Starting a side hustle blog is both an exciting AND effective way to generate passive income, whilst also doing something you love. But with that being said, it’s not something that can happen overnight!

In this guide, we’re going to look at the steps you need to take to launch your own side hustle blog, and put yourself on the path to generating a passive income stream online.

The good news is that whether you're looking to share your knowledge, build an online community, or simply diversify your income streams, regularly publishing on a blog is one of the most accessible and scalable side businesses you can start.

This ultimate guide to starting a side hustle blog will walk you through the essential steps for building a profitable blog, as well as provide plenty of actionable advice and guidance along the way!

Why Should I Start a Side Hustle Blog?

A person in a cafe setting reading a side hustle blog whilst holding a coffee

Before we look at how you can start your own side hustle blog, we need to look at why. It’s all well and good to say we want to generate a passive income, but why else should we do it?

Well, blogging has become a well-established method for generating income online, with countless success stories across a wide range of niches. But more than just income, there are plenty of reasons why you may want to start your own side hustle blog.

Here are some compelling reasons:

Low Startup Costs: Starting a blog requires minimal upfront investment compared to other business models. All you need is a domain name, hosting, and a website builder, which can be set up for under £100. You’re even able to start a blog with ZERO upfront investment – outside of time, of course.
Scalable Income: Once your blog is established, it can generate passive income through ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and selling digital products. In fact, bloggers with well-monetised sites can earn thousands of pounds per month. Again, this is on the high end, and not achievable overnight. But, with time and dedication, you’ll see your income grow.
Growing Trend: The demand for online content continues to rise. As of 2024, there are over 600 million blogs worldwide, and 77% of internet users regularly read blog content. Whilst this means there’s a lot of competition, it also means there are a lot of readers to build an audience from.
Flexibility: You can work on your blog in your spare time, making it the perfect side hustle to fit around your existing commitments. Additionally, you can publish at whatever frequency you want. Daily, weekly, or monthly uploads are totally fine, and entirely dependent on how much time you want/can put into it.
Continuous Skill Development: Writing is a skill that comes in handy in all aspects of life. Being able to effectively communicate online hinges on having good writing skills – and publishing a side hustle blog can allow you to effectively develop your writing and communications skills.

Starting a Side Hustle Blog to Generate Passive Income

Now that we know why setting up a side hustle blog can be so beneficial, it’s time to fully explore how to do it.

In the following section, we’re going to look at the individual steps needed to set up your own side hustle blog, including selecting a niche (or topic), choosing the right tools, optimising your content for SEO, scaling the blog, and much more.

Part One: Choosing Your Side Hustle Blog Niche

person writing a side hustle blog on a wooden desk

The first thing you’re going to want to do is select your overarching topic. This will be the basis for every article you publish, so it’s essential that you pick a topic/niche that interests you.

“Niche” is a word that you’ll see used a lot when reading about side hustles and making money online, but it’s simply the specific topic or audience you’ll target.

Choosing a niche that you’re passionate about and that has profit potential is key to the long-term success of your side hustle blog or website.

There are four things that you should do when selecting your side hustle niche:

Identify Your Interests

Make a list of topics you’re knowledgeable or passionate about, and use this to influence the niche you select. Grabbing a pen and paper to create a mind map of your interests can be hugely beneficial if you’re unsure which niche you should pick.

Research Your Audience

Right at the start of your side hustle journey, you won’t have an audience. But this doesn’t mean you can’t build one. The key to building an audience of readers is ensuring your niche is interesting.

By using free tools like Google Trends, enter your niche or topic(s) to see how many people are searching for it. Make sure enough people are searching for the topic, but not so many that it becomes too competitive.

Evaluate the Competition

Approximately 7.5 million blog posts are published each day, so this means that any niche you pick is going to have some form of competition. This is why, once you’ve picked the niche you want to work with, you conduct some competitor research.

Open up Google and search for other blogs in your niche to see how many pop up. A saturated niche (one with many creators regularly publishing content about/around it) may be challenging to break into.

Check the Monetisation Potential

You’re reading this article because you’re interested in creating extra income from your side hustle blog, so knowing the monetisation potential of your niche is vital.

Some niches (like personal finance, technology, personal development, etc) are easier to monetise than others, usually because they attract high-paying advertisers. Other niches may rely more on affiliate marketing or selling products.

Before setting up your blog and creating content, you should be well aware of the monetisation potential, and whether you’ll need to get advertisers, create products, or anything else.

Part Two: Setting Up Your Side Hustle Blog

Person using laptop working on a side hustle blog

Once you’ve researched and selected the niche you’ll be working in, it’s time to build your website. It’s this website that will be the headquarters, so to speak, of your side hustle. It’s where you’ll drive your primary traffic, and where you’ll sell your digital products (if you make them.)

So whilst this may all seem a little daunting, the process is actually pretty straightforward! Below, we’ve broken down the main steps in selecting a host, and getting your website up and running.

