The Complete Guide To Starting A Profitable Blog In 2024

Want to learn how to start a blog in 2024 AND make money?

You keep reading everywhere about how easy it is to start a blog and how you can make money while sharing with the world all of the things you’re passionate about.

But can you really create a successful blog if you don’t know where to start?

In this in-depth, step-by-step guide, I will show you the exact things I did to start a successful blog.

Blogging changed my life & I want to help you start your blog the right way so that you can make money in the first week. I have been able to earn over $3,000 per month within a year of starting this blog with no previous experience. Now I usually make $3,000 every 10 days just off this blog alone.

Sounds crazy right?

This free guide will help you do the same! I share exactly how to make your business profitable in steps 15 – 16 of the guide with insight on what’s generates money for me as a blogger in 2024.

Also, I’m giving y’all a HUGE GIFT that will help you launch your first blog in an explosive way a little later on in this post. I’m the only blogger I know that offers such an opportunity like this so keep reading to find out what it is!

A quick story of why I started this blog:

I created this blog at the start of 2019 on a whim. I’m definitely an entrepreneur at heart and after researching several different business Ideas, I came to the conclusion that blogging is the cheapest business in 2024 to start making money online. Plus, I love that blogging is a great way to share things that I’m passionate about.

By the second month, this blog had become profitable, and now I make enough money from JoannaRahier.com to not worry about my bills anymore. I’m living proof that you can start blogging right now and make significant money in days, not years.

You just need the right tactics.

Thanks to this blog, I was able to leave my 9-5 job. Last year, I was living in Los Angeles on the path to making 5 figures per month as an accountant in the movie industry. But inside I felt so unfulfilled. I was so unhappy, and in analyzing these micro-moments of resistance I realized that I wasn’t showing up for myself because deep down I was sick and tired of trading my hours for dollars. The thought of leaving a secure job that paid so well terrified me. But something inside me was telling me that I was being called to do something bigger and better. So I tapped into my dream and went for it!

When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing but I launched this blog anyway.

Here’s my advice: Start now and figure out the details later.

I’ve done crazy awesome things since I started this blog. I’ve been able to create a community of people who are just like me. Over 250,000 people visit this blog monthly and this has led to so many opportunities in the form of friendships, mentors, and even freelance jobs.

The best part about blogging is making enough passive & location-independent income so that I can live anywhere in the world. Now I live in Europe and my life satisfaction has improved exponentially. This blog has helped me achieve financial freedom.

Today, I will help you learn how to start a blog using the same tactics I used to grow from zero in 2019, to a fully-fledged profitable business that gets over 250,000 visitors a month.

Here are a couple of reasons why you should start a blog today:

Get a jumpstart on your online presence – You have a unique viewpoint and perspective that will resonate with people around the world, let’s call them your tribe 😊. Blogging is a powerful opportunity to connect with your tribe and create a community. Blogging will also help you overcome your fear of putting yourself out there.

You want to create a personal brand and get seen as an authority figure in your niche – You’re knowledgeable about a topic and can spend hours talking about it. You want to share these passions with the world and meet like-minded people. Perhaps you don’t know that much about a topic but you are fascinated by it. You want to bring others along your journey as you learn more about the topic.

Blogging is the cheapest business to start in 2024 – As a blogger, the only expense I have to worry on a monthly basis is $2.95 (hosting plan) Considering the amount of income I make relative to hosting cost is bonkers! You won’t find a business to start today that has better margins.

You want to make money – Blogging is an excellent way to make money. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t start a blog to make money. There’s nothing wrong with it. At the end of this article, I share some secrets as to how I monetized my blog in the first month.

You want to sell ebooks – You can create a course around a passion of yours that you can charge money for. Many popular blog writers also become bestselling authors. By leveraging your subscribers, you can drive your book up the Amazon bestseller list, giving you the chance to grab the attention of readers who have never heard of you before.

