“I’d love to start a blog but I’m not a good writer”. The number of times we’ve heard this unreal.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links – if you click through and make a purchase, Blog So Easy will earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Do You Need To Be A Good Writer To Blog?
There are so many people out there who are put off from starting their own blog because they believe they have to be brilliant writers in order to qualify. Do you need to be a good writer to blog? The short answer is no, you don’t but there are some simple things you can do to make your writing as great as it can be.
Let’s take a look at this question in some more detail below by first defining what’s meant by “good writer”, what’s needed to write good blog posts and how anyone can improve their own writing.
What’s A “Good Writer”?
When people ask the question “do you need to be a good writer to blog?” usually what they mean is do they need to be a published author of some kind or be perfect with the pen.
But really all that is required to write a good blog post is to make sure that your readers understand your point.
Beyond this of course, you will need to make sure that your writing is at the very least free from serious errors and flaws. Most readers will probably excuse a few grammatical errors here and there but just make sure your articles are not littered with mistakes.
Ultimately blogging is about conveying your ideas to your audience in a way that they will understand and connect with.
How To Write Good Blog Posts
Let’s now take a look at some possible ideas to help you write better blog posts whether or not you consider yourself to be a good writer or not.
Get To The Point
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter” –
Blaise Pascal
One of the best ways to make sure you writing hits the mark is to get to the point. Don’t waffle.
It’s unnecessary and will likely result in visitors clicking away from your site entirely as they get frustrated.
Good blog writing is not about word count but rather conveying your message in the most efficient way possible.
Check Your Work Or Ask Someone Else To
If you’re worried about making silly mistakes in your writing there are two things that pretty much anyone can do to get around it.
The first one is something all bloggers should do which is to simply check your work. Once you’ve written your article go back over it and read it back to yourself. Sometimes reading it out loud makes it easier to spot errors.
The other way you can double-check your work is to ask someone else to check it for you. They may be in a better position to spot an error than you as they will be completely fresh to your content.
As you get further into your journey, you may even want to consider hiring an editor to check your work.
Imagine Your Talking To A Friend
Write your blog posts like the way you would talk to a friend. Don’t feel any pressure to write in a way that doesn’t reflect your personality.
In fact, very often people read blogs to get the perspective of others and there’s no better way to connect with your audience than to address them as you would someone you know.
Begin With The End In Mind
When you’re writing your blog posts, start with the conclusion. This may seem backward and contrary to everything you were taught in English class but most web users have little patience.
They want their information and they want it fast! You need to be able to keep your reader’s attention and one of the best ways is to show them right from the start that your article has what they’re looking for.
Once you’ve addressed their needs and captured their attention upfront, you can then delve deeper into the topic.
Plan Your Blog Posts
One of the best ways to make sure your writing is concise and well structured is to plan out your articles before you start actually writing.
I like to write outlines of my posts in bullet point format before I get into the details.
This helps with structuring my content and it’s very easy to tell if I’m headed in the right direction.
Just Get Writing
The best way to write good blog posts? Just get writing! You’re never going to become a great writer just thinking about it. Pretty much anyone can become a great blogger with the right tools, techniques and mindset.
Even if you don’t have the confidence right now, once you get started and continue blogging consistently you’ll find you gain it through practice.
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Starting a blog can be a great experience but before you hit that publish button for the first time, here are a few things that we’ve learnt as we’ve started our journey that we wish we knew at the start!
1 – It’s Easy To Start But Hard To Keep Going
Let’s get something straight from the beginning; starting a blog is super easy. Anyone can do it and that’s why it’s such a great form of expression. The signup and starting process is super easy and can be done in minutes.
But whilst it’s easy to get started it can be hard to keep going.
For a blog to have a chance you will need to consistently and regularly top it up with great content which will take effort. This can be particularly difficult in the early days when you have yet to establish any kind of audience.
What we’ve learnt from building our Amazon affiliate site is that you need to prepare yourself for this before hand.
Set realistic expectations upfront.
For example when we first started pretty much everything we read about SEO and ranking on Google suggested it would be about 6 months before we saw any real action on there. That’s why we didn’t lose hope in the first few weeks when we didn’t see any activity and were overjoyed when we ended up getting 10 clicks within the first 6 weeks.
To keep you going through the inevitable rough periods that will come, have the expectations front and centre knowing that in some cases you may exceed them, whilst in other areas it will take longer as we’ve also seen.
Decide upfront that you are in it for the long-haul and make a determination to stick with it.
2 – It Is Not As Complicated As Some Would Have You Believe
As much as SEO specialists, developers and a whole host of online marketers like to make it appear, this whole blogging and website thing is not as complicated as some would have you believe.
Yes of course there’s lots to be learned (more on that next) and it takes effort (see above); but what area of life where there’s potential for growth doesn’t?
The point is, if you are prepared to spend time learning, then anyone can pick this stuff up and get to grips with the basics they need to get up and running.
Some would have you believe that only those with technical backgrounds can build a website and get it ranking but the truth is today just about anyone can.
3 – You Will Need To Learn
Having said the above, let me say this; you will have to learn a lot.
There’s no getting away from that but that is part of the main benefit to you starting a blog/website. In a lot of cases those seeking to start a blog already have a desire to learn more about various topics and are keen to share that knowledge or passion.
There are lots of new things you will need to learn to make your blog a success for example how to build sites on a platform like WordPress, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), social media marketing and a whole heap of other cool stuff.
But the great thing about the time we live in is that it’s super easy to learn a new skill.
Before we started our Amazon affiliate site we knew zero about SEO. I didn’t even know that you could register your site with Google to get it appearing on their search results faster.
But through devouring hours of knowledge via podcasts, reading tons of articles online and most crucially starting out and experimenting we’ve managed to build a site that is now growing in traffic by over 50% month on month and continuing to get more and more content onto page 1 of Google in a highly competitive niche.
My point is, although there is lots to learn, there are plenty of tools out there that will help you if you’re prepared to put the effort in.
4 – You Need To Select A Niche
If you’re starting your first site, you need to select a niche and stick with it. There’s so much content out there and it can be easy to get tempted with trying to cover tons of stuff on your blog.
But your best chance of success lies in selecting one particular niche and going deep into it. As well as making it easier for you to organise your content, it will also make your site appear more relevant on search engine results.
From our experience, our site started performing a lot better when we focused on one particular niche from a broader category.
Focusing in one area will help you to identify your core audience and get traction more quickly.
5 – You Can Make Money But It Will Take Effort
For a lot of people, starting a blog is a way to try make some extra money as well as giving them something meaningful to do.
