How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner (2021 Complete Guide)

Making money from blogging feels like a pipe dream as a beginner, right? 

Whether you’ve got traffic trickling in from Pinterest or haven’t had any traffic to your blog yet, don’t lose hope.

It’s entirely possible to make money blogging as a beginner. I started my blog a couple of months ago, and I already make a full-time income. 

So, I’m here to tell you that it is possible to make money from blogging in 2021 (even as a beginner) in this complete guide.

Just to let you know, this post may contain affiliate links (meaning if you buy from one of my links I make a little money at no extra cost to you). Find my full disclosure here.

How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner: What We’re Gonna Cover…

• How to Set Up Your New Blog in 5 Minutes
• How Long Does it Take to Start Making Money from Blogging? 
• How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner 
• The 5 Reasons Why Most Beginner Bloggers Fail 
• How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner: FAQ’s

How to Set Up Your New Blog in 5 Minutes

Before we get stuck in, here’s how you can set up your new blog in less than ten minutes. 

1. Buy Your Domain Name

First, you need to pick a domain name; it can include either:

• your niche
• or your name. 

Including your niche in your domain name helps with SEO. But, using your name allows you to change your niche in the future. 

I’m very indecisive, so I went with the latter, lol. 

You can buy a domain name from somewhere like GoDaddy (that’s where I bought mine – they’re cheap 😉). Just check your domain name is available, then go ahead and buy it! 

2. Hosting 

Okay, you cannot skip this step. I tried to hold off on buying a hosting plan because, honestly, I didn’t understand why I needed it. 

To give you the run-down, this is what I learned (the hard way):

If your blog is not self-hosted, then you do not technically own it. Plus, it’s going to load incredibly slowly, and no one will want to read your posts (hence why my traffic was so low at the start, lol).

Now, here’s the thing:

Hosting can be so damn expensive, so I recommend using SiteGround. They have some brilliant, affordable monthly plans for new bloggers.  

I know everyone recommends BlueHost, but you don’t need to pay that much until you’ve got tens of thousands of page views. 

3. Start Your WordPress Blog

There’s a surprise; another blogger is recommending WordPress. 

Well, there’s a reason everyone recommends WordPress. It’s the best content management system I’ve used. 

Plus, WordPress makes it easier to scale your blog as your business grows. It might be a little tricky to get to grips with, but it’s your best option in the long-run. 

4. Choose your theme and customise

Once you’ve created your WordPress account, simply choose a theme for your blog and customise to make it your own. The free themes work perfectly for beginners so don’t worry about investing in a premium one just yet. 

I won’t talk you through how to design your website because WordPress basically walks you through the whole process anyway. 

Aaaand, there you have it! You are now the proud owner of your very own blog.

If you’ve already got a blog then I’d recommend reviewing your SEO. I use SEMRush for my SEO audits. Try it for free now!

How Long Does it Take to Start Making Money from Blogging?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve read hundreds of articles that swear blogging is a long-term game. The majority of bloggers say it will take months, if not years to start making a full-time income from blogging.

As a beginner, you’re probably wondering if it’s even possible to make money from your blog. 

Well, no one can say precisely how long it takes to start making money from blogging; that all depends on the blogger! 

If you only have time to post once a month, it will probably take you a while to start making money from your blog. On the other hand, if you can work full-time on your blogging business, you’ll see results much quicker. 

I decided to work full-time on my blog because, frankly, I’m impatient and wanted to see results ASAP. 

I treated my blog like a business from the very beginning with:

• A Plan 
• A marketing strategy for organic traffic, 
• And time to dedicate to blogging every week.

So, if you’re willing to work hard, you can start making money from your blog in just a few months (or less). 

How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner 

At the end of last year, I decided to re-start the blog I had started a couple of years ago. I deleted all (12) of my email subscribers and decided to start fresh. 

I had always wanted to have complete control over my work: no bosses, no clients, just me and my laptop. That’s the dream, right? 

Anyway, I decided enough was enough. I wanted to start fresh and make this blog my 2021 project! 

