Blogging Basics: How to Become a Blogger in 2023 

Starting your blogging journey can be a scary thing. But no worries...

I created this guide to specifically help people who have little-to-no blogging knowledge!

Take a deep breath.

I know you have some doubts about blogging.

Can you even make money with a blog in 2023? Is it a viable career option? How do I even start?

There is so much blogging advice out there, so I know it can be overwhelming.

But no worries.

We're here to guide you through the basics of blogging.

Let's get started.

Here's What You'll Learn

Blogging For Beginners - Understanding the Blogging Basics

Understanding the fundamentals of blogging is a big step in starting your journey. Some beginner bloggers go straight into creating their first site without knowing what they're actually getting into. This is a common reason why most people fail.

If you're reading this you're already ahead of a good percentage of other aspiring blogging entrepreneurs.

Let's get you educated.

What is "Blogging"?

In the early days of the World Wide Web internet users wrote content on sites referred to as "weblogs". These diary-like entries, or "logs", were presented in reverse chronological order. Blogging was born.

Today, a blog is the part of a website where "bloggers" create content about specific topics.

Blogging has evolved from writing opinion pieces and diary entries to creating high-quality guides and articles that give the reader valuable information that help solve problems.

So essentially, blogging is creating awesome content for a specific type of audience.

How does blogging exactly work, you ask?

We'll break it down into pieces that are easy to understand later, but it essentially works like this:

a.) You pick a topic you can write good content about, b.) you go through the process of building a site, c.) you generate traffic through your content, and d). you choose a method for monetization. 

How Do Bloggers Get Paid?

One of the best things about blogging is that bloggers can earn paychecks from a number of different ways. 

The first one you will probably learn about is affiliate marketing.

Essentially, affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else's product and receive a commission for every sale you make.

How does affiliate marketing work from a blogging standpoint, you ask?

Let's say your blog is about video games. Particularly, building PCs. This would have a ton of possibilities for affiliate marketing. You can write reviews for particular PC components or write tutorials on different products.

To earn an actual commission you would need an affiliate link. They typically look like this: onlinestore.com/product?affid678.

To get your affiliate link you would need to join an affiliate program. A good example would be the Amazon Associates program.

And then every time you mention a product you're promoting you can embed your affiliate link into your article.

Companies (or merchants) typically pay their affiliates around 1% to 50%. Sometimes even higher.

The second monetization method you'll learn about is display advertising.

How does display advertising work, you ask?

Let's say your blog has a ton of content on it and is starting to see an uptick in traffic. You can signup for an ad network like Ezoic or Mediavine. They typically require applicants to have a minimum amount of traffic. With Mediavine, for example, you would need 50,000 sessions (hits/views) per month to be able to join the ad network.

A different form of display advertising is when you get paid directly from a client to have their ad placed somewhere on your site.

Other ways to make money blogging include:

Can I Start Blogging For Free?

Yes. You can start a blog for free. There are many free blogging platforms available to you such as WordPress.com or Wix. These platforms let you publish content and create a website with a modern design.

The problem with free sites, however, is that it isn't 100% yours. The domain name you get with free sites is a subdomain. That means your website name would look something like this: myblogname.wordpress.com.

There's also an issue with monetization. Most free blog platforms don't let you run ads. means you would lose out on a lucrative monetization method.

Another problem you'd run into is traffic related. Websites that run on these type of platforms rarely find their content ranking highly in Google's search results, which will likely be your main source of blog traffic.

Here at Blogging Aid, we strongly recommend you build a website that you'll completely own. 

How Much Does it Cost to Start Blogging?

One of the great things about starting a blog is that it's very inexpensive. Seriously, anybody can do it – no matter how much you've got in the bank. Believe me, I was on welfare when I started.

The cost breakdown for starting your blogging journey only includes two items:

There are other things you can spend money on in the beginning. For example: a logo, a website layout/theme, and other tools that make certain tasks easy.

However, you don't have to buy any of these. You can create your own simple logo using free tools. There are a plethora of free website layouts. And there are plenty of free tools out there for you to use.

Read: 50+ Best Blogging Tools to Help Grow Your Blog

How to Become a Blogger in 2023

Blogging requires a lot of hard work and dedication to creating high-quality content. The following 4-step roadmap is a basic look at what you will be doing to make money blogging.

1. Find the Perfect Niche For YOU

When you're starting a blog, one of the first decisions you'll need to make is what niche to focus on. Picking the right niche is important, as it can help you attract the right readers and make your blog more successful.

But what is a niche?

A niche is a specific topic or area of interest that you focus on when blogging. It can be something you're passionate about, or it can be a specific group of people you want to reach with your content.

The simplest way to think of it is the main topic or idea behind your blog. For example: baking recipes, dinner recipes, or cooking for diabetes.

There are a few things to consider when choosing a niche for your blog. First, think about your interests and what you're passionate about. This will help you come up with ideas for blog posts and make it more enjoyable to write. Because remember: blogging is all about creating valuable content for your readers that will help your readers solve problems and meet their needs.

Finally, it's important to choose a niche that you can actually compete in. There are a lot of blogs out there, so it's important to pick a niche where you can stand out from the competition.

2. Launch Your Site

Launching a blog can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it's important to take the necessary steps to do it correctly.

The first step is to pick a domain name. This is the web address of your blog, so it's important to choose something that's easy to remember and represents your blog's topic or niche. You can use a site like Namecheap to find and purchase a domain name.

The second step is to buy web hosting. This is where your blog's files will be stored, so it's important to choose a reputable and reliable hosting company. Bluehost, WPX Hosting, and SiteGround are all great options.

