Donโt let resistance defeat your desire to learn how to start a blog! This ultimate guide is here to help you break through the barriers and win your inner creative battle. It wonโt be easy, but nothing worth accomplishing ever is.
One of the best decisions I ever made was learning how to start a blog and get paid. Iโm not going to lie, when I left law school and went all in, I was filled with anxiety.
I struggled for over a year before I found the formula to success, and I share all of the lessons I learned in this epic ultimate guide (including the one strategy that lit my brand on fire!).
With every passing year, it gets harder to make money blogging, but for you, thatโs a good thing.
Why?
Because thereโs always room on the internet for high-quality content!
Sure, the era of get-rich-quick blogging is behind us, but for soon-to-be bloggers like yourself, the time is ripe for those willing to work hard.
My strategy has helped dozens of internet entrepreneurs explode their email list, generate thousands of dollars in revenue, and rapidly gain authority, all in a short period of time.
Many of the tools and resources I recommend in this article include affiliate links. When you make a purchase through one of my links, I earn a small commission. I only recommend reputable services that Iโve can stand behind. Keep in mind that while certain tools may boost your growth, the real engine of progress is your commitment to providing value to your audience.
With that said, killer content doesnโt just magically appear.
Youโll need to go through the step-by-step process of starting a blog from scratch, beginning with this essential first stepโฆ
How to Start a Blog Today: The (Not-So-Big) First Step That You Can Take Now
One of the most exciting things about starting a blog is that not much stands in your way aside from your own resistance.
The first two steps to starting a blog are:
1. Buying an (affordable) domain name.
and
2. Getting (affordable) hosting.
You can register a domain name and sign up for a hosting plan through Bluehost.

After that, all youโll need is the motivation to create exceptional content (I know you can do it!).
How quickly can you bust out the first 1,500-word article for your audience?
It doesnโt have to be a piece of art. As a matter of fact, youโll probably look back on your first article and laugh, but hey, even Picasso had to start somewhere.
Learning how to start a blog for profit may seem like an intimidating task, but just take it one step at a time and youโll be fine.
Before you continue reading, take a breather, head over to Bluehost, and get some skin in the game. Once you have a domain name and hosting plan, youโll feel supercharged to write your first article. By the time you come back and finish reading this guide, youโll be stoked and ready to roll.
Iโve structured this guide so that you can tackle each task as you read along. Take it one easy step at a time and youโll have a blog created before you can say โmonetization.โ
The time is now to start a blog and get paid!
EXCLUSIVE FREE BONUS DOWNLOAD
Download my FREE Virtual Summit Mastery Cheat Sheet PDF to learn more about my favorite way to build your blog audience and make real revenue before you even start your blog.
It's so powerful that it helped me and my students generate 100,000's of email subscribers and millions of dollars in sales with our virtual summits in just the past year alone.
Note: This in-depth guide on how to start a blog and make money on the side this year is over 14,000 words long, so you can check the table of contents below to jump to the section you'd like to dive in to more.
How To Start A Blog And Make Money In 15 Easy To Follow Steps
Are you ready to light the blogging world on fire?!
By the end of this guide, youโll be reved-up and ready to dominate your niche.
Like I said before, the time is ripe for passionate people to excel with their first blog.
Letโs get to it!
1. Picking a Niche
If I had to leave you with one piece of advice before sending you on your way, it would be this:
โWrite about something that excites you!โ
Figuring out how to start a blog is like running an ultramarathon. When you choose your niche, think of it like choosing a pair of comfortable running shoes. Youโll be bursting with blisters if you pick a pair of sneakers just because other people wear them. The same goes for your niche ฬถ it needs to be a good fit for you.
Write about something youโre passionate about.
It doesnโt have to be your ultimate obsession, but you do at least have to be genuinely interested in it.
Your readers will feel your excitement and want to join the party.
Why You Need to Choose a Niche
Niche down โtil it hurts!
Your content should be specific so that it gives your blog direction.
Picking a niche gives you a topic to focus on.
Your niche is more than just a topic, itโs a commitment to providing solutions to a certain set of problems.
Start with a narrow focus when you first start your blog.
Letโs say you decide to start an Italian cooking blog.
It might be a good idea to focus exclusively on sauces for your first batch of content.
The next time someone needs to know how much ground pine nuts to add to their pesto, theyโll know to come to you for the answer.
Niching down like this will help you build authority faster.
As your blog evolves, you can start covering a broader range of topics. Be the master of sauce first and youโll become the Italian cooking boss in no time.
When Perrin Carrell of Authority Hacker started his affiliate marketing blog HerePup.com, he wrote all of his early content about dog food.

He became the dog food master.
Soon the internet started to see him as an authority on dog nutrition.
Perrinโs strategy worked. Here Pup! was making $46k/year in revenue before Perrin sold the website in late 2016.
Common Blogging Mistakes
The most successful blogs are run by people who genuinely care about the subject of their blog.
Iโm not saying that itโs impossible to start a blog in an industry that you arenโt super familiar with, but for your first blog, stick to a topic that interests you and avoid these common blogging mistakes:
Always create top-of-the-line content.
Have a Clear Image of Your Audience
Chances are that if youโre passionate about something, youโre going to know a lot about the community surrounding it.
Thatโs great, because without a detailed audience persona, youโre blog will most likely flop.
What makes your target audience tick?
This last question is the most important one.
Your blog has to solve your audienceโs biggest pain points.
What will your blog offer that no other place on the internet does?
What will make you their go-to source for the answers they need?
Know Their Internet/Social Media Habits
Where does your audience spend most their time on the internet and how do they spend that time? This is important to know when itโs time to promote your posts. Most social networks are growing rapidly within in the US and thereโs no sign of them slowing down.
The goal of your blog is create value for your ideal reader, not somebody elseโs. Your content has to be effortless for your target audience to find and easy to consume.
Your valuable content is useless if itโs buried in articles that are shared on the wrong platforms and are too dense to read.
How Competitive Is Your Niche?
Before you pick a niche, you need to find out how hard it will be to rank for keywords.
Some niches, like health and online marketing, are notoriously competitive.
This doesnโt mean that it will be impossible to get organic traffic, it just means that youโll have to work a lot harder for it.
Make a list of article topics that you think would provide value to your readers.
Then search for those article topics in Google. What types of websites rank at the top of the list?
Is the page filled with tons of high-authority blogs that dominate the niche? If so, it could make it difficult to get early traction with your blog.
Use website analysis tools like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMRush, and SpyFu to find out learn more about your competitors.
Signs of a strong website includeโฆ
Using Ahrefs to Dig Deep Into Competitive Research
Ahrefs is the best software to use to explore the competition. They have the second-most active crawlers on the internet behind Google and provide detailed backlink analysis.
Letโs say you want to write and article on how to lose weight fast and you want to see what the competition is like.
Google the keyword phrase โlose weight fast.โ and see who ranks.

Healthline.com is at the top of the list. Go to Ahrefs.com to check out their metrics.
As you can see, Healthline.com is a monster in the niche:

The other sites that rank in the top ten for โlose weight fastโ are super strong too:
In order to get organic search traffic from this keyword phrase, youโre going to have to beat one of these sites and take their place on the first page.
Itโs going to be hard for a new site to rank for this keyword.
On the other hand, if several weak websites rank in the top ten, then you might have a chance of beating them as long as you make your content longer and better.
Hereโs what the Ahrefs metrics of a weaker site look like:

This site, Optimal Living Dynamics, is an example of a site that you might be able to outrank for certain keywords after a few months of networking with other sites and getting more traffic to your blog.

