10 steps to become a blogger / influencer and start your own business

Bay Hotel - Cape town - south africa - pilar noriega - the lifetyle hunter

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Creating a successful blog and becoming an influencer is a good alternative to leave the routine of a normal job and be your own boss traveling the world or simply working comfortably from home.

But before we continue… nowadays we hear a lot about bloggers and influencers, but what do these terms mean? These are the definitions you can find in Wikipedia:

  • Blogger: is a person who writes on a blog, which is a website where content is published in the form of articles. This content could be ideas, opinions, experiences, etc.
  • Influencer: someone who has become famous through the internet. This allows people to reach a large audience all around the world.

You will be able to become an influencer if you have a successful blog and/or many followers on your social media (being Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and SnapChat the main ones).

The advantage of having a large audience is that it is a great marketing tool that will allow you to start your own business as you will receive income from advertising, affiliate marketing, product reviews or your own online store. You will be able to make partnerships with hotels, airlines, clothing brands, and restaurants among many other businesses.

Nowadays influencers usually have a blog where they write articles and then attract traffic by sharing photos or information on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or SnapChat.

There are also influencers who only use social media but 3 advantages of having a blog are:

  • Brands prefer bloggers: in an article, you can explain in more detail a product or service you want to promote so many brands prefer to work with bloggers.
  • You can earn money without effort: you can monetize your blog by placing advertising and affiliate marketing (which means having income only from having traffic on your blog).
  • You can gain more followers on your Social Media accounts: from the blog, you can expand your audience by attracting people who for example come to your site looking something in specific on Google; after entering your blog these people will see all your social media accounts and may decide to follow you.

Of course, the bigger your audience, the more profit you can generate.

In this article, I’m going to explain the easiest and most efficient way to create a blog, promote it on social networks and monetize it. I’ll try to be as clear as possible for beginners like you!

  • Step 1: Find your niche
  • Step 2: Find a name for your blog and social networks
  • Step 3: Buy your domain and hosting
  • Step 4: Install WordPress
  • Step 5: Choose a Topic
  • Step 6: Add Plugins
  • Step 7: Create the Sidebar
  • Step 8: Create pages and blog posts
  • Step 9: Promote your blog on search engines and social networks
  • Step 10: Start monetizing your blog

In the WORK WITH ME section of my blog, you can see several brands I’ve worked with!

And in my INSTAGRAM you can also find several pictures that were sponsored.

Step 1: Find your niche

To attract a good audience and have loyal followers, you will need to choose a topic and then a subtopic in which you will establish yourself as an expert.

Example: if you choose “Travel” as your topic, you will need to find a subtopic such as “Luxury Traveling” or “Backpacker Traveling” and specialize in it. Otherwise, if you start writing about low-budget trips and after a few months switch to luxury trips, you could lose a large part of your audience.

So depending on your passion choose a topic, then a subtopic and focus on learning as much as you can and become an expert.

Some examples:

The Lifestyle Hunter

  • Topic: Travel, Subtopic: career

The focus of my blog is to develop your professional career with international experiences (volunteering, studying, and working) to have a better lifestyle.

Leonie Hanne

  • Topic: Travel, Subtopic: fashion

Leonie Hanne travels around the world giving you the best fashion advice and promoting brands like Chanel, Christian Dior, and Louis Vuitton.

Nomadic Matt

  • Topic: Travel, Subtopic: low-budget travel

Matt offers tips on how to travel better, cheaper and smarter so you can explore the world on a limited budget.

Step 2: Find a unique name for your blog and social networks

In addition to creating your own website, you’ll need to have a presence on social networks so you can easily share the content you create and also advertise brands directly (for example, a picture on Instagram).

Try to find a unique and original name that is easy to remember, short and available on all or most social networks. If all your platforms have the same name, it will be easier for people to find you.

Namecheckr

On this website you can write the name you have in mind and it will automatically check if the domain is available (like .com, .net, or .org) and the most important Social Networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, etc.).

