How to Start a Blog and Make Money - $10k+/Month in 2024 (Step-by-Step)

Summary

The video script offers an in-depth guide for aspiring bloggers, emphasizing the potential for substantial income through blogging. It highlights the importance of understanding monetization strategies, recommending affiliate marketing over traditional ads like Google AdSense, especially for new blogs with low traffic. The speaker, a successful full-time blogger, shares personal experiences and strategies, such as leveraging large affiliate networks and selling digital products for higher commissions. The script also provides actionable steps for starting a blog, including choosing a profitable niche, selecting a domain name, setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog with a reliable hosting provider, and focusing on driving traffic through platforms like Pinterest. The summary serves as a motivational call to action, encouraging potential bloggers to start their journey and learn from the provided resources.

Takeaways

• 💼 Starting a blog can be a lucrative career with the potential to earn a substantial income, as the speaker does over $10,000/month on average.
• 🏡 The flexibility of blogging allows for working from home and setting your own schedule, which is beneficial for those with family commitments.
• 🚀 For new bloggers, focusing on affiliate marketing rather than Google Adsense is recommended due to higher potential earnings, especially with digital products.
• 🔗 Building partnerships with large affiliate networks or directly with product sellers can yield significant commissions, particularly in niches like fashion and software reviews.
• 📈 Once a blog has significant traffic (around 10,000 monthly sessions), it's more beneficial to consider display ads through networks like Ezoic or Monumetric.
• 🚫 Avoid applying for Google Adsense too early due to the risk of getting banned and closing doors for future premium ad networks.
• 📉 Display ads on a new blog with low traffic are not recommended as they yield very low income.
• 🎨 Selling services through a blog can be a good way to generate income while growing the audience, especially for skills that can be offered remotely.
• 🛍️ Creating and selling your own digital products, such as eBooks or online courses, can be highly profitable with minimal support required.
• 📝 Choosing a profitable niche is crucial for a successful and monetizable blog, and it's important to research the most profitable niches for the current year.
• 🌐 Focusing on one traffic platform at a time is more effective than spreading efforts across multiple platforms, with Pinterest being a recommended starting point for many niches.
• 💻 Using a self-hosted WordPress blog is essential for monetization and growth, avoiding limitations associated with free platforms.

Q & A

Is starting a blog still a viable option for income generation in the current digital landscape?

Yes, starting a blog can still be a lucrative venture. The script highlights that with the right strategies, such as affiliate marketing and focusing on a profitable niche, it is possible to earn a significant income, as evidenced by the speaker earning over $10,000 per month from blogging.

What are the initial costs and benefits associated with starting a blog?

The initial costs of starting a blog are quite low, which includes domain registration and hosting. The benefits are high return on investment (ROI), working from home, and having control over one's schedule, making it a flexible option for individuals like stay-at-home parents.

Why might it not be advisable to apply for Google AdSense immediately upon starting a blog?

Applying for Google AdSense right away might not be beneficial, especially with low traffic. The earnings from display ads can be minimal (less than $10 per month) when traffic is low, which isn't worth the potential distraction from the site's content and user experience.

What is the recommended monetization strategy for a new blog?

The recommended strategy is affiliate marketing. This involves promoting products within your blog's niche through affiliate networks like Impact, CJ Affiliates, ShareaSale, reWardStyle, ClickBank, and Partnerstack, which can offer higher commission rates than traditional ad networks.

What are some high-commission affiliate products that can be promoted on a blog?

High-commission affiliate products often include digital products like eBooks, online courses, and legal templates, which typically offer commissions of about 30% to 85% due to their high profit margins.

When should a blogger consider adding display ads to their blog?

Display ads should be considered when the blog's traffic reaches at least 10,000 monthly sessions. At this point, a blogger can apply to advertising networks like Ezoic or Monumetric, which also require integration with Google AdSense.

Why is Pinterest highlighted as a good traffic source for new blogs?

Pinterest is user-friendly for new blogs, as it can provide traffic quickly and is not dependent on domain authority. It is also popular in the United States, which is beneficial for meeting the audience criteria of some ad networks like Mediavine.

How can offering services on a blog help with income while the blog grows?

Offering services such as content writing, editing, virtual assistance, or other skilled work can provide a steady income stream while the blog audience grows. This allows the blogger to leverage their existing skills and the blog as a marketing platform.

What are some advantages of selling your own digital products on a blog?

