Blogging Guide: How to Start a Blog and Make Money for Beginners in 2025

Blogging is one way you can make money online as a writer. With a blog, you write articles that provide helpful information on a specific topic. In this guide, I will show you how to start your own blog and make money blogging. Even if you are a complete beginner.

A blog is a website that contains articles you create and update regularly. So, in this guide, you will learn how to start a website. Then, you will learn how to pick a niche, buy hosting, and set up WordPress to manage your blog. You will learn how to write content and get visitors to your blog. Finally, you will learn all the different ways you can make money with your blog.

Feel free to bookmark this page for reference so you can return to this article easily.

There will be a lot to cover in this blogging guide, so if there is a specific section you’d like to read, you can use the table of contents below. With that said, let’s get started.

Step 1: Pick a Niche

Before you start a blog, it’s important to think about what kind of content you will create.

Many people blog about their personal lives like an online diary. However, most people are not going to be searching for you or your life (unless you’re a celebrity). So, to get people to find your blog, you need to pick a niche with topics that people are searching for.

A niche is an area of life that people are interested in, such as food, money, spirituality, fitness, cooking, dancing, and travel. The goal is to turn your blog into a place where people can search for topics in your niche.

Here are some tips to help you pick the right niche for your blog:

• Pick a niche that makes you curious. If you pick a boring niche, it will be easy to give up.
• Pick a niche that makes money. According to a study by RankIQ, blogs that are in the food, finance, lifestyle, and travel niches are the top four types of high-paying blogs.
• Pick only one niche. People may not see you as an authority if you discuss multiple niches.

Step 2: Name Your Blog

Every blog has a name. This is how your readers will identify your blog. There are two ways you can name your blog:

1. You can pick a brand name for your blog that is related to your niche. For example, a blogger named Tim who loves solving tech problems might name his blog “Tim’s Tech Fixes.”
2. You can name your blog after yourself. Ryan Robinson, Emily Luxton, and Martha Stewart are examples of self-named blogs.

If you cannot think of a good name for your blog on your own, you can try an AI-powered website name generator like Namelix.

Step 3: Find a Hosting Provider

Now that you have a niche and a name for your blog, it’s time to start your blog.

The first step is to find a web hosting provider. This is the company that will sell you a web server where you can host your blog on the Internet. Whatever company you choose, I recommend selecting their basic plan because it is simple enough to host one website.

There are many web hosting providers to choose from. Below, I made a table with five web hosting providers so you can compare their basic plans and figure out what’s best for you.

Hosting Provider Comparison (as of 2025)

Bluehost	DreamHost	A2 Hosting	AccuWeb	Hostinger
Recommended by WordPress	Recommended by WordPress	Recommended by PCMag	Recommended by PCMag	Recommended by WordPress
Basic Hosting	Shared Starter / WordPress Starter	Ignite / Shared Hosting	WordPress Startup++	Premium Hosting
$2.95/month for 1st year, then $11.99/month for 1-year term	$2.95/month for 1st year, then $5.99/month for 1-year term	$1.75/month for 1st year, then $12.99/month for 1-year term	$4.49/month for 1st year, then $7.49/month for 1-year term	$1.95/month for first 2 years, then $7.99/month for 2-year term
Free domain for 1st year	Free domain for 1st year	No free domains	No free domain in the basic plan	Free domain for 1st year
No free backups in the basic plan	Only automatic backups	Only WordPress core automatic backups	Backups included	Only weekly backups
10 GB storage	50 GB storage	10 GB storage	50 GB storage	100 GB storage
Automatic Cloudflare setup	A manual Cloudflare setup required	A manual Cloudflare setup required	No free CDN in the basic plan	No free CDN in the basic plan
Email addresses included	No free emails in the basic plan	Email addresses included	Email addresses included	Email addresses included
Priority support	Low priority support	Priority support	Priority support	Low priority support
Rated 4.2/5 on Trustpilot	Rated 4.7/5 on Trustpilot	Rated 4.6/5 on Trustpilot	Rated 3.9/5 on Trustpilot	Rated 4.7/5 on Trustpilot
Bluehost	DreamHost	A2 Hosting	AccuWeb	Hostinger

How to Pick a Hosting Provider

1. Using the table above, compare the hosting providers.
2. Once you pick a provider, look near the top of the table for the name of their basic plan, such as Basic Hosting or Shared Hosting.
3. Use the link above to go to the provider’s website.
4. Find the name of their basic plan on the website and select it.
5. Understand the provider’s payment plan. Usually, this means you pay a discounted price for your first year. After one year, you will need to pay their more expensive standard rate to renew your blog.

