So you’re interested in lifestyle blogs, but you’re not exactly sure what they are. No worries, my curious friend—I’m gonna tell you.
And not only will I tell you what a lifestyle blog is, but I’ll give examples and tell you how to start one. So without further ado, let’s jump in:
So What Exactly Is a Lifestyle Blog?
In short, a lifestyle blog is a blog about, well, your lifestyle.
Your lifestyle blog can be about everything from fashion and beauty to health and fitness to travel and lifestyle products—really, anything you want. The sky’s the limit.
The key is that your blog should reflect your personal lifestyle. It should be a reflection of who you are and what you do on a day-to-day basis.
If you:
- Travel a lot, your blog could be focused on travel
- Love fashion, your blog could be focused on fashion
- Are really into health and fitness, your blog could be focused on health and fitness, etc.
The bottom line is that your blog should truly reflect your lifestyle. It should be something you’re passionate about and enjoy writing about.
Why Should You Start a Lifestyle Blog?
There are a few reasons you might want to start a lifestyle blog:
1. To share your lifestyle with others
If you’re the type of person who loves to share your life with others, then a lifestyle blog is perfect for you.
You can share your stories, photos, experiences, and thoughts with the world with nothing held back.
2. To connect with like-minded people
If you want to connect with others who share your interests, then a lifestyle blog is a highly effective way of doing so. Having one lets you network with people all over the globe and connect with them on a deeper level,
You can collaborate with them with note swapping, guest posting, and even by starting other projects together, like podcasts.
3. To make money
Yes, you can actually make money from your lifestyle blog.
If you build up a large enough audience, you can start working with brands who will pay you to promote their products on your blog.
You can also sell your own products, such as ebooks, online courses, or clothing. You can even start offering services like coaching and consulting.
The possibilities are endless—it just takes time, effort, and consistency to make it happen.
4. To help others
You can use your lifestyle blog to help others in profound ways. Even without realizing it, your knowledge and experiences can help your readers improve their lives and overcome their challenges.
For example, if you’re a health and fitness enthusiast, you can help others transform their bodies and minds. Or, if you’re a travel junkie, you can help others plan their dream trips.
The possibilities are endless. Just be sure that your goal is to truly help your readers and not just make a quick buck.
Examples of Succesful Lifestyle Blogs
Lifestyle blogs are no joke. Next, I’ll show real examples of blogs that followed through with their aspirations of famous bloggership.
Most of these bloggers now have huge followings, work with major brands, and some of them have even written best-selling books. Talk about “hashtag goals,” huh?
1. Gala Darling
Gala Darling is a self-proclaimed “radical self-love coach” from New Zealand. Her blog is all about helping her readers love themselves more and lead healthier and happier lives as a result.
Gala has built up a large following of over 400,000 people and has worked with some huge brands, such as Benefit, Tinder, and Revlon.
2. Blair Eadie
Eadie is a fashion and lifestyle blogger from the United States. Her blog, Atlantic-Pacific, is all about her personal style, focusing on fashion, travel, and lifestyle.
Blair has built up a following of over 1.1 million people and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in fashion, such as Nordstrom, Shopbop, and Tory Burch.
3. Jay Alvarrez
Jay Alvarrez is a travel and lifestyle blogger from the United States. His blog, Live Slow Die Old, focuses on his personal adventures and experiences from his travels worldwide.
Jay has built up a massive following of over 4.5 million people appearing in publications such as Forbes, GQ, and Esquire.
4. Niomi Smart
Niomi Smart is a food, fashion, and lifestyle blogger from the United Kingdom. Travels, healthy eating habits, and personal style are some of the topics she writes about.
Niomi has built up a following of over 1.5 million people and has worked with some of the biggest brands in food and fashion, such as Nike, L’Oreal, and Marks & Spencer.
5. Hannah Bronfman
Hannah Bronfman is a fitness, beauty, and lifestyle blogger from the United States. In her blog, she discusses her exercise routines, healthy eating habits, and skincare rituals.
Currently, Hannah reaches 700,000 people and has worked with some of the biggest fitness and beauty brands, such as Lululemon, Nike, and Sephora.
How to Start a Lifestyle Blog in 7 Steps
Now that you know what a lifestyle blog is and why you should start one, it’s time to get down to business and learn how to start your blog.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do just that:
1. Pick your niche
The first step is to decide on your niche.
Your niche is the main focus of your blog—it’s the main topic you’ll be writing about. So, if you want to write about travel, then your niche is travel.
Picking a niche is important because it helps you appeal to a specific audience and build up a following of people who are interested in what you have to say.
It also just makes things a whole lot easier for you because you won’t have to decide between too many topics when creating your content strategy.
What’s the best way to pick a niche for your lifestyle blog?
First, think about your interests and what you’re passionate about. What do you love to do in your free time? What are you really into?
Then, think about what you could write about that would be helpful or interesting to others.
