Love all things graphic design?
It’s time to take that passion and start a graphic design blog.
Why?
Because starting a graphic design blog is a great way to:
- Express yourself creatively
- Share your expertise with people
- Make a full-time talking about what you love
So get ready, because, in this ultimate beginners guide, I’m going to show you how to get your graphic design blog set up, how to get boatloads of readers and how to make good money with it.
And if you want, you can download the free Starting A Blog Checklist to check tasks off as you go.
Start A Graphic Design Blog In 7 Simple Steps
Starting a graphic design blog can seem daunting but trust me, follow these 7 steps and you’ll be up and running in no time:
- Step 1: Decide Who Your Graphic Design Blog Is For
- Step 2: Set Up Your Hosting
- Step 3: Register Your Domain Name
- Step 4: Build Your Website
- Step 5: Customise Your Blog
- Step 6: Create Great Content
- Step 7: Start Earning With Affiliate Programs & Ads
Step 1: Decide Who Your Graphic Design Blog Is For
Before you even start your graphic design blog, the first thing you need to do is define exactly what kind of person your blog is for.
This is called choosing a niche and it’s where you decide what group of people you want to target.
Take some time to visualize your ideal reader clearly in your mind.
Give them a name.
Think about what they want to achieve, what their biggest frustrations are and how you can help them.
This is an important first step because get it right and you’ll be a far more successful graphic design blogger in the long run.
Watch this video if you want a hand in narrowing it down:
Step 2: Set Up Your Hosting
Now onto the exciting part – creating your blog!
The first thing you need is hosting and a domain.
For web hosting, we recommend Wealthy Affiliate, a fast and reliable service with an easy-to-use website builder.
With Wealthy Affiliate you also get:
- 24/7 technical support
- Daily backups
- Effortless WordPress installation
- Free SSL so your blog is secure
- The Jaaxy keyword tool to help you create a content plan
- Step-by-step training on how to make money with your blog
- A friendly community of like-minded bloggers
- Great pricing – $49/month or $495/year
- A free dot com domain and $50 in community credits.
To get set up go to WealthyAffiliate.com and enter your name, email address, password and username:
Once your account’s created click on Websites and Build a Website and hit Register a Domain:
Next, choose your Premium pricing plan. They have monthly and yearly options so pick the option that’s best for your budget.
Once you’re set up you’re ready to choose your domain name!
Step 3: Register Your Domain Name
Your domain name is what people will type into the address bar of your browser to get to your graphic design blog, it’s the name of your blog but more importantly, it’s your brand.
We’ve written a whole post on how to pick a good blog name to help get the creative juices flowing but in a nutshell, you want your domain name to be:
- Short, clear and concise
- Easy to remember
- Easy to spell
- A .com domain wherever possible
You’ll also want to avoid hyphens, numbers and any other special characters.
Let’s look at a few graphic design blog name examples:
- CreativeBoom.com – Easy and straightforward
- Typewolf.com – It’s clear this is a blog about typography
- EyeMagazine.com – Memorable
Using Wealthy Affiliate’s SiteDomains feature you can search for available domains until you land on the one you want.
Then simply click Add to Cart and you’re ready to move on to the next step.
Step 4: Build Your Website
Here’s the fun part – choosing a template or theme for your graphic design blog.
Wealthy Affiliate has over 5,000 themes to choose from so there’s no lack of options!
Hit the Build a New Website button, enter a title for your website and now you’re ready to pick a WordPress theme.
Different themes give you different layouts and customization and design options. There are a ton of free themes to choose from, so look for one you like, and remember you can always change it later.
The WordPress theme we use and recommend is GeneratePress because it’s clean, easy to use and comes with a ton of customisation options so you can get your blog looking exactly how you want.
Once you’ve chosen a theme, click Select and hit the green Build My Website button and let Wealthy Affiliate will take care of the rest. Your new graphic design blog site will be live in less than 30 seconds.
You’ll also get an email confirmation with your login details so you can access your blog’s WordPress dashboard.
Step 5: Customise Your Blog
Take some time to familiarise yourself with WordPress and play around with the design options.
Go to Appearance then Customise to change the colours, fonts and layout and anything else you want.
It’s also probably a good idea to make a blog logo:
You can either create a logo yourself with Canva or find someone to create one for you over at Fiverr for as little as $10.
Step 6: Create Great Content
Now you’re the proud owner of a beautiful graphic design blog it’s time to start blogging!
Creating content is what’s going to get your website ranked in Google so people find your blog.
But what kind of content should you create?
It’s entirely up to you. You could publish:
- Helpful how-to guides and tutorials
- Product reviews and top 10 lists
- Response content answering people’s questions
The important thing, at least if you want your blog to get ranked in Google, is to use a keyword tool like Jaaxy (included in your Wealthy Affiliate membership) or Mangools so you can find out how many searches a search term or question gets searched each month on average.
