Blogging is one of the emerging online communication techniques. Also, it is the hottest topic in town. The number of bloggers continues to grow every day. Besides, this growth estimates at 31 million by the end of 2020. It is one of the easiest ways to make money online.
Yet, blogging can seem overwhelming, especially if you are new to it. It is quite involved and you must learn how to do it. How to start the content, hosting, and the costs? Also, you need to understand how to attract readers to your blog. How to keep an audience?
A blog is your personal expression and creativity. Most important, it can earn you money. Here are steps on how to start a blog and make money online.
Identify your niche and blog name
The first step on how to start a blog and make money is to identify your niche. Identify a name that will represent the topics of your interest. What will you be writing about? It should be a general area that will attract an audience. Not only attract but also keep them. This could be fashion, food, technology, farming, or veterinary.
Further, this will help the readers identify with your blog. This is an essential step in your blogging. The niche and name of the blog become your brand. The name will stay with you. Thus, you need to get it right. What is the name going to represent?
Factors to consider choosing the nice and the name is your target readers/ also for SEO.
A name that is irrelevant to your niche will give your audience a wrong impression. Too, use a thesaurus to get a catchy name. Still, search names similar to that competitor bloggers are using for the same niche. They are the ones you will be competing for the audience with. Also, it will give you an idea of the name to use on your blog. Despite all, you can use a blog name generator tool or inspiration from the books to come up with your blog’s name.
Generate content for your blog.
The second vital step to start a blog and make money is through content generation. A blog is not a blog if it has no useful content. Blogs become dormant and stall due to lack of content. While content depends on your niche, it must be useful to the audience. At the same time, it should be attractive enough. To make money from the blogs, they must add value to the readers. To summarize, it will create trust and need for followers and subscribers.
All in all, a blog topic should be something that people will remember. Important to realize, content should grow your audience. The content is integral to your marketing. Marketing leads to the generation of income.
First, the content should share information. It should be as engaging as it is informative. Does your content solve a challenge your readers are experiencing? Have a clear understanding of your audience and their interests. Your content should not overwhelm the readers, nor should it scatter.
Outline ideas and let them flow systems, with a captivating introduction. Otherwise, readers will lose interest. Manage the length of your blogs. The strategy is to maintain a precise and on-point blog. You can do a follow-up blog upon request from your readers.
Blog hosting and design
You cannot start a blog and make money if you do not host it. The design of your blog can be a put-off or an attraction to your audience. Does it appeal to readers? Or is it all mushed up? Various online hosting platforms help to start a blog and make money online. Some offer free hosting and others at a fee. Also, there are a variety of designs to choose from. This depends not only on your preference but also on your affordability. The pertinent is the identification of the features you desire for your blog.
Failure to achieve the right hosting provider for your blog is a problem. It hinders your ability to start a blog and make money. Various blogs and web hosting providers are competing for your business. This can make you dizzy. Factors like reliability, bandwidth, compatibility, and security act as guiding compass. Consider these as you decide on hosting. Additionally, check the hosting packages and what they mean to your blog.
- Are they shared or private?
- Do they offer an uptime guarantee?
- How long is the load time?
- Can they guarantee customer support?
The famous blogging platform is WordPress. It is easy to build up, as it requires no coding knowledge. Its features are creamy and easy to manipulate, especially for new bloggers. It has no limit to the topic and themes to choose from.
Market your blog and engage your readers
Having engaged readers is the surest way to start a blog and make money from it. Attracting the audience and retaining them is the strategy. Thus, it would help if you market your blog. This will attract traffic to your blog. Traffic means making money. The few posts of your blog should be good enough for the reader to return. Have marketing in mind. A blog does not make it popular. You have to market it and keep the readers engaged.
Search engines take longer to get people to see your blog. Referral traffic will get your blog known quicker. Tweet your blog. Ask family and friends to log into your blog. Seek out blog communities and market the blog. Enter Facebook and WhatsApp groups and post your topics. Once you have reached your audience, keep them engaged. How do you do this? Respond to their comments on the blog. Reach out to your readers yourself. Ensure that they are coming back to the blog again and again. The readers will afterward recommend a bigger following.
Monetize – start making money from the blog
Traffic for your blog is the foundation for income generation. But, it takes consistent dedication and improvement to make money on blogs. You do not have to pick a handful of ways to monetize your blog. They are various. Examples include advertising, affiliated marketing, and revenue (like coaching). Also, promoting products. Take the case of Problogger (2016). He developed a map listing of ways to monetize from a blog. Monetize from a blog
Source: Problogger (2016)
How much money income you can make from blogging will vary. The obvious being the efforts you make and the niche of your blog. Develop a monetization plan and strategy beforehand. Also, it takes a while to start earning. Therefore, practice patience. Blogging is like other businesses. Yet, there are profitable topics—finance, Love, romance and sex, luxury, and making money online.
Conclusion
In conclusion, blogging is a profitable business. It has zero investments. Without a doubt, you add value to the world through the web while making money for you. But, it does not come easy. It calls for passion in writing, consistency, and hard work. Besides, be willing to invest your time in marketing and feedback. This will attract your readers following. These tips on starting a blog and making money online are the necessary foundations for starting a blog.