You want to sell products – Use your online presence to drive sales to your shop page. A couple of months ago I noticed some posts were getting more traffic then others – so I created a small online shop with some products in the same niche. Now I generate over $800 passively every month from products that took me only a few days to make.

I’m sure by now you’re excited as I was when I first started my blog.

Did you know that you don’t even need to know HTML code to create web pages? The hosting provider I will mention comes with a completely FREE website builder that allows you to simply drag and drop elements onto your page. It’s actually a lot of fun and the best part about it is that no HTML or coding knowledge is required. Honestly, I still don’t know anything about HTML and I’ve been starting online businesses and blogging for years.

I will share how to create simple & beautiful pages later on in this post.

I could ramble about blogging all day, so let’s just dive in!

Choose your Blog’s niche:

We all know that your blog needs a niche – whether it’s fashion, cooking, yoga, watercolor painting, underwater parkour solo dancing – whatever crazy topic, there are an endless amount of things to blog about.

Creating a BLOG that is a BUSINESS: Explained

AUDIENCE REVENUE POTENTIAL – Who is my audience and what pain point am I trying to solve? As a blogger, you need to understand your audience’s challenges deeply first, and then offer a solution. The second (and equally important) step is to understand how much your audience is willing to spend to solve their pain points.

Next, promote products that solve people’s problems.

Affiliate marketing is the act of recommending products and services of other businesses and making a commission on every sale. Affiliate marketing is my favorite form of blog monetization – it’s the most passive, and once you start getting more traffic, you can make money while you sleep. This is your audience revenue potential.

USE YOUR PROFESSIONAL LEVERAGE – After uncovering a lucrative audience to provide value to, the next step is to uncover the strategic advantages you may have over others.

KEYWORD RESEARCH: Are people searching for the things you want to write about?

• Monthly search volume: how many times a keyword is searched for in a given month.
• Keyword difficulty: on a scale from 0 to 100, how difficult is it to rank for that keyword based on the competition.

You want to find keywords with high volume and low competition. 

My favorite resources tools for KEYWORD RESEARCH are: UBERSUGGEST (free), SEMRUSH, AHREFS, & GOOGLE PLANNER

Picking a Domain (Blog) Name

You can spend hours deciding on the perfect blog name but it will only hold you back. I’ve started a couple of blogs but the domain was too niche-specific, like the name I choose for my travel blog. Right after I started my travel blog, I managed to get my dream job forcing me to stay in the same city. I couldn’t find enough time to travel, so I couldn’t produce travel-related content.

While common advice is to “niche down” and choose an ultra-specific name, I recommend you choose a website name that’s broad enough to allow you to pivot if necessary. If your focus is too narrow and suddenly you lose passion for your niche or run out of topic ideas, you’re stuck with your new domain. 

Rather than make the same mistake twice, I decided to name my second blog (the one you’re reading) after my own name so that I can find out which content I liked writing about best. Some websites don’t even have names relating to their industry. Think Zillow or Trulia.

Instead of deliberating forever, just go with your gut. There are a couple of free services out there that can help you come up with domain names, like Bustaname for example. You can read more about choosing the perfect domain name in this article.

Make sure to check on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to see if anyone else is using the name first otherwise, it will cause some issues down the road. I used sites like Namechk & Knowem to see if the domain and corresponding social media handles were available.

This page contains affiliate links meaning I earn a commission if you use those links. I only recommend brands I use and trust. See my disclosure for more.

Difference between WordPress.org, Blogger, and WordPress.com

It’s tempting to choose one of the numerous free blogging platforms like WordPress.com or blogger. You give up a tremendous amount of control and future flexibility by using a free blogging platform.

WordPress.com inhibits your ability to utilize display ads and various widgets. Blogger is owned by Google which means they can shut down your blog any time they see fit. Although you can still run ads on Blogger, they tend to earn less ad revenue than blogs of the same size that are self-hosted on Worpress.org

WordPress.org sites comprise more than 30% of the entire internet. Big names like New York Post, USA Today, CNN, Fortune, Time, Spotify, TechCrunch, CBS, NBC – all use WordPress. The number of tools, themes, add-ons, and e-commerce solutions is endless, and it comes free with the Bluehost hosting plan.

