I honestly didn’t think I’d be writing a “how to start a blog” article on my tramping / outdoors website – but enough people on Instagram were interested, so here we are!
This guide is for anyone thinking about starting a blog, without chasing the “get rich quick” nonsense that gets peddled so often online.
I’m not trying to sell you anything. No affiliate marketing, no discount codes, no tricks. This will be as realistic and honest to my experience as possible. Let me know if you find it helpful or have any questions!
So, you want to start a blog or earning online?
By the end of this guide you’ll know how to:
Starting your blog
Choosing a platform
A platform is what you’ll build your website on. There are a few different options to choose from, but I’d recommend either WordPress or Squarespace. It can be tricky to migrate your website over to another platform once it’s been set up, so choose carefully.
Squarespace
– Best if you want simplicity and don’t plan to scale much –
Squarespace is easy to learn and use, and includes hosting and your domain. If you’re wanting a low-key website with less flexibility and ability to scale, but easy to use, then Squarespace is the best.
Squarespace isn’t for: people wanting to earn money from ads, people wanting to prioritise flexibility within their website.
Cost = $324 per year (in March 2025)
WordPress
– Best if you want flexibility, growth, and monetisation options –
WordPress is the platform I used to start my blog, and the one I’d recommend. It has a steep learning curve, but gives you the most control and flexibility, especially as your website grows. There are two different WordPress platforms – use wordpress.org, not wordpress.com. It is free to use but you have to sort out your own hosting, domain and security (additional cost).
If you don’t like technology and using new apps, then WordPress isn’t for you.
Hosting + domain
If you choose WordPress, you’ll have to organise your host (stores all your website’s files) and your domain (the URL for the website, e.g. www.aliceadventuring.com).
Lots of blogging sites recommend certain hosts because they earn commissions on sales. I suggest doing your own research and seeing which would best fit your needs. Cheaper isn’t always best – an inexpensive host might slow down your site meaning your SEO (more on that later) will suffer and your user experience will be poor.
Cost = $144 per year for me
To buy your own domain, choose a legitimate domain registrar, check your desired name is free, then pay a fee to own it for a set amount of time (you can’t own them permanently, but you can renew them).
Cost = approx. $80 per year for me
Setting up WordPress
Starting with WordPress means setting up a whole bunch of stuff. I did this quite a few years ago now, so I can’t remember everything fully to give you a tutorial sorry! Don’t worry if this list feels a bit overwhelming – you don’t have to set everything up all at once, and it doesn’t have to be perfect on the first try.
Themes
You can use some of the free WordPress themes when you’re starting out, but you’ll probably end up wanting to pay for themes, or for a creator to make you a bespoke design.
Plugins
These are like apps for your phone. Some are free, some are paid, but they all help you manage your website more effectively. Some that I’d recommend are:
Google Analytics
Connecting Google Analytics is key for understanding who, where, when and how often people are accessing your website. The data from Analytics helps inform what kind of posts you should prioritise in future, based on past performance. It can be a bit tricky setting this up, but there are lots of tutorials online including this one.
Website security
You don’t want your hard work to be hacked! Your host should provide some security measures, but choosing a security focussed plug-in for WordPress is also essential. You should also install a SSL certificate (which means your website will be secured and show as https:// instead of http://), most hosts help you through this.
Creating engaging content
Pick a niche
Creating content about one specific topic is better than trying to share about multiple different things at once. You’re more likely to show up on the first page of Google, and people are more likely to explore further into your website, if you’re an expert in one subject.
For example, I normally only share content about tramping in New Zealand (with a few exceptions for overseas trips like the Dolomites in Italy and Zion National Park in the USA, although those are both still about hiking / tramping!).
Choose a subject you’re passionate about (and one you think there isn’t a lot of information about online), then start creating content!
Keyword Research
Keyword research is finding out what words and phrases people are actually typing into Google when they’re searching for information. Instead of guessing what to write about, you create content that already has an audience.
You want to aim for keywords that have high relevance (e.g. people are searching them specifically), but low competition (e.g. there aren’t already a zillion other websites answering those same keywords, especially ones who are most established / having a higher DA than your site).
You don’t need to overcomplicate keywords research, there are free tools that can help you choose topics and keywords that are more likely to show up in search results and bring steady traffic to your blog over time. Ubersuggest is a great tool for this (even the free version), or you can even just type terms into google and see what it autosuggests – this is what people are actually searching for.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) basics
Sadly, your website doesn’t just magically show up on Google or other search engines. You have to make it as easy as possible for search engines to trawl through and find the relevant keywords to show to people searching for them.
