How to Start A Blog For Profit in 2025: This article provides a simple, step-by-step guide to help you launch your WordPress website effortlessly. It’s a beginner-friendly guide designed to help you to start a blog on WordPress without any hassle.
Many people ask me on social media, “Vikas, the blogging competition is so high. Can I really survive in this space?” My answer is always the same: it’s never too late. There are countless low-competition niche ideas, and with the right approach, you can succeed too.
How to Start a Blog?
Step 1: Choose a Profitable, Low-Competition Niche
The first step in starting a blog is selecting the right niche, one that matches your interests. This is often the most challenging part, and it’s where many beginners get stuck. Choosing the wrong niche is a major reason why blogs fail, causing many new bloggers to quit within 2–3 months.
Here’s an example to help you understand why interest matters more than potential earnings:
Ex: If you choose the health niche but have limited knowledge about it, you’ll struggle to create valuable content. On the other hand, a professional doctor or someone who has studied about that extensively can craft detailed, high-quality articles that appeal to both readers and search engines.
Step 2: Select a Catchy Domain Name
After choosing your niche, the next important step is selecting a domain name. A domain name is your website’s address—for example: google.com, hextoid.com, wikipedia.com, yahoo.com, and amazon.com are all domain names.
How to Choose a Good Domain Name?
If you’re confused, you can use Domain Name Generator tools to get ideas, and a good domain name should be:
- Short and Simple
- Easy to Spell
- Include Relevant Keywords
- Avoid Numbers and Symbols
- Use a .com Extension
Step 3: Choose Reliable Web Hosting
Choosing low-quality hosting can ruin all your efforts. I’ve personally faced such issues, that’s why I strongly recommend going with a reliable hosting provider. You might wonder: which hosting service meets all the essential requirements for a blog? Some of the best options I know are:
If you have a limited budget, Namecheap & GreenGeeks is a great starting point. While there are different types of hosting, I recommend starting with Shared Hosting in the beginning. As your website grows, you can upgrade according to your needs.
But, before purchasing any hosting plan, make sure it offers:
- Fast Speed
- High Uptime
- Strong Security
- SSD Storage
- Excellent Customer Support
Step 4: Activate Cloudflare Free SSL Certificate
Cloudflare is a web security company offering a free SSL certificate, content delivery network (CDN), and DDoS protection. I personally use Cloudflare on all my websites to secure them and enhance performance.
- Log in/Sign up on Cloudflare and click Add Site.
- Choose the Free Plan ($0/month) and confirm.
- View Domain Records > Click Continue.
- Cloudflare will provide you with two nameservers.
- Login to your domain registrar (like Namecheap, GoDaddy) > Go to DNS Settings.
- Replace your current nameservers with the Cloudflare nameservers.
- The update usually takes 5–10 minutes but may sometimes take up to 24–48 hours.
- Once connected, you’ll see the message: “Great news! Cloudflare is now protecting your site.”
- Navigate to SSL/TLS > Overview > Select Full.
- Go to Edge Certificates > Enable Always Use HTTPS > Enable Automatic HTTPS Rewrites.
Step 5: Connect Domain to Hosting
Once you have purchased hosting and your domain (with SSL enabled), the next step is to connect them.
- Login to your cPanel (provided by your hosting company).
- Copy the Shared IP Address shown in your cPanel dashboard.
- Go to Cloudflare Domain’s DNS settings:
- Add an A Record and a CNAME Record (values will differ for each user).
| Type | Name | Content |
|---|---|---|
| A | hextoid.com | 5.182.209.142 |
| CNAME | www | hextoid.com |
- Return to cPanel > Navigate to Addon Domains.
- Enter your domain name > Click Add Domain.
Step 6: Set Up WordPress Using cPanel
- Log in to your cPanel > Search for “WordPress” and click on it.
- If it’s not visible, search for “Softaculous” and click on WordPress under the Softaculous Apps Installer.
- On the next screen click on WordPress
- Configure the installation settings:
- Choose the latest version of WordPress.
- Select “https://” or “https://www.” as your protocol.
- Choose your domain name.
- Leave the “In Directory” field empty.
- Fill in the site details:
- Site Name and Site Description.
- Create a username and password for WordPress admin login.
- Enter your admin email address.
- Scroll down and click Install.
- Wait for the installation to complete.
- Once done, you’ll be provided with your WordPress Admin Login URL (ex: domain.com/wp-admin).
Login To WordPress Dashboard
To access the WordPress admin panel, use the default login URL: https://domain.com/wp-admin/. You can also try these alternative login URLs:
- https://domain.com/admin/
- https://domain.com/login/
- https://domain.com/wp-login.php
- https://domain.com/wp/admin (Note: May not work on all sites)
- Enter the email/username and password you set during installation > Click Log In.
Step 7: Configure Essential WordPress Settings
After logging into your WordPress dashboard, make these important changes to set your site up correctly:
- Update Default Category: Go to Posts > Categories > Rename “Uncategorized” to your primary category name > Update the slug accordingly.
- General Site Settings: Navigate to Settings > General, Fill in your Site Title, Tagline, and Admin Email, Set your correct Timezone.
- Search Engine Visibility: Go to Settings > Reading > Make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unchecked (disabled) so your site can be found on Google
- Set SEO-Friendly URLs: Go to Settings > Permalinks > Select the “Post name” option for clean and SEO-optimized URLs.
Step 8: Choose an Attractive Theme
The theme defines the look and feel of your blog. An appealing, clean design is crucial for grabbing and retaining visitors’ attention.
The best part about WordPress is that it offers thousands of fully customizable free themes in its directory. Some popular and highly recommended WordPress themes are:
- GeneratePress
- Kadence
- Astra
- OceanWP
Step 9: Install Important Plugins
Plugins in WordPress work like apps, they extend your website’s functionality and improve performance, SEO, security, and usability. Installing the right plugins is essential to manage your blog efficiently. Here are some must-have plugins for a new blog:
- Ad Inserter
- LiteSpeed Cache
- UpdraftPlus
- Yoast SEO
- Scriptless Social Sharing
- Table of Contents Plus
- Pretty Links
Note: Only install essential plugins to keep your site lightweight and fast. Using too many unnecessary plugins can slow down your website and affect overall performance.
Step 10: Start Writing Your Blog Posts
Once your site setup is complete, it’s time to start publishing content. It’s recommended to focus on a single niche (unless you are running a news blog), as this helps search engines recognize your site and rank it for relevant topics.
Pro Tip: Always publish detailed articles and target long-tail keywords, as they are easier to rank. Before expecting significant results, publish at least 20–25 high-quality articles.
Step 11: Blog Monetization
Once your blog begins appearing in search results and attracting traffic, it’s time to turn your effort into income. There are several effective ways to monetize a blog, including:
- Selling your own products or services
- Ad networks
- Banner ad placements
- Affiliate marketing
- Link selling
- Sponsored content
- Offering paid guest post opportunities
FAQ
If you’re only spending on domain and hosting, the minimum cost is around $2–$3 per month. However, the total expense can vary based on the services and tools you choose.
If you have zero budget, consider starting with Blogspot, a free blogging platform by Google that allows you to launch a blog without any upfront costs.
Based on personal experience, if you focus consistently on one blog, you can start earning in 3–6 months. However, for highly competitive niches, it may take 1 to 1.5 years, it all depends on your effort and consistency.
Wrap Up
Congratulations! You’ve successfully launched your first blog. But is that enough to ensure success? No, to build a truly successful and profitable blog, you’ll need to put in consistent effort and learn about SEO, link building, content writing, and more.
Remember: To earn, you must first learn.
