In this complete guide, you will learn how to start a blog and make money as a complete beginner.
Blogging allows you to make money online by writing blog posts that educate your audience on a specific topic. You can then make money any time people visit your blog.
In case blogging isn’t for you, check out my other complete guides to make money online here:
- YouTube Guide: How to Make Money with a YouTube Channel for Beginners
- Affiliate Guide
- E-commerce Guide
- Freelancing Guide
- Survey Guide
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to start making money with blogging. Feel free to bookmark this page for reference so you can come back to this article easily.
There will be a lot to cover in this article, 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.
Can I Still Make Money Blogging in 2025?
Yes, you can still make money blogging in 2025 and beyond. Many people like you are still using Google to search for answers to questions that can only be found on blogs. As long as search engines like Google continue to exist, you can still make money blogging.
Don’t take my word for it. Check out these blogging statistics by Ahrefs. Here, they show that 77% of Internet users still read blogs. WordPress, the world’s largest blogging platform, is used by over 40% of websites. But more importantly, people are still making money blogging, with the most popular strategies being Google AdSense and affiliate marketing.
Bottom line: it’s not too late to start making money blogging as a beginner in 2025 and beyond. So, if you’re ready to start your own blog, keep reading.
How Does a Blog Work?
In case you’re not sure how exactly a blog works, I’ll explain here. Otherwise, you can skip this section.
What Is a Blog?
A blog is a website (or part of a website) that contains articles, also known as blog posts. These posts provide information about a topic in a specific niche. A niche is an area of life, like fitness, cooking, travel, or technology.
There are recipe blogs like Pinch of Yum, fitness blogs like Well+Good, and finance blogs like Get Rich Slowly. There are also mom blogs run by stay-at-home moms that give advice to other mothers around the world.
Now, there are also personal blogs that act like an online diary or journal of someone’s life. But, unless you have a large following and have some kind of influence, you will not attract many readers to a personal blog. These blogs are usually treated as hobbies and not as businesses.
What Is the Goal of a Blog?
The goal of a blog is to attract readers by giving them information on a specific niche. There are millions of people online every day who use Google to solve problems and ask questions. By having a blog, you solve those problems, grow an audience, and sell products that can also help your readers.
Steps to Start a Blog as a Beginner
It’s time to start a blog and make money. Here are the steps we will take to get you started:
- Pick a niche.
- Name your blog.
- Sign up for hosting.
- Register a domain name.
- Set up your blog.
- Write content for your blog.
- Get traffic to your articles.
Once we finish these steps, I’ll show you how to monetize your blog. Now, let’s get started.
1. Pick a Niche
Overview
A niche is an area of life that your content will be focused on. This niche will be the way you connect with people and get them to read your blog. For example, if you decide to run a fitness blog, you will be writing blog posts about staying healthy and fit. These blog posts will attract an audience of people who want to improve their physical health and fitness.
Popular blogging niches include fitness, cooking, travel, technology, and mom blogs. If you’d like even more ideas for blog niches, here are 160 niche ideas from Blogging Explorer.
What to Do
- Pick a niche that you are passionate about. You do not have to be an expert or have a ton of experience in your niche, but you should at least be willing to learn as much as you can about this niche.
- Stick with this niche when writing your blog posts. I do not recommend going for multiple niches or writing about something not related to your niche.
If you want to make money blogging, you cannot make your blog a personal blog. Unless you have a following and some level of influence, nobody cares about your life or what you’re up to. People care about information that can help them improve their lives. That’s the information you need to write about.
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:
- 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.”
- 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.
3. Sign Up for Hosting
Overview
Web hosting is the company that will serve your blog on the Internet. Every hosting provider has a ton of plans for you to pick from. I suggest you select their most basic hosting plan because it is very affordable and gives you everything you need to start a blog.
It is very difficult to search for a good web hosting provider. You would need to do a lot of research to learn about each hosting provider and what to expect if you sign up.
Thankfully, I did the research so you don’t have to. Here is a table that compares five web hosting providers and their basic hosting plans.
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 |
What to Do
- Using the table above, compare the hosting providers.
- Select the hosting provider that works best for you. Use my hosting provider article to help you.
- Go to their website and find their basic plan. I put the name of each provider’s basic plan near the top of the table.
- Make sure you understand the payment plan. Usually, this means you pay a small amount per month for your first year. After that, you will need to pay the standard rate per year to renew your blog.
