How to Create a Blog for Almost Free & Make Money

We’ll also try to steer you towards the specific platform that’s best for you so that you can easily create a blog for free.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is a blog anyway?

In short, a blog is a type of website that focuses mainly on written content, also known as blog posts. In popular culture we most often hear about news blogs or celebrity blog sites, but as you’ll see in this guide, you can start a successful blog on just about any topic imaginable.

Bloggers often write from a personal perspective that allows them to connect directly with their readers. In addition, most blogs also have a “comments” section where readers can correspond with the blogger. Interacting with your readers in the comments section helps to further the connection between the blogger and the reader.

How to Start Your First Blog

Now you can start a blog from getting a domain name to hosting for just $60 (Rs 4000/- in India).

Here is the step by step procedure to get up and running your first ever blog.

Step 1: Choosing a Right CMS

Step 2: Selecting an Appropriate Domain Name

Step 3: Selecting Best Hosting Provider

Step 4: Setting Up the Blog

Step 5: Designing Your Blog

Step 6: Start Earning

You can also watch this video for easy step-by-step guide for quick help-

Let’s dig deep into each of these steps.

Step 1: Choosing a Right CMS

CMS or Content Management System is basically a blogging platform like Blogspot, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Wix, TypePad etc where you are going to put all your files in.

Out of so many blogging platforms available out there we are going to go with WordPress because of following great reasons.

1. It’s free.
2. It’s very easy to design a blog and understand its dashboard.
3. WordPress gives you so much flexibility to design any kind of website with the help of their 5000+ free and paid themes.
4. Right now there are over 70,000 free plugins offered by WordPress to run your blog faster and efficiently.
5. Lastly, there is a whole WordPress community out there who can help you for anything you might need while setting up a blog. Join their WordPress Forum.

98% of blogs in the world are currently using WordPress. Even I use WordPress for all my blogs including this blog Admissionguidance .

So I highly recommend you to create your blog with WordPress CMS.

Step 2: Selecting an Appropriate Domain Name

Step 2 is very important because a domain name is going to reflect your blog’s niche. So you have to do justice to your blog by choosing a right domain name.

My blog  is all about jobs and career as the very name suggests. I chose the name keeping my niche and audience in mind. So you have to do the same thing.

If you are planning to start a blog on Football or Cricket then choose attractive  names

If you love dogs and cats then go for something like CatsnDogs.com  etc.

I think you got the idea!

Following are the few things you have to keep in mind.

#1 Domain name must be in sync with the purpose of your blog. Check above video for choosing a domain.

#2 Name must be easy to remember and pronounce.

#3 Try for a .com extension. You can target worldwide with .com. If you don’t find .com with your desired domain, then feel free to go with other extensions like .in, .org, .net, .info, .co etc

#4 ignore number and dash in domain.

Finalize on one of the most appropriate domain names.

Step 3: Selecting Best Hosting Provider

WordPress is just a software with which you create a blog by putting all the necessary files together.

But where are you going to host your blog?

Well that is what you need a hosting provider for?

A hosting provider stores all your content of your blog like text files, css files, images, videos etc at one place and make it available to the world.

So you need a hosting provider to use your domain name and make it accessible all around the world.

But which hosting provider are you going to choose?

In last 9 years I’ve used and experienced over a dozen of hosting providers. But one of the most reliable hosting providers I came across is Bluehost.

WordPress.org and most of the other top bloggers recommend Bluehost as their first choice.

One of the best thing that I like about Bluehost is their support. You can chat online 24×7 and in most of the case, they solve your problem in just 5 minutes.

Step 4: Setting Up the WordPress Blog with Bluehost

I have an exclusive partnership with Bluehost for Admission Guidance  readers.

Actual price of the 1 year hosting with a domain is $85 but if you use my special discount link then you will get the hosting for just $60 (Rs 4000 for Indians).

And you get your domain for FREE.

So go ahead and create your first blog for just  $60.

To make things clear and simple for new bloggers we are using images with pointers.

1. Visit Bluehost here.
2. Click on the green colour “Get Started” button.

3. Now you are taken to the hosting plan’s page. There are four plans offered by Bluehost Basic, Plus, Choice Plus, Pro. Choose the Basic Plan if you want to start just one blog.
4. If you are planning to start more blogs in future, then you can buy Plus Plan. In future, you can start multiple blogs with the same hosting without paying anything.

Step 5: Designing Your Blog

Here are some of the most important things to do after creating your blog.

1. Create a new user

You have already created an administrator account. As an administrator, you can make any changes in your blog. You can install any theme, plugins, creates posts, pages, categories and users and many other things.

2. Install a theme after starting your blog

When you install WordPress for creating your blog, WordPress installs a default theme in your blog.

3. Install Important Plugins

WordPress plugins are like apps that help you to add more features to your blog and make it more efficient & fast. You must install some of the important plugins for starting your blog.

4. Add Your First Post

You should write detailed posts and publish at least 2-3 posts every week. Your readers should be happy and satisfied with your posts.

Step 6: Start Earning

Blogging is becoming a very popular full time career in India and around the globe. Millions of bloggers are making $1000 to $100,000 per month from their blog.

There are two main areas you need to focus on to increase traffic.

1. Content
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Conclusion

So this was the complete guide on starting a blog in less than Rs 1200 (or $12).

Step 1 to Step 3 are very easy to learn. But you need to read again and again Step 4 until it is clear to you. We’ve explained it very well using images.