How to Start a Blog In India That Makes $10K/Month: 9 Steps

Do you want to learn how to start a blog in India that generates $10,000+ per month?

You’re in the right place.

Although there are a ton of ways to make money online in India, blogging is probably the BEST way to generate lifelong income.

Blogging has given me so many things. I left my full-time job in 2018 to become a full-time blogger. Also, I’m now able to earn over 15 lakh rupees every month from blogging.

We made over $225,000 from BloggersPassion blog in 2022.

For those who’re looking for earning reports, here are a couple of earning reports to inspire you.

As you can see, last year i.e in 2022, I received $120,350 through my PayPal account.

Also I received over $95,000 into my Impact affiliate account in 2022.

That means, I made over 1.85 crore rupees in one year from blogging.

Also, the Semrush affiliate program is one of our biggest earning sources as we made over $459,000 (approx. 3 crore 80 lakh India rupees) from it so far.

So yes, blogging is a POWERFUL medium to generate HUGE money. 

“The best time to start a blog was 12 years ago. The second best time is now.”

If you’re planning to learn how to start a WordPress blog in India that makes $10K/mo, DO NOT skip this guide. Read it, take notes, bookmark it, implement whatever you learn. 

In this guide, you’ll discover some amazing things like;

• How to start a blog in India (including 9 essential steps)
• My serious advice for those who want to make huge money from blogging
• Essential plugins to install, the cheapest (yet reliable) web host to use, how to pick a great domain, and many more

Are you ready to find those details? Let’s get started!

How to Start A Blog In India that Makes HUGE Money In 2023? A Complete Beginner’s Guide

Step 1: Choose a Niche for Your Blog

A niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market.

To put it simply, a niche is a “topic” you’re going to cover on your blog.

Most beginners make a HUGE mistake of picking a broad niche (or topic).

What happens when you pick a broad niche to blog about? You simply can’t outrank the authority websites in that niche. So it’ll be extremely difficult for you to generate traffic and money if you’re in a broad niche.

That’s why you should pick a “small niche” that focuses on ONLY a single topic.

For example, within the broad market for “credit cards” are many different niches. 

Examples include;

• Credit cards for students
• Credit cards for low income
• Credit cards for online shopping
• Credit cards for bad credit 
• And the list goes on

All these above-mentioned segments are small niche markets within the larger market for “credit cards”.

Are you getting it?

At BloggersPassion, our niche is “digital marketing”. 

But… Instead of covering all the topics around digital marketing, we ONLY cover SEO and affiliate marketing topics.

If you want to succeed in blogging, you should follow the same approach where you should pick a “smaller niche” and create really great content around it.

Niches that provide helpful solutions are the easiest to make money from. So make sure to find a niche that’s profitable and also solves your target audience’s problems. 

Here are some of the examples of profitable niche ideas;

• Fitness
• Finance
• Life advice
• Starting a food blog
• Beauty and cosmetics
• Fashion and apparel
• Electronics
• Make money online
• Home decor

You can also check out these most profitable niches list to find more money-making niche ideas.

The best way to find the RIGHT niche is to ask yourself these 3 questions;

1. Which topic am I good at?
2. Which topic do I love to read and blog about?
3. Which topic people will pay me for?

Write down all your answers somewhere and you’ll be able to find your sweet spot which you can consider as a niche to start blogging about.

If I take my own example to ask these questions, here’s what I get;

• Which topic am I good at? (I’m good at SEO as I’ve been doing SEO for more than 15 years)
• Which topic do I love to read and blog about? (SEO and affiliate marketing)
• Which topic people will pay me for? (people are willing to pay thousands of dollars on SEO projects)

So obviously, blogging around the topics “SEO and affiliate marketing” makes more sense, right? 

That’s why you’ll often find these two topics on BloggersPassion. That’s also the reason why we’re able to generate over $10,000 per month from BloggersPassion.

Step 2: Pick a Suitable Domain Name

You want people to remember your blog’s domain name and type it correctly. That’s why picking a good domain name is extremely important.

