Gone are the days when you need to spend years to start a blog and expect it will grow big in near future. Gone also the days where people think that blogging is just another social media platform and there is no business behind it. We all know about the potential of blogging and its revenue-generating capabilities. All you need is a great blog having relevant and helpful content.
Bloggers who are serious about making money from their blogs always look for ways on how they could make it big fast using an existing blog without the huge expenses of building one from scratch. The objective of this article is to show bloggers exactly how they can achieve that within months even if they’re starting from zero.
1) Do some research before you start blogging
It may sound cliche but taking time to do some research on your chosen niche will save you tons of time, effort and frustration in long term. This is where many newbies go wrong while selecting a niche that has hardly any demand. There is a common saying that goes like this – “Pursue what you love, not just what’s trending”. This would work only if your chosen niche has sufficient searches on search engines or social media platforms.
Start by doing some keyword research using free tools like Google Adwords Keyword Planner (This tool is available in Adwords account). Check out monthly searches for keywords that are closely related to your blog topic and determine the number of people who will be visiting your blog regularly after it starts gaining popularity. Do this exercise for at least 20-25 keywords before finalizing the niche. After all, you’re building an asset for years to come so don’t make these decisions in haste.
2) Select a profitable business model
Blogging for money is not just about writing posts on your blog. It’s an online business model that has many responsibilities attached to it. You have to be careful about selecting the right blogging arbusiness model before starting your blog since it will determine how you monetize your blog in future and who are going to pay you. There are mainly two ways of making money using blogs namely – Affiliate marketing or Self-Hosted eCommerce.
Self-hosted eCommerce means, you’re selling physical products like t-shirts, mugs etc. on your own platform which is costly but gives better profit margins compared to affiliate programs. On the other hand, affiliate marketing means you’re promoting someone else’s product for a commission and you don’t have to deal with the headache of warehousing and logistics.
If you’re just starting a product-based blog you should go for Affiliate marketing as selling your own products will require lots of effort and expertise – things that are still missing from newbie bloggers. According to industry experts, affiliate programs generate higher ROI at the initial stages compared to self-hosted eCommerce sites. You can always come up with physical products later once your blog gains popularity.
3) Focus on quality content more than anything else
In order to make it big in blogging, you need great content that people would love reading. The internet is filled with tons of content even within a specific niche but only those which are high on quality stand out among the rest. Think of creating epic content which will be shared, liked and commented on various social media platforms by people outside your blog. Search engines love fresh and unique content more than anything else hence, it’s important to keep adding new posts regularly.
4) Leave no stone unturned for traffic generation
Traffic is the lifeblood of any blog. Most bloggers make mistakes of ignoring this fact completely while focusing too much on their favourite subject i.e Content creation. There are many ways you can bring high-quality traffic to your blog with minimum effort e.g Affiliate marketing, Social Media Marketing, Guest blogging, etc., but nothing beats organic search engine traffic when compared to other sources in terms of quality. You have already seen that people who come to your blog via search engines are more likely to leave behind an email. This is why SEO optimization should be your top priority when starting a new blog and you must follow all the best practices while setting it up for maximum traffic.
5) Keep learning and growing as a blogger
Don’t ever get carried away by the initial success of your blog. You have to keep working hard on various aspects of your blogging business model in order to stay ahead of other bloggers in the niche. It’s good if you’re having fun creating content but never relax until you become an authority figure in your chosen niche. There are many ways you can improve yourself as a blogger. Read other successful blogs within or outside your niche, take inspiration from others and implement them on your own blog, attend blogging conferences or seminars to learn valuable lessons from established bloggers etc.
6) Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme
There are bloggers who made it big in less than 6 months but they are the exception, not the rule. Most of us will take years before we start earning enough money to live our dreams. The best way to keep your spirits intact is by initially setting up realistic income targets and increasing them gradually. Too many expectations at the initial stages usually result in a mid-life crisis so do slowly while you’re still building your blog towards its true potential.
7) Don’t let lack of expertise stop you from starting a blog
The blogging industry has become highly commoditized these days with lots of players entering into this space within or outside their niche every day. This makes it more difficult for established bloggers to maintain their edge over others and many of them end up creating low-quality content with little or no value addition. This is where most newbies can make a profit as they usually come up with high-quality content which is unique and provide immense value to readers.
8) Don’t fall for all the gimmicks in this industry
Blogging has become a common career choice these days and everyone wants to cash in on the opportunity. There are lots of bloggers who make tall claims about blogging success but most of them hardly work hard or don’t know how to monetize their blogs effectively. Thus, it’s important for you to do some background checks before the following advice from people within or outside your niche.
9) Don’t try to copy other successful bloggers blindly
There is a huge learning curve between starting a new blog and becoming a successful blogger. So, if someone tells you that do what you do, you must not blindly follow his advice as he might be doing something completely opposite from what works for you. This is the reason why many bloggers fail miserably even after putting in huge efforts because they don’t know how to differentiate between quality and trash within or outside their niche.
10) Don’t let negative comments discourage you
It’s a common practice among some established bloggers who troll newbie’s blogs just for fun. They usually write a negative comment with a link to their own blogs without realizing that this will have little or no impact on your search engine rankings as it’s considered as an Internal Link. You should ignore such comments at the initial stages as there are lots of real readers who actually read your post and leave behind genuine comments.
11) Don’t be surprised if readers stop visiting your blog
Even some of the most popular bloggers on the Internet are facing this problem today. While there are millions of new blogs popping up every day on all existing web 2.0 properties, it’s getting increasingly difficult to attract organic traffic without spending a penny. Some bloggers also end up losing their loyal readers because they fail to regularly produce quality contents that can help them solve their problems or provide them immense value in terms of time and money. By not blogging regularly, you’re actually showing a lack of expertise which is detrimental to your brand image as well as business growth.
12) Don’t change directions mid-way
When you start blogging initially with a certain goal in mind, you should keep working towards it until you reach your desired point. Changing directions mid-way is the worst mistake that some bloggers make while blogging. If you have a hard time generating traffic for a particular niche, there could be many reasons behind it that aren’t suitable for this article. Make sure to ask yourself why people are not visiting your blog and try fixing those problems instead of completely changing the topic within a few months.
Blogging is a long process requiring lots of patience especially when you’re starting something completely new in an emerging market. If you want to generate long-term traffic for your blogs, you have to work hard in the initial stages by regularly producing high-quality content that readers love. We hope this article has given you some important advice on how to become a successful blogger within your niche. Feel free to share your thoughts with us and if you need assistance with any content writing services, we are here for you! Contact us today.
