How to Start a Career in Blogging?

Blogging is one of the most sought after and most admired career option in today’s era.

Everyone wants to live free and without any dependency on any single redundant source of income such as a job. A super independent blogger’s lifestyle with loads of money inflow is everyone’s dream. So, the question arises in most of our minds, how can you achieve this dream?

Well, one thing I would tell you is that it is no easy task to make a living as a professional blogger. But again, which job is easy nowadays?

No matter the field, you need to work really hard to make it to the best of the lot and become an icon in that field.

You must have seen examples of blogs and bloggers claiming that how lavish life they are living while making a fancy 6 figure income out of their blogging career. Or posts and articles how you can start earning insane or crazy income with blogging and they always follow an “ultimate guide” to blogging.

If you have come across to posts like this, let me tell you no matter how much they claim to be super easy and awesome, it is never that easy. Period.

If it would have been that easy, why stats are showing that only 4% of the bloggers are making a living out of their blog. Yes, it is that few when it comes to success rate.

So far we have understood one part of the blogging story, it is not easy to become a professional blogger. If you think blogging as a quick way to get rich, then I won’t even ask you to continue any further. I know I am going on a little rough track here but sadly this is the truth and there is no way around it.

But! 

That is just one half of the story. If you are serious about becoming a professional blogger and wish to establish blogging as your career, then blogging can do wonders for you. While there are people who are having a hard time blogging, there are loads of other bloggers as well who are making a considerable fortune from blogging, and if you follow the right track and take corrective actions, you will be able to make a career in blogging as well.

So, what does it mean when I say “right track”?

Key to blogging

Many times when people start blogging and they plan on making blogging their career, they tend to look for “the definitive way” by which they can become a successful blogger. Sadly there are hundreds of articles on this topic, but none of them can guarantee you success.

There is no hard and fast rule to blogging. If you are looking for a way which you can follow and succeed in your career, then I am sorry to break it up to you. There is no straight way to become a blogger.

The real key to blogging is by finding your own voice and your own unique identity. It can be the articles you write, how you write, the niche you choose or anything else. We will talk on this matter in much more detail later on.

And the best part is that it is possible.

Since you will be choosing to blog as your full-time career option, it is wise to understand the blogging world and how you will make money from blogging before you jump right in.

So, the first thing that we will be doing is creating a plan. This will help in making every step clear and making sure that we do not miss out on any step.

Create a Plan for your Blogging journey

You must be having multiple questions regarding this but don’t worry, I will try to answer them here.

So, what needs to be planned out before starting your blogging journey. The simple way to sort this out is to answer the questions you are having right now. If you do not have any particular questions, you may wanna think of a few things, such as

• How will you be making money with blogging?
• Do you need any investment to become a blogger?
• Is there a formal course regarding blogging you would wanna take up before this?
• What is your end goal towards this?
• How you plan on growing your blog?
• How much time can you give to this if you are already working?

 
Doing this will allow you to arrange every thought you may have popping up in your mind. If you have not thought all that out though now, it is time that you begin with it. Let’s see how you can answer some of the most important answers to your questions.

What would you blog about?

Many times I come across people who got the inspiration to blog after watching their friend getting success in blogging on some particular niche. This group of brooding bloggers always see a blog working good and earning good money and then decides that they will blog as well, mostly on the same topic.

Mark my words. If you want to be successful with blogging, always prefer a blog topic that interests you. You can also choose a topic that you are expert in but do not go for a topic just because the other person is succeeding in doing it.

Choosing a topic that you like or are expert in help in making your blogging a fun journey, not a chore that you have to do time to time.

It is not necessary that you should blog about a single topic. You can go with multiple topics as well but initially start by making the blog on a dedicated subject. This will help you clear out the search traffic and get more specific search results and targeted users.

For starters, start by selecting a topic that interests you, it can be anything that you find interesting. If you are having a hard time settling on that, here is a list of popular niches for blogging-

• Tech
• Home
• Travel
• Lifestyle
• DIY
• Family
• Fitness and Health
• Games
• Inspiration and advice
• Finance
• Animals, etc.

 
Just choose the one you can talk about for hours and remember to follow your heart and not the herd. 

Launching the Blog

Once you have your ground laid down, you can start on the technical and other aspects. Here is an overall idea of how you can set up your blog without any problem.

1. Choosing the Niche

Okay, so the first thing that we discussed is choosing the niche. As I have already said, your niche is something you should be passionate about. The biggest reason behind this is that you will be talking and writing on your blog around your topic constantly. This should only give you more inspiration and should not drain you out of Ideas.

