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In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to start your mom blog on WordPress and Bluehost. But I’ll also show you WHY you must have WordPress and Bluehost if you want to make money blogging. Then, I’ll show you the easiest way how to set up your hosting and your mommy blog in this step by step guide so that by the time you are done reading this post, you’ll have your mom blog set up and ready to go. Whether you started your own blog for personal reasons, business reasons, or even both, you’re probably hoping to make some extra money with it or maybe you’re even hoping for it to become your full-time income, right? I can tell you from my personal experiences I started my blog when my baby girl was six weeks old. The main reason for me to start my own mom blog was so that I could work at home and spend as much time with her as possible rather than going back to work and being away from her. This just wasn’t an option for me. Using this strategy, I made my first sale just 3 weeks after my third post, blogging when my newborn was asleep. But to be fair, this wasn’t my first blog. But this time I did a few fundamental things differently hence I want to share them with you here on how you can set up your blog as a money-making blog right from the beginning, even if you don’t even have any blogging experience yet! The great thing is that you can start a money-making blog by paying a few dollars a month for hosting, and in this tutorial, I want to show you the hosting I’m using.
Are you ready to start your new mom blog? You know how you always say you’ll start your blog eventually, some day? Well, maybe today is the day you’re finally starting, hey? Let’s do this together, I’ll be here to help you.
But first, as I said, to get the most out of this tutorial and get started with your blog, you need to get hosting first. However, hosting is almost the only expense you will have when starting your blog, and the good news is that Bluehost’s Basic Package includes everything you need for only $2.95/month so check it out here. Because Bluehost has been voted one of the best hosting companies and it’s also by far the cheapest. In addition, some of the most successful mom bloggers I know of use it. So, if you’re ready, click the link.
Once you’ve done that, follow this tutorial to learn how to set up your blog hosting and install your WordPress blog in one click (I’ll show you how easy it is, even if you’re not tech-savvy).
Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Bluehost and therefore I receive a commission if you sign up using my link. However, clicking on my links comes at no extra cost to you. It only gives you a cheaper rate and a FREE domain name.
So, let’s get started, mommy, I am excited!
- PART 1: Setting Up Bluehost
- Why do you need Bluehost?
- Why should you pay for your blog when you can get a free blogging platform?
- What’s the difference between WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
- Why Bluehost is the Best Web Hosting Service for Your WordPress Blog
- Reasons Why You Should Use Bluehost
- Set Up Your Domain
- Mom Blog names
- Create Your Account
- Select Your Package
- Select Your Package Extras – What You Need And Don’t Need
- Enter Your Payment Information
- Create Your New Password
- Create Your Website
- Pick Your Theme
- How Do I Choose The Best Theme for My Blog?
- Why Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly?
- What Is the Best WordPress Theme for Your Blog?
- How much does Astra cost?
- Astra Free and Astra Pro – What’s the difference?
- Astra free features
- Astra Pro features
- Astra Pro BONUS
- WordPress Installation
- Go to Your WordPress Dashboard for the First Time
- Save This Post For Later
- PART 2: Setting Up Your WordPress Blog
- How To Get Started With WordPress
- How To Log In With WordPress?
- How To Log In To WordPress Directly
- Change Your Permalinks
- What Is a Permalink?
- What Is a Permalink Example?
- Why You Should Edit Your Permalinks
- Why Are Permalinks Important?
- Upload Your Theme
- Customize Your Theme
- What Is a Site Icon or a Favicon?
- How To Navigate the WordPress Settings
- Set Up Your Home Page
- How To Create a Blog Page for Your Blog
- Set Up Your Main Menu Navigation
- Create your menu
- How To Add a Footer Menu in WordPress
- How To Edit Footer Widget in WordPress
- Plugins
- Best Plugin to Hide Title – Hide Page and Post Title
- Best Font Plugin – Use any font
- Best Social Share Plugin – Grow Social by Mediavine
- How Much Content Should I Have Before I Launch My Blog?
- PART 3: Monetizing Your Blog
- Treat Your Blog Like a Business From Day One
- Can My Blog Still Be a Success?
- What To Do If You Don’t Feel Like An Expert In Any Niche?
- Research Your Blog Niche
- Find Keywords People Search For
- Research Keywords For Your Blog Content
- Google Your Keyword
- Download MOZ Chrome Extension
- Install Google Analytics
- How To Make Money as a Blogger – With Affiliate Marketing
- What Is Affiliate Marketing?
- How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
- Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
- How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money
- Promote the Products of Others, Company or Service
- Share affiliate links on social media platforms
- How To Start Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
- The Following Questions Might Also Interest You About Affiliate Marketing:
- Examples of Affiliate Posts
- How To Make Money as a Blogger – With Sponsored Posts
- Summary
PART 1: Setting Up Bluehost
When you click on my link from above you’ll land here. Remember, with my link, you can also get a FREE domain for the first year if you sign up for a 12-month hosting plan.
Click on “Host Your Site” and then select the Basic plan, the first option from the left.
I recommend going with a 12-month plan because it will give you the best price and you won’t have to worry about renewing it anytime soon. Plus, you’ll get a free domain if you go with my link.
If you change your mind, Bluehost offers a full 30-day refund policy.
Why do you need Bluehost?
Bluehost is a platform built for mommy bloggers.
But I promised you at the beginning that I would tell you the biggest reason why you need Bluehost. And the important thing why you need Bluehost to host your WordPress.org blog is so that you can monetize it. Hosting your WordPress blog with Bluehost is called self-hosting. What does that mean?
Why should you pay for your blog when you can get a free blogging platform?
You might be wondering why go through the trouble of getting a self-hosted blog when there are free blogging platforms like Blogger and Tumblr. So why should you pay for one?
There is a simple reason for this. To monetize your blog, you need to self-host it so that you own the blog and all its content. You usually can’t monetize your blog if it’s hosted through one of those free platforms because technically you don’t own it. On top of that, the free blogging platforms can shut down your blog without prior notice at any time. Isn’t that crazy?
But again, the most important reason why you need Bluehost is to monetize your blog.
Because later down your blogging journey, you might want to add affiliate links or Google AdSense to your blog. To do that, your blog must be self-hosted, otherwise, you cannot monetize it.
What’s the difference between WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
The difference between a WordPress.com and a WordPress.org blog is that WordPress.com is hosted and WordPress.org is self-hosted.
That means WordPress.com is good for you if you’re a hobby blogger and DON’T intend to monetize your blog. WordPress.com hosts your blog for free up to 3 GB of space.
WordPress.com displays its own ads on your blog, which makes your blog look unprofessional if you want to build your own brand or work with affiliates.
Also with WordPress.com you CAN’T monetize your blog.
To get more space on WordPress.com or to stop WordPress.com from displaying ads on your blog, you have to upgrade to a paid plan which starts at $9/month.
Whereas WordPress.org is for anyone who DOES want to monetize their blog.
