How I Started A Blog and Made $3k Promoting Just One Product

I started this blog you are reading a few years ago, and I have made over $3000 promoting just one product.

Here is also another product I started promoting not long ago and have made over $1000 in commission as an affiliate.

This is how lucrative blogging in the 2020s is, and I will show you how you can start one as a beginner with no experience and make money from it in a few months, including some lucrative affiliate programs you can join and make a high commission.

Why Do You Want To Start A Blog?

People want to start a blog for many reasons. It is important you discover why you want to have a blog. That will give you a  clear view of what you want and how you want to achieve it.

 Below are why people start a blog

• Discuss what they like with others

• To build authority on a particular niche

• Connect with people who share the same view with them

• Promote their goods and services to a targeted group of people

• To make money from it

Basic Things You Need

To start a blog, you need a smartphone, computer, notebook, and strong internet.

Notebook

A notebook is important for you to write down your ideas and things you need to write about. Although you may think that you have a smartphone that you can use to write down your ideas, a notebook is a backup should you mistakenly lose your phone or delete that idea you have written about.

Smartphone

 A smartphone is necessary for you to make research on the topic you want to write about. You can use it to type, edit, and proofread your content before you publish it. I use my smartphone most times to blog.

Computer

You will need a computer when you are setting up your blog. A computer allows you to perform some functions like designing your blog on Word press which smartphones can’t do to some extent. This doesn’t mean that you need to buy an expensive computer before you can start. A computer with 2GB RAM is good.

Have You Acquired Content Writing Skill?

Before you start a blog, you must be able to know how to write articles. I mean quality articles. Blogging is all about publishing quality articles on the web that solve the problem of people. 

Before I started my blog, I didn’t know how to create quality content that people can read. But I really wanted to know how to because I considered it necessary. I did a lot of research and settled for Hubspot Academy.

After two months of serious learning and practicing, I was able to learn how to create content that people can read. I took the exams, passed, and got certified in content creation and marketing.

The point I’m trying to make here is that no matter how good you think you’re in writing, you still need to learn how to do professional writing. The interesting thing about Hubspot Academy is that its courses are free and easy to understand.

Choosing A Blog Niche

This’s one thing that worries aspiring bloggers when they think of how to start a blog. I personally was worried when wanted to start a blog because I didn’t know the niche to go into. But before then I have learned the act of blogging.

I have created content for blogs, websites, and helped people set up their blogs. So I have understood what blogging is all about from the experience I got managing blogs for people and getting paid. I decided to go for the online business niche. 

Blog On The Niche You Have Passion, Skill And Experience

We all have a passion for something. No matter what you may think it is, provided it is legal, people want to know more about it. So I suggest to people that want to blog to go to the niche they have passion for.

Naturally, when you have a passion for something, you tend to give it your best. You also go the extra mile to make research on it. Your passion for the niche will keep you going until you achieve a result. Your skill and experience on such a thing will always help you to create a quality blog post that’ll be helpful 

Lets Look At Some Popular Blog Niches Below

Personal Finance: Bloggers in this niche publish articles relating to how to save, manage, and invest your money so as to be wealthy. Ways to Wealth is an example of a personal finance blog that is doing well.

Business: If you want to start a blog in this niche, then you must be ready to publish articles on how to start, grow, and succeed in business. Your audience will be aspiring entrepreneurs who want to be guided on how to grow their businesses.

Parenting: This blog niche suits a parent who is successful at raising a child from birth to adulthood. You create content that helps parents who are struggling to raise their children.

Health and Fitness: This blog niche involves publishing articles that help people who want to be healthy and fit. For example, a lot of people want to lose weight and get a flat tummy. They visit blogs like this to get solutions.

Sports: Sports is a booming business around the world and people blog on it. Football, Baseball, Formula One, Basketball, and many more are what people are interested in. Provided you can analyze these games, them blogging on sports is good for you.

Make Money Online: This niche to me is one of the most saturated niches right now. But people are still getting results from it. This blog niche discusses anything that can make you money online. 

Tech Review: With the rate at which technology is taking over our daily activities, tech review is now a popular blog niche to go into. Tech blogs specialize in the review of electronic gadgets. People go to review blogs to get enough information about the electronic gadgets they want to purchase. 

News: Reporting daily what is happening in politics, entertainment, sports, religion, and a lot more is what a news blog is known for. It could be within or outside your country. These niches and many more are there for you to consider.

Web Hosting 

When it comes to hosting your blog, I recommend Hostinger because it’s super-fast web hosting for blogs especially WordPress, and is also affordable. I switched to it after I realized that it’s faster and easier to manage than Bluehost

Here is how to host your blog on Hostinger 

Step 1: Click on this special link that gives you a discount 

Step 2: Select the Hostinger plan you want and click Add to cart

Step 3: Choose a period of your hosting (48, 24, 12, or 1 month)

Step 4: Choose any payment options to pay for your hosting.

