Have you ever wanted to start a spiritual blog?,Are you dreaming of starting a blog on magick, tarot, spirituality or the law of attraction?
Or maybe you have another topic or hobby you are passionate about and you have caught yourself wondering how difficult it could be to start your own blog about it and see if you can also make money along the way?
Below is my story to help you understand how I started this blog, how I make money from it and how you can too!
This post contains affiliate links (I'll explain what those are in a minute). If you want to read the full disclosure click here.
The short version of it is that some of the links below are links that if you click them and purchase something, I make a small commission (at no additional cost to you). I am not paid to write these posts and the opinions expressed are 100% my own.
In this post I'm going to tell you how and why I started this blog, how I make money from it and how you can too!
This post is pretty long because I wanted to cover EVERY SINGLE THING you're going to need to start your own blog TODAY!
So bookmark it so you can come back to it later (trust me, you'll need it!), grab your favorite beverage and let's begin!
WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN IN THIS POST
How to get your own domain name and hosting (complete Step-by-Step tutorial)
Other things you need to manage your website and connect with your readers
How your Youtube Channel can make money through affiliate marketing
How your Youtube Channel can make money through brand partnerships
How you can use your YouTube Channel to promote your own products and services
WHY START A BLOG
Some people start a blog with the intention to make money. Others start a blog because they are passionate about a topic and want to share their journey and hopefully help others.
I fall into the second category.
For years, I read other people's blogs about magick, the occult, spirituality and the law of attraction learned a ton from their posts. I met many wonderful people through their blogs, purchased their books and courses and learned how to manifest the things I wanted in my life.
Eventually I decided to make my own blog, mostly because I thought it would be fun, and a wonderful way to help other people too!
The first few years it didn't even occur to me to make money from my blog.
Eventually though I realized that more and more people were reading my blog and those people wanted my help: they wanted me to recommend my favorite books, my favorite courses and my favorite magick and manifestation methods. They wanted to know if they could pay me to manifest something in their behalf (whether with magick and spells or with the law of attraction) or they wanted me to coach them so they could learn how to do it themselves.
What started as a hobby turned out to be a legitimate way to help people AND make money!
Do YOU want to start your own profitable blog too? Then let's do it together, step by step!
UPDATE: Since writing this post, I have also created a Youtube Channel which has been a tremendous way to connect to tons of people every week and help them manifest their dreams into reality. If you want to know what you need to build a Youtube Channel you can find all the info later on this page, or you can click here.
HOW YOU TOO CAN START A BLOG
You've decided to start a blog! Awesome! Now what? What do you need to start a blog?
Don't worry, I'll explain it all to you in easy terms. I'm not a very techy person, so rest assured I won't go into too much technical detail. It will all make sense!
There are 3 main things you need to start a blog the easiest way possible:
A domain name (this is the address you type to get to a page)
Hosting (think of this like your internet or cell phone provider)
Wordpress
Let me explain each one to you and how to get it:
WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME
A domain name is basically the name of your blog. The url that you type to find it. For example, my domain name is unseenseraph.com
Think of your domain name like your phone number: it is unique, meaning no one else has the same one you do. So you need a name that no one else is using.
WHAT IS A HOSTING
But just like with a phone number, you don't just need to have a number for people to call you. You also need to have a provider. Hosting is for your blog what your cell phone provider is for your phone number. And just like with cell phone providers, you aren't stuck with one. You can switch to a different hosting company for whatever reason later down the line.
BUT CAN'T YOU START A BLOG FOR FREE?
You might have seen ads from places like blogspot or wordpress.com (different from wordpress.org) that allow you to start your own blog completely for free.
So why am I talking to you about domains and hosting providers here?
It's simple. While you CAN start a blog on those platforms for free, that blog is under their control (just like your Facebook account is under the control of Facebook, and if they think you violate their terms or they don't like something they can take it down or delete your account).
I've heard many horror stories from bloggers I know over the years who worked on their blogs for years, only to wake up one day and discover their blog vanished overnight. Trust me, you don't want that to happen to YOU. Not when you can have a domain that's 100% your own and your own host for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per month.
WHICH BLOGGING PLATFORM TO CHOOSE
The last thing you need to know about before you start your blog is which blogging platform you want to go with. Think of the platform a bit like the operating system on your computer or phone. It is the interface that you use to create your blog.
