Most people can learn how to build a blog or how to build a website from scratch, but not everyone knows how to start a successful blog. In fact, learning how to start a successful blog and starting right from the get-go (as well as investing in the right blogging tools) can make a huge difference to the potential visibility and earnings of your blog.

I say this because the last thing you want is to invest months (and sometimes even longer) creating a blog – and filling it with content – only to discover that your blog is not gaining any significant traction.

Here’s the most important thing about starting a successful blog:

In order to start a successful blog, you need to get the managerial stuff out of the way as soon as possible. By that I mean: you need a list for the tools your blog absolutely needs to grow. You then need to get those tools and integrate them into your blog. (I have complied a list of 8 tools that you absolutely need below – 5 of them paid and 3 of them free.)

Only when you have completed this step, you can begin to focus on creating content and growing your blog.

Here is a simple analogy:

Imagine you are a chef. You just bought a restaurant and you are now the new owner. You know you are good at “creating.” You are good at making amazing recipes that you love to serve to your customers. In fact, you are so excited to make food, you rush to the kitchen and start preparing a meal. But hold on! Your restaurant is missing important things: it is not fully furnished yet. You don’t have a surround sound system. You forget to optimize the design of your restaurant with the relevant décor, seating arrangements and art. Wait, wait, what about your staff? What about marketing? Do people know that your restaurant even exists?!

Just like you can’t start a successful restaurant without the necessary equipment, you also can’t start a successful blog without the necessary blogging tools.

1. How to Start a Successful Blog? Start Right!

Most beginners start their blogging journey backwards: they start creating content without using the relevant SEO tools like keyword finder softwares, optimized themes, email lists, important plugins, and more.

This is a big mistake.

In fact, this single mistake – the mistake of not getting the right blogging tools from the beginning – can cost you a lot of time and a ton of potential earnings (if your goal is to monetize your blog and make money).

And to fix this mistake, these same bloggers would now have to spend a lot of time doing the following (you honestly don’t want to be in that position):

• Rewrite most of their content using SEO tools in order to (hopefully) rank high enough on google. I should tell you that re-writing articles is a hard thing to do. Just imagine taking an article that you are proud of and then trying to work into it your new focus keyword or key-phrase AND make it flow… you will want to pull your hair out. I have.

• Purchase an optimized (and regularly updated) theme (and plugins) from a trusted seller. (Don’t be cheap when it comes to this. Get a good theme and get the relevant plugins to save yourself a lot of hassle down the road. I can’t emphasize this enough. I say more about this below.

• Grow an email list to promote your blog (and sell products). I don’t want to talk too much about this, but I will say this: if you don’t start out with a service that is going to help you grow your email list, you’re just going to regret it. (There are free and paid options for this that I talk about below).

Did you know that email lists cost a lot of money? And did you know that there’s law now against buying email lists and sending emails to random users? Yup, that’s how important they are. But why would anyone would want to buy an email list? Because subscribers in a specific niche are more likely to convert (and actually buy) than those who did not display the same interest!

Okay, so I am here to help you avoid these mistakes. And we can do so by making sure that you don’t go down the wrong path. To make it even more interesting, I will take on a challenge and show you how to start a successful blog in an hour!

2. How Much Does it Cost to Start a Website or a Successful Blog?

If you want to start a successful blog, you need to spend money on your blog. We’re not going to spend money on luxury. We’re going to spend money on necessary tools: these are the fundamental units of your blog. The cost to start a website or a successful blog (based on the list of tools that bloggers need) is between $600 – $900.

I think this is a reasonable price. It comes down to about $50 – $80 a month (or so). This is really not much at all if you compare it to what it would actually cost you to start a physical store or business. If you want to start a physical business, you’re talking 25,000x – 50,000x the amount it would cost you to create a fully optimized blog – if not more! (No, thank you. I’ll stick to my $80 per month blog.)

3. Best Blogging Tools to Start a Successful Blog

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that if you make purchase using one of my links, I will receive a commission. Please understand that I talk about these services because I believe in them and can stand behind them, and not because of the small commission that I will receive.