Tips:

  • Buy a .com domain: My advice is not to buy a domain ending in .net, .org or .com.mx. The best is .com because it is international.
  • Consider variations: if someone else already has your name, you can add words like “the” at the beginning. For example “thetravelblog.com” instead of “travelblog.com”.
  • Try not to put special characters like accents (ó) or letters (ñ): if for example someone from another country is looking for your website and her or his computer doesn’t have that letter on the keyboard, it might be harder for her or him to find you.

Step 3: Buy your domain and hosting

But what are domain and hosting? Having a website implies that some company is “keeping” it in a virtual space. The domain is the name of the site, for example, travelblog.com and hosting is the space where all the articles, photos, videos, etc. are stored. There are two options:

a. Free sites

Sites like Wix and WordPress.com  have the option to create free blogs but they will make your name be for example travelblog.wixsite.com or travelblog.wordpress.com. I recommend you not to use them because they don’t make you look professional, they don’t allow you to monetize them, customize them, nor are they well seen by search engines like Google and Yahoo.

b. Hosting service

My recommendation is that you buy your domain and hosting service together. This is very cheap and will let you use the best platform to create websites that is WordPress.org (note: it is wordpress.org not .com).

There are different companies that offer this service, however, I always recommend GoDaddy because in my experience it has been very good. It’s easy to use, it’s cheap because you’re going to pay only for the services you want to use and has customer service 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Domain (name)

I recommend you to buy the domain and hosting together because they give you the domain for free in the purchase of hosting for 1 year. But if you still don’t have time to start your blog, you can just buy the domain so nobody else takes that name.

Click HERE and write the name you have in mind, you can buy it at a very low price.

Hosting (web storage)

You can start with the cheapest hosting and as your website grows and you have more traffic, you can buy more capacity so that your site is not slowed down with more traffic.

Click HERE and follow the simple GoDaddy steps to have your domain and hosting. You can buy it at a very low price.

*I recommend you to buy the annual plan because it is cheaper.

Step 4: Install WordPress

WordPress.org is the best platform for a beginner like you, and in fact, it is used by both new bloggers and websites like BBC, CNN, and the New York Times.

The advantage of WordPress is that in addition to having a site with text and information you can install Plugins that are applications made by programmers that let you, for example, add a search bar, create a Facebook comment section or create a virtual store.

a. Follow GoDaddy’s steps

Once you have purchased your domain and hosting with GoDaddy, you will be able to select WordPress when you are installing the platform with which you will create your website, simply select it and follow the steps.

b. Enter your Dashboard

At the end of the installation, you will be able to access and modify your site by entering the WordPress Dashboard (for example at http://travelblog.com/wp-admin/) and entering your username and password.

*Please don’t use Wix, I made a site on this platform and it’s very difficult to customize because its Plugins are very limited. WordPress has hundreds of Plugins and many are free, there are also Plugins with extra cost that can be very specialized.

Step 5: Choose a Theme

The theme is the main design that your site will have (colors, font, and order & appearance of your site). Don’t worry if you don’t find the coolest one at the beginning, later you can change it according to your preferences.

There are many free themes but if you want something more specific there are also companies that sell original themes and that can be adapted according to your preferences. These are some examples:

Wordpress theme - Company Elite
Wordpress Theme - Directory

Step 6: Add Plugins

Plugins are applications that will help your blog work and look better. To start, here are the free Plugins that you can easily add by going to your Dashboard: click on ‘Plugins > Add New’. In the search box, type the following names and click ‘Install’.

  • Akismet: protection against spam comments.
  • Jetpack: offers many tools, such as ‘Site Statistics’.
  • Yoast WordPress SEO: helps to optimize your site for Google.
  • Google Analytics: for this, it is very important that you first configure Google Analytics which is a powerful tool that helps you to measure and analyze your blog traffic. In the future, brands will need data from this platform.

Step 7: Create the Sidebar

Typically the sidebar appears next to your blog posts (or even your pages if you wish). To control the content that will be displayed here, just access your widget section at Appearance > Widgets.

Usually, you can put the following sections there:

  • About: your photo and a brief description of yourself and your blog.
  • Social Networks: promote your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, SnapChat etc.
  • Popular Posts: you can put the posts that have had the most impact among your readers so that new users can find them quickly.
  • Newsletter: invite your readers to subscribe to your updates. With Plugins like MailChimp you can send emails with specific content that you want your readers to receive.

