How To Start A Blog

Blogging is one of the most legitimate & popular online business out there!

Yeah you heard me right, it's a business. Gone are the days people blog only for hobby, this days it's hobby plus business and seriously it's paying off.



Top bloggers like Michelle from making sense of sense quit their 9-5 job to become a full-time blogger, yeah not only her. Alexis of FITnancials have done that too, what about Pat Flynn of SMART PASSIVE INCOME, what about Abby Lawson from Just a girl and her blog who retired her husband? Listing out successful bloggers can take a decade to do, in fact impossible!

These bloggers earn 6 figure income just by staying at home and living the laptop lifestyle. Silas and Grace of chasing foxes have settled down to become full-time bloggers, they've quit their stressful and strict 9-5 job and are living the boss free lifestyle while making Sexy income online.

When starting your blog, you might not be able to make over $100,000 like Michelle and other top folks, but with time you'll be smiling. I remember telling myself: "wish I started blogging earlier than this", blogging is fun and lucrative. In fact few years from now, you'll wish you started today! So join me as we get started. 😃

In today's article of how to start a blog, I won't be techie here, anyone could set up a blog on blogger, wordpress, tumblr, SimpleSite and more. But not everyone can start a lucrative blog, it's beyond the techy aspect, it's more of being consistent, creative, hardworking and curious. So don't expect me to teach you how to design a blog or host it, there are tons of videos on YouTube to learn from or better still pay an expert to create one for you. 😗

First thing first, If I don't tell you these then I'm not being truthful. Blogging isn't a money party where you come and pick money from the ground, you need to work for your money. You should stop seeing blogging as a get money fast stuff (no it isn't), see it as a job where you're paid according to your work and effort.

When I first started blogging, I thought under a year I would have bought my own house, cars and invest in other business, but it didn't went as thought. In fact my first year was somewhat painful, I didn't make much, in fact I spent more money. I learnt stuffs before I became a bit comfortable and started seeing the fun aspect of blogging plus some little money! ☺

Yeah little money, I haven't started making my 6 figure from blogging, no i don't brag about such but I'm really enjoying this whole blogging stuff and it's now part of me and I see a superb tomorrow (I feel time is the only factor that's holding me back from meeting my 6figure). I make money online; some from my blog while majority from freelancing and virtual assistant jobs. I'm here to illuminate your blogging adventure and also help you start a blog that makes money.

Before starting your blog, there are some basic requirements & skills, I probably didn't meet & have all when I started but with time I was doing good. These skills and requirements you should have!

What's the skills & tools required for blogging? A normal job will ask for some stuffs like degree, etc before getting the job. So is blogging, below Are what you need!

•Laptop and/or phone! 
Blogging requires a phone or laptop (or even both) in handy before getting started, without these you can't even blog. It doesn't end there, you also need internet connection on this devices.

Your phone might not be able to do everything or give you the comfort of blogging, so laptop & phone is what I recommend. I love using phone because it allows me blog from any location, but not when I need to get serious over certain stuff.

•Writing Skills. 
You really need this, you should be able to write a readable piece if you ever wanna make it In the blogosphere.

I myself wasn't a writing genius, but I took my time and money to learn how to write, not just writing but writing a blog's article. Yeah, the way you write a formal letter is different from how you write an article for a blog.

•Marketing Skills. 
The amount you're gonna make from blogging depends on your marketing ability, you need to be familiar with popular social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc), you need to know your to get people's attention and more!

If you don't have this, don't worry; just be ready to learn! There are tons of free guide that will teach you social media marketing and also email marketing.
However if you want some more serious guide, I recommend you purchase Lena's traffic transformation guide where she shared 21 strategies she used to go from 17k  - 400k+ page views in 10 months.

•The Basics Of Programming.
Most bloggers won't tell you this but I will, you need to know at least the basics of HTML and CSS. If you wish to learn more; fine.

I have found myself in situations that if not for my techy skills I would have stumble and fall. Yeah you could pay someone but not always especially if it's urgent. This won't cost your life, it's just a matter of watching some YouTube videos and you're done.

Oh yeah, I remember Jake Wright's "Learn HTML in 12min" & "Learn CSS in 12min ", he covered a lot under 12min and it's still helpful till date, you could learn from him like myself, though I'm a techy kind, so I furthered to JavaScript and Php, you don't actually need those except you want!

•Curiosity. 
Blogging is for the curious, you need to be willing to learn more. with no doubts, after reading this my article you might still need to read some thousands of articles, that's the world.

You can never get everything right, you fail, you learn and you're better!

This will help you be able to spy on your competitors and stand out.

•Pertinacious. 
In the blogosphere, if you ain't determined and persistent, you can't succeed.

There are tough times that you need to stay strong and overcome.

•Money! 
Yeah money, blogging requires money. If it's only hosting and buying domain then I wouldn't have mentioned money, as blogger.com would have solved the problem but it's far beyond that, you really need money for blogging if you want to succeed. I can't count how many courses I have paid for to learn blogging, and more. Seriously you need money. It's no longer free to play but pay to play!

Having known some blogging requirements, lets see how you can start your blog and make money. This aspect isn't where we create and design a blog, it's more of getting ideas and brainstorming.

1. Choose Your Blog Topic(Niche). 

What do you want to blog about? This is one crucial decision every blogger need's to make. it could be multi-niche or single niche, the whole idea is making your blog look organise and giving readers the impression of what your blog is about and what to expect when they visit!

When choosing a blog topic, you should think about what you love, care for, passionate about, can't stop talking about & can share it with others. Most bloggers call it following your hobby. Yeah they're correct but sometimes you don't have to follow your hobby, what you need is learning to make something your hobby. 😃

My first year of blogging, my hobby was sharing relationship tips, family, inspirational post, & success tips (it's still my hobby), I also love sharing my blogging journey. I discover that my hobby was superb for a blog and I got started, along the line I started having the feeling of changing topic. Why? I wasn't able to network with bloggers, my niche wasn't crowded with bloggers I love and enjoy! Sometimes I would want to guest post but my niche became a hindrance. I decided to blog about personal finance as it helps me network better, I didn't know anything about the topic but I was willing to learn, I started reading personal finance blogs, Thanks to making Sense Of Cents, FrugalForLess, LifeHackers and more. I took personal finance courses and within 2 weeks I fell in love with the topic, I then learnt how to manage my own money. I wrote my first article on personal finance and it was superb, I didn't want to leave my hobby (mentioned above), so I decided to combined it with personal finance and LoveNancials was born, it looked awkward merging personal finance, blogging, success tips & relationship together, but I didn't stop. Why? Your blogging voice is what speaks! I will talk about this as we move on.

So you can actually make one of those hot niches out there your hobby, but it still doesn't ends there! You need to also choose a topic people wanna read. And that brings you to discovering the pain points.

2.Discover The Pain Points. 

Nobody cares about you or where you're from in the blogging world (only few), what they care is getting their problems solved. It's when you've solved their problem they start caring about you and where you're from.

Everyone has his or her own problem, you can't solve everyone's problem, you probably don't know everyone's problem, it's all about finding and solving a problem of your choice, your potential readers will find you.
Listen, the problem you've decided to solve, not everyone will love it, not everyone will want to read it, it's fine.

That prompts me to quote Helene Sula from her "How To Find Your Blogging Voice " Article.
She said: "If we were here to be everyone’s friend we’d be instantly lost in the sea of bloggers".