You need 8 services/products to start a successful blog: 5 of them are paid and 3 of them are free.

The combo I recommend:

1. Host and Theme: (Bluehost + WordPress + Elegant Themes)

2. Keyword Research and On-Page SEO: (KWFinder + Yoast Free SEO)

3. Speed Optimization: P Rocket

4. Email Marketing: For a clean simple look, I recommend ConvertKit. For nice templates and designs, I recommend Aweber.

That’s it. No more and no less. In fact, these are the tools that I should have used from day ONE. They are tried and tested by many successful bloggers, and I recommend these tools to family members, friends, and I recommend the same to you.

3.1 Web Hosting Services (Paid)

To start a successful blog, you need:

1. Web hosting
2. Blogging Platform

To register your blog (and create a free domain name) with a trusted web hosting service, go to Bluehost (Disclosure: I will receive a commission if you purchase using my links), and click get started.

Bluehost is the host that 2 million bloggers trust (including myself). They are affordable, user-friendly, and each account features the super convenient 1-click WordPress installation.

For a step-by-step easy to follow guide (with pictures) for how to sign up with Bluehost and install WordPress, see my how to start a blog guide.

*** If you plan on starting an online business and not just a personal blog (or if you have a personal blog that you are ready to monetize and transform into a small business), then WP Engine is the host I recommend. Why? WP Engine will improve your website’s speed — see actual results from people who migrated to WP Engine. This is a robust option with a world class tech support: all of their technicians are WordPress experts, and they will help you optimize your site’s performance and help your business grow quickly. They will also walk you through every step you need on their resource center page. To check it out, sign up for a WP Engine plan and receive the Genesis Framework and 35+ StudioPress Themes free! ***

3.2 WordPress Blog Themes (Paid)

Okay, so now you have a WordPress blog and you want to dress it up with a nice theme.

I recommend Elegant Themes.

Why?

You get access to hundreds of premium pre-built websites (that are reliable and super easy to use and navigate), open source photos and online marketing and lead generation tools.

In addition to their premium pre-built themes, you get access to specially designed magazine themes:

You also get access to the all important email opt-in plugin. You need this to grow an email list (but, as you will see later, you will need an email marketing tool to customize your email messages, create autoresponders, and segment your audience. For that I recommend either Aweber or Convertkit. See below for which one is right for you.)

And you get access to their beautifully designed social sharing plugin:

If that’s not enough, elegant themes allows you to install their themes on multiple websites in case you want to create more blogs/websites and expand your brand and business in the future.

Here is a screenshot:

To get access to Elegant Themes, click on Elegant Themes to go to the page below.

Then click on pricing.

You will then be directed to a page where you will see two pricing options.

I personally recommend the lifetime access option because for a one time payment, you have a lifetime access to pretty much everything on their site. You will get unlimited themes, unlimited support, unlimited updates, and it will cost you less in the long term than the yearly plan (or than purchasing individual themes).

But feel free to choose the yearly plan if that fits your objectives. Here’s what Elegant Themes has to say about this:

And if you are not happy with your purchase you can get a full refund – no questions asked – within 30 days of your purchase.

The second seller I recommend is Mytheme shop.

Click on my theme shop to check out their premium themes and plugins. Here you will find different themes and designs.

Main difference between the two is:

I personally recommend the subscription option because you will get access to all the premium themes and all of their plugins.

Here’s how to navigate their website.

Click on mytheme shop. Then click “THEMES” in the uppermost bar as shown in the picture below.

Here you can browse and see the themes and plugins they offer.

After you have browsed through their themes and plugins and you see yourself liking more than one theme, consider signing up for an annual subscription.

(To sign up, click on the picture below and you will be directed automatically to the payment processing page)

After you click on sign up today, you will be directed to the payment processing page:

Now download your theme and install it on your WordPress. Congrats! You got yourself a beautiful blog!

