Blogging has become a household occupation amongst (young) people, hence the increasing number of new blog accounts created by individuals on a daily basis. In our world today, blogging has become a full-time occupation for individuals who have a knack for writing and publishing. Great individuals like Kumar Harsh, Neil Patel, Bulevur (of Bellevue Games), Linda Ikeji to mention but a few. These individuals make six figures every month and have gone way beyond just seeking people to visit their website to making great impact in their immediate society.
Blogging business has rules, principles and fundamentals which every aspiring blogger must adhere to. This is because there is no easy road to success in blogging. In this article, we will be looking into the things any prospective blogger must know/do before starting (or thinking of starting) a blog.
Have an idea of what to blog about
A lot of new bloggers have the problem of identifying a particular niche of interest for their proposed blog. For example, on many occasions, a newbie will create a fashion blog with an intention of blogging about fashion trends but subsequently, they’ll start adjusting to news and lifestyle on hearing that it is more profitable. A novice must learn to stick to his/her niche irrespective of how attractive and profitable other niches are; another reason why you must take time to think and conclude on what you really want to blog about before even taking that step of creating a new blog.
Avoid having money in mind
One of the major problems of new bloggers is that they are always wanting “to make millions on their first day” without even doing all their homework, like keyword research, writing high-quality and SEO friendly articles, link-building, etc. Blogging is like any other physical business which needs to be built from the scratch. It is like a seed that needs to be watered, weeded then allowed to bear fruits, of which, all these processes takes time to transcend. On a more pragmatic note, an average newbie must be able to invest at least a year (12 months) of hard work into this business to brew a blog that is capable of spinning substantial cash all year round. To find out how you can make more money with your blog, here are the 10 ways to monetize your blog.
Do not be a jack-of-all-trade
Similar to what have mentioned earlier, a good blogger focuses on one niche, and then grows it to suit the current trending blogs. I have seen many bloggers open a Tech Blog and went ahead to create tabs for Music, Videos, etc. It’s easy to understand that bloggers want to monetize their blog quickly. However, Google is no fool and neither is its Crawler. You cannot specify that your blog is Tech oriented when you keep posting things from different niches. In such cases, you are confusing Google crawlers when crawling your blog, because it becomes difficult to categorize it.
Do not overdesign
Yes! You want your blog to look good and stand out. Everybody wants that because Google has got a crush on beautiful Blog designs. However, you don’t necessarily need to go overboard with your design. In most of the cases, blogs that are over-designed ends up either slowing down (which increases bounce rate) or make the navigation function confusing making visitors to sometimes get lost on your blog. Just keep it simple and beautiful.
Do not over-monetize
It pays to monetize your blog, but do not go overboard with it. Ensure that your main purpose of creating the blog which is designed to help becomes your watchword. I have on so many occasion seen blogs that are reddened with adverts banners and affiliate links taking so much space. This can be very frustrating for visitors because it becomes so difficult to distinguish the blog articles from text Ads.
Again, you really need to keep it clean and simple and let your revenue grow slowly with your visitor’s stats. Finally, blogging is one hell of a lucrative business anybody can venture into. With constant hard work, patience and research the sky will be your limit.
