From a monetary point of view, starting a blog can cost you nothing. It can be free.
There are many free blogging platforms to choose from like www.blogger.com, www.typepad.com and even the mighty www.wordpress.com.
These free blogging platforms are fine for those individuals who just want to blog and NOT make any income.
You get to choose different layouts, different header banners (i.e. the photo or design, right at the top of your blog).
You can also choose what you’d like in the sidebars as well.
These are excellent if you just want to share your thoughts and opinions.
However, more and more people are turning to the web and blogging to make a blog income.
Some want to remove themselves from the 9-5 rat race and blogging can be one way to do that (like I did – see the 50 things you didn’t know about me). Others have suddenly found themselves unemployed and want to start something new, fresh and it’s their next journey in life.
Others simply want to carry on working the 9-5 and just want to supplement their income.
Housewives and househusbands want to work part-time from home and blogging can be a way of making some extra income.
So for those who do want to make a blog income, I don’t recommend a free blogging platform.
Using a non-free blogging platform will dramatically improve a blogger’s ability to earn money blogging.
These are the reasons why I don’t recommend you use any free blogging software:
Monetization and Advertisements: Many of the free blogging platforms do not allow you to include advertisements of any kind and by advertising you can make an income.
Customization: The free blogging platforms provide few options to change the design of your blog and a limited amount of internet space. The options to choose layouts, headers, etc as I state above are good but they are still restrictive.
Technical Knowledge: The free blogging platforms require much more technical knowledge than the non-free platforms and if you don’t want to get into the technical side, then ignore them.
Plugins: With the free blogging software you are restricted with what plugins you can use. Plugins are ‘add-ons’ that add functionality to your blog and there are thousands of free ones to choose from. Some will make your blog load faster. Others attract visitors, allows you to add photos, videos…the list is almost endless.
Here are some of my recommended plugins: 16 Mandatory WordPress Plugins Your Blog Should Have
If you want to make a blog income, I recommend you go with a non-free blogging platform like WordPress.
Hold On! I said WordPress was free!
There are 2 different versions of WordPress. Let me explain…
The WordPress software from www.wordpress.com is free. They provide everything, the domain name, the hosting and the software but I do not recommend you use them.
Why?
As well as the reasons I mention above about free blogging platforms, if you were to use WordPress.com you don’t own the blog, WordPress does and that means you are very limited in what you can do with the software.
The other WordPress software from www.wordpress.org is the one I recommend.
One more reason:
Google loves WordPress.org: Google has come out and stated that Google loves WordPress. WordPress makes it easier to gain more traffic and visitors to your blog. Here’s a video with Matt Cutts (the face of Google) explaining why Google loves WordPress. Click here: Matt Cutts video
Here are the small costs involved to set up your own blog:
1. A domain name and hosting. Check out my blog post on “How to choose a website name”
To make things simple you can buy the domain name and the hosting of the domain name with the same company. They do everything for you and it just makes things easier.
When you purchase hosting, you are basically buying some space on the internet for you to load your blog. That’s hosting in real simple terms.
A domain name and hosting for one month will cost as little as $4.95.
I use the following hosting providers for my clients and myself and they are excellent.
One more reason why I use one of the following is that two of them offer a facility called Fantastico and the third offers a facility called ‘Simple Scripts’ to automatically install WordPress in seconds.
Click on the link to find the best deals:
LunarPagesHosting (uses Fantastico)
HostGatorHosting (uses Fantastico)
BlueHost (uses Simple Scripts)
And that’s it.
You DON’T NEED to purchase anything else. You now have your own on-line blogging business that’s going to cost you approx. $60 per year.
Of course, just buying the domain and hosting isn’t going to make you a blog income, but I’m just talking about the set-up costs here.
These are some extras that I would recommend:
A Premium WordPress theme.
There are numerous WordPress themes to choose from. Here’s my previous post on the “Top 11 Premium themes”.
Why do I recommend a premium theme?
Mainly because the free ones are a little poor in their design, take time to understand on how to change things and the support if you have problems can be non-existent.
