Think of this like you think of Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop. Plus, the WordPress community has lots of helpful support forms and hundreds of plug-ins, which are add-on programs you can download to customize the look and function of your site. Tumblr and Blogger are other free platforms out there along with WordPress. Basically, it helps your site look pretty. WordPress comes with a few themes that are already installed which can be customized with your own colors, graphics, and logos or you can find additional themes with a simple Google search.

And you can see in the graphic below how the same theme can be customized to look unique to you. You can see how the same building blocks are present in both, but the addition of our content and graphics and our tweaks to the layout contribute to a personalized look. Wait, so are you saying I have to be super tech savvy and know web coding to start a blog?

However, you may find that knowing some basic HTML and CSS will give you more control over your site looks and save you from hiring it out , so you can read more of our coding advice here. Some are designed very sparsely, while others are built-out with lots of bells and whistles. So, thank you for taking time and effort in creating this post! There is a couple vital questions that I have for you. Is blogging something that would need to be claimed on taxes? Do you need to record profits, wages, etc. Also, did you need to license your name with the state you live in? And totally worth the 5 minute hassle of figuring out hassles.

These tips are awesome! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday, hope to see you again next week! You are being featured on my site tomorrow. I LOVE your graphics. Thanks for coming to Inspire Me Monday. Will I see your response about the graphic program? My Email is with my comment. Can you write me?


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I love the letters. Also, how do you do so well on Pinterest? Traffic is down for most of us. Can you work less hours and make good money as long as you are good at it and have all the right resources? Still work hard, but less…. I forget to explain that a lot. Thank you for posting this! I am in the process of starting up a blog and found this to be very helpful! I am following your steps and just got my domain name and am reading the book you suggested right now as well. Excited to see where it takes you!

My site is MakeItWithMissy. I have a bunch of stuff in draft mode now, but I made a couple posts live so I could get feedback from friends and family before I officially launch my site. It really motivated me to start my blog after being a full time mommy. Overtime someone comes to your blog you make money?

This spells out the income for you. I just stumbled upon your blog and am so excited to have found you! I only started my blog one week ago but I have a lot of content planned. I was SOOO lucky to have had another blogger convince me that this is a real thing. So this is probably a really dumb question…. Does is get deposited into an account or do you get a check? Im extremely new to this but very interested in starting up.

Thank you for your help! You can get checks, direct deposits or even paypal payments. I had wanted to do something from home once I had my son and blogging always seemed to come up but it always seemed daunting. You explain everyting so well it convinced me I could do it, so thank you!!! What a great post for a beginner!

Thanks for linking up to Merry Monday! Sharing on my Blog Tips Board! Have a great week! Oh an sharing on FB! This post helped me so much in setting up my new blog!! I love this Shannon! I took your step by step advice to get started. I set up my domain, got my first post written, and im working on developing more content before i launch my site on May 1st! And I adore Ruth!

This is a great resource! I originally planned on blogging to support my little store, but I might also try to invest more time into the blog itself so it can earn on its own! This has been the most helpful information I have gotten since I decided to try my hand at blogging! I am still in the beginning stages of it but would love for you to check it out and let me know what your thoughts are! This is an awesome topic! SO excited to see a blog in an niche like this! I agree…I have gone to several websites for how tos and this was the most straight forward and easy to understand!!!

So I too have recently started a blog. But I just am finding my groove. This is such a baby step thing for me. I want to advance it into a profitable thing and believe I can with time. Just figuring it all out for myself is difficult so far. Your step by step is going to baby step me through it… I hope. Any advice is surely appreciated. Is sitebog your hosting or your platform? You really want to be on WordPress to make this a business. Excited to see where this takes you! I loved your post and I am super excited to get going.

I got through all of your steps and even decided I loved The Cotton Theme and added it. The problem I am having is changing the title to my logo I created. I cant seem to find a place to change it. Thank you for this post! Love your tips and I definitely have some work to do! I am so glad this was helpful! I was just wondering, how invaluable has Facebook been to you when it comes to promoting your blog? And because of its popularity, Facebook would be really difficult to ignore.

