Create a blog and live from it: all the secrets
How to create a blog and make a living from it? Can you make a living from your blog? What are the steps to create a blog and earn money? Yavok tells you everything you need to know to make a living from your blog.
This article was written on the basis of real-life experiences. To illustrate the article, we have chosen a fictitious example: the creation of a blog on the theme of quitting smoking.
Creating a blog and making a living from it is a dream for many; it is true that this type of activity has many advantages:
- it is possible to work from home,
- it is possible to devote yourself to your passion (travel blog, culinary or fashion blog, health blog, car blog, computer blog, political blog…),
- the initial financial investment is minimal.
However, this type of adventure is very demanding. You should never get discouraged. You must be regular. You have to aim for the long term. If you need immediate income, then forget about creating a blog for a living.
Here is everything you need to know to create a blog and make money!
Creating a blog and making a living from it: the key factors of success.
Creating a blog can be a profitable business, but there is a significant time lag between the time of effort and the time of return on investment. Therefore you will need to be patient and persistent.
The first substantial income can be earned after 6 months to 1 year of work.
Other qualities needed for success include:
- enjoy writing and know how to write (if possible without spelling mistakes)
- be passionate and feel concerned by the subject,
- be rigorous, try to cross-check information like a specialized journalist,
- like to be of service: at first, you will indeed give a lot without necessarily getting any return,
- Be regular in your work.
Create a blog and earn money: the steps.
Here are the main steps to create a blog and live from it.
Step 1: Get trained.
If you want to make a living from your activity on the internet, you will have to start by training yourself, especially on SEO techniques and social networks. There are many training courses, some of which are available online and are free. You can also self-train by buying books or specialized guides. Finally, you will have to keep up to date with the latest web-marketing news.
Step 2: Surround yourself.
If you are not a computer or web technology pro, it will be necessary to surround yourself with a friend or a specialized company that will be able to intervene at any time on your site to manage security, hosting, the database, or even the add-ons. Eventually, you will also need to call upon a graphic designer to improve the presentation of your site.
Step 3: Choose your editorial theme.
To make a living from your blog, the choice of theme is of strategic importance. You must choose a topic that speaks to you, that you master in whole or in part, and that is broad enough to be able to write several hundred articles.
The topic of smoking cessation is a good example: it is indeed a subject that is both precise, well targeted, and at the same time broad, even inexhaustible.
- Example of a theme too broad: health.
- Example of a theme that is not broad enough: the electronic cigarette.
Step 4: Choose your domain name and web solution.
The choice of the domain name is important. The domain name must contain keywords related to your theme. The problem is that most of the interesting domain names are already taken… If we go back to the theme of quitting smoking, the most interesting domain names such as www.arreterdefumer.fr, www.arreterdefumer.com, www.arreter-de-fumer.fr or www.arreter-de-fumer.com are unavailable.
Check all the possibilities and try to find a loophole, i.e. a domain name that has not yet been reserved.
As for the choice of the web solution, we recommend the free WordPress solution which is particularly well suited for managing a blog and for SEO.
Step 5: Write, write, write.
The heart of your job will be to produce content. But not just any content: quality content, relevant, pleasant to read, complete, and that makes you want to go further.
To be profitable, it is estimated that a blog should contain between 300 and 600 articles: this figure varies according to the chosen theme, the competition, the interest of the general public for the subject… To write a nice article, count 3 hours at the beginning, you will then gain in productivity. If you write an average of two articles per day, it will take you between 6 months and a year to see the end of the tunnel. A tip that is worth its weight in gold: prefer to write 1 very good article rather than 2 average quality articles.
First, make a list of articles to write, for example (still on the topic of quitting smoking):
- The benefits of quitting smoking
- How smoking harms the body
- Tobacco and youth
- Tobacco and skin problems
- Tobacco and skin aging
- The effects of smoking on the brain
- Quitting smoking: what are the effects?
- The main methods for quitting smoking
- Quitting smoking: related symptoms
- Quitting smoking: the best books
- Quitting smoking without gaining weight: is it possible?
- etc…
To find your article ideas, use the Google suggestions that appear in the search bar (intuitive input) or in blue at the bottom of the search pages. You can also use Google trends, Google’s free tool that shows search trends for certain phrases.
Don’t be afraid of the competition. If you see that an article has already been covered by 4 or 5 competing sites, cover it anyway, and try to do better.
Using analytics tools such as Google Analytics, track your article traffic as well as your bounce rate (percentage of visitors who left the site without interacting). Notice the most frequented articles and surf on the waves you have identified to create other articles related to the most read sub-themes.
The more you publish, the more traffic you will get. However, your activity may be cyclical or seasonal: don’t get discouraged in periods when your traffic drops.
Take care of your referencing by applying the techniques you have learned: place correctly your expressions and important keywords in the title, the description and the body of the articles. Don’t make articles shorter than 400 characters.
Step 6: Create value around the items.
At this stage, you are creating content, that is to say value, a lot of value, but you don’t know how to translate it into euros yet. Patience, first things first.
We are talking about content marketing, or inbound marketing: your content attracts thousands of visitors. On average, each article should attract between 5 and 15 unique visitors per day. So if you have written 200 articles, you should have between 1000 and 3000 unique visitors per day. That’s not bad!
Now it’s about turning your visitors into leads, then into prospects so that they can become customers one day. To do this, you will have to develop ways to get to know them better:
- Get them to comment on your articles,
- encourage them to get in touch with you,
- encourage them to find you on social networks,
- encourage them to give you their contact information by filling out a form to access a free e-book for example,
- offer them to subscribe to your newsletter.
The goal will be to better understand the profile and expectations of your visitors. This information is worth its weight in gold!
Step 7: Monetize your blog.
Create a blog and make a living from it: here we are. Your blog is ready to generate income because you know the characteristics of your visitors and their expectations. You also know what your most popular articles are. Now you have to find solutions to meet the demand that is becoming more and more precise.
Different sources of income can be developed to live from his blog:
- selling links and sponsored articles. As your blog becomes a reference in the industry, you will be more and more solicited by sites wishing to obtain a link or publish articles on yours. This comes at a price: from 50 to 400 € per link or article depending on the quality and size of your blog. To force fate, you can also register your site on platforms that connect bloggers and advertisers, like Rocketlinks.
- Google advertising: you can install Google Adsense which is the advertising system of Google. You will receive between 0,05 € and 0,50 € per click. The banners located in the body of the articles will bring you the most money.
- Affiliate platforms: these are online platforms that offer affiliate programs based on advertisers’ requests. In other words, they offer to display banners on your site that are paid on a flat rate or per click basis. The main affiliate platforms you can sign up with are Tradedoubler, Affilinet, CJ Affiliate…
- selling your own products or services: this is about creating an online store to sell your own services. This can be real products, books or e-books, training courses, or even dematerialized services (telephone or e-mail advice).
- the sale of products and services of third parties: sell the products of companies interested in your content, directly or not, and take your commission in the process.
- Development partnerships: they can take different forms and guarantee the future of your company.
At this stage you have identified your business model, bravo!
