How to Start a Profitable WordPress Blog (2023)

Is there a topic you love to talk about and share with people? Use that passion to start a blog and tell others all about it! People are always curious and want to learn new things. You can be the one to teach them!

You’ll feel rewarded when you see that people are finding value in what you write and you start earning money from it!

Here I’ll teach you all you need to know to start a blog and make money from it with a few extra tips thrown in.

This post contains affiliate links which means that I will make a small commission if you purchase a product after clicking on any of them, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Advice From Someone Who’s Been There

Stop wasting time researching how to start a blog and finally jump in head first and do it!  

I wasted over a year of my life researching the best way to go about starting a blog website and what all went into making money blogging.

I dreamt about being a stay at home mom and desperately wanted that to be my life!

My best advice to you is…just do it! Start your own blog. Yes, right now.

Because if you don’t, you’ll always be left wondering “What would have happened to my life if I would have just started my blog?”

You could be working from home making passive income every single day like myself and so many other people around the world.

Stick around here and I’ll show you how to do it step-by-step.

Step 1: Decide on your niche

Your niche needs to be something you love talking about and something others can benefit from learning.

The topic you write about needs to be one that you can solve a problem in. If you don’t already know your niche, come up with a list of topics you love to learn about for yourself and tell others about.

Maybe something to do with your favorite hobby, your lifestyle, traveling, being a stay at home mom, a working mom, teach about marketing, budgeting, design, food, photography; there’s an endless list of niche topics.

It also needs to be something that has the potential to make a profit. I feel like in basically any niche, you can make a profit. Some, you just have to be a little more creative in your approach.

Step 2: Name your blog

You could name your website using your own first and last name or come up with something creative that relates to your blogging topic.

It is proven helpful to use a keyword from your niche topic in your domain name to get seen better; but on the other hand, there are so many bloggers out there who do amazing using their own name and have created a brand for themselves!

Thus it is totally up to you on what you’d like to call your blog.

Jot down a few domain name ideas and search them in google to see if it has been taken or not.

Step 3: Sign up for Web Hosting

What is web hosting anyway? That’s what I wondered when I was trying to start my blog.

A web host is a business that provides storage space and access to your website. For example, I use WordPress as a space to write my blog posts in, but Bluehost as the host for my domain name and website storage.

Bluehost is the web hosting site I chose to build and maintain my website because it’s easy to use and can be linked to WordPress with one click.

Another great aspect about Bluehost is their 24/7 help. If for some reason your site stops working or you have a question about how to do something, all you have to do is call, email, or instant message them and someone from Bluehost will be there to walk you through how to do it.

What you get:

• A free domain name (website name)
• Free SSL Certificate
• Quick and easy WordPress Installation
• A 24/7 support number to help with anything to do with your site.

The awesome thing with Bluehost is you can start out with their basic hosting plan at only $3.95 a month, and as your blog grows, you can move up to a better plan that includes more website space.

Reasons to Use Bluehost:

• Bluehost is the #1 recommended web hosting company by WordPress.

• If the free website you are using for your blog shuts down, say goodbye to all that hard work. If you own your domain name, it’s not going anywhere unless you do it yourself.

• You can’t make money from a free blogging site. Those free sites won’t allow you to have ads or use affiliate programs to make a profit.

• People will take you more seriously with your own domain name therefore, trust you more and be more interested in learning from you.

• Bluehost is the most affordable web hosting option for all the features that are included.

• They offer a money back guarantee if for some reason you decide it’s not for you.

The Sign-Up Process

Go to the Bluehost website.

Next, Click the green “get started” button.

Select your desired plan. (I recommend the Basic plan or the Choice Plus plan).

Create a new domain name or enter one you already own.

Enter your account information.

Select your package plan. (36 months is your most pricing-efficient option). Next, select package extras. I recommend getting domain privacy protection & SiteLock Security.

Enter payment information.

Create a password.

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a website and can now start your money-making journey!

Now, lets install WordPress from Bluehost.

Step 4: Customize Your Site with a “Theme”

 I currently use the Astra (free) theme

When first starting out, it’s okay to go with a free theme. A lot of them are easy to use and will get the job done until you start bringing in money. Then you can decide if a paid theme would be best for you.

I find that this free theme does what I need, so for me, there’s no point in spending money on a different one.

Step 5: Install Plugins with WordPress

Plugins are different types of software to help you efficiently run your website. They all do different things and enable you to broaden the functionality of your website.

These are the plugins I recommend using to start with.

