Should you start a blog to make a living?
Yes you should! Starting a blog is another word for starting a business, and it's so much easier than before.
Creating a blog the right way can generate a lot of money, and many people go with the blogging route in the name of affiliate marketing, and slowly transition into building profitable online businesses.
Find out if starting a blog is right for you below:
What To Expect
The most realistic way to start a blog is to think about starting a content business. Keep these following in mind when running your blog:
- Hard work in the beginning involving hours of writing
- Depend on your finances situation, you may outsource the writing
- Find a profitable niche you actually care about, otherwise it's impossible to stay motivated
- Provide valuable content as much as you can
- Learn search engine optimization (SEO)
- Learn basics of simple WordPress operations
- SEO can be a pain in the butt because it can take a long time to see result
- Learn keyword research
- Learn the basics of sales funnel to turn blog readers into buyers
- Can make lots of money, but may not be completely passive
If you're a talented speaker, and who is great on camera, you maybe better doing videos instead of writing. Ultimately go with what works for you.
Benefits Of A Blog
There are many benefits of starting a blog include:
- Slowly turn your blog into a passive income generating machine via display ads or affiliate marketing
- Quit your day job as the blog matures and earns more than your day job
- Additional income source without any ceiling
- Profitable blogs can turn into a business to sell later
- Experiment with your creativity
- Blog can be modified & updated later, where videos can't
- Talk about what you love and make money from it
Start A Blog With The Right Niche
Picking a niche is the hardest part of starting a blog. Picking the wrong niche can waste a lot of time and frustrate you.
To pick the right niche, there are few ways to do it:
- Go with something you already understand and for sure profitable
- Find a niche that is recession proof
- Not everything has to be weight loss or affiliate marketing, there are plenty of boring niches that are low competition and profitable
- A niche is something specific, but not the entire market (For example, bank statement loan is a niche, but not the entire loan market)
- A niche can be small on the surface, but it can lead to big things
- Create a blog based on search traffic and keyword data
- Do not go for a niche that shows significant downward trend
How Much Does It Cost To Start A Blog
Starting a blog cost less than $100 - 200 in the context of just getting the domain and hosting for the year.
Another cost to start a blog is your time. The time it takes to write a blog can be long based on the topic. It's also very important to understand that the search engine takes a long time to rank your content on the SERP page because the blog is brand new without any domain authority,
Many seasoned professionals will buy an expired domain to get a hear start
Tools Needed To Create A Blog
There are many fancy tools you can use to make your website fancy, but they are not as important as publishing the content on a frequent basis.
We recommend AI writing tools to speed up the writing process.
Check out our tools page for more
Ways To Monetize Your Blog
A blog can be monetized in many different ways:
- Contextual display ads (Not all topics can earn big money solely based on ads)
- Custom display ads that lead to big profit
- Affiliate products
- Selling your own products
- Selling ad spots
Contextual Display Ads
Contextual display ads are placed by something like Ezoic, Mediavane and Google Adsense. The ad will show based on the topic of the page.
EPMV is the metric that measures earnings per thousand pageviews. So the more traffic you get, the more money the blog will make.
However, this is not always the best approach for a blog.
Affiliate Products
Affiliate products are the biggest earners for online blogs. The main idea is to use the content to promote a product, and when people buy, the site owner gets a cut.
Each product link will contain affiliate links, and when the link is clicked on and product is bought. The person who referred the sale gets paid.
Typically, affiliate products earn around 3-5% for most physical products, some are 10%. Digital products can go as high as 35% or even 75%.
Selling Your Own Products
Selling your own physical product is totally doable once you setup the ecommerce store. The same goes for digital products.
When you do this, the profit margins are much higher than just earning display ads or affiliate products.
Selling Ad Spots
Once your blog is successful and gaining eyeballs, some ad buyers may contact you to buy ad spots on your site. Depend on your situation, you may decline or accept based on the terms.
Selling ad spot can earn steady money if the profit margin is there compared to display ad clicks.