For those who consider blogging a politically correct and financially viable business these days, it wasn’t always so. Twenty years ago, the practice had a very modest beginning when it was simply a mix of keeping a personal diary or demonstrating some technical expertise. To begin with, most exponents of this art or business were lovers of writing their thoughts or posting on a particular topic. However, this phase of personal blogging evolved over time into a content production marketplace, marketing of brands, and even a fully functioning operation on the web.
Thanks to advancements in social media, search engines, and digital marketing, blogging helps more individuals and organizations who want to engage with their audience. Blogs have turned into effective tools for attracting audiences, establishing authority, and generating revenue through advertising, selling affiliate products, sponsorships, and selling one’s products. However, before attempting to plunge into the field of blogging, one must understand some general aspects of the industry. An A-Z guide to blogging is really needed, right from the choice of topic, to the stage of website development, and most importantly, how to monetize that content. However, a plan, a vision and the right attitude towards it needs to be put together if blogging is to be made an income generating venture or even a career.
Choosing a Blog Type
Blogging is a serious undertaking, and so the type of blog one would want to start is very important and this decision should not be taken lightly. There are many reasons for this to happen, some of them for example being personal preferences, the range of potential audience size, or if the chosen niche is becoming popular and can garner more readers. Also, it is paramount to take into account the revenue it can generate, as most blog narrators aim to earn some cash from their ownership. Another factor that will come into play is the intention for which one blogs and what type of blogger one becomes – whether to provide information, attract a certain group of people or earn some cash through ads and affiliate marketing. Different types of blogs have their own advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to balance the goals with the chosen topic in order to succeed in the long run.
1. Affiliate Blogs
Blogs are often affiliates with the intention of making a profit by marketing one’s products. This is mostly done by embedding links in the blog posts and thus the owners receive a certain percentage of the sales that happen through that link. This method of earning is so common in Sureku as it does not involve the blogger creating any product to sell. However, one’s level of creativity and the effectiveness of the strategies adopted will also play a major role in determining how successful one will be in affiliate blogging, especially where the blog’s traffic is concerned. It is important to note that these are essential as these help in bringing visitors to the blog thereby increasing the chances of users clicking on any affiliate link. Most of the time, affiliate bloggers write product reviews, or comparison articles, or guides that give an overview of the item being promoted. The aim is to tailor the blog’s content to the needs and searches of its potential customers. For most beginners with a quick approach to turn their blogs into profitable marketplaces, affiliate blogs are one of the easier models available.
2. Business Blogs
Business blogs are primarily used by companies to market their goods or services through engaging content. They are an integral part of a company’s marketing activities, increasing site traffic, generating leads and converting visitors into buyers. Essentially, most business blogs contain posts that are tailored to specific industries and the issues that such businesses want to solve. A good example is a company that deals with technology. It may decide to post information about any recent discoveries in that industry or post articles explaining the use of a certain product of theirs. Such business blogs will help establish businesses at the center of these industries while at the same time increasing visibility in search engines. As a result, if the blog is constantly updated with relevant content, it will continue to attract potential customers on a regular basis. However, in a business context, there is no concern with personal content. Rather the focus is on addressing customers and their needs and issues.
3. Freelance Blogger
Freelance bloggers are individuals who blog for other people or organisations for whom they provide special services, or who wish to obtain such a niche. For this reason, blogging for freelancers is promotional, a way of demonstrating their proficiency to a wider audience on the type of activity they perform. A freelancer may also write about what they have gone through, offer advice on certain subject areas, or visit their field and write about the work being done in the field. The blog doubles as a showroom for their talents, book in hand, so that potential clients can get a taste of the writer’s skills and style. In this context, a person can be a freelance blogger in various fields such as graphic design, web design, copywriting or digital marketing. If the content is of a very high standard each time, they can become a writer expert in the chosen topic.
4. Blogging through media
Apart from written text, media such as photos, videos, and audio are the main focus of media blogs which make them more appealing to readers. With the growth of YouTube and Instagram, the trend of this blog is growing as interfaces that emphasize on visuals are more appealing. Media blogs are for people who are good at creating videos, taking photos, or recording audio. For example, vloggers record videos on various topics including travel, beauty, technology, and even cooking. There are also some called podcasts that provide audio recordings of a person involved in a topic with the use of episodes to encourage following.
