How I Started a Blog in 15 Minutes and Hope to Earn Money.

In this post, I will show you how you can setup your own WordPress blog in no time. Blogging in a short time has had a dramatic effect on my own life and has resulted in some supplemental income. You can start your own blog for only a few dollars. And if you’re lucky you might even make some money in the process.

Some people do very well make over $50k per year with their blogs and it is able to replace part of their normal income. They work from home, can travel whenever they want without needing their boss’s approval, and afford a flexible schedule to help with child care needs.

Why bother when there are so many blogs already?

The world doesn’t need another WordPress blog. Does your methodology for creating a $1000 per month blog really reign superior to the hundreds of others on the subject? Does it move the needle? It seems like the compendium of human experience is already captured in the millions of books, newspapers, and articles. But yet there are still new things of value written every day.

This is the question you need to ask yourself before starting out. But I think if you can be a force for good within your network. Sure, there are probably better guides out there. But what about guides for your particular niche?

Provide a unique perspective on something you care about.

If you are not passionate about the subject you shouldn’t bother writing. Please close your laptop lid and find some other way to occupy your time. If you and be generous with your knowledge your passion will show. If you care about something it will show through on your writing. You might a hobbyist gardener and you are passionate about finding out what kinds of plants work in the Pacific North West. That’s great. Write about it and share it. First, begin from a place of service and be generous with your knowledge. There are no shortcuts to craftsmanship. The money will come later.

Blogging will improve your writing skills and ability to think on your feet.

I feel like improvements to my writing skill have enhanced my mental acuity in my other areas. And as someone with adult-onset ADHD, along with improvements to diet and exercise this has become incredibly helpful. Jeff Bezos would famously ask his S-Team (what Amazon referred to its leadership team) to summarize any new initiative into 6-pages or less of prose. He felt that it encouraged employees to think through any recommendation and cut to the heart of the matter. Jason Fried, founder of 37 signals, the maker of Basecamp also believes good writers make better employees. As part of the interview, candidates are evaluated on their ability to communicate in writing.

Step one: Begin at the beginning.

Advice: Don’t be cheap. Pay for hosting. It’s inexpensive and will save you headaches later.

You can start a blog on blogspot or blogger for nothing but if you ever want to setup ads and monetize it is going to be very difficult. These free platforms are not viewed as being professional. It’s not impossible to monetize them and people have done it but why would you want to roll a boulder uphill if you can help it. Please use a hosting provider.

Bluehost is a solid choice. It’s cheap and it works. You can have your own blog setup in no time and pay as little as $2.75 per month for hosting. It’s small money to bet on your future as a blog writer.

Step two: Register a domain name

Think of a clever, memorable name for your blog. Mine isn’t great. You’ll probably think of something better for yours. But don’t overthink it. It’s more important to get started than to be perfect. Bluehost is currently running a deal where you get a free domain when you purchase 12-months of hosting. Domains usually run around $15 per year so this is a good savings already on top of their reasonable hosting prices. If you already have a domain from somewhere else you can skip this step and link it to your host later.

Step three: Buy hosting for your blog

The good folks at Bluehost are offering a solid deal with prices as low as $2.75 per month. Again, don’t overthink this. All you need is the “basic” plan. You can skip all of the extra upgrades for Plus and Business Pro and upsells.

Except Domain Privacy Protection for $0.99. Buy this. This will make your identity associated with the website hidden.

Don’t purchase a month-to-month plan. It’s expensive and you can swing at least 12-months. This is where you will get the most savings and it’s not that much more money. If you don’t like it after a year you can cancel renewals.

Step four: Connect your domain

Many folks, including me use GoDaddy to buy domains. They have an excellent thorough support page for setting nameservers for your domain names. Other domain providers also should have guides – Google “Your Register Name how to modify DNS” to find the manual most relevant to you.

From there it seems like a scary process for first-timers but I promise it’s not. After you do it, you’ll be a DNS champ.

If you’re using BlueHost and GoDaddy follow the below steps and you’ll be off to the races:

1. Log into the GoDaddy.com Account Manager using your credentials.
2. Navigate to “Manage Domains” from the “Domain Names” drop-down menu. It may also be in the “Manage Your Account” list.
3. Select the domain name and click Set Name Servers.
4. Enter your updated information in the Name Servers heading located on the right side of your page.
5. Be sure to click Save Changes at the bottom. Your DNS entries will be: ns1.bluehost.com; ns2.bluehost.com.

Step five: Install WordPress

You’re almost at the finish line. Hold tight.

It’s super simple with Bluehost to install WordPress. They have a guide available showing how to get going and offer quick one-click installs. All you need to do is choose your theme, color and start building.

Do you have a blog? Was this helpful? What are some of your tips and tricks? Please share in the comments below. Your feedback helps me improve content so it can be more useful for more people.