Running A Blog Costs Hundreds of Dollars
We received this comment from Kate regarding Kyle’s Beginner’s Guide to starting a blog and making $100 in the first month.
I have found this article very misleading. The online quick setup blogs do not allow you to insert ads or google analytics. The wordpress standalone is not easy to set up. MySQL? I don’t have MySQL… I continue to be baffled by this whole process, it seems to me you need several hundred dollars to set up a semi-professional looking blog that allows ads.
This isn’t true.
Firstly, there are free blogging options that allow you to paste advertising code. Wordpress.com doesn’t, but Google’s Blogger.com does. Blogger.com even includes it as standard procedure meaning you don’t even have to paste any code, just sign up to Adsense.
There are other options and I would like to open up the comments section for suggestions similar to Blogger.com.
One thing that you will want to do, however, is register a domain name. Luckily this only costs a few dollars a year. This makes your site, where ever it is hosted, look professional. Kyle explains this in his post.
At this rate, you only need to make around 50c per month to cover your costs. After that it’s all profit.
Hosting & MySQL
Since Kate also mentions having to understand MySQL databases to run a blog, I will clear this up briefly as well.
Hosting, depending on how much drive space, bandwidth and extra features you want, can cost from a few dollars a month to $30-40. However, for your average blog, who’s main bandwidth culprit is images, the few dollars a month to set up a host should be sufficient.
If you want to use a blogging platform such as Wordpress, you are required to upload a bunch of files [using FTP] and set up a MySQL database. This can be daunting, but I’m going to flesh out a three step process to keep the database section simple – because it is!
- 1. Go to your host’s Database section and Create A New Database.
- 2. Name it and add a user that has all access privileges.
- 3. Open Wordpress’s config.php file and enter the database details.
Upload the file back to your server and you’re done. Now you have a powerful blogging platform on a site that will maybe cost you a few dollars per month. Get around 5,000 impressions [not individual visitors] each month and you’re covering your costs with Google Adsense alone.
NOTES: When choosing a host, make sure they offer MySQL databases; some plans don’t. Don’t go crazy with bandwidth requirements, you can always upgrade if you get that popular.
Post decent content daily and you’ll be making money in no time.
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Comments
Laura Gibbs says on April 10th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I recommend the use of a web host that has the FANTASTICO service: this allows you to easily install all kinds of dynamic scripts without having to do any database installation or configuration – there is blogging software you can install with Fantastico (including WordPress), cms, wikis, etc.
I use SiteGround web hosting with Fantastico, and it has been great.
http://www.siteground.com/fantastico-hosting.htm
mx says on April 10th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Many hosts offer one-click installs for things like Wordpress too, so you never have to touch the site code if you don’t want to.
Nenad Ristic says on April 11th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Another point which is worth mentioning in connection with starting blogging is that a lot of hosts offer automated wordpress installs, where the user does not even have to worry about FTPing the files, or creating the database. So, its even simpler than in your article.
Another option for free hosting is blogsome.com, which offers free wordpress hosting, with the ability to edit themes, which allows the user to insert adsense into them.
Craig Childs says on April 11th, 2007 at 1:19 am
like Fantastico. that’s a system in some hosting packages that allows one-click Wordpress installations – and Upgrades I must point out.
I think a collection of such hosted sites like Blogsome in one post is in order.
Eduo says on April 11th, 2007 at 4:09 am
I’m sorry. But it gets even easier than that.
Most hosting places (I know mine does) provide not only with cpanel but also with “Fantastico”.
I moved my blog yesterday to this new hosting service. From the moment I had my account activated to having the blog up and running no more than 15 minutes must have passed (or which 7 were me transferring over my old one, and wouldn’t be needed for a new blog).
Fantastico allows one-click installation of dozens of software packages (among them Wordpress), including set-up and database configuration.
In total my hosting costs me:
$8 a year for the domain
$7 a month for having a much as 5GB hosted and 150GB transferred.
That’s less than $8 a month.
Places like wordpress.com make things even easier than this.
Rich Tatum says on April 11th, 2007 at 6:56 am
As others have noted, all one has to do is check out the ISP’s service offerings. Most of them offer at least WordPress as one of it’s “one-click install” tools. That’s all it required for me two years ago, and I knew nothing about PHP, databases or CGI at that time.
Also, WordPress has a few hosts they recommend, which will certainly offer the support needed to get up and running. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find anybody could get a blog going within literally three minutes if they had an account on one of thes hosting providers.
WordPress Web Hosting
Rich
BlogRodent
Seth says on April 11th, 2007 at 7:59 am
I can see personal bloggers wanting an easy solution to getting a blog up and running without much work but I sorta get a little annoyed with people who want to make money with their site but won’t take the time to read how to install a simple PHP/MySQL application.
There’s no such thing as easy money. Hard work is needed for any successful venture.
Henri says on April 11th, 2007 at 9:26 am
You don’t need a database to run a blog either. DasBlog, which is what i run, completely relies on XML files.
check it out, http://www.dasblog.net/
Ian McKenzie says on April 11th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Another free option is to use a standalone blogging desktop blogging application. Thingamablog http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ is an open-source app. which allows flexibility in setting up and maintaining a blog. Couple that with one of the countless free web-hosting services, and you’re good to go.
Richard says on April 11th, 2007 at 10:21 am
After reading the first article, I setup my blog http://wellroundedgeek.blogspot.com in less than 20 minutes. Including adsense and analytics.
Jeff says on April 15th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
As others have mentioned, there are hosts who have a one-click install for many types of installations. My host, HostPC.com, uses Installatron. I’ve set up a blog, two picture galleries, a Wiki, a Calendar, and a CMS with virtually no effort at all (and certainly no knowledge of what’s happening in MySQL).
Craig Childs says on May 30th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I wanted to mention the bit about setting up a database because most people are so turned off by the idea. The one-click options are great, but it is really easy to do it manually.
Hope it helped a few people who went with servers who don’t offer one-click installations and still want to set-up Wordpress etc.
Also, thanks for the replies on options that don’t require databases at all.
joe says on April 27th, 2008 at 3:55 am
is there a way to get like a good top heavy menu action going in blogger or is one at the whim of their add this element or that element creating a site heavy site?
Webdesi3 says on September 14th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I use to host my blog and my website for $1 a month.
My whole package including my domain name cost around $18 for the year – This included Cpanel with fantisco which set everything up with 1 click, including wordpress.
Simplest thing ever, and the best.
Thanks for explining how SQL works though, I han’t a notion.
Mike Brown says on February 25th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
You get what you pay for & I might add what’s your time worth?
If you have all the free time in the world finding a nice looking theme and searching through hundreds of plug-ins and learning how to set up your permalinks may be something you would be interested in.
If you are a busy professional and want a professional blog that looks great, matches your website and is well optimized for the search engines it may be worth paying a professional to set it up for you. Sure it’s easy if you know how to do all of this but it might take you a month or more to do so.
If you’ve never messed with CSS or HTML you will have a difficult time even plugging your own logo into most blogs.
Wordpress Hosting says on March 12th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Wordpress has become the most popular used platform in its category. A recent search i conducted on Alexa found wordpress.com to be number 22 in the top most visited websites “globally”.
Wordpress not only makes it easy to create a blog but it has also been used to develop websites, simply because it makes it so easy to update.
Regards,
Richard