We know that starting a lifestyle blog on WordPress sounds technical but it’s NOT rocket science. The #1 reason most people start blogging is to make money. You too can do it as making money blogging is NOT hard. Want definitive proof? The blog you’re reading now generates us over $18,000 every SINGLE month. You can read our blogging journey to find earning reports, how we started, and more details. Whether you want to launch a blog to share your thoughts or make money, it’s a good idea to pick a solid blogging platform like WordPress. So in this guide, we’ll show you how you can launch your own lifestyle blog using WordPress. Also, we’ll discuss all the other important aspects of lifestyle blogging including;
Essential plugins to install What is a lifestyle blog How to make money from lifestyle blogging A 5-step checklist and more
So let’s get started!
What Is a Lifestyle Blog?
Before we dive into the details, let’s first answer this question “what is a lifestyle blog?”. A lifestyle blog is where you talk about your life and personal interests or experiences. A lifestyle blog mostly includes topics like;
Fashion Relationships Fitness Food DIY (Do It Yourself) Travel and more
Most lifestyle bloggers talk about their daily activities or experiences and share how they live their lives. They also often give advice on how others can live happily, avoid mistakes and become a better person. This unique combination is what helps lifestyle bloggers to build a “connection” with their followers. So if you’re interested in becoming a lifestyle blogger and looking for an EASY guide on how to start a lifestyle blog on WordPress and make money from lifestyle blogging, this post is just for you. Let’s get started without much ado!
How to Start a Lifestyle Blog in 6 Easy Steps
Step 1: Pick a memorable domain name
Once you’ve decided to start a lifestyle blog, the first thing you need to do is to name your blog. Before you even launch a blog on WordPress, you need to come up with a domain name. A domain is your website’s address on the Internet. Choosing the best domain name for your lifestyle blog is extremely important. Why? Because, your blog’s domain name defines your brand, so spending a couple of hours brainstorming is not a bad idea. Over the years, we’ve bought a ton of domains so we know a couple of things that can help you pick a memorable domain for your lifestyle blog. Always stick to .com Although there are many TLDs (Top Level Domain) available, it’s always a good idea to pick a domain with a .com extension. Why? The simple reason is most people instinctively use .com when entering a website address in their browser. Also, a domain name with a .com extension is easier to promote, display in business cards and help you grow your business. So stick to .com as much as possible. Here’s a fun fact about .com domains: About 150 million .com domain names are currently registered. They are so popular that it can be difficult to find an available .com domain. Use Instant Domain Search (free tool) The easiest (and probably the fastest) way to pick a great domain is to use free domain generator tools like Instant Domain Search. Using these tools, you will get a ton of domain ideas instantly as you type. Have a look; As you can see above, once you enter any keyword or topic, the tool instantly shows you a ton of available domains. Green results mean the domain name is available to register! Lastly, you can also take time to come up with 3 to 5 domain names for your blog or take others’ help to finalize your domain name.
Step 2: Purchase a web hosting plan
So you’ve finalized the domain name for your lifestyle blog. Congrats. What next? You now have two options.
One option is: register your domain on a domain registrar such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc Another option (the best option) is: purchase a web host that offers free domain registration
Why is the first option a bad idea? If you buy a domain from another registrar and purchase hosting from someone else, you need to connect both of them. It’s a time-consuming task and we don’t recommend that option for beginners. So where to purchase a web hosting plan that offers both hosting and a free domain? The BEST option is Bluehost. We’ve been using Bluehost to host our niche sites for over 10 years and we never had any issues with it. Over 2 million websites are powered by Bluehost. In fact, WordPress itself officially recommends Bluehost. The best part? Bluehost offers affordable hosting plans along with free domain registration. If you want to start a lifestyle blog on Bluehost, here’s a simple tutorial for you. Click on this exclusive link to visit Bluehost where you’ll see our special discount page which looks like this; As you can see, you’ll get Bluehost plans starting only at $2.95/mo (instead of $8.99 per month). Click on the ‘Get Started Now’ button to select your hosting package. Here’s how it looks like: If you want a cheaper plan, you can select the Basic plan which costs you $2.95/mo which means you’ll pay just $35.40 for 12 months. Have a look; Once you’ve chosen a hosting plan from Bluehost, you’ll be asked to create a domain (which is free with Bluehost). You can either register a new domain for free or skip this step to proceed to their payment page. Quick note: You can set up your domain later and you’ll receive a FREE domain credit from Bluehost. So either you can register your domain now or later. In the last step, you’ll have to create an account with Bluehost. Once you’re done with Bluehost account creation and making the payment, you will get a confirmation email from Bluehost. That’s it, you’re done. You can simply use the Bluehost 1-click install option to install WordPress, so you’re ready to blog. In case if you’re not satisfied with Bluehost, they also have a 30-day refund policy so you will get a full refund within 30 days after signing up.