For example, if you love to travel, you could write about your experiences and share tips on
- How to plan the perfect trip
- How to save money on travel
- How to travel solo
- How to travel with kids
You could also write about your personal style and share fashion tips, or write about your healthy eating habits and share recipes and nutrition tips.
There are endless possibilities, so be sure to choose a niche that you can see yourself writing about for a long time.
2. Choose a blog name
Your blog name should be short, memorable, and easy to spell. It should also be relevant to your niche.
For example, if your niche is travel, your blog name could be something like “The Wandering Wanderer” or “Nomadic Nomad.”
If your niche is fashion, your blog name could be something like “Fashionably Fashionable” or “Chic in the City.”
Get creative and have fun with it!
Your domain name
Your domain name is the address people will use to find your blog online. It’s usually your blog name followed by “.com” (e.g., www.yourname.com).
Get yours from Namecheap. They aren’t imposters and are truly one of the best domain registrars among us.
3. Decide on your blog platform
You’re almost ready to launch your blog, but first, you need to decide on your blog platform—this is where you’ll host your blog and create your website.
There are a few different options, but the one I recommend is WordPress.org.
WordPress.org is open-source software allowing you to create a website or blog on your own domain name. It’s fast (with some tweaking) and easily the best for SEO by a country mile.
So if you’re serious about turning your blog into a worthwhile venture, WordPress is your only real choice. Anyone who says otherwise has no clue what they’re talking about, and I’d gladly say that to their face.
4. Find hosting
The next step is to choose a hosting provider—this is where your blog will live on the internet.
There are tons of choices in hosting, believe me. But you’ll want to go with either Cloudways or Rocket.
Both offer fast speeds, great support, and 99% uptime. Their prices are awesome for the quality of service they provide, too.
Cloudways starts at just $10/month while Rocket starts at $15/month. They both go up from there, but those are the entry-level prices.
5. Install an Astra theme
Now that you’re all set up with hosting, it’s time to install an Astra theme on your blog.
Astra is a popular, lightweight WordPress theme that’s perfect for lifestyle blogs. It’s fast, SEO-friendly, and easily customizable, so you can make it look however you want.
Astra also comes with a ton of great features, such as:
- A pre-built library of ready-to-use templates
- Customization options for colors, fonts, layouts, and more
- Integrated support for all major WordPress plugins
Astra is available for free, but I recommend upgrading to the Pro version for $59/year.
This will give you access to more features and templates, as well as 1-year of premium support and updates.
6. Install essential plugins
There are a few crucial WordPress plugins you should install on your blog, such as:
Rank Math
Rank Math is an SEO plugin making it easy as 1-2-3 to optimize your blog posts for Google and other search engines. It’s simple to use and comes with a ton of great features, like:
- Automatic keyword optimization
- Sitemap submission
- URL structure configuration
- SEO analysis
- Google Search Console integration
- Schema markup
Rank Math is available for free, but I recommend upgrading to the Pro version for $49/year for the schema feature.
WPRocket
WPRocket is a WordPress caching plugin that speeds up your blog by caching your pages and posts. It also “minifies” your site’s code, greatly decreasing the overall weight of your site (and thus your loading times).
If you’ve ever used a slow website, you know how terrible the sluggishness is for user experience. WPRocket fixes that, making your site 100x more enjoyable for users (and thus friendlier to search engines).
WPRocket starts at $35/year for 1 website.
ShortPixel
ShortPixel is an image optimization plugin that automatically compresses your images to make them load faster. This can make a huge difference on your loading times, especially if you have a lot of images on your blog.
ShortPixel starts at $4.99/month for 100 images/month. They also offer a one-time payment option for $9.99 for 5,000 images. (One-time payments are non-recurring, meaning you only pay once).
7. Write your first blog post
Congratulations! You’ve officially launched your lifestyle blog—now it’s time to write your first blog post.
This post—and the next three—will be your cornerstone pieces. They should set the tone for your ensuring blog content (you can change your cornerstone pieces if you ever decide to change your niche, don’t worry).
Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your first blog post:
- Your blog post should be at least 1,000 words long
- It should be well-written, interesting, and informative
- It should be optimized for SEO (keyword-rich, with proper headline, title, and meta tags)
- It should have a catchy headline and a catchy cover image
- It should be engaging and easy to read (use short paragraphs, bullets, and subheadings)
- It should have a strong conclusion that encourages people to stick around
I highly recommended using either SurferSEO or Clearscope to help you write search-optimized blog posts, but you don’t need them.
Wrapping Up
And that’s it! You now know how to launch a lifestyle blog in just seven simple steps. Keep in mind that this process can take some time, so be patient and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately.
If you follow these steps and put in the work, you’ll be on your way to a successful lifestyle blog in no time. It’s about drive and power, so put in the hours!
Got any questions about how to launch a lifestyle blog? Let me know in the comments below!
