How to Start a Profitable Blog in 20 Minutes
You’ve decided to dive into blogging headfirst! Blogging is an awesome way to share what you know and are an expert on, with others.
Your blog is a place to vent, it’s an online journal, it’s where you can share your passions and more. Starting a blog is a WHOLE LOT EASIER than you may think! Using the tools we discuss in this article like WordPress and Bluehost you can create your own vehicle for creativity and may allow you to earn thousands of dollars a month doing something you love!
So here’s how to start a profitable blog in 20 minutes!
PICK A NICHE
What will your blog be about?
The best way to work out what your blog should be about is to consider what your skills and passions are. You may want to consider how you spend your days. Do you do something unique that you assist others learning?
Some examples: food, healthy living, fashion, parenting, etc.
You can even pick a super specific topic like eating raw, living with diabetes, parenting a special needs child, etc. Once you’ve selected your niche, the next step is to get building!
BUY YOUR DOMAIN NAME
Do some brainstorming to think of a catchy blog name. Find that domain and go with it. Check with Bluehost for your domain name.
It didn’t take too long to pick this blog’s name, The Introverted Blogger. A few hours or so. The name just fit.
Once you pick your domain name and buy it, you’ll move onto building your blog (WordPress, of course)
BUILD YOUR BLOG
There are many platforms available for your blog.
There are many blog platforms to choose from. I recommend WordPress wholeheartedly. These days it’s really the only platform you want to use if you want Google and other search engines to pay any attention to you. You will also have more control over your content, your website and your design. They offer a bunch of perks and work with Bluehost to connect your hosting seamlessly. If you decide to go with WordPress, here’s a tip: go with WordPress.org (not WordPress.com). Then, head back over to Bluehost to set up hosting.
Pick your Bluehost package:
I usually go with the Basic Plan. But recently, the Plus and Prime plans have been the same price (only $2 higher than Basic) and come with all kinds of perks (marketing offers, unlimited email accounts, etc.). Whichever option you select, you can always change it later, upgrading or downgrading in the future if you need to.
Check out the simple step-by-step process (with screenshots) to show you exactly how to complete the sign-up process, start to finish!
EASY STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Register, then pick your plan, and lastly, pay. That’s it!
Check out the screenshots below:
Input your account info (shown above) then, pick your hosting plan (below)…
Next comes your billing information then…
WELCOME TO BLUEHOST!
WORDPRESS INSTALL
First, head over to cPanel and login.
And, that’s it! Now comes the fun part.
DESIGN YOUR BLOG
Whoo-hoo, if you’ve made it here, you’re more than halfway done! To recap, you’ve picked your niche and domain name, and completed your blog build.
Next, comes Design.
Pick your blog’s theme. WordPress does offer a theme store but I recommend you head over to Studiopress or Bluchic to view their awesome collection of themes.
When it’s time to do your blog set up, you’ll do some things like:
- Create categories
- Create pages
- Adding plugins
Your pages will most likely be: About Me, Contact, FAQ, Advertise, Resources, and any other blog categories you’d like to add.
WRITE YOUR FIRST POST
Your blog is set up and now it’s time to prepare your first post.
Pro Tip: Highly recommended that you set up an editorial calendar, which will help you stay organized. Coschedule has a great calendar that you’ll love.
You can post to your blog as often as you would like. Some bloggers add new content once a week. Me? I try to post 5-6x per week. That’s just me. Post according to your preference.
Tips for writing awesome content:
–
- Use plenty of white space: Break up your text with white space. It’s easy on the eyes. Have line breaks often.
- Images, images, images: Infographics, photography, graphs, and charts are awesome to insert in your posts.
- Proofread it: This is such a given. Make sure you proofread. It can be exciting to wrap up your post and want to hit “publish” but, go through the entire post to check for grammar and spelling errors.
- Use tools to help: Grammarly is highly recommended.
- Write long-form content: 1,000-2,000 words or more is what I’d recommend. Search engines love long content.
- Use tags and make sure your posts end up in the right categories
Once your post is complete, hit Publish!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on starting a blog in 20 minutes.
Do you have blogging secrets?
Share your favorite plugins down below.
Some great tips! Getting your own URL really is totally essential
Thanks Kitty. I totally agree. Thanks for your comments.
Great post! Mine took longer than 20 minutes but that is because I migrated over from Wix to WordPress which took a month to complete. I love the SEO on WordPress x
Thanks Ana. Wix is cool. I had my very first site with them. SEO on WP is great, totally agree. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Well, you’ve certainly covered a lot of detail here – if only I had something like this to read when I was just starting out!
Thanks, I tried:). I actually reached out to Bluehost to ask for some tips on getting more visitors to my Start your own Blog post in my other blog. They sent me a ton of resources including all the screenshots in this post PLUS gave me a raise!
