Step-by-step Guide on How to Start a Blog as a College Student
In terms of online earning opportunities, blogging is one of the most trusted & stable means of earning money.
In this post, I have shared a detailed guide on how to start a blog & make money online. This post is going to be a bit lengthy but, trust me! – if you invest the next 5 to 10 minutes reading this post, then it will be worth it.
Blogging refers to self-publishing written or visual content on a blog or website. The content that you are reading right now is also a part of a blog.
When I first started blogging, it took me around 1 year to start making money & in the initial phases of the second year, I was making only 7 – 10k per month. But as my audience grows, I have scaled it to more than 1 Lakh per month.
But the journey doesn’t remain the same. At one point, I became super lazy and stopped working on my blog – & as a result, I came back from 1 Lakh to 20K per month. Then I realized that I need to work continuously to keep making money.
Now, at present, I have a team of freelancers who write content for me & I don’t have to work that much & with a series of efforts, I have reclaimed my earning goal.
Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time, somewhere between 6 months to a year to make money. However, It is one of the most stable earning sources & makes you thousands of dollars with consistent efforts.
Let’s start by knowing what Blogging is & how you can get started!
What is Blogging?
As I have discussed earlier, Blogging refers to publishing content on your blog/ website & making it available online.
A blog or a website is a platform or web page where bloggers post content regularly. Here Blogger refers to the person posting content.
Before we jump into our discussion on how to start a blog. Let me tell you a few prerequisites. Here are a few things that you will need to start your blog:
- A smartphone or computer.
- 30 – 50 minutes of your valuable time to set up your blog.
- A domain name & web hosting to create your website (discussed later)
Total Investment:
- A domain name & web hosting from Hostinger (Cost ₹ 3,540 for 12 months including GST)
Please note that the above cost of web hosting & domain name is for one year. In the next year, you have to renew your plan.
If you are thinking that this investment is too big, then trust me that the learning & resources you will get will help you make money for a lifetime.
Still, if you think you can’t afford that much then you can go for any of the below cheaper hosting packages:
In this step-by-step guide, I have used Hostinger. You can choose from any of the above hosting providers & the process will remain somewhat the same. Let’s find out how you can start a blog as a college student.
Step-by-step Guide to Start a Blog as a College Student
To make it easy for you to start your blog, I have split the completed process into 7 easy steps. Follow the below steps & you are good to go. This guide will help you learn how you can start a blog as a college student & make awesome money!
Let’s dive into Step #1.
Step 1: Decide the Topic/Niche of your blog
The first thing you have to do before you even start is to know the niche or topic on which you will start your blog.
Make sure that whatever you choose is the one that you are passionate about & you can make money in it.
A perfect niche is the one in which you are passionate & at the same time it is profitable. Being passionate about something means you can keep working on it, even if you don’t get paid for at least 6 months to a year.
Below is the list of some of the profitable niches that you can get started with if you are passionate about them:
- Traveling
- Health & Fitness
- Finance
- Gaming
- Politics
- Entertainment
- Relationship Advice
- Gardening
- DIY
Whatever niche you are going to choose, make sure that you can keep working on it, even if you don’t get paid.
My Example: I am interested in renewable energy, So recently I have started a blog on it & it’s been almost 1 year since I have not made any money from it. But the traffic is growing & soon I will be making money from it. You can visit my blog here: Solar Funda!
I hope you will be able to find a niche for yourself. Now let’s move to the second step, where we have to choose a name for our blog.
Step 2: Choose a name for your blog
The next step is to choose the name of your blog and make sure it is available for purchase. When choosing a name for your blog, make sure it is easy to remember.
Here are some examples of good domain names:
- HealthLine.com (Health Niche)
- Wanderlust.co.uk (Travel Niche)
- AWaytoGaden.com (Gardening Niche)
In the same way, you have to choose a name for your blog. Once you have done that, follow Step #3.
