How to Start a BLOG that Makes MONEY

Hi guys and welcome back to my channel .

Welcome to my new office that is in progress .

I don't mind the shelves .

They're definitely still being worked on , but I am really excited to be sharing this new location with you guys .

I'm so excited to have a proper office .

I've had a few different offices over the past few years , but none that I really took ownership of and decorated how I wanted .

I wasn't even sure exactly what I wanted to be entirely honest .

So like I'm finally uh finding my own style and just really enjoying the process and really enjoying having such an inspiring space to be working out of .

But anyway , that's kind of , aside from the point of today's video , today , we're going to be talking about how to start a blog that makes money .

I've been blogging for .

Oh , I don't know exactly .

I feel like I started blogging actually kind of at the tail end of high school or early college .

So seven years now , eight years um that I've been blogging , but I definitely did not make any money at it for the first five years or so .

It's only been in the last three years that I've really started making money from my blog and there was a lot of different reasons for that .

I was not consistent .

I didn't know why I was blogging .

I didn't know how to make money with a blog .

Uh But I've learned a lot over these past few years since I've started making money from my blog .

And I mean , I guess I learned a lot even before that , but it's only really come to fruition and I've only figured out how to put it all together in these last few years .

And of course , if you like this video , make sure you hit the like button down below to let me know .

So in today's video , I'm going to be sharing with you the eight things that you need to do in order to make money with your blog .

And we're going to talk kind of about the basics of setting up a blog , but also what you need to do in order to actually be able to make money from it and not just have it be a time consuming hobby .

All right .

So the absolute first thing you need to do before you even choose your domain name or set up your blog at all is you need to figure out why people would read your blog .

Because if you don't know why people would read your blog , then other people won't know either and they won't read your blog and you won't know how you're helping them and you won't know how to turn it into something that is making money .

So there's a lot of reasons that you need to figure this out .

And for some of you , it might be really easy to figure out .

You might know exactly why someone would read your blog .

Maybe you're thinking of starting a healthy desserts blog .

And so , you know , people would read your blog because they want to be healthy and they like dessert , right ?

But for others of you , you might have a much more vague idea , especially if you are thinking of starting a lifestyle blog or a mommy blog or something like that .

And you're not sure exactly what people would be getting out of it .

So if that happens to be your situation , especially if you are thinking about starting a life , a blog or a Mommy blog , one of the main things that you might consider that people are getting out of your blog or a reason why people would read your blog is because they are looking for someone who they can relate to and they're looking to not feel alone essentially .

So they want to know that there are other moms out there who are like them or other college students who are like them and they just want to feel not so much alone .

The other reason why they might want to read a blog like that is for inspiration maybe you're going to inspire their style or inspire them to live a better life through how to type articles .

Or maybe you're just going to inspire them because they'll see how you're living and they'll see how you are using style in your life or how you are living a life that seems to them to be better or more organized or something like that .

And so they might read your blog for one of those reasons .

All right , the next thing you need to do once you've figured out why someone would read your blog is you need to brainstorm a whole bunch of content ideas .

Now that I want you to do this is twofold .

The first thing is because I want you to have a lot of ideas at your disposal so that you're not wondering , you know , what should you write about and you're not feeling like you don't have enough ideas .

But then the other reason is so that you can refine and organize your ideas so that you can really polish what's going to be on your blog and it won't be so messy , right ?

When you first start out , if you brainstorm all these ideas , then you'll be able to sort them into different categories and maybe decide to not do some ideas that at first you were kind of interested in , they weren't at the top of your list , but they seem like pretty good ideas .

But then when you see them with all the other ideas , you'll realize that they don't really fit .

So that's why it's a good idea to start with .

The second step by brainstorming a bunch of ideas and then organizing them into categories and deciding which ones you're actually going to use on the blog and which ones you probably go in the trash .

OK .

And then step number three is the thing that we all think we need to do when we start a blog and that's actually set up the blog .

