How to Become a Lifestyle Blogger

One of the most common questions I’m hit with when someone finds out I have a blog is HOW to start a blog and how to become a lifestyle blogger. These days it’s become so easy to get started, but can also be a little confusing for those of us who aren’t exactly “tech-savvy.” Starting a blog was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and has become our family’s main source of income in just a short period of time. Learn how to start a blog in 5 easy steps! Follow this step-by-step guide to discover the tactics I used to start and grow my blog into a full-time income.

When people ask me what my blog is about, 9 times out of 10 I answer with “It’s a lifestyle blog.” As you can imagine, the most popular question I’m asked next is “what is a lifestyle blog??” A lifestyle blog is one that covers a variety of topics, and one of the best things about starting your own lifestyle blog is that you can choose those topics you want to write about!

When I started this blog as a hobby in 2018, I had no expectations for it: I simply wanted to create a space that was my own, and was fun! But, then 2020 happened, and like many of us our family was searching for a way to protect our future in case we were to lose our jobs.

I turned this little hobby blog into a full-time income in less than 6 months, and along the way was shocked to discover just how EASY it really is to do. (If you’re curious, you can read more about my story here.)

Starting a blog has given us financial freedom. It’s helped us pay off credit card debt, buy a new house, be able to spend more time with our children and live a life we truly love. I only wish I had discovered blogging earlier! If you’re wondering how to become a lifestyle blogger, you’re in the right place!

Note: Some links may be affiliate links. That means I may make a commission if you use my links to purchase, at no extra added cost to you! I only recommend products that I personally love and believe in. Full disclaimer here.

What is a Lifestyle Blog?

The easiest way to describe it is that a lifestyle blog is basically blogging about your life! When I first started Mimosas & Motherhood, I wrote about topics that were relevant to my life. At the time, this was around pregnancy, recipes and fashion.

People typically think of lifestyle blogs as fashion blogs, but that’s actually not true! Many lifestyle bloggers create blogs about topics they are personally knowledgeable and passionate about. The best part is that as a lifestyle blogger, you get to choose what those topics are.

There are thousands of lifestyle blogs out there, so how do you create one that stands out? Start by thinking about what makes you, well, you! Think about your family, your social life, your hobbies and passions. A lifestyle blog can encompass so many different types of topics! At the heart of it, a successful lifestyle blog is a personal blog where you share new posts that are relevant to your life and passions. Many more general blogs are considered lifestyle blogs, including mom blogs, food blogs, travel blogs and more.

Creating a lifestyle blog has been such a fun and prosperous journey for our family, and one that I’ve been able to grow in my spare time. So if you’ve been wondering, “should I start a lifestyle blog?“, I hope the answer is YES!

How to Start a Blog That Makes Money

There are a ton of options out there when it comes to starting your own blog. This post is specifically directed toward those of you who not only want to start a blog, but want to start a MONEY-MAKING blog. Yep, you can absolutely make a real income from blogging, but you need to set yourself up for success in order to get there!

Starting this blog was one of the best decisions I made, and it may be for you too. Within just a few months of launching my lifestyle blog I began bringing in income. A blog is a perfect way to generate passive income, and can also be an incredible way to bring in a full-time income as well.

This post is primarily geared towards how to become a lifestyle blogger, because that’s what this blog is! But you can use these tips and steps to help you launch your own successful blog in any niche you can think of.

The best part? You can get started in 15 minutes or less with NO technical experience! Just follow each easy step below for to learn the best way to launch a lifestyle blog.

Step 1: Choose Your Blog’s Niche

If you’re sitting there scratching your head wondering what a niche even is or why it matters so much, I was in those same shoes! I started this blog 100% as a hobby and wrote about anything and everything that crossed my mind.

There’s a reason why everyone says “you need a niche:” your blog needs to be cohesive, and make sense to visitors. Whether you are writing about parenting, underwater basket weaving, baking or clothing for cats, what matters is that you have a topic that not only YOU want to write about, but that there is an audience searching for. So the very first step in how to start a lifestyle blog is to choose your niche.

Trying to figure our your niche? Your ideal blogging niche falls at the intersection of your passion, experience and skills. What’s the most important piece? YOU.

When choosing your lifestyle blog niche, a great place to start is to think about your personal interests, as well as:

Where you may already have experience.
What you want to teach/write about.
Any leverage or value you already have in an industry

There are SO MANY types of blogs out there. If you want to start a lifestyle blog and need some inspiration around how to choose a niche, here’s a few ideas:

Homesteading
DIY Home Projects
Budgeting and Saving Money
Vegan living
Single Mom Life
Gardening
Homeschool
Interior Design
Crafts and Other Projects
Parenting
Solo Travel
Home Decor
Healthy Eating
Life in a specific area (like NYC life, California life etc)

You want to create a lifestyle blog on a topic YOU are passionate about. Otherwise, it becomes too easy to walk away from it in those first few months where you haven’t to put in a lot of hard work.

