While it is relatively easy to set up a blog, generating traffic (people that will come to your blog to check out stuff) and making profit from the blog are the main obstacles you need to think about.
play Starting a blog and making lots of money of it is no easy thing to do.
(leapfrogmedia)
Keep in mind that if you don't have a passion for writing (or content creation), it will be extra hard for you. Also, if you are looking to make a lot of money, be prepared to remain persistent for as many years (yes, years. Ask Linda Ikeji) as it takes.
If you are not discouraged yet, and you want to create the next Linda Ikeji Blog or BellaNaija, then here is what you need to do:
Pick a topic: Define a topic or niche that you want to focus on/write about and design your content around it. This will help you not only laser-focus your writing, it will also help you build digital products and service that compliment the content you are producing. For example, you could focus on music or movies or tech.
play WordPress dashboard
(2createwebsite.com)
Select a platform: Wordpress is still the most popular platform for blogging but there are other platforms you can take advantage of such as Medium (I recommend this if you are active on Twitter), Tumblr, and Blogger.com. But if you want to go all out, you'll want to go with a self-hosted Wordpress site on a custom domain (none of those blahblah.wordpress.com stuff).
Pick a domain name that will not work against you: If you're serious about making money with your blog, a custom domain name is important. Find a relevant keyword-rich domain name that is aptly descriptive of intended topic/niche, use a top-level domain (TLD) like .com or .ng, keep the domain name short (within 15 characters), and try to avoid domain names that have hyphens, since they are often associated with spammers.
Find a good web hosting company: Initially, you'll probably want to start with a managed Wordpress solution or a Virtual Private Server (VPS) and go from there. However, by the time you starting hitting a few thousand visitors per day, you'll need a more dedicated solution like a Caching and Content Delivery Network (CDN), they make content delivery ultra-fast.
play Google Analytics
(google analytics)
Set up analytics: Analytics help you keep track of what you are doing while you build out your blog. Google Analytics and IO Analytics are highly recommended. They will show you things like what social media channel you views are coming from, where the people visiting your blog are doing so from, how many viewers finish reading your posts, how long they spent on your blog and so on. This will help you follow the numbers and optimize your content via insights into the behavioral patterns of your audience.
ALSO READ: A secret guide to taking pictures even when you run out of storage
Get Google's Webmaster Tools: If you are serious about building a blog and making money, you need to leverage Google's webmaster tools to see what keywords they are ranking for and any messages that would impact their ability to rank. It will also allow you setup an XML sitemap and track keyword impressions as well as click-through rates.
Learn about SEO: Yes, you didn't start blog because of SEO but you should at least learn and understand the basic fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO) because that will let you pay attention to the the key aspects of your content that will impact your ability to rank high on search engines like Google.
Content is king: You may have heard this phrase several times. You need to build content that is engaging keyword centric, insightful, unique, and well written. Write for humans while also paying attention to search engines and what they want. It is also important that you are consistent with publishing content.
play email marketing
(One 400)
Sign up for email marketing: The best way to make money off your blog is through email marketing, plain and simple. Ads could work (for a while and with small returns) but you need to be having tens of thousands of page visits. Some examples you can check out are ConvertKit, MailChimp, InfusionSoft and Constant Contact.
Build a digital product and position your offers: Email marketing is great but you need a digital product, service or other kind of offer in the back-end to take full advantage. You can create multiple offers/products that drive people up a value chain to your high-ticket sales.
play Social Media
(Fivesquid)
Get social: Building a blog is not easy in any way (if you want to make lots of money off it, at least). To help you get to success faster, you need to get social. You will be able to link up with other bloggers interested in online marketing (thus expanding your network) and reach your audience through platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Content Marketing: This may be the single most important factor in the success of your blog. Marketing your content is what is going to get more people visiting your blog and help you rank high on search engines like Google. Content marketing can be done with articles on sites like Medium, by answering questions on Quora, by posting videos on YouTube (you can make money off this too), and so on.
play At the end of the day, you have to be able to make money from the content you create.
(relevance)
Monetize your content: Running a blog can get costly, to be honest. Don't think you are going to get rich overnight. But you can take certain steps to make some money along the way by monetizing your content. You can generate small amounts of cash by doing things like creating articles that will lead people to e-books, manuals or courses you have created. You also create video tutorials that will sell a big package os develop a system that will teach people whatever you are really good at.
There are several ways to make money off your blog, but don't try to look for shortcuts along the way. Also, you have to consider things like Internet (Smile has a great N19,800 4G subscription that can get you started) and power (you can get a 3.5HP generator for around N65K), as well as subscription fees for your email marketing service.
Does blogging sound like a business venture you are interested in? Do you have any tips to share? Drop them in the comments section below. Happy hunting!
Source: How to start a blog in Nigeria and make money from it
No comments:
Post a Comment