Ideally, look for sites that are even weaker than this site. 10k visitors a month is still pretty darn good and so is having over 8k backlinks from other sites.
A site with a few hundred backlinks and couple thousand or less in monthly traffic is one that you have a chance of outranking immediately with only a couple links and highly-optimized content.
Before we go any further with this guide, Iโd like to address a common question that many first-time bloggers have...
How to Start a Blog for Free in 2019 (and not get paid)
Starting a blog for free is easy in 2019, but if you want to learn how to start a blog for profit, the free route is the wrong path to take.
There are several downsides to consider with free services likeโฆ

For one...
Secondlyโฆ
Other reasons why free hosting platforms are a major pain:
If blogging is just a hobby for you, then by all means go the free route.
If you want your blog to become a revenue-generating machine, then paid hosting is the only way to go.
Today there are more opportunities to make money blogging than ever before. You just have to be willing to invest...
โBe generous with the value you offer your audience and theyโll give you their loyalty back in return.
Now that itโs clear why you shouldnโt go with a free hosting plan, itโs time to get a domain name.
2. Choosing a Domain Name For Your Blog
Are you ready for your first mini-milestone?
Itโs time to choose a domain name for your blog.
What is a Domain Name?
Your domain name is the URL that you type into the search bar to navigate directly to a website. Your domain name, or URL as itโs called, is the first impression youโll make on your audience.
Sure, itโs your blogโs virtual address, but itโs also the face of your brand.
A good domain name isโฆ
Now for some brainstorming tips...
How to Pick the Best Domain Name for Your Blog
Will you choose a โprofessionalโ sounding name or will you make it playful and laid back?
Is your domain name going to...
Neil Patel has one of the successful blogs of all time (arguably in the internetโs most competitive niche: online marketing), and yet his domain name is simply NeilPatel.com.

I decided to promote my personal brand with my domain name too a few years ago when I started out online.
SearchEngineJournal.com covers the same type of content as NeilPatel.com, but instead of using a personal brand, their domain name describes the type of content they cover.

Compare NeilPatel.com and SearchEngineJournal.com to a URL from a free hosting platform like Blogger:
YourSiteName.blogspot.com
Itโs clunky to say the least, and definitely doesnโt put your best foot forward.
Choose a Broad Domain Name That Gives You Room to Grow
When you first start your blog, you should focus on a core subtopic within your niche like HerePup.com did.
At the same time, you donโt want to pick a domain name thatโs so narrow it prevents you from expanding into other dog topics later on.
It wouldโve been a bad idea for Perrin Carrell, the founder of HerePup.com, to name his blog DogNutritionDepot.com. He wouldโve had to focus on dog food forever or migrate his site to a new URL (a huge pain!).
Instead, Perrin was able to target all the easy-to-rank-for dog food keywords and then expand to dog toys, dog training, dog medicine, dog grooming, and everything else dog related.
Donโt box yourself in! Give yourself room to grow in the niche.
Research Other Blog Names in Your Niche
Find blogs that are already successful. What types of domain names work for them?
Find your future competitors by searching for keywords in your niche.
OR
You can search for โbest BLANK blogsโ and find them that way.
Notice how they brand themselves and see if you can find any trends in the types of domain names they use.
You might notice that the pet niche has more blogs with playful/creative names whereas the health niche uses names that are more professional and straightforward.
BeBrainFit.com is a โmedium-levelโ blog in the mental health niche.

The name is clever, straight forward, fun to say, and memorable.
Will Your Name Resonate with Your Ideal Audience?
Start by making a list of words that embody what you want your blog to be about.
Then try different combinations of these words until you find something that represents the message of your blog.
Which of the below blogs would this domain name work best for? InnerGlowFitness.com
- Blog #1 is about yoga.
- Blog #2 is about weight lifting.
When it comes down to it, youโre going to have to follow your gut.
Hopefully you you chose Blog #1.
โInner Glowโ doesnโt exactly scream pumping iron. You get the idea.
Ask Your Friends and Family to Vote for Your Domain Name
Itโs time to put your domain names to the test.
What do other people think about your ideas?
Make a list of your top 3-5 domain names and ask your Facebook friends to vote both for their favorite.
Ask them how the name makes them feel when they say it out loud.
The winning name should evoke positive emotions and inspire thoughts that are relevant to your niche.
Once you settle on a domain name, itโll be time to share it with the world.
To do that, youโre going to need to choose a blogging platform. Choose WordPress!
Congrats! Youโre the proud owner of your very own domain name!
3. Picking a Blogging Platform (CMS)
WordPress is the most common blogging platform / content management system (CMS) on the internet. Over 60% of the web runs on WordPress.

There really isnโt any reason to use a non-WordPress CMS for your blog.
WordPress alternatives like...
Wix and Squarespace
...are more difficult to personalize, monetize, and optimize for outreach.
What is a CMS?
Your content management system (CMS) is where you write and edit your content, format your pages, and publish your posts.
Itโs the interface for you to add videos and upload images.
When itโs time to design your website, youโll install a theme into WordPress and then design it with a plugin called a page builder. Thrive Architect is the page builder that I recommend in this guide.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
WordPress comes in two very different platforms: โ.comโ and โ.org.โ
The โ.orgโ version is the the type that gets set up when you install WordPress through Bluehost.

I strongly recommend setting up a WordPress.org website through your hosting provider.
The alternative, WordPress.com, comes with free built-in hosting, but you lose the ability to customize and monetize your site. Lame!
WordPress.com (with free hosting)
You have the option to upgrade according to the pricing plans listed in the image below. The free option is highlighted with the red box.

...but your life will be much simpler if you just sign up for WordPress through Bluehost when you open an account.
Installing WordPress is easy with Bluehost, and setting up WordPress this way gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility later on when itโs time to upgrade.
Now letโs learn how to sign up for Bluehost and install WordPress.
4. Getting a Hosting Provider
The last major technical step of starting a blog is to choose a dependable hosting provider.
If youโve already gone the free route with a service like Blogger then you can skip this step, but I have to remind you that โfreeโ hosting ends up losing you a fortune in the long run because you wonโt be able to monetize it.
Comparing all the different hosting providers can feel overwhelming.
Keep it simple and get started with Bluehost so that you can move on to creating killer content as soon as possible, because thatโs where the real fun begins!
What Is Web Hosting?
Your host provides the actual computing power of your website. Without a host, your blog couldnโt exist. A company like Bluehost โservesโ your blogโs pages to your visitors when they connect to your website.
There are a lot of hosting options to choose from, but I recommend Bluehost because they take care of all your needs in one place.
Bluehostโs top features:
For 95% of early stage bloggers, Bluehost is an idea hosting provider that will serve you pretty well (I even use it for a smaller site we have right now).
Types of Hosting Plans
I recommend starting with the cheapest shared hosting plan when you first start out.
Bluehostโs shared hosting should be all you need during the early stages of your blog.
Bluehost Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is the most affordable hosting option. Rather than having computing resources dedicated solely to your site, you share the same โcomputing real estateโ with many other small sites. The downside is that your site can slow down when you get a lot of traffic.
Bluehost offers shared hosting beginning at only $2.95/month.
Other Bluehost Hosting Options
- Cloud hosting is a new arrival on the hosting scene. Rather than serving your pages from a single physical server, cloud hosting mirrors your data across three devices.
- VPS hosting uses virtual private servers built with SSD storage from the ground up. VPS hosting tends to offer greater flexibility and control while delivering more computing power to your website.
- Dedicated hosting is the opposite of shared hosting. You get a bunch of computing power reserved for your site and your site only.
When youโre ready to upgrade from basic shared hosting, I recommend going with a different hosting provider.
I currently use WP Engine, but thatโs because I need a bit more extra power and advanced features for most of my sites, members area and everything else we have going on. When you're starting out you will most likely not need all that.
Setting up WordPress with Bluehost
Bluehost will automatically install WordPress when you sign up for a Shared Hosting account. If you purchase one of their other hosting plans, youโll be able to use their one-click install in the customer control panel (cPanel) of your Bluehost account.
1. Login to your Bluehost account and navigate to your cPanel.
2. In the โMOJO Marketplaceโ section of your cPanel, click the "One-Click Installs" icon.

