What is a Personal Blog? How to Start Your First Blog (2024)

What is a Personal blog? If you’re not sure! Then you’ve come to the right place!

Here’s a detailed guide to starting a personal blog from scratch and making money from blogging.

Before starting the full process of starting a personal blog, May I Ask you Why should you start blogging?

There are many reasons to start a blog, for example:

• To generate an income – This is probably the one point you must be interested in it. You can earn thousands of dollars from blogging.
• To learn new skills – Yes, Blogging will help you to learn new skills like marketing, designing, SEO practices, social media marketing, and more.
• Express yourself – Blogging is the platform that allows you to express yourself by writing content for your audience.

However, If you want to leave your current 9 to 5 job or if you are frustrated with your daily routine and want freedom of working then personal blogging will really help you out.

This is a detailed guide on how to start a profitable personal blog in 2024 and I will guide you through the complete process in this article.

Let’s completely dive into it.

What is a Personal Blog (Meaning)?

Personal Blog Meaning: A personal blog is a type of blog where an individual creates and publishes content on various topics that interest them.

It can be an online diary or journal that shares experiences, opinions, and thoughts with a broader audience.

There are many reasons why people start personal blogs. Some do it as a creative outlet, to share their knowledge and experiences with others, or to establish themselves as an authority in a particular field. 

Others may use it as a way to connect with like-minded individuals or build a community around a shared interest.

However, creating a personal blog is relatively easy these days, with many website builders and platforms including WordPress, Wix, Blogger, and Squarespace helping you get started

These platforms offer customizable templates and a user-friendly interface that allows you to create a professional-looking blog without any technical skills.

When it comes to content, there are no hard and fast rules for what you can write about on a personal blog. 

You can write about, for example; hobbies, personal experiences, travel adventures, or anything that interests you.

But It’s essential to keep your blog authentic and engaging to your readers. You can also use social media to promote your blog and reach a wider audience.

In conclusion, a personal blog is an excellent way to share your thoughts and experiences and connect with others.

What are The Types of Personal Blogs?

There are various types of personal blogs that individuals can start. Here are some common types of personal blogs:

1. Lifestyle Blogs: This covers a wide range of topics related to the author’s personal life. For Example; fashion, travel, food, health, relationships, and everyday experiences.

2. Travel Blogs: These often include travel stories, experiences, photographs, destination recommendations, and tips related to your adventures and journeys.

3. Food Blogs: These types of blogs may focus on specific cuisines, dietary preferences, or cooking techniques. Where share recipes, cooking tips, restaurant reviews, and experiences.

4. Fashion and Beauty Blogs: Where talks about fashion style, trends, beauty tips, makeup tutorials, and outfit ideas.

5. Parenting Blogs: Discuss parenting experiences, challenges, and advice related to pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, education, and family life.

6. Health and Fitness Blogs: Provide information on exercise, healthy eating, weight loss, general wellness, and more. Also, share their personal health journeys and offer tips for readers.

7. Personal Development Blogs: Where focus on self-improvement, productivity, motivation, goal-setting, and success strategies. Also, They may share personal stories, practical tips, and resources for personal growth.

8. DIY and Crafts Blogs: DIY (Do-It-Yourself) bloggers share creative projects, craft ideas, and home decor tips. These kinds of blogs inspire readers to explore their artistic side and try new projects.

9. Book and Literature Blogs: Where to discuss books, literature, and reading recommendations. Or maybe share their experiences and insights.

10. Personal Finance Blogs: These provide tips, advice, and resources related to money management, budgeting, saving, investing, and financial independence. It may share your own financial journeys and success stories.

Note: Remember, these categories or types are not mutually exclusive, and many blogs cover a combination of topics. Ultimately, the content of a personal blog depends on the interests, expertise, and experiences of the author.

Is Personal Blog Worth Starting In 2024?

Starting a personal blog is worthwhile and it depends on your goals, interests, and commitment. 

Here are some factors to consider:

1. Personal Expression:

Blogging provides a platform for self-expression and sharing your thoughts, experiences, and expertise with others. 

If you enjoy writing and want to have a creative outlet, a personal blog can be a fulfilling endeavor.

2. Building an Online Presence:

Personal blogging can help you establish an online presence and personal brand.

It allows you to showcase your skills, knowledge, and passions, which can be beneficial for personal or professional growth.

