Starting a blog has never been easier and thousands of people around the country earn a full-time living with their blogs. Unfortunately, too many people hear about this and assume that they can just start a random blog and make money if they work hard enough. The reality is that having a blog that makes consistent profits can be very difficult, especially when considering how crowded the blogging space is. This is why you need to have a clear idea of what it means to be a professional blogger before you start a blog. Let’s take a look at a few things you need to know before you start blogging for a living.
It’s About Much More Than Just Writing
Just having a passion for a subject or even being a great writer won’t be enough for you to be a successful blogger. You’ll need to develop some technical skills as well. You need to know what search engines are looking for in a site first, and know how to build a blog that will get maximum visibility on them, or at least get indexed. You also have to be ready to spend time analyzing the activity on your blog down to the last detail so you can adjust your content creation strategy properly.
You also can’t have a “build it and they’ll come” mentality with a blog. You can’t expect your blog to be discovered among a sea of other comparable blogs out there just because the content is good. You’ll need to do a lot of groundwork and get active in your community. You’ll need to network with other bloggers, make your presence felt in comment sections, and have content in different formats spread across various platforms. So, be ready for the hard work that lies ahead.
You Can’t Rely on Ads Only
Most successful blogs don’t make money solely from ads. Some sell products and services, while others will use a combination of affiliate and email marketing to earn a profit, among other things. For instance, some blogs will post reviews of certain products and have affiliate links embedded in them, allowing the owner to make money every time someone makes a purchase after following the link. Alternatively, they will simply post sponsored posts.
This is why you need to learn about monetization methods and try to use as many as possible for your blog. You should try to be original too. Some blogs, for instance, use apps like Coupon Plugin IO to display deals tailored to their audience and make commissions every time someone uses a coupon code to redeem an offer. If this is something you think could work in your blog, you can get couponplugin.io here.
You Don’t Need to Pump Out Loads of Content
One common mistake people make when they first start blogging is thinking that they have to produce loads of content for their blogs to get noticed. In reality, successful blogging is about working smarter, not faster. Google used to give lots of credence to fresh content, but this changed when they realized people were trying to game the system by releasing tons of rubbish content every day. In reality, you don’t even have to post on your blog weekly for it to get traction. You could post once or twice per month and still get tons of traffic if your off-blog strategy is good and you know how to create content people engage with and want to link to, so focus on that instead.
These are all things you need to look at before you start building a blog. Try to keep your expectations realistic for your first one and use this opportunity to learn and refine your craft.
