You may be asking yourself, “Should I start a blog?”. Click over and read these GREAT reasons why you should start this new adventure, how you make money and step by step instructions on setting it up.
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If you’re reading this, then you’re thinking about starting a blog! Yay! I look back five years ago and would’ve never imagined that I would be blogging AND earning money! You may be wondering, “Why should I start a blog?” and you need some convincing. Well… you’ve come to the right place.
I’m so glad my neighbor, who blogs over at Your Modern Family, talked me into starting a blog. I was very uncertain at first and my husband and I discussed it for several months. My daughter was starting Kindergarten so I needed to make this blog work and earn some money doing it or go get a job out of the house, which I really didn’t want to do.
Starting a blog can be super scary. I had no idea what I was doing and spent hours and hours on YouTube and Google. I felt that I didn’t even want to tell anyone because I didn’t want them to know I failed or what if someone thought I was stupid. Well, you don’t have to tell anyone and some people will think you are stupid. You will definitely learn new skills when starting a website.
My first blog post that went viral was How I Tricked My Husband into Thinking I Cleaned. People called me horrible names and told me it wasn’t the 1950’s anymore. Click over and read it and you’ll see that it was just a catchy title on a boring article. I made over $100 in one day on the advertisements that were on that post and I realized I needed to keep going and I COULD make this into a job.
Why Should I Start a Blog?
You can earn some extra money.
Like myself, your kids may be headed off to Kindergarten or college. You may not want to go back to work after your children are born and this is a great way to earn a little (or a lot of) income for bills, Christmas, and vacation. I know bloggers that make seven figures a year and others that make a few hundred. Once you get started you can make goals and products to get you where you want to be.
You want to own your own business.
Never in a million years would I have imagined I would have my own LLC and it feels even better when I transfer money from my business bank account to my personal account. Being your own boss is AMAZING!
Connect with like minded people.
Most bloggers start out to share things they are passionate about. You will meet other bloggers in your niche and readers that are interested in what you have to say. My most popular post is an eggless chocolate chip cookie recipe. I get comments and messages all the time from people that are allergic to eggs like me!
Set your own work schedule.
I LOVE this part of my job and literally took off the entire summer this year and just checked in now and again. Things were going on autopilot until August rolled around until I slowly started working again. It was so great to be able to go on vacation or stay home with a sick child without asking permission from someone else.
My oldest son has to be on the bus at 6:40AM and my other kids don’t get up for at least 45 minutes later. There are 45 minutes I can sit at the computer and type out a recipe I’m working on.
You can work from home.
Am I in my PJ’s right now? You’ll never know!
Do you have something to say? Are you an expert in a certain area? Do you feel like you can help people?
Many people start blogs because they fit into one of these categories. I’ve met bloggers with special needs that want to share what they’ve learned. They’ve written books and created support groups and others have taken their passion for cooking and have a weekly internet cooking show.
Think of what some of your blog post ideas would be and narrow down your blog niche. I made a mistake at first trying to copy other bloggers and I would post about things that had no connection to other things I was writing about. I was all over the place with no real direction.
It can give you a purpose- setting and accomplishing goals.
One reason I started my blog was that all my kids were in school now and had been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and gave myself a time limit to try and make my blog successful. I passed my goal and have been blogging for over three years now AND making a profit.
So are you still asking yourself, “Should I start a blog?”. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have!
How do you make money blogging?
People don’t realize you can make A LOT of money blogging. If you’re just started a new blog and are new to blogging you probably want to know where all this money is coming from and how you make money blogging. The #1 question I get from people is, “How do you make money blogging?“.
I had a lot of questions about this when I began and wondered if it was even worth it. I didn’t want to work my butt off and after all was done make $5 an hour and did a lot of research on ways to make money to determine if it was worth my time. Was it possible to make enough money blogging so I didn’t have to go out and get a job? My answer is, “YES”! I made $112.03 during my first month of blogging and by my third month, I was up to $1500!!
Ads
The easiest way to make money is on ads that are on your blog. You can start making money from day one. It may not be a lot, but it’s a start. I was very excited to see $.05! The more people that view your blog, the more money you’ll make.
Google Adsense is a great place to start. Many ad networks have a minimum page view requirement, but Google Adsense doesn’t, so any size blogger can create an account and start placing ads on their site. Once your page grows, you can sign up with other ad companies and make more money.
Sponsored Posts
This is where I make the majority of my money. I work with several companies that are middle men. When I see a product I use or think I can incorporate into my blog, I apply. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don’t.
