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Have you thought about starting a blog business but aren’t sure what it will cost you? It’s a fair question and important to set the right expectations before you get started.
Starting a new business often sounds like a daunting project to take on and it can be easy to dismiss the thought by telling yourself it isn’t in your budget right now.
But so many people are turning to online businesses and content creation for one huge reason: low start-up costs.
The biggest investment in this type of business is honestly your time, but that means that the barrier to entry is quite low!
If you are motivated enough to dedicate enough time to start your business, the costs to start a blog business won’t be a concern. I’ll show you why.
In this guide on the cost to start a blog business, I will divide the costs up between:
- Costs to Start a Blog Business in the First Month
- Optional Blog Business Costs Incurred After Year 1
I realize that there is a big gap between the first month and the first year, but I will explain why I divided it up this way later on in this article.
Use this guide on blog start-up costs to set the right expectations and make sure to refer back to it when you start your website so you know exactly what you need and when.
Costs to Start a Blog Business in the First Month
The most important costs to start a business (with a website) are your hosting plan and the theme that you will use to design and set up your website.
The good news is… The hosting plan is the only investment you need to make upfront. All of the other costs, in the beginning, can be eliminated, or rather delayed, with the use of free plans.
Over time, as you grow and start building your traffic channels, you’ll need to upgrade to paid plans. But in the beginning, free plans are sufficient 90% of the time.
Website Costs ($33)
The exception here is your hosting plan. Free hosting plans do exist, but I highly recommend staying far away from them.
Free hosting plans are for hobby bloggers and people that don’t intend to start a business and monetize it. You’ll be limited in the ownership of your domain, how you can monetize, and more.
Instead, opt for a low-cost, starter plan that should be sufficient for at least the first couple of years. I personally use and recommend Bluehost.
You can get started with Bluehost for as low as $2.75/month, which comes to just $33/year. I partner with Bluehost to get a discount for my readers, but it only works if you use that link.
You can also use my step-by-step guide to create a website to see how to set up your hosting plan and theme, which is what we’ll talk about next.
Design Costs (Free)
When you set up your website, you’ll need to install a theme to start designing it. A website theme is simply pre-coded software that allows you to add content to your website with design elements and mobile responsiveness to look good on mobile devices.
My favorite website theme to get started with is Astra. That’s what I’m using on this website.
They have a great free plan. I recommend also installing the Elementor page builder plugin to be able to create custom template pages (like my Resources page).
You can also use plugins to further customize your site. I discuss this in detail in my course on How to Create a Website, but you can also find my WordPress plugin recommendations on this page.
Lastly, Canva is the absolute best tool on the market for creating and designing images for your website, social media channels, products, and so much more. They also have a free plan!
Email Marketing (Free)
In addition to your website setup costs, you will want to sign up for an email marketing service to add an opt-in to your website and start getting email subscribers.
You can read more about how to build an email list here. I use and recommend ConvertKit’s free plan to get started.
Summary of Costs in Month 1:
- Hosting: Bluehost ($33)
- Website Theme: Astra + Elementor (Free)
- Website Design and Images: Canva (Free Plan)
- Email Opt-In: ConvertKit (Free Plan)
Optional Blog Business Costs Incurred Within the First Year +
After the first month or so, your costs can vary. It’s hard to say when you will incur additional costs, whether that is in the 2nd month or the 6th month.
Your costs to start a blog business also depend on the speed at which you work. If you are motivated enough and take the right steps to monetize your business within the first couple of months, you will likely incur some additional costs faster.
Generally, you will start to incur more costs when you start getting serious about building your traffic channels and monetizing your business.
The key is to try to make the right investments at the right time, but this does NOT mean waiting to spend money until you make money.
Invest as Your Grow
You will need to invest some money before you start making some money.
In order to start making money, you need an audience. You can either build your own with traffic channels like YouTube, Pinterest, Google SEO, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
OR you can utilize existing audiences with marketplace platforms. Here’s an example to show the distinction between these two options.
If you wanted to sell online courses, you have two options:
- Build your own audience and sell your courses on a self-hosted platform like Teachable
- Sell your courses on a marketplace platform like Skillshare or Udemy and use their existing audiences
Both are great options and I’ve personally done both. Teachable has a free plan, but you’ll need to upgrade when you sell more than 1 course.
It’s free to sell your courses on Skillshare.
Alternatively, you can start monetizing with affiliate marketing first and avoid many of the costs associated with creating a course. But for this option, you’ll still need an audience.
If you decide to build your own audience, you will incur costs associated with the growth of your email list, other software for scheduling and analytics tools to build your traffic channels, etc.
Start with free plans whenever you can but don’t be afraid to invest in a paid plan when the time is right. That small investment can pay off big time when it helps you grow.
Online Courses
One other cost to consider after getting started is online courses.
Investing in online courses to help you learn, grow faster, and succeed is an absolutely necessary and invaluable investment, in my opinion.
When you want to learn any new skill in your business, whether that is Pinterest marketing, email marketing, YouTube marketing, or even creating a course yourself, you should take a course and learn from someone who is already successful.
I’ve taken tons of online courses on my own journey to success. Investing in a good course can be the difference between making money in your first couple of months and making money after the first year or even longer.
I’m going to include a shameless plug for my own courses here, but even if you choose not to take mine… Please find someone else whose words and actions resonate with you.
If you want to check out my courses on starting and growing an online business, there are two options:
- Watch all of them for the price of one Skillshare subscription (includes access to all other courses on the Skillshare platform. Get your first month of Skillshare for free.
- OR you can purchase my courses individually on Udemy.
Summary of Optional Costs After Year 1:
- Email Sequences: ConvertKit (Upgrade plan to $9/Month)
- Social Media and Other Images: Canva (Pro plan $12.99/Month)
- Keyword Research Tool: Ubersuggest (Free)
- Grammar Tool: Grammarly (Free)
- Other optional software: $30-50/Month
- Courses: $50-300
Create a Website for Just $33
I hope I’ve helped to simplify and break down the expectations of what it should cost you to start a business or a blog of your own.
I’ve created multiple businesses in various niches and across different traffic platforms over the years, and these are the costs that I’ve identified as the absolute most important.
Don’t let blockers hold you back from starting your own business!
The first step is to invest that first $33 and create a website for your business. You can use my step-by-step guide here to get started!
If you have any other questions about the expected costs to start a blog business, leave me a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer your questions!