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Blogging is one of those amazing things that anyone can do for free. But what happens if you’re looking to take your hobby to the next level? Or maybe you’re wanting to create a blog that earns money? Well I’m afraid then things are no longer free. To get more out of your blog you have to give a little first. However it is possible to run a blog on a budget and a self hosted blog at that too! Here’s how to run a blog on a budget and make it amazing!
Personally when it comes to blogging I think it’s best to work your way up to spending larger amounts of money. Don’t throw loads of cash at your project at the start. If you’re serious about levelling up your blog though or you’re wanting to make money from your blog then you are going to have to spend money on it. Take it from someone who had a free hosted blog for 9 years before switching to self hosted. My blog has never been better and I wish I’d invested in my blog sooner. You know I love my money saving tips though so I thought I’d talk you through how to run a self hosted blog on a budget.
My blogging costs
For reference I currently spend just over £14 a month on my blog. My blog hosting is £99.99 a year and my domain is £10 for the year. I also paid for Tailwind for Pinterest last year. It was heavily discounted in a Cyber Monday offer as I’d had the free trial. Split across 12 months that works out at £14.16 a month. My hosting is a flat out fee of £10 once a year and I paid for my hosting for 6 months upfront (though a year works out at the same price as two lots of 6 months). I also paid the Tailwind fee all in one go too. So that £14.16 doesn’t actually come out of my bank every month.
How to run a blog on a budget when you’re self hosted
When it comes to running a self hosted blog, finding a good web host is crucial. I like saving money on a lot of things but I do know that sometimes paying a little bit more for things works out better in the long run. I use Lyrical Host as my blog host. I’ll be totally honest with you, they’re not the cheapest host you can get. However they’re also not the most expensive host either. I did look at cheaper hosts but after conversations with them I just didn’t feel as confident as I did when I had my chat with Lyrical Host. I honestly can’t sing their praises enough.
I’ve already covered the ins and outs of hosted versus self hosted when it comes to blogging. Within that post you’ll find a review of Lyrical Host too. Going self hosted is one of the best things I’ve done for my blog and I wish I’d done it sooner. Knowing I’m paying somehow forces me to up my game. Blogging isn’t my full time job but I am super grateful for the extra money it provides me with and I do want to continue earning more. Paying to have my blog means I don’t want to waste my money and it makes me create content that hopefully you all love.
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Paying for a domain name is the best budget blog option
You can get a domain name from so many places now and to be honest, they’re all around the same price. I use Google Domains but that’s only because my blog used to be hosted on Blogger so it was super simple to connect. I’ve stuck with Google as I’ve never had any problems. I pay £10 a year for my domain which is pretty average. When it comes to buying a domain I don’t really think there’s a cheaper way to do it. However it is one of those super low cost things I recommend all bloggers do.
When I started blogging it wasn’t the same place as it is now so it’s took me a few years to catch up and adjust. Buying your own domain is something I think you should do even if you’re just blogging as a hobby. You never know when you might want to turn it into a side hustle or career. For £10 a year you might as well get a head start. It’s something you can do even if you’re running your blog on a budget.
Scheduling saves time and can be done for free
When it comes to promoting your content scheduling in advance is your best friend. Now I hate scheduling, I honestly find it one of the most boring blogging jobs there is. But working alongside blogging means it’s essential for me. I would not recommend paying for schedulers unless you have multiple accounts/blogs to schedule for (or Pinterest but we’ll get on to that shortly) which means scheduling is free!
When it comes to scheduling tweets it’s pretty simple and free. My go to site is Tweet Deck. I’ve used Hootsuite before but I prefer Tweet Deck. Both are free to use though so it’s just down to personal preference.
Should you pay to schedule on Pinterest?
Scheduling for Pinterest is where it becomes a little more complicated. Pinterest do have a built in scheduler on their site. However they only allow 30 pins to be scheduled in advance. Personally I think they need to really work on this because it’s recommended to schedule between 10-30 pins to go out each day. That means you can’t really schedule that far in advance with the Pinterest scheduler. The only other scheduler I would recommend is Tailwind. However I do want to say right here that it definitely doesn’t fall into the category of how to run a blog on a budget. I paid for Tailwind back in November because they had a Cyber Monday deal on for people who’d used the free trial. The free trial allows you to schedule 100 pins but obviously that would run out pretty quick scheduling 10-30 pins a day.
Tailwind costs $14.99 a month or $120 annually. I’m a little bit stuck with Pinterest right now as I’ve had a lot of problems with my account. I have tried using the Pinterest scheduler but I had to go on every day. I honestly found it far too much to keep up with which is why I prefer Tailwind. However I do know it’s a pretty big cost for something that’s really simple. I do recommend Tailwind if you can’t keep up with scheduling daily on Pinterest and you can make Pinterest work for you.
Just a little side note if you are interested in getting Tailwind then if you use my link you’ll get $15 dollars and so will I! Signup to to Tailwind here.
