How to Start a Blog on the Side and Make Money in 2019 [Blogging Guide]

Want to start a blog and get paid by blogging?

From the last few years, we have been teaching about blogging to millions of users around the globe and we will help you all to start a blog and live a boss-free life.

My name is Akshay Nair, and I am demonstrating how to begin blogging. I have been building websites and blogs since 2016. In that time I have launched several of my own blogs, and helped many others do the same One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to learn how to start a blog. If you’re looking for a free, simple and step-by-step guide to follow on how to start a blog, then you’ve come to the right place.

Disclosure: Please note that a portion of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission. When you buy hosting using my Bluehost discount link, they pay me, which helps make this ultimate guide free of charge to you. I only recommend products and services that I personally used and stand behind.

How to Start a Blog in 10 Easy Steps

Learn how to blog with this easy 10 steps
Stage 1: Picking the blog topic
Stage 2: Select the blogging platform
Stage 3: Pick a domain name and hosting for your blog
Stage 4: Install WordPress on the blog
Stage 5: Setup the design of the blog
Stage 6: Install the best WordPress plugins
Stage 7: Write your first blog post
Stage 8: Develop a successful Content Strategy
Stage 9: Share your writeup with the world
Stage 10: Monetize your blog
Now, let’s dive into the first step of our how to start a blog tutorial for beginners.

How To Start A Blog From Scratch and with No Experience

This guide is created for users like you who are just starting out and knows a little or nothing about blogging. Within the next few minutes, you will have your blog up and running. And its also going to be better than most of the other blogs on the internet.

Step 1: Picking the blog topic (Blog Name & Domain Name)

  Domain Name

First, it’s time to pick a domain name for your blog. Keep these three things in mind
1. Easy to remember
2. Easy to type
3. Easy to prononce

Domain

Naming your blog is the most crucial part for success. A domain name is the URL of a blog which a visitor will use to open a blog.
For example: www.xyz.com

When you start a blog on Wordpress or Blogspot.com platform, you get an address like name.WordPress.com and name.blogspot.com. A custom domain name is like LearnDigitalMarketingwithAkshay.com, for which we have to pay $12/year. But, I have shared a formula below which will help you save this $12 on domain purchase. Now, there are some rules that will help you to pick the best name for your new blog. Here are some tips from my experience:

⦁ Use the .com domain name above everything else.
⦁ Your domain name should be easy to type and easy to pronounce
⦁ Ensure your domain name should not be confusing to the audience.
You can use Bluehost domain suggestion feature to check if your domain name is accessible or not. Simply enter any word that you have picked for your blog and it will likewise show you available domain name suggestions.
My recommendation is to be creative and follow the three guidelines I shared above. Here are a couple of things you should try to do when choosing the domain name for your new blog:
⦁ Use .com domain extensions than .info, .net and so on. The reason is search engines tends to rank bad these domain extensions. So I always prefer to use a domain name extension like .com or .org.

  Choose your hosting

Next, let us build our blog on a hosting platform. Web-hosting is the place where WordPress will be installed. This is a server which remains online 24*7 and all your future blog images, your blog structure, design, and everything will be stored on this server. That is why your site will be fully operational 24*7. The main thing is, hostings are cheap. There are a lot of hosting service providers but for your blog I recommend: Bluehost, which is the ideal choice as it offers a lot of things you need to create your blog.

Features are :
⦁ Free SSL
⦁ Unlimited storage
⦁ Unlimited bandwidth
⦁ Free Domain name
⦁ Simple to use cPanel.
⦁ Live chat support
⦁ 30 days cash back guarantee

The best thing is it only costs $2.95/month
Get the Bluehost Hosting for special price
You can buy this from the bluehost.com or i will guide you how to buy.

Click Get Started Now. Now, you will be redirected to the princing plan

If you want to start one blog you can select the basic plan or if you want to start more than one blog you can select the plus plan.

