If you’ve ever thought about blogging but haven’t taken the leap, this is the year to start! Even with no experience, you can learn how to start a blog and make money doing it.
Build an audience by writing about what you love. All while ranking on Google, promoting yourself on social media, and making new friends.
Say goodbye to your excuses. I’ve got all the information you need to start blogging.
Are blogs really making a comeback?
Blogging is getting a fresh face in 2024. Blog traffic is growing, and more people are landing on blogs for daily inspiration.
Marketing experts are even chiming in, pushing blogging to the forefront as a standard in valuable evergreen content.
While AI will make its mark, people creating quality content can easily stand out.
However, focusing on your blog alone won’t likely propel you to Internet fame. Choosing a social media platform to piggyback off of is vital to help gain traction for your blog.
The social media platform you choose will significantly depend on your niche. Business-minded blogs will benefit from LinkedIn, Photographers from Instagram, instructional niches from YouTube, etc.
Pivoting to adding more videos to your blog can help you engage your audience and give them the option to watch rather than always read.
You don’t have to make long videos; short videos like Instagram stories or TikTok will do. We grew our TikTok channel quickly.
Adding video content helps build trust, and you can use that connection to find your genuine followers.
Linking YouTube videos to and from your blog can also create an additional revenue stream.
How to start blogging
Whether you want to start a side hustle in your spare time or quit your 9 to 5, blogging for money is possible.
I started this blog in my spare time, while working a full time job. This is what my daily schedule looked like as a part time blogger.
You can get started on a tight budget and, with time and effort, can begin to bring in real income by writing about what you are passionate about.
Even with the rise of social media, blogs are still a popular way to interact with your followers.
In fact, according to recent blogging statistics, 77% of Internet users frequently read blogs.
I know starting something new can be daunting. But there are ways to get started as quickly as possible.
We have a helpful guide on starting a blog, including my experiences and blog income reports. Get up and running in ten to fifteen minutes with a quick start video.
Is blogging difficult?
Like any side hustle that can scale into a full-time income, you must put in the work and effort to make your blog stand out.
You can’t post a long, rambling blog post with no value, pictures, or video and expect visitors to stay engaged.
Blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. But once your blog starts to make money, it can snowball quickly each month into bigger and bigger income.
I was able to make $13,000 in my first year as a part time blogger.
It takes dedication to work on your blog a little bit each day to make content more desirable, your images more aesthetically pleasing, and your website optimized for search (SEO).
However, with all the affordable blogging tools at your disposal, diligence in monetizing your blog should take just a few months, not a few years.
You can read my first blog income report and how I made $60 blogging. I’ve shared dozens of income reports over the years!
What can a person blog about?
You can literally blog about anything. The niches are practically endless.
You should write about one of your passions, an area you have a lot of expertise in or even something you are just learning about yourself.
Not sure what to write about? Check out our 50+ blogging ideas to get started.
Once you decide what you will be blogging about, incorporate this idea into your domain URL and the name of your blog. The name should be easy to pronounce and memorable.
The key is to find your target audience.
Once you locate people passionate about the same things you are, have an interest in your expertise, or are going through the same pain points in new experiences, you can gain traction.
Use analytics to see which blog posts are doing well and which aren’t gaining traction.
You can use this data to see what your audience prefers to read about. This data is also helpful in coming up with new blog topics.
Blog income reports
Links to some previous online income reports
Here’s a sample of some of my previous online income reports. I have shared over 36 months of blog income reports to showcase how to make money blogging.
My smallest blog income amount was $61.82 and my largest income report was over $100,000.
- April 2015 online income report(my very first online income report)$61.83
- July 2015 online income report $515
- September 2015 online income report$1,530.94
- December 2015 online income report$4,238.99
- May 2016 online income report $7,268.68
- July 2017 online income report $9,566.15
- November 2016 online income report$10,736.55
- January 2017 online income report$26,288.57
- April 2017 online income report $47,442.32
- September 2017 online income report $68,856.02
- January 2018 online income report$41,502.90
- April 2018 online income report$109,878.70
These income reports were fun to write, but I stopped sharing these a few years ago for privacy reasons. However, they are still incredibly relative as everyone starts out on the same journey!
How to make money blogging
If making money from your blog is one of your top priorities, you must choose a niche with market demand.
Your niche needs to be something people are actively searching for, seeking answers for, and providing value over competitive sites.
To find out if your niche is profitable, you will need to make a list of keywords.
For example, to create posts for Believe in a Budget, I want to write about side hustles, how to save money, how to make a budget, freelance gigs, and blogging tips.
Using a free keyword tool, I can analyze the popularity of my blog categories.
Your primary keywords should have a monthly search volume of at least 5,000 to be potentially profitable.
If the volume is under 5,000, it might not be profitable. Conversely, if the volume is over 100,000, you might need to narrow your niche to stand out.
At the same time, you should blog about what you like. This blog started as a way to share all the different side hustles I was doing to make extra income.
From getting paid to walk dogs to donating plasma, I’ve tried a lot of side hustles.
Once you have an active following, there are many ways to monetize your blog. Here are some of our favorite ways to monetize:
- Affiliate marketing
- Affiliate links in your blog posts
- Selling your own merch
- Printables on Etsy
- Print-on-demand
- Ebooks
- Online courses
- CPM-based ads
- Sponsored posts
- Sell physical products, like dog treats
- Service based business with a hire me page
- Subscriptions
No, blogging isn’t dead.
I often get this question, and I am confident that blogging isn’t dead.
There are currently 8.5 billion Google searches every day, so chances are your preferred niche is getting some air time.
People are more aware of blogs and trust them to provide the information they need, giving you a billboard to speak.
There are so many options on how to start a blog, from hosting to automation plug-ins to support groups for new bloggers.
You no longer have to know how to read computer code, check your own grammar, or try to start from scratch.
Use the free tools and video tutorials to start on the right foot. Are you excited to start blogging?