The third and final step is to set up a basic WordPress website. WordPress.org is an open source website building and blogging platform. You can install it for free after you get your web hosting. It's what we use here and what we recommend.

Once you've completed these three steps, your blog will be ready to start creating content!

3. Create Helpful Content For Your Target Audience

When you first start a blog, it can be tempting to focus on your own needs—after all, you're the one who's going to be reading it!

However, if you want your blog to be successful, it's important to put your readers first and write content that will help them solve their problems and meet their needs.

Think about it – what's the point of spending time reading a blog if all the posts are just self-promotional or pointless ramblings?

No one wants to read that! Your content is the lifeblood of your blog, and if it's not valuable, no one is going to stick around for long.

So how do you go about writing valuable blog content? Well, it all comes down to knowing your audience and understanding what they want. What are their biggest challenges and struggles? What information do they need but can't find elsewhere?

Once you figure that out, you can start writing posts that provide the solutions they're looking for.

In addition to being valuable, your blog content should also be interesting and engaging. No one wants to read a dry, boring article – think about ways to spice it up and make it more fun to read. This will help keep your readers coming back for more.

So remember, if you want your blog to be successful, write content that is both valuable and interesting! Your readers will thank you for it.

4. Explore Your Monetization Options

You've chosen your niche, you've started your blog, and you've published a ton of great blog content. The next thing to do is find ways to monetize your blog and all your valuable content.

But how? What are the best ways to make money on your blog?

There are four blog monetization methods I want to share with you. While there are other methods, the four I'm going to introduce to you are ones you should focus on.

So what are these monetization methods exactly, you ask?

Let me explain:

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money on your blog, as it allows you to earn a commission for every sale that you refer to a company. To get started with affiliate marketing, you’ll need to sign up for an affiliate program and create links to the products or services that you want to promote. When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you’ll get a cut.

Display ads are another popular way to monetize your blog. These ads are typically small banner or text ads that are placed on your website by an advertising network. The higher your traffic the more money you get.

Online courses are another great way to make money on your blog. These courses can be in any topic, and you can create them yourself. Once your course is finished, you can sell it on your website or through an online course marketplace.

Info products are another popular way to make money on your blog. These products can be anything from e-books to audio recordings. To create an info product, you’ll need to come up with a topic, create some content, and package it into a product that you can sell on your website or through an online marketplace. Very similar process as creating online courses.

3 Important Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging

When I started my first blog I knew nothing of blogging. All I knew was that people were making money on the internet. At the time, I didn't have a job. I was still living with my grandparents collecting $300 a month from the income assistance program.

The site I created was a mess. I wasn't very good at writing. I barely even knew how to learn. I was literally winging it.

But if I knew these 3 things when I started my first blog, my entire journey would have went so much smoother.    

1. Learn as Much as You Can

When I got started in 2013, the only thing I knew about making money online was that people were doing it by creating content sites and blogs. I blindly jumped into the blogosphere because I read a post where some dude claimed that he was making $10,000 a week by promoting other people's products and getting free traffic from Google.

I went in thinking I was going to be cashing cheques with minimal effort. But after about 3-4 months, I was obviously making $0 because all I did was setup a basic website and wrote about 6 or 7 embarrassingly bad articles on topics that were barely relevant to the niche I chose.

It wasn't until I found an affiliate marketing community called Wealthy Affiliate when I started seeing some structure on my site. And eventually, I saw my site get thousands of visitors and earned a few bucks.

Before that, I didn't know there was a whole process to get your articles ranked in Google's search results. 

For the longest time, I thought all you had to do was write a blog post and Google will reward you with some free traffic.

Morale of the story:

In the beginning, you will need major help. There's a lot that goes into building a successful blogging business. You have to learn all the best tactics and strategies.

I'd suggest you:

2. Nothing Happens If You Don't Put in the Work

When I was around 6 months into my first blog, I had about 25-30 blog posts. They were pretty good articles, too. I even learned how to properly optimize them for Google search.

One of the dumbest habits I developed was going on Google and searching for my article topics and keywords. I always got bummed out when I found my articles on page 10 of the search results.

I did this for weeks. Months, even. I wasted so much time on this when I could have been creating more content for my blog.

But there's this thing with Google where you kind of have to earn their trust before they reward you with a high ranking. People call it the Google sandbox.

When you're in the sandbox, you won't get any rankings. You might not even show up on any page of the search results.

It typically takes a few months to get out of the sandbox. But there are ways to avoid it all together. So keep that in mind.

3. The Most Important Thing is Quality Content

There's a lot of things that go into a successful blog. However, when you're just starting out, most things can wait.

When I started blogging, I spent many hours on tasks there weren't very important.

For example:

I got caught up in the website design. I spent a few weeks looking for the perfect layout and going through different colours to try to find something nice.

Looking back, this was time wasted. The weeks I wasted could have been spent on writing more content.

Content is the most important thing. It's how we attract new visitors and how we engage with them.

Don't get me wrong. Website design is important. But you don't need your site to look fancy.

A simple, clean layout with a lot of white space and a normal font is very easy on the eyes.

So when you start your own blog, focus on content.

Blogging FAQs

The Next Step...

Now that you've learned the basics of blogging, the question is what's next?

Well...it's time for you to get started.

So let me help you with that!

Start Your Blog Today

I created a guide that'll help you get a new blog up and running.

The guide will show you how to pick a niche, how to pick a blog name, how to setup web hosting, and how to setup a WordPress installation.