Want to Create Your Own Blog and Earn Money in 2022? (Here’s How!!)

You’re thinking to yourself…”How can I create a blog and earn money?”…and is it really worth it? Haven’t, like, a bazillion people already tried that and failed? Isn’t the blogger space fully saturated? Isn’t it basically IMPOSSIBLE to earn money as a blogger these days…?? No. It is absolutely possible! And you can still earn A LOT of money blogging. In this lengthy and highly detailed post, I’m going to teach you how to create your own blog and earn money in 2022.

Ready? Let’s hit it!

How to Create Your Own Blog and Earn Money in 2022

• Some people try to become professional athletes. They fail.
• Others try to become the CEO of a big company. They rarely make it.
• Still others try to start their own storefronts. Roughly 90% of the time, their business ceases to exist 10 years later.

Blogging isn’t the same as becoming a professional athlete. It’s not an aspiration to become a high-paying CEO. And, it’s not quite like opening up a retail shop on the corner of your local city. 

Honestly, it’s way easier than all of that. 

And…

• There’s plenty of material out there that can help you succeed
• The odds of winning are way better than any of the career fields above
• And, it’s INSANELY cheap to get started! (Like, less than $36 for an entire YEAR of blogging (full disclosure, this is my affiliate link. It saves YOU money and I get a kick-back for your sign-up. Double-win!))

Oh, and by the way. The upside potential of blogging is HUGE! Some bloggers earn more than a million bucks a year! Just for writing stories on a website. Unbelievable! 

But…I’m getting ahead of myself here.

If you’re looking to figure out how to create your own blog and earn money in 2022, you’ve come to the right place. 

It’s absolutely possible, and I’m living proof of that!

Related: How to Start Your Own Blog

Does Creating a Blog Make Money?

Quite a few people start blogs today. They might document their wedding journey, their stories of being a mom, or maybe they decide that they want to travel the world and just write about that every day!

But…does creating a blog make money?

Of course, just creating a blog does nothing. You can set up a webpage, let it sit, and it will almost certainly earn no money.

But, can blogging make money? 

Absolutely!

There are so many blogger success stories out there – both from old bloggers and new bloggers. Anyone can make money blogging.

To make money blogging, what you have to do is simple:

• Appeal to a large audience
• Get that audience to find you
• And then monetize your page!

Still wondering how to create your own blog to earn money? There are soooo many details coming your way in this post! Get your paper and pencil ready!

Related: How Many People in the World Are Millionaires (…And How to Be One of Them!!)

Types of Blogs That Make Money

What if you were really into straightening out paper clips? Like, you had the absolute best method for undoing paperclips and getting them perfectly straight?

You decide that you’re so good, you’re going to start a website to show off your skills!

Chances are, no one is going to visit your page and you’ll earn no money with your blog because the audience isn’t there.

BUT, what if, by some miracle, you get 10,000 visitors every month from people that want to witness your skills. 

Do you make any money with your blog at this point?

I’d wager a guess and say…probably no.

But why not? 

• You have passion, and
• You have people viewing and reading your stuff

Doesn’t that equate to money somehow? 

Sorry, no.

There’s still one more variable to making money with your website:

To make money on your blog, you’re not only going to need visitors, but you’ll need a topic that advertisers can relate to and know that your readers will be interested in. 

What type of advertisers are interested in straightening paperclips…??

Well, maybe some office supply companies…but that’s about it. Your options are quite limited. 

So what are the types of blogs that make money?

Based on my recent research, I found that the below blog topics often made the most money because they appealed to the general public AND to many advertisers:

• Blogs about insurance
• Loans and mortgages
• Education/Degrees
• Web hosting
• Investing/trading
• IT/software
• Health/rehab/treatment
• Money/personal finance (I know all about this one! And it pays GREAT! :))
• Personal development
• Business
• Review sites (like, trying out toys, tools, even clothes! People want to know more about what they’re buying before they pull the trigger online)

Boom! That’s a great list of topics to choose from! 

You were wondering how to create your own blog and earn money. The first step is to choose a blog topic that actually has a chance of earning money!

Then, you just need to make sure you’re passionate enough to write about it for years to come!

Related: How to Make an Extra 1k a Month (10 Great Ideas Here!!)

