Are you motivated to do something, and have quite some time to invest? Can you be consistent and passionate about sharing content with a target audience?
Well, if yes, blogging is a fabulous opportunity. It pays you off after a while and there are dozens of ways out there which you can utilize (we will be sharing some in a while!).
- In Canada, the average salary of a blog is $78k/ year. In America, there are 31.7 million blogs.
Whether you are in Canada, the States, or any other part of the world – first and foremost you begin with choosing a flexible blogging platform: Tumblr, SquareSpace, WordPress, Wix, etc. These platforms have plans, add-on options that a blogger pays via debit card, unsecured and secured credit cards in Canada.
Creating blogs in Canada can reap your benefits (as compared to blogging in the USA) in some ways:
- Most sponsorship payments are in American dollars.
- Canada has the same time zone as the States.
- Blogger competition is dense in America.
Why Consider Blogging? | Why to Blog?
Some personal, financial, and professional motivators for (some) people to blog could be:
As a Business Owner
| Affiliate Programs | If you create engaging/ useful/ entertaining content, monetizing your blog with affiliate programs can refer your audience to specific products/ services. |
| Website Traffic | Organic traffic is a gem for websites and businesses. A new and optimized blog gives you a chance to appear on your target audience’s search engines. |
| Lead Generation | Each blog can include landing pages and call-to-action which can generate leads and profit business’s sales teams. |
As a Writer
| Become an Author | A blog lends you writing skill advancement, an opportunity to demonstrate your talent to the audience and publishing companies.
You can thus be approached for writing your next dream book. |
| Online Portfolio | Employers favor potential candidates who have created online portfolios.
Blogs are less expensive and a fine way to produce online portfolios. |
| Freelance Writing Gigs | A well-curated blog proves your credibility and passion – you may land some new freelance writing gigs through your blog. |
Guide to Utilize your Blog for Money Making
Money-making is no secret in blogging. It can be a side hustle, a fulfilling hobby, or a full-time career. A few steps and tips need to be obeyed to design a profitable blog:
- Blog Business Plan
- Blog Monetization | Blogging Efforts and Cash Flows
- Blog Audience| Blog Traffic and Search Engine Optimization
- Blog Results and ROI
Blog Business Plan
- 41% people give weightage to blog/ vlog recommendations.
Blogs should be made with the intention to be treated like a business. A smart blogger would research and practice monetization strategies alongside creating/ outsourcing niche-specific content.
This blog business plan would mostly be revolving around:
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- Blogging Tools
- Blogging Resources
- Blog Set-Up
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- Smart and Successful Outsourcing
- Blogging Niche | Blog Market
- Cater the Audience
Blogging Tools
Since blogging has such a humongous audience, several technological advancements and tech companies played a role in comforting its needs. Myriad tools are available online, a blogger must assess his requirements first to choose and pay for a fine tool.
Investing in tools saves time and money for professional bloggers:
Tools for Image Editing: Pixlr, Adobe, and Canva are some top-notch image editing/ image adjustment tools that bloggers use.
Tools for Email Marketing: Businesses utilize e-mails to continuously interact and keep themselves in the eyes of their customers. MailChimp kinda tools have freed companies from conventional mails.
Tools for E-commerce: Digital and physical products can also be included in the blog with e-commerce tools like WooCommerce.
Tools for Payment Processing: Venmo, Paypal, PaySimple, and numerous other payment processing tools are existent to accept payments on your blogs.
Blogging Resources
Even if your design/ tech skills are limited, a good choice of blogging resources can be extremely beneficial for the growth of your blog. From plugins to stock images, to image editing, to keyword research – the resources are unlimited and cater quite well to their client’s needs.
- 40% of all web pages utilize WordPress as a blogging platform.
Image by Dok Sev via Pixabay
- Blog Set-Up
For setting up a blog, a trustworthy blogging platform is extremely crucial. WordPress is quite the one among many platform options.
Benefits of WordPress:
- Customizable themes and plugins
- Supports oEmbed enabled websites (Twitter tweets, Instagram Pictures, YouTube videos)
- SEO Friendly
- WordPress Security Guide for Beginners
- Easily Manageable
Smart and Successful Outsourcing
In addition to blog writing; expertise in web design, marketing, video creation, SEO, proofreading, blog analytics, etc. is also required in the blogging business.
Here you may have two limitations as a blogger:
Whatever is the ground, you can always outsource professionals (or people with entry-level know-how) to work for you and your blog!
Famous outsourcing sources are:
- Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram)
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- com, etc.
Freelancers are paid via PayPal, debit, unsecured, and secured credit cards in Canada – while professional platforms like UpWork allow payments via their payment systems only.
Some outsourcing plusses could be:
Concentration on Core Areas
The time thus saved can be used in curating fruitful blogging strategies, upcoming plans, networking, research, and development.
Time Advantage
For instance, you are in Canada and outsourcing through any of the Asian countries like Pakistan, you can assign work when you call it a day and it’s delivered to you at the very start of the next working day!
Blogging Niche | Blog Market
In a competitive blog market today, in order to ensure success, you should well-research on the blogging niche you are going to choose, its audience, its trend, monetizing options, and very important is your competitor’s (potential competitor) activity.
