In this drastically changing world, where everything is shifting to the Digital World, starting a digitalised side hustle worth a shot. This is where Blogging comes in.
Blogging is one of the top-notch niches preferred by a vast audience to make money online. The reason behind its popularity is the role of an active blog to your passive income column. So, if you really want to have a side hustle that can generate good revenue, start a Blog.
But if blogging's expected results are crazy, then why do people leave it?
This is the most common question that comes to mind for many beginners who want to do something.
Going straight to the answer, such bloggers ignore the worth of the strategic process of starting a blog. They just dig into the field and think like “Just Start is Everything.”
However, it is not. Aside from publishing great content, there are over ten different factors that need your attention. These factors include marketing, traffic source, monetisation and much more.
There are many successful bloggers who are sharing their success stories and tactics they use to get success. Same like this, there is a vast audience who follows those tactics to kick-start their journey in blogging.
But almost 95% of bloggers failed within the first year of their journey and shut their blogs. Ultimately, they start believing in a so-called myth, “Blog needs many Years to generate Profit.”
However, the rest of the 5% bloggers follow the right tactics, focus on learning and improving themselves and their blog. This makes them leading ones in the market.
The thing you should note here is, indeed, successful bloggers share the details of strategies they used to succeed. But those tactics are right for them. There isn’t any guarantee that those tactics will work for you too.
So, as an experienced person in blogging, I’m here to share an insightful strategic process that everyone can follow. I’m pretty sure that this process will work for you in all cases. Whether you are starting a lifestyle blog, Affiliate Blog or any other, you will get brilliant results if you focus on the steps I’m mentioning below.
Please note that the details I’m sharing in this blog are entirely based on my personal experience. Throughout my journey, I failed many times while discovering new things. But the lesson I learned from those failures helped me a lot to keep the track I have chosen for myself.
So, just read this blog with an eagle eye and bookmark the page. Once you get done with the reading, get back to it when you implement these steps.
Let’s dive deeper into the content.
1. Select a Niche
Niche selection is one of the most crucial and attention needy steps in starting a blog. Many individuals think ‘writing about what you love will work.’ However, it is not the case.
Many bloggers mentioned that they are blogging about the niche they love. Under the influence of this statement, almost 95% of all bloggers select the niche they are good at, or they love. They work passionately and wait for the results. But later they find that they cannot get their desired results.
They think their target audience or the audience who might have an interest in their blog will visit it, without paying attention to Search Engine Optimization and Marketing.
The 3% bloggers of the remaining 5% bloggers, select a niche they are experienced in. They put a lot of effort into making that work. The future of such blogs is unpredicted as it depends on the strategies and tactics they follow.
The rest of 2% bloggers with a successful career and lucrative income are those who select a niche by thinking about every aspect of the future.
So, it is wise advice that you should pay attention to the niche you want to work in. Here are some points that you should think about while selecting a niche.
- The Niche should be in-demand or high in-demand.
- Have a low competition with higher search volumes.
- Should provide a solution to your audience.
- Should be evergreen.
Pro-Tip
Research about the terms you want to write about and make sure that your search term contains at least a domain of 67-Domain Authority (DA).
2. Do Research
Now, it’s time for the second most crucial step of getting started with your blog. It is a wise move to do some research about what you want to do and how you are planning to do.
Simply, create a list of a few search terms that you want to blog about and list down in a notebook. Search them on Google and have an eagle eye over the results.
Come up with a site that works similarly that you want to do. Set them as your competitor. Have a detailed look at the content they published and site structure. Once you get done with this, now think about how you are going to provide something more incredible than your competitors’.
At last, it is time to do some Keyword research. Keyword research will help you in understanding about the search terms that are being used by the audience. For this purpose, I advise you to use a keyword research tool.
On the search bar of a Keyword Research Tool, insert a term you want to blog about. For example, I’m inserting “Male Fashion” here.
Ubersuggest Keyword Research Tool
This will show you a long list of keywords with different metrics. The most important metrics that you have to notice is Keyword Difficulty (SEO Difficulty; KD, SD) and Volume.