You can start with Pinterest, but then I suggest you move on to Facebook. Hi Rosemarie thank you so much for taking the time to go through step by step all that info. It helped me understand so much about starting a blog site. I am on holidays at the moment but as soon as I get home I will get down to business by following your step by step guide. Once again thank you so very much and all the best on your blogging journey. Come back and update us! I started April 30 and picked up my site at godaddy. Now it appears that I have to wait sixty days before I can move it anywhere.

So, thanks for all the helpful information! Ha, better late than never! Hello Rosmarie, Thanks so much for the inspirational post.


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    • It definitely lifted my spirits about blogging. I am still in the beginning phases and frustration is taking over. I like that you kinda took it one step at a time and set a goal for one year…that seems way more attainable than trying to figure out what a framework even is?!?! Most people give up because they get overwhelmed.

    Thank you for the insight. I am truly just beginning, just wrote my first post yesterday! My blog is called the whole person wellness thewholepersonwellness. Contemplating buying WordPress and redoing everything. Thanks for your tips! I hate to be the bearer of bad news but yeah… You have to switch to wordpress and redo everything.

    This is a great explanation of how to get a blog up and running without having to be a computer whiz kid. I have had self hosted websites in the past but due to extreme financial hardship I reluctantly had to let them go. Right now I am blogging on blogger, but as soon as I can I will move to WordPress and claim my domain name. One of the problems I am facing is monetizing my blog. Of course without enough readers to warrant it, this is something I am looking to do in the future and not right now.

    I am open to any suggestions you or other readers may have. Have you thought about selling ebooks? Or a set of printables to aid in decluttering? You could even charge for coaching. I am feeling energized about starting my new blog after reading your blog! You can see the breakdown in my income reports: Just started my blog recently! Thank you so much for your advice. I would just want to make back the money I spent to start it.

    Danielle- email us at busybudgeter gmail. My new blog is about small space living and other stuff too! I love your topic Elle! What, if any, add-ons do you recommend we get once we get into BlueHost? I am saving money to pull the trigger in the best way possible without leaving my site open to too much vulnerability and am hoping to be self-hosted by the end of the summer.

    My first post was yesterday. Thats the only add on that I got. Domain privacy is huge! Everything is great at how to start a blog but how do you go about making money with the blog? Could that be an additional info post please? I am really, really interested in blogging for income pleasure as well.

    My only question is, where is the money coming from? I actually just wrote a post specifically to cover this! This is a really great, easy to understand resource for anyone looking to start in the blogging world. Thanks for sharing on Merry Monday! I just started a blog and have a long way to go. I also and getting too widespread on what I write about. Seriously though, Neither could I! I just wrote my subscribers a letter every week and attached the new post s to it.

    It turns out thats one of the best things I did! Happy to share them Molly! This post is amazing! Thank you for breaking it down in plain English, and providing the encouragement to just go for it! I will definitely be referencing this post again. That exactly what I love best about it! I recently started a blog end of May when Bluehost had a similar type special. Learning lots and still lots to learn…Thanks for the tip about Pixabay, did not know where to get free stock photos. Good to know about tech support help as well.

    How to Start a Blog on WordPress for Beginners (Plus What to Blog About)

    Charlotte recently posted… Upcoming Rustic Sign Project. The secret is to be ridiculously sweet and appreciative when you call. Happy to share Jamie! I love that Amanda! PicMonkey is great, too. My blog is Surviving Alabama www. I switched from Canva to Picmonkey and never looked back. I found it so much easier to use. But your in good company in Canva, Bob Lotich from http: I just never got good with it. Happy to share Merit! Great tips for beginners! I must say, I love the slight tweak to your logo.

    Decide on your end goal: Money or Pleasure.

    I know that is not really the purpose of your post but I just had to say how much I love it. Thanks for sharing your tips with us at Merry Monday this week! I LOVED the original design and was so happy that the designer left the antique clock in the redesign! Excellent resource of information and step-by-step directions. Still working through this as I get my own blog site up and running. Thank you Rosemarie for sharing, and your patience with my questions.

    Hope to be launching soon!! Will definitely refer this article to other up and coming bloggers!! Thank you for sharing this at Thoughts of Home. We love having you.

    Laura recently posted… Thoughts of Home on Thursday Thanks for having us Laura! Tell me more about what you want to write about? A good name will really differ depending on your niche. As long as the theme you want it free, you can just change it from your dashboard. Thanks for stopping by Stacey!

