How to Start a Finance Blog and Earn Money

With more money comes more debt”, I thought aloud as I stared at my laptop screen way back in 2011 – skimming through a series of online finance forums. My brief (3 years) stint as the online reputation manager for the company I worked for earlier, taught me interesting nuances of finances (because I was primarily managing the digital marketing campaigns of the finance companies) — “interesting” because (a) it taught me things which I wasn’t aware of at first and (b) it taught me things differently as I had perceived them before. This was the time when I stopped seeing “money” as a staid entity entailing equally uninteresting equations like “more income= more savings” or for that matter, “more money = less debt”. No, it didn’t happen that way. Those people clamoring for advice on those finance forums invariably taught me that understanding the dynamics of money is more complex than earning money itself. Back in 2011, I knew that I would be floating my own start-up soon (which I eventually did in 2012). However, thanks to my ex-colleague’s response to my aforementioned exclamation (With more money comes more debt), I thought of addressing a few misconceptions about finance through a blog. So, the birth of Finance Wand is directly attributable to that moment. He refused to believe that more money meant more debt and I started making him understand that there is actually no difference between someone earning $300,000 a year with debts worth $1 million and someone earning $30,000 a year with debts worth $100,000. I knew most of the people out there thought as he did. And, thus I started my first finance blog with the preliminary focus on dispelling a few money myths – in my own little way.

I sincerely believe that if you start a blog with a meaningful purpose (rather than only looking to earn from it), it becomes easier for you to earn. If you’re about to start a blog anytime soon and are looking forward to earning money from the same, then going through these points will possibly be of help!

Why exactly do you want to start a blog?

Don’t say you want to earn money. Your readers will not really be visiting your blog to help you earn money! They will come here to seek answers to the innumerable finance queries they have, to “listen” to variant finance stories, and to treat them as learning tools to step up their own fiscal literacy, to see if others are having similar financial problems as they are having or not and to seek possible avenues of improving their own financial behavior. Your blog, at least, can act as the starting point for them (when it comes to viewing their financial woes as something addressable and not as a dead-end). I started my blog because I wanted to address a few common financial myths. I was sure that they would help readers—irrespective of whether they are in deep financial trouble or not. They would help them realign their financial goals. For instance, there were quite a few readers who found it extremely difficult to prioritize their debts. This stands as a common problem despite the availability of so many articles out there. I personally would ask you to pay off as follows:

Mortgage
Property Taxes
Homeowner’s Insurance
Secured debts
Federal Income Taxes Federal Student Loans
Medical Bills
Unsecured debts (starting from the highest to lowest interest ones)

Remember you’re not the messiah

Not even money is the messiah! Yes, it does provide security to a certain extent but it does not really go on to ensure an eternal blanket of certainty. The more money you have, the more anxious you’re about saving it! We are not really asking you to undermine your speculative skills (when it comes to trends in World Economy) but make sure you are open to learning. Don’t end up sounding like an invincible finance guru ready to blurt out finance tips and tricks in your blogs. The advice is to be more human. I had read an article where this writer had said that a blogger is like someone sitting at the other end of the table chatting with his reader. I will say that this conversation can be about anything but one-sided preaching. Tell your reader that you’re still learning to mend your fiscal ways but would like to share your learning experience with him. Don’t end up sounding “infallible”. Your readers don’t want that.

Can you really earn money with your blogs?

Yes, you can! However, profiting from a blog is an elaborate proposition. To attract advertisers, you have to attract readers first. Advertisers are very selective with their dollars. They know which blog is driving 2,000 visitors and which one is driving more than 5,000 visitors within the same time frame. Keep the aforementioned points in view to bring more readers.

Get Yourself a Reliable Hosting Service

You need to get yourself a hosting service after you have decided on your domain name. My personal experience with Bluehost has been quite fulfilling. The easy-to-use interface helps you to do several things at the same time:

Completion of domain registration and hosting in one single step
The facility to add WordPress blog Installation
Add easy-to-install forums
Secure support from features like FTP, e-mail accounts and automatic backups

Offered below is the step-by-step procedure to complete the entire hosting process with Bluehost.

Visit the Bluehost page through the affiliate link at Financewand.com and click on the Blue Button.
Get Started Now

Bluhost offers you the chance to register with a new domain name or transfer an existing one:

Provide with all your account information here:

Scroll down the packages section. The 36 months package makes for the cheapest one. However, you should not really forget that Bluehost charges the entire (36 months) payment upfront. Since you’re prepaying for the hosting services, you will get a lot of advantages including the money-back guarantee.

Then comes the billing info part, where you enter the required billing details. Confirm that you are agreeing with the service terms and then click “next”.

Your Bluehost account has officially been created. Now you should concentrate on creating a password and log in to the “hosting” section. Bluehost greets you with a “welcome” message after you have logged in. And once you’re in the dashboard, you would require installing WordPress:

Once you’re in WordPress click “Install/Start”.

Select the domain you want to install.

Carry on by providing these details and click “Install Now”

After the installation of WordPress, you will receive an e-mail from the Mojo Marketplace. Save the e-mail as it contains your website URL, WordPress Login URL, and WordPress Login username