In this day and age it is a way to make money online that many are turning to, and in particular, beginners often choose this route due to the low threshold to start. But where do you begin? How can you be sure that there is an audience? What niche should you go after? How do you monetize your blog? Where do you find good topics to write about?
This article holds your hand from choosing topics to write about to getting your first paycheck and beyond. We will briefly cover the following topics:
A Balanced Niche
Audience definition
Understanding Search Intent
Getting used to Writing
Coming up with your first 20 articles
Starting your website
Adding crucial pages
Publishing your posts
Applying to Adsense
Your Content Calendar
Realistic timelines
There will be no beating about the bush, just factual outlines of what to do when.
Pay attention and save this link – you will need it over the next 2 months!
A Balanced Niche
You need to pick a broad topic you are interested in. Sit down and break this main topic down in sub topics. See the example below
I love traveling to amazing places. Meeting new people, seeing stunning wildlife, eating unique cuisines – all excite me!
Breakdown 1 – I like traveling within the USA
Breakdown 2 – USA has mighty cosmopolitan cities, gorgeous beaches, majestic mountains and iconic landmarks
Breakdown 3 – I love the solitude of the mountains and the mysterious wildlife that lives there.
MY NICHE – I will start a blog about the various campgrounds and hiking trails in the national parks and forests of the USA.
The Balance – Will the market be interested in my content?
YES! National parks allow many livelihoods to be built all around them – hotels, activity partners, travel agents etc. All of them will want to run ads on your website – that’s money on the table!!
Possibility for affiliate marketing? YOU BET! Outdoor gear is a huge industry. Weave these products into your content with your unique affiliate link and make money on the side!
Audience definition
This is your research phase. VERY CRITICAL!
Defining your blog’s audience is the first step to creating content that will resonate with them.
Before you start writing, make sure you know who will be reading what you write. You need to know:
Who are they? Define their age, gender and nationality.
What do they want? What are their interests? Do they have any special needs or concerns that make them different from other people in your market?
How do they learn? How do they prefer to consume information — text, images or video?
Your blog’s audience is the group of people you’re aiming to engage with your content. They may be customers or prospects, or they may be industry peers and other influencers.
It’s important to know who’s reading your blog because it will help you determine what kind of content they want to see and how they can benefit from it.
Understanding Search Intent
Creating a blog post for a website is a challenging task. It is important to understand the search intent of your audience for whom you are writing your blog content. Understand their query and try to answer their concern in the best possible and most helpful way.
Before writing a blog post, you should do some research on the topics that are related to your business or industry and find out what people are searching for. You can use tools like Google Trends, Wordtracker, or Ubersuggest to get more insights into what people are searching for in the digital world.
Once you have identified the topics that are relevant to your business or industry, then you can create lists of keywords related to them and try to rank them in some of the top sites such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Baidu.
One of the most important things to do is to understand your audience.
If you are writing a blog post for your website, then you have the luxury of knowing who your audience is. However, if you are writing for social media, you need to know about where your audience is and what they are looking for.
If you don’t know who your audience is, then how can you write content that will appeal to them?
The first step in understanding search intent is knowing who your audience is and what they want from you. If we take an example of a blog post on SEO tips for beginners, it will definitely be helpful for people who are new to SEO and want to learn more about this topic. The same blog post may not be useful for those who already know about SEO and want something more advanced.
So if we consider this example, the search query would be “SEO tips for beginners” because people who type this in Google want information on SEO tips specifically for beginners.
Getting used to Writing
The best way to get used to writing is by writing, and you should do it every day.
It’s important because the more you write, the more you’ll get better at writing.
As a blogger, your content is your main asset. If you want to build a successful blog that will consistently get your organic traffic, then writing is crucial.
If you’re looking to grow your blog and get more organic traffic, writing is the most important thing you can do.
There are a lot of people who say that they don’t have time to write, or that they don’t know how to write. But if you want to grow your blog, you need to write.
Writing isn’t easy. It takes time, effort, and practice. But it is also one of the most rewarding things you can do for yourself as a blogger because it will help you grow your audience and increase your revenue.
The first step in learning how to write for your blog is getting used to writing. You want to get into a routine where writing becomes second nature so that when it comes time to publish a new post, all you have to do is click on “publish” and then go back to whatever else it was that you were doing. It will take some practice, but once you get used to writing regularly, it will become easier than ever before!
Coming up with your first 20 articles
Your first 20 articles need to be on topics not many people are writing about.
You need to target queries that are at least 4 words long
When you search these queries on google, the first 10 results should contain results form forums like reddit, Quora or pinterest. This means that there isn’t a good high quality article on this query and you are sure to get initial traffic for these articles on these queries.
Make sure, however, that these are actually queries that people are searching. You can use tools like Google Trends or Ubersuggest to get a rough idea on this aspect ( called search volume).
Another easy way is to answer general queries about popular hobbies. For example – instead of “How to Play Basketball” an article on “Does height matter in basketball?”
This is called finding underserved topics in your niche and will help google find you faster 🙂
Starting your website
You can start your website with a domain name and web hosting. There are countless videos on YouTube to help you get this done in very little time.
The next step is to set up your blog platform. I recommend WordPress because it is the most user-friendly, but there are similar platforms like Blogger and Squarespace that work great too.
