How to Start a Blog And Make Money in 2022

Starting a blog can be  rewarding and also provides exciting opportunities. Through blogging, you can build yourself as an expert in your area of expertise, 

It will also help you gain  part-time or full-time income, and connect you  with like-minded people who share your interests and passions.

In this article, I will explain how to start a blogging career and earn money no matter your experience level.

So you really want to know if you can still be successful with the blog and make full time income in 2022? The answer is yes and I’m about to show you in this article.

So it’s already 2022 and you are ready to start your blog , read this article to the end to learn my best tips for starting a successful blog that makes you money and gives you impact in the industry or niche that you choose.

Table Of Content:

• What Blogging is all about

• Tips on How to start a successful blog

• 12 Unique steps You need to follow to build and start a successful Blog

• 7 unique ways to makes money with your blog

• Bottom line

What is Blog:

Blogs are used as a way for someone to share his personal viewpoints and experiences. Both businesses and individuals create blogs for the purpose of sharing information as well as bringing in sales or commissions.

How to start a blog:

For you to start a blog, the very first thing you need to do is to choose the niche in an industry that you want to be known for.  I know a lot of times people don’t want to hear that you need to find a niche. But you actually have to find a niche that you want to be known for.

Let’s say  you have a lot of interest in so many topics related to what you do but you can’t figure out which one you want to talk about in your blog ,  you may want to talk about being a mom, or you want to talk about being a nurse , or about sewing and all of that good stuff.

Listen if you’re absolutely just starting out, I think you should start posting about all those topics for the first three to six months and then after that three to six month period, go back and look at your analytics and see what did the best for you see what things really stood out to your audience and that’s probably what you want to focus on.

Listen, you all know I say very boldly a lot that I believe that lifestyle blogging is dead: I’m not saying that you can’t be a lifestyle blogger,  I’m saying that you have to be well known for something and it’s much easier to do a lifestyle blog when you have already been established in this thing.

There are people out here that have been blogging for 5, 10, to 15 years and at this point they can talk about whatever they want to talk about. They started and became successful in a given niche and now they can do whatever they want to do. But if you want to stand out and have impact in such a crowded online space you have to find a niche that best works for you.

So once you find your niche you need to be consistent at it as consistency is everything. People won’t trust you if you don’t come and present content to them on a regular basis because people are mindful of who they see,  that’s how it is on the online space.

You got to show up regularly in consistency with fire for your audience right in and when you do that they start to know you as the go-to person in this Niche. They start to know you as like “boom i know he uploads tuesdays and thursdays, i know she puts up her blog post on mondays and wednesdays”, something like that.

And then they start checking for you and your engagement becomes really really good because your audience has been speaking to you as long as you’re speaking back to them and giving them that content on a regular basis like they want.

Now for me in the beginning, one of the reasons why i struggled with consistency in the beginning is because i was trying to do too many things at a time. Now my advice is to focus on one to two platforms at a time and two might be pushing it if you’re brand new. I believe you should be focused  on a search based platform with a recommendation feature.

What do i mean by that? It needs to be a platform that people use for searching so they can type in things like ” how to make blueberry muffins” . Typically those type of platforms are platforms like pinterest or youtube, and even tick tock. I have a tick tock account but obviously i don’t go in on it like that but I absolutely see amazing potential with tick-tock for bloggers because it’s becoming a space where people share niche type of content. For instance,  I see so many moms sharing hacks .

One girl literally just does  lunch ideas for kids, and so many others.

So I absolutely  think tick tock has the potential to be  really amazing for bloggers.  Pinterest is amazing because that’s a place where people go specifically looking for blogs and looking for topics that will lead them  somewhere to get information right?

So if you’re talking about how to sew or whatever, that is a place where people will go looking for that type of content typically and if you have an audience that’s women you know pinterest is going to do  really well for you.

And then also on youtube, obviously youtube is the search engine of search engines. It’s the brother cousin to google or whatever they are but owned by the same company. Youtube is a place where people go to learn how to do things specifically if you’re teaching and people also go for entertainment too.  But if you teach a certain  skill or skills, then  youtube is absolutely amazing and it works really  well with your blog.