Making money from blogging is simple but not easy.
When I say simple I mean the concepts around how to do it is fairly straight forward. As long as you can drive traffic to your website there are a number of ways you can make money be it selling products and services, advertising or affiliate offers.
But the reality is making any kind of money with a blog when you are just starting out is hard work.
It took our site just over 3 months to make its first sales. It felt brilliant to see the validation of the model we had employed but it also took a lot of perseverance in those first few months as there were times when it seemed like it was never going to happen. This is even though pretty much everything I read prior to that suggested 9 – 12 months before you make your first sale.
Overall, whilst it is definitely possible to make money with a blog, don’t expect to do it overnight.
6 – Focus On One Thing A Day
When you think about the overall goals of your blog it can be inspiring but also draining.
One of the best ways to keep you going, is to simply focus on accomplishing one task each day that will take you closer to your overall goal.
It may make sense for you to break down your overall goal into objectives for each month, week and day for the first few months to give you some traction. A 3 month plan to start things off can work quite well.
After that, the only thing you’ll then need to do is focus on hitting that one target each day and you’ll be confident in the knowledge that your working towards your bigger objective. This will help you overcome a lack of motivation or even frustration when you’re not seeing the kind of results you want especially in the early days.
This could be a goal to write one piece of content every day or at least a social media post.
Whatever it is, make sure you are clear on what it needs to look like to help you move forward as momentum is crucial in the early days.
7 – It Can Be Highly Rewarding
If you’re prepared to put the effort in, starting a blog can be incredibly rewarding in many ways.
You can give you a way to express yourself and build an audience whilst also creating a side income if you’re in it for the long-run.
There’s also something about starting from scratch and seeing your vision come to life that will surely give you a buzz and keep you motivated.
What Do You Need To Know Before Starting A Blog: Tell Us What You Think
This is a great question but can be tricky to answer if you’re new to this game. Below we will help you answer this question by taking a look at the plans available from Bluehost and seeing which may be best for you as a beginner.
Whilst some beginners decide on free hosting plans, if you are serious about making your website successful and monetising it then a paid hosting plan is definitely your best best.
Bluehost is one of the best and most popular shared web hosting providers around. Powering over 2 million websites worldwide, website owners know they’re in good hands with Bluehost.
Which Bluehost plan is best for beginners? Based on the factors above it’s clear that the best Bluehost plan for beginners is the Basic package. It’s the cheapest, lets you focus on 1 website which is advisable as a beginner and will give you all the tools and support you need.
Below we take a look at why Bluehost is so highly recommended and do a closer comparison of the 4 shared hosting plans Bluehost has to offer.
Why Is Bluehost So Highly Recommended?
There are several reasons why Bluehost is so highly recommended and Blog So Easy’s favourite web hosting provider:
Brilliant Technical Support
As Blog So Easy can testify, Bluehost’s 24/7 technical support team is excellent. They are on-hand literally anytime to not only answer your queries but to actually carry out technical tasks your stuck on.
This is one of the biggest reasons why Bluehost is such a great choice for beginners and this level of technical support is available on all plans, including the Basic plan.
Excellent Reliability
Powering over 2 million websites worldwide does not come by accident and this is largely due to the fact that Bluehost provides a 99.99% uptime for their sites. Expectations of 100% uptime is never possible due unexpected events that’s why Bluehost’s record is so impressive.
Awesome But Cheap
When you’re just getting started often you’re looking for the best possible web hosting services you can get for the cheapest price.
Bluehost delivers on this front especially with their Basic Plan which is as low as $3.95 per month across a 36 year term.
It will be difficult to find a plan this cheap AND a hosting provider quite as good as Bluehost especially for beginners.
Great Scalability
Whilst as a beginner the Bluehost Basic plan is definitely your best bet, as your website grows you can adjust your plan to grow with it.
This means you never have to worry about the limitations of your web hosting provider as your website traffic grows and the demands placed on its services grow with it.
As well as more advanced Shared hosting plans Bluehost also offer VPS (Virtual Private Server) and Dedicated hosting options which could cater for your needs as you expand your website.
Bluehost Shared Hosting Plans Review: Basic Plus – Choice Plus – Pro
When it comes to comparing various web hosting plans there are a few key factors that make a big difference.
Number of websites you can host
This is a big one as it will determine how many websites you can launch and host on any given plan. As a beginner, you only really need a plan with 1 website. This limits your costs whilst making sure that you focus entirely on your first project. As your experience grows and you want to start other sites you can always switch to more advanced plans.
Storage
The storage (usually displayed in GB) is the amount of data that can be held for your website. This will include all of the content, media and supporting information you create when building your file.
As a beginner you don’t need too much and indeed you can always get more as your site expands.
Bandwith
Simply put bandwith describes the rate at which data can be transferred between a website and computer devices connected to it within a specific time frame.
Usually in web hosting packages it is calculated monthly and it tells you the capacity of the connection.
Bluehost Basic Plan Review: Best Bluehost Plan For Beginners
The Bluehost Basic plan offers an excellent starting point for beginners. At just £3.08 ($3.95)/month equivalent on a 36 month term, it offers great value and you’re unlikely to find web hosting at this kind of price and with all the brilliant benefits offered by Bluehost.
The Basic plan comes with the ability to host 1 website which is really all that you need when you are starting out. As well as making it much cheaper than having multiple websites, it also means you have no choice but to focus on your main project.
In terms of storage you get an ample 50GB of data to play with for your website.
The main things you need as a beginner is excellent technical support which you get with Bluehost 24/7 and a cheap overall price, which is also provided.
Here are the main features of the Bluehost Basic shared hosting plan:
1 Website
50 GB of storage
Unmetered bandwidth
Free SSL Certificate
Standard Performance
1 Domain included
5 parked domains
25 subdomains
24/7 technical support
This is really the perfect plan for beginners with one website as you can easily upgrade to a more loaded package as your website grows. Get started here.
This is a great plan if you would like to experiment with various types of blogs or websites as you pay once and you can manage as many websites as you need with as many domains and associated storage.
This plan has pretty much everything you might need as a blogger and comes at a great price (currently £4.64/month or $5.95/month).
Here are the main features of the Bluehost Plus shared hosting plan:
Unlimited websites
Unlimited storage
Unlimited bandwidth
Free SSL Certificate
Standard performance
Unlimited domains
Unlimited parked domains
Spam Experts
1 Office 365 Mailbox – Free For 30 Days
24/7 technical support
Given the flexibility this is an excellent plan, especially if you are a blogger who wants to explore multiple ideas.