Step 8: Create pages and blog posts

a. Create pages

Apart from the ‘blog’ section (where the articles you write are going to appear), you need other pages such as:

  • About: write a brief description of who you are and the purpose of your website.
  • Contact: let people write to your email. You can leave your email written or you can put a form using the Contact Form 7 plugin which is my favorite.
  • Privacy Policy or Terms of Use: to protect your rights and affirm your protection from any liability as a blogger.
  • Sections: depending on the topic of your blog you will be able to create pages with different sections. For example, my blog has the sections Study, Work, Volunteer, and Travel where you can find such articles. And in the Travel section, I have pages for every continent and every country I’ve visited. This will allow your readers to find faster the information they are looking for.

b. Create blog posts

Some advice I can give you is:

  • Become an expert in your niche: research what you want to write about, follow other inspiring bloggers, and try to create better content than what already exists.
  • Create original and engaging content: in addition to writing interesting text, buy a good camera and take amazing pictures. You can share them on your social networks and you can also make some extra money as a photographer. Read more about sites to sell your photos in the “Photographer” section of the article “Jobs that will let you earn money as you travel the world“.
  • Quality is always better than quantity: in my experience, it is better to spend more time writing a blog post that is informative and useful than to write many blog posts that are not meaningful. A good post can bring me a lot of traffic and it will have been worth the time writing.
  • Try to publish regularly: this not only keeps your readers up to date but also helps your Google rankings. I recommend you publish at least once a week. Some bloggers publish for example on Mondays so their readers already know that they can go to their website every Monday and they will find something different.

Step 9: Promote your blog on search engines and social networks

Once you have finished your blog and you have enough posts so that it doesn’t look empty, add it to search engines like Google and Yahoo and promote your articles in Social Networks.

a. Search Engines

Search engines such as Google and Yahoo will allow you to connect with people who are looking for specific information.

Google Search Console

Google

Register your site in Google Search Console and send your sitemap to Google with the help of the Yoast SEO Plugin mentioned before.

You will also be able to see your site’s statistics, keywords, clicks, etc.

Yahoo Search

Yahoo

Register your site in Yahoo Search and Bing.

b. Social Networks

Facebook 

Create your Page on Facebook (note: create a Page, not a personal profile). In your page, you will be able to copy and paste the links of your articles and if you want them to reach the whole world you will be able to buy Facebook advertising and show them in selected countries to people with certain characteristics and interests.

Instagram

Create an Instagram account and each time you post an article, upload a related photo and mention in the description that there is a new article on the blog and that the link is in your biography.

Pinterest

Pinterest is the best platform to promote a blog (it’s where most of my blog traffic comes from). You can create “pins” which are images that when clicked will take people to your blog posts. And you can save the “pins” in different “boards” to keep them organized in categories.

For example, here you can see my Pinterest account where I have several boards such as Volunteering, Study, Work and Travel among others.

Twitter

Although Twitter is the social network that I use less, it is also useful because you can leave the links to your articles and with just one click, people can arrive to your blog.

Other

Other social networks are Google+ and Bloglovin.

Step 10: Start monetizing your blog

a. Advertising

Once you have enough traffic you can start earning money by placing advertising between the text in the posts and pages of your blog. Some companies that you can work with are the following:

Google AdSense

Pay per click, you earn a commission every time someone clicks on one of the ads.

Mad Ads Media

For pay-per-view, you earna commission depending on the number of people viewing the ads.

Mediavine

For pay-per-view, you earna commission depending on the number of people viewing the ads.

b. Affiliate Marketing

This allows you to earn a commission if your readers decide to buy products or services through your specialized links. Some companies where you can register are:

Amazon

For any kind of items from books to cell phones, and computers.

Lonely Planet

For travel guides and eBooks.

Agoda

To make hotel reservations.

c. Product and Service Reviews

You can start with free hotel stays, or receive free products like clothes or makeup. Then, once you have enough traffic and followers you can charge a fee in addition to receiving the free products/services. Two ways to contact brands are:

  • Contact the brands directly:

You can create an email template and send it to hotels or companies you want to work with.

