How to create a blog to make money

We prefer selling our very own e-courses and e-books which has given us a steady second income over the last years. All this while enjoying blogging, traveling and life itself!

I have been blogging for some years now. I have met lots of people and other successful bloggers who also know how to create a blog to make money. Some of them have even become friends and we often meet when I'm traveling. Blogging is one thing, but staying in contact with your followers is another very important thing.

Your blog will not share itself: you have to get out there and become active on social media as much as you can. Show people who you are and what you do. That's how you will attract more visitors to your website and increase the chance of making money.

My most popular social media that I use are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Google Plus: all in all I am happy to have about forty thousand followers. None of them paid for or artificially increased by the way.

My life has definitely changed since I started blogging

First of all I have quit my day job in a big company. My blog is my job now and I love it. No need to ask for days off, dress up or struggle with shifts. We work when, where and for how long we want.

Blogging makes it easy for me to work pretty much everywhere, especially when we are traveling. Right now I am on a plane between Shanghai and Vienna sipping a sparkling wine and writing this post at 10pm. It's brilliant to be your own boss!

Stay realistic: it will take some time though before your blog really starts to take off and you can start to collect your first dollars. No surprises there. But you will start to see some very satisfying signs first that you are growing in the right direction. Seeing your daily visitors increase, believe me, that gives you a boost. So put your back into your website, be patient, try to work on it every day. Perseverance will get you there. If you are well aware of how to create a blog to make money from the beginning, you are off to a good start!

I get quite a lot of emails from people who adore my story and feel inspired to do something similar. I get a lot of questions about how to create a blog to make money. That boring nine to five day job is the main reason why people are dreaming of turning their life around and finally being able to do what they have dreamed of doing for a long time. Enjoying their passions at the fullest, discover the world or just taste that freedom of being your own boss.

If I could do it, so can you. It all starts with the first step.

'Every mountain can be climbed by taking the first step, followed by another and another… that's how you get to the summit.'

You only live once, live it to the fullest.

How to create a blog to make money

If I could create a website on my own, so can you.

I was a total computer dummy. No joke. It's still not my cup of tea but look at what a wonderful website I have now! And I gain money with it as well!

Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and go sit in your favorite couch with your laptop. Make yourself comfortable. We will take care of the 2 first important steps towards starting your website. Later on when you have shared a bunch of posts, when you start to feel at ease with your topic and when your audience is growing then we will take care of 2 more important steps.

How to create a blog to make money in 2 easy and inexpensive steps! 1. Choose you domain name and website hosting

You will start your website with WordPress (free). Don't let other platforms seduce you. I tried Blogger and SBI before, which at the end turned out to be a huge waste of time.

WordPress is the standard if you dream of becoming a professional blogger and want to build up a website that is ready for any future internet evolutions. It's a very reliable tool.

You will have to find shelter for your website and domain name and find a good web host to do that for you. It's like renting a place but then virtually.

There are many web hosts and it's often difficult to choose one.

Whatever you do: don't waste your time with free web hosts: they are not future minded, can block you and put your website offline for no reason or just disappear. Exporting a website from one host to another is possible but free hosts are more likely to charge money for it, you will loose time and perhaps a part of your website you put so much effort into. I recommend to choose an inexpensive web host over a free host.

Since you are a beginning blogger I would go for a web host who takes care of your website security (against hackers, viruses and spam) and make daily backups. Should your website get into trouble one day, at least you will not have lost your time and hard work.

I am using SiteGround. I love them because their support team is incredibly good and very quick in answering you back when you have a problem. You can purchase it now and get 60% discount with free domain name. So, for only $3,95 a month you are totally covered with their StartUp program: hosting, backups, installation of WordPress, email account, and most important of all, friendly support.

The name deposit and the domain name are also included. You will have to indicate which name you want for your blog, then add the .com extension and SiteGround will notify you if it is free or not. If not, you have to be somewhat creative and play with the words and the letters. It's quite funny I think! (i.e. my site name is www.junedarville.com)

They truly take a newbie by the hand to begin this wonderful adventure. You will be grateful to me the day that a gentle wizard from SiteGround will solve your problem in a matter of minutes. That happened a couple of times already to me, and they literally saved my day!

2. Make a website with punch!

Choose a theme (WordPress layout design) that is inviting and goes well with the topic you are writing about. If you are doing cupcakes, choose a baking theme. If you do Italian, go for a design with pasta, tomatoes or olive oil. Make sure the colors of your blog theme go well with the kind of food photos you make. Don't let the pictures kind of disappear into too busy backgrounds. Your theme has to reflect your personality.

Included in your hosting package at SiteGround are hundreds of free templates. So you see: you can really start your food blog for less than 4 bucks a month!

But in the end if you really want a top notch professional theme especially designed for food blogging, you will have to invest in a Genesis theme just like I and lots of professional bloggers do. To get Genesis, you first have to purchase the Framework ($59.95) along with what is called a child theme (prices vary): take for example a look at the beautiful Foodie Pro theme ($56.21).

Elegant Themes is another provider of beautiful themes. They look great and are incredibly easy to use. Elegant Theme's pricing is special: you pay once for the unlimited usage of all their themes, so it's also a little bit cheaper than a Genesis theme. Take a look and decide for yourself.

Before wrapping this subject up, I want to let you in on a little secret. While I am sharing a lot of my knowledge here with you and I'm convinced that you can really start as I explain it, it truly is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn the EXACT AND EASY (i.e. step-by-step with screenshots) methods, check out the complete course:

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