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Let’s be real: talking about money can be awkward. No one really wants to talk about how much things really cost or financial realities. But I’m here today with an honest answer for the question:
“How much does it cost to start a blog?”
As a blogger myself, I remember being so overwhelmed when I wanted to start a blog.
There seemed like so many different moving parts, tons of tools and resources, and lots of hidden fees hiding where I least expected them. I wish I had a guide like this to tell me the honest truth about the price of starting a blog!
In this article, I break down the largest (and most important) costs when it comes to starting a blog. Some of these costs only come up every 3 years, while others have to be paid on a monthly basis.
I’ve also included some optional investments that will help you along your blogging journey.
Throughout the entire article, I strive to be as transparent as possible to give you an honest, no B.S. look into how much it really costs to start a blog.
What Type of Blogger Are You?
Before jumping in and breaking down how much it costs to start a blog, it’s important to consider what type of blogger you are.
Different types of bloggers will incur different costs when starting their blog, so this should be the very first step when it comes to assessing the cost of starting a blog.
Typically, there are 3 different types of bloggers:
- the Hobby Blogger
- the Side Hustle Blogger
- the Professional Blogger
Let’s break this down a little bit.
Hobby Blogger
This type of blogger is starting a blog purely for fun to share their experiences and expertise with an audience. Blogging serves as a casual creative outlet for hobby bloggers and making money from it typically isn’t at the top of their priorities.
Hobby bloggers generally don’t incur a ton of costs with starting and running a blog.
Hobby bloggers who have no intention of monetizing their blog can even get away with blogging on a free blogging platform. However, we don’t recommend this as it won’t allow you to monetize your blog at a later point.
Note: As mentioned, there are plenty of platforms that allow you to start a blog for free but in most cases, this means your blog name will be mashed up with the platform title (ex: www.myblog.wordpress.com) and you lose ownership of your blog content.
This is why we always recommend purchasing hosting so that you can start a self-hosted blog. This will allow you tons of flexibility in the look and feel of your blog, as well as the option to make money from your blog further down the road.
Side Hustle Blogger
Side hustle bloggers are a category of people who generally work full-time or take care of the home.
Side hustle bloggers tend to start a blog on the side for some extra cash. While it’s not their full-time job, side hustle bloggers who focus their efforts on the business side of blogging can generate a modest income while writing about something they’re passionate about.
When we started our travel blog, Adventure in You, Tom and I ran it as a side hustle, making around $100 to $300 per month while we both were working full-time jobs.
As our blog grew, we were able to quit and focus on our blog full-time.
As a side hustle blogger, you can keep your costs to a minimum… but if you want to make money, you have to be willing to invest in the right tools to help you grow your blog.
Since side hustle bloggers expect to make money from their blog, investing in the right tools and training can help you earn even more from your little passion project.
The beautiful thing about blogging is that unlike other businesses, the upfront cost isn’t huge. This allows you to grow and upgrade your tools and software as your blog continues to expand.
Professional Blogger
Finally, we’ve got the all-in professional bloggers… Hi, hello, that’s me!
Professional bloggers are those who’ve made blogging their full time job – sounds like a dream, right? Professional bloggers make a full-time income from their blog, which is why they’re able to easily reinvest back into their blogging business.
We earn 5 figures each month from our travel blog alone – and the thing is, so many others are also doing the same! Although it takes a while to build the foundations of a money-making blog, it is worth the time and resource investment.
The costs of a professional blogger can vary but generally speaking, the most expensive costs come in the form of training, software, and virtual assistants or employees.
In this category, the costs can add up depending on how large your blog is and what tools you get and use. However, with the right tools and investment, you can easily double or triple your monthly revenue as they help you grow and scale your blog.
Just as these blogger types vary, the costs of starting a blog do too, depending on what type of blogger you plan to be. In general, hobby bloggers will see the least costs when it comes to starting their blog as it’s something just for fun.