Step 3: Customize your blog
Once you install WordPress on your lifestyle blog, it’s time to start customizing it. Although you can choose free WordPress themes, if you want to make your site look professional from day one, go with a premium theme. Most premium WordPress themes are mobile responsive, SEO-friendly, and come with customer support! Here are a couple of recommendations that help you easily customize your lifestyle blog’s design however you want. Kloe from Envato Market Envato Market is the #1 platform where you can find thousands of WordPress themes and website templates. Kloe is one of the best premium WordPress themes that suit perfectly to lifestyle blogs. Kloe theme comes with a ton of features including 14 various homepage designs, 1-click import of demo content, fully compatible with WooCommerce, Image/video slides, and more. It costs you $69 for a single license and comes with 6 months of customer support. If you’re looking for an elegant fashion and lifestyle blog, this theme is the best choice for you. Elementor Pro Elementor Pro is the most powerful website builder WordPress plugin for WordPress which helps you create stunning design forms, blog posts, image or video slides, and more. The good thing about using Elementor is that no matter what theme (be it free or premium) you choose, you can customize your site however you want. It also offers a free version with limited features but $59 per year is an enticing price to upgrade to the pro version of Elementor. It comes with a plethora of features such as;
Drag and drop editor Choose from over 300 beautifully designed templates Use their widgets to create anything you need such as buttons, headlines, forms, etc Access to popup builder to create popups on your site to grow your subscribers and conversions You can also create landing pages without any coding skills and the list goes on
You can read our Elementor Pro review if you want to know more details about this amazing page builder plugin for WordPress.
Step 4: Install essential WordPress plugins
Once your blog’s customization is done, it’s time to install the most important plugins so you can run your lifestyle blog smoothly. So what WordPress plugins do you need for your lifestyle blog? Although there is a wide range of WordPress plugins available, here are some of the essential plugins you must install on your lifestyle blog. WP Recipe Maker Most lifestyle blogs cover the “Food” topic, if you’re also one of them, WP Recipe Maker plugin is a gift for you. It’s a free plugin that allows you to add recipes to any post or page with automatic metadata for your recipes. You can also do so many things with this plugin such as displaying nutrition data in a nutrition label, adding a “User Ratings” to allow your blog visitors to vote on your recipes without commenting, and more. Contact Form 7 Every blog and website needs a contact page so others can get in touch with the website owner. Contact Form 7 is a free plugin that helps you create and manage multiple contact forms easily. It’s also the most popular contact form plugin with over 5 million active installs. You can also customize the contact form and the mail contents effortlessly. The contact form also supports various security features such as CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering, and so on. Rank Math SEO Plugin You need to optimize your content to increase your search rankings. Here’s where an SEO plugin like Rank Math comes into play. Rank Math SEO plugin helps you optimize your blog posts (and pages) for your target keywords. You can also optimize for multiple keywords at once, add schema, and more. We’ve been using the Rank Math SEO plugin on our site for a long time, and it’s by far the best WordPress SEO plugin. You can also read our Rank Math plugin review to find more details. WP Rocket Website speed is extremely important as it affects both your search rankings as well as user experience. One of the best ways to speed up your page loading times is to enable page caching. You can use a premium caching plugin like WP Rocket (we also use the same to run this blog) to boost your website speed. You can read our WP Rocket review to know more about this amazing caching plugin. Alternative: You can also try W3 Total Cache which is free to use, although not as powerful as WP Rocket. Jetpack plugin This is another powerful WordPress plugin that’s essential to use regardless of the topic you blog about. Jetpack helps to do so many things from providing traffic stats of your blog to spam protection, security, backups, and many more.
