Articles on how to blog are everywhere on the internet, everybody writing the way they think blogging should be done. But when you read some of these articles, almost everyone is saying the same thing.
A Blog is cheap and easy to start, you can have one set up in 30 minutes. Buy a domain name, upload your blog. Blog about anything that interests you, monetize and promote your blog.
It’s almost all the same story nothing new. No wonder 99% are failing at blogging. Most people are just re-circulating information in attempt to post regularly to their blog and make money. So new ones who come online to attempt blogging, read such articles, rush to start a blog but quickly abandon it when they realize it’s more than they anticipated.
Is Blogging for you?
Many of us started blogging without having any real information about it. I started without even knowing what a keyword meant. In fact I didn’t even create my blog myself. I used to publish my articles in a local newspaper and one day a friend of mine who knows about making money online called me up and said he has created a blog for me that I should bring my writing online. And that was all he told me.
I came online, put time into writing good content and publish on my blog only to get frustrated when I wasn’t getting traffic. It was then my friend started telling me about keywords, site optimization, page indexing e.t.c. I was angry but it’s my dream to make money from home so I took time off to read and practice how to blog by starting another blog. I still got a lot of things wrong but it was better than my previous blog.
Anyway, I quickly realized that full time blogging was not for me. It’s didn’t fit into my goal on the internet. There’s too much competition, wrong information and too much time involved in seeking blog post ideas for regular blog updates.
I wanted something more organized that wouldn’t always put me on the edge. My overall online goal is to build lasting e-businesses that can eventually run themselves, bring in good income monthly with very minimal or zero efforts. Blogging wasn’t going to make that happen for me.
God answered my prayer the day my sister signed me up as an affiliate to Site Build It! 5 star affiliate program. There were so many resources provided including free ebooks. I downloaded all the ebooks and started with the Affiliate masters course. A 152 page eBook that introduced me to a lasting e-business building process called C-T-P-M Content, Traffic, Pre-sell Monetization.
It was interesting, for the first time I was reading something different. I later bought SBI and learnt more. Everything I was learning made good sense.
Why the search engines work the way they do, how to write content that pre-sells readers, how to thoroughly plan a site for profitability before starting it and so on.
SBI is an all in one website building tool.
With all these information I was well equipped. I realized why a lot of people were failing at blogging and will keep failing. I also realized that blogging doesn’t fit with most small business opportunities.
If your goal is to build a lasting business online then blogging will not give you that. You need to start a theme-based content site on something you have experience on, or a skill where you can target a group of people who will appreciate help with your experience. And write well detailed articles on the topics you cover on your niche not highlights. And build deep relationship with your readers.
Only few have discovered the real way to build lasting online business and succeeding easily.
Blogging of course fit into niches that are news related. But whatever the topic, it can be better treated and rewarding when it’s structured as a theme based content site.
But what if you want to blog and you want to do it for profit, what are the right steps to take that will guarantee success?
How to Blog for Profit
I advice you take a deeper look into blogging and ask yourself if blogging is for you. Get the free eBook ‘Blogging at a Glance’ it covers what blogging entails and answers all its myths then forces you to answer the important question: Is blogging for me?
That decision is important so that if it’s not for you, you don’t waste your time and money.
Decide what your overall goal on the internet is. If you decide afterwards that blogging appeals to you, then:
Take your time to plan what you want to achieve with your blog. Anything you intend to make you money should be planned like every other business.
What would you do if you were starting a business?
You decide whether you want to sell or render a service.
If you want to sell you decide the product, if you want to render a service you make sure you’re good at it.
You make sure there are good amount of people interested in the product you want to sell or service you want to render so you can make good profit.
How will you make money from it?
Who are your competitors and how are they doing? Are they excelling, if yes, how are they doing it?
Are they too much? Can you beat them? What will be your advantage?
Will the business be profitable?
What’s the best name for the business?
These and more are what you’ll have to decide before starting a local business.
It’s the same online.
What’s your overall goal of wanting to start a blog? What do you want to achieve?
What would you write about? Does the topic interest you enough to write on it regularly? Will it be profitable? Whether a topic will be profitable or not depends on the following:
The number of people that search for it every month. Is it high enough to make you good money?
The number of people already blogging about that topic. The more people already blogging about that topic, the more difficult it will be to succeed in it. Except you have a unique way to approach the topic that would attract readers to you.
How broad is the topic? Is it broad enough for a site to be built on it or will you run out of topics to write on in few months?
A topic should not be too narrow or too broad.
How many ways can the topic be monetized? Decide on how you want to make money from your topic and then see if the monetization models that interest you is profitable with the topic you have chosen. If it doesn’t and your primary goal is to make money from your blog then you will have to chop for another topic.
You’ll get all these data by using a research tool and querying the search engines. If you want accurate data then buy a good keyword research tool. If you can’t afford any you can use the free Google keyword research tool.
Planning a site whether a blog or a theme-based content site is tedious work. It could take weeks or months for those doing it part time. But the hard work is very important at the beginning so you don’t waste your time blogging for several months or even years only to realize that you can’t properly monetize the topic, or it’s too competitive that you can’t win it or it’s not broad enough and you start diverting from your niche topics.