Many people wonder if blogging is still profitable and how to start a blog and make money in 2026. Since starting my blog in 2020, I have had many ups and downs, but I never thought of giving up on it. Firstly, the list of my readers is substantially growing. Secondly, it started to bring in good money every month.
If you are thinking about starting your blog and making money with it this year, this guide will help you to finally make up your mind. Before you jump in, let me quickly confirm your biggest question…YES! Blogging CAN replace your full-time job and set you up for that nomad lifestyle you dream of.
Essential Steps to Start a Successful Blog
Without further delay, let’s dive in so you can start working on your own blog ASAP. Don’t get me wrong; the whole preparation will take you some time. You need to figure out these steps before you get to the technical part of actually setting up your blog.
- Choose your blog niche wisely
- Pick the blogging platform
- Get a hosting plan + domain name
- Technical part – setting up your blog
Choosing Your Blog Niche
What is that one thing you have a burning passion about? What is that one topic you can go on and on about for hours, and you never run out of thoughts and ideas? THAT is what your blog niche and primary focus should be set on.
It’s very tempting to jump on the hype train and start a blog about trending topics or celebrity gossip. But unless you want to completely burn out in less than 3 months, I would not recommend it. Many people start a blog about finances or a luxury lifestyle to sell courses only. That’s another dead end. Don’t be a scammer.
People are starting to notice patterns when it comes to such creators. Your readers will ALWAYS be able to tell if you are faking it, writing about something you have no interest in, or simply using ChatGPT to write articles for you. Such bloggers don’t even bother to edit their articles; they copy and paste them in and publish without ever reading them.
Now, I know some people who don’t write their blog posts but rather pay other people to do it. But the posts still align with their passion. In fact, I hire virtual assistants to help me with writing blog posts, too. Maybe you are just not good with words, and that’s okay. Or maybe your blog is bringing so much monthly traffic that you need fresh content and help with managing it.
There is nothing wrong with using helpful tools (and we have so many these days!). But what I’m trying to say is, PLEASE pick a niche that reflects your values, core beliefs and true passion. Not only will the writing part be so much easier for you, but your readers will see how much you can ignite for the topic. And THAT will bring in the traffic and eventually money. People buy from people. In this case, people want to hear from a real person.
Do you have to settle for one specific niche? Of course not. But remember, for better ranking and user experience, it is best if you pick ONE main niche. You want to ultimately position yourself as the expert for that particular niche. So you become the person people go to when they struggle with that ONE specific problem. You see now where we are headed?
Lifestyle blogs used to be popular, and some still are these days. But people also get easily overwhelmed nowadays, especially when they just want to read that recipe you posted on FB. Or they are looking for tips and inspiration. They don’t want to scroll through hundreds of unrelated topics. Unless you wish to be like “The Everygirl” blog and include EVERYTHING possible.
Pick the Blogging Platform
I only use and recommend WordPress. Are there other platforms, such as Wix or Shopify? Yes, there are many. BUT! WordPress is already a well-established platform that supports bloggers with its functionality, plugins and possibilities for themes and layouts. Plus, it’s beginner-friendly and has a long-term advantage compared to other platforms.
You can either set up a blog on WordPress.com or, if you want to truly be the owner of your own blogging business, set it up via WordPress.org. Scroll down for the step-by-step guide on how to do so exactly.
Get a Hosting Plan and Domain Name
You are trying to build your own brand and business. Therefore, you need to think about aspects such as your logo and your business name, which is preferably your domain name too. Most bloggers prefer a domain ending with “.com” for global recognition, but you can always keep it local.
I highly recommend self-hosting your blog so you are in full control of your business. The best and cheapest option is Bluehost, which will cost you as little as £2 per month. But personally, the platform I use and recommend is Hostinger. Even though the cost is higher, Bluehost tends to be unreliable, and the support is just awful.
Write and Publish First Posts
From personal experience, I recommend preparing your blog and having at least 20 posts ready to publish before launching it. The reason behind this is simple – when you launch and people love your first posts, they want to read more, so it’s great if you can feed their curiosity with more content.