That means, if you plan to monetize your blog, even in the far future, you need a self-hosted blog.
Why Bluehost is the Best Web Hosting Service for Your WordPress Blog
You’ve probably heard of GoDaddy, and SiteGround hosting. But what makes Bluehost the best hosting company for your blog?
There are two things you need to look for in your hosting company:
- How many visitors can your host handle?
- How easy is it to reach out if you have any questions?
Let’s take a quick look as to why Bluehost really is your best option:
- Bluehost’s Basic Plan is only $2.95/month and allows you UNLIMITED MONTHLY VISITORS for 12 months: 50 GB storage (regular price $8.99/mo). It really has EVERYTHING you need for the cheapest price!!
- SiteGround – StartUp: From $4.99/mo: 10 GB storage, up to 10,000 visits monthly.
- GoDaddy – Basic WordPress Hosting: Starts at $7.95/mo if you choose 36 months: 30 GB storage, ideal for up to 25K monthly visitors.
As you can see with Siteground and GoDaddy, you can only get 10,000 and 25,000 visitors per month (which is too few for serious monetization), whereas Bluehost lets you have unlimited traffic to your blog (which is like future-proofing your blog).
Bluehost | SiteGround | GoDaddy |
---|---|---|
UNLIMITED monthly visitors | up to 10,000 monthly visitors | up to 25,000 monthly visitors |
50 GB storage | 10 GB storage | 30 GB storage |
$2.95/mo | $4.99/mo | $7.99/mo |
Bluehost is not only the cheapest but the only one that gives you unlimited visitors. That’s exactly why I chose Bluehost as my hosting provider for AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.
But I’d also like to share with you my other reasons for choosing Bluehost.
Reasons Why You Should Use Bluehost
The first reason why Bluehost is the easiest hosting company is that they will automatically install your WordPress Blog for you. That means if you’re non-tech-savvy you don’t have to worry about how to set up your blog site because they’ll do it all for you.
The second reason why Bluehost is a better hosting company is because of its free tech support 24/7. In fact, their tech support is so good, that they are the only hosting company directly recommended by WordPress (which says a lot in my eyes).
That’s because Bluehost guys are real WordPress experts. And you can literally ask them ANYTHING whenever you get stuck, whether that’s midnight or 2 am in the morning.
Great customer support that’s there for you is so important because, at some point, you might need it. And when you can reach out to someone as instantly as you can with Bluehost then you’ll be glad.
I had a few problems getting started and the agents have all been happy to help every time.
If you need to contact them, you can join a chat (my preferred method).
After clicking, a chat window opens for Bluehost customers (if you do not have Bluehost yet you can still sign up for Bluehost and get the cheaper DEAL and a FREE domain by clicking here).
Set Up Your Domain
Next, you’ve got to tell Bluehost which domain you’d like to set up.
If you don’t have a domain name for your blog yet, you can create one now.
Mom Blog names
Choosing the “right” or perfect name for your blog can be hard. Nevertheless, don’t stress about it too much. Just make sure that your blog meets the following criteria:
- your name should be easy to remember
- easy to pronounce
- and easy to spell
Ultimately, you want to make it easy for people to find your blog but also reduce typos when people search for your blog.
And if you’re struggling to come up with names at all make a list of blog names that inspire you and why you like them to begin with.
To receive your FREE domain for the first year just make sure you select the 12-month plan from the dropdown menu in the next step.
But if you already do have your domain name (that you have purchased with GoDaddy, Namecheap, or elsewhere) you need to enter it here.
In order to move your domain over to Bluehost, you will need to change your nameservers to ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com. To update your nameservers, find your DNS settings on your domain host.
It is likely that your provider will offer tutorials on how to change your nameservers, so look for them. You can also contact Bluehost and they will take care of it for you. Just let them know where you want to transfer your domain from, for instance “from GoDaddy to Bluehost”.
Create Your Account
Next, you need to create your account by filling in your details, like your name, country, and address, or your business name (optional).
.
Select Your Package
Next, you need to select the duration of your “Basic” plan. I recommend going with 12 months for now, as it gives you the cheapest pricing if you sign up with my link.
Bluehost charges the full amount all at once, which means you’ll pay $35.40 per year for hosting, which is incredibly affordable. And once you’ve paid for it you can forget about it and focus on your blog instead.
Select Your Package Extras – What You Need And Don’t Need
In this section, we will talk about which extras you actually need. Because Bluehost automatically offers you package extras when you choose your package.
For example, two of the extras that Bluehost will select by default are Codeguard Basic and SiteLock Security Essential. But honestly, you don’t need to buy any of them and I’ll explain why (unless you really want to of course).
- Codeguard Basic – This creates daily backups for your blog. But this will only become more important once you got more content, so you can leave it for now and save some money.
- Bluehost SEO Tools Start – Personally, I’ve learned everything about SEO from this free webinar so I would recommend you start there, especially since it’s free (at this point).
- Single Domain SSL – This protects your site and your customers. SSL encryption is the little lock symbol that tells people that your site is safe, otherwise few people would click through to visit your blog. But you’ll get free SSL encryption with your plan anyway, so you don’t need to purchase an extra one.
- SiteLock Security Essentials – This protects your blog from malicious attacks. But there are free options available inside WordPress, so you don’t need to get this.
That means you can skip all of the package extras and untick all of them for now.
Enter Your Payment Information
The next step is to enter the payment information you wish to use to make your purchase.
Before you can continue you must tick the checkbox that you’ve read Bluehost’s Renewal Terms and policies.
After that, you want to hit “Submit”.
After you submit your payment information, you’ll see a “Success! Next, let’s create your account” message.
In addition, you should have also received a confirmation email by now that was sent to the email address you used to sign up.
To proceed, hit “Create your account” and follow the next step below.
Create Your New Password
The next step is to create a new password for your domain. To make sure you don’t lose your new password, make sure you save it somewhere, or better yet, take a screenshot.
Then hit “Create Account” and Bluehost will create your new account for you.
Create Your Website
Next, Bluehost will guide you through a set of questions to help set up your blog (your website is your blog).
Technically, you can skip these steps. However, I do recommend you fill them out as they help Bluehost and WordPress serve you more relevant content in the beginning.
So, start by filling out the first set of questions.
Then continue with the rest of the questions in step 2.
Since some of the questions can be a little confusing to fill in I thought it’s best if we go over them together.
What do you want to name your site?
This is asking for your site name, in my case AnyMommyCanMakeMoney. Unless you have a blog name yet, you can leave this section blank and add it WordPress later instead.
What’s your site’s tagline?
Likewise, if you already have a tagline for your blog then you can add it here or, alternatively, enter it later in your WordPress. However, some themes won’t display a tagline in which case you can add it to your logo if you really want a tagline.
Do you want the ability to sell anything?