Now one thing you must consider while choosing the topic is that others should find the topic interesting too. Since you want to make a career in blogging, it is good to make sure that people would want to read about it and finds the niche interesting as well.

One way to check this is by doing market research. See if there are other blogs are there on them. How are they performing on the niche level and if not what is the reason? Consider all the possibilities if you are going for a non-generic niche and remember…

Choose wisely!

2. Choosing the Blogging Platform

If you want me to boil it down to you, I would say just go with WordPress. There are many good blogging platforms out there such as Blogger, SquareSpace, Wix, etc. but if you wish to make blogging your career, then I would recommend you to go with WordPress.

Why?

Well, WordPress is super flexible and offers great functionality and has a very little learning angle associated with it. You can get used to WordPress by the first of you using the platform. It is super interactive and is capable of handling all the technical stuff by itself so that you can keep your focus on blogging and crunching great content. The WordPress version I am talking about here is the self-hosted. You can get to know more about it here.

3. Getting a Suitable Domain

Your domain is the website address, and most probably it will become the name of your website. If andy wants to start a blog about his DIY tutorials, then andy’s domain can be “www.andyDIY.com”. This will keep the essence of the blog and give the reader a general idea about what your content is going to be about. However many good domains are already taken, and you can still find the one which suits your niche. This domain can be registered from any domain registrar. I personally prefer Godaddy for domains.

4. Getting a Hosting Plan

You have bought the domain, settled on the blogging platform, now you need to select a hosting provider. This hosting is going to be the house of your website. The place where your website will live. A good hosting can improve the performance of the website to a great extent. There are loads of hosting providers available out there, but it is up to choose which one to go with.

Since you are just starting right out, you do not need a hosting account with all the fancy features as a hosting account can be of anywhere between $3 and $500 per month! Just go with the simple one and once you start getting traction, switch on to a better one with more features. 

5. Setting up your Blog

You have all the ingredients with you, and the only thing left now is cooking the meal, i.e., your website. Simply ask your hosting provider to attach the domain to your hosting account and install WordPress on it. This is the easiest way to get it done.

You can do the installation yourself as well. There are many resources available on the internet to teach you how you can host your domain on the hosting plan you have purchased. This can get a little technical so I would suggest you take the help of your hosting provider support to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Once you have all the setting up taken care of and your WordPress Installation completed, you are good to go!

6. Accessing and Personalising the Blog

Now you can log in to your WordPress Dashboard and customize the layout exactly the way you want. Ideally, people prefer going with a predesigned WordPress themes which can be installed directly or can be added using the theme installer, but the downside with themes is that they offer little customization and you can’t change them every day for every minor change you want to see on your blog layout. And, in case if you do not know how to write code to make minor changes, chances are, wither you will have to hire a freelancer to make those changes or end up changing the whole theme.

So, how will you make changes to the website without the help of themes and the lack of coding knowledge at your disposal?

For this, you can get the Blog Designer plugin which comes with more than 40 blog layouts which you can use to customize your WordPress blog layout. It can fit every blog style, and on top of that, you can change the design and functionality with the granular controls provided with the plugin. The plugin is compatible with all the popular page builders out there and offers immense functionality regarding the changes you can make to your blog design. Learn more about Blog Designer.

7. Publishing your First Post

Now since you have set up your whole website in and out, it is now time to start publishing. You need to write engaging, and useful content that people would love to read. But don’t stress over too much on writing a good first post.

Many bloggers waste a lot of time waiting for that “perfect moment” to publish your first article but the truth is it never comes, and even if it comes, I am sure you would have wasted a lot of time by then. So, the best thing you can do right now click on the posts tab and then click on the “Add New” button. Give it a proper title and start writing your first piece of article. Give it ample time, proofread once you are done and publish your first article right then and there.

Once you have the wheels moving, you will find more ideas and inspiration to grow your blog.

Maintaining the Quality of the Blog

Now, one of the most crucial aspects of blogging is Content Quality. Your blog’s content quality defines the future of your blog. If you want your readers to keep coming back for more content, the best way to make sure that happens is by feeding them high-quality content in the first place.