She's right, we ain't here for everyone, find a problem and solve, those interested will come for it. Don't try to please everyone else you'll be lost in the sea of bloggers as Helene said.

To discover the pain points of people and solve problem, ask yourself how you intend to help people with your blog.

Do you want to teach people something?
People are always learning, you could be the teacher of such people.

Teaching is my hobby, i have taught in schools, church. I started blogging to teach people about relationship, family, being successful and more.

You too can teach if you're good at it, it could be how to prepare pizza, how to design, and other how-tos.

Provide the latest news and trends?
I'm a fan of news, it could be any news.

People wants to get latest stuffs, maybe on health, politics, celebrities and more!

So do you wanna give latest info?

Make people laugh?
If you're funny (like me), you can decide to start a blog on making people to laugh. Everyone won't like it but there are people who cares. It could be giving opinion on certain issues in a funny way, In my blog, I love being funny, life doesn't need to be strict as thought. So I love making people laugh though it isn't my niche (it's part of my blogging voice), it could be your niche.

Inspire others? Have you overcome an obstacle? Have you overcome difficulties, you could convert it to a blog where you inspire people who are facing same!

You just need to find out what people are struggling with and see if you can help!

So what do you wanna blog about? 
Health? 
Finance? 
Food? 
Nutrition? 
Interiors and Decorations? 
Travel? 
Relationship? 
Family? 
DIY Hacks (Do It Yourself)? 
Productivity? 
Business? 

The list goes on, if you don't have anything, find the top niche or the ones you enjoy, learn to make them your hobby.

Uhm, have you heard of Pinterest and BuzzSumo? They're great research tool for finding a niche that isn't clutter and actually knowing their pain point! I can show and tell you more about them and how you can blissful use them to discover an amazing niche! If you won't mind, read my article on choosing a blog niche and learn about them plus other hacks in the article. Don't forget to pin it! (Open in a new tab and learn A-Z of choosing a niche).

3.Find A Name & Domain Name for your blog. 

After you've probably gotten a niche or blog topic, what's next?

Find a name for your blog, your blog's name should describe the topic you're blogging about. it could be your personal name, just like Amy Lynn Andrews (she teaches blogging and making money online), or Neil Patel (teaches blogging and internet marketing), they're all using personal name.

Seriously, your blog name doesn't matter as a good tagline can do it all and great content too, it could be anything but it's best you get it right.

Also domain name, the name you decide needs to tally with your domain name, this is the address people will visit your blog from. Like www.lovenancials.com; my blog name is LoveNancials and the domain tally!

You need to be sure nobody else is using the blog name you decide, and if it's free from competition. It's a matter of typing it on Google, the name LoveNancials when I typed on Google, it displays no result. It was competition free and available, yours might not be like that but it should be available for purchase like buying yourwebsitename.com or any other extension.

To see the availability of your domain name, you should just logged on to any domain registrar like Namecheap.com and type your domain name to see the available extension.
I purchase my domains with godaddy and namecheap, so I recommend it!

Why Namecheap or godaddy? 
Name cheap is reliable, it's cheap and has lots of extension that can suit your business,  also it comes with free WHOIS protection when you purchase a domain and their .com cost approximately $11 but using coupon you can get it for $9. They have some other extension that's superbly cheap. Some of which isn't more than $3. So check them out!

Godaddy is also nice, using their promo code you can get TLD domain like .com .net for just some cent, actually $0.99. Though it's one time use, so you can't use it multiple times.
So try either of them out!

LoveNancials.com was purchased with namecheap.

Please your domain name should be short and easy to pronounce, though it's an exemption to names with more than one word, like Smart Mom Ideas. It's not short because it contains more than one word. What's important is the ease in pronunciation.

Lastly if your domain name is available for purchase and have many results when searched on Google, don't use it (look for  another name), except you're ready to work hard to outrank those existing sites.

Avoid advertising your domain name when you haven't purchased it, someone else might love it and use it. So don't! Till you buy it!

In addition, you might want to use your domain name in various social platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and More, so you should also research to know if a particular name is available on social platforms. This is achievable using a tool called Namechk, all you have to do is type in the name you intend to use and see if it has been used in any social platform.

4.Choose A Blogging Platform. 

There are tons of blogging platform out there, the free and the paid (hosted) blogging platform.

Some of the popular blogging platforms are:

Wordpress.com (free but upgradable) 
Blogger.com(free) 
WordPress.org (self hosted) 
Tumblr.com and more! 

I currently use blogger, though I've used WordPress for other website of mine.

Blogger is superb, I love the fact it's free. You can make money from blogger blogging platform with affiliates and Google AdSense or some other ads network I mentioned here!

WordPress on the other hand is a superb choice for anyone who wants to be outstanding. WordPress is of two kind, the hosted and self hosted but the one I'm referring to is the self hosted WordPress.org

Why I love WordPress?
1.The Ease Of Use: WordPress is very easy to use, there are lots of plugins, so no need of messing around with codes.

2.Support: WordPress has lots of support, so there's always solution

3.Features: WordPress features are incredible, you can create something more than a blog! Have membership site, shopping carts and more! There are beautiful WordPress themes too.

4.You're in control: Free hosting platform can delete your blog if you violate their rules, but with with WordPress you're your own king! You're in control of everything. The security you get is fabulous.

5.Uniqueness- WordPress blogs are so unique! I'm so in love with WordPress.

The list of what I love about WordPress could continue! So what's my hate on WordPress? I actually don't hate WordPress for anything except for the fact one need's money to host it. Oh yeah WordPress is free, you only pay for hosting.

What's my final say? If i have enough money to host, I would never had use blogger, blogger makes the whole blogging thing hard. The good news is I will be moving to WordPress.

So if you have the cash and you're serious for business then join me and use WP! You stand a chance to make more money with WP and also see blogging fun. Don't run to blogger thinking it's a free alternative, no it's not. If you're with cash then use WP!

If you're cashless or not sure about blogging then stick to free platforms. Or better still play around with WP using free hosts (like 000webhost.com) to get familiar with its system and feature but I am sure in the nearest future you'll still run to WP, so what are you waiting for?

I will be using Bluehost since that's currently the best and I have personal experience with them! Bluehost has good features and has quick WordPress install plus you're entitled to a free domain. Bluehost is just something you should use.

For your information, Moving from blogger to WordPress isn't easy as some will say why not enjoy free platform and later on fly to WP. If you ain't careful when migrating it would take you lots of years before you become balance again! Helene Sula Can relate to this! ☺

5.Hosting

I have talked about hosting but it worths talking about again. If you're on free platforms like weebly or blogger etc. You don't need hosting, you're not self hosting!

This is where your blog posts will be stored, just think of it as an apartment where your blog reside. And yes it's really an apartment!😃

I recommend Bluehost and Siteground for startups while I ask that their domain be hosted elsewhere like Namecheap or Godaddy. I haven't recommend Godaddy hosting because I haven't used it, I only purchase domain from Godaddy! That's to inform you though.

You may ask why you shouldn't host your domain the same place with your blog? Yeah I have some reasons. See below!

Hosting Shut Down: Hosting platforms can have some issues and it may result to shutting down, I guess you don't wanna loose your blog and domain together. So hosting sperate places will help.

