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There are seven steps to how to start a business blog that makes money. First, decide what type of blog to start and which monetization ideas to include. Then select the best platform, register a domain name, design your site, and begin adding blog content. Next, drive traffic to your business blog so that it can earn money. Continue reading for step-by-step instructions, as well as blog ideas that can help you earn money.
When starting a small business blog, you must choose a blogging platform. We recommend using Wix to reduce headaches and hassles. You can start a blog for free or get a free domain with paid plans starting at $16 per month, and then monetize it by adding ads.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
Also Read: 10 Best Free WordPress Themes For Dating Sites 2023
1. Decide What Type of Blog to Start
The first step in creating a blog and making money for your small business is deciding what to write about. You may already have an idea of what your blog’s content should be about, but you must also choose a niche with real earning potential.
Using keyword research tools like Semrush can help you determine whether your chosen topic has a large enough audience to generate revenue. Its Keyword Overview and Keyword Magic tools show how much traffic your topic can generate on a monthly basis. Furthermore, they determine the best keywords to use to drive traffic to your site.
Also, make a formal blog business plan that addresses the most important steps in your business blog-building journey. Your strategy will define your niche audience, assist you in identifying competing websites and marketplace opportunities, define your content and monetization strategies, and allow you to create a detailed plan for promoting your business blog.
Types of Business Blogs
A small business can start many different types of blogs, each appealing to a different type of audience. The best type for you is one in which you already have extensive knowledge, skills, and direct experience, or in which you have a strong interest in the subject. Without it, you may struggle to generate enough content or spend a lot of time researching articles.
Some examples of easily monetizable blogs include:
- Food blogs:You could start a food blog if you enjoy cooking and creating new recipes. It’s also one of the most popular internet niches.
- Fitness and wellness blogs: Turn your interest in health and fitness into a wellness blog.
- Business blogs: Business blogs typically concentrate on specific types of businesses (for example, starting a small business, startups, or entrepreneurs), industries (for example, restaurants, salons, automotive, and so on), or topics (like marketing, finance, leadership, and management, or human resources).
- Travel blogs: If you have a strong desire for adventure and travel, a travel blog could be an excellent source of revenue.
- Lifestyle blogs: A popular blogging niche, lifestyle blogs focus on the blogger’s personal preferences, interests, style, or unique tastes.
- Craft blogs: There is a high demand for do-it-yourself craft ideas right now. If you are enthusiastic about sharing your crafting knowledge, you should consider starting a craft blog.
- Finance blogs: These include personal or business blogs that discuss how to save money, invest your money, live on a budget, and other financial topics.
- Sports blogs: If you enjoy sports, you might consider starting a blog about your favourite sport or team.
- Mommy blogs: These blogs cover topics such as parenting, homemaking, and the personal challenges that mothers face.
- Entertainment blogs: You can write about movies, television, music, theatre, and celebrities on your blog.
- Fashion and beauty blogs: These blogs usually discuss fashion trends, makeup, hair, and various types of beauty products and regimens.
- Hobby blogs: Blog about any hobby you can think of, from model trains to video games to gardening.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
Also Read: WordPress Blog SEO Friendly | How to Make Your WordPress Blog SEO Friendly
2. Choose the Best Platform to Start a Business Blog
There are two kinds of blog hosting platforms. The first is to start a topical blog on a third-party website like Medium, a personal blog (such as a crafting blog) on Blogger, or to build professional thought leadership on LinkedIn by blogging. While this option is frequently free, it has significant limitations in terms of blog design, monetization, and search engine visibility.
The second option is to start your own blog. A self-hosted site is the best way to make money with a blog because it can be customized with all of the features you require, such as themes, plugins, and marketing capabilities. You can do this for free on some of the best blogging platforms for making money, such as Wix and Weebly, or on paid plans starting at $5.
Wix’s website builder, for example, can be used to create a blog, sell products and services, and easily monetize your content with Google AdSense. Alternatively, Bluehost allows you to start a small How to Start a Business Blog on WordPress for as little as $2.95.
Self-hosted sites perform better in terms of generating organic web traffic from your target audience, especially over time. They also offer the most opportunities to implement profitable blog ideas without the constraints of third-party blogging platforms.
Read our article on the best blogging platforms for small How to Start a Business Blog for a detailed look at the best platforms for How to Start a Business Blog for small. If you only want to create short-form content, read our guide on how to start an Instagram blog.
Publish on a Third-party Site
WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium are all free blogging platforms. The benefit of these websites is that they connect you to a network of other bloggers and have already built audiences that may be similar to your niche audience. Keep in mind, however, that you will be competing for the same audience as other blogs on these sites.
