How To Start A Free Blog & Make Money [2020] - Step-By-Step | Complete Guide To Blogging

 Blog is a platform where you write content(posts/articles) of your interest, knowledge, experiences, ideas and more, all in one place on the web. No matter whatever you want to do, blogging is a great way to connect with people and get your ideas out there. When you do blogging professionally you actually make money.

 

Do you know that a blog can be transformed to a company, but how? 

 

Most of the people start blogging as individual bloggers, later when they start making money some of them hire freelance bloggers and some of them establish offices and hire in-house employees to write content and manage business activities. Top blogs like TechCrunch, TechRadar, CNET, Engadget etc have maintained their own teams as well as hire freelance bloggers. 

 

Genuine Reasons To Start A Blog:    

• You can get rid of  8 to 5 jobs.
• You can live boss-free life, become you own boss.
• You can earn passive income. 
• You can gain fame & recognition.
• You can work from anywhere, no location restrictions. 
• No investment required! You only need a computer & internet.
  

 

Remember that professional blogging is not just about writing articles and publishing, there are lot of things that you have to fully understand to become a successful professional blogger. So that's why besides "How to start a free blog" we have also covered each & everything about blogging that will help you to understand all those things in advance which might take you years to grasp.

In this post we will cover following topics in detail:

• Choose A Blogging Niche
  
• Choose A Blogging Platform / Domain Name
  
• Blogger's Builtin Themes Vs Custom Themes
  
• How To Write Ideal Blog Post
• How To Grow Blog Traffic 
  
• How To Earn Money From Blog / Blog Monetization
  

 

01. Choose A Blogging Niche

Before you create a blog you must choose a niche that will help you to choose blogging platform and domain name of your blog. Niche is your area of interest where you are good at or in other words your main topic of blogging like technology, finance, travel, lifestyle, food, fashion, blogging, marketing etc. You can find 100s of sub niches from these main niches.

 

Niche should be such that you enjoy talking about.

 

People often get confused like what is their real area of interest. One way to find your niche is to write down niche topic on a paper. Now under that topic write the article titles on which you can write content. This will help you to know that how good you are at particular niche. 

 

Other way to find a niche is to search on Google like "Most profitable niche ideas", "Trending niches", "Best niches for blogging" etc. While reading those niche topics you might find your ideal niche. 

 

If you choose a niche where there has already been lot of content written it will take lot of time for your content to be ranked on Google. If you choose a niche where there has not been lot of content written, will take less time for your content to be ranked on Google. So be smart while choosing a niche.

 

When you choose niche also consider the money factor as well like how much profitable your niche is. Earnings of each niche are different from the others like some niches are more profitable whereas some are less profitable. 

02. Choose A Blogging Platform

Choosing a right platform is always very important. Though there are many blogging platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly etc, but here we are guiding you to how to start blogging with Blogger.

 

Google owns Blogger and it is one of the oldest and popular free blogging platform. It is developed in Python language. All its blogs are hosted by Google & accessed by subdomain ".blogspot.com" like "www.example.blogspot.com".

 

Blogger is an easy-to-use blogging platform. Often new bloggers start blogging on Blogger, but later some of them shift to WordPress when their blog grows. If you want a simple blog like where you don't want complex eCommerce functionality etc then Blogger is the best option.

 

How To Choose A Domain Name

Choosing a right domain name is very important for your blog. Often people get confused when it comes to choose a domain name. So for your help, here are some suggestions to how to choose a right domain name:

• It should be easy to pronounce.
  
• It should be easy to remember.
• It should be easy to type.
• It should be brandable.
• From SEO point-of-view it is best if your domain name contains a keyword relevant to your website. Let's say you have a website about Blogger tutorials. You can use the keyword "Blogger" in your domain like "bloggerhelp.com" or "bloggertips.com" etc.
• If you have a personal blog or portfolio blog you can use your own name as well.
• You can also create a domain name from your "Name" and "Business Name". Let's say your name is Jack and you have a business of glasses, you can name it "www.jackoptics.com". 

 

In the next step(How to create a Blogger blog) you will be choosing your blog name and blog domain name. So keep these suggestions in your mind. On Blogger your domain name will be something like "www.your_domain_name.blogspot.com". The subdomain ".blogspot.com" will be added at the end.

