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How To Start A Blog And

Actually Make Money

/
Everyone who’s everyone wants to start a blog that makes money.
They’ve been lured in by the stories of the world’s most popular
bloggers that are generating tens of thousands to hundreds of
thousands of dollars per month on autopilot. However, like any
other goal in life, starting a successful blog that actually makes a
respectable amount of income is no easy feat.

I remember seeing a shirt once that said, “This shirt will be seen
more times than your blog.” If that isn’t discouraging to most
would-be bloggers, then I don’t know what is. Sure, it’s hard to do
it. But so is anything else in life that’s worthwhile. Yet, it’s a goal
that’s achievable (https://www.wanderlustworker.com/the-best-
way-to-achieve-your-goals/) by anyone that stays persistent.

The truth? It’s easy to give up on blogging. When all you see is a
trickle of tra c coming through your virtual doors, it’s no wonder
people throw in that proverbial towel. But if you’re committed to a
location-independent lifestyle and you’re sick of the 9-to-5 hustle,
then building a blog is the way to go.

Keep in mind that it won’t be easy. However, if you’re willing to put

in the work, your dreams of living o a passive income or traveling
the world as a digital nomad
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/how-to-be-a-digital-nomad-
and-work-from-anywhere-in-the-world/) will be far closer to reality.
All you need to do is to follow a few simple steps if you’re looking
to succeed in your blogging career.

The biggest di erence between those that “make it” and those that
don’t is simply persistence.

/
 Want to learn the exact steps I took to build a 7- gure blog?
Download my free 12-step cheatsheet to learn how. Click
here to download it now
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/start-7- gure-blog/).

Why Do You Want To Start A

Blog?

How To Start A Blog That Makes Money Online | The …

How To Start A Blog & Make Money Online

Before we start discussing the ins-and-outs of starting a blog in an

e ort to generate an income (passive or active), you need to ask
yourself why you’re starting it in the rst place. Are you doing it
purely for pro t? Or, do you have more altruistic intentions of
ful lling some greater good and adding value to the world?

If your answer was the former, you’re wasting your time. In fact, if
you’re not starting a blog because you’re inherently passionate
about whatever it is you’re blogging about, it truly is a lost cause.
Why? Because building a blog to any semblance of an audience is
an astronomical feat. I don’t tell you that to scare you. Only to
prepare you for what’s to come.
/
However, to the victors go the spoils, or so the saying goes. But
that’s most certainly the truth. Some blogs command vast
audiences of millions of visitors checking in daily, weekly or
monthly. And those visits translate into real actualized earnings,
which can seem almost unattainable to those that are just starting
out.

Here are a few reasons why you might want to start a blog:

1. Create a location-independent lifestyle – Blogs are great

for working while traveling and producing an income no
matter where you might be living. In a recent article that I
wrote for Forbes, I talked about how Nomadic Matt, one of the
most popular travel bloggers, started his blog so that he could
enjoy traveling the world and not be tied to a 9-to-5 desk job.

2. While launching or building a business online – Another

great reason to start a blog is to deliver content to help
support and promote a business. Whether new or existing,
blogs are a great way to deliver content that adds value and in
turn gets traction from search engines like Google.

3. To help others by sharing experiences and conveying

knowledge – Oftentimes, people simply want to start a blog
to help share their experiences and convey knowledge,
especially in areas that might prove very useful to people such
as in online marketing, passive income generation or search
engine optimization, just to name a few.

4. To promote a book, band, art, hobby or personal brand

– If you’re an author or part of a band, or simply love art or
have another hobby you want to share with the world, or you
just want to boost your personal brand, a blog is a great way
to help increase your visibility into the public’s eye.
/
 5. Help document travel, education and other life events –
Sometimes, people start blogs to help document some kind of
journey. That journey might be traveling to some far-o
destination. That journey could also involve learning a musical
instrument or a new language. It could also involve a life event
such as getting married, divorced or ghting through a health
scare.

What Should You Blog About?

Obviously, you can blog about almost anything. However, you
won’t succeed at it if you’re not staying true to yourself. Don’t blog
about something you’re not passionate about. Don’t blog about
something you’re not knowledgable about. You have to have
some degree of knowledge and a big degree of passion. That’s
just how it works if you want to succeed.

The truth is that success through blogging will take time. It clearly
doesn’t happen overnight. So if you’re not passionate about it,
you’ll end up throwing in that proverbial towel. You’ll give up when
the going gets tough. Plain and simple. So you have to absolutely
love what you’re doing and write vehemently about it.

When you do that, it comes across to your audience. They’ll know

whether you’re being real or fake. It will resonate with them.
They’ll relate with you and become a rm believer in your cause or
your journey. If you’re not being honest or real, they’ll know it. And
so will Google. And that’s really important.

