Why start a blog?
There are millions of blogs online and new blogs are started every minute. There are many benefits of starting and running a blog. People start blogs because it is fun to blog and share ideas. The blog is used for educating people, connecting with other people with similar interests, establishing an online presence and reputation, and many other benefits. Blogs also have the potential to be a real money-making machine and there are some blogging making very high amounts of money.
The cost of starting a blog
Starting a blog as previously mentioned is potentially very profitable. Depending on how much traffic does a blog gets and its popularity it can be real money printing machines for its owners. On top of this, you should keep in mind that blogs are also pretty cheap to start. It is probably one of the business opportunities that require the least investments.
You can start a blog for less than $100 dollars a year. These are the minimum expenses associated with registering a domain name and purchase of web hosting. If you decide to use a premium theme for your blog or outsource work associated with running your blogs like content creation or social media promotion then your costs could be much higher and limited by your budget.
Starting a blog – step by step guide
Step 1: Choose a niche
Before starting a blog comes one of the most important decisions and that is to choose a niche or in other words topic for your future blog. You first need to decide what are you gonna blog about. This is not an easy decision to do but as a starting point, you should consider first your own passion or interests. It will be easier to find inspiration and motivation for blogging if your niche is something you are really interested in. If your goal to build a blog as a business is to turn your blog into a source of income then your second consideration should be to pick a niche that has the potential to be monetized. You will need a niche that can attract targeted traffic you can later start making money.
Step 2: Register a domain name for your blog
This is another step you must take before you launch your blog. Your domain name needs to represent your niche and be original and unique. If your domain name has been registered by others then you will need to come up with another domain name. It is a good idea to pick a domain name that is short and easy to remember and stay away from long domain names that consist of many words.
Step 3: Buy web hosting and launch your blog
After you have a domain name your next step will be to buy web hosting and launch your blog. Web hosting is cheap and it will cost you a few dollars every month. There are a very large number of hosting providers online and if you spend some time looking around you can find huge discounts. Many web hosting providers will provide a click install for your blog so you will need to pick a theme for your blog and with a click of a button have your blog online so you can get on with the real blogging.
Step 4: Start creating content an publishing on your blog
Now that you have your blog online you can focus on creating and publishing content. You need to create original and unique blog topics centered around your niche and the interests of your audience to grow your traffic. Most blogs content is written but you can also create and publish visual content like images and infographics. You can create content by yourself or you can hire freelance writers to write blog posts for you.
Step 5: Start making money by monetizing your blog
As above mentioned your blog can be a real money-making machine. You can be making a lot of money but only if your blog has lots of traffic and is monetized. If your blog has no traffic and no people come to see it do not expect to earn a decent amount of money. But if you have many visitors then you can start making money with your blog by promoting affiliate programs, selling your own products, or showing advertisements.
Can you start a blog for free?
As above mentioned you can start your own blog for a low price but if you are wondering if you can start a blog for free and make money then the answer is yes. However, keep in mind that it will come with a number of limitations. You can start a blog for free if you use one of many free online blogging platforms. There are many free platforms where you can create your blog and one of the best ones is Blogger.
Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google and one of the advantages is you can log in and start your blog using your Google account. Blogspot is easy to use and is highly customizable. You can change various settings such as colors, layout, widgets, etc.
If you decide to use Blogger you can get a blog for free and you don’t have to pay for anything including domain name registration or web hosting. You can pick a subdomain for your blog and the web hosting is provided for free.
After you set up your blog for free you can start writing and publishing blog posts and drive traffic to your blog. You can monetize your traffic and your hard work by displaying Adsense ads on your free blog. If you don’t like Blogger for some reason then you have many alternatives you can choose from such as Medium, WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Webstarts, and others.
Should you start a blog for free and make money?
Well, the opportunity is there and you can start a blog without paying a dime. But should you? In my opinion no. Although at first glance it seems tempting you should avoid using free blogging platforms if you are serious about starting a blog and turning it into a source of income. The reason for this is that the free platforms come with many limitations.
But the most important reason why is because with free platforms you don’t really own your blog. It takes a lot of work invested in building a successful blog. It requires finding ideas, researching, and writing SEO-optimized content and it can happen that your account can be banned for some reason and all that work will be wasted. Also if your blog is made using free blogging platform you can’t sell it.
This is why it is best to invest less than $100 a year in the domain name and web hosting and be on the safe side if you are taking your blogging seriously. If you just want to try blogging and see if it is a good fit for you then you can take your first step by creating a blog on Blogger or some other free blogging platform
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