 

How To Create A Blogger Blog

Since Blogger is a platform hosted by Google, so you need to create a Gmail account. If you already have a Gmail account you can Sign-up with that, but if you don't have a Gmail account read this tutorial:

• How To Create A Gmail Account - Step By Step

 

Follow these steps to create a Blogger blog:

• Open Blogger.com.
• Click "CREATE YOUR BLOG" button.
• You will be redirected to Gmail Sign In.

 

 

 

• Enter your Gmail ID.
• Click Next.

 

 

• Enter your Password.
• Click Next.

 

 

• Enter the Display Name. Display Name is the blog's main author or admin name.
• Click "Continue to Blogger".

 

 

• Click the "CREATE NEW BLOG".

 

 

 

• Enter the Title of your blog means your blog name. In most of the cases your blog name and domain name are same like our blog name is "Meer's World" and domain name is "www.meersworld.net". So while choosing your blog name/title always keep your domain name in your mind.
• Enter the Address(URL) of your blog through which your blog will be accessed. It is your domain name. When you will type the Address, it will check for its availability.
• Once you are done with your blog Address choose a Theme. If you are not sure which theme to choose, pick any theme right now because you can change your theme later.
• Click "Create blog!" button.

 

 

 

• Congratulations! You have successfully created a blog on Blogger.
• Click "View blog" or "Downward arrow" at you left side of Blogger dashboard to see your live blog.

 

 

 

 

Since you have successfully created blog, now to know more about Blogger SEO Settings, Configurations etc read this post. 

• Complete Blogger/Blogspot Tutorials - Step By Step | Learn Blogger .

 

How To Create You First Blog Post

• Open your Blogger dashboard.
• Click "+ New Post" at your left.
• The Blogger HTML Editor will be opened.
  

 

• Enter the title of your post in the Title bar.
• You can check the preview of your post from Preview Dropdown list at your right side. Click the "Preview post".
• Though Blogger automatically saves your content while you type, in case if you want to manually save then click "Save" from Preview Dropdown list.
• Once you complete your post click Publish. Your post will be visible on your blog. You can edit your post as many times as you want.

 

 

Now come to Post Settings located at your right side.

 

• Labels are similar to categories. Post is linked to the Labels that you write in the Labels Bar. Let's say you write "HowTo" label there. Now when anyone will click "HowTo" label on your blog, all the blog posts associated with "HowTo" will be listed.
• Always use Labels relevant to your post.
  
• You can write more than one Label for a post. Use comma(,) to separate one Label from the other.
  
• Use Backspace to remove a Label.

 

• By default when you click "Publish" button your post is published automatically.
• In case if you want to schedule your post to be published at some other date and time you can use "Set date and time".

 

• "Links" is the URL of your post. Always remember that once you Publish the post the URL cannot be changed, so carefully create your URL.
  
• There are two options: Automatic Permalink & Custom Permalink.
• Automatic Permalink means Blogger generates link from the title of the post.
• Custom Permalink means, you can add your own link or you can edit/customize the automatic permalink manually.
• You can customize your link after the date. 
  

 

• Sometimes "Automatic Permalink" generates accurate URL, but sometimes not. So using the "Custom Permalink" you can write accurate URL of your post.
• Insert hyphen(-) after each word in custom URL.
• Don't write characters like "a","the","an" etc in your URL. 
• You can preview your Custom URL under the Permalink? as we have underlined.
• Don't write anything on "Title Link?", "Enclosure Links?" etc.
  

 

 

• "Search Description" allows you to write 150 characters. Mostly the first two lines of the post are written or pasted here. This description is also displayed under the thumbnail when you share a post on Twitter or Facebook.

 

• "Options" is about reader comments on a post. You can choose whether you want to allow people to comment on your post or not. The default permission is "Allow".
  

 

 

• Last post Setting option is "Custom Robot Tags". 
• The "default" option will have been selected already. Leave as it is. You have to configure the "Custom Robots Tags" on Blogger Settings. 

In order to know what are "Custom Robots Tags" & how to configure them on Blogger, read this tutorial:

• How To Configure/Set The Custom Robots Header Tags On Blogger

If you want the complete introduction of Blogger HTML Editor, read this post:

• Complete Introduction To The Blogger HTML Editor For Beginners - Step By Step  

 

How To Redirect ".blogspot" To Custom Domain - Optional Feature

Blogger gives you a unique OPTIONAL feature like you can redirect your ".blogspot" subdomain to your custom domain.

 

Let's say your Blogger domain is "www.mytechblog.blogspot.com". You buy a custom domain let's say "www.mytechblog.com". Now using the Redirect to Custom Domain feature you can redirect your subdomain "www.mytechblog.blogspot.com" to "www.mytechblog.com". 