When your content resonates with people, it naturally gets shared

more and engaged with more, which search engines like Google
pay a lot of attention to. The point? Love what you’re going to blog
/
about or don’t waste your time doing it. You won’t have fun and
you won’t make money if you don’t follow that one guiding
principle.

So where do you go from here? If you’re absolutely ready to start

your blog and be on the road to making money over time (not
overnight) then here are the steps you need to take.

#1 — Decide On A Niche
The rst step in building a blog is to decide on a niche. What do
you want to write about? What area are you an expert in? Now,
you don’t actually need to be an expert, but you do need some
knowledge or a willingness to learn all that you can and eventually
convey that knowledge.

You should also note that certain niches are far more competitive
than others. So if you plan to generate steady income from your
blog, you’re going to need to rank your posts competitively on
Google’s search engine results pages. That’s not just about
understanding SEO. That’s also about ensuring that you’re not in a
ercely competitive niche.

For example, if you plan to start a blog about making money

online (https://www.wanderlustworker.com/how-to-make-money-
online-the-de nitive-guide/), passive income
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/5-reasons-why-passive-
income-is-important/) and things of that nature, which is
extremely competitive, then it’s going to take you considerably
more time to start generating money from your activities. You
can’t simply expect to prop up a blog, make a few posts and
become a millionaire overnight. It doesn’t work that way.
/
Although most internet marketers (IMs) would have you believing
otherwise, there is no “secret success formula” that will help you
build a mass fortune quickly on the web. There is no “newly-
discovered blueprint” that will give you the tools for success. No,
it’s all a grind. Plain and simple. However, the niches that involve
more competitive transactional searches, such as the online
money-making niche, are going to be harder to make progress in
at the outset.

#2 — Purchase A Domain Name

The next step in building a blog that will actually make you money
somewhere down the road is to purchase a domain name. If
you’ve decided what you’ll blog about, then you need to nd a
domain name that’s going to be harmonious with that. Pick a
name that’s short enough to be easily remembered, but also
keyword-rich enough to be applicable to your content.

Keep in mind that you’re not just building a blog, you’re going to
be building a business (https://www.wanderlustworker.com/how-
to-build-a-business-on-a-shoestring-budget/) and a brand. The
more memorable you make your domain name, the more likely
you’ll be to succeed with your blog. If it’s catchy and people can
remember it, they might just come back to it over and over again
as long as the content is great. But it all starts with a domain
name.

So, how and where do you get a domain name? While there are
numerous sources for getting a domain, it’s quite simple to
purchase one while you buy your hosting account

/
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/bluehost/) (explained in the
next step). Or, if you already have a domain that you intend on
using, you could simply port that over to your new blog.

Your Domain Is Your Online Home

This is going to be your virtual home, so put some careful
consideration into choosing the right domain name. You wouldn’t
just purchase the physical home that you live in on a whim, would
you? Of course not. So choose wisely. Take time to scour and
analyze domain names to nd the right one. Here are some
pointers when searching:

Limit the domain name to no more than three keywords such

as riverraftingtours.whatever or
professionalresumeservices.whatever or
marketingschool.whatever. Get the point? Don’t go over
three keywords because it becomes to cumbersome,
burdensome and di cult to remember for visitors.

Pick a domain name that contains a keyword related to your

niche so you can get a leg up on being found relevantly in
online searches. That’s not to say you’re going to rank right
away. You de nitely won’t. But that keyword will help you
down the line to build your brand within that niche.

Try to avoid using hyphens if you can. Although many of the

best domain names are taken, you can still nd good, relevant
domains without having to insert hyphens. While it might be
unavoidable depending on the niche that you’re entering, try
to purchase your domain name without it.

/
 Where possible, select a domain name that ends in
.com rather than any other extension. As appealing as it might
seem to select a domain name with a di erent extension,
you’ll nd the dot com extension to be the most assuming
type when people are trying to locate your blog.

#3 — Purchase A Hosting Account

Okay, so you’ve made the decision to start your blog and you’ve
done your due diligence on what you’ll blog about. Your next step
is to take some action and register that blog by purchasing a
hosting account. A hosting account is simply a computer attached
to the internet where your blog will live. It’s always on and it’s
always connected.

When you purchase a hosting account, you’re actually just renting

space on a server. Either you’re sharing that space with others, or
the server is yours and yours alone to use. When you rst start
out, it will likely be the former. Your hosting account will be what’s
called a shared hosting account, likely on what’s called a virtual
private server (VPS).

Without getting to technical, a VPS is simply a con guration of web

software that helps you manage everything that lives on your
server. From your les to the database and applications that live
there, you get unfettered access, in realtime, to managing all of
that on your hosting account. But you have some virtual
roommates, so to speak.

