How To Start A Profitable Blog The Right Way in 2020! Do you want to start a profitable blog the right way? Without all of those common beginner mistakes?
Do you have absolutely no idea of where to even look to get started?
Well good news! Because this article is the single BEST guide to starting a profitable blog from scratch!
Table of Contents
Reasons to Start a Profitable Blog
Are you feeling uncertain about your financial future due to the current economic events?
Are you self isolating at home?
Are you looking at ways to earn extra money, or maybe even replace your current full-time income?
Blogging is the way to go! Here’s how to get started blogging today.
Here’s a few reasons why you should start a blog:
1. Money
MONEY! I am currently making over $17,000 a month with my blogs (Check out my income report), and that number keeps growing every month.
And you know what the best part is? Most of that income is passive! This means that my blogs make me money even when I am not working. And honestly, as someone coming from a fast food joint, it’s wonderful to know that I can take a sick day and still make money.
And the best part is that there is virtually no income ceiling. It’s wonderful knowing that my earnings are directly connected to my work ethic. This means that the sky is the limit when it comes to making money!
Related: How To Start A Blog That Can Make Money From Day One, The Ultimate Beginners Guide
2. It’s CHEAP
Most businesses require a pretty hefty upfront investment to get started. That alone is a deterrent when it comes to the average person becoming an entrepreneur.
However, with blogging, literally ANYONE can get started with their own business for just a few dollars a month!
Bluehost is great for beginner bloggers because it’ super easy to use, their support is 24/7, and by using my link you get a great rate plus a free domain!
And honestly, my business expenses across ALL of my blogs are less than $200 per month! That makes blogging extremely accessible to people of all incomes.
And that’s the beauty of all of this! It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, broke, or somewhere in between. The super-low cost of business gives everyone a chance to reach their financial dreams.
3. Build a Brand and Help Others
One of the most exiting things about blogging is watching your site grow and seeing people enjoying your content. I LOVE receiving emails where people tell me how much my work has helped them. It is honestly one of the best pick me ups out there!
The truth is that blogging requires a lot of work, so seeing your virtual baby grow up and impact others’ lives is truly rewarding! You can use this to build a brand and start creating a brand bigger than even you, or just keep it as a small blog for a smaller audience and still helps hundreds of people each and every day.
Personal Blogs vs. Profitable Blogs
The simple truth is that nowadays, personal blogs will likely never make any income for the average person. And that is why making personal blog is not advised for someone who wants to make money with blogging.
However, profitable blogs focus on providing valuable information to an interested audience. At its very core, a profitable blog is concerned with helping its reader. Information is shared based on research and providing solutions.
It has truly never been easier to start a profitable blog, and by using a WordPress platform, literally anyone can learn to achieve success and become a profitable blogger! Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can do it!
How Long Does It Take To Make A Full Time Income?
Let’s answer the age old questions of how long does it take to make a full time income with blogging? How long until I can make this my job? How long until I I make $1,000 a month, $2,000, $10,000. Especially $10,000 as that seems to be the magic number for a lot of people out there.
What probably draws you into this even more is the fact that these would be fairly passive income numbers. Yes, that’s right, $10,000 a month in passive income. I don’t think anyone would be upset at that.
However, passive income is honestly a bit of a myth. The fact is that you will likely never be able to keep a $10,000 per month income without doing some consistent work. But, once all systems are set in place, that work will be quite limited. So in reality, what is promised to you as $10,000 of passive income, is really $10,000 of low tier part time work.
However, to get to $10,000 a month, you’re gonna have to do a LOT of work.
That’s The Wrong Question to Ask
Asking the question how long does it take to make a full time income is honestly a terrible question.
By asking that question, you are immediately focusing on a result that not a single person or being can predict.
You are asking a question that nobody on this planet can truthfully answer. That’s why I’m always very leery of online marketers who promise you that you can make $10,000 a month after only one month of work.
So, stop focusing on the results, and start focusing on the cause. You need to focus your attention on the efforts that are required to reach the results. And I know, this is asking a change in mindset, but to be truthful, it is the only way for you not to stand in your own way.
The simple truth here is that the more you put into this, the more you get out of it. And this includes making mistakes. Mistakes will be a natural occurrence here, and there won’t be a single time when you will not make a mistake. So take them as a lesson, and not as a reason to give up.
So ask yourself, what do you need to do in order to make that $10,000 a month?