 

Redirecting your blogspot domain to custom domain will make your blog more professional & people would have no idea that it is hosted on a free blogging platform. Remember that it is an optional feature, it is up to you whether you want to use this feature or not.

 

The "Redirect to Custom Domain" feature makes Blogger more cost-effective as compare to WordPress. Blogger blog does not require you to buy Hosting as it is hosted on a free platform. If you buy a custom domain its yearly cost would be only  $10 to $12.

 

WordPress requires you to buy both Domain & Hosting. Hosting charges will also increase when your WordPress blog's monthly traffic will increase.

 

Let's say if your WordPress blog's monthly traffic is 50,000 its hosting cost will be around $22 to $25 per year and if your WordPress blog's monthly traffic reaches 200,000 its hosting cost will be around $44 to $50 per year or more.

 

Whereas in Blogger no matter how much monthly traffic your blog brings you have to pay nothing because it is hosted on free platform. If you use the "Redirect to Custom Domain" optional feature you have to pay only $10 to $12 per year for your custom domain.

 

We have created a separate tutorial where you will learn following things step-by-step:

• How to choose a domain name
• How to buy/register a new domain
• How to redirect your ".blogspot" URL to custom domain
• How to redirect naked domain to "www".

  

Follow this tutorial: How To Redirect Blogspot To Custom Domain

03. Builtin Themes Vs Custom Themes

Every blogging platform comes with some builtin themes likewise Blogger also have builtin themes, but remember that builtin themes of any blogging platform i.e Blogger, WordPress etc always come with limited features which require lot of customization plus do not fulfill the requirements of a modern professional blog.

 

Though you can customize Blogger builtin themes, but not everyone can customize them because it needs some expertise and some knowledge of web development. If you try yourself there are chances that you might end up destroying the theme's design, responsiveness and SEO. 

 

To customize your Blogger theme you can hire freelance Blogger developers. 

• Find Professional Freelance Blogger Developers Here.  

Always remember that first impression is the last impression. If you have a poor designed theme people might not visit your blog again and this is where professional responsive themes do the job. They are designed so beautifully that they attract visitors again and again.

The advance custom Blogger templates are as good as WordPress templates. They are built with amazing features like:

• Mega Menus & Multi-level Menus
• Responsive & Mobile Ready
• Fully Customizable 
  
• Advance Carousels
  
• Ads & Google AdSense Ready
• Sticky Sidebars
• Advance Comment System
  
• SEO Ready
• Cross-Browser Compatibility
• Ajax Support
• Powerful Admin Panels,
• Social Media widgets
• Numbering Pagination
• RTL Support Bootstrap,
• HTML5 & CSS3
• Related Posts widget
• Random Posts widget
• Latest or Specific Label widget
• Social Media Follower-Counter Widget and many more..

 

Maintaining a low bounce rate has always been a challenge for website owners & bloggers. One of the key reasons for high bounce rate of websites have been slow loading speed & poor design. Bounce rate is the percentage of people come to your blog or blog page and leave without going to another page.

If your Bounce rate is high, it means people are not interested in your content and blog. 

 

So to maintain a consistent low bounce rate custom Blogger templates have been developed & designed with the latest technologies like Ajax, CSS3, Bootstrap, HTML5 etc that not only improves the loading speed of website, but also the user experience as well.

 

A lower bounce rate fairly increases the website ranking in Google that leads to more traffic.   

 

The custom Blogger templates offer so much variety that you can find the ideal template for your niche like news & magazine blogs, multi-purpose blogs, portfolio blogs, photography blogs, fashion blogs, travel blogs, technology blogs, lifestyle blogs, food blogs, personal blogs, enterprise blogs, construction blogs, sports blogs, showcasing blogs etc. 

• Find the Latest & Most Advance Professional Responsive Blogger Templates Here.

04. How To Write Ideal Blog Post

Most of the new bloggers don't have the idea to write a good blog post. They start writing blog posts without any research and later they struggle to make their posts rank higher in Google.  

There is a basic question that people often ask like what should be the ideal length of a blog post OR how many words there should be in a blog post? 

 

Most of the SEO experts suggest that the ideal blog post should contain at least 1500 words to 2500 words. 

 

Few years back Google use to give high preference to lengthy posts, but things are changed now. Though it does gives priority to lengthy posts, but if lengthy post is not fulfilling what its title suggests and you are just writing irrelevant or repeated content then it will be ignored by Google.