Side Hustle Blog Set Up – Step One: Choosing a Domain Name and Hosting Provider

The Domain Name of your website is the address that people will need to visit to read your work. It will appear in every link pointing to your website, and will typically be the first thing external users see of your blog.

The Hosting Provider is the service that stores all of your website’s files and makes them accessible to visitors. They’ll host every page on your website, and give you a content management system (CMS) to publish new articles, products, videos, and more.

When it comes to choosing a domain name for your side hustle blog, go for something closely related to your selected niche. For example, ours is SideHustleBlueprint.co.uk because we’re aiming to help people turn their side hustles into a source of income. Putting “Side Hustle” directly in the domain name shows readers exactly what we’re about.

Side Hustle Blog Set Up – Step Two: Installing a Content Management System (CMS)

By far the easiest way to manage your blog is by using a content management system, or CMS, like WordPress.

Plus, WordPress currently powers 43% of all websites on the internet, and you can’t argue with those numbers. It’s become one of the industry-standard tools for creating side hustle blogs, so you can’t go wrong with it.

You aren’t limited to just WordPress though. Plenty of hosts offer a range of built-in CMS tools, like Squarespace and Blogger, for example.

Ultimately, as long as you find a tool that offers the ability to publish articles, customise webpages, and edit your website’s design, you’ll be good to go.

Side Hustle Blog Set Up – Step Three: Selecting a Theme

The theme of your side hustle blog controls how your website looks, and what your readers will see every time they visit your website.

Almost all hosts will have built-in themes for you to pick from. From experience, especially when you’re just getting started, we’ve found that picking one of these default themes is the easiest way to get started.

Right now, you just want to get up and running, so a minimal theme that allows you to add your branding is ideal. Remember, you can always customise and update your theme later down the line.

Part Three: Creating Content That Attracts Readers to Your Side Hustle Blog

This is the main event when it comes to side hustle blogs. A regular stream of high-quality, relevant content is what will keep readers coming back to your website. Think of it as the backbone of your blog’s success.

When it comes to creating content, you can’t just post willy-nilly. You need to have a strategy nailed down before you put a single word on the page. This means developing a content strategy that aligns with your niche and attracts your target audience is essential.

Developing a Content Calendar

Growth for a blog all comes down to one thing: consistency. If good content is the backbone of your blog’s success, consistency is what keeps the backbone straight and strong.

To make sure you stay on top of your publishing, be sure to plan out your blog posts ahead of time. You can do this by either creating your own content calendar, or making use of The Side Hustle Blueprint’s ready-made content calendar!

However you decide to do it, aim to post at least once a week, and focus on delivering actionable information that provides value to your readers. Remember, you need to give your audience a reason to keep coming back to your blog.

To help with this, you can repurpose old content into something new.

Stay on track with our fully customisable content planner! Tap to Download!

Optimising Your Content for SEO

If you’ve never heard of the term SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and refers to the act of optimising content to give it the best chance of appearing in search engines, like Google and Bing.

SEO is a crucial part of the process of getting your blog posts seen by more people. You know when you search something in Google and see all those results pop up? Those websites are shown because the owners have spent a solid amount of time optimising their content to be shown on the first page.

This is where you want your website to appear too, which will ultimately bring organic traffic and new readers to your side hustle blog.

When creating content for your blog, the key SEO practices include:

Using relevant keywords in your headlines and throughout your posts
Writing detailed, informative content (aim for 1,500-2,500 words per post)
Including internal and external links
Optimising your meta descriptions and image alt tags

Keep in mind that there’s MUCH more to content optimisation than just those five points. In fact, there are far too many to include in this guide! However, please read through our article The Essential 25-Point SEO Checklist for Blog Article Ranking (and grab the free downloadable too!)

Promoting Your Blog on Social Media

In our social-media-focused world, it’s no secret that social platforms are invaluable tools for reaching a new audience. Platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok are incredibly powerful tools when it comes to promoting your side hustle blog.

To make the most of social media, create accounts on the platforms that align with your target audience, and regularly share informative or entertaining content.

A good approach is to create informative social media carousels based on your blog content, providing the key insights in an easy-to-digest format. Ideally, include a call to action (or CTA) at the end to encourage people to visit your website.

Part Four: Monetising Your Side Hustle Blog

Woman working on a laptop wearing a teal jacket

The ultimate goal of most side hustles is to generate some form of income. You can do that by either generating active or passive income. A blog, aside from needing to regularly publish high-quality articles, is considered a passive income source.

In this section, we’re going to look at a few ways you can begin to monetise your side hustle blog, once it begins to gain regular traffic. Please note that, at least in the early days, you’ll most likely need to do a mix of all of the below sources.

As you progress and review your data, you’ll be able to focus on certain methods of income generation, once you see which is the most effective for your blog.

Affiliate Marketing on the Side Hustle Blog

Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting external products or services developed by other individuals or brands, and earning a commission when readers make a purchase through your affiliate links.

