How to Start a Blog That Makes Money
Contents
- Get Creative From the Get-Go
- Pick the Right Topic
- Research Like a Pro
- Write andOptimize
- Post Sponsored Content
- Display Ads/Become an Affiliate
- Share, Share, Share!
- Build a Reputation
Can you guess how many people read blogs on average? The answer may surprise you.
As of 2022, a whopping 77% of internet users read blogs on a semi-regular basis! Think about it.
The average person runs about 10 Google searches every day. Most of these search results are blogs. Needless to say, we end up reading at least 2–3 blogs per day without even knowing it!
If you run a business or want to market yourself, crunching these numbers should be your first step. You’ll understand just how profitable blog writing really is!
We’ve given you a glimpse of its efficacy. Now let’s move on to the process of writing a blog!
At Global-marketing Inc., we have a proficient blog research, writing, and optimization team on board.
Today, we’ll walk you through the basics of starting a blog that makes money and increases your following as a business or individual.
Take notes, and feel free to drop your questions toward the end. Let’s get started!
Want to start a money-making blog? Sign up today!
1. Get Creative From the Get-Go
If you want to write a blog that sells, you can’t afford to let mediocrity or monotony sneak in. Everything from the blog name to the design template to the hosting should be top-notch.
If your blog isn’t catchy, creative, and exciting, people will walk right past it and click on another blog that checks off these boxes. You don’t want that to happen.
The blogging landscape is uber-competitive. Setting up a blog will be useless if it doesn’t catch your audience’s eye and sells! Start working with professionals from the get-go.
At Global-marketing Inc., we take care of everything. If you run a small business, we’ll add a blog webpage to your domain. Our team will design, develop, test, and run it. If you want to set up a separate blog, we’ll take the reins and set up a WordPress blog. You can take care of this step yourself but consulting a team of professionals is an excellent way to increase your blog’s money-making potential.
There are thousands of industries today: finance, law, technology, healthcare, automotive, construction, travel, and real estate, to name a few. Each industry targets a particular audience, which is further split into subsets.
Let’s say you’re an interior designer. Your blog page should look exactly how your audience wants it to look.
Professional blog designers and developers use theirf
Now take a closer
expertise and experience to tell you exactly which template and hosting plan are right for you. You’ll get your say as well. Ultimately, your blog will be set up to reel in your audience and keep the money flowing in!
Let’s consider an example. Nate Berkus is one of the most accomplished interior designers today. Here’s a look at his blog:
The design is modern, minimalist, refreshing, and visually appealing. It’s not overdone. Nate’s target audience is roughly between the ages of 25 and 65. Keeping this in mind, he has opted for a blog page theme that’s classic, not overdone.
Now take a closer look at Dunkin’ Donuts’ blog:
Notice something? The page is more colorful, upbeat, fun, and quirky. Why? Because Dunkin’ Donuts’ audience base includes kids and teenagers as well. Keeping these nuances in mind is imperative!
The smallest design and development changes will help your blog earn more clicks and conversions.
If you’re setting up your blog page yourself, keep the nuances in mind. Everything from the color palette to the font collection to the blog order should be determined based on what your audience is looking for.
This is how you start a blog that sells! You keep your audience in mind every step of the way.
Recommended Read: Blog vs. Article: What’s the Difference?
2. Pick the Right Topic
Let’s get to the writing bit.
If you want your blogs to reach your target audience and gain more traction, you must become a research pro. And we mean a hardcore research pro!
Start with title research.
At Global-marketing Inc., we love Google Trends! The free platform helps you discover new trends and get as specific as you want. If you work in finance, you can find finance-related topics that have been making the rounds on the web lately. You can also specify your search based on the cities or states you’re targeting. This is an excellent way to figure out what your audience is looking for. Give them just that!
Let’s consider an example.
If you run a jewelry store and set up a blog, Valentine’s Day is the money-making month of your dreams.
Take a closer look at these blogs:
- Valentine’s Day Fine Jewelry Gift Guide
- Valentine’s Day Jewelry Gift Guide 2022
- Choosing the Right Valentine’s Day Gift
These businesses and bloggers hit the jackpot. They planned Valentine’s Day blogs knowing full well that this is the kind of content their audience is looking for.
The outcome? Excellent views, even better sales, and a phenomenal month for their bottom line. This is what successful and smart blogging is all about. Research ideas based on what your audience wants!
Create blog titles accordingly. You’ll end up reaching more people and making sweet profits.
Here’s another great example.
Cambridge Home School Online is a British online school that primarily targets parents and students in the UK. Around the time that Emma Raducanu (a British tennis player) won the US Open, they released this blog:
Notice how they connected Emma’s win to their students.
