5 Strategies To Create A Sustainable Profitable Blogging Business
5 Strategies To Create A Sustainable Profitable Blogging Business. What factors determine the profitability of your blog?
And what you can do to sustain it and make a solid income for the long haul?
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For many, blogging is a big business and they make a lot of money from the activity.
But creating a sustainable blogging business is daunting for some. The reason for this is the mix-up and confusion abounding in the industry.
Many of us have been talked into believing that making money online is easy. Of course, it’s not and if you don’t treat blogging as a real business, trust me you are going to soon hit a wall.
5 Tips To Create A Sustainable Profitable Blogging Business
by guest writer Enstine Muki
In this post, I want to share with you some clear steps to help you set up a prosperous blogging business. I’m writing from my experience. I earn money from my blog and can confidently tell you it works.
But many have failed because of lack of basic ingredients.
Before we move on, I want to say a big thank you to Chelsea Clarke for giving this opportunity to share with her audience. I came to know her on Pinterest and it’s been exciting stepping to her blog here from time to time for some refreshing content. Follow her on Pinterest here.
I started blogging in August of 2012. That’s over 6 years now and I have learned quite a lot.
Many of those who I started with have since abandoned their blogs for different reasons. It’s one thing to create a blog that makes money. It’s another thing to maintain the blog and grow your income.
But what are the secrets to profitable blogging business success?
#1 The Choice Of Your Niche
One blog success-determining factor is your niche. Choosing the wrong niche already implies a bad foundation on which to build your business.
Folks get into blogging for different reasons but if yours is to create an income-generating business, then you must give another thought to the niche you choose.
A niche is simply the topics you blog about. It’s a bad thing to blog without a niche.
Not having a niche means that you write about anything that comes your way. For example, today your article is on health. Tomorrow it’s talking about football. Another day you are writing politics.
You would need to be a big agency like CNN to succeed in this kind of jungle.
Successful bloggers are those who have narrowed down their topics to specific niches.
If you are a mom blogger, your target is moms, teaching them how to succeed as a mom in different areas.
Related: High Paying Affiliate Programs For Mom Bloggers
If you want to build a thriving profitable blogging business, you have to create a foundation that can stand the test of time.
But I know it’s always a difficult task coming up with the right blogging niche. One of the things I tell my students is to be broader in the beginning then narrow down with time.
Starting broad means you think about a broad topic, for example ‘health.’ Then you may start with different areas like weight loss, pregnancy, rare diseases, equipment and technology, etc.
This can have a lot more things to cover. But with time, you start discovering what your readers want.
That will help you to narrow down by carefully dropping some topics.
How To Discover Your Niche
I used polls, surveys and heatmap tools to dig deep into the minds of my readers to know the kind of content they want on my blog.
A heatmap tool I used allowed me to see exactly which menu elements and categories on my blog received clicks.
Some actually went for weeks without a single click on a very busy blog. So I was able to drop these lazy topics.
A lot has been written out there on how to come up with the most ideal niche for your blog.
I have one on my blog on how to choose a blogging niche as well. You may want to check that one out.
But generally, you should consider factors like Passion, Knowledge and the Reason for blogging. Putting these together will overlap and help you come up with the most rewarding niche for you.
- T1 is the blogging niche that combines your Passion and subject Mastery
- T2 is the niche that combines your Passion and the Reason you want to blog
- T3 is the topic that combines your Reason and Mastery
- T4 is the soft spot. It combines your Passion, Mastery and Reason
#2 Invest In Blogging Tools And Training
The Internet is so deep today with lots of free resources. But that also explains why many people get average results.
Free resources are good but if you never invest in premium content, you can only expect to reach amateur results.
If you want the kind of success that keeps you going, you must invest in quality tools and training.
First, invest in those tools that you need to create a successful blogging business. The good news is most of these are cheap and accessible.
Begin with hosting your blog on a premium hosting service.
Bluehost, SiteGround and many others are some of the top hosting companies capable of providing hosting services for long term growth.
As you grow your blog, continue to upgrade any resources you use. The premium editions may cost money but you get top services to help your blogging business to success.
Related: Our Favorite Blogging Tools And Tech
Second, invest in yourself. Trust me, you need training in many of the things it takes to develop and scale a business.
