Quickly launch your new blog and start making real money online
Making Money With A Blog
Is it really possible to make money with a blog? You Bet!
Before I started Financially Friendly, I often wondered if it was really possible to make any money with a blog. I started by typing in the same google searches that likely brought you to this very page. I was not at all pleased with the metric tons of bland answers, sales pitches and crapy or shady advice. This page aims to keep things super simple so you can get started right away. Yes, it is possible to make money – and sometimes lots of it – with a quality blog, and here’s how.
I had so many questions:
- What should I blog about?
- Is it too late to start a blog?
- Is there too much blogging competition?
- What web hosting company should I use to host my blog?
- What blog platform or software should I use to get started?
- Is starting a blog expensive and how much is this really going to cost me?
- Would my blog topic be way too saturated for people to ever find me on the internet?
- How do I monetize this thing?!
I didn’t let these questions stop me. I did my homework, found my answers and started Financially Friendly, rather quickly in fact. This post will show you what I learned: how to quickly start your own blog site with minimal effort, very little money, and get you posting content today so you can start making real money online!
Step 1. What Should I Write About? Picking your Blog Topic
Unless you already know for sure what it is that you want to write about, this part of the process will undoubtedly be the most difficult. I knew right away that I wanted to blog about personal finance, investing and money in general because that’s what I’m super interested in. I’ve read countless books and articles on the subject, listen to podcasts and follow financial news. So what interests you the most? What subject can you be an expert on that could benefit multitudes of people who are searching for answers online?
Being specific when coming up with your blog topic can help, but don’t get too hung up here. If you are persistent, and actually follow through with posting quality content (blog posts) on a regular basis that people actually want to read, you’ll be successful no matter what you write about. Love animals? Try a blog about cats. Love sports? Narrow that down to just soccer. Have a green thumb? Go with a specific type of house plant. Succulents maybe? Go for it! Don’t worry too much if your topic seems too broad at first. You can always narrow it down later, and hey, if the topic is really wide AND popular (think personal finance) that just means you have a larger potential audience.
Once you’ve figured out the specific topic in which you are an expert, start jotting down some blog post ideas. If you can come up with at least ten individual blog post ideas right off the bat, I’d say that’s a good sign that you will have enough to write about. The rest will come as you go along.
Can my blog topic be too niche?
You bet. Think about it. Think of the questions you hear people asking all the time. Think about the questions you, yourself type into Google. Do you think many people will be searching for “Japanese toenail art” compared to say, “how to make more money?” Nope. That’s silly. Choose the topic that interests you but don’t get too ridiculous. It will just be too hard to monetize later and you won’t get any readers.
Step 2. Choose Your Blog Title and Scoop Your Domain Name (URL)
Now, I will say that your URL is not as important as you may think. This site’s URL is www.financiallyfriendly.com and that can be quite a pain to remember and type in to your browser’s address bar all the time. I know it has been a pain for me. I’m also just a terrible typer. (Is there two L’s in financially? Does “I” come before “E” in friendly?!) But here is the good news: When most people find their way to your page, they do so via powerful search engines like Google, Bing and the like. These search engines use advanced algorithms to match the user’s searches to [your] quality page that matches that search. One that – hopefully – answers the user’s question in the most relevant way possible. Until way down the road, when you have build up a solid brand, nobody will be entering your URL into their address bar.
If your blog name is “Kitten Hats,” don’t worry too much if the kittenhats.com URL is already taken. Just go with something close. superkittenhats.com maybe? How about superduperkittenhats.org? Don’t sweat it. I purchase my domain names (URL’s) through godaddy.com but you can by them at a number of sites. I know BlueHost offers a URL service as well, so take a look there too and just lump it into your hosting costs with them. It’s cheap. To search available domain names, try heading on over to godaddy.com, type in a name you’ve been thinking of and see if that domain name is already taken. They will give you similar name suggestions that ARE available.
Pro Tip: Check multiple social media sites all at once! Pop on over to the site namecheckr.com. Here you can type in your potential name and “namecheckr” will automatically check if the domain name is available AND if the name is available as a handle (@) on a ton of social media sites! This can save too much time and come in handy later so you don’t grab the perfect URL only to find out that the Facebook and Instagram accounts are already taken. Woof!