So there's a number of different things that you need to do in order to get your blog up and running this video isn't going to be a how to start a blog tutorial .

I might do a video like that in the future if you guys want to see that where I'm actually showing you on my computer how to set up the blog itself .

Uh But what I can share with you is I made a video in the past quite a while ago , actually , almost a year ago , one of my first videos was about how much it costs to start a blog .

And I break down different options for each of the things that you need to get to start a blog and how much each of these different options would cost .

But for now , I just kind of want to run through the list .

Uh First off , you need hosting .

Hosting is basically a service that has your blog on it so that people from all over the world can go online and access your blog on this server .

The second thing you'll need is a domain name and that's just your web address .

So like Gillian Perkins dot com is my domain name .

The third thing you need to do is install wordpress .

That's what most people use .

At least you don't have to .

There are some other options but wordpress provides so many options .

It's very flexible and it's completely free .

So that's what most people use for their blogs and for a lot of other types of websites too .

The fourth thing you need to do is choose a theme and this is kind of like a template for the decorations of your website .

So as you are making your website look a certain way , this is going to give you a framework so that you're not coding things from scratch .

The first thing you need to do , not everyone does , but I highly recommend it , especially if you want to make money with your blog and that's to sign up for an email marketing service .

Now , you probably aren't going to be marketing anything right away .

But an email marketing service will just allow you to collect the email addresses of the people who are reading your blog .

And that way you'll be able to reach out to them on a regular basis , remind them about your blog , share new blog posts and really build a relationship with them .

And then step six is to actually design the blog itself .

So now that you have these five different components , you need to put them all together and actually design your blog .

So it looks how you want .

And so you can start putting content on it .

OK .

So that brings us to the end of step three , which is set up your blog .

And now step four is to start blogging .

So this is where you're actually going to be writing blog posts and then putting them onto your website .

A lot of you might really enjoy the process of designing the blog and making it look how you want .

But for all the rest of you who just thought that that was a hassle .

This is probably the part that you're really excited to get into , which is actually writing the blog posts .

After you've written a few blog posts , you're going to probably want some people to start reading them .

And so step number five is to drive traffic to your blog .

Now , it used to be that this step kind of took care of yourself .

And I'm talking a number of years ago when the internet was still relatively new and there weren't that many blogs out there .

And Google had just started , people would just write blog posts and then they would get found organically on Google .

And so all that really mattered was seo and making it .

So that Google could figure out what your blog post was about .

Now these days , you might get a little bit of traffic from SEO , in fact , you might get a lot of traffic , but that's not guaranteed at all .

And so you really have to go out there and be proactive about getting the traffic .

Now for my blog and for a lot of other bloggers that I know the best sources of traffic have been Pinterest and youtube .

Now , I feel like youtube is fairly self explanatory .

I mean , I make videos you guys know that , of course .

And then sometimes I share about a blog article on my website that has additional resources or that you could go to learn more about whatever I'm talking about .

And then that means that people go and they visit my blog and I get a whole lot of blog traffic that way Pinterest might not be quite as obvious .

But basically people create images like the sort of pins that you see on Pinterest and they put them in their blog posts and then they pin those images on to Pinterest .

Now it gets a little bit more complicated than that .

OK ?

Actually , it gets a lot more complicated than that if you want to actually get any real traffic from Pinterest .

So I have another video again , this is a video I created almost a year ago , but it's all about how I get blog traffic from Pinterest and I really get into the nitty gritty of my traffic in that video .

So if you want to learn about how to get blog traffic with Pinterest , then I will link that video up there in the corner and you can go check it out once you are actually getting traffic .

And just a word of warning , that step is the one that takes the longest .

Sometimes it starts working right away .

But a lot of the times you do have to uh kind of test different things and figure out something that works for you and what the best thing for your blog is .

But once you have a system that is working well and you're really getting traffic , then it's time to move on to step .

Number six , step , number six is to engage with your audience .

Now , there's a lot of different ways you can do this .