This is how you build connections and write blogs that rack up an impressive number of clicks!
Excellent research will go a long way in helping you come up with titles that compel readers to click, click, click, and then some!
4.4 million blogs are posted every day. Why are you missing out on this money-making opportunity? Sign up today!
3. Research Like a Pro
You don’t just need to research titles, you also need to research content! Once you’ve decided on a topic, it’s all systems go.
Dig deeper, read already published content on the topic, and come up with fresh insights.
This will take time. Be patient and willing to get into the nitty-gritty of your industry or sub-industry. The more specific your topic, the longer your research cap will stay on.
If you’re writing for a niche industry that’s more formal and professional, make sure you use Google Scholar as well. You’ll find a ton of valuable scholarly literature that will supplement your blog.
Break all the complex and heavy chunks of knowledge into bite-sized, palatable, and digestible slices of information. Your audience shouldn’t feel confused at any point. Or worse, bored!
So do your research, and do it well. Combine excellent research with even better writing skills. The outcome? An engaging, well-structured blog that functions like a well-oiled machine.
4. Write and Optimize
At Global-marketing Inc., our blog writing team follows this religiously. We don’t just write blogs; we write and optimize them!
Without optimization, your blogs are pretty much useless. And we’ll get into that in a bit!
For now, let’s focus on the writing process.
You’ve come up with a great title, and it’s showtime! But how do you write a blog that sells?
For starters, select the right type of blog.
Today, you can choose between two main types of blogs:
Figure out which purpose you want to achieve.
If you’re just starting off, we recommend writing a short-form blog. They’re better suited for busy people who aren’t looking for a lot of information.
You’ll manage to cover the basics and write a compelling CTA (call-to-action) that helps you earn a sale, social media like, subscription, etc.
Once you’ve settled in, start adding long-form blogs to the mix. These are excellent for businesses that want to provide more information on essential topics. You can cover more complex ground and break it down into more simple and digestible content.
Use data, statistics, quotes, figures, charts, and in-blog infographics. Long-form blogs can be as long as 3,000 words. However, avoid exceeding this limit. You’ll bore your audience, even if they’re looking for more detailed content. Yes, there’s such a thing as too much detail!
Your blog should include the perfect ratio of long-form to short-form blogs. Ideally, 70% of your blogs should be short-form, and the remaining 30% should be long-form.
This balance will help you present yourself as a professional in your local industry and make great sales simultaneously!
Pro tip: When writing a long-form blog, include a CTA in the introductory paragraph. This will help you earn conversions from readers who don’t stick around until the end. Try to include a CTA after every 500 words. You’ll increase your chances of making a sale!
Blog writing isn’t everyone’s forte. Remember, blogs that sell well are written well! They cover the following bases:
- Good grammar, syntax, spelling, and punctuation
- Simple but varied vocabulary
- Industry-specific tone(professional or personal)
- Engaging introduction
- Consistent and compelling body
- Reiterative conclusion with a great CTA
If you don’t have a knack for blog writing, don’t take the reins. 60% of people stop reading a blog if it’s boring. If you don’t engage your audience and hold their attention until the end, your blog will fail to achieve its purpose.
If you want to get off to a great start without taking any risks, hire professional blog writers. They’ll create industry-relevant, engaging, well-structured, and well-written content that takes your audience on a ride.
Here’s a great example:
And another one:
See what we mean?
Let’s not forget CTAs! A winning CTA can make a big difference in how many people buy your products/services, explore an older blog on your site, follow you on social media, or subscribe to your email.
This is an excellent example:
“But it sounds boring!”
This is where the tone comes in. This CTA is professional as the industry is more serious: law.
It’s informative and to the point. As a reader, you get a quick overview of the attorney’s practice areas and the locations they cover.
It’s a small, delightful bite that packs all the flavors you want to taste. This is exactly what your CTA should do!
Let’s segue into the optimization part of this section.
Notice how this CTA has perfectly-placed anchor text: hyperlinked text. You’ll be taken to the sign-up page as you click on it.
This is what optimization is all about! As you write the content, you should also optimize it to please the Google algorithm!
This is a great way to ensure that your blog:
- Ranks higher on Google SERPs (search engine result pages)
- Reaches your target audience
- Earns more impressions, clicks, and conversions
- Builds a loyal base of reader-cum-customers
Optimization can be slightly tricky if you’re a beginner. We recommend leaving it to the pros!
At Global-marketing Inc., we’ve created our own blog optimization recipe.
We customize it based on the client’s industry, business model, audience, products/services, and location.
Here’s a sneak peek of some of the bases we cover:
From planning the right keywords to include relevant internal and external links to optimizing the headings, we cover all the bases.
