Blogging changed my life. I never thought I could grow a blog to a full-time income in a year, but I did it and the freedom of working from home is amazing. If you own an online business and you aren't blogging, you should be.

Blogging is more than a place to write out your thoughts - although it's great for that too. Blogging is a great way to engage your audience and boost SEO. Starting a blog also gives you the freedom to make money many different ways.

Beginner Steps To Make Money Blogging

Step 1 - Choose A Niche For Your Blog

Decide what you will blog about. Choose something you are knowledgeable and passionate about. Popular blogging niches are home and garden, fashion, beauty, health and fitness, food, budgeting, and personal finance.

Step 2 - Start Your Blog

In order to start a blog you can turn into a full-blown business you need to have your own website. Ditch blogger/blogspot and create your own website. There are many options out there for starting a blog. I suggest getting started with Wordpress or Squarespace.

Step 3 - Write Awesome Blog Posts

Start writing blog posts your target audience will love. Create valuable content that will make them want to become a subscriber.

A great blog post has the following components:

Attention-grabbing headline
Eye-catching image
List what the blog post is about
Call To Action
Valuable content + actionable tips
Call To Action

Step 4 - Build your Audience

There is so much content on the internet and someone could easily visit your blog, read a post, leave and never come back again. If you build an email list you can stay in touch and continue to offer value to your audience. The most effective way to quickly build an email list is to offer something of value for free in exchange for an email address. This could be a digital download, ebook, coupon code or something else your audience would want to snag. Embedding an email signup form is a great way to collect email addresses and automatically send a freebie to each person when they subscribe.

Step 5 - Create a sales funnel

If you are going to be in the business of blogging- you have to treat it like a business. Every person who signs up for something should automatically be put into a sequence of valuable emails followed by an automated sales email.