Selling digital products offers a high return on investment with minimal support required. They can include eBooks, printable files, patterns, templates, stock photos, and legal documents. These products can generate significant income without the need for paid advertising.

Why is it important to choose the right niche when starting a blog?

Choosing the right niche is crucial for profitability. A niche should align with the blogger's interests and expertise but also be marketable and appealing to an audience that is likely to engage and convert into income through various monetization strategies.

What are some tips for choosing a domain name for a new blog?

A good domain name should be short, easy to remember, and preferably use the .com zone. It should avoid numbers, hyphens, and misspellings. The domain can be the blogger's name if it's not too common, allowing flexibility in the blog's content and niche.

Why is it recommended to start with a self-hosted blog instead of a free platform?

A self-hosted blog provides more control, flexibility, and monetization opportunities. Free platforms may limit the types of ads that can be run and are less attractive to affiliate networks. Self-hosting is also a requirement for many premium ad networks and is essential for long-term blogging success.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Starting a Blog for Income

The speaker shares their personal journey from doubting blogging as a career to becoming a full-time blogger earning over $10,000 per month. They discuss the low business expenses involved in blogging, the flexibility it offers, and the potential for high return on investment. The speaker also provides a step-by-step plan to earn the first $1000 per month from a blog and invites viewers to join a free 7-day course for starting a blog. They emphasize understanding how to make money from a blog, suggesting affiliate marketing as a better initial strategy than Google Adsense due to higher commission rates and less risk, especially for new blogs with low traffic.

05:11

📈 Monetizing Your Blog with Ads and Services

The speaker advises against applying for Google Adsense on a new blog due to the risk of getting banned and the low earnings potential. They recommend waiting until the blog has at least 10,000 monthly sessions before considering display ads through networks like Ezoic or Monumetric. They also suggest that once a blog has significant traffic, it could be monetized by selling services such as content writing, editing, or virtual assistance. The speaker highlights the importance of Pinterest traffic for driving visitors to the blog and shares their success with Mediavine, a premium ad management company, which can yield higher earnings than Adsense.

10:15

💰 Scaling Your Blog with Products and Services

The speaker emphasizes the potential of blogging to surpass traditional corporate income levels, provided that one avoids trading time for money and instead focuses on scalable income sources. They discuss the benefits of selling one's own digital products, such as eBooks, printable files, patterns, templates, and stock photos, which can yield high returns with minimal support. The speaker encourages bloggers to overcome limiting beliefs and create their own products, rather than relying solely on ad revenue. They also mention the effectiveness of selling courses and the importance of choosing a niche that aligns with profitable topics.

15:20

🌐 Choosing a Domain and Starting Your Blog

The speaker provides guidelines for choosing a blog domain name, recommending that it should be short, memorable, and preferably in the .com zone. They advise against using numbers, hyphens, or misspelled words. The speaker also covers the technical aspects of starting a blog, recommending WordPress as the content management system and stressing the importance of choosing a self-hosted platform to avoid limitations and monetization issues. They suggest Bluehost as a hosting provider and provide a link for an exclusive offer for their audience.

20:20

🎨 Designing Your Blog and Driving Traffic

The speaker discusses the importance of choosing the right WordPress theme for the blog's appearance and speed, recommending Astra as a fast and SEO-friendly option. They also emphasize the need to focus on one traffic platform at a time to avoid spreading efforts too thin. The speaker suggests Pinterest as the best platform for driving traffic quickly, followed by Google SEO and YouTube. They caution against relying on Facebook and Instagram for organic traffic, as these platforms typically require paid advertising. Lastly, the speaker encourages aspiring bloggers to take action and offers a free blueprint with daily lessons and video tutorials to help get started.

Keywords

💡Blogging

Blogging refers to the act of regularly sharing one's thoughts, experiences, and information on a particular topic via a website known as a blog. In the video, the speaker discusses the viability and income potential of starting a blog in the current year, highlighting their own success as a full-time blogger earning a substantial income.

💡Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where an affiliate promotes another company's products or services and earns a commission for each sale made through their referral. The video emphasizes affiliate marketing as a top recommendation for new bloggers, providing examples of networks and suggesting it as a more lucrative alternative to starting with display ads.

💡Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows website owners to earn money by placing advertisements on their websites. The speaker advises against applying to AdSense for new blogs with low traffic, as the earnings are minimal and there's a risk of account suspension that could affect future opportunities with premium ad networks.