But basically all it means is you've got these people coming to your website , they read an article and then they might just leave .

Probably they'll just leave and they'll completely forget about you and they'll never even think about your blog again .

Even if they thought the article was great .

It's just that there's so many distractions in today's world and there's so many different things competing for their attention .

So if you want to build a lasting relationship with them and actually be able to help them more in the future and actually make money with your blog , then you need to engage with them .

Now , the main two ways to do this are through emails .

So like I said before , I want you to be collecting their emails , you can just put something on your website that says subscribe to the blog or you can offer them some fun freebie for signing up .

But however you do it , you want to be collecting their emails and then you want email them on about a weekly basis to really just continue to build that relationship to share your new blog posts with them so that you can get to know them better and they don't forget who you are .

And then of course , the other way that you can do it is on social media .

You can choose whatever your favorite social media platform is , something that has kind of an updates type feature .

So like Instagram or Facebook or maybe Twitter , and then you want to just be sharing with them on a regular basis articles with them , of course , but also share the behind the scenes and what's going on in your life .

OK .

And then step number seven is where you actually get into the making money part .

Although make sure you don't try to skip to step seven .

A lot of people do .

If they are focused on how to make money with a blog , they just try to skip to step seven , which is basically figure out how to make money .

We'll get more into that in just a moment .

But steps one through six , every single one of them is so vital because those steps really lay the foundation for being able to make money .

And if you try to skip any of those steps , then making money with your blog just will not work and you will feel really frustrated and you'll waste a lot of time trying to do something that just isn't going to happen .

Ok .

So step seven , I said it was basically figuring out how to make money with your blog .

What the step is , is decide how to help your audience further .

So way back in step number one , you decided or figure out why someone would read your blog in the first place .

So maybe they want to get healthy and they like desserts .

Ok ?

That's plenty enough reason for someone to be reading your blog .

And now in step seven , you're going to figure out how can you take this a step further ?

That's what they want .

How can you give them even more , how can you be even more helpful ?

So in that instance , maybe the answer would be to publish a cookbook of your top dessert recipes .

And a lot of bloggers go the ebook route , whether it's actually an ebook or they decide to self publish a paperback copy of their book .

But there are a few other options too .

Some of the most popular other options include creating an online course offering services or recommending products .

Now , which one you choose can depend on a lot of different things .

It can depend on what you feel like making or doing .

It can also depend on what you're helping with your audience with , you know , what type of value you're giving to them .

It might really lend itself to a course versus an ebook or to offering a service versus writing an e-book , for example .

And then it also might depend on what type of content your audience really enjoys consuming or what they are wanting from you .

So for example , if you are a fashion blogger , then the very best way that you can help people might simply be to recommend products .

A lot of fashion bloggers make most of their money from affiliate commissions , which is just when a blogger or anyone recommends a product and they give you their unique link for that product .

And then if you go and buy that product , then they get a small cut of the sale .

Whereas on the other hand , if you have a blog for photographers about photography , then the best way you could help your readers might be to create an online course for them about how you edit your photos .

So for step number seven , you need to figure out how you can help your audience further .

And mostly that has to do with what value are you going to give them that will help them further .

But then also , you need to decide what form that value will take .

So will it be an e-book ?

Will it be a course ?

Will you be recommending products or will you be offering a service ?

Ok .

So that's almost it .

The last step .

Step number eight is simply to show your audience how the product can help them .

And so I've phrased this step very carefully because I think that a lot of us might just immediately feel , know like we're trying to sell something and , oh no , I'm not good at sales or I don't know much about marketing , but it really doesn't have to be complicated once you've already done all that foundational work of , you know , building your blog and getting the traffic .

So you actually have the audience and you're connected with them and you have a relationship with them , then there's already that trust there .

They already like you , they already know that you have valuable things to share with them .

And so you just need need to show them how this latest thing , whatever it is , whether it's an ebook , whether it's a product , whatever it is , you just need to show them specifically how it helps them and why they would want it .

