How to Start a Beauty Blog & Make Money in 6 Simple Steps [Expert Guide]

Are you looking for a free guide on starting a beauty blog and making money from it? 

Blogging is one of the PROVEN ways to generate passive income online. Creating a website on that topic is a no-brainer if you’re passionate about beauty and have expertise in it.

In fact, the revenue in the “Beauty & Personal Care” market is around $590.87 billion in 2024 and it is expected to reach $663.01 billion by 2027. (Source: Statista)

So if you’re planning to get hold of even the tiniest pie of that market size, beauty blogging is an excellent way. In this guide, you’ll discover;

• Why start a makeup (or beauty) blog
• SIX steps to start a beauty blog and make money from it
• A checklist for beauty blogging success, and much more

Why start a beauty blog?

Here are some of the benefits of starting a beauty blog.

• It helps you make money online, as you can use various methods, such as affiliate marketing, selling your own products, display ads, etc, to monetize your beauty blog
• Build an audience who’s interested in what you’re passionate about.
• You can connect with a lot of bloggers around the world. Starting a beauty blog is a great way to establish yourself as an expert.
• Above all, it can be fun. You can learn and improve new skills such as SEO, email marketing, social media, etc.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to create a money-making beauty blog from scratch. 

Are you excited to start your beauty blog? Let’s get started!

Quick note: We will recommend a self-hosted WordPress platform for launching a beauty blog. It is the world’s #1 content management system, which is easy to use and offers plenty of customization. 

How to Start a Beauty Blog in 6 Steps [2024 Edition]

1. Choose a topic

Before you even plan to start a blog, it’s extremely important to choose a topic (or niche).

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before picking a topic;

• What will your beauty blog be about? 
• What kind of beauty products will you sell or promote to your audience? 
• Will you focus on makeup, skincare, haircare, or something else? 

No matter the topic, make sure you’re passionate about it. Otherwise, you’ll lose interest and struggle to make money.

Our #1 tip is to pick ONE small niche with enough searches and profitable products to sell.

For example, “Curly hair care” is a small niche within a  BIG market, “Hair care” with lots of profitable beauty products. You can use platforms like Amazon, eBay, etc to find products that you can promote through your blog.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are some micro-niche ideas you can consider in the beauty industry.

These are just a few niche ideas in the beauty industry to get you started. It’s a better idea to do your own market research by analyzing the competitors in your industry.

You can also use tools like Semrush to come up with some excellent niche ideas in the beauty niche. 

Once you’ve chosen a niche, it’s EXTREMELY important to learn about that niche as much as possible. This will help you define your target audience, know their needs and create high-quality content that will solve their problems.

2. Find a domain and purchase web hosting

Your domain name is the KEY to your blogging success.

It should be easy to remember and easy to type. Make sure the name you pick is highly relevant to the beauty topics you cover on your blog.

You can use free tools like LeanDomainSearch.com to find exciting domain ideas (that are actually available on the Internet).

Just enter a keyword related to your topic, and the tool will instantly generate a ton of domain ideas.

Here’s an example;

As you can see above, the free tool generated over 4000 domain ideas for the selected keyword.

Once you select a memorable domain name, it’s time to pick a web host.

Web hosting is where you store your blog’s files, such as images, blog posts, comments, links, videos, and more.

Your web host plays a key role in many things, including;

• Website speed and user experience
• Keeping your website up and running 24/7
• Keeping your site safe from hackers and much more

So pick a web host that’s reliable and affordable as well. Our recommendation is Hostinger, which is built for speed. It is also the most popular web host among WordPress users, which millions of people use.

How much does Hostinger WordPress hosting cost?

Hostinger WordPress hosting offers the following pricing plans.

1. Single WordPress: This is the cheapest Hostinger plan, which costs only$1.99 per month, where you get the following features.

2. WordPress Starter: This is the most popular plan from Hostinger, which costs you $2.99 monthly, where you get the following features.

3. Business WordPress: This plan offers more storage space and costs you $3.99 monthly, where you’ll get the following features.

4. WordPress Pro: This plan offers gives you everything you need and costs $9.99 monthly, and you will get the following features.

You can use our exclusive promo code ANILAGARWAL at the checkout to get an extra discount on ALL the hosting plans from Hostinger. This is a limited period offer!