The most popular choices are Squarespace and Wordpress (which is different from the free Wordpress version mentioned above, and offers a lot more choices).
Both of these platforms are popular and which one you choose will depend on how familiar you are with coding and how much you want to be able to customize your blog to look and behave exactly the way you want it to.
Below, I am going to describe each platform to help you figure out which one is a better fit for you.
WHAT IS WORDPRESS
In simple terms, Wordpress is an interface that you can use to design your blog. You download it into your blog and then you can choose from countless themes, add your own photos etc.
Wordpress is free to install to a self-hosted website and you can do so from inside the control panel after you have paid for hosting. Most reputable hosting companies offer the option of 1-click installation of Wordpress.
In order to use Wordpress, you will have to purchase your own domain and pay for hosting (Don’t worry, I will walk you through the process later in this article!)
Wordpress is a popular choice because it offers an endless amount of customizations so that you can make your blog look and behave exactly the way you want to. This happens by installing a variety of plugins (think of them like the apps on your phone).
The fact that Wordpress websites are so customizable is what makes it the top choice for many people.
The downside is though that you will have to hunt for the plugin that does exactly what you want, and while there are many free plugins, in many cases you end up having to invest in the paid version of a plugin to get the function that you need.
Another downside is that because all those plugins come from different creators, sometimes they clash with each other and you end up breaking you website, or something looks off all of a sudden and you have to look into the code in order to figure out how to fix it.
While Wordpress isn’t a difficult platform to use per se, fixing errors can be very frustrating if you don’t have any coding skills. If you can afford it though, you can always hire someone to fix things when they break though, or to keep your website up to date constantly.
WHAT IS SQUARESPACE
Squarespace is another very popular platform you can use. There are many benefits to using Squarespace compared to Wordpress.
First of all, Squarespace is an all-in-one solution when it comes to creating a website. Remember when we talked about getting your own domain and hosting? If you decide to create your blog with Squarespace, you not only get access to the platform so that you can create a beautiful blog, but you also get your own custom domain for free for one year plus hosting. So you don’t have to look for a hosting company, purchase a domain separately etc. You get them all with one subscription!
In addition to that, Squarespace offers both monthly and yearly subscription (something that almost no hosting company offers; most if not all hosting companies only have plans that last 1 year or longer). So if you are on a budget and can’t afford a year-long subscription up-front, you can pay by the month instead.
Another big benefit of using Squarespace is that you don’t need to hunt down the right plugin for the job, as all the basic features that you need are already there and included in your subscription. In addition to that, you will not have issues with different elements clashing and breaking your website, because everything is built right into the platform from the beginning, which means nothing will ever clash with anything else and everything updates automatically, without you having to lift a finger.
If you want to create a beautiful website and blog just by dragging and dropping different elements you like on each page, with zero coding needed, then Squarespace is definitely the right option for you.
The downside to Squarespace is that it isn’t as customizable as Wordpress, and if there are some features that you absolutely have to have on your website that aren’t included in your subscription, you will have to upgrade to a more expensive plan in order to be able to use an external tool that does what you want (kinda like how plugins on Wordpress).
Squarespace offers a 14-day trial so you can actually start designing a website without having to commit. If you decide that you like the platform, you just choose the subscription that fits your needs and your trial blog can go live right away!
To try the 14-day trial click here
If you decide to go with Squarespace, you can skip all the chapters below that talk about domains, hosting and plugins and go straight into how you can actually start making money from your blog.
HOW DO I GET MY OWN DOMAIN AND HOSTING?
Glad you asked :) It's extremely easy really.
There are a ton of hosting companies out there and each has a ton of different packages they offer.
When choosing a hosting company there are a few things to keep in mind. The two main ones are:
They always offer you a very cheap package for your first year. But the renewal rates are NEVER the same. So be sure to check what the renewal rates are going to be for next year before committing, and if you can, choose the longest plan you can afford (2 or 3 years) instead of just one year when you first get hosting from them because that usually allows you to pay the super-reduced introductory rates for year 2 and 3 as well, not just your first year.
Choose a company that replies fast to support tickets and that you can get on the phone fast if you need them. That's extremely important, especially if you aren't a techy person and/or are brand-new to having your own website. You don't want to spend all this time to create a blog, only for it to be inaccessible for a week because there was glitch and you can't get them on the phone to resolve it.
