If you think of blogging as a hobby, you need to know that it is can be a money-making business just like any other. Here is how to make a living blogging.
Incase you have been asking yourself,
The article features how to set up a blog, promoting a blog, and selling your products online. You will also learn how to create an online store and how to drive traffic to your eCommerce store.
While blogging is a fulfilling hobby for many, it is also a money-making venture. Previously, bloggers expressed their interest and passion by blogging on particular subjects.
Today, blogging is a side-hustle for some bloggers and full-time career for some. It is possible to earn an income from blogging if done the right way.
Many bloggers have earned thousands of dollars from blogging, and you can earn as much money too. If you want to master how to make a living blogging, read on.
Herein are pointers to help you set up your blog, monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, sell your products online and drive traffic to your eCommerce store.
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Setting Up Your Blog
It is crucial to identify your reasons for starting your blog. Ideally, blogs are used to educate, inform, promote, and sell products, but only if your intentions are clear from the beginning.
What does this mean?
No matter the purpose, monetizing your blog is vital. You want to make money after putting so much effort into creating an excellent blog. The following are the simple guidelines you can follow when creating a blog
- Choose a perfect niche
- Select a blogging platform
- Choose your domain name
- Choose a web hosting platform
- Select a design and customize your blog
- Write content and promote your blog.
Choose A Perfect Niche
Having said that,
You need to identify a profitable blogging niche and identify your target audience. A niche is a topic that your blog specifically addresses often or exclusively.
You also need to select a niche that you have interests, skills, or experience. That will help you personalize your blog, and it will stand out among your competitors.
Besides, you will have quality content for your readers, given that you are passionate about the topics.
Select A Blogging Platform
There are several blog sites, and you need to establish the ideal platform to use. There are free and self-hosted platforms that you can select.
- Free Platforms
- Self-hosted domains
Free Platforms
A majority of new bloggers are attracted to free platforms such as WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger. However, there are cons of using these platforms.
For instance,
They have full ownership of your name, and you are subject to their restrictions and rules.
Therefore,
If you want to make money out of your blog, they might prohibit you from placing ads, or they might place their ads. Advertisements are one way of making money, and restrictions might reduce your earnings.
That is a challenge that you might want to avoid if you wish to see your blog to flourish.
Self-hosted Platforms
Self-hosted tools enable you to run your blogs using your domain. You fully own your blog and all its content, and there are no restrictions.
It only costs some little cash a month to pay a hosting company. Such companies will also help you run an eCommerce blog, and you can sell your services and products.
Choose Your Domain Name
Your domain name is your online identity and unique internet address. Users will type your domain/URL to find your blog.
On the other hand,
You should ensure that it is unique and simple for search engines to discover you quickly. It is recommended that you use the ‘dot com’ extension, although other extensions such as ‘dot me’ and ‘dot net’ might work.
Turns out
Selecting a domain name is simple, as you can simply choose what you like. You can also use domain name finders such as Bluehost and you can select a free domain name. You can get ideas through the research and finally make a decision.
Choose a web hosting platform
What next?
After choosing a domain name, you need a web hosting service. Blog hosting determines the functionality and performance of your website.
The host is the storage location of your files online and ensures that your readers can access your blog anytime.
The wrong web host can result in many problems making your blog unattractive. Therefore, you must choose a reliable service provider.
If possible, work with companies that offer both domain registration and web hosting services.
That makes it easy to manage and maintain your blog as opposed to working with different companies.
There are various web hosting platforms, and you need to do sufficient research and choose one that works for you.
Select A Design And Customize Your blog
Once you have a great platform, you can select the blog design you want. You can use free theme templates or choose premium or custom-made designs.
From here,
You can customize your blog accordingly, and you are ready to go. All that is remains is to launch your blog and start posting.
Write content and promote your blog.
It is essential to write compelling content so that your readers keep coming back to your blog. Your content must be well structured and appealing to your target audience.
Also, it should be easily accessible to readers. Most importantly, it should be commercially purposed but not centred.
Do not bombard your readers with pop up ads and marketing language as this is a turn-off. Let them know that you have a solution to their problems, and you are not after their hard-earned cash.
Blog content is not limited to written content only. You can include video and audio content as well as a combination of the various forms that attract viewers.
This is because they have more than one way of getting knowledge. However, some types do well than others. Hence, study your audience and determine what stands out for them.
Promoting your blog
By now your blog is ready. Promoting your blog is the next step.
Writing quality content draws your audience. However, you can post the most persuasive copy and have an excellent blog design, but that does not matter if people do not see your blog.
Therefore, it is vital to market and promotes your blog by engaging your current and future readers. The following are some promotion strategies that you can use.
- Submit your blog to search engines
- Send your blog to bookmarking websites
- Tell your friends about your blog
- Stay active in your niche
- Be active on social media
- Critique other relevant blogs
- Engage in guest blogging
- Build your email list
- Utilize paid traffic
Submit Your Blog To Search Engines
Submitting your blog to search engines helps your blog to be indexed and only takes a few minutes.