The Bluehost Choice Plus Plan has everything the Plus plan has but with a few notable extras. Most significantly it comes with Domain Privacy and Protection which is key for keeping your personal information and that of your website secure. However, bear in mind that you can also get domain privacy and protection elsewhere if you purchase domains elsewhere.
Here are the main features of the Bluehost Choice Plus Plan:
Unlimited websites
Unlimited storage
Unlimited bandwidth
Free SSL Certificate
Standard performance
Unlimited domains
Unlimited parked domains
Unlimited Subdomains
Spam Experts
Domain Privacy + Protection
Site Backup – CodeGuard Basic
1 Office 365 Mailbox – Free For 30 Days
24/7 technical support
This plan is probably best suited to bloggers who are quite advanced in their journey however, the main two differences to the Plus plan are the Domain Privacy + Protection as well as the Site Backup – CodeGuard Basic. If you need the features of the Plus plan and consider domain privacy important then this may be the right plan for you.
Bluehost will backup your site at its discretion and you can also backup your sites manually so you may want to consider whether this is worth the extra you pay though it’s great having the peace of mind.
The Bluehost Pro plan offers all of the features of the Choice Plus plan plus a Dedicated IP address, higher performance and 2 Spam Experts.
If your needs are at this kind of level it is worth considering Bluehost’s VPS Hosting options to see if they may suit your needs better. This plan would definitely not be suitable if you’re only just starting out.
Here are the main features of the Bluehost Choice Plus Plan:
Conclusion – Which Bluehost Plan Is Best For Beginners?
After all the above which Bluehost plan is best for beginners? The Basic package stands out as being the best Bluehost plan for beginners. It has everything you would need when you are just starting out on your blogging journey and is topped off with excellent 24/7 technical support as well as offering great value for money.
“Be content to act, and leave the talking to others.” ―Baltasar Gracian
What To Do With Free Time At Home? If you’re tired of watching reruns of your favourite tv shows and can’t get out as much as you normally do you might be wondering how to fill your time.
There are so many creative and constructive ways to make use of any free time – there’s no excuse for not making the most of any time you have.
Whatever you decide, the key is to take action and just do SOMETHING! Don’t sit around complaining about not having something to do if you don’t do ANYTHING.
What To Do With Free Time At Home
Here are a list of 7 ideas that will help to keep you occupied and your mind stimulated:
1 – Learn A New Skill
Acquiring a new skill could be one of the best ways to make use of your additional free time.
There are so many ways out there to acquire new knowledge and it’s easier than ever before.
As well as sharpening your tools it will also keep your brain stimulated which will help to boost your mental health.
Quite importantly in a lot of cases it’s absolutely free. I’ve learnt pretty much everything I know about SEO through podcasts.
If you’re now confined to your home office with limited social interaction, having a podcast on in the background can be a great way to keep you lightly entertained whilst also filling you with expert knowledge.
It’s never a bad idea to pick up a new skill especially in a world where technology is rapidly changing the work landscape.
Here are a few potential skills you could look into:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Website development
Languages (Spanish; French; Swahili)
Advanced Excel
Learning an instrument
2 – Listen To Podcasts
We’ve sort of covered this in #2 but it’s worth featuring on its own because podcasts offer such a wealth of high quality content and entertainment.
Whether you want to learn, simply be entertained or just pass some time you can find a podcast that can cater to your mood.
Here are some of our favourite podcasts to get you started:
There’s no better time to start journaling and writing daily reflections than when you have lots of free time on your hands.
As well as keeping your mind stimulated, it will also help you with keeping focused on what’s important to you.
5 – Start A Podcast
Can’t find a podcast that caters to your interest? Then why not start your very own podcast!
Its never been easier to produce your own content and the podcast format is no exception.
With a basic microphone and a laptop you can get started on your journey.
6 – Take Up A Hobby
There’s no better time to take up a gentle hobby like sewing or baking then when you have extra free time. Here are a few ideas for hobbies you can take up at home:
Baking
Sewing
Drawing
Painting
Writing
7 – Workout
Working out at home can be a great way to keep your mind and body both fit and health.
Head over to YouTube and you’ll find a gazillion ways to get active.
What To Do With Free Time At Home – 7 Great Ideas: Tell Us Your Thoughts
You want to start a blog but you’re asking yourself – what topic should I choose for my blog? Don’t worry you are not alone.
Selecting a topic for your blog is probably the hardest and also the most important step in creating your blog. It can feel inconvenient that it is pretty much the first decision you have to make when you set out.
But if you approach it in the right way, it need not be as daunting as it sounds.
What Topic Should I Choose For My Blog?
The best way to approach this is to ask yourself a series of questions that can help to lead you to the right area.
What Do I Find Interesting?
The first question to ask yourself is “What Excites Me?”. This is crucial but often overlooked when it comes to blogging as people try to hone in on what will make them money first. Whilst the profitability of a niche is absolutely important, what’s even more critical is making sure it excites you.
Your blog is really powered by the content you have on there. If you don’t have great content, people simply won’t visit. No visitors, no money.
In order to create quality content weekly or even daily, you need to have a topic that genuinely excites you.
To hone in on what excites you, ask yourself the following questions (grab a piece of paper and write whatever comes to mind):
What do you find yourself talking about constantly when given half a chance?
What gets your emotions going when you start talking about it?
What do you wish everybody knew or cared about?
What do you think you could write about every day without getting bored?
These questions and similar like it should help to get you to a few topics that could work well.
What Is In High Demand?
Now you have a list of a few topics that excite you, we now need to make sure that other people will get excited about them too!
It’s all well and good if you get really excited about custom-made to order golf shoes but we need to make sure a big enough group of people do so too.
There are a few ways to check our topics will generate enough of a regular buzz to give us the assurance that we will get the audience we need.
One of the most popular ways is to conduct some keyword research. This is a whole topic in itself but for the purposes of finding an overall blog topic we just need to know how many people are searching for a particular term. One of the best tools around for doing is is Mangool’s KWFinder. Enter your overall topics into the tool and see what kind of search volumes you get.
As long as you have a few thousand search queries a month you know you will have a pretty good level of interest.
What Will Generate Income?
Now that we have one or two topics that (i) have your interest and (ii) get lots of searches, the third part of the equation is making sure that you can monetise them and that there is potential to actually make some money.
The reality is that it’s possible to make money in pretty much any niche as long as you have the first two parts of this equation covered. If you know you can get excited and generate quality content for a popular niche then you’ll have a good chance of generating traffic which you can monetise.
