How to start a self improvement & motivational blog [make money]

Hi I’m Praneeth Kumar.

In this blog post I will walk you through everything you need to know about how to start a self help and motivational blog from scratch in 2021 and make money.

After reading this ultimate guide all of your queries and doubts regarding starting the blog on self improvement will be resolved I bet you on that.

So without further ado let’s get started.

Here is a 30000 Foot view of the blog post.

What is a self help blog?

A self help blog is a blog that primarily focuses on writing about different topics related to self improvement, self development, managing your life, career and

relationships giving new perspectives and strategies that the audience can implement right away to change their life immediately and start achieving their goals and targets in their life.

Popular examples of self help blogs.

Self improvement aka self development topic is a popular and well known industry in the world because

who doesn’t like to improve themselves and live a successful life and career and manage their relationships effectively.

Because of which there are many self development and self improvement blogs that you can find online but

I will give you a list of seven of the top self help blogs which you can visit and take some inspiration from before you start your own self improvement blog and start your blogging journey.

Make sure you check all the blogs mentioned above before you start your own self improvement and

personal development blog this will give you a clear cut idea about how you can grow and succeed in this highly competitive industry of self help and

still manage to make money and achieve success by observing how successful people and blogs are doing things,

their strategies & techniques so that you can replicate them in a positive way along with adding your own ideas and perspectives in the place.

Now let’s get into some details of starting a self help blog.

15 Self help blog topics to choose.

When you are thinking about starting your own self improvement and motivational blog, if you just start a broad self improvement blog then I don’t think it’s a good idea because of two main reasons.

It is a highly competitive market.
It is not targeted so you can’t really make alot of money down the line.

So, it is highly recommended that you narrow down and select a niche topic for your blog instead of going for a broad one as a self improvement.

To make things easy and simple for you I will give you a list of a couple of self help topics which You can choose to start a blog around.

Books to read from different genres.
Life lessons like the top 10 sort of things from successful people and great personalities.
Relationships advice like dating and couple advice.
Spirituality, religion and culture practices.
Inspirational and motivational stories, quotes and sayings.
Staying productive and enjoyable in life, relationships, work and career.
Frugal living and saving money and investing.
Life and career advice to choose the right career.
Healthy life and eating, nutrition and exercise.
Mindfulness, mindset, new perspectives, meditation, improving mental health and living more happily and paying gratitude.
Entrepreneurship and starting business for growth, tips and strategies.
Learning and improving social, soft and hard skills in life.
Improving in games and sports.
Build self confidence, learn new habits, living a happy and healthy life and accomplishing goals.
Talking about women empowerment.

Even though if you have all these amazing ideas for self improvement blog you should ask yourself a couple of important questions before you select any topic for your self improvement blog and those questions are,

What is the topic that I am really interested in learning about?
Use Google trends to understand the trend of the topic, if you find that your targeted topic is not an evergreen topic then avoid targeting those topics in a self help blog.
Now you need to ask yourself an important question: can I write at least 50 to 100 quality blog posts on this topic on my blog consistently without expecting to see any results for whatever, because it takes at least 1 year of time and a lot of work to be successful in blogging.

If yes, you should probably choose that topic for your self help blog.

By the way for more information regarding selecting a topic you can read my ultimate guide on how to select a topic for your blog from start to finish.

After you have selected a topic for your blog it’s time to start Creating your blog which you will learn in the next section in detail.

How to start a self help and motivational blog?

After you decide your topic of your self improvement blog it’s time to get started creating your blog and get some real and actual work done.

While in order to start a blog, you will have to select a platform where you can start creating and publishing blog posts for your self help blog.

If you want to test the waters and not really passionate and serious about making money from your self improvement blog,

You can consider starting a blog on free blogging platforms like blogger and Tumblr.

But the problem is that there is very little customisation and monetization allowed and you don’t technically own the blog that you create on these platforms which means

if you don’t follow the terms and conditions of the companies properly they can delete your blog at any time without letting you know about it.

