Why create a blog? If you’re asking this question, most likely you don’t know the benefits of blogging. There are many reasons why people blog. Some just do it to pass time. Others do it for money. Still others do it to teach.
Take a look at the most essential benefits of blogging. As you read each one, ask yourself if your blog makes use of the benefit. If it doesn’t, find ways you can incorporate it into your blog. If you do all these steps on a regular basis, I guarantee that you’ll have a successful blog within the next 6 months.
Don’t have a blog yet? You don’t have to make one now, but you should (even if it’s just to try). You can create a free blog on Blogger or WordPress for now, but consider moving your blog to your own hosting as the blog grows.
One of the major benefits of blogging that new bloggers seek is popularity. Bloggers want their blogs to be popular. However, popularity doesn’t happen to every blog. Many people give up before their blogs have the chance to truly develop.
How it Works: As you blog, your website will get indexed into search engines, and other people will have access to your content. If they like the content or what you have to say, they may subscribe to your blog to get notified every time you post something new. As more and more people have access to your content, the number of individuals who subscribe to your blog will increase. Visitors will start to comment, conversations will get started, visitors will refer your blog to friends, more readers will start flooding in and your blog will gradually grow into a popular community of people and new ideas.
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Too often, bloggers just focus on the benefits of having their blogs indexed by search engines. If you look around, search engine traffic plays a minor role in the traffic of many top blogs.
So then, how do people like Darren Rowse, author of ProBlogger, or Leo Babauta, author of Zen Habits, get their blog traffic? They do so by guest posting, publishing updates in social networks, commenting on other blogs and so on. The list goes on. Now, this doesn’t mean completely ignore search engines. Just don’t limit yourself to search engine rankings. Popularity will come to the bloggers who truly want it. All it requires is determination and the will not to give up.
You hear about people all over the Internet making a living from their blogs. In fact, some people create blogs just to make money. However, your blog won’t start making thousands of dollars the day after it’s created (or even months after you make your blog). Just like blogging takes time to build popularity, it can provide very lucrative income if the effort is put in.
How it Works: You might decide to put up Adsense ads the second you make your blog, or you might wait to put up ads until you have more visitors. You might decide not to put up any Adsense ads at all and, instead, go for affiliate marketing. Visitors come to your blog, look around, like your content and purchase a recommended product. Some visitors don’t see what they’re looking for on your blog, so they click on an ad to hopefully find what they’re looking for there. Other visitors don’t purchase or click anything at all, but they do read your content and subscribe to your RSS feed (which means potential earnings from them in the future). Over time, your blog begins to generate lots of money as more people find your website.
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Play around with different sources of income. If you’re not having much success with Adsense, try an Adsense alternative or play with affiliate marketing. If that doesn’t work out, try to make a useful eBook and sell it to your readers. No matter the money-making method you try, you won’t make money right away, and you won’t start making full-time income within the first month you blog (not usually). You’ll need thousands of readers in order to make a living online, only because more people will have access to the products or ads on your website.
Whatever you do, don’t rely on just one source of income. There’s a reason why many people like having multiple streams of online income. What happens if your main source of income stops making money? You’ll be in trouble if you were dependent on that one source of income. Vary your income streams a bit. Contemplate setting up online courses in addition to selling eBooks. Use affiliate marketing in addition to Adsense. Most importantly, have fun with it! Play around with each income stream to determine what works and what doesn’t. Only then will you reach your full earning potential.
There are many benefits to networking and creating new online relationships. For example, if you’re a copywriter, someone you networked with the day before may refer you to a potential client. If you’ve created your very first eBook, someone you network with may decide to give it a boost and help advertise it for you on their blog. Networking can be a very important benefit of blogging.
How it Works: Someone visits your blog and likes your content, so they comment on a few blog posts. You see the comments and reply back to them. If the person interests you, you head over to his blog, read a few posts and decide that you want to comment on his blog as well. Seeing your comments, the person then shoots you an email thanking you. A conversation starts. The next thing you know, you’re talking about a new eBook you’re planning on launching. You haven’t made it public yet, but you want this person to have a look at it and tell you what he thinks. You offer him a free copy, he accepts and goes on to say that he truly loves your new product. He loves it so much, that he’s going to help promote it on his blog. You’ve just made a new relationship, received a lifetime reader and now have someone interested in promoting your eBook as well – all in one day!