Use relevant keywords

Using relevant keywords in your domain helps people easily find your website in search engines like Google and recognize what you do at a glance. So try to include keywords that describe your blog.

For example, if you help people to build their website sales funnels, you could choose a domain name like, “SimplifiedFunnel.com”. At the time of writing this guide, this domain name is still available, so try your luck!

Use blog name generators

If you’re out of ideas or looking for a FASTER way to come up with great domain name ideas, we recommend you trying blog name generators.

Here are some of them which you can use for free;

• Instant Domain Search
• Panabee
• Name Mesh
• Domain Typer
• Lean Domain Search

Use an appropriate domain name extension

TLDs (Top-Level Domains ) are also known as domain extensions which are suffixes, such as .com, .net, .org, and so on. The .com domain extension is the most popular but it’s extremely difficult to get a short and sweet .com domain due to its demand. 

If you’re planning to start a blog in India and looking to serve an Indian audience, it’s a good idea to use the .in extension, as it gives people an idea that your blog is located in India.

Step 3: Choose a Web Hosting Service

If you want to learn how to start a WordPress blog in India, you MUST need a web hosting service.

A web hosting provider provides you storage space on a web server for a website to store its files such as images, blog posts, audio files, videos, and more.

Although there are a ton of web hosting options out there, for Indians who’re looking for a cheaper yet reliable web hosting choice, we HIGHLY recommend Hostinger.

Hostinger currently has over 29 million users in 178 countries. Hostinger gets 15,000 new signups on average every day (i.e 1 new client every 5 seconds). Yes, it is one of the popular web hosts out there!

Here are the features of Hostinger hosting;

So how much does it cost to host your website on Hostinger?

Currently, Hostinger offers the following MAJOR WordPress hosting plans;

1. Single WordPress hosting
2. WordPress Starter hosting
3. Business WordPress hosting

Let’s briefly talk about their hosting plans along with the features so you can pick the right plan that suits your budget.

Quick note: For our readers, we have recently collaborated with Hostinger to offer an extra 10% discount on all shared hosting plans. This special offer is valid only for limited time. Use the coupon code: ANILAGARWAL

1. Single WordPress hosting: If you’re a beginner, this is a great choice. It’s also the cheapest WordPress hosting plan from Hostinger as it only costs you 62 INR per month (use our coupon code ANILAGARWAL at checkout). Here’s what you’ll get with this plan; 

• Install 1 website
• 30 GB SSD Storage
• Manage Up to ~10,000 Visits Monthly
• Access to 1 Email Account 
• 100 GB Bandwidth
• Free SSL

2. WordPress Starter hosting: If you want to install multiple websites, this plan is perfect for you. It costs you 134 INR per month (use our coupon code ANILAGARWAL at checkout). Here’s what you’ll get with this plan; 

• Manage Up to 100 Websites
• 100 GB SSD Storage
• Manage Up to ~25,000 Visits Monthly
• Access to 100 Email Accounts
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free SSL
• Access to free domain etc.

3. Business WordPress hosting: If you want a free CDN, daily backups, and additional features from Hostinger, this is the RIGHT plan which costs you 224 INR per month (use our coupon code ANILAGARWAL at checkout). Here’s what you’ll get with this plan; 

• Manage Up to 100 Websites
• 200 GB SSD Storage
• Manage Up to ~100,000 Visits Monthly
• Access to 100 Email Accounts
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Free SSL
• Free domain
• Free daily backups and CDN etc.

Here’s a simple tutorial on how to get started with Hostinger as a beginner.

Click this SPECIAL link to visit the Hostinger India website and scroll down to see their pricing plans.

Here’s what it looks like; 

The WordPress starter plan costs 149 rupees and you can install up to 100 sites and get a free domain.

A quick tip: You can use our promo code ANILAGARWAL to get an EXTRA 10% discount on the Hostinger hosting plans.

Once you’ve selected a hosting package, find “Have a coupon code?” in the Order Summary section and enter the promo code ANILAGARWAL to get more discounts.