💡ROI (Return on Investment)

ROI is a financial metric used to evaluate the profitability of an investment. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions that blogging has a very low business expense and thus offers a high ROI, making it an attractive option for those looking to start an online business.

💡Display Ads

Display ads are a form of online advertising where various sized banners or boxes containing graphics or animations are placed on a web page. The video discusses the timing for implementing display ads on a blog, suggesting that it's more beneficial to wait until the blog has a significant amount of traffic before applying for ad networks like AdSense.

💡Ezoic

Ezoic is an advanced platform for website publishers to increase revenue through artificial intelligence. The speaker mentions Ezoic as an advertising network to consider once a blog has reached a certain traffic threshold, indicating it as a premium alternative to Google AdSense.

💡Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual discovery engine where users can find and save ideas for various interests by creating collections of images known as 'pins'. The video highlights Pinterest as a valuable platform for driving traffic to a blog, especially for certain niches that resonate well with its primarily female audience.

💡Domain Name

A domain name is the human-readable address of a website on the Internet, used to identify a business or individual on the web. The video provides tips on choosing a domain name, emphasizing the importance of it being short, memorable, and preferably in the .com zone for credibility and search engine optimization.

💡WordPress

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) used for creating and managing websites, including blogs. The speaker recommends WordPress as the platform of choice for starting a blog due to its flexibility, functionality, and the fact that it's free to use.

💡Self-Hosted Blog

A self-hosted blog is a website where the owner has full control over the site's content, design, and functionality, as opposed to using a free blogging platform that may impose restrictions. The video stresses the importance of starting a self-hosted blog for those serious about monetization, as it provides more freedom and professional credibility.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of improving a website's ranking in search engine results to increase its visibility and attract more organic (non-paid) traffic. The video discusses the importance of SEO, particularly for Google, as a method to drive stable and long-term traffic to a blog, although it requires more time and effort compared to other platforms like Pinterest.

Highlights

Starting a blog can be a lucrative endeavor, with the potential to earn over $10,000 per month on average.

Blogging offers a high return on investment with low business expenses and the flexibility to work from home.

A step-by-step plan is provided to help achieve the first $1000/mo from a blog, with a free 7-day course available.

Google Adsense may not be the best monetization method for new blogs with low traffic.

Affiliate marketing, particularly with networks like Impact, CJ Affiliates, and ShareaSale, is recommended for bloggers.

Digital products offer high profit margins and can result in significant affiliate commissions.

Once a blog reaches 10,000 monthly sessions, it's time to consider display ads through networks like Ezoic or Monumetric.

Mediavine is a premium ad network that can significantly increase ad revenue, but requires a substantial US audience.

Pinterest is a powerful platform for driving traffic to new blogs, with 93% of traffic coming from it in the speaker's first year.

Offering services such as content writing, editing, or virtual assistance can generate income while growing a blog's audience.

Establishing oneself as an expert through blogging can lead to selling legal templates or other niche-specific products.

Blogs can serve as a marketing platform for services, potentially replacing a 9-5 job with a scalable online business.

Selling digital products such as ebooks, printable files, or online courses can provide a high ROI without the need for paid advertising.

Creating and selling one's own products is a recommended advanced monetization strategy for bloggers.

Choosing a profitable niche is crucial for a successful money-making blog, with a video provided to help identify the most profitable niches.

Selecting a good domain name is important, with .com being the preferred choice, and avoiding numbers, hyphens, or misspellings.

WordPress is recommended as the content management system for a blog, and Bluehost is suggested as a solid hosting option for beginners.

Focusing on one traffic source at a time is advised for beginners, with Pinterest being a fast way to drive traffic to a new blog.

Google SEO is a stable but slower traffic source, requiring significant effort and time before seeing results.

YouTube is another recommended platform for driving traffic, as Google often prioritizes its own video content.

Facebook and Instagram are not considered effective for organic free traffic generation, and are more suited for paid advertising.

The speaker encourages aspiring bloggers to stop doubting and start their blogs, offering a free blueprint and tutorials to guide them.

Transcripts

Is it worth starting a blog this year?  Does blogging still bring a good income? 

I bet you are asking yourself these questions.  I was in your shoes 5 years ago but today I am  

a full-time blogger earning over $10,000k/mo  on average, so I will honestly tell you what  

works today and what's the fastest way  for you to grow a blog from scratch.  