I am not saying this to scare you, rather it is a reality and a harsh fact.

But if you’re really passionate and dedicated and want to make money from your self improvement blog then I highly recommend you to start a blog on WordPress.

WordPress is an open source content management system which powers more than 40% of the websites on the Internet including this one.

This is a software which you can use in order to build your self help blog and make money however the way you like.

I know you might be wondering, is wordpress the only option we have?

No, definitely not.

In paid options, you can also consider starting a blog on other platforms like wix, Weebly and Squarespace, but the problem with those platforms is that customisation is limited,

even if you to purchase the premium plans on these sites you don’t technically own the blog because the platforms are owned by a specific company and again like blogger,

if you don’t follow the rules of the platform your blog is deleted even on these platforms which is not the case with wordpress because it is an open source which means no company owns it rather it is free in the public licence.

I will not discuss all the pros and cons of using wordpress. You can read it here and also read why you should be investing money in a blogging platform here.

I will show you step by step on how to start a blog on WordPress.

1. Get Domain & Hosting.

As I said earlier but price is not a software which is owned by a specific company rather it is a open source and it is free to use which means

unlike other paid blogging platforms in order to use wordpress you need something called domain and web hosting and to explain it in simple words and domain is the name of your website just like how we people have different names.

In the same way websites on the Internet have domain names which will make the websites different from each other and help the websites to be recognised and found by the users on the internet out of the billion sites which are there.

Don’t worry you don’t have to invest a lot of money, rather you can buy a domain name for a maximum of $15 a year.

You can easily purchase a domain name on many popular domain registrars like,

But there are a few important things you need to keep in mind before purchasing a domain name for your blog.

Make sure that your domain name is short and sweet so that it is easy to remember for your audience.
Make sure that your domain name does not contain any brackets or different characters like numbers other than letters.
Make sure you buy a.com domain extension because that is the most popular one and highly trusted.

The other thing you need to purchase is something called web hosting and

it is a place that you need to buy on the internet so that your website can be stored including all other files so that it is easily accessible by the users on the internet.

There are many web hosting companies on the internet like bluehost, hostinger and siteground but

I would highly recommend you to consider starting your blog using bluehost web hosting service because

it is the one of the most Highly popular and trusted web hosting companies which powers more than 2 million websites on the internet.

You can read why bluehost is best for wordpress websites?

The best thing about bluehost is that it is highly optimised for WordPress websites and as a matter of fact wordpress officially recommends bluehost as their top web hosting company for 15 years so far.

By starting a blog on bluehost you will get a free domain name for 1 year absolutely free of cost which means you will be saving around $15 by Not investing money on a domain name.

You can get started on bluehost using my special link and activate your 65% discount on your hosting plans

Here is a step-by-step process on how you can purchase bluehost and get started.

Step1: Visit bluehost with my special link and get your 65% off discount on your hosting plans.

After you visit the official website of bluehost click on get started and you will get to see four different plans of bluehost shared hosting.

Step2: Select any one of the shared hosting plans which you choose. In my case I choose to go with the Choice Plus plan because it offers better value for money with more features.

Step3: in all the hosting plans of bluehost you get a free domain name for one year so here after you select the hosting plan you can either purchase a new domain name or claim your free domain name for one year offer or you can also choose a domain name after you purchase the hosting,

It is completely your choice if you don’t want to select a domain name now then you can click on select domain name later and purchase the hosting.

Step4: fill all the necessary details that Bluehost asks you to fill in the next and purchase the hosting plan.

While checking out on your hosting, select the time period of your hosting plan and also choose whether you want to purchase the addons of the hosting personally I would not recommend you to buy them.

Step5: purchase the Bluehost hosting.

VIist bluehost and purchase hosting with my special link and get your 65% discount off on your hosting.

2. Install and run WordPress.

After you purchase the bluehost hosting company you will be getting an email to your inbox which you have used while entering the address of your location while sign up for the hosting service.

