So you want to start a blog about people joining together, for better or worse, through all life’s unpredictability and every annual release of decades-old TV shows that should have been canceled ten years ago?
Sure, I’ll tell you how. After all, I know something running a blog—this is mine.
1. Pick a topic, any topic
To start, you’ll need to decide on a focus for your blog (within the context of weddings).
That can be anything from general musings on marriage to more specific posts on planning a wedding on a budget. Once you’ve got a topic in mind, it’s time to start brainstorming content ideas.
If you’re stuck on what to write about, try thinking of FAQs you get from friends or family about weddings or specific problems you faced when planning your own nuptials.
2. Find your voice
Your blog should reflect your unique perspective, so take some time to consider your personal style and tone. Are you funny? Serious? Sarcastic? Formal?
The voice you choose will be a major factor in how readers connect with your content, so make sure it’s authentic to you.
3. Choose a platform
Now it’s time to set up your blog. If you’re not familiar with web design or coding, don’t worry—there are plenty of easy-to-use, user-friendly platforms out there (like WordPress, Blogger, and Squarespace) that will do most of the work for you.
By the way, WordPress (.org) is the best option. Many of you won’t listen to me and will choose an inferior option because you listened to their dishonest sales copy, but whatever.
Once you’ve selected a platform, you’ll need to choose a domain name (i.e., www.example.com) and find a host for your site.
Long story short, the best hosts are Cloudways and Rocket (.net). All the others are scammers or outright inferior—you’ve been warned.
Once you’ve found your host (please listen to my recommendations, I’m trying to help you), you can start designing your blog and creating content.
4. Launch your blog
After you’ve designed your blog and written a few posts, it’s time to hit publish and share your content with the world.
First, though, you’ll want to make sure your site is optimized for search engines (SEO). This means using keywords and phrases throughout your site, so it ranks high in search results when people are looking for wedding-related information.
There are many great tools to help like this, like Ahrefs and SEMRush.
5. Promote your blog
Now that your blog is up and running, it’s time to start promoting it. There are a number of ways to do this, but some of the most effective include:
- Sharing your content on social media
- Reaching out to wedding industry professionals and other bloggers in your niche
- Creating e-books, templates, or other resources to give away to readers in
But of course, the most essential way of promoting your blog is with organic search traffic.
6. Learn SEO
SEO is not hard—at all. Lots of people want to make it hard so they can sell you massively overpriced SEO services (plus retainer), but I’m pleased to report they’re lying scumbags.
SEO is three things—in order of importance:
- A functional website
- Good content
- Good backlinks
Create a good-looking website, write good content (like I’m doing now), and get backlinks to it.
You probably have no clue what backlinks are—here’s a quick section about it:
What are backlinks, and how do you get ‘em?
Backlinks are when other websites link back to your website.
The number of backlinks is one key element determining your website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search engines like Google view backlinks as “votes” for your website—the more votes (i.e., backlinks), the higher your website will rank.
There are a number of ways to get backlinks to your website, but some of the most effective include:
- Guest authoring for other blogs in your niche and popping links in your content (this is generally the understood value exchange)
- Asking friends, family, and colleagues to link to your website (if their site’s relevant to weddings—their pet blog won’t help you)
- Reaching out to wedding industry professionals and other bloggers to collaborate or guest post
- Submitting your website to directories and link roundups
- Forging connections with other creators, bloggers, and influencers in your niche
- Creating e-books, templates, or other resources
Use specialized SEO tools
You can do things manually, but using specialized SEO tools is arguably a necessity for optimal blog performance. There are many amazing SEO tools out there, but some of my favorites include Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMRush.
Moz is a great all-in-one tool that offers a lot of features for both beginners and experienced users.
Ahrefs is another popular all-in-one tool that’s great for keyword research and competitor analysis.
SEMRush is a tool that specializes in competitor analysis, helping you understand what content is working well for them and how you can improve upon it.
7. Drive search traffic to your blog
Direct links from social media are great, but nothing drives traffic like showing up on Google. You’ve learned a bit about SEO so far, but here’s how to put your new-found knowledge into action:
- Choose the right platform: WordPress.org is the best platform for SEO—period.
- Perform keyword research: Use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Moz Keyword Explorer to find the right keywords to target.
- Optimize your blog posts: Use your target keywords throughout your blog posts, including in the title, headings, and in the body of your post. But beware of keyword stuffing—only use your keywords where they make sense.
8. Monetize your blog
Look, you actually want to get something out of your blog. Traffic and creative expression are cool, but at the end of the day, we all have bills to pay.
Anyway, here are the best ways to (actually) monetize your wedding blog:
Build an email funnel
Building an email list is one of the most effective ways to monetize your blog while building a dedicated core fanbase.