One of the most reliable and reputable hosting companies you can go with is Bluehost. They are famous for the excellent 24/7 support they provide, offer you a FREE domain and 1-click Wordpress installation, all for under $4/month.
Are you ready to start your first blog and build a beautiful website that people will love? Follow these quick steps:
Go to bluehost.com and click the Get Started Now button:
Now click to select your hosting plan (I use the Basic plan) as shown below:
Now it's time to choose your free domain name (your blog's name/url)
This is where you need to put some thought into it. Choose something sweet and short, with no dashes and numbers and that is memorable so people will easily remember it. If possible, stick with .com and make sure the handle is available on social media platforms and there aren't any similarly named blogs out there.
Use this handy tool to check if the domain name you have in mind is available. Just type below and check:
After you've chosen your domain name, enter the full URL in the box under the "new domain" :
After that hit "next" and you will be taken to a page to create an account and then pay. In the confirmation page, make sure to choose the amount of time you are signing up for (remember, if you can afford, choosing to pay for more than 1 year at this stage will save you a lot of money later!).
Under the package information there's a list of extras you can pay for. Make sure to uncheck those boxes so you won't pay for the extras.
If you're moving from a free blog or if you encounter any issues, they offer 24/7 chat support.
After this step you will need to create a new user. Make sure to save your login details so you can log-in later. After that, you can start building your blog!
START BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE
Now that you have your domain and hosting all set up all you need is to install Wordpress.
To make things easier for you, Bluehost installs Wordpress automatically for you, so all you have to do is pick a beautiful theme that you like.
Sidenote: A theme is the looks and layout of your blog. You can always change it later.
You can choose from a wide selection of free themes that Wordpress offers, or buy a theme that you like. For now, pick a free theme to get started and take a look at your brand-new website!
Once you've picked a theme you can start building your website. Pretty much anything is customizable one way or another and if you don't like something then you can change it later.
At this point you can choose to publish your website right away or you can wait until you've customized it to your liking and you've written a few posts to start with before publishing it for the world to see.
OTHER THINGS YOU ARE GOING TO NEED
The first thing you are definitely going to need is an email list, so that people can sign up for your newsletter and so that you can email them whenever you have a new post, have something you want to share with them, a new product or service etc.
There are many list providers you can go with, but after experimenting with several of them I recommend Mailerlite. Mailerlite is free for up to 1000 subscribers and very cheap after that and you can create beautiful newsletters very easily with their drag-and-drop editor.
Just click the image below to start your 30-day premium trial with Mailerlite.
If you are planning on having an email list, earn affiliate income, run ads or sell your own products, then you need to have GDPR Compliant Privacy Policy and a Terms & Conditions page. You can try to find a free template online or purchase a template.
PLUGINS
Plugins are like the apps on your phone, but for blogs. They are programs that do different things.
Here's a list of plugins I consider essential for a blog:
Akismet - Kiss spam comments and malicious attacks bye bye with this super-handy plugin.
BackUpWordpress or any other backup plugin
YoastSEO - This is an absolute must plugin that tells you exactly what you need to include in your blogpost so that it ranks in google (which means people will actually find it).
Social Warfare - A sharing plugin for social media that's highly customizable and versatile. Works great and has a huge range of colors and styles of sharing buttons to choose from, plus several other cool functions. I've tried several different sharing plugins and this is by far the most reliable one I've come across.
WP Smash - Helps your website load faster by compressing all the images you upload automatically without any quality loss.
SO HOW DOES ONE ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY FROM A BLOG?
Now that you've set up your website, let's talk about how to actually start making money from your blog!
There are several different ways you can start making money from your blog:
ADVERTISEMENTS
Ads is usually the first way people choose to monetise their blog.
You can sign up with an ad network like GoogleAdSense or Mediavine and once you get accepted, you put the code you are given in different areas of your website and inside your blog posts and that generates appropriate ads for your blog visitors.
This is the easiest way to monetise your blog, although you need a high amount of traffic to actually make a significant amount of money from it.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
The second most common way to earn money from your blog is affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else's products in exchange for a commission. Most products and stores have some kind of affiliate program these days (you can usually find the signup link at the very bottom of most websites), so think of a few products, stores and courses you love around the topic you want to blog about and google them to find if they have an affiliate program you can sign up for! This way, you get to recommend the products you love to other people and make money too!
