How to Make a Business Out of Your Blog – 3 Tips
We’ve all heard of professional bloggers – but how did they get to where they are today? There are now so many people blogging and vlogging as a hobby that the competition to break into the professional world is significant. If your dream is to blog professionally – whether about food, travel, lifestyle, fashion, culture, craft, music or absolutely anything besides – you really need to stand out. It is absolutely possible to achieve this ambition – as with almost anything else, you just need to be dedicated and to put the work in. This article will explain just a few steps you can take to help your blog turn a good profit.
1. Build Credibility
If visitors are going to keep coming back to your content, it needs to have an air of expertise about it. Try to keep all formatting and images of the highest possible quality for a start. If you’re serious about making some money, why not invest a little money in graphic design? It’ll pay dividends. Make sure all text is clear and easy to read, and that it is laid out in a way that flows.
Visitors should not be faced with huge blocks of waffling copy in a small size and obscure font. They want information that is concise, dynamically worded, easy to understand and quick to absorb. You also need to think about the quality of your content. Keep on top of your spelling and grammar and word things in a way that your followers will understand, whatever their level of education or first language.
It’s not just about your blog, however. It’s also about you. If you can demonstrate that you’re an expert in your field, people are more likely to trust what you say. Why not take a course in your chosen area – whether you do so online or take some time out to study at a college or university?
There are private student loans available from courses of all kinds, from undergraduate to postgrad qualifications just as MSCs and MBAs. If you already have student debt and you’re concerned about your finances, why not research how to refinance student loans in order to save money? There are always options available to help you get the education and funding you need.
2. Define Your Audience
Who do you write for? If the answer is “I write for me and only me”, it’s unlikely that you’re going to make any money. That isn’t to say, however, that focusing your blog on a very niche subject is a bad idea. In fact, it could work very well for you; you might discover that you’re the only specialist in that particular field, meaning you have a captive audience. But what exactly is that audience?
Try to determine the types of people who are most likely to read your blog. Where do they hand out? What do they do? Once you’ve got a clear understanding of this, start sensitively promoting your content by sharing it with relevant groups on social media. You could also set up collaborations with other specialists in your field by interviewing them for your blog or reviewing some of their products. That way, their audience will be directed to your content and may end up following you too.
3. Update Regularly and Stay on Topic
If you only post once in a while, your audience will get bored and move on. What’s more, updating your blog regularly with fresh content will make you more likely to appear higher up in search engine results, making you more easily discoverable.
If you’ve decided you’ll be blogging about a particular field, stay within its boundaries. There might be a lot going on in your life or the world that you’re eager to discuss online, but try to keep this to your personal channels. Irrelevant content will drive subscribers away.
Salman Zafar is an ecopreneur, consultant, advisor, speaker and journalist with expertise in waste management, waste-to-energy, renewable energy, environment protection, conservation and sustainable development. His geographical areas of focus include Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. Salman is the Founder of EcoMENA, a popular voluntary organization based in Qatar. He is also the Founder and CEO of BioEnergy Consult, a reputed consulting firm active in biomass, waste-to-energy and waste management segments.
Salman is a professional environmental writer with more than 350 popular articles to his credit. He is proactively engaged in creating mass environmental awareness in different parts of the world.
Salman Zafar can be reached at salman@ecomena.org or salman@bioenergyconsult.com
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