How to Start a History Blog & Make Money Online in 2024

Do you love history? Do you love to write?

If yes, learning how to start a history blog may be the perfect way for you to share your passion with the world.

In this post, we’ll show you how to start a history blog & make money online. We’ll also give you some tips on creating engaging content and building a following.

So let’s get started!

How to Start a History Blog in 7 Steps

1. Define Your History Blogging Goals
2. Choose a History Niche
3. Pick & Register a Blog Domain Name
4. Setup WordPress
5. Write & Publish Blog Posts
6. Promote Your History Blog
7. Monetize & Make Money

1. Define Your History Blogging Goals

The first step to starting a history blog is to define your goals.

Why do you want to start a blog? What are your goals for the blog?

• Are you looking to build a following of like-minded people?
• Do you want to use your blog to promote your history book?
• Do you want to build a community around your passion for history?
• Do you want to make money from your blog?

Defining your goals will help you determine the best way to move forward with your blog.

What is a History Blog?

A history blog is a blog that focuses on historical topics. These blogs can be about specific historical events or periods of history, or they can be about the history of a specific place or person. History blogs can also be about personal experiences with history such as experience visiting historical sites.

Why Start a History Blog?

There are many reasons to start a history blog. Maybe you want to share your love of history with the world. Maybe you want to connect with other history buffs. Or maybe you want to make some extra money.

Whatever your reasons, starting a history blog is a great way to do it.

There are many benefits to starting a history blog, including:

• Establishing yourself as an expert in your field
• Learning new information
• Connecting with other history enthusiasts
• Sharing your knowledge with others
• Earning money through advertising, affiliate marketing, and other methods 

2. Choose a History Niche

Now that you know why you want to start a history blog, it’s time to choose a niche. Your niche is the specific topic or focus of your history blog.

Why choose a niche? 

Choosing a niche is important for several reasons.

First, it allows you to focus your content and build a following of people who are interested in that specific topic.

Second, it makes it easier to promote your blog because you can target specific channels and platforms that your target audience is using.

Third, it helps you establish yourself as an expert in that field.

And fourth, it makes it easier to monetize your blog because you can target specific products and services to your audience.

Finding Your Ideal Niche

When choosing a niche, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your niche should be something you’re passionate about
• You should have knowledge of your niche
• You should be able to write regularly about it
• It should have a target audience

For example, if you’re passionate about ancient history, your blog could focus on that specific topic.

If you’re interested in the history of a specific place, like the United States, your blog could focus on that.

Or if you’re interested in the history of a specific time period, like the Renaissance, your blog can write about that.

Here are a few history niches to help you find yours: 

• American history
• Ancient history
• Art History
• Archaeology
• Asian history
• Biblical
• Egypt
• European history
• Human history
• Historic Travel
• Medieval history
• Modern history
• Museums
• Treasures
• Mythology
• Renaissance history
• World history
• Word Wars
• Family History Blog
• Genealogy Blog
• Wars

Come up with a few niche ideas. 

Examples of History Blog

Sometimes looking at other history blogs will help inspire ideas of your own. Here are some of the more popular examples of history blogs:

1. Love of History

This is a blog by the historian Dr. Constantina Katsari. She uses her blog to provide a comparative perspective between events that happened in the past and those that we experience today.

2. The Fairy Tale Traveler

This is a travel blog by Christa Thompson that focuses on the history of unusual, mythological, and folklore places.

3. Following Hadrian

This is a blog by Carole Raddato that focuses on Emperor Hadrian.

4. The History Blog

This is a history blog that has been around since 2006. It is undiscriminating when it comes to history but has a stronger focus on European, ancient, and medieval history.

5. Jaunting Jen

Jen is a blogger who is also an archeologist, photographer, historian, history teacher, and army veteran. She travels a lot and visits ancient monuments and locations.

3. Pick & Register a Blog Domain Name

Once you have chosen your niche, it is time to brainstorm a few names for your history blog.

We recommend you keep your history blog’s name to two words (Example: Following Hadrian). One of the two words should be a keyword from your niche. The other word can be something that makes your website brandable. For example, our blog teaches people how to make passive income, so we have named it Passive Book. 

Use a Business Name Generator to brainstorm the name of your blog.

