How to Start a Blog in 2019 [9 Simple Steps for Complete Beginners]
Learning how to start a blog in 2019 is the best decision you can ever make if you are wanting to make money online.
Making the decision to learn how to start a blog and start making money online has completely changed our life.
Hey there! We’re Adam and Sai — two professional travel bloggers who went from being overworked and underpaid to living the life we always dreamed of traveling the world and getting paid to do it.
Building our brand online with our blog has allowed us to quit our jobs, work from anywhere while we travel, and create a residual income that pays us month after month.
Starting an online business through our Blog has completely changed our lives, and we want to pay it forward by helping others create their best life too.
We put together this absolutely free guide to help you get started Blogging without spending lots of money or needing all the coding skills, so anybody can follow this and get started today.
You can set up your blog for as little as $2.75/month, and this also includes a FREE domain name
The following guide is a step-by-step blueprint to create a blog that actually makes money!
Here are the steps we will take to create a successful blog:
- Step 1. Choose Your Niche
- Step 2. Build Your Blog
- Step 3. Selecting Your WordPress Blog Theme
- Step 4. Important Plugins for Your Blog
- Step 5. How To Make Money Blogging
How to Start a Blog in 2019 (9 Simple Steps)
Step 1. Choose Your Niche
Choosing a niche for your blog should be something you are interested in so you are passionate to write about it.
Sai and I love traveling and living a healthy active lifestyle, we also have a passion for teaching others to live the same lifestyle so that’s what we based our blog around.
Here are some of the most profitable niches:
- Health and Fitness
- Weight loss
- Make Money Online
- Travel
- Essential Oils
- Food
- Recipes
- Parenting
- DIY and Crafts
- Specific Diets (Keto, Vegan, Etc)
- Lifestyle
- Finance
- Home Decor
- Beauty and Fashion
- Education
- Relationship Advice
- Tech
Most of you will have multiple topics you want to cover and it’s okay to cover as many as you want and create a lifestyle blog like we have done.
Don’t get stuck thinking of the perfect name and niche as you will evolve as you grow, the MOST IMPORTANT thing is to just get started.
Step 2. Building Your Blog
To build your blog you have to have these two things:
Hosting– A web hosting service allows you to make your website accessible via the internet.
A Blogging Platform– This is where you will build your blog and post the articles you write.
We recommend using the number one hosting company in the world Bluehost along with WordPress as this is what all the top Bloggers use.
- Bluehost is the largest WordPress hosting company and are trusted by millions of bloggers.
- WordPress is the main platform used by 95% of people hosting websites and blogs.
- They both integrate and make setting up a blog and getting it online simple.
You don’t really need to know the technical ins-and-outs of blog hosting and the like, but if you want to understand the more technical side these articles we wrote can be helpful:
CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO BLUEHOST TO GET THE SPECIAL PRICING and then follow the guide below for easy, step-by-step directions.
First, go to Bluehost.com, if you haven’t already. Make sure you have the page pulled that should look like this image below.
Select “Get Started Now” which is the big green button. You will see this page next:
After you click the button to get started on the homepage, you will then see a list of pricing options.
Next, choose which plan suits you best. The No Basic Plan is all you need to get started. Click SELECT on your preferred plan to move to the next step.
Next, we’ll set up your domain, as seen below.
As you’ll see from the above screenshot, there are 2 options:
Create a new domain – If you do not already own a domain for your blog yet, enter in your preferred domain name in this box and click NEXT
Use a domain you own – If you already have a domain (registered somewhere else probably), then enter your domain name in this box and click NEXT
If you haven’t decided on a domain name just yet? You can click the “Choose Free Domain Later” button at the bottom to continue the process and select your domain later on!
Next, you will see this page if you entered a domain and it is available:
Next step you’ll fill out the create your account section:
Then scroll down to the section with the package information.
FIRST — Select your account plan above, you will need to select the length of time you want your plan to be. The 36-month plan provides the best value for your money, but the 12-month plan is great as well if you are on a budget.
After selecting your package, scroll down to the section on package extras.