But, as mentioned, even if you’re looking to build a hobby blog, you should at least invest in web hosting (which can cost as low as $2.95 per month) so that you have the option of making money from your blog down the line.
Note: Blogging is special because these upfront costs are significantly lower than if you were to start, say, an online clothing shop that requires tons of inventory, storage and shipping… all of which cost a pretty penny. In the short and long term, a blog is one of the least expensive businesses you can start.
Quick Answer: How Much Does it Cost to Start a Blog?
Now that we’ve talked about the different types of bloggers, here’s a breakdown of the overall costs of starting a blog at a glance. Later on, I will break down each section with our top recommendations for each .
Estimated Starting Costs: $166 – $195
- $106.20 (3 years of hosting) with Bluehost
- $60 one-time fee or $89 per year for Premium Themes
You’ll find quite a range in blog starting costs as it really depends on what you’re willing to invest in upfront. However, from our experience, hosting and a premium theme are 2 non-negotiable starting costs if you’re hoping to build a professional blog!
Hosting: $106.20 (3 years of Hosting) with Bluehost
Hosting is the one big upfront cost that comes with starting a blog. Luckily, you can get 3 years of hosting for just $106.20, which comes out to $2.95 per month (when you use our discount).
There also are yearly plans which comes up to an upfront cost of $59. However, in order to get the best deal possible, we recommend the 3-year plan.
We always recommend Bluehost because this is what we use ourselves. But on top of that, Bluehost is the most affordable hosting network out there and comes with tons of perks like a free domain name, awesome customer support, and a direct WordPress integration.
Bluehost also has a 30-day moneyback guarantee, so you can see if it works for you!
Premium Theme: $60 One-time Fee or $89 Per Year (Divi is Our Top Pick!)
It’s worth investing in a premium theme right off the bat because it allows you to have complete control over the look and feel of your blog. Most premium themes require a one-time purchase and go for between $60 and $80.
Keep on reading for our full list of theme recommendations below!
You will come across the odd theme that’s slightly more expensive and runs on a yearly subscription basis, like Divi. They also have a flat one-time fee which is worth the initial investment.
Though they’re a bit pricier, these premium themes are the best on the market as they give you complete flexibility with blog design and page building (even if you aren’t a designer)!
Estimated On-Going Costs: $23 Per Month (Minimum)
At the bare minimum, all professional bloggers need a keyword research and email marketing tool, both of which are on-going costs.
As your blog continues to grow, you may see the value of investing in even more tools and resources which you’ll pay monthly, but these two are a good jumping off point for now.
Keyword Research Tool: $13.60 Per Month with Keysearch
Keysearch is the most affordable keyword research tool for bloggers and makes the process strikingly simple. It’s worth investing in this tool right away as it will help you develop content that your readers (and Google) will love.
While monthly plans start at $17, with our discount “FASTLANE” you can take 20% off, which comes out to just $13.60 per month.
Email Marketing Tool: $9 Per Month with ActiveCampaign
Email marketing can be one of the most powerful ways you connect with your audience. When you first start a blog, you won’t need an email marketing tool right away, but as you continue to get subscribers, ActiveCampaign is a must.
Cost Breakdown of Starting a Blog
To actually get your blog up and running, you’ll face a few costs that are unavoidable. The money that you invest here will shine through in how your blog looks online and the functionality available with it.
Just above, I’ve given a rough overview of the costs associated with starting a blog, but in the coming sections, I’ll break each part down further and discuss why they’re essential for blogging.
The costs for starting a blog are generally on an annual cycle (at the very least), but sometimes they don’t come up again for 3 years! So if you feel overwhelmed by the up front prices, remember that you’ll never have to pay this much again once your blog is live.
Blog Hosting: $106 for 3 years
Recommended For: All bloggers
The first cost for your blog (and among the most important) is hosting. When you purchase hosting, you get to set up a self-hosted blog on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.org.