The premiums themes do cost but they save you huge amounts of time and the support is excellent. Expect to pay anything between $50 and $100 for a premium theme.
The ones I use for my clients and myself are:
Woo Themes
A Header Banner
Some blog owners like to have a personally branded header banner.
Having your own personally branded header banner makes you different from all the rest.
The price for a unique header banner can vastly range, anything from $30 to $1000.
In summary, to make a blog for a blog income, the minimum cost is just a domain name and hosting ($60 per year) and if you want a premium theme ($80) and a personally branded header banner, that’s an extra $60.
In total $200 for your first year on-line costs. Then don’t forget in the second year you would only have the hosting costs of $60 per year.
That’s the cheapest business you’ll ever set up.
What’s your view on the set up costs for a blog? Which hosting or extra purchases do you recommend? Please share your ideas in the comments below.
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I approached Andrew in February 2010, because I needed to enhance the way I communicated my business.
Without Andrew, I wouldn't even have a blog -- I would still just be sitting here, staring at my computer, feeling confused and helpless. With Andrew, I no longer fear confusion and it's impossible to feel helpless. He exerts any and all necessary efforts to resolve any problem or perplexity -- quickly, kindly, intelligently, up to and including IM exchanges in real time via skype. I would urge anyone at any level of expertise (or not) to make the most of his extraordinary talent.
The best blog builder, and the best blog maintenance, I've ever met is Andrew Rondeau. This fellow is an authentic professional in every sense of the word. He's lightning fast, knowledgeable, competent, a skilled listener. He goes the extra mile. He's able to share his passion for his work and products without being pushy. He as other great internet skills, too, but his most impressive attribute is mastery of website building.
Thank you Andrew for your patience in getting my website and on-line courses on-line and selling. You were fantastic in learning the delivery platform software that I had chosen and you were across the complexities quickly. Your detailed approach in setting guidelines and deliverables bought my focus back to where it should be and got the job done. Thank you for all your efforts it was a pleasure.
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Having worked with Andrew on and off over the last year, I have found him to be very patient, helpful and easy to work with. He is also very knowledgeable, supportive and a true expert.
Andrew was kind enough to offer up his own time as part of an initiative to make the world a better place, and I was one of the beneficiaries of that effort. He spent an hour with me working on improving my bounce rate; he suggested several helpful strategies. Most importantly, he helped me with some key processes to help speed up my site, which had bogged down considerably with overuse of graphics. Andrew helped me get set up with Rackspace, which helped so much. From a load time of almost 30 seconds, the site sped up to about a 6 second load. Thanks so much, Andrew!
I first connected with Andrew in early 2010 as I was looking to start a blog. I didn't do anything straight away as I could not decide what subject to write about. Every so often I contacted him with ideas and found him very honest and helpful. He gave me some great advice and I found him very inspiring because he makes you sit down and think about what it is you really want to do and whether it can work for you online. He gives you all the time you need and you never feel you are taking up too much of his time.
I am very happy to provide a testimonial for Andrew Rondeau. All the parts of the process of working with Andrew were a pleasure. He clarified what I was wanting and he delivered it without fuss. He was courteous and prompt in all his dealings with me. I have no hesitation in recommending Andrew to anyone who wants work done on their blog.
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Andrew is the real deal and he knows his stuff! His customer service is superb and he gets your work done FAST! You won't need to wait around for endless weeks to see results. Most importantly he works on the site as if it's his own, thus you are assured that you will get the best quality service. I now give Andrew all of my new and old sites to work on. Trust me; you cannot go wrong with this gentleman!
I was impressed with the excellent service. 
Andrew at WeBuildYourBlog.com is the most responsive and flexible person I've worked with.
Andrew is highly knowledgeable about blogs, and you can get your blog up and running successfully and fast. Andrew has helped me immeasurably with my blog and he is patient and good natured and a wonderful teacher.
