Having a blog may seem like a surefire way to make money, but it is a process that involves substantial effort, time, and above all, a calculated strategy. Capitalizing on the blogging industry can sometimes take years, unless one already has a significant audience or personal brand. This article throws light on avoiding common missteps, choosing profitable niches, setting a blog, and crafting content that brings in traffic.
Creating Compelling Content
Creating engaging content is a decisive part in driving traffic and making a blog profitable.
The approach involves thinking about what the target audience looks for on the internet and addressing those queries via blog posts.
The content strategy should consider topics that are relevant and useful to the audience.
Forums, and industry-specific platforms can be a great place to look for trending questions related to your niche.
Blogging as Income Generation
Starting a blog could open up a new avenue for income generation.
While results aren’t immediate, with consistency and quality, blogging can become profitable and enjoyable over time.
Even devoting just 15 minutes per day to your blog could significantly improve your online presence.
Understanding Backlinks
Building your site’s authority can be elevated through backlinks, which are signals of trust to Google.
These imply that the destination website is popular or authoritative.
However, links from low-quality websites can harm your site, hence it is vital to only build links from high-quality, industry-relevant sites.
Identifying Your Competitors
For effective content creation, it’s advisable to embark on competitive analysis.
This can be done by first identifying smaller blogs within your niche, then analyzing their most successful blog posts.
This is especially useful for new blogs that can’t immediately compete with larger ones in their niche.
Blogs that garner less than 5,000 visits per month and have a domain authority of less than 20 are perfect for this analysis.
Unlocking the Power of Keyword Research
If you find yourself at a creative roadblock, simple keyword research can inspire new content directions.
Entering a generic keyword into Ahrefs will yield related terms which can be filtered based on keyword difficulty.
Prioritizing keywords with a difficulty range of 0-15 ensures that the content being created isn’t caught up in high-competition terms.
This step can be skipped if you’ve already used the ideation step for keyword research.
Choosing the Blog Niche
The first step in efficient blogging is choosing a niche you are passionate about.
It should ideally also be an industry where your personal insights and expertise can make a difference.
Another significant consideration is that this niche should have already proven profitable, as an obscure niche might not help build a wide audience that can effectively drive revenue through sponsors or Adsense.
A competitive niche, despite seeming daunting, provides opportunities for quick growth through relationship-building and competitive analysis.
Identifying Competition in a Niche
A simple Google search using the niche as a keyword along with ‘blog’ can be sufficient to identify the extent of competition within the niche.
Subsequently, using tools such as Ubersuggest to evaluate the total traffic a top blog in the result generates can indicate the potential of the niche.
Ideally, blogs having at least 100,000 visitors suggest a profitable niche.
Getting your Website Up and Running
Once a domain name is chosen, the website can be purchased through your hosting provider.
The process of making your website live can vary based on the hosting provider.
Afterward, an About page, home page, and blog page should be set up.
Professional assistance can be sought to execute these tasks smoothly, for instance through platforms like Upwork.
Enhancing User Experience
User experience optimization is crucial to your blog’s success.
Ensure your pages load quickly on both desktop and mobile, as Google uses the user experience on the mobile version as the standard for ranking.
Break up text with subheadings, images, bullet points and concise summaries for easy readability.
Recipes or heavily image-focused posts should be particularly mindful of load times to avoid ‘bouncing’.
Focusing on these details can significantly boost your blog’s ranking.
Crafting Quality Content
Creating compelling blog posts begins with choosing the right topic.
Avoid writing lengthy stories that stray from the core message as this can lead to lower rankings.
Including expert quotes can differentiate your post from the competition.
For instance, if your post is about reducing costs in Switzerland, you could include quotes from travelers who have achieved this.
Creating Superior Blog Content
Once your topic is determined, competitor’s blog posts and the competition for the topic should be thoroughly analyzed before creating your content.
Pay attention to word count, layout, and design.
Strive to improve upon these elements in your own content.
Remember that Google rewards content that either thoroughly resolves a complicated topic or succinctly answers a query.
So, consider the expectations of the user—whether they’d prefer an image-based post, a list post, or an ultimate guide—and cater to that need effectively.
Discovering Relevant Blog Posts
To discover your smaller competitors’ most successful posts, you can employ tools like Ahrefs which provide valuable SEO and content marketing data.
The site enables you to view their top pages, revealing non-competitive terms that might be directly competing with your content.
For instance, if ‘vegan raspberry muffins’ appears as a top page, you can create a more comprehensive blog post around the topic, thereby drawing relevant traffic.
Writing and Ranking
Once your strategy is down, it’s time to write.
However, high-ranking on Google isn’t immediate even after deploying effective keyword research.
Google gives preference to posts from websites with high authority, meaning it may take time before your posts become popular.
Promoting Your Posts
Promotion is crucial after launching your blog.
Engaging influencers for quotes duals as a promotional strategy, as they often share the post featuring their quote with their audience.
After investing time in creating your content, consider spending a bit on promoting your posts through paid ads on social media or Google AdWords.
Setting Up the Blog
Creating your website is a crucial factor in blogging, with WordPress.org being a popular choice.
While other platforms like Wix or Squarespace may seem user-friendly, they offer limited SEO options which could affect your website migration, traffic, and Google rankings later.
Choosing a hosting plan essentially makes your blog accessible to people on the web.
Your host selection can impact the speed, security, uptime, and the likelihood of being hacked.
Factors such as the domain name also play a significant role.