Of course, media blogs are fun and interesting and highly encourage the younger generation who are fond of such practices. The youth of this generation have always been fond of such practices. They are mostly in the form of advertisements, sponsorships, or paid endorsements by some companies. It is mainly a media-based blog for a person who has an eye on creating or exploring the world of digital content.
5. Niche Blogs
Niche blogs are targeted resources dedicated to a specific topic or audience, which enables the blogger to build credibility and authority within the scope. A niche blog can range from an animal instinct blog to one on how to decorate one’s home sparsely. Blog writers in this segment usually harbor a love of the topic in question and this love is reciprocated by the readership. As a result of having a specified niche, most of these bloggers develop a fan base of readers who are actively involved within the content. There’s a great potential in this kind of blog, as it can be monetized through affiliate links, sponsorships, selling digital products such as ebooks, or even online courses concerning the niche. Niche blogs are very focused, and therefore, tend to perform well on the search engines for the specific keywords, bringing in a steady flow of visitors. Most bloggers who start writing niche blogs also enjoy the acclaim that goes with being considered an authority in the field which may also make them appealing for guest posts, invites for collaboration or giving speeches.
6. Personal Blogs
Personal blogs can be called the most traditional type of blogging. It is an old-fashioned act of individuals putting forth their thoughts and experiences of their daily lives to an audience on the internet. These blogs are the modern versions of people’s diaries or journals and do not only contain the personal interests of the writers. These types of blogs are written primarily with the aim of connecting with a few people with similar interests rather than building a business or brand unlike many other blogs. Bloggers can write about a variety of topics including travel, overcoming personal obstacles, sometimes including their business and family matters. There are occasions when such personal websites can become business websites and make a profit, but many bloggers in this type of website create such blogs just because they want to do so. A personal blog comes with a lot of experiences and emotions and often attracts readers who find certain aspects or thoughts of the blogger’s life relevant. Anyone who loves to tell stories and has no pressure to make money in the near future can find great satisfaction in creating a personal blog as a way to capture moments in time and share them with everyone else.
7. Blogs for Professionals
The purpose of a professional blog is to engage in these activities for monetary satisfaction. Professional or hobbyist blogs differ in the sense that the former is a completely content driven business for the blogger, generating customer traffic, conversions and sales leads, all to make a profit. Business professional blogging is often focused on a sub-region of a country with the intention to explore various income generation strategies. These include, but are not limited to, affiliate sales, paid advertising in focused areas, creation of e-products and advertising, etc. Business blogging offers fewer barriers to entry, as most individuals will run more than one blog for income generation purposes. A practicing professional blogger needs to be competent in writing creative content, understand the principles of search engine optimization and positioning the blog within the audience on an ongoing basis. Its main purpose is to increase readership and also generate engagement in the readership, in addition to increasing the number of readers. This type of blog is great for people who are serious about making blogging their full-time job or part-time job.
8. Reverse Blog
In a reverse blog, which is a bit different in structure, the content is not primarily created by the blog owner. Instead, it is contributed where other people post guest posts or some experts or people from the community send articles to be published. Such blogs not only carry updates on the owner’s activities but it is a shared blog with many people whose writing talent or knowledge on a topic is pooled together for a magazine style of blogging. The owner of the reverse blog can still post his own content but the issue is that such a blog attracts most of its readers as it touches on a lot of things and the facts are no longer presented in one voice. Such blogs can also be found on Medium which allows every user to become a reader and a writer, hence it has many reverse blogs. For the blog owner, this model simplifies the content creation process as there is already a wide content base present in the form of posts. In this case, monetization can be through advertising, selling premium memberships or paying for certain posts.
Choosing Domain and Hosting
While choosing a blog or website and their domain name, the importance of putting keywords related to your topic in the domain name cannot be overemphasized. It is also good for branding purpose and search engine ranking benefits. One of the quickest ways to check the availability of a domain name during a brainstorming session is to phrase the desired domain name with the extension ‘.com’ in a browser window. If it returns a reply message or says it is unavailable, then one has to think of other options. In the process of choosing a domain name, consider as many aspects as possible about what the name should be like. Remember that the shorter and easier to pronounce the domain name, the easier it will be to remember. Choose the **.COM** domain ending as it is more popular and trusted than any other ending. One should avoid the use of hyphens or unnecessary letters as such extensions make the domain complex so sometimes people may forget it.
