How to Create a Blog (And Earn Money from It) by 2022
Blogs can be described as opinions. Everybody has one. And for good reason!
A properly designed blog with informative content is among the most powerful advertising methods available. It shows potential customers you're an expert in your field and builds your online reputation. It also shows potential customers that you're a media Centric SaaS Companies like Hubspot who maintain active, useful blogs even end up with more traffic than the key media publications in their industries. That's massive.
In this piece, we'll break down why blogs are an important strategy to build brand recognition, before diving into the details of what you need to do to create a blog. We'll then go over the core strategies bloggers use in order to earn money for their blogs, so you'll have the steps to transform your blog into an effective source of passive income. (Because anyone doesn't think about it!)
Let's get started, and take you from zero to blogger superstar. Here are some shortcuts that will allow you to jump ahead specific section:
The advantages of blogging
From getting your website to show up higher in search results, and to helping build your brand's bond with audiences -- there are many reasons why every creator and company needs the blog.
The ability to increase traffic to your site
We won't go deep into 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 discover your name. That means you won't require advertising for your blog to be noticed. (That's outbound marketing!)
Conway later says that by taking a stand on controversial issues within his field and defending his position, he saw the "huge increase in traffic" and increased his audience to over 20,000 readers per month. Now, he works with a network of freelancers who produce great articles. That's a model you can copy, regardless of the field you work in.
Getting discovered via social media
Content from blogs isn't only useful to bring visitors to your site -it could also be used to be used on social media. This will help you build your brand's audience and connect with leads that you would not discover otherwise. It's easier to illustrate as opposed to explained. So we'll take a look at an example.
Suppose you sell lint rollers in the form of your own blog article about methods to get rid of cat hair off couches. Then, you go into detail and write about every possible way to take the feline from the place you lie. (Meow.) The post you wrote and the work you put into it are the foundation of your work.
If you want to take things a step further, you can make your own Twitter thread in which you break down the strategies you use to remove hair within a mere 280 words. This is shorter, easier to digest as well as allowing you to reach out to a new public. You could also create an Instagram carousel that highlights your top 5 tricks to keep cats off of sofas. If you're up for a challenge You could also create the video on TikTok tutorial on how to make a professional lint roll.
The blog post becomes more than only a writing piece. It's actually a mini marketing strategy, with components you can spin off to help promote your brand's image on different social channels. It's the blog post that's your best bet to devote the majority of your time. Once you've written it, you'd be missing out in the event that you don't invest an hour or two spinning it out for the social media.
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Building your online reputation
It is also a great way to build your online profile and make yourself known as a subject matter expert. An online presence that is well-established and trustworthy can be beneficial for entrepreneurs who are solo and large companies, and the content created today could be influential for many long time to come.
Put simply: people prefer buying from companies who help them rather than corporations that aren't transparent. The companies would rather employ consultants who offer a certain amount of value up-front rather than consultants that don't provide any evidence they'll deliver on their claim to deliver.
A consistent, top-quality blog is the way to give away the value of your blog and demonstrate that you are worth it.
Long-term growth in business
A major benefit of blogging is its ability to create long-term revenue for your company. When you've published a blog piece, you're the sole author of it (and it's up and running for a long time). You are able to edit and publish 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 independently.
Most importantly, your blog posts will form your first impressions on people. If a client or customer is contacting you on the first occasion, they'll have an impression of you formed by reading your blog posts. There's no need to introduce yourself, and you'll have the ability to focus on solving their problems and building relations with them.
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How do you create a profitable blog by 2022
Now that you understand the reasons why blogs are popular, let's get deep into the details about how to start an effective blog. Because blogging has changed quite a bit since the days that were LiveJournal and TypePad -- to be prosperous by 2022, you have to establish a clear plan and strategy for your blog, right at the beginning.
1. Pick your niche
Before you start your blog, you need select the primary topic you'll focus the content you write about. That's your niche.
If, on the other hand, you choose a narrow area, no one will find you. You might be the most powerful fish in a small pond -- however, if there's no one else fishing in the pond so you can't be sure to see much business impact.
Imagine that you're a tailor who enjoys making quilted copies of album covers of the 1960s and the 1970s. There's a chance that there's some people that want to see the Trout Mask Replica quilt. If you're looking to find new customers for your company, you may consider writing a blog on quilting. Sewing is a wider field with more potential customers searching for this type of information.
With luck, there are a couple of steps to take to find a profitable niche -- one that's not very crowded or that people are searching for. Here's how you do it:
Think about your passions or skills as well as business
The search for the perfect blog topic should begin by re-evaluating your own self. You can ask yourself these three questions--and jot down some notepads when you're done:
- What are you passionate about? do? What can you discuss all day?
- What knowledge or experience could you teach or share with other people?
- Within the niche you're drawn to, what areas haven't yet been explored until death?
The majority of the time, your business or real-life passions will be the niche you want your blog to be focusing on. These are areas where you already have a wealth of knowledge.