If you are planning to have a shop on your blog then you can set the toggle to yes and Bluehost will install software called WooCommerce for you. WooCommerce is free to use in general but it offers paid features as well. But you can download the WooCommerce plugin at any time later if you decide you need it. That means, for now, I’d leave it because the less you add to your blog unnecessarily, the faster it loads.
Are you comfortable with creating websites?
Finally, the last question asks you how comfortable you are with creating websites. By “website” they mean your blog. For instance, I had a lot of experience, however, I still went with “a little” and the information that Bluehost and WordPress provided was just right.
Pick Your Theme
Next, we’re on to the exciting part as Bluehost will ask you to select a theme for your blog.
And you’re probably wondering “Should I start with a free theme or paid theme for my blog?”
Despite what most people say, you can start your blog with a free theme.
In fact, I started AnyMommyCanMakeMoney with a free theme and I’ll show you which one I’m using in a second.
Free themes generally work, however, you should be aware that there are limits to what you can do. That’s because some features are exclusive to the Pro version. This means that, if you want to achieve a certain look for your blog that you’re unable to achieve with your free theme, then you’ll have to upgrade your theme to Pro eventually.
And, the longer you wait to upgrade, the more complicated it gets because upgrading your blog while your theme is live could potentially break your blog.
That’s why, if there is a theme that you like and can afford, I’d recommend getting it and building your dream blog right from the start instead.
How Do I Choose The Best Theme for My Blog?
So, when choosing your theme, the one thing you need to look out for is how mobile-friendly your theme is because most traffic comes from mobile.
For instance, on my blog over 70% of traffic comes from mobile and I’m pretty sure that’s going to be the same for your blog hence mobile-friendliness is key.
That’s why even Google checks to see if your blog is mobile-friendly before ranking it because it knows that most people are using their phones these days.
Here’s what Google says:
Mobile is changing the world. Today, everyone has smartphones with them, constantly communicating and looking for information. In many countries, the number of smartphones has surpassed the number of personal computers; having a mobile-friendly website has become a critical part of having an online presence.
If you haven’t made your website mobile-friendly, you should. The majority of users coming to your site are likely to be using a mobile device.
To help you determine whether your blog is mobile-friendly you can use Google’s free checker here.
Why Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly?
To answer the question of why you should absolutely make your blog mobile-friendly you best check out what Google has to say because most of your traffic will ultimately come from Google:
If not mobile-friendly, a site can be difficult to view and use on a mobile device. A non-mobile-friendly site requires users to pinch or zoom in order to read the content. Users find this a frustrating experience and are likely to abandon the site. Alternatively, the mobile-friendly version is readable and immediately usable.
In the USA, 94% of people with smartphones search for local information on their phones. Interestingly, 77% of mobile searches occur at home or at work, places where desktop computers are likely to be present.
Mobile is critical to your business – whether you’re blogging about your favorite sports team, working on the website for your community theater, or selling products to potential clients. Make sure that visitors can have a good experience on your site when they’re visiting from their mobile devices.
So, what does that mean for your blog?
Check that your theme is mobile-friendly.
Don’t buy a theme that looks good on the desktop without checking how it looks on mobile devices.
Because naturally, on mobile, your blog will look different than it does on the desktop since all elements will be stacked on top of one another.
Reduce Loading Times
In addition, you should use a theme that loads quickly on a mobile device since most people will access your blog exclusively from a mobile device.
And short loading times are a key ranking factor for Google as Google knows people hate waiting. That means the fewer elements your theme has, the faster it is to load, hence mobile-friendly themes are more minimalistic.
What Is the Best WordPress Theme for Your Blog?
Astra is the most popular theme of all time for bloggers. Because it is the fastest, lightweight, and highly customizable WordPress theme for your blog.
And it’s the theme I am using for AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.
What I love about Astra is how easy it is to use. You don’t need to know any coding and can just customize your blog exactly how you want it by using Astra’s features.
Super Fast Performance
Astra is made for speed. It is the most lightweight theme available in the market which helps you keep your loading times low.
Customize Everything Easily
With Astra, you can customize everything super easily, which is great because with most other themes you can’t. You will be able to make it look exactly how you want with the visual theme customizer, which is fast & easy!
How much does Astra cost?
Astra is free.
That means you can start on the free version like I did when I started AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.
All you need to do is download it here for free.
They also offer Astra Pro, which gives you more great features and it’s what AnyMommyCan MakeMoney is on now. I decided to upgrade my theme to PRO to get more features for my headers and footers.
But you can always start out on the free version and see how you go. And upgrade to Astra Pro if you want more features as I did.
Astra Free and Astra Pro – What’s the difference?
Astra theme provides basic options to style the blog archive and single blog page. But Astra Pro adds premium features to your blog.
Astra free features
The free features are pretty good but can be a bit limiting, which is why I made the switch to Pro quite quickly.
Astra Pro features
To use these Pro features, you need to have the Astra theme along with the Astra Pro Addon installed on your website.
Once you’ve upgraded to Pro you’ll get access to all the Pro Modules.
As you can see the Pro features include some pretty awesome header customizations, which is exactly why I made the switch to Pro.
Astra Pro BONUS
And you also get these free bonus features with Astra Pro.
So, if you’re planning to have a sidebar on your blog, this Sidebar Manager is a must-have Bonus.
But as I said, you can always start with the free version and upgrade later.
WordPress Installation
Once you have selected your theme, Bluehost will install it on your WordPress blog for you automatically.
Go to Your WordPress Dashboard for the First Time
In general, there are two ways to log into your WordPress dashboard.
- Log in via Bluehost
- Log in directly to WordPress (I’ll explain how to here)
And in the future, you can log into WordPress directly as I’ll show you in this post.
But, to log into your WordPress dashboard for the first time, however, you must use Bluehost.
To do that, go to Bluehost.com and log in with the password and email address you set up earlier.
Next, click on the blue “WordPress” button in the top right corner inside your Bluehost panel.
After you’ve clicked the WordPress button, Bluehost takes you straight to your WordPress dashboard.
And you are here, you’ve made it! For the first time, you’re inside the WordPress dashboard of your brand new blog! YAH!
At the same time, logging into your dashboard for the first time probably feels a bit overwhelming, because I remember feeling this way! Or maybe you’ve got doubt creeping up if you can really do this, right?
And honestly, you will feel a little overwhelmed for the first few weeks. But I promise, that once you start spending more time inside your dashboard, it gets a lot easier. And I’ll make sure to walk you through every step you need to know about to help you set it up in this post, ok, mommy?
Save This Post For Later
Remember, you don’t have to do it all in one day. Instead, you can save this post and always come back another time to go through the remaining steps.
PART 2: Setting Up Your WordPress Blog
Once you’re inside your WordPress dashboard there are always different ways to access what you are looking for. That means the first way is via the Bluehost tab within your WordPress dashboard and the second way is via the left-hand side panel of your WordPress dashboard. So don’t be confused by that.
