Blogging is booming! Thinking of starting a blog, but not sure how much it will cost you to get started? You’ve come to the right place!
So, how much does it cost to start a blog?
It’s possible to start a blog for free using a free blogging site such as WordPress.com. This isn’t an option I would recommend if you want to be in full control of your blog.
We can categorize the costs of starting a blog into three categories, namely:
Lowest Cost – The lowest cost to start a blog without using a free blogging site is about $68, payable annually. That’s less than $6 a month!
Slow But Steady Growth – It costs on average $157, payable annually, start a blog if your goal is slow but steady growth.
Fastest Growth – If your goal is to achieve the fastest growth it will also cost $157 pa. to get started. However, you would need to invest in more resources afterwards to grow your blog quickly.
The Cost to Start a Blog
When you ask a question, the last thing you ever want to hear is “It depends.” But with something like blogging, there really are a lot of variables that can affect how much you end up spending.
Ultimately, the costs of starting a blog depends on two factors:
1. Your goals.
2. Your resources.
After reading this article, you’ll know YOUR answer to the question: how much does it cost to start a blog?
But that’s not all…
We’ll also look at what the costs are if you want to grow your blog and make money from it.
Let’s start by looking at what your goals are.
Your Goals
The first step is to identify what goal(s) you wish to achieve through blogging.
Typical goals include:
Blogging as a Hobby
You love your full-time job and don’t care about making money from your blog. You’re passionate about a certain topic and want to share your knowledge or skills with the world. You want to spend as little money as possible, if any, to start your blog.
Blogging as a Side Hustle
You have no intention of quitting your job or, if you’re a student, your studies. You want to make money on the side. You’re prepared to invest a bit of money to get started, but only if it’s really necessary.
Part-Time Business
You want to start your own part-time business, making money online. You’re prepared to invest the necessary time and/or money to get started. You hope that one day you’ll be able to quit your job and blog full-time.
Full-Time Business
You dream of being a full-time business owner and making money online. You don’t like the idea of making other people rich. You’re prepared to invest as much time and money as it takes to get out of the rat race. If it were totally up to you, you would blog full-time starting tomorrow!
Your Resources
The second step is to identify your resources, or lack thereof.
Blogging typically requires three types of resources:
Time
Time is your most valuable resource. It’s the only resource that, once it has passed, can never be regained. Nobody can turn back the clock.
It takes time to start a blog from scratch. Even though many tasks may not cost you money, they will cost you time.
And again, time is more valuable than money, especially when you start turning a profit. A task that requires time to complete is never really free.
Only you can decide what your time is worth!
NOTE: At BrandBuilders, we encourage bloggers to think like business owners and to outsource whatever they can. We specialize in creating websites that are ready to make you money on Day One, from affiliate websites to ecommerce websites. Feel free to book a coaching call with us to see how we can help you make money online!
Money
Starting a business, even a small home-based business, requires money.
According to business expense statistics, most microbusinesses cost around $3,000 to start, while most home-based franchises cost between $2,000 and $5,000.
One of the reasons why it has become popular to start a blog is it can be started for much less.
As with any business, it will require some time, money, and hard work to grow your blog.
Knowledge and Skills
Your knowledge and skills will play a big role in determining the success of your blog.
If you’ve never started or managed a blog before, it can be a steep learning curve to become a successful blogger. If you don’t have the required knowledge and skills, it will cost you more to get started – assuming you want to do it correctly.
One of the mistakes I often see is people trying to do everything themselves.
Instead of playing to their strengths, such as their knowledge on a topic, they try to do everything themselves instead. Months later, they finally give up as they’re not seeing any results. All the hard work and effort they put in have been wasted and they have nothing to show for it.
In Britain, there’s a common saying: “Penny wise and pound foolish.” The same idea in America would be: “Cent wise and dollar foolish.”
Basically, an example of this in the real world would be someone who isn’t good with cars trying to fix their own car because the mechanic would charge $100 for labor. It makes no sense if they ruin their car and end up having to pay even more at the shop to get it tuned up properly.
The same goes for business. Saving a couple of bucks now by trying to do everything yourself will cost you a LOT more over the long term.
How Much Does It Cost to Start a Blog?
To make it easy, we’ll separate the cost of starting a blog into three categories:
Lowest Cost
Your goal is to treat your blog as a hobby or side hustle. You don’t want to invest any more money than is absolutely necessary. At this level, the one thing you must be prepared to invest in your blog is your time.
Startup Costs – Can be started for $0 using a free blogging site. Registering a domain name and paying for a year’s hosting costs $68.
Ongoing Costs – No additional costs during the first year.
Slow But Steady Growth
You see blogging as a part-time business that may one day provide you with a full -time income. You don’t have a huge budget to invest in your business, but are prepared to invest the necessary time and money.
Startup Costs – Between $68 and $157 (Includes annual hosting fee)
Ongoing Costs – Between $397 and $1,361 per year
Fastest Growth
You want to turn your blog into a full-time business in the shortest period of time. You’re prepared to invest as much money as is necessary to get your blog into the fast lane. You have limited time and since you’re not an expert at everything you understand the value of outsourcing.