    Great tips for those starting out! Thank you for this thorough and open advice on how to get going! I can;t wait to see where this takes you! You might want to double check your face book link. I was going to follow and it said link was brokeing. I wanted to thank you for this post. It has really helped me with setting up my blog.

    I just got it up and going today. I have a long ways to go with it but hopefully it will come in time! Love love love this!! I am so new to this but I think I am off to a good start. I started my blog a few months ago and have good viewers at times, but only when I post a new post and share the mess out of it on social media. I am looking for ways such as pinterest to promote as well. Right now, I am just on facebook and instagram. Looking forward to getting more subscribers and readers! As well as monetize at some point, just need to figure out how to get more traffic first so that I can.

    How to Make Money Writing a Blog - Our Story from $0 to 10k per Month!

    I found this blog a couple months ago and today found the courage to start my own blog. You have great advice! My blog is thesimplychelsea. Thank you for sharing all the great info. I am new to blogging and have been looking into how to potentially monetize my blog. Your site is a very helpful resource! Thanks for the post. Hopefully my blog can be as beautiful as yours someday!

    I was looking through your blog for some more inspiration of course. Since I have started my blog almost two months ago I have gotten less than 10 views. I have been thinking about starting one. How do the taxes work when you start earning? Do you file as self-employed?

    I know you can write off your monthly costs and even your computer but how do you not get stuck paying a huge tax bill? Fantastic post and very detailed steps. This is sure to help out many folks. I kinda skipped this step, and it was a pain to re-brand everything down the road. Love the down-to-earth way you have of taking a huge scary task and breaking it down into a checklist of doable steps. What a great article.

    And look at all the replies you hot! I just started my blog last week. I have article titles eith more to come. I just keep adding to my list. My blog can be found here: My heads swimming with all the info you gave, thanks! We closed the store, but I still love blogging, so started my own at LoraBloomquist. I find it comforting that you are not tech savvy and use those that are to help you. My concentration is on home , but I also would like to have a category for nostalgic stories of growing up in the south. I started the blog to chronicle the building of our porch hence the name http: Thanks again for all the info.

    Look forward to reading more. Which do you recommend? That is until I found your post. Love how you have everything broken down. Thank you so much. This made it so much easier. Still got a long way to go; but, I did come up with a name and signed up with BlueHost. My blog name is Busy Lifestyle Gal. You just took the first step to changing your life!

    Hey Rosemarie, I first heard about you from your interview a year ago on the Side Hustle podcast. I hope to put more and more of it into my own blog little by little read: Just listened to your update interview and now I have so much more to chew on. Thanks all the great info. My blog is just over a year old at http: Thank you Rosemarie, What a generous amount of information! Intriguing, and organized brilliantly. I have 15 hours I could focus into a blog and my sister is a technical writer saturated in grammar and such with her help I may have some success.

    Thank you again, Elizabeth. Reading your blog post made me feel like I was talking to one of my sisters! This is the best thing I have read in a while. I keep switching between Wix and WordPress for my blog. Wix is easy and beautiful and WordPress is intimidating to me but after reading this I am going back to WordPress so I can start monetizing my lifestyle blog.

    Quick question, do you use those graphic sites because of legal issues as far as borrowing pictures?

    How To Create A Free Blog On The BlogSpot Blogging Platform

    You have to buy the rights to them! I am considering writing a blog about the loss of my son. Hopefully this will help other mothers and fathers on their journey. I am following your advice step by step but I have a question about Bluehost. Once I pay them for a year, will I be ready to blog? Also, the basic plan is 4. Do I need these? Really nice and informative article about how to properly start a blog. If you follow this, success will follow!

    I want to blog about my life as a midwife, aiming to amuse, inspire, inform, educate and share the joy. Might even offer debriefing opportunities if comments suggest a need. I love your matter-of-fact approach and it has given me a lot to think about. Thanks for the helpful post! I love this post, I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now but 1. I think the only question I have as of now is that I went to purchase my domain name,theme etc and I was giving me a total of ….. Will be useful for an amateur and another, indeed.

    We recently launched our site and this article was very helpful in getting that done. Great contect for beginners. Our site is http: I have been blogging for years and use a WordPress platform. Does Bluehost allow you to bring over old content? I wish I would have seen it sooner. I JUST started my blog and did it through wordpress. I did not realize I needed to self host!!!! I plan to launch the blog in January. Thank you so much for your informative article.