3. Connecting with Others:

A personal blog helps you to connect with like-minded individuals who share similar interests.

It can create a sense of community and enable you to engage in discussions, receive feedback, and make meaningful connections.

4. Developing Writing Skills:

Maintaining a blog can improve your writing skills. It offers an opportunity to refine your creativity, communication abilities, and storytelling techniques.

5. Documenting Personal Journey:

You can document and reflect upon your personal journey on your blog.

Whether it’s about travel, parenting, career, or any other aspect of your life. It can serve as a digital diary and a way to preserve memories.

6. Potential for Income:

Along with personal satisfaction, you can make money from your blog.

While not guaranteed, some successful personal bloggers do make money. But, it often requires time, effort, and monetization strategies.

Ultimately, starting a personal blog is worthwhile if you have a genuine interest in it. sharing your ideas and experiences with others.

Personal Blog Examples:

Still confusing whether you want to start a personal blog or not, then check these examples of personal blogs across different topics:

1. “Cupcakes and Cashmere” by Emily Schuman – A popular lifestyle blog covering fashion, beauty, home decor, and more.

2. “Humans of New York” by Brandon Stanton – A blog featuring street portraits and stories of people in New York City, showcasing their unique experiences and perspectives.

3. “The Pioneer Woman” by Ree Drummond – A personal blog that features recipes, home and garden tips, and stories from Ree Drummond’s life.

4. “Zen Habits” by Leo Babauta – A personal development blog focused on mindfulness, simplicity, and creating positive habits.

5. “A Cup of Jo” by Joanna Goddard – A lifestyle blog covering a wide range of topics, including motherhood, relationships, travel, and fashion.

6. “Nomadic Matt” by Matt Kepnes – A travel blog providing tips, advice, and stories from Matt’s extensive travels around the world.

7. “The Blonde Abroad” by Kiersten Rich – A travel and lifestyle blog sharing Kiersten’s experiences and tips for solo female travelers.

8. “Tim Ferriss’ Blog” by Tim Ferriss – A personal blog by the author and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss, covering a variety of topics related to personal and professional growth.

9. “The Art of Manliness” by Brett McKay – A blog focused on helping men become better versions of themselves through self-improvement and skills development.

10. “Smitten Kitchen” by Deb Perelman – A food blog featuring Deb’s recipes, cooking tips, and anecdotes from her kitchen adventures.

These examples demonstrate the diverse range of personal blogs, covering topics such as lifestyle, travel, food, personal development, and more. Each blog reflects the unique voice and experiences of its author.

Quick Note: Staring at a personal blog and making money from the personal blog are two different things. 

• On a personal blog, you can post anything such as your thoughts, experiences, or whatever you want. No rules. But it can’t make you a single penny except for personal satisfaction. 
• Or if you want both make money & personal satisfaction from personal blogging then you have to be more specific and more strategic.

So if you want to make money from personal blogging then move on to the next step on how to start a personal blog that makes you money!

How to Start a Personal Blog That Makes You Money (in 2024)

If you’re looking to start your first personal blog in 2024 then follow this article to the end and get to know the accurate steps to be implemented to have a successful personal blog.

Step 1: Pick a Right Niche for Your Blog

This is the most important and crucial part of your personal blogging journey. Not choosing a niche is the fastest way to lose the game. 

Before starting a blog, you must know your interest and it should be laser point to one topic only.

You must pick a niche that is related to your interest and also that niche should be profitable.

When you write about more than one topic, it becomes really difficult to build your audience.

If you think that defining your niche may limit your blog’s growth then you are totally wrong. Because if you have a very broad topic then you will be confused that what you should do next to grow your blog. 

Let’s take some examples if you are still confused,

• Backlinko: Internet Marketing expert Brian Dean started his blog Backlinko and grew it to one of the most popular SEO blogs on the internet by talking only about Backlinks and SEO.
• Passive Blogger: In the blog, you are currently reading, here I teach about Side Hustle, and much more stuff related to blogging.

Your niche doesn’t have to be Blogging or SEO. As personal blogging, you could start a blog for anything such as Basketball or finance, etc.

If you still can’t figure out how to pick a niche then you can do this simple exercise:

• Take a paper and pen.
• Write down all the topics you are interested in and can write articles on them without getting bored.
• Now cross-check and cancel that topic that doesn’t sound good.

Hurry! you are ready to go. IF, you still get stuck in the process must check these 15+ most profitable blog niches to start a blog in 2024. 