If you are in doubt about blgoging, I want  to ask you one thing. How much do you lose  

if you try and start a blog? My business  expenses as a blogger are very low. It’s  

a business with the highest ROI you can  imagine. I do this while working from home,  

I am in control of my own schedule, which really  helps because I have a toddler and I want to spend  

time with my daughter while she is small. I this video, I will lay out a step by step  

plan for you to get your first $1000/mo  with your blog! And if you want to get  

started with this plan today, join my free  7-day course to start your blog. Check the  

link in the description below and let's  get started with the first step. Step #1 

First, you need to Understand  HOW you will Make Money

When I started my blog, I did what most of  the people do - I tried to apply to Google  

Adsense as soon as I could, to run some ads on  my blog. That's what you were going to do, right? 

Well, let me tell you why maybe you shouldn't. Yes, adding ads from Google Adsense or Media.net  

is the easiest thing you can do with a  new website to start making some money. 

Usually it’s enough to have about 20 posts  on your blog and something that a lot of  

people don’t know about – you need a  Privacy Policy page before you apply! 

But if you ask for my opinion, I don’t think  you should even bother applying to Adsense  

when you have very low traffic because they  pay very little for each 1000 of visitors. 

When your traffic is lower than 1000 visitors  a month, you will be earning less than $10  

with display ads. Yes, less than $10 per month.  So it’s not worth sending your small audience  

away from the site for so little money. What would I do first if I started my blog  

these days, knowing everything  that I learned in 5 years? 

Affiliate Marketing My top recommendation for you is to find affiliate  

products that you can promote in your niche. You can work with large affiliate networks but  

don't bother joining Amazon Associates, this  is like Google Adsense just from affiliate  

marketing - very low commission rates,  very high risk of getting your account  

blocked for no reason with all the $2.5  that you will be lucky to earn in a year. 

Now if not Amazon Associates, which other large  affiliate networks would I recommend you? Well,  

Impact, CJ Affiliates, ShareaSale, reWardStyle,  ClickBank, Partnerstack to name a few. But which  

ones will work for you the best really depends on  your nich e. ReWardStyle is best for fashion and  

home decor for example, Partnerstack will work  great if you have a site with software reviews. 

I think I gave you all the names of the networks  too quickly, right? Well, you can pause or  

re-watch this part if you want to point out the  names of these affiliate networks. I think you  

should try to join them as soon as you added a  little bit of content to your website and created  

your About page, so it looks like a legit site and  explains what are the main topics you will cover. 

Depending on your niche, you could even  partner directly with some product sellers. 

Because some products are really worth if they  cost a few hundreds of dollars and can come with  

generous affiliate commissions of about 30% and  up to 85%. This kind of commissions are normal  

in the world of digital products, like eBooks,  online courses and such because their profit  

margin is close to 100% so they can afford  giving you a huge commission per sale. You  

will hardly find commissions so high if you  promote physical products as an affiliate.  

You could find many digital prducts like  this on Clickbank or on Digistore24. 

In this case, you could be making a hundred of  dollars or more per customer in commission. If  

you think about it, let's say your content linked  to an affiliate product like this is convincing  

enough, even with small traffic volume you’ll be  able to make your first $1000 on your blog. Say,  

with a commission of $100, you just need to sell  the product to 10 customers to make $1000 a month. 

Display Ads Getting back to display  

ads. I said I wouldn't install Adsense  at all and start with affiliate products  

but is there the right time when you  should consider ads on your blog? 

Yes! When your blog traffic gets to at least  10,000/mo sessions, you can apply to either  

Ezoic or Monumetric advertising networks. And this  would be the time when you actually should apply  

for Adsense too because both of these networds  will require you to first join Google Adsense,  

as it's their biggest advertising partner. As I mentioned before, you can totally skip  

applying to Google Adsense on a new blog, and  actually would help you keep your site safe from  

any kind of ban or problems with Google Adsense. When you work with Adsense directly as a new  

blogger, you can easily do something wrong  by mistake that will get your site banned  

and this will close the doors for you to  any premium ad networks in the future. 

Because all of them including Ezoic, Monumetric,  She Media, Mediavine and Adthrive work with  

Google as their biggest advertising partner.  If your domain has a bad history with Adsense,  

it won’t be accepted to any premium ad networks  ever. So again, the $10 a month or less that you  

could make with Adsense on a new blog, are not  worth the risk for your domain in the future. 

