Now that the significance of online information is rapidly increasing, everyone seems eager to start their own blog.
While you might be confident of what genre you want to write on, the only question that keeps you from starting your own blog is this – how much does it cost to start a blog? Don’t worry! You are not the only one asking this question.
Surprisingly, the majority of the people hold the opinion that the cost of starting a blog is more than what they can afford. This is a huge misconception!
The truth of the matter is that starting a blog is extremely cost-effective, and may cost you as little as $50 annually! And the best part is that you can make hundreds of dollars every month, making your investment impressively profitable.
A Detailed Look Into The Cost Of Starting A Blog:
In the following lines, We have listed out 7 essential elements required to start a blog and their associated costs.
While some of these are necessary for launching and making your blog go live online, the others will help you enhance your site’s appearance, content, and traffic- each of these is crucial for you to benefit from this venture.
So, let’s get started and show you what it will actually cost you to start a blog.
1.Web Hosting: Cost Per Month- $5-$10
Web hosting is mandatory for anyone who requires having their site content stored on the internet, as well as making the content accessible and available for everyone across the globe.
While it is not important for you to understand the technical details of hosting, you need to ensure that your site gets readily accepted by most of the web hosting service providers.
For web hosting, you should not be charged anything above $10 per month. Most service providers charge monthly payments, but there are some hosts that offer discounts on annual payments.
However, if you are new to starting a blog, it is best to opt for monthly payments.
2. Domain Name: Cost Per Year -$15
Getting a domain name for your blog site is the first step towards letting online readers know about your site.
Make sure that the domain name you choose is both easy to understand and remember, and that it gives visitors an idea about what they can expect from your website.
In order to get a domain name for your site, you need to register a domain and make payments every year so that you can keep that domain.
You can expect to pay as little as $15 per year, which is way lesser compared to the fact that your earnings per month will be far more, especially if you include ad clicks on your website.
3. Blogging Platform: Cost Per Year- Free
A blogging platform, in simple words, is the service or software that you will need for publishing your contents on the internet in blog form. The most sought-after blogging platform in today’s world is WordPress.
One of the main reasons for the growing popularity of WordPress is because this software can be used for FREE. That means you don’t have to pay a penny to use WordPress for publishing your content online.
Now that’s how you save on your cost of starting a blog.
4. Content Writer: Cost Per Writing- Depends On Word Count
The sole reason to start a blog is CONTENT. It is because of your content that you will have visitors on your site, who will spend time reading your blog.
Therefore, it is important that you provide meaningful content that offers valuable information to the readers. If you don’t have the time to write content for your blog or if you feel that a professional writer can provide better content for your site, then you should opt for outsourcing.
There are many websites where you can find professional content writers with expertise in different genres. However, it will come at a cost. Anything between $0.02 and $0.20 per word can be charged by writers.
The overall cost of content writing will depend on the article topic, quality, and length.
5. Plugins And Themes: Cost Per Plugin/Theme- Free
To improve your site’s feel and look, you can also opt for plugins and themes, which are easily available in the WordPress software.
You will get to choose from a wide range of themes and plugins that can help you customize your blog for better viewing experience of readers.
You can avail both themes and plugins for FREE from the WordPress directory. You can also opt for Premium themes and plugins for which you may have to pay something between $17 and $97.
Whether you want to invest money for themes and plugins is completely up to you, especially when you have the option of installing them without having to pay anything.
6. Social Network Connections: Free Or Paid
Social media connections or buttons are readily available in various themes, so you don’t have to worry about paying anything to connect with an online audience through social platforms.
But if you are eager to reach out to as many people on various social networks as possible, then you need to take help from social management tools that can contribute to increasing your social shares as well as ensure more followers of different social networks.
The cost for such services will depend on the kind of service that you require.
7. Search Engine Optimization: Free Or Paid
Bing, Google, and Yahoo are the main search engines that should concern any blogger or site owners. In case a site is ranked organically during the search results (free listings), chances are high for the site to get an infinite incoming traffic supply.
This may sound interesting but the actual job of ranking your website among the top results is pretty frustrating and time-consuming.
If you are willing to invest some money in keyword/SEO tracking software for measuring your site results, then you can understand better how to find the right keywords and content for improving the ranking.
You can avail information on SEO for free from Google Analytics, but certainly paid service providers can also effectively help improve your blog’s ranking.
Final Words:
So, irrespective of the blog type you want to create, cost of starting a blog of your own can be less than $100 per year. But you could earn a lot of money with your blog.
This overall expense includes $15 (domain) and approximately $84 ($7 per month for web hosting).
So, this means that you will be spending less than $10 every month for your blog, which can help you earn a lot more than you can imagine.