Some of the good Content practices are as follows-

• Write in your own tone or voice. Do not try to imitate a blogger that your love or admires. This will always create problems and eventually will degrade your content quality.
• Never stop researching. If you want to feed your users with good content, you need to make sure that you are well informed as well.
• Don’t just write a piece of content instead make it engaging. Make your content actionable by asking your reader to do something by the end of the article.
• One of the ways by which blogging always work is by using the storytelling technique. It works like a charm because there is nothing good as compared to the flow a story offers. The user always continues in anticipation of knowing what happens next.
• Do not forget your content once you hit the publish button. You need to focus on the content quality, and for this, you need to make regular edits. This will ensure that your articles are of great quality and has some value to offer to the reader.
• Well, it is not the highest priority from the beginning, but writing SEO friendly articles will help you in building a stronger users base as you will be able to bag good position on search engines like Google, chances are more people will be visiting your website. Learn more about SEO.
• If you are planning on making your blog your income source. Then, you need to focus on your conversion optimization as well. You can work on this from the beginning of your blogging journey as the only thing you will be working here on is how to write blog posts that convert.

Networking works like a charm

This happens with bloggers as bloggers see other bloggers as their competition, but it is the other way around. If you make good connections in your network, it helps a lot in your brand building and doing future collabs.

Doing this will keep you updated about your industry and allows you to build a better network in your niche. It also happens when you start networking, you get to meet different kinds of people, and in the same way, many people get to know about you as well. This helps in building your brand and attracting those big brand deals too. So, when you are on your blogging journey, do make sure you are on good terms with everyone out there.

Monetize your Blog

Now, all is done but the main ingredient to make this a successful career is still not yet discussed. The thing I am talking about is Money and the revenue of the Blog.

There are multiple ways to monetize your blog which will start making you the money. You can anytime monetize your blog either it is day 1 or when you start getting some traction. It is totally up to you.

There are multiple ways to monetize your website. Here are some of the most common ways by which you can make money from blogging.

• Affiliate Marketing – When you refer a product on your website by adding a link to your blog post or the header or the footer. When a person clicks on this link and buys the product, it earns you a percentage of that product, and this whole model on marketing a product in turn for a commission on the sale is called affiliate marketing.
• Paid Sponsorship – Paid sponsors pay the price upfront to promote their product on your blog. This type of marketing is done in exchange for a predetermined price. You can do a sponsored review, add a banner on the sidebar, add multiple advertisement placements, a guest post or full feature promotion article. Blogs usually start getting these kinds of deals once the blogs become popular.
• Advertising – When you place an advertisement banner for the advertising agencies to promote their product on your website.
• Write ebooks – Many bloggers who have to build a reputation in the industry are earning from writing ebooks. You can write your ebooks and sell on Amazon.
• Create a Product – It is not necessary that you have to promote other’s product to earn via blogging. If you want, you can create your own products as well. It can be something related to your niche, your own brand swag, or simply a digital course or a book.

Improve your Page Views

One of the most important things for those who want to make blogging their career is money, right? Well, it is directly linked to another thing which makes the whole cycle works, and that is Pageviews.

When you are blogging, the number of people reading your blog is what defines your career. To make sure you have many readers on your blog, it is important to upload good content on your blog and that too doing it continually. But sometimes, alone the content cannot take care of your page views. You need to drive in the traffic before you can engage them on your blog. Here are some of the tips for you by which you can improve your blog’s page views.

• Social media presence – When you are working on your blog, it is important that you keep your social media in the loop as well. This will help you in being engaged with your readers and bringing in more traffic from your social media accounts.
• Guest Posting – When you start your blog, it is a good idea to write on other blog pages as a guest blogger and talk about a topic. This way, people will get to know about you, and you can funnel in the traffic of other blogs as well.
• Posting Regularly – I have talked about this earlier, but I keep insisting on this because there is no point of doing other things if you are not posting regularly on your blog. If you go, weeks or months not posting on your blog may lead to your readers forgetting about you.
• Learn SEO – One of the most important tools to make your blogs rank on search engines is performing SEO techniques. This is something that will come in your way along your blogging journey.
• Make Navigation  Easy- Most of the times bloggers do not pay much attention to the navigation on the website or the blog. This leads to limiting your user’s reach and the time they spend on your website as they will not be spending much time too. Make sure your website is easy to navigate and does have a proper top bar menu. This is the most common place a user look at when they want to navigate.
• Add Engaging Content – When you post engaging things on your blogs, it automatically becomes a view magnet. You can post pictures, videos, audio data to give a variation of your content to your users.

Final Advice

I know that having a blog and earning from it looks like the dream plan, but things will not happen overnight. You need to focus on the content and bunch of other things to make your blog work and start yielding you money. But while that may take time, it is very important that you keep patience and wait for things to happen. Since you are starting out, you must have some kinds of expectations from your blog. It is okay to have them but do not let them drive your actions and make you give up on your blog.

Be ready for all the ups and downs in your blogging journey and face them head-on. This is what will make you a successful blogger.

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Comment down below what you want to blog about and what motivated you to do it. We are keen to know about it!