Some recommendations to help you start are:
Amazon Associates - Amazon offers an incredible variety of goods, and if someone clicks on your Amazon affiliate link and makes a purchase you earn a commission even if what they bought has nothing to do with the products you were promoting. It's also a very easy way to start with affiliate marketing and provides you with everything you need in terms of pictures, banners etc.
AWIN - AWIN is a large professional affiliate network that also has its own plugin that transforms your regular links into affiliate links. Many big companies and brands run an affiliate program through AWIN (Etsy is one of them) and after singing up with AWIN you can sign up for their individual programs.
Mediavine - Mediavine works in a similar manner and is also a very popular way of monetising your blog.
SPONSORED POSTS
Sponsored posts are posts that you write on behalf of a specific brand in order to showcase and promote a product on behalf of that brand.
Here's an example:
Let's say you have a spirituality blog and someone makes subscription boxes with crystals, oils etc that they want to promote. The company may reach out to you and offer to pay you to review their subscription boxes on your blog (and they will often give you a discount coupon to offer to your readers as an extra incentive for them to buy the product).
The details of what your post has to cover and how much money you are going to make will be determined on a case-by-case basis (in other words, you will have to discuss them each time with each brand) but the concept itself is pretty simple.
A specific brand contacts you because they believe that your readers are the right audience for their product, so they send you the product and ask you to review it or write a tutorial on how to use it and why your readers will benefit from it, and they pay you to do it.
Or you could reach out to brands yourself if you believe that their product is something that your readers would be really interested in buying, and see if they are interested in working with you.
As long as you partner up with brands whose products you truly love and use yourself, brand partnerships are beneficial both to you and to your readers.
CREATING YOUR OWN PRODUCTS
This is a more complicated way to make money from your blog and it requires a lot more work, but it's also the best way to create a sustainable, reliable income from your blog.
What are you blogging about? What do you know a lot of things about? What are some topics that people keep coming to you for advice again and again?
Consider making a course or writing a book or e-book on those topics, offering a service or a digital product of some kind.
If you feel that creating a product and making it look nice, setting up sales pages, accepting payments and all that is way too complicated and too much work then you'll be happy to hear that there are websites that offer you the basic framework (sales pages for example, or a basic structure for your courses so you don't have to send each lesson by email or upload everything on your website) for free or for a small commission.
Here are some of my personal favorites:
Teachable - Teachable is a great platform that allows you to create courses and digital products. You just upload your course material, add any information you want for the sales pages and you have a course! They even receive payments on your behalf and handle refunds. They offer several paid plans you can choose from (starting at $39/month). If you are in most Teachable paid plans you receive all your earnings directly from them once a month. They also give you the opportunity to easily run your own affiliate program for your own courses and products and send payments to your affiliates so you don't have to do it manually. They offer many free helpful resources to get you started too, like this webinar. If you want to try Teachable and see if it's the right fit for your needs, they offer a FREE plan with up to 10 students.
Podia - Podia is another platform for courses that I really love. Like Teachable, it's very easy to use and it offers a ton of features. They offer several paid plans (starting at $39/month). An important difference between the two though is that with Podia, you can receive payment right away every time someone enrolls in one of your courses or purchases a digital product (with Teachable, this option is only available in their high-volume, more expensive plans). Podia offers a FREE 14-Day trial if you want to try it out and see if it's the right fit for you!
SendOwl - SendOwl allows you to easily sell digital products -like ebooks, software and video for example- online for a monthly fee. It is very easy to set up and use and it also gives you the opportunity to set up and run your own affiliate program for your products if you want.
Gumroad - Gumroad is another platform that allows you to sell your own digital products.
HOW YOU CAN START YOUR OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Starting your own Youtube Channel is easier than many people think!
You don't need expensive equipment to start. Nowadays, smartphones have really good cameras, so you can easily record videos using just your phone and a tripod.
If you want to upgrade to a better camera or microphone later you can do that of course, but your phone and something stead to put it on is all you really need to start!
A Youtube Channel is a great way to connect with people who share your passions and make money too! If you create your own blog, a Youtube Channel will be a great addition to it, allowing you to reach and help people who may not already know about you.
But if you don't like writing and prefer video then you can start with a Youtube channel only too.