Whatever you choose, be sure to pick the basic hosting plan. This type of plan is the most affordable for you as a beginner. Later on, once you get a lot of blog traffic, you might want to consider upgrading to a higher plan to improve the speed and reliability of your blog.

Don’t process your payment yet. Before doing that, move on to step 4 below.

Can I Use Free Hosting?

There are free blog hosting services like Blogger and Weebly that can host a blog. These free services are great for casual bloggers and hobbyists. However, free blog hosting isn’t the best way to make money from a blog. And here’s why:

• You get a subdomain that mentions the name of your free hosting service, which looks ugly and unprofessional for your brand (such as web-cents.blogspot.com).
• Free hosting services are not always reliable and do not offer a lot of customer support.
• It will be hard to customize your blog and gain authority with a free hosting service.

Step 4: Pick a Domain Name

Next, you need a domain name. This is the URL (web address) that people will type into their browser to get to your blog.

Where to Get a Domain

Depending on your hosting provider, your plan may or may not come with a domain name. In the table above, notice that I added whether you get a domain from each provider:

• Bluehost: Free domain for 1st year
• Dreamhost: Free domain for 1st year
• A2 Hosting: No free domains
• Accuweb: No free domains in the basic plan
• Hostinger: Free domain for 1st year

If your provider’s basic plan comes with a free domain for your first year, select that plan. Eventually, you should see a screen asking for a domain name.

If your provider’s basic plan does not come with a domain name, you’ll have to buy one in addition to your hosting. You can buy a domain from your hosting provider or from a registrar (a website that sells domains) like GoDaddy or Namecheap.

How to Select a Domain

Once you’re on the domain name selection screen on your hosting or registrar, follow these steps:

1. Take your blog’s name (from step 2) and see if it’s available as a “.com” domain. The “.com” is considered professional in online business.
2. If your blog’s name plus “.com” is not available, try to change your blog’s name a little bit to make the “.com” domain work.
3. If you’re running out of name ideas, try an alternative to “.com,” such as “.net” or “.blog.” Avoid country-code domains like “.co.uk” or “.ca”.

Step 5: Pay for Your Domain and Hosting

Now is the time to finish processing your payment to your hosting provider (and your domain registrar if you’re using one). Follow these steps for each scenario:

If You Have a Free Domain or Buy a Domain with Hosting

1. Select a domain name for your blog.
2. Understand the pricing plan. Usually, while you have a free domain for your first year, you will have to pay a fee every year after that to keep your domain.
3. If your provider tries to sell you add-ons, you don’t need to buy any of them. However, if you have extra money and it is available, I suggest buying Domain Privacy Protection to keep information about your domain private.
4. Enter your personal and payment information and submit.

If You Are Buying a Domain with a Registrar

1. Select a domain name for your blog on the registrar.
2. Understand the pricing plan before selecting your domain on that registrar. If you’re not sure, pick a different registrar.
3. If your registrar offers Domain Privacy Protection, I suggest buying it to keep information about your domain private.
4. Enter your personal and payment information and submit.
5. Go back to your hosting provider’s basic plan.
6. If your hosting provider tries to sell you add-ons, you can skip them.
7. Enter your personal and payment information and submit.
8. Consult your hosting provider’s help page or customer support so you can connect your domain to your new website.

Step 6: Set Up Your Blog

You can now set up your blog. To do this, you will need a CMS (content management software) to help you design and write articles easily. Without a CMS, you would need to learn how to code.

The most popular CMS is WordPress, with 43% of websites using WordPress. There are others, such as Joomla, Drupal, and Squarespace.

However, WordPress is the one I use, so I will be referring to WordPress for steps 6 and 7. If you’re using a different CMS, you can skip to step 8.

How to Set Up WordPress

Most hosting providers give you the option to install WordPress. Some may have WordPress already installed for you. If you’re not sure, check your hosting provider’s help center.

Once you install WordPress, your dashboard should look something like this.

You can access your WordPress dashboard at any time by typing in your domain name and adding /wp-admin at the end. You can also bookmark it in your browser.