Find a Solid Domain That Fits With Your High Paying Blog Topic

If you have a love for one of the topics above, then you’re one step closer to earning money with your blog! 

The next step would be find a domain name and start writing!

The best site I’ve found for this is InstantDomainSearch.com. Enter in your site name ideas and they’ll show you if they’re available. If not, they’ll show you similar site names that are!!

(FYI – I just searched “MakingTheMoolah.com” and it’s available! Might be something you want to jump on. 😉 )

How Do Bloggers Get Paid?

Now you know about blog topics that make money, and you know how to search for an available website domain name, but you likely still have a big question on your mind.

“How do you make money with a blog??”

How do bloggers get paid? 

It’s time to clear this question up once and for all.

Can You Get Paid For Your Own Blog? How?

Bloggers make money for writing all those posts. We know that. But how? 

Below is how bloggers make most of their money:

• Google ads – Most people are familiar with this. It’s a simple ad box that has a picture or video on the side of your site. If someone looks at or clicks on the picture, you get paid a small amount of money. This pays hardly anything per visitor, but with many visitors, the amount can really add up!
• Affiliate ads – These are basically referral ads. If your site leads a person to buy a product from another site that you partner with, they’ll pay you a few bucks for the referral!
• Direct ads – There are companies out there that don’t want to mess with paying thousands of bloggers affiliate earnings. They’d rather just pay a one-time rate with a direct ad (typically a link in an article). Even small blogs can earn $50-$100 for each direct ad they put on their site.

And, most of these payments are made to bloggers via Paypal or Venmo.

This is all great….but you know what? The more I blog, the more I realize there are SO MANY OTHER WAYS to get paid as a blogger!

Related: Saving 1 Million Dollars in 10 Years (Yes, It’s Possible!!)

Other ways bloggers can get paid (ie. make money):

• Creating online courses
• Selling material on Etsy
• Starting your own YouTube channel 
• Writing a book or eBook
• Consulting
• Writing for other sites (I’ve earned as much as $450 for one article!)
• Selling your own product through your site

And there are still so many other ways!

The key to figuring out how to create a blog and start making money is honestly to just get started! Only then will you find the true opportunities that are out there!

Related: How to Start Your Own Blog

Can You Make Money on a Free Blog?

I remember asking this very question when I first started thinking about getting into blogging. Can you make money on a free blog platform?

Long story short, yes, you can make some money if you start a free WordPress or Blogger blog. But, as I understand it, you can only earn money via Google ads and as an Amazon affiliate. So, you’re pretty limited with the amount of income you can make with a free blog.

Why I’m So Glad I Didn’t Create a Free Blog

I’m super cheap, so I really just wanted to dip my toe in the water and test out the whole blogging thing before I paid out any money, but I’m SO GLAD that I stumbled on an article that basically said, “DON’T DO IT! You’re severely limiting your viewership and earning potential!”. 

I finally decided that I wanted to learn how to make my own blog and make money. So, I did not to go with the freebie option. Instead, I started my own blog. 

$200,000+ dollars of earnings later, I’m so glad I didn’t go the freebie route! 

And, if you step back and really think about it, the whole debate is pretty foolish.

• Either pay nothing and severely limit your blogging future off the bat,
• or pay $35.40 for your very own blog (that you own fully) through Bluehost (this is the webhost provider that I use to this day).

Seriously??

Just $35 bucks for the entire first year? THAT’S the debate?

I ponied up the dough when I first started, and I’m glad I did. I recommend you do the same.

Related: How to Make $1000 a Month Blogging (From a Guy That Actually Does It!!)

How to Start a Blog With No Money

Want to know how to start a blog with no money?

Well, if you want to start one that’s completely free, I just wouldn’t recommend it. We already covered this above. It’s just not worth it.

If you want to know how to create your own blog and earn money (and I mean serious money), then I would self-host if I were you. Which simply means sign up through a webhost like iPage, Bluehost, or Hostgater and start a new .com website.

Like I said earlier, the cost is $35.40 through Bluehost for the entire first year…which is basically the same thing as ‘no money’ honestly. That’s literally just 10 cents a year.

How to Start Your Own Blog With Bluehost

Alright. At this point, I bet you’re ready for the nuts and bolts of how to start your own blog and earn money this year. 

This is the ‘how to start your own blog’ part.

