Here we show you ultimate SEO blogging guide for make money. Blogging encompasses various forms of self-published online content, such as writing, photography, and other media. Originally starting as a platform for individuals to share diary-style entries, blogging has now become an integral part of many business websites. The key characteristics of blogging include regular updates, a casual writing style, and interactive features that encourage readers to engage in conversations.
The term “blog” is a contraction of its original name, “weblog,” which allowed early internet users to record the events of their day through diary-like entries. As blogs gained popularity, they also provided a space for readers to leave comments, leading to the formation of communities around popular blogs. Recognizing the marketing potential, entrepreneurs began adopting blogs for their businesses, contributing to the widespread popularity of this medium. Beyond marketing, blogs also became platforms for home-based businesses in their own right.
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Starting a Blog
Starting a blog can be intimidating for many beginners due to the perceived complexity of technical aspects involved. However, there’s no need to worry, as you can achieve a lot without extensive technical knowledge.
Rest assured, your fears are unfounded, and there are numerous options available for you to begin your blogging journey. The key is to explore and discover which approaches best suit your preferences and needs.
Minimum Technical Requirements
To embark on a blogging journey, every blogger will require a computer with internet access. Opting for a PC or laptop is often the most practical choice, as it offers the convenience of a proper keyboard, especially for composing longer articles. Nevertheless, blogging can also be accomplished using a tablet or smartphone, with the availability of various keyboards designed for such devices.
To get started, you’ll need an internet connection and a web browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, among others. Additionally, your blog site must be hosted online, which can be achieved through a hosting provider ensuring continuous availability of your website. Lastly, selecting a content management system (CMS) is vital, as it allows you to easily edit and update your blog content.
CMS And Hosting
A content management system (CMS) provides a code-free method for creating a blog. One highly popular example of this is WordPress, which can be installed for free, and there is an abundance of free tutorials and tips available online. While some other CMS options are more specialized, they may also be slightly more complex. It’s essential to ensure your hosting meets the minimum requirements of your chosen CMS. Fortunately, with WordPress’s widespread popularity, many hosting services now offer affordable prices and fully functional services.
Another technical necessity is a domain, which serves as the address for your blog. In most cases, domains are included in the hosting provider’s price package. To ensure your blog appeals visually to visitors, selecting an appropriate layout is crucial. Many CMS platforms offer a wide array of free and paid layout templates. Additionally, you have the option of having a unique layout designed by a web designer, or if you possess the skills, creating one yourself.
Profitable Niche
Niche blogging involves creating a blog with the specific purpose of targeting a particular market segment. These niches can encompass geographic areas, specialty industries, ethnic or age groups, or any distinct group of individuals.
Unfortunately, many new blogs fade away within a few weeks, and some don’t even survive beyond a couple of months. To ensure longevity and success, it’s crucial to choose a blogging niche that genuinely captivates your interest and keeps you motivated.
Several factors deserve consideration:
- Your knowledge and confidence in the niche: While you don’t need to be an expert, it’s advantageous to select a topic that you can write about comfortably without extensive research.
- Monetization potential: Although blogs on diverse subjects can be profitable, certain niches offer greater monetization opportunities than others. Assess whether your chosen niche has the potential for generating income.
- Suitable niche size: Avoid targeting an overly broad audience. Focusing on “everyone” may result in appealing to “no one.” Instead, identify a sub-niche that aligns well with your interests and expertise.
- Association with your niche: Consider whether you are content having your name associated with the niche. While anonymous blogging is an option, it could limit your ability to monetize effectively.
By carefully evaluating these factors and selecting a niche that matches your passion and expertise, you can enhance the chances of running a successful and fulfilling blog.
Top Blogging Niches That Will Make Money
Whether you already have a blog topic in mind or not, the niches listed below are fantastic options to explore, provided you choose a subject that genuinely interests you. These are all well-established, popular niches that have been successful for years and have the potential to be highly lucrative.
Profitable niche blog idea #1: food
Food is an immensely popular blogging topic since it appeals to everyone’s basic need for nourishment. Food blogging attracts substantial organic traffic, particularly through recipe posts, and offers opportunities to explore cookbooks and tutorials. Many food blogs prove to be profitable, generating thousands or even millions of dollars each month, as indicated in income reports.
This niche blog idea is in high demand and has the potential to thrive by capitalizing on trending food patterns. It often introduces international cuisines to new audiences, and social media can play a significant role in driving interest, as seen during the Covid pandemic when people showcased pies and sourdough bread. In summary, food blogs naturally offer unique and captivating topic ideas.
