Are you ready for an exciting experience? Are you ready for a whole new world that awaits you? If yes, then I would like to personally welcome you to the world of blogging!
From writing thoughtful and useful content to tweaking keywords for search engine optimization, this journey of blogging is sure to be a remarkable one.
Notice that I wrote “journey of blogging”. That’s what it is. A journey.
Tip: Want to become a blogger? Make sure to join the group Blogger Hub on Facebook where you can connect with other bloggers.
Blogging is not an instant path to fame, success or riches. Blogging does not work in a publish-and-forget way. Your blog will also not magically be the talk-of-the-town right after you have published a few posts. I just want to make that clear right from the beginning.
You have to be obsessed about blogging. You have to be passionate about blogging. You have to live, breathe and sleep blogging. You have to take blogging as a life-long journey. If you are ready to make the commitment, then you are in the right place.
In this post, I will explain exactly how you can start a blog that makes you money. But before we begin, let’s talk a little about what a blog even is.
What Is A Blog?
Google Dictionary defines a blog as “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style”.
As a blogger, you write in your blog what you want to talk about. You then publish what you’ve written for the world to read.
Why Should You blog?
There could be several reasons why you would want to blog. Here are some:
- You want to make money: You can make money blogging. There are several ways to do it, such as by promoting affiliate products and writing sponsored posts.
- You want to help others: You probably have a ton of knowledge and experience and your primary motive is to help and encourage others too.
- You want to write a book: You perhaps always wanted to be a writer. Blogging would allow you to fulfill this dream of yours by giving you the credibility and the visibility you need as an author.
- You enjoy writing: May be you just enjoy writing and would like to share your stories with others. You can start a blog and do just that.
- You want to start a career in writing: You can start a blog and showcase your work. This can land you freelance as well as full-time job opportunities.
From this point on, I will only be focusing on how to start a blog that makes you money. So if you want to start a blog to make money, read on.
Can You Blog For Free?
You can absolutely blog for free. Here are some of the blogging platforms that offer a free plan:
However, keep in mind that free plans often make your blog look clumsy. This is because blogging platforms place ads on your blog. In addition, they have their platform’s name attached to your domain name.
Here’s another issue: if your blog looks clumsy, you cannot really scale it to make money from it. Your blog would just not look professional.
You would also not have the freedom to tweak different aspects of your blog. You would not be able to make it look like the way you want it to look.
The blogging platform you choose may allow you more freedom with your blog only if you upgrade to a paid plan. However, if you upgrade to a paid plan, it would defeat the purpose of blogging for free.
Therefore, I recommend that you to follow my steps to create a professional blog on WordPress that would though cost you some money initially but would also make you money in the long run and give you complete freedom in customizing your blog to your liking.
WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org
Notice that in the last paragraph of the previous section, I wrote “create a professional blog on WordPress”. However, you will notice that there are two different versions of WordPress:
- WordPress.com
- WordPress.org
Before we go into the differences of these two versions of WordPress, it is necessary for you to understand what a host is.
So, what is a host? A host (or web host) is a home for a website on the internet. Web hosting providers provide hosting services and give you access to website files, website builder, databases, etc. To create a website, you need to choose a web hosting provider to host your website.
WordPress.com
As a blogger, this is the version of WordPress you want to avoid. If you create a blog on WordPress.com, WordPress will be the host for your blog.
A WordPress hosted website really limits what you can do with your blog. You cannot use plugins or themes to customize your blog, you cannot monetize your blog and you cannot remove WordPress’ ads or branding.
You just cannot grow with WordPress.com in the long run.
WordPress.org
You should start your blogging journey on WordPress.org from day one. With WordPress.org, you would get a self-hosted blog. This means that you would have the freedom to choose your own host for your blog.
With a self-hosted blog, you would have complete freedom to tweak your blog the way you like to. You would be able to install plugins and themes and even monetize your blog.
If you want to grow your blog for years to come, self-hosted WordPress blog is the way to go.
