5 Top Tips For How To Start a Blog and Make Money
Can you make money blogging? YES! Lots of people already do. If you want to succeed at it, here are my 5 tips to help you know how to start a blog and make money from it, part time or full time.
Lots of people blog and some write great stuff, but that isn't always enough to drive large numbers of visitors to your blog so that you can make a decent income from it.
So here's how to get started, get those vital visitors & how to monetize your blog so you can start making money through blogging.
Lots of people blog and some write great stuff, but that isn't always enough to drive large numbers of visitors to your blog so that you can make a decent income from it.
So here's how to get started, get those vital visitors & how to monetize your blog so you can start making money through blogging.
First Steps to Start Blogging Make Money
Before we go into the 5 tips to make money online blogging, here are the very first steps you need to take if you are new to blogging:
I have learned through experience that it's better to pay for your blog hosting as you then have full control - in the case of Blogger, it's free which means Google can delete your blog should they so choose (it happened to me). |
5 Tips To Make Money From Your Blog
In case you just want to know how to actually get an income from your blog, Tip 5 is all about how to monetise your blog.
1 Make your blog about a niche subject.
Why? Because to make money through blogging quickly you will find that it's relatively easy to dominate a small niche subject, but it's very hard to do well in a broad market where there is a ton of competition. I liken it to being a big fish in a small pond. It's better than being a small fish in an ocean full of sharks!
What is a niche subject? Well, here are a few examples. If your subject was 'best golf courses in Costa Del Sol Spain' then that would be a niche subject compared to simply 'golf' or 'golf courses in general, which is a very broad subject.
If your subject is dogs, then focus on one aspect of dogs such as a particular breed, or dog accessories, or how to train a dog. That would be your niche in the dog market. Often, the narrower the niche, the better. I know how tempting it can be to go for a big subject with the hope of dominating it and making huge amounts of money.
Use this to help you find a profitable niche.
Realistically though, it's unlikely unless your content is so amazing that tons of people share your blog using social media and you get masses of referred traffic.
2 Do keyword research
Why are keywords important for success with blogging? Well, so that your blog posts focus on good (high demand, low supply) keywords which, if you get to the top of the search engines, will bring you lots of traffic. There's no point being on Page 1 of Google for a keyword that no-one is looking for! And there's no point trying to rank for a keyword which is already over-used. It will take too long (maybe forever!)
You will need to use a good keyword tool. I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough. If you use the wrong keywords, even in a niche, you may never get enough traffic to your blog to make any income.
For example, let's say your blog is about dog training. You may think that the keyword 'dog training' is the best one to use. But a keyword tool will tell you whether there are already too may blogs and websites using that keyword. And it will also bring up all the related keywords in your niche, and show you which ones have been overlooked by many others.
You may find your best keyword will be something like 'best way to train my dog' or 'how to train my dog fast'.
You will also be able to find lots more keywords that you can use throughout your blog - after all, no-one will get enough traffic from one keyword alone!
The nice tool I mentioned above is also a very useful keyword tool as it enables you to find long tail keywords that no-one else is ranking for: Click here
Here's the thing - if you can find keywords very few others are using, it won't take much work for you to rank for them. And when you do, the income rolls in.
Can you make money blogging without keyword knowledge and usage? Yes, but you will be totally depending on social media sharing so your blog will need to be amazing...
3 Make the content really interesting and useful.
To make money online blogging, it's no good throwing together a poor quality blog. You could get away with that many years ago, but not now. The content needs to be as good as you can make it. And I don't just mean with the words you use, but add in relevant images, videos and so on. There are 2 reasons for this.
The first is, why would you waste your blog visitors time with rubbish content? They won't stay long, they won't revisit and they are unlikely to buy from you.
The second is, if they DO like your content they are very likely to revisit you, recommend you via social sharing and also to buy from you. You can get huge amounts of visitors this way. Your content could go viral and that's the best kind of free online traffic that there is!
4 Get great backlinks.
It's hard to beat the competition without them. Make sure they are one-way links and good quality or you will sink back down those search engine results to be lost without trace! They don't like spammy links. Have good quality links in the first level, pointing to your site (you don't need a large number) and then LOTS of less quality links pointing at the good quality links.
