Are you interested in how to start a lifestyle blog and make money as a lifestyle blogger? But you don’t even have a clue about it? That’s okay; we are here to help you. In this blog, I will show you all the refined steps that you can take if you want to earn money from your lifestyle blog.
Now, What if you don’t have a blog? No problem. Follow these simple steps to start your blog.
How to start a lifestyle blog for beginners in 2020:
1. Selecting the right niche:
Before you start blogging, you have to ask yourself. What is the niche you are going to focus on? What is the topic you are going to discuss with people? Whether these topics are interesting to people or not? Most of all, pick a niche that you are passionate about. If you are a good chef, start making food blogs. If you love traveling, start a traveling blog
2. Pick a domain name:
Now that you have your niche, you have to decide a name for your blog. It should be easy to understand. Keep it less than 14 characters, but it should be more than four characters long. Be creative. Brainstorm a bunch of fancy names related to your niche. Make it unique, stylish, catchy, easy to remember, and easy to speak.
Choosing a domain is extremely important. It has to be perfect in every way, flawless and, most importantly, Available. A domain is made of two parts, the name which is followed by an extension. For instance, in Google.com, Google is the name, and .com is the extension. According to GoDaddy;
“You can’t have a website without a domain name. Like a street address that tells people where you live, a domain helps customers drive directly to your website.”
Never buy a domain from a disreputable domain registrar company. Look out for an ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) certified company. Bluehost and Namecheap are well-known web hosting service providers. Many web hosting companies provide domains as well as hosting. There are both advantages and disadvantages to all web hosting service providers.
3. Choosing the right domain name:
Choosing your domain name is equally as important as choosing the extension for your domain. Your domain name should reflect something about you, your company, the industry you belong to, the product you are marketing, or the service you are providing. It can be your name. Try not to use hyphens in your domain name if possible. It should probably be easy to use. Don’t use numbers and silly abbreviations. Avoid copyright issues. Be careful if you are going to buy an expired domain. A shorter name always works better. If you are having trouble picking domain names, try these following tools:
4. Picking up your domains extension:
After picking your domain, you will have a choice for an extension. That is called the Top Level Domain (TLD). If you want a stronger position, go for a .com TLD, because it is most popular and has lots of benefits. For instance, there are more than 140 million .com domain names registered. If the .com is not available, you need not worry because WordPress offers a .org extension as well.
How much a domain name cost?:
A domain name usually costs $14.99 per year. There are more expensive options as well. Each extension is available at a different cost.
5. Registering your domains name
There are two ways which you can choose to register your domain name:
- Registering a domain name with Domain.com.
- Or registering a domain name with GoDaddy.com.
I will show you how to register your domain by using both options and start a lifestyle blog.
Registering a domain name with Domain.com:
- If you want to register a domain name straight away, and you don’t want to create a website, then Domain.com is the best selection for you.
- Visit Domain.com and search for your desired domain name.
- If available, it will be added to your cart automatically.
- Adjust the registration period to one year.
- Decide whether you want to keep or remove privacy protection. Removing it may lower the registration charges.
- A shopping cart window will appear. Check the cart, whether it has your domain name and privacy protection. If yes, then click on the continue option.
- Domain.com will ask you to provide them your account and payment information for the completion of domain purchase.
- Domain.com will now register your domain. As soon as your domain is registered, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with a link that will lead you to your domain’s control panel.
Registering a domain name with GoDaddy.com:
GoDaddy, the largest domain name registrar in the world, currently manages 77 million domain names from 18 million users around the globe.
When you are ready to build a website, they offer an easy to use control panel, which helps you to choose any hosting service provider.
Now, I will show you how to register your domain name with GoDaddy.com;
- Go to GoDaddy.com and type the domain name you want to register in the search box.
- You will see a success message if your domain name is available. It will be displayed at the top. Add the domain name to your cart.
- GoDaddy will display some additional features that can be purchased with your domain name. You can choose whether these features are useful or not.
- Click on the “Continue with these options” button in the right corner.
- The next page shows the domain name and its registration period, which can be extended to 10 years. But if you are tight on budget, we recommend using the one year registration period.
- Create a GoDaddy account. If you already have an account, then sign in. After that, you can enter your billing address and make a payment for your domain name.
6. Picking the best Web hosting:
Now picking a good website hosting is very crucial. If you choose the wrong web hosting, you can say goodbye to blogging. Because web hosting is the base of your blog, choose it wisely, there is no need to hurry.
The performance of your site depends mainly on the website hosting account. All of your online content is also saved here. A web hosting account displays your content in front of knowledge seekers 24/7 as long as you are paying the annual fee. I recommend using Bluehost.com.
How to choose a hosting provider:
Every single website needs a website host.
Here we will discuss some factors that should be taken into consideration while choosing a hosting provider;
a. Speed:
The audience wants the answer to all their questions as soon as possible. If your site takes more than 2 seconds to load, then people are most likely to leave your website. Also, Google counts the site’s speed as a factor in ranking. So a slow site can be harmful to you. Try to choose a web hosting provider that has fast servers, an adequate amount of memory and processing power.
b. Security:
Keeping your website secure should be your top priority. Your website hosting servers should be equipped with powerful firewalls and should be properly monitored for irregular activity. It should also be able to support SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates to add an extra layer of security to your website. If you are going to market products or accept payments on your website, then SSL is a must practice for you.
c. Help and Support:
Choose a web hosting that provides 24/7 monitoring, help, and support. You don’t want to handle all the technical problems yourself. You probably wouldn’t have time for all this stuff, so make sure that your web hosting provider offers 24/7 support in case of a problem.
d. Price:
Website hosting costs may range from a few dollars per month to a thousand dollars per month. Some are also available for free. But the free ones have limited functionality and could result in performance issues. Make sure you select a deal that suits you.
e. Web hosting environment:
Shared hosting is undoubtedly the least expensive one. But it comes with a lot of drawbacks. Your website will be hosted on a server along with other websites. If one of the websites gets a lot of traffic, then your site is going to face errors in the opening.