- If the plan asks you to pick a domain name, see step 4 below.
- Don’t buy any add-ons you don’t need. I do recommend Domain Privacy Protection if the option is available.
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, when your blog grows and generates a lot of traffic and income, you can upgrade your blog to a higher-tier plan.
There are also free blog hosting services like Blogger (blogspot.com) and Weebly. However, you won’t have a lot of freedom and your domain name will include the name of the hosting provider. As a result, I do not recommend you sign up for any of these free platforms. Yes, it will cost money, but it will be worth it.
4. Register a Domain Name
Overview
Next, you need a domain name. This is the URL address that people will type into their browser to get to your blog.
Now, depending on your hosting provider, your plan may or may not come with a domain name. If your plan does not come with a domain name, you’ll have to buy one in addition to your hosting. You can buy from your hosting provider or from a hosting registrar.
What to Do
- Take your blog’s name (from step 2) and see if it is available as a “.com” domain.
- If the name is not available, try a variation of your blog’s name or change your blog name.
- If you are running out of name ideas, try an alternative to “.com,” such as “.net,” “.blog,” or “.life.”
- If you want to get readers from all around the world, avoid using a country code in your domain like “.co.uk” or “.ca.”
If your hosting doesn’t come with a domain, you’ll need to buy a domain from your hosting provider. If they don’t sell domains, go to a registrar like GoDaddy or Namecheap. After you buy your domain from a registrar, consult your hosting provider’s help page or customer support to help you connect your domain to your hosting.
5. Set Up Your Blog
Once you buy your domain and hosting, you can now set up your blog. First, you will need a CMS (content management software) to help you design and write articles for your blog. There are several CMS to pick from, but the most popular one is WordPress.
Set Up WordPress
Chances are your hosting provider already set up WordPress for your blog or you have the option to install it. With 43% of websites using WordPress, it’s safe to say that it is the best choice for you as a blogger. Thus, I will refer to WordPress throughout the rest of this article.
But don’t worry if you’re not sure how to use WordPress. I’ll show you everything you’ll need to know to design and write for your blog using WordPress.
Navigate WordPress
Once you install WordPress, your dashboard should look something like this.
You can access your WordPress by adding “/wp-admin” to your domain name in the address bar.
There are two things you should set up for your blog: a theme and plugins.
- A theme is a design template for your blog’s pages. You can choose one from thousands of WordPress themes. You can select a theme in the Appearance section of your WordPress.
- Plugins are WordPress extensions that add all sorts of functionality to your website, like a dark mode toggle, styled lists and boxes, and even a program to speed up your website. Like with themes, you can choose from thousands of WordPress plugins. You can select a plugin in the Plugins section of your WordPress.
If you need ideas for themes and plugins or need help using WordPress, check out WPBeginner. They have all sorts of tutorials and help articles related to WordPress.
One more thing: WordPress lets you make two types of pages: blog posts and static pages. Blog posts are articles that are updated regularly. Static pages do not need to be updated as often. To write a blog post for your blog, go to the Posts section of your WordPress. To write a static page, go to the Pages section.
6. Write Content for Your Blog
At this point, your blog should now be set up and ready to go. The next step is to write content for your blog. But, before you start, I recommend following this strategy to give you an idea of what exactly you need to write:
- Find keywords in your niche.
- Research and take notes.
- Prepare an outline.
- Write your post.
- Publish your post.
- Rinse and repeat.
Content Strategy Step 1: Find Keywords in Your Niche
Earlier, you selected a niche for your blog, so you need to think about the keywords in your niche that people are asking about. The easiest way to find these keywords is by going to a website called Answer the Public. Just type in your niche and Answer the Public will give you topic ideas. Select one topic idea (one keyword) to write a post on.
Content Strategy Step 2: Research and Take Notes
Next, you need to learn more about the answer to the keyword you will be writing about. Even if you already know the answer, you should still research to make sure your knowledge is accurate.
Just search the keyword on Google or YouTube and get some ideas on the best way to explain the topic. As you learn, take down some notes, either on Post-it sticky notes or on a text file.
Content Strategy Step 3: Prepare an Outline
With the notes that you have, see if you can create an outline for your post. This way, you will know how you need to structure your post. You can write this outline on another piece of paper or include it in your computer’s text file, whichever works for you.
If you’re not good with outlines, you can use a free AI tool like Akkio to help you create one.