3. Choose "WordPress."

4. Click the "Install" button.

5. Select your domain name and click โCheck Domain.โ Donโt do anything with the non-highlighted box that says โdirectory.โ

6. Read through the license and service agreements and check the boxes.
7. Select the "Install Now" button after agreeing to the terms and conditions.

Hereโs a quick recap of what youโve accomplished so far:
Congratulations! Youโve already come a long way in learning how to start a blog with WordPress.
Now itโs time to make your blog look phenomenal, and to do that, youโre going to need a WordPress themeโฆ
5. Design Your Blog with a Theme
A WordPress theme is the visual template of your blog.
Most themes are highly customizable and only cost around $60.
The best part is that you get to design your site without using any computer code.
You can make your blog eye-catching or plain, itโs up to you.
Visit Elegant Themes or ThemeForest and choose between a wide variety of WordPress themes.
Theme developers usually design their themes with a specific industry in mind.
Youโll find themes for local businesses like gyms and restaurants alongside themes for affiliate marketers and other online business models.
Thrive Themes has a collection of roughly a dozen themes that are specifically for bloggers who want to monetize their site.

Are you ready to turn your blank WordPress site into an aesthetically pleasing billboard for your brand?
Why Blog Design Matters
You only have one chance to make a first impression.
Whenever you meet someone new, you make a snap judgement about their character within seconds.
If you think thatโs harsh, wait โtil you hear how how quickly users judge a website based off of its design.
In just 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) new users rated your siteโs functionality and content based on the quality of the design.
In other words, if your blog looks sub-par, users automatically assume that the content sucks too.
Web design can either be your first big win or it can kill your blog fast.
Build Trust with Good Design
The best way to avoid snap judgements is to improve your design.
In the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, bus drivers decorate their buses with elaborate graffiti of mid-90s rappers and professional athletes. The more impressive the paint job, the easier it is to attract business.
Customers assume that if you can afford to decorate your bus then itโs mechanically sound and safe.
The same psychology is at play when it comes to your websiteโs design.
A good design builds trust.
Your site doesnโt have to be the next Mona Lisa, but it does have to have to be clean, crisp, and easy-to-scan.
Using Attractive Fonts
The fonts you use should be modern and complement each other well.
Use these tools to play around with font ideas:
Youโre theme should come with a pre-set color scheme and font pairings, but if you want to get creative, check out Canvaโs ultimate guide to font pairing.

Canv is an incredibly easy-to-use software for designing images of all kinds.
Their templates are an excellent place to search for font ideas.
Fonts, just like any kind of fashion, go in and out of style. Canvaโs templates feature fonts that are hip and up-to-date.
Tips for Choosing a Good Theme
When youโre deciding on a theme, keep your audience in mind.
Choosing a theme is like decorating the clubhouse where all your readers will hang out.
At the same time, your blog is a business. That means your theme has to be optimized for SEO, collecting emails, running ads, making sales, and generating revenue.
Hereโs what to look for when youโre shopping for themes:
Must be responsive: Responsiveness refers to how good your site looks and how well it operates across all devices. In 2018, 63% of all browsing happened on mobile phones. Depending on the target audience of your niche, an even higher percentage of your users might come from mobile devices. Most themes say theyโre โmobile-friendly,โ but itโs always best to test it yourself. Paste the URL of the themeโs demo page into Googleโs Mobile-Friendly tool just to be sure.
Works on all browsers: Before you buy your theme, open up the demo in a variety of browsers. Most developers test their themes rigorously, but itโs still a good idea to confirm that your theme will work on Safari just as well as it does on Chrome.
SEO-friendly: For most blogs, organic search traffic from Google is a big part of their monetization strategy. The same will be true for your blog. Some themes are built with cumbersome code that make it difficult for search engines to crawl. If a theme doesnโt advertise itself as being SEO-friendly, be sure to check with the developer before you buy.
Support: Chances are youโre going to have a question or two when you start setting up your theme. Only consider buying a theme that has an active support team with positive reviews.
Compatible with plugins: One of the greatest things about having a WordPress site is that you get to use all of the worldโs best plugins to streamline your site. Confirm that your theme supports all the top plugins.
Most of the themes that youโll find on ThemeForest or Elegant Themes will check all of these boxes, but itโs always a good idea to contact customer service before you buy and ask them directly if their theme will fulfill all your needs.
Some themes are fairly limited in terms of how much you can tweak the design, and like I mentioned above, others have clunky code that can hurt SEO.
I suggest buying a theme with a demo that instantly catches your eye, that way you wonโt have to tweak it too much to get it how you want it.
Where to Hire a Web Designer
I recommend setting up and designing your first blog yourself.
Itโs an invaluable learning process that will help you understand the inner workings of your blog.
I also understand that life is busy, especially when youโre taking on a side project as intensive as starting your first blog.
Design work may not be one of your strengths either, and it might make sense to outsource this task. As a general rule of thumb, if you have to outsource anything, outsource the stuff youโre bad at.
Designing your blog is a one-time process and is an easy task to assign to a freelancer.
Itโs an additional cost, but there are a few different places on the internet where you can find affordable blog designers:
1. Fiverr

Fiverr is a freelancer platform for gigs of all kinds, web designers included. The range of quality on Fiverr is vast and you have thousands of profiles to choose from. Itโs a great place to start, but be prepared to pay more for high-level work.
2. Upwork

Upwork is the granddaddy of freelancer marketplaces. This is the spot to go for high-quality, thoroughly-vetted designers. Youโll need to create a client account and then post a job offer. Browse the freelancers in Upworkโs database and invite the ones you like to check out your listing.
3. 99Designs