How To Get Started With WordPress
You’re probably wondering where to start. And to be fair, it can be a bit confusing to make sense of all the different settings in front of you. To help you, we will go over the most important settings in this section. Firstly, I’ll explain what each setting does, and later, I’ll show you exactly how to use it.
What Is the Post Tab For?
The post tab is where you need to go to create or edit your posts. That means if you want to start a new post you need to come here to do so.
What Is the Pages Tab For?
Under the pages tab, you can create any pages you want to have on your blog, for example, your home page, privacy policy, terms and conditions, about me page, contact page, or category pages (if you’re building a lifestyle blog).
What Is the Settings Tab For?
Although there are many settings to choose from, the ones you really need to check out are general, writing, and permalinks and I’ll tell you why next.
First, let’s start with setting up the basics for your blog. To do that go to Settings/General and if you haven’t already done so you can set the site title and tagline for your blog here.
What Is A Site Title?
Next, you need to set your site title which is what shows up in your browser tab when visitors load your blog page.
As you can see from the next screengrab, your site title shows up to your visitors in the tab of your browser. But it also shows up in Google’s search results as well, which not many bloggers know about.
That’s my I prefer to add my tagline to my site title because I want my audience to know what my blog is about right away when they find me on Google.
What Is a Tagline?
Your tagline explains to your readers what your blog is all about. Usually, your tag line sits under your logo, which means it’s visible to your readers. But you don’t need to set a tagline for your blog if you find it hard to come up with one.
But, whether your tagline shows up on your blog, depends on your theme as some themes are unable to display your tagline, even though you’ve set one.
What Is a Site Address (URL)?
One thing you should definitely check for is that your site address (URL) has the https:// instead of http://because the “s” indicates to your visitors that your site is secure.
If yours hasn’t got https:// yet, you need to get in touch with Bluehost to enable SSL for you (which they’ll do for free if you’re a customer. If you’re not a Bluehost customer yet but want to get started then sign up here).
Likewise, you should check how you want the date to show on your posts.
How To Log In With WordPress?
Before you can access your dashboard you need to set up your log-in credentials first.
To do so go to Users/ Profile.
Then scroll down to “Set new password” and click on it.
After you click that button, WordPress will generate a strong password for you.
Alternatively, you can set your own password by typing it into the box.
And definitely don’t forget to hit “Update Profile” at the bottom of the page, because unless you save it your changes won’t show!
How To Log In To WordPress Directly
As I mentioned previously, there are two ways to log into your WordPress dashboard, one of them being to log into your dashboard directly.
And in this section, I want to show you how to log in to your WordPress dashboard directly. So, to start off with you need to type in your blog’s URL followed by /wp-login.php
That means yours should look like this yourblogname.com/wp-login.php
Or like in my example anymommycanmakemoney.com/wp-login.php
Once you typed in your yourblogname.com/wp-login.php you then need to type in your username and password that you set up earlier.
After that hit “Log In” and then proceed to the next step.
Change Your Permalinks
Next, you need to change how your permalinks show up. But before I show you how to do that I quickly want to explain what permalinks are, because they are quite important.
What Is a Permalink?
In short, a permalink is the URL of each of your posts. And as the name suggests permalinks are “permanent” links that are meant to remain unchanged in the future. That means you must set them up right from the start and not change your settings afterward as this would break all your links.
To set up your permalinks correctly in your WordPress dashboard go to Settings/ Permalinks and select “post name” because your post name contains keywords that are important for your SEO.
Then hit “Save” and let’s continue with the remaining settings.
What Is a Permalink Example?
In order to help you understand what a permalink for your post looks like, here is my example:
anymommycanmakemoney.com/how-to-start-a-blog/ is the permalink for this particular post.
By default, WordPress generates the permalink from your post title. But you can edit your permalinks to shorten it to only use the keywords you want to rank for, like in my case “how to start a blog”.
Why You Should Edit Your Permalinks
Editing your permalinks is important because you want to make your permalinks recallable for your readers. Because your audience will find it easier to search for your permalink when they are recallable.
For example “how to start a blog” is easier to remember than “how to start a mom blog and make money”. That means “how to start a blog” is a better permalink than “how to start a mom blog and make money”. Do you see what I mean?
To edit your posts permalink hoover over your content block and click on “…” and then click on “show more settings”.
After you click that, a panel opens on the right-hand side. And in the right-hand column, you want to make sure that you’re on the “Post” tab so that you see the next steps which I’m about to guide you through.
To edit the permalink for this particular post click on “Permalink” and you’ll see “URL Slug” which is where you can edit the actual permalink for this post.
Why Are Permalinks Important?
As I briefly touched upon before your permalink URLs play an important role in your blog’s SEO (search engine optimization). In fact, they can have a positive and lasting impact on your blog’s SEO and help your blog rank in Google. That means your permalinks should always include the keywords you want your post to rank for.
But we’ll dive deeper into how to find the right keywords further down in this post so don’t worry about it too much for now.
Upload Your Theme
To install your theme go to Appearance/ Theme and upload your folder, for example, “astra.zip”.
Then hit “Upload” to start uploading your file.
After you’ve selected your file WordPress will start uploading it automatically. But once your file is uploaded you must hit “Install” and then you also need to hit “Activate” to activate your theme.
Next, you need to hit “Activate” and WordPress will install your theme for your blog instantly.
Your theme will now say it’s active.
And now that you’ve uploaded your theme successfully you get to customize it next, ready?
Customize Your Theme
I’m sure you probably have a vague idea in your head of what you’d like your blog to look like. And to achieve the look for your blog that you’re after you have to customize it. That means you have to play around with the settings in order to set it up in a particular way.
And to help you get started let’s go over the most important basics together.
To get started hit “Customize” on your theme.
Of course, there are no limits to what you can do to customize your blog, but there are also a few things I recommend you do regardless of the look you have in mind.
To get started go to Site Identity/ Logo and upload your logo. And if you haven’t got a logo for your blog yet you can design one in Canva for free.
For example, I designed the logo for AnyMommyCanMakeMoney in Canva and it only took me 20 minutes to play around with.
Because it doesn’t have to be perfect and you might still make changes to your brand as you develop your blog.
What Is a Site Icon or a Favicon?
A site icon or favicon is the little logo that shows up in your browser tab. And Google prefers sites that have a favicon.
And to design yours you can use Canva initially but to finalize it you’ll need a favicon generator to convert it into the right file.
Favicons can only be uploaded in small file sizes, so you should upload no larger than 512×512.png.
Once you’re done hit “Publish”, otherwise the changes you just made won’t show.
How To Navigate the WordPress Settings
Before we continue I just want to point out that in WordPress many settings are accessible in multiple ways. For example, you can set your Site Title and Tagline here under customize or under settings like I just showed you earlier. Because I found that very confusing at the start my best advice to you is to stick to one way of navigating around.
My preferred way is to use the left-hand side panel in my WordPress dashboard, but it’s up to you which way you prefer.