And that is what this entire post is about.
What you need to do, is create a sustainable strategy of content creation using a profitable niche. You need to create value for people. And most importantly, you need to create $10,000 a month worth of value for people.
So the most important thing you can do to reduce the time frame of making a full time income is to start today. No excuses, no bullcrap. Find the time and just start. And it honestly doesn’t matter how small you start. And it doesn’t matter if your life is super hectic for the next month. Take that little bit of time and just get started. Small steps still bring you closer to your goals than no steps.
So keep that in mind when going through this process. Every little thing you do will bring you closer to where you want to go.
And the truth is that the more time you spend doing this, the faster you will see results. Practice does make perfect. It took me well over a year to get my first blog to a full time income.
However, it only took 4 months to get my latest blog to a full time income.
So don’t get down on yourself, and definitely don’t listen to any of the gurus out there trying to sell you a course on the promise of making $10,000 a month after a month of work. Those kinds of results don’t exist!
Profitable Blogging 101
Starting a profitable blog does require you to spend a little money for hosting. There’s no way around this if you want to be serious about blogging. Sure, there are free platforms you could use, however, they will hinder you when it comes to making money.
Free Platforms like Blogger or Blogspot
There are many free blogging platforms out there. And none of them are bad in any way. However, these platforms are more suited for those personal blogs we talked about earlier.
You see, the problem is that it is very hard to monetize your blog with a free blogging platform. You will have very little control over ads and affiliate income. And, when it comes to customizing your site for digital product sales, you will quite literally run against a wall with a free platform.
And lastly, Google doesn’t see these free blogging platforms as very authoritative. So you will be running up a very steep hill when it comes to trying to rank in Google search.
It’s Worth The Investment
And that’s why it’s worth it to spend a little money for WordPress hosting. Your blog will automatically look a lot more professional with your own domain and hosting. And honestly, the cost is so low that you will make it back easily.
So don’t worry about breaking the bank because it is extremely cheap to get started through Bluehost because you’re not only getting your hosting taken care of, but you also get a free domain, all for $2.95/month! This is like getting one cup of coffee a month, but instead of drinking down the coffee, you are investing in yourself and your new business.
How To Start A Profitable Blog
You’ve made it this far and learned a bit about what a profitable blog is and that you absolutely need to invest some money for WordPress hosting if you want to make income with your blog.
So now, without wasting any more of your time, I will get right into the step by step instructions on what you need to do to start your very own profitable blog!
The Business Model
- Develop and publish content
- Grow an audience – marketing
- Monetize
- Grow the business by reinvesting profits and time
My business model is a little different than the traditional one. Instead of releasing a product and hustling to make sales, I build up content and grow an audience. It is after I have started to grow an audience that I monetize the site and develop a product.
The content is essentially just a part of my marketing strategy. It is important to get some of the traditional business models out of your head and realize that blogging is a different beast. You have to make sure your process and niche works by growing an audience.
Your audience is your validation and once you have a decent audience you can take the next step and sell products and services.
The good thing about this business model is the extremely low cost of establishing the business. This might honestly be the best business possibility with the lowest cost factor and highest relative income factor.
Pick A Niche
A niche is essentially a part of a market that offers specific information. Picking a niche is the foundation of your whole blog. A bad foundation = a crumbling mess of a blog.
A good example of a general niche would be pets.
However, without even doing any research, we can be sure that the pets niche is too broad and has too much competition for our comfort level.
So what now? Fear not, we can always niche down!
Niching down basically means that you find a more specific topic for your blog.
So, to niche down from pets we have a very large number of possibilities. We can niche down to hamsters, dogs, cats, etc.
However, when it comes to a topic like dogs, we most likely will still be too broad. So further niching down could be necessary.
Don’t be afraid to niche down into smaller and smaller sub niches if you need to. Remember, the more specific the niche, the more likely you are to rank well in Google Search for your blog posts. Just make sure not to niche down so far that you won’t have much of a market size left.
However, I cannot emphasize this enough; the broader your topic, the less likely it is to succeed.
Most importantly, pick a niche that you are actually interested in. Don’t just go out and pick a blogging niche that was suggested to you in some “Top 10 blogging niches” article.
If you build your blogging business around a topic that doesn’t interest you, then you will have a very hard time writing good content and being motivated to continue on when things get tough.
Next, make sure to commit to your niche. Don’t mix together a bunch of niches. For example, don’t include a recipe section in a personal finance blog.
