How to Start a Blog That Makes Money in 11 Simple Steps

This blog generates hundreds of thousands of dollars every month by helping readers answer their questions.

It took me years and a team to get to this point–but starting a blog that makes hundreds of dollars a month is a lot easier.

More money is there if you keep at it. Here’s how to begin today.

Top Rated Web Hosting Companies to Start a Blog That Makes Money

If you want to start a blog that makes money, you’ll need a web hosting company. Here’s the best options.

• Hostinger – Most Affordable Hosting Plans Overall
• Bluehost – Best Web Host for Beginners
• Dreamhost – Most Affordable Month-to-Month Plan
• Hostgator – Best for Lean/Minimal Needs
• GreenGeeks – Best Eco-Friendly Hosting
• SiteGround – Best for Making Your WordPress Site Speedy & Secure
• A2 Hosting – Fast & Reliable Shared Hosting
• InMotion – Best VPS Hosting
• WPEngine – Best Managed WordPress Hosting
• Nexcess – Best for scaling and growth

You can read our full reviews of each web hosting company here.

11 Steps to Start a Blog That Makes Money

Turning a profit requires a few more steps than hobby-blogging. Here’s everything you need to know about how to start a blog:

1. Find a blog idea
2. Find the perfect domain name
3. Sign up for Hostinger
4. Install WordPress
5. Pick a fitting WordPress theme
6. Install WordPress plugins
7. Install Google Analytics
8. Set up your email list
9. Pick a blogging cadence
10. Build an audience
11. Monetize your blog

Quickstart guide to blogging

Already have a blog name and idea— and just want to get started?

Go to Hostinger and sign up for a Single WordPress plan for just $1.99 per month. This is the best web host for beginners, and the easiest way to get a great blog up and running.

That price is for a four-year plan, but it is the best deal. Bar none. You get web hosting, a free domain name, email accounts, a website builder, and everything you need to launch a site in one low-cost bundle.

Once you register an account with Hostinger, you will be walked through the process of setting up the type of site you want to create. I’ll go through the steps in more detail below, but the essential steps are as follows:

• When it asks you which type of site you want to create, select the Blog option.
• You’ll then have the option to Claim your free domain–do that, unless you want to buy additional domains or connect one that you already own to Hostinger.
• When you can select a content management system (CMS), I highly recommend installing WordPress.
• Next choose a theme that determines the layout of your site. You can always change this later, so don’t overthink it.
• Review and confirm all your choices. Make sure all the information is correct and click Finish Setup.
• Log into your new site and start blogging. Let your ideas flow in a consistent writing schedule.

If you want to make money, the steps are simple from here: Find your first customer, then your second customer, then your third customer, then your—well, I think you get the picture.

Of course, there’s a ton of different ways to make money. We’ll dive into that later.

Let’s dive into the entire blog-making process in full.

Step 1: Find a blog idea

This is arguably the most important step for your blog.

Choosing your blog’s topic (or niche) determines the rest of the website’s future. This is what you’re going to be writing about and — hopefully — making money from.

The good news: There’s practically an audience out there for every single topic you might be interested in.

BUT there are some topics that tend to perform better than others. You need to find a topic that appeals to a big audience while still appealing to you.

To find the perfect blog niche, you’ll need to answer two questions:

What am I interested in?

What topic do you love? What are you obsessed with?

This is the basis of your blog niche. After all, if you don’t love the topic, you’re not going to want to write about it day after day.

To help answer this question, I suggest looking towards several areas:

• Talents. Is there something you’re naturally talented at? Maybe a sport, game, or musical instrument.
• Expertise. What skills and knowledge have you built up over the years? Maybe there’s something you went to school for that you can write about now. Think academic subjects or skills like languages and car repair.
• Career. Your current career can be a fantastic place to write about. For example, if you’re a developer for a startup, you can start blogging about front-end development or the tech industry.
• Hobbies and passions. Is there a topic you just love learning about? Think about the things you do in your free time. Maybe it’s reading books, or working on your fantasy novel, or repairing that old car in your garage. This can be great topics to write about in your blog.

ACTION STEP: Write down 10 – 15 topics you’re interested in. Pull up a Word document or sheet of paper and actually write this down. It’ll help you keep your ideas focused. Plus, you can refer back to it later when you make your final decision.

