Want to build a quality content-driven website or start blogging but not sure how to start a blog? Our blog has earned us over €40,000, and we’ve built content websites and blogs for our clients that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. We’ll walk you through starting a blog step by step. Whether you’re launching a personal or business blog, this guide has you covered.
Blogging is one of the most creative and enjoyable things we’ve ever discovered. It brings us joy, new friendships, and generates income. It opens doors to fascinating communities and serves as an excellent portfolio piece for our clients.
What Is a Blog?
A blog is essentially a content-based website used for publishing and sharing content in the form of articles or posts. Blogs serve as a medium for expressing thoughts, experiences, opinions, or information. They’re also frequently part of a company’s content strategy.
What Should a Blog Look Like?
A blog should be well-structured so readers can navigate it easily. That means having clearly and concisely named categories. It’s also essential to choose a theme that’s readable (responsive) on all types of devices and visually appealing at the same time.
Why Start a Blog?
If you’re a professional, blogging is a brilliant way to build your reputation in your field. As a business, a blog can help you attract relevant traffic that converts into customers who order your services or buy your products. A blog is also a fantastic way to build a brand.
A blog can also be a great source of extra income if you’re on parental leave or currently between jobs. And one more thing: writing a blog is genuinely fun. Keep reading if you want to learn how to start a blog that actually succeeds.
What Should You Blog About?
The most important thing is to choose a topic you enjoy and find interesting – that’s what will keep you going. Always pick a subject you genuinely understand.
As a first step, you should prepare a content plan outlining everything you’ll write about. You can learn how to do that in our dedicated article. Next, study up on how to write articles properly so people can actually find your content. After that, it’s time to start writing.
How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
If you want to make money blogging, the most important thing is to learn the basics of SEO, email marketing, and content marketing. Here are the key principles for generating quality traffic:
- Create quality content: Your top priority should be producing high-quality content that’s interesting, informative, and valuable for your readers. Without great content, you won’t earn a penny. If writing isn’t your strong suit, we recommend taking a copywriting course or at least learning the fundamentals of writing SEO-friendly articles.
- Learn the basics of SEO: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimising your content so it ranks higher in search engines. Properly used keywords, meta descriptions, quality backlinks, and optimal page structure can help people discover your blog.
- Social media: Harness the power of social media to promote your blog. Share your posts across all platforms – Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and LinkedIn – and regularly post links to your content.
- Email marketing: Email marketing remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available. Start collecting email addresses from day one and regularly update your subscribers about new blog posts.
- Write guest posts on other websites: Reach out to fellow bloggers and write guest posts on their blogs with a link back to yours.
- Build collaborations: Partner with other bloggers or influencers in your niche and consider joint activities such as webinars, podcast appearances, competitions, or mutual social media promotion.
Can You Make Money Blogging?
Yes, you can absolutely make money with a blog if you know how to write articles people actually read and understand the basics of affiliate marketing. Blogging can earn you hundreds or even thousands of pounds a month. But keep in mind that it won’t happen overnight – it takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why we recommend this path mainly to people who genuinely enjoy writing and creating content.
How to Make Money From a Blog
Once people are reading your blog, it’s time to start monetising it. There are several ways to earn money from a blog. Here are the most common methods:
- Advertising: One of the most widespread methods is display advertising. You can sign up for an ad network like Google AdSense, which lets you place ads on your blog. You’ll earn a certain amount for every click or impression. Keep in mind that this only becomes worthwhile with high traffic volumes.
- Affiliate marketing: With affiliate marketing, you promote other companies’ products or services on your blog. If your visitors click a link and make a purchase, you earn a commission on that sale. There are countless affiliate programmes offering commissions through your referral links. We’ve written more about affiliate marketing on Patreon.
- Sponsored content: If you’ve built a loyal readership and high domain authority, you can land sponsored content deals from companies. This means writing articles that promote their products or services in exchange for payment. Alternatively, they may pay you to publish their article on your blog.
- Creating your own product or service: If you have enough expertise in a particular field, you can create your own product or service to offer through your blog. This could include e-books, online courses, consulting services, and more.
- Memberships and paid content: If you provide valuable and exclusive content on your blog, you could consider offering a paid membership.
The key is that your blog needs sufficient traffic – without it, you won’t earn a thing. That’s why it’s so important to create quality content that’s relevant and engaging for your target audience. Patience is equally essential, along with consistently working on growing and promoting your blog.
How Much Can You Earn From a Blog?
If you follow us on Patreon, you’ll know that blogging can be a full-time income. Skilled bloggers often earn far more than influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers. Top bloggers around the world make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.
Which Blog Niches Are the Most Profitable?
According to international statistics, food blogs and lifestyle blogs tend to earn the most. However, these are also among the most competitive niches, making them less ideal for beginners.
