How to Start a Blog & Make Money Online ($250k Per Month)

Learn how to start a blog in 7 simple steps.

All you need to do is follow my step-by-step guide and you’ll discover the tactics I used to make multiple 6-Figures with my blog in just a few years.

Most of the advice on the internet regarding how to start a blog is outdated.

Taking blogging advice from someone who started a blog ten years ago is like asking directions from someone who still relies on an old-fashioned map and compass.

Blogging is on a much different landscape today, and the best way to start a blog is to update your strategies for the 2020s using practical blogging tips.

That’s why in this post, you will learn how to start a blog in 7 simple steps. Here’s what we’re going to accomplish in this post:

1. Choose a Host to Set up your blog.
2. Choose your blog’s niche.
3. Install WordPress.
4. Choose your blog’s theme.
5. Install some easy WordPress plugins.
6. Create great content
7. Promote your blog

Now, as you follow along in this article, also make sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel to keep learning for free as I publish more videos about blogging like a pro.

Step 1. Choose a Host to Set Up Your Blog

Here’s my favorite beginner setup at the lowest cost with the best features (based on my 10+ years of experience):

1. Click here to go to Bluehost.com ( Note: that link will get you a discount) and click Get Started Now.
2. Choose the Choice Plus Plan.
3. Enter the domain name you want to use (i.e., nwaezedavid.com).
4. Enter your account information.
5. Under Package Information, choose an account plan based on how long you want to pay. (Remember, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee with all plans, so there is no risk!)
6. Uncheck the Package Extras (you don’t need them.)
7. Complete your purchase, choose your password and log in to your Bluehost account.
8. Answer the onboarding questions or skip them, but choose “blog” when prompted.
9. Click “skip” when it comes to choosing your theme. (We’ll get that sorted out later.)
10. From the Bluehost dashboard, click the WordPress button on the top right, and you’ll end up on WordPress.

Congrats! You now have your own self-hosted WordPress blog! 😀

Here are a few other things to consider when choosing a name through a domain name registrar:

1. Your name should be memorable and not too difficult to type.
2. Don’t confuse people with difficult spelling; just keep the name easy to spell and pronounce.
3. Avoid using numbers and hyphens in your domain, as it can confuse people.
4. Try and keep your name broad if you need to pivot to an adjacent niche.

Step 2. Choose Your Blog’s Niche.

At this point, we all know that your blog needs a niche, so what is it?

Whether it’s marketing, cooking, Crossfit exercises, vegan dogsitting, underwater parkour, solo dancing – whatever crazy personal blog topic, there are endless things to blog about.

Here’s the problem most people face:

So many professional bloggers will tell you to start with something you’re passionate about because it helps you “maintain a consistent writing schedule and push through failure to succeed.”

They’ll also tell you to choose a niche at the intersection of passion, skills, and experience. But, if you want to start a website to make money blogging, then using this model is very much flawed because it’s missing one major component: ‘You as a brand’

As a blogger, you need to understand that you are the brand.

When choosing your niche, it’s time to brainstorm about the following:

• What you want to teach easily.
• Where you may already have experience.
• Any leverage you may have in an industry.
• Where you can extract value from the market.

The next step is uncovering your expertise.

Note: This shouldn’t be what you think you are an expert at or want to be an expert at but what you have a proven track record of succeeding at.

Your expertise enables you to make money easily as a newbie with a new blog.

The third step is taking an honest look at the market.

Ask Yourself; How can you really monetize this market? Just because you’re passionate about a particular niche doesn’t make it the right niche for you.

And last but not least is the leverage you have in your life when it comes to that niche.

Here are some important questions to ask yourself:

• What levers can you pull?
• Do you have connections?
• Insider information on a market?
• An incredible skill set compared to most people?
• How are you uniquely positioned to leverage any and everything in your life that others can’t keep up with?

Step 3. Install WordPress.

A Self-hosted WordPress is the best blog platform for new bloggers because it gives you freedom and flexibility to design the type of website you want.

The good news here is;

Bluehost automatically one-click installs WordPress right from your hosting dashboard, making starting a blog a piece of cake.

You can pick your theme the first time you get to your dashboard or you can do that later on.

There are plenty of attractive free WordPress themes, including free blog themes.

However, if you want to pick your theme later, you can skip this step by clicking on the “Skip This Step” option at the end of the page.

You get to a new blog page where you need to click on the “Start Building” option.

Next, select the type of site you plan to create, and WordPress will help you with prompts. You can also click “I don’t need help” to go right to your dashboard.