3.3 Keyword Research (Paid)

Keyword research is extremely important. The right keywords help google understand what your site is all about.

In order to target the right keywords, you need to use a keyword research tool. I honestly don’t think you can create a successful blog without using one. Why? Without a keyword research tool, you won’t know which keywords or “exact matches” to use in your content, and your target audience won’t be able to find you using the keywords they type into google.

I have used a free keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner. Honestly, I did not find it helpful at all. And I don’t recommend it to you. (I show you why below so you won’t have to make the same mistake. Instead, I recommend KWFinder which is the keyword research tool that I personally use and pay for).

Here’s the front page of Google Keyword Planner.

This will take you here, and that’s where you can type the keyword you are trying to target in your writing.

I typed in “productivity” for my keyword. Here are the results that I received from the keyword planner.

This is what you get from this free tool:

1. Related keywords.
2. A very rough (and inaccurate) average of the monthly searches.

And that’s it.

Why Google Keyword Planner is not helpful to bloggers?

• You don’t get specific results. You are only told that the word”productivity” was looked up between 100k and 1 million times. That’s not helpful. There is a big difference between 100k and 1 million!

• Google does not give you information about the keyword difficulty (or KD for short). This is a very important piece of information because if you try to rank for difficult keywords, you’re not going to have any real chance of landing on the first page of google – especially if you are a beginner.

• Google does not tell you who your competition is, how strong is your competition and other information you may need to approach blogging with a sound strategy.

This is why I use and pay for KWFinder – by Mangools, and I recommend the same to you.

Here is my proof:

Okay, so let’s type in the word “productivity” in KWfinder and see how it fares compared to Google Keyword Planner.

This tool gives us accurate information.

We get exact number for how many times the word “productivity” was searched for. The number is 90,249!

Notice how Google Keyword Planner gave us a misleading number regarding the monthly searches for the word “productivity.” It told us that “productivity” is searched for between 100k and 1 million times a month. And that’s simply not true!

With KWFinder, we also get to:

• Create keywords lists
• Search what our competitors are ranking for by typing in their domain name. (This will also help us understand how they got to the first page of google).

KWFinder also helps us find the following information (which I have circled in the picture for ease of illustration):

• Google’s suggestions also known as autocomplete.
• Related keywords
• Questions that people type into google search.
• Keyword difficulty (KD).

You also get accurate information about backlinks, SERP analysis, site profile and more (at no extra cost.)

I think everyone needs to be using this tool — if not all the time (I use it all the time), then at least for the very first year of your bogging journey. Without it, you won’t know what keywords you should target, what keywords to use in your content, and whether you have any real chance to rank for certain keywords vis-a-vis your competition.

This is not a luxury. It’s a must-have. It will save you a lot of time and money.

What do I recommend? I recommend the annual subscription. It’s more budget-friendly than the monthly plan – you will save 44%). To sign up, use my link, and you will get a 10% discount if you sign up within an hour of your free trial!

3.4 On-Page SEO (Free)

To start a successful blog, you need to optimize your content and make sure that your keyword appears enough times in your post (aka. keyword density) and is placed in the right locations in your post.

To do all of this, I recommend the free Yoast SEO.

I wouldn’t purchase the premium one. I honestly don’t think it offers enough value for the price of $89/year. If I were you, I would only install the free plugin.

To install Yoast SEO, go your wordpress dashboard and click on plugins.

Once you install it and activate it, Yoast will start appearing at the bottom of every post. It will tell you what problems to fix, how to improve your post and what’s good about your post. It will look like this:

Insider tip: Do not over use keywords in your posts in order to try to rank high on search engines. Google has caught up to this and will penalize you for keyword stuffing. For this reason, write to people and not to search engines. Try to make your writing sound natural and conversational.

3.5 Speed Optimization (Paid)

If I were to recommend a single plugin for speed (which is a key factor in SEO), it would be WP Rocket. It is rates as #1 Plugin by many users and across many polls.

