How to start a PROFITABLE blog in 2024 (plus FREE 7 week blog plan!)

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Want to start a profitable blog in 2024 but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you already have a blog, but you still haven’t made any money yet? In this post I show you the steps you need to take to go from zero to a profitable blog in 2024!

 

Do you want to start a profitable blog in 2024?

Are you thinking of starting a blog in 2024? Or do you have a blog already and 2024 is the year you want to get serious and turn your blog into a profitable business? Either way you should start to get very excited because you are about to MASSIVELY change your life for the better!

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of blogging. It has literally changed my life. I have gone from not having a clue what a blog even was, to having 2 successful blogs and a business that earns me good money every month!

I get to earn a full-time income, while being able to work from home and be there when my kiddos need me. I get to call the shots, be my own boss and work the hours I want to.

I can even work in my PJs if I really want to. (Not that I ever do, but I like having the option!)

BUUUUT…

It has taken me the best part of 9 years to get here!

I really wish I could go back and tell my beginner blogger self everything I now know about starting a profitable blog. I could have got there so much sooner – and with a lot fewer mistakes and a lot less stress!

Well, I might not be able to go back in time to help my beginner blogger self – but I can certainly help YOU!

This post, about how to start a PROFITABLE blog in 2024, is the article I wish I had read back in May 2015 when I was just starting out on my blogging journey. It would have saved me so much time, and meant I’d have started earning decent money from blogging much, much sooner!

It would have also saved me A LOT of extra time not having to go back and fix stupid things I did in the beginning when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!! (It took me YEARS to fix all my newbie mistakes – seriously!)

 

Not a ‘create a blog in 30 minutes’ type post

OK, I’ll level with you – this is not one of those ‘create a blog in 30 minutes’ type posts. Those posts only show you the very bare basics of how to create the shell of a WordPress website – how to buy and set up your little bit of internet real estate.

And, truth be told, that’s only one tiny bit of everything that goes into actually starting a profitable blog. A post that promises a blog in 30 minutes is a) grossly underestimating how long it actually takes to get set up and b) not going to be very useful unless you also read a post like this which tells you what to actually do with that blog once it’s set up!

This post is all about how you go from zero to profitable blog – step by step. I’m going to tell you EVERYTHING you need to do to start a profitable blog in 2024.

In this blog post I’m giving you a week by week, day by day schedule of everything you need to do in your first TWO WEEKS of blogging – taking you from no blog to a fully-fledged, beautifully designed website with two blog posts written and plenty of ideas about what to write about next.

 

FREE #ProfitableBlog2024 challenge!

Want to go beyond two weeks? Then sign up for my FREE #ProfitableBlog2024 challenge! A 7 week step-by-step plan, taking you through setting up your blog, writing EIGHT high quality blog posts, maximising your blog’s chances of making money as a soon as possible, learning the basics of SEO, learning how to promote your posts properly, building your email list and teaching you tactics to grow your blog FAST!

You’ll also get a calendar to show you at a glance what you’ll be doing each day.

 

 

Week 1 – RESEARCH, PLANNING AND SET UP

Welcome to week ONE! This week is all about laying down a solid foundation for your blog, setting up your website and making it look attractive. By the end of this week you should have a fully functioning website and be well on your way to fulfilling your dreams and creating a profitable blog in 2024!

Although I’ve assigned a week and a day to each set of activities, you don’t have to stick rigidly to the plan. If you find it takes you more or less time to do the action steps, that’s fine! Go at your own pace. If you’ve downloaded the plan you can check each day off as you do it, so you can see your progress – great motivation to keep going!

 

Day 1 – RESEARCH + PLAN

The first step is to lay a solid foundation for your blog. I know what it feels like to be super excited and just want to dive in and start your blog – but that was the mistake I made first time round.

If only I had spent a short amount of time researching and planning my blog, I would have made far fewer mistakes and my blog would have been profitable far sooner!

Read =>  9 essential things to do before starting a blog
Read =>  How to choose the right niche for your blog

Action steps

1. Decide what you want to blog about
2. Research blogs in that niche
3. Decide on a domain name

Bonus step

Check to see if the social media usernames you want are available. It’s best to get something as close as possible to your domain name, failing that your own name is a good choice – e.g. I am @productiveblogging on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, and @ebgargano on Twitter.

