Want to Make Money Blogging in 2021? Do This First!
Throughout my life, I’ve started so many blogs. When I was young, I went through fleeting seasons of inspiration where I’d make a blog about a certain topic, write for a few months, and then forget it ever existed.
After graduating from college, I’ve enjoyed finding my voice and creativity with this blog. I’ve loved every second of it and spent countless hours researching what it takes to craft a successful blog.
If you’re interested in starting a blog this year, DO IT! Anyone can make money blogging in 2021! I always encourage others to start if they’re passionate about an idea for a blog. It’s fun and exciting to think about where it could go in a few months or years! You won’t know unless you try, so my answer is always yes. Yes, start a blog!
When I first came up with the idea for A Day With Shea, I had the intention of monetizing it and hopefully profiting from it. That’s why I knew there were certain steps I needed to take to step it up from any old WordPress or Blogger website. One of those crucial steps was investing some money into this and getting self-hosted.
I originally started off hosting my website with Bluehost, which was fine, but I recently made the switch to Skystra hosting and I’m SO glad that I did. Let’s jump into how you can make money blogging in 2021!
Disclaimer: The following links are affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission (at no extra cost to you!) should you choose to purchase a service through these links. If you do, I appreciate your support to keep this fun blog up and running.
Why Skystra?
First, if you want to be taken seriously in the blogging world, you should move on from a free platform. Having a website that ends in .wordpress.com or .blogger.com will make it less likely that companies will want to sponsor posts, advertise, or hire you for freelancing work. It’s much more professional to have your own self-hosted website. If you want to make money off of your blog, you really have to take that leap and pay for self-hosting.
I’ll say that again: if you want to make money blogging in 2021, your site needs to be self-hosted!
I had already been hosting my blog through Bluehost, but transferring my blog to Skystra was SO simple! So if you’re interested in transferring your website, don’t be worried about losing your website or any data. Skystra has super great instructions on how to transfer your website and even your domain!
Signing Up
Choose Your Plan
I was excited to start blogging but wasn’t planning to spend hundreds of dollars. Skystra gives you 3 options, like Bluehost, but it is a bit cheaper!
- The Go plan is perfect for people with one website who are just starting or have been blogging for 1-2 years (I have this one!)
- The Plus plan is a great value for money offer, including the option for multiple websites and high performance that greatly improves website speed if you have lots of graphics etc.
- The Max plan is perfect for people with e-commerce and larger sites, or more geeky development needs like more server resources, daily backups and security
Choose Your Domain Name
From there you’ll get to the next page, where you can enter the domain name that you already own or one you want.
If you need to buy a domain, type in what you want to name your blog and Skystra will let you know if it’s available. Then you can choose the domain extension that you want, but .com will cost about $12. That’s a typical price for a domain name. Then usually you have to renew the domain every year.
After that, go ahead and choose monthly or annual billing. Annual is usually cheaper in the long run and I personally recommend doing that to save a good chunk of money. I also personally just like making the payment all at once upfront. Below is a screenshot from a purchase of the basic “Go” plan. You also have the option to add daily backups and extra security. You can decide whether or not you want it or need it, but it’s necessary. Maybe add the extra security if you run a store in case you need extra protection against hackers or something.
The great thing is you get a free SSL Certificate (yay!) and you can have the Skystra team migrate your website from another hosting service for free. I did this when I moved from BlueHost and I was able to let the team do all the work. My blog migrated perfectly fine and the team was great at communicating with me along the way to check-in and make sure everything was running smoothly.
Then you can check out and review your plan. As you can see in the screenshot below, it would normally cost you $75 for a year of hosting for the basic “Go” plan. But with my discount, you can get your first year for just $47! Click here to get my coupon code. Enter your credit card information and hit submit! It’s ok if you hesitate, I did too. But once I pressed that button I was super excited because I knew my blogging journey had finally begun!
You did it!
I ended up getting the cheapest possible deal with the fewest options. My first year on Bluehost came out to about $60 while this year on Skystra cost me only $47! Trust me, you will DEFINITELY make that $47 back if you’re ready to start blogging. Skystra has an affiliate program, meaning if you refer someone else to start a blog with Skystra, you’ll make 50% of the sale. Boom! In no time you’ll make that $47 back.
Convinced? I was. You should be too! If you’re excited to make money blogging in 2021, invest in yourself and your ideas. Take that first major step! Sign up for Skystra here.
Are you ready to get serious with your blog and make money blogging in 2021?
What are you waiting for?
Start your self-hosted blog with Skystra by clicking here. Good luck and enjoy blogging!
Let me know if you enjoyed this post and want more about how I set up my blog. I can continue this post with more details about getting set up on WordPress. I’ve learned a lot about setting up and running a blog and would be happy to share my experience.
Need extra help with social media? Check out my other posts:
