The journey of making money with a blog is a lot like the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.
Dorothy found herself in the amazing land of Oz (The Internet), but she also needed to find her way to see the Wizard (Profitability) so he could help her get back home.
Before finding the Wizard, Dorothy first needed to know where to look. Fortunately she landed in the right place when she got to Oz and the munchkins told her all she needed to know, which was to ‘follow the yellow brick road'.
With Toto (WordPress) along her side, she set out to find the Wizard. Of course there was a lot of distractions and obstacles along the way, such as running into the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion (Blogging Authorities and Friends in the Industry). There were even run in's with the Wicked Witch and her scary army (Google Penalties and Black Hat Methods).
Dorothy eventually did find her way back home and did get to see the Wizard, but it was quite a journey along the way. Dorothy made the best of her new friends, followed the rules and stayed on the Yellow Brick Road till she finally found the Wizard… and everyone lived happily ever after!
Now It's Time to Follow Your Yellow Brick Road…
Originally I was going to start off this post with a boring talk about how anyone can make money with a blog as long as they choose the right niche, create content and stay focused. However, I started to think about a movie that almost everyone is familiar with and could also provide a visual of the core values here as well.
If someone offered you a path to find success with making money online with a blog, would you take it? Of course you would! (though many won't)
In the case of the Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, it wasn't easy… and I won't tell you that making money online with a blog is easy either — but if you follow the proven path I have for you below, and the same tactics that have worked for thousands of other bloggers, there's no reason why you shouldn't see the same success in one form or another.
9 Steps to Creating a Profitable Blog from Scratch
For the sake of time and sparing those who already are advanced with blogging, you can see a very detailed version of this process on my 2,494 word How to Make Money Blogging Guide at Blogging.org.
Let's get started.
Research Your Potential Blog Topic Before Hand
When starting a blog for the first time, many people will register the first domain that pops into their mind and just start creating content. This is where most blogs start off in the wrong direction before they even get started. If you want to build a profitable business, you need to create your blog with a business plan!
Take the time to study your potential niche topic, market, competition, monetization options and how you will stand out from the crowd — in short, why should people visit your blog over the other 100+ million blogs that are already out there?
Look at Your Niche… then Niche Down Again
Once you've found a solid niche for your blog, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Niche down again!
By niching down as much as you possibly can, you are making it easier for you to be the authority within that niche and you will also know exactly what type of content you need to create to cater to your audience.
Create an Editorial Calendar to Prepare Your Writing Path
Blogs are all about content creation… but creating as much content as you can isn't the answer. Instead you need to create quality content that provides values, gives your audience what they are looking for and also gives them a call to action in the process.
Before starting your blog, make sure you have enough quality content ideas for the life of your blog. If you have trouble coming up with more then 20+ article topics, you will need to make sure these are very high quality 2,000 word articles that you can heavily promote to dominate your niche with.
Going Live with Your Site – Domain & Web Hosting Options
You put in the time and effort to find your niche and also wrote out your potential blog post titles — now it's time to start bringing everything together with a killer domain name and web hosting.
Don't wreck your brain trying to come up with an amazing domain name (as most are already taken). Follow these simple key points and you'll be good to go.
- Stick with .org, .net or .org
- Don't use any words that are hard to spell
- Stay away from numbers and dashes
- Choose a domain name that explains what your site is about
By following these simple guidelines, you will already have your site on the right path for better branding and authority down the road.
In terms of hosting… don't go nuts. Any hosting plans from sites like HostGator, SiteGround or BlueHost would be fine.
WordPress is Your Platform — Appreciate & Understand It
WordPress is the best content management system out there for creating a blog. Don't bother looking at the other options out there… just use it.
Don't just use it… eat, sleep and breathe it. The better you understand WordPress, the better your content and site will look and feel.
It's extremely easy to use and most web hosts have 1 click installation already built it when you setup your hosting.
Only Create Content that Provides Value and Builds Your Brand
Everyone says content is king, which is true… but it still needs to be done right.
Create content that your audience will find value in, will help you rank in the search results and also help better monetize your site in the long run.
Try not to create or spin articles together that have already been created a thousand times before… unless you can do it that much better.
Also look at your competition to see how they are creating content… then create your's better by including infographics, videos, tutorials and guides.
Content is King!… but content promotion is also required. Once you have some content on your site, focus on guest blogging to build high quality links to your site.
Create a Social Media Following
There are over 2 billion people on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn. You and your site should be too!
Create a separate account for both yourself and your sites, then add social sharing buttons, with a tool like Social Warfare, to all of your pages as well.
There are also plenty of tools out there to help you explode your social following as well — Twiends, Buffer and HootSuite are all tools I use on a daily basis.
Build a Mailing List to Grow Your Following
Here's a sad fact for you… over 70% of the people that come to your site for the first time will never come back again.
The best way to grow your audience and keep your visitors for life is by getting people to join your mailing list.
Don't just throw a subscribe form on your site and hope for the best — it won't work. Instead you should give away something for free (like an ebook or resources guide) in exchange for people giving up their email. You can also setup popup subscribe forms to heavily increase your sign up numbers. You can see live examples of how top bloggers are exploding their mailing lists here.
Check out this quick video from Ms. Ileane to see how you can Quickly Grow Your Email List with LeadPages
You've studied your niche, created awesome content, have social exposure and even a mailing list with hundreds if not thousands of subscribers… now it's time to bring your monetization efforts to a whole new level by creating your own products and services.
