How to start a blog that will make enough money to live off it? Is it really possible? What are the steps to create a blog and make money? …

In this article I will share with you how I started this blog less than 2 years ago and exactly what I have done for it to earn me over $5,000 a month in affiliate commissions.

This article is written on the basis of my own experience and success. However, many of my friends who have followed the same path are now earning much more than I do.

To illustrate this article, I have chosen for example the creation of a blog on the theme of “Making Money From Home“.

This article is in fact a short version of my Internet Marketing Course which you can receive for free directly in you email box for you to follow at your leisure. You can subscribe to it by clicking on the image below …

Done? Okay, then let’s get on with our short tutorial …

So, you want to start a money making blog, right?

Good idea! Creating a blog and making a living out of it is the dearest dream of many; it is true that this type of activity has many advantages. Just to name a few:

• it is possible to work from home
• it is possible to devote oneself to one’s passion (travel blog, culinary blog or fashion, health blog, car blog, computer blog, political blog …)
• the initial financial investment is minimal, and can be zero (I will show you how)
• etc.

Yet this type of adventure is very demanding. One thing that you will need to have is perseverance. Also, you will have to be regular. You must aim for the long term. By that I mean that if you just want to “give it a try to see if it works“, trust me, it will not work!

If you need immediate income, then forget the idea of ​​creating a blog to live on it.

Here’s everything you need to know to create a blog and make money!

For your information: the word blog is the contraction of weblog, coming from web and log. Originally, a log was a log thrown into the sea by the sailors to measure the pace of the boats; they kept a log of logs, sort of logbook.

As per Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I first started blogging soon after Blogger was made available during the year of 1999. I thought that it was a great way of putting a message across. This was in fact the start of my Internet Marketing career (circa 2001).

Since then, many online platforms have been created to help newbies create their own blogs. The one that I am going to teach you to use is the most popular and performing: WordPress! It has at present over 75,000,000 users.

To create a blog and make money: the key factors of success

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Creating a blog can be a profitable business, but there is a big gap between the moment you start putting in some effort and the moment of return on investment. Therefore, as I said earlier, you will have to show patience and perseverance.

The first substantial income can be enjoyed after 6 months to 1 year of work.

The other qualities needed to succeed are:

• love to write and know how to write (this can come with practice),
• to be passionate and to be concerned about your subject,
• be rigorous, seek to cross-reference information in the manner of a specialized journalist,
• to love to help others: at first, you will indeed give a lot without necessarily receiving a return,
• be regular in your work.

To create a blog and make money: the steps

Here are the main steps to follow to create a blog which will enable you to make a living from.

1st step: The right training

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If you want to live of your activity on the internet, you will have to start by training yourself, especially on SEO techniques (SEO, SMO) and your activity on various social networks.

All this is learnable! I knew nothing when I decided that I wanted to make a living out of the Internet. My native language is not even English, and I left school at the age of nine!

There are many courses, some of which are available online and are free. You can also self-train by buying books or specialized guides. Some are excellent, some are not too bad, but unfortunately, not many are “excellent”.

At this stage, it is important that you do not waste your time by involving yourself in something that is less than the best. The best, doesn’t necessarily mean “the most expensive”. The best training can also be free!

So here, you have the choice between 2 of the best Internet Marketing trainings:

1 – My free Internet Marketing course I have already offered you above, and …
2 – Or to subscribe directly to the Nr. 1 Internet Marketing training available online.

Both are as good, free and I will be mentoring you till you succeed, as I have done already for hundreds of people who have made the commitment to improve their standard of living.

2nd step: Surround yourself with the right people

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If you are not a computer pro or a whiz at web technologies, it will be necessary to surround yourself with friends and experts who will be available at any time to answer your questions about security, hosting, database, or the add-ons.

Eventually, you will also need to be able to discuss your concerns with a graphic designer to improve the presentation of your site.

By following my free Internet Marketing course you will learn how to identify these experts, or by subscribing directly to the Nr. 1 Internet Marketing training, you will immediately be in contact with them.

These guys can’t wait to share what they have learned and are always ready to give a hand whenever you need.

3rd step: Choose your editorial theme

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In order to make a living off your blog, the niche of your choice is of strategic importance. You must choose a niche (or topic) that speaks to you, that you master in whole or in part, and that is large enough to write a lot about it.

The theme of “Making Money From Home” is a good example as far as I am concerned because I know the subject very well and I have been making money from home with great success for many years, so I can easily talk about.

Another example: I am also writing a blog on the topic of psoriasis; how to reduce the pain, the itching, etc. naturally. It is a subject that I also know very well because I am suffering from psoriasis ever since I can remember.

These two topics are very precise, well targeted, and at the same time broad or inexhaustible. Plus, millions of people are concerned and are looking for answers.

You might have a skill, a hobby, or a passion that you feel you could write about … that’s it!

We all know something that thousands of other people would like to know about. Very often our first instinct is to say “I have no skills”, “there is nothing that I know that can be of interest to anyone else”, and so on, and so on … WRONG! You only need help to discover what you have that you could turn into a gold mine.

That reminds me of one on my favorite quotes borrowed by Earl Nightingale from the book “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Cornwall …

4th step: Choose your domain name and web solution

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The choice of the domain name is important. The domain name must have keywords related to your niche.

The problem is that most interesting domain names are already taken … If for example we take to topic of quit smoking, you will see that on the image below, the most interesting domain names are not available …

But with a bit of imagination and perseverance, there will have to be at least one that will work.

For example, a quick search returned that preparingtoquitsmoking.com is still available (at this precise moment). To me this could be a good one. And there are many more that would work well.

So, to say that “all good domain names are already taken” is not correct!

As for the choice of the web solution, I really recommend WordPress, the free and open-source content management system based on PHP and MySQL which is particularly well suited for blog management and SEO.