Which hosting service should I use?

Your hosting company is where your blog “lives.” It’s the place where all of your content and files associated with your blog are stored. Without a hosting account, your blog won’t be visible on the internet. In the event that anything happens to your blog, you want to make sure that the hosting company is easy to contact and has great customer service.

Finding the perfect hosting provider was a big deal for me in the beginning. So I did a ton of research on all of the hosting options available. In the end, I decided on signing up with Bluehost. My main concerns were:

• Reliable customer service – I found out Bluehost has 24/7/365 phone, live chat, and email support. Personally, I’ve called Bluehost support more times then I’d like to admit. No matter what time zone I was in there was always someone there to help me and the support I received was very polite and helpful.  
• Affordable Plans – Bluehost costs under $3 per month + A FREE DOMAIN for the first year
• Easy to understand –  The Bluehostportal is super simple and easy to navigate.
• Full Refund – There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind. 

From my experience, Bluehost is the best all-around hosting company for new bloggers in terms of performance and cost. 

If you haven’t registered your domain yet, it’s time.

Take 30 seconds right now to get your domain name and hosting with Bluehost the blog hosting provider I’ve used to start all of my websites. By using Bluehost as your web host you can get a FREE domain for the first year when you buy 12 months’ worth of web hosting.

>GET DOMAIN AND HOSTING<

Thanks for using my affiliate link!

As a special thanks, I’d like to add you to my group board!

For those of you who set up your website after clicking the link above PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!

As a Bluehost partner I make a affiliate commission when you click my bluehost link. As a special thank you, I would like to invite you to my group board that I created on Pinterest so that you can jumpstart your blogging career in a HUGE way 🙂

Why Pinterest? My blog gets nearly 250,000 visitors a month just off of Pinterest traffic ALONE! My “Share the Blog Love” group board has over 140,000 followers with interests in nearly every niche so once I add you, you will be able to take advantage of my following!

>> My inbox is open! Send me an email using this contact form! <<

Are you ready?

Open Bluehost in another tab and follow along with me.

1. Pick your plan

Considering that you’re just starting out on this journey, I suggest choosing the basic plan. You can easily upgrade to the plus plan once your website starts getting more traffic. The basic plan has all the bells and whistles that you will need to get your website up and running.

2. Choose a domain

Here is where you enter your desired domain name but don’t worry if you haven’t decided on one yet. You can always choose it later I highly recommend using a .COM unless you’re an organization. Plus a .COM address is the easiest for people to remember.

Once you hit the “Next!” button, you’ll be directed to the order form.

3. Enter your Account information

4. Additional services

Okay, so now that you’ve come to this part, you need to check off Codeguard basic, Bluehost SEO tools, SSL, Sitelock, & Mailbox. There are plenty of powerful plugins that fulfill these jobs for your site, and they are free. I explain more in number 9.

You’ll notice that you get the cheapest monthly price is if you choose 36 months. You should notice a few other free perks: 24/7/365 phone, live chat, email support, and a 30 money-back guarantee if you decide blogging isn’t for you.

If you want to keep your costs as low as possible, remember to uncheck any of the extra add-ons. I strongly advise paying for “Domain Privacy + Protection”, which is only $0.99/month to keep your details private.

At this point in registration, usually, a popup comes up with additional savings, definitely click “apply” if it hasn’t, try refreshing the page or move your mouse up to the back button on your browser (without clicking) this usually makes the discount show up.

5. Head over to your email

After you’ve entered your billing info and confirmed your purchase, you can head over to your email account and there should be a welcome email waiting for you there. It’s titled BLUEHOST: Your Account Info

In the email you will find a link to your control panel. Click it and enter your username and the password generated for you by BLUEHOST (you can change this later).

6. Install WordPress

Bluehost makes it very easy to create a WordPress blog.