Don’t let your blog sit there empty for too long. Many people want to launch quickly and apply for AdSense right away, but then they are disappointed because Google has refused their application. This happens due to low-quality content and space on pages. Think about your blog as a business. When you launch, you want to show the world the best of your content.
Stay patient, work in silence, and then let the success make a noise! When I launched my blog, I got over 500 visitors in less than two weeks. To me, it was a huge success. But I did not have more posts ready, and so the traffic quickly went down. Don’t repeat my mistake, and prepare as many great articles for your new readers as possible before you start shouting from the rooftop about your new venture.
Focus on topics you are the most passionate about. Forget about the “About me” page; nobody reads that until you are established (harsh truth, but that’s the reality). Bring in amazing, inspirational and educational content, and people will come for it.
Start promoting your blog
You are now your own boss, but also your brand. Therefore, it is up to you to market and sell yourself to the world. This is usually the part that people struggle the most with. They don’t want to put in the work, promote their blog on social media or even talk about it. But let me be crystal clear…sitting and only writing will take you nowhere. You can be the best publisher in the world, and your posts the most incredible reading. But without people coming to your blog and sticking around, it won’t matter.
This is why I keep repeating that your blog has to reflect who you are. People will fall in love with your content as much as they will love your personality. They will come if you are true to yourself, your beliefs, thoughts and actions.
The best platforms to promote your blog will always be Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. I can’t even tell you how many communities I’m now part of, from Facebook groups to Discord chats. But you don’t have to manage all of these; pick one you are the most comfortable with and actively post about the topic related to your posts. You will need to get creative now and then to bring in views/traffic, but that’s the fun part! In my communities, we support each other by visiting our blogs, commenting and sharing for engagement.
Technical Part – How to Set Up Your Blog
In this guide, I will describe how to use both WordPress.com and WordPress.org blogs. You should go for WordPress.com if you want a quick launch with no fuss and if you want to start it as a hobby or a small business. It comes with free hosting, but you can pay extra for other plans. The customisation is limited, some plugins work only on paid plans, and the monetisation is also limited. But you don’t have to worry about hosting, technical issues, security or updates.
WordPress.org, on the other hand, is a great option if you want your blog to be a business making money and if you want full control over it. That means that you can design the website exactly how you want it; you can install any plugin (if they are not breaking your site, of course!) and any theme. There is also the freedom of monetisation (ads, affiliates, sponsors). But you will have to self-host (easily done by a 3rd party) and manage all the technical aspects, security, updates and troubleshooting.
How To Set Up WordPress.com Blog
To set up a WordPress.com blog, head to the https://wordpress.com/ website and click ‘Get started’. You will need to create a free account and choose your blog type (what kind of blog you want to work with). Then you need to type your ideal blog name and domain (you can get a free domain, but it’s also better to own one!). After that, you simply need to choose a plan (beginners go for the free one, of course) and pick a theme.
Don’t worry too much about the ideal theme, as you will most likely change it later on to adjust the functionality, colours and aesthetics of your website. You can also download WordPress.com to your computer and manage it as an app. After you are done with customising the chosen theme and inserting plugins, write your first post and launch your blog. It’s that simple.
If you have never worked with WordPress before, I recommend watching some YouTubers like Ferdy Korpershoek, Sarah Marie Blog, Sophia Lee, etc. All the functions might feel a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but trust me, it’s nothing to be scared of. Once you learn the basic navigation through the menu, it will all come together.
I would recommend not wasting too much time on the setup at the beginning and not installing too many plugins (your site might start crashing). Use the bare minimum you need for editing, optimising images, SEO and making the theme look clean and professional. You can adjust it later when you start getting traffic in.
How to Set Up WordPress.org Blog
Going for a self-hosted WordPress.org blog means that you will be the true owner of your blog and have complete control over it. But I will be honest, it’s a bit tricky to set it up. You will need to set up your own database locally and manage it via your hosting. I recommend starting with Bluehost, as it’s the cheapest option, buying a domain and setting up a WordPress blog. Because if you decide in the next few months that blogging is not for you after all, the loss of your finances won’t be too significant.
