Lately, more and more full-time employees express a great deal of interest in blogging as a means of sharing their thoughts about a subject they love all the while earning money to cover some of their bills or even completely replace the income of their regular job.
If you’re one of those people but you don’t know how or where to get started, this article will help you fully understand the step-by-step process of starting your own successful blog from scratch, even if you have zero previous experience.
Let’s take a closer look.
What is a blog?
A blog is a public online log or journal where you can share knowledge, thoughts, opinions, or beliefs regarding one or more subjects.
To give you an example, the site you’re browsing through right now is a blog distributing information about topics that revolve around career development, making money online, affiliate marketing, and more.
What is blogging?
Blogging refers to the process of regularly writing, updating, and publishing content on a blog.
Originally, blogging was used merely as a means of keeping an online diary but over the last decade, it’s been increasingly leveraged toward reaching out, interacting, and monetizing specific target groups of web users.
What is a blog post?
A blog post is any content entry published on a blog.
Each blog post resembles a regular web page that focuses on delivering information about a certain topic.
To give you an example, what you’re reading right now is a blog post covering the subject of blogging while working full-time.
Why start a blog?
Running a blog offers tons of benefits.
First and foremost, it has the potential to become a source of part-time or maybe even full-time income.
Moreover, it enables you to share your thoughts about a subject you’re passionate about and interact with like-minded people from all over the world.
In addition, it helps you gain exposure and visibility as a professional and establish yourself as an industry leader.
Lastly, blogging helps other people get their hands on the information they need to solve a problem they’re facing. Think about it… How many times have you had a seemingly huge issue solved or a tough question answered simply by reading a couple of blog posts?
The process of building a profitable blog
The process of creating a profitable blog from scratch consists of the following four simple steps:
- Launch your blog
- Publish content
- Promote your posts
- Monetize your audience
Let’s take a more in-depth look.
1. Launch your blog
The first step to making money with blogging while working full-time is launching your blog.
Nowadays, creating a blog to host your content is easier than ever. The whole process won’t take you more than 30 minutes, even if you’re the least tech-savvy person in the world.
If you need help launching your blog, make sure to check out my illustrated guide on Starting an Affiliate Marketing Blog in 6 Simple Steps.
2. Publish content
Once your blog is up and running, you need to start filling it by regularly publishing content.
Always make sure that the articles you distribute deliver value in some way or another, such as:
- solving a problem
- guiding towards achieving a goal
- informing about a subject
- entertaining
- providing support
- etc.
Blog posts that serve no purpose whatsoever are extremely unlikely to generate revenue.
3. Promote your posts
Publishing content isn’t enough to achieve success as a blogger. You have to actively attract readers to your blog posts by promoting them on several digital marketing channels, such as:
- Social media
- Email lists
- Guest posting
- PPC ads
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- YouTube
- etc
The more people you get to read and interact with your content, the higher your chances of having your blog generate more money.
4. Monetize your audience
Once you’ve started building a reader base, you can start monetizing it by leveraging methods, such as:
- Display ads
- Sponsored posts
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling products/services
- & more
One of the most effective ways to monetize a blog is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning commissions for promoting already existing products or services sold by other businesses or individuals.
You can easily withdraw any revenue your blog brings in by using Union Plus or any other banking platform.
How to grow your blog to success
Achieving success as a blogger is rather challenging, especially if you attempt it while working a full-time job.
Nevertheless, if you’re willing to take the leap, put in some upfront work, monitor your performance, take corrective actions, and persist for long enough, chances are your efforts will eventually pay off.
Here are a few tips that could significantly boost the chances of taking your blog to success.
1. Pick a specific niche
The first step to creating a profitable blog is considering a specific niche.
Who’ll be reading your blog? What kind of problem will your target audience be looking to solve?
Do some brainstorming, conduct market research, and optimally, create a couple of buyer personas.
If you’re a complete beginner with limited resources (time & money), I suggest that you steer clear of highly competitive niches such as weight loss, personal finance, dating, crypto, etc.
2. Develop a content plan
Once you’ve zeroed in on your niche, you should develop a long-term content plan.
Writing content is tough and time-consuming so you want to ensure that you won’t be wasting resources on topics of no interest to anyone.
Do some more brainstorming. Search for viable keywords that receive steady amounts of monthly search volume using keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, Jaaxy, and Ubersuggest. Study the content your competitors are publishing and try to find content gaps that have yet to be filled.
Optimally, plan your content ahead for at least one year.
Lastly, create a content calendar to stay organized, maintain consistency, manage your time better, and ensure that you stick to your deadlines.
3. Structure carefully
Structuring your blog posts the right way is key to better readability, higher rankings, more credibility, and subsequently, more profit.
Here are a few simple tips to help you improve your content structure right away:
- Use subheads to break down your content into subtopics
- Include bullet or numbered lists when appropriate
- Incorporate media (e.g., images, photos, illustrations, videos, etc.)
- Make your sentences and paragraphs shorter
- Create compelling introductions
- Write in plain English
- Avoid using fluff to meet a certain word count
- Write conclusions
4. Perform SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the best ways to market your blog for free.
It refers to a set of practices designed to “convince” search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to place your articles at higher positions on their search results.
The higher positions your posts occupy on a search engine’s results pages (SERPs), the more people will be visiting them.
A few of the most basic SEO practices include, but aren’t limited to:
- Keyword research
- Internal linking
- Backlink building
- Speed optimization
- High-quality content
- & more
5. Diversify your content
Another pretty solid way to maximize the results of your blogging efforts is to diversify and experiment with various types of content.
Don’t limit yourself to typical informative articles. Try out how-to guides, listicles, case studies, stories, interviews, etc.
You never know what kind of content might perform the best at any given time in a particular niche.
6. Update your blog posts
Publishing fresh content might be crucial to building a profitable blog, but it’s just one part of the process.
Another part is updating and improving upon old blog posts by boosting their accuracy, enhancing their structure, expanding on their content, incorporating up-to-date information, including images and videos, etc.
You could also start repurposing any piece of content that performs well in YouTube videos, podcasts, or social media posts.
7. Analyze competing blogs
One of the best methods of assessing the optimal strategy and overall direction of your blog is researching, studying, and analyzing the content your direct competitors are publishing.
Truth be told, your blog’s success will depend on how well you detect and understand how to capitalize on market gaps and areas your competitors lack, especially if you pursue a relatively crowded niche.
8. Get training
One of the most prominent reasons aspiring bloggers fail is lacking proper training.
The journey to becoming a successful blogger is no walk in the park. It involves a steep learning curve, a lot of work, and tons of trial and error.
Venturing into such a journey without having the right guidance would be like walking blindly in a minefield. It’ll not only hinder your progress but significantly decrease the chances of reaching your financial goals.
If you have zero clue regarding how to implement any of the very basic tips laid out above, and you’d like to stand a chance of not having your blog tank, you need to seriously consider signing up for a dedicated, step-by-step course that’ll point you in the right direction and help you sidestep all the major pitfalls that lead to failure in the industry.
Conclusion
Starting a profitable blog from scratch is simple. However, taking it from zero to success is no easy task.
You need to keep consuming the right information, closely monitor your blog’s performance, weed out techniques that deliver little or no results, listen to your readers’ feedback, take corrective actions, and have the patience to stick with it until you eventually reach your financial goals.
If you have any questions or require further help venturing into blogging, leave a comment right below or contact me right here, and I’ll do my best to get back to you and point you in the right direction as soon as possible.
Best of luck in your endeavors,
Harry, Founder & Creative Director at dearboss-iquit.com