How to Customize Your Blog with WordPress

WordPress offers many features for your blog. Follow these steps to explore some of these features and set up your new blog:

1. Set a theme: Go to Appearance > Themes to see the theme currently on your blog. A theme is a design for your blog. Click “Add New Theme” to search for a new theme.
2. Customize: Go to Appearance > Customize. Here, you can edit your blog by changing your colors, fonts, navigation menu, and more.
3. Find plugins: Go to Appearance > Plugins to see your plugins and search for new ones to install. A plugin is a WordPress extension that gives you more settings and features for your blog, like security, backup, social buttons, and much more.

If you want to learn more about navigating WordPress, check out WPBeginner. They have all sorts of tutorials and help articles related to WordPress.

Step 7: Learn How to Write

At this point, your blog is designed the way you like it. Now, let’s learn how to write. Again, I assume you are using WordPress. If not, skip to step 8.

Posts vs Pages

WordPress makes a difference between posts and pages. On the left of the dashboard, you’ll see a link for “Posts” and a link for “Pages.”

• A post is an entry for your blog. These posts are dynamic, meaning you update them regularly. As you write your blog, you will be creating and updating blog posts on a regular basis.
• A page on your blog is static. This means, unlike posts, they do not depend on regular updates. They provide info about your blog, like an about page and a privacy policy.

Practice Editing a Page

Now, you’re ready to practice writing. Follow these steps:

1. Go to “Pages” or “Posts” on the left side of your WordPress.
2. You’ll see an example page. Click on it to see the WordPress editor.
3. In the editor, you can see the blocks that make up the page, like paragraphs, images, and lists.
4. To add a block, go to a new line and type “/” to see a few block ideas.
5. You can also click the “+” icon at the top-left to see all the blocks available.
6. You can edit the example page using the blocks in the editor.

Step 8: Write Pages for Your Blog

You can start by writing a page for your blog if you want. This way, you can provide information about your blog before writing your posts. Otherwise, you can skip to the next step (step 9).

Here are some examples of pages that are used on blogs:

• About Me/Us page: describes who you are and/or what your blog is about
• Privacy Policy page: explains how you handle data you collect from visitors
• Terms of Service page: explains your rules and legal matters that visitors must agree to
• Contact page: a place where people can send you their questions

If you’re using WordPress, go to Pages > Add New Page to create a page. Use the blocks to help you put your page together.

• Click “Save Draft” to save what you wrote and finish your page later.
• Click “Publish” to put your page live on your website for everyone to see.

Step 9: Write Posts for Your Blog

Your blog is now ready for some posts that provide information to your visitors. But, before you start writing, I recommend planning out each blog post. By having a plan for your post, you can avoid burnout and be more productive as a blogger.

How to Plan a Blog Post

Follow these steps to plan each of your blog posts:

1. Look for topics to write about in your niche (from step 1).
2. Using an app or a piece of paper, create a note and write down some topic ideas.
3. Pick one of these topic ideas to write about.
4. Do some research on the topic you picked.
5. Create another note and write down the name of your topic.
6. Write an outline of how your post will be structured.

You may need to get in the habit of doing this. That’s OK. Just keep following these steps for every post you write and eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

How to Write a Blog Post

It’s time to write! On WordPress, go to Posts > Add New Post.

Now, all you need to do is follow your outline and write your blog post. If needed, you can change your outline as you write. Here are some tips to help you:

• Stay on topic. Don’t talk about anything else unless it supports the topic.
• Add visuals like photos, infographs, and a video to help visualize what you’re trying to say.
• Link to other websites for your visitors to read. You can also add links to other posts on your blog. However, do not add a link if it doesn’t make sense in your content.
• Proofread your work. Check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation typos.
• Verify what you wrote. Skim through your post and see if it makes sense to you.
• WordPress: Click “Save Draft” to save what you wrote and finish your page later.
• WordPress: Click “Publish” to put your page live on your website for everyone to see.

For more advice on how to write a good blog post, check out this article by Smart Blogger.

Rinse and Repeat

Once you’ve published your blog post, rinse and repeat! Go back to the beginning of step 9 and pick another topic for your next blog post.

Keep publishing blog posts on a regular basis. As long as you have a blog, writing blog posts should become a part of your life. Don’t worry: over time, it will become second nature.

Step 10: Get Traffic to Your Blog

Now you have a blog with some posts and a few pages. If you haven’t created a page yet, go back to step 8 and follow the steps.

