According to Ahrefs, there are over 600 million blogs out of the 1.9 million websites on the Internet today and almost 2.3 million blog posts are published daily. This is crazy. These bloggers are earning anywhere between a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars every month. In this article, we’ll talk about how you can start blogging as a side hustle and do the same.
Blogging is one of the best side hustles for anyone looking to make some extra income as it is easily accessible by anyone. You can start a blog even if you are a full-time professional, a student, or a stay-at-home parent. Blogging allows you to choose a topic of your interest and make money online.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know to start your blogging journey, from setting up your blog and writing articles to making money through different ways. You’ll get to know how you can start blogging as a side hustle and even earn more than your current full-time job.
Table of Contents
Why Blogging Is a Great Side Hustle?
The biggest benefit of choosing to start blogging as a side hustle is the flexibility that comes with it. You can be a full-time employee juggling work and family, a college student managing coursework, or a stay-at-home parent with a busy schedule but blogging can easily fit into your life.
You can write posts in the early mornings, late evenings, or even during lunch breaks, or at any time that you prefer to work. The flexibility that comes with it makes it an ideal side hustle that can seamlessly fit into your schedule.
Blogging does not require any huge investment. You can start a blog with minimum investment. The main cost involves purchasing a domain name and hosting which can and hosting, which can be as low as $50 to $100 per year.
Many blogging platforms, such as WordPress or Blogger, offer free or affordable themes and plugins that can help you design a professional-looking site without breaking the bank.
Having such a low financial barrier to enter the market makes blogging accessible to just about anyone who has an internet connection and a passion for sharing their knowledge.
You just need a few skills like writing, search engine optimization, and digital marketing. All of these skills are easy to learn and with just a few YouTube videos you can learn it within a week.
Set Up Your Blog
Start by Choosing a Profitable Niche
Choosing the right niche is extremely important. It is the first step in building a successful blog. A profitable niche can easily strike a balance between your interests and market demand.
You can not just choose a topic that you are interested in but it has no market demand. You will need to choose something which you can easily write about but there is also a demand for it and people want to read about those topics. Such categories will have a huge potential for earning a good amount every month through ad revenue sponsored content, etc.
When you write about something you enjoy, it becomes easier to stay motivated and produce high-quality content consistently.
Here are 10 profitable blogging niches that you can choose from:
1. Personal Finance and Investing blog: You can share tips on budgeting, saving, and investing. These topics can easily attract a massive audience who is looking to manage or grow their money.
2. Health and Wellness blog: Share your knowledge related to fitness, mental health, nutrition, and holistic living. This is always in high demand.
3. Lifestyle: You can start a lifestyle blog where you can share anything, from minimalism to self-care routines, lifestyle blogs, etc. These blogs have a broad audience as young girls enjoy reading this stuff.
4. Tech and Gadgets Blogs: You can share reviews, tutorials, and news about the latest technology. People are always buying technology and want to know about everything related to that gadget before making their purchase. Tech-savvy readers will come to your blog if they like it and you can also make money through affiliate marketing.
5. Food and Recipes: If you love cooking, you can start a culinary blog where you can share unique recipes, diet-specific content (e.g., vegan or keto), and meal prep ideas that are popular these days.
6. Travel Blog: You can share guides, itineraries, and tips for budget-friendly travel which can easily draw readers who are interested in exploring the world.
7. Parenting and Family: If you are a parent or work in such a field, you can share practical advice on parenting, child development, and family activities which will resonate with a large demographic, especially first-time parents.
8. Fashion and Beauty: Here, you can share tips on style, beauty routines, and product reviews which appeal to readers who religiously follow trends and love to indulge in personal care.
9. DIY and Home Decor: If you love DIYs or love playing around with the interior in your home, you can write about home improvement projects, and share decor ideas that are popular with homeowners and DIY enthusiasts.
10. Career and Self-Development Blogs: These blogs are focused on sharing tips about professional growth, resume writing, job interview tips, and productivity hacks. Creer-driven individuals or fresh graduates love to read such content.
Besides blogging there are various side hustles that can make just as much money as blogging and require the same effort and time. Here are some side hustle ideas of 2025 that are profitable.
Take Care of the Technical Setup
To start your blog, you can follow these essential steps:
1. You should select a domain name that is relevant to your niche, and easy to spell. Ideally, it should be small so it is easy to remember and it should have a common extension like .com.
2. After this, select a good hosting provider like Bluehost, SiteGround, Hostinger, or HostGator that ensures your site runs smoothly and loads quickly.
Most hosting providers have unique bundled packages that include a free domain for the first year. You should spend a good time doing your research here as a hosting provider can make or break your blog.