You will get an email like your hosting is officially purchased and

you can easily sign up to bluehost using your email account and password and after that you can easily set up and run wordpress on your hosting account with a single click of a button.

3. Essential things to do on WordPress.

After you get all the process done and install and run wordpress on your website hosting,

It’s time to make some changes in your wordpress dashboard.

Let me remind you something that wordpress is not just the basic blogging platform you would be expecting, rather it is a fully optimised and sourced content management system.

You will have to invest a couple of days in learning and getting yourself used to the dashboard of WordPress.

It is quite Complex and different yet highly powerful than most other platforms.

The first and most important thing you need to do after you install a WordPress software on your hosting account is to install and activate an SEO friendly theme on your wordpress website.

The theme is basically the design and layout of your website on the internet.

It will decide and determine how your website will look on the internet, like you can consider as a first impression of your website.

The reason I said SEO friendly theme is because there are over 5,000 free themes that

you can install on your wordpress website for absolutely free of cost but it does not necessarily mean that all of the themes are optimised for Speed and

performance because wordpress is an open source content management system so that all the people can contribute to wordpress community by making free themes and plugins if they have knowledge in doing that.

Here is a list of five popular wordpress themes that you can use on your wordpress website for absolutely free of cost and you can also purchase a paid premium version if you want in future which are what I call SEO friendly.

In order to install a theme on your website go to appearance and click on themes then click on add new and search for the any one of the themes mentioned above in the search bar of the theme and

click on install and activate that theme and there you go the wordpress theme that You selected is activated on your website and you can check it as well.

There are lots of other important settings that you need to configure on your wordpress website which I will not cover in this blog if not this blog will be over 7000 words long which is quite boring rather

I will share a few resources and Guides below which I have already published on my blog earlier about all the important things you need to do after installing WordPress, check them out.

Now, after you get all the important things from your blog it’s time to start producing some content and spreading the word of your website on digital platforms.

How to write a self help blog and some helpful tips?

Before you start writing a blog post you should first do keyword research and

identify your target audience persona around your target niche which you have learnt before starting a blog to understand what people are searching for on the Internet and

on social media platforms regarding your topic so that you can start producing content around it and you can read my ultimate guide on how to do keyword research using Google.

The biggest blogging mistake you could ever do is to create content that nobody is searching for like creating content from your own interests but if it doesn’t help others, you cannot expect to be successful in blogging.

You can read my blog on why personal Blogs do not make money and become successful?

When you have a good list of Keyword ideas and topics for your blog then you can start producing content around those keywords on your blog.

Learn how to do keyword research with google search engine?

Even though I have written a detailed guide on how to write a blog post if you’re a complete beginner you should definitely check that out but here,

I will give you some essential tips and strategies which you can use right away for your self improvement and self development blog and make it a success.

Be honest with the audience of your blog and share your story and journey regarding what made you start your own self help blog, share the problems you faced and miseries You overcome, this will help you connect with your audience and establish a common ground which also help you build trust with them faster.
In order to promote your blog on social media use platforms especially pinterest and tumblr and also Instagram to build a following of your blog on different social media platforms and you can also drive traffic from those to your blog.
Be open minded to the criticism that you will be facing from others on your blog because not everybody will be accepting the ideas and perspectives you will be sharing on your blog and on social media platforms and handle the criticism properly, you should consider criticism as feedback of your work and try to improve your craft and content better with criticism you will be getting from your audience on your blog.
If you are running out of your blog ideas and topics that you can cover on your blog then you can consider taking inspiration from your competitors on topics you can cover but please don’t copy the content from the competitors because that would be plagiarism but just take the type of blog post that you can cover on your blog from your computer and include your own personality, examples, perspectives, etc to make your blog unique.
Don’t just build a blog rather build a brand from your blog and you can do this by collaborating with other influencers and bloggers in your industry and by guest posting on there sites and getting interviewed on different websites on the Internet, be yourself as the face of your brand and engage with your audience from on social media and on your blog comments section and build and grow an email list of your audience so that you can stay connected with them for a long time.
Always use beautiful images, custom graphics from canva like I do, Bullet points and bold lines in regular intervals of your blog posts to make your blog visually appealing for readers to read than just a huge block of text and don’t write paragraphs more than four lines long on your blogs otherwise it would make your blog boring and users would not read till the end and bounce off from your website.