If you’re ready to see visitors reading your blog, there are three easy ways to get traffic:

• Search engine optimization
• A YouTube channel
• Social media and forum accounts

Let’s break down each of these methods.

Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is the process of optimizing your blog to be visible for keywords on search engines, including Google. SEO involves things like finding blog post topics based on popular keywords, producing high-quality content, and improving the security and loading speed of your website.

1. Check out the Yoast blog to learn how SEO works and how to get started.
2. Download the Yoast plugin for WordPress to help you with your SEO as you write.

A YouTube channel

Most likely, you know about YouTube and use it on a regular basis. Millions of people like you are also using YouTube, so it’s a great place to get traffic.

1. Post your blog content as videos on your YouTube channel.
2. Redirect your YouTube viewers to your blog for more information.
3. Encourage viewers to like, subscribe, and share your content.
4. Learn how to make money on YouTube for another source of income.

Social media and forum accounts

Many people are also on social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok, as well as forum sites like Reddit and Quora. You can get readers from those places too.

1. Pick one social media platform and create an account for your blog.
2. Post content once in a while on your social page. If you’re on Facebook, write a full post. If you’re on Pinterest, create a pin. If you’re on TikTok, film a short video.
3. If you’re on a forum site, answer a question that relates to a topic on your blog. Redirect people on the forum to your blog to get more information.
4. Encourage followers on your social media account to share your content.

Ways to Make Money with Your Blog

At this point, your blog should be ready to make some money! In this section, I’ll go over the most popular ways to monetize a blog.

RankIQ did a blogging study in 2021. The study found that the most popular ways to make money with a blog are these four methods:

1. Running ads: showing ads on your blog
2. Affiliate marketing: advertising other people’s products on your blog
3. Selling courses
4. Sponsored posts: writing for another website

Do not try to do all these methods at once. Just pick one of these methods to get started with. If one method doesn’t work for you, you can skip it and try a different method.

Once you pick a method, find the section for it below.

Method 1: How to Make Money Running Ads on Your Blog

One way to make money with your blog is by running ads. An ad network shows ads on your blog. When a reader interacts with one of these ads, the network pays you a small commission. And, if you have a lot of traffic, the small commissions can add up!

You’re probably familiar with those banner ads and pop-up ads that appear when you’re browsing a website. That’s exactly what you’ll be showing on your blog when you start running ads.

In this section, I’ll show you what ad networks you can choose from, how to sign up, and how to provide the tracking code needed to show ads. Let’s get started!

List of Ad Networks to Make Money with a Blog in 2025

Before we get to the list, keep these two things in mind:

• Follow the network’s publisher guidelines. After picking a network, visit their help center and read their publisher guidelines to make sure your blog complies.
• Some ad networks have traffic requirements. This means that your blog needs to have a certain amount of high-quality traffic to be eligible for ads. If you’re a beginner, pick a network that has no traffic requirements.
• Write a privacy policy if you haven’t already. To comply with international data protection laws, it’s important to disclose to your readers the data that will be processed when they interact with your ads. You can learn how to write a privacy policy here.

Here is a complete list of ad networks to choose from.

• Google AdSense
• Adsterra
• Propeller Ads
• Ezoic
• Monetag
• Raptive
• Mediavine

How to Start Running Ads on Your Blog

Follow these steps to start running ads:

1. Pick one ad network from the list.
2. Sign up for the ad network.
3. Add your website to the ad network.
4. Wait for approval from your ad network.
5. Once approved, find your unique tracking code.
6. Copy and paste this tracking code into your blog’s HTML.

To paste your tracking code using WordPress, follow these steps:

1. Go to Appearance > Theme File Editor.
2. Under Theme Files, find your theme’s header file (header.php) and click on it.
3. Find the </head> tag. Just before the tag, make a new line and paste your code.
4. Click Update File to save your changes.

If you’re still having problems, consult your ad network’s help center. Chances are they’ll have an article showing you how to paste your tracking code.

If you signed up for Google AdSense, you can install the Google Site Kit plugin for WordPress, which can automatically paste the AdSense tracking code for you!

How to Track Your Earnings

To see how much money you make with your ads, log in to your account with your ad network. They will give you metrics like these:

• Impressions: how many readers saw your ads
• Clicks: how many readers clicked on your ads
• RPM (revenue per mille): how much money you made for every 1,000 views
• CPC (cost per click): how much money you made for every ad click
• CTR (click-through rate): percentage of your readers that clicked on an ad

Note that running ads requires some patience and a lot of traffic. If you haven’t already, visit Step 10 of this guide to learn how to boost your blog’s traffic.