Sticking to only one specific topic will increase the likelihood of you becoming more successful. The reason for this is simple; we don’t want to confuse our audience and website visitors on the main purpose of the site. We also don’t want to confuse the Google algorithm.
The more topics on a website, the harder it will be for Google to determine what your site is actually about. Thus, the harder it will be for you to quickly rank for keywords.
One of the best strategies is to become an expert in a very specific topic. This ensures that you retain a loyal audience, and it shows Google that your website is the best source of information on that particular topic. In turn, you will find it a lot easier to attain growth.
Pick A Domain
Now comes the fun part! Picking a domain and purchasing web hosting marks the official start of your blogging business.
You want to make sure your domain name is relevant to the niche you picked earlier. Believe it or not, going the simple route here will yield the best results. So don’t overthink it and try to come up with clever puns or names. Also, don’t sit on this for more than 30 minutes, or else you’re just wasting time.
Pick Hosting
For hosting, I definitely recommend to go down the self hosting route for profitable blogs. Yes, it costs some money, but it’s very little, and you’ll make that investment back in no time.
I recommend Bluehost for web hosting! I have had such a good experience with them! And here is just a little list of reasons why I think Bluehost is a great match for you:
- 24/7 tech support
- A FREE domain
- Very inexpensive!
- Super easy to use for beginners
- WordPress is automatically installed for free
It’s so easy to sign up! Best of all, you can also get a domain name through Bluehost (FREE OF CHARGE) when you sign up for web hosting! Everything is in one convenient, easy place!
Using our exclusive link, you can sign up for just $2.95/month.
Just follow these quick steps and you will be on your way to getting your site all set up!
- On the next page you will fill out your account information
- When you scroll down, you will see a section called “Package Information”
- Select either the 12, 24, or 36 month plan
- Scroll down some more and you will find the ‘Package Extras’ section
- Make sure the first box is checked (Domain Privacy + Protection). This masks your personal information from the WHOIS database.
- Uncheck all other boxes. You really don’t need them.
- To finish, all you have to do in put in your payment info at the bottom of the page.
- That’s all! You’re all set up and have just taken the first BIG step to starting your online business!
Once you have purchased hosting through Bluehost, you will receive a couple of e-mails. Make sure to jot down your login info and keep it in a secure place. You will also get login info for WordPress.
Typically, to access WordPress, you have to type in your domain and then add “/wp-admin”. This will lead you to the login page to get to your WordPress dashboard.
However, you can also easily log into WordPress through the Bluehost dashboard. How you do it is up to you!
How To Use WordPress – Your Next Steps In Setting Up Your Blog
There are a couple things to learn when it comes to using WordPress. The good news is that WordPress is extremely easy to learn and use, which means that you will master it in no time!
1. Find a Theme
Simply put, a WordPress theme is the visual appearance of your site. How things look, where the menu is etc. The good news is that there are literally thousands of themes you can pick for your site.
The even better news is that you don’t need any technical knowledge to make them work! Isn’t that awesome?
So to pick a theme, go to your dashboard and find the “Appearance” tab. While hovering, click on ‘Theme’, and voila, you can now go shopping for your perfect theme!
Most themes are free, however, you will find that there are several that cost some money. By no means do you need to spend on a theme. Your success will not be dependent on it! So my best advice is to pick your favorite free theme to get started.
2. Build Up Your Pages
The important thing to learn with WordPress is the difference between ‘Pages’ and ‘Posts’.
Pages are used as static content that serves only one purpose. For example, you About Me, Contact Me, Privacy Policy, should all be created under the ‘Pages’ tab.
‘Posts’ on the other hand are part of your content. The meat and potatoes of your blog. This is where you will be spending most of your time.
To build you website, you should start by building pages.
So simply hover over the ‘Pages’ tab and click ‘Add New’. All you need to do right now is write “About Me’ in the title. Repeat this process with “Home”, “Privacy Policy” and “Contact Me”. You don’t need to worry about writing anything else other than the titles. Make sure to save and publish.
Step 3 – Create A Menu
Next, you can create a basic menu for your website! This is super easy to do, and with the 4 Pages you created earlier, you now have something to put in the menu.
Hover over the Appearance tab and click on Menus. You will see a page that looks similar to the one below, with the exception that it will be largely empty.
