One of the keys to making money with a blog is to get the foundations right. Before you even begin to write your first word you really need to make sure you have an exact idea of what you will write about and how.
How do I make money with a blog as a beginner? Follow these steps to give yourself the best chance
- Brainstorming
- Niche selection
- Competitive analysis
- Setup your blog
- Keyword research
- Advertising
- Affiliate promotion
- Product creation
- Content creation
Once you have gone through these steps you will have a blog that stands a good chance of succeeding and making you a decent income.
There is no hard and fast timeline on how quickly you can make money. In truth, it can take you more than a year to make your first dollar if you have no definite goal or game plan so this is why you need to have one before you even begin to write.
Let’s have a look at each one in turn and what we need to do to make it happen.
Brainstorming to get ideas
Grab a pen and paper, yes, pen and paper. Don’t even think about going near your computer at this point.
Now write a list of all the things that you love, like, or enjoy. It doesn’t matter what they are at this point, just get everything down on paper so you can go through each idea, in turn, to assess whether it’s a potentially good idea or not.
The list can contain anything at this stage, if you have a random mixture of things, like chocolate, cycling, old 60’s movies, the color green, sushi, walking on sand, and rock and roll music, then you have done a good job of brainstorming all of your interests.
Now have a look at each of these topics in turn and think about the broad categories that they can fit into. Some broad topics can be things like:
- Arts and Crafts
- Beauty and Fashion
- Food
- Lifestyle
- Personal Development
- Health and Fitness
Now think about your topic and how it fits into the broad category. Can you think about 3 – 5 main ideas that your blog could be about? Let’s use chocolate as an example.
You could write about the history of chocolate, chocolate around the world, chocolate recipes, and where to buy chocolate.
Take 2 minutes to think about these topics I have just mentioned. I think you could easily write 100 articles about chocolate. This would be a good topic as it has a lot of scope and range to write about.
Competition could be high for the topic of chocolate but what I am trying to show you at this point is to think about your topic and be able to write about 100 articles on your topic.
Niche selection
This is another big task you have to do before you begin to start basing away at your PC. Creating the right blog means picking the right niche. I have written a guide to help you here so when you are ready take some time to read through it as it will give you a good idea of how to pick the right niche.
Essentially what you need to do is not be too broad or too specific. Taking time to get this right is critical as you will be spending many hours writing about your chosen topic.
Pick something you are either interested in or have good knowledge about. If you are not overly familiar with the topic then you can even write about it as your ‘journey’ and what you found out while pursuing your chosen topic.
Competition – Know your enemy
If you pick a topic that is too broad or too popular then you may be fighting uphill with some strong competition. You should try to avoid this where possible.
If you are seeing some major players in the search results for your topic then you may need to either niche down and choose a smaller sub-topic or pick another niche.
Many larger websites have really large budgets for content creation, marketing, link building, and overall site promotion so you won’t be able to beat these guys quickly.
However, you want to build a blog with a good following and that can give you a good steady income.
You will always find some overlap with some of the bigger fish but if you have niched down enough then this issue will have been mitigated to the point where you can do well.
Setting up your blog
Domain name selection
When you begin your setup you need to find yourself a good domain name. Try to keep it catchy and memorable while avoiding people’s names and dates.
Bestmowers2012.com is a bad choice (I wrote this article much later than that but it immediately makes you think it’s old and dated. Johnsmithslawnsite.com is another bad example, what if you sell the site? Finding a John Smith interested in lawns could be tricky.
Lawnlove.com is a better choice, it’s timeless and gives you an immediate idea of the topic and what to expect from the blog.
Hosting
After finding a good domain name then you need to find some good hosting to match. I personally recommend Bluehost. They are great for beginners and they have plans that start from a few dollars and will even give you a free domain name too. A great deal if you ask me.
Theme
A good theme for your blog is important but not right at the beginning, you can find many free themes that will make your blog look ok. When you have built up some regular visitors you can then think about making your site look slicker and more inviting.
Keyword Research – Do’s and dont’s
Keyword research is your bread and butter when it comes to making money. The good news is that you can do it fairly easily. Before we get into that let’s look at some things to not do.
One thing you need to avoid is a paid keyword research tool. Most use data pulled from Google which is based on advertisers’ metrics on how likely an ad buyer will be interested in a given keyword.
This data while in the general ballpark is far from accurate. You will find using these tools you will find a search term that will bring you zero searches per month yet you will often get traffic for that exact keyword. If it’s accurate how can this be?
Luckily for us, there is a great analysis tool and it’s called our brain. By using a method of searching some people called alphabet soup along with our own intuition we can easily find search phrases we can rank for quite easily.
How does the alphabet soup method work? It’s simple. Supposing you have a blog about sewing and you want some ideas. Simply type something like ‘How do I sew an a’. If someone has searched Google for a word beginning with A then it will show up in the results.