Step 5: Write your first blog post
Most people wait to publish their first blog post. They wait for PERFECT ideas. They want to get their first post right. But here’s the thing: your first blog post doesn’t matter much. Don’t delay or wait for perfection. Just publish it. Your 100th blog post will be A LOT better than your FIRST blog post. Always remember that. In case if you’re wondering what to write about, here are some ideas that you can consider to write your first blog post on your lifestyle blog.
Start with an introduction post where you can talk about your lifestyle You can also get right into the type of content you’ll be creating What you hope to accomplish with your blog Start with lifestyle blogging tips Write about who inspired you to start blogging (and link to those people)
Step 6: Promote your lifestyle blog like a pro
There are over 2,000,000 blog posts published each day. Did you know the #1 reason most bloggers quit? Lack of traffic. If you’re not getting any traffic, it’s extremely difficult to continue publishing new content. It’s always a better idea to come up with a promotion strategy before you even launch your lifestyle blog. If you’re wondering how you can increase traffic to your lifestyle blog, use these smartest promotion strategies. Reach out to other bloggers Networking is the most important thing when it comes to online success. The best way to promote your blog is to build connections with other bloggers in your niche. Firstly, make a list of 30 to 50 lifestyle blogs in a spreadsheet along with their blog URLs. Then, try to find their email addresses (you can use tools like Hunter or simply subscribe to their email newsletters). You can then regularly email them to give ideas, praise their work, or email whenever you link to their content. You can also try the blogger outreach strategy to build strong relationships with other bloggers in your niche. Be active on Pinterest Lifestyle or fashion blogs use a lot of appealing images. So what’s the best social media platform to share those images? Pinterest. If you’re running a lifestyle or fashion blog, you must use Pinterest as you can discover a ton of recipes, home ideas, style inspiration, and other ideas. Did you know that as of the third quarter of 2020, Pinterest had 442 million monthly active users worldwide? That means you can generate a lot of traffic from Pinterest. So go create a Pinterest profile and add your website links if you haven’t done it yet. Start engaging with others on Facebook groups You can use Facebook groups to connect with other lifestyle bloggers. There are a ton of lifestyle groups you can find on Facebook to easily engage with other bloggers. Don’t use these groups to promote your content blatantly. Instead, find how you can add value to the group by responding to others’ comments, sharing your knowledge, and so on. You can also consider joining our BloggersPassion VIP group where we currently have more than 18,500 active bloggers from various niches. Pick 1 to 2 Facebook groups to actively engage with others. Once everyone starts seeing your useful posts or replies, you’ll automatically start getting attention which ultimately leads to more traffic.
How to Make Money from Lifestyle Blogging?
So you now know how to start a lifestyle blog on WordPress. What’s the next most important thing? Monetizing your lifestyle blog. How can you make money from lifestyle blogging in 2023? Although there are many ways to make money from blogging as a beginner, here are few PROVEN ways most lifestyle bloggers earn from their blogs.
Affiliate marketing
Did you know that we generate more than $18,000 per month from the blog you’re currently reading now? Here’s another fact: most of that income comes from affiliate marketing. In fact, we made over $459,000 just from one affiliate product called Semrush. You can also read our Semrush affiliate program review to find more details. See that? Over $459,000 just from one affiliate product. Amazing results, right? The good thing about monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing is that you earn passive income. That means you make money even while sleeping. So how do you earn more money by selling affiliate products on your lifestyle blog? Here are few proven ways that helped us generate thousands of dollars from affiliate marketing. Pick the right affiliate products There are millions of lifestyle products you can promote as an affiliate. Picking the best affiliate programs that suit your target audience is the key to generating more sales. There are also many platforms where you can find great affiliate products for your lifestyle blog such as; Visit those affiliate networks and become an affiliate (you can join for free in all of them). Then, you can pick suitable products to start generating affiliate income from your lifestyle blog. Write honest product reviews Once you have a list of lifestyle affiliate products to promote on your blog, you should start creating reviews around those products. By creating genuine product reviews, you’ll get benefits including;
Building trust with your audience You’ll attract traffic from search engines It’s easier to generate affiliate sales with helpful product reviews
Don’t write random product reviews. Have a plan. Try to make your product reviews as detailed as possible and let your audience know how those products can be helpful for them. Find out how other lifestyle bloggers are promoting Another quick tip to boost your affiliate sales is to see how other top lifestyle bloggers are promoting their affiliate products to their audience. Ask yourself;
Are they creating content to promote affiliate products? Are they offering any special deals or discounts to boost their affiliate product sales? Are they generating most of their sales from affiliate product reviews? Are they using any special pages like “Resources” or “Tools I Use” to promote their affiliate products?