 

Day 2 – START YOUR BLOG

Woohoo! Now you have a much better idea of what you want to blog about, it’s time to actually start your blog.

If you want to start a PROFITABLE blog in 2024 you really do need to start a self-hosted WordPress blog. Whilst it is possible to make money on other kinds of blogs, it is much, much harder.

Read => How to choose the right host for your blog
Read => How to start a successful WordPress blog – a step by step guide (steps 1-4)

Action steps

1. Choose a hosting plan
2. Buy your hosting
3. Set up WordPress

Bonus step

Once you have your blog name, make sure you go and get the social media usernames while they are still available!

 

Day 3 – SET UP YOUR BLOG

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a brand new blog! I am so excited for you. This is a decision you are not going to regret! So long as you put the work in, you are well on the way to creating a profitable blog in 2024.

With any new venture, absolutely the hardest part is actually STARTING – and you’ve done that!! The fact you have put a little bit of money into this now will also be a great motivator… you won’t want to waste that money! Now the next step is to actually set up your brand new blog – and make it look good…

Read => How to choose the right theme for your blog
Read => How to start a successful WordPress blog – a step by step guide (steps 5-8)

Action steps

1. Choose and install a theme
2. Create a logo for your blog
3. Install my recommended plugins

 

Day 4 – WRITE YOUR STATIC CONTENT

Hopefully you should be feeling extra motivated now your blog is starting to take shape. The next step is to write your ‘static’ content, that is your about me, contact me and privacy policy pages.

Read => How to start a successful WordPress blog – a step by step guide (step 9)

Action steps

1. Write your ‘about me’ page
2. Write your ‘contact me’ page
3. Write your privacy policy

 

Day 5 – SET UP YOUR MENUS, SIDE BAR AND PERMALINK STRUCTURE

This is the final day of set up! Today you will be setting up your menus and side bar, and making sure you have the right permalink structure. This is the last step before you can start actually writing blog posts!!

Read => How to start a successful WordPress blog – a step by step guide (steps 10-12)

Action steps

1. Set up your menus
2. Set up your side bar
3. Edit your permalink structure

 

MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS!!! You now have a brand new blog, and it’s already looking really good! I haven’t created a day 6 and 7 as it’s good not to blog EVERY day and also I want to make this plan realistic and achievable.

However, if you are desperate to do more (I know how that feels – I was super excited when I first started my blog), I strongly recommend that you spend day 6 and 7 doing some more research into blogs in your niche. If you want to go one step better, you could leave a few comments too!

 

WEEK 2 WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR FIRST 2 BLOG POSTS

This week you are going to start by brainstorming ideas for your blog, before actually getting down to writing your first two blog posts!

Day 1 – BRAINSTORM BLOG POST IDEAS

I know how keen you must be to start writing your first blog post, but I really want to encourage you to first start by deciding on your blog’s categories and then brainstorming your blog post ideas.

Your first posts should ideally be foundation posts – sometimes called cornerstone blog posts. You should write one foundation post for each of your categories. These foundation posts are super important for SEO as they help search engines understand what your blog is about and how your blog is structured.

Read => 9 essential things to do before starting a blog (steps 3-4)
Read => How to create 52 blog post ideas in less than 2 hours

Action steps

1. Choose your blog’s categories
2. Brainstorm a minimum of 10 ideas for each category (more if you can!)
3. Choose 1 idea from each category that will be your cornerstone blog post for that category

 

Day 2 – START WRITING YOUR FIRST BLOG POST!

Hooray!!! Today is an exciting day because today you will start writing your first blog post! Please don’t stress about this first blog post being ‘perfect’. Chances are it won’t be – but that’s the beauty of blogging, you can always go back and improve on it at a later date when you are more experienced. For now, just make your aim to get something written and ‘out there’.

One other tip I will give you – no one is going to read your first draft, so give yourself permission to write a ‘terrible’ first draft. When you have finished it, go back and edit it to improve it. It’s much easier to write first then edit. If you try to edit as you go along, it will be harder and much slower!

