This is a guest post by Zac Johnson from ZacJohnson.com.
One of the biggest problems I see with people who are just starting their blog or have big plans to get rich from blogging, is that they don’t create a strategic plan before they get started. The biggest misconception about blogging is that it’s easy to make money and build an established site of your own.
Anyone can buy a domain, choose a web host and throw up a WordPress driven site. Anyone can also start writing great content and posting once or twice a week. Even after a few months and having written 20-30 original articles, you are still basically without a business model and plan. Blogging is one of the slowest forms of making money online and if you don’t have a plan in place, you may never end up making money at all.
This is where your planning comes into play. You have to think about what you are going to do with your blog before you even get started. That is what we are going to discuss in the article and hopefully set you on the right path.
Blogging for Passion… or Profit?
Yes yes… everyone says you need to be passionate about what you are blogging and writing about, but the truth is, most of the time the money will never follow. You can write all day about how much you love sports or television shows, but these are two extremely hard niches to convert traffic in. If you are a die hard coupon fanatic and love updating your blog with the latest coupons, then this is a niche that you can make good money in fast.
No matter your passion or niche, you need to be realistic and think about how you can monetize the traffic you are blogging for.
How to Convert Traffic Once You Get It
If you build it, they will come. In some cases this is true, but once they do come… what are you going to do with them. The days of throwing Google Adsense on your site and making a few pennies per click and losing visitors to your site are still here… but they shouldn’t be.
People are smarter now and they know how to monetize their traffic better. Focus on better monetization practices while also offering value to your blog readers. Link specific products on Amazon.com if discussed on your site, earn commissions through affiliate programs and even sell your own direct advertising… but don’t rely on pennies from Google Adsense to pay your bills.
Focus Your Content on the Reader’s End Goal
Writing for the search engines will only get you so far. Instead you should be focusing on writing for your readers and keeping them engaged once they get to your site. As mentioned earlier, if you were to run a coupon site, then you would want to tell your site visitors where to download and print the latest and greatest coupons. You could then redirect them through an affiliate link an earn a commission on each download.
It doesn’t matter what niche or focus your blog is in, as long as you are providing the users with what they are looking for. This doesn’t mean you need to have sales page content, but just enough useful and direct information about what they put in the search engines to get to your page in the first place.
There are three reasons why people use the internet; research, to buy something or to be entertained. If your blog is helping them with their research they are more likely to buy. Likewise, if someone stumbles across your site while they are in a buying mode, it’s even more likely that you can convert them into a provider reader or customer.
Putting Everything Together
The process of turning a fresh WordPress blog into a business is quite the task, but it’s much easier when you have an idea where you would like to be down the road. Don’t be afraid to try different ideas and even outsource your content writing to find new writing styles and increase your ability to get fresh content out there faster.
No blogs become an instant success over night, or even in their first few weeks!
Stick with it and you might just have one of those successful blogs that inspires others to start a blog of their own.
Yes I am agreed with the word planning but planning with implementation works with the blogs, Zac is write we must be realistic about making money with our blogs as a blogger who is investing his/her time to write a content and attract people to there blogs is only for making money with that. Adsense is one of the cheapest way to earn as zac already said. The ideas here in this blog are very great for all those who start there career with blogging they must not stop should continue with this. Time comes for every one but must consider content of blog should be with best and according to end your requirements.
Like it, Zac but your assumption is of course that people are blogging for profit. Some people are writing about their passion just to connect with a few other like minded people so all I’m saying is that not all blogs have to be planned, or do they?! What do you think?
I agree with the importance of planning, and having a clear idea of what you are doing with your site, but I also think that a successful site has the ability to change itself a bit to better cater to your audience. You may find that your intended readers would like some small thing different than you have it, and you should be fully ready to make those changes. Have a plan, but be willing to alter it a bit if your readers would benefit from it!
Sometimes a factoid hits you in the head. I had always known, yet never really thought about it or focussed on it. The 3 reasons people go to the internet are research, entertainment, and purchasing.
So, it stands to reason that the blogger should always hit at least one of these three buttons. And…if you can hit more than one, your blog will be that much better!
I agree that one should always have the end in mind. But, one should constantly be assessing that end. There are times when a blog needs to take a different direction.
I would add that you should not try to blog about a very broad range of topics. Keep a somewhat narrow focus.
Some people think that blogging is a very easy task that anyone can actually perform. Yes, it is true, but it comes with that huge responsibility wherein dedication is very much needed. Proper planning before starting your own blog is a basic requirement so you could actually meet your personal goals as time passes by.
Really nice post.good information.I think people often underestimate how much work it takes to develop and the maintain a successful blog. Proper planning before starting your own blog is a basic requirement so you could actually meet your personal goals as time passes by.
Hi Zac great post mate, some valuable tips here. I definitely agree with your points made in converting traffic, Amazon is a much better deal to refer visitors to, than sending your them away through an AdSense click, at least with Amazon you’re referring them to something that they’ll find somewhat useful. Also I think some bloggers are obsessed with getting more traffic, and they may already have a good amount, which they’re not monetizing effectively in the first place, thanks again.
Just Write for your Audience, Not for Search Engines, By following this I start my blog in last month and now i am getting good traffic and return visitors.
Hello Zac Johnson , I completely agree with you that people thinks that it is very easy to make money from blogging and hence they buy a domain and take a hosting service and start writting article without any plan or strategy and finally they fell down very badly and can not able to bear the pain