How To Start a Blog: A Step By Step Guide for Begginers

Do you want to learn how to start a blog?

If your answer is yes, then you are in the right place.

This is the ultimate guide to starting a blog for beginners.

Let me introduce myself and explain why I developed this guide.

Introduction.

My name is Beatious Kahale. I’m passionate about blogging. I have been blogging for some time now.

When I was learning how to start a blog, it was really difficult for me to find all the information I needed in one place to set up my blog successfully.

I had to read different blog posts to find the pieces of information I needed in order to know how to start a blog. This took a lot of time.

The Purpose of this guide.

Therefore, I have decided to create this all-encompassing beginner’s guide on how to start a blog so that you will have all the pieces of information in one place to launch your blog successfully.

Read this tutorial carefully to learn how to start a blog. I don’t want you to experience the long learning curve I took when I was learning how to start a blog.

This tutorial is absolutely free of charge.

P.S. If you have questions about how to start a blog or any other questions related to blogging, feel free to contact me. I will help you at no cost.

How to start a blog for beginners.

Do you admire successful people? Admiring is a human trend that is inborn. Well, it is just natural. Everyone admires regardless of age.

We all yearn to become like the people we see who are doing exceptionally well in life.

You want to become like that famous footballer, actor, or actress you watch in movies. This is normal. We all experience such feelings.

This may also happen in the world of blogging. There are so many successful bloggers out there. You may want to be like them. However, it is important to understand that this is not as easy as it might appear.

There is a lot that you need to put in place if you want to be like them.

What makes successful bloggers unique?

There are major qualities that set successful bloggers apart from ordinary bloggers.

Do you know these qualities?

One of them is passion. They love what they blog about. Passion is the foundation for successful blogging.

But passion is not the only ingredient for starting a blog that makes money. The successful bloggers you admire have cultivated qualities that give them the urge or drive to keep on blogging.

As an aspiring blogger or novice blogger, it is important to understand that your blogging journey will have hurdles.

You may not meet your goals or targets just as scheduled. This will be a source of concern. And this has the potential to affect your input negatively which will have ripple effects on your blog performance.

So patience is needed in the blogging industry.

Do you know why patience is also needed in blogging?

It may take time for you to start making money from your blog. In such a situation, patience will restrain you from quitting.

Others argue that hard work is another quality that can help you succeed. Do you agree with them? Well, this is what people are always told. To succeed, you need to work hard.

On the contrary, to succeed in blogging, you need to be smart instead.

There are so many people who work extra hard and yet they fail to realize their goals.

So apart from having passion and patience, you also need to be smart to succeed in blogging.

Do not, therefore, forget the bottom line.

If you want to succeed in blogging, you should have passion, and patience and must be smart.

So before launching your blog, plan carefully.

What to do before you start a blog.

Before you start a blog, find time to read blogs that are making a lot of money. Establish the approach and the strategies being used to generate the money.

After doing the analysis carefully, formulate a well-planned road map for your blog and target a profitable blog niche.

To get started on the right path, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why am I starting a blog?
• Is blogging worth it and still relevant today?
• How do I start a blog for free?

Have you answered the questions satisfactorily and are ready to start a blog now?

I can’t wait to see your answers to all three questions above.

Please comment.

The first two questions are almost similar: ‘Why am I starting a blog and is blogging worth it’.

Let’s tackle the two questions first by answering the next big question below.

Is it worth starting a blog in 2023?

Well, facts show that it is still worth starting a blog in 2021.

Why it is worth starting a blog in 2023.

Here are the reasons:

• You will find sponsors easier than ever before. There are many big brands that are setting aside money specifically for bloggers. They pay bloggers to advertise their brands. This was not the case ten or fifteen years ago. It was difficult for bloggers to make money from their blogs.
• You will make a steady income. Of course, it calls for hard work to start making money from a blog. The time and effort you invest into blogging will pay off in the long run. But when you start earning money, your income will be steady. This is because you have different ways of monetizing your content.
• You will own a blog which is a valuable asset. A blog is a valuable asset. You have absolute control over your site. It is your asset. If you sell your blog, you will earn a lot of money.
• You will make a passive income. For bloggers whose blogs do rank high in search engines, they have been making income even if those posts were written years ago. By the way, passive income is the money you earn from an activity you did in the past but you are not doing at that particular time. You will still make money even when you’re on vacation.

