For many years, I kept wondering how one can start a blog from zero with no experience and make money from it.
Being a person with no tech experience, it took me over ten years after quitting my job to convince myself that I could start a blog. The questions that went around my mind included:
What is a blog?
Why start a blog?
What is a blogging platform?
What is the difference between a hosted and a self-hosted blog?
What do I write about in my blog?
How can I start a blog from zero with no experience in blogging at all?
How can I make money blogging?
When I finally took the leap and started a blog from zero with Bluehost, I came up with a simple step-by-step guide to help other beginners and show them that it is doable.
In this guide, I will explain all you need to know to start a successful blog from scratch and start making money with it.
Please note that if you sign up with my hosting provider of choice, you will only pay $2.95 per month if you choose the 36 months package.
This post contains affiliate links, and I may be compensated if you buy any service through my links but at no extra cost to you. For more information, please see my affiliate disclosure.
What is a blog?
If you are starting a blog from zero, you may not even know what I’m talking about. A blog is a website that has written content popularly known as blog posts. Bloggers base their blog posts on their knowledge and experience of specific topics.
Most bloggers share their knowledge to help other people with specific problems. For example, a personal finance blogger may write articles to help people with information on investments, saving, budgeting, etc.
As opposed to academic writing, you need not be a professional writer to be successful in blogging. In fact, most blog writers write informally and conversationally to educate their followers on a topic of interest.
Why start a blog?
The main reasons people start blogs include:
- Sharing personal stories
Who doesn’t enjoy hearing interesting stories of success or failure in something? Most blogs are born out of the personal experiences of the authors. You may have done something so successfully that you want to help others succeed in the same field.
You may also have failed miserably in something, and you would want to share your lessons to help others avoid the pitfalls.
- Promoting something
Some people start blogs to promote a service or a product they are offering. For example, a book author may start a blog to promote their books to wider audiences.
- Educating others
People with specialized skills start blogs to teach those skills to others. Examples are people who start blogs to teach others how to cook or how to play musical instruments.
- Making money
Ultimately, most bloggers want to make money out of their blogs. There are several ways to make money using a blog which I will discuss later on in this post.
Difference between a hosted and self-hosted blog
The most widely used software for building websites is known as WordPress, and it is freely available. Depending on your needs, you can use WordPress.com or WordPress.org, each of which has pros and cons.
A hosted site is the easiest to build, and anyone with no design or coding experience can do it. WordPress.com provides website hosting services.
All you need is to sign up for an account, and they will handle everything else for you. You only need to publish your posts, and you can start everything for free.
The major drawback of a free hosted service is that you have very little control over your site. You will also have to bear the extension of the host in your domain name unless you upgrade to a paid service.
For example, if my website were on a hosted solution, it would be something like avoidtheboss.wordpress.com instead of avoidtheboss.com. Monetization in a free-hosted blog is also very limited.
On the other hand, with a self-hosted website, you have full control of your website, including coding, design, customization, files, etc., and you can use them the way you want.
Self-hosted websites are hosted by providers like Bluehost, Siteground, and Hostgator, among others. Besides, they have their own domain names, for example, avoidtheboss.com.
The major disadvantage of self-hosting is that you have to pay the hosting company to host the blog for you even before you start blogging. This is, however, worth it because you have full control, and you can monetize your blog any way you want.
To self-host your website, you use WordPress.org.
Pro tip 1: For full customization and future monetization of your blog, opt for a self-hosted blog with WordPress.org when starting a blog from zero.
Steps to starting a blog
Choose a niche
Simply put, a niche is a specific area or topic you want to focus on in your writing.
Although you can decide to write on random topics, when starting a blog from zero, it is important to specialize in one major topic that people will associate you with.
Examples of niches are:
Parenting
Personal Finance
Health and Fitness
Food
Fashion and beauty
Travel
Relationships
Religion
You can choose a wide niche like parenting and decide to focus on a sub-niche like single parenting, parenting twins, parenting on a single income, etc.
There are a few questions you can ask yourself when determining what niche to select
1. What are you passionate about?
You may be so passionate about something that you are always talking about it and solving other people’s problems in that particular area.
It could be singing, cooking, sewing, writing, or any other area. Make a list of all the things you are passionate about, and you can write about them for years without getting bored.
2. What skills do you have that you can share with others?
In life, we gain skills through education and experience. For example, you can gain cookery skills by attending college and learning how to cook.
Alternatively, you can gain these skills through experience by trying out several recipes and perfecting them by cooking for your family or friends several times every month.
3. What is monetizable?
You may be knowledgeable and have experience in something that no one but yourself is interested in.
When selecting a niche, think about the various problems that people have and would pay money to solve them. This will go a long way in helping you monetize your blog later.
Once you decide what you are passionate about, what skills you have, and what is monetizable, check to see where they all overlap.