Finally, enter your “Site Title” and “Site Description.”

From here, spend some time making yourself familiar with the WordPress dashboard.

Are you ready to start your blog? Get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) with my link below:

Step 4. Choose a Theme for Your Blog.

You will need a good theme to design a professional blog that will really make you money. A WordPress theme is a collection of templates, files, and stylesheets that dictate your blog design.

Right now, your blog might look something like this:

When you install WordPress newly, the default WordPress theme will be installed automatically, and on the left is a menu that helps you change its appearance.

Now, there are two options when it comes to themes:

Option 1. You can get a free theme with limited options or a paid theme. 

I recommend you pick a theme like Kadence or WP Astra, which are the best for most beginner bloggers.

Option 2. You can buy a professional WordPress Theme from Envato Market also known as ThemeForest.

How To install a new theme on Your WordPress blog

The first thing you need to do is log in to your WordPress account (admin page) if you are not already logged in.

You can always access your WordPress login page by going to yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.

Once logged in, your WordPress dashboard looks something like this:

Here, click on the “Appearance” option from the sidebar menu.

Next, select the “Themes” option from the “Appearance” section.

To search for the theme options WordPress offers, click the “Add New” button at the top of the page.

As you can see below, there are many free themes.

Before picking one for your blog, preview as many WordPress themes as possible to see if it’s what you want.

To install an external theme from a site like ThemeForest or Envato, go to “Appearance” – “Themes” and click “Add New,” upload the zip file, and click install.

Are you ready to start your blog? Get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) with my link below:

Step 5. Install a Few Simple WordPress Plugins.

Plugins are tools that integrate with your website and extend its features.

When starting a blog, choosing the best ones for SEO and site speed is essential.

Here’s a list of four of the best ones you should add to your blog:

1. Elementor Pro.

Elementor Pro is a WordPress landing page builder, and it’s the tool I used to create my home page and about page.

They have a free version of Elementor, but the Pro version takes it to the next level with much better templates.

2. WP Optimize (Image Optimizer).

WP-Optimize compresses all of your images and screenshots so that they are smaller files and your pages load faster.

I’ve tested many different image compression tools, and WP-Optimize has been the best.

3. WP Rocket.

WP Rocket is an all-in-one site speed plugin that can simplify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, integrate with your CDN, reduce database bloat, and more.

I’ve tried other speed tools like Autoptimize and had some issues with them. WP Rocket is the best, in my opinion.

You can get started with WP Rocket for $49 per year.

4. RankMath SEO.

I use RankMath SEO to manage my sitemap, robots.txt, page title, and meta descriptions. Another great option is AIOSEO (All in One SEO).

Step 6. Create Great Content for Your Blog.

Congrats!

You started a blog and are ready to start blogging by creating your first blog post.

This is where the rubber meets the road.

One thing first:

Blogs are no longer places where you write updates and gain a following.

They are now Google-driven websites that require organic search traffic.

This is where on-page SEO comes into play.

When you write your first blog post (and every one after that), focus on one main target keyword, and here’s where you should include it:

• Put the keyword in your blog’s permanent URL.
• Include the keyword in the title of your post.
• Add your keyword to the first or second paragraph.
• Include the keyword inside of your headings.
• Add the keyword throughout your blog post.

Once you have a list of the top 5-10 keywords (topics) you want to cover, it’s time to start writing.

Remember, in addition to text, blog posts with audio, video, photos, infographics, and other visual content perform the best and keep readers engaged.

It’s also essential to write content that matches Google search intent and compels them to take action on your blog.

Moreover, use keyword rank tracking software to track the position of your various keywords in search engines as time goes by.

Writing Blog Posts that Match Search Intent.

When planning your content strategy, consider what your reader wants when performing an online search for your target keyword, you can use DIIB for that. 

This concept is the psychology of search intent and is at the heart of your blog content strategy:

For example, your target keyword is “How to Get Rid of Pimples.”

When you search for this term, you’ll see many new blog posts feature titles, including additional terms like Fast, Overnight, Quickly, and Home Remedies. 

This data shows that most people that want to get rid of pimples want them gone as quickly and discreetly as possible. And Google’s PageRank is pushing these articles to the top. 

What does this mean for your content strategy? 

You should get to the point and offer a list of the best ways to get rid of pimples quickly. 

Don’t write a long post about “The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rid of Pimples.”

And don’t start your post with the heading “What Are Pimples?” like many SEOs did in the past.

Instead, match search intent and provide the solution your readers are looking for by understanding the meaning behind their search.