99Designs is ideal for getting a logo designed because youโll get to choose between several different submissions. These guys use a unique contest system where freelancers compete for your business. You get to sit back, relax and pick from the best designs.
6. Essential WordPress Plugins You Need For Your Blog
Plugins make a bloggerโs life easier, more profitable, and lower-stress.
There are plugins thatโฆ
Not all of the plugins I cover in this section are mandatory per se, but they are tools that can enhance your blogโs performance while keeping it safe and secure.
1. Thrive Leads
One of the first things you should do when you set up your blog is install a plugin like Thrive Leads to collect emails.
Your email list is the beginning of your fanbase. You can survey them for ideas about article topics and upcoming information products.
Your email subscribers will become the messengers that tell the world how awesome your blog is.
Thrive Leads allows you to create conversion optimized optin forms to collect emails and conduct detailed A/B split testing.
Alternative: LeadPages or OptinMonster
2. Thrive Architect
โThrive Architect is made by the same folks who create Thrive Leads and Thrive Themes.
Thrive Architect is an intuitive drag-and-drop page builder. You can use it to build pages and blog posts from scratch or use their pre-made templates.
I used Thrive Architect as the builder for this website (and Astra to build my theme... we have a custom design now though.
And I also use it for my Virtual Summit Mastery program and VSM Website Template I provide my students.
Alternative: Elementor or Divi page builders
3. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a free plugin that is invaluable when it comes to optimizing your on-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to how well the content is written to rank well in Google results.
Yoast gives your content a score for readability and for keyword usage. Itโs bad SEO to overuse or underuse keywords. Use your target keyword too many times and Google will think youโre trying to cheat by โkeyword stuffing.โ
Use a keyword too few times and you wonโt have a very good chance of ranking. Yoast SEO lets you know when you have it just right.
Sitemaps is also included in Yoast SEO so you won't need a separate plugin for that, which is great.
4. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a caching plugin that uses a variety of techniques to help your site run faster.
It โminifiesโ files, โlazy-loadsโ images, and serves cached (saved) versions of pages to return visitors. Itโs easy to configure even for beginners despite being extremely thorough.
Alternative: W3 Total Cache
5. MaxCDN
MaxCDN speeds up page load times by making images and other static page elements load faster.
Alternative: CloudFlare
6. Jetpack
Jetpack is a free software from one of the designers of WordPress.
It covers everything from website performance and appearance to traffic growth, security, and image optimization.
It even creates sitemaps and shares them with Google so that your pages and posts are always easy to find.
The security feature protects your site against direct attacks and monitors your site for issues.
7. Askimet
Askimet is a free anti-spam plugin that come free with WordPress. The creator of WordPress makes Askimet as well.
It scans all of the comments that users leave on your blog and then notifies you if theyโre spam.
8. WP Smush
Who likes big, awkward image files that slow down your site? Not me, and you shouldnโt either.
WP Smush shrinks all of your image files so that they donโt slow down your page load times. It works with JPEG, PNG, and GIF formats.
Their compression techniques will save you a ton of storage space.
9. Google Analytics by MonsterInsights
Google Analytics breaks down your sites traffic statistics and puts them right in your WordPress dashboard. MonsterInsights can be connected easily to your Google Analytics account (you can sign up here if you don't have one yet).
10. Schema.org Rich Snippets
Rich Snippets increase the click-through-rate (CTR) of you Google results by enhancing them with things like star ratings, images, and review counts.
The more your search results get clicked on, the higher theyโll rank.
7. Creating Your First Pages
Youโll need to build a few pages before your site starts to feel like a blog.
Some essential pages include and:
Having these pages represented in your menu gives your site a more professional feel, even if you only have one or two articles to post.
1. Home Page

Your home page is the โfaceโ of your blog.
Itโs the first place people land when they check out your site.
The home page should be quick and easy to set up with a drag-and-drop builder like Thrive Architect.

All youโll have to do is brand it with your logo, ad some copy, and embed links to your posts once you have them.
Plenty of bloggers keep their home pages simple.
You can do the same and get by with nothing more than your logo, a mission statement, and maybe a short call-to-action to join your email list.
Donโt get too caught up in perfecting your page design until you have more content and traffic.
Get your pages up fast so that you can focus on providing killer content for your audience.
Make it clear which problems your content solves.
This is your chance to make a solid first impression. Make it count!
2. About Page

The About Page is where you go into more detail about who you are and what motivated you to start your blog.
Link to your About Page in the main menu.
Tell your story. How have your life experiences driven you to want to create value for your audience?
Speak directly to your audience. Tell them who this blog is for. Prove that youโre part of the same special community. Readers are more likely to become loyal fans if they feel a connection with you on a personal level.
Most importantly, why should they listen to you instead of somebody else? Qualify yourself. Why are you the blogger that has what it takes to address their pain points?
How can they get the most out of your site?
End your About Page with a call-to-action to subscribe to your email list or to read one of your best articles.
If theyโve made it all the way to the end of your About Page, itโs a great sign that theyโre warming up to you, but you still have to earn their trust with exceptional content.
One final piece of advice: BE VULNERABLE.
Vulnerability is the cornerstone of good leadership and is the quickest way to earn the trust of your audience. Back it up with posts that improve their lives.
3. Contact Page

Link to your Contact Page in the main main or in the footer menu at the bottom of your pages. Most bloggers end up linking to their Contact Page in the footer menu, but you can put it wherever you like.
The important thing is that they can find it easily. You donโt want them to struggle when they feel like reaching out to you.
Your blog is a way to make meaningful connections with other people.
At the beginning of your Contact Page, write a little bit about why people should contact you and what they can hope to get in response.
Donโt be afraid to set expectations. Soon youโll have a ton of subscribers and youโre going to need to be efficient with your time.
Remind them of why youโre qualified to give advice and end with a contact form where they can submit their information.
Having a nice smiling picture of yourself somewhere doesnโt hurt either.
4. Blog Page

Your Blog Page is where you link to all of your content.
It doesnโt need to be anything more than a list of your posts.
As your blog grows, you may decide to separate your Blog Page into separate pages of topics. For example, a fitness blog might have a page for nutrition, a page for exercise routines, and a page for injury management.
Donโt create a sub-category page until you have at least ten posts written on a given subject, otherwise the page will look too empty. You may even want to hold off creating a Blog Page until you have at least a dozen or so posts to put there.
Until then, just link to your articles on your home page.
Now that your have a place to put all of your amazing content, itโs time to plan your content strategy...
5. Work With Me Page
A Work With Me Page is where companies can partner with you to advertise their brand to your audience.
Youโll want to mentionโฆ
This way companies can decide whether or not your blog serves the audience that theyโre trying to target and whether or not youโll be a good match.
Hereโs what the Work With Me Page looks like for the travel blog MissTourist.com:

You can also offer your services as a freelancer or consultant and where you can invite others to write for your blog.
6. Resource Page

