How to start a blog (And Earn Money from It) by 2022
Blogs are just like opinions: Everyone has one. This is for a reason!
A well-designed blog full of informative content is among the most powerful marketing instruments available. It makes it clear to potential clients that you're an expert in your field and builds your online reputation. Media Centric SaaS Companies like Hubspot which maintain relevant, helpful blogs often have higher traffic levels than other major newspapers in their fields. That's massive.
In this article we'll explain why blogs are such an essential strategy for building brand awareness, before diving into the technical details of how to start your own blog. In the next article, we'll go through the most effective strategies that bloggers employ to make money from their blog, so you'll have an outline of how to turn your blog into an effective source of passive income. (Because anyone doesn't think about it!)
So let's dive in, and take you from zero to blogger superstar. There are a few shortcuts to follow that will allow you to get to a specific section:
The benefits of blogging
The benefits of having your website to show up higher on search engines, to building your brand's relationship with audiences There are several motives why each creator and company needs blogs.
The ability to increase traffic to your site
It's not necessary to go through terminology, but this technique is known as "inbound marketing. Blog about topics that the people actually are looking for and along this route, people will come across your company's name. That means you won't require advertising for your blog to be noticed. (That's outbound marketing!)
Conway says that after being vocal about controversial issues within his field and defending his position, he saw the "huge growth in visitors" and also increased his number of readers up to 20,000 per month. Now, he works alongside a group of freelancers who create amazing material. It's an approach you can copy, regardless of the industry you're in.
Getting discovered via social media
Content from blogs isn't only useful for driving users to your site- it can also be used to be used on social media. Through this method, you'll build your brand's audience and reach leads you wouldn't discover in other ways. It's easier to illustrate rather than explained. We'll dive into the details of an instance.
Suppose you sell lint rollers, and you write your own blog article about methods to remove cat hair from sofas. In-depth you discuss every method you can think of to get the cat from the place you lie. (Meow.) This post as well as the study that you have put into it form your foundation.
If you want to take things a step further, you could create an Twitter thread where you break down your hair removal strategies in under 280 characters. This is shorter, easier to digest and gives you access to a new audience. Additionally, you can build an Instagram-based video that highlights your top 5 tricks to keep the hair of cats off your sofas. If you're feeling adventurous, you could even film the video on TikTok video on how to use a make a professional lint roll.
Suddenly, that blog post doesn't seem like only a writing piece. It's actually a mini marketing strategy, with components you can spin off to help promote your brand's image through various channels. It's the blog post that's the place you'll need to spend longest. But once it's written there's a chance you'd miss out by not spending at least an hour creating it for the social media.
View this post on Instagram
Building your online reputation
Blogging is also an effective means to improve your reputation online and make yourself known as an authority on a particular topic. A good online brand is beneficial to solo entrepreneurs and large companies The content you write today will influence customers for long time to come.
Put simply: people prefer buying from companies who help them rather than unnamed corporate giants. The companies would rather employ consultants who are willing to give up some value up-front rather than consultants with no proof they'll deliver on their claim to deliver.
Consistent, high-quality blog content is how you give away the value of your blog and demonstrate your worth.
Long-term growth in business
Another massive benefit that blogging has is its capacity to generate long-term business for your brand. After you've written an article, it's yours alone (and it's up and running for a long time). You can update and republish the most important posts each year in order to ensure they're ranked well as well as people continue exploring your brand via your blog, all independently.
Best of all, the content you post on your blog will create the first impressions of you. When a customer or client is contacting you on the first occasion, they'll already be able to form a picture of you formed by reading your blog's posts. There's no need to introduce yourself, and you'll have the ability to concentrate on solving their issues and establishing relations with them.
Check out this post on Instagram
A blog post that is shared with (@)
How to begin a blog that will be successful in 2022
So now that you know the reasons why blogs are well-known, let's dive deep into the details regarding how to create your own successful blog. Since blogging has evolved a significant amount since the beginning of LiveJournal and TypePad -- to be effective by 2022, you have to establish a clear plan and strategy for your blog, right starting from the start.
