Blogging is one of the most passive and profitable ways to make money online. It helps a blogger to share your thoughts, expertise, and experiences with the world while also earning an income.
But if you don’t have a website, then you can wonder how much it costs to start a blog in 2024 and make it your main income stream.
Anyone can start their dream blog website in 2024, and the cost of starting a blog is not as much as you think. You can start your blog site by spending only $50/Year.
And today’s article, I’ll break down all the costs that you’ll need to start a blog in 2024, so let’s dive into it!
Starting a blogging business is much easier than a traditional business. It gives you financial freedom and time freedom, and you can run your blog from anywhere in the world.
However, there are some costs you need to pay to start a blog website. So, let’s take a look at all the necessary expenses:
| Website Features | Yearly Cost |
|---|---|
| Web Hosting | $40 to $10,000 |
| Domain | $10 to $50 |
| Blogging Platform | $0 to $500 |
| SSL certificate | $0 to $100 |
| Professional Email | $0 to $100 |
| Premium Template | $0 to $100 |
| Security | $0 to $199 |
| Backup | $0 to $100 |
| SEO | $0 to $70 |
| Marketing Tool (SEMrush) | $0 to $1000 |
| Email Marketing | $0 to $100 |
| AVG Yearly Cost to Run a blog | $50 to $12,319. |
Can I start a blog for free?
Yes! You can.
Several platforms allow you to start your blogging journey with their platform. But if you go with them, then you need to suffer lots of limitations.
One of the most popular free blogging platforms is blogger.com, which allows everyone to start a blog completely free. However, there are many limitations, such as not being suitable for customization, fewer SEO features, a less-than-perfect URL structure, and more.
If you go with the Paid option then the customization of your website is limitless, and you also get benefits from the SEO features, premium demos, responsiveness, premium support, and lots of additional features.
Breakdown of Blogging Costs
Let’s break down each of the costs listed above, which will help you figure out the total cost of starting a blog in 2024.
Web Hosting (Cost $40 to 10,000 Per Year)
Web hosting is the main expense of starting a blog. It allows a website to be accessible worldwide.
If you choose the right web hosting company to start your blogging journey, then all of the other resource prices will be zero. But if you choose the wrong web hosting company, then your whole effort of creating a blog site will go in vain, and you will need to pay for every single feature.
Traditionally, a good web hosting service price starts from $3/month and goes up to $1000/month. Wait, Wait, I don’t tell you to purchase a $1000/month hosting service. That’s not necessary at all. I just want to explain to you that web hosting services prices can range from $3 to $1000 per month.
Hostinger is the most popular web hosting company all over the world, and it is well known for providing the best and most budget-friendly web hosting solutions. Their pricing plan starts at $2.99/month and offers Free domain, SSL certificates, daily backups, free CDN, professional email and many more features.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for the best web hosting that provides superior website performance with great uptime, Liquid Web is the perfect pick. Their pricing plan starts at $17.50/month for managed WordPress hosting.
Now, the choice is yours. If you want a budget-friendly option with good website speed, Hostinger is the perfect option for you. And if you want your website to load super fast and always live on the Internet, Liquid Web is the best option for you.
Domain Price ($10 to $50)
Domain name is the actual address of your website, such as our domain name Couponforhost.com.
It creates your website’s identity and makes it easy for users to remember. A good domain name can also improve your blog’s brand value and search engine ranking for a specific niche.
Hostinger and Namecheap are the most popular and cheapest domain name providers all over the world. They provide all kinds of domain name extensions at reasonable prices. And you’ll find all types of domain name extensions from those two web hosting companies.
The most popular domain .com domain name extension costs around $4.99/year on Hostinger (2-year terms) and $5.98/year on Namecheap, which is very cheap compared to other web hosting companies.
The prices of the other domain names are almost similar: .online is $0.99, .shop is $0.99, .net is $9.99, .xyz is $1.99, and .info is $2.99.
Blogging Platform Price ($0 to $500)
Choosing a blogging platform is another crucial part of success in this industry. There are so many different blogging platforms available on the internet, such as WordPress.org (Self-hosted), WordPress.com (fully hosted), Wix, Weebly, Drupal, Tumblr, Blogger, and more.