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Andrew has extensive knowledge about internet marketing, SEO and building web sites/blogs. His course explained everything in an easy to understand way and I now have a web site that is generating me new clients and producing income from internet product sales.
Andrew Rondeau is the genius behind http://www.webuildyourblog.com.
I happened to stumble upon Andrew's website (WeBuildYourBlog.com) while searching for blogging services that would help me start my very own blog. I was a total newbie when it came to the blogging world. Fast forward 3 months and not only do I have my own awesome blog, but friends and family are actually asking me how to start their own blog and I am able to set their blogs up for them! In only 3 months under Andrew's guidance I went from total newbie to being sought after. Thanks Andrew!
Andrew is highly knowledgeable about blogs and very customer service focused. I knew nothing about blogs and Andrew was very kind, patient, pleasant to work with, receptive and responsive. Work was delivered in timely manner and if I need anything done for blog again I would use Andrew. If you are looking for quality work, excellent customer service and someone that really gets YOU and your needs, I recommend Andrew!.
I have been online since 1996 and in that time I have been involved in the development of almost 400 web sites for my clients. I have worked with a wide variety of vendors and I have to tell you that Andrew @ We Build Your Blog has far exceeded my expectations. In addition to his vast knowledge and expertise, he is a genuinely great guy, who always goes the extra mile. I highly recommend him, in fact I only recommend him now for web development.
I was introduced to Andrew by a dear friend Corinne Edwards and Andrew as transformed by blog in ways that have reaped results. My membership has gone up and my blog always looks clean and easy to read. Whenever I send Andrew a request to check out - it's ALWAYS prompt and easy to understand. In my humble opinion he is the BEST when it comes to knowledge of the blogging world.
Hi, Andrew Rondeau here and this blog, my blog, will not lie to you. I will give it to you straight.This blog is about blogging, the Internet and sharing my experiences and advice on
It’s amazing how many people start their blog using a free blogging platform – we started the same way on Blogger – but it doesn’t take long before you realise the limitations and you move on to WordPress. It makes life a whole lot easier when you have full control over what you can do with your blog. You just don’t get that with free blogging platforms PLUS as you say the costs aren’t that great.
This is an amazing business – the costs are negligable compared to the amount of money you can potentially make.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Paula,
Thanks for dropping by!
Those free blogging platforms are so restricted – we need all bloggers out there to know about WordPress!
Andrew
I use hostgator myself and I love wordpress. I am enjoying learning this new process and actually making some money from it. Its such a low investment for a resource that can give you back so much return.
I also use Aweber to ramp up my profit margins. It takes time, but it is lovely. It takes your cost to about $260 a year, but it is well worth the ROI.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Gerlaine,
I’ve been testing Aweber out over the past few months and have now decided to move all my email services to them. The support is excellent.
Andrew
Twitter: kevoh99
I also use hostgator and I have so far liked their service. They have excellent support and reliable service.
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I am still using blogger blogspot. When I was new on blogging I did not aware about that we have to be our own domain. But now I can understand. My blog already gain PR3 and SERP rank for some popular keyword. So I think If I change my blog to custom domain might be my all rank will decreases.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by andrewrondeau: Reading:: To start a blog, how much does it cost? http://bit.ly/3G264s…
I wish to start a blog, but the technology is not easy to implement. I was reading the article carefully and it seems that wordpress is still the best alternative.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Peter
WordPress.org is the best blogging platform. You can get my free multi-media guide about blogging here: http://www.incomebloggingguide.com/
Andrew
I was introduced to WordPress a few weeks ago and am still trying to get the hang of it. I want to look into what the other bloggers were recommending. I believe I need to start thinking outside of the box.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Mandie
If you are serious about your blog then you cannot get better than WordPress…that’s WordPress.org NOT WordPress.com
Andrew
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Andrew,
As always…great comment.
I think the most important thing is the fundamental need to keep everything under once control. Having a blog in your own domain and under your server is key if people are any serious about having a blog.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Tom,
Totally agree.
Plus having your own domain goes towards showing you are a serious business to your visitors / customers.