Method 2: How to Make Money with Your Blog Using Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is basically advertising other people’s products on your content. When someone clicks your affiliate link and signs up or buys the product, you earn a fraction of the sale.

There are a few benefits to doing affiliate marketing on your blog:

• You don’t need to own the products. You pick products from others to advertise.
• You don’t need to do customer support. If people have questions, refer them to the seller.
• You don’t need to do a lot of marketing. The seller will take care of some of that for you.
• You can scale your earnings. If you want to make more money, just pick more higher-paying products to advertise.

How to Sign Up as an Affiliate

To start doing affiliate marketing, you need to pick a brand or product to be an affiliate for. Many big brands like Amazon, Weight Watchers, and Newegg have pages where you can sign up as an affiliate.

Another way to find brands and products to advertise is by signing up for affiliate networks. Here is a list of some good affiliate networks:

• Impact Radius
• ShareASale
• ClickBank
• CJ (Commission Junction)
• JVZoo

How to Do Affiliate Marketing on Your Blog

Once you’ve found a product or brand to become an affiliate for, follow these steps:

1. Sign up on the product or brand’s affiliate page (or through your affiliate network).
2. Find your affiliate link. To make it easier, you can save it as a text file.
3. Write a blog post, or pick a blog post, on a topic that relates to the product.
4. Show your readers your product and how it can help them along the topic.
5. Paste your affiliate link as a call to action. Use a button if possible.
6. Publish your post. You can sign in to your affiliate account to track your earnings.
7. Find other posts to advertise your product, or find a different product, and repeat these steps.

To learn more about affiliate marketing, check out my complete affiliate marketing guide. It will give you a better understanding of how to successfully make money as an affiliate.

Method 3: How to Make Money Selling Online Courses on Your Blog

Unlike a blog which has information scattered across articles, an online course bundles all that knowledge together. This is convenient for visitors who want to know everything, all on one page.

Just sign up for an online course service and create modules around a topic using videos and text. I personally like Teachable because it looks similar to WordPress. Teachable has a lot of tools and a clean workspace to help you easily put together an online course.

Here are some other online course services to choose from. Just pick one and get started:

• Udemy
• Skillshare
• Thinkific

Method 4: How to Make Money by Writing Sponsored Posts

Sponsored posts are articles you write on your blog in exchange for a sponsor paying you to write for them. This can be a great way for the sponsor to get customers and you to make some money.

Start by selecting a brand or influencer in your niche. Then, reach out to them via email and let them know you are interested in writing sponsored posts for them on your blog. If you get yourself a fair deal, start writing. And as long as you maintain the sponsorship, you can keep making money while adding to your blog.

Blog Income Reports

You can get an idea of how much you could earn from your blog by looking at income reports from other blogs, like these:

• Making Sense of Cents (finance blog) – over $159,000 in November 2018
• Create and Go (blog on blogging) – almost $400,000 in 2022
• Cassie Scroggins (mom blog) – $10,000 in January 2023
• Get on My Plate (food blog) – almost $25,000 in October 2022
• Ryan Robinson (online biz blog) – $35,000 in March 2021
• Scott Max also has a list of popular blog income reports.

Blogging for Beginners FAQs

Here are a few questions you might be asking about blogging to make money as a beginner.

In Conclusion

And that’s it for my complete guide on how to start a blog and make money as a beginner. I know there are many things that I discussed here, so feel free to bookmark this page so you can review it again later.

Let’s summarize what you learned from this article:

• [List of important points.]

Here are the tools that I covered in this article to help you make money with blogging as a beginner. You can look over these tools below.

• [List of tools and what each one does.]

Thanks for reading and happy earning!

Further Reading

In conclusion, let me recommend some resources to help you improve your blogging skills:

• Yoast SEO Academy: this is the best way to learn how to write blog articles that show up on Google. This academy will teach you how to use WordPress, how to write well, and how to optimize for Google. Yoast SEO Academy is mostly free. There are a few courses that require a paid subscription.
• WPBeginner: this website has a lot of useful information about using WordPress.
• Google Search Central: this website run by Google gives you up-to-date information about how to make your website appear well in the Google search engine.
• ProBlogger: since 2004, this site has been providing great tips and advice around blogging.

And that’s it. It’s time to start a blog and make some money.