Profitable niche blog idea #2: personal finance
Many individuals seek guidance on managing their finances, leading them to rely on reputable personal finance blogs for help. These blogs, often operated by finance-savvy individuals, are in high demand and can be profitable, with some earning tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly.
Venturing into the finance niche requires careful consideration. While a formal finance-related education is not mandatory, a strong grasp of personal finance and valuable tips to share with readers is essential.
To find a profitable niche within finance, start by evaluating your own strengths in personal finance. Conduct research to identify good blog topics, trending ideas, and specific demographics that may require assistance with unique financial situations.
For example, blogs like Money Under 30 cater to young adults, Get Rich Slowly focuses on wealth-building with minimal risk, and The Penny Hoarder provides innovative money-saving ideas, at-home money-making activities, and valuable coupons for future savings.
Best blog niches #3: blogging
Although it may initially seem unusual to include “blogging” on a list of top blog niches, it is, in fact, an immensely popular and profitable topic for blogs. When you consider the rationale behind it, it starts to make more sense – bloggers typically venture into this field because they enjoy it, so naturally, they would write about this subject as well.
Blogs like Copyblogger, Problogger.com, and the Smart Passive Income Blog follow similar models, catering to content creators who aspire to achieve profitability in their respective unique niches. Some niche blog topics include “creative ways to combat writer’s block,” “best services to fuel inspiration in your work,” and “building an audience in the creator economy.”
Niche blog idea #4: lifestyle
The ‘lifestyle’ blogging niche encompasses a broad range of topics, allowing bloggers to share their daily lives and related subjects. Unlike some other profitable and highly demanded niches, lifestyle blogs don’t always focus tightly on a single topic. One popular sub-group within this niche is the well-known ‘Mommy Blog’:
With lifestyle blogging, you can create a blog that documents your life while incorporating trending niches and an overall theme that’s enjoyable, relatable, and valuable. Examples include mommy blogs, family travel blogs, or urban living blogs. By showcasing how you live your life and offering useful tips, you can venture into profitable endeavors, attracting sponsorships and exploring various monetization methods. From recommending kitchenware to car products, or movie theaters to kids’ toys, the opportunities are vast.
Although the lifestyle niche blog provides a fantastic adventure, it requires skillful organization to manage a wide array of sub-topics since the average person engages in numerous activities on a day-to-day basis. To succeed and grow your readership, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd and connect with your audience through unique visibility.
Niche blog idea #2: fashion
Fashion blogs rank among the most sought-after types of blogs on the internet. If you decide to start one, you can anticipate attracting organic traffic relatively quickly, as numerous individuals are actively seeking good and distinctive blogs within this lucrative niche.
Fashion blogging offers excellent opportunities for sponsorships, as you constantly work with branded products while researching trending niche blog topics. Expanding your brand to other platforms like Instagram and YouTube can create additional revenue streams, accelerating your path to profitability.
Within the fashion world, popular niches vary depending on prevailing trends. As the fashion industry moves swiftly, successful bloggers often focus on specific areas, such as fashion for beginners (e.g., college students or new city residents) or cater to unique needs, like fashion for individuals with specific hair types, heights, or body shapes.
Introduce SEO to Your Blog
Once you’ve created blog posts, introducing SEO to your blog becomes crucial. Optimizing your blog posts for SEO enhances their visibility on search engine result pages, leading to increased web traffic and better exposure for your business. In fact, companies that maintain blogs typically experience at least twice as much web traffic compared to those that don’t.
For digital marketers, mastering the art of getting their brand, website, or blog discovered by searchers is an essential skill. Staying updated on how SEO is evolving is vital for staying ahead in the field. Although SEO undergoes frequent small changes, its fundamental principles remain constant. We can break down SEO into three core components or pillars that require regular attention and action:
- Technical Optimization: Technical optimization involves implementing various activities on your website aimed at improving SEO, focusing on elements that are not directly related to content. These optimizations are often performed behind the scenes.
- On-Page Optimization: On-page optimization is the practice of ensuring that the content on your website is relevant and delivers an excellent user experience. This involves targeting the appropriate keywords within your content and can be achieved using a content management system. Some popular content management systems include WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, and Expression Engine.
- Off-Page Optimization: Off-page optimization refers to the strategy of improving your website’s search engine rankings through activities conducted outside of the site itself. A significant aspect of off-page optimization involves building backlinks, which play a crucial role in enhancing the site’s reputation and authority.