Bluehost will now automatically install WordPress for you. All you have to do is choose your password!

If you are unsure about what to do during any step, you can open Live Chat on Bluehost at any moment and their technical support will be able to help in no time.

Don’t be alarmed if your website doesn’t appear right away. Know that it may take several minutes for your website to “go live” It generally takes around 15 minutes, but may even take a couple of hours. Your domain is going through a process called “propagating” so that visitors all over the world can see it. 

You almost started your blog! Yeah! 

After you have installed WordPress and selected your password, Bluehost will give you the option to select a theme. We will do this later (step 6).

So here you can either select any of the themes or simply click Skip This Step below the offered themes.

Now you just need to click the Start Building blue button. 

And you will be redirected to WordPress:

7. Log in to your WordPress dashboard

Once your WordPress site goes live, you should receive an email from Bluehost giving you all the info for where to access your WordPress login, username, and a randomly generated password to sign in (just copy and past it for now.. it’s aggravatingly long and you can change it later)

To log in to your website, you’re just going to type in the domain name and add wp-login.php to the end of the web address. It’s as easy as that.

NOTE: For the first 24-48 hours, you are not going to be able to log in to WordPress directly. This is because it will take some time to assign your domain and redirect your website to the correct web address. If you don’t see this screen, you can simply log in to your Bluehost account by going to https://my.bluehost.com/ 

8. Customize your site by installing a theme

A fast-loading and professional theme is a requirement these days if you want to be taken seriously as a blogger. If you are already familiar with WordPress, you’ve seen that they already offer free website templates but let’s be real – when you take a really good look at them you’ll realize they’re really bare-boned and resemble websites from 20 years ago :(.

That’s where pre-made website templates come in. Three of my favorites are Elegant Themes, 17th Avenue, and the Studiopress Genesis Framework. These powerful themes give your new business the look and feel of a professional authority website, not a hobby blog.

17th Avenue Designs

If you are looking for a fast and reliable feminine WordPress theme for a fashion, travel, or lifestyle blog I highly recommend 17th avenue. My blog is currently running on the Aubrey theme. 17th Avenue utilizes the Genesis Framework which means that not only will your website be pretty it will also load fast and have a good website structure – which will lead to higher rankings in Google search results.

Elegant Themes 

Trusted by 350,000+ WordPress users and includes their popular Divi Theme. Elegant Themes has been around forever and has a solid reputation.

Studiopress 

is the most well-known theme developer in the industry for having the fastest loading time, and clean, responsive designs. They have top-notch customer support and very detailed youtube installation tutorials.

I have a really detailed post on which themes I recommend for each niche here. Be sure to check it out!

Congratulations! Your new website is live & your theme is installed

9. Install necessary WordPress plugins

• MiloTree – The all-in-one app for growing your followers on Instagram, Email Subscribers, Facebook, and Pinterest.
• Contact Form – sets up a ‘contact me’ page so that people can send direct messages to you.
• Askimet – blocks/deletes spammy comments
• Social Warfare – Sets up a share widget at the top/bottom of your posts. More shares = MORE TRAFFIC
• Google Analytics – sets up website analytics on your dashboard.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most essential plugin that you need to download because it helps Google crawl your site better. A website’s google searchability is crucial to its success. Search traffic from google will most likely be your 1st or 2nd highest driver of traffic to your site so you need to make sure that it’s SEO optimized. The free version of Yoast will do the job. This youtube video showed me how to install the plugin + optimize my site + is a great resource to start learning about SEO.

10. Set up google analytics

Google Analytics is a completely free service that allows you to start tracking your visitors from day one. Google Analytics is so useful, I can see exactly where the bulk of my traffic is coming from which helps me save so much time by focusing on the traffic sources that are working. Click here to get started. They have a really cool WordPress plugin that allows me to see my traffic on my Dashboard!