All platforms have a pricing plan, and if a platform has a free option, you cannot add a custom domain name, which is a significant disadvantage of free blogging platforms.
If you are looking for many customization options, better SEO features, premade templates, ease of use, and professional growth, then using self-hosted WordPress.org is the best option for you.
Why WordPress? Because almost 43.2% of live websites are made and run with WordPress. WordPress is fully free, and there are no hidden charges for using it as your blogging platform.
SSL certificate Cost ($0 to $100)
SSL certificates are essential for your website’s security and trustworthiness. It helps you to create a Secure Socket Layer, which encrypts the data transfer between browsers and web servers.
Let’s take an example, if you enter your credit card information on a website which doesn’t have an SSL certificate, then the hackers can easily steal your information. And this will kill your website’s reputation.
When you’ve installed an SSL certificate on your website, it looks like this: https://couponforhost.com.
Most web hosting provider like Hostinger offers free unlimited SSL certificates, but if you want to with a paid one then you can. It’ll cost you around $20 to $100 for a year.
Professional Email Plan ($0 to $100)
Business email enhances the trustworthiness of your website and increases brand value. A professional email address looks like support@couponforhost.com or info@couponforhost.com.
Most of the hosting providers have unlimited free professional email, but this free business mail has a few limitations, such as limited storage, no follow-up, calendar, anti-spam protection, custom signature, Advanced anti-spam, and more.
If you don’t need these advanced features, then you don’t need to pay any money for a professional email. And before purchasing web hosting, make sure your web hosting provider offers free email.
If not, then you need to pay extra money for each professional email.
WordPress Theme ($0 to $100 Year)
WordPress theme is the pre-made design layout for your website. It helps you to give a professional look, which is essential to start a blogging business.
WordPress has thousands of free themes available on the internet, and they offer some paid features, too.
Astra is one of the most popular, most used, and lightweight themes in the WordPress directory. Astra can fulfil all of your needs if you go with them, but they also offer extra features such as premium templates, mega menu, premium design, and more.
Their premium plan costs you $39 for a year, and if you go with the annual plan, then it will cost you $179 as a one-time fee.
Also, there are a thousand premium themes with premium demos available on Themeforest, so if you want to think of something different and unique then Themeforest will help you with this. The price of ThemeForest premium themes starts from $20 to $200.
Security Cost ($0 to $199)
Maintaining your blog security is another important task for a blogger or website owners. Every day you need to check your website’s security issues and solve them immediately, otherwise hackers can steal your website data or your site can crash down.
WordPress and some other CMS providers already have their security protection, but using an additional security plugin can increase the security level.
Some of the popular WordPress security plugins are Wordfence, MalCare, Sucuri, and All-in-one WP Security & Firewall. All of the plugins come with their free plan, which is enough to add an extra security layer.
But if you want to add premium security for your blog, then you can go with the Wordfence premium plan. Their premium plan costs you around $119 per year, which is a bit expensive for beginners.
Better SEO Cost ($0 to $70)
SEO is the most crucial part of getting a huge amount of organic traffic from search engines. I love WordPress because of its SEO features.
When someone talks about SEO, then a large number of WordPress SEO plugins come such as RankMath, Yoast SEO, All In One SEO (AIOSEO), and more. And best part is all of these three most used plugins come with the full free option and don’t even require a credit card.
Of these three plugins, RankMath is the best because of its easy-to-use interface and advanced features. They also come with a paid plan, which comes with lots of premium features.
If you go with their premium plan, then you’ll get some of the extra features like Content AI, 404 Monitors, Advanced analytics, bbPress, Image SEO, Local SEO, New Sitemap, Podcast, Redirection, SEO analyzer, Video sitemap, and advanced features of WooCommerce.
Marketing Tool (SEMrush) ($0 to $1000)
Marketing is a another most imporant task for your bloggin success. To save your valuable time on marketing and to get more effective result super fast, you can use SEMrush – an all-in-one digital marketing tool.
SEMrush has all about everything you need to improve your marketing strategy and grow your online visibility. SEMrush comes with a 7 days free trial, which is enough to test their service quality.
They offers a lots of mind blowing features such as competitive research, keyword research, link building, on-page and technical SEO, and much more social media tools.
