How To Start A Lifestyle Blog And Make Money From Home

So you want to start a lifestyle blog and eventually make a living with your ideas.

I LOVE that.

This guide will show you exactly how to start a blog, but more specifically, how to start a DIY or lifestyle blog. Since this is what I have a ton of experience with.

There are a ton of bits and pieces of information out there and it’s kind of hard to know where to start.

That’s one of the reasons why I’ve put this 2 part ‘How To Start A Lifestyle Blog’ guide together.

It goes without saying, it’s what I wish I would have found when I was first starting out.

Blogging has (and continues to) change my life.

It’s mind-blowing that I’ve been able to create my own blog with my own style and have it be a business, to say the least.

It also means I don’t have to hold down a 9-5 if I really don’t want to (yay!).

And income only keeps growing as I bring in more traffic and create more blog content. Now, many ‘how to start a blog’ posts leave out the most important chunk of it all.

How exactly do you get started making money from your lifestyle blog once you get it all up and running?

Here is a Table Of Contents to get you started:

Part 1: Start Your Blog (The step-by-step setup)

Part 2: Monetize It (How do you start making money?)

It doesn’t matter if you are a veteran blogger or you are just getting started for the very first time, there are plenty of takeaways in this guide that can help you on your own blog journey.

Why a lifestyle blog?

A lifestyle blog is great because you can write about almost anything you can think of (that falls under your general lifestyle category).

This way you won’t work yourself into a box, you have more options, and you don’t run out of things to blog about while making money in the process.

Update: Check out the first income report on the blog here!

It’s the perfect set up for new bloggers to find their voice and find their strengths as they grow and learn more about blogging.

Not to mention, when you actually care about something, you’ll have a much easier time creating kick-ass content that people can find online and will want to read. More on lifestyle blog ideas later.

How to start a lifestyle blog

So it’s best to start a self-hosted blog using WordPress.org (not wordpress.com- the free version).

To be able to use WordPress.org to create your blog, you’ll need to get hosting— but more on that in a minute.

Choose a blog name that works

Oh, man.

This is where many people spend way too much of their time. And understandably so! It can be hard to make such a commitment.

For me, it didn’t take too long to come up with Teal Notes because I had kept a journal of brainstormed names for when I was ready to start a business (I just had no idea which kind of business I would start— enter blogging!)

A domain name is just a fancy way of saying your website’s URL. For example, my domain name is tealnotes.com.

Some people choose to use their own name as their domain name, which is great. Others tend to go with more creative blog names.

It’s entirely up to you.

Blog names and blog name ideas can be easily overcomplicated, but as long as it fits your overall blog theme, you’ll be good. Try making a blog names list to brainstorm some lifestyle blog name ideas.

If you’re still at a complete loss for names try a blog name generator for some inspiration. Additionally, if you’re wanting to create a mommy blog, I found this cool list of names to draw from.

You can also check out if your domain name is up for grabs below:

Some important tips for choosing the perfect name:

It is always best to keep it short and memorable
Make it something that won’t change in the future e.g. avoid numbers if you can
Make it so that it reflects your brand and style (everyone’s is unique!)

Sign up for hosting

On to step three.

What exactly IS hosting?

Hosting simply means buying server space from a company for your site to be stored in and up and running for people to visit.

With hosting, you want to get reliable service while taking care of your budget at the same time.

When I started this blog, I had come across Michelle’s Making Sense of Cents blog and decided to use her tutorial to get started (especially because at the time it seemed so thorough). She recommended Bluehost as an affordable option for new bloggers and its what I’ve been using ever since.

It’s a good option for beginner bloggers because of a bunch of its features.

It’s what I’ve started with, paying less than $4 bucks a month, and I’ve yet to have problems with their customer service or my site.

What stands out to me from Bluehost is their 24/7 support feature that you can tap into every time you have any questions or concerns or if you’re ever confused about something.

On top of that, you also get a FREE domain name when you sign up with them here.

Paying $3.95 a month can still be expensive for some people (after all, it’s one whole burger and fries combo per month).Investing in your blog will be worth it in the long run. If you aren’t ready to financially invest in your new blog business, then you might want to reconsider blogging as a way to make income.