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..7 Things You Should Know Before Manufacturing And Monetizing Your Own Products
Twitter: kevoh99
Indeed wordpress is athe best blogging platform out there. It is not only easy to use, but is backed up by thousands of free plugins and a robust community just in case you need any help with your blog.
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[...] Tips For Bloggers Who Work From Home7. Here are the small costs involved to set up your own blog:To start a blog, how much does it cost?8. Here’s Matt sharing his views on WordPress and other SEO techniques:Does Matt Cutts (Google [...]
If someone can’t invest in their own domain name for blogging (about $1 per month) or the hosting ($5 per month)they should just get therir domain and park it and fill it up with adsense. At least that way a trickle will come in so they can re-invest in themselves.
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Truly, it cost me around $200 to launch my blog last year: hosting for 24 months and Thesis theme. Till now the plugins I use are free. Thanks Andrew.
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Twitter: andrewrondeau
Steven
There is no-where else you could start you onw business up with just $200, is there?
Andrew
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Great guide. However, even if you want to make money from your blog but not spend this can be done but you will have to have patience. You will need to start off on the free blogger platform (not wordpress.com because you can’t customize it much). You can then proceed to build it to a level where it is earning a small income yet enough to purchase a domain and hosting. Voila! That’s how I did it. Of course you will need patience, time and hard work.
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Nabil
If you are serious about many money on-line, I would recommend you buy your own domain name and use WordPress.org.
The small investment will be worth it in the long run.
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..7 Things You Should Know Before Manufacturing And Monetizing Your Own Products
Twitter: kevoh99
I also started on blogger.com and later moved on to the self hosted wordpress platform available from wordpress.org. It gives you much further control than the blogspot blogs which I only personally recommend to starters looking to gain experience with blogging first.
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Great points you make Andrew. Using free blogging platforms is like building your business on someone else’s land! Why would you do that!? Work hard for years and put all of your effort into building your business, knowing that at any moment the the owner of the land can simply kick you out for no reason!?…
I(and I think you and most bloggers) know of a blogger who had a successful free blog on blogger, ranking high for many top keywords in his niche, until one day, blogger decided to delete his blog and so he lost everything.
He eventually got the blog back, but lost his ranking and all the traffic he had worked so hard for, for years and years.
Of course, if you are e beginner and want to learn and get your feet wet, then thats a different case. But, as soon as yo can, get your own domain and hosting. It costs $10 a year for a domain and probably around $60-70 for hosting.
If you were going to build a business offline, dont you think people would laugh at you if you weren’t prepare to spend around $100 a year?..
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Satrap
Excellent point well made about the domain owners just removing your blog for no reason.
I agree $100 is small but I think many people want to do it on the cheap.
Andrew
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Great post. WordPress is an incredible platform furthermore it’s very easy to use and install
. I really enjoyed your post Andrew.
Very thanks.
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Melanie
You are welcome…glad you liked it.
Andrew
I tried Bluehost when I was starting 2 years ago but found my sites a bit slow to load. Maybe it was the due to the entry-level package I took. I’ve since switched to HostGator & I’m happy so far, their live support is quite helpful in my experience. I’m still struggling with the header design though and can only do basic ones with Photoshop.
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Jake
I use both BlueHost and HostGator. I must admit I prefer Bluehost!
You thought about outsourcing the creation of your header banner?
Andrew
Hi Andrew, thanks for the link, I will seriously consider it. I haven’t really thought about outsourcing it, have been prioritizing articles so far. Sooner or later I know I’ll need this service though.
Jake
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Jake,
Good luck…whatever approach you take.
Andrew
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I use a premium theme Swift theme..as it can be modded into different designs and is very user friendly …cost is very less almost of a single woo theme..
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Not used that one myself. Thanks for sharing your advice.
Andrew
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I do not have a blog yet, but I thought google had it’s own free blogging platform??? I see some of my fb friends business sites blogs that they have created on it?