You can also use your own name for your blog. But if you ever plan to sell your website in the future, it is much more difficult to transfer your brand to the buyer when it is your name.

Check Domain Name Availability

After you have brainstormed a few names for your history blog, you should check if the .com domain name is available.

A domain name is the web address that people type into their browsers to visit your history blog. It is usually your history blog’s name followed by .com. For example, the domain name of this website is passivebook.com.

You must check if both the .com domain name and the social media handles are available. You can use Namechk to check the availability of both your domain name and social media handles. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind when selecting a domain name: 

• Choose a .com domain name. 86% of the internet uses .com, so your visitors are likely to try visiting your blog by typing .com. Avoid other extensions like .net or .org. 
• Don’t include hyphens and numbers. 
• Do not use words with multiple spellings (for example colour vs color). 
• Shorter domain names are better. Try to keep it under 12 characters. 
• Spelling & Pronunciation should be easy and intuitive.
• It should be easy to remember.
• Avoid words that can be misread together. For example, therapistjohn.com can be read as Therapist John or The Rapist John.
• Make sure it’s not trademarked or copyrighted by someone else. The AI writing software Jarvis.ai had to rebrand to Jasper.ai because Marvel sued them for the Iron Man reference. Lawsuits will happen once your blog is established.

Register a Domain Name

Once you decide your domain name it is time to register it.

You should register your domain with NameCheap because you will get domain privacy for free. Other providers charge $12 per year for domain privacy. Without domain privacy, your name, home & email address will be accessible to the public.  

Step 1: Go to NameCheap. Enter your domain name with the .com extension. 

Step 2: Select the .com extension and click the Add to Cart button.

Step 3: After adding the domain to the cart, click on the Checkout button.

Step 4: Enable Domain Privacy that comes for free along with auto-renew. You don’t need any other paid addon.

Step 5: Click on Confirm Order. Pay to complete your purchase.

Step 6: Log in to Namecheap and click on Domain List ❶ in the left sidebar and then click Manage ❷ next to the domain you just purchased.

Step 7: Under the Nameservers section, select “Custom DNS” from the dropdown ❶. Then enter the following two nameservers ❷ ns1.bluehost.com and ns2.bluehost.com as shown in the image. Then click the green tick ❸ to save. If you use a hosting provider other than Bluehost, enter their nameserver values in this step instead.

Can I get a free domain name?

Your web hosting provider might give you a free domain name for one year but they charge $12 for domain privacy which is free in Namecheap. From the second year, you will pay for both the domain and privacy which will cost you more than $20+. So it is cheaper to just register your domain with Namecheap from the beginning. Also using different companies for web hosting and domain registration will allow you to easily switch your blog host later without transferring domains. 

Can I change the name of my blog later?

You will lose your search engine rankings if you change your blog’s name once it gets links from other websites. It will take as long as a year or more for you to regain the lost traffic. It is possible to mitigate problems by having proper redirects. But you will have to renew both your old and new domains every year. So try to avoid changing your blog’s name once it is established.

4. Setup WordPress

The next step is to get your blog up and running in WordPress. 

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to create a history blog from scratch without learning how to code.

Why Choose WordPress.org?

There are many blogging platforms but the self-hosted wordpress.org powers 70% of blogs on the internet. 42% of all websites on the internet use WordPress. 

The main reasons why you should use WordPress.org are: 

You Own Your History Blog: When you host your blog on wordpress.org, you own your blog. If you host your blog on a free platform like Tumblr or Blogger, they can delete your history blog anytime without any notice.

More Flexibility & Control: You can install any theme and plugin on your self-hosted WordPress blog to make it look how you want and add any functionality you need.

Earn Money from Your History Blog: You can monetize a self-hosted WordPress blog in many ways such as advertising, affiliate marketing, and selling digital products. You cannot make money from a free platform like Blogger or Tumblr.

Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Self-hosted WordPress blogs have better SEO out of the box than other blogging platforms.

Easier to Use: WordPress has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to use for beginners. With a little practice, you will be able to create and customize your history blog exactly how you want it.

WordPress.org vs WordPress.com

There are two types of WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org

WordPress.com is a free platform that is owned by the company Automattic. You cannot add a custom domain, you cannot install plugins and you cannot monetize and make money from your blog.