When you’re ready to get started, head over to BlueHost, which

powers over 2 million websites worldwide
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/bluehost/), and is possibly
/
one of the most popular hosting companies in the world. At their
homepage, simply click on the “Get Started Now” link and you’ll be
forwarded to a page where you can select your account type.

The best part? If you’re not happy with their service, you’ll get a
full refund within 30 days. If you’re outside of 30 days, you can get
back a prorated refund. Their refund policy applies to their
hosting only and not their add-on services, so you couldn’t get a
refund for any domains you potentially purchased, so just keep
that in mind.

Currently, there are three account types there:

Basic Hosting Account: Less than your morning latte, this is

de nitely one of the least expensive hosting accounts out
there. You can host a single website with up to 50GB of space,
which is more than plenty by the way, unmetered bandwidth,
so you’ll never be charged overaged and 100MB of email
storage.

Plus Hosting Account: The next tier up is the Plus account,

which includes unlimited space and an unlimited number of
domains, just in case you want to host more than one website.
You also receive unmetered bandwidth and unlimited email
storage for not much more than the Basic account.

Prime Hosting Account: This account is their best value. Not

only do you get everything that you get with the Plus account,
but you also get website backup, which can come in very
handy by the way, and private domain registration. They’re
also throwing in $80 per year worth of extras here.

/
Once you’ve selected the right account, you’ll move to the next
page where you can actually purchase your domain. Either you
already have a domain, which you can easily port over to their
service, or you’ll buy a new domain name. If you’ve already done
the research on your domain, this step should be fairly
straightforward. If you haven’t, don’t rush this step and take
enough time selecting the perfect domain.

Please Note: I am an a liate of Bluehost. That means, I’ll get a

commission every time someone uses one of my links to sign up
for the service. However, I do believe that Bluehost is one of the
best hosting companies out there, with one of the best customer
service departments, which is crucial when you’re doing
something technical like hosting a blog.

#3 — Install WordPress
Once you’re up and running with your hosting account, your next
step is to install WordPress, the most popular blogging platform,
onto your newly-minted blog. This is a rather straightforward

/
process, so don’t be alarmed here. In your Bluehost control panel,
you’ll nd a simple one-click logo icon with the description “Install
WordPress,” that will help guide you along in the process.

All you have to do is select a few key details such as your site
name, admin username, password and email address, and you’ll
be well on your way to being up and running very quickly. Simply
look for the WordPress icon towards the bottom of your hosting
control panel screen once you’ve setup your account.

Also, keep in mind that for security purposes, you should choose
a di cult username and password for your blog admin when
going through the setup process. Don’t use the username “admin”
and don’t choose an easy-to-crack password. You’ll be doing
yourself a disservice by doing that.

When WordPress has been properly installed, you’ll need to

con gure your settings. One of the important settings that you’ll
need to address is called permalinks, which is located in the
settings > permalinks section of your WordPress administration.

Navigate to that page and pick the “Post Name” option so that your
page titles are translated into nice semantic URLs, which is crucial for
higher visibility. Remember, every little advantage will count in the
beginning!

#4 — Write Like the Wind

Okay, so there are a ton of other considerations. For the sake of
brevity, I’ll have to skip over all the little nuances that are involved
with con guring things properly and optimizing for things like
search engine optimization and installing plugins and so on. If you
/
want to learn about SEO, I would recommend checking out my
course on Udemy (https://www.wanderlustworker.com/seo-
training-academy/) or one of my books or audiobooks
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/audiobooks-on-audible/) on
the topic.

However, the biggest point that needs to be made here about

succeeding with your blog and eventually making any semblance
of a respectable amount of cash, is to write like the wind.
Consistency is critical if you’re going to succeed, which is the
problem that almost everyone has with blogging.

If you’re not a self-motivating individual, you might nd this to be

extremely di cult. The truth is that it takes years to build a solid
blog audience. It won’t happen overnight. However, once it does
happen, this is by far one of the most lucrative passive-income
generating activities (https://www.wanderlustworker.com/12-
passive-income-ideas-for-automating-your-cash- ow-online/) that
you can engage in.

Deliver Real Value

Keep in mind, that you have to deliver an enormous amount of
value when you’re blogging. You won’t build an audience
overnight, but you also won’t build an audience over time if you try
to skimp on the value. People won’t waste their time if you don’t
deliver value in some form, plain and simple.

What does it mean to deliver value? Either your posts have to be

extremely informative, in that they teach people how to do
something useful, or they need to be entertaining or provide value

/
in another format. Your posts also need to be engaging. Don’t
expect people to spend a lot of time or even share any of your
content if your posts don’t deliver value and they’re not engaging.