Blog May Be Hacked: A friend's blog was hacked; i mean his host and luckily his domain was hosted elsewhere, so he quickly hosted again and upload a backup of his blog. But if he didn't hosted his domain elsewhere other than his blog host? He would has loose everything. Most especially his domain which is like an entrance to a house. If your house don't have entrance then you don't have a house.😃

Hosting Increase Price: Host companies may increase their renewal price, for both domain and hosting but if you're hosting domain elsewhere you'll at least escape the domain aspect and tackle hosting

Note- If you're wanting to enjoy the free domain some hosting company offer, then fine as it's your right and privileged but remember to transfer afterwards.

So if you're using WordPress self hosted then use either Bluehost or Siteground but bluehost I recommend for startups and beside I've used bluehost. You can easily install WordPress using these two hosts though.

6.Organise Your Blog! 

There are tons of ways to organise your blog but I have come up with the baiscs.

Write An About Page, if as a blogger and you don't have this, it's very awkward. Why? When someone reads your blog and finds it interesting, the next thing is they might want to know more about you and your blog, if you don't have an about page they won't know about you and might not come back! Besides it's crucial for potential business partner to know more about you and decide to offer a biz!

Write A Contact Page! This is crucial, as readers might want to contact you for business, clarification, help, suggestion. You get the picture! So you shouldn't leave them without an option. I understand you might not want to drop your phone number live on your blog, you can include social media link or an email contact form!

Write A Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, And Disclosure! Yeah most people won't read this, but some will do. This isn't something hard, if you can't write one, you can use free privacy policy generating websites, get yourself one and then do some editing.

Readers need to know that they are secured on your blog and if you would or wouldn't give out details entered on your website to third parties, that's why you need a privacy policy page. Also readers are aware of scams, so you need a 'terms of use' page (a must for membership site, but recommended for a blog) where you tell them how to use your blog and kind of stuff you would ask for. If you use any form of monetization, state it clearly in your disclosure and how it works. You can also add comment policy too.

Those pages makes your blog look organise and professional. Also, I recently learnt something from EBA with their blog structure blueprint, look keenly at the image below!

That's the EBA blog structure, I just screenshot it from their ebook, you can get the ebook here if you miss the previous link!

According to the image, You can see that you should have your blog name displayed on your blog as well as its tagline, if you don't have a tagline for your blog then create one. Why? This gives you opportunity to shortly tell your guests what your blog is about even without reading your about page or even what your blog can offer. It could be "Get Tips To Better Your Blog" , this tagline does two things.

(1)It tells your guest that your blog is about blogging.
(2)it tells them what your blog can offer. 
So be creative and use tagline that describe your blog best (it should be intriguing)! 

From your the same image, you can see sub topics and category under each, so ask yourself what your blog is all about, whether a single niche or multi niche.

If it's multi niche write down the niches and the categories attached. Lets say you're blogging about health and wealth, you should list out categories you'll be covering for health like fitness (loss weight and gain weight), nutrition and more, while for the wealth you should have its category like Make money, Manage Money and more!

Define your blog, don't post anyhow. I've also learnt to maintain category limit, there are lots of temptation attached to adding more blogging category but avoid it, too many categories makes your blog disorganized, I once saw a blog with over 200 categories, it was a niche blog and it was too disorganized for my liking. You have a topic you won't talk about often? maybe once or twice then don't create category for it, use tags. That's where wordpress comes in, with self hosted WordPress, you can use tags instead of categories!

If it's a single niche like Personal finance, just list out your categories, this will help you write more focused article for your blog.

Lastly on organizing your blog, your blog theme and design plays important role here, don't let your blog theme be a pain in the neck for your readers, keep it simple but of great quality. Some bloggers design I fascinate are Becky's and Paula's theme & design, Natalie Bacon and Amy Lynn Andrews! Plus Christina Root's own! And hey that of Silas and Grace of chasing foxes!

Your blog should have some interesting plugins to help you stay organized, you should add share buttons, subscription box, and a neatly designed logo. You can see mine, I designed that with a mobile phone! 😃

7.Write Blog Posts. 

If you read any post on starting a blog, they'll talk about picking niche and other points I mentioned lately but that isn't where it stops.

Before you even launch your blog, you should write at least 30 articles and publish when launching, you should also have ten more posts scheduled for the next weeks after your launch and you should post at least 2-3 times a week. That's my personal recommendation and I have my reasons.

You shouldn't make yourself look like a newbie when you're starting out, that's why I recommend you have 30-50 posts before you publish your blog live, when you have enough articles, people will spend more time and won't see you as a newbie!

With this, you can easily monetise your blog on the week of launching with Google AdSense. One thing about ads is that it makes you look like a professional, when someone visit your blog and finds out you're using Google AdSense, they'll take you serious. Though you won't make much money until you have good amount of traffic.

Also you should sign up for affiliate program before launching your blog, there are some affiliate program that doesn't require you to have a blog before being approved (some require just a link to your social profile), while others requires a website! Find some that allows you sign up without a blog and get started. Get the link and include them where necessary in your articles.

When you've finished writing and wanting to launch your blog, don't start promoting those articles, use 1-2days to interlink your articles with related posts. Interlinking is crucial! This helps your seo, reduce bounce rate and increase time spent on your blog!

Lastly, don't just write articles that comes to your head, research and write what people wants. Before writing, you should read my top tips for writing blog articles that goes viral!

8.Monetise your blog. 

There tons of ways to make money from a blog but this can be summarized to 4 easy ways!
1.Selling your own stuff
2.Using Third Party Advertisement 
3.Affiliates Marketing 
4.Promoting For Your Clients. 

Selling Your Own Stuff, if you have things you're wanting to sell, you can use your blog to sells those stuffs. Things people sell are books, podcast, online course, and many more! If you have any, you can sell them on your blog when you've built some reasonable audience!

Using Third Party Advertisement, you sign up with advertisement company and they place adverts on your blog and you earn money. Simple!

The money aspect differs by the advertisement company, some pay by clicks while some by action. Some like BuySellAds allows you sell a particular space on your blog and get clients come.
If you're starting out then give Google AdSense a try!

Affiliate Marketing, I regard this as the most smartest money making ways. How it works? When you register with sites offering affiliate program, they give you a code to promote certain stuff and when there's a successful sale whether by purchase or action, you earn some churns of money!

If it's a direct merchant advertising, you get the code ASAP and promote. But if you're partnering with affiliate companies that have clients, you will have to apply to be an affiliate for certain company and when you're approved, you'll be opportune to find a product you love, and have used or heard a lot about then get the link to the product and start promoting!

I've recently learnt from Christiana Root that some affiliate program pays per click and it was intriguing when I heard it, she suggested you do more of pay per click affiliate marketing, though it's hard to find a company with the per pay click feature. She however mentioned Awin, I have tried them and from experience, I will advice you check them out!

Update: Awin No Longer has the pay per click affiliate program, I will however update you when something else comes up!

For direct merchant affiliate, you should consider using custom affiliate links, it isn't a must but it's nice and I recommend it. I learnt it can be easily done with WordPress pretty link plugin. How it looks? if you're promoting tailwind, your custom link will look like www.lovenancials.com/tailwind instead of  tailwind original link. That's how it looks like, it easy to remember and it's clean. Tailwind is a software for scheduling Pinterest & Instagram posts, they're the leading platform and I recommend it! Click link here!

