How much does it cost to start a blog
Blogging will definitely cost you a lot of time, but how much does it cost to start a blog?
It is possible to start your own website for just a few pounds a month.
BUT, if you want a blog that’s going to make you money then you will need to invest a little more cash into launching your site as well as the monthly upkeep.
Basically, if you want to look like a professional blogger right from the beginning, then starting a blog is going to cost you money.
However it’s certainly not an expensive effort, especially when you compare it to the cost of any other hobby you may have.
In fact you can start a blog that looks professional for less than £50 a year.
Running requires investment in athletic equipment, going to the gym costs an annual fee. There are very few hobbies that cost absolutely nothing.
So if you’re on the fence about starting a blog, because you’re unsure if it will actually be a success, I suggest you change you mindset.
See it as a hobby that will give you something to do in your spare time. It’s a hobby that could ultimately lead to additional cash for you, so putting a little investment behind it from day one could pay off massively.
Since starting my first blog I have certainly wasted money on things I didn’t need. This includes various new blog themes I decided to buy after chopping and changing my mind about how I wanted my blog to look and courses about blogging that I wish I hadn’t wasted the cash on.
This post will give you an idea of the actual essential costs involved in launching a blog as well as tips on whether you should spend money on blogging courses.
I’ve got more tips on starting a blog from scratch on this post.
This post contains affiliate links. This means for any purchases made through the links, I will receive a small commission but it will not cost you a penny more.
Breakdown of how much it costs to start a blog
Let’s look at the essentials for starting a blog. Two of these are absolute must-haves, while the other is a cost that I thoroughly recommend although you don’t need it to get your blog started.
I’ve included Tailwind here because I do believe it is an essential tool to growing your blog traffic fast on Pinterest.
Tailwind is a scheduling tool that enables you to get weeks ahead on your Pinterest pinning. Tailwind tells you the ideal times of day to pin, you add pins to the schedule and then Tailwind pins to your Pinterest profile for you. You can pin in your sleep!
I would not be without Tailwind, and if you want to get your blog’s traffic up quickly and get it monetised then I suggest it’s an investment worth making.
Here are the things you either need to, or should, invest in when starting your blog:
- Hosting – £2.95 a month (based on the cost of the Start Up plan with Siteground)
- Domain name – £12 annually (this is a rough estimate and may cost more depending on your proposed blog name)
- Tailwind – £8.15 a month (or $9.99 per month, this plan does not get you access to Tribes)
So adding up the annual costs altogether we have got:
- £97.80 for Tailwind
- £35.40 for hosting
- £12 for your domain name
This gives us a total annual cost of £145.20 to start your blog.
A cost I have left out here is blog theme.
Blog themes are what gives your blog it’s layout, style and overall look. You purchase a theme and then customise it in your WordPress dashboard to make it look how you want.
You can get free WordPress themes that do the job perfectly well for the first few weeks after launching your blog.
However I would recommend purchasing a fast and responsive WordPress theme when you can. They cost around £50 to £80, depending on where you buy them from.
I recommend buying a theme that is built for speed (because your site speed, or how long it takes website to load for users, is important for Google traffic as well as user experience), and checking reviews before you purchase.
Should you spend money on blog courses
This is such a tricky one for me to answer with a straight yes or a no.
If you can afford to invest some money in a course, I say yes do it, but with a caveat that you need to choose where you spend that money wisely.
You need to be very strategic with your money, especially if your budget is tight and you are not yet in a position to monetise your website.
I do not think you have to buy blogging courses in order to be successful as a blogger. There is a ton of information out there to help you get started with SEO, social media and photography that is completely free to access.
One of the best free resources for bloggers is Facebook groups for bloggers. Fellow bloggers swap tips and answer each other’s questions. I have done some of my best learning from Facebook groups for bloggers.
Here are a few of my favourite Facebook blogger groups:
UK & Irish Parent Bloggers Crowdsourcing
So if you do want to spend money on a course, how do you choose one?
Obviously your budget is the most important thing here. If you are on a tight budget, which I am, I thoroughly recommend these courses which are ideal for beginner bloggers and won’t break the bank:
- Pinteresting Strategies. Carly from Mommy on Purpose’s course is my favourite Pinterest course. She updates it regularly and it’s absolutely full of information for getting your boards set up right and what the best pinning strategy is. I refer back to it regularly.
- Ready Set Blog for Traffic. I love Elna’s course, and her Twins Mommy website. This course is a brilliant overview for beginners who want to get their blog traffic to take off.
- Debbie Gartner’s Easy on page SEO. There are some SEO courses that cost hundreds of pounds. But for me this ebook provides an amazing foundation for how to improve SEO on your website.
The price of being an Instagram influencer
I’m going to touch on the cost of being an Instagram influencer in this post too because certainly in the UK many bloggers are trying to grow their Instagram following alongside their blog.
But trying to grow on Instagram can be a real money trap, and it’s something you need to be aware of before you get sucked in!
Instagram is awash with influencers showcasing their beautiful clothes and beautiful homes.
It can be tempting to buy stuff purely to join in with the posting of pretty pictures.
But spending a ton of cash on stuff will not buy you fame on Insta, and it also won’t help with your efforts to make money from this as a business.
So when you’re deciding on your Instagram strategy to grow, remember to tell yourself not to buy stuff purely for Insta photos. It’s a slippery slope to getting addicted to buying purely for the ‘gram.
The key to growing on Instagram is working on your photography game, engaging with lots of other accounts and posting regularly both to your profile and stories.
There are tons more tips for growing your Instagram following over on this post.
What else do I spend out on for my blog?
You’re probably wondering what I spend on my blog now that I’m three years down the line in my blogging career!
I spend more on hosting these days, and have switched to Lyrical Host at a cost of £239.99 annually now that my parenting blog is getting 100,000 and over page views per month. I wanted a host that would help me grow. I made the switch recently and so far I am very impressed! If you fancy giving them a try you can get 10% off your first hosting plan payment with my discount code MTAM10.
In addition to this cost I spent about £20 per month on stock photos from Shutterstock. This gets me 10 new images per month.
When the offer from AppSumo for DepositPhotos pops up, which gives you 100 photos for $39, I buy that too. This tends to last me a few months.
I’m also spending £10 per month on Epidemic Sound, which I use to get music for my YouTube channel, and £77 a year for PicMonkey which I use to design pins and YouTube thumbnails.
So these are of course a LOT more costs than the basics I outlined at the start. But still I am making all of this back and more.
It’s definitely a case that with your business you need to invest in it, but you do need to invest that cash wisely.
Final thoughts on the cost of starting a blog
So there you have it!
I hope this overview has given you an idea of what you should definitely be spending on your blog and the things that are not essential if you don’t have the budget.
Try to immerse yourself in reading up on blogging tips. There are a ton of free resources online!
You can get your blog to a point where it is bringing you in a healthy income without having a spend a ton of cash up front to get to that stage.
Invest time in your blog and you will reap the rewards.