Now, you could get plenty of backlinks and visitors to your blog just from social media. Share every post to your Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest account for example.
Now for the best bit: You've started your blog, followed the tips above -
Now, how can I make money?
5 Blogging make money - Monetise your blog with any or all of the following:
Remember that if you blog about a subject you know well and love, you will create a better blog that people will enjoy and come back to again and again.
Doing blogging to make money is one of the lowest cost and fun ways to make money online but it takes time. I recommend you run it alongside one of the other methods I mention on my home page if you need a faster income.
I wish you happy and prosperous blogging!
To make money online blogging, it's no good throwing together a poor quality blog. You could get away with that many years ago, but not now. The content needs to be as good as you can make it. And I don't just mean with the words you use, but add in relevant images, videos and so on. There are 2 reasons for this.
The first is, why would you waste your blog visitors time with rubbish content? They won't stay long, they won't revisit and they are unlikely to buy from you.
The second is, if they DO like your content they are very likely to revisit you, recommend you via social sharing and also to buy from you. You can get huge amounts of visitors this way. Your content could go viral and that's the best kind of free online traffic that there is!
4 Get great backlinks.
It's hard to beat the competition without them. Make sure they are one-way links and good quality or you will sink back down those search engine results to be lost without trace! They don't like spammy links. Have good quality links in the first level, pointing to your site (you don't need a large number) and then LOTS of less quality links pointing at the good quality links.
Now, you could get plenty of backlinks and visitors to your blog just from social media. Share every post to your Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest account for example.
Now for the best bit: You've started your blog, followed the tips above -
Now, how can I make money?
5 Blogging make money - Monetise your blog with any or all of the following:
- Products or a service you sell or ebooks. Your blog might be about golfing tips so you could sell any golf related items from actual golf clubs or golf clothing to ebooks and dvd's about how to play a better golf game. You may be a personal trainer so your blog might be about keeping fit and you could then attract clients who want a personal trainer. You could also sell ebooks about keeping fit or fitness workout dvd's. Look for affiliate products to do with fitness Perhaps your blog is about healthy eating. You could create an ebook of your best recipes and sell that from your blog. Or find affiliate products about healthy eating/recipes - you get the idea!
- Google adsense ads or similar (eg infolinks) Simply log into Google.com/adsense and follow the simple steps to get the ad code to place on your blog. Basically you just add this code to your blog and get paid every time someone clicks on those ads. Google ensure the ads are relevant to your blog's subject. That income can really add up once you are getting lots of visitors to your blog. Personally I would wait till you are getting decent traffic until you put the ads on, else they will just sit there making diddly squat! This is an easy way for anyone to be making money through blogging.
- Affiliate links. Make money online blogging as an affiliate. This is where you sell other people's products via a coded link or coded banner that you add to your blog. Let's say the product sells for $100. You could make as much as 75% commission (depending on the affiliate company) just for getting the sale. You don't need to buy or send out products so it's very cost and time effective. You can find out lots more about affiliate links here: Affiliate marketing
- Amazon affiliate links I have made this a separate point as Amazon is such a massive marketplace that you could just monetise your blog with: Amazon links, Amazon widgets. Check out my make money with Amazon page for further details.
- Sponsored ads. As an example, let's say your blog is about life in your part of the world eg California. I am sure that local hotels and businesses like restaurants would be interested in advertising on your blog once you are getting a decent amount of traffic to your blog. Or maybe your blog is about fixing cars - which garages or car parts suppliers might want to pay to advertise their services on your blog. Maybe you blog about beauty tips - approach online companies that sell beauty products to advertise with you. In other words, approach relevant companies, or put an advert on your blog inviting relevant companies to advertise/sponsor your website. It could say something like: 'Like to advertise your business here on our high traffic blog?' and could link through to a contact page where they can get in touch with you for costs.
The thing to remember to successfully do blogging make money is this:
Focus on creating a great blog first, then on getting traffic (those 2 are interlinked obviously) and then on monetising.
Remember that if you blog about a subject you know well and love, you will create a better blog that people will enjoy and come back to again and again.
Doing blogging to make money is one of the lowest cost and fun ways to make money online but it takes time. I recommend you run it alongside one of the other methods I mention on my home page if you need a faster income.
I wish you happy and prosperous blogging!