HOW TO START A BLOGGING BUSINESS
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Blogging business is a lucrative business that requires little capital to set up.
when compared with other businesses especially the brick and mortar business blogging business has its own special appeal.
it does not require an office, full staff or heavy startup investment as required by traditional businesses.
When it comes to doing business at your convenience blogging business is the king.
Most jobs out there require you to work from 9 to 5, and you most cases your physical presence is also a requirement.
Contrary to what obtains in most businesses, blogging business It is not location-specific.In other words, it can be done from anywhere you are and at your own time.
This is one of the most appealing aspects of the blogging business. You may not know this, many of the blogs you read online are written by bloggers from different parts of the world. Technology has made it easy for blogs to attract traffic and make sales from anywhere in the world.
Another great appeal of blogging business is that it requires little or no knowledge to set up. Perhaps, you may be thinking right now I am wrong. Seriously, you don’t really need previous experience in blogging or to be a tech guru to start a blog and be successful.
What you need is the willingness to invest time and money into learning. I started this blog with zero knowledge and experience in blogging.
How did I do it?
Look, you are only as strong as the level of your knowledge. In other words, you can’t grow beyond what you know. I’m sure you must have heard this before.
Therefore, I decided to invest time and money to learn how to blog.
I must confess, it wasn’t easy at the initial stage. But with determination and dedication, here I am today!!
One challenge any aspiring blogger faces is being able to sort through the resources available online.
There are so many resources on the internet. Some good and others are scam looking to extort money from the ignorant.
I have had my share of falling into the hands of scams.
However, I would say, “ it’s all turned out for my good.”
Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a number of good resources that you can rely on to increase your knowledge of blogging.
BLOGGING BUSINESS IS HIGHLY COMPETITIVE
There’s no area or niche in blogging business that is not already occupied by other bloggers. Therefore, your focus is to get a share of the markets.
The question is, how do you get a share off the market?
By carving out a niche for yourself.
The truth is this, you cannot operate in the whole blogging market. it’s too wide!
HOW TO FIND A PROFITABLE NICHE
Although, some companies such as Huffington Post and BuzzFeed operate like this. It’s however, not advisable for you to follow this path if you are a beginner blogger.
You see, there’s so much that goes into running a blog: you have to write content, social media, graphics creation, product creation, SEO, general maintenance of the blog and a lot more. That’s a lot of work for one man, but these big sites can afford to hire staff to handle these functions.
Therefore, I would advise you to start with a niche. You can always operate on a wider vertical by adding other niches as you grow.
ADVANTAGES OF OPERATING IN A NICHE BLOGGING BUSINESS
There are numerous advantages in operating a niche blogging business.
- You become a respected authority in your niche because master the niche as you continuously blog about it.
- Your blog becomes a great resource that is well sought after for answers to issues that arise in your niche.
- Not only that search engines favour an authoritative niche site in ranking.
This is what happens every time you put a keyword in the search engine. Search engine will bring out the best solution to your query that aligns with your niche.
Because the search engine is on a mission to give you the best answer, it will search through millions of blogs and bring you the best answer based on your search query or keyword.
Now, this is where niche blogging has an advantage. In the eyes of Google, these are exclusive sites that cater to the need of the niche. And as such, it would rather deliver these sites in searches than a multi-niche site.
Let me make it clearer.
where would you rather go when you need a shaving blade?
A blog that deals solely on shaving blade and his accessories, or a general blog that deals on everything with shaving blade as a subset?
Your guess is as good as mine. You would rather go to the blog that deals solely on shaving blade -a niche blog.
This is exactly the way google engine functions. Google wants to deliver to its readers a blog dedicated to a niche capable of providing all the solution needed.
Also, over time making money in a niche site eventually becomes easy because you are able to harness your resources as you have a comparative advantage in this niche
In addition, you enjoy economies of scale as you scale your niche for higher income. The reason for this is because you are only repeating the process you know with marginal expenses.
HOW TO START A BLOGGING BUSINESS
There are different ways to start a blog. You may choose to start a blog on a free blogging platform. Starting your blog on the free blogging platform its really ok if you’re not planning to build your brand in blogging and make money.
However, if your dream is really to build a blogging business where you can make full-time income and eventually retire to a life of ceaseless flow of income, then you must invest in your business.
The starting cost of a blog is $3.95/month. I usually recommend signing up for a minimum of 12 months of hosting. Because the more time you spend with them the higher discount you get. It also allows you to concentrate on blogging for long without thinking of hosting cost in the near future.
Bluehost offers 24/7 customer care support. You can chat with them whenever you wish to if there ever was a problem. Their uptime is 100%.
Bluehost makes it easy for you to start your blog immediately by making the price affordable. In addition, It also gives you a domain name for free with the above price.
Bluehost makes it easy for you to start your blog immediately by making the price affordable.
It also gives you a domain name for free with the above price.
Your blog also requires certain features to function properly. Such as, SSL certificate without which search engine will not recognise your blog as credible. You may also need site security for your blog. All these features are affordable with blue host.
The reason why I’m saying all this is is to ensure you only spend money on what is necessary for you to begin with and nothing more. So, take note in order not to incur extra cost
You also need a theme for your blogging business.
The theme I use is divi by elegant themes
This thing is beautiful and highly customizable. Divi theme is loaded with a lot of features to help you give your visitors a great users experience on your blog.
However, there are also quite a number of themes I know that are equally as good. Such as:
Start building your email List
Every blogging business requires an email list as fast as possible.
You do this by getting your blog visitors to sign up for updates, your newsletters, freebies, your free resource library.
Failure to build your email list could result in an inability to convert your blog visitors and ultimately blogging frustrations.
Your subscribers are the ones that eventually become your paying customers., and as such, you shouldn’t play with the idea of building an email list at all.
Mailerlite is an email service company that gives you the opportunity to begin building your email list at zero cost. With mailerlite, you also enjoy using for free all the premium features you would have had to pay for in other email service companies.
I use mailerlite and love the ability to start for free. You don’t pay a dime until you hit 1000 emails. This is why I have the confidence to recommend it to any blogger. The free opportunity is great! It gives ample time for any blogger to master the art of email list building, setting up automation, and creating campaign before paying for the service.
I’m glad I am telling you this because I didn’t know when I started blogging. I went for a premium email service provider and I was paying every month without even understanding how to carry out an effective email marketing. I wish I knew this free service then. It would have saved me tons of money.
Sign up for your free mailerlite account here.
And use this simple free guide to set up your email automation.
Now that we’ve gotten the requirements for setting up your business blog out of the way, follow this step by step guide to set up your blog and get it running in no time.
So, there you have it! Have you started you blog yet? Let me know how far you’ve gone in the comment section below.
And most importantly; don’t forget to share to your favourite social media network.
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I like it. Clarity plays a huge role here. If I get clear before beginning any venture, I am golden. Especially on the blogging business side of things. This is the ultimate key. This is how things take off.
So true, Ryan. Thanks a great deal!
Great post Eki! Everyone should do their due diligence before going into blogging because it’s not what it used to be many years ago. It’s great to have useful and helpful guides to walk newbies through the necessary steps.
Thanks, Mariam!
“There are so many resources on the internet. Some good and others are scam looking to extort money from the ignorant.” – I couldn’t agree more with this statement! I found it so hard to distinguish between the two, especially in the beginning, and I definitely spend money on courses that I might as well have skipped.
I only hope newbie bloggers do the due diligence before making a purchase online. Thanks, Karina for the comment!