I never wanted to be one of those bloggers who blogs about blogging.  I started my blog less than a year ago because I was desperately looking for a way to make money from home, on my own schedule, while my son napped upstairs.  I didn’t want to make $10 an hour as a remote call center employee and I wanted to be my own boss.  While blogging seemed like an unrealistic answer to my prayers, I trusted something down deep in my gut and went for it anyways.  Just a few months later, I’ve started to replace the full time income I had before I became a stay at home mom (working less than half the hours).  So, to get to the point, the reason I’m writing this post is because I want to let moms (like me) know that blogging is an option.  It’s not a get rich quick scheme (so if that’s your plan, you’ll have to look elsewhere).  It takes time, dedication, and perseverance, but it is by far, the best job I’ve ever had.  And, the best part is, I still get to stay home and watch my son grow up every single day.  If you’ve thought about starting a blog, this is your sign.  Quit thinking about it, and start doing it.  Here are the simple steps I took to start an income generating blog.

How to Start an Income Generating Blog

Step 1: Select a Niche that Converts

What are you going to write about?  If you’ve already considered starting an income generating blog, you probably know what you’re going to write about, but if not, that’s no big deal.  Brainstorm your interests, passions, and talents.  What do you think you could write about that would help other people solve their problems or make a difference in other people’s lives?  I’m going to be pretty stern here when I say that if you want to start an income generating blog, you have to focus on solving problems.  If you want your blog to make money, it cannot serve as an online diary.  There aren’t a lot of people out there that want to read about your trip to the zoo.  But, there are a lot of people out there that want to read about how you successfully prepare for family outings with two kids under two (or something like that… you get the idea, right?)  Think about what you type into the search bar on Pinterest and Google.  Are you looking for someone’s weekly diary entries or are you looking for answers?  One more thing before I move on… I highly suggest coming up with at least 20 blog post ideas before you get started.  You might think you have tons of ideas about a particular topic, but two months into blogging, you find yourself scratching your head, trying to think about new things to write about.  Make sure you have some concrete ideas and move on to step number 2!

Step 2: Sign up for Web Hosting with Bluehost

Your web host provides the technology and services needed for your website to be seen on the internet.  I chose Bluehost when I started my blog and I love it.  Hosting costs $3.95 a month.   You get a free domain name, site builders, one click WordPress installation, and excellent customer service (I’ve only needed to use it once, but they were so helpful).  There are options to start a blog for free on WordPress.com, but if you want to monetize your blog, you’ll need to bite the bullet and pay for hosting.  Next, you’ll need to select your plan (I have the basic plan for $3.95 a month).

Step 3: Create your Domain Name

Once you select your plan, it will ask you for your domain name.  Hopefully you’ve already put a little thought into what you want to call your website, but if not, take some time to decide on a domain name.  Just don’t get too caught up in the name.  At the end of the day, people are looking at your content, not your name.

Step 4: Enter your Credit Card Information

I don’t think I really need to explain this step, but you will see that once you get to the payment page, Bluehost offers a bunch of other add-on options for your website.  The only one I paid for was the Domain Privacy Protection ($0.99 a month), but you can read in to the other options and decide for yourself if you want to add them.

Step 5: Install WordPress

Once you’ve paid for your hosting plan, you’ll be logged into Bluehost.  From the hosting tab, click on the cpanel tab and scroll down and select “Install WordPress”.  From there, all you need to do is enter your domain name and click “log into WordPress.”  Bluehost does all of the magic for you.  You’re now ready to start designing your blog.

Step 6: Select a Theme

I’m going to be honest, this was really hard for me.  I even changed my theme several times along the way until I found this one (Kale).  Play around with the different themes until you find one you like.  Make sure to look at it on a mobile device as well as on a desktop to make sure you like both versions of the theme.

Step 7: Get Educated on how to Start an Income Generating Blog

What I’ve shared so far is how to set up your blog.  That was the easy part.  Now comes the tricky part.  How should you create content?  How do you create images?  How do you bring traffic to your blog?  How do you make money blogging?  I was asking all these same questions a few months ago.  If I had one piece of advice to give to a new blogger it would be to educate yourself.  I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Billionaire Blog Club when it was recommended to me from a friend.  I was ready to invest in some education, but I hadn’t decided where I wanted to spend my hard earned money (if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know I’m a hardcore penny pincher).  What sold me on BBC is that it covers everything (SEO, Pinterest, affiliate marketing, email marketing, content creation, and WordPress).  It offers video courses and ebooks, depending on how you like to learn.  There are also 28 day blog challenges like “Launching your Blog and getting 10k Pageviews” and “How to Reach $1000 in Revenue”.  The education pieces of BBC are great, but my favorite thing is that you have the opportunity to ask questions to the creator at any time and he always responds (usually within minutes).  I’m not sure how he has the time to do that, but it is absolutely amazing.  Lastly, when you sign up for BBC, you get a lifetime membership (and updates are happening all the time).  There are so many courses out there that can teach you how to start an income generating blog, and many of them are really helpful.  Do your research and decide which one is for you, but take the time to teach yourself the ins and outs of blogging.  With a little education and a little hard work, you’ll be bringing in some extra cash in no time!

Just so you know I’m not full of crap, I wanted to show you my stats so far for this month (I purchased BBC at the end of last month.  You can even see the uptake where I really started to implement some of the things I’ve learned).

Pageviews

Income

Ad Revenue (I use Mediavine as my ad network): $406.23

Affiliate Revenue: $663.92

If you have any questions about how to start a blog, please feel free to email me or leave a comment on this post.  I’m happy to share anything I’ve learned along the way.  Good luck!

DISCLOSURE: Coffee and Coos is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional. Always consult your doctor for medical advice.

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