For example, if you are passionate about cooking and have relevant cooking skills, many people would willingly pay you to teach them how to cook. Cooking and recipe development can become a great niche for you to blog about.
Pro tip 2: As you decide on your niche, it is important to find out if you can monetize it.
One reason people start blogs is to be able to earn money from them eventually. You, therefore, need to ask yourself if people would be willing to spend money to buy products and services in your selected niche.
If you realize that very few people would be willing to spend money on a particular niche, then it is better to repeat the niche selection process we discussed earlier and develop a different niche.
Ensure that what you give your followers is helpful and meets their needs; they will come looking for you to give you the money.
Choose a blog name
When starting a blog from zero, you need a name with which your blog will identify.
Since you have already decided on your niche in the earlier step, it is important that your blog name represents the niche that you will be writing about, if at all possible.
Make a list of all possible names that you can think about that are representative of your niche. The name should be short and memorable.
Spaces between names are not allowed, so avoidtheboss.com cannot be, avoid theboss.com.
Some people opt not to tie themselves with a specific name and just use their real names as their blog names. This is also an option, especially if you are not so sure at the beginning what you want to blog about.
A good example is https://www.adamenfroy.com, a blogger who decided to use his name as the identity of his blog.
After choosing your blog name, you also need to choose an extension. Examples of extensions are .com, .org, .net.
Dot com extensions are preferred over the others.
Is Your Blog Name Available
Once you have several preferred names, it is time to find out if they are available. There are several sites where you can do this, like the following:
- GoDaddy
- Domainwheel
- Nameboy
- Website host providers like Namecheap and Bluehost also have this service
If your preferred name is not available, you can try the following things:
- Change a few things in the name like adding small words like my, for example, myavoidtheboss.com
- Try to use different words with the same or close meaning, for example, food instead of cook.
- Add a dash between words, for example, avoid-theboss.com
- Try a different extension, for example, a dot net instead of a dot com
This exercise should give you a good name to work with. If you decide to host your blog with Bluehost, the good news is that you won’t have to buy your domain name.
This is because they allow you to use your selected domain name for free for the first year.
Pro tip 3: Nobody will pay you for a passion project that does not meet any specific need. Ensure your blog solves people’s problems.
Choose a hosting provider
In this guide, I’m teaching you how to start a self-hosted blog because this gives you limitless possibilities.
It is also quite easy to do with my hosting provider of choice, who is Bluehost.
My blog is hosted by Bluehost, and I believe they are among the best hosting providers available.
Disclosure: Bluehost will compensate me for giving you this information for free if you purchase the hosting through my link. This is at no extra cost for you.
Start A Blog From Zero With Bluehost and WordPress
Advantages of hosting your blog with Bluehost
You may be wondering, how good is Bluehost? I use Bluehost to host my blog, so I’m speaking from experience. These are the advantages that convinced me to host my blog with Bluehost:
- Bluehost is very beginner-friendly. If you are anything like me, techy things freak me out, which is one reason I delayed starting a blog. As you will see in the steps below, anyone can start a blog with Bluehost with no technical skills.
- Great customer support – there are many things I did not know what to do when I started my blog. Thanks to Bluehost’s 24/7 customer support, I would chat with them for hours, asking question after question, and they would gladly answer all of them to my satisfaction. I still do. They also provide support on the phone.
- Free domain name – with Bluehost, you get a free domain name for the first year of doing business with them.
- You also get a free SSL certificate
- One-click WordPress installation – with one click of the mouse, they install WordPress for you. How great is that?
- Money-back guarantee – If you are unhappy with Bluehost, they have a money-back guarantee where you can get your money back within the first 30 days, no questions asked.
- Great reputation – Bluehost has been around for many years, and they have over 2 million satisfied customers who have been with them for years. Many of the biggest blogs are hosted on Bluehost.
Step-By-Step Guide To Starting Your WordPress Blog With Bluehost
Follow these steps and start your WordPress blog in under 20 minutes. Click here to get started.
Click on get started as shown below
Select the plan you want for as little as $2.95 per month. If you are just starting, I recommend you choose the basic plan and ignore the choice plus plan recommended by Bluehost.
Click on select, just below $2.95/Mo, to choose your plan.
Set up your domain by typing in the domain name you selected in the earlier step and clicking on next.
If you already own a domain name you would like to use, type the name in the box stating, “use a domain name you own,” then click on next.
Next, fill in your personal and business information under the account information tab
Under the payment information, fill in the requested billing details like credit card number and expiry date.
Please note that if you don’t have a credit card or you prefer to use another billing method, you can click to see more payment options like PayPal and others on the same page.
Once done with the billing information, read the terms of service and privacy policy, and then check the box to show you have read them. Click submit to move on.
On the next page, you need to choose your hosting package and other extra packages.
If you select 36 months, you will get the lowest price at $2.95 per month. You can select the 12 months package for lower upfront cost if you are working on a budget, although the monthly cost will be higher.