    Thank you so much for giving a step by step, easy to follow guide. I was playing around with the idea of a blog all year and this gave me the final push I needed. So now my daughter and I are living in my car with only my best friend my tablet to work with. But you know what? I made it happen. I wasted 2 weeks trying to get the exact look and feel before I remembered that you said to just go for it. I would appreciate any feedback you can give. I tried to get some niche features to make me stand out. Thanks again for sharing your experience. Thank you for the motivation. I heard you on the Side Hustle podcast.

    After hearing you, I began reading your website and stumbled upon this post. My plan is to post one in-depth article per week. I made sure I had a stock pile of 4 articles to get me through the first few weeks as I begin to learn the ropes. I like your advice to re-invest the blog income to further blog education and adding design details.

    Keep up the good work. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Hi Rosemarie, I literally just pushed publish yesterday for my first blog because I was so scared. I have already signed up through bluehost and wordpress but my site needs tons of work. I got lots of good feedback yesterday on my facebook page from over 60 people.

    My blog is called inspirationalhairsensei. Rosemarie, I love your easy to read article and if I could do this full time boy would I. You are such an inspiration! Nicely done and written. You gave me some good info about starting a blog. This is really helpful for newbies like me. Two years ago I attempted to blog because I love writing about personal finance and lifestyle choices. It was shortest blogging career in history. The time spent trying to resize images, change fonts, get things in the right places — all while using a template drove me berserk and I gave up.

    Then I found your post and decided to try again. I used the steps that you laid out and got the template set up. I was still not sure how to do certain things with the template and tried YouTube videos, books, you name it. Here was my solution — http: Best money ever spent. You gave me the push I needed to follow this dream! Best wishes to you and your readers for a great ! And I am replying to myself so I can add my most recent blog post. Still have lots to learn.

    Rosemarie, I love that you give the option to share our own blogs so easily. I started my blog http: Not one to sit around lol I thought this would be a fun way to use my writing skills and write about Canadian things! Your post about starting a blog has been super helpful — in fact, I have it bookmarked for easy, frequent reference! If you have some time, you should check out some of the fun winter festivals in Edmonton coming up in the next few months! Hello, I am looking for ways to make extra money.. I am an art teacher and basically make everything. I also have a degree in interior design.

    How specific does the blog have to be? I have a passion for embellishments in many areas of life…fashion, decor, etc.. What are your thoughts? Thank you so much for the detailed information and the encouragement in your post. My blog is liveastreamlinedlife. Hi Rosemarie — Elite Blog Academy 3. Actually getting a blog set up has been really stressful and I know I spent too much money but live and learn I guess. Blog is not yet activated but it is www. Great post for new bloggers! Thank you for sharing on Merry Monday! Just starting on my blog http: Have you posted your income since October ?

    Tech stuff can be so discouraging to bloggers myself included. Blogging is def a lot of work but so worth it. Thanks for linking to homematters linky party. I enjoyed the detailed steps to start a blog. Would you please explain that for me? This site is fantastic and congrats on your blogging success!! I started my site Get a Side Hustle about 3 weeks ago and I am super excited to see where it will go. I have so many things to share and I look forward to helping other people.

    Christie recently posted… My 2 Side Hustle — Shopify. These are the options they have available: Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge! I just started a blog as a suggestion to help boost my website visits I started an interior decor business recently. Thank you for such a great post!!!

    There are many blogging platforms which offer users the ability to create free blogs. To create your free BlogSpot blog site, head over to BlogSpot. Create a free blog. Here I have compiled a list of free BlogSpot templates that you can download and install on your blog. So your blog is almost ready and you can start writing posts. If you want to take the more professional route right from the beginning, you can always refer to my WordPress starter guide.

    Hi harsh, i am freelancer, providing computer repair services and computer amc services in Delhi, and try to get ranking in google search. I have created my new blog using blogspot. But, it is yet to be monetized using Adsense. Thanks for your excellent article. I always read you blog. I have also bought your ebook on Affiliate Marketing. I started my blog a few days ago and I am following your blog and its article for my next move. It helped me a lot.