When you get at least 20,000/mo sessions on your  site, you could try to join She Media network,  

and when you get 50,000/mo sessions on  your site, you can apply for Mediavine. 

This is a premium ad management company and  you’ll be paid about 10 times more for the  

same traffic than you could get with AdSense. Keep in mind though that about 80% of your  

audience should come from the United States  to be accepted to Mediavine. In this sense  

Pinterest traffic can be very helpful  because it’s much more popular in the  

US than in other parts of the world. When I started my blog, in the first  

few months I was trying to get some traffic  with Google SEO but I soon realized it was  

hopeless. It takes forever to get some domain  authority with a new blog on Google. So I  

focused on Pinterest traffic and it worked! By the end of my first year of blogging,  

I had enough traffic to join Medivine. And  93% of my traffic at the time was was coming  

from Pinterest. I will show you my Mediavine  dashboard here when I edit the video. So I  

made my first $1400 in a month with Mediavine  ads entirely thanks to free Pinterest traffic. 

I just wanted to make it clear because I hear  this a lot from people who heard somewhere that  

Pinterest traffic is not accepted in Mediavine  and other premium ad networks. This is not  

true at all. Pinterest is a completely  valid traffic source, moreover your RPM,  

or revenue per mille - your ad income per  thousand visitors on your site can be the same and  

sometimes even higher than for Google SEO traffic. Check out this in my Mediavine dashboard,  

my RPM for Pinterest traffic is even  a bit higher than for Google traffic. 

If you find the information I shared so far  helpful, give me a thumbs up, subscribe for  

more blogging tips and click the bell button to  get notifications when I publish my new videos!  

If you have any questions, the best place to  ask me is in the comments below the video! 

NOW Let's TALK ABOUT SELLING YOUR SERVICES When you are just starting a blog,  

it’s often months of work without a single  paycheck. While growing your audience,  

you can also offer your services on the blog. For example, you could reach out to some  

established bloggers and offer your  services as their content writer,  

as an editor, a virtual assistant. You could  also offer any other services and promote  

them through your blog – like making voiceover,  translations, graphic design or anything else you  

are skilled at and what you can do remotely  just with a laptop and internet connection. 

But it can be any kind of  services really, in any industry. 

I know very a successful blog about all  things legal by Amira the blog is called  

https://aselfguru.com/ – and guess what, that  girl now sells her legal templates for bloggers  

and earns a lot more than her colleagues each  month because she has established herself as  

an expert through her blog. I'll show you  here is her income report when she made  

78,000 in one month. The majority of this income  came from her legal templates, over $67,000  

and she sells these templates through her blog. Many beginner bloggers make the majority of their  

income by selling their services in the first year  or two, and you know what? I think it’s great! 

Think about it. You are still working from  home and you might be earning enough to  

replace your 9-5 job. Your blog works  as a free way to market your services. 

I personally used my blog to sell my 1:1 Pinterest  management services for quite a long time. I don’t  

do this anymore though and let me tell you why. The most amazing thing about blogging  

is that you can build your career and  skyrocket your income to the levels that  

would take you decades in the corporate world.  For me, I actually am 100% sure I would never  

reach the same income level at my day job. And while it takes some hard work upfront  

without getting paid from the first month  blogging, at some point if you don’t allow your  

limiting beliefs stop you from making more money,  then you can scale your business really fast. 

But not if you keep trading your time for money.  Not if you keep providing the 1:1 services. 

It can be quite difficult to get requests  from potential clients and say sorry,  

I don’t provide 1:1 services anymore but at some  point if I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t be able to  

scale my business and income. And so… we get  to the advanced way of making money from your  

website. It’s selling your own products. Selling Your Own Products 

You can even sell physical products but I  don’t know this business, for me things like  

manufacturing, branding, delivery, dealing with  refunds, customs, all of this is a bit too much. 

I prefer to sell digital products online.  The ROI is usually very high and if you’ve  

built your blog or website to help you sell  your products, you can have a great income  

without spending anything on paid advertising. You can sell lots of different products that don’t  

require much of support, for example: - Ebooks 

- Printable files like binders, guides and so on - You can sell patterns and templates  

if you are a DIY blogger - You can sell stock photos  

through your site if you are a photographer. Or if you are like Amira from Aselfguru,  

remember I already mentioned her today,  you can sell legal templates. Instead of  

providing 1:1 services to bloggers, she can  sell them templates of various legal pages :) 

It’s interesting that I see so many bloggers  keep procrastinating on the idea to create  

their own products for too long until  they almost get a burn-out from chasing  

pageviews to monetize their site with ads. I’ve talked to several 1:1 clients of mine  

who were established bloggers with large  audiences and the only way they used to  

monetize was through ads. When I asked  why? Why you are not selling products? 