Also, not to get into too much technical details, but things like the
time spent on the page, session times, bounce rates and exit
rates all count when it comes to your presence on Google and
other search engines. One way Google can tell if your content is
useful is based on the amount of time people are spending
actually consuming that content.

Are they spending many minutes on the page? Or, are they
arriving and leaving quickly after 30 seconds or so. Keep in mind
that your posts should be lengthy, so plan to write at least 1000
words per article or more. On this blog, I focus on a minimum of
2000 words per article. Not to be verbose. But because I know
that value and engagement is delivered in length, not in brevity.

Google pays acute attention to the length of your articles. Short

articles are called “thin” content. They generally tend to be 500
words or less. Even sub-1000-word articles are largely a waste of
your time. Why? You can’t compete in the beginning with thin
content. Unless you have an existing audience, which takes time
to build, you need content that packs the value-punch.

#5 — Build a Platform
The hardest part about making money from your blog is actually
building a platform. Your platform is your brand. And brands are
built by building trust over time. Not overnight. Over time. This
requires consistency, integrity and honesty. It doesn’t happen
quickly or easily whatsoever.
/
However, building a platform isn’t just about that. Building a
platform involves ensuring that you’re always doing the most
amount of work for the least initial return. Sound crazy? Okay, it
might be a little bit crazy. But it’s true. You have to go out of your
way for your readers. Because, believe me, they pay attention and
remember what you do for them.

If you’re solely interested in extracting money from your readers

at the outset, you won’t succeed over time. You’ll fail. However, if
you do things honestly and with integrity, ensuring that you’re
being consistent and truthful in your advice and your prose,
people will pay attention.

The Currency Of Attention

When people pay attention, not only are they engaged, which is
great for Google, but they’re also likely to share and comment on
your work. These are all indications of engagement. And those
share links help you considerably as long as they’re real and
they’re organic. You can’t just go out and buy shares or
engagement. You won’t make any traction like that.

Instead, you have to do the work to build your platform over time
if you’re serious about earning money with your blog. You have to
put in the long hours and burn that midnight oil day-in and day-
out. It’s brutal at the outset. It feels like you’re just working and
working with absolutely no returns.

I still remember the beginning days of building this blog. I worked

tirelessly for 60 to 80 hours every single week without fail. In the
beginning, I saw a trickle of tra c that amounted to maybe 20 to
30 visitors per day. That number multiplied by about a 100 after
/
approximately a year and a half or so of grueling hard work. And
since then, it has climbed signi cantly for one reason and one
reason only: consistency.

In order to build a platform, you have to be consistent in your

value delivery. You can’t go cold for weeks and months on end.
You need to stay in front of your audience. They’ll be actively
checking back for updates from you, so don’t let them down. Get
out there and over time, you’ll see an exponential rise. Just don’t
expect it to happen right away.

#6 — Get Social
Finally, in order to build a blog that actually makes money, you
need to get social. You need to collaborate with others.
Communicate with leaders in your niche. Reach out and share
other bloggers’ content. Acknowledge their work and give them
positive feedback. Don’t be pushy about it and don’t look for
anything in return. It doesn’t quite work that way.

The problem is that in order to build your audience and increase

the size of your platform, you need visibility. But in order to be
visible, you need great content. However, if people can’t discover
your great content, how are you supposed to build your
audience? If you know anything about SEO, then you know that it’s
the proverbial Catch-22 at the outset.

The truth is that people won’t discover your blog. You will see that
shirt more times than people will see your blog. It’s painful in the
beginning. If that doesn’t dissuade most would-be wild-eyed

/
bloggers, then just about nothing will. But it doesn’t stay that way.
Clearly, things change gradually over time as long as you don’t give
up.

Offer Great Content To Gain More

Visibility
So, in order to gain visibility, you have to go directly to the source.
You need to tap already-established bloggers by o ering them
your great content with a chance to secure a single link back to
your own site. Keep in mind, this isn’t about exchanging blog posts
or links. No, do not do that. This is about o ering to write for
existing platforms that will help you build your own audience.

No, it’s not easy. Most bloggers will ignore you. Most won’t answer.
And when they do, it might be a snide remark. I receive countless
requests to guest blog, which I largely leave unanswered for the
simple fact that, right now, my blog is my voice. Not anyone else’s
voice. My voice. But that might change in the future.

Most bloggers actually welcome the advance to create great

content for their platform. So you shouldn’t be shy in at least
trying. There’s no harm in trying. If you succeed, then it will be a
big win. If not, continue to network and add value on your own,
and eventually, as you build it, they will most certainly come. Just
don’t expect it to happen quickly or easily.

Want to learn the exact steps I took to build a 7- gure blog?

Download my free 12-step cheatsheet to learn how. Click
here to download it now
(https://www.wanderlustworker.com/start-7- gure-blog/).

/
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