Since its birth, there has been a meteoric evolution in blogging into what it is today. While in the beginning, you needed to know HTML coding to start blogging, today, anyone can start, maintain, and monetize a blog.

But here is what you must know: blogging can happen overnight, but blogging success cannot, especially when you see blogging as a business.

Of course, with over 10,000 monthly visitors flocking on your blog, there is a good chance to create a lucrative revenue stream out of it. But if you are a newbie or have fewer than 1,000 visitors per day, then monetizing your blog can be a real challenge.

That said, no matter what stage you are in, you must have something interesting to say. You need to be patient, consistent and work really hard to make enough money to say goodbye to your 9-5 job and live off your blogging career.

Start your Business as a Blogger

If you are seriously thinking about starting a business as a blogger, you have come to the right place. Because, in this post, I will share with you some essential and doable strategies on How to start your business as a blogger.

Before that, a little secret.

What we are going to learn here are time-tested monetization techniques extensively implemented by the highest-earning bloggers. But working your way up, from an amateur blogger to the pro making six figures annually, would definitely need a bit of marketing savviness, a profitable niche, and a passion for learning.

Sounds good? Let’s dive in.

Follow these steps to learn how to start your business as a blogger.

1. Create your own website

Just 20 minutes! Yes, you heard it right. Creating your own website is probably the easiest task of all in monetizing blogging content, even if you are not particularly tech-savvy.

I will leave the basics of creating a website from scratch to Neil Patel, the co-founder of NP Digital, who brilliantly explains even the most granular details of setting up a website.

Many would argue that blogging platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger, Medium will allow you to set up your blog for free and with super ease.

True. But these blogging platforms also put restrictions on customization, image or video uploads, and even affiliate links. Other prominent cons are that the platforms retain the right to delete your blog, and creating a custom URL is out of the question.

Setting up your own website, on the other hand, might cost you some bucks for the domain name and hosting. But the benefits like complete control over customization and design, custom URL, and use of affiliate links make it worth every penny.

Above all, a personal website is the best medium for dedicated bloggers trying to make money by blogging while creating a unique brand voice.

2. Pick a Niche and a Name

Your readers will see the name of your blog first. And you want them to remember it too. So keep it simple. It could represent the topic that you write on-or could have your name-or could be a creative blend of both.

Niche is the specific area around which you build your content. It’s a key when you are hoping to blog for a living. So it’s crucial to figure out what you want your readers to learn about- Tech-hacks, parenting, keto diet, fashion, spirituality, or any other topic.

It’s totally normal to be unsure of your niche in the beginning. So, here’s how you decide on a niche:

Find the gap in the current content that you see on the topic of your interest.
Take cues from Google suggested searches and autocomplete to find what people are searching for.
Think about what you like to teach, considering your expertise and experience on the topic.
Choose something that arouses your curiosity to learn, something you truly enjoy.
Research the audience revenue potential and affiliate marketing potential of the topic.
Don’t be afraid to get specific as long as it has a decent readership.

3. Install Goggle Analytics

You’ll be thankful for this tool.

Once you create a Google Analytics account and install it on your website, you will see the number of visitors, their demographics, and blogs that are receiving the most visits.

It’s pretty simple to set up. Click here, and you are ready to go.

4. Start Building an audience

Unless you have a reasonable audience base, you are unlikely to make serious money. Thus, the most effective way to draw traffic and attract more email signups is to keep offering your readers the best content.

And that’s partly the reason the niche you choose is so important.

A smartly chosen niche will help you dish out a steady flow of content ideas that you need to have for posting consistently on your blog, build a loyal audience, and explore different monetization tactics later.

What’s more?

Do keyword research to generate viable blog posts ideas, work hard on the quality to make your blog posts valuable to the readers, and post at least twice a week, even 2-3 times, if you can.

While you are at it, don’t forget about-

The enticing headline that makes your reader instantly want to click and read. You can use a headline analyser like Coschedule headline analyser to craft catchy headlines.

Search Engine Optimization of blog posts and web pages to rank higher for search engines by incorporating specific keywords and phrases.

Promoting your blog posts across social media platforms- LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., whichever suits your niche.

Capturing email addresses via your website.

When is my blog mature enough to monetize it?

Generally speaking, you need at least a thousand visitors to monetize efficiently.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to tell a concrete number of how much traffic or email sign-ups you should have to start making money. Because it varies based on the product or service, you are selling through your blog.

