Why did I start a money making blog? At the end of my studies I ended up with nice pieces of paper, and that was it. I had no job, but mostly I had nothing to do. And that was driving me crazy.
Spending years ‘having’ to do something every single day and suddenly finding yourself with a lot of time, that’s pretty traumatic.
All those hours and not a shadow of an idea how to spend them.
I did the sensible thing at the time, I tried whatever hobby came to mind. I started surrounding myself with books on anything, herbalism, astronomy, quantum physics, mythology, in short, anything that had ever appealed to me.
Fortunately, I quickly realised that this was not enough for me. Reading all those books didn’t make me feel any better because I knew the reality was that I was spending my days on my bed in my room getting mouldy.
The period when real life begins is frightening, but not only negative. It is full of surprises.
In fact, after a short time and a lot of digging on the web, I found the solution.
I was out of work and had nothing to spend my time with, so I could open my own business and solve both problems!
Now that the initial enthusiasm had passed, one question (more than one) remained. What business? And above all, how do I do it?
Well I will summarise in a few lines months of research and reasoning.
What do I like doing? What do I miss most about school?
Writing. Without a doubt.
What do I do when I have free time?
I write and read.
Very good.
What business requires a lot of writing and reading?
A money making Blog!
That’s right guys, for years I had seen videos, articles and posts on Pinterest about how great it was to earn from home thanks to a A Money Making Blog. But I hadn’t given them much thought, until one magical day I thought, “Why not give it a try?”.
A year later I still bless the me of that day that brought me here.
Now, even though I understood that I wanted to start a blog about writing and reading, there was one crucial part missing, “How do you start a blog?”
I had no idea. There are many blogs and many videos about it of course but there always seemed to be something missing.
I read all the articles but 1500 words later I still didn’t know how to do it.
Where to start.
My aim in this article is just that, I want to remove all doubt from your little head. You will leave this article knowing exactly how I started my blog and how you can easily do it too.
Follow this tutorial to the end and your blog will be up and running in just 10 minutes.
* This post may contain affiliate links which means I may receive a commission from purchases made through links, there will be no extra cost for you. Learn more on my private policy page. *
Why start a A Money Making Blog?
Everyone has their own reasons but for me the most important benefits are these:
- you have a personal space where you can write what you want
- you have something to do that fills you with satisfaction
- you earn money from home doing what you love
- you are your own boss
I didn’t think the perfect job existed, but I was wrong. My blog has improved my life in every possible way.
But now enough talking and let’s get down to the technical stuff.
Is it Free?
There are certainly free options WordPress, Wix, Blogger and many others. But surely you ask yourself, if there are free options why would anyone pay to start a blog? Well, the reason is very important.
When you use one of these options, the blog is not yours, it belongs to the site you subscribed to.
Therefore, you CANNOT make money from it and you will never have complete control.
From one day to the next, your writing could disappear from the web and you will not be able to say anything legally.
Another problem.
The reason why I myself did not start with one of the free options before buying the domain is the following: if you have second thoughts after a few months and want a blog with which you can earn money, you will probably lose all the articles you have written so far.
And probably, even the name of your blog.
It is sad how extremely difficult it is to move from one option to the other, but that is precisely why I advise you to start off on the right foot.
Start a blog that will forever be yours alone and of which you will always have total control.
How to open a Money Making Blog with Zero Experience in 10 minutes
Let’s start your money making Blog.
Exciting, don’t you think?
Then go to Siteground and follow my step-by-step instructions.
Click ‘look at the plans’, and this screen will appear with the hosting plans to choose from.
Of course I recommend starting with the StartUp plan, both because of the price but also because the basic plan has everything you need.
I chose a 12-month plan when I started my blog. In the long run the 24 month plan saves you money but when you are just starting out, the less you pay the better.
I also recommend you buy the 1 Year Domain ID Protect, it has a low price but gives you full protection.
Choose your blog name
We have come to a crucial step, the name of your blog.
I advise you to think hard about a name you like because you will have to see it EVERYWHERE for years.
When I started this blog it took me about a week to decide on a name, I had simply left the Siteground tab open while I thought.
How to find the most suitable name?
You have to think about what you will blog about, what is your audience? What will the articles be about?
I already knew, come what may, on my blog I wanted to talk about writing and reading, that’s why iink – on – screen.
Think well about the name but don’t rack your brains, there are more important things to worry about.
Last piece of advice on the subject: choose a name that is easy to pronounce and remember.
Install WordPress
After entering your personal information and choosing a user name and password, Siteground will leave you free to install WordPress.
Go to ‘Websites’ and under site details you will find this:
Click ‘Site tools‘ and in the dashboard you will find ‘WordPress installation and management’. If you use the blog as a sales site, download WooCommerce together with WordPress.
Enter the name of your domain (the one you chose earlier), the language and the place where you want to install it. Enter your personal information and click “install”.
The installation is very intuitive, but if you have any problems please contact Siteground support, they will respond as quickly as possible with precise advice (they have saved me more than once).
Choose a theme
To choose a theme go to ‘Appearance’ and click ‘Themes’. By clicking add new, you will see a lot of free themes to choose from.
Here you have to decide whether to use a free theme or a paid one. You will understand the differences better with this article. But it is not an urgent matter anyway.
You can also choose the theme in the coming days and you can always change it.
Let’s move on.
How to log into your site
You are now logged into your money making blog, but when you log out of WordPress and log back in you will have to do this:
This is what it looks like if I type iinkonscreen into google:
To access your site’s dashboard, simply add /admin to the domain name.
This will bring up the ‘secret’ page. Here you can enter your credentials to enter WordPress.
WordPress
On the left-hand side of the wordpress screen you will find whatever you need.
- You will use the ‘Posts’ section to add and write your own articles. The difference between these and ‘Pages’ is that a page is something more static. A post is a simple article you publish, a page can be the ‘About me’ section of your blog or anything that will remain unchanged over time.
- The ‘Media’ section contains all the images you have used in your blog.
- The ‘Appearance’ section contains everything related to the visual of your website. You can learn how to play with it and move the blocks around to your liking. Here, you will have to spy a bit to get the hang of it.
Congratulations! You now have a blog!
Passed this step, with passion and determination, NOTHING will stop you from turning it into a Money Making Blog.
What you NEED to do to have money making Blog
Now that your blog is up and running, after you have started writing some articles there are a few things you will need to do.
Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Terms and Conditions
This blog post explains everything you need and why, and also refers you to very useful free resources. Take advantage of it!
Backup Plugins
It took me far too long to find out that I needed something like this, and I almost had a heart attack thinking I could lose months and months of work.
Because yes guys, of course we are better protected by having a personal blog with a private domain but accidents do exist! And there is no reason to lose all your work.
So as soon as you have a few articles, but even before, go to ‘Plugins’ (on WordPress of course), click on add new and download and activate a backup plugin. I use UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore and I get along very well.
If you missed the link to start the adventure with Siteground you can find it here. Go back up and follow the tutorial so you don’t forget anything!
The article is finished here, now that you have a blog there are plenty of resources on the web waiting for you.
I’ll add a few:
Expert Advice on How to Write Your First Blog Post
How To Not Fail At Pinterest: Growing Your Blog views
How to Write Epic Blog Post Titles That Are Irresistibly Clickable
HOW TO GET 100,000 BLOG VIEWS
Now you too can have a money making blog! If you found this article useful, subscribe to the newsletter and follow the blog on Pinterest so we can help each other out.
Until the next article!
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