I highly recommend creating a valuable resource page on your website where you feature some valuable tools and resources you use that would be valuable to your audience.
If you do this the right way, over time this resource page can become one of the most profitable pages on your site since you can use affiliate links for the different products you recommend.
I personally make $1,000's each and every month in passive income from this one page alone... and I don't even have a ton of traffic to my site yet!
7. Lead Magnet Page
Create a Lead Magnet Page for your free ebook or whatever it is that youโre using as a lead magnet to hook email subscribers.
Link to it in the main menu of your blog.
This page will act as a sales page for your lead magnet and should help you build your email list faster.
8. Develop a Content Strategy For Your Blog
You havenโt quite learned how to start a blog, but youโre getting close! You still need to develop your content strategy.
A content strategy refers to:
and
Itโs a good idea to figure this stuff out before you get too far along with your blog. Once you have a million things to take care of, itโs going to be harder to sit down and plan it all out.
Why Have a Content Strategy?
A content strategy is important for several reasons:
At this point in your journey, you pretty much have all the pieces of the puzzle.
Now you just have to put it together.
Now you have to decide which problems youโre going to solve for your audience first, and to do that youโre going to need to answer a few key questions.
1. Whatโs the Goal of Your Blog? (for yourself)
As important as your readers are, youโve got to look out for yourself first.
Before you start getting traffic, you need to decide what you want to do with it.
What are the goals you want to achieve with your blog?
Do you want toโฆ
Iโd encourage you to plan for the long-term health of your blog, and that means focusing on building your email list as fast as possible.
Your email list is the single most powerful asset that you have for growing your brand.
You can continually market your content and products to your email list. Email subscribers are more likely to opt-in to services and spread the word about your blog.
Chances are youโll have to grind for at least several months if not longer before you get enough traffic to grow your email list.
I know first hand how painstakingly slow it can be in the early stages.
After a year of blogging and podcasting like a madman I had only a few hundred subscribers.
Then I discovered virtual summits and gained tens of thousands of subscribers in a matter of months, but more on this later...
2. Whatโs the Goal of Your Blog? (for the reader)
This part should be easy since youโve already created a detailed audience persona earlier in this guide. For a quick refresh, your audience persona is a full breakdown of what makes your audience unique.
It used to be that all you had to do was optimize your content for keyword usage, but Googleโs algorithms have evolved quickly over the last several years.
In 2015, Google announced the launch of their machine-learning technology called RankBrain.
RankBrain identifies intent behind a userโs search rather than just the meaning of the words.
In other words, Google has gotten really good and figuring out the problem that the searcher is trying to solve rather than just what theyโre searching for.
Your readers follow your blog for a reason, and thatโs because you offer a unique solution to a core problem theyโre facing. Solve the problem, and your articles will rank.
A content strategy is your game plan for making this happen over the long term.
Your target audience has more than just one problem to face, and thatโs why having a content strategy is so important.
It allows you to prioritize your content creation so that you can help your audience in the most effective way possible.
Creating Content Clusters
Brainstorm a list of all the pain points that readers have in your niche. These will form the foundations of your content clusters.
What Is a Content Cluster? and Why Theyโre Important
A content cluster is a collection of articles that are tightly linked together.
Organizing your content into clusters has several advantages:
Why?
When you have a piece of content thatโs isolated or only loosely related to the rest of your articles it provides a poor user experience (UX).
And if we know anything about Google itโs that whatโs bad for UX is bad for SEO.
Coming Up with Article Ideas
Whip out the audience pain points that you brainstormed earlier.
Letโs say that youโre starting a blog in the nutrition niche and the first pain point you decide to focus on is โHow to heal a damaged gut.โ
Next, brainstorm article ideas that are closely related to healing a damaged gut:
By tightly niching down your article topics, youโll start to develop a reputation for being the go-to source for gut health solutions.
Keyword Research
Building a successful blog would be a walk in the park if all you had to do was create amazing content that solves your readersโ problems.
While this is the most important part of how to start a blog and get paid, you do have to take other factors.
The fact is, youโre not the only blog competing for the top spots in Google results.
This is where keyword research comes in big.
Strategically using the right keywords in you articles will help your little minnow of a blog swim with the big fish.
What are Keywords and Why Do They Matter?
Keywords are single words or phrases that users enter into Google during their search query.
Long keyword phrases of three words or more are called โlongtail keywords.โ
The name doesnโt come from the length of the phrase like youโd think. Instead it refers to where these words fall on a Search Demand Graph like the one picture below:

As you can see from the graph, longtail keywords make up 70% of all searches on the internet.
Longtail keywords tend to be easier to rank for but have a lower search volume per keyword, meaning theyโll drive less traffic to your site.
How Keyword Usage Impacts Traffic
By targeting the right longtail keywords, you can drive traffic to your site even as a new blog.
Google evaluates the quality of your content based on a long (and somewhat mysterious) list of algorithmic factors. One of the many ranking factors is keyword usage. The best content earns a spot in the top ten of Googleโs search results.
By naturally using keywords low competition keywords, you can increase the chances of ranking in the top ten of Google results.
According to Yoast SEO, the ideal keyword density for an exact-match keyword is 0.5 to 2.5%.
If youโre using the Yoast SEO plugin with your WordPress website, a good keyword density score will look like this:

Use plenty of keyword synonyms as well.
Google has gotten pretty smart at recognizing the related meanings of words based off of the context within a piece of content.
How to Pick Winning Keywords
Hereโs what to look for to find winning keywords:
There are several SEO research tools that can help you find winning longtail keywords with a low KC and high search volume:

Once you have a list of potentially profitable keywords, youโre going to need to decide which ones you want to build your first batch of content around.
Which Pain Points Will You Address First?
The first goal of your blog is to prove that youโre an expert at solving one MASSIVE problem that your audience faces.
Become the ultimate authority on the internet for addressing that one pain point.
How to decide what content to create first:
The first pain point you decide to tackle will need to have plenty of articles with keywords that are easy to rank for.
If a pain point belongs to a content cluster thatโs full of highly-competitive keywords, then save that pain point/content cluster for later when your blog is more well-established.
Map out Your Content Strategy
Make a map of the articles youโre going to publish and in what order. Having a plan will help you stay motivated to keep producing content.
More importantly, a content map will ensure that you release your content in a logical order.
Big authority sites will map out their entire content strategy months in advance if not for the whole year.
If you prefer, you can wait to publish all of your content until you have 20-40 articles ready to go.
Your site launch look a lot more professional, but waiting to publish has one major downside:
The sooner you publish each article, the sooner it will have a chance to rank.
9. Creating Killer Blog Content
At this point your site looks great and you have a killer content strategy.
Now youโre going to take this knowledge and use it to create epic content that keeps readers coming back for more.
Why โBounce Rateโ Is Your Enemy
Bounce rate is a metric that tracks how likely visitors are to immediately leave your page.
People โbounceโ after making a snap judgement about the quality or relevancy of your content.
A high bounce rate means that thereโs something about your blog that triggers a red flag or that makes it obvious you donโt have a solution to their problem.
The higher your bounce rate, the harder it gets to rank.
How do you keep your bounce rate low and your on-page time high?
By having incredible content, of course.
Common red flags for blog posts:
Now that you know what to avoid letโs see what a well-designed blog post looks like..
1. Easy-to-Scan, Easy-to-Read
When visitors first see your article, they should see a whole lot of:
These elements make articles easy to read and easy to scan.
What is Scannability?
Ignoring the fact that โscannabilityโ is a made-up word, scannability means that visitors can quickly scroll from top to bottom to get a feel for what your article covers.
As they scan, their eyes catch your bolded headings, bullet points, key concepts and images that bring the text to life.
Why Scannability Matters
This style of formatting makes it easier for readers to go back and find key information without wasting time looking for it.
Most users are used to quickly evaluating a post for quality.
They know a pleasant reading experience when they see one.
Readers learn over time that blogs with poor scannability tend to do a poor job of addressing pain points.
Your article could be incredibly well-written, but if it looks like a wall of text with no images then nobodyโs ever going to stick around long enough to find out.
Font Size, Sentence Length and Paragraph Length
When you write an article in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you probably use a 12pt font or something close to it.
Hereโs how to set your font size using Thrive Architect for your WordPress site:
1. In the side menu of you WordPress dashboard, select โAPPEARANCEโ and โCUSTOMIZE.โ

2. On the page that youโre directed to, click on โFONTS.โ

3. Set the body font size to be at least 16pt.

Tips for sentence and paragraph length:
These tips will make your content easier to read across all devices.
Take a look at how the Neil Patel writes his content:

If youโre using Thrive Architect to build your posts, you should always view your content in responsive mode before you hit publish.
You can change viewing modes in the bottom left corner of your control panel:

This is what the same page looks like on a tablet:

Hit publish once you confirm that your article looks just as good on iphones and tablets as it does on desktops.
2. Organize with Headers and Sub-headers
Headers and sub-headers are just another way to break up your post into more digestible chunks.
How often should you use headers and sub-headers?
Once every few hundred words is a good amount, but donโt be afraid to use them more often if you feel like it makes the content easier to read.
Thereโs no hard-and-fast rule here. Go by feel.
3. Emphasize Important Ideas with Font Styling (bold, italics, parenthesis, etc.)
Great content is effortless to absorb.
Bolding and italicizing important points adds emphasis and personality to your writing while making it easier to read.
Font styling also makes it easier for readers to go back and find sections later on.
The secret to using font stylings effectively is only use them here and there. You donโt want to become the writer who cried wolf by bolding the heck out of everything you can get your cursor on.
Overusing font stylings will cause them to lose their effect.
4. Writing Headlines That Get More Clicks
The headline or title of your blog is the entryway into your article.
Brace yourself for this next fact. Youโre mind is about to be blown.
The headline is responsible for up to 50% of your blogโs effectiveness!
When real estate agents are sprucing up a house to flip, they put the majority of their focus on the front of the house and the entryway. Thatโs because they know the power of first impressions.
Authority sites like Upworthy and Buzzfeed generate millions of visitors a month largely due to their incredibly effective headlines.
Check out these headlines from Upworthy and see if you can pick out what makes them so good:

Headlines flounder when they donโt match the article or arenโt relevant to the specific theme.
Headlines perform well when they:
You donโt have to use all of these elements every time, but your headlines should always incorporate at least a couple of them.
Hereโs an example of a headline from NeilPatel.com that is ultra-specific, uses numbers and offers helpful advice:

Still feeling stumped? Try using this headline analyzer tool from CoSchedule.
5. Sprinkle-in Images and Media
Use images and videos that emphasize the lessons of your article.
Most humans are primarily visual learners.
Articles are verbal in nature and every reader has a point at which his brain could use a quick break.
Images provide an excuse to take a breather before going back to reading.
Images, videos and charts are great for SEO. They increase your on-page time, which is a factor in Google rankings. The way Google sees it, the longer visitors actively use your page, the more satisfied they are with your content.
PRO TIP: using pictures of real people increases on-page time even more. People like seeing human faces.
Where to Find Copyright-free Images
Most images on the internet arenโt free for everyone to use. Theyโre owned by the photographers who took them before being sold to a third party.
You can join a site like Shutterstock, where for a monthly fee you get access to a wide selection of stock photos.
A lot of stock photography features cringy fake smiles and awkward poses, but most of it is really well done.
Here are some of my favorite free image sources:
1. Pixabay

Pixabay has over 1.6 million copyright-free photos and videos. Youโll find quite a few cheesy stock photos mixed in with the gems, but with such a large catalogue youโre bound to find something close to what youโre looking for.
2. Pexels

Pexels is similar to pixabay in terms of volume and variety. Both Pexels and Pixabay are good places to begin your photo search if you arenโt sure where to start.
3. Unsplash

Unsplash is a great source for hip shots of animals, fashion, architecture, food and drink. Theyโre a lot more selective about the types of images they curate. A downside is that thereโs less variety compared to Pixabay and Pexels.
Using Canva to Design Incredible Branded Images
Canva is a free image design software thatโs easy to use. Their paid version, called Canva for Work, is only $13.99/month and gives you access to a large collection of premium designs and clip art.
Canva has a wide variety of pre-made templates so you can make your own infographics, social media posts, Pinterest graphics, eBook covers, email headers and other marketing materials.

Upload your logo and drag it onto any design to create branded images.
Their drag-and-drop image builder is easy to use even for people who have never done design work.
Now that you have stellar images youโre going to want to promote the heck out of your posts to drive as much traffic as possible.
How to Publish Your First Post
Publishing a post is easy with WordPress. Their Visual Editor is very beginner-friendly and allows you to stylize text, add headers, and insert images just as you would with any word processor.
1. Log into your WordPress dashboard at https://YourSiteName.com/wp-login. On the left side of the screen youโll see your side menu.
2. Hover over โPostsโ and click on the โAdd Newโ button that pops out.

3. Add a title.

NOTE: If you have Thrive Architect installed, youโll see the green button at the top of the page to launch Thrive Architect and use their page builder to design and publish your post. For now, weโre going to learn how to use the WordPress Visual Editor thatโs built-in to WordPress.
4. Start writing your post here.

5. To add a heading, click on the โTโ icon.

Using the buttons that pop up, you can set your headings, stylize them with bold or italics, insert a link, or perform several other modifications.

6. Use this button to add an image by dragging it into the visual editor or uploading it.

7. When youโre finished writing and editing your article, click the โPreviewโ button in the upper right corner of the page to see what it will look like once itโs published.โ

8. If it looks good, go ahead and hit โPublish.โ Congrats! Your first blog post is live.
QUICK NOTE: WordPress automatically saves your work every 60 seconds. If you ever want to save it manually, the โSave Draftโ button is just to the left of the โPreviewโ button.
Youโve already come so far in such a short time! You should be proud of yourself, but if you thought that you crossed the finish line when you hit โPublish,โ think again.
10. Promoting Your Blog Through Social Media and Forums
Promoting your posts is just as important as writing quality content in the first place. It doesnโt matter how impressive your โUltimate Guide to Online Marketingโ is, if nobody sees it, you might as well have not written it in the first place.
Where you decide to promote your posts depends on where your audience spends their time.
Not a lot of guys spend their time on Pinterest.
Soccer moms, on the other hand, are Pinterest fanatics.
You have to know your niche, which is why itโs a huge advantage to make your first blog about something that interests you.
Social Media Outreach
Thereโs no reason to share your content on every social media platform known to man. Instead, pick a few where you readers spend most of their time.
The main social media platforms include:
Your in luck if your audience uses Pinterest. Pinterest strategy can be a gamechanger.
Joseph Hogue used Pinterest to increase monthly traffic to PeerFinance101.com by 8,000 visitors a month.

With Pinterest, you can create five to six different pins per post with different titles and images.
Every social network has its advantages.
Here are some of the strengths of each social platform:
Make Sharing Content Easy with Buffer
Buffer is a handy piece of software that allows you to manage all your social media outreach in one place.
Logging into each social media platform and posting directly can be time consuming.
With Buffer, you get to customize and schedule all of your posts and Tweets within their dashboard.

Just copy and paste the URL of the post you want to share and Buffer will pull your featured image and article information from your website.
Posting to Facebook Groups and Forums
While sharing your blog posts on your social media pages is a good place to start, you may want post to Facebook groups forums as well if you have the time to do so.
There are Facebook groups and forums for all sorts of topics.
Thereโs a group or forum somewhere with your blogโs name on it.
If youโre into digital marketing like me, there are plenty of high-traffic Facebook groups to choose from, like Facebook Ad Buyers, which has over 76,000 members.