While many third-party sites allow you to start a small business blog for free, there are some drawbacks, including:
- No custom domain: Because your blog will be hosted on a subdomain, you will not be able to use a custom domain name to help build your brand (e.g., yourbusiness.com vs yourwebsite.wordpress.com). This reduces the credibility of your brand, especially if you intend to blog about business topics.
- Lack of branding: On third-party websites, you will have very limited ability to visually brand your blog. Most only let you upload a small profile photo and a cover image.
- Competition: You may have a few too many competing blogs on the platform depending on the topic of your business blog. This limits your ability to grow a loyal following and cannibalizes readership across multiple blogs.
- Monetization limits: There are strict rules in place regarding how your content can be monetized on free blogging sites, and some require that your content generate a certain amount of traffic before you can start making money. Similarly, you won’t be able to directly showcase products or services for sale or process sales online, and you’re unlikely to make money with your blog through sponsored content.
- Reduced ad commissions: If your blog earns money from display ads, the third-party platform will take a cut of the profit.
- Increased risk: Your website is not completely under your control. If the website that hosts your blog goes down, so does your business blog. Furthermore, if the platform determines that your content is in some way violating its standards, it may penalize or delete your blog.
- Weaker search rankings: You will have limited control over search engine optimization, or SEO, which will limit the ability of your blog to rank on Google. Furthermore, links back to your website are usually no-follow links, which do not help your site’s SEO.
- Design limitations: Due to design and HTML limitations, you will be unable to create the blog exactly as you envision it.
If making money from your blog is not your primary goal and you simply want a fun way to share your thoughts, a third-party site may be the way to go. Similarly, you can use third-party sites in addition to a blog hosted on your own site to increase brand awareness and traffic.
Also Read: Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
Start Your Own Blog
A self-hosted blog provides flexibility in site design and monetization functionality. Our guide on how to create a small business website can assist you in getting your blog up and running, allowing you to grow your readership and brand online in a few simple steps.
Best Platforms for Small Business Blogs at a Glance
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Free Plan
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Starting Cost of Paid Plans*
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$16
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$23
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$5
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$2.95
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Free Domain & SSL (Paid Plan)
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SSL only
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Google AdSense App/Plugin
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Top Features for Bloggers
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*Monthly fee charged annually. Wix and HubSpot also provide monthly billing at a premium.
Third-party apps and plugins are available for both all-in-one site builders and WordPress websites, allowing you to further customize and monetize business blogs. There is both free and paid software in this category. Some third-party apps may require you to embed code into a page or your site’s header or footer.
WordPress plugins must also be vetted to ensure they are up-to-date, reputable and compatible with your site. Get a sense of what it might take to build a blog site on WordPress, then check out our complete list of WordPress tips and tricks.
When you use an all-in-one site builder like Wix, you get more than 300 plugins in addition to robust native features, and you can embed code at the page level. This eliminates the time-consuming process of vetting WordPress plugins as well as the headaches associated with maintaining and updating your site’s plugins over time.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
3. Get a Domain Name
If you’ve decided to create your own blog site, you’ll need to purchase a domain (for example, “yourblog.com”). When you purchase hosting services from the top recommended WordPress hosting company Bluehost, you will receive a free domain for the first year, as well as a free SSL certificate and WordPress page builder. Similarly, some website builders, such as Wix and IONOS, include a free domain name with paid plans for the first year (and free SSL security).
You can also buy your domain separately from top domain registrars such as Domain.com, where you can get a.com domain for $9.99. Domain renewal rates are typically lower on domain registration sites than on hosting site providers. If you’re on a tight budget, there are even legitimate ways to get free domain names. How to Start a Business Blog
Top Blog Domain Name Providers at a Glance
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Key Features
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Cost*
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$9.99/year
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$1-$5/month
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$2.95/month
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$16/month
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Free Domain & SSL
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✓
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*Some plans renew at a higher rate after the first year with annual billing.
Consider URLs that include one or more of the following elements when choosing a domain name:
- It describes your blog’s niche: People should be able to guess what you’re writing about based on the name of your blog. For example, minimalistbaker.com is a food blog that features recipes with fewer than ten ingredients.
- It includes SEO keywords: You want people to find your blog when they search Google for answers in your field. Having your primary keyword in your domain will help Google see that your site is relevant to their needs. YTravelBlog.com, a family-owned travel advice blog with over 90,000 monthly visitors, is a great example of this.
- It’s easy to spell and pronounce: If your website is difficult to pronounce or spell, it will be difficult for people to remember you. When selecting a domain, be specific and use common spellings.
With millions of blogs on the internet, it may take some time to find a domain name that works well for your blog that isn’t already registered. The more unique your blog’s domain name, the more likely you will be able to obtain the desired domain. See how simple it is to register a domain name for your blog in three simple steps.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
Also Read: Best eCommerce SEO Tools 2023: Best SEO Tools for eCommerce in 2023 (Free + Paid)
4. Design Your Blog
The platform you use influences how you design and customize your blog. Site builders such as Squarespace and Wix provide templates that you can use to quickly create and publish a blog. While using WordPress takes more time, Bluehost plans include a WordPress page builder and over a hundred templates that can be easily customized.