11. Add necessary site pages

1. About or About Me page – One of the most highly visited pages on any website is the About page so don’t be afraid to let the reader know exactly all about you!
2. Disclosure and Privacy Policy page – This page is absolutely necessary if you want to make money by selling affiliate products and put display ads on your site. See mine here. There are plenty of articles on how to make one and even privacy policy generators. No law degree needed 🙂
3. Contact Page – You want readers and eventually businesses to be able to contact you. I recommend setting up a contact page by downloading a free plugin called Contact Form 7 (you can find this in WordPress Plugins)

12. Start creating content

First, you need to study the blogs your audience already reads. I used Pinterest to search for relevant topics in my niche in order to discover other blogs that are writing similar content.

I then used Buzzsumo (free first-week trial available up to 100 searches) to find the most shared content on that blog. When you’re done, you’ll have compiled a list of ideas for blog posts backed by evidence of popularity. Now all you have to do is write a better version of it. Make it your own, add more details/research, and sprinkle some of your personality. Blogging is fun!

13. Promote! Promote! Promote!

• Pinterest is the best source for traffic. Click here to read an article on the exact steps I took to make my account go viral. I get over 2.5 million monthly impressions and it has translated into tens of thousands monthly viewers on this blog.
• Facebook – Tap into your pre-existing friend base and promote there. Join blogger-friendly facebook groups & network with other bloggers

14. Set up Convertkit & start collecting emails

I’ve heard from many bloggers that the biggest mistake they made when they started blogging was not collecting emails from day one.

Email subscribers are a goldmine!

You can use email to inform new readers about your best old posts and encourage your subscribers to read your new posts.

Email converts better than any other type of marketing, even if you have no idea what to sell to your subscribers, one day you’ll come up with the perfect product, and your subscribers will most likely end up being your first customers.

Every blogger that I know of uses Convertkit. It’s the number one email subscriber service out there and has A TON of free resources that teach you how to run your first email marketing campaign.

How to make money with your blog

It’s 100% feasible to start making a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars per month within just a few months of starting. I’ve done it with this website, and you can too. After you become obsessed with reading income reports (like I did when I first started) you’ll realize that there’s really only six different ways bloggers are making money. 

• Advertising – Google adsense is a very easy program to get into and use. You can start displaying ads on your website your first week and get paid off of page views. 
• Sponsored Posts – companies will pay you good money to post about their product. 
• Affiliate Marketing – Promote products and get a commission. This is my bread and butter. The amount of ways to monetize your blog are infinite. 
• Selling a service, ebooks, and courses – This is when bloggers start making big $$$ by creating a unique course of ebook to your readers/subscribers.
• Consulting – lifestyle coaching, how to build a profitable blog coaching (hey that’s me!), mentorship, etc.
• Selling your own products – like t-shirts/mugs and other branded memorabilia related to your brand.

How I made $3,00o from my blog in 10 days

Yeah you read it right. $3,000 US dollars in 10 days. When you’re looking for ways to make money online you’ll come across many posts telling you to start an agency, put all of your money into crypto, or even buy/sell Pokemon cards. It’s common for influencers to profit off of the latest craze while also bashing older ways of making money online. I can’t tell you how many “blogging is dead” posts I’ve come across on social media. Truth is, it’s never been a better time to start a blog.

Blogging has been a profitable business for the past 15 years and will remain a HIGHLY lucrative business for decades to come. The next sections will cover 3 different areas where I made money through blogging this month, of course with screenshots. I’m sharing my earnings for October because although it was all over the place, the blog generated a relatively average monthly income. Website traffic and income fluctuates: some months aren’t as profitable while others make an absolute killing (usually the holidays November – December)

15. Monetize your Blog with display ads

The easiest way to start making money in the few days after you start your website is by putting ads in your content. Google Adsense is the easiest program to get into.

Google Adsense Requirements:

• You need to be at least 18 years old.
• You need to have an active Gmail account that isn’t linked to an AdSense account.
• You need to have a website, and that website needs to meet all of Google’s terms of service.
• Have at least 3-5 posts already published as well as Privacy Policy & Disclosure pages.