Some top platform you should consider being an affiliate for are:

Amazon, a leading shopping platform, you can become an affiliate for them and promote stuffs on Amazon.

ShareASale
Cj 
Pepperjam
Impact Radius
Flexoffers
Peerfly
Linkshare
Affiliate Window
Max Bounty
Clickbank
Clickbooth
Avangate

For direct merchant affiliate you should check and see if the platform and product you use have affiliate program. It could be your emailing service provider, online course, your social media tool like Tailwind and more!

Promoting For Your Client, this isn't a first start when you're new, but it's best when you've become popular or gained some audience. In fact you'll be contacted by several brands or companies that wants to do business with you, you agree on the payment method and it's done. Using fixed payment is the best!

Those are the 4 cool  ways to make money, but it doesn't end there, read my 51+ ways to make money from a blog with some extra bonus. Also you should read Neil Patel's Affiliate Marketing Guide To Gain More Insight!

9.How To Make Your Blog Get Noticed! 

This is the most crucial aspect of blogging, without this in place you can't earn anything from your blog. In other words it is called getting traffic to your blog.

You've Finish Writing Articles, it's time for people to read them but people won't because they don't know your blog yet, you need to tell them about your blog. Besides this helps you get approved by some monetisation company that requires some amount traffic upon registration.

So how can you get traffic to your new blog? There are tons of ways to get traffic to a new blog, but not all ways will work. It's better you stick to the ones that works for you. I made mistake of wasting time on stuff that isn't working and I have learnt my lessons. I will mentioned just three (3) ways to make your blog get noticed, and it features only popular social networks!

1.Facebook 
This is the largest social network, and can be a great place to get traffic to your website, it has great potentials. There are tons of ways Facebook can help your website grow, some of which are below!

Facebook Profile, If you have good following and friends or you're ready to build great following and friends then this is for you. It's simple. All you have to do is write a summary of your blog posts and publish it on your Facebook profile with a link back to the blog post.

You shouldn't paste all your article's content on Facebook, leave your readers in the interesting aspect and ask them to click link to get the rest!

Facebook groups, this is another place to generate traffic to your blog, create your Facebook group and add people to it and also join others people group and share your content.

When doing this, don't spam by posting only links, and don't do it always especially if it's someone else group.

Facebook page, it's simple, just create your Facebook page and share your blog content. Also invites friends to like the page!

Like I said, blogging requires money, use Facebook page promotion to get likes and sponsor your post to reach more people. Spend money to earn money!

You can't be on Facebook always, so use Crowdfire or Buffer to schedule posts to favourite places whether page or group!
Also, don't forget to add call to action, tell your audience to follow you, like your page, click link and more! Grab their attention, don't give them everything. If your post is a list type, lets say 9 effective ways to keep your face pimples free, don't post the 9, post 2-4 and ask them to click for the rest! Make it stunning!

Also, read my social media for business article where I talked about how to make money from social media, I also listed some Facebook hacks you'll be needing!

2.Twitter
This is another place to get tons of traffic to your blog, all that's required is you maintain the 140 character limit and build yourself a good following.

To be Frank, I'm not a twitter fan but I often times use it for blog promotion. It's all about promoting your blog posts in a captivating way of not more than 140 characters and you're done.

My recommendation, 
Use hash tags on your tweets, hashtags will help you reach more people, it's not just using any hash tag but using popular and hot hashtags. To find hot hash tags simply visit www.ritetag.com, type in your keyword and see the hot hashtags.

Follow others to get follow back, this is one way to get followers, when you follow people, you get followed in return.

Use crowdfire to manage your twitter growth, they have easy unfollow tool, analytics of unfollowers and those who didn't follow back!

Use Link Shortening websites, twitter allows only 140 characters including your link, so you should shorten your link in order to have more character for your captivating pitch. Use shortening website like bit.ly.

Use twitter tools to boost growth, there are tons of twitter tools available in the web, like TweetDeck, Buffer and a whole lots of them I mentioned in this article!

3.Pinterest
Pinterest can't be an exemption here, in fact this article isn't complete without me mentioning pinterest.

Pinterest has been around for only a while (2011) and has been the primary source of traffic for most bloggers out there.

What's pinterest? Pinterest is a community as well as a search engine to share and get ideas of any kind. You can pin your blog posts on pinterest and get people trouping in and out of your blog. I have mentioned pinterest in most of my articles, you can read my top tips for getting traffic from pinterest to your blog.
I don't wanna stress on pinterest here, so read that article! If you missed previous link, see it here!

Those are some smart ways to make your blog get noticed. However, I have written a detailed post about getting traffic to your blog, I mentioned tons of ways you can't afford to miss. So read it now and here!

Some More Tips To Better Your Blog
1.Make it easy, make it easy for readers to comments on your blog (don't require them to sign up or pass captcha before commenting, they might get overwhelmed and won't even comment.), make it easy for readers to contact you, make your articles easy to share, use sharing tools to make it easy, there are tons of WP plugins, you've SumoMe too!

2. Create your Schedule, how do you wanna blog? How many articles do you want to post per day, week or month, have a blogging timetable as well as an editorial calendar, split your time so you won't pay less attention to one thing or the other. When do you wanna reply mails and comments? Just plan and have a good and friendly blogging schedule.

3.Learn the basics, there are some blogging skills you need for your own good.
Learn HTML and CSS, You really need this, it's not hard. Go to W3school or my favorite HTMLDOG to learn basics of coding online or even learn on YouTube, install free tools on your smartphone or other ICT gadgets that helps you test code offline!

Learn SEO, you need to learn Search Engine Optimization, it's not compulsory to be a geek at this, just learn the basis SEO techniques, learn off page and on page SEO hacks, learn inter linking, backlinks and more!

Learn Marketing, learn how to promote your stuffs on social media and more.

I personal read the following blogs for ideas, I read Anna Hoffman's Blog (traffic generation Cafe), ShoutMeLoud and more!

4.Be realistic to yourself, don't compare yourself with other top bloggers that I have been blogging for years, set yourself realistic goals. You can check out my goal setting guide and learn how to set achievable goal.

5.Make Friends And Network, networking with fellow bloggers helps you to be successful in the blogosphere, find and mingle with like-mind bloggers.

6.Read blog post on writing great blog posts, I have written a superb post for writing a blog post, check it out here...

7.Read Other Blogs, there's no other way to grow as a blogger than reading other blogs, find inspirational blogs and read.

I read chasing foxes, Melyssa Griffin's blog, Michelle's blog, Amy's blog, Christian's blog,  and more.

8.Join More Pinterest Boards, pinterest is great for traffic and getting ideas, so just pinterest boards, they're great!

9.Be Curious, learn learn learn! 

Final Thought 

Blogging is fun and shouldn't be stressful, here at LoveNancials, I will consistently be sharing blogging hacks which you should check to better your blog.

Blogging isn't a quick scheme to make money online, but if you're consistent and unique you'll be a top blogger.

Lastly, grow your mailing list and focus on creating article that solves problems, plus put God first, he's the one that inspires and help my blog's growth. Without him I'm nothing.. If you don't believe in God fine but seriously he's great and you should trust and ask him for help!

Please I want to see comments, tell me about your blog (new or old)!

What are your challenges? What are your fears? Talk to me!

And Hey! Please share this article to social platforms.

Spread the word across other platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Use the share buttons! Don't forget to subscribe.

