Last Updated on December 13, 2022
Are you ready to hit the road and thinking about starting your own blog? Maybe you’re trying to find a way to make extra money? Many wonder if blogging is a good way to get some extra cash. Especially when living on the road. There really is no good reason not to and blogging will definitely change your life. Blogging can help you pay off debt, travel full-time, and more.
Reasons To Start A Blog
- You can help others: Whether you are sharing a story, information, or directions, others can benefit. You can inspire others or help them with tier finances, cooking, fitness, managing their life, and more. No matter what the topic, there will be someone else out there that is interested and can relate.
- It’s affordable: Blogging is not an expensive venture to get into. There are several tutorials on the web that can help you develop a blog for cheap. You may be able to start your blog for less than $50 a year.
- Be your own boss: With blogging, you can be your own boss. This is one of the most positive parts of blogging. You can decide what type of business you’ll run, your schedule, your goals, and more. You will be in complete control of what you do, deciding what to do each day, creating your own schedule, determining business goals, and handling everything behind the scenes.
- You don’t have to do anything that feels like a total drag and this can really help improve your work-life balance. Being able to choose how you earn a living amounts to making sure you love everything you do.
- Flexibility: One of the best things about working for yourself and being a blogger is that you can have a flexible schedule. This means you can work for a few hours in the morning, do something fun during the day (such as a hike or lunch with friends), and then work later at night.
- No experience needed: In order to become a blogger, you don’t need any previous experience. You don’t need to be a computer genius, understand social media, or anything else. These are all things that you can learn as you go. Nearly every single blogger was brand new at some point, and they had no idea what they were doing. With blogging, you’ll have a lot to learn, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s challenging but in a good way!
- Blogging lets you work remotely: Another great benefit of creating a blog is that you can work from wherever you want. You can pack up and hit the road. Blogging lets you travel more and you don’t have to worry about that boring office commute anymore.
- Blogging can seem scary in the beginning, but remember that most other bloggers were in the exact same place you were when they started. Blogging isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside, but it is something that you can do. You can earn money by blogging so that you can work towards living the life you want. Chances are, you have a ton of questions about getting a blog started. Here are some answers that should help relieve your worries.
1. How do I come up with a blog name and URL?
Deciding on a name for your blog is probably one of the hardest parts of blogging. Even if you know exactly what you want your topic to be and have some articles written, deciding on your blog’s name may be stopping you from actually creating your website and launching it. This decision should not lead to stress, so here are some tips for deciding on a blog name:
- Make it easy. Make sure that your blog name is easy for people to type or spell out loud. You do not want a name that is super long, or contains words that are difficult to spell, and so on. Instead, you should make it as easy as possible for your readers to find you.
- Think about what you’ll be writing about. Think about the topics you want to write about, and who your target audience is, and then jot down descriptive words that are related to each. Brainstorming like this is a good way to come up with a blog name.
- Use a thesaurus. If your first or second choices are taken or if you want to see if there are some catchier-sounding blog names, using a thesaurus can help you with some new ideas.
- Make it catchy. You may want to think of something funny, use alliteration, or something else to make your blog name catchy and memorable.
Use your name. You can also just use your name. It’s super easy that way and more and more people are starting to do this.
2. What topics should I write about?
The truth is that people in all different niches make money blogging.
You can be successful in writing about health, clothing, home renovations, DIY, finance, travel, homesteading, business, self-help, relationships, food, and more. There is no right or wrong answer to this so just create a blog around a topic that you are passionate about, that you are an expert in, or that you like. This can make blogging feel fun instead of like a chore.
A few things you may want to consider when choosing your blog topic include:
What are you passionate about?
This is the best place to start. Maybe it is a sport that you really love, crafts, cooking, managing money, travel, or something else. Whatever it is, blogging about your passion is great because that will show in your writing, and your readers will enjoy that.
What blogs do you read?
You may also want to think about which blogs you really enjoy spending your time on, and possibly blogging about something similar.
What are you an expert in? You don’t need to be an expert in your blog’s topic to earn money blogging but if you are an expert at something, then this could be a topic that you blog about. There is probably something you could teach (everyone’s an expert at something, even if you don’t realize that yet!). Think about the questions your friends and family are always asking you and topics that you enjoy helping others with.
What do you like learning about?
People love reading blogs from people who are learning or trying new things. This is because everyone has to start somewhere, and people love following the journey of a person. So, if you are learning how to earn money blogging, for example, that could be where you start your blog. Include all of your mistakes, talk about what you’ve learned, show how you have tried, and reviewed different options so readers can share the experience with you.
The one important thing you should avoid when starting your blog is that if it is about legal things or tax issues, then you should be an expert before giving people advice. You could get someone in a lot of trouble if you gave them the wrong information.
