While blogs have been perceived as more of a hobby than a real job in the past, modern bloggers are reaping hundreds and sometimes thousands in revenue from just a single website as second income. People are often mystified by how this works, but you can find all the steps you would need to take to start a profitable blog today in this short article!
1. Decide on a theme
Ideally, you should choose a theme or subject that you are passionate about and understand well. This makes your blog authentic and automatically more easily relatable to users. You should also make sure that you register a relevant domain name and once you find one you can move on to the next step.
2. Create a website
Unless you are an experienced web developer, then it is probably best that you create a WordPress site. But first, you need to register a domain and hosting service, which can be done through sites like Bluehost or Namecheap. Afterwards you can follow your chosen hosting company’s steps to installing WordPress (make sure to choose WordPress.org not WordPress.com). You can then choose from plenty of great responsive templates that are 100% free and move on to focusing on your written content.
3. Create useful content
Writing just anything related to your theme will not take you far; you need to do some research into what people want to know and are looking for online. Keyword searches and trending questions in your blog’s industry are a great way to find out what people are interested in. If your blog’s theme is fitness you should include diet tips for example. Or, if you your blog is about poker you can give readers tips on how to become a professional gambler. Once you have enough content and feel confident in the way your blog looks you can move on to the next steps.
4. Obtain a VAT number
If you want to generate money through a blog or any type of service, you need to register as a business and acquire a VAT number. Without this you won’t be able to form partnerships with other companies or legally claim your earnings, which is not advisable.
5. Sell products and services from other companies
Once you have a VAT number you can sign up for affiliate programs. These programs allow you to sell products on your site and through a tracked link that the company will give you (Amazon.com has one of the largest affiliate networks for example) and you will receive a commission on each sale made through that link.
You can either find an affiliate program link on the website of the company whose products you want to sell or you can send them a quick email about your blog and your interest in setting up an affiliate deal. Depending on the products, you will receive different percentages, but it is strongly suggested that you choose relevant items and brands that you are already familiar with.
6. Get a Google AdSense account
An alternative to affiliate marketing, as explained above, is creating an AdSense account and adding banners to your website. Depending on what keywords your blog uses, and how competitive your chosen theme is, the amount of money you can earn will vary.
While the more competitive the keywords are the more you get paid, this would also make it more difficult it is to get traffic. You also need to choose whether you want to get paid for every time one of your readers clicks on the ad (pay per click) or for the number of views the advert gets (pay per view). The best way to find out what works best to test it out and experiment, then use those results to optimize your blog and reel in some serious cash!