Read => How to start a successful WordPress blog – a step by step guide (steps 13)
Read => The 10 essential elements of a successful blog post

Action steps

1. Pick one of your cornerstone blog post ideas to be your first blog post
2. Write a first draft of that blog post
3. Re-read your first draft and try to improve it

 

Day 3 – PUBLISH YOUR FIRST BLOG POST (CORNERSTONE POST)

Well done for writing your first blog post. Today you will be publishing it on your blog! It can be a bit nerve-wracking publishing your first blog post. But don’t worry, nothing scary happens – in fact most likely no-one will read it (except perhaps your mum or your OH!). I don’t say that to discourage you, but rather encourage you! If you know no one will read it, it makes it less scary.

Again, I want to remind you not to worry about your blog post being ‘perfect’. Just get it out there. There’s plenty of time to go back and improve upon it later when you have written lots of blog posts and know better what you are doing.

Read => How to write your first blog post
Read => The 10 essential elements of a successful blog post

Action steps

1. Re-read your second draft and try to improve it again
2. Give your text one final proofread
3. Copy and paste the text into WordPress – make sure you give your post a title
4. Edit the URL
5. Use H2 tags for subheadings (use H3 for sub-sub headings)
6. Add a few photos and/or graphics (see tip)
7. Make sure you have selected the right category and chosen a featured image
8. Press ‘publish’!!!
9. Check your post looks ok on the ‘front end’ by clicking on the URL

Tip

You can get really good FREE images to illustrate your blog posts from Pexels and Pixabay. Use PicMonkey* or Canva to edit them and make great graphics. Never copy and paste images from the web to illustrate your posts – all images are copyrighted. (Free image sites like Pexels and Pixabay are fine to use freely though!)

 

Day 4 & 5 – WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR SECOND POST (CORNERSTONE POST)

Congratulations on writing and publishing your first post. The first post is always the hardest! From here on in it’s much easier. Use Days 4 and 5 to go through the same process to write your second post. Again, choose one of your cornerstone blog post ideas to write about.

If you feel a bit stuck, don’t worry! I’ve included a post on overcoming writer’s block in your reading today!

Read = > 17 tips to overcome writer’s block for bloggers
Read = > How to edit a blog post (tips from an ex English teacher turned blogger)

Action steps

1. Pick one of your cornerstone blog post ideas to be your second blog post
2. Write a first draft of that blog post
3. Re-read your first draft and try to improve it
4. Publish your second blog post (don’t forget headings, photos etc.)

 

A BIG WELL DONE for getting to the end of your second week and publishing your first TWO blog posts! You have done a massive amount in your first two weeks, and really set your blog up for success.

Again, I am not setting any specific tasks for day 6 and 7, but if you want to do some extra work you could either do some more research/commenting on blogs or write and publish another cornerstone blog post!

 

FREE #ProfitableBlog2024 challenge!

Want to go beyond the first two weeks? Then sign up for my FREE #ProfitableBlog2024 CHALLENGE! A full 7 week schedule, taking you through setting up your blog, writing EIGHT high quality blog posts, maximising your blog’s chances of making money as a soon as possible, learning the basics of SEO, learning how to promote your posts properly, building your email list and teaching you tactics to grow your blog FAST!

 

This is what you’ll be doing in weeks 3-7…

Week 3 – SET YOUR BLOG UP TO START MAKING MONEY

Week 4 – GET TO GRIPS WITH SEO

Week 5 – START PROMOTING YOUR POSTS!

Week 6 – GET TO GRIPS WITH EMAIL MARKETING

Week 7 – 2 TRICKS TO EXPLODE YOUR TRAFFIC

You’ll also get a calendar to show you at a glance what you’ll be doing each day.

 

 

 

More on this topic…

• 20 reasons why you should start a blog in 2024
• 9 essential things to do before starting a blog
• 35 BIG mistakes new bloggers make (and how to fix them!)
• 61 things I wish had known before I started blogging
• How much does it REALLY cost to start a blog in 2024?
  

 

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*This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!