You can also read my ultimate guide on how to get traffic to your website to learn all the best strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website.

Make sure that you follow all the different strategies i have mentioned above and you publish content quite regularly and consistently on your blog as a matter of fact

Companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month generate 4.5X more leads than those that publish 4 posts (or less).

Make sure that you follow all the strategies and tips mentioned above in order to grow your self improvement blog so that you can start making some money from it.

How to monetize a self help blog?

Now, when you have a decent number of blog posts and a good amount of traffic on your self blog it’s time to make money from your blog and online business.

Income and revenue is the most part of any online business or business in general because income and revenue is what runs and drives a blog and business and keeps it moving on while paying all the bills.

Here is a list of top methods and strategies which you can use to make money from your self development blog.

You can join premium ad networks like mediavine and display ads on your blog and make money.

This is probably the most common method of making money from any blog, not just self help.

As a blogger and digital marketer myself I do not recommend you to highly rely on making money from displaying ads on your blog because that

is not the reliable option to make a good amount of money, although it can be a good contributor for your revenue stream.

The reason being is over 42% of the internet users use ad blockers on their devices (including myself) so it is not worth it and

you are putting a lot of things at stake if you are just relying on ads to make money so there are a lot of other ways you can make money which are explained below.

You can also sell affiliate products related to your industry.affiliate marketing is recommending other companies and organisations products and earning Commission as a profit of bringing new sales to companies products.

When you have a decent audience on your blog you can sell any relevant product in your industry to your audience and the best thing is that you don’t need to own the product or you don’t need to handle the customer service either,

but all you need to do is to promote the product and build awareness and trust about the product in your audience.

For more information about affiliate marketing you can read the below guides,

You can also offer consultation and coaching services to your audience so that you can improve and add value to their life with your knowledge, advice, giving new perspective and teachings.

You can charge money on an hourly rate for this from your audience.

You should only be doing this if you have built a large audience and trust with your audience on yourself as a author and Blogger and

You can do this by building an email list of your audience so that you can stay connected with your audience and build trust and relationship with them over a period of time so that

you can convince them to buy your product or take your consultation whenever they have any problems are trouble in life and people will definitely agree upon it because they will perceive you as the expert on the topic.

You can also sell physical and digital products like ebooks and online courses to your audience. Out of all the most popular strategies to make money from your self development blog, selling your Digital products is the best strategy.

When you are constantly working on your blog and building an audience and an email list of your audience and building a trust with them.

Over a period of time, you will build a lot of expertise, authority and trust with your audience and build a following in the community, this will help you to make money in future.

Last but not least you can also accept and publish sponsored content on your blog when you have a decent number of audience and authority of your blog in the industry.

Many companies and businesses want influencers like you bloggers and social media influencers to publish sponsored content like product reviews or promotion of their products on their blogs and social channels and

influence the audience by paying huge amounts of money for bloggers and social media influencers for this.

One of the benefits of blogging is that you will be building a strong following and authority of yourself with an audience in the industry and this can help you immensely in making money from publishing sponsored content.

These are all the popular methods I have found so far which you can use to make money from your self help and motivational blog.

If you want to learn more about making money from blogging you can read my blog on,

With that being said let’s conclude the blog post on learning how to start and run a successful self help and motivational blog and make money.

Ending remarks;

There you go these are all the things you need to know about how to start a self help and motivational blog.

Do comment down what you think whether you are starting a self help blog or not in the comments section below.

Share this blog if you have found it helpful.

Sharing is caring.

I will catch you next time till then keep learning and keep growing.