I believe that youtube and google work so well together that you absolutely have to use both. If I were starting again I would totally start with using youtube because once you have focused on a niche and you’re doing it consistently and you have chosen the platform that is going to be the platform for you to focus on,  you will be successful.

You have to focus on what you are doing. Listen, social media is very noisy okay social media can be very noisy and you can see people doing this and doing that through different strategies and different techniques but I think it’s  super important to be focused  if you’re trying to build your blog,  you have to take actions that will build your blog.

 You want to focus on the strategies and the tactics and the everyday habits that are going to move traffic to your website.

And there are certain platforms that just are not good for that. There are things like focusing on other people that are just not good for  you. You got to focus on you instead of  comparing yourself to everybody out here on social media. You have to pick a strategy that’s going to work for you and at least stick with that for three to six months.

Three to six months will give you data to be able to go back,  look at it  and decide at that point if it’s working well or not. If you want to try something else, you should move on but definitely focus on what you are doing and what you are building and not on all the new shiny things and everything that other people are doing.

This because focusing on others will get you really distracted whereas you need to  focus  on  building  the platform that you want and truly impact the people that you want to impact.

Building relationships is super important out there in the blogging space especially if you see yourself going down the lane of doing brand deals and you know speaking opportunities and  it’s super important to know your colleagues out in this space. because they will be the ones to share your blog with people and refer you to opportunities.

So building relationships is super important and that’s the way you get so many brand deals and you will be able to monetize your blog through brand deals. The best thing that will definitely contribute to that is through your relationships and going to in-person conferences and you  networking with people online. Your relationships with them will be one of the biggest things to help you make  money monthly through brand deals.

So I completely and totally believe that your relationships can play a huge role in the success of your blog. You may also have several blogging friends that can share you out and it really will benefit your platform in return. So don’t do this just with the idea of thinking you’re gonna go and get shared out,  no! it’s just cool to be friends with people because they have strategies and use techniques that you may not know which they can  also teach you .

Learn while making these connections with people :don’t sit there. Listening  to their conversations and seeing what’s important to them will give you clues on what you should be doing for yourself.

Successful bloggers  have courses and products  you can buy and learn from. It’s worthy to note that I have invested so much in just my education and learning and putting money back into my business so that I can scale and get bigger. i think it’s totally worth to always  learn whether it’s on other websites, youtube,  Skillshare and other learning platforms.

However you can invest back into yourself and into your blog and you totally want to do that because learning is everything and guess what?  The social media platforms used in driving traffic are ever changing. Google is always evolving and people change as the internet evolves.

Things actually change and you’ve to stay abreast of all this stuff if you want to continue to be successful out there, so it’s going to be super important that you’re continually learning all the time.

Those are the ways and the strategies that you’ll need to be successful with a blog. Those are the things that are going to help you stand out and really help you level up faster  than just trying to do it all yourself and all that good stuff.

With that said, let me quickly show you 12 Steps you need to follow to start a successful Blog that can stand out from others.

12 Steps To follow to Start a successful Blog:

If you are ready now to jump in and start a blog but don’t know the steps to follow to start, these 12 steps will guide you for success, regardless of your ultimate goals.

1. Determine Your Niche or Topic

Finding a niche can be difficult at first, but will help you build  good  credibility in the long term. You can surely talk about more than one subject as times goes on, but make sure your main focus is consistent and specific enough to draw readers attention and encourage them to keep reading your articles.

2. Do some Research on Your Competitors:

After finding what you want to write about, then you need to do some research to understand who the other key players are in your space. Is your niche already fairly crowded? Or are very few people writing about your intended topic?

In most cases, making your findings before writing about your topic will help you understand how you can create content that’s better than or different from what’s already out there, and  this will help you to stand out.

3. Understand Your Audience:

In addition to standing out in your niche, you should always consider your audience. Those people that you are going to be blogging for.

Understanding your audience will help you write articles that are valuable and relevant to your readers. Try finding out the following information about your audiences / your blog readers before starting to write anything :

• What are their ages?

• The area where they live

• What work do they do?

• What other forms of media do they already consume?

• Are they reading any other blogs?

• In their free time,What do they do?

• What problems do they face on a regular basis?

• What do they wish to become  experts in?