All you have to do now is check the 4 boxes of the 4 Pages you created, and click Add To Menu. That’s it!
Congrats! Your site is slowly starting to become grow!
Step 4 – Adding Plugins
Plugins for WordPress are essentially little apps that will help you accomplish certain tasks. Think of them as free little helpers that make your website more unique and easier to use. Things like contact forms, table of contents, are all plugin based. So if you are looking to do any kind of customization, you will have to become familiar with them.
For now though, I want you to only focus on a couple essential plugins. These are all free, and very important!
- a3 Lazy Load: this plugin makes it so your images don’t load right away and won’t load until the reader is about to see them. This helps you because it’ll help your blog’s page load speed.
- WPSmush: this plugin will automatically compress the images on your blog post without sacrificing quality. This is going to help keep your blog running quickly as well.
- Yoast SEO: One of the best ways to get readers to your blog is through optimizing your website for search engines and Yoast SEO makes that process a whole lot simpler.
- Social Pug: If you’re looking to get traffic from a website like Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest it’s really important that you have a good social share plugin.
Installing plugins is a super easy task. All you have to do is hover over the ‘Plugins’ tab and click ‘Add New’. Search for the plugins in the list above and install and activate them. That’s it!
How To Write An About Us Page
One of the biggest things that new bloggers forget to focus on is their about page. And by doing so they’re doing themselves a major disservice. Your about page is not only an amazing place to introduce yourself to your reader but it’s also an amazing place to show your reader exactly what you can do for them and the multiple ways you can help them.
I get hundreds of page views a month to my about us pages. This tells me that readers do care about this page and they will actively go out of their way to search for it.
Although a lot of your readers are only going to be there for the content, there are a ton of readers that are there to get to know you. They want to learn all the information you have to offer while also feeling completely connected to you, like you’re a friend!
Your about page is also an awesome place to establish yourself as an authority in your given niche. This is especially important for super competitive niches since there is so much content out there.
Okay, now that you understand why an about page is so valuable and important for your continued success, let’s dig into how to write an about page for your blog.
Grab the reader’s attention right at the top
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- Even an about page needs to have catchy title/opening line. You want to make sure that this line talks about you while also talking about how you can help your ideal reader. OR you could add a super relevant quote that will entice your reader to continue down the page.
- A great way to make sure that the first line really grabs the attention of your reader is to make sure the font is larger and in a different color than the rest of the page!
- Here’s an example that I used on this blog:
- Are you sick of having no money in the bank? Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? I’m here to help.
Include a blog biography
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- Something that I’ve noticed that converts incredibly well for most about pages is to talk about all the reasons why you started your blog and the history of your blog. This is a great way to get people to use start a blog affiliate links that are usually an awesome way to make extra money.
- Also, talking about your blog journey and why you started it is an amazing way to show that you’re a real person and not some big corporation. Your readers are much more likely to sign up to your email list if you are more human and talk about your journey.
Don’t just make it about you
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- Okay, okay. I know it’s an about you page, but the annoying truth is that it’s actually about your reader and not that much to do with you. A well-written and converting about page will not just talk about you, but talk about your reader, who they are, and where they’ve been.
- Talking about things your ideal reader has gone through will definitely make them more connected with you and get them to sign up to your list, buy your products, and be your loyal fan for years to come.
- When talking about your ideal reader, it’s smart to use you statements when talking about what your reader is going through. For example:
- “you find yourself forgetting to do XYZ”
- “you can’t figure out how to budget your money”
- “you want to start a blog but don’t know where to start”
Include a call to action
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- The entire point of a well-written about page is to get someone to convert to a loyal fan and an email subscriber. If you have an entire awesome page written but don’t end it with an opt-in or freebie, it’s pretty much just a giant waste of time.
- One of the best things you can do is to create an opt-in that’s specifically created for people that reach the bottom of your about page. For example, if you’re blogging about personal finance, you could have an opt-in for an email course about budgeting at the end of your about page that would convert nicely.
Write like you speak
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- One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started blogging was writing like I was writing a paper for University. It just so happened I started my blog immediately after I graduated University, so this is what I was used to. However, now when I go back to this content I cringe because it’s so hard to read and it’s no wonder I had no loyal readers.
- It’s important to write in a conversational fashion that sounds like you’re just having coffee with a friend. This will do wonders for your readers and make them connect with you much quicker. Skip the big words, add some flair.