The importance of knowing your market is absolutely crucial, because it will take time to grow your blog's readership. If you're not passionate about the subject matter of your blog it's likely that you'll experience an identity crisis and leave it before hitting the year-mark. (And it won't be a pleasant experience (I promise you that). )
Check Google Trends to determine how well-known your area of expertise is
If you've found an area of interest, you'll need to conduct some basic research to learn what topics consumers are seeking in your niche. This part's way easier, and won't take any soul-searching.
Begin by visiting Google Trends -- the most effective and free method to gauge the volume of searches (a.k.a. how many times people search for a phrase in Google each month). Next, you should think of important keywords for your area of expertise. If you're in the field of photography, try phrases like "learning photography," "best photography cameras to beginners," and even just "photography." Input these terms into Google Trends, and you'll get a view of the volume of searches in the course of the course of.
It's that simple, actually. What Google's Trends research procedure does is to inform you of the pathways people are taking to get into your market. The research process can reveal trends in your niche too, and indicate whether your area of expertise expands or decreases.
This step can allow you to assess whether your chosen niche is the right one. And if you're worried about your market being overcrowded for you to be noticed, keep looking -- it's an issue you'll be able to solve.
Explore further to discover another sub-niche that you may have your own
The blog's niche could be one that is already well-known, such as photographs, finance, or healthy eating. But if you ask yourself which niches aren't yet saturated You can create an untapped niche that you can be a part of.
As an example, if you're a photographer, you can narrow your focus from the extensive niche of photography down to the sub-niche of studio photography. Let someone else write about landscapes with long exposures. You can concentrate on lighting, staging indoor photography sessions, and acquiring studio equipment.
This way you'll appear as an expert in a particular area of expertise. (Which is gonna help your company be noticed, as well. And isn't that the whole point?)
2. Pick a name for the blog
Once you've picked your niche (or sub-niche! ), it's the time to pick the right name for your blog. The name you choose is what users will look for and remember, so it's essential to select one that is simple, memorable and true to your brand.
If you're choosing your name it is important to think about the target readership, the topics you'll be writing about, and also what your writing voice is like.
With that background in mind now you're ready to choose names. Here are a few different naming strategies you can use for your new blog:
Use your own name
Creative director Nathan Allebach uses his last name for the title of his blog as well as his communication firm. This has assisted people who've read about his work with Steak-Umm discover his company and then become clients.
However it is possible that this method of naming might not be suitable for teams or for blogs with a focus on industries. For instance, if you've got a common name like John Smith, you may not be ranking well on Google. (But this is what middle names are for isn't it? )
Take a look at a thesaurus
If your blog is geared towards an industry or field your name could make it difficult to identify the blog. It is better to go with a name which is representative of the kind of blog content that you're writing about.
It's not easy, though -- so take out your local tome (or Thesaurus.com). You're going to take the industry-related keywords you thought of earlier then plug them into the search engine and then search for synonyms or related words to make a base for the title of your blog.
As an example, a name like The Camera Blog feels generic, so take the term "camera" and enter that into the online dictionary. It will give you related terms such as "lens," "mirror" and "35mm" -which suddenly is much more interesting.
It is easy to flip them into a name which is appropriate for your blogfor example, Lens Tracker or 35mm Mayhem, or Mirrorless Magic. People searching for photography will be able to identify what your blog's about, and it will not disappear into the sea of poorly-named blogs.
Create a blog's name generator
Another good strategy for naming your blog is to plug some terms into a blog name generator. Pick a few terms relevant to your industry, and let a naming tool such as BlogTyrant's perform the work. (This tool can also find out what domain names are in use. )
There's no better proof of the power of name generators than future EGOT winner Childish Gambino. The name he chose for his stage debut via a Wu-Tang Clan name generator in the late 2000s and is still rocking with the name a decade later. (It's still online. Connect "Donald Glover" here if you're interested. )
There's no shame in letting the robot assist you in brainstorming. As long as you come up with an appropriate, unique name, it will never matter how you got the name.
3. Set up your blog hosting
Before you build your website, you'll have to setup hosting. This means buying your domain name as well as the address your blog audience will search for your blog's content.
Make sure to choose a reputable hosting provider. 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. You might not notice this however Google's algorithm for searching certainly will, this means that you'll be at risk of not appearing in Google's search results.
Hosting isn't expensive at all. Actually, most hosting companies will cost the cost of a few cups of coffee each month and ensure that your blog is up and running around the clock.
The Top five recommendations for hosting companies (in no particular order): (in not in any particular order):
4. Make your blog available on a CMS
Now that you own the domain you want to use and you're now ready to start building your own blog using the form of a Content Management System, also called CMS. CMS.
CMS platforms allow you to build your own site without needing code. The CMS will be where you'll go to create new pages, create posts, and even update older information in the near future. If you're a blogger selecting a CMS is similar to choosing a significant other -- therefore, you must choose wisely.
The most common CMS software is WordPress the open-source standard that is used by companies of every size. There are a variety of great CMS systems on the market, however. These are our top choices to help you get started:
5. Make and distribute material
When you've established your CMS set up, your next task is to create and publishing content. Content creation is an issue in and of itself, and we could write one whole book (or make you cry) on the process which is used to choose which content to publish.
always you should think about these important questions:
- Who are my ideal customers?