This is, traditionally speaking, one of the most popular ways for bloggers to make money online. It’s particularly common in the fashion, health, and personal finance industries.

You can get started by finding a product or service you enjoy, and seeing if they have an affiliate programme active. Many services will already have a website in which you can sign up to be an affiliate. If they don’t, there’s no harm in reaching out to them directly to see if you’re able to partner up.

Alternatively, you can use tools like Impact.com to find affiliates to work with. A good rule of thumb, however, is to only promote products or services you believe in, and to keep the promotions fairly limited. Nobody wants to read a blog that’s nothing but promotion!

Want to earn 5% commission on every sale you help us make? Become an affiliate!

Display Advertising on the Side Hustle Blog

Another common way of monetising your side hustle blog is by placing display ads within your articles. This allows you to earn income based on the number of visitors who either view or click on the ads.

To do this, you can either work directly with businesses or brands looking to promote their products by placing specific ads on your website. Or alternatively – and this is the most common way – you can use networks like Google AdSense to automatically place ads on your website.

As per Google:

Google AdSense provides a way for publishers to earn money from their online content. AdSense works by matching ads to your site based on your content and visitors. The ads are created and paid for by advertisers who want to promote their products.

This is typically the much better option, as their system handles most of the work for you. All you’ll need to do is handle a few set-up tasks, and from there, the rest is sorted. If this sounds like the thing for you, check out this guide from AdSense to learn how the system works, and to get started.

Selling Digital Products on the Side Hustle Blog

Another route you can take to generate income for your side hustle blog is selling digital products related to your niche.

If you have a lot of experience in your industry (which you should if you’re writing articles about it!) you can sell products like ebooks, online courses, templates, or printables.

Once created and promoted on your blog, these can act as a form of passive income, as very little work is needed to maintain them – if any work at all. If you’re selling an ebook, you may want to update it once a year or so to make sure the content remains relevant for changes in your industry.

You can either sell products on your website, or use dedicated platforms like Gumroad, which is what we do for The Side Hustle Blueprint. The benefits of a dedicated platform are that they often have already-established audiences, which may help you with discoverability.

Part Five: Scaling Your Blog and Increasing Traffic

Four keyboard keys on a table spelling out the word blog

Once you’re into the swing of regularly publishing high-quality content on your side hustle blog, you may want to begin exploring other areas of traffic acquisition. Additional activities are a great way to reach a new audience of readers interested in your niche.

Below, we’ll explore three different methods to help you scale your blog and increase the traffic coming to your website.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is the act of writing high-quality articles for other websites, with the understanding that a link to your own website will be included.

There are two major benefits of doing this:

Publishing articles on other websites within your niche means you’ll reach a new audience of readers interested in what you have to say. By encouraging people to visit your own website, you can increase your traffic, and hopefully convert them to regular readers.
By placing a link to your own website in the article, you’ll generate a backlink for your website. Backlinks are huge for SEO, as they’ll signal to search engines that you have a quality website, because other websites are linking to it.

Guest blogging can be a very lucrative method of acquiring additional traffic for your website. Keep in mind that the nature of it means you’ll need to write more content than just the articles you’re posting on your side hustle blog.

But if that’s something you’re willing to do, then go for it! To gain a deeper understanding of how it works, check out our full guide to creating a successful guest blogging strategy.

Email Marketing

Email marketing, or running your own newsletter, can feel a little bit “old school,” but the reality is that they’re more popular than ever. Plus, by meeting your readers in their inbox, you’re able to cut through all the noise and distraction of the web.

Email is a central part of how we all use the internet, so it should come as no surprise that there are an estimated 4 billion email users right now, which is more than any social network. So for your side hustle blog, this presents an opportunity to reach a whole new audience of people.

Check out this guide to learn how to get started with email marketing.

Paid Ads on Social Media

If you’re looking to reach an existing audience, there’s really no better place than social media. And even if you aren’t regularly posting content on social media, you can run paid ads.

It’s a bit of a learning curve, and there’s a chance you may not get the best results right in the beginning while you learn how it works. But with time, you’ll gradually be able to fine-tune your audience and see increased traffic to your website.

To see how advertising works on Instagram, check out their website here.

Conclusion

In this guide, we’ve looked at how you can set up your own side hustle blog, exploring audience research and niche selection, picking the right website host for you, developing a content calendar, and much more.

We’ve also looked at other potential avenues for growth, such as paid ads and guest blogs. Along with income creation through affiliate marketing, selling products, and sponsored posts.

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to starting a successful side hustle blog that will help you generate passive income.

You have to remember that blogging requires an investment of time, effort, and a small amount of money. But with consistency and patience, as well as the right strategies, you can create a blog that not only grows your brand, but also provides financial freedom over time!

Something to keep in mind is that because blogging takes a lot of time, it’s vital you’re also taking steps to avoid burnout. And to help with prioritising the right things, the Must, Should, Want Framework is ideal!

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