Content Strategy Step 4: Write Your Post
In the Posts section of your WordPress, click Add New Post to write your first post. You will see WordPress’ block editor, which lets you add paragraphs, images, and other content to your post using blocks. You can learn how to use the WordPress block editor here.
Now, all you need to do is write using the outline you made in the previous step. Don’t worry if you need to change your outline a bit as you go.
Here are some tips to help you out as you write:
- Include your keyword in the title and first paragraph of your post. This will make sure Google and your readers know exactly what topic your article is about.
- Use simple and clear language. As a rule of thumb, write your post as if it were for a high school student. This keeps your choice of words strong, but not too intimidating.
- Keep paragraphs short. That way, your readers can easily skim through your post.
- Add visuals to your post, like images, illustrations, or a video. Also, make sure to add a featured image to your article. These help make your post more appealing and easier to read.
- Include links to other websites and other posts on your blog. For topics in your post that need more explanation, add links to places that can address that topic. Links also help Google determine if your article should rank high in search results.
If at any point you need a break from writing, click Save as Draft at the top. That way, you can save your unfinished work without it being online.
Once you’re done writing, make sure to skim through your post and check for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization errors. You can use Grammarly to help you out with this.
Content Strategy Step 5: Publish Your Post
You should now have an article ready to go. Click the Publish button at the top. You can choose to publish it immediately or set it to publish at a certain time in the future. Once it’s published, your article will be online for your blog visitors to read.
Content Strategy Step 6: Rinse and Repeat
Now, obviously, you need more than just one blog post, so you should plan on writing more. This is why this content strategy can really help you. All you need to do is repeat these steps: find another topic, research it, write an outline, write your post, and publish it.
I recommend you write a new blog post at least once a month. However, if you want quick results with your blog, definitely go for at least once a week.
Keep going until you are satisfied with the amount of content you have. There’s no magic number of blog posts. Just write as many posts as you can before moving on to the next step below.
7. Get Traffic to Your Blog
How Do Bloggers Make Money?
Ways to Make Money Blogging
So what ways do bloggers use to make money? RankIQ did a blogging study in 2021. In that study, they found that the majority of bloggers made money using any of these four strategies:
- Running ads. A blog allows an ad network like Google to show ads based on a visitor’s interests. Every time a visitor clicks or buys through an ad, Google pays you as the blogger.
- Affiliate marketing. An affiliate blog contains special links to products sold by other people or companies. When someone clicks and buys something through an affiliate link, the seller pays the blogger a commission for the sale.
- Selling courses. A blog might sell courses that teach topics in an organized and clearer way. Courses act as information hubs compared to a blog where the same information can be scattered across different articles.
- Sponsored posts. Some bloggers reach out to other companies and brands for sponsorship. Companies can pay bloggers to write articles on their blogs to help promote their brand.
Most of the blogs that are making money discuss topics that are very important to people’s lives. In the same study by RankIQ, blogs that are in the food, finance, lifestyle, and travel niches are the top four types of high-paying blogs.
Blog Income Reports (How Much You Can Make)
And, if you’re wondering exactly how much bloggers make, that’s not an easy question to answer. Some bloggers make more money than others. The best way to get an idea of how much you could earn from a blog is by looking at income proofs from different blogs. Here are five worth checking out:
- Making Sense of Cents – over $159,000 in November 2018
- Create and Go – almost $400,000 in 2022
- Cassie Scroggins – $10,000 in January 2023
- Get on My Plate – almost $25,000 in October 2022
- Ryan Robinson – $35,000 in March 2021
And there are many more blog income reports out there. You might be able to google for some of them. Scott Max also has a list of popular blog income reports.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
We’ve come to the next step on how to start a blog that makes money. Before your blog can make you money, you need readers. As a new blogger, you can’t expect people (or traffic) to find your blog on their own, so you need to advertise your blog.
In this section, I’ll go over each of these well-known strategies to drive traffic to your blog.
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Social media marketing
- YouTube channel
Some bloggers also use paid methods like paid ads and sponsorships to drive traffic. However, I won’t go over those because I do not recommend this for beginners as they tend to be risky.
1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is a strategy to optimize your blog and its articles to be ranked on Google. Many bloggers use SEO to drive traffic to their blogs.
Earlier, I showed you how to do keyword research, which is an important step in SEO. Not only does keyword research keep you on topic, but it helps give you a chance to rank on Google.