So blogging is still relevant today. You can make it your full-time job or a side hustle. Continue reading this article so that you will learn how to start a blog and start one after you finish reading.

What do you think?

Please comment!

How to start a blog for free.

Starting a blog on a free blog site has its own ups and downs.

Why free blog sites are not good for serious bloggers like you?

The disadvantages of free blog sites outweigh the advantages. If you want to start a blog that will be generating money, don’t think of starting your blog on a free blog site.

Why?

Because you will not make money from your blog.

But if you want to start a blog for fun, create one and you will finish it in a matter of minutes.

There are the best free blog sites where you can create your blog for fun at no cost.

Best free blog sites to start a blog in 2021.

Starting a blog for free is easy. Simply visit the website, follow their instructions on how to start a blog and you are good to go.

I did some research and came up with a list of some of the best free blogging sites.

Here are the best free blogging websites you can use to start your own blog today:

1. Wix.

Wix is suitable for non-techies. It is a free website builder which is managed from the front end.

What makes it stand out?

• Drag-and-drop options, so you don’t have to handle anything in the back end.
• Design is intuitive and modern, which can be used by both beginners and advanced.
• Free hosting is included, so you just need to arrange the layouts, pick a template, and you’re all set.
• Provides a nice collection of free and premium themes and templates for different purposes, including blogging.

Just sign up. You can either let Wix create a site for you based on a questionnaire you submitted or build your blog yourself.

When the site is ready, click ‘Publish’ and you can start writing your stories.

2. WordPress.com.

WordPress is suitable for people who want to create free blogs for fun. It is quite limited in the way you can customize your site.

What makes it stand out?

• It’s a free platform that is used mostly for personal blogs because it’s easy to set up.
• It is free. It doesn’t require a domain name.

However, if your plan is to monetize your blog in any way, the free WordPress.com version will prevent you from achieving that.

3. LinkedIn.

It is suitable for business owners and professionals who want to reach a pre-existing audience.

What makes it stand out?

• Easy-to-use tools.
• Has a pre-existing audience.
• LinkedIn just works as a platform where you can get exposure and this makes it one of the best free blogging sites.

4. Weebly.

Weebly is suitable for non-techies. It is another website builder that you can use to start a blog.

What makes it stand out?

• Drag-and-drop elements.
• Provides sidebars, media boxes, forms, social media icons,
• Offers newsletter subscription
• Comes with built-in analytics and lets you use your own customized domain.
• On the free plan, you will get five custom pages, a Weebly subdomain, 500MB of storage, and ad spaces.

Don’t start a blog on free blog sites.

Free hosting doesn’t give any guarantees since the site does not belong to you. The hoster can block the site or delete it. The lack of guarantees and low security are one of the main disadvantages of free hosting. It is not customizable and so you can’t money with it. Thus if you want to make money from your blog, then consider paid hosting. Don’t start your blog on a free blog site.

How to start a blog and make money.

It’s easy to start a blog that makes money. You just need to take a few steps.

Start your blog in 10 easy steps.

• Step #1: Choose a profitable blog niche for your blog.
• Step #2: Pick a good blogging platform.
• Step #3: Select a domain name.
• Step #4: Buy a web hosting account.
• Step #5: Install WordPress.
• Step #6: Pick a theme and design your blog.
• Step #7: Set up static pages for your blog.
• Step #8: Install plugins.
• Step #9: Write your first blog post.
• Step #7: Promote your blog post.

Step #1: Pick a profitable niche for your blog.

If you are not certain when, how, and what to blog about. Or maybe you have an idea but it is too broad. This is a common trend. This is what other people experience when starting a blog.

When you are starting a blog, do not confine your blog name to a specific niche.

Why?

Because it will not be flexible to change if the need arises. For example, when I started blogging in 2019, the domain name of my initial blog was www.wealthtipstoday.com. It was a financial blog. However, I failed to write blog posts on my blog consistently.

So I decided to start offering blogging tips. But it was difficult for me to maintain the domain name. Because I always felt that the name was not ideal for the niche.

So I decided to look for a broader name for my blog. Hence I registered www.visionaryblogger.com in 2020.

Now I have the freedom to expand or change my target audience without rebranding my blog name because visionary blogger is a flexible name.