WordPress.org on the other hand is a self-hosted platform that you own and can monetize in many ways. That is what we recommend for history bloggers who want to make money from their blogs.

Why Avoid Free Blogging Platforms

Free platforms like Blogger and Tumblr might seem tempting because they are free to use. However, there are several reasons why you should avoid them:

You Don’t Own Your Blog: If the company decides to shut down the platform or change its terms of service, your history blog could be gone forever.

Limited Flexibility & Control: You cannot install themes and plugins or customize your blog to make it look how you want.

Earnings Potential is Limited: In some platforms, you cannot monetize your blog through advertising, affiliate marketing, and selling digital products.

Bad for SEO: Free blogging platforms are not as well optimized for search engines as self-hosted WordPress blogs. This means it will be harder for people to find your blog in the search results.

How much does it cost to start a history blog?

It will cost you $2.95 per month to host your WordPress history blog in Bluehost. A domain will cost you $12/year. So that is a total of $4.2 per month, which is less than the price of Netflix for all the unlimited features that a self-hosted WordPress blog has to offer.

What to do if you already have a free blog?

Migrating from a free platform to WordPress is easy using a import plugin. WordPress import plugins are tools that automatically move all your content from one platform to another. This includes your posts, pages, comments, images, and any other data you have on your blog.

Install WordPress in Hosting

Before you can install WordPress and set up your history blog, you need to get your hosting set up.

Hosting is a service that provides the server space to store the blog posts, files, and images of your history blog.

When someone visits your history blog in a browser like Chrome or Firefox, your web host will load files from their server into your visitor’s browser, allowing them to access your history blog.

For this guide, we will use BlueHost as our web host. It is a cheap hosting that is extremely easy for beginners to set up. If you use any other web host, the steps will be the same but the user interface may be slightly different.

1. Go to BlueHost using this link to get a special discount. Select WordPress > WordPress Hosting from the top menu.

2. Click on the button you see on this page and you will be taken to the pricing section.

3. Select the Basic Plan. You can upgrade to a different hosting plan as you grow.

4. If you already have a domain name that you purchased with Namecheap you can put that in the “Use a domain you own” ❶ section. If you don’t have a domain name yet, choose the “Create a New Domain” ❷ to purchase a new domain.

5. In the next screen, enter your information. Uncheck all package extras. If you purchase your domain through Bluehost instead of Namecheap, you may want to enable Domain Privacy. You won’t see the Domain Privacy option if you bought your domain through Namecheap. Namecheap will give you this Domain Privacy for free.

6. Once you have successfully paid, you will be prompted to set a password. Click on the “Create your Password” button.

7. Enter your password and create your account. If you lose this password, you can reset it.

8. After you set your password, log in to Bluehost.

9. Click on the Create your website button on the following screen. This will start a Bluehost Wizard, just click Skip this step wherever possible.

10. On the following page, click “No help needed” or “Skip this step”. We don’t want Bluehost to limit our customization options.

11. On the next page, you will be asked about the purpose of your website. You can choose from any of the available options.

12. On the next page, click Skip this step.

13. On the following page, enter the blog’s name and tagline. You can change this later so feel free to click “Skip this step” or enter something as a placeholder and click Continue.

14. Finally you will be asked how you want to build your website. Choose “Limitless customization” to have all the options.

15. You can see your blog by going to yourdomain.com. Go to the Bluehost dashboard and click on the My Sites tab ❶ in the left sidebar and click on the “Manage site” button ❷.

16. Your WordPress site has separate login credentials different from the ones you use to log into Bluehost. You can use this to log in to the WordPress dashboard directly without logging into Bluehost. To get this:
❶ Click on Users on top.
❷ You will be able to see your username and email that you can use to log in to WordPress.
❸ If you click on the three dots you will see the option to Reset your password. ❹

You can log into WordPress from the Bluehost dashboard by clicking the Log in to WordPress button ❺. But it is not recommended you rely on this as your primary login method because you will get locked out of your site if you ever change hosting providers.

17. You will be taken to the WordPress dashboard where you can reset your password ❶. If you don’t like the username Bluehost created for you, you can Add a New User ❷.