To send your URL on Google, go to your Google account and click the ‘Submit URL’ option from the Webmaster tools. You can also follow defined procedures for you to submit your URL to Bing and other search engines.
Send Your Blog To Bookmarking Websites
Bookmarking websites such as Reddit can present your content to potential readers that are searching for information within your niche. You should submit every new blog you post to such websites to get your content out there.
Tell Your Friends About Your Blog
You need to let everyone in your circle know about your blog. You can achieve this by including your URL and blog name in your email signature and list them on all of your social media pages. Use every opportunity you get to spread the word.
Stay Active In Your Niche
It is vital to be active on forums, social pages, and relevant blogs. You can join blogging communities as they are a great way of connecting with other bloggers in your niche.
That way, you can exchange ideas, build networks and friendships and help spread each other’s blog content.
Be Active On Social Media
You need to utilize social media networks to reach as many clients as you can. Select a few platforms that match your needs and leverage them to enable you to achieve your goals.
Critique Other Relevant Blogs
You need to comment on relevant blogs as this is an excellent way of building relationships with prominent bloggers in your niche. That will make them and their audience to feel your relevance, and they can relate to your brand or topic.
Engage In Guest Blogging
You can go the extra mile and write guest posts for other sites. Ensure that your content is posted on reputable websites and that your content relates to your niche. That is an excellent way of building an online presence.
Build Your Email List
You need to collect the email addresses of new readers and existing ones. That way, you can send them notifications about new content and offers. Through regular briefing and communication, your audience will get to trust you and respond to your promotional efforts.
Utilize Paid Traffic
You can use well informed paid media to gain exposure before your naturally derived traffic builds. Avenues such as Google AdWords, Mediavine, AdThrive, and Google AdSense are excellent examples.
These advertising platforms use PPC (Pay Per Click) method, where you pay them to display your ads on Google search result pages. These ads show up at the top or bottom of Google SERPs (search engine results page). You can also run paid ads on social media.
Advantages Of Paid Advertising
Paid ads achieve precise targeting. You can make sure that your ad only reaches potential customers as you can filter based on age, geographical location, keywords, and more. You can also choose when you want your ad to be aired.
Another advantage is that you can target specific devices. You can choose your ads to be run to a particular audience using desktops, mobile devices, or tablets. Also, you only pay when a viewer clicks your link.
Most importantly,
The tools allow you to track your ad performance. You can monitor the number of viewers that view or click your advert.
You can also know the number of visitors that perform the desired action after visiting your website. That will help you see what ads are working better than others, and you can make changes accordingly.
How To Make Cash Blogging
Now let’s address the cow in the house.
Blog monetization entails translating all your blog activities into earnings. However, note that blogging is not all about making cash but creating compelling content that attracts readers and makes them thirsty for more.
Only after creating excellent content for a period and keeping your niche audience engaged should you consider including content that will make you money in your blog.
By this time,
You will probably have a significant number of subscribers and followers. Given that about 61% of online sales are due to blog recommendations, your blog could turn into a profitable venture.
There are several blog monetization channels that you can use. You should choose a channel that suits your needs perfectly.
Here are the most common channels.
- Affiliate marketing
- Creating your online store
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has become a popular channel of making money from blogs. It entails promoting products for merchants through affiliate links, and you get a commission if a sale is made by clicking these links.
You need to enroll in an affiliate program and use your blog to promote these products.
However, it is crucial to note that affiliate sales rely on the traffic that your blog attracts.
Therefore,
The more the traffic, the higher the chances of making a sale. Additionally, you must be credible so that your visitors can trust you enough to click your links. To achieve this, you should consider notifying your audience that you are using affiliate links to keep the process transparent.
Also, you must create content that is compelling to your visitors so that they can click your links. You can create how-to guides or simple product descriptions.
You can also share experiences of using the product or create demonstration videos. If you are dealing with digital products or products, then including images to your content would be a good idea.
This information aims to make the viewer relate to the product as much as possible and prompt them to click your affiliate link.
There are many affiliate programs that you can register, such as ShareASale, Amazon, ClickBank, and others
Choosing An Affiliate Program
When joining an affiliate program, it is vital to join one that has products within your niche. Secondly, understanding their terms is critical.
It is also good to know the commission rate offered, payment schedules, payment methods, the type of products you can sell, as well as the operation scope.
Each program has different terms, and you need to do your research well and identify a program that will make you wealthy fast.
You also need to visit their websites and read their terms and conditions. Additionally, read the reviews of each program online and establish what other affiliates think of the program.
That way, you will get to know the upside and downside of the programs and make an informed choice. It would also be useful to stick to reputable programs that have earned an excellent reputation due to their quality services.
Creating Your Online Store
It is crucial to create an online store to make the most out of affiliate marketing. Online stores enable you to reach out to people across the world, and your products can reach them easily.