Step 2: Choose a Perfect Name for Your Blog

Most people waste too much time choosing a name for their blog. Choosing a good domain name for your blog is not a very tough task today. 

You can easily find a perfect domain name for your blog by just simply following these steps.

• Use Your Main Keyword – You can use your main keywords in your domain that really help you in SEO.
• Don’t Include Numbers – Don’t use numbers because it’s very difficult to remember.
• Keep it Short and Simple – The shorter the better. Keep your domain as short as possible so that people can pronounce your blog name in one go.

If you are still not able to choose a brandable and perfect domain name then check this article of mine, ‘How to find a perfect domain name for your blog. 

Just pick a perfect name and move ahead.

Note: Which Blogging Platform You Should Choose?

Don’t think much about this because this will totally waste your time and energy.

There are so many blogging platforms like WordPress, Ghost, and Joomla.

I recommend that you use WordPress.

Why?

Out of the box, WordPress is SEO-friendly. Popular search engines, like Google and Bing, tend to rank websites that use WordPress higher than those that don’t.

In WordPress, you will get lots of plugins and themes that you can use to customize your website and makes it look super awesome.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a commercial website or a personal blog, the fact that WordPress doesn’t charge a penny is a major incentive to use it.

So, I think now it’s clear why you should start a blog in WordPress (self-hosted).

Let’s move on to the next step.

Step 3: Choose a Good Hosting for Your Blog

For starting a blog, you need Web hosting and a domain,

Many people don’t know what it is so before moving forward let me clear these two terms,

• Domain Name – It is the name of the website which readers will type into their browser. For example –Passiveblogger.com.
• Web Hosting – Web hosting is a place where all the files of your blog are stored. You will need a place on the Internet to put these files. This place is called a server. Web Hosting providers let you lease server space. In a nutshell, web hosting is the process of renting or buying space to house a website on the World Wide Web.

Now, Are you thinking about which Web Hosting is best for you?

There are tons of Web Hosting but instead of giving you a list of a thousand web hosting providers, I will recommend you go with Hostinger.

Hostinger is one of the most established, reliable companies in the blog hosting industry.

When picking a web host, you want to make sure the hosting provider is user-friendly. Hostinger is easy to use and very user-friendly. They offer the best support in the market and are perfect for beginners.

Hostinger is very cost-effective with Hostinger you can get hosting starting at $2.99/month which is 77% off their regular price of $6.99/month.

To get web hosting for your first blog, just follow these steps:

Step 1: Visit the Hostinger Pricing Page and select a plan. 

I recommend the Business plan. Click the Select button.

Step 2: Choose a period

Choose a plan duration (how long you want to stay with them). I highly recommend 24 months, that’s enough to grow your blog to the next level.

Step 3: Create your account

Now Use an email address where they send you the further process guidelines.

Step 4: Enter Your Credit/Debit Card Information

You have to fill in your credit/debit card information to purchase web hosting from Hostinger.

Note: To save extra on the total bill use my coupon code “PREMIUM8‘ (You should thank me by purchasing the hosting from my affiliate link:p)

Now hit Submit Secure Payment, It will take a few minutes to ready up your web hosting account.

Wait a few minutes, then check your email for important details related to your account. And they send you an email to verify your accounts.

Once the verification is done they will send you the account login details to get into the hosting account.

Woo! It’s time for a mini celebration!

You’ve officially completed the first major step in starting a blog. After that, log into your Hostinger account and move to the next step:

Step 4: Set Up Your Blog on WordPress 

Log into your Hostinger account if you aren’t already. You will see a screen similar to this:

Select the Start Now button and then click on Create a new website.

After this, you will redirect to the page where you will be asked to install WordPress.

So, Click on the Select button and you will go to the page from where you install WordPress.

Click on the Continue button after entering your admin details. 

Now there are 3 options to pick from, select one and proceed, in my case, I use my existing domain from Namecheap.

If you bought your domain from a domain provider such as Namecheap, or somewhere you need to update your Domain DNS with Hostinger name sever.

All you need log in to Namecheap and then click on ‘Manage’ and update the Server with Hostinger.

Once you update; now click continue the button on Hostinger.

It will take a few minutes for Hostinger web hosting to finish setting up your WordPress site.

