Start a Profitable Blog in 2023

Published: October 23, 2023

If you’ve been bombarded with the “make money online” gurus on social media, then we have something in common. As an unemployed new graduate, I decided to start something online for myself and document my whole journey. My hope is to provide clarity to those considering starting an online blog to achieve financial freedom or maybe just a successful side hustle. Maybe you’ve been wondering your whole life if it’s possible to make money online, just like me. So, if you’re wondering if it’s still worth it to start a blog in 2023, why not come along my journey and find out? I strive to be super transparent on here – sharing how I got started, my earnings, and tips I figure out along the way.

How Do I Start a Blog Based on Strategy?

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog:

1. Choose Your Niche
2. Pick a Host Website
3. Pick a Theme
4. Create a Content Strategy and Content Calendar
5. Start Writing

Step 1: Choose Your Niche

This is likely the most time-consuming part about starting a blog, at least it was for me! Choose a niche that you can see yourself writing about long-term. The more specific your niche, the easier it will be to rank in search. Thus, keep this in mind as you narrow down your ideas but don’t fret if your niche is broad. You can always be more specific with your blog titles to improve your ranking.

Step 2: Get a host website

You might be wondering, which website is the best to start a blog? Based on my research, I found that using WordPress.org is the way to go. To keep costs low, use BlueHost as your domain provider. It costs around $4/month, which is reasonable. Simply, go to WordPress.org and BlueHost is already integrated so it’s super easy to connect your domain.

Step 3: Pick a theme

I got my theme from 17th Avenue Designs but there are also a lot of great options on Etsy. Personally, I couldn’t find a theme on Etsy that I liked and that would align with the types of posts I want to create. Keep in mind, the look of your page can be a dealbreaker in terms of whether someone stays on your blog or not so I decided to invest in my theme. The theme of your website shouldn’t be something that you change often, I’m planning on keeping mine for at least a couple of years, so go with the theme that you believe will suit your content best, is SEO-optimized, and will be sustainable in terms of trendiness. My tip is to pick a theme with a classic design, has features that fit your blog content (like a “Shop” page, for example) and looks user-friendly.

Step 4: Create a Content Strategy

Determine how often you want to post, what time you want to post, how you will promote your blog, and what specific topics you want to cover. It helps to build a content calendar that details your content schedule and the specific topic you will write about on each day. Content strategy is definitely a subject I intend to cover in more detail on my blog and on my TikTok, @byclairepaige.

Step 5: Start Writing

Your blog doesn’t need to be perfect for you to start writing. Get those blog posts up so that Google has time to recognize your website and index it for ranking! The longer your website exists, the more trust Google will have to rank your website in search.