What lesson can you learn from my experience?

Don’t make this mistake!

Action to be taken.

It is true no one knows what tomorrow will bring. However, there is something you can do to overcome some future challenges.

You come up with a blog name that is flexible.

Are you finding difficulties in coming up with a niche(topic) for your blog?

To come up with a successful blog, answer the following questions:

• Question # 1: Am I passionate about the blog niche?
• Question # 2: Is there an audience for the blog niche?
• Question # 3: Can I make money from the blog niche?

What can help you answer the questions satisfactorily?

Let’s see.

Question # 1:

How can you show that you are passionate about the topic?
You come up with titles for your blog posts. How many have you come up with?

If you came up with many titles, then you are good to go. It is the right niche for you.

Question # 2:

What do you need to do to find out if there is an audience for your blog niche?

Google Trends will help you to answer the question correctly. It shows how many people search for the keywords in your niche per month.

Do the following:

• List down some keywords that are used in your blog niche.
• Key in the words in KWFinder. Remember KWFinder is a free tool.

It also shows you alternative keywords. If the search volume is very low, then it is not a profitable blog niche for you.

It means that you can’t make money from the blog niche. The amount of traffic your blog gets largely determines the amount of money you can make from the blog.

Question # 3:

How can I tell whether the blog niche is profitable?

There are a number of ways bloggers make money from blogs. One of them is affiliate marketing. To find out if there are affiliate programs in your niche.

What is affiliate marketing?

In simple terms, affiliate marketing is recommending goods and services that are not yours. When a purchase is made, a small amount of money is given to the affiliate (marketer). This amount is called a commission.

If there are many affiliate marketing programs in the niche, then you are good to go.

Step #2: Choose a blogging platform.

WordPress is the best blogging platform. It is the simplest and most popular platform for creating websites or blogs. In fact, WordPress powers over 37.6% of all the websites on the Internet.

What kind of a site can I create using WordPress?

With WordPress, you can create a variety of websites. Ranging from e-commerce stores to blogs. However, it is not limited to these sites.

Here are the other types of sites you can create with WordPress:

• Business websites.
• Portfolios.
• Resumes.
• Forums.
• Membership sites.

There are two types of WordPress namely:

• WordPress.com
• WordPress.org

What’s The difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

There are a number of clear-cut differences that set one apart from the other. Let us focus on the major differences only.

The major differences are that:

• WordPress.org is the paid WordPress software that you can install on your website host to create your personal Website. This is a self-hosted WordPress.
• WordPress.com is the free WordPress which is owned by WordPress.org though it has an interface that is intuitive

Which WordPress should I choose?
The choice is determined largely by the reason for blogging. Are you blogging for funny? Or do you have plans of monetizing your blog in the future? Well, if the latter is the reason for starting a blog, then I recommend you choose WordPress.org which is self-hosted.

Why should I choose self-hosted WordPress?

They offer countless benefits. Here are the benefits:

• They allow you to use your custom domain names and web hosting.
• Bluehost is affordable.
• They are flexible.
• Bluehost is really great. Anything can be added to it. You can do anything. as long as there is a plug-in for that.

Why not the free WordPress?

Free WordPress has a number of limitations. It cannot be used by serious bloggers. If you are serious about blogging, then you need the paid version.

Step #3: Pick a domain name.

A domain name is the name of your website. The URL you write in your browser to access web pages of a website on the internet. An example of a domain name is https://www.visionaryblogger.com.

How to choose a domain name.

What you should do:

• Choose a .com domain name extension.
• Pick a short domain name that is easier to remember.
• Select a short domain name.

What you should not do:

• Choose a domain name that has symbols such as a dash.
• Choose a long domain name.

Do you want to know the best domain name registrar to register your domain name?

I have you covered.

I will share with you the best domain name registrar.

Do you know what it is?

It is Namecheap.

Namecheap is ICANN-accredited. It is the best in the industry so far.

Why I recommend Namecheap:

• It is the cheapest name registrar out there in the industry.
• It has exceptional features that are not found in other domain registrars. For example, it is easy to use. The domain name management panel is also simple and intuitive. In addition, the customer support is excellent. It offers 24/7 customer support via chats. Help is given instantly.

Additional services are offered by Namecheap.

