If you want to know how you can get started with blogging for money, then you need a plan. Blogging is an online activity that can be a powerful medium for you to convey your message or for you to make some serious money. Please don’t think of this as something that will happen in a snap of a finger because it never will. Online marketers are well aware that blogging for money requires your full effort and often long hours of work. Daunting though this task may appear to be the benefits can be long term. Since blogging is done online, you need to be familiar with the internet. Knowing how to search on Google or any other search engines won’t be enough. You have to be sure you understand what RSS, Ads programs, Affiliate programs and blogging platforms are. These are the basics but the good thing is it doesn’t take years to learn these internet technologies. You can do a research on Google and you’ll find all the useful information or tutorial about these terminologies. Once you are well-versed with the basics of blogging then you can get started with blogging for money and expect good results. The point is you have to be prepared when you want blogging to become a serious business. Other than becoming well-versed with different online technologies, you have to take good care of your viewers’ by talking to them and thoroughly understanding their comments. If you think, your viewers’ comments are constructive then use these to define what your blog is about. There should be a balance between what the viewers’ are saying and whatever it is you want to convey or promote through your blog. This combination is the secret to blogging for money.
How to Get Started With Blogging For Money
How To Setup A Profitable Blog Or Mini Site Part 1
This will be the first article of a 3 part series on the big question what makes a successful (as defined by profitability) blog or mini site. I believe there are 4 components and the series will contain 1 article on each of them.
Let’s get started.
The first key to the success of a blog or mini site is that it has to target a group of people (a niche) who are hungry for information of a specific nature. In other words, I’m talking about the selection of your niche.
The group of people that your blog or mini site targets has to be a group of people who have problems. Problems in the sense that they are looking for a solution to something, looking to improve something. Furthermore, in a great niche, that SOMETHING, is something that causes pain. Financial pain, physical pain, emotional pain, some sort of pain, for the simple reason that people who have pain are the people who will want to buy solutions to that pain, and hopefully from your website.
If that sounds a bit sick, trying to exploit people with pain, it’s not. It’s called marketing. You’ve had marketers doing it to you your whole life and you probably never even knew about it, why can’t you do it too? And what’s more, you’re actually going to provide these people with a real solution, so you’re being helpful!
Anyhow moving on.
So you’re looking for a group of people with a problem, but that’s not all.
Your next concern has to be whether there are enough of these people searching for solutions to their problems on the internet. How many is enough you ask? It’s a good question. With certain kinds of sites, all you need is 10 visitors to your site a day and you can turn a nice monthly profit. Other niches and products that you promote you might need thousands per day. It all depends on what you sell, and who to, AND how much commission you make when you sell to them.
The things you should do are look at the search volume, as indicated by a tool like Wordtracker. Here you’re simply looking at how many searches per day a particular keyphrase gets in the search engines. Then after that, you want to look at whether there are other sites or blogs that are competing in the same niche.
Contrary to what alot of people think, NO competition isn’t necessarily a good thing. NO competition could and often does mean that it’s not a profitable niche. What you actually want is SOME competition, but CRAPPY competition that you can DESTROY by making a better site, providing better content and in a better way.
The final piece of the puzzle of finding a good niche, is whether the niche has a quality product for you to promote. You need something to sell to these people, that is high quality, has great marketing material (sales letter etc, so it will convert your traffic well) and pays a decent commission.
This is of course assuming you’re looking at the affiliate marketing model of making money with your blog – which I suggest if you’re looking to retire from your job and earn a full time passive income, you SHOULD be. There are other ways to make money where you might think about some different factors in your niche selection.
So if you can combine all of the above factors when selecting your niche, you’ll be giving yourself and your new blog the best possible chance of success. I hope you’ve found this valuable.
Creating a Blog With a Broad Niche Has Benefits
The popular ‘school of thought’ when creating a blog is that the more focused the niche the greater chances of success you will have. On the other hand however blogging sites offer a environment that can actually flourish by offering a wider range of topics and interest to readers. The key is to keep these topics woven together in such a way that they are relevant to the overall ‘fabric’ of the content presented on the site. The key word here is relevance which is something the best blog sites do well to maintain but only on a more focused level than what is being suggested here. Of course the reasoning for any blogging sites to clearly define their focus is that it will minimize their competition.
There is something to be said for being the big fish in a small pond but on the other hand suppose the niche you chose is broad enough to support many ‘varying’ sub-niches? Now you have created a more ‘mall’ like environment as opposed to a smaller ‘specialty’ store.
Here are 5 ways blogging sites that offer a broader range of ‘relevant’ topics can be of benefit to both the readers and blogger as well!
Theme Selection
Theme selection now allows for a bit more creativity as you ‘customize’ your selection to apply to and/or engulf your subject matter. Even though your site may contain a broader range of material making it appear less defined, it will be unique in the way you decide to pull it all together. The right selection along with the proper coordination of content offers you great branding opportunities.
Attracts a Broader Range of Traffic
It stands to reason that by offering a greater variety of content/interests it will tend to attract a larger crowd. In so many words you are now casting a bigger net! When blogging your ability to get visitors to return is just as important as traffic generation itself! When using a broader ranging approach as being suggested your success is dependent upon content coordination as far as establishing relevance. Remember you are wanting to ‘weave’ your content together into the overall fabric of your platform in a way that makes sense and is also of interest to visitors.
Going on Tangents Allowed
On many blogging sites some comments tend to go on tangents or ‘drift’ from the posted content. Now many site administrators frown upon this and even filter out such comments since it ‘detracts’ from the posted content. On a site that offers a broader focus such commenting is in fact helpful being it can encourage others to join in that may not have done so otherwise. Remember you have a wider focus and range of topics therefore you also have a reader base with more wide ranging interests as well! Although the content of one post may not be of interest to all readers, some of the commenting may get their attention compelling them to join in as well. Now you have greater participation which is something the best blog sites online are noted for and what attracts even more traffic. This also tends to broaden the perspectives of some readers who are exposed to subject matter they may not have otherwise not considered.
More Varied/Wider Product Offerings
If your intentions are to earn an income, which is admirable, ambitious and understandable than this approach offers multiple streams of income. It will be much easier to monetize the site and easier to locate and/or create products of interest to your readers. Some say the money is in the niche and in this case you could conceivably be working several simultaneously!
Content Creation is Easier
Probably the single toughest thing about blogging is continuing to create interesting content for people to view. This is due primarily to running out of topics to write about since in most cases the niche is well defined limiting you to what you can base your updates on. This will not be the case on a site that discusses a broader range of subject matter!
When creating a blog with lesser focus than the more clearly defined micro niche blogs you need to know a little about a lot. Some of the best blog sites have been successful by concentrating on more narrow topic parameters but the approach suggested here tends to throw the doors wide open. In doing so a wider range of participants is now invited to join in to exchange their ideas. As topics begin to demonstrate their relevance to others being discussed or posted, participation expands, as does the interest of the participants themselves. Now people are getting a better education on different aspects of an already existing interest they have they may not have considered previously. In this way you now have the potential to become one of the best blog sites in a market segment that tends to go ‘broad’ but still maintains relevancy. Welcome to macro niche blogging!