Last updated on October 21st, 2023
Have you ever thought of starting a blog but wondered how much it really costs to start a blog?
To start a blog is super easy. You can read my post: How to start a WordPress blog. In this post, you will find step by steps tutorial to start a blog.
I believe the main concern everyone has (including me when I first started) is not how to start a blog but rather how much it costs to start a blog and all the other stuff that is needed to run a blog.
I have had this blog for almost a year now. Let me share with you my personal experience of starting a blog and the breakdown of all the costs incurred so far.
How Much Does It Really Cost To Start A Blog?
1. Hosting Company
To be clear, here I am sharing about starting a self-hosted blog, not a free blog.
In my post: How to Make Money with a Blog for Beginners, I wrote about why you should start a self-hosted blog and why this is important if you intend to make money with your blog.
How much or how much money needed to start a blog is really depends on which hosting company you finally decide to select.
In my case is simple, I wanted to start a WordPress blog. The reason was that it only cost me $3.95 per month which was less than $4. I decided to sign up with www.bluehost.com.
Do note that in order to enjoy $3.95 per month, you need to sign up for the basic plan for 36 months. This will cost you $142.20 for 36 months. As for the extra package, you can look at it but you do not have to select it.
Which Hosting Companies To Select?
You do not have to choose WordPress, There are other web hosting companies out there such as Shopify or Wix which you can look into and decide for yourself.
Take Shopify for example, one thing I find very good about Shopify is, that you do not need to commit for 36 months. You can pay monthly and if you decide to stop you can just terminate the contract immediately. No question asked!
The
Compared to BlueHost‘s basic plan at $142.20 for 36 months, you need to pay an extra of $901.80 for Shopify. That is a lot for me!
If you are only planning to start a blog, in my opinion, you do not need Shopify, WordPress is good enough for you. This will help you save some cost but if you want to sell products + a blog, that is to start an e-commerce website, you can consider Shopify.
My Selection:
In my case. I signed up for the Plus plan instead of the Basic Plan as my sister was interested too. Since the Plus plan comes with an unlimited website, all she needs to do is order another domain name and she can have her very own website up and running.
The price for the
I did purchase the domain name Privacy as I do not want to receive any unsolicited phone calls and emails. It cost $9.48 per year.
My Cost:
Plus Hosting cost: $4.75/month, 36 months = $171.00 (3 years) + Extra: Domain Privacy Protection: $9.48 per year
Total amount: USD$180.48
If you registered for the Basic plan, your cost will only be $3.95/month, 36 months = USD$142.20. You can sign up here if you are ready to start: BlueHost
(Do note that both plans come with a one-year free domain name and free SSL Certificate for WordPress)
2. Blog Theme
Before I start my blog, I have read quite a number of blogs that advise their readers about how important to have your very own unique blog theme.
Thus, I spent almost two months searching for that perfect theme. Since the beginning, I have already decided not to spend money on a theme but rather choose from the FREE theme that comes with WordPress.
After much searching, I thought I had found the perfect theme but when I tried to customize it, it just didn’t turn outright. Thus, another cycle of selecting and customizing. This went on for almost two months until I came to my senses that I should have spent more time writing my post rather than searching for the perfect theme for my blog.
(Update: 2 Sept 2019 / I have upgraded my blog theme to the GeneratePress theme. It is a lightweight WordPress theme built with a focus on speed and usability.) Finally, I went with the theme
If you like to select other themes for your blog but having a problem customizing it. You can read my post “How to make WordPress them look like the demo“.
My Cost:
Free WordPress Theme: $0
3. Driving Traffic To Your Blog
Once you have a few posts published on your blog, you will soon realize that unless you do some promotion for your blog, not many people will come to know about it.
That was how I felt. I published my very first post and nobody came and visited. So sad…
I searched on the internet and learned that there are probably more than 250 million blogs online right now. This means that having a blog does not mean that people will automatically visit yours. You need to promote it. But how?
I learned that there are two ways of getting traffic to your blog. You can either pay for a service or do it yourself, which is free.
Since I do not intend to spend too much for a start, I will try the DIY way.
Two strategies to focus on: SEO and Social media
To master how to use these two strategies: SEO and sharing on social media to drive traffic to my blog are what I need to do for my blog. Both strategies are free, all you need to do is do your own research.
I am not very good at SEO. What I do know is you need to have a keyword in mind in every single post you write.
Although the SEO strategy is free it does take time to build. Thus, it is best to get your post optimized from the beginning. But how should I go about doing it? I have no knowledge and where should I start? I google and learned as much as I can but the information was everywhere. This made learning very difficult for me.