Once you get approved, Google Adsense gives you an HTML code to insert into your blog and then it will populate ads within your content. I was able to cover the first 6 months of expenses for my blog with the Google adsense earnings in my first month.

How To Apply To Google Adsense:

1. Start a blog on WordPress using the method above (using a hosting provider like Bluehost, and make sure you have a .com address)
2. Write 2-3 blog posts (between 500 – 1500 words). Make sure your site pages & menu meet Adsense requirements (see the requirements here)
3. Create a Privacy Policy page (see mine here)
3. Go to the Google Adsense website by clicking this link and click START at the top right corner.
4. Fill out your website address + Gmail account (you must have Gmail).
5. The following pages will ask you to connect to Gmail + Connect Adsense to your website by adding a piece of code into your header tag. This sounds hard, but it isn’t and you don’t have to know how to code! This article (link) explains how to add the header tag of your theme.
6. Once you’re done filling out the application you should be approved in the next 24-48 hours. Message me here if you don’t get accepted and I’ll take a look at your site.

Next goal: Get into Mediavine

Your biggest goal for the next 3-6 months is to get 50,000 monthly visitors. Which shouldn’t be too hard If you’re part of my group board. Once you do, you can apply to Mediavine. Mediavine is an ad provider just like google only the money you make per website visitor is drastically higher. There are some days where I can make $600-$1,000 just off of Mediavine ads alone. On average I make somewhere between $150-$300 daily from Mediavine ads.

Here are some screenshots from my mediavine dashboard:

16. Sell affiliate products

I highly recommend signing up for these four affiliate programs after you’ve published a couple of posts. They don’t have too many requirements to get into their programs and will generally accept new bloggers.

1. Bluehost – Another GREAT benefit to signing up with Bluehost as a hosting provider is that you get to become part of their affiliate program which offers $65 per referral! I generate around $300-$400 every month just from Bluehost referrals alone
2. Flex Offers – Hands down my favorite affiliate network. Their commissions are much higher than Shareasale, and the Flexrev program lets you split commissions 50/50 with merchants
3. ShareASale – Shareasale has great conversion rates, better products, and longer affiliate windows. Perfect for any blogger, Shareasale has over 5000 brands to partner up with and promote
4. Awin – Grow your business with a global affiliate marketing network that delivers marketing solutions for advertisers, agencies and publishers around the world.
5. Amazon Affiliates – Amazon is fantastic! One of the first things I did when starting a blog was sign up to their affiliate program! They have very few requirements for their program and what’s great is that you can add affiliate links directly to Pinterest Pins. You make commissions when someone buys a product within 24 hours after they click a link on your blog or social media account.

Amazon Affiliates is my second biggest affiliate earner after Rstyle

Amazon Affiliates is my biggest affiliate earner.

Next step: apply to Rstyle

Once you get to 15,000 visitors I recommend joining Rstyle because you can make affiliate income by placing links from big retailers like Target, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Revolve. Generally, the affiliate commission is much higher compared to Amazon. I’m talking up to 15%-20% for some retailers. Rstyle is the ultimate affiliate program for Luxury, Fashion, and Interior design bloggers.

The commissions from Rstyle = MAJOR MONEY 🙂 Let’s take a random product from Nordstrom for example, the Bottega Veneta Chain Cassette Bag which sells for $5,500. If just ONE person clicks your link and purchases the bag, you get a 5.60% commission rate which equals $308 in passive income. Even if they don’t purchase anything that day, anything they buy from Norstrom within 30 days will generate 5.70% commission from any affiliate link they clicked on your website or social media account.

If you followed these simple instructions, you should have a beautiful blog that will make you money from DAY ONE!

Want to make some extra money this month? Read these:

15 Creative Ways To Make $100 Every Day In 2024
How To Make Money On Pinterest For Beginners
Learn How I made $3,278 Blogging in September
Freebies: 67-Page Minimal Budget Planner For 2024
25 High-Paying Jobs For Introverts
8 Great Podcasts For Ambitious Millennials