Search engine optimisation (or SEO) is an umbrella terms for lots of different actions you should take when you start a blog in order to rank higher on search engine result pages. SEO is everything from what words you use in your webpages and the alt text on your photos, to how fast your webpage loads and how long your website has been active.
To have a successful website, it’s crucial to understand SEO and use it to your advantage. There are lots of resources online for creating good SEO – here is one from Google. Linking in Google Analytics and Search Console can help you with this.
Real example: for my article on The 12 Best Te Anau Day Hikes (currently one of my best performing articles on this site), I have made sure to:
- Create an engaging title that contains my search terms, clearly states the topic, and makes people interested enough to click onto it
- Have a clear structure to the article that is easy to read and navigate
- Include a table of contents that allows readers to easily reach their desired content
- Use my desired search terms throughout the headings within the article
- Include relevant and pretty photos with Alt Text including the goal search terms
- Keep my paragraphs short and sweet. Minimal passive language. Short sentences.
- Sprinkle search terms throughout the article from start to finish
Photos
I’d recommend including high quality, visually interesting photos to add to your articles. Not only does this help the reader’s experience and keep their interest, but it can also help with SEO. Adding Alt Text to your photos helps people who are visually impaired (it’s a text description of what the photo is) or if your photos don’t load. Alt Text also helps with SEO if you include key search terms, as this is something search engines take notice of when they’re trawling.
Posting frequency
Ideally you’d post as frequently and consistently as is feasible for you and your schedule. This could be twice a week, or as little as once a month. The more content your website has, the better you’ll do. But not all content is equal – please prioritise quality over quantity. I personally don’t post more than once a month as any more than that isn’t possible with work, mum life and the type of detailed posts I write. I’ve been working on this post for the better part of this year for example!
A blog that lasts for years is better than one that burns out before six months.
Domain Authority (DA)
Domain Authority (or Domain Rating / Authority Score) can be a helpful tool to measure your blog’s progress. It’s a score out of 100 that tells you how trustworthy and reliable your blog appears to search engines (and consequently how high they’ll be ranked in search results). When you first start a blog it will naturally be quite low, but once you have an established website, it can be helpful to focus on DA to help grow your site. I use DA Moz to measure this.
Social media & email list
Instagram, Facebook & Pinterest
Social media can be a helpful way of driving traffic to your website, however it’s definitely a secondary priority to good SEO and writing quality content. Pinterest is meant to be the best for blogs (since it’s essentially just a visual search engine), but I’ve never had much luck with it personally. I’d recommend choosing a couple of social media platforms and focussing on sharing your links on them first – trying to work on all of them will just lead to burn out!
Social media is great at generating early traffic, leveraging an already exisiting audience, creating a community and for brand deals. Focussing on SEO is still important however because this is what leads to long-term growth and a more passive income (e.g. ad revenue on your website).
Email list
Developing an email list can also be a very helpful resource for your blog. You can drive traffic via links in newsletters, but an email list also gives you direct access to your audience – if any of the social media sites were to disappear (which as proven by the brief Tiktok ban in the USA or social media limiting in Australia, can happen!), you’ll still be able to reach your audience.
I use MailChimp – but there are lots of services out there to choose from. Use a simple email sign-up form (like you’ll find on my bottom footer) that you can also share on your social media. Offering a freebie (I offered my Tramping Packing Checklist in my Resource Library) can be an incentive for people to join.
You don’t have to send out emails frequently – actually sending them out less often can be best. Personally, I unsubscribe from lists that send me emails too often (weekly or more) or are full of fluff content. Your emails, just like your blog posts, have to provide some sort of value to the reader, whether that’s through personal updates they can’t get anywhere else, or helpful information or tips.
Income streams
This is often what people want to jump to straight away. Show me the money!!
But, sorry not sorry, I’m here as your realistic friend: lower those expectations.
Lots of online coaches and content creators want to sell you on the idea that you can earn big online – because then you’re more likely to take their course and pay them money. The truth is that most blogs don’t earn much money on their own.
There are definitely people out there who are earning a good income solely from their website traffic, but I’m not one of them and … *hard truth* … you probably won’t be either. Please don’t get into blogging for the money. You have to have a better reason than profit, or you won’t last long enough to see your first pay-check. In saying that, there is money to be made:
You don’t have to start with all of these at once – I’d actually recommend just focussing on one to start with.
Website ads
Remember how much it costs to have a website? For me it’s around $220 per year, which is a decent chunk of change! Luckily the ads I host on my website now more than cover this cost.