1. Pick your niche
When you begin your blog, you'll need select the primary area you're going to focus on your blog's content. That's your niche.
If, on the other hand, you select a highly specific niche, nobody will ever be able to find you. Sure, you might be the biggest fish in the pond -- however, if there's no one else fishing in the pond so you can't be sure to see much business impact.
Imagine you're a tailor that loves making quilted replicas of album covers from the 1960s and 1970s. There's a chance that there's some people that want to view your Trout Mask Replica quilt. But if you're trying to get new customers to your business, you might consider writing a blog on sewing. Sewing is a wider field that has more customers looking for it.
With luck, there are a few steps you can take to identify a lucrative niche and one that isn't overly crowded, and that is sought-after by people. This is how to do it:
Consider your interests as well as your skills and experience.
Searching for a blog topic should begin with some serious self-reflection. You can ask yourself these three questions--and jot down some notepads as you go:
- What do you love to do? What can you discuss for hours?
- What knowledge or experiences could you impart or share with other people?
- In the field you're drawn to, what areas haven't yet been explored to death yet?
Most of the time you're in business, or have real-life hobbies will be the subject you want your blog to concentrate on. They are the areas in which you're already a subject-matter expert.
Being aware of your subject is absolutely crucial, because it takes time to develop the readership of your blog. If you're not passionate about the niche you've chosen for your blog it's likely that you'll experience an unending crisis, and then abandon your blog before you reach the year one mark. (And it won't be a pleasant experience (I promise you that). )
Look up Google Trends to find out how well-known your field is
Now that you've got an area of interest, you'll need to do some very basic study to find out what consumers are seeking in your niche. This part's way easier, and won't take the same amount of soul searching.
Go to Google Trends -- the most effective and free method to gauge traffic to search (a.k.a. the number of times that people search for a phrase in Google every month). Next, you should think of key keywords that are relevant to your niche. If you're in the field of photography, try phrases like "learning photography," "best photography cameras to beginners" and perhaps "photography." Put these terms into Google Trends, and you'll get a view of the volume of searches as they change over time.
And that's it, really. What the Google Trends study process is doing is reveal the routes people are using to reach your niche online. The research process can reveal trends in your field, as well as indicate whether your area of expertise is growing or shrinking.
This step can allow you to gut-check whether your niche is the right one. And if you're worried that your field is competitive to stand out, then keep looking -- it's an issue you'll be able to solve.
Find a sub-niche you can be the owner of
The blog's niche could be something already well-known, such as photographs, finance, or healthy eating. But if you ask yourself which niches aren't yet saturated it is possible to create something healthy which you could develop.
If, for instance, you're a photographer, then you might want to narrow down the overcrowded niche of photography down to the sub-niche that is studio photography. Let someone else write about landscapes with long exposures. Focus on lighting, setting up indoor photo shoots, and the must-have studio gear.
In this way it will appear that you are an expert at a certain profession. (Which can help make your company stand out too. Isn't that really the entire purpose?)
2. Choose a blog name
Once you've picked your niche (or sub-niche! ), it's time to select the name of your blog. The name you choose is what users will look for and recall, so it's important to choose something simple, memorable, and true to the brand you've created.
If you're choosing your name You'll need to think about the target readership, the topics which you'll be writing about and how your voice as a writer has to sound like.
With that background in mind, you're ready to pick names. There are many different names you could choose for your new blog:
Use your own name
Creative director Nathan Allebach uses his last name as the title of his blog and his communications company. This method has helped those who have read about his experience at Steak-Umm to discover his firm and become new clients.
On the flipside it is possible that this method of naming might not be suitable for teams or blogs that are focused on industry. If you're using a common name like John Smith, you may not be ranking well in Google. (But this is what middle names are for you know? )
Pick up a thesaurus
If your blog is focused on a particular field or industry, using your own name might pigeon-hole the blog. Instead, you might want to choose a more broad title which is representative of the kind of blog content that you're writing about.