Thanks For Reading and Stay Beautiful!

Blogging is one of the most legitimate & popular online business out there!

Yeah you heard me right, it's a business. Gone are the days people blog only for hobby, this days it's hobby plus business and seriously it's paying off.



Top bloggers like Michelle from making sense of sense quit their 9-5 job to become a full-time blogger, yeah not only her. Alexis of FITnancials have done that too, what about Pat Flynn of SMART PASSIVE INCOME, what about Abby Lawson from Just a girl and her blog who retired her husband? Listing out successful bloggers can take a decade to do, in fact impossible!

These bloggers earn 6 figure income just by staying at home and living the laptop lifestyle. Silas and Grace of chasing foxes have settled down to become full-time bloggers, they've quit their stressful and strict 9-5 job and are living the boss free lifestyle while making Sexy income online.

When starting your blog, you might not be able to make over $100,000 like Michelle and other top folks, but with time you'll be smiling. I remember telling myself: "wish I started blogging earlier than this", blogging is fun and lucrative. In fact few years from now, you'll wish you started today! So join me as we get started. 😃

In today's article of how to start a blog, I won't be techie here, anyone could set up a blog on blogger, wordpress, tumblr, SimpleSite and more. But not everyone can start a lucrative blog, it's beyond the techy aspect, it's more of being consistent, creative, hardworking and curious. So don't expect me to teach you how to design a blog or host it, there are tons of videos on YouTube to learn from or better still pay an expert to create one for you. 😗

First thing first, If I don't tell you these then I'm not being truthful. Blogging isn't a money party where you come and pick money from the ground, you need to work for your money. You should stop seeing blogging as a get money fast stuff (no it isn't), see it as a job where you're paid according to your work and effort.

When I first started blogging, I thought under a year I would have bought my own house, cars and invest in other business, but it didn't went as thought. In fact my first year was somewhat painful, I didn't make much, in fact I spent more money. I learnt stuffs before I became a bit comfortable and started seeing the fun aspect of blogging plus some little money! ☺

Yeah little money, I haven't started making my 6 figure from blogging, no i don't brag about such but I'm really enjoying this whole blogging stuff and it's now part of me and I see a superb tomorrow (I feel time is the only factor that's holding me back from meeting my 6figure). I make money online; some from my blog while majority from freelancing and virtual assistant jobs. I'm here to illuminate your blogging adventure and also help you start a blog that makes money.

Before starting your blog, there are some basic requirements & skills, I probably didn't meet & have all when I started but with time I was doing good. These skills and requirements you should have!

What's the skills & tools required for blogging? A normal job will ask for some stuffs like degree, etc before getting the job. So is blogging, below Are what you need!

•Laptop and/or phone! 
Blogging requires a phone or laptop (or even both) in handy before getting started, without these you can't even blog. It doesn't end there, you also need internet connection on this devices.

Your phone might not be able to do everything or give you the comfort of blogging, so laptop & phone is what I recommend. I love using phone because it allows me blog from any location, but not when I need to get serious over certain stuff.

•Writing Skills. 
You really need this, you should be able to write a readable piece if you ever wanna make it In the blogosphere.

I myself wasn't a writing genius, but I took my time and money to learn how to write, not just writing but writing a blog's article. Yeah, the way you write a formal letter is different from how you write an article for a blog.

•Marketing Skills. 
The amount you're gonna make from blogging depends on your marketing ability, you need to be familiar with popular social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc), you need to know your to get people's attention and more!

If you don't have this, don't worry; just be ready to learn! There are tons of free guide that will teach you social media marketing and also email marketing.
However if you want some more serious guide, I recommend you purchase Lena's traffic transformation guide where she shared 21 strategies she used to go from 17k  - 400k+ page views in 10 months.

•The Basics Of Programming.
Most bloggers won't tell you this but I will, you need to know at least the basics of HTML and CSS. If you wish to learn more; fine.

I have found myself in situations that if not for my techy skills I would have stumble and fall. Yeah you could pay someone but not always especially if it's urgent. This won't cost your life, it's just a matter of watching some YouTube videos and you're done.

Oh yeah, I remember Jake Wright's "Learn HTML in 12min" & "Learn CSS in 12min ", he covered a lot under 12min and it's still helpful till date, you could learn from him like myself, though I'm a techy kind, so I furthered to JavaScript and Php, you don't actually need those except you want!

•Curiosity. 
Blogging is for the curious, you need to be willing to learn more. with no doubts, after reading this my article you might still need to read some thousands of articles, that's the world.

You can never get everything right, you fail, you learn and you're better!

This will help you be able to spy on your competitors and stand out.

•Pertinacious. 
In the blogosphere, if you ain't determined and persistent, you can't succeed.

There are tough times that you need to stay strong and overcome.

•Money! 
Yeah money, blogging requires money. If it's only hosting and buying domain then I wouldn't have mentioned money, as blogger.com would have solved the problem but it's far beyond that, you really need money for blogging if you want to succeed. I can't count how many courses I have paid for to learn blogging, and more. Seriously you need money. It's no longer free to play but pay to play!

Having known some blogging requirements, lets see how you can start your blog and make money. This aspect isn't where we create and design a blog, it's more of getting ideas and brainstorming.

1. Choose Your Blog Topic(Niche). 

What do you want to blog about? This is one crucial decision every blogger need's to make. it could be multi-niche or single niche, the whole idea is making your blog look organise and giving readers the impression of what your blog is about and what to expect when they visit!

When choosing a blog topic, you should think about what you love, care for, passionate about, can't stop talking about & can share it with others. Most bloggers call it following your hobby. Yeah they're correct but sometimes you don't have to follow your hobby, what you need is learning to make something your hobby. 😃

My first year of blogging, my hobby was sharing relationship tips, family, inspirational post, & success tips (it's still my hobby), I also love sharing my blogging journey. I discover that my hobby was superb for a blog and I got started, along the line I started having the feeling of changing topic. Why? I wasn't able to network with bloggers, my niche wasn't crowded with bloggers I love and enjoy! Sometimes I would want to guest post but my niche became a hindrance. I decided to blog about personal finance as it helps me network better, I didn't know anything about the topic but I was willing to learn, I started reading personal finance blogs, Thanks to making Sense Of Cents, FrugalForLess, LifeHackers and more. I took personal finance courses and within 2 weeks I fell in love with the topic, I then learnt how to manage my own money. I wrote my first article on personal finance and it was superb, I didn't want to leave my hobby (mentioned above), so I decided to combined it with personal finance and LoveNancials was born, it looked awkward merging personal finance, blogging, success tips & relationship together, but I didn't stop. Why? Your blogging voice is what speaks! I will talk about this as we move on.

So you can actually make one of those hot niches out there your hobby, but it still doesn't ends there! You need to also choose a topic people wanna read. And that brings you to discovering the pain points.

2.Discover The Pain Points. 

Nobody cares about you or where you're from in the blogging world (only few), what they care is getting their problems solved. It's when you've solved their problem they start caring about you and where you're from.

Everyone has his or her own problem, you can't solve everyone's problem, you probably don't know everyone's problem, it's all about finding and solving a problem of your choice, your potential readers will find you.
Listen, the problem you've decided to solve, not everyone will love it, not everyone will want to read it, it's fine.

