Blogging has become an attractive form of work for anybody with a passion for a specific topic, however, running a successful blog nowadays isn’t as cheap as it used to be. You have a whole load to think about, including marketing and maintenance, which can add up if you’re not careful. You can do a lot of the groundwork yourself, but you need to understand that there is a trade-off between time spent and money spent; when you do everything yourself, be prepared to spend a whole load of time.
Sort out your hosting
For people to see your site, it needs to be hosted on a server. There are many different server solutions available, including cloud servers; some will be cheaper but some will have better security features too. Your hosting solution should cost anything from £4 to £20 per month, depending on the bandwidth, hosting space and performance you need. You will get a better deal (and be able to create content without worrying) if you pay for several months upfront – depending on the amount you save it might be worth paying upfront using an online loan. If your savings interest rate is higher than your loan’s interest rate, you’re coming out on top.
Choose a domain
You then need to choose a domain name, otherwise known as a web address. You can do this on several websites, but it will be another cost you need to pay. Alternatively, you could use WordPress and sacrifice a fully custom domain name for a free website. You don’t even need to pay WordPress for hosting! If you’re truly working on a budget, this will be your best option, as it will allow you to migrate your website to a proper domain name once you know your blog is getting traction to justify spending more money on it. When picking your blog’s name, you should make it catchy but not too complicated, something that people won’t forget.
Start publishing and promoting content
Your content is obviously what you should be excelling at. Try to publish content very regularly and make sure it is as high quality as you can make it. Regularly doesn’t mean frequently – if you posted just one high-quality blog on the same day every month, your viewers would likely prioritise you over somebody posting a very low-quality blog every day. It’s well worth dedicating time to improving your writing skills and becoming a true expert at your topic.
You should then heavily promote your content. Plaster it over your social media and try to get people you know to read it first. If they genuinely like it, they will start to share it with their friends and it could snowball. In real life, it is rarely that simple. To support your traction, you will likely need to do some marketing. When you’re on a budget, you could set a small pay-per-click budget, but you could also spend your time learning the basics of SEO. This will take some time, but SEO is vital in modern digital marketing, to do without it would greatly hinder your growth. Be prepared for growth to be slow, but focus on building a steady audience and making regular gains in viewership if you want to achieve long-term success.