Never write in the third person
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- One mistake I’ve seen many bloggers make is talking about themselves in third person on their about page. They treat it like it’s a book biography and not like a well-converting about page. The problem with this is that it’s much harder to connect with someone when they’re talking in 3rd person.
Keep personal facts related to your niche
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- When talking about yourself on your about page, you should try and keep the majority of them related to your niche. For example, if you write about personal finance, you wouldn’t want to talk about your favorite eye shadow palette or your favorite fitness workouts.
It’s important to note that not all niches are the same. So all I want here is to offer you very general guidelines to an about us page. You need to know your audience, and you need to be aware of what they’re looking for. The worst thing you can do here is to copy and paste another about us page and fill in your information. This page is very personal, and it is the page where your entire brand is visible in one single spot. So take some time and really make it count.
Content Creation
So you’ve set up your site by following the steps above. Now what?
Well, the good news is that now comes point in your blogging journey where you will start to create your first pieces of content! Exciting isn’t it!
But before we get started on writing, we need to know what to write. We can’t just grab topic out of a hat and expect them to work. We have to do a little research to see how in demand certain topics are, and how much competition there is for certain topics.
There 2 ways to tackle this, and they depend on how you plan on marketing your content. For the most part, your 2 most common ways of getting your blog posts read are either through Google, or Pinterest.
The thing is that blog posts written for a Google audience can be different from the ones written for a Pinterest audience.
So, when it comes to Google SEO, you will want to make sure that your research stays within Google. And when it comes to Pinterest SEO, you will want to make sure your research stays withing Pinterest.
That is why in the following sections, I am giving you 2 options for content research; one is Google based, and the other is Pinterest based.
Google Based Content
One of the best and inexpensive ways to search out good keywords is by simply using Google and all of its power as a search engine!
I call this the Alphabet method and it goes like this:
- Make a Google sheets page to jot down keywords and organize your thoughts
- Use the most common keywords within your niche and start searching them in Google
- Let’s assume your blog is about Huskies
- Look at the auto suggests that pop up and write down the results that seem most relevant and sound like they can be made into blog posts.
- Don’t just write down every single result. Leave the more bizarre ones out, or the ones that are way too specific or related to news
- So for Huskies, Google gives us an autocomplete of:
- Huskies for sale
- Huskies saying I love you
- Huskies puppies
- Huskies howling
- Next, go through the alphabet with your main keyword. By this, I mean, that you should search “Husky a”, “Husky b” and so on.
- Then, you start going into asking Google some questions related to your niche (see image below)
- Ask Google the how, what, where, why’s
- The best keywords or queries are often the ones that come up as questions, because with a question you know exactly what the searchers intent is.
- When searching Husky …. Space, Google will try to guess what the next possible word is that you will type, to make things quicker for you as a searcher. The beauty of this is that this system also helps us on the content creation end, since we know that Google will not auto suggest words that don’t get searched a lot. Google just gives us all the data we need, without the need for expensive or fancy tools.
- For each search query we wrote down with the previous method, search them in google, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and look at the “searches related to” section. These will give you a couple more good ideas that you may not have had before. Once you write down the most relevant ones, search them and repeat the process. We want to go fairly deep down the rabbit hole with this.
- Also look at the “People always ask” section and write down any of the relevant questions that pop up there for each search query you have
- Use answerthepublic.com and search your general keyword. This website will likely give you many more keyword or content ideas.
- But don’t just rely on this site as they don’t have nearly as much data as Google, and they don’t know which queries are more popular than others. So make sure to double check any new queries within Google
- If you feel like you’re coming up a little short on Google, then give Bing a try. They offer a lot of good information with their auto suggest
Finding Out Which Blog Post Ideas Are Worth Writing
At this point, you will have a lot of possible blog post ideas, however you must figure out which ones are worth writing.
In general, there is one universal truth when it comes to Google searching; the more in depth and detailed the search query, the less people will search for it. Hence, the less traffic an article that answers that search query will get.
So, for example, without doing any research at all, we can be fairly confident in saying that the search query “Husky Adoption” will get a lot more searches than the search query “How to train a Husky puppy to play dead”
To put it another way, the search volume will go down the more in depth a search query is. Therefore, the search volume will go up, the more broad a search query is.
So naturally, you will want to be more on the broad side when it comes to your posts. However, this is not always the case. This is where your niche research skills that you obtained earlier come into place. With competitive niches, the broader your blog posts, the less likely you are to rank well for them in Google because there is so much competition.
