Building a profitable blog is a great way to start making money on the Internet.
Once you discover how to build a blog and have a system in place for generating income, you don’t have to spend all of your time during the day to run the blog properly. Just make sure to practice some of basic actions on a regular basis and you will be able to make money out of your blog.
At the same time, you don't need to quit your day job, in order to start making an income online. Now I'm sure that the question arises in your mind, how can I start blogging for money? This question comes to mind especially if you're a beginner, but even some more experienced bloggers are eagerly seeking the answer to this question.
So, let's get started with discussing the basic fundamentals you need to put in place on your journey to building a profitable blog.
Select a proper Niche:
Selecting a proper niche for your site is equivalent to securing the foundation of a house or building. If the foundation is strong, the house will be too! Select a niche which you are passionate about in an area you have a good knowledge about. For example, if you have a very strong knowledge about photography then try using that for your niche. Niche blogs tend to attract targeted traffic from people who are searching for solutions to their problems. Most of the time they are willing to spend money when they find the solution they are looking for. You want your blog to offer solutions and be seen as an authority on your niche topic.
Recommended: Blogging 101: Basic Blogging Tips to Take Your Blog To the Next Level
Establish a Profitable Domain:
Visit a preferred domain registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap and secure a good domain for your blog. The domain name should be in the category of your niche.
Recommended: How To Select an Awesome Domain Name for Your Blog
Next, go to HostGator to get your own shared web hosting account. If you already have a web space and a self-hosted WordPress blog, then you can directly publish your articles there.
Build high quality content:
The amount of content and the quality of content are the two factors that define the service you are providing to your readers on your blog. Take your time and write up around 15-20 quality articles per month and make sure that the content offers good value and helps people solve their problems so that your blog can easily attract more readers from search engines. This will also be incentive for others to share your content on site like Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
Build targeted traffic:
This is the most important task to be performed on a regular basis. One of the best methods of doing this is guest blogging. You can submit some of your content on a niche which is similar to your’s. This will drive traffic to your blog. Many of the top blogs are accepting guest posts these days, just be sure to do your research and submit your request in the correct format and use the proper channels. For example, Ms. Ileane prefers that guest author requests are submitted via voice mail on SpeakPipe.
Recommended: 10 Lessons from the Guest Blogging School of Hard Knocks
Integrate social media into your blogging routine:
Social media can be very useful in helping you build a profitable blog. You can create a fan page on the Facebook as well as you can make an account on Twitter.
This will keep you more connected to your audience and at the same time it will glorify your blog as well. Not only Facebook and Twitter, there are many social media sites and communities like YouTube where you can use these sites to excel your business. Watch this video where Ms. Ileane shows how to earn additional income for your blog through Google AdSense and YouTube.
Bonus Video: How To Monetize Your YouTube Videos with AdSense
Interact with your audience:
Everybody likes to be treated well. If you are responding to your audience then they feel connected to you and this increases the number of visits they make to your blog. Be sure to respond to them so that they become more interested in your blog. Let it be a status on Facebook or a tweet on twitter, interacting always has its edge.
Also, don't fail to start building an email list so that you can gain subscribers and make an even deeper connection with your readers. Use an email distribution service like AWeber to collect contact information so that you can keep in touch through an automated follow-up sequence.
Recommended: How to Get Subscribers and Keep Them Happy from Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast
Monetize:
Once you start getting a good amount of traffic, you can monetize your blog now. You can join an affiliate marketplace like ClickBank and add helpful product links inside related articles. Don't overdo it, but try to maintain a pattern of 1 or 2 links per article.
Another way to capitalize on top blog topics is to develop your own products. For example you can create an ebook and offer it to your subscribers or make it available for sale in the Amazon Kindle store.
Recommended: Kindle Publishing: Your Guide to Getting Responsive Traffic with Kindle from Ana Hoffman's blog
Keep following these tips and you might end up with one of the most lucrative blogs in your niche and start making a good deal of profit.
Got any more tips about making a profitable blog? Please share them in the comments.