Great information for beginners ready to make a go of it. Appreciate the details and the screen shots are a great bonus. I am ALMOST ready to put my fears aside and take the plunge. Thanks again!
Hi Alicia,
Thank you! You really should. You won’t regret it. In a few months when you have a loyal following of readers and making three or four figures per month, you’ll look back excited that you made the leap! Thanks for your comments.
So my biggest question I keep thinking as I read all these Start your own blog posts – is how do you make money from them? I know you get companies that run ads but how does it actually build up and where do you go to get your earnings? This is the stuff I would like more information on –
Thanks,
Hi Melisa,
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll definitely write a full post on it. To answer your question though, in addition to running company ads (sponsored posts), you can also do affiliate marketing, sell products, (like your own ebooks, courses,etc.), sell services (like social media management, virtual assisting, etc.), and running Adsense ads or similar. Thanks for your comment and if interested, subscribe to my feed to get the latest posts 🙂
Hey!
Quick question, I just recently started my blog, and I wonder how it is that you actually make money!
Would love your feedback! Thanks!
Hi,
Is Seattle your first name? So pretty 🙂 You can make money in various ways through blogging: affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, selling your products/services, freelancing, and writing for other blogs. I’ll be writing a post more about it soon. Reach out if you have any questions:)
Hello! Great article I’m actually trying to start up here soon. Quick question: what is the difference between wix and word press? Thank you!
Hi Cristol,
How exciting! Blogging is so rewarding and when you start to see results (views, income, comments from readers, etc.), it makes it even better. Wix is an alternative platform to WordPress. I had a Wix site a long, long time ago. Not very much experience with it, but I like WordPress better. Most every blog I read is on WordPress too. Let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Hi this article was lots of help! But I’m stuck! So I’m at the point where I’m trying to pick a blog theme from Blue host. I just chose one and paid $98 for the theme and the installation but I’m still lost and I don’t know how to upload the theme. Please help! Thanks
Hi Carmela,
Have you connected Bluehost and WordPress yet? Usually, the steps are like this:
#1.) Buy domain name + hosting
#2.) Buy theme
#3.) Connect WordPress and Bluehost
#4.) Access your Admin Panel in WordPress and upload theme
So, in step 4, where you add your theme, you go to Appearance (in WordPress), then Themes and click the Upload Theme option. Then you’ll upload it and activate it for your site. There are usually theme instructions to go along with the theme so it can look like the theme demo. If you’d like me to do it for you, I do have the Blog Builder Package available. Shoot me an email at [email protected] and we can talk about it, if you’re interested. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
I really want to start a blog myself but am at a loss for what to right about. I have heard you should “pretend blog” for a few weeks or month and you can really start to see your topic, plus you already have entries to use?
Hi Cindy,
You should do it! When you say pretend blog, do you mean journal for a while and then you’ll start to see your topic revealed, then you can just publish those posts? You can definitely do that. My best advice is to blog about something you are passionate about or something you can teach. Do you love baking or obsessed with reality tv? Enjoy couponing or travel or fashion, or whatever, then blog about it. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for your comments.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this post. I published my first blog post today. Took a leap, and I look forward to exploring your blog with tips. I once had a blog, pre-college. It had no direction and I really didn’t stick to it. This time I hope to stick to it and I really want it to become a business.
I purchased a domain with BlueHost, I had no idea it was billed yearly (oops). The husband might flip, lol. But I’m excited nonetheless.
Thank for the post! It really got me going!
Hi Chari,
Congratulations on taking the first step with your new Blog. I’m sure you will enjoy the process as much as we do. I love the look of your Blog. Would you be willing to send me a link to your new blog post? I’d love to share it with our readers. Good luck and if we can assist at all let us know.
cheers
Lucy
You can see the latest post here. http://wp.me/p8H1Kz-4 Hopefully that works. I have no idea what I’m doing, but that is what makes it fun. Learn as you go right? Thanks for the tips!
Chari
I wish I knew the seriousness of Blogging back in 2005 when I 1st started out using Blogger.com and had not a clue what I was doing. Now that I have a better understanding today, my goal is to create and sustain quality relationship with fellow bloggers and produce meaningful evergreen content.
I am very interested in starting a blog. I am a student in college, I have many interests. Traveling, music, and fashion somewhat. You mentioned to pick one topic and base your blog on this. If I was to take a college student approach and blog about adventures with traveling, music, and fashion do you think it would go anywhere?
Hi Taylar, Wow, thats a big question. I think the question you need to ask yourself with any of these topics, is how will it help your reader? Readers will either fall in love with your solutions or your ideas. But it has to add value to their world. So just ask yourself “what value can you add?. I have friends who are incredibly successful in all these areas… good luck and let us know how you go.
Thank you so much for all of the information!
such an informative article, Simple and easy advice to start up. your way of explanation is very good. I really want to appreciate the time and effort you put in to write this post.