Since I started my blog with Bluehost (and I’m also an affiliate for them), I’m going to walk you through the details for how to get your site started with them as the webhost (ie. they power your blog, but the site is still yours and you can do with it whatever you want to, including making a bazillion dollars! ;))!

So here’s the nitty gritty of how to start a blog with Bluehost.

1) Register Your Domain name

Once you click on this link, “Start a blog with Bluehost“, you’ll be taken to a page with my wonderful face on it  and you’ll see the promotional pricing of $2.95/month.

Click, “Get Started Now”.

Next, Bluehost will ask you to select your plan. If you’re just starting out, I almost always recommend the basic (cheapest) plan.

It will provide you with plenty of:

•     Space (memory for your site build)
•     Bandwidth
•     Performance
•     And email storage

If you grow into a massive site, you can always upgrade later. For now though, the cheapest option will work perfectly fine!

Next, Bluehost will ask for the domain name for your website.

Type in your ideal name to see if it’s available.

Since there are a bazillion sites out there, chances are that your name is taken. That’s okay. There are still plenty of great .com site names out there!

DO NOT let them tempt you into signing up for a .net or some other obscure ending to your desired domain name. Even though it still seems old school, in my opinion, .com is still where it’s at.

•     With a .com ending, people will see your site as more authoritative
•     It’s the easiest for people to remember (we’re all used to .com endings vs. all the others)
•     And personally, I believe that you’ll earn more money with a .com site.

So what do you do? Pick a new name. (Again, I like to use InstantDomainSearch.com to search for available domain names).

As I was playing around with a site name just recently, I entered, “slayyourdebt”. Well surprise surprise, that was taken. But, when I tried, “takedownyourdebt”, that was not! Boom! Looks like I could get started with my new site as a .com! No big deal!

When it comes to picking a domain name, be sure to:

•     Keep it short
•     Make it easy to remember
•     Make it easy to spell (funky names are tougher to remember)
•     And of course, make it a .com!

Related: How Much Is 6 Figures Really? (And How You Can Make It Too!!)

2) Buy Hosting for Your Blog

Once you pick your domain name, you’ll be taken to a new screen to enter your account info and your different package options.

Entering your account info is no big deal – just enter your name, address, phone number, and email.

Scroll down and you’ll need to select the package you want.

The best rate – the $2.95/month option – can be had with just a 12 month commitment! Again, that’s just $35.40 for an entire year of blogging. That’s amazingly cheap!

Here’s what I recommend selecting for the other options:

•     Domain privacy protection – Yes, I’d do this one. It’s pretty cheap option so people don’t find out your name and exactly where you live.. 
•     SiteLock Security – I’d do this as well. It’s good for you and your readers.
•     Codeguard Basic – You can take it or leave it. You really don’t need backups of your site yet since there’s still nothing there! 
•     Bluehost SEO Tools Start – skip it, use Yoast SEO instead (I’ll explain how to set this up later in this post)
•     1 Office 365 Mailbox free trial – skip it. You likely don’t need it!

Then, simply enter your payment info!

The next screen will ask you to set up a password – again, no big deal. Choose a password and select, “Create Account”. Then, “Go to Login”.

Use that password to login to your Bluehost account.

You’re almost there!!! Just one more step and your question, “How can I create a blog and earn money?” will be answered!

3) Install WordPress on Bluehost

This part isn’t hard at all.

Bluehost makes it very easy to create a WordPress blog and it is FREE.

• After you login to your new Bluehost account, they’ll guide you through exactly what you need to do in order to start a blog (only a two step process of minimal information – this should take you just a couple minutes).
• Next, Bluehost will ask you to pick a theme. Choose the one that looks the best to you – there are many great options. And, you can always change the theme later if you want, so no big deal if you change your mind. Oh, and remember that most themes are FREE, so if they try to charge you, just skip this step and choose a free one once you get your WordPress account set up (which is just minutes away!).
• Click on “Start Building”
• On the next screen, you can choose “Business” or “Personal” – it’s up to you. Or, you can click the “I don’t need help.”

YESSSSSSSS! You now have a WordPress blog. 

You will have to work on the design and producing high-quality content, of course. But with these steps, you are officially started! So exciting!!

If you sign up for Bluehost and you get stuck on something, their support team is one of the best in the world. They can definitely help you – either by way of chat or a phone call. And, if you have any other questions, feel free to email me as well. I love to help newbies get started!! Email me at derek [at] lifeandmyfinances.com !!