  • Use apps or websites to connect with brands

For example, there are the following:

d. Online Shop

You can also create your own products (clothes, diaries, digital books, etc.) or services (translation, web design, transcription, etc.) and create an online store.

I hope you are now motivated to start your own blog if you have doubts leave a comment below.

*Note: this blog post contains affiliate links.

In the Work Abroad section, you can find more experiences earning internships and full-time job positions abroad! If you had a similar experience and want to inspire others to apply please send an email to pilar.noriega@thelifestylehunter.com

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  23. 05/04/2021 / 5:07 AM

    Покажите партнеру, какой-никакие конкретно ласки вам приятны. Таковая забава очень возбуждает, в особенности парней, кроме такого, это эмоционально совсем сводит пару. Каким бы ни существовал недалёким и родным человек – каждый из нас уникален и владеет свои эрогенные зоны и остановки побуждения. Не стыдитесь представить, будто вам славно – у вас совсем признательный зритель.
    Теперь о медли. Ежели в течение нескольких лет жить в монотонном графике, где нет местечки спонтанности и новоиспеченым изобретениям, сексуальное желание может приступить слабнуть само собой. Этак что старайся избавляться от рутины и выищи часик на любовное времяпрепровождение с супругом с утра, во время обеденного интервала, а еще никак не ограничивайся одним половым актом, если вы пара хотите продолжения.
    Никак не стесняйся говорить о сексе и дискуссировать с мужем интимные факторы – этак появляется доп уровень доверия, а ему наверняка придутся сообразно душе твои фантазии.
    Важно! Удостоверься, что вы находитесь одни и никто никак не прервет вас «на самый-самом интересном местечке», а еще заблаговременно похлопочи о гигиене.
    «Половой акт – это лишь малая часть сексуальных отношений. Эротические использованные материалы и аксессуары также приветствуются, ежели учитывается согласие двух партнёров. Качественные эротические и в том числе и безнравственные использованные материалы содействуют расширению абстрактного и чувственного опыта человека, но они разные для всякого возраста», – отмечает психотерапевт.
    Сексуальные забавы
    На данном месте большая часть дам обычно думает: это самая буквально не для нас/ его это не заведет/ мы будем ощущать себя неловко/ как это вообще (нужное подчеркнуть). Если ты подумала, как изготовить мужу приятное в любовном плане, устремляемся развеять твои колебания: ролевые игры — это самая никак не лишь халат медсестрички либо какая-либо другая униформа (однако и данные варианты располагают место существовать!). Попробуйте вместе с мужем закрутить какой-или сценарий, в котором вы оба будете чувствовать себя особенно, но в то ведь время довольно уверенно.
    https://ero-boobs.mobi

  24. 05/04/2021 / 4:33 AM

    Явите партнеру, какой-никакие конкретно ласки вам милы. Таковая игра совсем волнует, особенно парней, не считая того, это чувственно очень сближает пару. Какой-никаким бы ни был близким и родимым человек – любой из нас неповторим и имеет свои эрогенные зоны и остановки возбуждения. Не стыдитесь выказать, что вам мило – у вас очень признательный созерцатель.
    Теперь о медли. Ежели в движение нескольких лет существовать в монотонном графике, в каком месте нет места инстинктивности и новым изобретениям, сексапильное хотение может приступить угасать само собой. Так будто старайся избавляться от рутины и отыщи часик на интимное времяпрепровождение с мужем с утра, во время обеденного перерыва, а еще не довольствуйся одним половым актом, если вы оба желаете расширения.
    Не стесняйся сказать о сексе и обсуждать с мужем любовные факторы – так возникает дополнительный степень доверия, а ему наверняка придутся по душе твои фантазии.
    Важно! Удостоверься, что вы находитесь одни и никто не прервет вас «на самый-самом увлекательном пространстве», а также заранее похлопочи о гигиене.
    «Половой акт – самая лишь малая лагерь сексапильных взаимоотношений. Эротические использованные материалы и аксессуары также приветствуются, если учитывается единодушие обоих партнёров. Качественные эротические и даже порнографические которые были использованы способствуют расширению теоретического и чувственного опыта человека, только они различные для каждого возраста», – отмечает психотерапевт.
    Сексапильные забавы
    На этом селе большая часть женщин традиционно задумывается: самая точно никак не для нас/ его это никак не введёт/ мы станем ощущать себя неловко/ как это самая вообще (нужное выделить). Если ты задумалась, как изготовить супругу приятное в интимном намерении, устремляемся разогнать твои колебания: ролевые игры — это никак не только халатик медсестрички или какая-или иная униформа (но и эти варианты располагают село существовать!). Попробуйте совместно с супругом закрутить какой-никакой-либо сценарий, в котором вы пара будете чувствовать себя необычно, однако в то же время довольно твердо.
    https://fotodama.mobi