We recommend choosing Domain Privacy Protection (so your name and contact information are not visible in the public domain registry. If you are on a budget you can uncheck that box to keep the price down.
Finally, add in your credit card details, check the standard Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, and hit the submit button!
Congratulations! You did it! You are now a blog owner!!!
Step 3. Selecting Your WordPress Blog Theme
If you have never used WordPress before it can be a bit daunting to start with. The good thing with the themes we will recommend they come with great tutorials that you can follow step by step. Once you play around with it then it will become familiar to you. Everyone is in the same boat when starting, we learned everything from doing tutorials and trial and error. Once you take the time to learn how to use WordPress you will be rewarded for years to come.
Option 1: Free WordPress Theme
Choosing a free theme is a great way to get started if you are on a budget, but they do lack tools and its virtually impossible to get it looking the way you want it. For the extra $50 – $100 we highly recommend choosing a paid theme from our recommendations below.
To choose a free theme in WordPress go to “appearances” and then “themes”. Select from the pre-installed themes you see on the list.
Paid themes are generally much more powerful and customizable than free themes.
This is because they will have an entire support staff dedicated to helping you and making sure you succeed. They are also used by 95% of people running profitable blogs.
Option 2: Buying a Paid Theme
We have a couple of recommendations here, the first one is the theme we use ourselves and we highly recommend it.
- Divi Theme
DIVI THEME is very user-friendly incredibly is our #1 recommendation and what most bloggers are using.
They have a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there is no risk to try it!
When you purchase Divi, you get access to their entire Elegant Themes market, which includes over 70 other themes and includes the Extra theme which is perfect for new Bloggers.
2. Genesis Framework
Genesis Framework is another popular theme with bloggers, its highly customizable but has a little bit more of a learning curve than Divi. It’s still a GREAT theme though and is our second recommendation for paid themes.
How to Change Your WordPress Theme
The steps below will show you how to upload and change your theme in WordPress.
Firstly, you need to purchase Divi, Genesis, and download the zipped file.
In your WordPress dashboard navigate to Appearance –> Themes.
Click on add a new theme:
At the top of the next screen, click on the button to upload your theme by choosing the zipped file of the theme you purchased.
Once the theme has uploaded, click Install and then activate and you’re all done!
Step 4. Important Plugins for Your Blog
A plugin is a software that integrates with your WordPress blog to allow you to make customizations and improvements to your blog.
In this section, we’re going to show the best free plugin that all new bloggers need. A plugin integrates with your WordPress blog to make improvements or allow you to customize things easier.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a plugin that helps you optimize your content to make sure your articles are optimized for Google search so you can get more organic traffic to your blog.
How to Install WordPress Plugins
To upload a plugin in your dashboard select plugins and click on add new, then search for the Yoast SEO plugin and click install now.
Step 5. How to Make Money Blogging
Now your blog is up and running it’s time to start making money with it.
There are a number of ways you can monetize your blog and start making money. Let’s take a look at some of the different ways you can start making money with your blog.
So How Do Bloggers Make Money?
Ads
Ads are the easiest way to get started making money on your blog, they are easy to set up and you can start making passive income straight away. The most common Ads are the ones generated from Google Adsense, but using Ads alone will not be enough.
Affiliate Marketing
This is the best way to start earning larger amounts. Affiliate marketing is when you get commissions for selling other peoples products or services. The best thing is there are affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions, so you can receive payments month after month just for the initial sale you made from your blog.
Common affiliate programs are Clickbank and the Amazon Associates program. Most online companies will have some sort of affiliate program and the best way to search for them is by their name and affiliate program on Google.
Create Your Own Digital Products
This is how most bloggers start hitting the six-figures with their blog. creating online courses and ebooks is how you can really make the big money online.
I wouldn’t recommend you to start creating your own products straight away but focus on building your traffic and email list first.
To make career level income with blogging you want a combination of ads, affiliate marketing, and selling the products you have created.
To make life-changing income with blogging you want to use a combination of ads, affiliate marketing, and selling your own products.