There are lots of professional training programs out there to help you become a better blogger.
Buy these courses. Study and practice what you learn.
Chelsea has a course on how to become the boss of your blog. Take a look at her professional blogging course, and be sure to enroll.
#3 Give Your Blog Your Attention
Above all, if you want a thriving blogging business, you must treat blogging as a real business.
If you give your blog passive time, expect passive results.
But for folks like us who want to see increasing results from the business, we give it considerable attention:
- Create time to interact with others on communities
- Create time to research content ideas
- Create time to respond to comments and comment on other blogs
- Create time and attend offline blogging events
- Etc…
Related: A Day In The Life Of A 6 Figure Blogger (Including Time Blocking Blogger Schedule!)
#4 Promote Your Blog
Your blog is never going to mean anything if you and your family members are the only readers. You must get the word out.
Unfortunately, this seems to be the hardest part of the business.
Some bloggers think they are able to create and publish great content but no one seems to discover it.
Promoting your blog is simply about getting it read. Many of your readers will take actions that generate income to you. These include:
- Clicking on ads
- Buying affiliate products
- Buying your own products
- Paying you for sponsored posts
- Buying space on your blog
- Etc
So the more readers you get on your blog, the more your chances of making the kind of income that encourages you to do more.
Here are a few ideas for ways to promote your blog:
1 – Optimize your content for SEO
Search engine traffic seems to be the best source of traffic for many bloggers.
This is because such traffic is driven by keyword search, which actually represents what the searcher wants.
Learn the basics of SEO to start growing your organic blog traffic.
2 – Use Pinterest
Pinterest is increasingly becoming a solid traffic source for many bloggers. Though some think it a social media tool, I see it as a virtual search engine as more traffic from it is different by keyword search.
I recommend that you check out Chelsea’s Pinterest Marketing course.
3 – Comment On Other Blogs
Blog commenting is a big blog promotion exercise.
Reading and leaving relevant comments on other blogs not only connects you with the bloggers but places you before many more readers and clients.
4 – Guest Post On Other Blogs
One of the ways to power your blog’s SEO effort is to submit content to other blogs.
This is sometimes challenging for a few reasons:
- It takes time to find blogs to submit articles to
- Sometimes when you find some, your application gets rejected
- You may not be able to create content for both your blog and other blogs.
Besides the SEO benefit, guest posting also takes you in front of an audience that wouldn’t have known about your blog.
5 – Don’t Forget Social Media
People massively misuse social media for business. But most social media tools today have business promotion facilities like Social Pay Per Click, groups and FanPages.
Don’t mess up your personal profiles with unnecessary content.
Signup to targeted groups and communities. Create dedicated FanPages on Facebook for your blogging business.
6 – Attend Offline Blogging Events
Do you know this is one of the ways to promote your blog? You can take part as an attendee or speaker.
In either way, try to have a one-on-one, real-time talk with other bloggers, exchanging business cards and blog addresses.
This goes a long way to bring more exposure to your business.
7 – Build An Email List For Your Blog
One of the first things you should start doing is create an email list for your blog.
This is your steady source of traffic and income.
As your list grows, so will your income.
To learn about list building, have a look at Chelsea’s email marketing course.
#5 Be Consistent
Consistency is one of the keys in long term successful blogging. It comes in many ways:
- Consistent posting of great content
- Consistently commenting on other blogs
- Consistency in guest blogging
- Consistent sharing and pinning on Pinterest
- Etc
Being consistent in doing the things that fetch results will only fetch more results.
Keep doing it even if you think it’s not working. Most of the things we do need constant freshness and time.
If you stop along the line, you break the growth and kill your business.
These are some of the things you need to do to create a long-term sustainable, profitable blogging business.
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Enstine Muki is a full-time blogger and Certified Cryptocurrency Expert. He writes on blogging tips, SEO, and Cryptocurrencies on his website.More profitable blogging tips
- 6 Ways To Make Money Blogging
- How To Start A 6 Figure Blog
- How To Make $100,000 With A Travel Blog
- How To Do Keyword Research
- The 6 Most Profitable Blogging Niches
Follow along on Instagram!