7. Choosing the right blogging platform:
You need a platform to share your blogs with the world. There are many options. But this is a time to make the best decision. Choose your platform carefully. Choosing the ideal platform has a great impact on your blogs. I recommend the most popular platform, WordPress. It’s is also easy to use and learn. There are many WordPress courses for beginners; some of them are free.
WordPress, found by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg in 2003, is an open-source platform for website creation. It is written in PHP language and it uses a MySQL database. It is easily the most powerful and easy to use Content Management Service (CMS) today. You can do blogging, E-commerce, business, make a portfolio website, and much more on WordPress. It is simple, easy to use, can be downloaded free of cost, flexible, highly customizable, and secure platform.
8. How to start a lifestyle blog?
That is the time to get your hands dirty, to jump into the water.
- Sign in to your web hosting account and start setting up a WordPress blog.
- Visit your web hosting account’s home page.
- Select your hosting plan whether you want a basic plan or a premium one.
- Set up your domain’s name.
- Register with your Web hosting account. Provide them all required information including your name, your business name, your country, Street address, City, State, ZIP code, Phone number, and E-mail address.
- Select your hosting package. How often you want to be billed? Whether you want to be billed monthly or annually?
- Provide your payment information on how you would like to pay?
Create your account on your web hosting account.
9. Setting up your blog:
Now you are ready to set up your blog, which brings you one step closer to make a living from your lifestyle blog. After logging into your account, WordPress will show you 4-steps to make a blog. It’s your choice whether you want this or you want to make your blog in your specific way. If you click on the 4-steps option; a window will open
- Tell WordPress what kind of site do you want? What type is your site? Who are you creating this website for?
- . In the second step, tell WordPress what do you want on your site? What would you like to add to your website?
- In the third step, you need to answer a few more questions. What do you want to name your site? What is your site’s tagline? Tell WordPress how comfortable you are with creating websites.
- Here comes the fourth step, select a theme for your blog. That is important. Your theme should be unique and should reflect your niche.
10. Launching your blog:
Perform some pre-launch customization to your blog if you want, then click on the “Launch my site” option. Congratulations! You have successfully created your blog.
11. Design your blog:
Your blog needs a face. You have to choose a WordPress theme. At the moment, there are more than three thousand WordPress certified themes. You can choose whichever you like.
Things to remember when choosing a theme:
An important thing to remember while choosing a WordPress theme is that some themes look great, but they can slow down your website. Nobody likes a slow website. Ultimately, you will lose your Google ranking and drive away your traffic.
Here, I will give you some extraordinary tips that will help you choose the right theme for your website:
- Simplicity: Don’t fall for themes with lots of colors, complex layouts, and animations. Sometimes you may need them, but most of the time, you won’t need them. According to Leonardo da Vinci; “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Prefer simple themes that help you achieve your goals on time. If a theme causes less traffic or users can’t find a way on your web, then it is useless.
- Rating and reviews: If a theme has good reviews and rating stats, you should prefer these types of themes. The rating tells you that these themes have been lucky for most customers.
- Browser Compatibility: Make sure your theme is compatible with most of the browsers. If it is not compatible with some popular browsers, then you are going to lose a lot of traffic.
- SEO friendly: Selecting a theme with SEO is a golden key. It helps you rank better in the search engine and thus results in more traffic.
- Plugins support:Plugins are the keys to the doors of WordPress. While more plugins make your site slow, some plugins are very important, like Yoast SEO, and MonsterInsights, etc. So make sure whichever theme you choose supports all popular plugins.
12. Create a logo for your blog:
Now you have to make a unique and attractive logo for your blog. Many free softwares allow you to make a logo. But we recommend using Wix.com, Tailor Brands.com, and Canva.com, or you can also hire a professional graphic designer.
13. Insert plugins:
Plugins are pieces of software that allow you to improve the functionality and performance of your site. There are free plugins as well as premium ones. The paid ones offer unique functionality. At this time, WordPress has over 57,000 different plugins available. The number of plugins should be kept at a minimum. But we recommend using these plugins;
1. Yost SEO: Optimizes your content for Search engines.
2. MonsterInsights: Helps you monitor and analyze traffic on your site.
3. YARPP: Keeps traffic on your site by showing similar suggestions.
14. How to login your website and start a lifestyle blog successfully?
If you want to login to your website, type your websites domain name in the search box followed by a slash and type user or login. For example, if you want to login to your website named XYZ.com, you will type XYZ.com/wp-admin or XYZ.com/login.
A login window will appear. You will type my username or E-mail address associated with the site, type the password, and press the Enter key. This will take you to your site’s dashboard.
15. Making a new post:
- Log in to your site’s dashboard.
- Select the “Posts” option.
- Select the “Add new” sub-tab.
- Enter the title of your post in the Upper case. For example in this article, you will see “How to start a Lifestyle blog that generates 1000$ a month?”. That is the title.
- Type your content in the body of the post.
- When all the content is written, customize and edit your post if you want.
- Click on the “Publish” option.
You have successfully learned how to make a post on the WordPress website.
14. Start writing amazing content:
Now you are good to go. All you have to do now is to create amazing, unique, compelling, and captivating content to grab the reader’s attention. Your content should be niche-focused and easy to read. Now that you have a blog, and you have a clear understanding about how to start a lifestyle blog, its your turn to start making money.
If you have any questions regarding how to start a lifestyle blog, you can comment below. I would love to hear about your thoughts 🙂