Using stock photos when running a blog on a budget
My blog would not exist without stock photos it’s as simple as that. I do not have the time, skills or props to create the photos I need so I rely on stock photos. There are so many free stock photo sites out there. There is some debate over using free stock photos on Pinterest though and whether it’s actually better to use paid ones. If you’re just starting out though I would not jump into paying for a stock photo subscription because they are not cheap. Wait until your blog is more established, earning a little bit of money or you know it’s something you want to turn into a side hustle. It’s more than O.K to use free stock photos if you’re just starting out or blogging as a hobby.
If you’re ready to pay for stock photos though there are lots of lovely paid stock subscriptions out there. I recently signed up to the Ivory Mix ones after having access to their limited free photos for a while. What drew me to Ivory Mix over anything else was the amount of products that came with a VIP subscription. I mean for me the photos alone were worth it but there’s some absolutely amazing resources included with a VIP subscription that are just going to be invaluable. From Canva templates for pins and digital products to online workshops. I love that you get more than just the stock photos. Ivory Mix is updated with hundreds of new items each month too.
Utilise those free plugins
A great benefit of being self hosted on WordPress is having access to plugins. Now I have them I don’t know how I blogged without them for 9 years! I don’t pay for any plugins because right now I just don’t need to. I think you can run a successful blog with just free plugins because there are so many out there!
My favourite plugins are Akismet Anti Spam, Broken Link Checker, Cookie Notice, Shortcoder, The GDPR Framework and Yoast. They just make blogging easier, make sure I’m writing amazing content and keep the legal side of things in check which is amazing for free!
If you’re just starting out or you don’t have much money to spend on blogging right now it is more than possible to do it cheaply and be successful with it. I hope this post has shown you how to run a blog on a budget and how easy it can be to keep costs down.
If you’re looking to learn how to write better content and drive more traffic to your blog all using free to use websites then I highly recommend grabbing a copy of my e-book. For just $10 you’ll get 24 pages detailing my blogging strategy and the 6 free to use websites that have helped me to double my blog traffic.
I’m at the stage now where I can spend a little more on my blog but I still like to keep the costs down where I can. That’s why I’ve included some more expensive options for if and when you’re ready to spend more too.
What are some things you recommend paying for when it comes to blogging? How do you keep the running costs of your blog down? Share you tips and ideas in the comments.
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There are some really great tips here and as a beginner I think its so helpful! It does really annoy me with pinterest that you can only schedule 30 pins because I do think being able to plan further ahead would really help me get on top of it.
Pinterest is so annoying, between blogging and working I don’t have the time to dedicate to Pinterest. It’s such a frustrating platform.
Great post! Thank you for sharing! This is so useful to me!
Thanks, I’m glad you found it helpful!
I think my biggest blogging regret is not going self hosted much earlier than I did! Almost 2 year it took me and I’m paying for that mistake still.
Great advice here for bloggers old and new x
Thank you! I know I question daily why it took me 9 years to go self hosted!
Thanks for putting this up Lauren. I have one main thing against Pinterest, and everything you say is right btw, and that is that it is not really very sustainable. To have to design, post and schedule so many pins every day is extremely time consuming and if you stop your engagement falls of a cliff.
I guess if you are full time and 1 hour each day is dedicated to bashing them out then fair enough but for most it is a real slog.
I know the traffic can be good but most people seem to stress more about Pinterest more than anything else!
Yes it’s so hard to manage Pinterest when blogging isn’t my job. It’s such a pain.
These are some great tips! I definitely agree with you that going self-hosted is a massive gamechanger for taking your blog to the next level – but sometimes it’s so damn expensive lol! With my first site, I went self-hosted and had to pay a bunch of money on cyber security plugins and just loads of fixes for where things had been set up wrong … wish I’d utilised free plugins back then tbh, they’re just as good! xx
mia // https://beautiful-inspiring-creative-life.com/
Oh no, I’m sorry that happened!
I think I like wordfence a lot. I started blogging with a self hosted site but stopped because I had to give my studies more attention. You have free plugins for the major stuff.
That’s good!
Great info here! I’m going to try Broken Link Checker. I don’t think I have a plugin for that.
Thank you! It’s a great plugin to have.
You’re welcome and good luck with your blogging journey.
Thank you! There’s always ways to find something that works for you!
Thank you, I’m glad you found it useful. It’s definitely best to work your way up to spending if you’re not too sure!
I am confused about scheduling. So if you use something like Tailwind, you still have to spend tons of time making the pins, and in essence writing on your blog to link to it from Pinterest. So if Pinterest scheduler is free, why use a paid program? The writing of the blog, designing the pin, is what takes so long. Maybe you can clear this up for me. I cannot comprehend how people can pin 20 plus pins a day. Aren’t they linking to their blog? So they are having to write all those blog posts and design the pins correct?
Designing 20 pins a day is actually the really easy part! You can make multiple pins just for one blog post. When you have 9 years worth of blog content like I do it’s easy to make pins but as I said even if you only currently had a few posts on your blog you can design multiple pins that all lead back to the same post. Tailwind is easier because you can schedule as many pins as you like whereas the free scheduler on Pinterest only lets you schedule 30 pins at a time.
These are great tips for new bloggers! I really enjoyed reading your post.
Thank you!