There are lots of different ad networks you can choose from. I tried Google Ads (and made no money) and now use Ezoic, but there are many others. Some, like Mediavine, require you to have a minimum number of page views per month before you can use their services.
Ads are passive: they don’t involve pitching, posting schedules, client management, emails back and forth. Once you have a dedicated readership on your website, they can be really powerful.
Real life example: last year (2025) with Ezoic and an average monthly total views of 11.1k, I earned NZ$675 before tax.
Sponsorships & collaborations
Sponsorships or collabs are content creation work (reels, photos, blogs, etc) that is posted to your social media or website on behalf of a business. This work is normally paid, either a fee that you charge for your work, or in exchange for a product or service. It’s more common to see sponsorships on social media platforms (e.g. sponsored reels advertising a particular product on Instagram). But I’ve also written sponsored blog posts on my website (e.g. this one and this one).
There is so much I could go into about landing sponsorships or collaborations – it’s a massive topic! I’d recommend setting up a media kit with your rates and a portfolio of your work / content. If you want to learn more, there are a ton of coaches and free information online, and you can always leave a comment below with any questions.
My word of warning for sponsorship work would be: don’t undervalue yourself.
Be very hesitant to accept free work in exchange for a product or “exposure”. This not only undervalues the work that you’re providing, it also undervalues the influencer community as a whole.
User Generated Content (UGC)
UGC can be very similar to sponsorships, but instead of posting the content to your own channels or website, you send it to the brand to do with as they will. The benefit of this is that you’re keeping your own website and social media free of advertising, while still earning an income from creating content. I’ve done a little bit of UGC, but mostly in exchange for free gear rather than a paid job. Popfly is a great website for this.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you earn a small commission on sales that you send to a business, at no extra charge to the customer. If someone is asking you to buy something using their link or discount code, chances are that they’re earning a commission on that sale (which you should disclose).
This income stream can work really well, but it only works if you’re being authentic in what you’re advertising (products you’d actually use), and if you don’t spam people with links and discount codes. It also helps if you have a larger audience, as you’re more likely to reach someone who wants to buy the product you’re marketing.
Online products
A final way of making money online is to create a product that you can sell. This can be something as simple as a t-shirt with a cool logo, to a downloadable ebook packed full of detailed information relevant to your niche. I personally haven’t gone down this route, preferring to keep the information on my blog free to access and focussing on other revenue streams.
Earning expectations
The first five years of my blog, I earned a grand total of $0. Yup.
This was partly because I didn’t know what I was doing, and didn’t recognise my own value. But partly it’s because it takes a while to build up that domain authority, a content catalogue and experience. No-one wants to work with a brand new website or brand.
Another factor you have to consider is that any income you earn has to be declared with IRD and taxed – at secondary rate. This means you potentially have to pay 30%+ of your fun new income at the end of the financial year. Please budget accordingly so you’re not caught out.
Blogging is a long game, but it can become a meaningful side hustle if you stick with it.
Start a blog: Helpful tools + links
There is so much information out there to help you start a blog. Here are some places to get started:
- Canva: a free online design tool that is super useful.
- ChatGPT: AI can be really helpful for blogging and content creation in many ways (it helped me make this list to make sure I didn’t forget anything!). At the very least, it can help explain blogging concepts to you if you’re not sure where to start. I would caution against using it for content creation though – be authentic and declare if you’ve used AI in your work.
- Coolors: a free palette generator (useful when creating designs or working through your brand templates)
- Ezoic: the ad network I use for my blog
- Feijoa Social’s Pricing and Partnerships Mastery Workshop: if you want to learn more about how to land brand deals and collabs, especially with a small audience in the NZ context, this course is for you! Created by my friend Abigail – who’s also the host of the Aotearoa Adventures podcast.
- Google Search Console and Google Analytics: helps your analyse your website’s visitors and performance, so you know what to focus on to improve your traffic.
- Grammarly: helps your writing flow better and catches those annoying spelling and grammatical errors.
- Metricool: helpful website with lots of free resources for developing your social media.
- Two Wandering Soles Blogging Bootcamp: Katie & Ben have a lot of free resources about how to start a blog, as well as a paid bootcamp.
- Ubersuggest: a helpful free key-word research tool to help you analyse which search terms to target when writing blog posts.
- Unsplash: a library full of royalty-free images ready for you to download and use.
- Yoast SEO: a website, product and WordPress plug-in that helps with search engine optimisation.
I hope you’ve found this article helpful! If you’ve got questions, or want me to write a follow-up on any part of this (SEO, brand deals, ads, or how to manage blogging as a parent), let me know in the comments!