Try Hostinger Hosting Now 

All the Hostinger hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you’ll get a full refund if you’re unhappy with their services. 

3. Pick a WordPress theme

Once you’ve chosen a topic and domain name for your beauty blog, the next step is to install a WordPress theme.

One of the BEST things about WordPress.org is that it offers thousands of themes, including free ones.

If you’re just getting started with a small budget, you can try free options like GeneratePress or Astra. Both these themes offer free versions with basic features.

However, if you can invest a few bucks, you can go with premium themes offering excellent features. 

Our recommendation is Astra Pro, a lightweight and fast-loading theme perfect for any type of website. Astra is used by over 2.3 million websites across the world.

The best part? It is extremely easy to customize, even if you’re a beginner with zero coding skills.

It also comes with a ton of powerful features, including a built-in page builder, a responsive layout, access to website templates, and much more. You can read more about it from our detailed Astra review.

How much does it cost?

Astra Pro offers the following three pricing plans.

• Astra Pro: This plan is great for beginners. It costs you $47 per year, which gives you access to hundreds of customization options and you can use it on unlimited websites. 
• Essential Bundle: This plan suits those who want premium website templates. It costs you $137 per year, giving you access to Astra Pro features, 180+ premium templates, and WP Portfolio Plugin. 
• Growth Bundle: This plan gives you full suite of design tools and costs you $187 per year and is suitable for agencies.

Quick note: Before spending money, if you want to try the Astra theme for free, you can use their free version. 

4. Install important plugins

Installing the essential plugins on your WordPress beauty website is almost the FINAL step.

WordPress offers a plethora of powerful plugins that make it easy for you to run your beauty blog.

The bad news? There are 60,000 FREE plugins available on the WordPress directory and many more from other platforms.

And… you don’t want to use TOO many plugins either, as it can lead to slower page loading times. That being said, here’s a handpicked list of the most important WordPress plugins you can install on your beauty blog.

1. Perfect Images: As a beauty blog owner, you’ll be uploading a ton of images on your site. Most of your audiences will be browsing your site from retina display monitors. This FREE plugin will improve the appearance of your beauty website on high-resolution devices. It also helps you optimize and manage your images with ease.

2. Rank Math: Want to rank your content higher in Google search? Then, you must install Rank Math, which is an optimization plugin. You can specify relevant keywords and it will suggest where to put those keywords within your content for better rankings. It has a free version as well!

3. WP Rocket: If you’re looking to provide the best experience to your users with faster page loading times, WP Rocket is a must-use plugin. It’s a premium plugin (costs only $59/year) and offers incredible features such as, Caching, LazyLoad, Preload, Delay JS, Remove Unused CSS, etc.

4. Social Media Share Buttons: Want to make it easier for your website readers to share your posts? Then, you need to try this plugin. It’s free and lets you add social share icons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

5. Wordfence Security: Thousands of WordPress sites get hacked every single day. If you want to stay safe from security attacks, install Wordfence. It has a free version as well. This plugin offers features like an endpoint firewall, malware scanner, login security features, and more.

5. Start writing

Content is king.

If you want to keep your readers coming back for more, you need ENGAGING content on your beauty blog. You can create content on anything, including How-to tutorials, interviews with others, tips, and more.

Fortunately, content creation has become so much easier. Thanks to content creators and AI tools like Jasper, ChatGPT, etc.

If you don’t have the skills or time to create great content, hire someone, or you can also use AI tools.

The only thing with AI tools for content creation is you need to rework on the content generated. Why? Most AI tools don’t create original content; they simply rehash what’s already available online. 

Our top tip is to do keyword research and find at least 10 to 20 topic ideas before you begin to start writing.

You can use free keyword tools like KeywordTool.io or Ubersuggest to find low-competition keywords on ANY topic.

That being said, most people fail to build successful blogs for one simple reason: inconsistency.

So how can you deal with blog posting inconsistency?

Create a content calendar to help you stay on track with your blog posts. 

You can use free WordPress plugins like Nelio Content to help you easily schedule, create, and promote content.

Last but not least: promote your content.

Most people struggle to increase their blog’s traffic because they create and rarely promote content. 