You should never choose a topic solely based on earning potential. You can make money with virtually any topic people are interested in. The food and fitness niches in particular are extremely competitive and may not be the best choice when you’re just starting out.
Most Profitable Blog Categories According to International Studies
- Food,
- Fashion,
- Lifestyle,
- Travel.
Where to Start a Blog
Many new bloggers start on free platforms like Blogger.com or WordPress.com (the hosted version). While free blogging sounds tempting, it comes with a whole range of drawbacks, and based on our experience, we don’t recommend these platforms at all. Other popular platforms include Wix.com, Squarespace, and Tumblr.com.
Free platforms only give you a subdomain (web address). Your blog address ends up looking something like ‘yourblogname.wordpress.com‘. These addresses are unnecessarily long and hard to remember. The blog doesn’t truly belong to you either, and it lacks most advanced features while preventing you from properly monetising your content.
If you want to make money from your blog, it’s essential to have your own domain and build it on WordPress.org (the self-hosted version). This platform is free to use and is the most widespread and flexible content management system in the world.
The best solution for a blog is your own domain with the WordPress blogging system.
What Is a Custom Domain?
A custom domain is a second-level domain, which in the case of our blog looks like ‘www.loudavymkrokem.cz‘. Domains with a .co.uk or .com extension cost around £10–15 per year, and by purchasing one, you become its owner. A domain with your own name looks more credible and gives you full control over your website.
What Is WordPress?
WordPress is the most widely used blogging platform in the world – and for good reason.
It’s free, you can choose from a huge range of themes, you can use plugins (add-on modules that extend functionality), and you can monetise your blog without any restrictions.
How to Start a Blog on WordPress
To set up your WordPress blog, all you need is a domain name and web hosting where you’ll install WordPress. Everything can be purchased and assembled within an hour, and the entire running cost comes to roughly £3–4 per month.
- A domain is simply your website’s name with an extension – for example, our loudavymkrokem.cz
- Web hosting is the online storage where your blog will live
➜ Simple guide to installing WordPress
Choosing and Installing a WordPress Theme
You’ve got your own domain and WordPress is installed. The system comes with several attractive themes out of the box, but there are thousands more available in the theme directory – and most of them are free. Check out our guide on how to pick the right one.
➜ 10 Tips for Choosing the Best WordPress Theme
Choosing and Installing WordPress Plugins
Once your theme is installed and configured, it’s time to choose your plugins. Plugins are feature packages that you can install on WordPress for free at any time.
We’ve tested over 200 of them and put together a bulletproof combination that will boost your blog’s traffic, discoverability, loading speed, and security. They’re organised by category with setup instructions included.
➜ 18 Best WordPress Plugins for Your Blog
How to Make Money Blogging
Our readers often ask how we earn money from our blog. Our main source of blog income is affiliate marketing, but there are plenty of ways to start making money from your blog from day one.
How to Promote Your Blog
➜ 7 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free
A blog’s success rises and falls with its traffic. You can get traffic either through organic search (visitors coming from search engines) or through strategic promotion.
GDPR for Bloggers
Since May 2018, all bloggers in the European Union are required to publish a Privacy Policy on their website.
To make things easier for everyone, we’ve put together a practical guide on how to create one, complete with a free template to download.
Can you make money from a blog?
Yes, our blog covered our rent in Prague for a long time. You can earn tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands from blogging (roughly €2,000-20,000+ EUR).
How to write a blog
It’s important to write your blog in line with SEO. If you don’t know how to write, you can also get help from artificial intelligence.
How to write articles with artificial intelligence
The best tool for writing articles with artificial intelligence is ChatGPT.
How to start a blog for FREE
Start a blog on WordPress, the most widely used blogging platform in the world.
How to set up a WordPress blog
You’ll find a guide to setting up a WordPress blog in this article.
Where should I start a blog?
The best option is to start a blog on WordPress.
How to start a blog and make money?
Start a blog on WordPress, begin writing valuable content that people care about, and then you can monetise it through affiliate marketing or advertising.
What should a good blog look like?
A blog should have a clear and organized structure that allows readers to navigate it easily. An attractive and responsive design that displays properly on different types of devices is also important.
Why start a blog?
A blog is a great way to build your reputation in your field and also to monetize your knowledge.
What should I write about on my blog?
Only write about topics you truly understand.
Is it better to write a blog or become an influencer?
Blogging is more advantageous because if you follow proven best practices, you can start earning money from your blog within six months. Plus, once you have an established money-making blog, it doesn’t matter if you stop writing for a few months. The blog keeps earning.
Does it make sense to start blogging?
Yes, even though it might seem like there are lots of blogs out there, there aren’t many quality ones. Especially if you choose a very narrow niche, you can quickly become the best in your field.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is the platform for building content websites in the world. It’s free and you can choose from a vast number of graphic templates, use plugins (extension modules that add extra features) and make money from your blog without any restrictions.
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