Twitter: andrewrondeau
Patricia
Google does have its own blogging platform but if you are serious about blogging…WordPress.org is the one to use.
Andrew
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There is a free hosting service offering Cpanel and all you need to instal wordpress easily! I think it´s called 000.webhost or something similar!
Free Sub domains can be get at co . co or something like this!
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Benjamin
Does that include a domain name as well – that you own?
Andrew
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Go for a paid blog platform for a more professional look, especially if you have a premium theme. You also have much more control over your blog that has its own hosting account as well. But I guess it’s all about having the passion for what you do. Paid vs free will not matter if your content doesn’t have any value.
you can start a blog with zero cost, if you plan to use blog to make money . Then forget about free blog.
Because is time to monetize your blog, you need to own the blog and own domain name.
You need to managed your hosting your own to make sure it 99 percent uptime and less facing error.
What a very good post. A thorough breakdown of the costs involved in blogging is very useful.
I suppose it all depends what you want from blogging, if it’s just a hobby, free Blogger blogs or WordPress.com blogs will do fine but if you’d like to earn money, a self hosted WordPress.org blog is the way to go as you are in full control and Google loves WordPress at the moment.
Thanks again for a very useful post,
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Well If you are an Indian you can get it at Rs1500 INR.. Including domain name and web space…
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Good post Andrew. If i’m comparing to my costs mine was so cheap at first time. Me just purchased a 35$ premium theme and hosted with free provider stonerocket. Now i’m shifted to country providers
Twitter: ithauphy
To begin creating a blog with our own domain, at least we need a fee of $ 21 per year. Usually the space provided is very diverse. Starting from 1 GB even unlimited. I prefer to create a blog with my own domain
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Good advice! Although it can be free as you mention, I would strongly recommend people to invest just a little in a good domain name and hosting. Sure, you can use a free subdomain for a while but it’s going to make it more inconvenient to move it if/when you get successful. Also, if it’s not hosted on a server you have control over then it’s not going to be possible to guarantee uptime. Tom
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Totally agree Tom.
I find it weird that people want to be successful but don’t want to invest a small amount of money into a personal domain name and hosting.
Andrew
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Good advice! Although it can be free as you mention,.Thanks for the link, I will seriously consider it. I haven’t really thought about outsourcing it, have been prioritizing articles so far. Sooner or later I know I’ll need this service though.Thank you for posting this article.
Hi ! it is really useful …information about that how much blog cost. We have also an Article that is similar that How To Know that You Are Ready to Start a Blog Most Internet users have at one point contemplated about writing a blog. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to start one and it sounds like fun. But the fact is that majority of new blogs die within the first three months. People loose interest, motivation or simply decide that blogging isn’t everything it is cranked up to be. There are plenty of abandoned blogs out there testifying to this. Don’t make another one.
Twitter: WaynePhoneDiary
I personally started using blogger at 1st, but switched to buying domains from godaddy, hosting from hostgator and using WordPress. I myself highly recommend WP because of it’s flexibility
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The cost of blog should not be measured in terms of dollars only. The cost comprises time, effort and resources. The only problem is that most of the people cannot manage their time and effort. Similarly people remain disoriented about the application of effort. Anyhow this is a continuous task and demands sheer commitment.
Twitter: bihar
This is a brilliant post and interesting. I have recently started a blog. As far as the costs were concerned, it cost me the domain name and also hosting. All in all lets say 20 dollars to start with. I am sure costs will increase.
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Shalu
Costs will increase – you may want to invest in some automated tools.
Perhaps I should write a blog post called “How much does it cost to maintain a blog?”
Andrew
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Twitter: bihar
Andrew, please share which automated tools to use. I am sure costs will mount over time.
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You may want to read this post that deals with backlinks:
http://www.webuildyourblog.com/how-to-make-a-blog/how-make-blog-part-nine-how-get-hundreds-of-backlinks-every-day/
Andrew
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Twitter: wordpressians
I love to use Bluehost, and the procedure to install a WordPress is very easy by simple script.
Thanks you to give a such nice information.
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