To help you get started with your new WordPress site, here are a few tips:

• You can add and create new posts by clicking on “Posts” on the left-hand side when you are logged in.
• If you want to add an image, click on “Media” on the left-hand side.
• If you want to update your theme of your site (ie. the look of it), head to Appearance, then Themes. There, you can choose from a wide variety of free themes. Simply click, “Activate” and you’ll be all set to go!
• You can go to “Appearance,” then “Widgets” in order to add items to your sidebar, footer, and so on.

There.

You wanted to know how to make a blog and make money.

The instructions above…that’s most of the heavy lifting. Everything else is basically just all fun and games! If you can get through the above checklist, you’re like 80% of the way to making money!

You know what they say, half the battle is just getting started!

How Do I Start Blogging and Make Money?

At this point, you paid to start your blog, you picked a theme, and now you’re trying wondering, “How do I start blogging and make money?…”

In other words…

• What do you have to do with your blog right now?
• How do you start blogging and earn money online?
• How can you actually get people to see your blog and start earning money?

First off, don’t think it’s going to happen overnight. Even with the great blogs, it often takes 6+ months to start making more than a few pennies here and there. 

But let’s start at the best place…the beginning.

What do beginners need to do to start earning money?

What should they do first before anything else?

Related: How to Invest Money In Your 20s (…And Become a Deca-Millionaire!!)

How to Make Money Blogging For Beginners

You have a website…and that’s about it. 

What’s next? What do you need to do today to start making money in the future?

Here’s what I would suggest to set up your blog to make money:

• Make your website presentable with a free theme. It doesn’t have to be perfect yet…just presentable.
  • Note: If you get hung up on making your website pretty, you’ll never earn any money!
• Create an email address and put it on your page so viewers and ad agents can contact you (or create a contact form)
• Set up a way for readers to subscribe to your page (get everyone you know to subscribe — mom, grandma, your spouse…!). This way, whenever you write a new post, a note will go to your readers and you’ll get insta-readers each time!
• Come up with a content strategy (ie. the main type of blog posts you’ll be writing) and write at least 15 articles right off the bat
  • Want to write articles that are picked up by Google? I strongly recommend the course, Traffic Transformation Guide, written by Lena from WhatMommyDoes.com. I took the course and doubled my visitor numbers!! The material is amazing and eye-opening. That’s why I’m an affiliate and promote Lena any chance I get. She’s amazing! 
  • Also, I recommend adding Yoast SEO to make sure you’re writing posts that include everything needed to rank well in a search.
• Visit similar sites, try to make friends with other bloggers, and leave comments on their posts (which often allows a link-back to your site)
• While writing your own kick-butt posts, offer to write free posts for your new blogger friends and make these your VERY BEST posts.
  • The blog owners will be happy to post kick-butt content on their site for free
  • This will give you free traffic from their site
  • And, this will bump up your blog authority (since other bloggers are now linking to your page) and make it more likely for Google to pick up your posts in their search!
• Set up your social media pages and put social buttons on your page so all your new readers can share your stuff and spread the word! (I use “AddToAny Share Buttons“)
• Beyond this, I’d say just rinse and repeat on all the options above!
  • Write amazing content
  • Share it with as many people as you can via social shares, guest posts, and comments on other sites
  • Repeat!

If you’re writing solid content and start getting picked up by Google, you’re on the right track! Just keep working it and good things will happen!

The ultimate goal: get your visitor numbers up to 50,000 per month. At that point, you’ll start to make some serious money!

Related: Top Sources of Passive Income For Wealth (It’s Time to Be Rich!!)

Make Money Blogging with Mediavine

Why 50,000 visitors? Why is that the magic number? Because at that point you can partner with Mediavine. In my opinion, they’re simply the BEST ad management company and will make you loads of money. 

You’re reading this post because you want to start blogging and earn money online. So how much money can you make with Mediavine at 50,000 visitors per month?

To give you an idea, here’s the numbers from my blog:

• Lately, I’ve been earning between $35 and $60 RPM (which simply means I’m earning that much money per thousand visitors)
• Let’s say my visitor numbers were exactly 50,000 per month
• At this rate, my blog would be earning roughly $40 x 50 = $2,000 a month just from Google ad income!