Step 3. Pick A Hosting Provider
A hosting provider is just what it sounds like. It is a company that has the technology and infrastructure to host websites. These companies typically charge a fee to provide you with access to their hosting services. Do not go down the rabbit hole of analyzing and comparing each company. You will get “analysis paralysis.” They are all largely the same, include similar features and in many cases are owned by the same company. Do a quick Google search and pick a cheap one. Bluehost has plans starting at just $3.95/month and is the hosting provider that this blog is running on!
Why Bluehost? Well, mostly [for me] it was about cost (they are cheap) and ease-of-use. Their web interface is super easy to navigate. If I can do it, so can you! Although I purchased my URL’s through GoDaddy, I can still use them for my sites hosted on Bluehost. Everything just works. If you are starting from scratch; however, just keep it simple and purchase your domain name and hosting all in one place at Bluehost. They offer discounts if you bundle options. I am also a member of their affiliate program which means whenever someone signs up using one of the links on this page, they pay me a tiny fraction of that sale.. We will get to affiliate marketing later.
Keep it easy and don’t waste a ton of time picking your hosting provider, no matter which one you choose. Here is a list of some of the top-rated hosting providers:
- Bluehost
- HostGator
- DreamHost
- A2 Hosting
- MochaHost
- GoDaddy
- SiteGround
Do a quick web search – their are hundreds more. Don’t spend too much time here, pick one and get started today!
Step 4. Select Your Blog Platform (WordPress, WordPress, WordPress)
WordPress is a free, open-source platform that makes it super simple to create websites and blogs. WordPress makes building a website easy for anyone and zero coding knowledge is needed. If you choose Bluehost for your web hosting, they integrate with WordPress in one click! No need to remember another login password. Financially Friendly is a free WordPress template hosted at Bluehost. It works, it just does.
To get started, just install WordPress with one click once logged into your hosting account and select from hundreds of free website/blog templates that are completely customizable. Don’t waste time making it perfect for now. No one will be seeing this thing yet. It will take quite a while after publishing your first post to get ANY traffic coming to your site. Go with a super clean, minimalist design and start making it yours. Don’t get hung up on colors, fonts and layouts as none of this matters at the moment.
Step 5. Start Writing Quality Content
Begin with some simple, yet relevant blog posts. Don’t be unnecessarily wordy and don’t try to impress readers with your superlative grasp of grammar. This is not a college essay. There is no need to double space your lines to fill pages or drone on and on to reach some arbitrary word-count quota. When people are searching for answers, they want the stuff that matters and the stuff that can help them quickly. Write in the same way you would speak. Keep it real, keep it simple, keep it helpful. Create quality content!
Be patient. You will not magically be flooded with site visitors just because you published your first post to the world. As people organically come across your page, the search engines will know that the reader has found their answer on your site because they won’t go back to the search bar with the same question. after this happens again and again, you could slowly start to rank higher in search results. Maybe one day your blog post will appear on the first page of a Google search result, but this can often take years. The higher the quality of content and the more helpful the post, the quicker you may rank and eventualy get more visits. Patience and persistence are key.
Step 6. Monetize Your Blog and Start Making Money with Affilaite Marketing
Here we go! This is part you likely came here for. Let’s make some money with this blog. There are quite a few different ways to make money from your blog and just a few of these ways are listed below:
- Sell ad space on your pages
- Join a pay-per-click (PPC) program
- Sell a product
- Affiliate Marketing
By far the most effective method to monetize your blog is with affiliate marketing. I would seriously avoid selling ad space and PPC programs like the plague. So, what is affiliate marketing? Basically, a company that has a product or service to sell is often willing to pay a tiny portion of their sales to the people and sites who referred the customer to them. When that referral ends in a sale, they pass a fraction of the sale on to you. This is so common in fact that you can search any company’s products online and somewhere near the bottom of the page, you’ll see something like “affiliates,” or “partner” programs.
For this post, I am a member of Bluehost’s affiliate program. If you were to sign up for their hosting from a link on this page, I would potentially get a small amount of that sale! It is as easy as that. Go ahead and search for some affiliate programs that would work well for your blog niche and get started today.
Important Note: Only refer people to products and services that you trust and use yourself. Make sure the product or service is also relevant to your blog topic. For example, I am comfortable recommending Bluehost because I use it and love it!