Customize Your Blog
As previously stated, if you’re using an all-in-one site builder like Wix, you’ll begin by selecting one of the platform’s blog-friendly templates. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to launch your blog because these templates handle key design components for you.
Wix has over 800 responsive design templates, making it one of the best money-making blog sites. Choose your template carefully, as you cannot easily switch templates later, but once chosen, you can easily change the fonts, colours, and blog settings on your site. Furthermore, there are hundreds of premade elements that make building your blog simple when you want to add a new page or add something to an existing page.
Wix is considered as one of the most user-friendly blog platforms, making it ideal for those with limited technical knowledge. WordPress, on the other end of the technical skill spectrum, has a learning curve that isn’t ideal for web design beginners. How to Start a Business Blog
Having said that, no-code WordPress page builders like Elementor or the site builder included in Bluehost’s hosting plans help to reduce the learning curve required to start a blog on WordPress. Each has its own set of customization options for your blog, such as changing fonts, colours, your blog’s landing page, article formatting, and more. Take your time setting this up because changing your blog’s visual design framework later is time-consuming.
If you need assistance designing your business blog, Fiverr can help you find the right freelancer to build a beautiful blog and set up your domain. Even better, freelancers on Fiverr are available for nearly any budget, with project-based pricing starting at $5.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
5. Incorporate Blog Ideas That Make Money
The most common mistake that new bloggers make is not knowing how to make money blogging. If you want to make money from your blog, you’ll need to think about how to make money. Do you want to use your blog to generate leads and sell products and services, sell memberships, or monetize your blog with sponsored content, affiliate marketing, or Google Ads, for example?
Click on the following tabs to learn more about common ways to make money blogging:
Google AdSense Display Ads
Bloggers and website owners can apply to have their blogs and websites approved for Google AdSense display advertisements. You’ll need an active website with original and relevant content to apply for Google AdSense.
Once you have a website that qualifies, you can submit an application and wait for Google to review it. If your site is approved, you can begin displaying Google ads on your blog and earning money. You earn a small commission every time a reader clicks on an ad.
Google AdSense bloggers and website owners (also known as publishers) receive 68% of all clicks (or 51% for AdSense for search). Depending on the niche, commissions can range from 20 cents to $15, with publishers earning an average of $3 per click.
Google AdSense is one of the most popular display ad networks, but it is not the only one you can use to monetize your blog with ads. Learn which ad networks are best for bloggers and how to get started by reading our list of the best ad networks for bloggers.
Affiliate Links (Affiliate Marketing)
Many businesses pay bloggers commissions for referring people to their websites via affiliate links. Payouts can be either per click or per action. According to Glassdoor data for 2021, the average annual salary for affiliate marketers was $89,672, ranging from $41,000 at the low end to $157,000 for the highest-earning bloggers.
It can take some time to research and join affiliate programmes, but it’s also fairly simple, and there’s usually no cost to join. Many businesses have their own affiliate programmes, which are frequently accessible via links in the site’s footer. Others use affiliate marketing platforms like CJ (formerly Commission Junction), Rakuten, Amazon Associates, and ClickBank. How to Start a Business Blog
Product & Service Sales
Writing content that increases brand awareness and interest in your company’s products or services directly contributes to its profitability. Bloggers can generate leads and increase sales by reaching out to potential customers at every stage of the buying journey with a search-optimized content marketing strategy.
Alternatively, blogging for business allows you to build an audience from which you can sell products or services related to your subject. Here are a couple of examples:
- A food blogger could sell cooking classes or equipment online (e.g., pots, pans, mixing bowls, utensils, and so on)
- A fashion blogger could sell clothing or offer lifestyle coaching.
- A fitness expert can teach online exercise classes, sell exercise equipment, and provide nutritional counselling and supplements.
- A business blogger could offer consulting or managed services.
- A craft blogger could sell tools and supplies, online classes, or ready-to-assemble crafting kits.
If you intend to sell products or services through your blog, you don’t have to be ready to sell something on day one. You can begin by creating search-optimized blog content to generate web traffic and an online following, and then gradually introduce offers for services, classes, or products.
Memberships
Selling memberships is another way to make money with a blog. A membership may entitle your reader to exclusive, gated content not available on your public blog, access to downloadable materials such as an e-book or template, or membership in a private forum website. It could also provide them with group or individual sessions or a discount on the products or services you sell.
