If you are searching for a complete step by step guide on “How to Start a Profitable Blog from Scratch” then you have landed the correct place.

By showing interest in reading this article shows how much you are serious about blogging.

But the problem for you is how to start a blog for free or start on a self-hosted platform. Well, in this article you will get your question answered.

I got this idea to write this lengthy step by step article after getting inspiration from people like YOU. People who have the knowledge on the specific topic to blog but don’t know from where to start.

So I have written a complete step by step guide where you can officially start a successful blog in less than 10 minutes.

Steps on How to Start a Profitable blog in 2020

I often receive emails from my readers about some basic questions related to blogging. So I have covered some frequently asked questions before starting the guide.

FAQ’S on Starting a Blog

How many blogs to start?

As a complete beginner, I highly advise you to start with only one blog. Once you start making money with your first blog you can reinvest and start your other blog.

How long does it take to start a blog?

It hardly takes less than 10 minutes to get started if you have little technical knowledge. If non-technical it can take up to 3 hours to set up your blog.

What does it cost to start a blog?

Basically to get started with a self-hosted WordPress blog you need a domain, hosting, theme in the initial stages.

• Domain = 10$(1 year)
• Hosting = 60$(1 year)
• Theme = (30-100$)

So total cost would be less than 100$, which is like going out for a coffee or dinner with friends.

Can I start a blog if I don’t know to code?

Yes, nowadays starting a blog has become very easy with advanced technologies. Even if you don’t know to code you can easily start a blog.

How much money can I earn with blogging?

It all depends on how much efforts you are keeping on your blog. Many bloggers are earning 6 figure income only through blogs.

Do you really need a blog?

This is a very common question asked every time.
Having around 4+ years of experience in blogging I can confidently say blogging helps you in growing YOU and your business on a large scale. It is a platform to make relations with your customers, educate them and grow your business.

Back when I started my blogging career in 2015, I didn’t know much about blogging. One day one of my friends showed me his income and ways to make money with a blog. That day I came to know about blogging and slowly started implementing. Now I am making a good amount of money on a regular basis on autopilot.

If I can make money consistently then why not YOU?

You can also start a blog today and start making money. The only thing you need is proper guidance and patience to implement the blogging strategies in the right way.

Why should you blog?

Without a specific reason, you cannot simply start a blog.

Either it should be for your personal hobbies or to promote your business or make money online.

Well, I have listed some benefits of blogging as per my experience.

• Help others with your blog
• To make strong relations with your customers
• To keep alive your writing skills
• To make money online
• Learn New things
• To be your OWN BOSS
• Become Time-Independent and work as per your schedule

and there are n number of reasons for you to become a blogger.

In this article, I will elaborate step by step guide which is necessary to build a blog.

I am writing this article with my personal experience which helped me in making money consistently these many years.

Let’s start with the first step.

What topic to blog about?

On a regular basis, I get many emails from my readers who are confused about starting a blog and finding the right topic to blog.

Many times I see people just see the income reports of bloggers and get in the trap of starting a blog and making money themselves.

This is just a trap…

You cannot make money easily through the blog but you can make it if you are passionate about your topic and help your readers. So don’t start a topic what others have started instead identify which topic you are most interested to write.

Let me tell you how to choose a topic.

For example, if you are working in a company and you have good knowledge of any programming language like javascript or CSS framework Bootstrap.

If you are a gem in that topic or interested in growing more knowledge then you can start a blog on bootstrap tutorials.

In any stage of your life you can start a profitable blog and by default, everyone has some special skills and passion.

So ask yourself these questions and identify your niche(topic ) where you can write about it constantly without getting bored.

I hope you have identified questioning yourself and chosen the topic of your interest in this step.

Now you have identified the topic we will move on to the next step that is finding a domain name for your blog.

How to Choose a good blog Domain name?

A domain name is the name of your website.

Ex: Facebook.com is the domain name for facebook
Google.com is the domain name for Google
Bestbhdiscount.com is the domain name for my blog.
In the same way, you also choose a domain name for your blog in this step.

Like every brand name, to start a WordPress blog you need to decide your blog name.

For example:

• Backlinko.com – About building quality backlinks
• wpbeginner.com – All about blogging and WordPress
• shoutmeloud.com  – All about blogging techniques

Or if you want to make your name as a brand you can also do like below

• Neilpatel.com
• melyssagriffin.comIt’s all up to you on which type of domain name you want to go with.

Normally, domain name costs you 9-10$/year depending on the promotion offer going on.

But I will show you the technique to get the domain name for FREE for 1 year from Bluehost.

I will reveal the step to get the domain free in the next step while we purchase hosting from Bluehost.

But before that in this step, I will show how to choose a domain name for your blog/business.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind before choosing domain names.

Never include digits in Domain name: Always try to avoid having digits in your domain name.
Ex: best10shops.com, tip2tricks.com.
Reason to avoid is these confuse the readers and mostly it’s hard to remember digits. So indirectly you will be losing readers on your blog.