That’s it! Congratulations, you now have hosting on Hostinger

Note: Hostinger offers you a FREE domain. So you don’t have to pay for domain

Theme Installation

Now that you have installed WordPress, the next is to get a perfect theme for your new blog. There are free and premium themes. Free themes are good for a starter who’s on a low budget. You can always upgrade to premium themes because it has some features that will make your blog look more professional.

To install a theme, go to your WordPress dashboard. select appearance and then click on themes to see some free themes you can use.

For premium themes, download it in a zip file after you have made a purchase. On your WordPress dashboard, click on themes, click on add new. Then select the premium theme you have downloaded on your computer and install it. After installing, click on activate. Your theme is ready.

Selection Of A Theme

This’s a very important thing to consider when you’re thinking of how to start a blog. A theme makes your blog look beautiful and attractive to the user. It tells people what to expect on your blog. That’s why it is necessary to choose a good theme.

Themes are developed for various specific blogs. For example, a theme for a travel blog cannot be the same as that of a fitness blog. Choose a theme based on what your blog niche is all about.

Things To Consider When Choosing A WordPress Theme

• Have in mind the features you want for your blog then look for a theme that suits it.

• Make sure that the theme is responsive. A responsive theme displays well on mobile, tablet, and PC.

• Choose a theme that you think will match your blog niche.

• Preview the theme to make sure that you’re fine with it.

Important Plugins You Need In Your WordPress Blog

Yoast SEO: This plugin guides you on the things you need to fix on the article you have created to ensure that it’s optimized on-page in order to rank on Search Engines. It is easy and simple to install. A free and premium version is available for you to install.

One Signal: This WordPress plugin is essential for you to drive traffic to your website. When installed and set up, a push notification appears on your website for first-time visitors to get notified when you publish new articles.

Wood fence: Wordfence is a WordPress security plugin that prevents your website from being hacked. It alerts you through email when there is a security threat on your website. Wordfence also automatically blocks suspicious IPs.

Smush: This is an important plugin that helps to optimize the images you have on your blog automatically. An optimized image improves the speed of your blog. 

Monster Insight ( Google Analytics For Website): With Google Analytics powered by Monster Insight, you can easily analyze the traffic coming to your blog. It allows you to see your blog posts that are doing well and the ones that are not doing well. You can easily see the region your traffic is coming from and many more.

Insert Header And Footer: This plugin is important to avoid messing up codes on your theme’s editor. As a blogger, you will always have a need to add code to your blog. If you aren’t careful, you can mess up a code in your theme’s editor. With this plugin, you don’t need to tamper with your theme editor. Just paste the code on the Insert Header And Footer plugin as the case may be.

Ad Inserter: This plugin becomes necessary when you get approved for Ads for your blog. It allows you to place the code that will display the ads on your blog post anywhere you want it. It only works on posts and pages on your blog.

Contact Form 7: Contact Form 7  allows you to create professional forms that people can use to contact you. The form has a provision for name, email, message with which people can use to get across to you.

Congratulations on coming this far. After you have customized your theme, the next thing you will do is write your first blog post. This is where you will apply your content writing skill which I discussed with you earlier.

How To Write And Publish A Blog Post

To write and publish a blog post, you need to login into your WordPress dashboard. (www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin) 

On top of your dashboard, you will see a plus button. Click on it and you will see a post option. Click on it and you will be taken to a window where you will write and publish your blog post.

The following steps are how to write and publish a blog post

• Headline: your headline is what your blog post is about. When you publish your blog post and it appears on search engines like Google, it becomes a title tag. Your headline should be attractive, convincing, and unique for people to click on it.

This is my headline formula: number + keyword + adjective + promise

Since you want your blog post to rank on Google It’s cool you add numbers to it. Google-like titles with numbers. Keyword is what people are searching for on search engines. It is also the main thing your blog post is about. Adjective in the headline is to describe to your audience what they stand to gain if they read your blog post. Then a promise means that the headline has something to give that one should look up to.

• Introduction: Your introduction serves as a hook. It determines if your audience will continue to read your blog post or drop off. Your first 100 words should be able to convince your audience that you have something they will benefit from. Make it short, simple, and straightforward to the point. You can also include a storyline to connect with the feelings of your audience. That makes them believe that you understand how they feel.

• Body of Post: The body of your post should be understandable. Avoid complex grammar that may confuse your audience. Use subheadings for points you think your audience needs to know. Also, use images that relate to the blog post to illustrate your point. A picture they say worth more than 1000 words. 

• Conclusion: It is at this point that you summarise all that you have discussed with your audience in your blog post. Some of your audience wait for your summary to fully understand what your blog post is about.
• When thinking of how to start your blog, consider the audience in your niche. Identify their pain and how to heal it with your in-depth blog post. Encourage your audience to take action after reading your blog post. It could be by asking them to drop a comment or how they can implement what they have learned.

How To Write A Blog Post That Will Rank On Google (On Pa