The main question every prospective blogger usually has is: When or how long will it be before the results start to show?
Whether you’re a company blogging for your brand, to gain more customers or an individual looking to make a profit off your blog, the question is the same. Though the answer certainly varies, depending on many different factors, there are a few factors that need to be taken into account in every situation. They are as follows.
Your Blog Topic
Even though you can create on online business from pretty much any blog topic, there are certainly some topics that will generate better or higher income than others. It’s also important to note that while some blog topics may be popular; this does not necessarily mean they will be lucrative financially. For example, writing on pop culture related topics may earn you a lot of followers, but not necessarily as much income as a blog written on financial topics. The second topic, while not as popular, will attract followers and customers who have the money to spend and invest, getting you closer to your goal. However, one topic that it’s best to steer clear of is “How to Make Money Online”. This is simply because there are far too many scammers out there who have done too much damage to the industry to bring in many serious customers. At the end of the day, whatever you choose, there is the potential to make it work. Less lucrative topics may require more work to pay off financially, but if it’s a topic you love, then you win either way.
Your Blogging Schedule
As long as you’re consistently churning out quality content, the more often you blog, the better it is for your financial profit.
But in order to earn good money from blogging, you can’t only publish blog pots. You need to be able to create a good variety of content such as: FAQ’s, emails, landing pages, e-books and other digital resources. Limiting yourself to blog posts means limiting your revenue as well.
Your Blogging Revenue Options
Which brings us to the final factor – how you actually intend to make money from your blog. Generally, your options are:
Advertising
Selling Products
Selling Services
Affiliation
Although advertising is the easiest option (i.e. filling your sidebar with Google AdSense ads, ads from sponsors, etc), you need an enormous amount of traffic in order to earn a decent amount of revenue from it. Having a product or service to sell is a much better option. If you’re a talented writer, a lot of readers will be willing to pay to learn from you and you can start generating income by offering your time and skills as a consultant. This will still take time and effort, but it will create a good client base and attract more and long-term customers.
The final option is creating affiliate relationships. While it may pay less as you will only earn a commission, it has the advantage of zero fulfilment. Your job is only to bring the customers in, not fulfil their requirements, which is essentially a lot easier than doing both.
How to Start Making Money Blogging as Fast as Possible
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, you need to have at least a general idea of when you can expect to see results in the form of revenue.
If you’re able to, it’s ideal to focus on creating great content and building an audience without the need for or expectation of financial payoff for the first six months of blogging. If you can do this, chances are it will result in a better long term success rate for your blog.
The reasons for this are:
Content that is not sales-oriented is more often viewed and shared.
Readers who feel like you’re in it to help them instead of yourself are more likely to subscribe to and follow you.
Sites that use Google AdSense ads tend to get less organic Google traffic, which is not the result you are looking for.
Being too focused on immediate revenue can actually impede the success of your blog. It’s important to take the time to focus on what you really want to accomplish through your blog and how you will accomplish it over time; because a successful blog is not created simply by a sheer amount of blog posts, but by creating the right kind of content that will help you gain and retain readers and followers which will ultimately lead to paying customers. Readers may not trust or appreciate you enough to pay from the beginning, but the longer they follow you and the longer your blog adds value to them, the more likely they are to give up their hard-earned cash for it.
Wrapping Up
While there can be no one definitive, across-the-board answer to this question, understanding these factors will help get you started on the right path, thinking the right way and, consequently, making effective decisions for your blog. You know the importance of thinking your blog topic through, focusing on market research and having a good blogging schedule and strategy for your content. These are the factors that, if followed through on effectively, will create the long-term success you want for your blog which is a far more attractive end goal than making a few quick and easy bucks. You can earn a good living blogging; it just takes time. Give it 6 months, focus on your goals, sharpen your approach and appreciate the solid, long-term results.