The Three Steps To Start A Blog
Now comes the exciting part. It’s time to actually get started with building a self-hosted WordPress blog that would make you money. And the great thing about starting a blog is that it takes only 3 steps to get your blog up and running.
- Step 1 – Brainstorm Ideas
- Step 2 – Set Up Your Blog
- Step 3 – Set Up Other Services
Step 1 - Brainstorm Ideas
The first step is to think and decide what your blog is going to be all about. This is a very important step as it lays out the foundation for your blog.
What Should You Blog About?
To answer this question, ask yourself a couple of questions to first determine what you would enjoy writing about:
- What are you passionate about? If you are passionate about a particular topic, you would have no problem writing about it.
- What are you good at? You may be very knowledgeable or experienced in a particular niche such as finance, travel, cooking, etc. By writing about something you are good at, you would be able to establish trust and confidence among your readers.
Once you have determined what you would enjoy writing about, ask yourself further questions to evaluate and critique the niche you have chosen:
- Is your chosen niche evergreen? Make sure that your chosen niche is stable and evergreen so that you always have peoples’ attention.
- Is your chosen niche on an upward trend? If your niche is on an upward trend, people would first be very interested in it, but sudden upward trends are almost always followed a downward trend.
- Is your chosen niche on a downward trend? If your niche has a downward trend, then you shouldn’t even consider writing about it because no one would be interested in it.
- Is your niche too broad? Avoid choosing a niche that is way too broad. For example, if you choose to write about photography, narrow it down further. Photography includes landscape photography, photography tips, portrait photography, street photography, wedding photo-shoots, etc. By choosing a sub-niche within a niche, you can connect well with your target audience.
- Is your niche too small? Avoid also choosing a niche that is way too small. If your chosen niche is too small, you would not have enough to talk about and you would run out of ideas quickly.
- Does your chosen niche have a lot to talk about? Once you have decided to go with a niche that is not too broad and not too small, make sure that you still have a lot to talk about it while staying within the constraints of the niche. This would help you connect with your audience well.
Finally, ask yourself some more questions to determine if you would be successful as a blogger in your chosen niche. If your answer is yes to the following questions, then go ahead with your chosen niche.
- Do you think you would stay consistent? Blogging is all about consistency. Once you choose a particular niche, you have to consistently publish new and helpful posts and keep your blog up-to-date to become a successful blogger.
- Do you think you would be able to get people talking? If you keep writing but no one is engaging with your content, you would not be able to build your credibility as a blogger. You posts should add value and they should get people discussing.
Come Up With A Blog Name
Many people ignore this. They postpone thinking about a blog name and proceed with the other steps. Some others take WAY too much time to come up with a blog name. I am guilty of them both.
When I first decided to blog, I just could not come up with a name. I actually ignored thinking about a name and went ahead and set up my blog without a name. It took me a year to actually get started with blogging, and I only started publishing blogs after I finalized a name.
After you have decided what you want to blog about, come up with a name that would relate well to what you would be blogging about. Give yourself enough (but obviously not TOO much) time because you will be building your whole brand around this name.
Make sure that the name you choose is easy to remember. Also, make sure that a domain name as well as social media usernames are available with the name you are planning to choose.
Step 2 - Set Up Your Blog
The next step is to actually put things to work to get your blog up and running. This includes setting up a web hosting provider, configuring important settings, setting up WordPress and installing essential plugins.
Set Up Your Web Hosting Provider
As I mentioned earlier, a host is a home for a website on the internet. A host is the starting point of any website. Your blog will be on a website, so you need to choose a web hosting provider first.
The hosting company that I use for my blog and that I recommend you to use too is Bluehost. Why Bluehost? They are simply the best company. They have 24/7 excellent customer support and they are the easiest company to deal with.
Bluehost makes everything ridiculously easy and if you get stuck anywhere at anytime, you can always contact their world-class customer support. I myself have contacted them several times and they have resolved all of my issues quickly and patiently every single time.
When you use my link to sign up, you would get a special discount. All you have to do is click on the “Get Started” button once you are on the Bluehost homepage.
