How To Start A Successful Blog And Make Money In 2024

How to start a successful blog and also make money while doing it is a very fascinating topic that has changed many peoples lives for the better.

Blogging is a very popular term that is now used to refer to any form of distributing information through various online mediums.

Before now it was those who posted articles online and do not have any large corporate backing that are called bloggers.

But as of today, even those who repost pictures and videos on social media sites like Instagram and twitter are also called bloggers.

Blogging can very much be considered a business because many people make a good living from it when they monetize it.

However, some people simply consider it a hobby and an outlet to share their opinions on pressing issues either personal or general.

Also read: How to Start a Successful Dropshipping Business.

If you decide to learn how to start a successful blog, you will need to consider what creative outlet will suit you the most, you could choose to write articles if you are good with writing or document with pictures or videos on social media sites.

Who can become a blogger?

Literarily anybody can become a blogger if they have access to any of the blogging platforms and are willing to share their thoughts.

However, to be successful as a blogger you must be willing to share your unbiased thoughts about issues.

Being unbiased will lend a trait of uniqueness to your blog and this will further make it stand out from the rest.

So, if you are someone who likes to always talk about pressing issues in society or someone with a lot of experience to share, then maybe you should consider starting a blog.

How should you blog?

Because different skills are native to different people, you will have to consider which one comes easily to you.

If you find it easy to write, you should start writing blog posts, if you find it easy to talk rather than to write; you should start a podcast.

More so, if you like telling stories with pictures you should post on social media platforms like Instagram or Flickr and if you are good with video editing skill maybe you should start making videos and uploading them on YouTube.

Also read: How to Make Money on Facebook and Through Facebook

These are just examples to guide you and are by no means an expansive approach to what you should do or how you should start off your blogging journey.

However, for the sake of clarity I will focus on writing blog articles on this post.

To be able to write and post articles online you will need to choose and set up a blogging platform.

Examples of blogging platforms

The popular platforms that you can use for blogging include WordPress, Blogger and Wix. However, the most popular platform amongst them all and that is also free is WordPress.

Blogger, which is owned by Google, is also a free and easy to use platform that you can make use of if you are just getting started and want to test the waters.

However, because some of these sites are free, they also have some limitations that you will have to deal with and this is in terms of design and functionality.

Wix is a paid platform, but it still does not have a robust content management system (CMS) when compared to WordPress.

How to Create a Blogger Website

To set up a blogger site, go-to blogspot.com and sign in with your Gmail address. If you don’t have any, visit gmail.com and create one.

Once you sign into blogger, that will automatically become your blog page backend.

From this backend dashboard you can further customise the appearance of your blog post and also it is from this section that you will write your posts before publishing them.

Go to settings and make any adjustment that suits you.

How to start a successful blog for free on WordPress

Creating a free WordPress website can be achieved by going to wordpress.com

Visit the website and sign up for a free account

After logging into your account, you can now proceed to go to “Appearance” and choose a theme for your blog site and customize it to your taste.

For this free wordpress website you will not be able to work well with plugins as you would if you create your website on a hosting platform or purchased a wordpress upgraded plan.

Click on “Pages” to create a page and to create your posts, click on the “Posts” menu to start writing posts.

Also read: 9 Steps How to Write an eBook That Will Sell

You can further explore other options by clicking on the menu and deciding how you want to customize your blog.

However, in all the free methods of creating a blog that I have explained above, your blog site will be given a free subdomain of the platforms and also a free web hosting.

What this means is that you will neither be paying for domain name or hosting on any of the platforms except Wix.

And like I have said before, because it is a free package, there will be limitations in certain areas of customization.

But if you have the means you can always register a custom domain name and then use it for your free blog.

This method can work for any platform, but when it comes to hosting, you can only make an upgrade on WordPress and for Blogger you will have to move your site to a different hosting platform.

How to create a custom blog site and monetize it

If you really want to commit good time to building a blog and intend to do it for a long time and make money from it, I will recommend that you start it off on a custom domain and hosting.

By this I mean that you should register a domain name and host your website on a web hosting platform.

You can easily get your custom domain and hosting for your blog site on Bluehost, Name Cheap or any other popular platform.

Getting started on Bluehost will only cost you about $2.95 monthly. With this you will also be given a free custom domain of your choice.

This method will afford you the opportunity to set up your WordPress site better and also you will be able to fully customize your blog to your taste.

Head over to Bluehost and register for a custom domain and hosting.

On the website, select the second one “WordPress made easy” this hosting option is best for WordPress sites because it is very efficient and purposely built for hosting WordPress.

That is not to say that a shared hosting is not ok, but the WordPress hosting is just more efficient.

And don’t worry about buying a domain, because each package comes with a free domain for the first year.

If you are just starting off, you can choose to start with the smallest package “Basic” and as you progress and start getting a lot more traffic and need for functionality then you can upgrade.

In other to identify your website and brand on the internet you will have to come up with a good name that is simple and that people can easily remember.

However, because Bluehost will give you a free domain for signing up to any package, do not purchase any domain name yet, click on the “I’ll create my domain later” and proceed with the hosting purchase.

When you are done with registration, you can proceed to install a WordPress on your host account.

Choose a theme of your choice and customize it the way you want and start posting articles.

How to Monetize your Blog Site

Monetization of blog websites can be done in a lot of ways, you just have to choose the method that you want.

Methods of Monetization:

#Ads Placement

This method of monetization allows you to add advertisement banners and links on your website.

Services that you can make use of includes: 

• Google Adsense
• Ezoic
• InfoLinks and others

#Affiliate Links

This is a method of monetization where you get to insert affiliate links on your website.

This could be by directly linking to the affiliate website through a word or using an image with a link.

Also read: How to Start and Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

#Products

This method of monetization allows you to actually sell something to your audience.

With this strategy you get to list products on your website either on the sidebar of your website, within your articles or even by creating a separate Shop page.

This can be a physical product or a digital product like an eBook or a course.

Note: This same method of monetizing products can also be used for affiliate products if you don’t have your own products yet.

Good Luck!

NB: If you have any question you will like to be answered, please ask them on the forum I and others will try to help you.