You accomplish this by looking at which additional terms are included in currently ranking content’s title tags and reverse-engineering the search.

While you don’t have to be a professional writer when starting a blog, it’s essential to understand basic sentence structure and proper grammar.

For example, short paragraphs, bullet points, and images help break up long, monotonous blocks of text and keep readers engaged.

You can also check out my guide to the best grammar checkers to use with your blog this year and why I use Grammarly.

Extra Tips to Improve Your Writing.

• Your blog posts should always provide value to your readers. Write with a clear beginning, middle, and end outline structure. You can make even the most mundane topics interesting if you understand story arcs and hero’s journeys.
• Present your blog content attractively and make it easily accessible to your readers. Make sure both textual and visual content in the blog are high-quality.
• Format your headings correctly with H2 and H3 tags, and use bulleted lists and images to break up long lines of text. No paragraph should be longer than 3-4 sentences.
• Make your first blog posts conversational to build a connection with your audience.
• Use readable fonts and use white space to keep your blog posts easy on the eyes.
• Add bullet points to help readers skim down the blog without missing anything critical.
• Double-check for typos and grammatical errors.
• Bold some text to make it stand out.

Remember, a blog is a living thing that you can update over time. So don’t try to make your content perfect – get your blog online and publish it without fear – you can continually update it later.

Create Your Home and About Pages

Before starting a blog, you should have a few pages in your blog’s top menu navigation so that readers quickly understand your blog and find important information.

In my blogging course, Pro Blogging Academy, I extensively cover the pages you need to launch your blog and start on the right foot.

I call them “Your Major Four” pages, and they are:

1. Home Page.

We all know what a home page is – it’s the main URL of your website. 

This page shouldn’t include every little detail about your site – its purpose is to sell your unique value proposition in two seconds or less. 

If a reader hits your home page and doesn’t quickly understand what your site is about, they may bounce and never return.

You edit your WordPress home page with a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) page builder like Elementor.

This tool allows you to drag and drop content blocks, including text, images, videos, color blocks, and more.

A good home page should contain the following:

• A slider or hero image with a headline and subheadline. 
• A small section to tell readers more about what your blog is about.
• The primary call-to-action button takes readers to a significant page, post, or email list opt-in form.
• Internal links point to your important content to make it easy for readers to navigate your site.

2. About Page.

The About Page of your blog should cover everything about you – who you are, what you stand for, and what your blog is about.

This section will help you connect with your readers on a deeper level, so don’t hold back.

Make sure to write about the following:

1. Who you are.
2. What made you decide to start your blog.
3. Your expertise or background to build trust with your readers.
4. The pain point you’re solving and how you’ve dealt with the same struggles as your audience.
5. Your success story.
6. A call-to-action.

To keep readers engaged, You can write your About page like a story.

People don’t necessarily want to read about all of your recent professional accomplishments.

This story isn’t the place to brag about yourself but to allow people to understand who you are. 

3. Blog Post Template

Your blog post template page is fundamental when starting a blog.

Your blog mainly consists of posts; you must have this template dialed in before publishing posts.

Your blog posts need to be:

• Easy to read text by making sure you use large enough font in black with a white background. (Do NOT break this rule 🙂)
• Your text should be no wider than 850px. Once you start going beyond this, your readers have to look too far from left to right, making it difficult to read.
• They need to have proper line spacing. If you take this post you are reading right now, for example, you will notice that I have no more than three lines of text before a paragraph break.

Those are the main points you need to address, but one thing that is also super helpful when starting a blog is looking at sites you want to model (not copy) and reverse engineer what they are doing.

This concept is true for every area of your blogging business, especially in the blog post design.

4. Blog Archive

Every blog has a “/blog” page like Nwaezedavid.com/blog; your blog shouldn’t be the exception here.

Note: A current trend in blogging is to use a more complicated page structure, but if you start a blog from scratch, use a standard /blog archive page that chronologically displays your posts.

A good rule of thumb to follow here with this page is to make sure that it is simple and displays no more than ten posts per page.

The same advice applies here as above; you want to model (not copy) sites in your niche that are getting great results.

5. Contact Page

Having a page with a contact form means that people can get in touch with you needed.

Ensure that you have a confirmation message when someone submits their form.

This page can be as simple as:

Thank you so much for reaching out. We’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.

Plan Your Future Content

Another common question is how to prioritize new blog post ideas.

This should be based on keyword metrics, including search volume, difficulty scores, and how well you think you can rank for a keyword.