But to be absolutely sure, you can start by brainstorming some potential ways you could monetise your traffic and think about:
Are there products on a marketplace like Amazon that your readers would be interested in?
If so, Amazon has a very popular affiliate marketing program where you get paid a commission when a reader clicks a product link on your page and buys something (our first website is an Amazon affiliate website).
Are there products that your readers would be interested in buying directly from you?
If there are products your potential audience might buy directly from you then this could be a great way to monetise traffic. This might be products you could drop-ship to your audience or even develop yourself.
Are there other affiliate programs you could use that your audience would be interested in?
For example are there magazines or subscriptions services your audience would be interested in that you could offer up on your website.
Could you attract enough visitors to use display ads?
Display ads from a provider like Google AdSense payout whenever users visit a page and see the ad or click through onto an advert. You get paid a small amount for every view or click so you typically need a large audience to make it worth while but it offers a predictable stream of income.
A great way to see the potential for monetisation in a given niche is to look around at what other blogs in your prospective space are doing.
Finding Profitable Low Competition Sub-Topics
As well as giving you volume, KWFinder will also give you an idea of how competitive a given topic is in terms of rankings on Google. Just because a topic is competitive does not mean you shouldn’t go for it but it will give you a clear indication of the difficulty involved in ranking on Google.
In any case, at this stage you are more concerned with high level search volumes. In any given niche or topic there are thousands of sub-topics and queries you could write articles about and rank for which won’t be as competitive as the main topic.
But it’s worth bearing in mind KWFinder as a tool for helping you to identify sub-topics that may not be as difficult to rank for on Google as the main topic.
What steps are required to start a blog? Learn the exact steps required to start your blog today.
Starting a blog can seem a daunting prospect if you’ve never done it before and with all the noise online it’s easy to get lost and discouraged.
But it doesn’t have to be that way because starting a blog or any other type of website is actually a very simple process if you know the right steps to take.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links – if you click through and make a purchase, Blog So Easy will earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
What Steps Are Required To Start A Blog?
Let’s take you through the steps you need to launch your own blog today!
Step 1: Find Your Why
Before you do anything else you need to be crystal clear on why you want to start a blog or website. The mechanics of starting a blog are super-easy as we’ll show below but keeping it going and growing takes significant effort.
One of the best ways to ensure that you’ll have the determination and peristence needed to keep going is to make sure you have a clear and compelling reason for starting it in the first place.
The “why” should come in 2 parts:
Part 1: this is the “practical” why – the why you could explain to a work colleague or bank manager. It’s what explains your reasoning from a logical perspective. Possible practical reasons why may include:
Promote an existing business/product/service
Talk about a topic your keen on (for some this means what they’re “passionate” about)
As a way to learn new skills (web development; SEO; social media marketing; content creation etc)
Create additional income streams
Part 2: this is the “emotional” why – the why you probably couldn’t explain but you feel it any way. It’s this why that will compel you to push on when the going gets tough. This why will give you the courage to try stuff you’ve never tried before and keeping getting back up whenever you get knocked down. These reasons may include:
To try and find space for you to express yourself
A platform to create ideas out of nothing
To leave a legacy
To start building your way to financial freedom
Step 2: Select A Topic For Your Blog
So now that you’re clear on why you want to start a blog, the next stage is deciding what your blog’s going to be about.
Picking a topic for your blog will partly be determined or at least informed by what you wrote down from step 1.
The topic you select will depend on what you want your blog to accomplish.If you want to create a blog
Let’s take a look at a possible framework you could use for selecting a topic (you can get this framework in a handy Google Sheet template):
1 – Demand: How Much Demand Does Your Topic Have?
What is the search volume on Google?
Are people talking about it?
Is it likely to grow in future?
Are there any trends present today that could mean demand reduces in future?
Is demand consistent across the year? I.e. not seasonal
Do people carry a high level of buying intent?
2 – Interest: Is It A Topic You Find Interesting?
Could you imagine writing about this topic every day?
Do you think you could get bored of this topic?
Is it something you could imagine talking to your friends and family about?
Could you add original value in this field with your ideas?#
3 – Monetisation: Is There A Way To Monetise It?
Can you see some potential income streams from it?
Are there others in this space who are already making money from it?
Could one or more of the following income models be applied:-
Selling adverts
Affiliate marketing
E-commerce – selling products or services
Training/coaching/courses
Subscriptions
4 – SEO POTENTIAL – Could You Find Keywords To Rank For On Search Engines?
Could you find keywords to rank for?
Would you be able to rank on Google and otherwise search engines?
Are there ways you could improve on what others are doing in this space?
Once you’ve addressed the above exercise you should have a pretty good feel for what topic you want to focus on.
You can get the above framework as Google Sheets template (Hit File and Make a Copy):
The platform is where you will build your blog. The technical name for it is Content Management System (CMS) and you’ll see this banded about and it may sound complicated. In reality it’s not; it’s just a platform that will turn your sparkling words into a blog format. By far the most popular blogging platform is WordPress. It’s also the platform we use for (i) Blog So Easy, (ii) our main niche site and (iii) recommend to others.
We love WordPress because it’s so easy to use and it’s also intuitive – you can pick things up as you go without even realising.
It also gets installed automatically at the next stage of the process.
Step 4: Select Your Web Host Provider
The next stage of the process is one of the most critical; selecting which web host to use. A web host is a service that simply puts your website online and does what’s needed to keep it up. Every website needs one. The one we recommend, use ourselves and recommend to others also happens to be one of the most popular web hosts out there: Bluehost.
Their setup process is super-easy, fast and includes WordPress automatically. And for peace of mind they also have a 30 day money back guarantee.
How much does it cost? A Bluehost account works out to around $3.95 per month when you split the annual payment. You pay for the subscription in one go at the start which is quite good with helping you get committed and more importantly stay committed.
Can I start my blog for free? You can easily start a blog for free and we’ve actually tried to myself in the past. However, you’ll only get a small subset of the features you can with paid options and it can be tricky trying to switch later on. It also usually means you have to have advertising that’s beyond your control on your website.
Select the Get Started button and then choose which plan you want to go for. If it’s your first site the Basic plan will probably be good enough to get started.
You can always switch later if you need to.
Step 5: Choose A Domain Name
A domain name is the address of your website (e.g. blogsoeasy.co.uk). If you already know the name of your website you can enter here if not just choose “I’ll create my domain name later”.
