You’ve been hearing so many good things about blogging. You like the idea of flexible hours, passive income, working from home, and most of all FREEDOM! But you are probably asking yourself if you really have what it takes to become a blogger!
You do! I promise!
The only thing holding you back is yourself. Just get started! One of my favorite mantras is “stop dreaming and start doing”
Here are the 6 steps it takes to become a blogger!
How to Become a Blogger: Step 1
While most “How to Blog Bloggers” will tell you to set up your hosting first I am going to tell you something different. RESEARCH AND PICK A NICHE FIRST! You don’t want to go to all the trouble of setting up your blog, “KnittingCatToysForBeginners.com” and then find out that there is zero market and no money making potential. Do your research on the front end so that you know exactly what you are getting yourself into. Finding The Perfect Niche doesn’t have to be hard!
How to Become a Blogger Step 2: Self Host
Self Hosting Your Blog is going to be the only way you will be able to make money. Please take the time and spend the money to self-host now so that you save time later! We use BlueHost and have been very happy so far! Choose the one that will work best for you!
links below are affiliate links
BlueHost
BlueHost Basic Plan starts as low as 2.95/ Month
2.95/month includes
- free domain name!
- 1 website
- 50 GB of website space
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 5 parked domains
- 25 subdomains
- 5 email accounts
How to Setup a Blog with BlueHost
Site Ground
SiteGround’s Basic Plan starts as low as $3.95/month
$3.95/month includes
- 1 website
- 10 GB Web Space
- 10,000 Visits Monthly (You can have more visitors but this is the happy spot for site speed and capability with this plan)
- Unmetered traffic
- Free email
*With SiteGround you will have to pay for your domain name. You can do this through SiteGround for 15.95 or through godaddy.com, or domains.google.com (both are around$12 for the year)
How to Set up a Blog with SiteGround
How to Become a Blogger Step 3: Find the Time
If you want to become a full-time blogger then you need to treat blogging like a real job. Real jobs have consistent hours, deadlines, and responsibilities. Guess what? If you want to be successful you will need to do this also!
My pro tip for you is to make blogging work hours. These working hours are the minutes you have scraped together that only belong to your blog. You need to check out during this time and completely focus on your blog.
When I first began blogging I had very limited time as I still had a full-time job and a baby at home. I had to make time at the beginning and end of my days to work on building my blog.
This is an example of what my schedule was:
Monday-Thursday: 5 am-6:30 am and 7:30 pm-8:30 pm.
Saturday-Sunday: 9 am-10:30 am and 1 pm-3 pm
The key is to maintain a very specific to-do list. I would do all writing and content creation in the morning and then marketing and graphic design in the evenings. My weekends were usually spent plowing through my other mountain of to-do lists such as tracking down affiliate codes, putting together marketing emails, etc.
If you are blogging as a side hustle it will be key that you set business hours and calendar block.
Get organized with this as soon as possible!
Productivity Resource Bundle
Do you want the tools I used to grow my mommy blog side hustle to over $1000 a month?
I'm giving them out for free! Why? Because I was a new blogger once too and I wish someone would have helped me this way too!
Grab this bundle of 4 productivity resources!
Includes:
- Writing Checklist
- Keyword and Topic Planner
- Blog Post Outline
- At a Glance Blog Post Organizer
How to Become a Blogger Step 4: Create a Pillar Post Sequence
A Pillar Post Sequence is when you write a killer, long-form piece of content and then write follow up pieces to link within that original post. This is great for SEO, internal linking, and to bulk out your blog. You will also be able to carve out where you will place money making posts. Here is an example of a Pillar Post Sequence:
Niche: Rescue Dogs
Pillar Post #1: How to Rescue A Dog 101
- Which breed is right for you
- What you MUST DO your first week with a new dog
- Potty Training a New Dog
- Everything you need for a new dog ($ Making Post with affiliate links)
- Picking the right dog food ($ Making Post with affiliate links)
- First 5 Commands you MUST teach your new dog
The Pillar Post “How to Rescue A Dog 101″ would be a long post in which you are extremely detailed in your explanation. You would then write the follow-up posts and link them in the Pillar Post in all the relevant places.
Take it a step further and create your Pillar Post Sequence using Google and Pinterest SEO strategies.
How to Become a Blogger Step 5: Write Consistently!
Write EVERY SINGLE DAY. Writing takes PRACTICE! No one is an amazing writer the very first time they sat down to write. Blog post writing is a very specific type of writing that can be challenging to master in the beginning, but the more often you do it the better you will become.
As with step 1, decide how long you are able to write for in a single sitting and do that amount of time EVERY SINGLE DAY. Save all of the other blogging tasks (marketing, photography, proofreading, etc) for later. Your writing must come first! Content drives traffic!
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Become a Blogger Step 6: Market the crap out of yourself and your blog!
You can write the best content but unless you are an SEO genius your content most likely won’t be found unless you market it. I highly suggest marketing your blog on Pinterest. You can do this for free!
While marketing your blog on Pinterest is free to do there is also a paid service called Tailwind. Tailwind allows you to schedule hundreds of posts in just a few minutes, sign up for tribes which will increase traffic, and provides pretty in-depth analytics which will help you improve your Pinterest Marketing.
Read: Pinterest Marketing Using Tailwind
You can sign up for Tailwind for free and schedule your first 100 pins through our affiliate link. After that, there are several different packages available.
The Basic Tailwind Account called Tailwind Plus starts at 9.99/month per account and it is billed annually. This membership includes
- Smart scheduling
- Unlimited scheduling
- Profile and board metrics
- Basic website insights
- 30-day history archive
- 5 Tailwind Tribes Memberships
- 30 Tailwind Tribe Submissions
- 250 Active Smart Loop Posts
After that, there are many different upgrades you can select. I highly, HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend signing up for the Tailwind Plus account. The time you will save scheduling pins and using Tribes will more than earn back your $9.99 a month investment. Sign up and schedule your first 100 posts for free, here.
Pro Tip
Write and publish consistently. In my first 6 months of blogging, I would be super consistent for 2 months then drop off for a month. This impacted my traffic EVERY SINGLE TIME. Don’t make that mistake. Write and PUBLISH consistently.
When you’ve conquered steps 1-6 its time to up your game!
If you have become really adept at one income stream such as Affiliate marketing, it is probably time to add in another income stream. You can make money off of sponsored posts, affiliate products, or selling your own goods or services! By diversifying your income streams you will start making more money and therefore be on your way to quitting your job and becoming a blogger full time!
Why Spark Your Blog?
We have been where you are! We got married, overspent, had a baby, and felt like we were drowning in student loan debt, bills, and every day expenses. Starting our first blog changed everything! With my little mommy blog, I was bringing in over 1k a month in less than a year with pretty minimal effort and maintenance (after I got the blog off the ground that is!)
That could be you too! If you have a few extra hours to spare each week think about what that extra income can do for you! And if you work really hard you can turn blogging from a side hustle into a full-time gig! It's possible!
So stop dreaming and start doing!