Here’s what it looks like;

See that? You will be getting 4-years of hosting only for around 7500 rupees. Also, you’ll get access to features like an SSL certificate to make your site HTTPS, Cloudflare protection, etc at no extra cost.

In case you want a cheaper plan, go with Single WordPress plan which costs just 3500 rupees with coupon: ANILAGARWAL.

Have a look;

If you’re NOT happy with Hostinger hosting, they also offer you a 30-day refund policy so you can get a full refund within 30 days after signing up.

So what are you still waiting for?

Visit this special link to grab Hostinger hosting only for around 3500 rupees. If you still have any questions or if you face coupon NOT working issues, you can mail me at [email protected] and I’d be glad to help you.

Step 4: Install WordPress on Your Blog

One of the biggest benefits of using Hostinger is that it’s extremely easy to install WordPress.

We’ve published a FREE guide that you can go through to install WordPress using Hostinger.

After the installation, here’s what it looks like;

Once the WordPress installation is complete, the first thing you would want to do is log in to the WordPress administrator dashboard.

You can do so by adding wp-admin at the end of your blog’s domain address which looks like this:

https://www.yourblogdomain.com/wp-admin

Here’s what the WordPress admin login area looks like;

Now, simply enter the details you used during WordPress installation (your username and password) to login to the WordPress dashboard.

That’s it, you’re done. Welcome to the WordPress world!

Read: Hostinger Coupon Code 2023: Up to 90% Discount + Free Domain

Step 5: Choose an Appealing Design for Your Blog

The first thing you’ll notice after installing WordPress on your blog is that it comes with a basic theme. You’ll want to change the default WordPress theme to something appealing.

Why? The “first impression is the last impression” when it comes to online.

So if you want to build a money-making blog in 2023, it’s better to invest in a premium WordPress theme. 

If you’re on a tight budget, you can go for free themes as there are thousands of free themes you can find online but we recommend you invest in a good theme.

Here are a few WordPress theme recommendations if you want to make your blog’s design appealing.

GeneratePress: If you’re looking for a lightweight theme to use on your WordPress blog, this is the perfect theme for you. It is currently used by over 300,000 websites worldwide and it also comes with a FREE theme option.

Here are the benefits of using this theme;

What about the pricing?

GeneratePress comes in two pricing options which are listed below.

1. The yearly plan costs you $59 per year and gives you access to all premium modules & features. You can use it on up to 500 websites and comes with 1 year of updates and 1 year of premium support.
2. The yearly plan costs you $249 per year and gives you access to all premium modules & features. You can use it on 500 websites and come with lifetime updates and lifetime premium support.

Divi Theme: Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes which is used by over 700,000 bloggers worldwide. It is designed and developed by Elegant themes. The good part about using this theme is that it also comes equipped with a drag and drop builder.

Divi theme and builder can be used to build any site including an online store, business, nonprofit websites and the list goes on. You can read our in-depth Elegant themes review to find more details.

Here’s how the Divi builder looks like;

As you can see, you can easily customize your site using their drag and drop editor.

Here are the benefits of using this theme;

What about the pricing?

Divi from Elegant Themes offers the following two pricing options;

1. Yearly Access (costs you $89 per year and gives you access to Divi builder, Extra, Bloom, and Monarch and you can use all their products on unlimited sites)
2. Lifetime Access (costs $249 one-time fee, suited for freelancers and website designers who want to use it on unlimited sites including their clients’ sites) 

Read: GeneratePress vs Divi: Which One to Pick for Your Next WordPress Blog?

Step 6: Install The Essential WordPress Plugins

Once you’ve installed an appealing theme on your WordPress site, it’s time to install the essential plugins.

One of the major benefits of using WordPress is this: you get access to thousands of plugins, most of which are FREE to use.

If you’re starting a new blog in India, here’s a list of some of the ESSENTIAL plugins you should install on your WordPress site. 

At BloggersPassion, we’re currently using most of them. You can also visit our toolbox to find all the resources we use and recommend. Let’s find out the essential plugins for new sites.