Once you have your blog set up, it’s time to write! I recommend writing at least one post per week. This may sound like a lot, but if you can write just one post per week, then you will be ahead of most bloggers who don’t even get started because they think it’s too much work.
Adding crucial pages
Add crucial pages to your blog website. This is critical for being approved by Google AdSense to be able to set up ads on your website. These include:
About us page
The About us page is the most important page on your website. It’s the first thing your visitor will see when they land on your blog, so it’s critical to make a good first impression.
This page is where you can tell your audience who you are and why should they read your blog. It’s also a great place to add some information about the authors writing on your website.
The information that you include in this page should be brief and concise. Your readers want to know about you and what makes you different from other blogs out there in the internet world. You need to let them know why they should read your blog over others’.
You can add links to social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as links to other websites such as yours if they’re relevant to what you’re writing about.
Contact us page
Contact us page is one of the most important pages on a website. This page is used to communicate with the users and customers.
It gives you an opportunity to communicate with the customer in case they have any problem or query regarding your product or service.
This page also helps in building relationships with your customers and helps you keep them engaged in your brand. It is one of the best ways to convert your blog into an e-commerce website which is beneficial for both the parties involved.
If you are planning to start a blog or already have one, then adding a contact us page on your blog website is a must. Here are some tips that will help you create an effective contact form:
Add a Contact us page on your blog website. Here add a contact form and a contact email address. Its option is to add an address and a phone number.
Make sure that the form fields are only relevant ones so that it becomes easier for people to fill them up without any difficulty and also ensure that you have enough text fields so that people can write more details about their queries in case they want to share them with you.
Home page
Adding a homepage to your blog website is a good way to give readers some insight into what you are blogging about.
A home page can be written in an informal tone, so it should not be too formal or official. It should also be easy to read and understand, even if it has a lot of content on it.
A good way to start is by writing a few sentences about yourself and what you do. You can then describe your blog’s purpose and what you hope readers will get out of reading it.
You may also want to include information about who you are as a person and what makes you unique, such as your interests or hobbies. Make sure that this information does not distract from the main purpose of the home page though – which is to introduce your blog!
Privacy policy
You should add a Privacy policy on your blog website. This is important because it will protect you from any potential legal issues down the road. It should be clear, concise, and easy to read.
A good way to start writing a privacy policy is by doing some research on other websites that have written one. You can find examples of many different types of privacy policies online.
Terms and Conditions Page
You need to add a Terms and Conditions page on your blog website. This is a very important page for a blog, because it lets the user know exactly what they can expect from your website.
The main purpose of adding a Terms and Conditions page is to protect you as the owner of the website. You want to make sure that you are in compliance with any laws and regulations in your country, so that if anyone has an issue with you or your website, they cannot sue or hold you liable for anything.
It also protects users, by giving them an idea of what they can expect when they visit your site. For example, if you have a blog about health and fitness, then it will be great to let people know that they can expect advertisements on your site and maybe even sponsored posts. If someone comes across this information before visiting your site, then they won’t be surprised by it later on when they see it for themselves.
Publishing your posts
Once you have got your underserved topics down, written 20 articles and got your website set up – It is time to publish your content and get it indexed.
Make sure you set up Google Site Kit on your website in your WordPress dashboard.
Register your site on Google Search Console and Google Analytics
Applying to Google AdSense
Once you have your website set up, published 20 articles and set up analytics – go ahead and apply to AdSense. The process is fairly simple, just fill out the application form, verify that you own the site and they’ll review it within 24 hours.
The approval process is fairly simple as well – Google will ask a few questions about your site and content, then they’ll review it within 24 hours. If they’re satisfied with what you’ve got going on, they’ll approve your account and let you know via email.
If you’re approved, congratulations! Your first payment should be in your bank account within 30 days or so (after all the approval stuff has been taken care of).
Your Content Calendar
Once you apply for AdSense Approval, don’t wait.
Create a calendar for the next 6 months. Publish an article every 2 days.
Use the same techniques of finding underserved topics.
The idea here is to show Google that you have expertise and authority in your niche. so keep the articles closely related to a singular topic within your niche.
Realistic timelines
Google will test your content for 3-4 months. So stick to your calendar and keep the motivation.
You will start traffic trickling in in a couple of months.
In blogging, consistency is the key. You should make a habit of writing your blog posts on a regular schedule.
The best way to build an audience for your blog is to publish new content often. The more frequently you publish new content, the more likely you are to get people reading and sharing your blog posts.
If you want to grow an audience for your blog, then it’s important that you post new articles regularly. The best way to do this is by creating a publishing schedule and sticking to it as much as possible.
It doesn’t matter what type of blog or website you have, if you don’t publish new content regularly then people will get bored with your site and stop visiting it.
Conclusion
Yes, making money can seem difficult. But that is only an illusion if you’re willing to put in the legwork and learn from others who have done it before you. With effort, dedication, reading and research, you can definitely make blogging your passive income stream.
If you follow this guide, you will be well on your way to monetizing your blog and making money from it, in less than 2 months. I wish you good luck, and hope that my guide helps. I will continue to update it as time goes on. If you have any questions at all about anything here, feel free to contact me through my email address or leave a comment below (and I’ll get back to you).