At $2,000 a month, that would be $24,000 a year just from using one ad management team! DANG! There’s still some great money to be had with blogging, right?!

Can You Add Google Ads on Your Blog Right Away?

Oh, and some of you are asking, “Can I start adding Google ads right away? Way before I get to 50,000 viewers per month?”

…Well…you can, but you won’t hardly earn any money managing the ads on your own. It won’t even be worth your time to set it up and track it. Oh, and it may actually degrade your site and limit your long-term viewer success.

Believe me, I just read an income report from a guy that had 30,000 viewers/month and he only made $3 a day with regular Google ads. That’s less than $100 a month with a TON of visitors hitting his blog. If you’re just starting out, you’ll earn pennies. It’s just not worth it. (I know it’s hard not to set up Google ads to see how much you could earn…but please trust me on this one!)

If you want to earn money right away with your blog, focus on trying out the methods below.

Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Sales

What are affiliate sales? And how can you make money as an affiliate?

Let’s say your blog is all about small business – how to grow it, how to save time doing it, and how to maximize your income.

A great tool that you could recommend to your audience could be Calendly, an online scheduling tool that eliminates the back-and-forth of booking a meeting with a client. 

And, by partnering with Calendly and recommending their product to you readers, you could receive a kick-back (ie. affiliate earnings)!

Many bloggers make quite a lot of money with affiliate marketing. If your blog topic pairs well with affiliate products, you may want to give this a shot!

When Should You Become an Affiliate with Someone?

Don’t waste your time with this out of the gate.

First, write all those solid posts. Then, once those posts start getting picked up by Google and you’re starting to see visitors, THEN you should think about what affiliate programs work well with those posts, set them up in your articles, and hopefully start to make some money with them!

Make Money Blogging with Direct Ads

If you start getting picked up by Google, chances are that advertising agents will start emailing you to place ads on your site (most of the time they want to post articles or links within your article). Like I said earlier in this post, you should expect to earn at least $50 per post, even with a small blog.

Related: Sponsored Content: What You Need to Know

Make Money Blogging by Selling Courses

If you’re interested in starting a blog and earning money out of the gate, another great option is selling online courses.

Again, you should first write a post that gets great SEO traffic, then consider setting up a course to capitalize on that traffic.

Want to know the basics of making money by selling online courses? Here’s a great post from our own site that explains everything!

Make Money Blogging by Writing a Book or eBook

Finally, if you’ve always wanted to write a book about something, starting a blog is a great way to create a bunch of traffic that can flow from your site straight to your book! 

You could write a traditional book or you could write an eBook that people could simply download and read! Both are great options and could earn you a couple bucks for every sale!

Related: 7 Jobs That Pay 100k a Year Without a Degree (You Can Do These!!)

How Much Can a Beginner Make From Blogging

What if you’re a beginner? How do beginner bloggers make money online? And how much can a beginner make from blogging?

If you’re just starting your blog and want to make money blogging immediately, one great option is to write articles for other sites.

How to Make Money By Writing For Other Sites

But…who actually pays new bloggers to write for them? Lots of sites actually! Here’s a great list!

If you’re in the personal finance blog niche, you can start with these sites:

If your niche is outside of personal finance, check out these niches!

• Business Blogs
• Career/Education Blogs
• Computer/Technology Blogs
• Fiction Blogs
• Family Blogs
• General Interest/Lifestyle Blogs
• Health Blogs
• Local Blogs
• Special Interest Blogs
• Travel Blogs
• Web Design & Development Blogs
• Writing Blogs

Believe it or not, all of these blog types are paying out money for guest posts. Interested? Find all the details you need here: Get Paid to Blog – 121 Blogs that Pay for Guest Posts.

How Much Can a Beginner Make From Blogging? Adding It All Up…

In the paragraphs above, we told you all about the main ways bloggers can earn money. Here’s a recap:

• Google ads (with Mediavine)
• Affiliate marketing
• Direct Ads
• Selling online courses
• Writing a book or eBook
• Writing blog posts for others!

So how much can you earn with each of these money making options above? 

How much can you make blogging with 1000 visitors a month?

If you’re a beginner, you’re likely getting say….1,000 visits to your website a month. And that’s totally FINE! You have to start somewhere!