This can be tricky, however, so make sure you get your closest thesaurus (or Thesaurus.com). The plan is to select certain industry terms you thought of earlier then plug them into the search engine and then search for keywords that are similar to them which you can make a base for the title of your blog.
As an example, a title like The Camera Blog feels generic therefore, you should take the phrase "camera" and type it into the online dictionary. There are related words like "lens," "mirror" and "35mm" -which suddenly sounds much more exciting.
They can be easily flipped to a brand new name which is appropriate for your blogfor example, Lens Tracker 35mm Mayhem and Mirrorless Magic. Any person searching for photos will recognize what your blog's about, and you won't vanish into the abyss of poorly-named blogs.
Create a blog's name generator
Another good strategy for naming your blog is by plugging certain keywords into a blog naming generator. Choose a couple of terms relevant to your business, and let a naming tool like BlogTyrant's complete the job. (This tool can also determine what domain names are in use. )
There's no greater proof of the power of name generators than the upcoming EGOT winners Childish Gambino. His stage name came via a Wu-Tang Clan name generator in the 2000s, which is still doing the rounds with it even a decade after. (It's active. Connect "Donald Glover" here, if interested. )
It's no shame in letting the robot assist you in brainstorming. So long as you get a good, original name, it doesn't be a problem no matter what you did to get the name.
3. Set up your blog hosting
Before you build your website, you'll have to setup hosting. This involves purchasing your domain as well as the address your blog audience will search for your blog's content.
Make sure to choose an established host. If you go with a bottom-of-the-barrel, extra-cheap hosting provider, your blog may see performance issues, such as lag time while loading. It's possible that you don't notice in the first place, but Google's search engine certainly will, this means that you'll be at risk of not showing up in the search results.
Hosting isn't expensive at all. Indeed, many hosting providers will only cost the cost of a few cups of coffee every month. They'll keep your blog up and running around the clock.
The 5 top hosting recommendations from our hosting providers (in no particular order): (in the order that is not specific):
4. Build your blog in the CMS. CMS
When you've got your own domain name, you're ready to build your own blog using an Content Management System, also called a CMS.
CMS platforms enable you to create your own web pages without having to code. The CMS is the place you'll use to create new pages, publish articles, and update old information in the near future. If you're a blogger choosing an CMS is like choosing a significant other -- so choose carefully.
The most well-known CMS system is WordPress, an open-source classic utilized by businesses of all sizes. There are plenty of excellent CMS options on the market, however. These are our top choices for you to start:
5. Create and publish the content
Once you've achieved having your CMS set up, your next step will be creating and publishing your content. Content creation is an issue on its own, and you could write us a whole book (or make you cry) about the strategy that goes into choosing the content to create.
Always need to consider these questions:
- Who are my ideal customers?
- What interests them -- and what problems do they have?
- What can I teach them?
This strategy will keep you from veering outside your field, creating off-brand content, and from covering topics that somebody previously covered. This will help you uncover intriguing, untold stories to bring to life for your audience. I wish you all the best in your writing!
6. Advertise your blog
After you've got your information that's out there The next thing to do is to promote it.
One of the first strategies we'd suggest is using blog content to create your social media accounts. Make a lengthy article the form of a carousel-style post on Instagram or create a deep dive thread on Twitter. Open your iPhone and record an TikTok that describes the major points of your article, and then direct people to your website to read the entire story.
This kills two birds by one stone. It solves the "what to post on Instagram" dilemma, as well as it drives people back to your blog article.
Apart from content reuse We also suggest that your website be searchable. This involves a little bit of SEO study however it's a rabbit hole that's really worth exploring. It's as simple as doing some keyword research, find important terms that rank high, and then incorporate them into your article.
This informs Google that the article addresses the issues that users are looking for, and it'll boost your organic visitors to the next step.
Making money from blogging using Four ways to make money blogging:
At this point, you've got your blog up and up and. Congrats! People are finding your content and it appears that they're truly enjoying the posts that you're posting.
So how do you actually make money from all the video content?
It's important to understand how content creators earn money:
- When you sell your content You earn revenue directly from users. If, for instance, your content is locked behind paywalls, or incorporated in an online class, you're selling your item.