An optimized blog is a money-making blog! No matter how engaging your blog may be, it’ll fail to reach and convert your audience if it doesn’t meet the Google algorithm’s demands.
At Global-marketing Inc., we meet these high criteria for you. Our blogs rank high and compel web users to take the desired action!
Recommended Read: How to Write Content That Converts Leads Into Customers
5. Post Sponsored Content
Sponsored content refers to any and every type of content that’s paid. It could be a Facebook post, video, tweet, infographic, or blog. Of course, we’re referring to the latter here.
Partner with an advertiser paying you a pretty penny to create and share your blog. Sponsored content can easily take a turn for the unethical. Avoid this at all costs!
Keep your brand identity in mind. If you post dishonest or exaggerated sponsored content just to keep the dough rolling in, your audience will pick up on this.
People respond very well to sponsored content! There’s a big chance that your audience will buy the products/services you’re featuring in your blog.
If you give them a flattering shoutout and they turn out to be disappointing, your reputation will be questioned. So be honest, write a winning blog, and let the sponsorship work its magic!
6. Display Ads/Become an Affiliate
Want your blog to garner even more attention and make more money? It’s ad time! There are two ways you can do this.
For starters, partner with industry-related businesses that aren’t direct competitors. Display their ads on your blogs to increase your profit potential.
The other way to do this is to display ads about your blog on other people’s sites, social media pages, or blogs! Again, they must be non-competitors.
Try to partner with a company that’s doing better than you. This means they’re already racking up impressive rankings, traffic, and conversions.
As you advertise your blog on their platforms, you’ll reel in their target audience. Both of these approaches work exceptionally well!
You can also try your hand at affiliate marketing for bloggers. As the affiliate, you’ll promote a company’s products or services on your blog. When you give a shoutout to the company, you’ll use a special link that shows that your blog is the traffic source. This is a brilliant way to earn a commission!
You’ve taken care of blog research, writing, and optimization. What’s next? Sharing! Social media is undeniably the most powerful digital marketing tool we have at our disposal today.
Mega platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn can help your blogs take a life of their own. Once you’ve written your blog, make sure you promote it by sharing both posts and stories on your social media pages.
This is a great example:
We’re happy to announce that we’ve finally opened for all creators! Read more on our blog: https://t.co/bbzUbzJNIF pic.twitter.com/03OooyJITa
— Gamefound (@gamefound) March 29, 2022
You can help your posts gain even more traction by adding hashtags to the mix! You can use unlimited hashtags on Instagram.
However, don’t use more than three hashtags for Twitter and Facebook.
Try to sneak keywords into your posts as well!
Well-written, engaging, optimized, and well-timed social media posts will help your blogs enjoy impressive levels of success.
Recommended Read: How to Create Winning Social Media Strategies for Small Businesses
8. Build a Reputation
You’ve covered all the bases. Now what?
It’s time to use your content to build a seamless reputation!
Blog writing is one of the best ways to give your business a power-packed boost in credibility.
Think about it. Forbes is known for its well-researched, well-written, and value-added blogs. Their blog has helped boost their reputation by several notches!
When a business releases one fresh blog after another, its audience pays attention.
You’ll create a nice base of consistent blog readers. As this base grows, your brand identity and reputation will improve.
How Much Can I Make Blogging?
Once your blog hits the ground running, you’ll find that blogging is actually pretty lucrative!
According to Indeed, bloggers make an average of $37,063 per year. Not bad, eh? Based on how many hits your blog gets, you’ll watch your sales skyrocket.
But here’s the catch. Your content must be engaging, exciting, meticulously optimized, and a treat to read!
Instead of taking the reins yourself, hire blog writers who know exactly what they’re doing. Your blog has the potential to shine and give you incredible sales. Make sure you place it in the right hands!
Summary
In this blog, we offered a closer look at how to start a blog and make money online. We walked you through the importance of being creative, selecting the right topic, researching meticulously, and optimizing your content. We also touched on the significance of posting sponsored content and displaying ads.
And, of course, we concluded our blog with a focus on actively sharing your freshly created content and building a stellar reputation using your content cycles. We’ve given you the roadmap. Now it’s time to start using it!
If you haven’t set up a blog yet, we’ll take care of the design and development. And if you already have a blog page waiting for content, we’ll fill it with value-added, industry-specific, engaging, and conversion-packed content.
At Global-marketing Inc., we’ve published over 150,000 content pieces to date. Let your blogs be next! Find out what the Global-marketing Inc. hype is all about.
When you’re ready, sign up for our blog writing services! It’s time to start a successful blog that makes money. We’ll show you the way!
It’s time to get your sales back on track! Our blog writers are ready to knock your socks off with our work. Let’s get started!