How do I pick a good domain name? Selecting a good domain name can be daunting but don’t sweat it too much. Try to remember the following:
Keep it simple
Make it easy to remember
Don’t make it too long – 15 characters or less is ideal
Try not to use hyphens as they tend to be associated with spammy tactics
Try make it relevant to the topic
Step 6: Enter Your Account Information
Enter the necessary account details (name, email address etc) to get you setup and payment information for processing.
At this stage if you opted for the Basic or Plus package in step 2 be sure to select the “Domain Privacy Protection” – this will help keep your website more secure.
Step 7: Set Up Your Password
The next stage is to set up your account and password.
Step 8: Select A Theme For Your Blog
Once you have your account setup and you log on for the first time, it will be time to pick a theme for your website. Don’t worry too much if you can’t find the perfect one for you as you can always change it later.
If you’re unsure about which ones to go for, just look for something simple without too many colours at this stage.
What Comes Next
You now have functioning blog! That feels good doesn’t it! But what now? Let’s take a look at some of the first things you need to do with your shiny new blog.
Log Into WordPress
Now it’s time for you to login to WordPress and get cracking with building your shiny new blog. Click the WordPress button from the last step above. If you can’t see it go back to your email and select the WordPress link from there.
You’ll be taken to a screen that looks like this:
The WordPress dashboard is your control centre and where you’ll spend a lot of your time building your site.
It’s where you’ll write your posts (articles), manage your pages and all parts of your blog.
If you need to re-login into later, you can go back to your Bluehost main account, head down to “My Sites” and then hover over your website name then select “Log into WordPress”.
Have A Look At Your Shiny New Website
If you want to see what your new site looks like to visitors simply type in the address into a browser or from the WordPress dashboard hover over the house icon at the top with your website name and click visit site:
Don’t worry if you’re site looks very basic! That’s because you haven’t put your own touch on it yet and crucially it doesn’t have any content!
If you can’t see your site, make sure you try through the WordPress login because before you launch it, you’ll see a “Coming Soon” page.
Update Your Domain
When you first get started with Bluehost your site will have a temporary domain. Now it’s time to remove it and get started with your actual domain. The way to do this depends on what you selected during step 5.
Created A New Domain: If you created a new domain then you just need to activate it. You should have an email with instructions on how to do this – click the link in the email and Bluehost should do the rest.
Chose To Create It Later: Go to the Bluehost account area and hit Domains. Then select “Register”. You should then be able to search for a new domain and add it to your card. Your domain name is included in your sign-up so you should see a free credit – if not contact Bluehost support before purchasing it.
Switching An Existing Domain: If you have an existing domain that you would like to use, you need to point it to your new website. Bluehost very helpfully guide you through this process here. Alternatively you can get in touch with their support team and they’ll walk you through the process.
Change The Way Your Blog Looks
One of the best things about using WordPress is how easy it is to change the layout and design of your entire blog in just a few clicks.
The look of your design on WordPress is known as a “Theme”. Themes dictate the entire look of of your blog.
To get to themes and change your existing one, scroll down to Appearance on your WordPress dashboard and then hover over Themes.
You’ll then get to see all the themes that have been installed on your blog. Some of the ones you may see like Twenty Fifteen, Twenty Sixteen etc are very well designed and are used by some of the world’s most popular bloggers.
To get started it’s advisable to use one of these excellent themes. Once you are up and running and know your way around WordPress like a pro (which no doubt will come!), then you can play around even more.
You can preview your theme before you activate it to see what it will look like. Just hover over a theme and select Live Preview.
Once you have found the theme you are are happy with select Activate. That’s it; all done. You have now changed the theme of your entire blog to suit your own tastes!
Install A New Theme
If you don’t like any of the themes installed, you can find a completely new one in WordPress’ catalogue of thousands of themes.
You can use the Preview button to check how a theme appears before you choose to Install it. Once you hit Install the theme you select will be uploaded onto your blog.
Make Sure Your Site Is Secure With SSL
Next you need to make sure your site is secure with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). SSL is a type of encryption that makes sure that the connection between your website and its users is secure.
It gives users the confidence that their information is in good hands and Google will appreciate it too.
If you’re site is not secure you’ll like see a “not secure” at the beginning of the web address on your browser or a little warning depending on the browser. Once you have secured it you’ll see a little padlock symbol.
You can also tell if a site is secure by looking at the full web address. An unsecure site starts with http:// but a secure one starts with https:// (like Blog So Easy).
If you opted to create a new domain or register it later you can secure your site via the Bluehost dashboard. If you go to My Sites then hover over your site and then select “Manage Site”.
Then select “Security” at the top and then toggle the off button next to “Free SSL Certificate” (this is included as part of your domain from Bluehost).
If your domain is registered elsewhere then get in touch with the registrar’s support desk to find out how to secure your site.
Write Your First Blog Post and Publish It
Now that your blog is nicely set up it’s time to actually get blogging!
You can now write your very first post. To do so, make sure your in the WordPress dashboard and on the left hand column click “Posts” and then Hit Add New
You’ll now be taken to the post editing screen where you can write your post. The first thing you need to do is add your post title.
Once you’ve done that you can get to writing. If you want to add a photo, there’s a little icon with a picture frame you can use to add them.
If you need to add paragraphs or sections you can click the plus “+” symbol on the left (Add Block) and it will give you a choice of the types of sections you’d like to add. Blocks are basically, well, the building blocks for your posts! You can add different types depending on how you need to structure your articles.
Once you are happy with your content, you hit the Publish button and get your blog out there to the world.
Launch Your Website
Before the world can see it though you need to actually launch your website.
Go to the “Coming Soon Active” at the top of the dashboard screen and follow the prompts to get your website launched.
Publish Content Regularly
Now that your website is up and running, be sure to publish new content regularly. Once a week is a great target and will keep your audience engaged. Prioritise quality content over quantity though.
Whatever you do, just keep publishing and keep at it! Sometimes the whole process will feel overwhelming and like an uphill climb but just stick with it and just focus on the next task, the next article.
Is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? When you’re getting started on your website journey or even if you’re more established figuring out how much bandwidth you need for your website can be tricky.
Get it wrong and it could cost you way more than it should or potentially run you into problems in terms of site performance and more importantly user exeperience.
Below we’ll take a look at how you can figure out how much bandwidth might be needed for your website.
What Is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth in terms of web hosting describes the rate at which data is transferred from your website and computer devices connected to it within a specific time frame.
Typically hosting packages will calculate bandwidth on a monthly basis and display in terms of Gigabytes (GB).