Let’ say, if $ 2000 is what you are aiming for, then you can:

Either sell a $ 200 product to 10 different visitors.

Or sell a $500 product to 4 people.

Or even charge $2000 for exclusive consultation from a single client.

This doesn’t mean that simply increasing the prices of your products or services is the core of monetization.

Rather, you should choose a monetization strategy that best aligns with where your blog stands in terms of the size of your audience.

Once you have arrived at this stage, you can start monetizing your blog.

Read along to find ways blogs can earn money.

5. Monetization strategies

Promote An Affiliate Product

One of the most viable and easiest revenue models for blogs with an engaged audience as most of the biggest brands offer affiliate deals.

Simply include a link in your blog to a service or digital/physical product for sale on another site. When someone clicks the link, gets redirected to the affiliate’s site, and buys-you get a commission. Amazon is a great place to find a huge list of products to recommend from.

For instance, affiliate income from Bluehost and Amazon makes up the major chunk of blogging revenue of Lindsay Ostrom of pinchofyum.com.

Sell Space For Display Ads

You can earn a healthy revenue by offering advertising space on your site to brands that relate to your readers. The more popular your blog is, the more you earn. You can also use ad networks like Google AdSense to sell your ad space to advertisers on your behalf.

Justin Weinger of SoOverThis.com presents a great example of how bloggers can earn legit thousands of dollars solely through private ad sales.

Words of caution: Avoid bombarding your site with blinking ads. Rather, focus on getting relevant ads that appeal and do not annoy your readers.

Offer Freelance Services

Selling your writing skills as a freelancer is probably one of the most profitable and quickest ways of monetizing your blog. Freelancers’ job is to create content for business’ websites that attracts visitors who can potentially be their customers.

All you have to do is create some captivating writing samples on your blog, reach out to businesses and pitch them your services.

Although you do not need a lot of traffic on your blog as long as you can write great blog, you should use your site to land new gigs using inbound marketing and SEO.

Check out the way ElnaClain does it, and you’ll love it.

Monetize On eBooks/Online Course /Consultation/Podcasts

Ok, this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. And It works only when you have proved that you are extremely good at what you are offering to teach others. Or your content is incredibly popular for the value it creates.

But if you are confident enough to sell your skills that others want to learn, then take a leap. Many software are available for blogs where you can Package your best advice, strategies, and tactics in the form of eBooks, tutorials, course material, podcasts, or one-on-one consulting and start selling them on your blog.

For example, Ryan Robinson helps people build profitable blogging side business through his podcasts. He has also landed consulting deals for some of the world’s top start-ups.

Create An Online Store

Curate a shop page to your blog with a plug-in like WooCommerce and start selling physical or digital products to make extra cash from your blog.

For instance, Shopify, the leading commerce platform, not only enables you to set up an online store and sell products but also generously share valuable business ideas through their blogs.

Write Sponsored Blog Posts Or Reviews

Think of it as influencer marketing, where a blogger charges a brand to write about their products on the blog and give their opinion about it. The brand, in turn, gets more exposure and Generate new leads.

To pull this off, you obviously need a lot of traffic and credibility. Also, you must be transparent about the product feedback to retain your readers’ trust.

And now here comes the most worthwhile way to generate revenue from blogging……..

Become An Awesome Blogger

Unlike what you thought, merely having good ideas and powerful language skills isn’t enough.

Most bloggers forget this fundamental fact that what they want to say is not what readers want to read. You won’t make money online unless your content delivers more value than any other blog post published on that topic. Period.

So stay focused, keep honing your writing and entrepreneurial skills, work consistently towards improving your blog, and follow the above steps to make your blog a fulfilling source of income.

In a nutshell

Starting your business as a blogger is neither easy nor fast. That’s how it is, at least at the start. You will make mistakes along the way. But with consistent efforts, you can make it work.

I hope now you have the strategies to start your endeavour as a blogger and make money with your blog.

Author Bio:

Ankit thakor is a marketer by trade and a football player by passion. He is a Saas Marketing Specialist at SoftwareWorld. He specializes in using compelling content to capture consumer dollars for world-class SaaS brands.

Twitter : https://twitter.com/ankitthakor14

Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankitthakor/

Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Ankit-Thakor

How to Start your Business as a Blogger?