Sponsored Content or Promotions
Bloggers can also make money by accepting direct advertising sponsorships, in which a company pays the blogger to promote their product or service. This can include a blog banner ad, a sponsored post, or even a mention in the blog’s weekly newsletter. To attract paid sponsorships, your blog must generate significant traffic and have a loyal, engaged readership, similar to influencer marketing.
Check out our article on how much money bloggers make if you want to learn more about how much money you can make by starting a business blog. The suggestions there will help you kick-start your money-making business blogging efforts and determine how long it will take for your blog to generate revenue.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
6. Develop & Publish Blog Content
Once your site has been designed, you can begin adding content to your business blog. A search engine optimization (SEO) content marketing plan is one of the best ways to plan and publish content on a blog to make money. This plan will assist you in determining what content to publish, including how frequently you will publish, what types of content you will create, and how you will generate interest in your site.
Also Read: What Is a Blog | How to Write a Blog | Blog Definition And Example
7. Drive Traffic to Your Blog
The lifeblood of any blog is traffic. It’s what allows you to reach new readers and expand your audience. And the more traffic you have, the more opportunities you have to monetize your blog and make money from it.
Here are some key strategies for increasing traffic to your business blog and increasing readership:
Optimize Your Blog for Search
Simply put, the higher you rank on Google’s search engine page rankings, the more traffic your blog will receive. SEO, or search engine optimization, is all about making your blog easier for search engines to find.
Optimizing your website and its content to be more search-friendly will increase the visibility of your blog in search results and drive more traffic to your site. In addition to SEO, learn about other effective website marketing strategies for driving traffic to your blog. How to Start a Business Blog
Find High-performing Blog Article Ideas
You can’t earn money if no one finds your blog. So you want to write about topics that people commonly search for because that is the best way to get your blog noticed. Keyword research can show you how much search traffic different terms receive each month as well as the level of competition for the keywords you’re targeting.
Semrush is the best free keyword research tool. It is simple to use, and the free plan allows you to enter up to ten queries per day. If you upgrade to a paid plan, you’ll gain access to comprehensive data on your target keywords as well as the websites of your competitors. You’ll be able to see your potential traffic based on your target keywords, as well as what kind of content performs well on blogs similar to yours.
You can increase the chances of your blog posts ranking highly in Google’s search results by writing blog posts focused on high-traffic and low-competition terms. More information on how to rank higher on Google can be found here.
Share Your Blog Content on Social Media
Social media marketing is an excellent way to publicise your blog and reach a larger audience. Share your blog posts on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to increase the number of people who see your content.
You can also include social sharing buttons in your posts and request that your followers share your content. Social media advertising allows you to pay to boost posts in order to reach a larger audience and get your content in front of more people.
Guest Blogging
When you guest blog, you write posts for other blogs in your industry. You can reach a new audience of potential readers by writing an article about your niche. Your posts will frequently include a link back to your own blog, which improves the SEO of your site. Furthermore, writing informative and engaging guest posts establishes you as an expert in your field, which leads to more opportunities down the road.
Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a great way to drive traffic to your blog because it allows you to communicate directly with your audience. Building a list of subscribers allows you to keep people returning to your site and reach a larger audience with your content over time.
To begin, create a sign-up form for your website. You can create a form, add it to your website, and send emails to your subscribers for free using a service like Mailchimp. Learn how to use Mailchimp to build your list and send newsletters for email marketing in more detail.
Learn why Mailchimp is the best email marketing platform for small businesses, and who else made the cut. These are the top recommended platforms for bloggers, ranging from free email marketing software to our top pick for large email contact lists.
How to Start a Business Blog (and Make Money): Easy Beginner’s Guide
Create Shareable Content to Build Backlinks
FAQs Regarding How to Start a Business Blog
1. How do I start a blog for my small business?
Starting a blog with the potential to turn into a business involves the following steps:
- Find a way for your blog to make money.
- Pick a niche for your blog.
- Choose a blogging platform and template.
- Choose a blog and domain name.
- Plan your publishing strategy.
- Get people to read your blog consistently.
2. How do bloggers get paid?
Here’s how it works: when someone clicks on the link on your site, goes to the affiliate’s site, and buys the product you’ve recommended, you earn a commission on the sale. This can be a viable revenue model for blogs with an engaged audience of people interested in product recommendations.
3. Do beginner bloggers make money?
In India, the average monthly salary for a blogger is Rs 20,000. A beginner blogger earns between $22,000 and $29,500 per month. More experienced bloggers, on the other hand, can earn up to 2 lakhs and more.
4. Can you get rich off a blog?
While it is true that blogging can be used to earn money, it will not help you “get rich quick.” Before you can start making money, you must first build an audience of people who want to buy from you.
5. What blogs are in demand?
Lifestyle blogs are the most common type of blogs available online. They have a wide range of readers who are interested in topics such as culture, arts, local news, and politics. This provides the blogger with a wide range of topics to cover, making content strategy planning easier.