I suggest that you don’t select anything under extra packages for now. You have everything you need to get your blog up and running, so unselect the extra packages boxes.
If you need anything extra in the future, you can always add it later.
Next, create a password for your account, retype it and click on ‘create account.’
Your account is now ready to go.
Use your new password to login into your account
Next, fill in the details about your website. You can give it the same name as your domain name.
For the tagline, type a simple sentence describing what your website is about.
Since we are creating a blog, click the icon next to the blog and continue.
In the next part about your goals and your skills, check all that apply to your goals and your skills so they can recommend applicable plugins and extensions.
Don’t spend too much time there in the section on picking a theme.
Select any theme that pleases you for now. You can always change the theme later on.
The next step is where Bluehost installs WordPress for you with one click.
When WordPress has finished installing, click on start building to get to log in to WordPress using the password you created and your domain name
Once you log in, you will be directed to the administrator area of your blog, where you have all the tools you need to make any changes you want, like changing themes, plugins, posts, etc.
Congratulations on your new blog. You can now start writing new posts and publishing them to the world.
Now that you have successfully created your blog from zero, what next?
How To Make Money with Your Blog
The ultimate goal of many bloggers is to make money with their blogs.
Many have started blogs as a hobby and later realized they could make full-time incomes with them.
Some bloggers who make insane amounts of money include:
- Pat Flynn – Smart Passive Income
- Michelle Garner – Making Sense of Cents
- Lindsay Ostrom – Pinch of Yum
- Spencer Haws – Niche Pursuits
The major ways that bloggers make income with their blogs include the following:
Selling products and services
With a blog, you can sell your own digital products like eBooks and courses. Once you become established in a niche, you can start creating digital products and selling to your audience.
You could even sell physical products by using your blog to direct people to your physical products.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing simply means advertising other people’s products and services on your blog using links within your content.
Any time somebody clicks on those links and buys through them, you get a commission. This is one of the best ways to make money as a blogger.
Be an affiliate for products and services closely related to your blogging niche and products you use yourself and can vouch for.
Advertising
Advertising is another lucrative way of earning through your blog, especially once you gain a huge following. You can insert an advertising banner and display ads on your blog.
With these, you earn a certain amount of money either through the number of people who see the ads on your blog or when people click on the ads and go to other sites.
Sponsored Content
For sponsored content, major brands pay you to write content talking about their brands on your blog.
For example, if your blog’s niche is fashion, a clothing brand can pay you to write content on your blog mentioning their product.
How To Promote Your Blog
The methods I have discussed above require you to have people visiting your blog; otherwise, it is impossible to earn anything if no one is visiting your blog.
No blogger can afford to hide in a cocoon and hope that all goes well.
When you are a new blogger starting from zero, and nobody knows you, it is critical that you promote your blog to get the word out there that you are alive and kicking.
You can promote your blog through several methods. In the beginning, since you are really earning nothing from your blog, it is unwise to spend money on paid advertising.
Some of the free methods you can use to advertise yourself include the following:
Producing Great Quality Content
Nothing can beat great quality content for blog promotion.
When you write great content that is helpful to people, you will find people coming to your blog naturally through search engines.
Ensure that your content is well optimized for search engines so that when people perform searches in places like Google, they will easily land on your blog.
Once they are on your site, they will stay and keep coming if the available information meets their needs.
Using Social Media
Besides great content, it is also important to create a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube, among others.
Start with one, create a profile using your blog’s name and connect with people on social media and let them know about your blog.
It is also important to post any new blog content on these social media platforms.
Use a platform like Pinterest to drive traffic back to your blog. Other useful platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Connecting With Other Bloggers
As I said earlier, your blog is not an island to stand on alone. You need others to succeed. Look for other bloggers in your niche and start connecting with them.
You can do this by reading, liking, and commenting on their blogs, besides other tactics like guest posting and talking about their content on your own blog.
Wrapping It Up
If you have followed my steps above, then by now, you have successfully created a blog from zero and are on your way to making an income with it. That was not really hard, was it?
You now have a blog. It was quite a mouthful of information, but I hope you agree that starting a blog is not that hard.
All the earlier steps I discussed of starting a blog can be done in under 20 minutes, and there is nothing technical about any of them.
The actual work is in creating content and marketing your blog. This, my friend, is where many bloggers throw in the towel and conclude that blogging is not viable.
But again, in life, nothing comes easy; you have to put in the work to see any success.
One more thing, you need patience. Just like a baby cannot be born today and starts walking tomorrow, a blog also needs time to grow. You cannot create one today and expect to earn money in a month or two months’ time.
True, you may earn a few dollars here and there, but sustainable income will not be realized for a while.
Have I arrived yet? No, but I’m doing everything possible to grow my blog and create a sustainable income.
Now that you have a blog treat it like a business and give it all the investment it deserves.
If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section, and I will endeavor to answer them as soon as I can.