With many people looking for side hustles and additional sources of income, blogging is still, in my opinion, a great opportunity that can be turned into a legitimate money-making business.
So whether you want to make some extra cash on the side or turn your blog into a full-on business, this article will show you how to do it! This is how to make money blogging with 8 Steps to Make Your First $1,000.
Step 1 – Set Up Your Blog
This one seems like a no-brainer, but without a blog, you can’t make money blogging. Seems pretty obvious right?
You could also apply this to vlogging on YouTube, but today we’re only going to talk about creating a website and writing articles.
With that being said, there are a number of options available when setting up your Blog, both free and paid. We have used several different web hosting services since started a few websites since 2016, and Bluehost is the one we’d recommend for beginners.
Why Use Bluehost As A Web Hosting Service?
There are a number of different options for web hosting and Bluehost is considered to be one of the best. The first reason why I chose Bluehost as a web hosting service is how easy it was to set up.
It took less than 30 minutes to get Bluehost and WordPress set up. And that was with existing sites that I needed to transfer over to Bluehost.
If it was a brand new site I was creating, the process probably would have been quicker.
I have used other web hosting services and while they accomplished my goal, they weren’t nearly as helpful and thorough as Bluehost. Plus, Bluehost was also cheaper than the other services I used.
You may be thinking, why do I need to pay for web hosting when I can use free blogging services like Blogspot, Tumblr, Weebly, Or Wix? I have used almost every free blog hosting service and I can tell you they leave a lot to be desired.
First, you’ll have very little customization of how your website will look. Next, you will have to use their website domain with your site name.
For example, your website address will look like this:
Yoursite.Blogspot.com or Yoursite.com
Which do you think looks better?
And lastly, another huge factor of why you want a good web hosting service is due to affiliate Partnerships.
If you don’t have an official .com domain, many of these companies won’t even consider you for a partnership, which will drastically reduce your income.
Let’s be honest here for a moment…Do you really want to have a legitimate business that doesn’t have an official .com website?
I see this a lot with restaurants and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth when don’t have an actual .com website.
Bluehost offers a free domain name when you sign up for their service. While you may be thinking that starting a website is very expensive, it is quite affordable when you break it down month to month.
By using my referral link, you get world-class web hosting for as low as $1.99 per month, you’ll get one of with a free domain name to boot. That’s really all you need to get started.
You will have to pay for a 3-year plan upfront to get that discount, but even if you only commit to the 1 year plan, it is still very affordable.
Bluehost also offers 24/7 tech support so if you’re in a jam, they can help you solve most issues that arise. They have definitely saved me a few times!
Once you’ve set up your Blog with Bluehost and WordPress, head to Step 2.
Step 2 – Set Up Pinterest Business Account
If you’re not familiar, Pinterest is a social media platform that is essentially a visual search engine. Pinterest offers a medium called pins which are just images with text or video.
While many people use Pinterest and create infographics, Pinterest will allow you to link directly to your website for free. This is how you will get readers to your website.
Pinterest is, in my opinion, the best social media for bloggers especially at the beginning because it can give you a massive surge of free traffic to your site almost immediately.
You can sign up for other social media sites, but I would recommend sticking with Pinterest at the beginning while you’re still building a new site and brand.
In my first year of blogging, I was able to increase my Pinterest Viewers by 1739.27%, in less than 6 months.
To create your Pinterest Business Account, you can do that easily here
Step 3 – Keyword Research
The next step is an essential part of your success as a blogger. In order to get more viewers to your articles, you want to research different keywords that will help rank your articles in Pinterest search results and eventually Google search engine results.
To get started, go to Pinterest. At the top of the page, type in a term in the search bar that is related to the content that your website is about.
Pinterest will then offer suggestions for what other people are searching for. This will give an idea of what your topics will be for the articles you will write for Step 4.
I also use a free Google Chrome extension called Keyword Surfer to help get different keyword ideas and to find out how many people are searching for those terms per month.
After all, if only 10 people are searching for that term, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to write an article about it. I like to focus on keywords that get at least 100-1,000 searches per month.
Step 4 – Write 15-30 Helpful Articles
If you made it this far, congratulations!
But now we’re at the point where the rubber hits the road in terms of blogging. And that’s writing helpful content.
You can write tons of content relating to topics that you’re interested in, but unless the articles are focusing on solving a problem for your readers, you won’t likely see very much success.
The great part about this process is that you don’t have to be an expert already on a topic that you’re interested in. By doing research for your articles, you will essentially become that expert.
For example, one of my previous websites was on music production.
It was a website that focused on making better music and reviewing different music production equipment/gear. When I started the site, I knew very little about these topics.
But by researching for my articles and learning music production on my own as a hobby, I then became very knowledgeable about it.
As more and more articles were written, I not only got better at music but also was able to teach people how to do it.
This will be the same for you.
In terms of word count, I like to have a combination of shorter articles that are 1,000-2,000 words and longer 3,000-5,000 word evergreen content articles.
Once you have written 15 to 30 helpful articles, move on to step 5.
Step 5 – Promote Articles To Pinterest
Now that you have written some helpful articles for your website, it’s time to get them out to your viewers.