You can keep track of this inside of a simple spreadsheet with columns for your future posts, including:

• Target keyword.
• Blog post title.
• Monthly search volume.
• Word count.
• Priority.

Analyze Your Content

You need to use analytics tools to analyze your content’s performance.

Tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs do this well. Since a Google Analytics account should already be on your blog, you can go to your GA dashboard to view metrics like site visitors, average time on page, total page views, and tons of other interesting stats.

You can view traffic to individual blog posts over any period and compare it to previous periods to see if your traffic is increasing or decreasing.

Are you ready to start your blog? Get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) with my link below:

Step 7. Promote Your Blog.

To promote your new blog, the best strategy is to do whatever it takes to build links to your blog. 

Links are like the currency of the Internet. 

The more you have, the more Google will take you seriously and rank a new blog post quickly after you publish it.

Here are the top strategies to promote your blog:

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the best ways to promote your blog. 

It’s a great way to build authority in your niche, meet other bloggers, get exposure on various forums related to your niche, and get backlinks.

Guest blogging is a hustle that includes cold email outreach and relationship building.

First, don’t think about the benefits you’ll get from backlinks.

You have to provide value to others.

Said differently, in internet marketing, you must provide value when writing guest blog posts.

For a full rundown of this strategy, read my guide on guest blogging

Link Building

Although guest posting is one strategy to get links to your blog, there are plenty of others. 

First, the best form of link building is passively getting links without involvement or outreach. 

Sounds like a dream, right?

People naturally link to the best content they can find.

So how do you make sure your blog posts are “linkable”?

When starting a blog, your content needs to be unique and high-quality. That’s the basic entry fee to get into the game. 

To take it to the next level, add visual elements to your blog posts. These can be infographics, videos, case studies, statistics, and any other unique content that doesn’t exist anywhere else. 

Here are some other link-building strategies to try out after you set up a blog:

• Broken link building: Use a tool like Ahrefs to find blogs in your niche with broken external links. Send them an email that their link is broken and your resource is a better option. This strategy is great because you’re helping the blog fix its 404 error and (hopefully) getting a link simultaneously.
• Link reclamation: Input your blog’s URL into the Ahrefs Content Explorer tool to find instances where your brand is mentioned but not linked. Here, you can reach out to the post’s writer, thank them for the mention, and ask if they can add the link. 
• Link partnerships: Form relationships with other bloggers in your niche to get links in their guest posts and vice versa.
• Competitor research: View which websites are linking to competitors to get new sites to reach out to. 

Search Engines and Blogging

You could have the best blog in the world – if you don’t have visitors, it doesn’t matter, does it?

So how do you get people to your blog? The answer is straightforward – through search engines.

Search engine listings are the primary method used by potential readers and subscribers to find out about new blogs.

If they can’t find you, or even worse, if you aren’t ranked highly in search results, they won’t know you exist!

When you create a blog, remember that content readers will love is excellent, but you also need to ensure people can find your blog in search engines.

The secret of achieving good rankings is not a secret at all – it’s simply about making sure Google knows what each page of your blog is dedicated to.

For example, instead of just saying, “This post is about this” or “This post is about that”, use language that reflects what future readers might type into Google when searching for information on the topic covered by your article.

Think of it as an excellent way to ensure that Google knows what your page is about – then you’ll naturally start appearing for relevant search results.

SEO title tags

SEO title tags appear in search engine results and get people to click on your blog.

It can be the same, different, or similar to the title of your articles, but most importantly, it needs to make sense when people search for specific words.

Also, search engines will truncate the title tag to about 160 characters, so you should consider this as you think of your SEO title.

Don’t forget to include the main keyword/s you are targeting in your title.

Meta description

Another on-page SEO factors to consider are meta description. These are the words that appear beneath your blog post in Google.

They are displayed on your page, so you have complete control over what Google thinks your post is about.

Use these to give readers a good idea of what to expect from your blog.

Sitemap

This helps search engines direct search engine bots to your blog and also lets them know about all the pages you have.

You should submit a sitemap via Google Search Console, as this ensures that new content added to your blog can be indexed as quickly as possible.

Pay attention to categories and subcategories when creating your directory structure, as this will be shown in the sitemap.

Ensuring that you give the search engines as much information as possible about your blog is very important.

Widgets

An excellent blog for SEO sometimes means displaying information in a widget and your post.

This means including RSS feeds, author info, and related posts to your blog posts will help the search engines direct relevant readers to your site.

Widgets can also be great for subheaders, giving you additional functionality for your blog.

On-Page SEO

You need to format your blog posts to rank on search engines properly. 