There are three different types of keywords.
- High Difficulty, High Search Volume.
- Medium Difficulty, Medium Search Volume.
- Low Difficulty, Low Search Volume.
To have a stable blog, you have to use a blend of all these types of keywords. Low difficulty Keywords are generally supposed to be easy to rank on the top searches of Search Engines. However, they have low search volumes. Such keywords play an essential role in building a sustainable blog, but you can’t only depend on these.
Aside from this, keywords with Medium Difficulty, Medium Search Volume are supposed to be not that hard to get rank for. However, they play an essential role in building the image of your blog.
Keywords with High Difficulty, High Search Volume, are supposed to be hard to get rank for because many bloggers are already competing for this.
So, it is a wise move that you select a combination of all these keywords with a higher proportion of Low Difficulty Keywords followed by Medium and a few High Difficulty keywords.
This is how it looks on the Keyword Research tool.
Results of “Male Fashion” on Ubersuggest Keyword Research Tool.
Secondly, the essential thing that is being ignored by most of the bloggers is the Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Score (DS).
While doing research, please make sure that there should be at least a single domain with DS of 40 to 60 on the first page. If not, then the niche would be tough for you to get ranked.
For example, the search term “Male Fashion” has all the domains of DS 80+ on the first page.
Keyword Overview of “Male Fashion” in Ubersuggesst Keyword Research Tool.
Pro Tip: Set Your Goals
After getting done with the research, you will get to know about your competitors. Based on their progress and Market’s Situation, it is worthy to set your goals about your blog.
Your goals could be anything related to your blog’s performance. Such as
- 30 posts in 20 days.
- Sixteen guest posts on other blogs.
And so on..
3. Set-up your Blog
Now it’s time to get ready for proper action. Set-up and establish your blog.
First, you need a domain and hosting to make your blog visible on the internet’s world. The domain name will be your blog’s address, and the hosting will make your blog online.
For Domain Name, there isn’t any specification. It could be anything catchy that will sound great to your audience. But preferably, it should be your name or any keyword which relates to your niche. Please make sure that your domain name shouldn’t differ from your niche.
The second thing you need is web hosting. There are many hosting services providers, but I personally love SiteGround for the fast speed, SSL and renewal charges. While selecting a Web Hosting, pay attention to site up-time, SSL, security, Customer Support and Renewal price.
If you are a developer, you can use your skills to create a blog. If not, then no worries. Quick website Creation Tools got you covered. You can create a blog by using WordPress or Wix. Both website creation tools give you access to many themes and website editors with which you can change the layout and designing based on your wish.
4. Create a Calendar
Depending on the goals that you have for your blog, you have to set up a schedule. According to a survey, it is estimated that bloggers who follow a predefined content publishing calendar get better results than those who are seasonal.
But you have to be wise while creating a calendar. Please note the following points.
- Your calendar should focus on at least 16 posts a month (not mandatory).
- Your calendar should specify the time for marketing.
- Add SEO goals in it.
- Add Guest Posting as well.
- Income goals.
For more information about Guest Posting and its importance, Click Here.
Pro Tip: Divide your Goals into Small Chunks
A quick and straightforward way to accomplish your goals is to divide them into smaller chunks. Smaller bites are more comfortable to be eaten. So, do not jot down that you have to make a six-figure income from your blog. Instead, specify how much you have to earn in a month.
This will help you in attaining the goal of earning a six-figure income. Follow the same tactic for other works, such as Content Creation, Audience, Email subscribers and so on.
5. Start with Content Creation
Now, you are done with the research and blog set-up. In this step, you have access to your well-designed blog as well as a clear picture of what you want to do with a better set of keywords.
So, let’s start writing your content. YAY!
Hold on. It isn’t that simple. Many bloggers take it easy and start writing their first post by picking up a topic. That’s why they face troubles. In the whole journey of creating and maintaining a blog, research and wise planning play an essential role.
Follow the following steps to get the most out of your content creation.
- Pick up a list of topics that you want to write about.
- Select primary keywords for each of the posts and make sure that primary KWs should be different for each post.