Once you’ve created great content, you must promote your blog posts so people can find it. You can use promotional tactics, including social media, email marketing, writing on Quora, paid ads, and more.

6. Monetize your beauty blog

The blog you’re currently reading makes over $15,000 per month.

But it took us several years to get there. If you’re curious, check out our blog’s income reports for the last few years to see how we generate money. 

Our recommendation is, create a monetization strategy for your beauty blog from day one. Don’t attract freebie seekers. You can survive and give the BEST content to your audience only if your blog generates some money.

So how do you monetize a beauty blog?

There are plenty of ways to make money as a beauty blogger. But we’re only going to show you the BEST income sources.

Affiliate marketing

Hands down, affiliate marketing, is a popular way for beauty bloggers to make money.

Affiliate marketing is where you promote other companies products and make money whenever someone purchases their stuff using your referral links.

The best part? It’s free, the sky’s the limit to earnings, and you can make money even while you sleep.

Have a look at one of our blog’s affiliate product earnings;

We made around half a million dollars from one affiliate program called Semrush Affiliate.

Here are a few tips that work well in generating more affiliate sales from your beauty blog.

• Pick the right products. Promote only those products that offer real value. It’s essential to research and choose only affiliate programs that fit your audience well.
• Write honest and informative product reviews. Make sure to tell your readers about the product’s pros and cons and explain how those products can help them.
• Don’t just paste your affiliate links all over your blog. It’s NOT going to work. Use those links sparingly to get better conversions. Make sure to use affiliate link disclosures. 
• Promote your products. You can use email lists, paid ads, Quora answers, etc to promote your affiliate products. If you don’t promote enough, it’s impossible to generate sales.
• Last but not least, be patient. Don’t expect to start generating affiliate sales overnight. It takes time. Keep writing great content, adding value, and being patient; eventually, you’ll start noticing results.

Selling your own products 

There are many people who’re selling their own beauty products including makeup kits, skincare items, hairdos, and more.

To sell your own products, you need a SOLID following (either through your blog or other channels such as YouTube).

There are many ways to sell and market your products including manufacturing your own products, private labeling, or dropshipping.

Sponsorships

If your beauty blog gets decent traffic (especially from search engines), you can partner with brands to create sponsored content, such as product reviews.

The best part about beauty or skincare industry is there are ton of high-paying companies that pay you well for recommending their products.

To find sponsors, you can use platforms like Instagram or YouTube where you can identify influencers who’re promoting beauty, skincare, makeup products. You can reach out to those produce vendors for sponsorships. 

You can also make a list of all the top beauty blogs and see what type of products they’re sponsoring, so you can do the same.

A 5-Point Checklist to Build A Beauty Blog that Makes Money on Autopilot

Here is a QUICK checklist that can help you build a successful beauty blog that makes money in the long run.

1. Create a monetization plan. Before you start a beauty blog, it’s important to develop a monetization plan. That’s what helps you to define your website goals, identify your target market, and develop a marketing strategy.
2. Analyze your competitors. Make a list of 10 to 15 beauty bloggers. Find out their strengths and weaknesses. Analyze their content and products. Find out how they’re building their audiences and promoting products.
3. Create a content plan. You should have at least 6 months of content ideas. You can use tools like Semrush to come up with topic ideas. You can use AI tools like Jasper, ChatGPT, etc to write your blog posts fast. Or hire someone for content creation.
4. Choose recurring affiliate programs to promote. Recurring progams pay you commissions for lifetime, not just once. You can use platforms like Clickbank, CJ.com, ShareASale, etc to find such products.
5. Promote your beauty blog. No matter how good your content is, no one will find if you don’t promote your blog. You can write helpful answers on Quora or use social media platforms.

FAQs on starting a beauty blog

Here are some questions that people often ask about starting a makeup blog.

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• How to Start a Lifestyle & Make it Successful?
• Top 20 Blog Examples that Will Inspire You to Build A Better Blog

Final thoughts on starting a makeup blog

Anyone can start a beauty or makeup blog, but few people make decent money.  Remember that making money from a beauty blog takes time and effort. 

You need to create high-quality content, build a following from day one, and be consistent with your efforts. If you’re willing to put in extra effort, you can make money from your beauty blog.

So what are your thoughts? Are you going to launch your own beauty blog? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.