SEMrush pricing plans are pretty high, but the features they offer are totally worth it. All of their results and data are almost 90% accurate with Google. Without subscribing to their premium plan, you can search ten times a day on SEMrush for free.
There are also a lot of free keyword research tools such as Ahrefs keyword generator, Keyword Tool, Google Trends, QuestionDB, Also Asked, Answer the public, and many more.
Email Marketing Cost ($0 to $100)
Email marketing is the most effective way to connect with your audience and drive more traffic to your website. It helps you to build a relationship with your subscribers, promote your products or services, and convert leads into customers.
Popular email marketing tools like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Constant Contact offer free plans for up to 1,000 subscribers. This allows beginners to start their email marketing journey without spending any money.
However, if you’ve a large number of email subscriber, then definitely you need to go with a premium plan. MailChimp paid plan are start with $6/month and the pricing plan can be different with your subscriber lists.
Recommed Web Hosting Providers For Bloggers
When comparing the website speed, Liquid Web is top for its super-fast loading time. And they provide superior web hosting.
If you want a separate server for your website and want the best cloud hosting, then we highly recommend you to go with Cloudways.
Hostinger is an affordable solution to start your dream website, and they also provide a super fast web hosting server.
FAQ
Does it cost to start a blog?
Yes, there’re a cost if you start to blogging seriously and professionally. The cost of starting a blog depends on your requirements and budget. But the minimum cost to start a blogging business can range from $50 to $5,000.
Can you start a blog with no money?
Yeah! You can start a blog for free, if you go with free option then you need to suffer a lots of limitation such as custom domain, less customization and SEO features, more.
Does it take money to start a blog?
Yes, it does take money to start a blog if you want to have a professional and successful blog. While there are free options available, such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com, and more.
Who pays bloggers?
The answer for who pays bloggers can be different. If a blogger make money from AdSense then Google pay them, If blogger do affiliate marketing then different brand pay, and if a blogger sell their own products or services then the money comes from customers.
Do blogs still make money?
Yeah! Ofcourse. Blogging is still a lucrative way to make money online. With the right strategies and hard work, bloggers can make thousands or even millions of dollars from their blogs through various methods such as advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and selling products or services.
Is blogging good money?
Yeah! Definitely blogging can be a good source of income. Anyone can make up to $10,000/month doing blogging in a right way.
What type of blog makes the most money?
Most of blog makes money in a different ways, but the most money maker blogger are fincaial, tech-niche, web hosting, digital product niche bloggers.
How to monetize a blog?
You can monitize your blog in a different ways such as:
- Advertising (Google AdSense, MediaVine, etc)
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored content or sponsored posts
- Selling digital products (eBooks, courses, printables, etc)
- Offering services (coaching, consulting, design services, etc)
- Creating a membership program or subscription service
- Directly selling ad space on your blog
Do people still read blogs?
If people doesn’t read blog, then why google has 1.5B+ monthly active users. Hope you get your answer.
How many blogs do I need to make money?
It’s not about the number of blogs, it’s all about your strategies and quality of content. You can make money from a single blog if you do everything right.
Can you make $10,000 a month blogging?
Yeah! You can make even more than $10,000/month through blogging if you have a successful blog with high traffic and good monetization strategies.
Can blogging make me millionaire?
Yeah! Definitely blogging business can make you milliionaire. There’re many bloggers who have made millions of dollars through their blogs such as Pat Flynn, Michelle Gardner, Adam Enfroy and more. However, it requires hard work, dedication, and consistent efforts to reach that level of success.
Conclusion
Hope this guide has provided you with the real cost of running a blog website and helped you to plan your budget accordingly.
Note: the price of the product can be diffeent based on the plans and upgrades. And most of the web hosting provider offer their web hosting price at reasonable price for the first year. But times come for the renewal then the price become higher.
Blogging is not just about earning money, it’s also about sharing your expertise and passion with the world. And the consistency is the key to success in blogging.
Another important topic which we have not discussed is the blogging niche. Niche is the topic or category of your blog. Choosing a profitable and suitable niche for your blog is crucial for success in blogging.
Promise we’ll talk about the blogging niche in another article. So, stay tuned.