3. Install the blogging platform. I love WordPress as it is the most popular and highly recommended blogging platform. It is easy to use and has so many plugins and a lot of YouTube tutorials. It is perfect for beginners who are looking for something easy to start with. Blogger is also an option. It is free to use but it comes with a few customization features.
Focus on Design and User Experience
The way your blog looks and functions will play a huge role in attracting and retaining readers. Here’s how you can create a clean and user-friendly design:
- Choose a simple, clean theme that is easy to navigate and visually appealing. Just make sure that it showcases your content smoothly without too much clutter as the human mind tends to run away from things that require too much hard work. You can use themes like Astra, GeneratePress, and Kadence. These are great examples of lightweight themes and are perfect for blogs.
- Go for clear fonts, proper spacing, and a balanced layout. This will make your posts easy to read. This is to enhance readability. There is a need to break down large paragraphs into shorter sections using subheadings to guide readers through your content.
- Your blog should be mobile-friendly. Most of us use the internet on our smartphones so your blog must be optimized for mobile viewing. Choose a responsive theme like GeneratePress that adjusts to different screen sizes automatically. Also, test your blog on various devices to confirm its mobile functionality.
If you set up your blog with these elements, you will be able to lay a strong foundation which will give you the best chance to attract and engage readers as you grow your blog.
Create High-Quality Posts
To make a successful blog, you should have a solid content plan that includes a schedule for publishing posts consistently. For this, you can use a content calendar that can help you to post consistently and remain organized.
This will help you post regularly which will let you rank higher in the search.
Focus on Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important things when it comes to attracting traffic to your blog.
By selecting the right keywords, you’ll be able to write posts that align with what people are searching for, making it easier for readers to find your blog. You can use free tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to search keywords that are relevant to your niche.
You should try to keep a balance of high search volume and low competition keywords to improve your chances of ranking.
Write Engaging Blog Posts
Blog posts should have an easy structure. This will help in keeping your readers interested. Here’s how you should structure your posts:
- Start your post by adding an introduction. This is to capture your reader’s attention by using a strong hook that introduces your topic and explains its relevance.
- Add subheadings and lists to break down your post and to make it easier to skim. It should be easy on the eyes. Human minds tend to run away from things where anything looks too cluttered or requires effort.
- In the end, add a clear conclusion. Here you need to wrap everything up by summarizing the main points, including a call to action (CTA) to encourage readers to leave comments, share the post, or explore other content on your site.
To make your content more SEO-friendly, focus on adding primary and secondary keywords naturally throughout your post and use some SEO plugins to check if your post looks good from an SEO point of view.
You must include the primary keyword in the title, the introduction, and in some of the subheadings. Writing meta descriptions using your primary keyword is also essential for SEO.
Lastly, add high-quality images to break down the posts. You can easily find free images on sites like Unsplash, Pexels, etc, or even use Canva to create something of your own.
Ways To Earn Through Your Blog
Following are some of the ways to earn a decent amount of money through your blog:
1. Advertising Revenue
The most popular and basic way to monetize a blog is through advertising. There are different ad networks and Google AdSense is one of them. You can place ads on your blog and earn revenue each time a visitor views or clicks on an ad.
To apply for Google AdSense, you’ll only need to follow their basic guidelines to get approved. Once you are accepted, you can increase ad revenue by optimizing ad placement and by focusing on growing traffic on your blog.
If you have a blog with higher traffic, then more premium ad networks like Mediavine and Raptive (previously known as AdThrive) can provide you with significantly higher earnings.
2. Affiliate Marketing
This is another great way to make money through a blog. Bloggers can earn commissions by promoting products or services. All you need to do is join an affiliate program. Then you’ll receive unique links to share within your blog posts. When any reader clicks on these links and purchases something, you will earn a percentage of the sale.
Amazon Associates is widely known around the globe. Other affiliate programs such as ShareASale connect you with brands across various niches. Just make sure to promote products that fit within your niche.
For example, if you have a personal finance blog and you end up promoting Korean beauty products, it will give a bad vibe and readers will not be able to resonate with your words.
3. Sponsored Posts and Reviews
Once your blog starts to grow, brands may approach you for sponsored content, where they pay you to write about their products or services. Sponsored posts and reviews are a great way to make good money especially if your audience easily trusts your recommendations.
To attract brands, you should focus on building a niche audience and showcasing your expertise in that field. You can also reach out to brands that align with your blog, offering them a collaboration that benefits both parties.
4. Sell Digital Products
You can also sell digital products such as eBooks, online courses, and printables (templates, worksheets, planners) that sit perfectly with your blog.
You can use your existing blog content to make these products by repackaging your insights in such a way that it offers additional value to your readers.
5. Offer Services
You can start providing writing, consulting, coaching, or graphic designing services on your blog. Now if you have a blog in the finance niche, you can offer some personal coaching on how to create a budget that will make you debt-free three years from now, etc.