But if we take the technology niche as an example, we might be able to see some good opportunities for blog posts there. So instead of writing a broad blog post about the newest iPhone for example, you could write a specific blog post about how to clean it. You are being a lot more specific with your post, and yes, the search volume for that post would be a lot lower than a general iPhone search volume. But so many people buy iPhones, that you could still get the chance of gaining good traffic from specific and more obscure blog posts.
What I mean by this, is that you should know your niche. The broader and more competitive your niche is, the more detailed and in depth your blog posts need to be.
In my example, Huskies is a very popular topic. This means that I will be focusing on a good mixture of broad and in depth blog posts to build this website.
Next, we need to consider our competition. Below are some good pointers to help you out.
- Competition analysis
- Forum answers are beatable
- Short, relatively unhelpful posts are beatable
- Older posts are beatable
- Popular sites are harder to beat, but if their content is old and sparse, you could stand a chance
- Visuals are great to have – info graphics do really well
The # 1 takeaway is to always check out your competition on Google before you write an article. Ask yourself how you can write a better post than all of the ones that rank. Your goal should always be to deliver the single best piece of content that you can, because in the end, it’s all about serving the readers and providing value.
There is no quick way to do this, no cheat run around. This can only be achieved with hard work. If you absolutely don’t see how you can write a better, more informative post than the competition, then don’t bother writing it. At least not immediately. Focus on writing posts that you can be confident in when it comes to beating the competition.
Make a final list of topics with the post title in a new list, much like the one below
| Keyword | Post Title |
| why husky not eating | Why is my husky not eating? |
How To Write A Blog Post
Let’s go take a look at how I write and format most of my blog posts, and why I strongly encourage you to follow this guide.
So first we’ll take a look at my blog post template. The very first item on this template is your title. You should already have your title made from the keyword research phase so all you have to do is input it into the editor. Make sure to capitalize the first letter of each word just like in book titles.
Now we head to the body of the post. Our first little paragraph is how we create a first impression for our readers. We need to be succinct, and provide them confidence that we can help out with their query. At most, you should be using 3 sentences here.
Don’t be afraid to get a little personal to convey a common struggle in this paragraph as it makes it easier to relate to. So let’s look at a fairly common household example here.
Let’s say that the title of the blog post is “How to get the last line of dust into dustpan”. With this title we want to convey to readers that we understand about this annoying problem.
So we could start the blog post off by saying “Everybody who has ever used a broom and a dustpan knows the annoyance of having that one last perfect line that won’t go into the dustpan.”
As you can see, we have a very simple 1 sentence line here that gives our readers the confidence they need to know that we are writing about the problem they’re facing.
So next, we simply restate the question as outlined in our title.
The first brief paragraph should then look like this:
“Everybody who has ever used a broom and a dustpan knows the annoyance of having that one last perfect line that won’t go into the dustpan. So how exactly can you get the last line of dust into the dustpan?”
That’s it as far as the first attention grabbing paragraph goes. We want to really be short and the point here. We want to grab a reader’s attention right away and show them that we are fully aware of their problem and we are here to help. We don’t need fluff, or a drawn out story about our house cleaning escapades, or a visual description of our kitchen. We don’t need any of that because people don’t care. So why write it? All we want is for readers to trust us and to keep reading.
So the next paragraph will be our answer paragraph. Again, this will be a very to the point and clear paragraph. We don’t want any fluff, or even personal stories here. This is arguably the most important part of your entire blog post because it is essential for your seo strategy.
We want Google to see our answer paragraph, and to be happy enough with it so that we can get the little answer snippet in the search results. So be very clear and concise, and bold the answer as well. We want our readers to have the answers to their problems as easily accessible as possible.
The best way to do that is to bold the answer. That way if someone were to just simply scan the article real quick, the bold answer will pop out at them.This paragraph is all about pleasing the Google algorithm, and going above and beyond when it comes to user experience. We have had enormous success with this template and have had a lot of positive feedback from readers as well.
After this paragraph, we offer a 3 sentence (max) paragraph that entices our readers to keep reading as we have more to share. Our above answer will be very basic, so make sure that readers are aware that you will go into full detail in the rest of the article.
The answer to their question will be in full detail further in the body of the blog post. Make sure to break the answer up into multiple paragraphs, with different H2 sub headings for each. This will make everything a lot more readable and readers can still scan the post and jump to sections if they want to.