That prompts me to quote Helene Sula from her "How To Find Your Blogging Voice " Article.
She said: "If we were here to be everyone’s friend we’d be instantly lost in the sea of bloggers".

She's right, we ain't here for everyone, find a problem and solve, those interested will come for it. Don't try to please everyone else you'll be lost in the sea of bloggers as Helene said.

To discover the pain points of people and solve problem, ask yourself how you intend to help people with your blog.

Do you want to teach people something?
People are always learning, you could be the teacher of such people.

Teaching is my hobby, i have taught in schools, church. I started blogging to teach people about relationship, family, being successful and more.

You too can teach if you're good at it, it could be how to prepare pizza, how to design, and other how-tos.

Provide the latest news and trends?
I'm a fan of news, it could be any news.

People wants to get latest stuffs, maybe on health, politics, celebrities and more!

So do you wanna give latest info?

Make people laugh?
If you're funny (like me), you can decide to start a blog on making people to laugh. Everyone won't like it but there are people who cares. It could be giving opinion on certain issues in a funny way, In my blog, I love being funny, life doesn't need to be strict as thought. So I love making people laugh though it isn't my niche (it's part of my blogging voice), it could be your niche.

Inspire others? Have you overcome an obstacle? Have you overcome difficulties, you could convert it to a blog where you inspire people who are facing same!

You just need to find out what people are struggling with and see if you can help!

So what do you wanna blog about? 
Health? 
Finance? 
Food? 
Nutrition? 
Interiors and Decorations? 
Travel? 
Relationship? 
Family? 
DIY Hacks (Do It Yourself)? 
Productivity? 
Business? 

The list goes on, if you don't have anything, find the top niche or the ones you enjoy, learn to make them your hobby.

Uhm, have you heard of Pinterest and BuzzSumo? They're great research tool for finding a niche that isn't clutter and actually knowing their pain point! I can show and tell you more about them and how you can blissful use them to discover an amazing niche! If you won't mind, read my article on choosing a blog niche and learn about them plus other hacks in the article. Don't forget to pin it! (Open in a new tab and learn A-Z of choosing a niche).

3.Find A Name & Domain Name for your blog. 

After you've probably gotten a niche or blog topic, what's next?

Find a name for your blog, your blog's name should describe the topic you're blogging about. it could be your personal name, just like Amy Lynn Andrews (she teaches blogging and making money online), or Neil Patel (teaches blogging and internet marketing), they're all using personal name.

Seriously, your blog name doesn't matter as a good tagline can do it all and great content too, it could be anything but it's best you get it right.

Also domain name, the name you decide needs to tally with your domain name, this is the address people will visit your blog from. Like www.lovenancials.com; my blog name is LoveNancials and the domain tally!

You need to be sure nobody else is using the blog name you decide, and if it's free from competition. It's a matter of typing it on Google, the name LoveNancials when I typed on Google, it displays no result. It was competition free and available, yours might not be like that but it should be available for purchase like buying yourwebsitename.com or any other extension.

To see the availability of your domain name, you should just logged on to any domain registrar like Namecheap.com and type your domain name to see the available extension.
I purchase my domains with godaddy and namecheap, so I recommend it!

Why Namecheap or godaddy? 
Name cheap is reliable, it's cheap and has lots of extension that can suit your business,  also it comes with free WHOIS protection when you purchase a domain and their .com cost approximately $11 but using coupon you can get it for $9. They have some other extension that's superbly cheap. Some of which isn't more than $3. So check them out!

Godaddy is also nice, using their promo code you can get TLD domain like .com .net for just some cent, actually $0.99. Though it's one time use, so you can't use it multiple times.
So try either of them out!

LoveNancials.com was purchased with namecheap.

Please your domain name should be short and easy to pronounce, though it's an exemption to names with more than one word, like Smart Mom Ideas. It's not short because it contains more than one word. What's important is the ease in pronunciation.

Lastly if your domain name is available for purchase and have many results when searched on Google, don't use it (look for  another name), except you're ready to work hard to outrank those existing sites.

Avoid advertising your domain name when you haven't purchased it, someone else might love it and use it. So don't! Till you buy it!

In addition, you might want to use your domain name in various social platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and More, so you should also research to know if a particular name is available on social platforms. This is achievable using a tool called Namechk, all you have to do is type in the name you intend to use and see if it has been used in any social platform.

4.Choose A Blogging Platform. 

There are tons of blogging platform out there, the free and the paid (hosted) blogging platform.

Some of the popular blogging platforms are:

Wordpress.com (free but upgradable) 
Blogger.com(free) 
WordPress.org (self hosted) 
Tumblr.com and more! 

I currently use blogger, though I've used WordPress for other website of mine.

Blogger is superb, I love the fact it's free. You can make money from blogger blogging platform with affiliates and Google AdSense or some other ads network I mentioned here!

WordPress on the other hand is a superb choice for anyone who wants to be outstanding. WordPress is of two kind, the hosted and self hosted but the one I'm referring to is the self hosted WordPress.org

Why I love WordPress?
1.The Ease Of Use: WordPress is very easy to use, there are lots of plugins, so no need of messing around with codes.

2.Support: WordPress has lots of support, so there's always solution

3.Features: WordPress features are incredible, you can create something more than a blog! Have membership site, shopping carts and more! There are beautiful WordPress themes too.

4.You're in control: Free hosting platform can delete your blog if you violate their rules, but with with WordPress you're your own king! You're in control of everything. The security you get is fabulous.

5.Uniqueness- WordPress blogs are so unique! I'm so in love with WordPress.

The list of what I love about WordPress could continue! So what's my hate on WordPress? I actually don't hate WordPress for anything except for the fact one need's money to host it. Oh yeah WordPress is free, you only pay for hosting.

What's my final say? If i have enough money to host, I would never had use blogger, blogger makes the whole blogging thing hard. The good news is I will be moving to WordPress.

So if you have the cash and you're serious for business then join me and use WP! You stand a chance to make more money with WP and also see blogging fun. Don't run to blogger thinking it's a free alternative, no it's not. If you're with cash then use WP!

If you're cashless or not sure about blogging then stick to free platforms. Or better still play around with WP using free hosts (like 000webhost.com) to get familiar with its system and feature but I am sure in the nearest future you'll still run to WP, so what are you waiting for?

I will be using Bluehost since that's currently the best and I have personal experience with them! Bluehost has good features and has quick WordPress install plus you're entitled to a free domain. Bluehost is just something you should use.

For your information, Moving from blogger to WordPress isn't easy as some will say why not enjoy free platform and later on fly to WP. If you ain't careful when migrating it would take you lots of years before you become balance again! Helene Sula Can relate to this! ☺

5.Hosting

I have talked about hosting but it worths talking about again. If you're on free platforms like weebly or blogger etc. You don't need hosting, you're not self hosting!

This is where your blog posts will be stored, just think of it as an apartment where your blog reside. And yes it's really an apartment!😃

I recommend Bluehost and Siteground for startups while I ask that their domain be hosted elsewhere like Namecheap or Godaddy. I haven't recommend Godaddy hosting because I haven't used it, I only purchase domain from Godaddy! That's to inform you though.

You may ask why you shouldn't host your domain the same place with your blog? Yeah I have some reasons. See below!

Hosting Shut Down: Hosting platforms can have some issues and it may result to shutting down, I guess you don't wanna loose your blog and domain together. So hosting sperate places will help.

