When you’re passionate about something, the odds are you’ll be able to make a living from it. For example, if you’re an expert cook, you might want to consider becoming a chef or culinary artist.
Or, if you’re a travel enthusiast, you might want to try your hand at being a travel agent or tour guide. Or, for those with a creative mind, fashion styling or photography could prove to be lucrative careers. What you need is a passion that can be turned into a profitable business. That’s the key to creating a successful blog.
If you’re looking to create a blog for monetary gain, considerations involving ethics and morality, along with your finances, should also factor into your decision-making process. Being a successful blogger isn’t merely about writing content for the sake of it. It takes a certain approach that can be learned and implemented. To that end, here are 6 steps to follow to create a successful blog:
Set up the Blog with a Professional-Looking Website
The first thing you need to do to create a successful blog is to set it up with a professional-looking website. There are plenty of free blog hosting services out there such as blogspot.com and wordpress.com that can be used to create a blog, but it’s essential to choose a quality domain name and web hosting service. Domain names that are registered and hosted through reputable companies will give your blog the best chance of being found by potential visitors.
Additionally, you should look into purchasing a premium or business-class web hosting service as this will give you more features and allow you to install additional applications, such as WordPress, which could provide you with a monetized platform.
Set Up the Blog with a Professional-Looking Email
Once you’ve set up your blog with a quality domain name and a professional-looking website, the next step is to set up your blog with a professional-looking email.
If you’ve set up a wordpress.com blog, then you’ve already got a built-in email template that can be used for your blog. You just need to configure your email address within the WordPress dashboard to make it your blog’s email address.
To set up a custom email address for your blog, visit the Blogger or Google’s admin pages and click on your name to reach your Google Dashboard. Then click on the gear symbol in the upper right-hand corner and select Settings. From there, you can select the Emails tab and input the email address for your blog.
Create Regular Content
A successful blog needs good content to drive traffic to it. To that end, you’ll want to create regular content for your blog. For example, if you’re writing a guide on how to travel to Italy, then you’ll probably want to publish a new article at least once every two weeks.
Traveling to Italy for a summer holiday might seem like a glamorous idea, but without good content to back it up, you’re likely to struggle to convert your idea into a reality. That’s the paradox of content curation: while it can be fun to explore a new place, without good content to back it up, it’s virtually meaningless.
Regularly Check Your Blog’s Popularity
To create a successful blog, you’ll want to check the popularity of your blog frequently. The amount of traffic that your blog is receiving each month is a good indicator of its success. However, it’s important to note that the popularity of a blog can fluctuate greatly from month to month. As such, you’ll want to check your blog’s popularity at least once a month, ideally using free tools such as Google Analytics to determine the source of your blog’s traffic.
If you’re looking to establish your blog as a reputable source of information, then you’ll want to ensure that your blog’s popularity is justified. To do this, find comparable blogs that are already established and researching the amount of content that they’re producing each month. If you’re able to compare these figures then you can determine the amount of value that your blog is providing. If you want to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry, then it might be worth considering paying for a sponsored post on a reputable company’s behalf. However, keep in mind that this would require you to pony up the cash upfront. But, if this is the only route to establishing your blog as a leading voice in your industry, then it’s certainly a viable option.
As your blog grows in popularity, so does the number of haters that you’ll inevitably encounter. If you want to have a successful blog then you’ll want to consider how you’re going to handle the haters. There are various strategies that you can use to defend your blog against online abuse and hate, but none of these are easy. You’ll eventually have to draw a line in the sand and decide if you want to keep fighting or give in.
Join Online Communities
Another important factor that affects the success of a blog is its presence in online communities. To find these communities, you can simply search for your blog’s topic within the SERPs (search engine results). Once you’ve found a relevant community, you can decide whether or not to participate. If you decide to participate, then you’ll want to make sure that you contribute quality content that is interesting and informative to other community members. Additionally, you can choose to engage with other community members via their blogs or websites. This is called guest blogging or content curation.
The success of a blog largely depends on its ability to gain the respect of its community for providing quality content consistently. To achieve this, you’ll need to prove to other members of these communities that you’re a reliable and trustworthy source of information. To do this, make sure that you’re contributing valuable content that is both unique and of good quality.
Build Your Email List
Another important factor that affects the success of a blog is its ability to build an email list. To create an email list, you can use a tool such as MailChimp to collect email addresses from visitors to your blog. Once you’ve built your email list, you can use marketing automation tools to send out weekly or monthly emails containing product information, special deals and the like.
An email list is vital to the success of a blog. To that end, you’ll want to build a list of as many people as possible in your industry. You can do this in a variety of ways. You can set up a free Google alert for your industry’s key words so that you’re notified whenever these words are mentioned online. Or, you can put out a call for people to send you their email addresses to sign up for your blog. You should also consider using an affiliate marketing program to build your email list. For more on how to do this, check out this blog post from Rocketblog.com.
Consider The Legal Aspects
It’s important to remember that just because you’ve decided to opt for online marketing to grow your business doesn’t mean that all the laws pertaining to traditional marketing methods don’t apply to you. As a business owner, publisher or content creator, you’re entering a legally binding agreement with your audience by way of your blog. This is called “publishing” and it comes with certain obligations that you must consider. For example, if you publish content pertaining to a specific brand, then you’re bound by that brand’s terms and conditions. Moreover, if you decide to use a commercially available product or service in your business, then you’re entering into an agreement with that brand. Additionally, if you choose to make a profit from your blog, then you’re agreeing to pay taxes on any revenue that you generate.
To find out more, check out this article from GoCardless.com that lists some of the legal obligations of a business owner or content creator. Or, if you want to ensure that you’re operating within the bounds of the law, then consider becoming a registered agent for a commercial enterprise. Registered agents provide legal administrative services for commercial enterprises, including setting up businesses, publishing articles and blogs, and taking care of legal obligations.
Once you’ve followed these Six Steps to Successful Blogging, you’ll be able to create a profitable blog that provides value to its audience. And, in turn, this will help you to establish your online identity as a thought leader in your industry while also generating more leads and revenue for your business.