To get started, you’ll need to set up an email list (I recommend Mailchimp—it’s free for lists up to 2,000 subscribers) and create a lead magnet (a freebie you offer in exchange for someone’s email address—more on that in a bit).
Once you’ve got your list and lead magnet set up, you can start promoting it on your blog and social media.
When someone signs up for your email list, they’ll be added to your email funnel, which is a series of automated emails you’ve created to nurture leads and convert them into customers.
Run ads with Ezoic
One of the best ways to monetize your blog is with ads. And the best ad network in the world, by far, is Ezoic.
Ezoic was created by two former Google employees who were sick of the way ads were being served. These guys created Ezoic to put the power back in the hands of the publisher.
What makes Ezoic different from other ad networks is their use of customer machine-learning structures to run ads. This means they’re constantly (and I mean constantly) testing different ad placements and sizes to find the best-performing ads for your site.
The results? More revenue for you than any other network.
Create a course or product
If you’ve been blogging awhile and are building up a sizeable audience, you may want to consider creating a course or product related to weddings.
This could be anything from an e-book or downloadable PDF to an online course or an actual physical product. The most important thing is that it’s something your audience wants and is willing to pay for—simple, but people tend to overlook this (whoops).
You don’t have to be a professional wedding planner to have valuable information to share—every bride-to-be is different, and everyone has their own unique set of concerns.
And if you can tap into that, you can create a product or course they’ll find invaluable.
Run sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are paid placements on your blog where someone pays you to platform their product or service.
This is usually done with a blog post but could also be done with an image, video, or social media post. Whatever you feel most comfortable with and whatever you think will be most effective.
To find sponsors, you’ll need to reach out to companies in your niche and pitch them on why they should partner with you.
Remember, your blog is an extension of your brand. So if you’re pitching to companies that are a good fit for your blog, it should be easy to get sponsored posts. If you’re pushing products that don’t make sense for your blog, it’s going to be a lot harder.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is basically when you promote other people’s products and services on your blog in exchange for a commission on the sales you generate.
For example, let’s say you promote unique wedding bands on your blog. If someone clicks on your link and buys a ring, you get a commission on that sale.
To get started with affiliate marketing, you’ll need to sign up for affiliate programs with companies like Amazon Associates and Share.
9. Be consistent with your blog posts
This could be the most essential part of growing a successful blog—you must be consistent.
If you want to build an audience and grow your blog, you need to be consistent with your blog posts.
You might think you’re too busy with work, school, and relationships. But if you can’t be consistent with your blog posts, you can’t grow your blog.
If you want to grow at all, publish at least once a week. But if you really want to grow, publish 20 times a month (at least) and submit URLs to Google Search Console manually.
Speaking of which…
10. Measure Performance and Optimize
Content creation is never one-and-done, you need to understand how it performs and optimize your output based on that data.
Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to track your website’s performance in Google search results.
You can use it to track things like your website’s click-through rate (CTR), average position in search results, and the number of impressions your website gets.
You can also use it to submit your website’s sitemap to Google, which can help your website get indexed faster.
To get started with Google Search Console, create an account and add your website. Once your website is verified, you can start tracking your website’s performance in Google search results.
Analyze your traffic with Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another free resource letting you track your website’s traffic.
You can use it to track things like your website’s pageviews, unique visitors, and the average time spent on your website.
You can also use it to track your website’s conversion rate, which is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your website (like subscribing to your email list or buying a product).
To get started with Google Analytics, create an account and add your website. Once your website is verified, you can start tracking your website’s traffic.
Wrapping Up
I’ve laid out a winning strategy for building your wedding blog, now it’s up to you to follow through.
Here’s a quick recap of what we covered:
- Pick a niche and focus on one thing—this will make it easier to target your ideal reader and stand out from the noise.
- Do your research—know your competition and what they’re doing well (and not so well). This will help you make your blog even better.
- Choose a blogging platform—I recommend WordPress.org. It’s free, it’s easy to use, and it’s the best choice for SEO (unbelievably important).
- Find a great domain name—keep it short, easy to spell, and relevant to your niche.
- Design your blog—find a great theme and make sure your blog is easy to navigate. You want people to stick around, so make it easy for them.
- Create great content—this is the most important part. If you want people to read your blog, you need to write great content.
- Promote your blog—get the word out there. The more people who know about your blog, the more traffic you’ll get.
- Earn money from your blog—there are a few ways to do this, and I’ve listed some of the most popular ones.
- Be consistent with your blog posts—if you want to grow your blog, you need to be consistent with your content.
- Measure your performance and optimize—use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to track your blog’s performance and make changes accordingly.
Now I gotta hear from
Are you going to start a wedding blog? If so, what’s your niche?
Lemme know in the comments, or forever remain an imposter.
BTW: If you want an ultra-comprehensive guide to building a money-making blog, check out this article.
