If you’re thinking of starting a blog, you might be wondering if it’s going to cost you any of your hard earned cash. Does it cost money to start a blog?

When you first begin thinking about starting a blog, there are a lot of things to think about.

What should you write about?

Do you want to make money from your blog, or is it purely going to be a creative outlet?

What should you call your blog?

Another thing you be wondering is; does it cost money to start a blog?

Does It Cost Money To Start A Blog?

The short answer to the question ‘does it cost money to start a blog?’ is no.

If you want to start a very basic blog then this is something you can do completely free on websites such as Wix, Blogger and WordPress.com.

You won’t need to pay any hosting costs and you can still choose whichever blog name you like, provided of course it isn’t already taken.

With a free blog, your blog URL will likely contain the name of the platform you are using, so as an example using the name of this blog it would be bloggingbeautiful.wordpress.com or www.bloggingbeautiful.wix.com.

A free blog is great if any of the following apply to you:

You don’t want to make money from your blog.
Your blog/website isn’t for your small business.
You want to see if you enjoy blogging before spending any money.
You want a creative outlet that’s just for fun.
You won’t be upset/bothered if you blog is taken down unexpectedly

A free blog might not be the right option for you if:

You want to make money from blogging.
The blog is part of your small business.
Your blog is to go alongside an already established social media presence.
You want a hello@mydomain email address

When you have a free blog, you don’t actually own the blog or the content in the way you would if you purchased your own domain name and hosting.

The platform you’re using could be shut down or sold at any time and all of your content and hard work would be gone.

In turn, this can make monetization much more difficult as PRs and ad agencies are looking for a self-hosted blog that you own. They may also look at other blogging metrics such as DA and DR which you won’t have on a free blog.

I also think having your own domain is important when you run a small business as it looks much more professional and you can have a hello@mydomain email address.

One final thing to remember is that even if you start out with a free blog, there is always the option to move over to a self-hosted blog at a later date.

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How Much Money Does It Cost To Start A Blog?

This is definitely one of those ‘how long is a piece of string’ questions, but I am going to take a look at some of the budget and slightly more expensive options and what they mean in terms of customer service, set-up and monetization.

When you start a blog, you’ll need to purchase two things: hosting and a domain name.

The domain name is what your website will be called and the hosting is what keeps your website up and running.

How To Choose A Domain Name

Choosing a domain can be tricky so here are a few quick tips:

Check social media handles are available using NameCheckr.com
Ensure the name isn’t trademarked in your home country (for the U.K use this link)
Google the name and see what comes up.
Consider buying both the .co.uk and .com versions.
If there is already a .com of the name you want, do not purchase the .co.uk or .net etc as it can be very difficult to compete with an already established website or brand. It can also cause issues and confusion on social media.
Avoid hyphens and numbers.
Write the name out and say it out loud a few times. Check that certain words mashed together don’t make other words. Example in this post, which focuses on Twitter hashtags but the point remains the same.
Using your own name can make a blog more difficult to sell.
Longevity is also key. Things like ‘MumToOne‘ or ‘TheToddlerMum’ might not be relevant in the future if you have more kids or when your kids are older and aren’t so little anymore. Something like ‘MyFabFamily or ‘MumToThree’ would be much better long-term.

Does It Cost Money To Start A Blog

Most bloggers choose to run their website through wordpress.org (see the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com in this post) but you could also go self-hosted on other sites such as Wix or Squarespace.

Whatever you do, do not choose the ‘WordPress Premium’ option at any point as this is not what you’re looking for a free or self-hosted blog.

While I’ll admit WordPress can be a learning curve to start with, it is the best option to build your blog. The level of customizations you can make is unrivalled and you can install plugins to help with everything from displaying Instagram images to SEO.

Free Blogger Website With Vanity URL

If you’re looking to keep costs as low as possible then one option is to start a blog on the free platform Blogger and add what’s called a vanity URL.

This involves purchasing a domain name through somewhere like GoDaddy and redirecting it through blogger. This isn’t something I’ve needed to myself so here is a great tutorial on what to do: How To Set Up A Custom Domain In Blogger

A domain name usually costs between £8-£12 per year so this is one of the cheapest options if you’re looking for a very basic blog but still want to build your domain authority and other metrics with a view to monetization.

Big Players: Go Daddy, TSO, Bluehost

There are lots of big blogging hosts that you probably will have heard of. These include GoDaddy, TSO, Bluehost, Stablepoint and many more.

These are all perfectly fine places to host your blog and purchase your domain with.

Most of these big web hosts will start with a very cheap first year, meaning you can pay as little £3 a month for your blog hosting. Some may charge a little more but throw in freebies like a free domain name or SSL certificate.

However, my issue with the big players is they lure you in with cheap prices for year one, which then skyrocket in year two.

For example, I paid around £3 a month for my domain name on my first ever blog with GoDaddy.

In year two the price jumped to £8 a month. I was too nervous to move hosts as a relatively new blogger.

The third year I moved to Siteground who did exactly the same thing. Their customer service was terrible and I found they would constantly upsell to try and fix issues that they should have been able to fix for free.

I do find with the big hosts they do tend to leave you to it more and assume you know how websites work and how to set up the basics. When you’re a new blogger this can be totally overwhelming and frustrating.

Of course, there are plenty of people that use big hosts and never have any issues and if you’re looking to set up a blog on a budget, this could be the way to go.

Small Business: Lyrical Host

Eventually, I moved my blogs to Lyrical Host* and I’ve been with them ever since. I now host all ten of my websites with them and have room on my plan for another 15.

Lyrical Host doesn’t increase prices on renewal and you can pay monthly which makes things easier if you’re on a tight budget or aren’t ready to make money on your blog yet.

One thing I love about Lyrical Host* is that they are designed specifically for bloggers so they will help with every aspect of getting your blog set up. They also have great eco-credentials, support charities and have an amazing resource centre for bloggers.

Hosting starts at £13.99 a month and domains start at £8.49 per year.

There is a discount for purchasing a year of hosting and you can get 10% off your first month or year of hosting at Lyrical Host with my code BLOGGINGBEAUTIFUL.

Should I Spend Money Starting A Blog?

Now as a new blogger, £13.99 a month may seem like a lot of money, which I can understand completely. Even if you choose a cheaper host, £2-£3 can seem like a lot for something you may not make money from straight away.

If you’re really unsure, then starting a free blog could be the right option for you.

However, as something that could potentially earn you thousands in the long run I do think it’s worth starting out on the right foot and not having to make lots of changes of hosts or platform (ie free Wix site to WordPress) further along the line.

You could also compare the cost to some of your other hobbies. Running a blog is cheaper or similar in price to lots of other things we do a month in month out. Where I live, £14 is two cocktails on a night out!

Whichever type of blog you choose, I hope this blog post has given you an idea of some of the running costs of a blog and what you can expect to pay each year.