Blogging is an incredibly popular hobby, and many new blogs start up every day on a huge range of different topics. Many students start a blog while they are studying. For example, those studying a family nurse practitioner degree might start a family health care blog. Moms often choose to catalog their experiences of motherhood on a blog. Food and crafts are also popular choices. Some people manage to make a very good living from blogging, and a lot of bloggers aspire to join them. Here are some ways you can do it.
Growth
Before you think about monetizing your blog, you need to make sure you have enough visitors and that your stats are consistent, or growing, from month to month. One great week isn’t enough. While you can start advertising whenever you want, brands won’t want to work with you until it’s worth it for them. Look to have around 2000 unique visitors a month. If you’re not there yet, write a business plan, set yourself some targets, and write action plans to help you get there.
Branding
Even fun, relaxed blogs, need to look professional to be successful. Branding is a big part of this. If you don’t already have a logo, get designing. If you need help, sites like Fiver are a great place to look for cheap designers. Make sure your logo and the same color scheme are used across all your posts and pages, but also on all your social media profiles and your emails. Use a site like Canva or Picmonkey, to make sure all your images are eye catching, and follow the same designs.
Marketing
Marketing is a great way to grow your blog, but also to make useful connections and get advice from other bloggers. You might even make some friends and build a great support network. Social media is the best way to promote your blog. Look at the platforms that suit both your blog, your personality and your target market. Facebook is a great place to share information, Twitter is brilliant for quickly building a large following, and Pinterest is brilliant for things like food and craft blogs that use a lot of images. Make sure you have social share buttons on your blog, so your viewers can share with their friends and followers. Engagement with your followers is key to success, so make sure you interact with them, chat and reply to any comments.
Ways to Make Money
Once you are ready to start earning some money from your blog, these are some of the best ways to do it:
• Advertising. Placing adverts on your site probably won’t make you large amounts of money, but it is easy to do.
• Brands. Working with brands to review or write about their products is a great way to make some money, and get some free stuff.
• A member only area. If you are going to charge people for extra content, make sure it’s worth it. On a healthcare blog, for example, if you are a family nurse practitioner or student, share valuable and important health information and advice. A food blogger could share extra recipes and tips.
• E-commerce. Another way to make money is by selling your own crafts, eBooks or artwork.
Follow these steps and you could see your blog making money in no time. It’s important to recognize, that it takes a lot of hard work and time. It won’t just come to you.
About Carson Derrow
