that information, any data collection that occurs, how you use cookies, and affiliate disclosures are some of the basics.
Having a solid privacy policy and disclosure pages will help protect you and your website. Make sure you have one.
How To Blog Final Thoughts
There are so many different things you can do to customize your blog. Spend some time experimenting with different things until you find what works for you.
If you ever get stuck on anything, just do a quick search on the internet, and you will find the solution.
At this point, you should have some good groundwork for you to start a blog. One thing that we did when we launched Living Low Key was build up quite a bit of content; first I think we had 15+ posts.
I won’t even say it was excellent content at the beginning… honestly, it was awful! BUT if we would have waited until we had perfect content, we wouldn’t be where we are now!
We spent the first three months of our blogging journey writing content and building our site before we even launched.
The last thing that I will say is don’t give up.
There are going to be ups and downs. You will have to put a lot of time and effort into it, but if you stick with it, you’ll realize just how rewarding it can be.
Heck, maybe it will even be the start of a new career. One where you can work from home!
Now that you have your blog up and running, it’s time to learn about monetizing it!
Pinteresting Strategies: As a new blogger, you’ll quickly find out that Pinterest is the king of driving traffic to your new blog. If you’re struggling to develop a Pinterest pinning strategy, you’re going to want to check out the eBook, Pinteresting Strategies.
Carly Campbell has a terrific pinning strategy that helps drive traffic to your blog. We highly recommend checking out her book, Pinteresting Strategies if you’re new to the blogging world.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: One of the best ways to make money from your blog is through affiliate marketing. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing was created by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. She makes over $50,000 per month on affiliate marketing alone.
This course covers everything from the basics of affiliate marketing, various affiliate networks, making sure you follow FTC rules, promoting strategies for your affiliate links, converting sales, and so much more.
Stupid Simple SEO: I mentioned earlier that Search Engine Optimization is the key to getting good organic traffic from Google or Bing, but it can be confusing.
Mike Pearson does an amazing job in Stupid Simple SEO laying out actionable strategies for you to generate traffic and have your site rank higher in search engines. I highly recommend this course!
Facebook Ads for Bloggers: If you want to learn how to drive highly converting traffic to your blog using Facebook Ads, this is the absolute best course for that.
Bobby and Mike show you exactly how they can drive really inexpensive traffic to their blogs to grow email lists, sell products, and generally make more money!
I so wish I had read a post like this before I floundered around trying to get my blog up and running. This is a great comprehensive step by step to help someone get their website started!
Hi Lisa, Thank you so much for the feedback! We felt the same way when we started so we wanted to help everyone else out. We have two more installments of our How to Start a Blog series coming soon. The next two chapters will discuss how to monetize your blog and how to promote it.
I like how you made it sound so simple, and it is! Too many people think you need to learn how to code and all that to set up a website but you don’t – not at all. I see you recommend Blue Host. I’m with Site Ground at the moment – is Blue Host better?
Hi Timothy, We have only used Bluehost up to this point so we can’t really speak to how the two compare. We have really liked Bluehost so far and had a great experience all around. We have had a few issues where we needed to use Bluehost’s online chat to resolve a problem and the experience has been good every time. How has your experience been with Site Ground?
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I so wish I had read a post like this before I floundered around trying to get my blog up and running. This is a great comprehensive step by step to help someone get their website started!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for the feedback! We felt the same way when we started so we wanted to help everyone else out. We have two more installments of our How to Start a Blog series coming soon. The next two chapters will discuss how to monetize your blog and how to promote it.
I like how you made it sound so simple, and it is! Too many people think you need to learn how to code and all that to set up a website but you don’t – not at all. I see you recommend Blue Host. I’m with Site Ground at the moment – is Blue Host better?
Hi Timothy,
We have only used Bluehost up to this point so we can’t really speak to how the two compare. We have really liked Bluehost so far and had a great experience all around. We have had a few issues where we needed to use Bluehost’s online chat to resolve a problem and the experience has been good every time. How has your experience been with Site Ground?