What are the best steps to start a blog for profit? Many bloggers start out with much enthusiasm only to find that their interest dwindles, and they give up blogging soon afterwards. Blogging is tough, and it takes considerable time and effort to see any financial reward through blogging. With that in mind, it’s best to get the foundations of your blog right, to reap the maximum benefits and ensure you’re in it for the long haul.
Steps To Start A Blog For Profit – What You’re “About”
It’s a good idea to choose a suitable blog topic early on, before you create your blog. Getting clear on what you’re going to write about is going to help you choose a topic. If you want to write about many things, that’s ok. Just be aware that a generic blog might not do as well as a specifically targeted niche blog for traffic, or a “micro’ niche blog, which is an even more specific topic again.
A “niche” blog is a blog built around a specific topic. Niche blogs can work well in generating traffic from the search engines, because they are built around specific keywords and stick to a specific topic closely. This website, autopilot money making software, has been built around specific keywords to help it rank on Google. You can see how this website was built from scratch around these keyword in this article: “create free website and earn money”.
Steps To Start A Blog For Profit – Finding Your Niche
Google’s search results are the key to getting people to your blog. Most new bloggers struggle getting visitors to look at their content. So when you’re starting out, it pays to do some research beforehand. Think about what you would most enjoy writing about. What do you love and have a passion for? Combining your passion to make money through blogging is a great way to earn a living. But you need to find your passion, and link it to a product or service you can offer your visitors.
Affiliate Products – Monetising Your Blog
Most passions and hobbies can be linked to affiliate products. So you don’t need to own any products of your own to make money from a blog. There’s thousands of affiliate products on the internet. To find a suitable product, you can do a Google search for affiliate programs in your niche area. Some bloggers will start with the product, rather than their passion. So it’s also a good idea to research products you have an affinity with. Ideally, choose to promote an affiliate product you would buy and recommend yourself.
When I started out learning about affiliate marketing and blogging, I promoted any old product, even if I knew nothing about it! This definitely isn’t a good idea. For starters, you can’t talk intelligently about a product you know nothing about. So you can’t blog about it. Also, the people you attract through your writing will often be like you. So if you genuinely recommend a product, chances are good that it’ll also be a good fit for your visitors and followers.
I recommend a product on my site. You can check it out by signing up to the free on-demand video series on this site.
Keyword Research – Or A Generic Blog
If you’re going to create a specific niche blog, it’s a good idea to checkout Google free keyword planner and look for keywords which offer traffic, but have low competition. To find these keywords takes a little digging. See the basic keyword strategy I use in this article on micro niche blog ideas.
A good good, targeted keyword in your domain can help you rank your site for a number of keywords. It’s not completely necessary, but it can help you get some traction from your site. If you’re not sure what you’ll write about, choose a generic name for your blog which could be your name, for example.
Build Your Own Website
Once you’ve chosen your domain name, you’ll need to purchase a hosting account. You can do this for less than $10 a month and a domain should only cost you $10 or less if you choose wisely! See create website and earn money to see a break down of building your website from nothing.
It’s important to buy a domain name and host your own site. Without your own website, you’ll need to use a free domain or a free blogging website. These definitely aren’t recommended if you want to monetise your blog for a couple of reasons:
- Google don’t tend to rank free blog sites and free hosted sites well, or at all
- Free blogging sites often don’t allow certain affiliate links
- Your site won’t look as professional
- You won’t be able to target specific keywords in your domain, or make it as personal to you
However, if money is an issue and you want to get started to “dip your toe in”, using a free blogging site can help you get some movement. See get paid for advertising online without a website for more on this topic.
Monetising Your Blog
There’s two main ways to monetise your blog. But before you think about this step, it’s a good idea to spend some time building content on your site. If you monetise too quickly, Google can peg you as a spammy affiliate and give your site less authority. Many bloggers wait until they have built up a following and good amount of traffic before putting any affiliate links on their site to avoid damaging their authority in the eyes of Google.
Affiliate Links
If you’ve found an affiliate program, you’ll be given specific links you can place within your text as you write. Or you can place affiliate banners on your site too, to link through to your products. Ideally choose products which are a good fit for your content, otherwise, you won’t make any sales. Ideally, avoid placing too many affiliate links in your content for the first few months. As mentioned already, Google aren’t keen on affiliates, particularly if their links take up more space than their content! That signals a “spammer” to Google!
Opt-In Forms
Opt in forms are a good alternative to directly linking to affiliate products. You can place them on your site to encourage visitors to opt in to your email list. From your list you can then promote your products. This can be a more subtle way to sell products, and potentially more “under the radar” to Google bots. To get an opt in form and start building an email list of subscribers, you’ll need an autoresponder. This is a piece of software which collects your visitors email addresses from your site, and can deliver a number of automated messages to them.
Building a list of subscribers is definitely the best way to monetise a website or blog. Selling things directly from a blog is difficult. Your visitor only has a short time to make a buying decision. But if you collect their email address, you can send them emails and keep in touch with them for much longer. This extends the time period with which a blog visitor can make a purchasing decision.
Alternate Monetisation
Another way to monetise your blog, apart from using affiliate products, is through Google’s Adsense program. Adsense lets you place code on your blog which is converted into advertisements. When visitors click on your adverts, you make a small commission based on the advertising fee Google charges the advertiser. You’ll only earn tiny amounts from each click, but if you have thousands of visitors this can add up. Plus it’s a passive source of income.
Recap – Steps To Start A Blog For Profit
- Consider what you’d like to blog about.
- Choose a blog domain name which reflects this
- Build your site
- Create content which is a good match for your audience and products
- Monetise with affiliate products and/or advertising
- Keep creating quality content and link to your content from other blogs.
- See create free website and earn money for more info.
Steps To Start A Blog For Profit – Disclaimer
Once you decide to start a blog, you’ll probably be full of enthusiasm for it. Over time this can wane however. This is why it’s a good idea to choose a topic you love. If you’re super passionate about your topic, you’re much more likely to enjoy the process of writing. If you do, you’ll be able to sustain it for long enough to see some results. This is pretty important because if you don’t, it’s easy to lose your mojo and quit!