The next page, you can claim a free domain name. If you are not ready with the domain name, you can click on the choose later option. On the next page, you can fill up your contact information. Make sure that you don't take any other extra packages as you can skip to save some money

Aside from Domain Privacy Protection, Uncheck everything. Under payment information, you can pay through credit/debit card or if you need to pay by means of PayPal, you can click on More payment options.

When you have made the payment, Bluehost will create your blog in next 10 minutes. This will be done automatically and saves a lot of issues for beginners who simply need a readymade blog. When you are finished purchasing hosting + domain name, Bluehost will automatically install the WordPress software on your domain name. That implies your blog is installed and now comes the cool stuff which is something each every beginner blogger enjoy.

  Set up your blog

The best thing about Bluehost is, it will automatically install the blog for you. However, you are not done, as you have to finish a couple of things before you will write your first blog post.

  Select the Platform

The first thing you should think is, where you should create your blog?
There are a lot of blogging platforms and people have different opinions about each. Most of the Bloggers start their blogging on the WordPress platform
Wordpress is very easy to use and is very popular. About 35% of the websites are powered by Wordpress.
Get a Wordpress blog, here is the next confusing part whether to take Wordpress.com or self-hosted WordPress blog.
What you need is a self-hosted WordPress blog (Wordpress.org). This means that you will be installing Wordpress on your hosting and domain. This process is very easy.

  What is your Blog Niche?

The first thing to figure out is the niche of your blog. Here niche means the topic of your blog.
You may not realize how important is your blog niche. It plays a huge role in the success of your blog. It will help you to determine your audience, which blog post ideas to focus on.
Google which is the biggest search engine prefers websites which are built on a single topic. For example, our website LearnDigitalMarketingWithAkshay topic is "digital marketing" and that's how you found us.
Here are a few tips to find your blog niche...
⦁ Pick a topic you enjoy talking about.
⦁ Do Market research
⦁ Pick a smaller niche(Look for the competition)
⦁ Make sure it's profitable
This is the most critical step before starting a blog, as it will assist you with picking a topic that you are most enthusiastic about.
This will guarantee that you won't wear out when your blog goes live.

  Design of your Blog

As the proverb says "The first impression is the best impression". Yes, the first thing that people see on your website is blog design. Blog design is the most significant part of your blog because a good design will ensure that your audience will love your blog
In WordPress, there are "Wordpress themes" which are readymade designs available for all types of blogs
There are many premium and free WordPress themes. I usually recommend premium themes because you will get all the support and starter guide, and you can choose a quality design for your blog.
Some of the modern theme clubs which are easy to use and I recommend are

Astra theme: This is a lightweight theme that offers a template for all the kinds of blog. Once the theme is installed, you can pick from the readymade template and your design will be ready within 30 to 40 minutes. This is one of the best for any new WordPress blog.
Genesis: One of the costliest choice, however one of the standout theme framework out there. You ought to pick pro-package, which will give you a chance to get to every one of their skins and future updates for free.
There are many premium Wordpress theme clubs as well as you can find a lot of free themes. I recommend the above two for a professional start as I already mentioned your first impression is the best impression.

  Wordpress Plugins

There are so many plugins and they are a crucial part of your blog.If You're using Wordpress for your blog, plugins help you to add all sorts of features, like email capture, search engine optimization, site analytics, increase page speed, optimize your images and more.
The only issue is that there are literally a huge number of them to choose from. If you include too much (or ineffectively built ones) to your blog, it can overload your webpage and make it slow.
I recommend 10 must-have plugins to install right on day one when you start a blog.

1. Yoast SEO

The more people that find your content, the better your blog will do. Yoast SEO is a plugin that helps you to optimize your blog post titles, descriptions, content length and other elements across the blog. This will help search engines to find your blog easily.

2. OptinMonster

In case you're building an email list of readers, OptinMonster has a suite of tools to enable you to convert more readers into email subscribers, particularly with their exit-intent popups that catch visitors with a custom offer as they're going to leave your site.

3. WPForms

You'll need your readers to have the option to connect with you effectively. WPForms gives you a chance to drag and drop contact forms onto pages so you can do this easily.