To do that, you must ensure your target keywords are in the URL, the H1 (title), the first H2 in the form of a question, and throughout the content.

You can use tools like Jasper and SurferSEO to optimize your blog posts for SEO.

Mistakes That Can Kill Your Blog Growth

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time and you do not see the results you want, your approach may be wrong.

It’s easy to become discouraged when your blog isn’t growing, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Focusing on Inputs Instead of Outputs

One of the most common mistakes bloggers make is focusing too much on inputs instead of outputs.

By inputs, I mean things like researching topics, writing content, creating images, and so on.

While these are all critical pieces, they don’t directly lead to blog growth.

What does lead to growth is getting your content out in front of people who need it – or, put another way, output.

So instead of focusing solely on creating content, focus some energy on things that will help get your content seen by more people, such as link building and social media marketing.

Link Building

Link building is integral to growing a blog because it helps build credibility with search engines and increase visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Unfortunately, many bloggers shy away from link-building because it can sometimes feel uncomfortable or awkward.

But if you want to grow your blog, link-building is essential – so make sure you’re doing it! 

Having a Content System

If you’re running a content-driven business – whether a blog or something else – then having a content system is crucial for success.

A content system helps ensure that articles are being published regularly and efficiently so that readers always have something new and exciting to read about each week or month (depending on how often you post).

Not only will this help keep readers engaged with your content, but it will also give them a reason to come back again and again.

Trust the Process

When starting a new blog or website, it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to see immediate results – but unfortunately, that isn’t always realistic.

It takes time for blogs (and websites) to gain traction in search engines and start bringing in traffic organically – so don’t expect overnight success.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all; trust the process and keep plugging away at your goals until, eventually, you’ll start seeing results.

Having Unrealistic Monetization Expectations

Finally, unrealistic monetization expectations can lead to disappointment and cause people to give up on their blogging journey before they’ve even started.

It’s important to remember that most bloggers don’t make money until they reach certain traffic levels – often upwards of 100K visitors/month or more, depending on their niche.

So if monetization isn’t happening right away for you, don’t worry – keep focusing on consistently putting out excellent quality content over time; eventually, those efforts will pay off.

How to Start a Blog [Infographic]

You are free to post this infographic to your own blog! But, remember to add a link back to my blog as the source. 🙂

I’ve also surveyed and researched the biggest challenges for new content marketers based on the stage of their blog’s growth.

Here’s what I found:

Using AI To Start Your Blog

There are so many great AI tools available today, you can use automation to optimize your blog and generate new content.

Here are a few of the best AI tools that can help you get started.

ChatGPT

This was created by OpenAI, this tool can generate content with natural language processing.

ChatGPT can write blog posts faster and more naturally by typing in prompts.

Uniqueness is not its strong suit.

However, you can generate many ideas to help you find topics to write about.

Jasper AI

Jasper AI is an AI-driven writing assistant that can help you create copy for blog posts, emails, and other types of content.

This tool helps you quickly conceive ideas and offers suggestions on improving your content.

It’s a great way to save time when creating content ideas and editing existing work.

With plenty of templates and ideas to get you started, it’s easy to create high-quality content with Jasper.

Surfer SEO

By analyzing a base target keyword and its related terms, Surfer SEO helps you to create content that directly answers your readers’ queries.

This tool will also provide insights into the types of content that perform best in search results and how often specific keywords are used.

Plus, it can help you track the performance of your content over time and give you tips on improving it.

Grammarly

Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you to improve your spelling and grammar.

It’s an excellent tool for bloggers who want to ensure their content is error-free and engaging.

How to Start a Blog: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).

Summary: Starting a Blog

Well, as you can see, starting a blog is pretty easy. 

Content strategies, link building, and monetization can be the tricky part. 

Ultimately, your success with blogging comes down to how fast you can scale your content publishing and link-building efforts. 

Because that’s how you rank on Google for valuable terms and make affiliate revenue – getting to page #1.

To recap, the seven steps we covered are:

• Choose a niche.
• Pick a blog name and web hosting.
• Install WordPress.
• Picking your blog’s theme.
• Install WordPress plugins.
• Create great content. 
• Promote your blog. 

However, making your first blog successful is hard work.

To read more about starting a blog, check out my other guides:

• How to Make Money Blogging
• Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started a Blog

Now, it’s your turn. Why not start a blog today?

Are you ready to start your blog? Get started for just $2.95/month (63% off your hosting plan) with my link below:

Be sure to join my blogging academy to learn directly from me and my team.