I just did this for A and it got no results, however, when I typed ‘How do I sew an ab’ and How do I sew an ac’ then I started seeing results. Going through the alphabet for the second letter will yield about 10-15 decent matches you could check. If you run out then start with B as the first letter and go through the alphabet again for the second letter.
Following this method can easily get you over a hundred possible searches from just one search term. Do this for a series of searches and then you will have a decent list of potential keywords.
Once you have your list of about 500 or so, it’s time to do the grunt work and analyze the competition. Do this by copying in the first search term in your list into Google and then checking the first three results.
If the articles are short, say under 1,000 words then your chances of ranking above them are quite good. If you can write a 1,500-word article that is more helpful than any you find then you have a good chance of ranking at the top.
If there are longer, more detailed posts here, strike it from the list unless it’s something you really want to write about, and then mark it for a later date.
If there are forum results in the first three results or even on the front page then you stand a good chance of getting to page one, if not at the top.
Advertising on your blog
Once you have written some articles and you have published them on your website you will begin to see some traffic. Visitors who are looking for answers that you have answered. If you have helped them they may turn into repeat visitors which will help you grow.
Now your blog is up and running you should now think of adding ways to make money from it. After all you are working hard on it so now you want to begin reaping the benefits.
One of the best ways to do this is with advertising. In the beginning, there are few options open to you as many of the premium advertising companies that will pay you the most have a minimum traffic threshold, usually around the 30,000 – 50,000 range.
There are ad networks out there that will work with you right from the start so if you are really keen on cash beginning to trickle in (and it will be a trickle) then you could try Ezoic or Google Adsense. Both of these are ok for the beginner but in time you will want to switch to a premium ad provider like Thrive.
So how do you get ads on your blog? Quite easily. Just sign up for an ad network that you like and follow the instructions that they give you.
Common ways to add ads to your blogs are with plugins or widgets. You download the plugin or widget onto your blog and add the widget to your blog in the sidebar header or footer. With a plugin, it may just add the code needed to place the ads in a certain place on your blog.
With Ezoic you need to point your DNS servers to the Ezoic DNS servers (very simple to do) and they will take a snapshot of your site and host it there on theirs. it does slow your site down slightly so this is a bit of a trade-off for the reward but in the beginning, it’s worth it.
How much you get from the ad network can vary greatly from one network to another. At the bottom end of the earnings curve, you can expect to get around $1 – $3 per thousand views when you are first starting as your blog will only be bringing in a few thousand views per month. So expect to get around $5 from your blog at this stage. Don’t be disheartened though, this is great!!!! You have done something 95% of bloggers fail to do so keep going!
Once you hit about 10,000 page views per month your income should increase to about $3-$6 per thousand, bringing in around $50 per month, not bad but you can keep it growing!
Hitting 30,000 pageviews per month should get you into the $8 – $12 per thousand ballparks, which should get you around $300 per month. By this time you will be earning money from other areas too so your total income from your site at this point should be around $1,500 per month. almost enough to be a game-changer.
Affiliate products – Sell sell sell
When you have set up your blog and have begun working with advertisers it’s time to now think about promoting products on your site. Not everyone likes to sell things or to be a salesman but it’s easy to do if it’s something you already own and use and feel happy to recommend to others.
The good news is there are hundreds of affiliate programs out there for you to join so you will never have trouble finding something that fits your blog. The bad news is that there are hundreds of affiliate programs out there so picking the right one can and will take time.
What is an affiliate? An affiliate is someone who chooses to work with a company to promote products on their behalf and when you find and pass them a customer who buys something, the company will give you a commission as a reward for giving them the business.
Sounds like a lot of complicated work but in reality, it’s very easy. If you already use a product all you really need to do is write an article about the product. Tell your readers about the good and bad points, why you like it, and why you feel they should buy it.
Don’t be overly sales’y as a hard sell is often off-putting. Being honest and open is the best way to promote something. I often buy things knowing that despite the writer telling me there are bad points to an item, on balance, the pros outweigh the cons. At least I know what I am buying.
Some of the easiest affiliate programs to start are Amazon and eBay. These are big names with brand recognition and loyalty. If you promote through these companies then buyers will feel comfortable parting with their cash.
Other good affiliate programs are partnered with Commission Junction, Share a Sale, Clickbank, and Shopify.
Most programs will pay varying levels of commission. Amazon, for example, pays on average 4% but for Clickbank, you can get up to 80% but it really depends on what you are selling. Amazon is a recognized brand whereas Clickbank, while very big, is lesser known at the consumer level.
So what can you expect to earn? You are just beginning and are promoting products that cost $100 on Amazon, for example. You have traffic of 3,000 visitors per month and you have written a good article promoting the product.
You may generate interest in the product at 2%. 2% of your visitors or 60 people go to Amazon to check out what you have recommended. Of those 60 people, Amazon sells to 10% (Amazon does a great job of keeping potential buyers hooked). That’s 6 sales, which converts to $100 x 4% = $4, 18 x $4 = $24. Pretty cool eh? That’s also from just one product too.