Rank Math SEO Plugin

SEO is extremely important for new blogs. It helps you get more visitors from search engines like Google. While WordPress is SEO-friendly out of the box, you can do so much more to increase your organic traffic. One way is to install an optimization plugin like Rank Math. 

Rank Math SEO plugin helps you optimize your blog posts for specific keywords. 

Rank Math plugin also offers you LSI keyword suggestions on the go. Have a look;

It also has a FREE version you can use on a new WordPress blog to improve your search rankings.

UpdraftPlus

What happens if you accidentally lose your data? All your blog posts, images, links will be gone. How horrible is that? That’s why you always need to backup your website files so you can always restore the data if something goes wrong.

UpdraftPlus is an amazing WordPress backup plugin that makes it easy to backup and restore your website files. You can take a backup of your website files and databases into the cloud and restore them with a single click.

WP Rocket

Website speed is one of the most important things that determine your blogging success. Both Google and your website visitors love faster websites. Here’s where using a caching plugin helps.

WP Rocket is a powerful caching plugin that helps you to boost your page loading times. It comes equipped with so many features such as the ability to enable lazy loading, and you can also integrate it with a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for faster loading times.

Elementor 

Want to create landing pages and customize your site however you want? But don’t know how to do it? Elementor is just for you then. It’s the most popular page builder plugin for WordPress which is used by over 12 million sites worldwide.

Elementor Page Builder plugin offers a drag and drop editor to easily customize your site. From theme builder to popup builder, you can do pretty much everything with this plugin.

iThemes Security

Over 30,000 new websites are hacked every single day. You should ALWAYS give #1 priority to your WordPress site’s security. If you’re running a new blog, we highly recommend you install a security plugin like iThemes Security.

It gives you over 30 ways to secure and protect your WordPress site where you can fix common security threats, stop automated attacks, strengthen user credentials, and more. It also has a free version. 

Contact Form by WPForms

You don’t need a WordPress developer to add a contact page on your site. Still, most beginners don’t know how to create a contact page. Here’s where the WPForms plugin comes into handy.

WPForms is a 100% mobile responsive contact form (also has a free version) plugin which helps you easily add contact forms on your WordPress website. 

Please watch this video to know more about the WordPress plugins we use:

Step 7: Start Creating Quality Content

As a beginner, you ALWAYS need to focus on creating evergreen content, so that each post will stay relevant for years.

Content is always king.

Analyze any popular blog, you’ll find top-notch content. No matter how good your web design is, if your content sucks, no one reads your blog. It’s as simple as that.

So how do you create great content that attracts more traffic and helps you make money from blogging?

Here are some of the PROVEN ways to create high-quality content no matter what niche you are in.

• Analyze your competitors’ content: The best way to create epic content is to find out the top-performing posts of your competitors’ websites. You can use tools like Semrush to easily analyze any competitor site’s content and find their best content along with the keywords that are generating the most traffic.
• Experiment with longer posts: Until 2016, we were creating normal posts. Once we started creating 2000 to 4000+ word blog posts, our blog’s traffic exploded. Search engines like Google always prefer long-form content. So the best way to generate more search traffic is to create longer articles by targeting low competition keywords.
• Create SEO-friendly content: SEO-friendly content is the art of writing content for both search engines and your website audience. The best way to do that is to find the right keywords, create engaging content for your audience and then optimize it by targeting multiple keywords in each post. 

No matter what niche you’re in, don’t forget to target long-tail keywords.

Have a look at the following illustration to know the importance of long-tail keywords.

As you can see above, long-tail keywords always provide you HIGHER conversions and they are also less competitive.

Step 8: Generate Free Traffic to Your Blog

Traffic is the currency online. If you want to learn how to start blogging in India and make money, learn how to generate free traffic. There are no other shortcuts!

When we started BloggersPassion in 2010, we generated only 3000 visitors in the first year.

Did we give up? NO!