Just like with a blog, think of what you are passionate about, what people usually ask your help with or ask you for advice about, to figure out a good topic or niche for your Youtube channel. Just like my blog, my Youtube Channel is about spirituality and manifesting with the law of attraction because that's what I'm passionate about, what I'm good at and what people come to me for advice.
Your channel though can be about anything YOU are good at and know well: arts and crafts, ASMR, knitting, cars, anything!
ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR YOUTUBE
If you start a Youtube channel, two tools I highly recommend areVidIQ and TubeBuddy.
Both VidIQ and Tubebuddy are browser plugins that integrate right into Youtube, which means when you open a Youtube tab you get extra information from these plugins right on the page. Cool, right?
They both offer you a large selections of really essential tools for any Youtuber like suggestions for videos, keywords, ranking, and everything you need to know to grow your Youtube channel. In my opinion, Tubebuddy is better when it comes to keyword research and planning topics for future videos, while VidIQ has a really cool feature where when you install it, it adds a stats bar right next to your Youtube search bar at the top of every Youtube page you visit.
This bar gives you important information like how many subscribers you have, how many views your videos got in total over specific periods of time, as well as how many watch hours you have within 12 months (you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time in order for Youtube to approve you to have ads on your videos and make money, so that is very useful stats that VidIQ offers right at the top of your screen. This way you don't have to hunt for them every day in your analytics).
Both VidIQ and Tubebuddy have a lifetime free plan with many features, so I highly recommend installing both so you can check them out. If you find that you could really use some of their more advanced features later down the line, you can always upgrade to a paid plan for one or both of them.
YOUTUBE EQUIPMENT
If you decide to upgrade your equipment, here are a few things that many successful Youtubers use:
HOW PEOPLE MAKE MONEY ON YOUTUBE
There are several ways Youtubers make money on Youtube:
HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM ADS
The most common way to make money from Youtube is through ads. To make money through ads on Youtube, your channel needs to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time within 12 months. When you reach these requirements, you need to create an Adsense account (this is how you will get paid every month) and send your application to Youtube. If your channel follows all community standards then Youtube will approve your channel within about 30 days and your channel will be monetized, which means you will be generating revenue through the ads that play before, during or after your videos.
Getting monetized can take a while for some channels, but this doesn't mean that there aren't other ways to make money on Youtube while you wait!
Here are a few:
MAKE MONEY ON YOUTUBE FROM AFFILIATE MARKETING
This works exactly the same way it works for blogs (scroll up to read all the details about affiliate marketing).
Got products you love that are relevant to your videos?
Or perhaps your viewers are asking what a specific thing they saw in your videos is, or where they can buy it.
From your video equipment and editing software to the cosmetics and makeup you use, to anything else, you can use google to find if the company that makes these products has an affiliate program. If they do, sign up for it and you can put your affiliate links in the video description so people know where to find those products if they want to purchase them. Whenever someone clicks on one of your links, you make a small commission.
IMPORTANT: If you use affiliate links, you are required by law to let people know they are affiliate links. This is usually done by adding a message in your video description saying that it contains affiliate links and when someone uses these links you make a small commission. Some people also add (affiliate) or (affiliate link) next to each affiliate link in their video description.
BRAND DEALS
Another way you can make money on Youtube is through brand partnerships. A brand partnership is when a specific brand pays you to promote one of their products on your channel. There are all kinds of different brands that look for Youtubers with an audience interested in their products, and you can also contact your favorite brands too and see if they want to work with you, if there is a product you are confident that your audience will love.
As long as you promote products you truly use and truly love, brands partnerships will benefit both your viewers and you.
SELLING YOUR OWN SERVICES AND PRODUCTS
Just like a blog, Youtube is a great place for people that are interested in your services or products to find you!
If you have a product or service that is relevant to your channel then clients can find you through your videos. If you don't, then can you think of a product or service that your viewers would want to buy?
For example, if you have a Youtube channel on crafts, maybe you can offer some of the things you make on Etsy and tell your Youtube viewers where they can find those items. Or you could create a course teaching people how to make some of your popular designs and promote it in your videos, include the link in your video description etc.
Or maybe your channel is about learning a foreign language, in which case many of your viewers may want you to teach them how to speak the language, or buy a language course from you.
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!
Now you know everything you need to start your own profitable blog, Youtube channel, or both!
It's time to implement what you learned! I hope you have as much fun creating a blog, a Youtube channel or both as I did, and that it will enrich your life as much as it did mine!