For a start, head to Bluehost.com and click on Getting Started. Choose your ideal plan and proceed to create your account. Bluehost gives you a free domain for the first year, and you can purchase a new one or reuse an already existing domain. After filling in your information and setting up a payment method, your account will be good to go.
Proceed to log in to your Bluehost account, and the guide will pop up to help you set up WordPress. The process is beginner-friendly, and Bluehost does it now automatically. You need to name your blog, choose the theme you love and finish the setup. Once setup is done, log in to your new blog using the admin URL above.
That’s the easy part. You can now customise your theme, write first posts and install plugins. With Bluehost and WordPress.org, you are in full control of your business. Now for the tough part. You need to pay attention to where to log in. It happened to me before that I was in the middle of launching my first blog, only to realise that it was moved to WordPress.com. That’s when I learnt about setting up my database and running my blog via hosting. I use FileZilla and XAMPP. I highly recommend these step-by-step guides: How to Install WordPress in XAMPP: Step-by-Step Tutorial and How to Install WordPress Using FTP FileZilla.
This is how the phpMyAdmin should look after successfully creating your database:
I know it sounds all scary and technical, but in principle, you are self-hosting your website, and you need to store all the data, files and updates somewhere, right? And this is what it all is. You will be able to remove troubling files or plugins or restore backups here. If you struggle to launch your blog, have any technical issues, or the blog does not seem to work properly, email me, and we will figure it out together! 🙂
Avoid These Common Mistakes…
In general, there are four principles to keep in mind when you start your blogging business. I’m sure there are so many other mistakes you should be avoiding, but from personal experience, I recommend watching out for:
- Starting on a free platform.
- Not writing for your targeted audience.
- Trying to write about everything (jumping from niche to niche)
- Giving up too early.
As I mentioned before, you HAVE to decide before starting whether your blog is your journal/hobby or if you want to take it to a different level and make money. Because if you want to treat it as a business, you need to set it up in such a way from the beginning. Similarly, jumping from one trendy niche to another will only confuse the algorithm and Google’s SEO, and it will be such a setback when it comes to growing your audience.
It’s quite simple, actually. Don’t spend too much money when starting. Focus your time and energy on writing for people you want to attract about topics you are passionate about. Ask yourself, who are your ideal readers? If you want to please everyone just to get the traffic flowing in and make tonnes of money, you are setting yourself up for a sour disappointment.
With that being said…don’t give up too early. If you feel like you do your best, you write with your heart, focus on SEO and social media, and build up your audience, but you don’t see the traffic, don’t despair. It takes 4 to 6 months for your new blog to establish itself and attract a high volume of traffic. Stay consistent. Be patient. Keep learning. Traffic alone isn’t the goal — authority is.
A Secret Tip That Will Put You Ahead of Others
The sooner you understand that blogging is a long-term kind of business, and every decision, every post and keyword you choose matters, the faster you get ahead of others. Blogging is competitive and requires strategy and creative thinking. There will be times when you feel tempted to jump on the trendy train of using AI to generate your posts. Don’t do that, please.
The most successful blogs I know focus on growing their email list, keeping loyal readers engaged and entertained enough to come back and reinvest earned money into better content, tools, and design. They build long-lasting communities, based on evergreen content that attracts generations of people, solving their issues. Yes, you can succeed with content focused on trends, current gossip and “what brings in the traffic”. But how long will you last before a burnout?
Likewise, using generic AI tools won’t do you any good; both Google and Pinterest are catching up and banning them from ad revenue. Be authentic, but with purpose. Have a business plan and content calendar ready. Interlink all your posts to build authority brick by brick. By consistently doing so, you will trigger the avalanche of traffic, now authorised by Google as valuable.
And once you do, applying for advertising agencies and affiliates becomes easier. You will secure a better deal with higher payouts, even sponsored posts, and other sites linking to your blog (building backlinks). If you follow this path, you will start to see the results. It might start with the first $50 from AdSense or paid posts. Or an opportunity, a client or a job brought to you thanks to your site. That’s the beauty of blogging. It does not limit you.
Once you learn how to earn online, that knowledge stays with you. You will be able to stack the income from various streams (digital products, partners, programmes, sponsorships, etc.). And that’s about it, really. Most bloggers focus on fast monetisation, which makes sense. But if you shift your energy to evergreen, helpful and thriving content, you will ultimately unlock the hidden potential most bloggers miss.