Till now, you have chosen your Blogging niche & selected the perfect name for your blog. In the next step, we will learn how to purchase a domain name & web hosting.
Step 3: Buy Web Hosting & Domain Name
A domain name is the name of the website (e.g. www.fullonstudy.com), & web hosting refers to the space required to store the files of a website. These resources are not free & you have to pay an early subscription to get them.
In this step, we will learn how you can purchase web hosting & domain name from Hostinger. Follow the below steps & you are good to go!
#1. Click on the link below to visit the official website of Hostinger & claim your 50% OFF & Free Domain Name (usually cost INR 602/yr) on web hosting.
#2. Next, you will be redirected to the below page.
#3. Scroll a little & you will see the pricing table. Here from these three pricing options, I suggest going for the Premium Web Hosting plan as a beginner because it comes with a free domain name.
You can also go for a Single Web Hosting plan, but you have to also purchase a domain name (INR 602). Also, fewer resources are available in the Single Web Hosting plan.
#4. Click on Add to Cart & you will be redirected to the Cart where you have to make some changes.
You have to first select the duration for which you want to buy web hosting on this page. I suggest going for at least a 12-month plan. If you need a higher discount, then you may go for a 24 or 48 months plan.
#5. Scroll a little & you will find the domain name section from where you can add a free domain to your cart.
Enter your desirable domain name & select the .com extension & perform a search.
Please note that the domain name you are looking for may or may not be available. In case if it is not available, then either make changes in it or go for another name.
Next, you have to add your searched domain name to the cart – which is 100% free!
#6. Click on Checkout Now & log in either with email or directly with Google or Facebook.
#7. Choose any of the below Payment Methods & make payment.
Step 4: Install WordPress & Get Started
WordPress is one of the best choices to start a blog. It is secure, SEO friendly & can be easily used without any coding skills.
After you have made your payment, you will be redirected to the Hostinger Dashboard. Here you will find a variety of sections.
Follow the below series of steps to install WordPress in your web hosting.
#1. First, find the Website section in your Hostinger dashboard. It will look similar to the one in the below image.
#2. Find WordPress from the list & click Select.
#3. Next, fill in the following details & Install.
Step 5: Customize your Blog
#1. In order to customize your blog, you have to first visit the admin panel of your website. You can do this by clicking the Edit Website button in the Hostinger Dashboard.
You can also log in to your admin panel by pasting the below URL in to the address bar.
http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin (replace yourdomain.com with your domain name).
& login with the details you have filled in the #4 of Step 4.
#2. After you log in to your Dashboard, you can customize your blog by visiting the Customize section.
Step 6: Add Content to your Blog
Till now, we have seen how you can create a blog, but a blog is nothing if you don’t post content regularly. Before you start posting content to your blog, make a proper plan.
It includes how many articles you will be publishing every week. I personally publish at least 2 articles every week.
In order to publish content in your WordPress blog, you have to visit Posts >> Add New in your WP admin panel.
In this way, you can publish posts on your blog.
Step 7: Start Making Money
Once you have posted around 10 posts on your blog & started getting traffic from the search engines, then you can consider monetizing your blog via various ad networks like Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate, Infolinks, etc.
You can sign up for the following ad networks using the below links:
You can also check how much you can make with Google Adsense on the Earning Calculator page by Google.
This is how you can start making money via your blog. Let us conclude what we have already discussed in this guide.
Conclusion
I have made thousands of dollars from blogging & I think it is one of the best & most stable ways to make money online. But, one thing I want to clear is that – making money via blogging is a long-term task. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme!
In this detailed guide, I have shared a detailed guide on how to start a blog as a college student using Hostinger web hosting.
I have broken down the complete post into a series of steps so as to make it easy for you to understand.
I hope you will be able to create your own blog following this guide. If you have any queries or questions, leave a comment below this post – or you can DM me on Instagram @itsharishjoshi.
You can appreciate my efforts by sharing this post with your friends & family.
Thank you – & see you soon in the next post!