These additional services include:

• Free email forwarding services
• Web hosting
• VPN Services to mask your identity
• They also make website apps.

Although all the domain names are ICANN-accredited, Namecheap is by far one of the best domain name registrars. You may be wondering what ICANN- accredited is. ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned names and numbers. They are permitted to register domain names.

Namecheap pricing:

This is their pricing:

• .com – $12.98 (currently on sale at $8.88)
• .net – $12.98
• .org– $25.98 (currently on sale at $6.48)

Namecheap gives an excellent bonus when you register a domain name with them. If you register a .com domain with Namecheap, they add WhoisGuard privacy protection for free.

This is crucial as the WhoisGuard privacy hides your identity. If you do not want people to access your contact information, then Namecheap is the best choice as it gives a free WhoisGuard privacy for free.

From personal experience, the best domain name registrar is Namecheap. Honestly, it is my # 1 domain name registrar.

There are a number of features that make it stand out.

Here are some of them:

• Has awesome customer service.
• Has fair prices, and they’re an easy choice.
• Offers free WhoisGuard privacy.

For security reasons, you can register your website domain with Namecheap and decide to host your blog at Bluehost.

In case you want to transfer your to a different host, registering a domain name other than the host also helps a lot. Take advantage of domain name fair prices at Namecheap to register a domain name.

The renewal prices are also affordable.

Register your domain name with Namecheap.

However, if you want to manage both domain name and hosting from a single service provider, then I recommend Bluehost.

Step #4: Get a web hosting account.

Web hosting is simply the server on the internet where your website pages are stored.

Paid hosting is much more reliable and provides more opportunities. You have to pay monthly (or annually) a certain amount of money though to use the hosting.

What to look for in a web hosting company.

People start blogs for various reasons. So when you buy hosting, look for features that will help you to realize your dream. However, there are generally important features that a web hosting company should have.

Features of awesome hosting companies:

• Speed: Speed is a crucial component in the web hosting industry. Your website or blog should not take long to load. The faster your blog loads the better. Google and readers do not want blogs that load slowly. Slowness affects your website ranking.
• Uptime: Some web hosting companies don’t offer 24/7 uptime, so your blog may not be accessible most of the time. It will be offline most of the time. Therefore, look for a company that has awesome uptime.
• Response time: Some web hosting companies take a long to respond to clients who need urgent and special help. You will need urgent attention to sort out technical issues. Therefore, look for a web hosting provider that responds as quickly as possible.
• Technical support: The web hosting should have excellent technical support to sort out some technical issues that you will encounter.

The web hosting service provider you choose has an impact on the performance of your website.

Don’t worry, i will help you to choose the best hosting for your blog.

There are cheaper hosting companies that are equal to the task.

According to my research, Bluehost is #1 when it comes to expertise in WordPress hosting service provision. It is a web hosting company that is recommended by WordPress.

I recommend you get started with Bluehost. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee in place – in case you change your mind about the whole blogging experiment, just ask for a refund.

It is the best choice for you.

Key Features.

Bluehost has awesome features that will help you start a blog successfully.

They boast of the following features and benefits:

• Easy-to-use, customized cPanel.
• Several site tool add-ons.
• Free site builders.
• Free domain-specific email addresses.
• 99.99% uptime.
• Technology to support fast page load times.
• Cloudflare integration.
• Free SSL certificate.

I recommend you sign up for Bluehost hosting. The process is very simple.

How to sign up for Bluehost hosting.

Step 1. Go to Bluehost.com.

Click on the “get started now” button on the homepage.

Step 2. Choose a web hosting plan.

After clicking the get started now button, four shared hosting plans will be shown to choose from. These are Basic, plus, prime and business pro.

Each plan will give you different features. Here are some of the features you will get with each one (all plans come with a free domain name):

Basic plan

• Hosts one website with 50GB of space.
• Unmetered bandwidth.
• 5 email accounts with 100MB per account.

Plus plan

• Hosts unlimited websites with unmetered space.
• Unlimited email accounts with unlimited storage space.
• Included spam protection.

Prime plan

• Hosts unlimited websites with unmetered space.
• Unlimited email accounts and storage space.
• Includes website backups, and domain privacy.

Business Pro plan.

• Hosts unlimited websites with unmetered space.
• Unlimited email accounts and storage space.
• Includes spam protection, SSL certificate, dedicated IP, and domain privacy.