How to sign up for Bluehost

After you get on Bluehost.com, click on Get Started Now.

Then It’ll ask you to pick a plan. For blogging beginners, the best plan is the basic plan. For now, it is all you will need to get started successfully.

Next it’ll ask you to choose a domain name. Plug in your name to see if it isn’t already being used by someone else. If it is, it’s not the end of the blogging world, Bluehost will help you generate a variation of that name or you can choose a different one all-together.

The cool thing is, with Bluehost, you get a domain name for FREE.

Once you’ve secured your domain name, it’s time to enter your account information.

Now, after entering your account information, you get to review your package info and pick the one you like best according to your own blogging goals.

You can either choose to uncheck the check boxes or leave them, as a beginner, I’d say you don’t need all the extra additions for now, and you can always go back and add them later.

Now, after processing your payment with your order, you’re ready to start installing WordPress.

How to install WordPress With Bluehost

To install WordPress, after processing your payment and accepting their terms and conditions, Bluehost will prompt you to log back in.

…And you’ll be met with this dashboard:

If you scroll down, under the Website section, click on Install WordPress.

Then It will ask you to verify your domain name. Click install and then click install again.

After WordPress is Installed, it will say Installation Complete and it will ask you to view credentials.

That is where you’ll get the login info to login to WordPress, along with your username and password to start publishing your first posts!

It will all be listed right there for you. You can’t miss it.

Picking a theme

Picking a theme is one of the fun parts of creating a lifestyle blog, especially because there are tons of lifestyle blog ideas out there.

Hopefully, by now you have picked your blog name out of your lifestyle blog names list and can pick a nice theme to match that.

Hold on: What is a theme?

A theme is a framework for your blog. It’ll be the framework for how your site looks and functions. After you buy it you will upload it to WordPress account and you’ll be ready to publish your very first post.

If you want to go the route of using a free WordPress theme, once you’re logged in to your WordPress dashboard click on Appearance > Themes.

The downside with free themes is that you can’t customize them much, and you’re pretty much stuck with what you get.

But If you’d like to invest in one instead, there are plenty of places to find affordable themes.

Elegant Themes is a solid theme builder I like a lot. Check out their blogging themes to see if any catch your eye.

If you do purchase your own theme, it’s just a matter of uploading it to your WordPress account under Appearance > Themes > Add New and voila!

How to publish your first post

You’re now ready to publish your first post!

Here is a quick run through of the WordPress Dashboard:

P.S. Don’t worry if your dashboard doesn’t look exactly like mine. I’ve personalized some of the colors and added some plugins to the list on the left. Soon, yours will be personalized for your blog as well! ☺

Posts

This is where all your blog posts are kept. Think of it like the pages in your blog diary.

Media

This is where all the blog images you upload are kept. Think of it like a photo album.

Pages

This is where all the part of your blog are separated into categories. For example you’ll have a home page, an about me page, a contact page, etc.

Comments

This is where you can manage all the comments people leave on your blog.

Appearance

This is where you can customize your theme further by changing the Menus, the Widgets, etc.

To Publish Your First Post…

Make sure you are logged in to your WordPress. Then, go to Posts> Add New and you’ll be met with a blank page.

After you are done whipping up your kickass content for that post, you can click the ‘Publish’ button so your content is now live for the whole world to see.

You can click ‘Preview’ To see what it will look like to your audience.

Part 2: How to start a blog and start making money

Before we get into how to make money blogging, let’s take a minute to reflect back on how much you’ve gotten done.

If you’ve made it this far down, you are serious about making this blogging thing work for you.

It’s the first of many steps you’ll take to create your first profitable lifestyle blog.? You should definitely congratulate yourself for that.

To start making money with your lifestyle blog, there a few steps involved to make it all work for you. But the simplified (very simplified) version is:

Write GREAT content that people want to read and that SOLVES problems
Put it in front of people that want that problem solved…constantly

Writing great content (don’t skip this part)

Writing great blog content doesn’t mean creating posts no one has ever seen before and aiming to be as unique as possible.

There isn’t such a thing. If you’ve seen one blog post you’ve seen all of them.

If you look more into it, have you noticed how many ‘home organization hacks’ posts there are? Or how many ‘DIY’ posts are floating around?