Set Up Your Home Page
Next, you need to decide what you want the homepage of your blog, the page your visitors land on, to look like.
That means you need to decide if you want a static page or if you want to display your latest blog post instead?
Choosing what your blog’s homepage will look like will not only massively impact the design of your blog but more importantly your chances to monetize it.
For instance, if you’re a hobby blogger, which I don’t think you are if you’ve come this far, then it’s ok to display your latest blog post only.
Why Do I Need a Static Homepage for My Blog?
However, if you want to monetize your blog you should make your home page a static page.
Because from your static page, you can link to your affiliate posts, reviews, or your about me page where you can use affiliate links that make you money.
For example, my homepage for AnyMommyCanMakeMoney is static because I want to display my widgets that take my readers to my “money-making” posts.
Go to Settings/ Reading.
But before you can select your homepage as a static page or posts page, you need to create a homepage and a blog page first.
How To Create a Home Page for Your Blog
To create any new page go to Pages/ Add New and give your homepage a name.
For example, you can call yours “Home”, “Hompage” or “frontpage” as it doesn’t matter. That’s because this name is only for you internally so that you know which page is your homepage amongst other pages in your dashboard.
For instance, I called my homepage “AnyMommyCanMakeMoney – Helping Moms Make Money Online”, which is way too long, but again, it doesn’t matter.
On your homepage, you can then organize the posts that you want your readers to click on.
Note: By default, WordPress will display the title of your page on the actual page itself. But of course, you don’t want your titles to show up on your homepage. To hide mine I’m using a plugin called “Hide Title” (But I’ll explain what plugins are and which ones you need in detail here).
Next, you want to hit “Update” to save it.
Good to know: To exit out and return to your dashboard, click on the WordPress logo top left corner.
How To Create a Blog Page for Your Blog
To create your blog, you need to set up a page first to let WordPress know where you want all your blog posts to sit.
To do that, go to Pages/ Add New and call it “BLOG”.
Then hit “Update” to save it.
That means from now on, WordPress will now automatically add all of your blog posts to this blog page that you just created.
Once you’ve set up your home page and blog page, you’ve already set up the most important two pages.
Now that you’ve set up your homepage and blog page, you need to go back to your Settings/ Reading.
That’s because now you need to let WordPress know which page you want to display as your “static page” and which as your “blog page”. To do so select your homepage and your posts page that you’ve just created so that WordPress knows which pages to show.
Set Up Your Main Menu Navigation
Planning out your blog menu is really important not just for monetization but for SEO as well.
Because where things sit on your menu really matters. For that reason, you should map out your menu before you even start your blog and think about the following.
Which topics or categories are you going to cover?
And where do your “money-making” posts sit on your menu? The easier you make it for people to click on them directly from your menu the more money can you potentially make.
Is the Purpose of Your Blog Clear?
And the other aspect to consider is if the purpose of your blog is clear. Because the purpose of your blog should be obvious not only to your visitor but to Google too.
Because the clearer it is to Google what your blog is about the better it can get you in front of the right people.
Let’s take my menu as an example.
As you know, my blog is about helping mommies make money.
So, to make that obvious to Google and my audience I mention my target audience “mommies” in my blog name and my menu is covering various “money” categories.
How To Create the Right Menu for Your Blog
The easy way to start planning out your menu for your blog, is to create a Google spreadsheet and outline the main pillars you want to cover in your menu. To help you get started you can use can my spreadsheet as an example. However, in order for your blog to stand out, you need to come up with your own menu of course.
Nevertheless, here’s my example spreadsheet from AnyMommyCanMakeMoney to help you get started.
Create your menu
To do so, go to Appearance/ Menus and select your Main (Header Menu).
Then, select the pages, money-making posts, or categories you want to add to your main menu and hit “Add to Menu”.
Next, you want to hit “Save Menu” to save your changes.
From here, you can add any new page, post, or category to your blog menu.
How To Add a Footer Menu in WordPress
In addition to your main menu, you need to set up and edit your footer menu in the same way.
Note: How your footer menu shows depends on your theme. For example, in Astra Pro, which is what I’m using for AnyMommyCanMakeMoney, you can set up footer widgets as well.
First, select “Footer” as the menu you want to edit.
Next, add the pages, posts, or categories to your menu and hit “Save Menu”.
In particular, good pages and links to have in your footer are:
- About me
- Contact
- Privacy Policy
- TnC’s
- Popular posts
- Social share icons
To add them to your menu you need to create a page for it first.
How To Edit Footer Widget in WordPress
If your theme supports footer widgets, like Astra, for example, you can add useful widgets to your footer.
For instance, Astra supports up to 4 footer columns that you can allocate shortcuts to like to your most popular posts, your social media accounts, or even collect email addresses of new subscribers.
- To add widgets to your footer go to Appearance/ Widgets.
- Select the widget you’d like to add.
- From the dropdown menu select which footer column you’d like to add it to.
- Hit “Add Widget”.
Plugins
What Is a Plugin and Why Do I Need Them?
A plugin is a piece of software that plugs into your WordPress website. That means, they can extend functionality or add new features to customize your WordPress blog. Because WordPress plugins contain code and integrate seamlessly with WordPress.
This means you can add unlimited features to your blog simply by uploading a specific plugin without having to know how to code. Pretty cool huh?
And best of all, plugins are usually FREE.
And there are large communities out there of coders for WordPress plugins that are always happy to help if you have questions.
What Is an Example of a WordPress Plugin?
Have you heard of the Yoast SEO plugin? Because this is a good example of a must-have plugin for your WordPress blog.
Which Plugins Do I Need for My WordPress Blog?
There are thousands of plugins to choose from. And quickly you start wondering which ones you really need. Because you don’t just want to download any plugins as they might slow your blog down.
So I’ve put together the plugins for you that I found the most helpful when I started my blog AnyMommyCanMakeMoney.
Best Plugin for SEO – Yoast SEO
Yoast is the #1 WordPress SEO plugin. This plugin is designed to help you write better posts that improve your ranking on Google. Once installed on your blog it helps you improve the readability of your blog, it checks keyword density, lets you write your meta description (the snippet that readers see in Google before they click on your post), if you used too much passive voice, it tells you if your post is too short and much more.
Below your post, you can add the meta description that you want to show up in Google to Yoast.
And Yoast’s free version gives you everything you need to improve the SEO of your posts and start a blog and make money.
Best Plugin to Hide Title – Hide Page and Post Title
When you set up pages in WordPress, you have to give them a name, like “blog” or “homepage”. By default, WordPress displays the page or post title on that specific page for visitors to see. But on certain pages or posts, you might not want your visitors to see it.
For example, it would be odd if your homepage said “homepage” on top, right?
That’s why this plugin lets you hide the title of a particular page or post.