You also want to be sure to think about your target audience. For example, my lifestyle blog is geared towards moms and moms to be! My main topics that I write about are pregnancy, postpartum, parenting, recipes and DIY projects. These lifestyle topics are not only ones I genuinely enjoy creating content around, but they are also popular topics.

Still stuck? It’s a good idea to spend a little bit of time thinking about your daily activities and lifestyle. What are things that you do regularly, or are a big part of your life, that you truly enjoy and are passionate about?

Step 2: Get a Domain Name and Self-Hosted Platform

Once you’ve decided on your niche, the next step on your journey of how to become a lifestyle blogger is: you need to do is pick your domain name! Your domain name is also known as your URL, and is what visitors type in when they visit your website.

A good domain name should be memorable and not unnecessarily long. Ideally, you want it to be easy to spell and make sense to visitors who land on your website. You also want to avoid hyphens and numbers, as that can confuse visitors.

For example, www.ilovecats.com is a simple, easy to understand and type domain name. One like www.I-luv-kittykats.com isn’t as user friendly.

Once you have a name that you like, you need to sign up for hosting for your website.

In order to start your own blog that is set up to make money, you need to be on a self-hosted platform. I recommend using WordPress through Bluehost because they are experienced (over 2,000,000 websites on their servers!), their customer service is fantastic (hello 24/7 support), and they are easy to navigate.

(Side note: a few folks have asked me why they need to pay for a hosted website, when there are free platforms out there like Wix. Here’s why:

Wix in particular has been de-indexed by Google multiple times, which means no search traffic. With non-self-hosted blogs, you are limited on your monetization because they limit your advertising options. You are limited on space and bandwidth, are very limited on how you can design your blog, and are unable to use all the plugins and widgets necessary to create a site that can make money. You also don’t own your platform and you should never build a business you don’t own.)

Bluehost makes it super easy to get started. Here’s how:

Step 1: Click HERE to get started with a special rate from Bluehost.

Step 2: Choose your hosting package. There are 4 choices for packages, but for most people the Basic option is totally fine.

I personally chose the Choice Plus option (which through my link is only $5.45 a month instead of the regular $14.99), and I really recommend this option if you have the budget because it really does have the best value. It includes domain privacy, spam protection and code guard, all of which are fantastic options to keep your blog private and secure.

Step 3: Enter your domain name.

Step 4: Create your account.

Congratulations!! You are now officially a blog owner!

Step 3: Start a Blog By Installing WordPress

Wondering how to become a lifestyle blogger and actually be successful? As I mentioned above, if you want to be successful as a blogger, you need a self-hosted blogging platform. I recommend starting a WordPress blog. WordPress is the best, and the option chosen by both beginning bloggers and many, many successful lifestyle bloggers too!

The good news? Bluehost makes it incredibly easy to install WordPress with a one-click install right from your new hosting dashboard.

Once you’ve installed WordPress, the next thing you’ll want to do is choose a theme. Luckily, WordPress has dozens to choose from, including some great free ones! Choose your theme, and you’re ready to start building and customizing!

If you want some extra help with actually launching your blog, I teach a 100% free online course on how to get your WordPress site ready to go! Click here for more information.

Step 4: Create Fantastic Content for Your Blog

Woohoo! You’ve officially started your blog and are ready to start blogging. Here’s the most important thing to know first:

While blogs were once more like online journals where you could write anything and gain a following, they don’t really work that way anymore. Instead, blogging success is now very driven through Google search engine trafic.

So, how can you be successful? Create each blog post around one main target keyword. Include it in the title of your post, in the first paragraph, throughout the actual blog post and ideally in the blog post’s URL.

So for example, this blog post’s target keyword is “how to start a lifestyle blog.” That keyword is in the URL, in the title of the post, in the first paragraph and spread throughout this blog post.

You also want to create posts that people are searching for. While it might be more fun to write first person narratives about your life or challenges, think through the kinds of things YOU are searching for.

Want more help with this? Be sure to sign up for my Free Blogging Crash Course here! You can also read more about how to layout your blog posts and what to put into that first blog post by checking out Blog Layout Ideas and Best Practices for Bloggers.

Step 5: Promote Your Blog and Build a Marketing Strategy

There are multiple ways to promote your new blog. Ideally, you want to create as many new links to your blog as possible to help grow your audience. This is an important piece of the puzzle many new bloggers miss.

Links are like the currency of the Internet and search engines. The more links there are directing people to check out your blog, the more Google begins to take your blog as a serious website and starts ranking your posts.

Here are some great ways to promote your blog:

Guest Blogging: Not only is guest blogging a great way to promote your blog, but it’s also an awesome way to build authority, meet other bloggers and get backlinks.

Share on social media: Do you have social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube? These are great places to share your new blog posts!

Pin on Pinterest: While Google is still where you want the majority of traffic to come from, Pinterest is also a fantastic place to build traffic. In fact, Pinterest is now thought of as the top “visual search engine.”

Want to learn more about monetization of your blog? Learn about how to get started with affiliate products by reading How to Actually Make Money with Affiliate Marketing too!