Making money blogging is totally possible for most niches.
Good things don’t only happen to others; they can happen to anyone, anytime, no matter your age, your financial & personal situation. You just have to be smart about it and work your ass off every day. So if you really want to be a full-time blogger, you can and you will. Persistence and consistency are key.
I have to warn you; this is not going to be a “how to start a blog in 10 minutes” kind of post. I am convinced that you cannot & should not start a blog in 10 minutes; starting a successful blog takes time, a lot of thinking and planning, and a lot of work before the launch.
It can take months of work before you can launch your blog, depending on how you want to do it. What your readers will see on your launch day is only the emerged part of the iceberg!
Defining a clear niche is a step that a lot of newbie bloggers underestimate, but it’s actually going to be the core of your blog so you want to make sure that you’re thinking it through.Choosing a good niche for your blog isn’t just what topic are you gonna blog about; it’s what problem are you going to help your audience solve.
One of the keys to making money blogging is to offer a solution to a problem, and that’s something you must figure out when deciding on a blog niche. Are you going to help your readers to find cruelty-free cosmetics? Develop their sense of style? Lose weight? Make money online?
The second step to creating a successful blog is to brand your blog. In a word, your brand is how you want your blog to be perceived.
How do you want people to feel when seeing your blog? Having a coherent brand will make your blog look professional, and a professional blog is a blog your audience will trust. It will also help people identify with your blog which is SO important if you want them to stick around for a while (and you do want that).
In order to create a brand, you need to work on different things: what logo are you going to use, what color palette are you going to use, what fonts, what kind of photos?
Ask yourself, what message do you want to send to your audience through your visuals & content?
Another part of creating your brand is to find the perfect blog name. Try not to come up with something too long; your blog name should be 3words long max, easy to spell, and it should remind your audience of your blog niche.
Be careful about choosing something that’s available! You can check if the domain you want is available here. If it’s not, try to add words like “the”, “my”, “your”, “blog”. Last but not least, try using “.com” when available!
Here comes the technical part, but no worries, it’s not as complicated as it seems. In order for you to start a professional blog (or any kind of website), you need to create what is called a “self-hosted” blog.
If you want to start a blog you can monetize (that earns you an income), you need web hosting, which means a “place” on the internet to put your blog in. Kinda like renting a parking spot for your car, except you’re renting a spot for your blog on the internet. Every website needs hosting. I did a lot of research on the different platforms and hosting companies, observed what successful blogger’s choices were. My final choice led me to build my blog with WordPress.org and Bluehost. I have never regretted that choice, and can’t recommend this combination enough!
Congrats! You just created a self-hosted WordPress blog with Bluehost.
Your blog is now ready to be built! It’s time to choose the right theme, write your first pages and posts. The first pages I created and the ones you need on your blog, are an About (or Start Here) page, a Work With Me page where brands can contact you, and a Resources page.
As for how many posts you should write before your blog goes live, the answer may vary from one blogger to another but one thing is sure: you do not want your blog to be empty on your launch day. I recommend that you write at least 20 quality posts before you launch your blog. That way your audience will have enough to read to stick around for a while! More posts = more time spent on your blog.
There is “professional” in professional blogging. If you want to turn your blog into a business, you can’t treat it the same way you would a hobby. Every business needs one thing: a business plan! You do not need to write a 50 pages detailed plan (although if you want to do it, feel free to do it!), but you do need to write down a plan on how you’re going to monetize your blog and how you’re going to market it.Are you going to use affiliate marketing? Create your own product? I listed right here a list of the different ways you can monetize your blog. No matter how you choose to monetize your blog, you need to have your monetization plan ready before you launch your blog. Meaning, if you want to sell your own product, make sure to create it before you launch your blog so that you can start selling it right away. If you want to use affiliate marketing, apply to the programs you like and insert your affiliate links in your posts from Day 1. As for marketing your blog, learn as much as you can about the different marketing options that you will have as a blogger, and build a strategy. Are you going to use email marketing? Social media marketing? You need to know exactly how you’re going to market your blog and your products before you launch your blog.
And more importantly… Start promoting your blog before you launch it! Start building your email list and social media, create connections with other bloggers, start finding your future readers. This part is basically what makes the difference between a blogger who struggles to make money for months/years, and a blogger who makes money from the start. Don’t neglect it!
Last but not least, launch your baby!
Keep in mind that all the work must be done before you launch your blog. One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers struggle when their blog launches is because they launch their blog with no preparation. Don’t be one of these bloggers! Grab the ebook and start preparing your launch!
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