Let’s run through our potential money-making avenues to see how much you could be earning each month:

• Google ads – Plan on zero dollars here (seriously, wait till you have 50,000 visitors and let Mediavine make you a bunch of money!)
• Affiliate marketing – With a couple of solid posts set up with affiliate links, you can expect to sell 1-2 people on your affiliate links each month. This will likely earn you $10-$50 in total.
• Direct Ads – Even with just 1,000 visitors per month, I bet you could land at least one direct ad on your site. This would earn you roughly $50.
• Selling online courses – If you have a solid post, offer a condensed free course that people can try. With that, try to sell them on your full course that earns you $40-$50 per sale. Again, with a good article that’s driving money from Google, you can expect to sell 1-2 courses, which will net you between $40 and $100.
• Writing a book or eBook – If you’re new to blogging, I bet you haven’t had time to write a book yet….so let’s assume that you earn no money here. 😉
• Writing blog posts for others – Even as a new blogger, I bet you could land two gigs to write for other sites each month. And most of these pay $75 per post! So, the earnings here could be $150. Not too bad!

So what does all that add up to? How much can a beginner make from blogging?

With affiliate marketing, direct ads, selling an online course, and writing blog posts for others, you can expect to make $250-$350 per month. Not too shabby for paying just $35.40 to get started! 

Now, granted, you’re likely putting in a TON of time to get this $250+/month gig moving, but once you can get it rolling, there’s only one place to go, and that’s up!

Like I said before, some bloggers can start to replace their day job income once they start to figure out the writing and the marketing side of blogging (others make millions of dollars a year!). If you’re willing to learn and you love to write about your selected blog topic, you could definitely earn THOUSANDS of dollars per month, not just a couple hundred bucks.

Are you ready to get started with a website? Here’s that Bluehost link again in case you’re searching for it. 🙂

Sorry if I seem pushy with the Bluehost link. I just freaking LOVE blogging and I can’t wait for you to get started! To make a difference, make an income, and to potentially change lives!!

Related: Can a Poor Person Become a Millionaire? (And If So, How??)

What Is The Fastest Way to Make Money From Blogging?

You’re interested in learning how to create your own blog and earn money…but you want to do it FAST!

You want to know how to make money immediately with your blog.

I totally get it.

Nobody like to earn money slowly.

If you want to earn money blogging fast though, understand that you’re going to have to hustle like CRAZY!

First, focus on the steps I outlined in the “How to make money blogging for beginners” section. Then, make connections with other sites that will pay $75-$100 per article for you to write for them. If I were you, I’d try to write 1 article a week for someone else. They might allow you to put your site links in the article, AND you’d earn $300-$400 each month…and that’s right out of the gate!

Beyond this, focus on trying to write a kick-butt article that gets picked up by Google and gets 100+ views per day. Once you get that, figure out how to add some affiliate links into the article. And, maybe even create a quick online course that you could sell! This is how you’re going to make the big money! Then, just rinse and repeat on this.

Write great articles, and use their popularity to earn yourself more money. 

That’s the name of the game. Write something that’s going to help people. Then, help them more with even better products and content that you can charge for. 

BOOM!

Learn this, and you could become one of those millionaire bloggers. 🙂

Related: Can I Retire on 500k Dollars? (…Will I Run Out of Money??)

How to Create Your Own Blog and Earn Money in 2022 – It’s Up to You Now!!

You clicked on this post today because you wanted to know how to create you own blog and earn money in 2022. 

In this mammoth post, I taught you how to:

• Sign up for your blog for less than $36 (for the entire first year!)
• How to find a theme to make your blog look amazing
• What to do with your blog to set it up to make money
• And, I taught you a ton of ways to monetize your blog right out of the gate!

I seriously taught you almost everything I know about blogging in this one post. 

Now the question is…Will you use this information to create a blog and start earning money yourself? 

Will you actually use this information to start a blog and make money? Might you grow your blog into a HUGE super popular blog that will help thousands of people and earn you a whack-load of money? …Or, will you have wasted your time reading this entire post because you’re not going to get started today?

Don’t wait anymore.

Starting a blog costs $36. It’s the cost of two pizzas. If you have always wanted to try it. Now is the time. I highly doubt you’ll regret it!!

Just click this link to get started. 🙂

Grow Rich Make Money Money Start Your Own Blog