Startup Costs – Between $68 and $157
Ongoing Costs – Between $1,823 and $5,483 per year
Let’s take a look at what you’ll need for the above categories and how much it will cost you.
First, we’ll start with the costs to start a blog:
- Domain Name
- Hosting
- Blogging Platform
- Blog Theme
Domain Name
Your domain name is what gives your blog its identity. It’s the name people use when referring to your blog. It should be short and easy to remember.
Your options are:
Use a Free Blogging Site
If you’re not prepared to spend any money, you don’t have to, as long as you’re using a free blogging site.
Some of the most popular free blogging sites are:
– WordPress.com
– Medium.com
– LiveJournal.com
You don’t need your own domain name to use their free blogging feature.
NOTE: Tumblr.com is a very popular microblogging site you can also consider for short posts.
The URL path to your blog will look like this:
myblog.wordpress.com
medium.com/@myblog
myblog.livejournal.com
You can register a domain name and point it to your WordPress.com or LiveJournal.com blog. For example, instead of myblog.wordpress.com, your URL will be myblog.com.
NOTE: This option isn’t currently available for Medium.com blogs, although it’s expected to be in the near future.
However, the option of pointing your domain to WordPress.com or LiveJournal.com isn’t free.
WordPress.com calls it domain mapping. You’ll have to sign up for a Personal Subscription which will cost you $4 per month, billed yearly. This excludes the cost of the domain name.
LiveJournal.com will charge you 2,900 LJ Tokens ($29) per year. This excludes the cost of the domain name.
Register a Domain Name
Whether you want to achieve slow but steady growth or the fastest growth possible, you’ll need a domain name.
Registering a domain is inexpensive. One of the best registrars is Namecheap.
For as little as $8.88, you can have your own dot-com address. Annual renewal fees are a bit higher and will set you back around $10.98.
Summary & Recommendations
Lowest Cost
You don’t need your own domain if you’re using a free blogging site.
Should you register a domain name and point it to your free blog?
It can be good for continuity should you decide to use a self-hosted platform like WordPress.org in the future.
NOTE: If you’re going to register a domain name, you might as well use a self-hosted platform from the beginning. It won’t really cost anything extra as you’ll see below when we look at hosting options.
Slow but Steady Growth & Fastest Growth
If you’re serious about blogging, you need your own domain name. I highly recommend you register a dot-com domain with Namecheap for only $8.88.
Hosting
Every blog needs to be hosted somewhere. Your blog can be hosted on a free blogging site or you can have a self-hosted blog. Let’s look at your options!
Free Hosting
We already touched on the subject of free blogging sites when we looked at domain names.
The most popular free blogging site based on the number of visitors they receive every month is WordPress.com. According to SimilarWeb, they get an estimated 424 million visits per month. This is followed by Medium.com (193 million visits per month) and LiveJournal.com (94 million visits per month).
In case you’ve heard of Blogger.com and are wondering why they’re not on the list, it’s because they’re not that popular. They only get about 66 million visits per month and nobody knows when Google may decide to shut it down.
Using free blogging sites is the only option you have if you don’t want a self-hosted blog.
Expect to find ads on your free WordPress.com or LiveJournal.com blog that make the host money, not you. If you want to get rid of the ads, you’ll have to purchase a paid plan.
Below is what WordPress.com charges.
You can host your blog for free on their platform. If you want it to be ads-free and have access to useful features, it will cost you.
Self-Hosted Blog
There are many hosting companies to choose from. You need to work with a company that will give you excellent support with a good uptime record.
Two of the most popular hosting companies are Bluehost and SiteGround. They’re both recommended by the #1 self-hosted blogging platform WordPress.org.
NOTE: Don’t confuse WordPress.org (self-hosted blogging platform) with WordPress.com (free blogging site). WordPress.org is not a hosting provider.
Bluehost works well with WordPress.org and has a very good reputation in the industry. You can start off from as little as $2.95 per month if paid in advance for 3 years. A 24-months hosting plan costs $3.95 per month, and a 12-month hosting plan costs $4.95 per month.
Bluehost offers a free domain for the first year. Taking them up on their offer of a free domain name may not necessarily be a good idea.
In our experience, it’s better to separate your hosting provider from your domain name registrar. It gives you more flexibility if you want to change your hosting provider. It also offers you better protection should a claim be filed against your blog when your domain is registered elsewhere.
SiteGround specializes in hosting WordPress (WordPress.org) sites. They’re a highly respected hosting company. Their WordPress hosting pans start at $6.99 per month if paid in advance for 12 months. If you want to pay monthly, it’ll cost you $19.99 per month.
Summary & Recommendations
Lowest Cost
If you don’t want to pay for hosting, use a free blogging site such as WordPress.com.
Unfortunately, using a free blogging site has many disadvantages, such as:
Ads – Ads can be distracting. Unless it’s ads you’re being paid for, you want your site visitors to be 100% focused on your content.