However, from a practical point of view, registering a free domain name for a website is not a good idea for any marketing and future growth. Most charging web host providers have a promotional offer of providing a free domain name upon first registering to their web hosting services. However, for these types of services, do not enroll in free hosting service providers as they have many restrictions including bandwidth limitations, storage capacity and less management control over your website.
Vendors like Bluehost, Hostgator and Dreamhost are the most preferred for hosting. It depends on the customer requirement as while choosing a hosting service provider the customer may require security, reliability, quality of service and increased scalability (shared hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting). These features are important in designing a website that is trustworthy, secure and has the ability to expand in terms of its audience.
Managing Your Time as a Blogger
The desire to extend the day to 24 hours or more comes to everyone’s mind at one point. There is always something to do, including writing a blog. Maintaining a blog can be quite tiring, especially if you are not fully committed to it. Most bloggers don’t just write; they are also in charge of laptop SEO, social networking, and never-ending keyword research. This is a very valid concern because once there is no organization in the execution of tasks, there are high chances that productivity will drop which will affect the functioning of the blog. And this is exactly the case when it is necessary to look at the pages of a good blog like this one. This type of approach can come in handy especially after understanding the scope of things one is getting involved in. Thus, you will know how to keep all these balls in the air, without putting a strain on your well-being in the process of blogging.
Here are some important blogging tips for time management
1. Focus on the robbery before the vaccine is implemented
Running a blog can be cumbersome because of the many responsibilities involved. An effective way to manage this is to avoid working on more than three priorities simultaneously. This approach reduces unnecessary noise and enables you to put all your energy where it is needed the most. With a few such goals, the chances of completing them are higher and the outcome becomes more productive.
2. Ditch your task list and start meditating
Instead of doing long hours, meditate to clear the mind and improve the ability to focus. Reflecting for a while empties the mind, which helps organize thoughts and speed up work. Through the practice of meditation, one is able to achieve a calm state and this makes it easier and faster to make decisions and execute on them.
3. For those who can’t resist to-do lists, edit them
Where your to-do list is sacred, do justice to it by shortening it. Instead list one item at a time. Cross that item off, then add the next item to the task list. This system of listing tasks avoids feelings of being overwhelmed and guarantees that you focus on one activity thereby improving both the speed and quality of performance.
4. Take advantage of primes that have no fixed time in the schedule
Empty primes provide a window of opportunity to move forward in the accomplishment of a task. If a meeting or other scheduled event gets cancelled and you are free from work for about 30-40 minutes, make sure to use this time well. Even if it only takes 10 minutes to answer an email or write a few lines of a blog post or fill in about the next ad in social media, such small instances of time can result in increased productivity in work output.
5. Another approach that can greatly help individuals manage their time is the strategy of doubling down on their work, looking for opportunities to avoid sitting idle for even a minute. For example, while one is driving or doing housework, he or she can either talk into a device and record a blog or listen to an inspirational podcast. This way, while the physical energy exertion may be low, such activities still ensure high productivity as a fairly low-demand task results in some productive work.
6. Combine similar activities
Consider scheduling different tasks of similar nature on the same day instead of doing different tasks every other day. For example, content writing on different social media platforms can be done on Monday while posting can be done on Tuesday of the following week. Doing similar tasks at the same time reduces the time-resource used in switching to a different task, which generally involves mental and physical energy, making it possible to get more work done within a shorter time period.
7. Stay committed to your process
No matter which time management techniques you choose to implement, they have to be applied on a regular basis. Working within a certain routine or structure helps one stay focused and keep track of changes in performance over a certain period of time. It is true that habit formation is possible due to its use but the very important thing is to have a sequence that helps ease the process of achieving goals throughout your blogging career.
Read Also:
- 20 Blogging Resources To Help You Scale
- Blogging Domain and Hosting
- 5-Stage Blogging Process
- Blogging and Uses of Blogs in Libraries
- Blogging With Tumblr
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