How Long It Takes For SEO To Start Working
Indeed, the answer to the question depends on various factors. The success of your SEO efforts relies on multiple aspects, such as the age of your blog, the extent of previous SEO work, the current condition of the blog, the volume of content available, the link profile, and numerous other SEO-related factors (refer to the infographic below for more details). Since no two blogs start from the same position, even if they operate in the same industry and target the same audience, the SEO approach will differ.
However, let’s consider a plausible scenario for your SEO efforts during the initial months and the expected outcomes.
- Month 1 – The process typically involves research and discovery, conducting a website audit, developing a keyword strategy, and formulating a plan. Depending on the speed of research and discovery, technical changes to the blog may begin within the first month. However, in some instances, a more extensive research and discovery phase can extend beyond one month.
- Month 2 – The next step involves initiating technical SEO work, which entails making modifications to the blog based on the results of the site audit. In certain cases, a complete website overhaul becomes necessary, and this process alone can take several months to complete. Meanwhile, other SEO activities, such as working on the link profile and creating content, can be carried out simultaneously during the overhaul. It’s important to note that when faced with a situation requiring a website overhaul, the SEO efforts may not yield immediate results since the impact of these changes will only become evident once they are fully implemented and finalized.
- Month 3 – Next, you should shift your focus towards content creation, which involves producing various types of content such as blogs, FAQs, whitepapers, articles, and more. Ideally, this process should have started after the strategy and planning phase, but budget constraints might prioritize a technical overhaul first. By the end of this month, you may start noticing improvements in your rankings. While it would be great if these rankings translate into leads or sales, it’s not necessarily expected at this stage. The positive outcomes might take some time to materialize.
- Month 4 – During this phase, you should continue with content creation, technical optimization of the website, and building a healthy link profile, which may involve cleaning up low-quality links. By this month, you can anticipate a noticeable increase in rankings, website traffic, and lead generation. While it won’t match the improvements you might see after 12 months of SEO efforts, the progress should be significant enough to confirm that SEO is indeed working.
- Month 5 – Around this time, or even earlier in the process, you might have integrated social media management into your plan to amplify your content and drive direct traffic to your website. This approach can contribute to a healthy, natural link profile and generate leads independently. You would also persist with content creation and possibly engage in PR or media outreach. At this stage, you should observe a steady increase in traffic generated through SEO, leading to a growth in leads as a result.
- Month 6 – Once your traffic has reached 5,000 visitors per month or more, it may be advantageous to incorporate conversion rate optimization into your efforts. This step aims to enhance how the incoming traffic converts into leads or sales. Moving forward, your activities may predominantly revolve around content creation and promoting that content. Alternatively, you might engage in more creative endeavors, with the specific activities varying greatly depending on your company type and the nature of your blog.
Many SEO firms often suggest that it takes approximately 4 to 6 months to start witnessing tangible results in SEO efforts, and this is generally accurate. However, it’s important to remember that SEO results tend to grow over time. At some point, you may notice your results leveling off, and your focus might shift towards maintaining those outcomes rather than further growth. The timeframe for seeing results can differ from blog to blog due to various factors such as your SEO strategy, backlink profile, niche competition, and search engine updates.
It is a common mistake for companies to underestimate the time and resources required for SEO success. Achieving notable results typically doesn’t happen within the first 3 months, even with a healthy SEO budget. Some blogs may begin with the right approach but quit prematurely, citing the lack of desired results to justify the cost. Unrealistic expectations could be the cause in such cases. If you cannot allocate a budget for 6 to 12 months of SEO, it might be more beneficial to invest in other areas. Opting for only a few months of SEO often yields little progress and may not provide a favorable return on investment.
SEO is a long-term marketing strategy and should not be considered a quick solution for generating immediate sales. However, with the proper investment and a commitment to the long haul, SEO has one of the best return on investments among marketing tactics.
Make Money with Your Blog
Everyone wants to make money, and starting a blog is often seen as a potential avenue to achieve that goal. However, many individuals are unsure of how to actually monetize their blog effectively. Whether you’re just starting a blog or looking for ways to monetize an existing one, making money through blogging is entirely possible.
While it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, with the right approach, you can generate a substantial income from your blog, whether it’s a hobby or a business-focused blog. By implementing the correct strategies, you have the potential to support your family and even exceed your financial goals. Let’s explore how you can turn your blog into a profitable venture.
