How to Start Blogging for Money

If anyone is going to take you seriously as a blogger, you are going to have to have one key thing — your own domain name. While using sites like Blogger and Wordpress make it easy to blog, to put forward a professional appearance and have greater flexibility with your blog, you’re going to need to register the right name.

Before I cover that, lets look at the other steps you’ll need to take to get going.

Pick a Topic You’re Passionate About

Realize that blogging is a time intensive activity. While very addicting, it is easy to run out of material if you’re not passionate about what you’re writing about. With that in mind, it is important that you find a topic that you love. People are making money blogging about most anything you can think of, so narrow down your topic and find your niche.

Sit down and look at your hobbies, your interests, and those things that get you excited. If you can convey your sense of love of the topic, your readers will respond to that passion by coming back to your blog.

Pick a Domain Name

Now that you have a topic that you want to blog about, you need to pick a good name for your site. Since many of the easy domain names are probably taken by someone else, you’re going to need to do some work. In the past, I’ve used Register to do my searches, but I’ve found a site that is much easier and quicker to use, Instant Domain Search.

When picking domain names, I usually will play with words until I come up with something that is related to the topic I’m blogging about, which usually results in something quirky or obvious — like TimeforBlogging! I can’t speak for anyone else, but it usually takes me a few hours of brainstorming before I’ve found something I’m happy with.

Order Your Domain Name and Find a Host

Now that you’ve found a domain name, you’re going to need to register that name and find a host. For those of you that don’t know what a host is, it is a company that provides computers for you to keep your website on. Most hosts have packages that include domain registration, so you’re going to need to do some shopping around.

Starting out, you’re going to want to go with a shared hosting plan, which just means that your website is on the same computer server as other sites. Once your site grows, you may start to consider dedicated hosting, but I do not recommend this for beginners. For shared hosting, I have been very happy with the pricing, service, and uptime of LunarPages and Globat (both have great plans starting at $6.95/month).

It is Very Inexpensive to Start Out!
As you can see, it shouldn’t cost you more then $100 for a year of hosting and registration, so don’t let the costs stop you from moving forward. You can usually start uploading files to your new servers within a few hours, so get ready.

Find the Right Blogging Software to Power Your Blog
You’ve got your idea, domain, and host, and you’re ready to start blogging, but you first need to find the right software to power your blog. Without going into other packages, I recommend that you use Wordpress. It has practically become the industry standard, and for good reason.

It is extremely easy to set up, and there are tons of different ways you can modify the blog with this software. In addition, the software is secure and upgraded when needed. Since so many people use wordpress, there are many different skins that you can use to change the appearance of your blog. There are also many different plugins you can use to enhance your blog’s functionality.

Once you download and install your blogging software, you’re ready to start blogging for money. Of course, there is much more to cover, like where does the money come from and which plugins should I install, but we’ll cover those later.

Blog Passionately and Blog Often
This is it! You’ve taken things into your own hands and are now on your way to becoming a professional blogger. Get writing!