1. Selling Services

Selling services is the NO. 1 way to make money blogging as a beginner. It’s the perfect job to have while building up your email list, SEO, Pinterest page, and whatnot. 

My goal was to make money from blogging; if that meant I had to write blog posts for someone else for a couple of months, I was ok with it!

You can make full-time income writing blogs for someone else while you get your own blog off the ground! 

Working as a freelancer gives you the freedom to work wherever you want, whenever you want.

Chances are, you won’t make enough money from your blog alone until you can apply to an ad agency like MediaVine. So, selling services is the best short-term solution. 

Once you’re making more money from your traffic, you can simply stop taking on freelance work (or only take on the jobs that interest you).

You can become a freelance writer even if you have ZERO experience. 

BTW – you don’t have to sell blogging services. You could sell logo design, social media marketing, email writing, or anything else you think you could sell. 

2. Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketing is another excellent way to make money blogging as a beginner. Now, I know what you’re thinking.

How can you make money from affiliate marketing with only a small amount of pageviews? 

Well, the trick is to find a high-paying affiliate deal. 

If you can find an affiliate program that pays you a couple of hundred dollars per sale, you don’t need that many viewers to make a decent amount of money. 

But, be careful.

Try not to recommend a product just because its affiliate program pays well. If you do, you’ll lose trust with your readers, and they won’t come back for more advice. 

Try to build trust by recommending products you genuinely use and think they’ll love! 

Here’s how I found great affiliate programs in my niche:

1. I made an affiliate account with ShareASale 
2. Searched for high-ticket products that I use and would recommend 
3. Applied for their affiliate program with a detailed outline of how I planned to promote them

Then, I included links to their products in my blog posts. 

5 Reasons Why Most Beginner Bloggers Fail 

1. They don’t know how to promote their blog. 

Maybe you started like me, sharing your blog with friends and family, hoping that someday your SEO efforts would kick in. 

Well, this is one of the reasons most beginner bloggers fail. It can take months or even years for your blog to appear on the first page of google. 

So, beginner bloggers have to find other ways to promote their blogs. 

Pinterest is a brilliant platform to build an audience fast.

I’ve been loving Pinterest! Stay tuned for my Pinterest marketing blog post coming later this week. 😉  

2. They wait too long to monetize. 

A lot of beginner bloggers tend to wait until they’ve built up their email list before they start monetizing their blog. 

If you don’t find ways to monetize your blog straight away, you won’t see progress for months. Just one affiliate sale could give you the momentum you need to keep going!  

3. They want instant success. 

Running a successful blog takes a massive amount of work. The truth is, too many beginner bloggers give up because they don’t see results fast enough.

As I said earlier, blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s more of a get rich after years of hard work scheme, lol. 

If you have the right mindset, your blog will be successful. Give it time, put as much effort as you can into your business as you can, and you’ll get there! 

4. Their niche is too narrow.

Think about it, if hardly anyone searches for your niche, how will you ever grow your blog enough to start making money? 

If you’re starting to feel like you’ve written all you can about your niche and you’re still not seeing results, maybe it’s just too narrow. 

Try to expand your content and write about other topics related to your niche. For example:

Someone who blogs about vegan skincare could expand their niche and write about vegan makeup as well. 

5. They give up too early. 

If I hadn’t given up when I first started a blog, who knows where I’d be now! If you work hard enough, you will be successful.

How I Make Money Blogging as a Beginner: FAQ’s

How much money can a beginner blogger make?

As I said earlier, this all depends on how much time and effort the blogger can put into their business. If you sell your services and start making affiliate sales, you can easily make up to 2K per month. 

What exactly do bloggers do?

Bloggers share their knowledge of their niche (the topic they write about) in blog posts. They usually spend most of their time writing content, taking pictures, and working on their marketing strategy. 

It might surprise you how hard bloggers actually have to work to be successful! 

Is blogging a career?

Yes. Blogging is a brilliant career if you’re willing to work hard! 

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