Study what people are coming to your site for in the first place and what you could offer them as a premium service. A quick idea is to simply package up your best content in a simple PDF guide that you could sell for $29-$79.
The relationships, loyalty and authority is already in place — now it's time to bring it to that next level!
How to Make Money Blogging Infographic
We've covered a lot of content in this yellow brick road to blogging success. To make the points we discussed even easier and more memorable, we've also created an infographic that walks you through the process as well.
The important thing to remember is that no matter what niche or industry you are going to create a blog in, the path is still the same.
As they say in the movie…
Follow, follow, follow, follow… follow the yellow brick road!
Learn more:
- ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
- Blogging Tips: Confessions of a Six Figure Blogger
Your insight is deep about blogging .Infact i am new to this field .But i started blogging with blogger .Most of the people are switching to wordpress,I dont know whats wrong with blogger .May be just because wordpress has more useful plugins as compared to other one
Great to hear Zareen. WordPress is the best platform out there for creating a site and when you host it on your own domain and server, then you have complete ownership and functionality. You are limited when hosting with WordPress.com directly. Looking forward to see what you create with your blog in the coming months.
LOTS of value in this! I really like the comparison to Wizard of Oz and blogging. It can also apply to email marketing and getting more customers.
Thanks, appreciate it. I really like how this article came together as well. I started writing the first sentence without the Oz concept in mind, then it all started to come together!
Hi Zac and iieane
Nice to be here today,
What a wonderful way of telling the story!
Indeed this is really a wonderful way of presenting the thing, Yes, stories can speak volumes!
I am sure this way if we start surely we can catch the attention till to the end,
This comparison story with the subject is really attractive,
The connected links are worth reading too.
the points suggested or mentioned here are really worth noting
I started my journey of blogging via Googl’es Knol pages and then blogger dot com and then wordpress Yes, WP is the thing today to use with ease, though i faced a bit difficulty in the beginning but in the long run it will be user friendly, and you said about the share buttons, yes, indeed this is a must in blog pages and it will ease our work to share it manually, just a click away to reach millions there a good number of button provides out there we need to select a good one.
Lastly but not the least your infographic talks louder! Well made one Zac
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post. I am book marking it for my further study
May you both have a wonderful weekend 🙂
Keep writing
Keep informed
Best Regards
~ Philip
Hey Philip, Thanks for the awesome comment. I appreciate the time you spent to reach through the post and also the infographic as well!
This was an awesome piece of info you wrote there.
I actually couldn’t leave your blog without reading
each and every words of your article. Keep it up blogger.
Regards
Ajay Kumar
Hey Ajay, thanks for the comment and reading through the whole thing. With so much content on the web these days, it’s always an accomplishment to actually see people finish your article! Thanks again.
I had never seen a post so different. This is a unique post where the real concept of blogging and making money online is explained through a story. I’m blogging with WordPress and it’s awesome. There are lot of things to grab on WordPress.
Thanks for the article,
Rahul
Thanks, glad you liked it. Always good to mix things up every once in a while… especially since I’ve written over 3,000 articles over the years! Here’s to your success!
Hi Zac,
I just start a niche blog a few days ago. You mention here some great tips that’s will going to help me.
Thanks for the awesome sharing.
Excellent, niche blogs are always a great way to go. Zone in on your audience and build out those quality backlinks through content creation and guest blogging!
Hi Zac,
Niching and niching down is brilliant advice! I share the same tip with my audience. If you have worked down to a niche take it down a little bit more. I wanted to do something different than travel bloggers, and from digital nomads. I offer smart blogging tips to folks who want to retire to a life of island hopping. I use my life as the model, the example, through which I explain how you too can retire to a place like here in Bali. Going broad only dillutes your message and confuses your audience. Going narrow makes you zero in on your ideal reader so much more quickly, which makes the ultimate impact.
Think through your talents and interests. If you have a general niche to work with, dig a bit deeper. I love blogging but knew the blogging tips niche was a bit wide for me. I love travel, so figured, if I can share blogging tips with struggling travels bloggers, aspiring digital nomads and anybody who wants to retire, to become a pro blogger, then I should do OK with the venture. Drilling down. So far, so good.
You’re a whiz when it comes to making money blogging so readers should – and will – take this advice to the bank 😉
Thanks Zac!
Tweeting from Bali.
Ryan
Hi Zac
That’s a great step by step plan. I would urge the readers to seriously research the topic on which they are going to blog. It is THE most important step. If you get this wrong, then the chances of making big are very low. Spend enough time to research.
One more thing. Make sure you do not niche down too much. Overspecialization can be a problem. Your chosen niche must have decent traffic. A good tactic is to try to spot emerging niches.
Thanks for the article, Zac.
Neil
thanks for your post. i am going to start a blog about IT. thanks for sharing a great thoughts
Zac, is it mandatory to write every article with minimum 1000 words to rank well in search engines?
It’s not required, but it’s better to write longer and more detailed posts every week or month vs. writing a 500 word article daily just so something gets posted. Compared the best content out there on what your niche is, then try and create something better.
I think it would be a good idea to make point that you shouldn’t start blogging just for the money, blogging should be started as a passion, career, hobby or just something you enjoy doing overall. Making money from your blog is a good bonus though. 🙂
If you can’t afford web hosting or a domain, the second best option is try going the route on Blogger especially if you have a Google Account, as Blogger integrates nicely with other Google services.
Lots of people make money off blogging using WordPress, lots of people make money off using Blogger too.