18. If you are adding a new user make sure you specify the user role as Administrator ❶. You can log in as the new user and safely delete the default user created by Bluehost.

Congratulations! You have successfully set up WordPress.

Configure WordPress

Now that you have the basic version of WordPress installed, it is time to customize it to make it look and feel the way you want. 

Login to WordPress Dashboard

A WordPress Dashboard is the control panel for your history blog. It is where you will go to write posts, add images, change settings, and more.

Visit yourdomain.com/wp-admin to access the WordPress dashboard.

Use the Email and Password you provided during installation to log in to your WordPress dashboard. If you don’t have a password, use the “Lost your password?” to generate a new password.

Install WP Themes

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that controls the look and feel of your history blog.

Your new WordPress blog will be installed with a default blog theme that doesn’t look very great.

To install a new WordPress Theme:

Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

Use the search to find a theme that you like ❶. Before you install the theme, you can see a demo of the theme and learn about its features from the preview screen ❷. If you like the theme, you can install it by clicking the install button ❸. You can also upload a theme from a file on your computer ❹.

Once installed, click the Activate button to enable the theme. 

Although you can use a free theme (there are thousands of free themes available), we recommend using a premium theme. 

Premium themes not only reduce your website’s load time but also help you customize your website to your heart’s desire. 

Here are the premium themes we recommend:

• GeneratePress
• Kadence
• WP Astra

There are also several custom-made history blog themes. These themes tend to be bloated with poor code which will slow down the performance of your website. We suggest getting one of our recommended themes for a fast website with unlimited customization possibilities.

Install WP Plugins

A WordPress Plugin is a software program that adds new features and functionality to your history blog. There are tens of thousands of WordPress plugins available for free on the official WordPress Plugin Repository. Plugins can help you add social media buttons, contact forms, security features, and more.

Too many wordpress plugins can slow down your blog site. So before you install new plugins, it will be worth clearing out any existing plugins that your hosting provider installed by default.

Plugins first need to be deactivated before they can be deleted.

❶ Go to WP Admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins
❷ Click on the checkbox to select all plugins.
❸ Select Deactivate from the drop-down.
❹ Click Apply.
❺ Repeat the above steps but select “Delete” instead of “Deactivate” from the dropdown in ❸ to delete all the deactivated plugins.

To install new plugins go to the WP Admin > Plugins > Add New.

On the plugins page:

❶ Search for the plugin you want in the search bar

❷ Click Install Now. Once you install the plugin, you must also activate the plugin for it to be enabled. 

❸ If you are installing a paid plugin you can upload the plugin instead. 

There are many different history blog plugins that you can install, but here are the ones which we recommend: 

Backup Plugin
A WordPress Backup plugin automatically creates backups of your history blog. This includes your posts, pages, comments, images, and any other data you have on your blog. Backup plugins are essential because they help you protect your data in case something goes wrong (like your website getting hacked or if some plugin crashes your website).

Recommended Plugin: WPVivid (paid) or UpdraftPlus (free). 

SEO Plugin
A WordPress SEO plugin helps you improve your website’s search engine ranking. It does this by providing features like automatic optimization of titles and meta descriptions, XML sitemap creation, and more.

Recommended Plugin: RankMath Pro (paid).

Google Analytics Plugin
A WordPress Google Analytics plugin integrates your history blog with Google Analytics, allowing you to track how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, how long they are staying, and more.

Recommended Plugin: RankMath Pro (paid) or GA Google Analytics (free).

Cache Plugin
A WordPress Cache plugin stores a copy of your website’s static files (like images, CSS, and JavaScript) on the server. This allows your website to load faster because the plugin will serve these cached files to the user instead of having to generate them every time they visit your website.

Recommended Plugin: WP Rocket (paid).

Page Builder Plugin
A WordPress Page Builder plugin allows you to create custom pages and posts with drag-and-drop interface. This is perfect for history bloggers who want to create custom pages and posts without having to learn how to code.

Recommended Plugin: Thrive Architect (paid).

Security Plugin
A WordPress Security plugin helps you protect your website from hackers and malware. It does this by providing features like password protection, two-factor authentication, malware scanning, and more.

Recommended Plugin: Wordfence (free). 