 

Google now gives more preference to those posts which are more meaningful and fulfill the requirement of reader. Few years back people use to write posts by keeping only Google in mind like they would focus more on keywords and length of articles by ignoring what readers want. This way they used to make Google fool.

 

Now Google algorithms are AI & semantic based means they are so efficient that they will automatically identify which articles are more meaningful and helping readers and which are not. So whenever you write a blog post always keep readers in mind like they are the one for whom you are creating content.   

Title of blog is also very important. Title should not be too long. Always write the main keywords in the title and when you write your post content don't go too far from the title, remain within the scope of your post title. 

 

Before you write a blog post search similar posts on Google and check the top 10 posts like what are the keywords in Title, how many words in the post, what is the structure of post & what are the important keywords in the post. You will get to know that why Google has ranked them in top 10 results.

 

You can use free Google keyword research tool Google Planner or other paid SEO tools to find the best, competitive and profitable keywords for your blog posts and titles. 

• How To SignUp & Use Free Google Keyword Planner | Google Keyword Research  

 

When you write a blog post always keep smartphones in your mind because today majority of people use smartphones as compare to computers, and that's why while indexing & ranking Google gives more priority to those posts and websites which are mobile-friendly and responsive.

 

Your paragraphs should not be more than 3 lines. If you write lengthy paragraphs that will be too large for smartphone reader and he might close your page. 

 

First two paragraphs of your post are always very important because you can capture the attention and trust of readers. 

 

Here are some ideas for you:

• Be short and direct. Ask a question or two like "Do you want to know how to write ideal blog post? Here are 10 tips".
• Share a shocking or interesting relevant fact or statistics like "Do you know that WordPress powers 37% of all the websites on internet".
  
• Share something personal. 
• Start with a reader's a question like "Do you have tips for writing ideal blog post? I have... ".
• You can share a relevant quote.
• Briefly summarize the solution or what readers are going to expect in the detail post. 
  

 

Always format your post content. Use heading tags H1, H2, H3, bullets, numbering, spacing etc to properly format your blog post. Text color should not be dim, standard color is black. Font-size should be at least 16px. Font-family should be simple and easily readable.

Make your posts more attractive by using relevant images, video or audio. Don't use unnecessary images as they increase the loading time of a page. Your post content should be more than images. Write a conclusion at bottom of the post if necessary. 

 

Always use optimized images means before you upload images reduce their size. Don't upload poor quality and large size images. Give every image a meaningful name. Don't name your images like image 1, image 2 etc. Image name should be relevant to your post title.  

 

After uploading an image must write the Title Text & Alt Text. Always remember that a good number of visitors come to your blog by clicking images on Google.  

05. How To Grow Your Blog Traffic

Till this step you have learned how to create a free blog and how to write a good blog post. Initially it is very had to bring organic traffic means traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc because it takes time for your blog and blog posts to be recognized and ranked by search engines.

 

The success of any blog new or old mainly depends on how consistent you are in publishing posts. Google gives priority to those blogs which consistently publish new posts. Your blog posts will be indexed on Google faster when you consistently write content. 

 

If you have a new blog try to post at least one article per day or 3 to 4 per week.

 

There is the possibility that few articles might bring organic traffic to your blog very early, but it is rare. So to grow your blog traffic in earlier stages of your blog you can use following ways:

• Create official pages or accounts on all popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram etc. Share your blog posts there. Google also acknowledges and gives weightage to your blog when it brings traffic from different platforms and different locations. 
  
• You can use paid advertisement to promote your content like Google Ads. 
• You can share your blog post links on relevant YouTube video comments.
• You can share your blog post links on comments section of different blog articles.
• You can join different forums like Quora where you can answer queries by suggesting your relevant blog posts.
• Ask your friends, relatives & family members to read your articles and share with their friends and family members.
• Send your blog posts via email to your blog subscribers. 
  
• Make sure your blog theme is responsive means it should be fully-compatible with any device like computer, smartphone or iPad. Mobile-friendly posts are indexed and ranked faster on Google. They bring lot of traffic once ranked on Google. 
• Check your blog traffic Stats on Blogger dashboard. Link your blog with Google Search Console & Google Analytics. You will get complete details of your blog traffic, performance & issues related to your blog and content.
• Maintain a low bounce rate. Bounce Rate is the percentage of people come to your page and leave without going to another page. It is not a good sign for your website if somebody visits your website and leaves without exploring other pages, tells you that you are doing something terribly wrong. 
  