After you click on the “Get Started” button, you would be presented with this screen to choose a plan:
The plan I recommend is the “Choice Plus” plan.
Why don’t I recommend the “Basic” or the “Plus” plan? Because the “Choice Plus” plan includes the “Domain Privacy + Protection” feature. This feature is essential for you to keep your private information such as your name, mailing address and email address confidential.
Click on “Select” Under the “Choice Plus” plan to proceed.
Next, you will asked to set up your domain:
If you have already decided your domain name, go ahead and enter it. Otherwise, click on “I’ll create my domain later” to skip choosing a domain name for now. You can always create a domain name later after you have successfully registered with Bluehost.
On the next screen, you will be asked to fill out your personal information necessary for registration:
Fill out the above information and scroll down to choose the package options you want.
Under “Account Plan”, you can choose a 12 month, 24 month or 36 month plan. I personally recommend the 36 month plan.
You will notice that the pricing is different with each plan. The 36 month plan is the cheapest per month, but you would have to shell out more in the beginning.
The reason I recommend the 36 month plan is because even though you pay more in the beginning, you also get a 30-day money back guarantee. So if you feel that you are not ready yet or you cannot do this, you can always get your money back within the first 30 days.
However, if you decide go all in with blogging, then the 36 month plan would be a sweet deal for you. You would be thankful that you selected this plan.
Keep in mind that the special discounted pricing that you get when you use my link is only valid for the first time when you sign up with Bluehost. You would pay the normal price after you reach the end of your introductory 12 month, 24 month or 36 month plan.
With each plan, you also get a free SSL certificate. An unsecure website begins with http://. The SSL certificate would add https:// to your website and make it secure.
Next, you will be asked to choose package extras:
Since you are just starting out, honestly, you don’t need to bother about the package extras. You can add them later if you want in your Bluehost account once you are all set up. You can skip the package extras for now and scroll down to the payment section.
Enter your payment information. Read the terms and conditions, agree to them and click on Submit.
Next, you will be asked to create a password. Once you set up your password, WordPress will automatically be installed for you and you will be asked to pick a theme for your website. You do not need to pick a theme right away, you can skip this for now and pick a theme later.
That’s all there’s to it. Congratulations on setting up your host!
Configure Domain Settings
You are not done yet! So far, you have only purchased a plan and set up your host. The next step is to configure some important settings in your Bluehost portal.
One of the first things you should do is assign your domain (assuming you already bought a domain name) if your new permanent domain is not already assigned. It is important to assign your domain so that visitors to your website land on the domain name that you have selected.
Assigning domain name can be quite complicated. However, as I mentioned already, Bluehost’s customer support is top notch. When I was setting up my domain name, I was clueless, but Bluehost’s customer support helped me out and actually did the work for me.
So you can always approach Bluehost’s customer support if you don’t know how to assign your domain name.
The next thing you need to do is enable your SSL certificate. Remember that you received a free SSL certificate with your Bluehost package when you purchased your plan. You need to enable it inside your dashboard:
When you are in the dashboard, click on “My Sites”, and then click on “Manage Site”.
Next, find your SSL Certificate under the “Security” tab and enable it.
Set Up WordPress
It’s time to get things rolling! When you are in your Bluehost dashboard in the “Home” tab, click on “Log in to WordPress”.
Feel free to play around your WordPress dashboard for a while to explore everything that’s there.
One of the first things you will notice is the “Coming Soon Active” button at the top. This means that your website is now LIVE and anyone visiting your website would see a “Coming Soon” page. Isn’t that so cool?
So now, the first thing I suggest you to do is activate a theme. To do that, hover over “Appearance” in the left sidebar and click on “Themes”.
Next, click on “Add New”. You will arrive at a screen similar to this:
Here, feel free to select any theme that you like. There are plenty of themes available, free and paid. All you have to do is pick a theme that you like, install it and activate it.
The best free theme in my opinion and the theme that I recommend you to use to is “Astra”.