3. Do I have to spend money to earn money blogging?
In most cases, you will spend almost nothing on blogging expenses. Possible expenses that you will incur once the blog is up and running can include:
- Computer
- Blog design and hosting
- Courses, guides, and ebooks
- Virtual assistant and editor
- Technical management
- Transaction fees
4. Do I need a lot of readers to make money?
You do not need millions of page views per month to earn money blogging, but if you want to increase your income, it will be important to increase your page views. Every blog is different, and it isn’t always the blogs with the largest number of readers that make the most money.
When you understand what your readers want, how to effectively reach out to companies for partnerships, and know-how to charge the correct rate, you can make a good income online in many cases. The number of page views will not matter.
There are a few helpful tips you can use if you want to increase your page views:
Publish high-quality blog posts. Readers come back to blogs with high-quality and helpful posts. Posts should be at least 500 words, but more wouldn’t hurt either.
Be active on social media sites. Social media lets you interact with your audience more and can help you reach a larger audience. Check out Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube.
Post regularly. If you want to earn money blogging, you should publish something at least once a week. Going for weeks or months at a time without a blog post can lead to readers forgetting about you.
Network with other bloggers. You should look at other bloggers as friends and colleagues, not competition. This means you may want to interact with them on social media, reach out to them via email, and attend conferences.
Guest post. Guest posting is a great way to reach a new audience and helps build partnerships with other bloggers.
Make content that is easy to share. You should always make sure it’s easy for readers to share your content.
Create catchy headlines. The title of your post is a major factor influencing whether readers click over or not.
Learn SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) is something you should research and look into incorporating in your blog.
5. How do I network with other bloggers?
Networking is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to blogging. You should be open to making blogging friends, attending blog conferences, sharing other blogger’s content with their readers, and more. It is a mistake to see other bloggers as competition. Networking can help you, learn new things about blogging, learn how to make money blogging, make great connections, and more.
Here are some helpful tips to build relationships as a blogger:
Attend blog conferences. Attending networking events in person is great because that’s usually where you can build blogging connections with others.
Comment on blogs. A super-easy way to network with other bloggers is to comment on their blog posts, talk to them on social media, and reply to their newsletter emails.
Share articles. There is so much great content out there that you should want your readers to see, and by promoting other’s posts you’re helping them as well. This can be a great way to network with other bloggers as it’s something that other bloggers will notice.
Be active in social media groups. There are Facebook groups for pretty much everything these days. You can join groups for bloggers, digital nomads, those who just want Pinterest tips, and so on.
The key to networking is to be genuine and to give more than you take. You shouldn’t be emailing other bloggers and people in the industry demanding that they do something for you. Find ways to work together and discover how you can genuinely help others. They in turn will be happy to help you.
6. How do I start making money from a blog?
There are several ways to earn money blogging, including:
- Affiliate marketing
- Blog sponsorships
- Display advertising
- Creating your own products
- Creating digital products
- Creating a tutorial
Affiliate marketing: This is a monetization method in which you place a link to a product or company on your website or social media platform. You earn money when a follower purchases the product through your link (this is called an affiliate link). Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn money online because if there is a product or company that you enjoy, all you have to do is review the product and hopefully, others will be interested in buying it as well.
If you want to learn how to make money blogging with affiliate marketing, here are some helpful tips:
- Provide real reviews
- Find good opportunities. Products or services you use and find out if they have an affiliate program
- Have a recommendations page
Sponsored posts are the way most bloggers get started. This form of blogging income is when you partner with a company and advertise its brand on your blog or social media accounts. The best part about sponsored posts is that you can start right away and do not have to be an experienced blogger.
Display advertising is another popular way of making money from a blog. Display advertising is a passive form of blog income because all you need to do is place advertisements on your blog’s sidebar, below a blog post, or somewhere else on the page. Your display advertising income will increase or decrease based on your page views, and once you place the advertisement, there’s no other direct work to be done. When you reach a certain visitor threshold, you can sign up for programs that will increase your ad revenue like Monumentic, Mediavine, or Ezoic.
Coming Up With Ideas For a Blog
One of the most difficult parts of blogging is creating new content. Many bloggers hit creative walls so do not feel bad if this happens. A few things to consider when looking for topic inspiration can include:
- Life experiences
- Reader questions
- Research you have done
- Other blogs you have read
- Survey readers
These are all great starting points to get your brain thinking. Anything in these can inspire a new idea for your blog. Maybe even a series of blogs. There is always inspiration around you and other bloggers you can lean on for help. Blogging is a great way to make some cash and to free up your life. Give it a try today!