WordPress is used throughout the fabulous training you will receive for free when you join Wealthy Affiliate …

5th step: Write, write, write …

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The heart of your business will be producing content. But not just any content. I mean, quality content, relevant, pleasant to read, complete, and that makes your reader to want to go further.

Don’t let this put you off though, we all can do it. Difficult to believe for some of you. Myself I couldn’t believe 2 years ago that I would even write just one article, but if you go through this blog, you can see for yourself how many I have already written so far. And I have 4 blogs on the go, on different topics. I am surprised myself (I would even say, proud of myself).

My wife who is a writer and have several published books (no, she has not written, or even edited any of my articles) often says: “If you can write a postcard, you can write a book!“. Easily said, right? Yes, but, that always encouraged me to take the plunge … so should you!

To be profitable, it is estimated that a blog must have between 300 and 600 articles: this figure varies depending on the theme chosen, the competition, the interest of the general public for the subject …

To write a beautiful article, expect to spend 3 hours initially, you will then gain in productivity. If you write an average of two to three articles a week, you will need between 6 months and a year to see the end of the tunnel.

A tip that is worth gold …

Prefer to write a article of great value rather than 2 articles of average quality.

To get yourself ready to write and avoid the writer’s block, first establish a list of articles that you wish to write. For example, still on the theme of “Making Money From Home“:

• How To Create A Catchy Title?
• What Is Search Engine Positioning?
• Creative Marketing Strategies For Small Business
• How To Work From Home With No Experience
• Blogging Ideas That Make Money
• How Can I Promote My Business For Free?
• How to Write a Book For Money
• The Importance Of Word Of Mouth In Marketing
• How To Deal With The Writer’s Block ? – 10 Tips To Overcome It
• etc.

To find your story ideas, use Google suggestions that appear in the search bar (predictive text) or blue at the bottom of the search pages. You can also use Google Trends, the free Google tool that gives search trends for certain phrases.

Then from there, make use of a keyword research tool like Jaaxy to evaluate the volume of searches and competition. Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, all this is clearly explained in the free training when you join Wealthy Affiliate.

Do not be afraid of competition. If you find that an article has already been processed by 4 or 5 competing sites, treat it anyway, and try to do better.

Track your progress!

Using analytics tools such as Jaaxy, helps you keep track of your articles’ raking.

The more you publish, the more your traffic will increase. However, your activity may be cyclical or seasonal: do not be discouraged.

There will be times when your attendance will drop, even rock bottom. There is nothing you can do but to keep writing!

Look after your SEO by applying the techniques you have learned: correctly place your important phrases and keywords in the title, description and body of articles, and again, towards the end of your article.

Do not think about writing posts of less than 600 words. Aim for 1,000 to 1,500 words, and if you can reach 2,000 words, great.

BUT, do not write for the sake of filling the page! Always keep in mind that quality is far better than quantity.

6th step: Create value around your articles

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At this stage, you are still writing content, by that I mean that you are bringing value to your blog, that is to say, a lot of value, but you still do not know how to translate it into dollars. Patience, everything in the right order.

We are talking about content marketing, or inbound marketing. Your content must attract thousands of visitors, and it will sooner than you may think.

On average, each article must attract between 5 and 15 unique visitors per day. So if you have written 200 articles, you should have between 1000 and 3000 unique visitors per day. That’s not bad !

It is now time to convert your visitors into leads and then into prospects so that they can become customers someday. This will require developing ways to better know them. Here are ways to do that:

• bring them to comment on your articles,
• encourage them to contact you,
• incite them to find you on social networks,
• encourage them to give you their contact details by completing a form to access a free e-book for example,
• suggest that they subscribe to your newsletter,
• etc.

The goal will be to better know the profile and expectations of your visitors. Tell yourself that this information is worth gold!

7th step: Monetize your blog

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And finally, the long awaited chapter! We are there now and your patience will pay off …

So far I showed you how to start your blog, how to write valuable content to attract the attention of Internet users, now what about making money?

Your blog is ready to generate revenue because now you know the characteristics of your visitors and their expectations. You also know what are your most visited articles. Now you have to find solutions to meet the demand that is becoming more and more precise.

Different sources of income can be developed to make a living from your blog:

• The sale of links and sponsored articles. As your blog becomes a reference in the sector, you will be more and more solicited by other sites wishing to obtain a link or publish articles on yours. This has a price: from $50 to $400 per link or article depending on the quality and size of your blog. To force the destiny, you can also register your site on platforms of connection between bloggers and advertisers. I don’t do that myself, so I can’t recommend any, but a bit of research will point to a few of them.
• Google advertising: You can install Google Adsense which is Google’s advertising system. You will receive between $0.05 and $0.50 per click. These are the banners within the body of your article that will bring you the most money.
• Affiliate platforms: These are online platforms that offer you affiliate programs according to the demand of advertisers. Basically you are offered to display on your site banners remunerated at a fixed or per click. The main affiliate platforms you can subscribe to are Tradedoubler, ClickBank, CJ Affiliate …
• Selling your own products or services: it’s about creating an online store to sell your own products and / or services. This may be real products, books or e-books, training, or dematerialized services (by phone, skype or e-mail).
• The sale of products and services of third parties: sell the products of companies interested in your content, directly or not, and collect your commission in passing.
• Development partnerships: they can take different forms and guarantee the future of your business.

At this point you might already have identified your business model, so that’s great. You have pinpointed a passion or a hobby that you would like to develop and share with the world.

So, where to go from here?

Thanks for reading this guide …

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I hope that you have learned a few things from this article and that very soon you will start your own blog and make money like many of us bloggers.

If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear from you.

And, if you have any questions, please use the comments’ area below. You should normally receive a reply within the next 48 hours.

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