While you can start a blog for free on websites like Wix and WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org), you’ll face all sorts of limitations as to what you can do with your blog. Free blogging platforms typically prevent bloggers from monetizing their websites and don’t allow for advertising either.
On top of that, when you start a blog hosted by a third party, you actually lose the rights to your blog, meaning that your content can be used without your permission and your entire blog can be shut down!
That’s why starting a self-hosted blog is essential, especially if you plan on turning it into a business.
When it comes to hosting, most bloggers (including us) go with Bluehost, which is the most trusted and affordable hosting network out there. It’s also directly compatible with WordPress.org, which is the best CMS for starting a blog.
Another huge perk of getting hosting through Bluehost is it comes with a free domain name for the first year! That saves you at least $10 right off the bat.
While Bluehost has different plans, the Basic Plan will get the job done for almost all bloggers.
Note: Keep in mind that you’ll have to pay the complete price of hosting for a minimum of one year with Bluehost, which is standard for all hosting providers. But, if you choose a 36-month plan, the price of hosting goes down and secures your blog online for 3 years – ideal for professional bloggers.
With our discount, you can take 63% off hosting from Bluehost, which comes to $2.95 per month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee each month!
Premium Theme: $60 – $80 (One-time Fee)
Recommended For: Side hustle & professional bloggers
Next up on the list is a theme to make your blog really shine. WordPress themes are a total savior for bloggers as they allow us to completely design and customize our websites without a single drop of coding knowledge… thank you developers!
While there are thousands of free themes out there, you’re likely to find them extremely limited when it comes to functionality. You can start a blog with a free theme, but you’ll find that they’re nearly impossible to customize the way you imagined.
Beginner bloggers can spend weeks, even months trying to design free themes, only to realize that they don’t have enough functionality.
This is why we always recommend using a premium theme. Premium themes cost anywhere from $60 to $80, but are worth every penny.
Note: Most premium themes are a one-time fee, but you’ll occasionally come across ones that require a yearly subscription.
When you purchase a premium theme, you have so much more control over the look and feel of your blog. You’ll have loads of different layout options, your choice of color scheme, multiple demos to choose from, advanced plugin compatibility, and so much more.
Some premium themes, like Divi, are on the pricier side but offer advanced functionality like a visual page builder, unlimited customization options and 200+ templates to import and work from. These qualities make it so that anyone can use this theme and set up a blog without a headache.
If you don’t want to struggle while setting your blog up, you should 100% factor in the cost of a premium theme.
Here are some of our top recommendations for premium themes for different blogging niches:
Keyword Research Tool: $13.60 Per Month with Our Keysearch Discount
Recommended For: Side hustle & professional bloggers
Every single blogger wishing to make money from their website needs to invest in a keyword research tool.
A keyword research tool allows bloggers to check out different search terms or phrases and see how many people are looking for them online.
What this does is gives us insight as to which keywords to include in our content so that Google can pick up on them and say “hey, since this article contains these keywords, let’s bump it higher on search engine results.”
Because there aren’t actually people at Google reading every single article online, using keywords is a great sign to the system that you have related content when someone searches for the specific keyword.
Keyword research tools also come with lots of added bonuses like showing articles already ranking for the keyword and related keywords to integrate into your content.
These tools are so important because they show you what people are searching for and give you the information you need to get your content to rank higher on search engines.
Without keyword research tools, bloggers would be forced to write blindly and hope that Google picks up on their article by chance.
Although hobby bloggers technically won’t need a keyword research tool, if you want to get traffic to your articles, this tool is a must.
Bloggers are forever debating about what keyword research tool is best, but we swear by Keysearch. For a full review on how Keysearch works, click here.
If you’re blogging on a budget, or just don’t want to drop tons of money on a keyword research tool, Keysearch is the way to go.
It’s affordable, reliable, and packed full of useful information for bloggers. Compared to other keyword research tools that can go for up to $99 per month, Keysearch is extremely affordable, making it a no-brainer.
