How to Become a Successful Blogger and make Money online

Blogging the most misinterpreted term ever over the web. Different people have different thoughts for the term Blogging. Some think it is the way only to make money online, some think it is the way of time-pass, some think it is the total wastage of time and meant only for people having worthless time.

But only few takes it to its real meaning i.e. Way of Expressing Thoughts. I'm not pointing out any names here but my friend you should know the real meaning of blogging before getting onto any conclusion.

Do you know that up to 2 millions blog post are published everyday. Behind these posts there are passionate bloggers, huge content and most importantly fast growing businesses. Do you know that several successful blogs have turned their owners from homeless into thousands of dollars business owners.

Yes you can do it too ! Before we begin, let me tell you that blogging-like any other kind of business- requires a lot of passion and hard work. Even large companies like Facebook and Google took years to conquer the online world. I've sliced this post into parts, lets see each parts one by one.

#1) Why to choose blogging as a career

Don't have much money and sufficient coding skills to start a new Facebook ? You think that a blog can't be compared with other internet services with complex database architecture, APIs and so on ?
Think again !

Harsh Agrawal, the founder of ShoutMeLoud blog, make $20,000 in a single month and his monthly revenue continue to grow rapidly.

Lots of money, right ?

Well, Harsh worked hard to reach this income; he's bogging since 2008. Nowadays, his blog receives more than one million visitor a month.

I know you're wondering if you need years to make a consistent income from your blog like Harsh did. Absolutely No !

Let me tell you this golden tip :

A single blog post could perform better than a whole blog if it's well optimized !

For instance, Emil Shour from snacknation wrote a post that attracted more than 41.992 readers, first ranking in Google and more than $100k monthly revenue.

You can read the full story here : http://backlinko.com/white-hat-seo

Emil succeeded because he followed a powerful SEO strategy called the Skyscraper technique.

#2) Choose the right Blogging platform

There are several blog hosting platforms to choose including free and paid versions. Free hosting platforms for blogs are:

Google's Blogger.com (Blogspot)
Wodpress.com
Typepad

Despite professional bloggers often recommend paid hosting, free one suites best for me and for many others beginners too. This website is hosted on Blogger platform. People usually create a blog on free websites such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com or use paid self-hosted WordPress site.

You can use WordPress or any other blogging platform on custom hosting. I recommend you to use WordPress as a paid blogging solution. In one of my previous post I have discussed on "How to instantly setup a WordPress blog". It's recommended to use either HostGator or BlueHost to host your WordPress blog, these are the most popular platforms with affordable pricing plans.

#3) Analyze your Audience and Niche for the blog

So Are you're ready to start your blog? but, What would be your topic ?

In the blogging world (Blogosphere), this is called the blog's niche.

Obviously, you'll write about something you know and/or you love. However, choosing the right blog's niche isn't easy. Of course, in the internet; every topic you might guess has its own audience, but this is not enough.

For instance, if you choose a niche about gambling or guns, later when you decide to monetize your blog, most advertising programs would decline your blog as its not legal everywhere. So your blog's topic must be chosen carefully. Keep in mind that the blog niche should have a large audience online.

#4) Good Marketing plans to Generate blog traffic

As I mentioned above, marketing must be taken into consideration even before starting the blog. Choosing the right niche is actually a good starting point.

Let me guess! You think marketing is expensive? yeah, but don't worry, I'm going to guide you through the way to FREE marketing campaigns.

#a) Google search results (Organic traffic)

Google is definitely the best traffic source for every website/blog. That's why webmasters struggle to optimize their content to show up in the first page of Google's search results for a specific keyword. In fact, this story began when choosing the domain name.

Let me tell you this golden tip :

Including the main keyword in your blog's domain name would save you months of work to rank well in SERPs.

This is why it's extremely important to choose the domain name wisely.

The other main factor to rank better is writing a unique, high quality content. Actually, Google-as humans-love unique and valuable content. Besides, copying other's content would destroy your blog as search engines algorithms could easily detect stolen content and your blog will eventually get banned (hidden from search results).

Additionally, several studies showed that most articles in the first Google SERP are long posts (+2000 words).

Also Writing articles with SEO (Search engine optimization) in mind help to rank better and get organic traffic. Here are some of the links to follow to write an SEO post for your blog and rank higher.

#b) Social Presence to get more blog traffic

Building effective social presence is a mandatory step. As you know, more than one billion users use Facebook as well as other social networks. In fact, the impressive growth of the social web since the inception of Facebook brought a new concept to the digital marketing world, Social Media Marketing (SMM).

This concept, combined with SEO, are the core of your blog's marketing strategy. Some webmasters prefer to focus on a particular social network to gather high quality targeted audience.

For instance, Pinterest is widely used by online store owners to promote their products and the result is really impressive. Additionally, Twitter is a traffic mine for several online businesses. In general, there are many social media strategies that you can apply.