Blog May Be Hacked: A friend's blog was hacked; i mean his host and luckily his domain was hosted elsewhere, so he quickly hosted again and upload a backup of his blog. But if he didn't hosted his domain elsewhere other than his blog host? He would has loose everything. Most especially his domain which is like an entrance to a house. If your house don't have entrance then you don't have a house.😃

Hosting Increase Price: Host companies may increase their renewal price, for both domain and hosting but if you're hosting domain elsewhere you'll at least escape the domain aspect and tackle hosting

Note- If you're wanting to enjoy the free domain some hosting company offer, then fine as it's your right and privileged but remember to transfer afterwards.

So if you're using WordPress self hosted then use either Bluehost or Siteground but bluehost I recommend for startups and beside I've used bluehost. You can easily install WordPress using these two hosts though.

6.Organise Your Blog! 

There are tons of ways to organise your blog but I have come up with the baiscs.

Write An About Page, if as a blogger and you don't have this, it's very awkward. Why? When someone reads your blog and finds it interesting, the next thing is they might want to know more about you and your blog, if you don't have an about page they won't know about you and might not come back! Besides it's crucial for potential business partner to know more about you and decide to offer a biz!

Write A Contact Page! This is crucial, as readers might want to contact you for business, clarification, help, suggestion. You get the picture! So you shouldn't leave them without an option. I understand you might not want to drop your phone number live on your blog, you can include social media link or an email contact form!

Write A Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, And Disclosure! Yeah most people won't read this, but some will do. This isn't something hard, if you can't write one, you can use free privacy policy generating websites, get yourself one and then do some editing.

Readers need to know that they are secured on your blog and if you would or wouldn't give out details entered on your website to third parties, that's why you need a privacy policy page. Also readers are aware of scams, so you need a 'terms of use' page (a must for membership site, but recommended for a blog) where you tell them how to use your blog and kind of stuff you would ask for. If you use any form of monetization, state it clearly in your disclosure and how it works. You can also add comment policy too.

Those pages makes your blog look organise and professional. Also, I recently learnt something from EBA with their blog structure blueprint, look keenly at the image below!

That's the EBA blog structure, I just screenshot it from their ebook, you can get the ebook here if you miss the previous link!

According to the image, You can see that you should have your blog name displayed on your blog as well as its tagline, if you don't have a tagline for your blog then create one. Why? This gives you opportunity to shortly tell your guests what your blog is about even without reading your about page or even what your blog can offer. It could be "Get Tips To Better Your Blog" , this tagline does two things.

(1)It tells your guest that your blog is about blogging.
(2)it tells them what your blog can offer. 
So be creative and use tagline that describe your blog best (it should be intriguing)! 

From your the same image, you can see sub topics and category under each, so ask yourself what your blog is all about, whether a single niche or multi niche.

If it's multi niche write down the niches and the categories attached. Lets say you're blogging about health and wealth, you should list out categories you'll be covering for health like fitness (loss weight and gain weight), nutrition and more, while for the wealth you should have its category like Make money, Manage Money and more!

Define your blog, don't post anyhow. I've also learnt to maintain category limit, there are lots of temptation attached to adding more blogging category but avoid it, too many categories makes your blog disorganized, I once saw a blog with over 200 categories, it was a niche blog and it was too disorganized for my liking. You have a topic you won't talk about often? maybe once or twice then don't create category for it, use tags. That's where wordpress comes in, with self hosted WordPress, you can use tags instead of categories!

If it's a single niche like Personal finance, just list out your categories, this will help you write more focused article for your blog.

Lastly on organizing your blog, your blog theme and design plays important role here, don't let your blog theme be a pain in the neck for your readers, keep it simple but of great quality. Some bloggers design I fascinate are Becky's and Paula's theme & design, Natalie Bacon and Amy Lynn Andrews! Plus Christina Root's own! And hey that of Silas and Grace of chasing foxes!

Your blog should have some interesting plugins to help you stay organized, you should add share buttons, subscription box, and a neatly designed logo. You can see mine, I designed that with a mobile phone! 😃

7.Write Blog Posts. 

If you read any post on starting a blog, they'll talk about picking niche and other points I mentioned lately but that isn't where it stops.

Before you even launch your blog, you should write at least 30 articles and publish when launching, you should also have ten more posts scheduled for the next weeks after your launch and you should post at least 2-3 times a week. That's my personal recommendation and I have my reasons.

You shouldn't make yourself look like a newbie when you're starting out, that's why I recommend you have 30-50 posts before you publish your blog live, when you have enough articles, people will spend more time and won't see you as a newbie!

With this, you can easily monetise your blog on the week of launching with Google AdSense. One thing about ads is that it makes you look like a professional, when someone visit your blog and finds out you're using Google AdSense, they'll take you serious. Though you won't make much money until you have good amount of traffic.

Also you should sign up for affiliate program before launching your blog, there are some affiliate program that doesn't require you to have a blog before being approved (some require just a link to your social profile), while others requires a website! Find some that allows you sign up without a blog and get started. Get the link and include them where necessary in your articles.

When you've finished writing and wanting to launch your blog, don't start promoting those articles, use 1-2days to interlink your articles with related posts. Interlinking is crucial! This helps your seo, reduce bounce rate and increase time spent on your blog!

Lastly, don't just write articles that comes to your head, research and write what people wants. Before writing, you should read my top tips for writing blog articles that goes viral!

8.Monetise your blog. 

There tons of ways to make money from a blog but this can be summarized to 4 easy ways!
1.Selling your own stuff
2.Using Third Party Advertisement 
3.Affiliates Marketing 
4.Promoting For Your Clients. 

Selling Your Own Stuff, if you have things you're wanting to sell, you can use your blog to sells those stuffs. Things people sell are books, podcast, online course, and many more! If you have any, you can sell them on your blog when you've built some reasonable audience!

Using Third Party Advertisement, you sign up with advertisement company and they place adverts on your blog and you earn money. Simple!

The money aspect differs by the advertisement company, some pay by clicks while some by action. Some like BuySellAds allows you sell a particular space on your blog and get clients come.
If you're starting out then give Google AdSense a try!

Affiliate Marketing, I regard this as the most smartest money making ways. How it works? When you register with sites offering affiliate program, they give you a code to promote certain stuff and when there's a successful sale whether by purchase or action, you earn some churns of money!

If it's a direct merchant advertising, you get the code ASAP and promote. But if you're partnering with affiliate companies that have clients, you will have to apply to be an affiliate for certain company and when you're approved, you'll be opportune to find a product you love, and have used or heard a lot about then get the link to the product and start promoting!

I've recently learnt from Christiana Root that some affiliate program pays per click and it was intriguing when I heard it, she suggested you do more of pay per click affiliate marketing, though it's hard to find a company with the per pay click feature. She however mentioned Awin, I have tried them and from experience, I will advice you check them out!

Update: Awin No Longer has the pay per click affiliate program, I will however update you when something else comes up!

For direct merchant affiliate, you should consider using custom affiliate links, it isn't a must but it's nice and I recommend it. I learnt it can be easily done with WordPress pretty link plugin. How it looks? if you're promoting tailwind, your custom link will look like www.lovenancials.com/tailwind instead of  tailwind original link. That's how it looks like, it easy to remember and it's clean. Tailwind is a software for scheduling Pinterest & Instagram posts, they're the leading platform and I recommend it! Click link here!