Social Media Plugin
A WordPress Social Share plugin allows your readers to share your blog posts on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This is a great way to promote your blog posts and get more people to read them.

Recommended Plugin: Easy Social Share Buttons (paid). 

Email List & Lead Generation Plugin
A WordPress Email Opt-in Form plugin is a plugin that allows you to collect email addresses from your website visitors. This is a great way to build an email list of subscribers who are interested in your history blog.

Recommended Plugin: Thrive Leads (paid). 

Customize WordPress

Once you have installed your theme and plugins, it is time to customize the wordpress blog platform:

Change Colors, Fonts & Spacing 

You can set the font, colors, and spacing by going to Appearance > Customize in your WordPress dashboard. Premium themes like GeneratePress allow you to customize every aspect of your blog.

Check out our Blog Fonts & Typography guide to choose the right font and typography settings for your blog.

Add Your Logo

Get a logo designed for your blog from Fiverr. Then set the logo of your blog by going to Appearance > Customize in your WordPress dashboard. A logo is not required for a successful blog but it can definitely help appeal to your target audience.

Change Favicon

Favicon is the image that appears in the browser tab and bookmarks. Set the Favicon from the Appearance > Customize section of the WordPress dashboard.

Create Menus

The header and the footer menu can be set from the Appearance > Menus in your WordPress blog dashboard.

You can nest menu items so that it appears as a dropdown menu ❶. You can use the menu as your primary or secondary navigation menu ❷. Don’t forget to save your menu ❸.

Create Widgets

If you have a sidebar, you can add widgets to it. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress admin dashboard.

Check out the list of the most useful Blog Widgets and how to add them to your blog.

Set Title & Tag Line

The next step is to change your General Settings. Go to Settings > General in the WordPress Admin area.

You can set your Site Title, Tagline, and Time Zone from this screen.

Set Permalinks

The ideal URL structure for SEO is yourdomain.com/sample-post. Set your permalink structure by going to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress blog dashboard.

Select the “Post name” radio button and save changes.

Enable Search Visibility

Chances are you want your blog to show up on Google so people can find you. Go to Settings > Reading in your WordPress dashboard.

To get search engine traffic, ensure the checkbox “Disable search engines from indexing this site” is Unchecked. You can find this option in Settings > Reading. Most of the time this should be unchecked by default but if it is not, then uncheck it to ensure your site gets traffic from search engines.

Adjust Comment Settings

Next, you will want to change the Discussion Setting (aka Comments). Go to Settings > Discussion in your WordPress admin area.

❶ You may want to enable or disable comments on this page. You can also disable pingbacks and enable comment moderation.

❷ You can also set comment approval settings.

If you want to design your blog further, check out our dedicated guide on blog design which has all our best blog design recommendations.

Create Static Pages

There are a few essential pages that you need to create for your history blog before you can start blogging.

Use pages in WordPress to add static content. Go to WP Dashboard > Pages > Add New.

1. Write the headline of your content. 
2. Populate the body content
3. Click the publish button.

You may want to create the following pages: 

Home Page

A home page is the main page of your website. It’s the first thing that visitors see when they visit your website, and it usually contains information about your history blog, such as who you are, what you write about, and how to contact you.

You can create a professional home page for your history blog using a page builder like Thrive Architect.

About Page

An about page is a page that tells visitors who you are, what you do, and why they should care. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to your website visitors and give them a reason to stick around and read your blog posts.

Your About page should include: 

• Your name
• A photo of you
• Your history blog’s mission statement
• Your history blog’s goals
• Your credentials or qualifications
• How you can help your readers

Contact Page

A contact page is a page where visitors can find your contact information, such as your email address, social media profiles, and mailing address. It should also include a contact form. It’s a great way to make it easy for people to get in touch with you.

Use contact form plugins like Fluent Forms to create the form on your contact page.

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy page is a page where you tell visitors how you collect, use, and protect their personal information. This is required by law if you collect any personal information from your website visitors, such as their email addresses.

WordPress generates its own privacy policy for you. But you can also use a tool like Termly to generate your own privacy policy.

Terms of Service

A terms of service page is a page where you tell visitors how they can and can’t use your website. This is a legal document that protects you from liability if someone does something on your website that they shouldn’t.  