Circling back to your Pinterest business account, your goal is to create engaging pins that will link back to your website, and ultimately get you traffic.
This can seem a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you don’t have any graphic design experience. The good news is, you don’t need any.
We use a website called canva.com which has many pre-made templates that you can customize easily and then save to your computer.
By going to canva.com, you can type in Pinterest in the search bar and you’ll literally get hundreds of different templates that you can use to create your pins.
Canva will even give you the correct sizes to use for Pinterest.
It will take some time for you to get a feel for how you want your brand to look, but that is part of the fun in the creation process.
Once you have created your desired Pin on Canva, you can download it and then upload it to your Pinterest Business Account.
You also want to add small descriptions in your pins with keywords relating to your articles so they will once again rank in the Pinterest search engine.
Sign up for your free Canva account here to start making beautiful Pinterest images that will link back to your website.
Step 6 – Sign Up For Affiliate Programs
Now we are at the part on many people’s minds when starting a blog… Making money!
There are many ways to make money with your website, but steps 6 and 7 are the ones I use and will work great for beginners.
If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it is when you promote another company’s products or services, and they will pay you when you refer a customer to them and that customer makes the purchase.
These affiliate programs have special links that will track the number of clicks and purchases that your readers do.
You’ll have to do your own research on the best affiliate programs relating to your website and niche, but many companies have some sort of affiliate or referral program that you can utilize.
Keep in mind that not every affiliate program will approve you, but many will as long as you have a nice site with helpful content that doesn’t go against their terms and conditions.
Some affiliate programs require you to have a minimum traffic level to get approved so don’t take it personally if you get it rejected. Use that as ammo to start building up your website and reapply when you get their required traffic levels.
Popular affiliate networks that I can recommend are Amazon Associates, CJ.com, Flexoffers, Rakuten, Shareasale, and ClickBank.
If you have a product or service that you do want to recommend in your articles, do a quick Google search for that product and then add “affiliate program” to the end of the search. You might be surprised how many companies offer this.
Once you have signed up for affiliate programs and are approved, you can start adding those products to the articles you’ve written already and start making money right away.
Here is a quick example of how I recommend a product in one of my articles:
Step 7 – Sign Up for Google Adsense
The next step to making your first $1,000 on your blog is to sign up for Google AdSense.
Google AdSense is a service that will place advertisements on your website. When a reader views and clicks one of your ads, you will get a portion of that payment.
Setting this up with your WordPress blog is very easy. Google AdSense will give you a special code that you can add directly to your WordPress dashboard.
Once you get more traffic to your website, you’ll be able to sign up for better premium ad networks like Raptive or MediaNet.
The advantage to this is that you will get paid much more when using a premium ad Network vs Google AdSense. But when starting out, Google AdSense is a great option to get to your first $1,000.
To get started with a free Google AdSense Account, click the link here.
Step 8 – Start Collecting Emails
The next step to building your blog and brand is to start collecting emails. If you’re not collecting emails right away, you’re essentially missing a huge opportunity.
Your readers are going to become your #1 fans and you’ll want to be able to reach out to them to inform them of new articles written, updates to your site and brand, and of course, promoting products and services to help make you money.
Having Pinterest send you readers is all well and good, but what happens if Pinterest goes down?
By collecting your readers’ email addresses, you’ll have a personal list of contacts that are exclusive to your brand and you won’t be as reliant on another website or search engine.
There are many free email marketing services that you can use, but I recommend using a site called Mailer Lite. I’ve been using them for my websites and they offer one of the best free services that any email marketing program has.
Once you get past a certain amount of subscribers, you will have to pay for the service. At that point, your website should be making enough to cover the cost.
Click the link here to sign up for your free Mailer Lite account
Can You Make $1,000 A Month With A Blog?
Remember that every blog is going to be different, and getting to your first $1,000 may take longer or shorter depending on many factors. It took me about 2 years to start making any money at all with my blogs and then about another 6 months before I hit $1,000.
However, my second website started making money in less than 6 months. It is definitely possible to make $1,000 a month with your blog, but it does take time.
My experience may seem like a long time to some people, but that’s the honest truth. I wish I could say it all happened in 3 months like some other bloggers, but that wasn’t the case for me.
It did eventually happen and I’m happy with the results.
Just keep in mind that you must believe in yourself and if you have a dream, it can become a reality. I’m proof of it as well as many others!
It may seem daunting to build your own website, and I get that. Plus, investing time and money into something can be a gamble.
But if you’re truly serious about becoming a successful blogger, you have to take a leap of faith and go for it. Otherwise, your dreams will be only that… just dreams
If you want them to be a reality, you have to take action and believe it’s possible for you. There’s no other way around it.
The first step is always the hardest, and that’s actually creating your blog. Once you complete that, you can move to steps 2, 3, 4… etc. As you start doing the work, it does become easy when momentum starts.
But you have to do it if you want to make a change. When you’re ready, pick a domain from below and sign up.
Here are the main web hosting domains that I recommend:
If you want a more in-depth review, check out my other article on the best web hosting services of the year.
As always, If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or send me a direct message here.
Thanks for reading,
Nick Hazleton