Some top platform you should consider being an affiliate for are:

Amazon, a leading shopping platform, you can become an affiliate for them and promote stuffs on Amazon.

ShareASale
Cj 
Pepperjam
Impact Radius
Flexoffers
Peerfly
Linkshare
Affiliate Window
Max Bounty
Clickbank
Clickbooth
Avangate

For direct merchant affiliate you should check and see if the platform and product you use have affiliate program. It could be your emailing service provider, online course, your social media tool like Tailwind and more!

Promoting For Your Client, this isn't a first start when you're new, but it's best when you've become popular or gained some audience. In fact you'll be contacted by several brands or companies that wants to do business with you, you agree on the payment method and it's done. Using fixed payment is the best!

Those are the 4 cool  ways to make money, but it doesn't end there, read my 51+ ways to make money from a blog with some extra bonus. Also you should read Neil Patel's Affiliate Marketing Guide To Gain More Insight!

9.How To Make Your Blog Get Noticed! 

This is the most crucial aspect of blogging, without this in place you can't earn anything from your blog. In other words it is called getting traffic to your blog.

You've Finish Writing Articles, it's time for people to read them but people won't because they don't know your blog yet, you need to tell them about your blog. Besides this helps you get approved by some monetisation company that requires some amount traffic upon registration.

So how can you get traffic to your new blog? There are tons of ways to get traffic to a new blog, but not all ways will work. It's better you stick to the ones that works for you. I made mistake of wasting time on stuff that isn't working and I have learnt my lessons. I will mentioned just three (3) ways to make your blog get noticed, and it features only popular social networks!

1.Facebook 
This is the largest social network, and can be a great place to get traffic to your website, it has great potentials. There are tons of ways Facebook can help your website grow, some of which are below!

Facebook Profile, If you have good following and friends or you're ready to build great following and friends then this is for you. It's simple. All you have to do is write a summary of your blog posts and publish it on your Facebook profile with a link back to the blog post.

You shouldn't paste all your article's content on Facebook, leave your readers in the interesting aspect and ask them to click link to get the rest!

Facebook groups, this is another place to generate traffic to your blog, create your Facebook group and add people to it and also join others people group and share your content.

When doing this, don't spam by posting only links, and don't do it always especially if it's someone else group.

Facebook page, it's simple, just create your Facebook page and share your blog content. Also invites friends to like the page!

Like I said, blogging requires money, use Facebook page promotion to get likes and sponsor your post to reach more people. Spend money to earn money!

You can't be on Facebook always, so use Crowdfire or Buffer to schedule posts to favourite places whether page or group!
Also, don't forget to add call to action, tell your audience to follow you, like your page, click link and more! Grab their attention, don't give them everything. If your post is a list type, lets say 9 effective ways to keep your face pimples free, don't post the 9, post 2-4 and ask them to click for the rest! Make it stunning!

Also, read my social media for business article where I talked about how to make money from social media, I also listed some Facebook hacks you'll be needing!

2.Twitter
This is another place to get tons of traffic to your blog, all that's required is you maintain the 140 character limit and build yourself a good following.

To be Frank, I'm not a twitter fan but I often times use it for blog promotion. It's all about promoting your blog posts in a captivating way of not more than 140 characters and you're done.

My recommendation, 
Use hash tags on your tweets, hashtags will help you reach more people, it's not just using any hash tag but using popular and hot hashtags. To find hot hash tags simply visit www.ritetag.com, type in your keyword and see the hot hashtags.

Follow others to get follow back, this is one way to get followers, when you follow people, you get followed in return.

Use crowdfire to manage your twitter growth, they have easy unfollow tool, analytics of unfollowers and those who didn't follow back!

Use Link Shortening websites, twitter allows only 140 characters including your link, so you should shorten your link in order to have more character for your captivating pitch. Use shortening website like bit.ly.

Use twitter tools to boost growth, there are tons of twitter tools available in the web, like TweetDeck, Buffer and a whole lots of them I mentioned in this article!

3.Pinterest
Pinterest can't be an exemption here, in fact this article isn't complete without me mentioning pinterest.

Pinterest has been around for only a while (2011) and has been the primary source of traffic for most bloggers out there.

What's pinterest? Pinterest is a community as well as a search engine to share and get ideas of any kind. You can pin your blog posts on pinterest and get people trouping in and out of your blog. I have mentioned pinterest in most of my articles, you can read my top tips for getting traffic from pinterest to your blog.
I don't wanna stress on pinterest here, so read that article! If you missed previous link, see it here!

Those are some smart ways to make your blog get noticed. However, I have written a detailed post about getting traffic to your blog, I mentioned tons of ways you can't afford to miss. So read it now and here!

Some More Tips To Better Your Blog
1.Make it easy, make it easy for readers to comments on your blog (don't require them to sign up or pass captcha before commenting, they might get overwhelmed and won't even comment.), make it easy for readers to contact you, make your articles easy to share, use sharing tools to make it easy, there are tons of WP plugins, you've SumoMe too!

2. Create your Schedule, how do you wanna blog? How many articles do you want to post per day, week or month, have a blogging timetable as well as an editorial calendar, split your time so you won't pay less attention to one thing or the other. When do you wanna reply mails and comments? Just plan and have a good and friendly blogging schedule.

3.Learn the basics, there are some blogging skills you need for your own good.
Learn HTML and CSS, You really need this, it's not hard. Go to W3school or my favorite HTMLDOG to learn basics of coding online or even learn on YouTube, install free tools on your smartphone or other ICT gadgets that helps you test code offline!

Learn SEO, you need to learn Search Engine Optimization, it's not compulsory to be a geek at this, just learn the basis SEO techniques, learn off page and on page SEO hacks, learn inter linking, backlinks and more!

Learn Marketing, learn how to promote your stuffs on social media and more.

I personal read the following blogs for ideas, I read Anna Hoffman's Blog (traffic generation Cafe), ShoutMeLoud and more!

4.Be realistic to yourself, don't compare yourself with other top bloggers that I have been blogging for years, set yourself realistic goals. You can check out my goal setting guide and learn how to set achievable goal.

5.Make Friends And Network, networking with fellow bloggers helps you to be successful in the blogosphere, find and mingle with like-mind bloggers.

6.Read blog post on writing great blog posts, I have written a superb post for writing a blog post, check it out here...

7.Read Other Blogs, there's no other way to grow as a blogger than reading other blogs, find inspirational blogs and read.

I read chasing foxes, Melyssa Griffin's blog, Michelle's blog, Amy's blog, Christian's blog,  and more.

8.Join More Pinterest Boards, pinterest is great for traffic and getting ideas, so just pinterest boards, they're great!

9.Be Curious, learn learn learn! 

Final Thought 

Blogging is fun and shouldn't be stressful, here at LoveNancials, I will consistently be sharing blogging hacks which you should check to better your blog.

Blogging isn't a quick scheme to make money online, but if you're consistent and unique you'll be a top blogger.

Lastly, grow your mailing list and focus on creating article that solves problems, plus put God first, he's the one that inspires and help my blog's growth. Without him I'm nothing.. If you don't believe in God fine but seriously he's great and you should trust and ask him for help!

Please I want to see comments, tell me about your blog (new or old)!

What are your challenges? What are your fears? Talk to me!

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Thanks For Reading and Stay Beautiful!