4. Makes  Plans for your First Blog Post:

Once you finally have your desired niche and desired audience, you can start to plan your first blog post. But, this may require you to do some research in order to make sure you’re creating something that your audiences will want to go through and read.

At first when starting, type your chosen topic idea into a search engine to find out what kinds of articles or blog posts appear in the search results. If you find that the existing results does not accurately explain the topic, then that’s a great indicator that you’ll have a chance to write something better.

5. Choose Your Blog Name:

Every blog needs to have a name. You’ll want to make sure that your blog’s name makes sense to your niche or brand, and it has to be memorable, quick and easy enough to type.

If you have a name in your mind, search  the social media and web in order to make sure that no one else is already using that name. 

If your chosen name is already taken by someone, then you can either create a new one or contact the website owner to see if they are still actively using the name that you want to use. If you really need to protect your assets, you can even trademark your business name.

6. Makes  Branding Elements for Your Blog:

In addition to a name, you’ll need to choose a color palette and font for your blog that you’ll include once you’ve built your website. You can do this by yourself or outsource it to a graphic designer.

If you need a custom logo for your blog, you can design one with a free platform , such as Canva, or work with a designer.

7. Choose a Domain Name for Your Blog:

After choosing the right name for your blog, then you move to choosing a domain name for your blog. You can check to see if a domain name is available by typing in your chosen domain name in your browser and finding out if a live website appears. Most domain registrars will also have a tool to help you find available domains.

When you’ve chosen a domain which is available, you’ll then have to pay for the rights to use it through a domain registrar. 

Having and setting up a domain name is a separate process from selecting a hosting site and web builder, which you’ll need to do next.

8. Selecting a Web Hosting Sites:

Selecting a web hosting is an essential step in creating your blog. Without a hosting, you won’t be able to create a website; a hosting is what lets you effectively “rent” a presence on the internet space.

Some platforms will host your blog for free, but in exchange, they’ll add their brand name to your web domain, e.g., thenancyblog.squarespace.com or thenancyblog.wordpress.com. 

In these examples, to remove the “.squarespace” or “.wordpress” from the URL, you would need to pay for web hosting in addition to buying the domain name thenancyblog.com.

Having Web hosting can cost you anywhere from $0.50 to $10  monthly depending on how much speed and storage you want to buy. There are hundreds of different web hosting options out there, but we recommend selecting one of the best web hosting services that fits your budget and needs.

9. Building Your Website:

You can create your website from scratch or  use a template or theme—it all depends on your budget and needs. Web builders which don’t require you to write codes such as Blogger or WordPress, will allow you to design and build a beautiful website even if you have no prior web development experience. Some templates or themes are free, but others may cost you anywhere from $10 to $200.

Certain web builders platforms allow for more customization and flexibility than others. Makes sure to read the specs of each website builder you’re interested in to understand what’s possible when designing your blog.

10. Write and Publish Your First Blog Post:

After you’ve created your blog website and you are ok with its look and feel, it’s time to publish your first blog post or article. You can type and edit your articles’ content right from the back end of your website, however, it’s good to create all your content in a separate, cloud-based editor such as Google Docs. That way, you’ll have a secure backup of your blog contents in case your site runs into any technical issues.

Before you publish your articles, it’s a good idea to preview your blog post to find out if it appears exactly how you want it . You can always go back and edit it later, incase if you want to change or update anything.

11. Promote Your Blog Post:

As soon as you’ve published articles to your blog, you can share your links to different places. Social media is a popular and effective way to share your blog posts. You can distribute your links on your existing social channels, or create new social media accounts to promote  your blog.

12. Track Your Success (Analytics):

When you’ve published your blog posts and made it live, then you need to track metrics such as views, visitors and clicks to your blog. Your Web hosting platforms may have a built in default analytics dashboard , but it is highly recommended you connect your blog to Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a tool which is free and can be used to track your traffic as well as important demographic and conversion details.

You’ll have to use your Google analytics to earn brand sponsorships and/or advertising revenue.

The basic steps to building a blog are easy as I mentioned above.

You just need to make sure you have a self-hosted website. If you are trying to be a blogger, then  you’re trying to create content on a blog and monetize your site. So you want to make sure that you have a self-hosted site that is going to be through the wordpress platform.