The answer was – I kept telling myself I’m not  ready yet, I am not good enough yet to sell a  

product. But come on, with thousands of followers  across multiple social networks? Not ready? 

This is clearly a limiting belief in my opinion,  a lot of people are just looking for excuses  

to stop themselves from making more money with  their blogs. If by any chance this is your case,  

you definitely need to work on your mindset 🙂 What I found the best model for me personally  

because I like interacting with people and  sharing my knowledge, I found that selling  

printables is kind of boring for me. I prefer  selling courses where I can work with my students,  

answer their questions, help them grow,  celebrate their wins together and so on. 

I wanted to dedicate the first part of this  video to monetization strategies because I know  

for most of the people who start a blog it's  a way to make some extra income on the side,  

so what you want to know first and  foremost is how a blog will make you money. 

Now that you have some clarity on this, the  next thing you need to do when starting a  

blog is decide which topics you’ll be blogging  about. In other words, what will be your niche.  

Step # 2. Pick a Niche for Your Blog Beginners often make a mistake thinking  

about niches. It’s easy to start a blog  about whatever you experience in life,  

or about your hobbies and not giving a though  about whether or not this is a profitable topic. 

But if you plan to actually make money  with your blog, I recommend you to watch  

my video that covers the most profitable  blogging niches for this year. I’ll give you  

a link in the description below this video. If you want to use a particular platform to  

drive traffic to your blog, for example,  if you want to start with Pinterest,  

you need to keep in mind that not all the niches  do equally well with Pinterest audience. It’s  

mostly female audience and so the niches  that do really great on Pinterest are: 

· Home Décor and DIY · Recipes 

· Parenting · Diets and  

Weight Loss · Lifestyle 

· Beauty and Fashion · Relationship Advice 

Even if you are not sure about a specific  niche, Pinterest is actually the platform  

that is not looking for narrowly niched websites  like Google does. You can have a broad lifestyle  

blog and take advantage of all trending topics  on Pinterest to get as much traffic from this  

platform as possible, even with a brand new blog. This is why I strongly recommend anyone who is  

starting a blog learn about Pinterest, and if you  want to understand better HOW it can help you make  

money with your blog, then watch my free Pinterest  masterclass. I’ll give you a link in the top right  

corner and in the description below this video. Now, the second step  

is choosing a domain name for the blog. Step #3. Pick your Blog Name / Domain Name  

Now, when you have an idea about your blog,  the next thing to decide is your domain name. 

The common sense rules that you should keep in  mind when you are searching for a domain name: 

· it should be short and easy to remember; · avoid using numbers and hyphens in domain name; 

· always do your best to get a domain in .com  zone, in the worst case scenario you can settle  

with .co zone. Anything like .net or .biz is a  bad idea for many reasons, I don’t want to go  

too much into details in this video or else we’ll  never move to the next steps. If you want to know  

all the details and tips about choosing a domain  name, I have another video that will help you. The  

link will be in the description below this video. · Ah and don’t use weirdly spelled or misspelled  

words just because the keyword your  wanted in not available as a domain.  

Wrong spelling will always confuse people  and they will end up on competitor’s site. 

Generally, I think people tend to overthink the  step of choosing a domain name. Your domain can  

even be simply your full name if it’s not a  very popular name (in that case I guess it  

will be taken). Under your name you  can blog about anything and you can  

switch the niche easily at any time. Step #4: Technically Start a Blog 

Once you have an idea about your domain name, you  can go ahead and register your blog. The process  

will take you about 11 minutes if you use my video  tutorial, I’ll give you a link in the info icon  

and in the description below this video. Just two important things that you  

need to know when starting a blog. 1. One is called a content management  

system and for this I highly recommend you to  stick with Wordpress. It’s the most suitable  

for what a blogging website needs. If you  were building a portfolio site with just a  

few pages, I would say go ahead and use Wix or  Squarespace. But if you want to build a blog,  

Wordpress is the best platform. And it's free. 2. The second thing to choose is a hosting  

provider. I have to stress this out. You  need to start a self-hosted blog. If you  

want to make money with it, you shouldn't  use any platforms that own your site. 