Think of bandwidth a bit like a straw; a small diameter straw means you can only get a small amount of your beverage through to your mouth whilst a large diameter straw allows lots of liquid to pass through at one time. Bandwidth works in the same way; a small amount of bandwidth means you are limited in how much data can be transferred whilst a large limit means you can get a lot more data transferred in any given time period.
Why Is Bandwidth Important?
Bandwidth determines how quickly your website can deliver data to your users. This can have a significant impact on your user experience and whether they’ll continue using your site or decide to go elsewhere.
What Is Unlimited Bandwidth?
“Unlimited bandwidth” doesn’t actually exist in the way the term suggests. Web host providers have to pay for the bandwidth they offer as such there’s no way they could truly offer unlimited bandwidth for all their users. What they effectively rely on is an assumption that the sites on a given server will never use up all of the available bandwidth.
Rather than get into the details about what bandwidth usage might actually look like from customer to customer, most web hosting companies will simply state “unlimited bandwidth” and know they can cater to the majority of small customers.
Although unlimited bandwidth sounds great in theory, always be aware that there are likely usage limits that you need to stay within. Be sure to look out for this when shopping around for a hosting package.
Go to your Bluehost account home page and scroll down to advanced. Then under “Metrics”. click “Bandwidth”
You should then see a page that looks like this:
Even if you’re not on Bluehost, most web host providers provide similar information on their control panels – if you can’t find it just get in touch with your support team.
Is 2gb Bandwidth Sufficient For A Website?
Figuring out how much bandwidth is needed for your website is crucial. If you get too much in a lot of cases you’ll be overpaying whilst if you make it too low you could find your website taken offline.
The amount of bandwidth your website will need will depend on:
The average size (KB) and number of your web pages
The number of visitors you get
The number of views each visitor has
So is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? For a new website with not too many visitors 2gb of bandwidth should be sufficient. Just be sure to keep a close watch on how much bandwidth you are consuming each month, especially if you start to experience large traffic increases. If you do find the amount of bandwidth you have is insufficient you can simply adjust your hosting plan to cater to your needs.
How Can I Calculate How Much Bandwidth My Site Needs?
Estimating how much bandwidth your website needs is pretty straightforward. Let’s show you how and then run an example.
To calculate bandwidth you need to do the following:
Estimate the average page size for your website in Kilobytes (KB). If you don’t know this you can look it up on Pingdom and take the average page size of a few of your pages.
Multiply the above (1) average page size by the average monthly number of visitors.
Multiply the above (2) by the average number of page views per visitor.
Below is a table outlining how much bandwidth would be needed depending on the number of page views, assuming your average page size is 2MB:
Average Page Size
Number of Pages
Number of Monthly Page Views
Bandwidth Needed
2MB
100
1000
2GB
2MB
500
3,000
6GB
2MB
1,000
10,000
20GB
2MB
5,000
15,000
30GB
When calculating how much bandwidth you need from a web provider, remember to leave some room for traffic growth and spikes. A 50% contingency should give you enough head room in case you experience a sudden growth in traffic.
What If I Exceed My Bandwidth?
If you exceed your bandwidth allowance you’ll most likely be warned of it in the first instance. However, one of the following may occur thereafer:
The host may suspend your website, though this will only likely come after some warnings
You may be charged over-usage fees
You may upgraded to the next plan up to deal with your additional bandwidth
It is worth checking the terms and conditions that your host offers if you’re worried about exceeding your bandwidth limit.
How Can I Reduce My Bandwidth?
If you want to try and reduce your bandwidth instead, you may be able to by reducing the amount of data on your website. Here are a few ways you may be able to do so:
Compress images on your site
Reduce the size of large videos/downloads (e.g. try embedding videos from YouTube rather than uploading the raw file)
Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to store your files separating for faster loading on your website
Conclusion: Is 2gb Bandwidth Sufficient For A Website?
So is 2gb bandwidth sufficient for a website? The answer as we have seen is that it depends on the size of your web pages (KB) as well as the number of views you get each month. How much bandwidth a website needs will vary from one to the next so make sure you know the specifics of your website before you go ahead and make a decision on what type of hosting plan to use.
Does having a blog make you money? If you’ve ever thought about making money online then it’s quite likely you’ve asked yourself this question. The simple is yes having a blog can make you money.
However, simply having a blog doesn’t guarantee you’ll make money. A money making blog is just like any other business – if it’s not done correctly, it won’t make you any money; do it well and could make you plenty.
But be aware from the outset; it’s not an easy or quick route to making money. There are plenty of internet marketers who will tell you they hold the secret that will make you buckets of cash if you just pay them and follow their trusted formula. It’s not to say that none of them are to be trusted as there are plenty of great tutors out there but the best ones will always be upfront about the amount of effort required to get a blog off the ground and generating income.
There’s a lot of things to learn and integrate in order to create a successful blog but the great thing is you don’t need to learn all of them at once and you don’t need to implement everything all at once. Get the core basics right and you’ll be on the right track.
If you’re still reading and are still keen on starting a blog then congratulations because if you can persist with it, blogging still offers one of the best ways to make money online.
Below we’ll take a look at:
How you can monetise your blog
The steps you need to take to start your blog
How Can You Monetise Your Blog?
A blog can be a great tool for making you money through driving users to your content.
There are 5 main ways that you can monetise your web traffic with a blog and make money:-
1 – Affiliate Marketing
One of the most popular ways to monetise blog traffic is via affiliate programs. These programs will pay out a certain $ amount when you refer them customers who purchase their products or services. Possibly the most well known affiliate program is Amazon’s with stories abound of people making life changing money referring shoppers to Amazon products.
They’re not the only game in town however, with plenty of other networks out there offering good commissions for referrals to their products.
Clicks are tracked via cookies and when someone buys after clicking on your link you get paid a commission.
One of the best things about this form of monetisation is that you can (theoretically) start making money with very few visitors especially if they already plan to buy
For example if you had a blog about cycling you could write a series of posts about your favourite types of kit (e.g. lights, bags, cycling shoes) and then link to them on Amazon.
2 – Advertising
Another major way you can monetise your blog is via advertising. There are several platforms out there that will pay you a fee everytime someone either clicks onto an advert on your website or simply sees the ad.
In most cases ads will also be relevant to your content so for example in the cycling blog example if you wrote an article about a recent road trip to Austria, you may find adverts being displayed relevant to that location or products related to cycling tours like insurance.
The most well known ad platform is perhaps Google Adsense where advertisers compete for ad space on your website.
Google Adsense’s own calculator estimates you could make as much as $4k – $7k per month if you have a page that gets at least 50,000 views.