Use a terms & conditions generator like Termly to create it. 

5. Write & Publish Blog Posts

Now that you have your history blog set up, it’s time to write and publish your first blog post. To craft the perfect blog post, check out our in-depth guide on How to Write A Blog Post. Here we will go over specific tips for a history blog.

1. Brainstorm Topics

You should brainstorm 100 topic ideas for your history blog. This will ensure that you always have content to write about in your history blog.

The goal is to find topics for your history blog that your audience is searching for in Google. The type of content you write on your history blog will depend on your specific niche.

There are a few ways to brainstorm specific content:

Look at Competitors

If you want to start a successful history blog, you need to find inspiration in the content your competitors are writing.

Competitors can be a great source of inspiration for your blog posts. When you’re looking for topic ideas, take a look at the articles your competitors are writing and see what topics are getting the most attention.

You can find your competitors by googling a keyword related to your niche and looking at the top search results.

Do Keyword Research

When you’re brainstorming topics for your history blog, it’s important to do keyword research to find keywords that your audience is searching for in Google.

One great tool for doing keyword research is Keywordtool.io. It allows you to find keywords related to your niche, and it also provides data on how

Community & Forums

One great way to find blog post topics is to look for questions that people are asking in online communities and forums. This can be a great source of inspiration for your own blog posts. You can also look at Facebook Groups, Reddit Threads, and Quora.

2. Create an Editorial Calendar

Once you have a list of ideas for your blog posts, it’s important to create an editorial calendar. This is a document that outlines when you’re going to publish each article.

Creating an editorial calendar will help you stay organized and ensure that you’re consistently publishing new content on your history blog.

An editorial calendar should include the following:

• Title of the post
• Author
• Category
• Publishing date
• A brief summary of the post
• Any images that are associated with the post

Download Content Calendar Template

Steal our exclusive content calendar template. Have it delivered directly to your inbox:

Content Calendar Lead Magnet

Δ

Email

Send Download Link

There are a few software and tools that you can use to create an editorial calendar:

• Trello
• Asana
• Google Sheets

3. Write a Blog Post

Once you have a topic for your blog post, it’s time to start writing.

When you’re writing a blog post, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure your article is well-researched. This will make your history blog posts more credible and trustworthy.
• Write in a clear and concise manner. You want your readers to be able to understand your content easily.
• Include images, infographics, and videos in your blog posts. This will make your articles more visually appealing and engaging.

News & Current Events

This type of post would focus on recent developments in the field of history, such as the discovery of a new historical site or the release of a new book or film.

Some examples are:

• “Newly Discovered Egyptian Tomb Reveals Surprising Artifacts”
• “Historical Society Announces Plans to Restore Iconic Battlefield”.

When writing this type of blog post, it’s important to do your research and stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of history. Make sure to include relevant facts and details about the event or discovery, and consider reaching out to experts or researchers for quotes or insights.

Opinion & Analysis

In this type of post, you would offer your own perspective on a historical event or figure, and explain why you think it’s important or interesting.

Some examples are:

• “Why the American Revolution Still Matters Today”
• “Re-evaluating the Legacy of Alexander the Great”.

When writing an opinion and analysis post, it’s important to clearly state your thesis and provide evidence and analysis to back up your claims. Be sure to consider alternative perspectives and counterarguments, and avoid making sweeping generalizations or unsupported statements.

Personal Reflections

This type of post would focus on your personal experiences with history, such as visiting a historical site or reading a particular book.

Some examples are:

• “My Visit to the Roman Colosseum: A Reflective Journey”
• “The Impact of Reading Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States’ on My Understanding of American History”.

When writing a personal reflection post, it’s important to be honest and introspective about your thoughts and feelings. Consider using descriptive language to help readers visualize your experiences, and think about how your personal story relates to broader historical themes or issues.

Research & Academic Posts

In these posts, you would present original research or analysis, discuss primary sources, review historical publications or talk about historiography and methodologies.

Some examples are:

• “A Fresh Analysis of Napoleon’s Military Strategy”
• “An Overview of the Sources of the Punic Wars”

When writing a research and academic post, it is essential to be organized and thorough in your research, providing context and sources for your claims. Be sure to use a formal tone, and adhere to citation and referencing styles. It’s also important to double-check your work, proofread, and look out for spelling and grammar errors.