What are other people interested in?

This area is a bit trickier.

You need to find out what other people are interested in as well. Otherwise, you might find yourself with a blog that doesn’t draw in a lot of people.

For example, you might think that a blog all about how wonderful your dog is is super interesting — but is that going to draw in a lot of people?

On the other hand, a blog about how to take care of and train dogs appeals to a much bigger audience of readers.

You need to take your personal interest and find a way to make it universal. Think back to how you initially gained interest in the topic. How did you gather expertise in the topic?

Think of all the questions and confusions you had when you started out and what helped you gain expertise.

To help, here are a few popular categories that always do well:

• Personal finance
• Fitness
• Online business
• Investing
• Productivity
• Real estate
• Careers
• Test prep
• Freelancing

Pro tip: Use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to see how often people search for a specific category or niche. It’ll reveal what people are and aren’t interested in.

ACTION STEP: Take a look at your list from before. Do any of them fall under these categories? If not, that’s okay! There’s probably still an audience out there for one of your topics.

For now, I want you to choose a topic from your list that you want to turn into a blog. Once you do, you’re going to make it even more specific and niche it down.

For example, you might want to start a personal finance website. Niching it down might mean you make a personal finance website for millennials making $100,000 a year. Or for thirty-somethings who want to retire early.

Look back at the different topics you generated in Step 1. Can you blend to topics you like writing about to zero in on a niche?

Step 2: Find the perfect domain name

Now the fun part: choosing your blog’s name. For this, I have good news and bad news.

• Bad news: Most of the very “best” domain names are already taken. The Internet is decades old. Makes sense.
• Good news: That doesn’t matter because we’re going to find the best one for you.

Here are a few good rules-of-thumb to keep in mind when choosing a good name:

• Keep it short. Don’t force potential visitors to have to type a bunch of words to visit your website. We recommend no more than 14 characters.
• Choose a .com, .org, or .net. These are the easiest ones for people to remember.
• Easy to spell and pronounce. You don’t want to spell it out constantly for people when you mention your blog’s domain.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens. Not only does it look clunky in the URL but it’s also difficult to type out when you add hyphens.
• Use your name. It’s pretty likely that your name is available as a domain. That makes it the perfect choice for a personal blog. I’ll speak more on this later.

When you come up with a domain you like, head to Hostinger to see if it’s available using their domain tool. If it is, great! If not, you now have two options:

1. Search until you find an available domain. I highly recommend you do this until you find a domain that’s available. If you’re going to write a blog, sharpen your synonym skills by searching other words and phrases that might be available. Trust me. As a working writer, this is a VERY crucial skill.
2. Purchase a domain name. While it is possible to buy a domain from someone who already has it, that’s an advanced option and can get expensive fast. Low-quality domains will usually go for a few thousand dollars. Highly quality domains that are two words can easily go for $10,000 to $50,000. I’ve even been in discussions to purchase domains for over $100,000 and the really hot ones can break seven figures. Not to mention all the hassle that comes from finding the person who owns the domain, negotiating with them, and transferring the domain if you even reach an agreement.

Your best bet is to keep going until you find a domain that you like and can purchase directly from a domain registrar for about $10.

We go into lots of detail on which domain registrar to use here. But I highly suggest you buy a web host that allows you to register a domain for free. That means going with Hostinger.

Using your personal name as the domain

If this is your first blog and you’re not completely sure what you want to blog about, I recommend that you use your personal name.

The reason is that changing your domain later will mean that you have to start over from scratch. There are a lot of mistakes in blogging that can be corrected later; having the wrong domain isn’t one of them.

Let’s say you pick a domain like fitnessfordoctors.com. Then after six months, you realize you’d rather be doing personal finance blogging for doctors. You’d need to get a new domain and start over from scratch.

Personal domains are much more flexible — it’s just a name after all. So if you jump categories after a few months, it’s not a big deal. Take down any old content that’s not relevant with your new direction, start posting new content, and you’re good to go.

That said, personal domains have two major downsides:

1. Scalability. It’s much more difficult to recruit other writers or grow your blog beyond your personal identity later on.
2. Profitability. Personal blogs, even if they’re generating serious cash, are much harder to sell. Prospective buyers want a site that isn’t dependent on a single person.