All set! Now click on Log in to WordPress button to visit your new blog’s admin dashboard:

It will take you to an admin login page where you enter your WordPress login details and after that, you will go to your WordPress dashboard.

That’s it. You just set up your first WordPress site.

Remember, this URL:

In place of your-site.com write your domain name. It’s the URL to your WordPress dashboard.

Well done! not move on the rest!

Step 5: Design Your Blog Using a Good Theme

Now that I’ve gotten through the crucial setup phase of starting a blog, it’s time to have a little more fun.

After installing WordPress, you have to replace your default theme with a good theme because it is very important if you are just starting your new blog.

In blogging, the design of the blog matters a lot. If you want your blog to succeed, you will need a good design. If you don’t have a great design, so you are losing a lot of traffic and audience.

There are lots of WordPress themes available in the market but I like to use Kadence one of my favorite themes I use on my website.

It is the lightest blog theme that I ever used and you can change the design of your blog as much as you want.

To change your WordPress site’s theme, select the Themes menu from the Appearance menu in the sidebar.

Now, click the Add New button to find a good theme for your blog. Now search Kadence or any other theme which you like in the search section of the theme.

After finding that theme click on the Install button and activate the theme. This will activate the theme on your blog.

So if you want to customize your theme, click on appearance customize, and now you can able to customize your theme.

That’s it now move on to the last step!

Step 6: Write Your First Blog Post and Publish It

Now you are all set to go. It’s time to create your first-ever blog post and publish it. For creating a blog post, you have to go: Dashboard → Post → Add New

Here you can write your post Once you are satisfied with your blog post, it’s time to publish it on your blog. After hist the published button Your post is now live on the web.

After publishing, promote your blog post through your social media, email newsletter, or other relevant platforms to increase its reach and attract readers.
Remember, your first blog post is just the beginning.

Keep writing consistently and refining your skills as you continue to create valuable content for your readers.

PRO TIP: Use long tail keywords to get easily ranked on Google. I would recommend using keyword research tools like Semrush to find long-tail keywords.

Can A Personal Blog Make Money?

Yes, personal blogs have the potential to make money, but it’s important to note that not all personal blogs are successful in monetizing.

Here are some ways in which personal blogs can make money:

1. Advertising & Sponsor Content:

Advertising: One common method is displaying ads on your blog and earning money when visitors click on or view these ads. You can join advertising networks like Google AdSense, Ezoic, or Mediavine to place ads on your blog.

Sponsored Content: Brands are often interested in collaborating with you to create sponsored content. This typically involves a partnership or paid agreement between you and the brand.

2. Affiliate Marketing

One of the most popular methods for monetizing a blog is through affiliate marketing.

All you have to do is develop content around an affiliate product and place an affiliate link in your article to buy that product.

So, whenever anyone clicks on that link and buys something you will get a commission from it.

You can join many affiliate programs in your niche or you can join a very popular program called “Amazon Associates“. You can do affiliate marketing with Amazon.

3. Sell Your Own Courses:

Selling digital online courses is another way you can profit from blogging. You can create a course and sell it on your blog to monetize it.

Develop intuitive and helpful courses that add a tremendous amount of value.

You can charge an amount from visitors who want to buy this course and in this way, you will make passive income out of this.

4. Services or Consulting:

If your personal blog showcases your skills or expertise, you can offer services or consulting in your niche.

For example, if you’re a fitness blogger, you might offer personal training or coaching services.

In a nutshell, It’s worth starting a personal blog in 2024. Also, I mentioned to you that making money blogging usually takes time, effort, and audience growth.

So, Building a loyal readership, creating high-quality content, and effectively promoting your blog and make your blog successful.

Faq: Personal Blog!

Conclusion :

Congratulations! You have read all the steps and I hope now you can create your own blog and start your personal blogging journey.

But What Next?

This is not the end, but I think this is the beginning of your journey. And you have to learn many things like SEO,(SEO basics for Non-SEOs), Affiliate Marketing, and many more things.

To become a successful personal blogger you need to learn new things and implement all that as soon as you learn.

I recommend you create a habit of learning and writing because in blogging writing skills matter a lot.

I hope you like this article and maybe this will help you create your personal blog today.

What are you waiting for?

I also recommend you join our Blogging Community Group to stay updated with new stuff. I’m very active in my group, so if you have any doubts, I will personally help you there.

If you like this article please share this with your community or group. This will motivate me and I’ll appreciate your efforts.