You don't want to have something  like anastasia.blogspot.com or  

anastasia.wordpress.com you are hosting  your site for free but your site will  

be limited in many ways. They will  tell you which ads you can run. When  

you apply to any affiliate networks, no  one wants to work with these free sites,  

they want you to have a self-hosted blog. Even if you think you are going to start on  

a free platform and then switch over,  I can tell you the technical hustle  

you'll have to go through is not worth it. When I started my blog, I used Bluehost and I  

think it's a solid hosting option for beginners.  They have a smooth installation process for  

Wordpress, their plans are the most affordable,  and they offer a 24-hour support though chat. 

You can even get a free domain name in  the package with your hosting. Use the  

link anastasiablogger.com/bluehost or click on  the link in the description below this video  

because I partnered with Bluehost and they  provided an exclusive price for my audience. 

Step #5 Make Your Blog Pretty and  Fast - Make Your Blog Pretty and  

FastChoose the right Wordpress Theme The way your blog looks and how fast pages  

can load depends on your Wordpress Theme. There  are lots of options out there, some are completely  

free, and if you want to try a free theme, I  would recommend to check out first Astra theme. 

It's one of the fastest Wordpress themes, and  the site speed is a really important factor  

for Google SEO. Astra has a very generous  free version as well as a premium version. 

The other fast Wordpress themes are Neve,  Ocean WP and if you are looking for a  

premium theme GeneratePress is really good. Step #6. Start Driving Traffic to Your Blog  

When it comes to getting visitors to your  website, the best thing you can do is focus  

on ONE platform at a time otherwise you’ll spread  too thin and see very low results on all of them. 

It does depend on your niche of course,  but my general recommendation for beginners  

is to start with Pinterest because this  platform can give you traffic really fast. 

For some niches Pinterest doesn’t work and in  that case your first option would be Google  

SEO traffic. Like something that would be  mostly interesting for men might have low  

traffic potential on Pinterest because  the majority of this platform are women. 

So again, my personal top list of  the platforms starts with Pinterest. 

You can get your first traffic spikes with  Pinterest within a few months while with  

Google you might need to wait at least  6 months or even a year. With Pinterest,  

it doesn’t matter if you have an old domain  name and what is the domain authority. 

It works great for almost any niche, you can  see that it worked multiple times for so many  

of my students of Pinterest SEO Traffic Secrets  program – and they are all from different niches. 

You’ll find a link to my Pinterest  SEO Traffic Course in the info icon  

and in the description below this video. My second-favorite traffic source is Google  

SEO or search engine optimization for Google. Search traffic is more stable because it doesn’t  

have the viral effect that you can see on  Pinterest. It’s good that Google traffic  

is more stable but it takes so much more  time and effort to make Google SEO work. 

A brand-new website might need to wait for at  least 6 months or even a year before seeing any  

significant traffic and start ranking in Google.  And by waiting I don’t mean just starting a blog  

and doing nothing. I mean that you will be  working really hard optimizing your site and  

writing content optimized for keywords  and building backlinks to your website. 

The next one after Google comes Youtube. Probably  you realize that Google owns Youtube. So,  

you can often rank your videos higher than your  blog posts for the same keywords because Google  

gives priority to video content from their own  platform rather than to third-party websites. 

I get very little traffic from Facebook  and Instagram and I don’t think these  

platforms are good for organic free traffic  generation. You would have to pay for ads to  

get some traffic from these social networks and  I assume you are starting a blog to make money  

not to spend your money on ads before you  ever made a cent out of your blog, right? 

And you know what? The best advice I can  give you is just stop doubting yourself  

and procrastinating. Don’t waste even  one more day thinking about starting a  

blog if you want to start it, just do it and  you’ll figure out everything along the way. 

As I promised, I’ll give you a plan to starting  your blog and making your first $1000 with it. I  

know how everything is overwhelming when you are  starting. That’s why I created a FREE blueprint  

that is delivered to your inbox within one week,  every day you’ll get one lesson together with my  

video tutorials. I will also teach you in it about  all the monetization options for your blog, check  

the link in the description below this video. Now if you want to know the most profitable  

blogging niches for this year, check this  video up here and I'll see you in the next one!