Always choose dot com: There are many domain extensions available online but I highly recommend using dot com extension.
Ex: My blog extension is www.bestbhdiscount.com

Try Shorter Name: I highly recommend using 2-3 words only in your domain name because it will be easy to remember and also tell when someone asks.

Have name related to your topic: For example, if you are starting a blog on cat training tips and choosing your domain name as androidtips.com then it doesn’t add value to your blog.
Try to include your topic name in your domain if possible.
For example, I have started this blog specifically to share Bluehost tutorials, Bluehost coupon codes so I have chosen bestbhdiscount where bh indicates Bluehost.

I assume you have got the idea of choosing a domain name for your blog. Now in the next step, we will avail the FREE Domain from Bluehost and also purchase hosting from Bluehost.

How to purchase Web Hosting on Bluehost?

Hosting is the space where you keep your website files like Content, media and many other things.

Basically, a domain name is the name of your blog and the information, media and databases will be hosted on the server(hosting).

As you are taking blogging seriously and going to keep continuous efforts to grow and make money from it you should select the hosting very carefully.

I personally recommend Bluehost.

As a complete beginner, you need Shared hosting.

Shared hosting is the hosting where you have common servers shared among many users. This will be a perfect fit for a newbie as it comes at a cheaper price compared to other hosting plans.

I have written a complete article on Bluehost Shared Hosting  Review

Why Bluehost?
There are several reasons why you should choose Bluehost as your hosting company. Let me tell you some of the reasons with proof.

• Bluehost is officially recommended by WordPress.org
• Bluehost offers FREE DOMAIN
• Bluehost offers Free SSL
• An in-built cache system for speeding up the website
• Easy to use Control panel
• Great Customer Support

Why Bluehost is so popular compared to other web hosting providers? Let’s find out.

Also Read: Bluehost Coupon Codes & Promo Codes

Assuming you are planning to go ahead with Bluehost the article continues here.

Step 1: Click on Bluehost.com and click on Get Started button as seen below.

Step 2: In the next step, you need to select the plan you want to go for.

Let me explain the plans here:

• If you are a complete beginner and want to host only 1 website then go with Basic Plan
• If you want to host more than 1 website then go with Plus plan
• If you want to host unlimited websites with huge traffic in mind then go with Choice Plus.

As you are newly starting the blog in this article I will continue explaining choosing the basic plan.

For more complete details of each plan click here.

Step 3: This is the step where you can get the domain name absolutely FREE for 1 year.

We have 2 options here.

If you want to get a FREE Domain from Bluehost, click on the left tab “new domain” section and enter the domain name. If the domain is available you will be taken to the next step of payment.
or
If you already have a domain or purchased from domain providers you can enter the domain in the right section and click on “next“. You can change nameservers to Bluehost nameservers and also start Blogging on Bluehost Hosting with this domain name.

Step 4: Enter your Account Information
To start a profitable blog with Bluehost hosting we’ve to enter our personal details like name, address, and phone number.
Enter the email correctly because that will be helpful in confirming your account.

Step 5: Confirm your Hosting Plan & Package

In this step, we have to confirm the hosting plan.

Because not only Bluehost any hosting company offers intro offer at a cheaper price and increase the price at the time of renewal. That is where they make profits.

So if you want to take blogging seriously, in the long run, I recommend taking hosting for at least 2 or 3 years depending on your budget.

Step 6: Select or Unselect Extra Add-ons

Bluehost web hosting usually provides many upsell add-ons in their plan. You can simply uncheck it if you feel its not required for you.

Here are Bluehost Add-ons and their features.

Sitelock Security: Site verification certificate, malware monitoring, and spam monitoring.
Codeguard Basic: Regular Backups, Monitoring and Restore backups.

Step 7: Enter your payment information
In order to purchase hosting with Bluehost WordPress Hosting, we have the option to pay using only 2 payment options.

• Credit Card
• Paypal

To enable the Paypal Payment option, click on More Payment Option.

Step 8: Create Password and Login Credentials

After this, you will need to create new login details for your hosting account.
For this click on Create Password button and create a strong password.
Re-enter the password again and click on Next button.

After successfully purchasing hosting from Bluehost you will see a congratulation page and billing receipt. Also, do check your email inbox for confirmation mail from Bluehost and plan details.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully created your new Bluehost login password.

Choosing  a WordPress Theme

For starting a blog on Bluehost, you’ve to select a default WordPress theme from given themes like in the screenshot. Without wasting much time we can randomly choose any theme on a temporary basis and later change if we want to change the theme.

Changing a theme, in the beginning, doesn’t affect your WordPress blog information. It will just change your design of the blog.

1. Enter an Eye-catching Title of your article
2. Start writing content
3. Add necessary media or images if required
4. Add category and tags in the post
5. Upload featured image if your theme supports it
6. Recheck any spelling mistakes and edit if necessary
7. Hit on Publish button

W3 Total Cache: W3 Total Cache is a cache plugin to improve speed performance of your blog. The more the speed the more readers on your blog.