Blogging has several advantages though. It allows you to write on a topic that you are passionate about, to work anywhere and anytime, to network with many interesting people, and it can also become a real business.
Choosing the right niche for your blog is tricky. If you want to blog merely as a hobby, then feel free to write about whatever you want. The important thing here is to have fun.
If, however, you want to make money with your blog and possibly grow it into a business, you will need to choose your niche more carefully. This is the ways to make money blogging :
1. The Content
It all starts with the content. Why? Because in order to make money with a blog you need to have traffic, and quality content is the best traffic generator.
Ask 100 bloggers what factors contributed to their success, and I am sure that pretty much all of them will mention the content. Quality content must also be unique, else people won't need to visit your blog to read it. If you start a news blog and simply write about all the stories that appear on the New York Times, for example, you will have a hard time finding readers, because most people will prefer to visit the original source.
2. Design and Usability
In the early days of your blog you will inevitably need to spend some time working on the design and usability aspects. If you are just starting out, there is no need to spend money on your design. Word Press users have a wide range of free and beautiful themes to choose from. Logo can be attached to any template or design, and it will give a unique look to your blog and reinforce your brand. There are literally hundreds of things that you could want visitors of your blog to do.
3. Networking
In most professional fields, who you know is at least as important as what you know. Blogging is no exception.
If you have a good relationship with many bloggers and site owners they will be more likely to link to your posts, recommend your blog to other people and even help you sell a product or service.
In other words: networking is key. In this chapter I will list how you can network effectively online.
4. Promotion
Writing outstanding content is not enough. You need to make sure that as many people as possible will be exposed to that content. This is where promotional activities come in.
Leaving comments on popular blogs inside your niche can be very effective at promoting your blog, especially in the early days. Many webmasters believe that link exchanges are obsolete, but that is not true. If done correctly, they can still be effective for promoting a website or blog. In fact they can send you both targeted traffic and search engine juice.
5. Monetization
If approached correctly, monetization is not that tricky. I reserved the last chapter for monetization exactly because it should be the last part of your overall blogging strategy.The important thing, though, is that you focus your energies on the content, networking and promotion. Build an authority blog first, and then worry about making money blogging.