Historical Fiction or Creative Writing

This type of post would be a short story, a fiction or non-fiction piece that uses history as inspiration to tell a compelling story.

Some examples are:

• “The Secret Diary of Cleopatra”
• “Alternate History: What if the South won the Civil War?”

When writing historical fiction or creative writing post, it’s essential to understand the historical context and characters you are depicting, to ensure accuracy. Try to create a story that is both educational and engaging, that can transport the reader to a different time and place. When necessary, use fictional devices such as dialogue, characterization, and plot to make the story more interesting.

Book, Movie, or Game reviews

In this type of post, you would review and critique historical books, films, or games and analyze how well they convey historical information and facts.

Some examples are:

• “Review: ‘The Crown’ Season 4, A Look at the Reign of Queen Elizabeth II”
• “Game Review: Assassin’s Creed Origins, an Accurate Depiction of Ancient Egypt”.

When writing a book, movie, or game review, it’s important to be both objective and critical. Consider the historical accuracy and representation of the work, as well as its artistic and entertainment value. Be sure to provide specific examples and evidence to support your arguments. It is also helpful to compare the work to other similar works in the genre or on the same subject.

Lists & Roundups

This type of post would present a list of interesting historical facts or a roundup of news and updates from the world of history.

Some examples are:

• “10 Surprising Facts About Ancient Rome”
• “Weekly Roundup: Latest Discoveries in Archaeology”.

When writing a list or roundup post, it’s important to choose interesting and informative facts that will appeal to your readers. Consider including pictures or videos to make the post more engaging, and be sure to properly cite your sources. Make sure the list is curated and well organized, including an intro and a conclusion.

Interviews and Q&A Posts

Interview with Historians, Archeologists, reenactors, or other experts in the field, featuring their thoughts, ideas, and research.

Some examples are:

• “Interview with Dr. Jane Smith, Expert on Ancient Egyptian Religion”
• “Q&A with John Doe, Civil War Reenactor”.

When conducting an interview or Q&A, it’s important to prepare well for it, by researching the person or organization you will be interviewing and crafting thoughtful questions. During the interview, be sure to be an active listener and let the interviewee speak. After the interview, make sure to transcribe, edit and format the answers, providing context and insight.

Picture or Video Essay

This type of post would curate a collection of pictures or videos that tell a story about history.

Some examples are:

• “A Photographic Journey Through the American West”
• “The Evolution of Warfare: A Video Essay”.

When creating a picture or video essay, it’s important to select high-quality images or videos that effectively convey the historical story or topic you want to discuss. Consider including captions or subtitles to provide additional information and context, and make sure the images or videos are properly attributed and cited. Consider including a narrative, background, or historical context to make the story more compelling.

Write 5x Faster with AI

Outsource Writing

If you don’t have time to write blog posts yourself, you can always outsource the writing to a freelance writer. This is a great option if you want to publish new content on your history blog without having to do all the work yourself.

There are a few places where you can find freelance writers:

• Upwork
• Fiverr
• Freelancer.com

4. Add Images

It’s important to add images to your blog posts. Images make your articles more visually appealing and can help break up large chunks of text.

When you’re choosing images for your blog posts, make sure they are high-quality and relevant to the topic of your article.

You can find free stock photos on websites like:

Free Options: Pixabay, Pexels, Upsplash
Paid Options: Deposit Photos, Shutterstock, iStock, Getty Images, 123rf. 

Once you have your images, you can use Canva to edit them. Canva is a free online design tool that allows you to create professional-looking graphics.

It’s a great tool for creating visuals for your blog posts, such as infographics and charts.

If you want to add high-quality images to your blog posts, you should consider upgrading to Canva Pro. The Pro version of Canva comes with a library of stock images that you can use in your designs.

When you’re adding images to your blog posts, it’s important to optimize them for the web. This means using the correct file format and compressing them to reduce their size.

You should also include keywords in the file name and alt text of your images. This will help with your blog’s SEO.

