You can start a WordPress blog on Bluehost for $3.99 a month on a 36-month term. I use a WordPress site on BlueHost and it’s really simple to set up even for beginners.
The setup is the easy part. The honest version: a blog is a slow side income. It can take months of writing before it earns a dollar, so start one because you want something that builds over years, not because a student loan payment is due Friday.
The short answer
- Bluehost’s Starter plan is $3.99/mo on a 36-month term and renews at $9.99/mo. That’s $143.64 for the first three years.
- A free domain comes with 12 or 36-month terms for the first year only.
- WordPress installs automatically, so there’s no technical setup to fight with.
- There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee and no refunds after 30 days.
Why a blog, if you’re paying off student loans?
Most side gigs trade hours for dollars. Stop driving and the money stops. A blog works the other way around: posts you write this year can still bring in readers, and income, years from now.
I started blogging at the beginning of 2016 and I can tell you first hand it is possible to make money online. It just isn’t fast. If you need cash this month, a delivery gig or other gig work will get you there sooner. A blog is the thing you build alongside them.
Bottom line: pick a topic you’d happily write about for two years, keep costs low and send anything it earns to your loans.
What Bluehost costs
| Plan | Intro price | Renews at | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $3.99/mo (36-month term) | $9.99/mo | 10 |
| Business | $6.99/mo (36-month term) | $13.99/mo | 50 |
| eCommerce Essentials | $14.99/mo (36-month term) | $21.99/mo | 100 |
For one blog, Starter is plenty. You can upgrade later if you ever need to.
Watch the renewal price. At $9.99 a month, Starter costs $119.88 a year once the intro term ends, so put a reminder on your calendar before it renews. Prices change, so check the current one on Bluehost’s checkout page.
You get one free domain for the first year when you buy a 12 or 36-month term, and you have to claim it within 90 days of buying. If you cancel within 30 days you get a full refund on hosting. After 30 days, there are no refunds.
How to start your blog on Bluehost
- Pick the Starter plan on Bluehost and choose your term. The lowest monthly price needs 36 months.
- Choose your domain. Go with a .com when you can, make it easy to say and spell, and skip hyphens and numbers. Your own name works if you’re stuck.
- Enter your account and billing info. Use an email you check, since your login details go there.
- Skip the add-ons. You’ll be offered extras at checkout. I did not bother with these.
- Log in to WordPress. Bluehost installs it for you, so you can go straight to picking a theme.
- Publish an About page and your first few posts. Write the posts you’d want to read if you were in your readers’ shoes.
Already own a domain somewhere else? You can use it instead of the free one. You’ll point it to Bluehost by updating its name servers at the registrar where you bought it.
Why not a free blogging platform? You get what you pay for, and ultimately free isn’t always free when it comes to time and aggravation. A self-hosted site is yours, which matters once it starts earning.
How a blog actually earns money
There are a handful of ways, and you can mix them:
- Display ads, which pay based on how much traffic you get.
- Affiliate links, where a company pays you when a reader signs up or buys through your link.
- Sponsored posts from brands in your topic.
- Your own work: freelance writing, coaching or a small digital product your readers want.
All of them need readers first. That’s why the first year is mostly writing and learning what people search for, with little or no income.
Taxes and your loan plan
Blog income is self-employment income. Once you net $400 or more in a year, you owe self-employment tax of 15.3%, plus income tax, so set a slice of every payment aside. Your hosting and domain costs count against what you earn, so keep the receipts.
If you’re on an income-driven plan, a growing blog can also raise your adjusted gross income and your payment at recertification. Our RAP calculator shows what that looks like.
Next stepSee what sending blog income to your loans would do in our student loan payoff calculator
Want faster money while the blog grows? Our guide to making money to pay off student loans lays out the quicker options, and My Millennial Guide has a long list of side hustles to compare.
Bluehost’s Starter plan is $3.99 a month on a 36-month term, which is $143.64 for the three years, and it renews at $9.99 a month. A free domain is included for the first year with a 12 or 36-month term.
Yes. WordPress installs automatically when you set up your plan and domain, so you can log in and start picking a theme.
If you cancel within 30 days, you get a full refund on hosting. Bluehost doesn’t give refunds for cancellations after 30 days.
There’s no set timeline. Most blogs need months of regular posting before they get enough readers to earn, which is why a blog works best as a long-term side income alongside faster gigs.
Sources (4)
We use primary sources wherever we can: Federal Student Aid, the U.S. Department of Education, the IRS, federal regulations and each company’s own site.
- Bluehost. Shared Hosting plans. bluehost.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Bluehost. WordPress Hosting. bluehost.com. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes). irs.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Federal Student Aid. Income-Driven Repayment Plans. studentaid.gov. Accessed October 22, 2026.
