Blogging may well become your next reliable and increasingly a consistent source of income, but the term “blogging” is often underrated.
Most of us take it as more of a fun activity, yes it is, but for those who not only learn this art but actually turn it into promising online money-making activity.
Are you serious about blogging for money?
Today, I’ve decided to walk you through the essentials for making money online from a successful blog.
The Basics of Money Making Blogging
Blogging has evolved over the past couple of decades, trends have changed and you need to learn the new rules of the game. The online world is becoming increasingly competitive. I want you to consider some important points before we dig in deeper…
The first thing you need to accept is, blogging isn’t going to generate money overnight.
You’ll have to take things seriously, learn the right techniques, and administer the working strategies to achieve success in the long run.
- Blogging for passive online income in 2021 has gone beyond building a page and publishing content. Social media marketing and SEO have turned the tables. It has become more of a test & trial adventure.
- Never take blogging as the simplest online money making activity anymore. It now requires smart, wise and skilled brains who learn to respect and implement the right optimization strategies. Patience holds the key to successful blogging for money.
- You need the right mindset and passion. If you aren’t passionate about the subject of your blog, you’ll quickly lose interest and the short-lived pleasure will quickly transform into a burden.
Are you ready? Let’s first consider the choice of the topic for your blog!
Choosing the Right Topic for Your Blog
The order of doing things is important. First of all, even before finalizing the domain and hosting platform, you need to brainstorm in an attempt to reach a wise decision about the selection of your blog’s topic.
A significant consideration is what you need at this stage because your topic is going to determine the target audience.
To select the topic, ask yourself the following questions:
- Can I / Do I really want to entertain this topic?
- Am I really interested in writing on this topic? If yes, do I have enough knowledge to facilitate the blog with engaging content on a consistent basis?
- Does this topic have the potential to generate profit in the long run?
When it comes to profitable blogging ideas, the answer to the third question becomes more significant.
Even if the selected topic responds in affirmation to the first couple of questions, if it doesn’t promise profit in the long run, you need to drop the topic from the list.
Important Consideration
Never think that the most popular niche for profitable blogging will still serve the purpose in 2021 and beyond.
These niches have become the most popular because bloggers have already done too much work for them and it leaves you with the sleekest of chances to contribute something new.
In a sense, you’ll be imitating the ideas rather than presenting something genuinely unseen.
“Health and fitness” is one of the prime examples in this regard. Yes, if you link it with CBD – a relatively new player – you have more chances to bring in something completely new, by engaging the latest results findings of scientific studies.
So you need to anticipate the level of margin you have in an attempt to present something completely out of the box. This is why niche blogging is thriving these days.
Rather than opting for a broad subject, you narrow it down to one or two specific aspects by bringing it to the micro-level.
Defining the Audience for Your Blog
Once done with the selection of the topic, you need to identify the audience. It plays a vital role in making SEO generate the desired results.
You’ll consider the age, gender, region, culture, and even economy while defining your target audience.
The truth is, you get to know more about your target audience with the passage of time.
You extract things from their comments, analyze the analytic reports, and judge them through the popularity of particular posts on your blog.
What I’ve experienced over the years is that defining your target audience is a continuous process of trial, failure, and attempts. It doesn’t hit the bull’s eye straight away.
Starting Your Blog
Back in the late 1990s, starting a blog or setting up a website involved complex coding.
Today, thanks to Content Management Systems and hosting platforms, things have become simpler and quicker. Today, you don’t need to learn HTML coding before setting up a blog.
In short, what had been the toughest task 20 years back, has become the easiest right now.
The selection of a blogging platform depends on the features, limitations, and monetization options.
WordPress, being the most popular blogging platform offers a number of free as well as paid features, including templates and plugins.
For a potentially profitable blog, go for WordPress.org (Self-hosted WordPress) instead of WordPress.com.
Before You Start Blogging
Now that you are all set, here comes the best part: Content Creation.
In the case of WordPress, mere signing up for hosting package lets your blog live. But there is nothing on it at this stage, so don’t forget to block the “public view” option because you have to first go through the construction of your blog.
Spare some time to customize your blog so that it looks unique and attractive to the visitors.
- Make it smartphone-friendly. WordPress offers impressive mobile-friendly themes you can choose from
- Use a professional logo (banner image) for branding
- Don’t shy off trying different themes at this stage. Also, try some plugins and then select the best combination
About Writing for Your Blog
Never try to rush through your posts or write post after post in an attempt to populate your blog. Focus on the post at hand. Spend as much time as possible.
- Select a highly engaging title
- Include images – one to three – per post
- Never copy images from other sources unless they are free
- Never write the content in the form of an essay. Divide your ideas into smaller paragraphs, be precise and meaningful.
- Embed videos from your YouTube channel, if you have already created. If not, don’t forget to do it to serve your blog
- Be conversational and avoid dry content or stuffing bulk of information without real value
- Think of yourself as a guide, teacher, or an explainer and write in a way that your readers take out the most because they want to learn, know, and add to their previous knowledge
Monetizing Your Blog
You get the desired results when you do the right thing at the right time.
I’ll never suggest you opt for monetization straightaway. You have to first build your readership. You’ll never want your visitors to run away in an attempt to avoid advertisements on your blog.
Let your blog create space and attract more and more readers.
Once you reach the stage where your blog has sufficient traffic, say 1000 visitors a week, you can start thinking about monetization.
It is going to take time, though, things don’t happen instantly and this is why I call patience, the most desired quality for a successful blogger.
Obviously, to bring in more traffic, you’ll administer optimization strategies.
Share your blog on social media platforms. Creating social media pages for your blog is a great idea. Include keywords, smartly rather than placing them all over across the body of the content.
It is a better idea to learn SEO basics. Never forget to encourage people for a subscription. This is why the RSS button becomes vital because it allows your visitors to subscribe instantly.
Optimization is a comprehensive topic and requires a detailed post so let’s have a look at the monetization options.
- PPC Advertising
Pay-Per-Click is a popular blog monetization feature. But it has its limitations. The first problem is the lack of freedom to filter the type of ads. You don’t have an option to only allow the ads that are relevant to your audience.
This is why PPC doesn’t make you enough money unless your blog reaches 100k visitors a month. Even with that much traffic, you don’t expect something you can take pride in telling others.
The most popular PPC platform is Google AdSense, used by many.
- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is what you must consider in the long run if you really want to earn consistent and sufficient passive income from your blog.
You’ll be promoting products from different companies. Each successful sale will earn your commission.
Affiliate Marketing gives you the freedom to choose the products that are suitable for your readership. This is why you don’t require viral traffic to your blog to expect good income from affiliate marketing.
Even a few thousand regular visitors can let you get going with reasonable affiliate profit.
For a more comprehensive comparison of Google Adsense and Affiliate Marketing:
Only YOU Can Make it Happen!
Guides and tips are important, but nothing is going to work unless you are ready to make a mark.
The essentials, to me, are devotion, readiness to learn from failure, an urge to succeed, and an honest mindset towards blogging.
Do you have anything else to add? Comment below!