Can you see how my page title shows up on my page in the screengrab I’ve provided? For example, if I didn’t tick “Hide the title” the title (which is usually your page name) would show up on my homepage. But because I’m using this plugin I’m able to hide my title for that particular page on how to start a blog and make money.
Best Font Plugin – Use any font
With this plugin, you can upload any custom fonts to your blog without touching your CSS file.
(CSS is a stylesheet file required for every WordPress theme. It controls the visual design and layout of your blog.)
But thanks to this plugin, you can upload any font to your blog with one click.
BONUS TIP: And if you want to find out what font your favorite blog is using, get the WhatFont Chrome extension, which lets you “spy” on other blogs’ fonts.
Best Social Share Plugin – Grow Social by Mediavine
You want to make it easy for your readers to share your content. That’s why you need this plugin because it has the best-looking share buttons and it is one of the easiest-to-use social sharing plugins available.
For now, when you’re just starting your blog, the free version offers everything you need but once you make money you might want to upgrade.
How Much Content Should I Have Before I Launch My Blog?
When you hit publish to launch your blog is entirely up to you.
And I am aware that common advice for beginner bloggers is to wait to publish your blog until you have composed five to ten blog posts written.
However, what has worked well for me, was to publish my new blog right away and concentrate on writing my first blog posts and customizations later.
Here’s why.
Getting your blog indexed by Google and appearing in its search results takes some time. And until your blog is indexed, it won’t appear organically in search results, which means nobody can find you anyways.
How Long Does It Take for a Website To Show Up on Google?
It can take as little as 4 days and up to 6 months for a blog to be crawled and indexed by Google.
As a result, when you have zero or little traffic, you really don’t need to worry about setting everything up perfectly at the beginning. Because the sooner it starts propagating your blog, the sooner it will appear in search results.
So, while you’re waiting for your blog to get indexed by Google you can focus on creating more content or customizing your blog further.
For example, I started AnyMommyCanMakeMoney with 1 post.
However, you do you, mommy boo. When you are ready, click “Launch” to publish your blog.
PART 3: Monetizing Your Blog
Did you know that in order to make money you need to set up your blog as a money-making blog right from the start? Because, blogs that make money do things differently, and to help you make your blog profitable in no time, you need two things:
The first thing you need is a strategy and the second thing is, you need to understand what exactly makes money.
Writing about random topics will not make you money.
Of course, there are different types of blogs and it also depends on the blog niche you want to write about. However, successful bloggers who earn money from their blogs all write strategically. Meaning they only write about a specific topic their readers want to read.
So, how do you find out what your audience wants to read about?
And how can you compete with blogs that are already making money even if you don’t feel that you’re the best writer?
And the biggest question of all you might have is can you start a profitable blog without being an expert?
Treat Your Blog Like a Business From Day One
The first step is to treat your blog as a business where you write for your audience instead of the things you’re interested in.
Because the more people that are interested in your blog, the higher your blog traffic is going to be.
And if demand is higher, you can earn an income from your blog more easily.
Therefore, you should write about topics that your readers are interested in and try to attract as many people to your blog as possible.
Because, on the flip side, if your blog isn’t high in demand, not many people are going to be interested in your content.
And low demand means fewer affiliate opportunities for you, as fewer people click and fewer people read your blog. Ultimately, you’ll have fewer opportunities to make money from your blog.
To sum it up, if you approach your blog as something you want to write about, it’s a hobby (which is what I did the first time).
But, if you approach your blog strategically as a place to write about what your readers want to read, then it’s a business.
So, how can you use blogging to strategically achieve your goals as opposed to just blogging for fun?
Blog Strategy
As I mentioned above, the first part of blogging strategically is to write for your readers on a regular basis.
But the second part of blogging strategically is to optimize your blog for SEO (search engine optimization).
Because SEO is important for any successful mom blogger that the sooner you start optimizing your content the better.
That means you should learn about SEO from the beginning of your blogging journey.
Because the better you optimize your posts for SEO, the higher the chances for your posts to rank in Google searches. And the more people find your posts, the more traffic you’re driving to your blog and the more money you can make.
But before we dive any deeper, let’s clear up some questions that you might have going through your head, because I know this was one of my questions.
Can My Blog Still Be a Success?
Maybe you’re wondering who will even read your blog? Or maybe you feel your niche is too crowded and that there are already too many bloggers blogging about the same thing you want to blog about.
But, whatever your concerns might be I want to prove to you that there is still plenty of room for your blog to be successful because of the following two aspects:
- The first aspect is your ability to answer your readers’ questions.
- And the second aspect is how well you add your personal perspective, twist, and story to your answer.
That means, regardless of how many bloggers there are in your niche, no one will write a blog the same way you do or have the same stories to share. Do you know what I mean?
What To Do If You Don’t Feel Like An Expert In Any Niche?
Ok, let me share the biggest blogging secret with you:
You don’t have to be an expert in order to start a profitable blog.
That means, you just need to figure out what people want to read about and create your own valuable content that solves your reader’s problem.
Believe me, I struggled for ages trying to blog about something I thought my readers wanted only to find out that they didn’t.
But if you want to make money from your blog you’ve got to make it about your readers and what they want to read.
What’s more, you don’t even have to be the best writer or speak English perfectly as you could hire a writer or outsource your blog posts.
Research Your Blog Niche
Maybe you want to start your mommy blog in the parenting niche or become a lifestyle blogger.
The question you need to ask yourself is are there enough people searching for the keywords you want to write about?
Because you won’t get the traffic you need to monetize your blog if no one searches for what you’re writing about.
As a general rule of thumb, if 100 people per month search for your keyword, you will know it has money-making potential.
And to help you “spy” on keyword search volumes I use a Chrome extension called Keyword Everywhere. There is a small cost involved to use this extension. However, I think it’s an investment that you won’t regret.
1 keyword = 1 credit.
For a one-off fee of $10, you can buy 100.000 credits.
Meaning you can spy on 100.000 keywords!
This extension shows you exactly how many people are looking for specific keywords every month.
And from looking at the search volume you can figure out what is worth writing about.
Pretty cool, huh?
Find Keywords People Search For
But, how do you find the right keywords to write about?
Finding the right keywords was exactly my biggest takeaway after watching this free webinar on SEO with Mike.
And if you’re wondering what my second biggest takeaway from watching the video was, it’s that it’s not hard to find the right keywords.
But my third takeaway is that you need to be strategic about which keywords you use to make money from your blog.
Research Keywords For Your Blog Content
After you’ve selected your niche and developed your menu, it’s time to concentrate on your content.
Because getting your content right is crucial for the success of your blog.
And that’s because your content is important for two reasons.
The first reason is that people are drawn to your blog because of the content you write.
And the second reason is that a great blog post also keeps readers on your site longer, which is important if you want to monetize with ads.
However, in order to attract and keep readers on your blog, you need to write strategically.
And writing strategically means you should only produce content your readers want rather than writing about random topics that come to mind.
To help you write strategically begin by looking up your keywords in Google and see what topics come up.