The key to participating in these groups is to not be spammy or salesy.
Only mention your articles when they are directly relevant to the question being asked.
Most Facebook groups and forums have moderators that will flag and remove people who do flagrant self-promotion.
Keep an eye on what people are posting in these groups, actively participate in them, and sneak in a link to your article only when it provides real value.
LinkedIn has groups of its own to check out and Reddit is a massive forum with tons of subReddits for every niche.
11. How to Grow Your Blog with Virtual Summits
Social media and guest posting can be effective marketing strategies, but for me, they never delivered the results I was looking for.
Starting my own podcast didnโt do much either.
Instead, it was hosting my first virtual summit that transformed my blog (and my life) forever.
Itโs isnโt that these other strategies canโt be effective. In fact, the infamous Neil Patel thinks that guest blogging is the best inbound marketing strategy, but even heโll admit that โguest blogging is not a shortcut to grow your blog.โ
Virtual summits on the other hand, areโฆ
Using Virtual Summits to Grow Your Blog
Rather than gradually growing your email list over the course of several months or years, what if you could explode your growth by hosting a single online event?
I went from a few hundred to over 40,000 subscribers to my Insiderโs Newsletter List all thanks to virtual summits.
What Is a Virtual Summit?
A virtual summit is a collection of webinar interviews where you typically bring together 20-30 industry leaders in your niche.
Feel free to think of virtual summits as webinars on steroids, because thatโs pretty much what they are.
You air the recordings on a pre-advertised date to everyone who subscribed in advance to your email list.
Anyone who wants the ability to watch the recordings at their own convenience has to buy an all-access pass.
Benefits of Virtual Summits
Your email list is the single greatest asset that your blog has.
The faster you grow it, the more effectively you can promote your blog posts and market products.
Virtual conferences generate high-quality email subscribers that are motivated to consume your content. If someone is willing to watch your summit, thereโs a good chance theyโll open your emails too.
The amount of money you can make from your first virtual summit might shock the pants off you. The best part is, the Virtual Summit Mastery model works in any niche and at any stage of your blogโs growth.
I tend to sell the all-access passes to the summit for $67 (discounted from $97 if they act now). Iโve split-tested several prices and discount combinations and this is the one that seems to work the best for me... but pricing is very strategic, so be sure to know your audience and market so you know what they are willing to pay for something like this.
Lastly, virtual summits help you rapidly gain authority in your niche. Your audience will see you as being at the same level as the experts you interview. Rather than working years to build authority, you can piggy-back off of the established expertise of your guests.
This is the immense power of virtual summits.
- Grow your email list
- Generate revenue
- Establish authority
My Virtual Summit Success Story
When I launched this blog in June of 2013, believe me, I was just as hungry for success as you are now.
I hit the ground running...publishing articles and guest blogging for other blogs in my niche.
I knew that success would take some time, but I never saw the early traction I was hoping for. My niche, digital marketing, or online marketing, whatever you like to call it, is arguably the most competitive niche in the world.

By the time I launched my podcast, the Lifestyle Architect, in April 2014, I still had only a couple hundred email subscribers.
A few months later, a light bulb went off - ding! I came up with the idea for my first virtual summit: The Branding Summit.
With The Branding Summit, I grew my email list to 3,000 subscribers and generated over $20k in revenue. I immediately quit my job in Stockholm, Sweden and moved abroad.
That all happened in November and December of 2014. The month after the summit, I generated over $40k in revenue from affiliate sales of Ramit Sethiโs information product course and became his #1 affiliate.
I think you get the picture - my virtual summit blew over a yearโs worth of blogging and podcasting out of the water.
My Studentโs Success Stories with Virtual Summits
The idea for my Virtual Summit Mastery (VSM) flagship course came when My Branding Summit audience kept asking me โhow I did it.โ
Now hundreds of students have completed Virtual Summit Mastery and most of them launched their first virtual summit before they even had a blog.
Thatโs part of the beauty of virtual summits - you can use your interviewees to promote the event to their followers.
Chandler Bolt runs the Self-Publishing School, which is now a multi-million dollar business. When he launched his first summit, he hadnโt even started his blog yet. Between two virtual summits, Chandler brought in 60,000+ email subscribers and generated $700k in revenue.
Steph Gaudreau started blogging in June of 2013 after quitting her teaching job just a few months before. Her blog, Stupid Easy Paleo, was set up for monetization but wasnโt making any money. Her first summit changed all that by bringing in 19,560 subscribers and selling over 600 all-access passes.
Mitch Asser had a similar experience with virtual summits. He was a personal trainer with no previous experience online. Mitch used virtual summits to generate over 6-figures in revenue and take his intermittent fasting blog from zero to 30k subscribers.
Lisa Edwards had a struggling blog in the photography niche when she decided to host her first virtual summit, which brought in 6,000 subscribers and $30k in revenue.
Check out the video playlist below featuring some of my successful VSM students.... be prepared to get inspired ๐
12. Guest Posting To Drive Traffic To Your Blog
Inbound marketing tactics like guest posting can be an effective way to grow your audience and increase revenue over time.
Neil Patel says that his Quick Sprout blog wouldnโt have been nearly as successful if it wasnโt for guest blogging.

According to CopyBlogger, โcontent marketing results happen slowly and they happen over time.โ
Blogger Jon Cooper was a nobody in the SEO world until he did a guest blog for Moz.
He ended up getting 400 visits from his guest post, โThe Complete List of Link Building Tactics,โ which was #1 in Google results for the keyword โlink building strategiesโ for some time. The article gave Jon credibility and recognition.
The key to a successful guest post that drives traffic and gets you noticed is to have a solid ending that lets people know about you, the author.
How to end your guest post with authority:
Guest blogging can gain you exposure to a new audience and increase your authority, but again, this happens slowly.
Instead, you can grow your audience in a fraction of the time by sending out a newsletter out to the people who have already subscribed to your virtual event.
13. Growing Your Audience with an Email Marketing Campaign
A email marketing campaign is one of the best ways to keep your readers excited about your work.
The more your current subscribers engage with your content, the more likely they are to share it with their family, friends and colleagues.
Collecting Emails With a Lead Magnet
Tempt your site visitors to subscribe to your email list with a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is anything of value that you offer to people in exchange for subscribing to your email list.
Your lead magnet should be something that only people who match your ideal audience persona will want.
The point is to gain subscribers who will continue to engage in your content and open your emails.
Common lead magnets include:
A good lead magnet is...
Tools for Managing Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Your email strategy happens in two stages:
- First, you gotta collect the emails.
- Then, you gotta send the emails.
Gathering Emails with Thrive Leads
Use a plugin like Thrive Leads or OptinMonster to collect emails.
Thrive Leads lets you choose from a variety of different pop-ups, optin forms, banner ads, and side widgets so that you can request emails in a non-intrusive way.
Here's a Thrive Leads tutorial you can watch:
Their software allows you to conduct detailed split tests so that you can find out which designs and copy get the highest conversions.
Manage Your Email Marketing Campaigns with ConvertKit
Design, schedule, and automate your newsletter campaigns with an email service provider like ConvertKit.
ConvertKit is my top recommendation for email automation that will allow your business to grow with it... and it's very easy to use.
And you can even get an extended 1-month free trial through my blog.
Use ConvertKit to notify your entire email list when an article goes live. This will ensure that thousands of people will immediately read your blog posts.
Google is more likely to rank your posts when they get a substantial amount of traffic shortly after being published.
Explode You Email List with Virtual Summits
You should never stop collecting emails on your website, but why not boost your list by hosting a virtual summit?
It can take years before your email list grows to 10k, 20k or 40k email subscribers.
Hosting a virtual summit can get you there in the relative blink of an eye.
Caitlin Pyle, who runs a membership site about how to work from home, grew her email list by 60,000 subscribers in just two weeks through her virtual summits.
Lisa Edwards went from struggling blogger to 6,000 email subscribers with her first summit, and Augustas Kligys went from no experience making money on the internet to gaining 4,500 email subscribers and making $58k in revenue.
14. Building Links to Your Blog
Having quality content is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to learning how to start a blog.
The other critical element is getting other websites to link to your blog.
Naturally, blogs with incredible content will get linked to more often.
The better you get at solving problems for readers and packaging you content in an easy-to-read format, the more likely websites are to link to you.
Promoting your content through social media and sharing it in your newsletter is a good first step to exposing your content to more people, but there are other more creative ways to get quality links.
Before we discuss more link building strategies, letโs talk about why links are so important.
Why Links Matter
When someone links to your site, they can set the link as either DOFOLLOW or NOFOLLOW.
DOFOLLOW links act as a thumbs up for the quality of your site and pass on โlink juice.โ
The more link juice you have, the more competitive your site will be in Googleโs search results.
NOFOLLOW links do not pass on link juice and do not increase the strength of your site.
Other Factors That Affect The Value of a Link
You can register with Moz.com and use their to see the Domain Authority of any blog.
You can register with Moz.com and use theirโโ free MozBar tool to see the Domain Authority of any blog.