  25. 05/04/2021 / 12:38 AM

    Покажите компаньону, какой-никакие именно ласки вам милы. Такая забава совсем волнует, особенно мужчин, не считая того, самая чувственно очень сближает пару. Каким бы ни был близким и родным человек – любой из нас уникален и владеет свои эрогенные зоны и точки побуждения. Никак не стыдитесь представить, что вам славно – у вас совсем благодарный зритель.
    Теперь о медли. Если в движение нескольких лет жить в монотонном графике, в каком месте отсутствует местечки инстинктивности и новым открытиям, сексуальное желание имеет возможность начать угасать само собой. Этак что старайся освобождаться от привычки и отыщи часик на интимное времяпровождение с супругом утром, во время обеденного интервала, а также не довольствуйся одним половым документом, если вы оба хотите продолжения.
    Не стыдись сказать о сексе и дискуссировать с мужем интимные моменты – так возникает дополнительный степень доверия, а ему наверное придутся сообразно душе твои выдумки.
    Важно! Удостоверься, что вы пребывайте одни и никто не прервет вас «на самом интересном селе», а еще заранее позаботься о гигиене.
    «Половой акт – самая только малая часть сексапильных отношений. Эротические материалы и девайсы еще приветствуются, ежели учитывается единодушие обоих партнёров. Высококачественные эротические и в том числе и безнравственные материалы содействуют продолжению абстрактного и чувственного эксперимента человека, но они разные для каждого возраста», – что психотерапевт.
    Сексапильные забавы
    На этом пространстве большинство дам обычно задумывается: самая точно никак не для нас/ его это самая никак не введёт/ мы станем чувствовать себя неловко/ как наверное вообщем (необходимое подчеркнуть). Если ты задумалась, как сделать супругу приятное в интимном намерении, устремляемся развеять твои сомнения: ролевые забавы — самая никак не только халатик медсестрички или какая-или другая униформа (однако и эти варианты имеют местечко существовать!). Попробуйте вместе с мужем закрутить какой-никакой-либо сценарий, в котором вы пара будете чувствовать себя необычно, но в то же время достаточно твердо.
    https://tubexru.org

  26. 01/08/2019 / 12:27 PM

    That’s good to know that you could get money form adds on your blog. I would think that would be a good way to make some good money off of it. I’ll have to make sure to look into that if I start a blog.

  27. 02/07/2019 / 8:50 PM

    such great content in this post, nice work!
    blogging is a nice way to add income on the side, I love it!

  28. 02/07/2019 / 11:58 AM

    I want to become an expert in blogging but it is very hard,anyway thank sweetheart for your idea & tips!

  29. 01/07/2019 / 7:36 PM

    Thank you for all the tips. Now to put into practice

  30. 01/07/2019 / 4:34 PM

    These are great tips for those first starting out. I have had a few people that ask me, and my response is about the same as this. 🙂

  31. Mama Maggie's Kitchen
    01/07/2019 / 3:48 PM

    I am loving this blog. This is really helpful for people who wants to be a blogger or an influencer and earn money. Thanks for sharing.

  32. 02/04/2019 / 4:48 PM

    Thanks for mentioning influence.co! We have lots of free tools which might help your readers run their influencer marketing campaigns. We hope they check them out. Also – let us know if you need anything else for future articles. We publish industry surveys regularly so we have lots of data.

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