I recommend you start with the basic plan as it’s the cheapest and easiest to start with.

You will upgrade later if you want more features.

If you want to start a business website or a personal blog, then don’t go for a more expensive package.

The Basic Plan is ideal for your blog.

The plus, prime, and pro-Bluehost plans are meant for people who want to run multiple websites at once and those who intend to launch eCommerce sites using WooCommerce.

Step 3. Choose your domain name.

After picking a plan, you will be requested to enter your domain name.

You will be given two options:

• You can register a new domain which is included for free for the first year. Enter the domain name and choose the domain name extension of your website. Do you want it to be .com, .org, or .net? But if you bought a domain name at Namecheap, then go to the next option. I recommend you choose a .com extension.
• If you already have a domain you want to use you choose I have a domain. This is where you will enter the domain name you registered with Namecheap.

Step 4. Enter your personal information.

After your domain name is approved, you will be required to enter personal information to create your account.

Fill in the following information: first and last name, email, password, country, phone number, and other relevant details.

Pay via credit card or PayPal.

Step 5. Select addons (Optional).

Bluehost offers three packages to last (12, 24, or 36 months). Choose the package that suits your pocket. Then pick some add-ons.

I recommend you get the following add-ons:

Domain Privacy.

It is $0.99 a month. Your personal contact information will be hidden from being accessed through public whois information. This is a great idea if you want to keep your personal information anonymous.

Site Backup Pro.

It is $ 2.99-a-month add-on. It creates backups of your website. In case your site crashes, you will be to restore it.

Search Engine Jumpstart.

It is $2.99 a month. It will help get your website search engines as quickly as possible.

Step 6. You are done now!

You have selected your add-ons. Now hit the ‘submit’ button.

You will receive a welcome email confirming your hosting account with Bluehost and it has all the login details you need to get started.

Step #5: Install WordPress.

WordPress is a content management system (CMS). This is where you will be writing your articles.

It’s time now to install WordPress.

How to install WordPress on your Bluehost website.

Step1. Go to my Bluehost.com.

When you go to my.bluehost.com and log in, you will be redirected to your control panel commonly known as cPanel.

Locate ‘website’ and click on the WordPress icon. This will take you to ‘Mojo Marketplace.’

Step 2. Install WordPress on Bluehost.

You just clicked the WordPress icon on Bluehost.com.

While in the Mojo Marketplace, click the big button saying ‘install new scripts‘.

Step 3. Choose your domain name.

Click install WordPress and you will be shown a screen where to enter the domain name you wish to install WordPress on.

It is recommended that the directory opposite the Check Domain small box is left like that.

Then click the ‘check domain’ button after selecting your domain.

P.S. If you receive this message, ‘it looks like files already exist in this location,’ just ignore it and click ‘Continue.’

Step 4. Keep your WordPress login details.

After the installation processing is successful, you will be redirected to a page where you will be given your WordPress login credentials:

Keep this information in a safe place.

You will also receive a confirmation email with all the details.

You might receive them as soon as possible. But sometimes it takes hours about 12 h before your new site appears.

Step 5. Wow! You are now done installing WordPress.

Congrats! You can now log in and begin editing themes, uploading plugins, and adding content to your brand-new WordPress website.

Step #6: Pick a theme and design your blog.

Now install a theme that will give your blog a beautiful look. Before people read the content on your blog. They look at the appearance of your website. This appearance is determined by the WordPress theme used. So take your time to choose a good theme that will present your site and content in a manner that is appealing to readers.

There is so many WordPress theme in the WordPress repository.

But do you know the theme I have rated # 1? Astra is a free WordPress theme. But it has a paid version. You can do a lot even with the free version.

It’s an Asra theme.

There are so many WordPress themes to choose from in the WordPress repository. But the best theme I recommend is Astra.

Why I recommend Astra:

• It’s lightweight.
• It’s optimized for WordPress.
• It’s versatile.

It can be used to make personal blogs or any kind of website.

How to Install Astra Theme.

To install it on your site, the following steps:

1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New.
3. Search for – Astra.
4. Install Astra.

5. Activate it.

Then the theme will be active on your Bluehost website.

Step #7: Set up static pages of your blog.

