Want to chat?

Ready to start a blog? That's so exciting! Blogging has completely changed my life. Blogging took me from being on food stamps to making six-figures. I'm so excited to help you get started blogging. I've put together a few resources to help you start a blog.

How to start a blog four-part guide:

Part 1 - How to Start a Blog: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/how-to-create-a-blog

Part 2 - Choosing and Installing your First Theme: https://www.taylorstanford.com/how-to-install-a-wordpress-theme

Part 3 - Creating your First Logo: https://www.taylorstanford.com/how-to-create-a-header-or-logo

Part 4 - Plugins you Need for your Blog: https://www.taylorstanford.com/how-to-install-plugins

In-depth 30-day course to go from no blog to a successfully launched blog: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/how-to-create-a-blog

What are your interests? Then break down the following for each of your interests. You can always talk about a few different things on the same blog as long as you pick a name that can fit all of them.

How do you plan to monetize it if you plan to? Are there easy to use affiliate programs for that topic like Amazon, Target, or products on Share-a-sale?

Do you care about that topic? Then it is easy to write about it.

Do you have any unique knowledge on that topic? That makes it easy to offer services, or create e-books or products you can later advertise in your products.

Do you have knowledge in that topic that would be interesting or entertaining for other people to learn? That makes people more likely to read it.

There is no special number of posts. I would say launch after you have 1-2 blog posts, a privacy policy, a contact page, and an about page.

I would write one a week. More if you know you can handle it but if all you have time for right now is one post a week then just write one post a week.

Unfortunately, technical help can be far too hardware specific and require access to backend details that I cannot access to fully help. Here are some resources that can help.

Help with Bluehost/WordPress? Check out BluePrint Beginner's Guide: https://www.bluehost.com/blueprint

Using a different hosting service? Almost every issue you encounter can be solved by a google search. You will almost never be the first person to encounter an issue. The solutions are out there! You just have to search for them!

Issues with specific services/programs? Reach out to those companies’ support teams. They will be able to assist you much better than me or my team will be able to help!

Picking out a domain name aka .com for your blog can be hard! I struggled with it for sure.

However, before I offer the little bit of advice I have on the subject I wanted to say this.

Your domain name really doesn't matter. Most people won't be typing in your domain name they will find your website on social media, and won't even notice your domain name. So if you are struggling to come up with a domain name don't overthink it.

I always suggest someone uses their first name and then the last name as their domain name because if your blog gets popular it gives you much more recognition and allows people to know you.

If you don't want to use your first and last name, or it isn't available then I like domain names like.

The(topic your talking about)life.com

-TheDIYlife.com

LifeWithThe(your lastname)s.com

-LifeWithTheStanfords.com

(your first name)sjourneywith(your topic).com

-TaylorsJourneyWithBlogging.com

(topic 1)(topic 2)and(topic 3).com

-FoodFantisesandVacations.com

Hopefully, this at least helps you start brainstorming!

Don't overthink it.

Oh no! sometimes technology fails us. I want to make sure you get every day of my 6 day email course on how to start a blog.

If you didn't get a day of my email course, or if you want to look back on a day click here to get any day you are missing right away.

Here is a recent blog post I wrote about the Five Main Ways Bloggers Make Money: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/5-ways-to-make-moneyiption

How long it takes to make money, and how much money you can make blogging really depends on many factors. How much time you put into it, how much you already know about writing good content, how you are going to monetize it, the audience you are trying to reach, and what you want to talk about.

I started my blog part-time and did it part-time until I quit my job to do it full-time about 7/8 months into it. About one year in, I was making around $3-4 thousand per month, and now (5 years later) I make between $20K and $60K per month. So you can totally do it part-time and eventually full-time.

It depends on your niche/topic! Affiliate programs can greatly vary from topic to topic. My advice is to google search "best affilaite programs for (your topic) bloggers."

I think the best affiliate programs for everyone are Amazon Associates, Target Affiliates, and the many programs on Share-a-Sale. They have so many different products from trusted brands which makes it much easier to advertise when people already trust it.

Amazon Associates: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

Target Affiliates: https://affiliate.target.com/

Share-A-Sale: https://www.shareasale.com/info/

When you are getting started in affiliate marketing things have changed a little. Now when you are getting started in affiliate marketing I recommend having an about page, a contact page, a privacy policy, and a few blog posts.

The posts can be about anything related to what you want to talk about on your blog. That way when you apply for programs they have an idea of what you're going to blog about.n

Now that more people are diving into affiliate marketing companies are being more strict with who they let through because they don't want their products to be misrepresented.

My advice would be to get your blog launched, have an about and a contact page, and maybe one or two blog posts then try and apply again. If that doesn’t work maybe try growing one or two social media accounts such as Instagram, and Pinterest to show them you are someone they should want to work with.

Here is a guide on claiming your website on Pinterest: https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/claim-your-website

Here is my best advice on how to grow organically on Pinterest.

Make 10-15 boards on different topics you plan to blog about.

Pin 10-20 times per day.

Pin each blog post you write to at least 3-5 different boards you have.

On each pin you make from your website you want the photo to be longer than it is wide, Canva has a free template.

For each pin description from your website you are going to want to make it: a sentence that someone would search for, then a few keywords. For Example: “How to Plan a Vacation on a Budget. Here is how my family and I plan vacations on a budget. We love to travel even though we have to travel for cheap.”

Tailwind is a service to schedule and make pins.

Here is an article on Tailwind: https://louisem.com/264209/tailwind-pinterest

Here is a link to sign-up for Tailwind: https://www.tailwindapp.com/?sscid=61k5_5803o&ref=affiliate&affiliate_id=1646279&utm_source=ShareASale&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=1646279

How I used Pinterest to Grow my Business from $30K to $400K per year: https://www.taylorstanford.com/blog/how-i-used-pinterest-to-grow-my-business

The way I recommend growing a following on Instagram is to pick like 5 popular accounts that talk about what you want to talk about or do what you want to do. Then look at these things for each of them. Then make averages for each of them and try and follow them.

Here is what to look at / Average:

How often do they post?

How many hashtags do they use?

How long are their captions?

Do they use the same filters on each photo? / have photos that go together or in specific orders?

Here is what to look at / do:

What hashtags do they use?

Do all of their photos have the same filter?

What do they put in their photos?

Comment on their photos each time they post, and like the comments of other people who comment on them.

Like & comment on photos under the hashtags they use (make them thoughtful good comments.