Besides keyword research, here are some other things you can do to work on your blog’s SEO:
- Write a good meta description for each article; SEO plugins like Yoast can help
- Mention your keyword in the title, meta description, and a few times across your article
- Link to other articles on your blog and other websites outside your blog
- Improve your blog’s loading speed by compressing your images with a plugin like Smush and by having your blog cached with a plugin like W3 Total Cache
For more information about how SEO works and what you can do to improve your SEO, check out Yoast SEO‘s website. There, you can download their WordPress plugin and sign up for their SEO newsletter. You can also enroll in their SEO academy which has hundreds of videos that teach you WordPress and all things SEO.
2. Social media marketing
With social media marketing, you will be using your brand’s social media profiles to engage with social media users in your niche. Here are some social media marketing strategies you can use to promote your blog:
- Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your brand and post snippets of your articles on the page. You can also join a Facebook group in your niche using your Facebook page. There, you can interact in the group’s comments and discuss topics while mentioning your blog articles as references.
- X (Twitter): Create an X profile for your brand and post snippets of your articles on your profile. You can also comment on tweets that talk about your niche. You can find these tweets by following brands or influencers that are in your niche.
- Pinterest: Create a Pinterest account and upload pins that use stunning visuals to entice people to read your blog.
- Reddit: Create a Reddit account and follow subreddits in your niche. If there is a thread that addresses a topic in your blog, join the conversation and mention a relevant blog article.
- Quora: Create a Quora account and find questions that relate to a topic on your blog. Make sure to give a good answer and mention your blog article so people can get more information.
3. YouTube channel
YouTube is a big traffic goldmine. As the second most active website on the Internet, YouTube allows you to send traffic to your blog. Follow these steps to get YouTube traffic:
- Create a YouTube channel for your blog’s brand.
- Pick a topic from your niche and film a video about it.
- Mention in your video you have a blog article viewers can read for more info. (Use the video to summarize your article and encourage viewers to read your blog to get more details.)
- Post informative video content on your channel relating to your niche.
- Include a link to your blog article in your video description.
You might also want to do YouTube SEO to make sure your videos can be found on YouTube for your topics. VidIQ has an article on YouTube SEO so you can learn more. VidIQ also has a browser extension that you can use to help optimize your YouTube videos for SEO.
How to Make Money with Your Blog
This article is called “How to Start a Blog and Make Money.” So we started a blog. Now, let’s talk about how you can make money with your blog.
In a previous section, I mentioned the four different ways bloggers commonly use to make money. I’ve listed them below:
- Running ads
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling courses
- Sponsored posts
I don’t recommend trying to do all four of these. Just pick one or two ways for your blog to make money that interest you the most.
How to Run Ads
Running ads is the most popular way to make money as a blogger. By running ads, you allow ad networks like Google to show ads to your visitors based on their interests. These ad networks will then pay you for every visitor who clicks or buys something through an ad.
First, sign up for an ad network. Then, once approved, you will receive a tracking code that you will need to insert into your blog’s HTML. But don’t worry: the ad network should show you how to do this. And that’s it. Your blog is now running ads.
Here are some popular ad networks. Pick only one to sign up and start running ads:
How to Do Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the practice of selling products from others and earning a commission for every sale you make. This is my favorite way to make money as a blogger.
Many big brands like Amazon, Weight Watchers, and Newegg have affiliate sign-up pages. If you love any of these brands and they have a product in your niche, sign up as an affiliate!
There are also affiliate networks where you can find different brands and services to promote, all in one place. Here is a list of some good affiliate networks:
If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing, check out my complete affiliate marketing guide to help you learn everything you need to become a successful affiliate marketer.
How to Sell Online Courses
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:
How to Write 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.
Blogging for Beginners FAQs
Here are a few questions you might be asking about blogging to make money as a beginner.
You should be blogging as often as you can because your readers count on you to provide the best up-to-date information about your topic. I recommend publishing at least once a month, but ideally once a week.
It depends on what you’re writing about. The bigger the topic, the more words you need. But to give you a guideline, this study showed that the best blog articles ranking on Google had at least 2,500 words on average.
No, I do not recommend using a free blogging platform to blog. You do not actually own the content on a free blog. That means that if the free platform you are using decides to shut down, you lose all the work (and readers) for your blog. Plus, you will be using a subdomain of the free service instead of your own domain (example.blogger.com instead of example.com).
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.