How to Start a Blog for FREE (and Make Money) in 2023

An Easy Free Step-By-Step Beginner’s 
Guide how to start a blog for FREE In 10 Minutes

Creating a blog for free is very easy. You can do it fast on WordPress.com BUT there are some things that you need to know first. Every free blogging tools have limitations.

What is good?

• Free
• Easy to start
• Can try what is it to be a blogger

What is bad?

• Limited functions
• Limited themes and plugins
• Limited SEO and monitazation
• Upgrades cost money
• Can´t easily move to a professional blog

Basically using a free blog you will get basic blogger functions but as soon as you decide to go professional you will have to pay for upgrades or manually move to a professional hosting. Professional hosting starts from 2.59$/mo (which includes the full version of WordPress) while upgrading from Free to Pro on WordPress.com costs 15$/mo. As you can see it is a much cheaper and better option to use professional hosting from the beginning.

Best web hosts for blogging:

• DreamHost – if you are on a budget
• SiteGround – the best support
• BlueHost – most features

After you decide if you want to go free or professional let’s continue with choosing a name for your blog. It is more important than you think but you need to understand that the name can also be changed.

1. Choosing your Name

First of all, you need to decide what name you are going to use. Try using the same for your blog and the social channels if you have. Before you start please check that the name is available on both.

Don’t think too much! It is better to get running today than keep thinking about “the best name”. Trust me a lot of people never started their blog only because they were going around thinking too much about the best name and then decided not to start anything… You can always get a new name or change it later.

You can easily choose one of these:

1. Use your niche in the blog name like Jonestravelling and people will understand that your blog is about travel. It is a good option that will help your posts to rank higher on Google.
2. Or you can use your name and it will be more focused on building a personal brand instead of focusing on some niche. More difficult option.

Step 1: Choose a name for your blog

2. Free Blog providers

There are many different providers but these are some of the most popular and easy to use:

• WordPress.com – most popular
• Wix
• Weebly

WordPress is the largest and most of the guides on my website will cover WordPress (both free or full version).

Step 2: Choose a blog provider and register there

3. Start Making Money

First of all, before you start with this step you need to fill your blog with content (Startpage, About, Contact, and at least 3 posts are enough).

There are several ways to make money as a blogger. You can place banners on your page, you can recommend products, you can sell links, and many more. But the best way to really make some good money is to connect to affiliate networks and join partnerships with brands.

Popular networks:

• Awin
• ShareASale

Do you recognize any of these brands: Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Apple, Microsoft, Swarovski, Nelly? All of them are a part of affiliate networks or have their own program. There are over 15 000 brands in different networks. What happens is every time you recommend some product, link to it and someone goes and buys it you get a 5-20% commission.

When your blog will get accepted then you can begin connecting to brands and start linking to their products from your blog.

Let’s say you are a Fashion Blogger and you bought some nice shirts from Nelly. You put a link to this shirt in your article and when someone clicks and buys it – you get paid a commission for it. Same thing if you are a Travel Blogger, connected to Booking.com, and recommend a hotel. Someone stays a night and pays – you get a commission.

You can join as many programs as you want. So go ahead and fill your blog with some content and then register on these networks:

• Awin
• ShareASale

Step 3: Fill your site with content (Startpage, About, Contact, and at least 3 articles) and register on the affiliate networks above.