That way, you can be sure you’re creating content people want to read.
I always find it’s best to use a keyword tool to come up with a whole year’s worth of content upfront so you’re never stuck with what to write about.
Do that and it’s just a case of setting a blogging schedule and sticking with it until the traffic starts flowing. This is where you can start to earn a full-time income as a graphics design blogger.
Step 7: Start Earning With Affiliate Programs & Ads
There are many ways to turn your graphic design blog into a profitable blog but the two most lucrative are:
- Affiliate marketing
- Display ads
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is my favourite way to earn money with blogging.
Why?
Because affiliate marketing is commission-based – you simply recommend relevant products and services to your readers and earn commissions when someone clicks on your link and completes a sale.
When you’re talking to people about graphic design, you’ll naturally reference certain software that you use so why not join their affiliate program and get paid for sending new customers their way?
And the great thing about the graphics design niche is most products are digital products like software or membership sites so you can earn monthly, recurring commissions as long as that person stays a member.
And imagine if you have say, 1,000 people a day coming to your blog and just 1% of them buy something – you’ll earn multiple commissions daily and the earnings soon stack up!
If you’re looking for free step-by-step training on how to make money with your blog then enrol in Commission Academy here and we’ll show you exactly how it’s done.
4 Best Graphic Design Affiliate Programs
Below is a list of some of the best graphic design affiliate programs you can find on the web.
Just mention any of these products naturally and organically and get a cut of each sale every time someone clicks your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase.
1. Amazon
Amazon is the top dog for bloggers looking to promote physical products and with 350+ products, they’ve got everything.
Join their affiliate program for free and you could make a killing selling high-ticket items like drawing tablets and graphic design books.
2. Adobe
With Adobe’s affiliate program, you can monetise your graphic design blog by recommending arguably the best and most widely used software for graphic designers.
The commissions are pretty sweet too:
For each person you send their way, you’ll get 85% commissions (or $72) on the first month’s payment.
3. Canva
Canva is a great image creation site I use regularly and highly recommend.
If you get someone to sign up for Canva Pro, you’ll receive $36, which is pretty decent.
4. Snappa
Snappa is a beginner-friendly, cloud-based graphic designing software that offers one of the best affiliate programs in the game.
They offer a 40% commission. The best part? It’s recurring so you’ll get paid every single month!
And the good news is there is no limit to how many products you can promote on your graphic design blog.
You could also promote:
- Animation affiliate programs
- Web design affiliate programs
- Photo editing affiliate programs
- Stock photo affiliate programs
And that’s just a few ideas to get you going – the possibilities are endless!
Display Ads
After affiliate marketing, the second best method to make money with your graphics design blog is through display ads because it doesn’t require any extra work on your part.
And for display ads, Ezoic is your best bet.
With Ezoic you can typically expect to earn around $12-$18 per 1,000 views.
Ezoic is the top Google Adsense alternative because they pay much higher rates and they work with you to ensure your revenue keeps growing.
How to Start a Graphic Design Blog FAQs
Can You Start A Graphic Design Blog For Free?
Yes, you can start a free graphic design blog on WordPress via Wealthy Affiliate using a free subdomain until you’re ready to move over to a .com domain you own.
Starting a free graphic design blog might be a great warm-up, but if you want to grow your blog then you’ll want to host it on your domain at some point for a couple of reasons:
- “Yourblog.com” looks way more professional than “Yourblog.subdomain.com”
- People will take your blog more seriously
- And realistically you need your own domain to rank highly in Google
How Much Money Do Graphic Design Bloggers Make?
Exactly how much you can make with your graphics design blog depends on your motivation for starting the blog, how much time you can invest, what kind of content you create and how you monetise it.
You could become a design graphics blogger as a hobby or you can turn it into a lucrative and rewarding career and earn $150,000+ per year if you want – it’s completely up to you.
Aileen over at Baller on a Budget earned over $45,000 in 2019. Her blog is still active but she has not made an income report in a while. She is another blogger who is exploring the lifestyle blogging arena.
Jamie is the mastermind behind A Sassy Spoon. She makes around $8,000 every month from her food blog. This income comes from ads, affiliate marketing, and coaching services.
Michaela of Micheala Diane Designs is a relatively new blogger in the interior design space and she managed to make a whopping $13,000 in her first year. She makes most of her money from ads and affiliate marketing.
And That’s A Wrap!
I hope you’ve found this beginner’s guide to starting a graphics design blog helpful. Now you can turn your favourite hobby into an online business!
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out our free blogging training. It’s the perfect course to help you start your blogging journey off with a bang and help you make the most out of blogging.
And don’t forget to leave a comment below to let us know your thoughts.