Before you write your blog post. There are crucial pages that you need to create on your site. These pages include:

• Homepage,
• About page and
• Contact page.

You will need Elementor page builder to create the pages. Both the free and the Pro elementor page builders can be used to create awsome pages.

Homepage.

This is the page readers see when they visit your blog. For example, www.visionaryblogger.com is a home page of visionary blogger. Ensure that you tell people what your blog will do to sort out your readers problems.

How to create a homepage using Elementor Page Builder.

Click on Pages -> Add New. Create a page and edit it with Elementor. Assign a name to your page. For example, ‘home’ or ‘front page’.

Click on the gear icon on the bottom-left corner to set the page layout. Set the page layout to Elementor Full Width.

Click the folder icon on the canvas area to import a homepage template.

Under the Pages tab on the template library, type ‘homepage’ on the search box and select the homepage template you want to customize for your site. Click the Insert button to open it in the Elementor editor.

Change the content by replacing the default content with your own content. You can click each widget to edit. Then go to the left panel to edit the content. Clicking a widget will turn it into an editing mode.

When you finish, click the PUBLISH button on the left panel to publish the page.

After publishing your page, go to Settings -> Reading. Set the homepage display to a static page and select the homepage you have just created from the dropdown menu and click the Save Changes button.

Change the content. Once done, publish.

About Page.

This is the page which tells your readers who you are and what you about.

Contact Page.

This is the page which allows readers on your site to interact with you. Avail your email address and social network links so that your readers can contact you.

Step #8: Install plugins.

There are important plugins that you need to install on your website to enhance the functionality of your blog.

What is a plugin?

This is a software that improves the functionality of sites. Plugins ensure that customizing your blog becomes easier. Some plugins are free while others are offered at a cost depending on their functionality. Bluehost adds some plugins in your account to help you get started. You can install new plugins, deactivate, delete, and update them.

Important plugins you need to install on your new site:

• WP forms. They create contact forms for interacting with your readers.
• MonsterInsights. Google Analytics plugin is used to monitor and analyze your website traffic.
• Yoast SEO. A SEO plugin to optimize your content for search engines
• WP Super Cache. It delivers content to your readers faster.
• Disqus. It used to comment on your blog. It is an interactive plugin.
• YARPP. It creates a related posts list at the end of each of your posts.

How to install a plugin on a WordPress blog.

The easiest way of installing a WordPress plugin is by using the plugin search.

Let’s install WPForms.

Click on Plugins » Add New page inside your WordPress admin area.

You will see a screen like the one in the screenshot above. Find the plugin by typing the plugin name in the small box. After that, you will see multiple listings like in the sreenshot below:

Click the ‘Install Now’ button next to it.

WordPress will now download and install the plugin for you.

After this, Click the ‘Activate’ button. Great! It is successfully installed. Start writing content on your site now.

Step #9: Write your first blog post.

The articles you write on your blog are called blog posts. For your blog post to rank in Google, you need to use a keyword.

What is keyword?

A keyword is the best word that describes the content on your page or post. It’s the term or phrase that you want to rank for with a particular page. When people search for that term or phrase in Google, they should find that page on your website.

The tool that can do this task perfectly is SEMrush.

SEMrush is a tool that helps you identify important keywords for your blog posts.

SEMrush will evaluate your competitor’s content and yours. It offers you features that will help you rank #1 in google. These features include PPC, ad campaigns, backlinks, keyword research and SERP. With SEMRush, you will get the following features and benefits:

• Organic Research – This feature will show you the keywords that are making your competitors rank.
• Traffic Analytics – This feature shows you how your website is performing.

Before writing your blog posts, i recommend yu use SEMrush for keyword research to make your content rank higher in Google and other search engines.

SEMrush is my # 1 SEO tool.

Having done your keyword research, you can write your blog post now. To write a blog post, click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.

You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.

WordPress uses a block-based editor where each element is a block. This allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.

When you finish, click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen and your blog post be live online.

Step #10: Promote your blog post.

Beginner bloggers or startups who want to promote their their blog posts must use Leadpages.

What is Leadpages?

Leadpages is a landing page building tool. They have a drag and drop builder and templates that make it easy to create awsome landing pages. Leadpages offers features and benefits for bloggers and entrepreneurs who want to grow.