It’s because those bloggers have figured out that those posts work when it comes to getting found by your audience.

Basically, the shortcut to writing great content most lifestyle bloggers ignore or don’t get is:

Find other bloggers in your niche that are hitting the success you’re looking for with your blog, find their most popular content, and write a better version of it with your own blog spin.

It’s really that dead simple because it takes the guesswork out of finding out profitable blog topics.

I’ll give you an example. I used to struggle for traffic when I was writing content about stuff like writing and grammar that no one wanted to read. I’ve since erased a bunch of useless posts and completely started over.

Now, I’m building my traffic up ( last month was 6,000 page views and climbing) as I create content that other people have found success publishing— like DIY posts, life hacks and round-up posts…everyone and their cat are always looking for those things online.

Not to mention they are perfect lifestyle topics…hence a lifestyle blog.

Moral of the story: Target the traffic in your niche by creating posts they are already looking for.

Successful lifestyle blogs

To succeed with a lifestyle blog you DO NOT have to reinvent the wheel, just put your own spin on what is already working. If you memorize that part you’ll be golden. ☺

Also, creating decent content takes practice and it’s something you’ll get better at as you go. There is no other way around it.

So keep creating it, even if you feel like you are burning out and losing motivation. In order to really learn how to start a blog and get paid, you need perseverance. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

Also, ‘learn to rest and not to quit’ is another great motivating saying because believe me, you’ll need tenacity.

Getting traffic to your content

Your lifestyle blog is a business. That means you are better off treating it as such. A business needs to make sure people know about it, and that’s where Pinterest comes in.

It’s a blogger’s ultra-secret (well not that secret) weapon to getting people to read your blog and grow your blog audience. Pinterest is where people can find the lifestyle topics you write about, which means traffic to your blog, which means you’ll then be able to monetize that traffic.

So make sure you master Pinterest as the best traffic tool for your blog.

To help get you started on the right foot monetizing, here are some in-depth guides I’ve put together for beginner bloggers to learn how to create a profitable lifestyle blog:

Here’s how to get started monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing (the easiest way to start)
Here is how to master Pinterest as a powerful blog traffic tool
Here is the type of content you should be writing from the very beginning
Oh, and here is how to format your content!

These are all things I wish I knew when I first started my lifestyle blog, compiled into comprehensive posts (some longer than others). So grab some coffee, get comfortable, and read on.

Lifestyle blogging ideas

The beauty about getting to start a lifestyle blog is that you can blog about almost anything. If you love bullet journaling you can blog about that, if you love homemaking or recipes you can blog about that too!

If you like all of the above, and say, blogging about your pets, you can do them all in one umbrella blog deemed a ‘lifestyle’ blog. The secret is blogging consistently and taking it seriously as a business, because if you’re making money from it, at the end of the day that’s what it is!

Your next action steps

You are seriously off to a solid start and I’m excited for you! Here is what you should do next:

Ideally, if you have the money to invest in blogging education, you should start by educating yourself properly as much as possible. It will hands down give you a head start in monetizing your blog faster.
Read the guides I’ve provided to set a solid base for your blogging strategy.
Start creating as much content that is already working as possible without sacrificing quality, publish it, and promote it with Pinterest.
Really really make sure you take the time to set up your Pinterest correctly.
Stay motivated and remember that slow and steady wins the race!
If you have any questions/anything you think I can help you out with don’t hesitate to send me an email.

More resources

Here is a list of pretty much ALL the resources that I’ve written on blogging that you can read through to get a good start making money from your blog:

My First Ever Income Report: How This Lifestyle Blog Is Making Money

9 Best Affiliate Programs For Bloggers

10 Useful Blogging Hacks Every Blogger Should Know

9 Hard Truths to Get Over Your Fear Of Blogging

12 Blogging Lessons Learned from Building Teal Notes From Scratch

10 Attainable Ways to Monetize Your Blog

How I got 10k Page Views in Less Than Three Months

20 Free Gorgeous Stock Photos and Fonts for Your Business

How to Get The Most Out Of Your Blog Post: The Complete List

What is Evergreen Content? And Why Does Your Blog Need It?

7 Affiliate Marketing Strategies You Should Know

The Complete A-Z Affiliate Marketing Guide for Beginners