 

In order to learn "Why Low Bounce Rate Is Important", "Bounce Rate For Single Page Website", "What is Exit Rate", "Average Bounce Rate by Industry", "How To Check Bounce Rate of a Website In Google Analytics", "What Are The Causes Of High Bounce Rate" & "How To Reduce Bounce Rate of a Website" read this article:

• How To Reduce Bounce Rate, Definition, Importance, Calculation, eCommerce | Google Analytics

These are some of the builtin responsive Blogger themes. You can see that there are different views for desktop and smartphone. 

 

How To Earn Money From Blog

There are 4 different ways you can earn money from your blog i.e Google AdSense, Affiliate Marketing, Paid Content & Selling Your Own Product.

When to apply for Google AdSense or affiliate programs?

 

Most of the new bloggers always make this mistake like after writing 2 or 3 posts they start applying for Google AdSense or other affiliate programs. Always remember that when you create a new blog don't focus on earnings, try to focus on writing posts and bringing organic traffic. Once you do that you can apply for AdSense and relevant affiliate programs.

Create these 4 important pages soon after your blog is ready:

• Privacy Policy page
  
• Disclaimer page
  
• About Us page
  
• Contact Us page

If you don't create these pages Google AdSense and affiliate programs will reject your blog. Read this article in order to get approved from Google AdSense:

• How To Fix Valuable Inventory: No Content Google Adsense Error | Google Adsense Approval

 

Google AdSense

Everyone of you know that Google AdSense is a great free online earning program that pays you certain amount of money for every genuine click depending on the location and CPC(Cost-Per-Click) of keywords. 

In order to learn "How to apply/sign-up for Google AdSense from Blogger" & "How to add Google AdSense gadgets in Blogger once your blog is approved" read this tutorial:

• How To Display Google Ads On Blogger - Step By Step | Monetize A Blogger Blog

In order to learn about Google AdSense like "How to increase your Google AdSense Revenue" & different AdSense terms like RPM, CTR & CPC read this article:   

• How To Increase Google AdSense Revenue - 8 Tips | Understand RPM, CTR & CPC

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is also called digital marketing. It is a way to earn certain amount of commission(money) by selling a product or service of a company via your affiliate links. 

 

Let's say you register for an affiliate program and put its product's banner on your blog with your affiliate link. A visitor visits your blog, clicks the banner and purchases that product from company's product page. Now that company will pay you certain amount of commission for producing a sale. This is how affiliate marketing works.

 

Companies offer affiliate programs to promote their content. Some companies develop their own affiliate tracking software, but majority use third-party platforms like Impact Radius, CJ Affiliate etc. 

There are thousands of affiliate programs available on internet for every niche. In order to become their affiliate partner you have to submit an application where you provide information about yourself & your blog. Once they review your application they will send you an email whether it is accepted or rejected. Some affiliate programs accept applications without review. 

You can search on Google for affiliate programs relevant to your blog niche or content. Here are some of the popular affiliate programs & affiliate platforms:

• CJ Affiliate
• Shareasale
• Amazon Associates
• Ebay Partner Network
• Clickbank
• Impact Radius
• Fiverr
• Payoneer
• Kinsta 
• Envato Market
  

 

You can find plenty of blog posts on different affiliate programs on Meer's World. Click Here.  

If you want to know which one is better between Google AdSense & Affiliate Marketing means from whom you can earn more money or which one is more suitable to your blog, read this post:

• Affiliate Marketing Vs Google AdSense: Which One Is Best & Profitable?

Paid or Sponsored Content

When your blog gets good reputation and brings good monthly traffic people will contact you for promoting their products, services or websites via your blog posts or banners. If they ask you for promoting articles you will get paid per article. If they ask you to display banner you will get paid monthly, yearly or for certain period of time.

 

Either they will provide you the content or they will ask you to write content for them and publish on your blog.

Sell Your Own Product

Selling your own product is also a great way to earn money from your blog. Let's say you have a food blog, you can recommend your own eBook of recipes to your blog visitors. This way you will not earn a certain amount of commission rather you will earn full amount.  

Conclusion

So this was all about starting a free blog and earn money from it. We have tried our best to guide you in a best possible way. We have covered lot of topics which most of the bloggers don't. Blogging is a great career, take it seriously. If you like this post then don't forget to share with other people. Share your feedback in the comments section below.