After you have picked a theme, it would be a good idea to publish your first few pages such as Home page, About page, Contact page, Blog page, Privacy Policy page, etc. It would also be a good idea to have a design template for your pages.
To install a template, click on “Starter Templates” (only available with the Astra theme) under “Appearance” on the left sidebar.
Select “Gutenberg Templates”. You would come to this screen where you would be able to select any template you like:
Choose the template you like.
It is better to import a complete website template rather than a page template. If you import individual page templates, things can become unnecessarily messy and complicated.
Once you have found the template you want, click on “Import Complete Site” to import it.
In the popup that appears, keep the default settings and click on “Import”.
After you have imported the template, you can go ahead and create pages under the “Pages” section in the left side-bar of your WordPress dashboard.
Don’t worry about tweaking your design to perfection, because it can take up a lot of your time. Design is one of those elements that can be perfected even after you have already started blogging. In the beginning, you only need a basic design to get started.
Install Necessary Plugins
Plugins make magic happen.
With plugins, you can customize your blog to your liking in an infinite number of ways. However, there are some essential plugins I recommend you to install before proceeding with actively creating and promoting content for your blog.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the absolute essential plugin. This was the first plugin that I had installed on my blog and this is the first plugin I suggest you install too on your website.
With this plugin, you can optimize your blog pages and posts to rank higher in search engine results. You can do this by optimizing focus keywords, adding SEO titles and meta description, etc.
Yoast SEO also checks if you have met optimal search engine requirements for text length, links, images, etc.
Ad Inserter
Ad Inserter is a powerful plugin that allows you to insert ad codes as blocks within your blog pages and posts.
This is extremely useful as it eliminates the need of manually placing codes on each page and post. Ad Inserter centralizes your codes and you can find (and edit) them all in one place.
Another useful feature of Ad Inserter is that it allows you to add header and footer codes. There may be times when you would want to add codes to your header or footer. Doing that manually in WordPress is a pain and extremely complicated. Ad Inserter makes it extremely easy.
Monster Insights
Monster Insights is a Google Analytics plugin. When you set up Google Analytics for your blog (done in Step 3 below), you would want to install it on your blog to track and analyze user behavior.
Installing Google Analytics manually in WordPress is very complicated. Fortunately, you do not have to do it manually.
All you have to do is install the Monster Insights plugin and connect your Google Analytics account to Monster Insights. That’s it, you will then be able to use Google Analytics on your blog.
Google XML Sitemaps
A sitemap is basically a blueprint of your website. Search engines such as Google and Bing need a sitemap of your website to find and index your website’s content efficiently and intelligently.
With the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, you can easily generate an XML sitemap for your website and even notify search engines about your new sitemap with a single click.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is on the list of the most important plugins for many bloggers. ConvertKit makes email marketing easy for you. As an active blogger, you should collect emails of people (from day 1) who visit your blog and keep in touch with them through regular emails.
ConvertKit allows you to do just that. It allows you to capture emails and set up email automation. With a tool like ConvertKit, you can grow your blog massively and keep bringing people back to your blog.
To get started with ConvertKit, you have to subscribe to one of their plans.
Having share options within each post is essential. When more and more people share your content, you get more and more traffic to your blog and you grow your blog.
Sassy Social Share adds share icons above and below your blog posts. With this plugin, you can let people share your content across over 100 social networking websites including Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Pinterest and Reddit.
Pretty Links
When I used to browse other blogs before I started blogging, I would always see that their outbound links included their blog’s domain name. I had a hard time figuring out how that was possible. After much research, I found out that they were using a plugin known as Pretty Links.
With Pretty Links, you can convert outbound links into links with your own domain name to make the links look more associated with your brand (and blog) name.
For example, if the outbound link you want to send readers to is NYTimes.com and your domain name is HappyLife.com, you can simply create the link HappyLife.com/NYTimes with Pretty Links. This plugin is especially useful when the outbound link has a mix of random letters and numbers.
Step 3 - Set Up Other Services
Awesome! You are now in the third and the final step in knowing how to start a blog. By now, you have a very good idea about what you will blog about and you have already set up your blog. So far so good?