- Select 2 to 3 Secondary Keywords to make your content search engine friendly.
- Search those keywords on search engines and note the details about the content your competitors are ranking for.
- Come up with a proposed outline with a specific word count that should be better than your competitors.
- Start writing your content and link other incredible posts (external link) to provide value to your audience.
- Use images, embed YouTube video links and add infographics to increase the dwell time.
These are the essential points you have to note while creating content for your blog.
6. Create Personalized Visuals
“Picture worth a thousand words.”
This is the most famous saying which defines the importance of your visuals. Aside from straightforward content, Visual Content plays a crucial role in increasing the dwell time, engagement and gives a classy look to your blog.
But, while creating visual content, don’t forget to make it personalised. Mention your blog’s name as a brand name in all the visual content that you create on your own. This will give a classy yet professional look to your blog.
For this purpose, you can use simple and quick graphics tools such as Canva, Fotojet, and Venngage for Infographics and editing of pictures and images.
7. Publish as per Schedule
No matter how unique your content calendar is if you do not follow that. For better results, the critical factor is what you do. So, once you get done with planning, start implementing it right away.
Please note that, if you delay your task, you will face many difficulties in getting your desired results. So, publish your content as per your schedule and optimise it in addition to marketing.
Don’t forget to submit your blog post in google analytics for crawling and indexing.
8. Focus on Marketing
Marketing is one of the critical factors which defines the success of your blog.
Once you get done with writing a blog post, visit online question-answer forums to search for the questions related to your content, such as on Quora and Reddit.
Once you get related questions, draft a catchy answer and include the link of your post at the end. But please do not start spamming around on these forums. This way, when the reader reads your answer, they will surely visit the link of the resource.
Quora Screenshot of an answer by Neil Patel.
This Screenshot shows how Neil Patel use to promote his Blog’s Content on Quora by providing a link to articles of his blog.
Aside from this, post your blog post link with a catchy headline on Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter. This will drive traffic from these social media websites.
Additionally, do not forget to add a “Subscribe my Email List” option in between your post or in the widget space so that you can send emails about your every new post to your readers.
9. Track the Results
Phew!
So far, you have made significant progress in setting up your blog. Now it’s time to track the results of what you have done.
Google Analytics is a great tool that helps you in getting to know how many visitors are coming to your site. You can also set some goals to measure success. It can be engagement/dwell time, or it can be the bounce rate that you can measure via a heat map.
For the first two months, I suggest keeping your focus on
- Posts you published.
- Guest posts.
- Email Subscribers.
- Reach on Forums.
- The audience on the blog.
- Site Loading Speed.
For the first two months of starting your blog, these points are the key performance indicators. These will define the future of your blog and the probability of achieving your goals.
10. Update your Content
According to recent research by Techjury, almost 4.4 million blog posts got published on the internet every day. Only those who provide value and updated information to the audience will get benefit from Google. This is where the importance of updating your content comes in.
As a general rule, most of the bloggers update the content on their website after a year or two. But depending upon the current situations and competition, I advise you to update your content after every 3 to 4 months.
This will help you in keeping the content updated and full of helpful and actionable information. While updating the content, do not forget to increase its value more than before. Most importantly, be mindful about updating those contents that are already ranking on the Top Searches of the Search Engine.
Aside from this, updated content keeps your Domain Authority high and builds a trustworthy relationship between your audience and your blog.
For more information about updating your content, Click Here read out a detailed post by Neil Patel.
Why is Great Content Important for Blog Success?
Great Content is a perfect blend of engaging words, beautiful tone, actionable information and easy to digest stepwise process. This type of content gets viral in a very short period because the audience loves it from the beginning. As a result, they start sharing that content on their social media accounts with their friends.
On the other hand, good content contains information only, which does not get the attention of the readers. As a result, your audience won’t share it on their social media account.
These parameters strongly affect the results of your blog’s success.
That’s all. I’m excited to see the success of your blog and almost 8.8 million blog posts publishing rate on the internet. :)
Do you want to add something in the list?
Sure, leave your comment below.