Sub headers will also help when it comes to seo as the Google algorithm knows to scan them differently. So, if a sub heading down the line in the post answers a more detailed question that you didn’t target, Google will take that into consideration which means you could rank well for different keywords that you haven’t even considered.
We really just want things to be nicely organized and we want our whole post to be extremely easy to read and we want readers to be able to get a quick overview of the entire article in a couple seconds of scanning through it.
So break up your thoughts, and make new paragraphs and sub headings for each thought, even if it’s just a tiny article. User experience is extremely important, and a huge factor when it comes to seo.
Leave nothing behind in your answer either. You want this to be the single best piece of resource on the web for your keyword/question. You will not be rewarded by being lazy or rushing through your writing process. Quality is the only way forward if you want to make money with blogging.
Last, we have a section called “Final Thoughts”, where we simply provide a quick summary of our findings within the article. You can be a little more personable here and offer your insights for whatever the search query was.
And that’s it. My full template on how I write my blog posts. This has served me quite well and I have gotten very good feedback. So I highly encourage you to take this approach into your own writing. Just always remember that people want extremely easy to read and helpful articles. So don’t stray away from that and don’t take any shortcuts because they will never be successful.
Where To Get Images
Images are an important part of blog posts. You can’t expect to keep readers’ attention with just words. Additionally, you will need images for your cover photos, and Pinterest pins. However, you can’t just take images from another website or from Google. Especially with a little thing called copyright.
Copyright is not such a big deal when it comes to blogging for the fun of it, but if you want to make money with blogging, then you could run into quite a few problems if you use copyrighted images on your site. You can only use copyrighted images if you get permission, or if you pay for a license. And that ordeal is simply not worth the time and effort. However if you use an image without permission or paying, then you might get caught and have to face legal trouble. Chances are nobody will notice, but why risk it? It really isn’t worth fighting legal issues for images, as this can seriously cost you a lot of time and money.
Below, you will find 2 common ways to get good images for your blog:
Paid – Shutterstock
Shutterstock is great because it has an absolutely massive collection of images. You will find the most obscure things on there. So if your niche is not that popular, then you’ll most likely find success with shutterstock when looking for images. However it does get pretty expensive, so if you’re on a tighter budget then it probably isn’t right for you. Only pay for images when you can really afford to, because there’s always a way to solve the image problem with a little creativity and compromise.
Free – Pixabay & Pexels
Luckily there is a way to get FREE copyright free images. And there’s no big catch with this either. I have used both Pexels and Pixabay for 2 years without any issue.
The only downside is that their catalog is not nearly as expansive, and the quality of images are not always the best. This means you will have to do some digging to find the right image. But at least it’s free!
Site Speed & SSL
Site speed is a very important factor in how well your website does, how long readers stay on, and how Google sees your site. The good thing is that you don’t have to worry too much about site speed in the beginning since your site is brand new and doesn’t have a lot of content.
To test the speed of your website, simply use this tool!
And that brings us to SSL. Because an SSL certificate helps protect your website data, it’s actually a requirement for accepting payments online.
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is an internet protocol for securing data transfer between a user’s browser and the website they are visiting.
Every internet user transfers information when they visit websites. This information can often be sensitive like payment details, credit card information, or login credentials.
Using the normal HTTP protocol means this information can be hijacked by hackers. This is where SSL or HTTPS comes in.
Websites need an SSL certificate issued by one of the recognized certificate issuing authority. This certificate is verified and highlighted in the user’s browser address bar with a padlock sign and HTTPS instead of HTTP.
So whenever you look at a URL and you see HTTP, and not HTTPS, it means that the website is not secure.
Obviously we want our blogs to be secure as this will ensure we have the trust of our readers. Not only that, having an SSL certificate helps when it comes to seo. Google will be very hesitant to rank any websites that do not have SSL certificates because they could potentially cause harm. And obviously Google wants people to feel safe when they use their search engines and click on websites.
SSL certificates can become a little pricey, but luckily with Bluehost we can get an lower tier SSL certificate for free following these steps. This free SSL certificate is likely all you will ever need unless you plan on building a serious e-commerce store that handles payments and sensitive information.
Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization means to optimize a website specifically for mobile devices. Follow along to find out why mobile optimization is so important nowadays, and how to make sure your blog is optimized for mobile devices.