Here are the features of Leadpages that can promote your blog:

Create landing page opt-in forms.

a landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for the purposes of a marketing or advertising campaign. Landing pages are an important online marketing strategy for bloggers and big businesses .

You can use either their template or create one from scratch with their builder. It is a drag and drop builder. Thus you should be able to create a page of any kind. 

They have templates for various types of content landing pages that can be used to promote your content: eBooks, webinars and contests.

All you need to do is to adjust the text, images, and branding on the template to suit yours. After that, you can publish it on your site. 

Use awsome thank you pages.

Thank you page is the page are redirected to after they sign up for something or buy a product online. Most people just thank people on this page for signing up and inform them about what to expect. But you can use it for many other things like promoting more lead magnets, tripwires and asking people to follow you on social media. To make it easy for you to set up thank you pages, Leadpages offers you several thank you page templates that you can quickly modify and use. 

Set up content upgrades.

A content upgrade is a piece of content that you give as a bonus to your subscribers in exchange for their email addresses.

To do so, create a new ‘LeadPage’ in Leadpages and then upload your freebie, which will automatically be emailed to your new subscriber after signing up. It’s an excellent solution for growing your list.

Sign up subscribers through text messages

You can use Leadpages to get people to sign up to your email list with text messages. This can help you to grow faster.

Take advantage of the features Leadpages offers to promote your blog and grow faster.

I rate Leadpages as the # 1 landing page builder.

They have a 14 day free trial.

How do bloggers get paid?

When bloggers start receiving a reasonable number of traffic to their blogs, they think of monetizing them. Monetization is the process of taking steps that will generate money on your blog. Let us look at some of the ways bloggers make money on their blogs.

Actionable blog monetization methods and strategies bloggers use to make money:

Through Google Ads displayed on their blogs.

Google Adsense is not confined to a certain niche. Everyone with a blog that is receiving reasonable traffic can apply for Google Adsense. However, for Google to approve your application, there are certain conditions you need to meet. Once approved for Google Adsense, adverts will be shown on your blog. When people look at them or click on them, they are paid a small amount of money. The amount of money they make is determined by the amount of traffic they receive on their blogs. The more people visit their blogs the more money they make.

Through affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is an act of promoting goods and services of other people or companies. Recommend products and services of others and a small amount called commission will be paid to you. There are a number of affiliate programs out there.

For example, in web hosting, Bluehost is an example of an affiliate program you can promote. They can recommend Bluehost web hosting to their readers. When they buy through their links, they earn a commission.

To find an affiliate program to support, simply key in the browser: For example, ‘Bluehost affiliate program’. This will take you to their affiliate program page which they run. If they have an in-house affiliate program, then apply directly.

However, if it is under an affiliate network, then apply via the network. When a reader pays for Blue host web hosting using your link, you are paid K65.

Where to find affiliate programs to promote.
There are many online networks that offer affiliate programs that you can apply for.

These include:

• Amazon Associates
• ShareASale
• Commission Junction and others.

All these offer a host of affiliate programs in one place.

Sometimes through selling their own physical products.

Blogger can make their products and sell them on their website. These are physical products such as T-shirts and other products. If you are thinking of introducing an online store, then you need to install a plugin known as Woocommerce. It comes with product pages, cart, checkout and secure payments as well as other features to enable you set up an online store on your website successfully.

Through selling digital products.

They can also make money blogging by writing and selling digital products like eBooks. If they are able to write content that can help their readers, then they can write an eBook. Sell it on their blog or sell it elsewhere.

P.S. You can publish your ebook on Amazon using their KDP Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program.

Through sponsored posts.

In case their blog receives a reasonable amount of traffic, they are contacted by companies that want to advertise their products and services. Such companies ask them produce content that will be promoting their products or services to would be buyers. The company pays the blogger for creating the content that promote their products or services.

Analyze your blog and audience. This will guide you what affiliate programs you should promote.

Read More:

Is Blogging Dead?

Conclusion.

If you have made up your mind to start a blog, register your domain name with Namecheap. Then buy hosting at Bluehost. It is the best web hosting company for beginner bloggers. Use SEMrush to help you with keyword research to rank higher in Google. Promote your blog posts using Leadpages. Leadpages has awsome features. I recommend Leadpages for landing pages for collecting emails from your readers. This is what will set you up for success.