4. Social Snap or Sumo

Social shares, email captures, and many more. Practically an easy decision if you need to built and grow your blog.

5. MonsterInsights

This is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. Connect MonsterInsights to your Google Analytics account (you can agree to accept a free Google Analytics record directly here) to discover who's going to your webpage, to what extent they're staying around, and what your popular blog posts are.

6. BackupBuddy

Once more, at times things turn out badly. It's always smart to have a back up of all your hard work.

7. W3 Total Cache

Faster sites rank better in Google and give your readers a better experience. W3 Total Cache reduces your file sizes so your blog loads quicker for everybody.

8. MaxCDN

Talking about speed, MaxCDN makes images and other static elements of your blog load quicker too.

9. MemberPress

If you need to build a gated network around your blog content, there's nothing simpler than utilizing MemberPress. You can create subscriptions, limit content, and set up payment options.

10. Insert Headers and Footers

To edit your theme again you'll need to add code snippets to your header or footer (it's not as hard as it sounds). Doing it in the code of your theme can cause issues. This plugin gives you a chance to include small snippets of code effectively.
if you have completed all the steps till now, your blog is up and ready. Next, we have to start adding new content to our blog.

Write you first blog post and Publish it

The real fun begins now, writing your first article. Go to the left menu and click on “posts”

You can already see a post on the page. This is a default post on each new WordPress blog, and we needn't bother with it. Click "Trash" just under the post to delete it.

Click “Add New” link , to write a new post.

Now, you are on the post editor screen. Write the title of the post in the top box and begin writing your post o the lower box.
If you want to add image to your post, click on "Add Image" icon and click "upload" to add an image from your computer. When everything is ready click "Insert into post" to add an image.

When you have completed your post simply click the "publish" button on the top right side of the screen to publish it.
Most articles about how to begin a blog stop at this point.
But, I believe it's critical to not just disclose how to get your blog going, But to look at ways to grow it into something you will be proud of(something that can actually earn you a decent amount of income).

Develop a successful Content Strategy

Your content marketing is your "why". Why you are creating content, who you are helping, how you will help them in a manner nobody else can.

How to create a Content Marketing Stratergy?

⦁ Define your goal
⦁ Conduct persona research
⦁ Run a content audit
⦁ Choose a content management system
⦁ Brainstorm content ideas
⦁ Determine which type of content you want to create
⦁ Publish on a regular basis
These are the points to keep in mind before creating a successful Content Marketing Stratergy.

Share Your Writeup with the world

Establishing a well-designed blog and writing excellent material is just the beginning. To get viewers to your blog, you will have to spend a lot of time trying to promote it, especially if it is our first time.
Post links on social media like Facebook and Twitter about all my updates is one of my favorite methods to reach my blog readers. It a great way of promoting your blog, because not only does your friends get to see your post, but also you get more readers when your friends share it in their respective circles. Social media is always the best medium for promoting blogs with great self-defining content, to make it go viral.
As you keep receiving new visitors to your blog, it is equally important to retain your old visitors. It is where email marketing plays a major role. You can collect readers email addresses (with their consent, of course), and notify them when you publish something fresh on your blog.
This keeps you to retain your old blog readers. It not only provides you more readers over time but also enables you to establish a deeper connection with your readers.

Monetize your blog

When you have put efforts in creating great blog content and promoting your blog, making money from your blog is really the simple part. There are a few different ways you can make money from blogging, from selling your own products or services, to getting paid to write surveys of products on your blog. In any case, the simplest method to profit from your blog is to sell advertising space.
When you have a popular blog, advertisers will be looking for an opportunity to advertise on your blog page. The most ideal approach to exploit this circumstance is to utilize Google Adsense. They discover the advertisers for you and you should simply put the Google Adsense code on your blog to begin running advertisements. Google Adsense takes the majority of the diligent work out of the procedure and just cuts you a check.
I almost covered as much as I could for a beginner to get started, Feel free to comment if you have any doubts.
Do share this blog guide with others who needed to make a blog for quite a while

Thank you!!!