Through SEO, customers can quickly locate your products and services. Similarly, setting up an online shop will cost you less than a physical shop. You can also monitor the performance of your store and make updates or changes anytime you want to.
There are various website-creating platforms such as Wix and SquareSpace, that you can use to create an online store. However, you need to have an active website or blog. You can use them to set up a customized store in a few minutes.
How To Drive Traffic To Your eCommerce Store
Writing quality web content is one thing while attracting visitors, and maintaining traffic are another. Out of the millions of stores online, there are only a few thousand that attract high traffic.
You want to be among these thousands so that your store earns you cash. Here is how to drive traffic to your eCommerce store.
- Choose an appealing design
- Ensure that you have products for your niche
- Do keyword research
- Ensure that your content is SEO-friendly
Choose An Appealing Design
Ensure that you select an online store design that appeals to your users. The design should be professional but user-friendly as well to allow buyers to navigate easily.
Ensure That You Have Products For Your Niche
It is essential to sell products that are relevant to your market niche. When customers are searching for products, they want those that belong in specific categories.
It would be unwise to include products that do not fall under your niche as your website can record high a bounce rate. That could hurt your sales in the future.
Do Keyword Research
You need to identify targeted keywords for your site content. You can use tools such as KWFinder, Google keyword planner, and others.
They help you estimate the requests and amount entered by users in search engines per month. This data should help you choose keywords that are most relevant to your website.
Ensure That Your Content Is SEO-Friendly
It is critical to consider SEO and ensure that your website has long-form and evergreen content. According to a study by serpIQ, lengthy content usually has higher search engine results.
Evergreen content is an excellent example and keeps readers intrigued long after the publishing date. Additionally, people like tutorials, and it would be good to have a few tutorial videos for products. That increases the sharing rate, and your store might record more visitors.
Also, your store design should be responsive, and the loading speed should be optimized. You can also use keywords in product descriptions, optimize images and use outbound links where necessary.
Running Advertisements On Your Blog
You can run advertisements on your blog seamlessly and make cash. You can run ads that relate to your blog content or ads that serve your advertiser’s needs. Some of the popular choices for running ads are Mediavine, Google Adwords, Google AdSense, and Adthrive.
A good examples of advertisements that you can run include;
- Selling products and services
- Online courses
- eBooks
- Coaching
- Software
- Sponsored posts
Selling Products And Services
You can use your blog for selling products and services. You can get good results, especially if your blog has authoritative content and is accessible.
You can also integrate your blog with various plugins, for example, the WooCommerce plugin that has a cart, product pages, secure payments, checkout, and many more. There are multiple products that you can sell and make money.
Online courses
You can create online courses quickly and start earning from them. You can analyze your posts and pick the top ten.
Then,
Use these topics to develop the course content. After that, produce video tutorials and upload them on online course platforms such as Thinkific.
Once the courses are live, you can add a tab ‘Online courses’ to your website for viewers to find it quickly. The tab should take users directly to your course. You can also add checkout widgets and add a ‘Call to enroll’ action.
eBooks
You can get the existing content from your blog and offer it to buyers as a downloadable eBook. You can sell the eBook independently if you have a commercial platform, or you can sell it elsewhere.
For instance, Amazon offers the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), and you can publish your eBook directly to the Kindle store.
Coaching
Selling coaching services online requires strategy. Viewers will want to know if you have the skills and experience to handle their issues.
Hence, ensure that your blog highlights this. You should also mention the type of clientele you work with and the problems they face.
Additionally,
List the topic of your coaching program on your site. You want your clients to know what they can gain and the skills you can help them develop or the problems you will help them to overcome.
Above all, be transparent and list your fees on your site. That will compel customers to purchase your program.
Software
Selling your software from your website can be difficult but possible with the right guidelines. You can provide videos of how the software works, a product feature/ benefits comparison, offer money-back guarantees, and get third-party product reviews.
It would be advisable to give interested buyers a free trial version for them to test and determine whether it works well.
Sponsored Posts
You can get paid by advertisers for placing sponsored posts on your blog. The posts promote the advertiser’s products, and you can earn from them.
Also, when your blog becomes authoritative in your niche, the advertisers can pay you to publish their posts.
Conclusion
From the information above,
There is no doubt that you now know how to make a living blogging. You only need to know how to create your blog, monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, sell your products online and drive traffic to your eCommerce store.
How do bloggers get paid?
Most bloggers get paid by placing ads on their websites. The most popular ads are CPC and PPC.
How much money can you make from a blog?
Most bloggers earn between $0.01-$0.10 per page view. So the ore the page view the more one can earn
Is blogging still profitable in 2020?
The simple answer is yes. Blogging has shifted from being a hobby to a source of income.
Where do I start blogging?
The first step is choosing a niche, then get a blog, customize your blog, write and publish content and then promote your blog.