How to Start A Blog: 5 Step Guide

Every week I am asked how to start a blog. Becoming a blogger is a great way to express yourself online and, if developed effectively, could allow you the opportunity to make some extra money from home.

Every week I come across more and more bloggers that are quitting their 9-5 jobs and are making a full-time living from blogging. Follow this step by step guide to creating your own website!

Notepad, phone and Laptop start a blog

How to Start A Blog: 6 Step Guide


Start a Blog

Let’s get started. By this point you should have decided on your blog topic (niche). In order to be a successful blogger, you need to be knowledgeable and enjoy writing about your niche. Without the knowledge and enjoyment, people won’t be interested in your blog and you will likely get bored quickly.

Here’s an in-depth look at each step to building a blog. And remember once you start a blog there’s still lots of work to be done to promote and improve it. If you’re looking to start earning money straight away you’re likely going to be disappointed, it took my 12 months of almost full-time blogging to earn my first £100.


1. Domain Name

A domain name is what people search for to view your website. beemoneysavvy.com is a domain name. There are a wide range of domain name extensions available, including .com, .org, .net, .info, .biz.

When choosing your domain name try to choose something simple and catchy that summarises what your blog is about. After you decide on a domain name, check the availability of your domain.

It might be a good idea to make sure that the social media usernames you want are available too.


2. Web Hosting

Web hosting is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for your website or blog to be viewed on the Internet. Every website needs a host. A web host is a home for your site and content. WordPress (WP) is a free Content Management System. Before I bought my domain I used the free version of WordPress to start a blog for free (this means that you’ll have the “example.wordpress.com” domain name). This is a great option for helping you to write your first blog post, but if you want to create a professional-looking website you need to purchase your own domain name.

Choosing a good hosting provider is important. Go with a poor host and your website could experience downtime (your website will be unavailable to view or edit). Hosting can cost anything between £100-£200 a year. When you first start a blog be wary of the cheap hosts as they’re often slower, less secure and don’t offer much customer support.You can often buy your domain and hosting as a package deal from most hosting providers or you can try renting one, depending on your needs.

My experience of being hosted by Lyrical Host has been perfect, they’ve helped me with various support issues and offered lots of guidance that’s helped improve my blog.

If you would like to buy hosting from Lyrical Host use code “BEEMONEYSAVVY” for a 10% discount!


3. Content Creation

Content is key when you start a blog. According to an analysis from search engine land, there are over 130 trillion known web pages, so how are you going to make your content stand out?

The first step is to make sure you do your research on the topic before writing. Look at other content in your niche and figure out what’s working for the niche leaders, then come up with a game plan to create even better content!

Another important thing to consider when creating your content is search engine optimisation (SEO). If you really want to improve your content with SEO, then you should try a tool called BuzzSumo. This will provide you with the top-ranking content for your blogging area.

The Yoast and Rank Math SEO plugins are great tools for helping you to improve your on-page SEO as you create a blog post.

When I create and publish a post on beemoneysavvy.com I make sure to monitor it’s success (or lack of) and revisit every few months to see if I can make some improvements.


4. Promotion and Marketing

Building social media pages and links to your new blog should be your main focus when promoting your blog. Social media pages will attract new visitors to your blog.

  • Create a Twitter account for your blog, post new articles from your blog & use hashtags. What you first start a blog it’s a good idea to reserve a username on social media.
  • Create a Facebook group or page to complement your website will make it easier to connect with people interested in your content.
  • Facebook and Instagram Ads are super effective at expanding your audience quickly. You can also target a specific demographic that may be interested in your content.
  • Pinterest is one of the most underrated methods of growing your blog traffic. Make your blog posts pin-able and find groups boards in your niche.
  • Comment on well-known blogs in your niche. Leave thoughtful comments related to the blog content.
  • Collaborate with other bloggers. Reach out to other bloggers in your niche and collaborate with them. This can include cross-promotion, interviews, and guest posts.

You’ll also want to consider SEO for promoting your blog. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of affecting the online visibility of a website in a web search engine’s results. The higher your page ranks on popular search engines (like google and other search engines), the more traffic your blog will gain organically.

Blogger blogging on laptop using wordpress

As a blogger you’re more likely to get paid work if you have a good DA (domain authority) and traffic.


5. Make Money From Your Blog

Making money may be something on your mind when you start a blog. Once you’ve built up your following and have regular blog traffic, you can then start to consider how to make money from your blog. There are tons of ways to generate income from your blog. Here are some of the most common opportunities for new bloggers to make money:

If you need more ideas, or you want to read more on this topic, to go this article on how to make money with WordPress. I regularly share how much my blog makes on Instagram if you need inspiration.


Most of the income Bee Money Savvy generates is from sponsored/guest posts. Looking to accept paid posts? Make sure you make that clear on your contact page and reply to any inquiries you get asap! A sponsored post is a piece of writing that a brand commission you to write about them and then publish on your blog.

Whereas a guest post is where someone else writes the content and you’re paid to publish it on your blog. Payment varies based on your DA (domain authority) and blog traffic.

If you’re fairly new to blogging you could try applying for blogging assignments via Get Blogged. Another way to find sponsored work is my looking up #BloggersWanted or #PRRequest on Twitter and networking with brands and marketing professionals!

Using advertising to earn money from your blog means placing a banner style ad on your blog. Thee ads are usually placed in your sidebar, footer, or within the content of your posts. You can set up your own advertising packages, offering ad space on your blog.

Alternatively, you can apply to an advertising network such as Google Adsense or Mediavine. You often need to be generating a significant amount of traffic to generate ad income.

Product Reviews

You can get paid (or get free stuff) by writing product reviews. This method involved working with a brand, testing their product and writing about your experience on your blog. You do need to disclose if you were gifted the product or paid for the review; as this can often make your review much more positive and it’s only fair that your readers are aware of this.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is where you earn a small commission from a company for promoting a product or service. I use Awin for affiliate links on this blog, but there are a whole range of affiliate opportunities depending on your blog niche and traffic. Some of the best affiliate programmes include Amazon Associates, Awin and the brands you regularly use.

Freelance Writing

Interested in freelance writing? Use your blog as your portfolio! Your blog is the perfect opportunity to show off your writing skills and your niche-specific knowledge.

Once you feel confident in your writing start sending out personal emails to individuals and companies related to your niche. Find out who in the company the email should go to, tell them what you write about, link to a great post you have published and set your prices.


Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to run a blog?

The cost of running a blog can vary depending on the services you choose. My blog costs around £175 per year (under £15 a month). I pay for a hosting package that covers 3 blogs and the domain name renewal for 1 blog costs £12.99.

Is blogging dead?

No. I earn over £2,500 a month as a part-time blogger so there is very much still a market for personal blogs.

Do I need good IT skills to start a blog?

No. You can start a blog with very basic IT skills. You can purchase my e-book that takes you step-by-step through setting up your blog. The most important thing is that you’re passionate about your topic and that you’re willing to learn.

How much time do I need to commit to blogging?

The beauty of blogging is that there is no time commitment. Once you start a blog you can drop it and pick it back up when you have free time.


Are you ready to start a blog? Check out all the free tools you can use to create, design and promote your blog. Remember that all good things take time, focus on creating the content you enjoy and don’t undervalue the work that you do!