Why Mobile Optimization Is Important
Have you ever accessed a website from your phone and found it annoyingly difficult to properly use? Were there tiny buttons and links and was the font all wrong? Was there an ad that took up more than half of the page?
All of these things make for a horrible mobile user experience. Readers don’t want to work hard for the information they need. They want everything to be easily accessible, and simple to digest. A website that doesn’t deliver this, no matter how valuable the information, will lose a lot of potential readers.
Mobile optimization becomes an even more important task when you learn the stats and figures surrounding mobile usage. More people use mobile devices to access the internet nowadays than a desktop or laptop, and these numbers just keep growing. An even more startling statistic is that mobile users spend twice as much time on their devices than they do on desktops and laptops.
There is a seriously large audience growing within the mobile tech space, and predictions strongly support the assumption that in a decade’s time, we will hardly rely on desktops and laptops and largely just use mobile devices to access information and do shopping.
Mobile Optimization Checklist
- Choose a 100% responsive web design/theme
- Responsive themes conform to the screen size on which they’re viewed
- Compress your images
- Large image files will slow down your site. The smaller the files, the faster the site
- Make sure pop-ups are easy to go away
- Nobody wants to search for a tiny x somewhere within a pop up to make it go away
- Make sure buttons are large enough for a finger to press
- Make sure your font is large enough to comfortably read on a mobile device
- Use auto-fill forms
- Perform mobile tests on a regular basis to see where improvements are needed
Pinterest Account Optimization
⃞ GET A BUSINESS ACCOUNT
- Check out this article to learn how. This is important so Pinterest can differentiate you as a content creator instead of just a regular user.
⃞ ADD A PROFILE PHOTO
- Make sure it’s high resolution with your face visible. Also, if you’re a male it might be ideal for you to post a picture with a female because most Pinterest users have said they prefer to follow women… weird, right?
⃞ KEYWORD YOUR BIO
- Talk about how you can help your ideal reader. Here’s an example: NotQuiteanAdult teaches young people how to save money, ways that they can make more money, how to land their dream job and live their best life! Check us out!
⃞ KEYWORD YOUR BOARD NAMES
- Try your best NOT to use cutesy board names. These aren’t things people will search on Pinterest so people won’t find your boards. (i.e., using Yum Yums instead of Dinner Ideas)
⃞ KEYWORD YOUR BOARD DESCRIPTIONS
- Having keywords in your board descriptions help Pinterest know what the board is about since there is minimal content on it. You want to use keywords that are relevant to the board and try to avoid any words that may confuse Pinterest!
⃞ CLAIM YOUR WEBSITE
- Claiming your website is important because it shows Pinterest that you actually own the articles/content you’re promoting on Pinterest. This will help them differentiate you from spammy accounts that aren’t legitimate. You can learn how to claim your website in this article.
⃞ CREATE A BLOG BOARD
- Your blog board is a Pinterest board that will only include your content. It’s a place where your readers can go to see all of your pin images that go only to your content so they know what to expect. It’s also helpful to have everything pinned there so in the future if you need to find a pin image you know where to look. You can call it something like “Best of *your blog name*” or just the title of your blog.
⃞ ADD 20-30 PINS TO EACH BOARD
- When you create a new board Pinterest doesn’t have much information to go off of to actually know what that board is about. That’s why it’s important to pin relevant content to that board over the first few days of it existing. This will help Pinterest categorize the board as well as categorize any future pins you add to the board.
⃞ TURN ON RICH PINS
- Rich pins are a feature on Pinterest that will take information directly from your website and pull it onto Pinterest so they have more information to help categorize your content. It’s very important! You can learn how to turn on rich pins in this article!
⃞ DON’T WASTE TIME ON BOARD COVERS
- Board covers may look your profile look cute, but they take hours to create and upload to Pinterest and won’t actually do anything for your blog traffic. Most people make them because they feel like it will make them seem more professional, but MOST people won’t actually land on your Pinterest profile.
Final Thoughts
If you made it all the way here, congrats! You’ve already gotten way farther than many people out there by educating yourself on how to get started blogging. This article serves as the basis so that you can set up your very own blogging business.
You should know that everyone’s journey is different. Keep that in mind if you do end up in various blogging groups, as it can get extremely overwhelming and it is very easy to second guess all of your moves when you read about other people’s experiences.
Keep your path. learn from your mistakes, and you will succeed!
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