Using our discount, their starter plan begins at $13.60 a month (or 1 year for $135, which comes out to $11.25 per month), which gives you enough functionality when you’re starting out.
Use our coupon code “FASTLANE” for an additional 20% off, which brings the price down to $13.60 per month or $135 per year!
Email Marketing Tool: $9 – $39 Per Month
Recommended For: Side hustle & professional bloggers
Last but not least, it’s well worth the investment to sign up for email marketing tools that will help you connect to your audience and drive them back to your blog.
We actually used email marketing to double our affiliate sales and traffic by sending buyers back to our money-making articles. Not only were our subscribers getting great suggestions for products they’ll love (delivered right to their inbox), but we were able to make some money, too!
Email marketing is also a great way to grow your brand and establish a relationship with your readers.
While this isn’t something you need to purchase right away, as your blog grows and your audience increases, email marketing is a way to stay connected to your readers and drive them back to your blog. One of our biggest regrets is not starting an email list as soon as we started our blog!
For our email marketing, we use ActiveCampaign which allows us to send automated emails, run campaigns, and segment our email list in a way that works best for us.
This tool is particularly useful for newsletters, updates, or just general blog info that you want to send to your readers. It also works perfectly with affiliate marketing as ActiveCampaign allows you to send readers back to your money-making articles.
ActiveCampaign has both monthly and yearly pricing, with the Lite plan starting at $9 per month (paid annually). If you’d rather have the flexibility of paying monthly, the same Lite plan is available for $15.
Side hustle and budding professional bloggers will do just fine with the Lite Plan, which includes unlimited sending, email marketing, newsletters and more. But as your blog continues to expand, you may consider opting for the Plus plan, which costs $49 per month (paid annually) or $70 per month (paid monthly).
For professional bloggers or side hustle bloggers who have extra room in their budget, we recommend also purchasing OptinMonster which gives you more customization and analytics for popups.
With OptinMonster, you can craft beautiful pop-up offers (there are lots of templates to work with!), target your audience with behavior automations and segmentation, and then run tests and adjust your optins.
OptinMonster is the key to building your email list and capturing subscribers for email marketing, which is why it’s a must-have for serious bloggers.
There are 4 plans to choose from, with the Basic one starting at $9 per month (billed annually). However, if you’re looking for a plan that can really do it all, you should consider the Pro plan ($29 per month) that removes branding and grants you priority support (among other standout features).
Want to learn more about these email marketing tools we use? Check out these guides:
Optional Investments for Your Blog
Besides these essential tools, there are several other investments that you can make to step up your blogging game.
Hardware for Blogging
Recommended For: Side hustle & professional bloggers
Hobby and side hustle bloggers can get away with using some of the equipment they already own. But if you’re a more serious blogger, you may want to invest in powerful hardware to make your blogging life easier.
Every blogger (no matter what level) needs a trusty computer to work from – ideally a laptop that’s portable and can come anywhere with you.
Professional bloggers will benefit from having a laptop with a powerful processor, heaps of storage space, and a long battery life so they can work uninterrupted.
We took the time to review some of the best blogging laptops out there to help you find the perfect fit if you’re in the market for a new one.
It’s also essential for bloggers to have a camera.
Think your iPhone camera is enough? Think again. Having a high-quality camera for images on your blog is so important because it makes your website look clean and professional in a way a smartphone just can’t manage.
A camera is also needed for bloggers who hope to eventually film videos, tutorials or online courses. Investing in a blogging camera upfront may suit a professional blogger well, as you can get your stellar images uploaded when your blog goes live.
Hardware for blogging can range from anywhere from $300 to $2,000+ depending on what gadgets you need.
Remember, one of the great things about blogging is that as long as you have good internet and a reliable computer, you can start, grow, and monetize your blog!
Invest in Courses
Recommended For: Side hustle & professional bloggers
Though not mandatory, it’s an awesome idea to expand your knowledge and skills by investing in courses.