Aside from publishing and promoting killer content, try the following strategies to get more links from relevant sites with high Domain Authority.
1. Linking to Strategic Sites In Your Content
You should always link to the sources you use for you research.
When youโre deciding which sources to use, consider which sites you might want to get a link from in return.
Whenever you link to a relevant site in your niche, reach out to them with an email.
Let them know that you featured them in your article and ask them to share it with their audience.
They might even be so flattered that you used them as a reference that they promote your content. It could be the beginning of an ongoing relationship that leads to virtual summits and partnerships down the line.
2. Interview Leaders In Your Niche
Reach out to other bloggers in your industry and ask if theyโd like to do an interview.
It doesnโt have to be a recorded. Instead, it can just be a series of questions that you email to them.
Iโve interviewed several thought leaders for my podcast, The Lifestyle Architect, including Cal Newport (the author of the book So Good They Canโt Ignore You), and Robert Greene (author of Mastery and many other bestselling books).
Itโs a win-win because they get exposure to your audience and you might get a link when they share the interview with their readers.
Make sure to target big players with high Domain Authority.
Reason #1: High DA sites have bigger audiences.
Reason #2: High DA sites pass on more link juice.
In the early stages of your blog, itโs okay to pursue links from some lower DA sites, but only if theyโre highly relevant to your content.
Once you have a high DA, low-DA links will only drag down your overall Domain Authority.
3. Round-up Posts
Ask a bunch of industry thought leaders and turn their responses into a single article.
If you have a blog in the online marketing niche like I do, your readers wonโt be able to resist a post that features the likes of Tim Soulo from Ahrefs, Rand Fishkin from Moz or Neil Patel.
Rather than getting only one link from a solo interview, you can get several with a round-up post and get exposure to several new audiences.
Round-up post tips:
Here's a few examples of expert round up posts I've written before:
4. Guest Post Swaps and Other Content Partnerships
You can also do guest post swaps and offer to help them sell their information products.
As you reach out to thought leaders in your industry, it should always be your goal to build long-lasting, meaningful relationships.
One of the fastest ways to forge lasting relationships is by doing a live interview with them.
With an interview, they get to experience you as a living, breathing human. Itโs always easier to bond through a genuine live interaction.
While youโre at it, you might as well do a couple dozen of these and turn it into a virtual summit.
The people you interview will share the virtual summit with their audience and possibly link to your blog.
You can generate extra revenue by selling your guestsโ information products on the backend of your summit.
15. How to Monetize Your Blog
In addition to virtual summits, there are a lot of ways to make money blogging.
I have a full 5,000-word article on how to make money blogging that you can check out here, but Iโll share a few ideas now so that you can start getting excited about getting paid!
Sell Affiliate Products
While you build your blog, youโll inevitably use a lot tools and resources along the way.
These can be your first affiliate products.
Affiliate products are anything that you help other people sell in exchange for a cut of the profits.
The products you sell donโt necessarily have to be related to your niche.
Instead, they can be related to starting a blog.
If you use Bluehost to host your website, you should consider becoming their affiliate.
Bluehost will give you a link with a unique tracking code. Anytime someone makes a purchase after clicking on your link, you get paid!
Itโs that simple.
Make a Resource Page like mine and feature all of your affiliate products with a short description of what makes them so amazing.
Include products that you arenโt affiliated with too.
Recommend anything that you think will provide value to your audience.
Run Paid Ads
Lotโs of blogs subscribe to ad services like Google AdSense and MediaVine.
They help you publish ads for other companies and you get paid according to how many people click or view the ads.
Iโd rather just promote my own affiliate products instead of running ads for random products. That way I control the ad placement and only advertise products that I know will be of value to my readers.
Besides, affiliate programs are generally more profitable than ads unless your site gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a month.
Create an Online Course
Even if you blog gets less than 1,000 visitors a day you can start making money with an online course. It doesnโt take many leads or customers.
In fact, once you have at least 50 visitors a day you can start selling your first online course.
Survey your visitors and email subscribers to find out what type of course they would find useful.
It doesnโt have to be the best course of all time.
A lot of the time people prefer paying for information even when the same knowledge can acquired for free.
Why people prefer buying an online course:
Obviously, the bigger your email list, the more money youโll probably end up making.
Natalie Bacon made $5k in five days with her online course called โDesign Your Dream Life Academy.โ She priced the course at $297 and ran a 40% of deal for the first five days of its release.
Run Partner Webinars and Mini-Summits
Once you have organic traffic flowing to your blog, monetizing it will just be a matter of picking a strategy and putting in the time.
While you wait for your traffic to increase, you might as well host some virtual events.
Diana Rowen even made virtual summits work in the harpist niche.
You read that right, she hosted a virtual summit for harp enthusiasts and sold 460 all-access passes, PLUS used it set up a recurring revenue stream.

In between your big virtual summits, you can run mini-summits with just a few interviews or do a partner webinar with a single thought leader.
Use them to generate revenue while growing your email list.
Your Next Steps: Are You Ready To
Start Your Blog?
I think itโs time for your to take the first step if you havenโt already.
To everyone whoโs worked through the first steps while reading this guide, I salute you.
Youโre well on your way to making one of the most powerful and transformative decisions of your life.
Still havenโt gotten started?
Hereโs what you need to do:
Research a niche
Register a domain name
Get affordable hosting with Bluehost
Know your audience
Create a content strategy for your blog
Create killer blog content
Promote your content
Grow your email list
Network and build links
Monetize and conquer
BONUS SHORTCUT: Host your first virtual summit before you even start your blog (to build your email list and blog audience... while making money at the same time).
There you have it.... the most in-depth guide out there on how to start a blog and make money on the side this year. All I can do now is send you out into the blogosphere to thrive.
As long as you know your audience and solve their problems with amazing content you should do fine.
Other than that, youโll have to forge your own path.
How will you bring your own unique perspective to your niche? What will give you the edge over your competition?
Leave your answer in the comments below.
EXCLUSIVE FREE BONUS DOWNLOAD
Want to learn more about my favorite way to build my email list and blog audience quickly?
Then download my free Virtual Summit Mastery Cheat Sheet here.
Hint: I highly recommend you implement this before you even start your blog in the first place (it's a much faster approach than blogging for years without much success to build your audience).
Your blog is useful for every blogger. Excellent post.
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