6. Promote Your History Blog

Now that you have published some content on your history blog, it’s time to start promoting it so you get blog readers and blog traffic. There are a few ways to promote your blog posts:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of optimizing your website and blog posts to rank higher in search engine results pages.

When someone searches for a term related to your niche, you want your blog to be one of the first results that they see.

This is where SEO comes in. By optimizing your website and blog posts for search engines, you can increase your chances of ranking higher.

There are a few things you can do to improve your SEO:

• Using the right keywords in your blog posts
• Add image alt texts
• Build links to your blog

Many factors go into SEO, and it can be a bit confusing to figure out where to start. You can master the more advanced SEO tactics by checking out our SEO Resources.

You can ensure you get the basics of SEO right, by completing the recommendations given by the RankMath plugin.

Email Marketing

Another great way to promote your blog is through email marketing. This involves building an email list of subscribers who are interested in receiving updates from your blog.

You can then send them emails whenever you publish a new blog post or article.

This is a great way to increase traffic to your website and ensure that your readers don’t miss any of your content.

You can use the Thrive Leads plugin to build opt-in forms to collect email addresses. You can then connect the opt-in form to an email marketing service like Active Campaign to send out the emails.

Check out our Email Marketing resources to learn more.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a great way to promote your blog posts and articles.

When you share your content on social media, you can reach a larger audience and get more traffic to your website.

It’s also a great way to connect with other people in your niche.

You can use social media to build relationships with other bloggers and influencers. These relationships can lead to opportunities, such as guest blogging or being featured on another blog.

There are many different social media platforms that you can use to promote your blog. The most popular ones are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest

It’s important to choose the right platform for promoting your blog. You should consider which platform your target audience is using.

You should also consider which platform your readers are most active on. There’s no point in promoting your blog on a social media platform that they don’t use.

Guest blogging

Guest blogging is when you write a blog post for another website or blog. This is a great way to get exposure to your blog and reach a new audience.

When you guest blog, you can include a link back to your own website. This will help to increase traffic to your website and improve your SEO.

You can use Google to search for guest blogging opportunities. Just enter a search term like “guest blog” + your niche. This would give you a list of websites that allow guest bloggers in your niche.

You can include links to your blog in the blog post and also promote and link back to your blog from your author bio.

7. Monetize & Make Money

There are many different ways that you can monetize your history blog. The most common methods are: 

Advertising

One of the simplest ways to make money from your blog is through advertising. You can sign up for an ad network, and place the ad code they provide on your website.

When someone views or clicks on your ads, you will earn money. The amount of money you earn will depend on how much traffic you get.

To start advertising on your blog, you can sign up for an ad network like Ezoic (they pay more than Google Adsense). When your blog starts getting more than 100,000 page views a month you can monetize with Adthrive.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you promote products or services on your blog and earn a commission whenever someone buys something through your link.

This is a great way to monetize your blog if you’re talking about products that are related to your niche.

For example, if you have a history blog, you could promote history books on Amazon and earn a commission whenever someone buys one of the books through your link.

You can sign up to Amazon Associates to get started with affiliate marketing.

Digital Products

Another great way to make money from your blog is by selling digital products.

This could be an eBook, an online course, or anything else that’s digital and can be downloaded.

This is a great option if you have knowledge or expertise that you can share in the form of a digital product. For example, you can sell a history book or course of your own on your blog.

You can use Teachable if you want to sell video courses. Your students will have a dedicated course members area and a community system to ask questions and interact with each other. If you only want to sell eBooks, you can use SendOwl which lets you sell your digital products and eBooks for free.

Physical Products

If you have a physical product that’s relevant to your niche, you can sell it on your blog. This could be anything from a history book to a piece of jewelry.

You can also sell print-on-demand products like t-shirts and mugs with interesting quotes printed on them. Print on demand is a service that allows you to print custom products, such as t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases, with your own designs. The product is created when a customer places an order. This means you don’t have to store any inventory.

You can use a platform like Printful to print and ship your products directly to your customers.

FAQ

What Next?

Starting a history blog can be a great way to share your passion for history with others. We hope this guide showed you how to start a history blog.

If you have any questions as you set up your new blog, leave a comment below so we can help you out. 

Have you started your history blog yet? What type of history blog are you going to start? Let us know in the comments.