The third step is to set up other services that are necessary for your blog. These services would allow you to engage with your audience, track visitors’ actions and grow your blog’s presence.
Set Up Google
Like it or not, Google is going to play a major role in your blogging journey. For this reason, it is necessary to set up different features Google offers properly.
Google Search Console
I wish someone had told me that Google Search Console is one of the most important SEO tools that I need to set up right from the get-go. I only found out about Google Search Console much (much) later in my blogging journey.
I realized how much traffic I was missing out on, just because some of my posts had errors that I only found out within Google Search Console. I realized that I had several indexing and usability errors that were stopping my posts from appearing in Google search results.
To make the long story short, you need to set up Google Search Console right from the beginning to stay on top things and to make your posts appear in search results quickly.
Here’s how you set up Google Search Console. Make sure you are logged in to your Google account.
Go to Google Search Console, you will arrive at the screen below. Click on “Start Now”.
Next, enter your domain name and click on “Continue”:
You will be asked to verify that you are indeed the owner of the domain. You will be provided with instructions on how you can verify your domain ownership:
Here’s what you have to do verify your domain ownership: If you got your domain through Bluehost, click on “Domains” in the left side-bar of your Bluehost dashboard and then click on “Manage”
On the next screen, click on “DNS”:
Next, scroll down all the way to “TXT (Text)” section and click on the “Add Record” button on the right. For the Host Record, enter “@” and for the TXT Value, copy the code you got from Google Search Console and paste it here. Leave the TTL as it is and click on Save.
Next, go back to your Google Search Console and click on “Verify”. Usually, Google verifies your domain within seconds, but in some cases it can take a few hours. Once it is verified, click on “Go To Property”:
Congratulations! You have successfully set up Google Search Console for your blog. You can check the performance of your blog, inspect and index URLs, check and fix any errors you may have and much more!
As you keep using it, you will get accustomed to many different features within Google Search Console.
Google XML Sitemap
Before you read through this section, you need to first understand what is web crawler is. A web crawler is a bot that crawls through all the websites on the internet to index them. Crawlers are operated by search engines such as Google and Bing.
As a blogger, your goal is to grab the attention of as many readers as you possibly can right after you publish your post. One way to do that is by appearing in search results. Search engines always prefer new and fresh content.
A sitemap is a blueprint or a roadmap for search engine crawlers to identify and index content on your website quickly. The quicker your website gets indexed, the faster your website appears in search results.
If you do not have a sitemap, crawlers can get confused about the structure of your website. This can slow down the indexing process and can delay your posts from appearing in search results on Google.
So it is necessary for you to generate a sitemap for your website and notify search results of your sitemap.
This may sound complicated, but once again, you can make your life much easier by downloading and activating a simple plugin I recommended above in Step 2, Google XML Sitemaps.
The Google XML Sitemaps plugin makes creating a sitemap ridiculously easy. All you have to do is download the plugin. After you have downloaded the plugin, find the plugin inside “Installed Plugins” under “Plugins” in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard and activate it.
Right after you click the activate button, the plugin would automatically generate a sitemap for you.
But you are not done yet.
After you activate the plugin, find “XML-Sitemap” inside “Settings” located in left pane of your WordPress dashboard.
You will see a message at the top that says “Search engines haven’t been notified yet”.
You will also see a bunch of complicated options. As a new blogger, you do not have to change anything and you can keep the default settings.
All you have to do here is find and click on the link that says “Notify search engines about your sitemap”. After you do that, the plugin would inform you that Google and Bing were successfully notified about your sitemap:
That’s all you have to do with sitemaps.
Now crawlers from search engines such as Google and Bing would visit and index your website quickly and automatically.
You never really have to bother about doing anything with sitemaps again, unless Google Search Console informs you of any sitemap errors (which rarely happens).
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another very important tool that you should set up right from the get-go. Google Analytics helps you analyze user behavior – the pages they are visiting, the amount of time they are spending on your website, they actions they are taking on your website, etc.
