Make money blogging – part 2

Jim Gall
By Jim Gall Posted in Money saving tips
January 30th, 2015

lady-blogger

Continuing from part 1 – here is the next installment of Make money blogging – a rough guide.

Hosting

You will need somewhere to physically host your website pages. For starters, you can get relatively cheap hosting from a variety of providers.

For around £3 a month, depending on the provider, you can buy hosting space that will allow you to park, in some cases, multiple domains. However we’re just going to start with one.

Again, a Google search is your friend; however a couple of reputable suppliers are listed below:

You shouldn’t be paying any more than £3 per month to kick off.

Once you have purchased your domain and hosting space, you will have to update your namesevers.

You will get the nameserver details from the company you purchased your hosting from – and there will be an option on your domain name management platform to amend the nameservers.

It will be slightly different for each provider, however, this is the one main thing you have to do to actually have your url (domain name) working. Bear in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for the name servers to update, but once they have, your domain’s home page should change.

WordPress

One of the simplest ways to get a blog started is by using WordPress. From within your hosting platform interface, there should be an applications section from where you can install WordPress.

WordPress, if you haven’t heard of it, is a free, one-stop-shop website CMS (content management system) and site builder.

From your hosting interface, it may be as simple as a one-click option to install WordPress, however it is advisable to select the ‘custom’ installation method and ensure that your WordPress blog is installed in the root directory of your domain – or else it could be installed at /wordpress or /blog – which we don’t want for the purposes of creating a simple website.

All reputable hosting companies today offer excellent customer service – so if you have any questions on this it is highly likely that they already provide a knowledge base system, or you can simply email or raise a ticket for help.

Creating content

Thinking back to step 1 – your niche – if you have picked a subject that is truly close to your heart and has the breadth to allow you to create content, then thinking of exact topics to write on shouldn’t be a problem.

If you have writer’s block it’s always possible to farm out article writing to somewhere like oDesk, which allows you to hire freelancers from around the globe, however, bear in mind that the writing they provide is more than likely to be less than satisfactory and may result in visitors to your site being turned away because the writing is poor.

In terms of writing, the best thing to do is just get started. Modern Word Processors make it very easy to get quick ideas down which can be edited or fleshed out later.

It may be useful to have a handy notes app on your phone or tablet which you can use to lay down ideas that come to you (or indeed a trusty old-fashioned notebook and pen!).

Why don’t you take  a look at this fantastic video on writing tips from children’s author and Book Tour veteran, Philip Ardagh.

Other content

Why stop at writing though – you can create videos, host them on YouTube for free and embed them in your site. You can also create surveys, polls, sign people up to your email list to tell them when your next great article is available – all for free.

Register with Google AdSense

Google AdSense is an application created by a Google which allows you to place Ad Units on your website or blog. This involves pasting a few lines of code in the body of your website. You will need a Google account to use this. AdSense places relevant banners or text adverts on your blog which may be relevant to visitors. When users click through, the advertiser makes a payment to Google, who take a commission before passing the remainder of the payment on to the AdSense customer, i.e. you. This is one method of making revenue from a blog – and is the method I will talk about in these articles.

You can register for AdSense here – and this page takes you through how the system works.

You will need at least a functioning domain and at least a few pages of content on your site before registering.

By now you should have a website with a few pages of content with some ad units ready to go. Now the next part is to promote your site.

Continued in part 3







The information provided in this article was accurate at the time of publishing and should be read in the context of the date it was published. Views in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the view of Scottish Friendly. No advice has been provided by Scottish Friendly. If you are in any doubt as to whether a savings or investment plan is suitable for you, you should contact a financial adviser for advice. If you do not have a financial adviser, you can get details of local financial advisers by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk. Advisers may charge for providing such advice and should confirm any cost beforehand.