Learning new skills helps you up your blogging game by staying on top of strategy and gaining insider tips from the pros. There are so many blogging courses available, the sheer number will make your head spin. But this also means that there’s so much information out there, ready to help you succeed on your blogging journey.
As bloggers ourselves, Tom and I are always striving to improve. Whether it’s our physical website, our blogging strategy, or just our overall mindset, we’ve learned so much from taking various courses from digital marketers.
Although we weren’t making a ton of money at the beginning of our blogging journey, we still opted to invest money in courses and masterminds to learn about email marketing, affiliates, and everything else that can create a profitable blog.
Blogging courses can range from anywhere from $300 to $700. While it seems a little bit steep, if you want to save yourself years of trial and error, investing in a course is a great way to instantly learn the ins-and-outs of making money from your blog.
After applying everything we learned when we took courses, our initial investment more than made up for itself in blog revenue as Adventure in You, our travel blog, really began to take off.
As our income increased, we began to wonder if we could teach others some of the strategies and techniques that transformed our travel blog into a full-blown business.
This is where the idea for our online course, Blogging Fast Lane, came to life.
Although Adventure in You was our main source of income, we decided to start Blogging Fast Lane as a passion project to help 10,000 people profit from their own passions through blogging.
We are committed to giving the best blogging advice out there so we are consistently using our blog to test out our strategies, flesh out methods, and create informative case studies before delivering them to our students.
To date, we’ve had thousands of people who have invested in our course and have seen great results. Here’s what our students have said about our course!
If you’re looking for a way to start making money from your blog, check out our online training where we walk you through our blogging and monetization strategy.
Outsourcing
Recommended For: Professional bloggers
As your blog begins to pick up steam, you can now consider freeing up your time to be able to work on higher value tasks.
This is where outsourcing comes in.
While it’s totally optional, we always recommend outsourcing menial tasks when you have a lot of other things going on. By having someone else work on your images or social media captions or link building, you’re freeing up so much more time for you to focus on writing valuable content or connecting with your audience.
You can find freelancers or virtual assistants to do just about any blogging job under the sun, which can be super helpful to keep you from getting swamped and overwhelmed.
If you don’t know anyone who can help with your blog, head to Fiverr to find people looking for work. It’s generally pretty inexpensive (although this varies) and you can find some great freelancers who are super eager for any kind of job!
Remember – outsourcing isn’t a weakness, but a huge strength when your blog begins to soar. Outsourcing costs can vary from $100 to $500 a month, depending on what you want done.
A lot of full-time professional bloggers outsource their content writing, video creation, etc.
Why You Should Treat Your Blog Like a Business
When you’re considering how much it costs to start a blog, keep in mind that if your ultimate goal is to make money from your blog, you should be willing to invest in yourself and your blog.
While it will cost far less to start a blog than any other online business, having a business-centered mindset allows you to take things in stride and realize that everything you’re doing now will make you money down the road.
With a business mindset, you can start to think about things like growth and what it takes to get there. You’ll quickly realize that to achieve any sort of growth, an upfront investment is required to get the gears turning.
Keep this in mind when you start your blog and begin to look at blogging tools and resources. You’ll find a great deal of free tools, but quickly realize they’re super limited and can be a waste of time and effort.
That’s why making these initial investments when you start your blog can make a world of difference. Get yourself into that growth mindset, and then never stop going up!
So what do you think? Are you surprised at the costs behind starting a blog?
You’ll quickly realize that you get a lot of say in terms of how much money you spend on your blog. But as I’ve mentioned before, if you want to turn your blog into a business, you’ll have to treat it as such and be willing to make the proper investments.
Build up the belief that you can create a blog that brings in passive income month after month. This means your blog will earn money for you even if you’re offline!
But to make this happen, you must be willing to invest in yourself and in your blog.
As I’ve mentioned before, it takes money to make money… so if you’re serious about starting a professional blog, these are the necessary costs to get your blog up and running!
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