However, in all cases it's recommended to build a good social presence in as much as you can of social networks. This would not only drive much targeted traffic to your blog but also improve the rank across multiple search engines.

Guest blogging.
The best way to promote your own website or blog is writing for other people/ blogs. You could try being a guest blogger for one of the most popular blogs in your niche. If your article gets accepted in the blog you are targeting, then make sure to include your website’s URL.

#c) Be visible online (Commenting on niche blogs and forum )

Comment on blogs in your own niche. Just because you are writing about the same topic, you consider them tough competition. Be part of your community. If you are a beginner, then you would learn a lot from them.

Aside from being visible in your own niche, be visible in forums. In forums, you get to promote, learn and at the same time pick-up new ideas. Contribute information and promote your website, always paste your website’s URL in forums that you visit or make sure that it is already included in your signature.

#d) Submitting your site to Search engines and online directories

Submitting website to Google through its webmaster tool is the first step to become online. You can submit your website to all different search engines available, like Yahoo, bing, yandex and more to get traffic through them.

There are some websites where you could include or submit your website for free. This would help improve your link ratings and some free traffic. Having your website included in these free directories would get you visitors, however, do not expect a large number pouring in just because you’re linked with the directory. But it would surely help your blog to have a higher ranking in search engines.

#5) Make Money with Your Blog

There are many ways to monetize your blog and earn money, these ways includes affiliate marketing, advertising and many more. For the sake of going on too long, I've decided to compile this data into 3 effective points that will direct you on your path to making money. They are the following:

Offer something extra of value for your reader
Collaborate with other partners
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Let’s dive into these ideas a little more deeply:

#a) Offering Brand Benefit with Your Blog

There’s your blog which you write because you have a passion or want to convey your message. Then, there’s the brand you can build from your blog. Arguably, one of the best ways to make money is to create a brand around yourself or the concept of your blog and then offer value to the reader from your brand.

Use your brand to create value for the reader and get paid for it. Your blog can provide value for your reader in a variety of ways. You can sell something – whether it is an e-book, a video series, a personalized plan, or even clothes from your own closet.

You can even sell yourself. In other words, use your blog to sell your services for speaking opportunities, sponsorships, or advice. Shoutmeloud.com's Harsh Argawal began his blog for fun and wrote about what he knew specifically network and computer security.

As he added posts on blogging and WordPress based on personal experience, he saw that people were really responding positively and this pushed him to start experimenting with various forms of income.

Today, Harsh Argawal from shoutmeloud is a full-time blogger who makes money promoting the very topic that helps him make money. He makes money writing about how to make money using your blog as your business. He presents benefits with his brand by offering value for the reader on the side. He offers a blog consultancy service, SEO training program, WordPress coupons at a discounted price, and more.

Also Read: What to do if your blog earning is not enough or low

#b) Collaborating with Advertising Partners

Many of the bloggers who make money off their site have something in common. They have established partnerships with others in order to monetize their site. These partners sometimes refer to the advertisers who buy advertising space on the websites. With the right traffic going to the blog, ads make money for both advertiser and publisher.

Instead of going with just one advertising agency, bloggers can also turn to advertising networks to help them monetize their site. One of the most well-known advertising networks is Google AdSense, which provides contextual ads based on the blogger’s content.

While many bloggers are fond of using an ad network like Google AdSense, not all ad networks give the blogger what he or she wants. Many networks can make it difficult for a blogger to get approved and start monetizing, due to strict guidelines and long waiting periods. Some may even disable or block your site without providing a reason.

Collaborating with advertising Partners to monetize blog

One of the most important things to remember about an advertising network is that above all, it should provide benefit to the blogger and give him an easy and effective way to make money off his blog. While its not up to an ad platform to drive traffic to a bloggers site, it IS up to the platform to provide a tool to help maximize revenue in the monetization process.

#c) Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

At Last I would say don't ever rely on single source of revenue from your blog. Use more than one way to monetize your blog in order to maximize your revenue and secure your future.

Whether you aim to get income or write for fun, there are many ways to accomplish your monetization goals. At the end of the day, it’s all a matter of finding the right solution. The path to making money starts with deciding which direction to take. There are dozens of opportunities to choose from. These three points are just a small taste of the different choices available.

#6) Keep writing to Become a Successful Blogger

If you take a look at top successful blogs you'll find that the average number of posts is around 200 per blog. This should be your goal in long term. In fact, Google takes into consideration the freshness of your content when ranking the blog. Besides, posting continuously would highly improve your readers engagement. You will eventually notice that your blog is now ranking and getting traffics from different places. Nothing will be changed in a day or overnight. Be sure you give your best and hope for the good.

Keep writing to Become a Successful Blogger and earn money

Also Read: Clever Ways for Bloggers to Stay in Their Best Health

Conclusion

It doesn't matters what niche you write about, the quality of thoughts does matters. If you really want to be successful then thank and appreciate the work of people who helped/helps you. Monetize your blog in a proper manner. These are the thing that would keep you pushing to do better everyday.

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