Imagine you are at the 30,000 visitor mark, you convert at 2% and you have 5 items you are promoting at $100 each. 600 visitors of which Amazon sells 60. 60 x $4 = $240. 5 items means $240 x 5 = $1200.
The beauty of this kind of income is that it will come to you after you have done the work and will keep coming for many months to come as well. We call this passive income, income that you earn without needing to do anything (after the initial work has been done).
Selling your own product or service
Now you have a blog with 30,000 page views per month and a decent income of around $1,500 it’s time to take it to the next level and that is with your own product.
While this can sound daunting it’s by far the most lucrative and nets you thousands more each month if done right.
So what products can you sell? Well, it really depends on your blog niche and where you are in the world. If you are home-based and focused on collecting, for example, you could supply your own physical products but if, on the other hand, you are traveling around the world then you may want to think about a digital product instead.
Moving to this stage in your blog will mean you need to be a lot more hands-on with your blog, which is a business don’t forget.
When you sell your own product you can automate some of the processes with order processing etc. but the physical shipping is up to you. There may also be things like customer complaints, failed charges, refunds, etc. that you will need to consider.
With all this extra work is it worth it then? The short answer to that is hell yeah! Imagine for example you are selling an ebook showing people how to build a shed in their yard. You give them a materials list, blueprints, and a step-by-step guide on how to cut and build it.
You charge $25 for this ebook and just 1% of your 30,000 visitors each month decide to buy it. It’s just $25 after all right? Imagine too that 5% are not happy with it and request refunds, each refund takes 10 minutes to process.
That’s 300 sales and of those 15 want a refund. The refunds take you 2.5 hours to process but your remaining sales bring in $7,125!
If you spend 3 whole months working on that ebook, taking pictures, writing down the steps, and compiling the kit list of materials needed, wouldn’t it be worth it for a product you can now make over $7,000 a month from? Of course, it is. This is where it becomes life-changing.
It’s not always easy to think about a product you can make to sell on your site but there are ways you can come up with ideas.
Ask friends and family what they think you could make for your readers. You can even ask your readers yourself. Create an email, if you have an email list, or a page asking them about the biggest issues or problems they have, and then think of how to create a product to satisfy the most common issue mentioned.
Good examples of products you can sell are:
- How to videos
- How to ebooks
- Podcasts, letting your readers have regular updates on your site/progress/life
- Buyers guide – Useful for high-priced items
- Spreadsheets
- Recipe books
- Live video feeds – Direct access to you with user Q&A sessions (great for fitness blogs)
Whatever you do decide, to make the most important thing to consider is how helpful is it. Is there something out there already to solve this problem? How can I make it the best product possible? If you make it with these points in mind then your product will sell well.
Articles and how to write them
Writing well is very easy if you know what you are doing. Luckily there are a few things you can do to try and make this as easy for yourself as possible.
- Use your own ‘voice’: Don’t try to pretend to be someone else or try to begin speaking, or in this case writing, in a different manner. People will notice and it will sound false. Use the vocabulary you always use and it will sound heartfelt and genuine.
- Using spellcheck: This is a must as even though you are using your own words you need to at least spell them correctly. This will give you credibility as a bonus as if you spell words incorrectly then Google may misinterpret what you are trying to say which could lead to a loss of ranking and earnings.
- Grammarly: If you are writing about a professional topic then a grammar checker like Grammarly is useful. There is nothing worse than a site trying to be authoritative but is riddled with bad grammar.
- Short and sweet doesn’t cut it: If the competition writes 1,000 words write 1,500. If they write 1,500 then write 1,800. More importantly, use those extra words to add not only to the length of your article but to its quality of it.
- Quality as well as quantity: Use the extra content length to add extra helpful information for your reader. If you answer the question/query fully then add related questions to the article. You can help the reader and often rank for those as keywords too.
When choosing a topic to write about do your homework. Make sure you have enough information under your belt to help the reader.
Split the article into easy-to-read paragraphs. Avoid lengthy blocks of text as many readers will be using mobile devices so you need to write accordingly.
Write your subheadings at the beginning. It can help you to stay on point when you are writing. Straying off the point is easy so help yourself to keep focused with subheadings.
Final Thoughts
Blogging is not only fun but it’s highly rewarding. First, you get to be creative and make something great from nothing.
Next, you can help thousands of complete strangers from the comfort of your own home. Something, which was impossible thirty years ago.
Lastly, you can help yourself and your family to be financially independent and eliminate stress and money worries from your daily lives.
If you are serious about making some major life-altering changes to your life then one of the best ways is to start with a blog. For a few dollars and a few hours a week, you can start and grow your blogging business from a seed to a mighty oak. Good luck and happy blogging.
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Click here to learn how with our step-by-step guide showing you everything you need to know.