For choosing the niche, there are two standpoints though:
| Going for the niche you are passionate about. |
| Going for the niche which has the upward trend/ niche in the growth phase. |
Blog Monetization | Blogging Efforts and Cash Flows
In addition to paying heed to the quality and quantity of your blog content and sticking to that one niche or topic – learning about monetizing to make money out of your blogs is very significant.
People who don’t think about it at the very start of their blogging journey are hindering themselves from the generation of cash flows.
- The content marketing industry would be worth 418 billion USDby the end of 2021 as per Semush statistics.
Below are some tried-and-tested wholesome monetization techniques, some require more time and effort than the other but yield better profits:
- Blog Monetization Techniques
Affiliate Marketing
It can be a good revenue model for blogs whose recommendations are quite trusted among their audience! How does it work? Well, you add the link to a product/ service in your blog, and if a visitor clicks and makes a purchase – you would be entitled to a commission.
EBook
If you have been writing for a while, your knowledge sphere would be vast enough to try writing an eBook and selling it online. The most known selling platforms are Kobo and Amazon.
Image by Mohamed Hassan via Pixabay
Furthermore, your art/ piece of content is now more accessible and environment friendly (less-to-nil use of paper).
Sponsored Posts
Brands/ companies reach out to bloggers/ social media stars to share their products/ services (and their usage/ benefits/ news) with their audiences. The remuneration of bloggers depends upon their industry and audience size.
Brands can reach out directly or you may reach out to them as well (cold call). You get more approachable being a part of influencer networks too.
Professional Services | Freelancing, Coaching
Your blog on the web showcases your knowledge and know-how in the field. It makes you credible and you can thus make cash out of it by selling your exclusive and professional services for the interested ones in terms of freelancing, coaching, etc.
Product Reviews
If you are a regular user of social media, you are well-known for this technique. Businesses offer their products to bloggers to give reviews (make them known that you would be giving honest reviews only).
Image by Elf-Moondance via Pixabay
If the product seems promising, your audience may make purchases and you may get a portion of the commission for sales (those blogger codes, right?). The company may reach out to you again due to the overwhelming response previously.
Ad Monetization | Advertising
Your blog may have a space designated for advertisers. The companies may advertise their services alongside your content. You can also utilize Google AdSense and you are paid when the visitor interacts with the ad.
– Google AdSense made $147 billion in revenues in 2020.
Online Courses
Even if you have no coding skills, you can design an online course on your blog and earn with it.
Physical Products/ Digital Products
Bloggers set up an e-commerce platform for earning as well. One example is bloggers selling the merch with their famous taglines, logos, or pictures.
They would need to arrange logistics, payment systems, production, storage, and packaging, etc.
Private Communities/ Memberships
Bloggers charge for the access of restricted content available to the private communities.
Job Board
For instance, you run a career advice blog. You can entitle a page for job ads and charge for it. It takes little to no time and money to earn through job boards.
Speaking Opportunities
You can market your speaking skills via your blogs. Then, you may be called for conferences, speeches at fairs, expos, universities, etc.
Blog Audience| Blog Traffic and Search Engine Optimization
An amazing footballer would only be making money when people know about it, he/ she plays and participates in leagues. Similarly, you are a startling blogger – you are a star when it comes to making content – but nobody knows and no money is in the making.
Collaboration with other bloggers, appearing as a guest at podcasts, using lead magnets (like product samples, free short courses, and trials), paid advertisement, email marketing, social media, etc. are some of the many promising ways that can generate you money from the blog.
- Ranking of Blog on Google | Optimization of Blog Posts
Image by EStudioWebDoce via Pixabay
The better your blog’s rank on Google, the more visitors are likely to interact with your blog. This requires a solid SEO strategy. It has got two forms:
- Off-page SEO includes all the activities (sitemaps, backlinks) outside your blog.
- On-Site SEO tactics, on the other hand, enable you to optimize your content for a better appearance on the search engines.
Blog Results and ROI
You need to have a sharp eye while utilizing different monetizing techniques: you should (actually must) know the performance of each one of them. Keep a track of ads metrics, social media analytics, email, and all other kinds of metrics you are employing to determine your ROI; expenses, and revenues.
FAQs
What is the best niche for blogging?
Picking a topic/ niche and sticking to it is quite a task. There are so many options to select from, some trending blog niches for 2021 are:
- Finance related blogs
- DIY blogs
- Health and Fitness blogs
- Blogs on Food
- Business Blogs
Do all bloggers earn?
If they are consistent and engaging, successful bloggers can earn up to 7 figures in a year. This is why it is important to realize the significance of blog monetization.
How to boost organic traffic?
Organic traffic efforts save money on advertising/ paid marketing. Your content seems worth-trusting to your audience therefore they come back regularly. Some tips which can boost organic traffic are:
- Social media presence
- Quality and consistent content
- Long-tail keywords to improve search ranking
Why do blogs fail?
It can be due to various reasons:
- Your content is not accessible; meaning you need advertising tools to promote your content
- Your content is common. There is no added value in your content.
- You are irregular when it comes to posting blogs.
Is blogging outdated in 2021?
No, it is still in trend in 2021. Stats reveal that each month 20 billion blogs are interacted with by 409 million internet users.
How long does it take to make money from blogging?
You should not be over-expecting your pay from the blogs. It takes six months to a year to start generating money.