CPC or CPM Ads
One of the most common ways bloggers make money is by placing ads on their site. There are two popular types of ads:
- CPC/PPC Ads: Cost per click (also known as pay per click) ads are typically banner ads that bloggers place within their content or sidebar. Every time a reader clicks on one of these ads, the blogger earns revenue from that click.
- CPM Ads: CPM Ads, also referred to as “cost per 1,000 impressions,” are advertisements that pay bloggers a fixed amount of money based on the number of times the ad is viewed by users (per 1,000 impressions). Regardless of how many clicks the ad receives, the blogger earns revenue for each 1,000 times the ad is displayed on their website.
Perhaps the most popular network for placing these types of ads is Google AdSense. With this program, you do not need to be in direct contact with advertisers; you simply place the banner on your site, Google chooses ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. There are countless similar programs available if you find that AdSense doesn’t work for you, such as PropellerAds.
Affiliate Links
Affiliate marketing is indeed another effective method for monetizing your blog. Here’s how affiliate marketing works:
An advertiser has a product she wishes to sell and offers you a commission for each sale that originates from your site.
You receive a unique affiliate link that includes your affiliate code. This link allows the advertiser to track purchases made by buyers who clicked on your link.
You incorporate your affiliate link on your website, either within your content or through banner ads. If a reader clicks on your unique link and proceeds to purchase the recommended product, you earn a percentage of the sale.
You can engage in affiliate marketing through ad networks like ShareaSale, or you can establish private partnerships with advertisers and businesses that have affiliate programs. This way, you can generate income by promoting products or services that align with your blog’s niche and audience.
Private Ads
Working with advertising networks is not the only option for selling ads on your blog. As your traffic grows, advertisers may approach you directly, asking to place their ads on your site. Additionally, you can proactively contact advertisers yourself. The advantage of this approach is that there is no intermediary, allowing you to set your own ad rates.
Private ads can take various forms, such as banners, buttons, or links. You can also earn money by writing sponsored posts where you review or write about an advertiser’s product or service. Another option is writing an underwritten post or series, where the advertiser pays for a “Brought to you by” mention within the content.
The monetization methods can differ. For example, you might charge a one-time fee for placing a link within a post. If you host banner ads, you might charge advertisers a monthly fee. The flexibility of this approach allows you to tailor your offerings based on your blog’s traffic, niche, and audience reach.
Sell Memberships
Selling memberships to exclusive areas of your website is another profitable option to generate income. For example, a career blog might offer a paid membership that grants users access to an exclusive job board for a monthly fee of $10. Similarly, a startup business blog might sell memberships to their forums, providing personalized advice to members about their businesses.
The crucial aspect is to ensure that your exclusive membership offers more value than what visitors can find for free elsewhere. Developing something of significant value that justifies the price is essential to attract and retain paying members. By offering unique and valuable content or services behind the paywall, you can create an enticing proposition that encourages visitors to become paying members.
Sell Digital Products
If you prefer not to advertise other people’s products on your site or are seeking an additional revenue stream, selling digital products can be a great option. Some examples of digital products you can sell include:
- eBooks
- Online courses/workshops
- Images, video, or music people can use in their own content
- Apps, plugins, or themes
Absolutely, ensuring relevance and usefulness to your readers is essential when choosing any of these monetization avenues. Many bloggers make the mistake of assuming what their readers need without truly understanding their audience. Instead, it’s crucial to actively listen to your readers, engage with them, and gather feedback to identify their specific needs and pain points. By doing so, you can create a digital product that addresses those needs effectively, increasing the chances of its success and appeal to your target audience. Building a strong connection with your readers and catering to their genuine needs will lead to more successful and sustainable monetization strategies for your blog.
Conclusion
Starting a blog as a side project and gradually growing it in the background is entirely possible. With dedication and effort, it can become a source of passive income that eventually allows you to pursue your desired lifestyle, whether that involves quitting your job, traveling, or spending more time with family.
However, achieving success in blogging, like any worthwhile endeavor, requires hard work, commitment, and continuous improvement. It involves studying, practicing, and mastering your craft while putting in considerable effort and hustle.
If you have a passion for writing, blogging can be an incredibly rewarding business. Not only does it provide a platform to showcase your writing talent, but it also enables you to connect with people worldwide, share valuable knowledge, and receive reasonable compensation in return. The potential to make a significant impact on others’ lives and be well-rewarded for it makes blogging an appealing and fulfilling venture for those who truly enjoy the art of writing.