- What is it that they are interested in -- and what problems do they face?
- What lessons can I give them?
This method will prevent the possibility of straying from your area of expertise, from creating non-branded content, and from writing about topics that someone previously covered. It will also help you discover intriguing, untold stories to tell your readers. I wish you all the best in your writing!
6. Advertise your blog
Now that you've got some information that's out there Next step is promoting it.
One of the first strategies we'd suggest is using blog content to create your social media platforms. Turn a long-form article into a carousel post on Instagram or create the deep dive on Twitter. Open your iPhone and film an TikTok that describes the major points of your piece, then send people to your site to read the entire story.
It kills two birds with one stone. This solves the "what should I do on Instagram" conundrum, and it drives people to return to the original blog post.
Apart from content reuse as well, we recommend making your blog searchable. This involves a little bit of SEO study however it's an exciting rabbit hole worth going down. You just have to do some keyword research, find the top-ranked keywords, then weave these into your content.
This tells Google that your article solves questions that people are searching for. It will also take your organic page's traffic to the next level.
Making money from blogging with Four ways to make money blogging:
By this point, you've got your blog up and running. Congrats! The people are finding your blog and it appears that they're very happy with the content you're publishing.
What is the best way to monetize all of the material?
It's crucial to comprehend how content creators earn profits:
- If you offer your content for sale, you earn money directly from the users. For instance, when content is behind a paywall, or incorporated in an online class, you're selling your item.
- If you're trying to sell attention to an audience, you're working with a third party to meet their needs in marketing. Take as the "word of our sponsor" part of your favorite podcast or links in your favorite recipe blog that lead to Amazon products. These are examples of selling your listeners.
1. Advertise your blog
Setting up Google AdSense (Google's advertising toolkit) for your blog is an excellent method to convert the traffic your blog is earning into direct, cold deposits to your bank account.
How do you work it? You make your blog available to the Google's advertising network and permit ads to appear on your website. Clicks and impressions from ads make up a monthly AdSense payment.
AdSense is completely free to join, the eligibility criteria are minimal and the amount you earn from advertising will grow as your blog does as well.
There's a number of types of AdSense adsthat include:
- Image ads: Graphic ads available in a range of dimensions.
- Text ads: Text-only ads which can show one or multiple offers.
- Rich media advertisements: HTML, video, and flash ads.
- GIF ads: Animated image ads.
If you discover that a particular ad interferes with your blog's content It is possible to swap it for something that's quieter. If you're looking to rack up the huge sums by selling large amounts of advertising spaces you can find ads that permit you to do so too.
2. Join an affiliate network
Affiliate marketing is a sure-fire method to make money from your blog. It is possible to provide affiliate links for productsand each time someone who has started their journey on your blog makes a purchase, you get a tasty commission.
It is important to promote products that your audience is actually attracted to. Your readers on your cooking blogs at home isn't looking to buy a moisturizer... but they'd certainly be intrigued by crockpot tips. Select the correct products and you'll be turning the affiliate advertisements that promote cast iron cookware into gold.
We've learned from our experience that there's a ton of ambiguous information available concerning affiliate programs. We're concerned, so we've put together a brief 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 content is another excellent way to turn your blog's traffic into passive earnings particularly when you have a loyal readership. For a set cost, you'll incorporate ads for products of the company within your blog's content.
This is winning for everyone. The benefit for you is the money. To your partner, it's an authentic piece of third-party of content, which will promote their products (without the appearance of an unfeeling advertising).
Sponsored posts may take a variety of forms that include:
- Blogs that are written by a sponsor that you publish
- Written by you on behalf of a product or service sponsored by a sponsor
- Links to sponsors' website or product page
- A list of positive coverage of a company's product
- A product announcement that offers a special discount for bloggers
It's important to mention that most of the time you'll get approached to create content for sponsored companies. It's not a good idea to pursue advertisers, and in reality it can cause you to appear desperate. Concentrate on creating good content that stands out in your area In time, they'll find you.
4. Offer online classes
Online courses are the fastest and most scalable way to drive revenue from your blog. Blog articles are a great way to introduce people to the personal brand or company you represent however, combining your knowledge into easy-to-digest courses is even better. (And, it can be extremely profitable!)
Once you've made a course, you're finished. You might need to update your course's content from time to the time, but it's a finished asset that will be available to your blog's viewers for a long time. If your blog is an authority within your field, your bank account could skyrocket. (No, really--we've seen this happen a number of times. )
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So, what's next?
Now that you know how to start your blog, you're likely seeking ways to transform your website into a profitable cash-flowing business. And like we said: the fastest, most effective method to make money from your blog and earn passive income is to start creating classes.
Here's where the power comes to. It is easy for us to generate revenue through your blog's content as self-guided online courses as well as membership websites. Our user-friendly course design platform helps coaches, educators, and digital content creators build unique, personalized eLearning courses and build sustainable online businesses.
Try for free and get courses as well as marketing and sales tools you need to take your company to the next level. (No tech skills required! )