However, these are pretty advanced problems to have. If this is your first blog, the benefits of using your name as the domain greatly outweigh the costs that only show up down the road.

ACTION STEP: Pick a domain name and run with it.

While it’s important to pick a good, brandable domain name, the most important thing to do in this step is to make a decision and go. You don’t want to be stuck in the dreaded state of “paralysis by analysis.” Instead, just choose one based on the system above and run with it.

Go deeper: Want to learn more about this topic? Check out our article on how to buy the right domain name.

Step 3: Sign up for Hostinger

A web hosting provider offers server space to host your website. This is where your website “lives.”

People who visit your website do so through this server. It’s one of the most important elements of your website.

We went through all the main hosts for WordPress sites (by far the best tool for blogging) and put together our recommendations here.

For your first blog, you want a host that is popular, trusted, easy to use, reliable, and reasonably priced. No need for anything fancy.

Hostinger fits this need perfectly. The best part is that its plans start at $1.99/month (when using our discount link). That’s a steal considering how many positive reviews it gets.

For the vast majority of folks starting blogs, Hostinger is going to be the best bet for hosting their blog.

ACTION STEP: Sign up for Hostinger

If you’re just starting out and would like very affordable, yet reliable web hosting, Hostinger is perfect.

Step 4: Install WordPress

Your website needs a content management system (CMS). This allows you to create and manage blog posts.

There’s only one option for this: WordPress.

Seriously, just use WordPress.

That’s because it’s easily one of the most powerful, easy-to-use, and customizable CMSs out there.

WordPress powers roughly one-third of the internet. That’s how popular it is.

Use WordPress for your blog, end of story.

Because of how popular WordPress is, most web hosts offer a one-click install for WordPress. It’s super easy.

Of course, you might want to use a dedicated blogging platform like Medium or even LinkedIn. They are great for sharing ideas, but you can’t really generate any revenue from them. WordPress gives you tons of ways to turn a profit.

So, if you’re trying to make money blogging, WordPress is definitely the better choice.

ACTION STEP: Install WordPress on your host.

Hostinger makes it really easy–you will actually handle the WordPress install during the signup process.

Once you tell Hostinger the type of site you want to create (a blog in this case), it will offer you a few appropriate CMS options. Simply select WordPress:

Complete the rest of the signup process, and launch your site. Once it’s ready, Hostinger will prompt you to activate WordPress the first time you sign in.

Anytime you want to interact with your WordPress site, you can find it on the lefthand sidebar of your Hostinger dashboard.

Step 5: Pick a fitting WordPress theme

It’s very easy to change your site’s look and feel with WordPress.

The best part: No coding knowledge is required.

That’s because WordPress uses “themes.” These are little packages of code that can be swapped in and out. Whenever you change your theme, your site will also change but your blog content stays the same.

This makes it very easy to evolve your site over time without having to rebuild your entire site from scratch.

Hostinger actually has you choose a theme during the setup process, just after you select WordPress as your CMS.

Hostinger is going to offer a bunch of free themes for you to get started. There were 38 when I signed up.

Choose something that you like, but don’t get too precious about it at this point. You can switch up your theme later with very little work.

The number of themes out there makes me dizzy. There are thousands of free and paid themes out there already, and the WordPress community is always creating more.

When picking a theme for any of my blogs, I go straight to StudioPress. The themes are a bit more expensive at $130. (Most themes go for $20–50.) But it’s totally worth it.

StudioPress was purchased by WP Engine and WP Engine now includes all the StudioPress themes as part of its hosting package. It’s a nice freebie if you are already planning on hosting your site with WP Engine.

If you want a wider selection of WordPress themes at standard prices, Themeforest is the most popular WordPress theme marketplace. You’ll find just about anything you want in its selection.

Because it’s so easy to select your first theme with Hostinger (one click during the setup process), I want to show you how to switch up your theme in the future. It’s not much harder at all.

After you purchase your theme, log into your WordPress blog, go to the Theme section which is under Appearance in the WordPress sidebar menu. Then follow the instructions for adding the theme.

You’ll have to upload the theme files to WordPress and activate the theme from within WordPress. You can find the upload option by going to Themes > Add New, a button towards the top. Then you’ll see this option to upload:

You’ll be able to manage any themes you’ve uploaded to your WordPress blog from your Themes section:

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