4 Steps to Make Your Blog a Business

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There’s no reason your blog can’t be a money-maker. Some people are doing very well at it. Even if you have limited time and a limited readership, it can be developed into a full-time occupation. More people are becoming bloggers, so in any niche there’s likely to be some competition. But only 25 percent of bloggers are looking for a full-time income.

Here are four steps to making your blog your business.

Create Quality Content

Success requires gaining and keeping audience interest and trust. For starters, you have to give them content they’ll find value in. While many topics are covered thoroughly already, test each new blog article idea to see if that’s the case. Even if it is, think about putting your own unique spin or insights into it, and injecting some personality.

The important thing is to have unique, relatable content rather than generic material. You also need to post if fairly regularly or audiences will lose interest. Always stay focused on your particular niche.

Marketing

Learning about keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) should be your first priority. Social media should be your second. Facebook has more than 1.7 billion active users. Post excerpts, queries, images, videos, content-related headlines, or anything else that will gain interest with the right audience. Provide appropriate links back to your site, and ask audiences to share the content.

Solicit email subscribers and notify them whenever there’s a new post or development. Consider pay-per-click advertising based on specific keywords that will drive audiences to your content.

Build Income Streams

It’s not a business if you aren’t making money. Be patient; many businesses don’t realize a profit at first. But a 2015 survey revealed that 6 percent of bloggers are making over $60,000 yearly. There are a number of ways you can monetize your blog:

Affiliates: You can partner with another company by promoting their products; in return, you get a percentage of anything that’s sold to traffic coming from your site. There’s usually an affiliate ID in the ads or links you include on your site. Make sure it’s related to your subject matter.

Paid advertising: You can place links on your site through services like Google Ads or paid sponsors. The problem is, you have to have a strong readership to make any money at this. Another potential problem is that the FCC has declared that all sponsored content on blogs must be disclosed to readers.

Products: You can also sell products on eBay or Amazon and link to them, or sell from your own shopping cart. Though many online retailers manage their own blog, you’ll have to work out any boundaries between blogging and ecommerce.

Donations: Asking for monetary support used to be common, but now generally requires establishing yourself as a non-profit entity.

Whatever source of income you use, it’s important to your credibility that it be related to your content.

Commitment and Planning

Blogging in the beginning may be a part-time activity, but be sure you regard it as a part-time business. Set yourself short-term and long-term goals, and what steps you need to get achieve them. Prepare a schedule that works for you and allocate time for essential tasks. Try to stick to them until they become habits, such as an hour of social media on Tuesday and Thursday, and new content on Saturday.

Keep track of where your expenses are versus what kind of revenue you’re getting. For any business, it’s about getting a return on your investment. When you’re making decent money, don’t forget about preparing for your financial future. Consider investments or prepare to set up self directed IRA.

Building up an audience and making profits requires some dedication. On top of everything else, you also need to set aside the time to learn more about who your followers are and what they are looking for.

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