How to start a blog in Kenya in 2026 — and actually make money
Niche, platform, first ten posts and the four realistic ways Kenyan blogs earn: ads, affiliates, sponsorships and your own products.
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Blogging in Kenya is not dead — undifferentiated blogging is. The people earning are the ones covering something specific enough that they are the obvious authority: Kenyan tax filing, secondhand car imports, university applications, farming inputs, local travel. Here is the full path.
Step 1 — Pick a niche you can survive
Test any idea against three questions: Can you write 50 posts about it? Does anyone search for it? Does money change hands in that topic? You need all three yeses. Passion without commercial intent produces a diary; commercial intent without knowledge produces content nobody finishes reading.
| Niche type | Earning potential | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Personal finance / SACCOs / tax | High | Medium |
| Tech, phones, laptops in Kenya | High | High competition |
| Farming and agribusiness | Medium | Low competition |
| Local travel and hospitality | Medium | Medium |
| Careers, scholarships, courses | High | Medium |
| General lifestyle | Low | Brutal |
Step 2 — Set it up properly
- 1Register a .co.ke or .com domain in your own name.
- 2Buy shared hosting you can pay for with M-Pesa.
- 3Install WordPress from the host's one-click installer.
- 4Use a fast, simple theme — speed beats decoration.
- 5Install one SEO plugin, one caching plugin, one image compressor. Stop there.
- 6Connect Google Search Console and Google Analytics on day one.
DoWebsites is reader-supported. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend or the order of our picks. Read the full affiliate disclosure
Truehost Kenya
KenyanBest overall for Kenyan small business
Nairobi-based, KENIC-accredited and by far the most common first host for Kenyan sites. Pay with M-Pesa, get a .co.ke domain and cPanel hosting in the same checkout.
- M-Pesa payment and local KES invoicing
- KENIC accredited — .co.ke registered directly
- cPanel + one-click WordPress
- Local support hours that match yours
- Renewal prices jump after the first year
- Shared plans can slow down at peak times
Hostinger
Best value if you pay in USD
The cheapest credible international host. Fast LiteSpeed servers and a genuinely good dashboard, but the headline price needs a long upfront term and a card that works internationally.
- Excellent price-to-performance
- LiteSpeed + free CDN
- Clean beginner dashboard
- 24/7 live chat
- No M-Pesa — card or PayPal only
- Long term required for the low price
- Nearest data centre is not in Kenya
Step 3 — Write the first ten posts
Do not launch with three posts and a Facebook announcement. Publish ten genuinely useful articles before you promote anything. Each one should answer a question a real person types into Google, and answer it better than what currently ranks.
- Two pillar guides — long, complete, the definitive page on a core topic.
- Four comparison or 'best of' posts — these earn affiliate income.
- Three how-to posts targeting specific long-tail questions.
- One 'about the author' style page proving you know the subject.
Step 4 — How Kenyan blogs actually earn
| Method | When it starts working | Realistic monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Affiliate marketing | 3 – 6 months | KES 10,000 – 200,000+ |
| Display ads (AdSense, Ezoic) | 6 – 12 months, needs traffic | KES 3,000 – 60,000 |
| Sponsored posts | Once you have an audience | KES 15,000 – 100,000 per post |
| Your own product or service | Any time | Highest ceiling |
Step 5 — Get found
- Target questions, not keywords — write the page that ends the search.
- Format for phones: short paragraphs, clear headings, tables, no walls of text.
- Update your best posts every few months instead of publishing new weak ones.
- Build one internal link from every new post to a pillar guide.
- Be patient — six months of consistent publishing is the honest minimum.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to start a blog in Kenya?
Under KES 6,000 for the first year: a domain, shared hosting and a free WordPress theme.
How long before I earn anything?
First affiliate commissions typically land three to six months in, assuming you publish consistently and target buying-intent topics.
Do I need to show my face?
No, but showing a real author with real experience helps both readers and Google trust the site.
If you only take one thing from this guide
Truehost Kenya is our current top pick for hosting — best overall for kenyan small business.
Truehost Kenya
KenyanBest overall for Kenyan small business
Nairobi-based, KENIC-accredited and by far the most common first host for Kenyan sites. Pay with M-Pesa, get a .co.ke domain and cPanel hosting in the same checkout.
- M-Pesa payment and local KES invoicing
- KENIC accredited — .co.ke registered directly
- cPanel + one-click WordPress
- Local support hours that match yours
- Renewal prices jump after the first year
- Shared plans can slow down at peak times