99% of the NEW bloggers quit blogging because of one thing: lack of website traffic.

Although you can use Facebook or Google ads to start generating traffic to your blog instantly, most beginners don’t have enough budget to spend on ads.

So how do you generate FREE traffic to your blog?

Here are some of the best free ways to get more traffic to your new blog in 2023.

• Start commenting: Leave thoughtful comments on other blogs in your niche. Blog commenting is one of the easiest yet effective ways to generate traffic, links and build relationships with other bloggers in your niche.
• Write guest posts for others: If you want to generate free traffic from search engines like Google, it’s extremely important to build backlinks. One of the best ways to build links as a blogger is guest blogging. Here’s a HUGE list of free guest blogging sites for you. 
• Repurpose your content: You can repurpose your content in many ways such as converting your blog posts into eBooks, checklists, infographics, videos, slides, audio files, and so on. That’s how you get more visibility to your content.
• Use Facebook groups to network with other bloggers: Facebook groups are great to connect with other bloggers. We’re currently running a HUGE Facebook group called the BloggersPassion VIP Group which currently has over 17,000 members. Interact with others. Share your knowledge and ask questions to build your presence.
• Write on Quora regularly: Quora is the #1 platform for bloggers where you can write helpful answers on your favorite topics and include links to your posts to get traffic for free. Here’s a helpful guide on increasing your website traffic with Quora.
• Use long-tail keywords: Always make sure to target long-tail keywords while creating new posts. Long-tail keywords are less competitive and you can easily rank your pages by creating great content.
• Use social bookmarking sites: You can use social bookmarking sites like Folkd, Reddit, Digg, BizSugar, etc as they not only help you with backlinks but you can also get some traffic if you’ve interesting content.

Step 9: Make Money From Your Blog

Can you REALLY make a living out of blogging or is it just a myth?

I’m a living example as I earn $18,000+ per month (over 15 lakhs in Indian rupees) from my blog BloggersPassion.

I quit my full-time job as an SEO consultant in 2018 to become a full-time blogger.

When I decided to quit my job, it was already paying me well (as I was earning over 2 lakh rupees a month from it). Still, I decided to quit a high-paying job because I knew I could make it BIG.

Fortunately, I was right as I had MORE time to grow my blogging business which eventually paid off.

So yes, you can make a living from blogging. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Now comes the next question: “Is it really possible for a beginner to make money with a NEW blog?”.

Of course yes. But you need to pick the RIGHT monetization strategies to make money from a new blog.

Here are the top 3 PROVEN ways to make money blogging as a beginner in 2023.

1. Promote Affiliate Products 

Most of our blog’s earnings come up from selling affiliate products. 

If you’re looking for passive income sources to make money blogging even while you sleep, affiliate marketing is one of the best strategies. 

Here’s how affiliate marketing works;

As you can see above, you need to find the best affiliate programs to start promoting affiliate products. Whenever someone purchases something through your affiliate links, you’ll get a commission. 

Important: Always make sure to add affiliate link disclosure while promoting affiliate products as it’s a mandatory practice and also helps you build trust with your audience. 

The best way to increase your affiliate product earnings is to build trust with your audience. Why building trust is the key to affiliate marketing success?

Because people don’t buy from strangers online. That’s why it’s essential to build trust by using various ways like;

• Creating great content
• Writing honest product reviews
• Educating your audience about the products you recommend 
• Building an email list and so on

You can also check out the foolproof strategies to increase your affiliate sales here.

2. Offer Services

If you’re looking for the FASTEST way to make money after starting a blog in India, offer services from your blog.

Here are some of the profitable services to consider offering from your blog.

• Freelance writing services: There’s always a HUGE demand for blog writers. As a freelance writer, you can offer various content writing services such as blog post writing, SEO optimization, creating product reviews, writing eBooks, and so on. You can also use freelance websites like Problogger Job board, Fiverr, UpWork, etc to find writing gigs.
• Web design services: Just like freelance writing, you can find plenty of web design gigs. If you’re good at web design, you can create a portfolio on your blog to start attracting high-paying clients.
• SEO services: SEO is a billion-dollar industry. You can learn SEO and start offering SEO services such as keyword research, link building, competitor research, site audits, and more.