The one major barrier at least at the start for most bloggers is the number of page views you need to start making any real money. However, there’s also nothing stopping you from signing up from day one with zero traffic and seeing the ad revenues grow alongside your blog.
In addition, it’s probably better for your readers to get used to ads from the beginning rather than introducing them later on.
3 – eCommerce
Selling your products or services through an online store is another great way to monetise your blog. This is one of the oldest models but still one of the very best as just about everyone now shops online.
When it comes to physical products you can create your own or sell other companies’ stuff. One of the best ways to sell other company products without having to pay for the inventory upfront is via dropshipping. This is where you display products stocked by others on your website and only order them once a customer actually pays you. It’s a great way to make sure that you don’t invest any money unwisely as you only respond to actual customer demand.
For example in our cycling blog, you might setup a t-shirt dropshipping shop on your site that sells clothing related to cycling and your adventures.
The margins aren’t always too large for dropshipping which is why developing your own product can be attractive if you can find the right item.
4 – Subscriptions
Another alternative source of revenue for your blog could be to offer subscription services for users of your site. This is where you charge a monthly or yearly fee for readers to have access to content or tools or materials that others do not have access to at a price. Think of a newspaper or magazine that has a paywall for certain content.
This can offer a steady and consistent revenue stream as you know how much you’ll get each month for each user you can sign up.
On the cycling blog you might offer a paid subscription service for users to receive exclusive tips on the best riding locations, best upcoming events, exclusive content and how-to videos on different elements of maintaining and handling their bikes.
With a model like this one of the main things to make sure is that you’re offering your subscribers real value.
5 – Coaching
An increasingly popular form of monetisation for your blog is via offering coaching or training services.
If you are in a category that easily lends itself to providing training material on various topics then this could be a good way to add a revenue stream to your blog.
With this avenue, you offer users training material through videos, how-to articles and tools on particular topics. In our cycling blog, this could be courses on advanced riding techniques for example.
Creating learning material can take a lot of effort upfront but if you pick the right topic and you have an engaged audience it could be a revenue earner for some time.
What Steps Do You Need To Take To Start A Blog?
Now you know the 5 main ways you can monetise your blog, let’s take a look at what steps you need to take to actually start your blog.
Step 1 – Decide On A Topic (Niche)
The first thing you need to do is pick a topic for your awesome new blog. The main driving force behind your blog is good quality content. So ideally you want to pick something that will keep you interested and prepared to write consistently.
When deciding on a niche, as well as thinking about a topic that interests you, try to make sure it’s something that will have a big enough audience to make it viable.
A good way to make sure there’ll be enough potential traffic for your new site is to do some keyword research. Simply put keywords are words and phrases in your blog’s content that make it easier for users to find your material via search engines. Keyword optimisation is a big part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If you can find the right keywords from the start of your blogging journey it will make it much easier to rank highly on Google and other search engines like Bing, driving a good level of organic traffic to your website.
There are plenty of tools out that can help you find keywords that have a good level of search volume and won’t be too competitive. One of our favourite ones is KWFinder by Mangools:-
Step 2 – Select A Great Domain Name
Once you have your niche selected, it’s time to find a domain name for your blog. A domain name (URL) is the address that users type into their browsers to find your website. Think of it as the address for your house.
When selecting a domain name try make sure:
It’s memorable
It’s less than 15 characters long
It does not contain any hyphens (associated with spammy sites)
Step 3 – Select A Web Host
Once you have a domain selected, it’s time to choose a web host. Selecting a web host is possibly the biggest decision you’ll have to make as it can make or a break a web site in the long term.
Web hosts provide the necessary infrastructure to make your site live and visible to customers. Think of the web host as the land your house sits on (except it also comes with connections to the utilities). Web hosts allow you to rent out server space alongside other websites typically for an annual or monthly fee.
There are plenty of options out there but our favourite and the one we recommend is Bluehost because:
WordPress is one of, if not the, most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) in the world. A CMS is a fancy way of basically saying a website builder.
Most blogs setup today will be powered by WordPress. It’s so popular because it’s so easy to use and does its job very well.
The great thing with Bluehost (step 4) is the fact when you are setting up your account, it will automatically install WordPress for you. This means as soon as you’re signed up you can get cracking with designing your website.
Step 5 – Get Writing
Now that you’re all setup the only thing left to do is to create great quality content.
The more you write, the easier it will become. Some people manage to get blogs up and running posting one or two articles a week; others with more.
Whatever you decide, just make you keep it consistent.
Does Having A Blog Make You Money?: Tell us what you think.
How do I start my own blog and make money? It’s a question you may have asked yourself a 100’s of times over and if you are reading this are asking it again.
The fact is blogging is one of the best ways to create an income stream online these days and has been so for some time.
Let’s get one thing straight though, making money online via blogging is more than possible but it’s not easy.
There are plenty of places online that will tell you it’s easy as signing up to their course or just a matter of doing it. But it’s not that straightforward; if it was everyone you know would be doing it.
The likelihood is though you’re in a minority. This is mainly because people fear they simply wouldn’t know where to start.
Starting your own blog and making money is not easy but it is definitely SIMPLE.
How Do I Start My Own Blog and Make Money: 6 Steps
To see how simple it is, let’s walk through the 6 (six) steps we’ve followed to start our blogs and what you’ll need to do.
Step 1 – Select A Topic
The first step is critical – selecting a topic. There’s plenty of advice which suggests it’s a good idea to pick a topic you’re “passionate” about. Whilst this is all well and good, the topics you’re passionate about won’t necessary be the topics that will drive visitors to your website and allow you to monetise that traffic.
If you can find a topic that you find interesting and is also popular with readers than great otherwise aim for a topic that you wouldn’t mind writing about and is popular.
Ultimately at this stage you need to decide if what you’re after is a passion project or a business. While it is quite possible to have both, if this is your first blog you may want to think about what is likely to keep you motivated more; writing about your passion or making money.
A great way to find out how much interest there is in your potential topic is by seeing how many people are searching for it on Google. This is particularly important if you’re hoping to drive the majority of your traffic from search engines. Head over to Ubersuggest.com which is a great free tool for doing high level keyword research.
Step 2 – Select A Platform
Once you have your topic, it’s time to think about which blogging platform you want to use to actually build and write the blog.
This platform is sometimes termed as a Content Management System (CMS) is the place that will be the hub of your blog.
Possibly the most popular CMS in the world is WordPress and it’s what we use to build our websites and also recommend to anyone who asks.
We’re big fans because it’s so simple and intuitive to use when you’re beginner but has a ton of depth that you can use to grow your blog as your level of expertise and experience increases.
