How to make money blogging: 5 steps to success
Blogging is a way to express yourself and earn money at the same time. Popular bloggers get a lot of money and live interesting lives. Most importantly, anyone can become a blogger. But here's the problem. Thousands write, and only a few make their way up. Therefore, the beginner has a question: how, in fact, to start correctly? Many lack a guide to action. Making money on a blog is real if you invest in it 100%.
So here are 5 steps to get your blog off the ground.
Step 1: Making a plan
Decide what a blog is for you. If this is a new hobby, then there are few requirements. In particular, you can not care about monetization and subscribers. After all, the purpose of a hobby is to bring joy. But if you want to make money on a blog, things are much more complicated. You can't do without a clear plan.
First, you need a content plan. Choosing a topic is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Let's say the blog is about a healthy lifestyle. There you can post information about diets, exercise, health. Will you pull all directions or is it better to start with one? So, where are you an expert? Analyze your capabilities and sketch out a content plan. Think about which subtopics in the selected segment pop up more often than others. They should be placed in separate headings. Find interesting and understandable names for them.
Get a file for ideas. Best of all, if it is in your mobile phone. After all, you can't guess in advance when an idea for publication will come to mind. Write down everything you want to talk about. So you always have a supply of topics for the blog.
Second, write a business plan. Imagine that a meeting with an investor is coming soon. You need to convince him to invest in your idea. What is the first thing business people look at? That's right, for the prospect of profit. Think about how a blog can pay off. Describe your monetization efforts. Don't worry! Next, we will tell you how to make money on a blog and get subscribers.
Choose a few goals and set conditional deadlines for them. For example, in two months I will get 1000 subscribers. Don't worry if the dates change later. This means that you are starting to navigate blogging. The main thing is to keep the situation under control and monitor the development of the blog.
STEP 2: Analyze competitors
The topic you write about is not the only one of its kind. For similar search queries, Google will return many similar pages. Therefore, competitor analysis is very important. Think of it as a free business guide. See which topics attract more readers. Which posts are actively commented on, which are left without attention. What does the audience agree with and what does it disagree with? Knowing your readers will help you make money on your blog.
Pick a few favorites from your competitors. What do you personally like about them? What attracts readers? Embrace good rival blog ideas. Just be careful! Nobody needs a clone of a successful brand. So do not get carried away copying and look for a twist in each of the sites. What makes them different from each other. Then come up with your own trick. One that no other blogger has. Now the focus is on her. Uniqueness is both a reason to read you and a basis for promotion.
STEP 3: Write quality content
If you have not neglected the two previous points, then you already have a general work plan. And you know what to write about. Check your notebook often for ideas. Take the most successful of them and transfer them to the plan for the coming days. Try to provide relevant and useful information. Most importantly, be interesting to the reader. Constantly learn and improve. Learn new things to share with your followers. You can only make money on a blog that you want to read.
However, do not forget: the right topic is not everything. Feel free to present it. Do you know what teachers warn future journalists about? From the first days they are told that no one will teach them to write well. They will give the necessary knowledge, help with practice, but they will not teach you how to speak a word. Ideally, you should have talent. Innate aptitude for writing. If, while reading these lines, the spirit of Leo Tolstoy did not stir in you, do not despair. As in any business, a lot depends on desire and experience. Write as often as possible. But read no less! And those authors whose style of presentation is close to you. By surrounding yourself with such examples, you will begin to think in their language. This means that your texts will also improve.
Step 4: Plan income
Any work deserves payment. If you've invested a lot of time and energy into a blog, you want it to pay off. But the blog will not pay salaries. So before starting a project, decide how to make a profit from it. We have already written about blog monetization. A detailed description of the strategies can (and even should) be found here. Now we will simply list the main ways to get money.
Affiliate programs have become a popular way to make money on a blog . Affiliate programs are based on advertising products. The essence of the method is that you post a link to the advertiser's website on your blog. Depending on the terms of the contract, they pay for the number of clicks or purchases from your page. Advertisements can also appear in articles. For example, it's easy to put text about someone's new gadget on a tech blog. In a travel blog, it is logical to write a review of the hostel. The main requirement is to advertise products that fit your theme.
Offer through the blog and your products. Let's say if you have a site about needlework – sell hand-made things. Link to your own online courses. Advertise yourself as a photographer if you write about photography. The options are almost limitless!
Step 5: Get Subscribers
You can make good money on a blog when it is actively read. The audience is usually divided into two types. Those who come at the request of search engines, and regular readers. The first are looking for answers to their questions. The second is specifically your content. Perhaps subscribers need such information. Or they just like your style of writing. To increase the audience, it is best to combine both streams. Adapt texts to search engine queries. But write them in such a way that a person who accidentally finds your material wants to read something else. Notice we are saying the obvious. But after all, everything ingenious is simple.
So don't neglect your SEO strategies. For a start, sites like text.ru are also useful. We have no doubt that your texts are 100% copyrighted. The fact is that text.ru works not only as an anti-plagiarism. It shows water content, spam content and other “seosh" characteristics. A couple of runs through the program, and you will understand the rules of the game. Some blogging platforms have special plugins. For example, WordPress offers the Yoast Seo plugin. This is a great start for learning how to optimize. The program itself will tell you what the text needs to be promoted. With the help of these tips, making money on a blog will become much easier.