It is very important to have it set up from the beginning before you start promoting your blog. By gathering data from the beginning, you would be able to understand your audience better and fine tune your blog accordingly.
Setting up Google Analytics is easy. To set it up, go to Google Analytics and click on “Set up for free”:
You have to go through three steps to set up your Google Analytics account.
The first step is to create your account name. This could be the name of your blog or any name that would help you recognize that this account is associated with your blog.
There are a bunch of other recommended data sharing options below that, and you can keep them as they are. But feel free to read through the options and if you are uncomfortable with any of the options, un-check them:
The second step is to tell Google what you would be measuring with this account. You would be measuring your blog, which is a website. So select “Web” and proceed to the next and final step.
The third step is to set up the property. To do that, enter your website name first.
Next, if you followed the steps above and enabled the SSL, then select https:// from the “Website URL” dropdown menu and enter your domain name.
You don’t really have to select an industry category. But make sure to select your time zone under “Reporting Time Zone” so that you can see data according to the time zone you are in:
Click on the “Create” button and accept the terms and conditions to proceed.
Congratulations! You have successfully set up your Google Analytics account.
You will arrive at the tracking code screen. You will be able to see your tracking ID on this screen:
Next, you have to connect this Google Analytics account to your website.
To do that, go back to your WordPress dashboard. If you installed the plugin “Monster Insights” I recommended above in Step 2, then you should be able to find “Insights” in left pane of your WordPress dashboard. Click on “Settings” under “Insights”.
You can either enter the tracking ID you got from Google Analytics manually or you can click on “Connect MonsterInsights” to connect your Google Analytics account automatically.
Google’s login window would popup. Log in with your Google account and click on “Allow” to allow Monster Insights access to your Google Analytics data:
Next, pick your website profile, verify that you are not a robot and click on “Complete Authentication”.
That’s it! Congratulations! You are all set. You would now be able to track user behavior in your Google Analytics account. Keep in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for Monster Insights to display your data.
Set Up Social Media Accounts
You need to create social media accounts for your blog to promote your content and to engage with your audience as well as other bloggers.
I cannot finish writing about how you can start a blog without mentioning the importance of having social media accounts for your blog. This is because I want you to become successful with your blog. Your blog becomes successful when you grow your blog’s following on social media.
Your social media influencing ability would later bring in money. Businesses would reach out to you to publish sponsored posts. The more your audience, the more money you can make.
So if you have not already, go ahead and create pages and profiles for your blog on at least these four big social media platforms:
After you have created social media accounts for your blog, promote your content actively across all of these platforms and interact with your audience on a regular basis.
Here is a tip for you: if you are looking to promote your content or trying to make your blog more visible, join the group Blogger Hub on Facebook and participate in daily threads to grow your blog.
Set Up Email
Before I begin this section, I would like to clarify that this section is not about creating an email list and setting up email automations, it is rather about creating an email account for your blog. You can collect and automate emails using the plugin I mentioned in Step 2, ConvertKit.
Creating an email account for your blog with your blog’s domain name is also one of the most important things you should do first.
A professional email account linked to your blog will help you gain credibility as a blogger. It would make you look like a professional blogger who commands authority.
When people think of setting up an email account with a custom domain, many people automatically think of G Suite by Google. G Suite is excellent for creating an email address with a custom domain, and has the interface of Gmail, but is not free.
When you are just starting out, you want to minimize your costs as much as you possibly can. Fortunately, you can set up an email account for your blog with your blog’s domain name for free with Zoho!
Setting up email may seem complicated, but in reality it’s not. However, if you are going to set up a custom email address for the first time, then you might take some time to get it all figured out. So make sure to follow these steps carefully to get your email account up and running.
To set up an email account with Zoho, go to Zoho mail and click on “SIGN UP FOR FREE”:
Next, scroll down and find the “FOREVER FREE PLAN”. With this free plan, you can have up to 5 users under the same email account.
As a blogger, you only need one or a maximum of two users, one with the email address info@yourdomain.com and the other yourname@yourdomain.com.