WordPress is automatically installed when you sign up to Bluehost (step 4) which also another plus.
Step 3 – Pick A Domain Name
To get to your blog, readers will need a unique and catchy address to be directed to. Your domain name (URL) is your blog’s address on the web and what your brand will be based on.
It is a big decision but it shouldn’t be daunting a task if you follow some simple recommended best practices:-
i – Keep it short (ideally 15 characters or less)
ii – Make it easy to remember
iii – Make it easy to pronounce
iv – Keep it relevant to your topic
v – Avoid hyphens as these are more associated with spamming
Step 4 – Pick A Hosting Provider
Now you’re ready to make another big decision; selecting a web host for your blog.
A web host provides you with a place to store all of your blog’s data that’s needed for it to run and keeps it online. They typically rent out server space to you and lots of other websites. Think of the web host as providing you with the land and all the utilities you need to build your house (your blog).
There’s a whole bunch of choice out there when it comes to selecting a hosting platform for your blog.
We recommend Bluehost which is one of the most popular options on the market. It’s what we’ve used to create all our websites and enjoy the simplicity of the setup process as well as the friendly pricing. The 24/7 tech support that Bluehost also offers is a a real must if you’re a beginner or don’t have more of the technical background you might need for some issues. I’ve often used the chat function at midnight on a weekend!
Whichever hosting provider you choose make sure you pick one that gives you the right level of technical support, guarantees good uptime and suits your budget.
Step 5 – Get Writing
Once you’re all setup on your new hosting platform, it’s time to get writing!
If this is your first blog or even if it isn’t, you might be worried about making your first articles perfect. For now don’t worry so much about that as much as you should just focus on writing regularly.
If you can commit to writing every day especially in the first 90 days you’ll give yourself a much better chance of sticking to it.
Step 6 – Find A Reason To Keep Writing
Whilst the first few days and weeks will seem like fun there may come a time early on where you’ll be discouraged for one reason or another.
When that inevitably happens, try to remind yourself of why you started your blog in the first place. Stick with it through those early rough patches and give it a chance to grow.
Keep reminding yourself of your goal and that should see you through any early obstacles.
Conclusion
To wrap it up – we’ve seen what you need to do to get your blog up and running towards making you money.
If you’ve made the decision to start your blog already or just now; do not wait. Sign up right away whether that’s with Bluehost or somewhere else. Don’t let another week, month or year go by without you taking the action you’ve been dreaming about for so long.
Do you have to pay for web hosting? The short answer is no but if you are serious about making your blog or website successful then the answer is most definitely yes. There are some critical reasons why this is the case that we get into below.
But before we do that let’s just make sure we know what the options are.
What Is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is a service that stores and operates your website’s online presence. Think of it as rented accommodation for your website.
It’s what allows your website to exist, operate and be found online by your users.
Free Web Hosting
So do you have to pay for web hosting? As we mentioned the simple answer is no you do not have to pay for web hosting. There are plenty of free website options out there that mean you won’t need to pay for hosting. Let’s take a quick look at a few:
WordPress.com:– They’ll let you setup a website for free and they’re one of the most popular platforms around.
Wix.com: You can setup a free website with their slick looking templates and be up and running quickly.
There are plenty of others out there but these two are the ones we’ve had personal experience with.
What Are The Pros of Free Web Hosting?
It’s Free
You guessed it – top of the list is the fact your web hosting comes completely free. We mention this again because it allows you the freedom to play around with different ideas and start to get used to building out websites without having to spend any money.
You Can Experiment
Theres no real limit on how many free websites you can start and play around with which is great for you fleshing out ideas. My free WordPress dashboard is littered with short-lived experiments. If I get started with something for free on WordPress that I think has legs I switch across to Bluehost which is a paid for web host that includes WordPress automatically.
What Are The Cons of Free Web Hosting?
You Don’t Get The Full Package
As you might expect, with free web hosting you do not get the full benefits that a hosting platform has to offer. The area you may feel this the most is for example not being able to install plugins for WordPress which will severely limit your ability to optimise your website’s performance. Though this may not seem like much of a concern when you’re just starting out, it will very quickly limit your ambitions of you hope to grow your site beyond a little hobby.
You Won’t Be Able To Brand It
A major drawback of free hosting plans is that you’ll be very limited in terms of branding. As the hosting platform is giving you the service for free they’ll also be free to plaster their brand across your site as they see fit – typically this in the form of advertising.
You Can’t Name Your Baby
Perhaps the most pressing issue for you if you’re trying to develop a brand and following is the fact you won’t get a custom domain name. Your site will carry the name of the provider so for example mysite.wordpress.com. This will make it very difficult for you to try and build credibility with an audience.
You Won’t Be Able To Fully Monetise Your Site
Another significant downer with free hosting plans is that you won’t be able to fully monetise your site. The biggest limitation will come in advertising; your web hosting provider will be able to display their own ads on your site. In many cases they may even restrict you from displaying your own ads. This will hamper your efforts to create a revenue stream from your web traffic if you get to those levels.
What Are The Benefits Of Paid Hosting Plans?
You Get Full Control
The biggest benefit of a paid hosting plan over a free plan is the fact you get absolute full control over your website. You don’t have the many restrictions that you get with free plans meaning you can grow your site as you need to and make use of all the tools available on platforms like Bluehost and WordPress.
You Can Use Your Own Domain Name
Another major plus of paid hosting plans over free ones is the fact you can use your own unique domain name for your website. You have the option of purchasing your domain separately from places like GoDaddy.com or getting them as part of a paid hosting plan with providers like Bluehost. This will give you more credibility with potential customers and a better chance of ranking highly on Google to generate your search engine traffic.
You Can Fully Monetise Your Site
If like a lot of people you want to make money from your website then a paid web hosting plan is really the only way to go. As you have complete control you can pick and choose what advertising goes onto your website rather than not being able to advertise at all. There are also no restrictions on actually making money on your website that you get with a lot of free plans.
What’s The Best Web Hosting Platform?
It’s clear that there are many major advantages to paid web hosting plans. Once you’ve made the choice to go the paid route, you then need to decide which one to go for.
We recommend Bluehostbecause of its excellent service, brilliant technical support and affordable pricing. We also recommend as it’s what we use for our websites and it’s been awesome. Check it out here to get a free domain included with your setup.
So in summary, do you have to pay for web hosting? The quick answer is no but if you want to grow your website from a little hobby to something that makes an impact and has the potential to make you money then a paid hosting plan really is the only way.
Do You Have To Pay For Web Hosting?: Tell us what you think!
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