Jan
10
What if I could blog for a living? When you start a blog and see a bit of income roll in, it’s natural to think about making blogging a full time occupation. I know I have, and each year it gets closer to being a reality. Everyone knows that Darren Rowse did it, and there are many others who do. Just ask Paula Neal Mooney. The question is, how does the ordinary blogger who is just starting out take the right steps to earn big money from blogging - or at least enough to put food on the table? I’ve been studying some of the great bloggers with the aim of putting the lessons I learn into practice. Here’s what I think I need to do:
1. Start Small
Every problogger starts with a single blog. You can too. You need to start with one blog and see if you really like blogging, and if you’d be happy to do it every day forever (or for as long as you keep enjoying it).
2. Experiment
I don’t know about you, but I have tried several blogs. I’ve run some on my own sites, and I’ve blogged on community sites. Some of those blogs have lasted, while others never really got started. This process helped me to find my blogging voice, and to identify the topics that I most liked blogging about. It also enabled me to connect with other bloggers.
Part of the experimentation process is finding a niche that you can write about forever - or almost forever. Like any other business, you need to offer something unique. Perhaps you have expertise in an area, or a particular way of expressing yourself. These will help you to stand out from the crowd.
3. Write Something Useful
One of the reasons that probloggers make money is because they have hundreds of thousands of visitors to their blogs and many of them are repeat visitors. That only happens if you provide content that they find useful. They become a resource for people interested in a particular niche. Take writing as an example. If you’re a freelance writer, then one of your main ports of call each day is Deb Ng’s Freelance Writing Gigs blog. That’s because you know that it’s the best place to get writing jobs, with many of the potential scams weeded out for you.
Writing useful content will also help you to raise your profile, and you can help that process by writing useful content for other blogs as well. Your aim is to become known as an expert, and to be the first stop when people want to find out about your topic.
4. Build A Community
Once you’ve provided something useful, you need to make your site into a community. Like a real community, an online community is a place where you have friends and neighbours, where you hang out and shoot the breeze. Some community members are vocal, while others are content to listen from the sidelines. All of them share an interest - in this case, in the topic of your blog.
You can build a blog community by communicating regularly with your readers. That means replying to comments, and writing some content based on what they want. Polls, contests, writing projects and memes all help to build a community feel. You can also encourage readers to become a more integral part of the community by letting them post on your blog. Interview your readers, review their blogs - there are all kinds of things you can try.
5. Monetize Wisely
Once you’ve done all this, it’s time to start making some money from your blog. Most people start with Adsense, but it can take a while to build up the income. It’s also worth thinking about useful affiliate products (which sell better if you’ve actually tried them), and private ad sales. All of these can help your blogs to become money machines.
So that’s my take on it. I don’t know if I’m right, but it seems to me that these steps will be a good start on the road to becoming a full time blogger. Have you got any tips to add?
Good tips for getting a good blog going, but I think my step 1 would be planning and market research.
Basically figure out what the best blogs have in common and set-up a system to replicate one (or one after another if you want to go big.)
Personally, I’m not that much of a fan when it comes to “systems”. Simply find a topic you are passionate about (being knowledgeable is always a must) and take it from there, that’s the way most of successful online bloggers have started out.
Alan Johnson
It doesn’t look like this is a problem for you but learning how to get traffic to your blog is pretty important too.
47
I think the community aspect that you mentioned is critical.
@Sucker: yes, you’re right, planning and research are essential, but I still think focusing a blog around an interest will help you to sustain it.
@Alan: that’s pretty much what I’ve done with Get Paid To Write Online, which is growing fast.
@47: yes, traffic building is important, but with good content and creating a community the traffic will come.
@Steven: it’s fun and important, too, but it takes a while to develop. For met, watching my own blogging community grow has been very rewarding.
Sharon, working on something you are passionate about will definitely be a decisoin you will not regret and your productivity in such cases is impressive compared to working on something you just see as a chore.
Alan Johnson
That’s why I started Get Paid To Write Online. I could blog about freelance writing forever, and when I started the precursor to that blog, I didn’t know that I could earn money as well. That was a nice bonus.
The best of luck with your blog, something good always surfaces when the person behind a resource is passionate about what he/she is doing and gives it 110%
Alan Johnson
You can make a big name for yourself blogging IF you jump outside the blogging box. I recently started investigating this blogging market and 98% of the people must have read the same E-book.
Think outside the box!
A blog should be an extension of what you do, not the ONLY thing you do.
If you are blogging for dollars and that is your sole purpose then you will fumble around like a drunk.
Do something noteworthy and then blog about it. In an age of information overload, nobody will read your crap if you smell like all the other sh”t in town.
Exactly, you always have to ask yourself: Why would a person want to visit my website?
If the answer is “so that I can make money”, it’s back to the drawing board I’m afraid
Alan Johnson
I do agree with finding your own voice and writing your own opinions….blogging from your own experience, no matter what the topic is you’ve chosen to blog about. There are too many blogs that just repeat the same stuff that you can find in one “expert” spot, but if you blog about your own life experience, no one can repeat that because everyone on Earth has a different one.
Practicing what you preach is always a must: if you recommend a certain product, you shouldn’t do it only because you earn a commission from it, you should do it because you’ve realized that they will find it useful after using it yourself.
Alan Johnson
Good point, JoLynn. I also agree with Alan. My best affiliate commissions have come from products that I can really recommend.
Blogging could be the best way for you to get better exposure. As long as you make you posts interesting and open for conversations to your readers. Personally, I blog not just to earn money, actually I owe it from my readers.
I started blogging for fun, the earning potential came much later. I would still blog even if there wasn’t any earning potential - it’s a great way to join others who enjoy blogging.
All these comment have been very useful as well as the main post, in my search for knowledge of monetizing my blog(s).
How does one get the traffic if they are not advertised?
If you build it, they will come? is rather much a deity statement.
And if you advertise, where are the best places? For myself, I have joined the social communities. Some work others are rather iffy. But there have to be better places.
@ Phil: agreed. It’s been really useful to me and I recommend that all writers blog.
@ Sue: it is fun, isn’t it? When I happened on that first blogging site, I had no idea I would become addicted.
@ Gimme a Dream: I’m still working on the best advertising strategy myself. The social sites are a good starting point. Article marketing and guest blogging are also useful.