WP Rocket is recommended by leaders in the industry such as Yoast and Elegant Themes:

Why do I recommend WP Rocket?

1. WP Rocket offer the option to “lazy load” images and videos (which is considered by google as a best practice for page loading and speed). Lazy loading means that images on your page will load only when the user scrolls down to them. This can allow your site to load the critical content first and thus serve your posts to your readers at a much faster speed. With this option, the difference in loading speed will be day and night.
2. Built into WP Rocket is a database cleanup. This optimizes data performance and complements Google’s recommendation regarding the regular cleanup of unused data. This is a critical part of the health your site.
3. Built into WP Rocket the option to integrate with CDN (Content Delivery Network). CDN is a network of severs which work together to accelerate the loading speed of your site.

In sum, WP Rocket will help speed up your site like whoa, and it will give you plus points with google.

Here’s what reviewers on facebook have to say about WP Rocket:

Whether you have one or multiple websites, start with the single plan and test it out. You’re going to love it.

To get a free test for how fast your blog loads before and after using WP Rocket, check out GTmetrix or Pingdom.

3.6 Images (Free)

According to google, adding images to your blog posts can help you get more views and add more quality traffic to your site. In fact, research shows that posts which use images get 94% more views!

I use pixabay.

It’s a free resource where you can download images (without attribution and without having to worry about copyright issues).

3.7 Graphic Design (Free)

You will sometimes need graphic design in your blog – whether to create banners, logos, infographics or unique featured images (with your content on it) for your blog posts.

I personally use graphic design to add variety to my posts.

For a great graphic design tool, I recommend canva. It’s an amazing free resource (and it will give your work an incredible professional look).

3.8 Email Marketing (Paid)

This is your way of managing your contacts, segmenting your audience and sending your subscribers personalized emails.

I recommend starting an email list as soon as you start a blog. As the saying goes, the money (and the value) is in the email lists.

I recommend the following two sellers:

1. Aweber

Aweber is a great (and affordable) option for those just starting out. The creators at Aweber provide you with unlimited emails to send (some companies limit how many emails you can send per month!).

They also provide you with the option to automate your messages. For example, when readers subscribe to your blog or they contact you through email, you can specify exactly how you want your readers to be welcomed to your blog — and what actions you might want them to take next. This is important because how you interact with your first-time subscribers can make a big difference to the retention rate of your lists.

Aweber also has an awesome drag and drop building template. This makes it easy to insert pictures, videos and even coupons.

With email marketing, I don’t think it makes sense to go with something lesser than a yearly plan. This is simply because you will need to get in touch with your subscribers and provide them with updates on an ongoing basis throughout your blogging journey.

2. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is for you if you prefer a simple and clean look and you don’t like to waste time trying to decide on what template or design to pick.

People who go with ConvertKit choose it because they feel that templates which contain a lot of colors and different designs distract the reader from the actual message of the email.

Adding to that, the research within the email-marketing industry has shown that emails which contain as few elements/images as possible are more likely to land in the reader’s inbox as opposed to their spam or junk.

This is important because, after all, you want your readers to receive your email. (Aweber has great deliverability rates as well, so I wouldn’t let that be a tie-breaker between the two).

Which one should you pick? Let’s keep it simple. If you prefer nice template and designs, then go with Aweber. If you want a clean and simple template (kind of like gmail but better), then go with ConvertKit. If you already have a blog and a list of subscribers, ConverKit may help migrate you for free!

3. MailChimp (Free – kinda)

For a free option, you can try MailChimp.

MailChimp is free only for your first 2k subscribers. Once you pass your 2k threshold, you have to purchase one of their plans, but they are a little pricey and do not offer the features that ConvertKit and Aweber offer.

I should also note that within their free option, you will be limited: you can only send a certain number of emails per month and you won’t be able to use certain features or designs in your emails. Plus, they will have their logo at the footer of your emails when you use their free plan.

And there you have it! If you follow these steps, you will be on your way to start a successful blog.

If you have any questions, be sure to contact me.