Gone are those days when people blogged once every two months to share their take on current affairs or NYFW collections. Blogging is no longer an optional hobby for the most of us. Many of us work part time or full time as professional bloggers. As a result, we have found our particular niches. For veterans, it is easier to find ads and sponsors. AdSense was always there to get us a few extra bucks. Now, after the Penguin Update, there are more ways to earn money from professional blogging.
If you are planning to start a blogging career, you are at the right place. Today, we will talk about how to get started on a blog that will make you real money.
Many marketing blogs will talk about scores of tools, software add-ons, and business marketing plans. We will speak of a few simple strategies that will automatically make your blog a money magnet. We believe, these five easy steps will take you where you have always wanted to go –
Getting started –
You cannot make money from a blog unless you have a blog. Having a blog does not mean that online journal you kept during the high school years. You may treat your blog as a diary, only if you can filter the relevant content and if you can post as regularly.
Did you know a free blog could make money? It is true, and we have proven this time and again with the help of various bloggers from around the world who started as blogging rookies. The only disadvantage is – you will not have complete control over the platform and the attributes. For example, if you are using WordPress to create a blog, you will not get full access to its SEO features in the free version. You can try starting off with $5 to $10 per month for the first couple of months until your blog kicks off.
Create quality content –
Your blog should have right, unique content that your followers cannot find anywhere else. If you want to create an inspiring self-help blog, make sure the content is original and not copied from a fellow blogger. It is unethical. Apart from that, Google will automatically penalize your blog and push it down the SRLs.
Choose a topic that resonates with you. Research extensively. If necessary, publish once in two weeks, but always post good quality content.
If you are at a loss, you can try these –
- Solving a problem
- Teaching something (cooking, crochet or yoga)
- Entertain your readers (personal stories, funny takes on current events)
- Inspirational content (getting over loss, overcoming fear)
You need to create content that people want to read. Always keep your readers in mind while writing.
Promote your blog –
This is the most challenging part for a rookie blogger. Firstly, you will find it quite stressful to publish your first post. Secondly, you will feel jittery about posting it online via your social media profile. However, this is extremely necessary to make the creative genius in you known to fellow bloggers and authors. You need to expand your social circle and include more bloggers in it.
This will help you stay abreast of the latest blogging trends. It will also help you gain popularity. Most bloggers share work from other bloggers in a barter like understanding. You need to share and appreciate bloggers you truly like if you want them to take notice of your work and promote it too.
Create your platform –
Finding the right group on social media is of crucial importance. What are you writing about? Are you writing on cars? Are you writing on hairstyles for kids? Who is your target audience? The high-life social butterflies or the stay at home moms? Finding the right gang and interacting with them will help you find new stories and gain popularity at the same time.
Share your stories on Facebook. Post your snippets on Twitter using the right hashtags. Reach out to fellow bloggers from your niche on Twitter. You will see the world of difference the good communication can make.
You should treat your blog like a platform from the very beginning. Give your blog the exposure it deserves. Social media is the best platform of advertising your blog. This is also the time you should be looking for sponsors.
Try affiliate marketing –
2017 is perfect for affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is quite easy to understand. In your blog, you can direct people to buy particular products or commission certain services. When they make the choices based on your suggestions or reviews, you get a commission from the companies. Depending on the product, the commission can vary between $1 and $1000!
More importantly, you need to build the right kind of reputation for your blog. Do you want people to rely on the information you provide? Do you want people to trust your suggestions? Do you want people to seek out your blog in the future? These are a few things you must decide before you associate your blog with any particular company or brand.
Here are the four things you must do to earn from affiliate marketing –
- Choose a relevant program of affiliate marketing.
- Choose an affiliate aggregator program.
- Create content that attracts marketers.
- Choose the links and integrate them properly into your blog.
These small steps will help you get better results out of affiliate marketing strategies within a limited number of posts.
You do not have to be a big corporation or a famous brand to own a money minting blog. You can be a “nobody” who goes onto making millions from a single blog done right. There are thousands of people from all around the world who have learned blogging and blog marketing from scratch. Right now, they might be enjoying their summer on their private yacht, off the coast of Europe thinking of a new story for their blog!
Author Bio: Mary Stevens is blogging expert. She is doing interesting work on using WordPress to create a blog that makes money. Her study mainly targets new bloggers who are learning the monetization process DIY and from scratch.
