As the owner of multiple websites, I can assure you this is no easy feat. Most bloggers give up way too early despite their idea being simply awesome. Why? Impatience. Your patience level will make or break your project so try and hang in there
How can I get paid to have a blog? The main ways you can get paid to have a blog are shown below. These are tried and tested methods of generating the most reliable income streams:
- Advertising
- Affiliate income
- Digital / Physical products
- Memberships
So now you are most likely thinking ‘how can I do this if I have never made a website or blog before?’ Well like the steps listed above you need to have a tried and tested method before dashing off and beginning to write like a madman.
Niche
Your niche or main subject is what you want your blog to be about. Typical topics can include gardening, bike maintenance, jewelry making, and many more than you can possibly imagine.
Picking the right niche is really important as it will be your primary focus so it needs to be something you are really interested in or passionate about. Picking a niche that sounds popular because you have read many similar blogs is a no-no as you want to stand out and carve out a unique space for yourself not be a sheep in a giant flock where you will just get lost.
How to pick a good niche: First you need to be passionate about it. Secondly, you need to think about your topic and choose a sub-section of that topic so you can be more of an authority in that area.
For example: Trying to write a blog about gardening will be hard as the topic is too broad and the competition is too great but if you try and write a blog about gardening for over 60’s may do better as you are targeting a smaller niche and you will attract a more targeted audience too.
Check out Google Trends before embarking on your journey. If Google tells you a product is too seasonal or is on a downward trend then stop and choose another niche. It’s better to waste an extra hour or two here than lose a few months of hard work later,
Topics
Choosing the right topics to write about is also important. You want to be helpful so think about actual topics people may be interested in. For example, 20 Best fountains may not work for an over 60’s gardening site but the best easy-grip garden tools might.
You are also looking to be helpful and the easiest way to do this is to find questions that people would ask and simply answer them. Here Google is your friend. All you need to do is enter a search query and at the bottom of the page, Google will give you a bunch of suggestions.
So now you have a list of questions you need to check page 1 of Google to see who is on that page. You will need to analyze your competition at this stage. If you have all major websites with massive 3,000-word articles then put the topic on ice for the time being, you can come back to it later.
However if, on the other hand, your competition is a bulletin board and a handful of 5-600 word articles from 2012 then go for it. Bulletin boards are a good indicator that nobody has written an article for this topic and Goggle is just trying to fill the gaps with items that are as close a match as possible. This is perfect for you as you will not yet have any authority established so this will be where you begin that process.
Analyze the top 5 articles and see what is missing, if the content does not answer the question directly then it’s your job to do that. If the articles are very short then write longer better content. If you struggle to match the content length then add some related questions at the bottom of the page too like Google does and answer those as well but briefly. You may get extra visits this way too. Write something amazing and you will easily rank above them.
Content
As already mentioned your content needs to be helpful. Answering questions in a thoughtful and insightful way will earn you brownie points with the major search engines as it’s their job to serve the best content to the users. So you create the best content, you should be at or near the top of the search, right?
In reality, there are a few things you can do to make this happen. If you are going to write a short 500-word article that has little to no value then don’t expect to rank highly or even at all. Most content these days needs to be at least 1500 words to even be considered quality content.
Providing your readers with specific answers to the specific question you are writing about will also win you higher ranking spots as you will be giving them what they need which will keep them on your pages longer, a good sign to the search engines they have sent your readers to the right place.
Breaking up your content into easily read chunks will also help. Add images where needed but don’t go crazy unless you are showing something visual like a how-to guide or something shareable on social media. Bullet points and subheadings are also great ways to break up content and help Google to get an idea of what your article is about.
Services
Choosing what you will offer your readers too will be important and needs to be carefully thought about at the beginning of your project. If you are telling people about products they can buy, use a link to an affiliate where you can get a small commission for providing a customer. If you are providing resources to help someone then an ebook or digital product may work.
Whatever you decide to choose think about how your articles may be written to support those future income streams. You can write articles that recommend certain products and/or services but the bulk of your articles should be about helping people and providing a valuable resource for them to access.
Don’t worry about this too much at the beginning. The key here is to get people to your site. It’s wasted time if you spend weeks working on your sales pages, products, and monetization strategy if there is nobody visiting your site. Give them a reason to come in the first place before later, giving them a reason to give you money.
Tools
At this moment in time avoid using any tools other than Google suggestions and Google Trends. As you are a new blog you will not have anything ranking yet so you should not be spending any money other than that for your domain and hosting.
If you are told you need keyword-finding tools then just say no. These tools are used for advertisers to get an understanding of how likely they are to get a return on investment so the figures quoted do not tell you the likely number of visitors to your site.
You will need in the future Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools, You should install them early on in your blog so you can get the most up-to-date data for your blog.
Traffic
Getting traffic to your site should be your number one focus, always! It is the volume of traffic that will dictate how much money you will be making with your blog.
The easiest way to get traffic to your website is to create the best content out there and to rank above all others. This takes work and effort and will be rewarding in the end.
There are shortcuts you can take like guest posting, link building, and other methods but don’t use them. If Google decides you are using artificial means to get higher rankings, which both these methods are, then you are likely to get a penalty from which your site may never recover.
Don’t try to game Google as it’s a direct breach of its terms and conditions. Play nice and be helpful and Google will love and reward you.
Monetization
So now you have some traffic, anything above 30,000 is great and is a good place to begin monetizing your site. You can do this in a few ways some of which can be done at the same time.
Advertising: For a good niche site with 30,000 views a month you would expect to get around $10 -$12 per 1,000 views per month in advertising revenue making your blog about $300 – $360 per month, not too bad.
Affiliate income: If you are promoting a product on your site then you can expect to get some commissions from sales too. If your promoted products are expensive then your commissions may pay more but you could get fewer sales.
A lower price could generate more sales but with less commission. With traffic around 30,000, you would expect to get around $300 income from this in addition to advertising.
Physical / Digital products: If you have a great product that you have made then what better place to sell it than your site? This can make you a lot of money especially a digital product as you make it once and sell it many times over.
This can be by far the most lucrative thing you can sell on your site. This will come with its own set of problems though as you now are a supplier and you will have to deal with refunds, customer service issues, missing products, etc. Despite this, it’s still the best way to make money online.
Memberships: Having a regular information flow to your site and a loyal customer base can be turned into a membership site for a great regular return for your hard work.
Whilst creating a regular and steady cash stream into your bank account you will need to double your efforts to make sure the premium content you are charging people for really is premium quality too. Fail this crucial step and you could have them leaving in droves and dropping bad reviews everywhere.
That said, if you have done your due diligence and have focused on making excellent quality material then your loyal fans will actually be promoting you in the background, generating extra customers/members for you.
Conclusion
Setting up a blog for the first time is both tricky and daunting but with enough hard work and perseverance, you can create a successful income-generating blog. Perseverance really is the key along with helpful content. Being more helpful and staying the course while most others quit will not only keep you in the game but will get you to the top, and that’s where the rewards are for your efforts.
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