How to create a blog for free and make money

How can you create a blog for free and make money?

The first step to creating a blog is to choose a niche or topic to blog about. Choose your content management system, like WordPress, and obtain a domain and hosting. Companies like Ezoic offer free WordPress hosting. Finally, find an affiliate program, create content, and promote your content to start making money.

Imagine, starting your own blog and earning a full-time income. Every month you are making more and more money.

Blogging is a great way to earn money and it’s relatively cheap to start.

Luckily for you, I’m going to show you free and cheap ways to start your blog. I’ll even show you some tips on how to start monetizing your blog so you can start earning money. With consistent effort, you can have a website making you money while you sleep.

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How to create a blog for free and make money

To create a blog and make money, start by choosing your niche and content management system. A domain and hosting are relatively inexpensive, but can be obtained for free. Find an affiliate program and create content around that affiliate program. Finally, promote your content and start making money.

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Choose niche

The first thing any new blog has to do is determine their niche. A niche is a topic of interest that you’re going to blog about. For example, you can blog about sports, hobbies, personal finance, or weight loss.

You should try and choose a niche that has consumer goods if you are trying to make money from your bog. When there are products you can mention in your blog post, you can make money through ads and affiliate products.

For example, you could talk about gardening and write a blog post on the best gardening sheds. Advertisers will want to advertise on your page because they want to sell garden sheds. You can also link to some of the best sheds and earn a commission through affiliate programs.

Choose content management system (CMS)

Next, you will want to choose your content management system or CMS. Your content management system is what helps you publish and manage your websites content. WordPress.com and medium.com are free options, but it’s usually just best to pay for hosting.

WordPress.org is the most common content management system available. The main difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is that .org requires you to pay for your own hosting.

People who are looking for a hobby blog might want to choose WordPress.com. However, if you’re trying to actually make money from your website, then you should choose WordPress.org. 

The free version of WordPress is going to show ads on your website. You won’t be able to add your own advertisements either.

Simply put, WordPress.com is very limited in what you can do and it’s just better to use WordPress.org in most cases.

Once you have obtained hosting and a domain, you can easily install WordPress.org via one-click installation. There are plenty of videos on YouTube which walk you through the WordPress installation process. 

Get a domain and hosting

You will also need to obtain a domain and hosting for your website.Your host stores all of your  website’s information and connects your website to the internet. Most hosting plans can be purchased for less than $15 per month, but Ezoic offers free WordPress hosting.

Find affiliate program

Now that you have your website set up, it is time to focus on building a business. Find an affiliate program within your niche that offers a commission for every sale you refer. Create a list of all the affiliate programs you are interested in promoting.

An affiliate program is when a company offers you a commission to sell their product. For example, you might find a furniture store that gives you a 10% commission for all sales you refer.

You write an article on the best couches for a small apartment and link to the couches in your article. You earn 10% of the sale price whenever someone purchases a couch through your link.

Affiliate products can be found on marketplaces like ShareASale.

Create content

To make money as a blogger, you will have to produce content. Content is your business when it comes to blogging. You need to create content that will rank on Google and can earn you money.

The easiest ways for new bloggers to make money is through ad revenue and affiliate marketing. Your content needs to appeal to advertisers and you need to casually linked to affiliate products throughout your post.

Most new bloggers make the mistake of just creating the content they want to write. The problem is, most people don’t care about the content you want to create. To make money you have to write the content people are searching for and want to read. 

For example, new bloggers often write articles that are personal tales from their life. Instead, focus on answering specific questions people are asking Google about. The best articles are often the ones where people are seeking an answer.

Remember,  you can’t make any money without traffic to your website. To get website traffic, you need the right kind of content.

Promote content

Finally, you should have some understanding about how you’re going to get your website traffic. There are plenty of strategies for obtaining website traffic, such as, social media marketing, guest posting, and search engine optimization. The best traffic source for monetization is search engine optimization.

A lot of bloggers find success from Pinterest. Pinterest is able to generate a lot of traffic if you are producing content aimed towards women.However, Pinterest is a social media platform and you never know when it’s going to become the next Myspace.

Other bloggers have found that producing YouTube videos works well for website traffic and selling products. However, starting a YouTube channel when you’re first starting a blog can be overwhelming.

Personally, I’m a fan of search engine optimization. Your goal is to write articles that rank on the first page of Google for website traffic. People are actively searching for Solutions on Google and find your website as that solution.

SEO is more about finding customers that are looking for your product. Social media is more about inserting yourself into people’s lives and hoping they want to see your content. 

How do bloggers get paid?

Bloggers get paid through display advertisements, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and selling their own products. These monetization strategies are often achieved by partnering with third-party companies who pay via PayPal or direct deposit. Third-party companies will often submit a 1099 for tax purposes at the end of the year.

For example, you may monetize your website strictly through display advertisements. You will need a company like Ezoic to manage your ad inventory. Ezoic handles every aspect of placing ads on your website, paying you, and sending you a 1099.

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Summary: Create a blog for free and make money

As you can see, it’s a lot of hard work but it is possible to create a blog for free and make money. In most cases, you don’t have to start spending a lot of money in order to make money with blogging.

The first step is to determine your niche or topic of interest you will blog about. Try choosing a niche that you are interested in and has products you can sell.

You will need to choose a Content management system, but WordPress.org is the most common CMS. WordPress is the most ideal content management system, especially if you want to use Ezoic’s free hosting.

You’ll need to create content that has value to advertisers or with the intention of selling a product. You’re content also needs to be the type that people are searching for, not what you are interested in. Ideally, you are selling a product or ad placement and writing an article that people want to read.

Have a clear plan for how your website will get traffic. Without traffic, you will not make any money.

Bloggers are paid through a combination of display ads, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and selling products. In most cases, you will be partnering with a third-party business to support your blog. These third-party businesses will pay you via PayPal or direct deposit and submit a 1099.