If you are going to be sharing this blog with a partner, you can always add them too. It would be free as long as your account has less than 5 users.
Click on “SIGN UP NOW” in the “FOREVER FREE PLAN” section to proceed:
On the next screen, you will be asked to enter your domain name. Enter your domain name after the www. in the box provided and click on “Add”:
You would see a registration form next. Fill in your registration details.
In the field where you are asked to enter the first half of your new custom email address, feel free to enter your name. This email address would be the Super Administrator of your Zoho mail account. Super Admins have complete access and control over the account.
Once you have filled out the registration form, agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policy and click on “Proceed”:
Next, verify you have entered your details correctly.
Click on “SIGN UP” to proceed:
You will be asked to verify your mobile number. You will receive a verification code from Zoho.
Enter the verification code you received and click on “VERIFY MY MOBILE”.
After you verify your mobile successfully, you will be guided through a number of steps to get your Zoho email account set up.
The first step is to verify your domain. If Bluehost is your web hosting provider, then from the dropdown menu, select Bluehost.
There are three different ways to verify your domain: TXT Method, CNAME Method, HTML Method. The TXT Method is usually the easiest way to verify domain name.
I recommend you use the TXT Method. Following this method, you will be provided with host and value that you would have to enter in your Bluehost’s DNS manager.
Go to your Bluehost dashboard and click on “Domains”, and then click on “Manage”.
Note: The domain name you have in Zoho and the domain name you have in Bluehost should match. In the pictures here, they are different because these images are for illustration purposes only.
On the next screen, click on “DNS”:
Next, scroll all the way down to “TXT (Text)” section and click on the “Add Record” button on the right.
For the “Host Record”, enter “@” and for the “TXT Value”, copy the code you got from Zoho Mail and paste it here. Leave the TTL as it is and click on Save.
Next, go back to Zoho Mail and click on “Verify by TXT”.
Your domain should now be verified.
The next step is to add users. If you would like to add another email address to your account, you can do that here.
But I personally suggest that you to skip this step for now so that you can configure other important email settings first.
You can always add a new user from the control panel later once your account is all set up.
Click on “Next”:
The next step is to create groups.
Again, you do not have to create groups now. You can always do that later.
For now, you can skip this section too and click on “Next”.
On the next screen, you will be asked to configure MX records to ensure email delivery.
To configure MX records, you need to add the MX records provided by Zoho in your domain’s DNS manager:
To do that, go back to your Bluehost dashboard. If you are not in your domain’s DNS manager, navigate to it again just as you did before when you were verifying your domain.
Now, in the DNS manager, look for “MX (Mail Exchanger)” section and click on the “Add Record” button on the right.
For “Priority”, enter “10” from the first MX record that you got from Zoho Mail. For the “Host Record”, enter “@” and for “Points To”, enter “mx.zoho.com” from the first MX record that you got from Zoho Mail. Leave the TTL as it is and click on Save.
Similarly, add the other two records with priority 20 and priority 50 as well.
At the end of it, you would have three MX records from Zoho under your “MX (Mail Exchanger)” section.
Go back to Zoho Mail and click on “MX Lookup”.
If you have successfully added your MX records, you would see a green check mark next to each record under “MX Lookup”.
Keep in mind that it can take some time for the MX records to show up under “MX Lookup after you add them in your domain’s DNS manager.
Click on “Next” to proceed to the next step.
In the next step, you have to configure SPF and DKIM. You need to configure SPF and DKIM to ensure your emails to people don’t end up in their spam box and to ensure better email deliverability.
First, let’s configure SPF. In order to do that, you would have to create a TXT record in your DNS manager just as you did when you were verifying your domain.
On this screen, you would be provided with the TXT Host as well as the TXT Value:
Go back to your Bluehost dashboard. If you are not in your domain’s DNS manager, navigate to it again just as you did before when you were verifying your domain.
Now look for the “TXT (Text)” section and click on the “Add Record” button on the right.