Once you have researched what keywords readers like to read, create a Google Spreadsheet and write down at least 10 topics around those keywords you wish to create content around.
After you’ve done that, think about what kind of post you can write around those keywords and start dotting down headline ideas.
Google Your Keyword
Next, google the keyword you want your post to rank for and pay attention to what comes up on Google’s first 10 searches.
Because Google is actually telling you what type of content it is expecting to see.
For my example keyword “how to start a blog and make money” I can see that all ranking posts are “How to…” posts, do you see what I mean?
Without checking Google’s results I could have ended up writing “10 Steps to set up your blog and make money” or “5 killer strategies to start a blog and make money”. But Google has figured out that people want to read “How-to” content for that specific keyword. Hence the top ten search results are pretty much ALL how-to posts.
In fact, this is called user intent and it’s what your audience actually types into Google.
And nailing user intent is not only important for your blog’s SEO but ultimately for your chances to make money from your blog.
What Is User Intent?
User intent, or known as query intent or search intent, is identifying what a user online intended to find when they typed their search terms into an online web search engine.
So, in other words, what is it that the user is really looking for when they turn to Google?
Understanding the user intent of your audience is key to creating relevant content that answers their questions. In addition, the better your content fits with your user intent the more likely search engines are to rank your post highly.
To learn more about user intent, check out this free webinar.
Download MOZ Chrome Extension
From my screenshot above, you may notice that my Google results differ slightly from yours. Because my search results have a grey bar under the actual search results, can you see it?
That’s because of a free extension called Moz bar that I use to “spy” on my competitor’s DA, which stands for Domain Authority.
What Is a DA and Why Is It Important
A Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). And a DA score ranges from 1 – 100.
Mama blogger, stay with me because it is important that you know this metric, even if you aren’t tech-savvy, and here’s why.
In short, your aim is for your posts to rank on Google’s first-page results, which means you must get among the first 1-10 articles.
Because, how often do you go past the first page? EXACTLY!
That’s why to get as many readers to click on your post as possible, it needs to appear on page one as well. However, there are already posts ranking on the first page. That means, to compete for a position, you need to be strategic and focus on keywords with a low Domain Authority.
What DA Should You Aim For?
It’s perfectly normal that when you start your blog, your DA is only 1. But don’t worry, because this is where every blogger starts, even the ones you see being very successful now.
However, even if your DA is only a 1, technically you can still compete with blogs that have a DA below 25.
And, as your DA rises, for example, you now have a DA 10, and you’ll be able to compete with blogs that have a DA under 39. However, when your DA is only 1, it’s not likely that you can compete with a blog that has a DA of 75+. Do you know what I mean?
DA 1+ | DA 5+ | DA 40+ |
---|---|---|
compete with DA 25 and less | compete with DA 39 and less | compete with DA 75 and less |
To sum it up, you basically want to avoid competing with high DA (40+) keywords, as it’s unlikely that your post will outrank them on page 1.
How Do I Find My Domain Authority?
To find out what your Domain Authority for your blog is, you can use this free domain SEO analysis tool by MOZ.
After you enter your domain, the Moz bar will show you top competitive SEO metrics like your Domain Authority (DA), top pages, ranking keywords, and more.
But, there is a limit of three searches per day with the free version, however, you’ll get unlimited searches with the paid version.
Install Google Analytics
You might be wondering, do I really need Google Analytics for my blog, even when I’m just starting out?
And the answer is yes!
Because Google Analytics provides you with data about how readers use your blog as soon as your content gets traffic.
And knowing where your readers spend most of their time helps you shape the strategies for your blog. In fact, you probably discover things you never knew about your visitors. And the better you understand the behavior of your visitors the better you can monetize your content.
How To Set Up Google Analytics
So, if you have never used Google Analytics before you’ll need to set up a free account here.
Connect Google Analytics to WordPress
Next, you want to connect your Google Analytics account to WordPress.
To help you do that you can use Monster Insights, which is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.
Initially, MonsterInsights Lite is free and all I’ve ever been using. And honestly, you can stick to the free version for now and save some cents. Otherwise, if you want to unlock more features you can upgrade to PRO.
How To Connect Monsterinsights to Google Analytics
To connect your Google Analytics account to your MonsterInsights you need to go to the MonsterInsights tab in your WordPress dashboard and then click on “Launch Setup Wizard”. From there you need to follow the instructions to get set up.
But don’t be alarmed if you don’t see data straight away because it takes up to 48 hours for data to show.
Set Aside Time To Work on Your Blog
As a mom, I understand that setting time aside for yourself can be really challenging. However, if you’re serious about blogging, you can’t let things happen by chance.
That’s why you should set a fixed time/day WHEN you will sit down to work on your blog and commit to it.
But above all, make sure your partner and children know when you will be working on your blog, in order to get their support.
As an example, you could say to your family, “I commit to writing my blog Monday-Friday 11-12 pm and 1-2 pm.”.
Because when you don’t commit to it and set aside time for it, it’s very easy to lose motivation. In no time at all, the chores start piling up, your kids start swimming lessons and you have to take them, and suddenly it becomes impossible to sit down and blog.
When I Sit Down To Write My Blog
While my baby is down for her second-morning nap, I prefer to write on my blog because I know she needs all of my attention the rest of the day. Even though I would love to sit down in front of my computer at night after she goes to sleep, I make a conscious effort not to. Because my night could be cut short without me knowing it. In this case, I won’t be able to look after her or my blog the next day.
In order to stay on top of things, I try to sleep when my baby sleeps and do housework before I work on my blog. But of course, as a blogger, I would love to spend as much time as possible working on my blog. But I keep reminding myself that my baby and my partner are my first priority.
When Are You Going To Work on Your Blog?
So, over to you now, mommy. What time and day are you committing to actually going to sit down to write your blog?
What Should You Work on First?
Now that you have found time to sit down and blog, the big question is: Where should you put your efforts? Since you want to start your blog to make money, you should strive to write “money-making” blog posts.
But what are money-making blog posts?
“Money-making” posts are blog posts that contain your affiliate links or that you get paid to write for example:
- affiliate posts
- sponsored posts
How To Make Money as a Blogger – With Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way for you if you’re just starting your blog and don’t have your own products or digital products to sell.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Firstly, affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s product or service to your readers through your blog content. That means, every time someone buys through your affiliate link, you’ll earn a commission.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
As an affiliate, you receive a unique link that tells the company or person the visitor came from your blog.
Some links have a lifespan of 24 hours, meaning you’ll only earn a commission if the person buys through your link within 24 hours. There are links, however, that last forever. Therefore, when someone buys via the link years after you created it, you still earn a commission.
Is Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
How much commission you earn depends on your affiliate programs and what terms you agreed to but commission rates are usually as high as 40-60%.
That means you can earn passive income from your affiliate links for years to come, which I personally love.
How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you can start with no money.