- When you're trying to sell awareness to the public and using a third-party to meet their needs in marketing. Take your "word from our sponsors" part of your favorite podcast, or the links to your recipe site which lead you into Amazon products. These are examples of selling your listeners.
1. Place ads on your blog
Setting up Google AdSense (Google's advertising toolkit) for your blog is an excellent way to turn the clicks your blog is earning to cold, direct payments to your account at the bank.
What is the process? You make your blog available to Google's advertisers' network and allow ads to be displayed on your site. Ad impressions and clicks then make up a monthly AdSense payment.
AdSense is free to join. Eligibility criteria are minimal, and your advertising income will grow like your blog's also.
There's many types of AdSense advertisements, such as:
- Image ads: Graphic ads that come in a variety of sizes.
- Text ads: Adverts that are text-only which can show several or one offer.
- Ads with rich media comprise of video, HTML and flash ads.
- GIF ads: animated images ads.
If you find a certain ad type interferes with your blog content It is possible to swap it out for something less obtrusive. Also, if you're hoping to rack up the big bucks by selling lots of ads you can find ads that allow you to do this too.
2. Join an affiliate network
Affiliate marketing can be a reliable way to monetize your blog. The affiliate link you provide to products, and every time someone who has started their journey on your blog makes a purchase You earn a tempting commission fee.
You'll need to market the products your viewers are actually attracted to. Your readers on your home cooking blog probably isn't looking to buy a moisturizing products... however, they'll surely be intrigued by Crockpot suggestions. Select the correct products and you'll transform the affiliate advertisements for cast iron cookware into gold.
We know from experience that there is a lot of ambiguous information available concerning affiliate programs. Since we're interested, we've compiled a list of 8 reputable affiliate networks that you can join today:
- Instagram Affiliate
- FlexOffers
- AWIN (prev. Affiliate Window)
- Amazon Associates Program
- CJ Affiliate
- Affiliaxe
- Affiliate Program
- ShareASale
- Udemy Affiliates Program
3. Write sponsored posts
Sponsored posts are another great way to turn blog traffic into passive income -- especially when you have a loyal public. For a set cost, you'll incorporate advertisements for the product of a business into your blog posts.
The result is win-win. For you, the benefit is the money. For your sponsor, it's an authentic, third-party piece of content, which will promote their product (without appearing to be an empty advertising).
Sponsored posts can actually take a variety of forms that include:
- Blogs that are made by a sponsor who you share
- Written by you on behalf of a product or service sponsored by a sponsor
- Links to the sponsor's website or product pages
- A list of positive coverage of the company's product
- An announcement of a new product which provides a discount of a certain amount to blog users
It's vital to point out that, in the majority of cases it is possible to be asked to create content for sponsored companies. It's not a good idea to pursue advertisers, and in reality it can cause you to look desperate. Concentrate on creating good material that's distinctive within your field And, over time, they'll find you.
4. Offer online classes
Online courses are the fastest and most scalable method to generate revenue from your blog. Blog articles are a great opportunity to let people know about the personal brand or company you represent, but assembling your expertise into user-friendly courses is more beneficial. (And, it can be quite profitable!)
What's more, once you've created a course, the course is finished. There may be a need to revise the your course's content from time to time, but it's still an asset you can send your blog audience to forever. And if your blog becomes an authority within your field, your bank account could skyrocket. (No, really--we've seen it happen many times. )
View this post on Instagram
So, what's next?
If you've learned the steps to begin your own blog, you're likely to be seeking ways to transform your platform into a cash cow. As we've said before: the most efficient, fastest way to monetize your blog and earn the foundation for passive income is by developing tutorials.
That's where comes the role of. We help you earn money from your blog through repurposing your content into self-guided online classes and membership sites. Our easy-to-use course design platform helps coaches, educators, as well as digital content creators create unique, personalized eLearning courses and build sustainable online businesses.
Start for no cost and receive courses as well as marketing and sales tools you need to take your business up a notch. (No tech skills required! )