While learning about SEO, I am researching social media too. There is a lot of social media, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to name a few. Instead of doing all, I decided to just concentrate on one.
I decided on Pinterest to begin with. I have no idea what Pinterest was at that time. How to start and what should I be doing?
To cut short my learning time, I decided to invest in myself with a course to learn more about SEO and Pinterest strategies.
Pinterest eCourse
While searching online for a course to start, I stumbled upon “Pinterest Ninja ecourse“. I started learning what is Pinterest with this course. Once you purchase this course, you will get all future updates for free and sent right to your inbox.
This is a fantastic eCourse to start if you are only looking to master Pinterest. I have learned a lot from Megan and she is super helpful. Her course has helped a lot of people and you can read all about it here “Pinterest Ninja eCourse“.
Blogging Course
The next course I need to learn is SEO but if I keep buying course after course, it will cost me a lot. I started to wonder whether is there a course that covers every aspect of blogging from beginner’s level to intermediate and then advanced.
Latest update July 2019: Many things have changed since I joined this course in the year 2018. There are a lot of new updates, new changes, and more courses added.
That is when I found Blog Simple Frame Work (formally known as Billionaire Blog Club) which fit into my requirements.
These were the curriculum included when I first Joined:
1. The very beginning stage: Starting from scratch (this is for super new beginners who do not have a blog yet)
- Niche Selection
- Launching Your Blog
- Content Creation
- How to Gain Your First 1,000 Subscribers
- How to Reach $1,000 in Revenue and Beyond
- SEO
- Billionaire Affiliate Marketing
2. The intermediate stage: your blog is launched but still in the early stages…..
- Course: Content Creation
- Challenge: How to Gain Your First 1,000 Subscribers
- Challenge: How to Reach $1,000 in Revenue and Beyond
- SEO
- Affiliate Marketing
3. The advanced stage:
- SEO
- Billionaire Affiliate Marketing
- Creating Your First Paid Product
You can learn this course according to your level. No rush, at your own time.
There are even challenges for you to take on if you are game-enough. Such as Launching your blog & getting 10K Pageviews or How to reach $1,000 in revenue. These are just two examples, there is a total of four challenges.
I bought this course at a very special rate. They are having a very special promo at that time and I just went ahead and bought the course. No regret, support is super good. You have Scrivs, Marybeth, and the rest of the members to help you out on Slack. You are not alone in this journey!
I especially love the email Scrivs sent to all the members, it is not the typical sale email but emails to lift you up if you are down and pull you back if you are lost in the blogging world.
Lifetime Access
The awesome thing about this course is once you join, you join for life. You do not have to worry about paying for the next version or when a new course is added.
Pay once and you will be able to learn all the latest and updated online business resources forever.
My Cost:
Pinterest Ninja eCourse + Blogging Course = Visit website to check for the latest price
4. Email Marketing
After you launch your very first post, you can start to plan on accepting subscriptions for your blogs. As all bloggers will tell you, the money is on your list.
There is a lot of email marketing company out there. Some you can use for free for the first 1000 subscribers and others are pay services for the start.
Since my blog is super new and does not have any
By choosing MailerLite services, it helps me to save costs from the start until my blog is ready for the next level.
My Cost:
Email marketing: $0
5. Social Media Scheduler
Currently, I am using Tailwind to schedule all my Pinterest pins. This helps me save time as I do not have to do manual pinning. I have two Pinterest accounts and with a scheduler, it helps a lot.
My Cost:
Tailwind Account: US$119.88 per year
In Conclusion:
Above is how much I have spent for this year 2018. It seems that I have spent a lot to start this blog but the true fact is there is only one cost needed, and that is the hosting cost which is for 3 years. The rest are all optional.
One thing I do need to highlight is it is advisable to get some blogging courses before you start your blogging journey. The course will help you to focus on what you want to achieve with your blog and understand what it takes to become a successful blogger.
Compulsory Investment to start a blog:
BlueHost $142.20 for 36 months (Thus, per month is $3.95)
Optional:
Pinterest Ninja eCourse (visit the website to check for the latest price)
Blog Simple Frame Work (visit the website to check for the latest price)
Tailwind: US$119.88 per year
As you can see, it does not cost a lot to start a blog but the potential earning for a blog is huge. You can read my post “How much money can you make from blogging” to get a better idea.
I hope this post has cleared up your concern regarding the cost of starting a blog. If you have any questions, do contact me.