When you carefully analyze your competitors’ websites, you’ll get a ton of ideas that you can implement on your own lifestyle blog.
Sponsorships and paid reviews
One of the most common ways that most successful lifestyle bloggers use to earn money is through paid reviews and sponsorship. If your lifestyle blog is getting a ton of traffic (or at least 100,000 visits/month), you can attract so many potential brands where you can publish their sponsored posts. Just make sure the brand you promote is somehow relevant and useful to your target audience. If not, you might kill your blog’s loyal readership. The best way to attract sponsorships to your lifestyle blog is to create an Advertise page where you can mention your website stats, the benefits of covering any brand/product on your site, and so on. For instance, here’s how the sponsorships page on the top lifestyle blog A Beautiful Mess looks like; You can also consider giving a try to sponsored post networks like “Blog Meets Brand” to connect with some great brands in your niche. Also, you can try selling your own products such as eBooks, online courses, fashion or beauty products, etc. Analyze your competitors thoroughly and you’ll find plenty of ways.
How to Start Your Lifestyle Blog the RIGHT Way: A Simple 5 Point Checklist
Starting a lifestyle blog is way easier. But when you’re starting a new blog, you’re prone to make a lot of mistakes that could cost you big in the long run. So having a checklist helps when starting a new lifestyle blog. Here’s a simple 5-point checklist that helps you launch your lifestyle blog the right way.
- Find your niche: Although the lifestyle industry is profitable, you can’t write just about anything. It’s important to identify a “specific niche” so you can dominate and be profitable in the long run. Analyze your competitors to find their top-performing content.
- Choose the best domain name: Domain name is what stays forever. It can’t be undone. So spend as much time as you can to find a memorable domain that’s short, creative, and easy to remember. You can also use free blog name generator tools such as Domainr, Lean Domain Search, etc to come up with ideas.
- Get a good web hosting service: Your web host plays a key role in important things like security, website speed, performance, and more. So don’t go for a cheap or free web hosting service to save money. Always, go for reliable brands like Bluehost that are in the hosting business for decades.
- Create an editorial calendar for content: When it comes to blogging, consistency is the key to your success. No one likes it if you publish content irregularly on your blog, right? Not even Google. When you’re starting a new blog, create an editorial calendar so you can schedule your blog posts, ideas, and drafts in advance. You can also use free plugins like Editorial calendar to easily manage your content.
- Set yourself blog goals: What do you want to accomplish from your blog? Do you want to build an audience? Do you want to make some profits? Decide your blog goals first. Then, break them into small and achievable goals such as;
Getting your first 100 subscribers (1k subscribers, 10k subscribers, and so on) Generating your first affiliate sale (10 sales, 100 sales, and so on) Getting 100 visitors a day (500 visits/day, 1000 visits/day, and so on)
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions on how to start a lifestyle blog and make money from home. What Others are Reading: – Gal Meets Glam– A Cup of Jo– Advice From a Twenty Something – Wit and Delight– A Beautiful Mess– Cupcakes and Cashmere Want to find more? Here are the 30 best lifestyle blogs you can follow to improve your lifestyle and fashion.
How to Start a Blog and Make Money from it in 2023 How to Start a Blog in India and Make Money from it in 2023 How to Start a Fashion Blog and Make Money from Fashion Blogging in 2023 How to Start a Food Blog and Make it Successful in 2023 How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money from It In 2023 How to Start a Weight Loss Blog and Make Money from Weight Loss Blogging In 2023 How to Start a Pet Blog and Make Money from Pet Blogging in 2023
Final thoughts on lifestyle blogging
Don’t wait for the perfect day to launch your lifestyle blog. Just start it today as it takes a couple of minutes to get started with WordPress if you’re using a web host like Bluehost. Once you start your blog, analyze your competitors, target the right keywords, create engaging content and pick a monetization strategy to succeed. Also, network with other fashion or lifestyle bloggers to share ideas, help each other and succeed together. So what are your thoughts? Do you have any questions about creating your own lifestyle blog? If yes, let us know in the comments.