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Interact with your readers. Reply to comments. If no one is commenting, ask your readers to let you know what they think about a certain point made in a new blog entry. Don’t be afraid to visit your readers’ websites or shoot a few emails their way. Start conversations, link to blog articles that you like from other people and your good deeds will be returned. It may not be in that form (person links to you as well), but it most certainly will come back to you later (person promotes a product, for example).
As you blog more about a certain topic, readers see that you really know the topic in detail, even if you don’t and you’re learning along the way. Some people create blogs for this very reason. They’re passionate about a certain niche or subject and want to learn more, so they create a blog around the subject. As you build authority, more readers will want to purchase products from you because they trust that you know what you’re talking about.
How it Works: Someone searches on Google for ways to treat fish fungal diseases. Browsing Google search results, the person clicks over to your article on how to treat fish fungus. After reading the article, he finds additional articles related to the same problem. Impressed with your content, the reader then visits your About page and discovers that you had created an eBook about fish keeping. He goes ahead and purchases the eBook.
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Do research before posting a blog entry, especially if you don’t know anything about a specific topic. If you do know a topic very well, you have an added edge, since you’re already experienced and had most likely already solved the same problems your readers have now. Make sure your blog posts are useful. Useful posts can either answer a question or solve a problem. Try writing multiple blog entries about the same topic. If you already wrote an article on choosing baby names, write another article on the top 10 things a mother should know before having a baby.
When you blog, you usually share experiences about yourself that relate to the blog post you’re writing. If you don’t, you’ll have a little introduction about yourself on your About page. When you post frequently, readers are more exposed to your work, what you do and your name in general. Readers will get to know you on a personal level and will relate to what you’re talking about. This creates trust, one of the essential benefits of blogging.
How it Works: A visitor goes to your blog with a certain question in mind. After reading an article and having that question answered, the visitor then starts browsing other blog posts. She’s impressed with your genuine knowledge and experience, so she heads over to your About page. It turns out, you’re also a work-at-home mom! She subscribes to your RSS feed and tries out a program that you recommend.
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Don’t shy away from your readers, and don’t be afraid to get personal. I don’t mean describing how you prepared waffles this morning for breakfast and topped the waffles off with strawberries, unless it relates to the subject of your blog. Just don’t be afraid to tell the reader your past experiences that might help the reader solve a specific problem outlined in the blog post. For example, you write a blog post on how to raise aquatic frogs. You then tell your readers a heart-breaking story of how your first aquatic frog died as a result of bad frog care. Your readers learn from your experiences and, at the same time, learn more about you on a personal level. As they learn more about you, they start to trust you. As a result, they’re more likely to try out recommended programs or buy from you.
Tons of people are using their blogs to promote their products or services. By providing information about a specific market or niche, they’re able to sell products or promote services related to the same market or niche because they’ve built authority.
How it Works: You have a blog dedicated to providing information on how to increase sales and attract leads with direct mail. A business owner comes to your blog through a search engine and sees that you’re pretty knowledgeable about direct mail. Seeing a link on your sidebar, the person clicks over to your online portfolio. The business owner then tries to contact you about maybe doing a direct mail package for her.
How to Make Your Blog Benefit: Publish posts related to the product or service you’re selling. When people see how well you know the market, they’ll be more eager to buy from you or hire you. Through your content, you show them that you know what you’re talking about. Post frequently and stick up a section on your sidebar or header that links to your product or services page.
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Tags: Blog benefits
I've been making money with my writing since 2008. With this income, I'm able to travel the world, indulge in my hobbies, and govern my own life. And the best thing is, I love every second of it!
Hillary Bost (1)
The most common reason why people do blogging is because of the money that they would earn through their blogs. Some would actually do it for a living. And, no doubt, there’s money in blogging.
Phil @ Outsourcing´s last [type] ..Benefits of working with Philippines Outsourcing
Hey Phil,
I agree – that’s why many people blog. And I think that’s why a lot of blogs fail. It takes more than the desire for money to create a successful blog. You also need to enjoy what you do – be passionate for the topic you’re writing about. Otherwise, you’ll quickly lose interest in your blog until it soon becomes abandoned.
Yes, you can make a living blogging but not if it’s your only motive.
Thanks for dropping by!
Christina