You can also consider other popular blog services such as;

• Becoming a VA (Virtual Assistant)
• Social media services like posting, promotion, etc
• Email marketing services such as building an email list, creating email sequences, etc

3. Use Google AdSense

One of the most popular ways new bloggers monetize their blogs is through Google AdSense. 

Google AdSense is a program run by Google that helps you run ads on your blog, or YouTube channel and get paid when visitors click on them.

Once you start generating decent traffic, you can start running ads to earn money for every visitor who clicks on AdSense ads on your blog. 

If you’re running a blog on profitable topics such as credit cards, insurance, or fitness-related, you can earn A LOT of money because of their high CPC (Cost per click).

So the key to earning more from AdSense is to pick a profitable topic where the CPC is higher. Here are some useful resources on AdSense you can go through.

Looking for even more ways to monetize your NEW blog? 

You can read our in-depth guide on How to Make Money Blogging for Beginners guide to find a ton of proven strategies.

How to Start A Blog in India that Makes $10K Per Month? Here’s My Sincere Advice to New Bloggers

So you want to know how to start blogging in India that generates over $10,000 a month? 

Here’s my advice: set small goals, be consistent, and think long-term.

If you keep that ONE piece of advice in mind, nothing can stop you from earning HUGE money from blogging.

Let me break down my advice so you can understand it better and implement it.

Set small goals: Setting short-term goals is probably the best way to succeed in blogging as a beginner. The major reason most beginners quit blogging is that they set really big goals and get frustrated when they don’t achieve those goals.

That’s why it’s extremely important to understand the importance of setting small goals and crushing them. Setting small goals also gives you the momentum to work even harder as a blogger.

Here are the examples of small goals for new bloggers;

• Publishing at least 25 posts on your blog (within 6 months)
• Getting your first 100 subscribers
• Getting your first 100 visits per day (from any traffic source including Google, social media, forums, etc)
• Making your first affiliate sale 
• Earning your first $100 (or $500 or $100)

Be consistent: One of the proven ways to fast track your blogging success is be consistent. 

You can’t build a $10,000 per month blog within a year as a beginner, right? It took me almost ten years (I started my blogging journey in 2005) to start earning thousands of dollars from blogging. 

Make sure to do something EVERY SINGLE DAY that improves your blog. 

It can be anything ranging from creating a new post to learning a skill to making small changes to your design, growing your email list, social media following, and so on.

Nothing comes easy. You’ve to work harder and more importantly consistently work on your blog to take it to the next level.

Think long term: As a beginner blogger, you’ll have to face a lot of issues such as;

• Losing 80% of your traffic overnight (due to Google freaky updates)
• Not generating decent traffic for the first 1 or 2 years
• Not able to make a decent income from blogging and the list goes on

That’s why long-term thinking is always important.

Here are some of the smart questions you can ask yourself to improve your long-term thinking.

• What do I want to achieve from my blog a year from now? 
• What do I want to achieve from blogging in the next 2 to 3 years?
• Where do I want to see myself as a blogger after 5 years?

Always visualize and practice long-term thinking. Think ahead. Only then, you’ll be able to overcome small pitfalls like losing half of the traffic overnight, not able to create content regularly, etc. 

FAQs

Here are some of the frequently asked questions on how to start a blog in India in 2023.

What Others are Reading:

Final Thoughts

Starting a blog is extremely easy. But making thousands of dollars from blogging is NOT.

99% of new bloggers don’t make any money from blogging because they always look for shortcuts. 

As a new blogger, you should understand one IMPORTANT thing: blogging is NOT a “get-rich-quick” scheme. You need to stay focused and be consistent for one to two years to build traffic and generate decent income every month.

Did you like our guide on how to start a blog in India? Do you have any questions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You can also contact me at [email protected] if you need any assistance related to starting a blog.