Two companies that I really like are Influence Central and Izea. I log in and see what’s available and go from there. I get an email if I’m accepted. My first sponsored post was for $20. I got a sponsored post this week for $400! You can ask for more money as your blog grows.
Update: Many companies are moving away from sponsored blog posts and doing more with social media accounts. I personally don’t like being active on social media so it’s not a big focus for me, but other bloggers spend a majority of their time on this.
Your own products and courses
This is the one I need to work on. 🙂 Many bloggers know what their most popular posts are and then expand on it. They write an ebook or create an email course that readers can purchase. If your most popular course is on children and whining, why not create an email course for 7 days to encourage moms and teach different ways to get young ones to stop whining?
Affiliates
This is a great passive way to earn money. There are many affiliate programs out there to choose from and most bloggers are affiliates of many companies and brands. You could be writing a fun recipe and need to use your mixer.
The way an affiliate works is that you would link to your mixer, using your special referral code and get a small commission if anyone clicks and/or buys that product. Once you add that link to your blog post it’s always there and can make money for you forever!
Blogging Resources that you’ll love
How do you make money blogging? Well…learn, learn, learn. After fumbling through setting up a website and learning what to do I’ve added my favorite resources below. It’s not everything I read, but these are my favorites and the most bang for the MY buck! They were straight forward and to the point.
I know when I started my blog, I didn’t want to put a lot of money into it. My goal was just to make money back so I didn’t look like a fool when it didn’t work out. I wasn’t confident, was I? This is definitely worth the money and wishes I had read it sooner!
A book I found really helpful, that I just purchased this year, is the Blog Traffic Transformation E-Book by Lena Gott. It contained useful information that I had never heard before and now I’m implementing many of the strategies I learned.
I wish I had known a lot of the information when I started blogging. Many people think you just write a blog post and that’s it. Well, she gives you lots of advice on the behind-the-scenes and what you need to do that no one ever sees that will get your blog seen.
*That book I linked to is an affiliate link, as I mentioned above.
Step by Step Instructions on Starting a Blog
You can set up a blog in just a few minutes. There’s a lot to learn to make money blogging, but if I can do it, you can do it. Below is a little of my story. I’ve included instructions on how you can start your blog below in just a few minutes AND under $100!
Before I had (my three) kids my husband and I had decided that I would stay home with them. We didn’t live near any family and just figured that made the most sense. Fast forward 10 years and my youngest was in her last year of preschool.
My neighbor has a great successful blog and makes A LOT of money blogging. In fact, her husband quit his job and they live off her blogging income! Isn’t that exciting to hear? After brainstorming with her and my husband Keeping Life Sane, LLC was born.
If I could earn a little money to contribute to the family, but still be there to pick my kids up from school, help with homework, and get them to all their sporting events, then I should give it a try.
Keeping Life Sane went live on March 8, 2015. By March 31, I had earned $112.03! I was shocked and excited. I kept plugging away and in July 2015 I made over $3000!
In my first 5 months of blogging, I made over $6600!!
Update: It’s now 2022 and my focus on my blog has changed directions about a thousand times. I haven’t done any sponsored posts or social media shares for money in probably two years and I’m making the most I have ever made. I have just focused on blog content.
It’s a lot of hard work, sometimes early morning and late nights, but this is so much better than heading to an office. I can volunteer at school and go to the grocery store without any kids in tow! I LOVE being my own boss.
How do I set up a WordPress blog?
The very first step is to find a host. A host is a company that saves your blog to their server and I use Siteground.com If you have any questions, they include a phone number or live chat to help walk you through any problems you may encounter (I have used both). I’ve had a couple of hosts and Siteground is BY FAR the best!
Here are the plans that Siteground offers.
Next, you’ll choose your service and register your domain name. Have you thought about what you’re going to name your blog? Is it available?
Check out the details and press the PAY NOW button to get started. I pay for domain privacy because I don’t want people to know anything about me. I’ve never used my kids’ names, husband’s name, or even our last name anywhere on my blog. I’ve also never given a city, just a general area.
I signed up for SG site scanner because I know many bloggers that have been hacked with the bad stuff so I get an email that they’ve scanned my site and it’s always been clean.
I’d say $119.15 to start your own business is a pretty good price. Update: Siteground has tons of deals and promotions and many times you can get even better deals.
If you’re ready to start now, you can have a blog in less than 15 minutes. Let me know your blog name so I can follow you!