{"id":855,"date":"2021-09-10T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themindedmarketing.com\/?p=855"},"modified":"2021-11-25T14:14:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T14:14:38","slug":"how-to-make-money-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themindedmarketing.com\/how-to-make-money-blogging\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Money Blogging as a Beginner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Disclaimer: This page may contain some affiliate links. If you click through and purchase an item, we may earn a commission<\/em>. Thank you for supporting Minded Marketing!<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no question that blogging is one of the best ways to get keyword-rich content on your site, get your content on the search engines, and get traffic to your website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how do you get started blogging and how do you make money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take it from someone who had a total of 5 blogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had NO IDEA what I was doing when I started my first blog. I was 21, still in school, and just wanted to be able to express myself in some way. At this time, YouTube was not that popular yet (it mostly had cat videos) and I wasn’t a fan of Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I had so many ideas that I just wanted to share with the world and I didn’t know how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I discovered WordPress, I fell in love with blogging and the process and creating content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, however, I did not think about how a blog could become a business so a couple of my blogs failed because I simply couldn’t keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in this article, I am going to help you avoid the mistakes that I made when I first started out blogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to start a blog as a beginner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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There are numerous choices when it comes to deciding where to start your blog. An incredible method to begin publishing content to a blog rapidly (and for FREE) is to utilize an online ‘independent’ administration like WordPress<\/a> or Google’s Blogger<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are free, exceptionally adaptable tools that help both new and advanced bloggers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The negative is that you can’t utilize your site’s domain name. For example, if you use WordPress for free, your address would be something like ‘yourblog.wordpress.com.’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most notable benefits of these platforms is the ease of use and advanced functionality of the service. Neither Blogger nor WordPress require you to know any coding and allows you to build and post to your blog with an easy-to-use interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust me it wasn’t always simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having the ability to utilize these platforms allows people to create blogs that are high-tech and can work like full-blown professional websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are occasionally \u2018offline\u2019 you can benefit from WordPress\u2019s ability to import posts. This means you can put your blog together while you are not connected to the internet and then import it later. If you already use another blogging service, you can also import your posts directly into Blogger or WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another huge benefit of using these platforms is that they have a large widget, element, and theme library that allow you to add useful features and professional-grade styles to your blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should you host your website or blog?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Yes…and No…but Yes..but also..No? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first started as a blogger, I had no idea what I was doing or where I wanted to go. I just wanted to write and share my content. I wasn’t looking into building a business or a brand or even making any money. So, I started with a free wordpress.com blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this sounds like you, then NO, you should not invest in a hosting service for your website or a domain name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of months down the line, I decided that my blog could become a business. That is when I decided to write a business plan and look at things like ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and email lists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is where you are right now, then absolutely, YES, you HAVE to host your site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is it more professional, but it is the only way to be able to monetize your blog with ads from AdSense or WordAds ( as well as any other ad platform). Unless you manually enter affiliate ads on your blog (which is a lot harder to do if you have a free blog) then there is no other way to get your site monetized with ad agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also makes it a lot easier when applying for certain affiliate programs to get excepted into these programs when you have a website with your own domain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also start building your email list by connecting your site to MailChimp<\/a> of GetResponse<\/a> using plugins that you are not able to use if your website is free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is just no way around it if your blog is truly going to become your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have several sites that you can choose from, like GoDaddy<\/a>, BlueHost<\/a>, SiteGround<\/a>, and Hostinger<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommend using BlueHost <\/a>if you are just beginning. You can get a fully functioning website, domain, and hosting all for under $3 a month which is perfect for any beginner. It is also the platform that I host this website on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to give you some perspective on what you can get with all for of these sites, you can refer to the table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Host<\/strong><\/td>Cheapest Price (mo.)<\/strong><\/td>Sites Available<\/strong><\/td>Disk Space<\/strong><\/td>Free Domain<\/strong><\/td>User Rating<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
GoDaddy<\/a><\/td> $2.99 <\/td>1<\/td>100 GB<\/td>YES<\/td>3.7<\/td><\/tr>
BlueHost<\/a><\/td>$2.95<\/td>1<\/td>50 GB<\/td>YES<\/td>4.0<\/td><\/tr>
SiteGround<\/a><\/td> $4.99 <\/td>1<\/td>10 GB<\/td>NO<\/td>4.3<\/td><\/tr>
Hostinger<\/a><\/td> $2.99 <\/td>1<\/td>30 GB<\/td>NO<\/td>3.9<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Top Hosting Sites Comparison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another option to consider would be blogging software that you can directly integrate into your website. Basically, you would be hosting your own site without these hosting packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a bit of a learning curve but it comes with a lot of advantages as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefit is that the content of your blog becomes part of what search engines see for your domain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an alternative, Google\u2019s Blogger gives you the ability to publish to an FTP site, which means that you can blog from your own domain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it should be noted that you do lose some of the flexibility of the out-of-the-box service. So you will have to put in some effort, to make sure you can customize your templates and make your posting capabilities easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you feel like it is all too complicated, then obviously this method isn’t for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If, on the other hand, this seems like it could be an option for you then you may benefit from the expanded flexibility an integrated application could provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, you have a wide, wide range of very inexpensive (or free) options to get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should you build an email list as a beginner blogger?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Maksim Goncharenok<\/a><\/strong> from Pexels<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am always surprised that people still ask this question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote about email lists in-depth in my post about GetResponse <\/a>and I still talk about it in my other posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short answer: YES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long answer: Read my blog post about email lists<\/a> and about Matt Bacak’s email system<\/a> and start your email list ASAP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to make money with your blog as a beginner?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are several ways to monetize a blog in general. However, as a beginner, there are 2 main ways that you are going to want to focus on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n