Want to make money blogging? Unfortunately, most bloggers fail. Those who succeed, develop a strategy first, then they follow that strategy. Here are five tips which will help.
1. Choose a Niche in Which People Are Spending Money
If people aren’t spending money in your niche, your blog will never make money. Therefore your first step when considering a niche is to find out whether people are actually spending money online in that particular niche.
As a rule of thumb, if there is advertising in a niche, then money is being spent. To find out whether people are advertising on your topic, visit Google and type the topic name into the search query box. Are there advertisers on the right hand side of the query results page?
2. Decide What You’ll Sell on Your Blog
Once you’ve discovered that people are spending money in your niche it’s time to find out what others are selling. Check out the other blogs in the niche, and look at their advertising carefully. It’s usually fairly easy to see how other bloggers are making money, and if they’re making money so can you.
Many new bloggers want to find untapped niches. If you do manage to find an untapped niche after months of searching, be very careful. If no one is making money, it’s unlikely that you’ll be the first.
Don’t be afraid of competition — competition is good. It means that others are making money.
3. Content Plus Promotion Equals Traffic
This is a simple formula to follow to make money on your blog. Write interesting content, and promote that content. You’ll get traffic. Ideally it will be traffic which converts — that is your traffic will buy from your blog, even if they merely click on an AdSense link.
4. Get the Best Traffic
The best traffic is traffic which converts (makes sales). Not all your traffic will convert, and you’ll need to do considerable exploration of your website referrer logs to find out where the good traffic is coming from.
Experiment, and test: no matter how wonderful (or miserable) your conversions are, you can always improve them.
5. Stay in Touch With Your Readers
Your readers are gold. Treat them as if they’re the life of your blog because they are. Your aim should be to convert the occasional visitor into a constant reader. Encourage your readers to join your mailing list, and to subscribe to your RSS feed.
You can turn your blog into a moneymaking machine. Just develop a strategy, and follow that strategy: you can’t fail.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Promote that content is the key…it is the key for any business. There is no “build it and they will come.”
I know and too many people think they will come without any kind of promotion.
Organic traffic is the key. These are the ones who are usually looking to buy.
Agree 100%!
Hi,
Simple and basic tips – almost common sense; Why so many people ignore the basics. I mean, if someone would try and open a restaurant they’ll wonder about location, what food to sell, what are the prices in that area, what kind of people leave nearby, how the menu will look, how to design the interior – the usual. And still, the moment people are entering the Internet domain the seem to forget all those basic things that apply in any kind of business.
Thanks,
@TomaBonciu on Twitter
So true. You think people would understand this.
Good to see you back Franklin! Some great points here.
It’s a great idea to identify the products you want to target as building a site around specific affiliate ads will really help you optimize your relationship with your audience and get them interested in what you’re selling.
Thanks! Vacation is fully over today. How’s your site going?
Nice to see you posting again Franklin! I agree that nice selection is vital. Most bloggers start out with no monetization plan at all.
Thanks Mike. Still trying to get back in the flow. Sorry it took a while to get back to you. Trying to organized again.
Welcome back, Bishop.
Also, you should sell something you like.
I can’t imagine building up enthusiasm to sell a product I hate. Even if I knew it would sell.
Thanks. Yes, it is hard to sell something you do not like.
Blogger expert,
This sounds like a great deal of common sense, yet I personally did not really think a great deal about the first issue during the process of choosing my topic.
I decided to go with the topic (business ethics) because I feel its a topic which I am both passionate and knowledgeable about, and about which I could create some interesting discussions.
But to be honest, it’s probably not the ideal type of topic in terms of advertising revenue, and I suspect that my neglect with respect to your first point may potentially prove somewhat costly for me down the road if I ever attempt to monetize my blog.
On another note, thank you for your frankness about most blogs failing to generate any form of substantial income for their owners. I despise sites which infer that blogging is an easy way to make money. It isn’t, and your degree of frankness on this matter is somewhat refreshing.
Well, some people do not like me because I tell them that a lot of blogs will not make money. It is usually the topic and not the blogger so much though.
According to my own experience, getting traffic from SE converts the best. Almost of all of them stay and become a potential lead.
I agree as long as you are giving them what they are looking for.
If only the part about finding a niche would be easyer… Is there any tools ore some way to find suggestions on a potential niche if I only have a general topic in mind? Thank you Franklin for your work, your posts are easy to read and a real inspirtion.
Pretty straightforward, but a bit better than the old chestnut:
1) Build site
2) ???????
3) Profit.
@ Andrew – unfortunately, it would appear that having a passion for something does not directly correlate with your ability to make money from a niche.
Just look at all the rubbish thin affiliate sites out there, clearly made by people with a keyword list and a link building strategy, but no passion for the subject.
Thanks for the tips, you really know your stuff. though I do disagree with those who say that you should choose a niche that your are passionate about.
If its not a good niche or they don’t share your passion, you won’t make any cash.
I learned the hard way.
@Ben Pei – I’m with you all the way on Search Engine traffic. As long as your keywords are targeted well, the visitors you get from the search engines are usually excited by what they find on your site and so, prove to be really great visitors.
build it – yes, they will come as long as you have great CONTENT. The search engines are ultimately searching for content – loads of it and as your content is what people are looking for you will have organic traffic from SE and readers. Blog about what you know and like, blog about / share what you are learning and allow your blog to grow with you.
Your tips are great to use as a guide and to fall back to when you go off track
Hey Laura! How’s your site been going?
The steps are good but Im not sure the title is relevant to what the content is. I mean blogging as a whole, wouldn’t even net you daily cash. Based on what I know, blogging is a low-reward, high-effort type of game and only few really succeed in it…
Good post, I wish it were this simple…or maybe it is. You are right on about your visitors being GOLD, especially those who comment and join the discussion. Without them, there is no fun and defiantly no money.
Blessings,
Brandon
It really is important to work on finding a niche you are passionate about, but that also people are willing to buy for. And it’s ok to have some competition but not too much competition. You have to be willing to be in this long enough to keep trying and keep testing, unless you want to pay more money to buy tools that will do this research for you. Thanks for the great post!
Get best traffic, great tips as so many are chasing social traffic that rarely buys, for me the best traffic is the SE traffic!
I think it’s important to pick a niche you’re knowledgable about or have a passion for, preferably both. You’re more likely to have great content if you write what you know and love.