• Yoast SEO: Helps you optimize your blog content to rank higher in google. This is a MUST HAVE and it’s free.

• Ad Inserter: This allows you to put ads on your site when starting out with Google Adsense.
• MonsterInsights: Links your website to Google Analytics to track how many people are coming to your site, where they are coming from, how long they’re staying, what they’re clicking on, etc.

Step 6: Use Grammarly

When publishing your blog posts, you’ll want to know that there aren’t any careless spelling or grammatical errors. Grammarly has a free download to automatically tell you where your errors are to enable you to correct them before hitting publish.

This is something every blogger or website owner should have.

Step 7: Create Your First Essential Pages

These are your fundamental pages every blog needs.

I’ve linked the sites I used to help me create these pages.

• “About”
•  Privacy Policy
• Disclaimer
• Contact Page

Step 8: Create a Pinterest Business Account

If you already have a Pinterest account, you can easily convert it to a Pinterest Business account.

To create a new Pinterest account for business, go to the Pinterest login page. There, you will find a pop up that allows you to create a new Pinterest account. At the bottom of the pop-up, click the “Create a business account” button.

Other Helpful Sites To Utilize

Canva

I use Canva to create Pins to grow my blog on Pinterest. I also used it to create all of my branding on my websites as well.

You can also find great templates there for creating infographics or photos to grow your blog on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or for a photo to insert in a blog post.

MailerLite

Mailerlite is an easy-to-use email marketing service to keep in touch with your viewers, grow your blogging income, send newsletters informing viewers you have a new blog post, send a helpful course, create opt-ins, the list goes on of ways you can grow your blog with email marketing. If you are signed up for my newsletter, MailerLite is who I use and love.

Google Analytics

When you start a blog, Google Analytics is very important. It enables you to see how much traffic you are getting to your blog and what pages are being looked at the most.

It shows you what time your viewers are coming to the site, where they are coming from, what they do while they are there, and how long they stay.

Google AdSense

One way to make a profit from blogging is to integrate ads on your website. When someone views the page with an ad or clicks on that ad, you will get a small commission.

Google AdSense is a good place to start when putting ads on your site. It may take a little while to get accepted but be patient. Create a few good quality posts along with a Privacy Policy page and start receiving views. It shouldn’t take long after that to be accepted by Google AdSense.

Once you are receiving more pageviews and sessions per month, you can move to other ad companies. These companies will pay a higher amount per pageview:

• Mediavine
• Media.net
• AdThrive
• Ezoic

Google Search Console

Google Search Console shows you important information about what pages on your blog are showing up on Google.

It also shows what words people are typing in Google search to find each blog post. This is helpful when finding new content to write about. Look through your queries section for keywords to write about, and link those new blog posts to the old ones that are bringing traffic.

Search Console also shows you things like Core Web Vitals for ranking on Google. Google Search Console and Google PageSpeed Insights are your Go-To resources for improving your website to gain more traffic through Google (once your website is established and has 75-100 blog posts published).

Affiliate Companies

Affiliate links are links to other websites with a product or service that you are recommending to your viewers.

Here are a few of the top affiliate companies to apply for:

• Amazon Associates
• Share A Sale
• Rakuten
• CJ Affiliate
• Impact

Most large stores have affiliate programs. If there is a store you would like to be an affiliate with, do a Google search for the name of the store with “affiliate program” behind it (example: “Target affiliate program”).

Blog Promotion

To get viewers, you will need to promote your blog posts by sharing them with people on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

I personally only use Pinterest.

Find the best quality, free stock photos for blogging.

Tips

• You can get ideas flowing on what to write about in your niche by searching on Reddit, Pinterest, talking to people you know, forums, anywhere that someone is needing a question answered or a problem solved.

• Remember to never copy someone else’s work. It’s fine to get ideas but be yourself when writing your blog posts, be 100% authentic. Add your own little spunk and personality to it!

• A lot of other bloggers say when pinning to Pinterest, “pin 80% of your own content and 20% of other peoples”. I have found the best way to keep people interested in your content is to pin about 50/50. For every pin you post of your own content, also pin one of someone else’s. That way you won’t be filling your followers feed with your same content all day every day. That would be like spamming people’s Pinterest feed which in turn would make them unfollow you.

• Pin from websites outside of Pinterest. Pin from your own website or other bloggers sites that you like. You will see a jump in traffic to your blog by implementing this in your Pinning strategy.

Best wishes for your new money making blog adventure! Feel free to leave a comment with your questions or let everyone know what your niche is for your new blog!

Share with others! Pin it to Pinterest!