I will give you an example – I used to focus on trending, short-term content. My blog posts were mostly pillar-style, easy to write, and quick to edit. Yes, they brought clicks and visits, but they died so fast that the only way to keep up was to post more than 5 times a week. The same happened to my Instagram. I was stressed and burnt out, and I no longer enjoyed sitting down to write. The money I made was nothing compared to the headache of searching topics and coming up with fresh content weekly.
Nowadays, I plan my content very carefully and strategically. Everything I post links to my previous posts, creating a cohesive, evergreen web of educational, helpful content. And that’s the secret to successful blogging: it’s all about a clear vision and purpose, not greed. Do yourself, your readers and the world a favour – focus on others and try to be there, listen, teach and help.
Final Thoughts
Every day, someone buys a domain, starts a website, and, with big goals and beautiful dreams, starts a blog. For some, that becomes the best decision of their lives, turning their careers and lifestyles upside down, allowing them to quit their 9-to-5 jobs or travel the world. But it comes with a price. Many will fail too, and which side you end up on is entirely up to you.
Treat your blog as a business from day one. That’s the one piece of advice I give to all new bloggers. I’ve been in the blogging business since 2019, rebranding twice and asking myself every day if it’s worth it. You don’t have to, because many creators like me are trying to spare you from the same mistakes. But you have to take blogging seriously. Unless you wish to keep it as your personal, online journal.
The help is available for you here, without having to pay hundreds or thousands for a course. I’m a firm believer in education, and I think information should be free. But many would disagree and charge you a kidney for a generic course, created 5 minutes ago in Canva, that won’t help you anyway. I was once there, confused and desperate, so I decided to help others for free. I created this blog with a focus on my business operations and systems work, because that’s what I do in real life.
But I quickly realised that people are here for answers to other problems, such as starting online businesses and having trouble navigating through all the resources. So if you wish to follow along, feel free to join in and subscribe to my email list. That way, you receive notification of fresh content and never miss it again. Because even if one blog post might help you turn your career, business or lifestyle towards your dream life, it’s absolutely worth it.
FAQS about Starting a Blog in 2026
Is blogging still profitable in 2026?
Yes! Blogging remains highly profitable in 2026, especially if you target a niche, build an audience, and monetise through multiple streams like affiliate marketing, digital products, ad revenue (Mediavine/AdThrive), and sponsored content. Many full-time bloggers still earn £1,000–£10,000+ per month.
How long does it take to make money from a blog?
Most bloggers begin seeing income within 3–6 months with consistent posting, niche focus, and traffic growth strategies. Significant income (e.g., £1K/month) can take 6–12 months or longer, depending on your effort, SEO, and marketing.
Do I need to be on social media to grow my blog in 2025?
Not necessarily — SEO (Google) and Pinterest are still powerful traffic sources. However, using Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok can boost your visibility and help grow your audience faster if you’re comfortable being active there.
Is blogging oversaturated in 2025?
No, while there are more blogs than ever, niche-focused, helpful content still wins. Focus on solving specific problems for your audience, and use SEO to stand out. Most bloggers give up early, so consistency is key.
What’s the best platform to start blogging in 2025?
WordPress.org remains the best choice for full control, customisation, and monetisation options. Combined with hosting from Bluehost or SiteGround, it’s ideal for beginners and pros alike.
Do I need to be a good writer to start a blog?
Not at all! You just need to communicate clearly and helpfully. Many bloggers use tools like Grammarly or ChatGPT to polish their content. Personality, relatability, and value matter more than perfect grammar.
How much traffic do you need to make money blogging?
You can start earning with as little as 1,000 monthly page views through affiliate links. For ad networks like Mediavine, you typically need 50,000 sessions per month, but even small blogs can earn through sponsored content and digital products.
Is blogging better than YouTube or TikTok in 2025?
Each platform has pros and cons. Blogging gives you more control, long-term SEO traffic, and passive income. YouTube and TikTok offer faster visibility but require more on-camera effort. Many creators combine them for the best results.