For the “Host Record”, enter “@” and for the “TXT Value”, copy the code you got for “TXT Value” from Zoho Mail and paste it here. Leave the TTL as it is and click on Save.
You should have a new TXT record for the SPF now in your DNS manager. You have configured your SPF now.
Next, you have to configure DKIM.
To do that, go back to Zoho Mail and click on “Proceed to Configure DKIM”:
On the next screen, click on the pencil button.
Next, click on “Add Selector”.
After you click on “Add Selector”, you will be asked to select a “Selector Name”.
Here you can literally write anything you want. It really does not matter. In this example below, I wrote the word “apple”.
Once you have chosen your selector name, go ahead and click on “Save”.
Zoho would generate a TXT Host as well as a TXT Value for you to configure DKIM on your account.
Next, go back to your Bluehost dashboard. If you are not in your domain’s DNS manager, navigate to it again just as you did before.
Scroll and look for the “TXT (Text)” section and click on the “Add Record” button on the right.
For the “Host Record”, copy the code you got from the “TXT – Host/Name” field in Zoho Mail and paste it here.
For the “TXT Value”, copy the code you got from the “TXT Value” field in Zoho Mail and paste it here.
Leave the TTL as it is and click on Save.
You should have a new TXT record for the DKIM now in your DNS manager. You have configured your DKIM now.
Go back to Zoho Mail and click on the button below that says “Back to Setup”.
Email Migration is the next step in the setup process. But you do not need to worry about this since you are not migrating from a previous email provider.
Click on “Skip” and move on to the last step.
The last step is to download mobile apps.
Feel free to download the Zoho Mail app on your phone to send emails from your phone and read emails on your phone.
Final Note
So there you go. You now have all the information you need, to create a money-generating blog for yourself. They next steps would be to actually publish and promote a few posts to get started with blogging.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information here, remember that you do not have to do everything in one day. It might take you a few days to figure everything out.
You have to do all the work of setting up themes, plugins and other services just once to get your blog up and running. This is a platform you have to create for yourself.
Once you have the platform set up, you have to keep building upon it. After you have successfully installed and connected everything, all you have to do on a regular basis is blog, promote content and connect with your readers.
Remember that by completing all of the steps mentioned above, you would be able to create a blog that lets you make money. However, whether you would actually make money through your blog would depend on your dedication towards your blog.
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Love all the details!!! It took me about a week to get everything sorted as a brand new blogger. This guide would really help!
Thank you so much! A week is not bad to get everything sorted! I took way more time to get everything figured out, and I basically wrote this post based on how I got started with blogging. If I had this as a guide, I would have taken much lesser time. So I hope this really helps out everyone!
Great post. Its funny how many people put SO much work into starting a Blog that wont even make them any money in the long run. Mine as well start off with the possibility of one day making money.
Check out my website for Digital Nomads where we talk about Making Money Online while Traveling the world
Exactly! If someone is dedicated to blogging or is even planning to make money from blogging in the long run, then they better get started the right way.
Also, what Plugin do you use for these Comments?
I use WP Discuz plugin.
Nice. This is very detailed. Admittedly, I didn’t do many of the things on the list which likely would’ve helped me in the long run cuz it intimidates me lol. I was practically 4 posts in before I even realized I should create an email list. Would you have any recommendations for aspiring bloggers who want to jump into it and make adjustments on the go?
I agree, the things over here can be pretty intimidating. But these need to be done just once. Building an email list right from the beginning is extremely important. Oh I keep making adjustments all the time, so my recommendation is to not think much and keep making minor adjustments to your liking.
Wow this is so comprehensive! I wish I had this when I was starting!
Thank you! I certainly hope this would help aspiring bloggers!
Such a detailed and thoughtfully written piece. I bet its going to be super helpful for every newbie. Also, which plugin do you use that reminds to leave a comment?
Thank you so much Sonia! I use WP Discuz plugin for the comments.
Very useful, detailed, and instructive blog post! Some of it is useful even for me and I have been blogging on my self-hosted site for a month. I am bookmarking this for future reference. Thanks for sharing!