And you can do that over a series of emails or through a series of blog posts or videos , but just show them how it would help them , how their life would be different after they , you know , completed the course or if they bought the product and then tell them about how to buy it also .

This definitely doesn't need to make you feel weird , buy me or sales because they're only going to buy it if they want whatever the result is , that would happen if they bought it .

And so it's just your job to give a good representation of , you know , what they're getting , what the value is there and then they can decide for themselves whether or not they want that value .

And if they do , then that's actually fantastic for both of you because they're getting something that they want , like they're being helped , you're helping them and you're getting paid in the process .

All right .

So that summarizes the eight step that you need to follow if you want to start a blog that makes money .

Now , before I go , there's just a couple more things that I want to address .

First of all , uh something that a lot of people bring up when they are interested in starting a blog that makes money is they ask me , what about Google ad words ?

You know , or they , you know , they ask , should I put Google adwords on my site ?

Is that a way to make money with a blog ?

Because there's a lot of articles out there that say that that's how you make money with a blog is you put ads on your site and then people click on them and you get paid when someone clicks on your ads .

And that used to be an ok way to make money when the internet was less competitive .

When people weren't so oversaturated by advertisements , they were more likely to click on the ads and the ads paid better .

But these days , I would not recommend putting ads on your site .

In fact , that would be the last thing I would suggest you would ever do because first off , there's a million blogs out there .

And so if you want to stand out , your blog needs to be fantastic .

And if you're cluttering it up with ugly ads , then that is immediately downgrading the appearance and the quality of your site .

So definitely not something you want to do .

And second of all , it's really hard to make money with those ads .

Actually , people don't click on them very much anymore .

I mean , still millions of clicks , but comparatively to how much they used to , they don't click on them very frequently because there are so many ads out there and when they do click , you only get a few pennies .

So you have to have literally hundreds of thousands of visitors to your site to make much money from those ads at all .

And if you do have that many visitors , you could be making so much more money through any of the other ways that you could make money with the blog by selling services or by selling a product or by recommending products .

You could just make so much more money , so many other ways .

And for most small blogs who are just getting started or who have a small audience , you'd literally be making less than a couple 100 bucks a month and probably a lot less than that .

So it's just really not worth it .

And I would not recommend putting ads on your site .

All right .

So that brings us to the end of how to start a blog that makes money .

But before you go , I just wanted to remind you that startup society is currently open for enrollment .

It's open right now , but it's only going to be open until next Tuesday , June 19th .

So depending on when you watch this video , uh that might have already passed , but hopefully you're watching this before Tuesday , June 19th because on that day , at 8 p.m. doors to startup society will be closed and they will not open again for at least six more months .

So if you're wondering what startup society is , it ?

Is the membership community that I run inside .

You get unlimited access to all of my online courses , including courses on how to get traffic for your blog , how to make money online , how to get clients online and even how to become successful as a self published author .

So there is a whole bunch of good stuff in there .

Plus we have an exclusive membership community that is this really intimate , tight knit group of online entrepreneurs who are all helping each other out and providing support .

As we are growing , our online businesses start up .

Society membership is only $33 a month .

And like I said , you get unlimited access to all of my courses , most of which are around 100 or more dollars each .

So it's an amazing deal .

And I would love to have you join us inside .

If this sounds like something that you're interested in , then make sure you click the link down below to sign up now because like I said , doors are only open until Tuesday , June 19th .

Ok .

Well , thank you so much for watching this video .

I really enjoyed sharing with you all about how to start a blog .

If it makes money , it's been an amazing journey for me growing to be something that provides several $1000 of income every single month for my family .

And it's a big chunk of how I support my family working from home .

If you enjoyed this video , make sure you hit the thumbs up button to let me know and help more people find this video .

And also make sure you subscribe to my channel .

I make two videos every single week about intentional living entrepreneurship and success .

And I would love to have you join me for the next one .

Thank you so much for watching .

My name is Gillian and I look forward to seeing you again next time .