In fact, there are two ways for you to start affiliate marketing, even when you don’t have money, so let’s look at them one by one.
Promote the Products of Others, Company or Service
The first way to get started with affiliate marketing, even if you have no money, is to promote your favorite ebook, course, or software on your blog.
And for every sale you make you get a commission.
For example, let’s say you’re promoting a course that costs $100 and your commission is 40%. That means you’ll earn $40 every time someone buys through your link. After you’ve made a sale, your affiliate partner will pay you out instantly to your bank account or to the Paypal email you provided.
Share affiliate links on social media platforms
Affiliate marketing doesn’t even require a blog or a website because you can add affiliate links directly to your social media channels, such as a Facebook page or a Pinterest business account.
So if there are products you already love, why not tell your friends about them too?
How To Start Affiliate Marketing
By now you might be curious how you can get started with affiliate marketing on your blog, even if you’re a beginner, right? So, let me take you through the exact steps you need to take.
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
Here are ten steps on how to start with affiliate marketing as a beginner blogger.
- Pick your blog niche.
- Set up your blog (on WordPress and Bluehost).
- Research products and services you want to promote in your niche.
- Find out if they have an affiliate program.
- Apply to become an affiliate partner.
- Get your unique affiliate links.
- Create valuable content around your affiliate products and services.
- Add your affiliate links to your relevant blog posts.
- Promote your content on social media or to your email list.
- Earn a commission for every sale you make.
The Following Questions Might Also Interest You About Affiliate Marketing:
- How much does it cost to start affiliate marketing? Usually nothing. There are, however, some networks that charge a fee upfront to join. But, I’ve only joined free ones so far.
- Is affiliate marketing easy? Yes, it is easy in the sense that you don’t have to create your own products to start your blog and make money. And it’s easy to find a profitable niche with the help I’ve provided above. But creating valuable content, learning about SEO, and driving your blog to the right audience are difficult tasks. It’s not impossible, however.
- Can you start affiliate marketing with no money? Yes. Because the only costs you have are paying for your hosting or your theme for your blog. But other than that there are no additional costs for you to become an affiliate.
- How do affiliates get paid? How you get paid depends on your affiliate partner and the terms you have agreed on. Most pay you directly to your bank account or to your Paypal email address whereas some offer cheques. But personally, I only opt for bank transfers or Paypal.
Tip: Remember when we talked about what to focus on when you sit down to write? Because when your goal is to make affiliate sales, then make sure you are writing promotional content as your priority.
I recommend Michelle’s FREE 36 page eBook on how she went from $0 to $50K/ month with affiliate income to get started.
Examples of Affiliate Posts
A good example of an affiliate post are:
- List posts, like this one
- Review posts, like this review about affiliate marketing or this one about RankIQ
- Tutorials, like the one you’re reading right now or this step-by-step guide
How To Make Money as a Blogger – With Sponsored Posts
What is a sponsored post? A sponsored blog post is when a brand pays you to feature its product or service in your blog post.
Unlike affiliate marketing where you earn a commission for every sale, for sponsored content you usually get paid a set fee upfront.
How Do I Get Sponsors for My Blog?
There are two popular ways to get sponsored posts for your blog.
The first way you can get sponsorships for your blog is either by reaching out to brands yourself or the second way is by brands reaching out to you.
10 Steps How To Get Sponsored Posts for Your Blog
- Set up a sponsor page (media kit) on your blog.
- Describe what you do and what’s your mission with your blog.
- Outline the benefits of working with you. Why should brands care?
- Describe your readers. Who exactly reads your blog? What are they interested in?
- Outline what you’re going to deliver. Include samples if you have.
- Negotiate a price you feel comfortable with. Don’t be shy to ask for money, because remember that you’re doing the work. So don’t sell yourself short. (And if you have questions about how much you should ask for email me and I’ll help you negotiate)
- Create valuable content that is relevant to brands you want to work with.
- Find brands you want to work with and pitch a sponsored post idea to them.
- Look at other blogs in your niche to see which brands are sponsoring them.
- Build relationships with brands to get more sponsored posts and increase your income.
However, ultimately the best way to get sponsored posts is by you being proactive. That means if you really like to work with a brand, reach out to them and let them know instead of waiting for them to reach out to you.
To keep track of the brands you’ve reached out to and those you want to work with, create a spreadsheet listing all the brands you would like to work with.
How Much Money Do Sponsors Pay?
How much money you get paid with your sponsored post depends on the following:
- the brand you want to work with
- your niche
- the level of your expertise
- your audience size
- the age of your blog
- and how much traffic you are getting per month.
But as a general guideline when you’re just starting your blog with no audience aim for $20-$100 per post.
Then, when you have a bigger audience and are getting more page views aim for $200+ per post.
And if you have a very large audience and tens of thousands of page views you can ask for $1000+ per post and more easily!
How Do You Disclose a Sponsored Blog Post?
I am glad you’ve asked this question, because by law, you are required to disclose in your post who you are working with and that you get paid to do this review.
To comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations make it very clear at the beginning and at the end of your post when it’s a sponsored post.
In addition, you can also add that although the company is paying you to write this post, you choose to review this product because you really like it and want to share it with your readers.
Because, if you fail to disclose your sponsored posts, you could get your blog fined or shut down.
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Summary
Congratulations on making it this far, mommy.
If you’re taking one thing away from this post I hope it’s that setting up your mom blog on Bluehost and WordPress is easy.
In the beginning, I promised you’d have your blog all set up by the end of this post. And here we are! If you followed me along with all the steps your blog should be set up by now. How did you go? Please tell me in the comments below if it was easy for you to follow along.
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Don’t forget to send me an email if you get stuck. Good luck!
Was this helpful, mommy? Have I missed something or do you have any questions? Then leave me a comment below!
I’m Kristin Brause, a new mom and now a blogger. But please call me Kris! My blog AnyMommyCanMakeMoney was born out of my desire to stay at home with my baby and work from home instead of being away from her for work. My mission now is to help mommies who also want to stay at home with their kids make money online because I believe that any mommy can work from home and make money, even between nap times and nappy changes, with the right strategies. Check out my resources to help you make money.
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Aww this is really useful and in depth, starting from literally choosing your host!
Thanks, Tigs! Yes, choosing your hosting really is the most first step to “future-proof” your blog for all the traffic that’s to come.
Wow! Love this step-by-step post 🧡. I use WordPress and Astra and I would definitely stay away from free hosting. I did a post about lessons that I have learned since I started my blog https://sensiblyshelley.com/starting-a-blog-11-important-lessons-i-learned/
Thank you for sharing this.
THANK YOU for taking the time to read! Glad to hear WordPress and Astra are working for you too! Great article on your tips, thanks for sharing!
Great guide for new bloggers. If only I had something like that when I was starting….
Oh thanks, Jelena, what a huge compliment. Please feel free to share it with any new blogger you know who could beneft from it.