Are you ready to learn what it’s like Starting a Blog in 2019?
I’m the creator of Get Your Holiday On and Foster to Adopt.
Starting a Blog 2019
I’ve been blogging for a little over two years now and I love it!
I currently own two different websites.
The first website, Get Your Holiday On, was created in May of 2017 and I just recently launched Foster to Adopt a few months ago.
A little background…about why I created my new blog Foster to Adopt.
My husband and I have three children and are also foster to adopt parents.
We have been foster parents for almost two years now.
We have had four placements and currently still have our fourth placement.
He’s an amazing little boy who is so precious and loved.
My family and I hope to one day adopt either through the foster to adopt process or through adoption.
Starting an Adoption Blog
Another reason I created Foster to Adopt was to give more kids a voice!
I want to be able to help more kids be adopted.
Every child deserves to have someone to love them!
Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to adopt. It is such a big part of who I am.
However, as we both know, it costs a lot of money to adopt a child.
For example, I recently contacted an International Adoption Agency and the cost to adopt a child from another country averages around $35,000.
My mouth dropped. I knew it was expensive but was hoping that somehow it had changed.
That is where I want to help others find ways to make money to adopt or achieve their own personal goals.
Remember how I told you I own two websites?
After two years of blogging, I can officially say I earn a fulltime income every month from this blog Get Your Holiday On alone.
It took me almost 1 and 1/2 years to get that far.
However, it is paving the way for me to be able to help my family, help others, work from home, be my own boss, and also save for adoption.
The crazy part is you don’t have to have millions of social followers to make an income. I can wholeheartedly say that is true.
It’s all about where you market and the dedication you’re willing to put forth.
Plus, free products are nice too!
For example, some of my favorites thus far are my daughters going on a shopping spree at the American Girl doll store.
As well as I received a Luxury California King bed FREE from blogging. Awesome right?! This can be you too!
This picture is of my girls shopping for their doll on our sponsored shopping spree!
How to Start a Blog
Starting a blog is not an overnight money-maker but if you put in enough time and dedication.
You will make money and could potentially make a fulltime income from your blog.
This could lead you to enough savings to potentially adopt a child or create dreams that you’ve only imagined.
How amazing would that be?
I never thought starting a blog would allow me to be where I am today.
If blogging is something you decide you’d want to do. I am more than happy to help you.
As a matter of fact, if you’re ready to learn? I will show you the exact same way I got started below.
In this tutorial, you will find tips for figuring out your niche and how to start a blog and make money from it.
All of this advice will be helpful for beginner blogging.
How to find Niche in Blogging
First, you will need your niche. Not sure what a niche is? Asking yourself, “How to find your niche in blogging?” I have been there.
A niche is a subject that your website is centered around.
For example, What are you most passionate about?
Do you love to teach people how to cook?
Do you want to share your adoption journey?
Your perfect niche would be something that you love to do, something that you’re good at, or something that people will pay you to do.
In fact, the best part about blogging is that there are so many topics that you can write about including:
- Mom/Family
- Food/Recipes
- Fitness
- Fashion
- Faith/Religion
- Shopping/Deals
- Travel
- Home Improvement
- Personal Finance
- Jobs
Tip: It does not have to fall into one of these categories to make money!
Blog Making Decisions
Two of the biggest decisions to starting a blog in 2019 will be your hosting and domain name.
Domain names will be what the reader or client will put into the search bar to find your blog or website.
For example, www.getyourholidayon.com will bring you to this website.
I highly recommend going with .com after your domain.
Also, oftentimes I get asked about starting a free website.
I don’t recommend starting a free website. For good reason, if you don’t have hosting (which only costs around $3.49 a month or $60 a year) for your website. It will make your website very slow.
Hosting allows for a more user-friendly experience. Picture images, content, and etc. will load a lot faster with hosting in place.
If this helps when I started out. I didn’t know a lot about hosting.
Therefore, I took highly into consideration what the top bloggers use. Most of them were using Bluehost.
That’s when I knew I had the green light and went with Bluehost.
When I started my second blog. I also choose to go with Bluehost for my hosting needs.
Personally, I have found Bluehost to be an extremely reliable and trustworthy company to work with.
Here are more reasons why I really like Bluehost for a self-hosted website:
- Bluehost gives you easy to follow step by step tutorials on how to get set up and running.
- Free Technical support! Important for a new blogger!
- A self-hosted blog allows more freedom to monetize your blog.
- WordPress is FREE through Bluehost.
If you already know the domain you want to use, awesome!
Next, you’ll choose the hosting plan that will help you get started in creating your own website.
After you pick and choose your hosting plan.
Bluehost will show you how to add WordPress to your website. It’s really easy!
After WordPress is on your website. You will be able to pick your theme and start creating content.
As a result below, you will find a step by step tutorial showing you how to begin the process and add WordPress to your site.
Which Bluehost Plan to Choose
Most bloggers use the basic hosting (that is the one I use too) If you decide to upgrade later that is always an option.
Choose Your Plan
The best part is you have three plans to choose from! 12 months, 24 months, and a 36-month plan.
The one nice thing if you go with the 3-year plan you won’t have to worry about renewing every year!
It is nice to not have to worry about that.
Select Your Domain Name
When you get started with your domain name. Consider the topic you are going to be writing about. You can do a domain name search to see if it’s in use.
Once you start to look for a domain name you will want to make sure you grab it up if it’s something you are really interested in.
When you go through my link, Bluehost will give you the domain name for free for 1 year when you sign up for a 12-month hosting plan. This is a fantastic offer and perfect for getting started with your new website!
How to Install WordPress
Congratulations, once you have completed check out you will be ready to install WordPress. Yay! I’m so excited for you!!!
Don’t worry it’s SUPER easy!:) Bluehost helps you every step of the way and does most of the work for you. Let me show you how to do it.
In Bluehost, click on the hosting tab and then the cpanel tab. Scroll down and select Install WordPress.
Now you will connect both WordPress and Bluehost together!
This is a fantastic feature that Bluehost provides you with for free and is really easy for new bloggers to set up. Enter your domain name into the space and click ‘log into WordPress’ and everything will be installed for you!
This will give you a preview of what it will look like.
After everything has been connected, you will go to your WordPress page. Yay!
That’s it! Congratulations you are now ready to start your blog in 2019! Stick around and I will give you tips and tricks that will help you succeed. Good Luck! 🙂
P.S. Don’t forget! When you go through my link, Bluehost will give you the domain name for free for 1 year when you sign up for a 12-month hosting plan.