Bloggers around the globe are using this option and making a good amount of money.
6. Sell Merchandise
You can also sell branded merchandise. You can have a blog in any niche like fitness, pet care, personal finance, etc.
The products will then be per that niche. For example, some finance-related quotes can be printed on t-shirts. You can sell items like t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and notebooks on your blog if you have a loyal following and a blog in a niche that aligns with these things.
You can even try and monetize your blog through all these ways at once which will leave you with a good earning. Blogging as a side hustle is easy to start but it has the potential to be easily scaled into a full-time income source.
Scaling Your Blog to Full-Time Income
There are numerous ways to scale your blog and getting more traffic is one of the best ways one can do that.
Here are some strategies that you can use to grow your traffic:
You can use social media platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, etc to connect with your audience and engage with them. By sharing visuals and videos consistently, you will be able to create an audience and grow your blog.
Use SEO to optimize your content for search engines so that it is easy for readers to find relevant topics. To do this, you can use relevant keywords in your meta descriptions, titles, descriptions, etc to bring organic traffic to your blog.
Guest Blogging is another great way to grow your blog. By writing for other’s blogs, you will not only share your content with new audiences but will also be able to build backlinks which will help to improve your blog’s SEO.
Here is a detailed article by BigCommerce that explains everything you need to know related to guest blogging.
Other ways include email marketing where you offer your email leads with some monthly or weekly newsletters or guides to keep them engaged. If you start blogging as a side hustle and want to start earning right away, then it is recommended that you use these techniques as they will help you to grow your blog.
Challenges You’ll Face While Pursuing Blogging as a Side Hustle
Blogging as a side hustle has a lot of challenges but if you use the right strategies, you can overcome them easily. Time management is extremely important, especially if you’re balancing a full-time job or other responsibilities. Just try to practice some discipline and set aside specific hours every day for blogging tasks.
Staying consistent is tough when the progress feels slow. To stay motivated, you can start by setting small, achievable goals which will keep you going. Every single post that you write will add value, no matter how long or short it is, this will help you by building your audience over time.
Success Stories of Bloggers
Many successful bloggers started with blogging as a side hustle and gradually transformed it into a full-time career. For example, let’s take the example of Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income who began his blog in 2008 in the process of building a popular blog for his exam. He remained consistent and followed strategic affiliate marketing while focusing on helping his readers and as a result, he was able to build a six-figure business.
Then there’s Michelle Schroeder-Gardner of Making Sense of Cents. She started her blog as a way to document her journey to financial independence and eventually left her day job as her blog’s income grew through affiliate partnerships and online courses. I personally love her work and she was my inspiration behind starting this blog.
Multiple more bloggers around the globe started from nowhere and have scaled their blogs to their full-time income source. You can also do that easily by following these steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time do I need to dedicate to blogging as a side hustle?
The time you want to dedicate depends on how fast you want your blog to rank and start getting traffic. But starting with 5–10 hours per week can be effective. This will allow you to plan, write, and promote your content while still balancing other responsibilities.
Do I need to invest money to start a blog?
While it’s possible to start a blog for free using platforms like Blogger, investing in a domain name and hosting (around $50–$100 per year) is recommended to build a professional brand and access monetization opportunities quickly.
How long does it take to make money from blogging?
Earnings depend on factors like niche, traffic, and monetization strategies. Many bloggers start earning modest amounts within a few months, but consistent effort is often required to make significant income, typically within 6–12 months.
What’s the best niche for blogging as a side hustle?
If you want to start blogging as a side hustle, you should choose a niche that you are passionate about and has market demand. Some popular niches include personal finance, health, tech, lifestyle, and travel.
What are the most effective ways to monetize a blog?
Their best options include monetizing through ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content. You can also sell digital products or provide services but this will bring good results when you already have a loyal audience.
Is blogging a good side hustle?
Yes, blogging is a great side hustle. It offers flexibility and has low start-up costs. If you put in consistent effort, it can become a reliable income stream and even has the potential to grow into a full-time career.
How to start a blog for free and make money?
You can easily start a blog for free on platforms like Blogger, which provides free hosting and a simple setup process. While these free platforms can limit some customization and monetization options, you can still make money through affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and even ad revenue. As your blog grows, you should consider investing in a custom domain and additional features to grow your income.
Conclusion
Starting blogging as a side hustle is an exciting journey that can lead to significant income if you are using the right approach. From choosing a profitable niche and setting up a blog to creating quality content and exploring various monetization methods, each step mentioned in this article will help you start and grow your blog with time.
You can easily scale your blog by using strategies like SEO, email marketing, and networking and turn this side project into a steady, full-time income source.
You will not be able to do anything overnight. Get your desired hosting today and just take a leap of faith and start writing articles.