 You also  want to make sure that it’s yours and then you want to get a host.  You can started out with bluehost because they’re pretty cheap and really helpful and if you have questions you can call them or you can chat them up and they will help you set it up and all that good stuff.

The next thing is to pick a theme for your site which is  what makes your site look pretty or cute and you can simply go through the etsy website for that. Go to the etsy website and type in blog themes or website themes or whatever and a lot of them will come up in the search results. It’s pretty reasonable, affordable and much less than doing a custom site yourself.

Then you just choose one and don’t spend too long trying to make your site cute. I know you want your site to look absolutely amazing right? You however don’t need to spend anything longer than a week trying to make that cute okay because it’s going to be more about the content than  what it looks like.

Now it needs to look professional and it needs to be cute. but you don’t want to spend too much time going into depth on customizations. You can do that as you go along.  Just get it up looking good and start creating your content.Once you get the template set up and much of your Site is all set , then you just start creating content.

How To Make Money With a Blog

People who do blogging make money using many different strategies. Some need more effort than others. Most blogging income streams depend on precarious conditions, such as search engine algorithms and brand budgets. Therefore, it’s highly recommended that you increase your revenue by selecting multiple methods.

1.Partnership with brands: 

Bloggers often team up with brands to create sponsored content. This usually involves having to review a specific product or include  a product mention in your regular content.

Partnerships with brands can be one-off deals or turned into long-term relationships based on your content’s performance and mutual interest.

2. Network Advertising:

Network advertising will pay you to either place  ads on your blog or when someone clicks on an ad, or both. Certain networks, such as Mediavine, need you to have a pretty hefty amount of monthly views (50,000) in order to place ads, whereas others, such as Google AdSense, have no minimum count views requirements.

3. Inserting of Affiliate Links or Codes:

Bloggers can join what are known as affiliate networks. Affiliate networks allow you to generate unique links to products that you talk about on your blog to help you earn a commission when people make a purchase. Amazon Associates and LTK are two common examples.

Affiliate codes work similarly to links, and in that you earn a small commission when people make a purchase. Businesses may give you a unique code for your audience to enter at checkout when they buy online, and you can promote this code throughout your content to drive sales to those brands or businesses.

4. Selling Digital Products:

If you have the intention to sell products without the logistical hassle of coordinating, packing and shipping, Then digital products might be a better option. Digital products are a relatively low-effort and inexpensive way to create products that your readers want to purchase. Most digital products can be downloaded by your customers immediately after they are purchased.

Examples of some digital products you can sell include but are not limited to:

• Printables: These can be anything like calendars and lesson plans to budgeting sheets.

• Online courses:  A platform such as teachable can be used to make well detailed lessons or tutorials than what your blog provides.

• E-books: A self-written, self-published title that comes in PDF format is referred to as an E-book.

5. Selling Physical Products:

You can use your blog to sell physical products too—whether you already sell things on another channel or want to create entirely new ones.

You can put links to any existing products you are selling into your blog posts, or you can make a merchandise that aligns with your content and your readers. For example, if you have a fashion blog, you can sell items such as T-shirts, hats or tote bags with your blog’s logo.

6. Creating Premium Content or Memberships:

Reading a blog is actually free , but you can put exclusive content behind a paywall to create an additional revenue stream. Dedicated readers or fans will then have to pay  before accessing the content.

Buy me Coffee and Patreon are two examples of platforms that help content creators to host their subscriber-exclusive content. You can also use these platforms to create memberships, where your readers pay a recurring monthly fee to keep accessing premium content.

7. Allowing for Consulting or Coaching:

A blog is a good source of free information, but your readers might be interested in learning more from you. If you start getting requests for specific advice or guidance from them, that’s a good sign that you will be able to make money through one-on-one consulting or coaching sessions.

Bottom line

Starting a blog is actually quite interesting, all what you need now is just to jump in and start. Start with the little knowledge you have and as you go on , you will have more experience that can help you build a great blogging business.

That’s all I have for you in this article and  if you have any questions make sure to let me know  in the comment section below.

 If you would like me to write another article on how to build a blog website from scratch, let me know in the comment section

Are you starting a blog in 2022?  Do you have a blog ? What is your blog all about? Let’s talk about it in the comments section.

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