Decisions Decisions!

(Sorry, I'm not sure if this is in the right section, please guide to me the right one if I'm wrong)

Decisions decisions! :S   

Okay, so I've decided I want to make a blog and have read loadds of information and tips online about blogging, so I'm pretty serious and determined about it. I have also decided that I want to make money from it (I'm aiming for £4,000 in 2 years, to pay for my gay year) and I know I pretty much need a domain name, web hosting, a pretty good layout and logo etc, and a nifty blogging platform. From my research I've found that Wordpress.org is the platform I want to go with, I just have a few difficulties with how to approach and plan out how I'm going to go about creating my blog and the process of monetizing it, so here are my problems:

1.   I don't think I can really afford to have my blog hosted immediately - I'm 16 and although I have £500 in the bank, I'm not really prepared to spend a chunk of that on a blog that may not succeed, month after month. I ideally want to wait until my blog has an established brand, readers and followers etc before buying hosting, that way I can use the income from advertising to pay for the hosting (hopefully). Will this affect the change over process when I do eventually get my blog hosted (I can afford a domain, but when it is hosted will all my readers be lost, will the blog site be redirected and will my blogs status on search engines be erased?)

2.   Should I build up the status and readers/subscribers of my blog first before putting ads on it etc, or put ads on straight away?

3.   If I’m putting ads on straight away, that means I have to go with blogger because Wordpress.com doesn’t allow adverts for regular, free accounts.

4.   Also, blogger allows you to put your pre-bought domain name on for free, whereas Wordpress.com charges you. Therefore, if I go with blogger first, without a host, then decide when I have hosting to go with wordpress.org as a platform, will this mess everything up even more, like it was a brand new blog?

So sorry about this long and confusing post, I just really need some guidance here. Any help at all is very much appreciated and if you need any clarification about what I’ve just chatted on about, then do ask as many questions as you like. I understand that this is a bit of a pickle I’m in!

You can IM or email me too if you’d prefer at: alex_gibbons@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks!

Jekilla

 Its best you find and choose reliable things.. I admire the thought that you're 16 and wanting to earn income.! My advice, Always be safe and sure..

Blue Dragon

I am sorry that I cannot add a lot of help on the technical side with switching and everything and the consequences. As per the adds, I would do a little more reading on the specific types of adds you want to have on your site. Adsense or click bank, etc. If you are purely looking to have clicks on adds you are going to need a ton of traffic and to have that in just two short years is going to need a lot of effort and talent to achieve, not impossible just not likely. However I have read about good success when marketing a specific product within a post. The obvious example is a technology blog and each post acts as a review of a certain product with a link to purchase. Some find great success with Amazons commission based sales or click banks system over Google's adsense. However if your blog is just a daily reader where no product is especially mentioned but you have the loads of traffic Adsense would probably be the way to go.
Look into this more and you will learn a lot.
www.thedouglasduo.com

HeavyD