How to Start a Blog Page and Make Money

Make Money with a Rad Blog Page

Starting a blog can be really overwhelming at first, but it really isn't too bad if you've got someone to guide you through the darkness. Fortunately you found me. Let me guide you through the confusion and teach you the John Rapp way to start a blog.

Things You'll Need

• Patience

Instructions

1. 

   BLOGSPOT.COM

   Or if you prefer, Blogger.com. They're both the same thing, doesn't matter which one you use. So go sign up for a blog at Blogspot.com. It's completely free, and you'll be blogging your brains out in no time.

   There are tons of places to get your own blog, but I recommend Blogspot because it's owned by Google, and that makes it really easy to set up AdSense for your new blog. What is AdSense? It puts those small Google advertisements onto your blog. This is good, because you make money when people click on the links! Not bad for a free blog, huh?

2. 

   PICK YOUR URL

   The next step is picking your new blog's URL, or the address people type into their web browser to pull up your blog. If you're using Blogspot like you should be, your blog's URL will be YOURBLOGHERE.blogspot.com, and that's super.

   Don't sweat it too much, because you can always change your blog's name whenever you want. But the best idea is to find a good title and a good URL and stick with them. Changing your URL and title will only confuse people who may be trying to keep up with your blog, and drive away repeat readers.

   Try to make the URL simple. This can be hard sometimes because there's tons of people using Blogspot, and there's a really good chance that SteveSmith.blogspot.com has already been taken. So you have to think of something else.

3. 

   THEME IT

   It's good to have a general theme for when you start a blog, so think of a topic you have a lot to say about and use that as your new blog's title. An example is like, if you decide that your new blog is about surfing, then name your blog SurfSpot.blogspot.com. If it's already taken then think of something else, such as calling it TheOriginalSurfSpot. This is one of my favorite tricks, because it makes your blog look like the real deal while that other guy's surfing blog is left out in the cold. Take that, beach bum.

4. 

   CHOOSE A TEMPLATE

   Next up is picking a template for your new blog. Blogspot calls their site "push button publishing," and you're about to find out why. You can change your layout whenever you want, and it's a good idea to come back later and reevaluate your template after a couple weeks after you start a blog. But for now just pick something you don't totally hate. Don't get sucked into analysis paralysis or else you may never actually write a single word in your new blog. Boom, boom, boom - that's the way to get this done.

5. 

   NEW POST

   After you verify your e-mail address and all that, now it's time for the party. Log in to your new blog and click on New Post. This brings up a terrifying blank screen and a blinking cursor staring you dead in the face. Get on it, schlepprock. This isn't Hamlet here, it's blogging. And it's your first blog post, so don't expect anything great. Just write something. Introduce yourself and your blog and outline what you hope to accomplish. The goal is to write and forget about it. You'll hone your blogging skill as you go, but the only way to get better at blogging is to keep blogging.

6. 

   STAY ON TOPIC

   This is one of the newest things I have learned, and it can be one of the most difficult. You don't want to be posting a bunch of stuff about your new toy poodle on your Original Surf Spot blog. The reason treads on complicated ground, with a lot of ins and outs about search engine optimization (SEO). But the general idea is you want your blog to be solid. At first your blog probably won't show up anywhere near the first few pages of search results when someone searches for "surfing blogs," but after a long stretch of continually posting original content about surfing, your surf blog will creep its way up the list towards the coveted number one spot on Google! But if you're posting about different topics all over the place, someone who clicks on your blog looking for surfing information probably won't stick around and definitely won't come back to your new blog.

   So if you want people to actually read your blog, keep it fairly focused on a single topic.

7. 

   POST IT

   Click on the button to post this sucker, and there you have it: your very first blog post on your very own blog! And that's something to write home about, because lots of people don't have the balls to do what you just did.

   Now blog it out the wazoo, son!

8. MAKING MONEY

   Now if you're going to start making money with your blog, the best thing to do first is set up Google AdSense on your page. Do a Google search for "setting up Google AdSense on Blogger," and you'll find many guides that will walk you through the process of signing up for and installing AdSense on your new blog.

Tips & Warnings

• There's tons of information and helpful folks online who can help you where I left off

• Most questions I've had have been answered in a few minutes in the help section of Blogspot.com

• This stuff can be super addictive

• But believe you me, most bloggers on the block would take blog addiction over writer's block any day

• Write as much as you can, no matter how bad you think it is

• You'll never improve until you screw it up really badly

• Get out there and screw it up! I'm rooting for ya

Resources

• More Stellar Articles from John Rapp