Keep hearing about how wonderful blogging is and how it’s a a fantastic way to make money from content you’ve written and created? Right from your home in your PJs? Have you been wondering what is blogging and how does it work? How to use blogging to actually make money? How does all of it work and what do you need to get started?
Here’s a helpful post I’ve written about how to make $1,000 a month from even a small blog.
I love blogging and I think you’ll love it too if you give it a chance. But it’s important to know… going in to blogging, that there’s a few foundational choices to be made that will set you up for success.
You probably already know about writing blog posts… but how do you get people to visit your website and read what you’ve written? And how do you introduce paid programs or a paid download without seeming scummy?
I got started blogging 12 years ago, and realized I could easily fit it into my busy work schedule. It’s a lot more work than you’d expect, but it can be very rewarding – both emotionally and financially. I’m still figuring things out but I’ll share with you what I know. I do know a few things that can help you. One thing is choosing a blogging platform – check out my helpful article here – Blogging Platforms – WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace – I also use Siteground for my hosting. They are terrific.
So what exactly is a blog? How do people make money from it?
When I thought about blogging, and my favorite bloggers, the ones that came to mind were the ones that taught me how to do something new or brought a lot of inspiration and motivation. It wasn’t the ones that talked about their personal lives or what they were doing or the company they were sponsoring that day.
Many bloggers make the mistake of blogging about their personal issues or their day-to-day activities, without a strategy in place. There are actually a lot of other topics you can blog about other than your personal life. All you have to do is find a topic you’re passionate about and pick the right niche. There are bloggers out there killing it in finance, business, health, wellness, fashion beauty, makeup, software, parenting, and lifestyle. So I know you can do this, blogging thing, too.
The blogging industry is big and is getting bigger.
Blogging in general is a growing community. It’s thriving. You’ve probably read several blogs that once were very small with only a handful of followers or readers before they became huge.
For many bloggers, blogging is their entire business. These full-time bloggers work from home, on their own terms, possibly in their PJs, and earn money from blogging. They make a great living from blogging and have abandoned the concept of the 9-5 job. Some are making over $10k per month or even more.
Ah, now I have your attention!
Whether you’re looking for a creative outlet for your passion niche, or a flexible way to add more income into your life, or want to have the life of blogging from your sofa, starting a blog is definitely something you should consider. If you’ve been searching for that one brilliant idea to strike you so that you can start your own business, a blogging business might be the one thing you could be great at.
Let’s review what exactly a blog is and how it works.
What is a blog?
So you’re wondering what is a blog and how does it work?
Well, a blog is basically just another name for a type of website. It’s a particular website that involves the blogger’s worldview and take on things they’re most interested in.
The difference is that you regularly update a blog with content known as blog posts, and share with your readers things about your niche topic.
How does blogging as a business work?
If you want to start a blog that interests you but you’ve never really understood how it all works, especially with how to make money from it, let me explain.
Pick a niche topic
You’ll start off by picking a topic (or a niche) that you want to focus on. What are you focused on? What are you passionate about? Is it something you have some sort of talent in? What do you want to learn more about that could help you share your journey with other readers?
Keep in mind, you don’t need to be an expert right away. Journey writing is just as valuable. But you have to be interested enough in your topic in order for blogging as a business to work for you.
Your niche doesn’t have to be set in stone. In fact, I know bloggers that focus on three niches that compliment each other for blogging. If you can’t narrow it down completely, don’t worry. You can start off by writing what interests you the most and then see what people enjoy reading, and then go from there.
Be sure though to pick a topic that you can make money from. This is tricky, but you’ll want to think about ways you can create things for people to buy or companies you might want to partner with to make some money.
The only exception is if your blog is more of a passion project and you don’t want or need to make money from it.
For example, there are affiliates you can partner with to promote their products that you might use. Perhaps they work well with your niche topic. Will you promote ads on your site? Is there an opportunity to offer digital downloads or a physical product on your site?
Think about the challenges or problems your readers might be facing that are related to your niche topic. Will they pay money for what you can solve? Making money from your blog won’t happen overnight, but if you set yourself up for blogging success, you’ll be making money in no time at all.
Set up your blog
I use WordPress for my blog’s foundation, and it’s self-hosted through SiteGround. You’ll need WordPress.org rather than WordPress.com if you want to self-host your blog and monetize it to the fullest.
WordPress is a website builder that makes blogging easy. There’s no coding involved, and there are other plugins you can install that will help you drag and drop elements for your blog like text or images that take out all of the hard work. It does have a learning curve, but after a month or so, you’ll see it’s easy to use.
SiteGround is a hosting company – one of many, but it’s one that I highly prefer. Your website files are stored on their servers and connected to your domain name via DNS so that your website can be viewed by the world. Here is a post of mine about Siteground and why I think they are so TERRIFIC.
These are just the first steps to get started with blogging. To learn more, visit Blogging 101 and get connected with more helpful articles and tips.
Here are some other posts I think you’ll enjoy:
How to Start a Blog
5 Ways to Repurpose Your Blog Content for More Traffic
7 Easy Steps for Pinterest Beginners
Hi Adrian, these are great ideas that you have shared. I’m currently working from home as well but I felt the need to be more productive. I have been thinking of starting a blog soon and I have been reading about how to go about it as well. There is also another blogger that I have been following if I may just share this article with you. Thanks again for these lists. Cheers!