Wikipedia described blogging as a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page.
Understanding Blogging Business
This course will work you through all you need to have a good understanding of the blogging business. Blogging will seize to sound like a buzzword to you.
You will learn how to rank your website to receive numerous traffic. And also learn different monetisation strategies that will help you to earn even seven figures from your blog.
Taking this blogging business short course will help you to understand the dynamics of the business and how you can become a successful blogger.
Course Objectives
This course will cover the followings:
Choosing Blogging Niche
Choosing Blogging Platform
Creating a Blog Site
Writing Your Blog Posts
Share Your Blog Widely
Monetizing Your Blog
Bonus: Blogging Tips
These topics will be well explained. So what are you waiting for? Use the SIGN-UP or START LEARNING button to begin.
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Blogging Introduction
In the past, people start blogs to air their personal views. But these days, people start blogging as a full-fledged business or a means of promoting their businesses.
There are a lot of people in our world today who make their total earnings from blogging. They use different monetization strategies in their blogging business.
What blogging need is commitment? If you can sacrifice some time and write passionately, you would become a successful blogger.
Choosing Blogging Niche
A niche simply means the topic of the blog you are covering. Bloggers choose a niche or topic for their blog. This is good to establish authority in that field. Google as a search engine also favours websites that are niche specific.
So how do you find a niche?
Finding the correct niche is the most critical aspect of creating a blog, yet it is often ignored. If you choose a subject with a lot of competition, high-authority websites will crush your blog.
If you choose a narrow topic with little demand, your blog will have little influence. You must select a middle-of-the-road specialty that can also be readily commercialized.
So basically, there are key points that you should consider when choosing a niche.
1. Choose a topic that interests you
When choosing a blog niche, it is important you choose based on what you like doing. As the going gets tougher, only your passion for that topic will keep you going.
So think of what you like doing or think you will like to learn and/or talk about. It could be what you studied in school, your work, or simply your hubby. Just about any subject that excites you when you talk about it. You do not need to be an expert on this subject.
2. Conduct market research
The next step is to conduct market research. When I started blogging, I used to write about the topics I like rather than about what people are searching for. Before choosing a blog niche, should make sure people are interested in the topic you are about to write. Except if you want only you and your family member to be the readers.
Again, you should also consider if there are big guys (already established blogs) dominating that niche. If the topic is a very competitive one, then, you will have to check if you can beat the competition as a beginner or look for another niche.
3. Be sure it is profitable
One last thing you should consider is profitability. I assume you don’t want to start blogging for just passion, but also for profits.
So consider if there are business owners who may be interested in displaying adverts on your blog or asking you for sponsored posts.
It is now your turn, choose wisely.
Choosing Blogging Platform
There are a lot of blogging platforms today. Choosing the best for your blog may be daunting for an absolute beginner. But we are here to make the journey smooth for you.
There are many blogging platforms one can choose from. Each of them has a good and bad side of it. But we are going to focus just on three platforms.
Let’s take a look at them
1. Blogger
Blogger is an online content management system developed in the United States that allows for multi-user blogs with time-stamped updates. Pyra Labs created it before being purchased by Google in 2003.
Blogger allows its users to create blogs in a subdomain known as blogspot.com. Users can also use their custom domain on the blogger platform.
If you are just starting with blogging without any budget. I suggest you start with a Blogger platform that can help you to start publishing content immediately. Although there are some limitations, you can always migrate when you have the fund to do so.
2. WordPress
WordPress is a PHP-based content management system that is free and open source. Plugin architecture and a template system, known as Themes in WordPress, are among the core features.
It is important to know here that there are two types of WordPress. They are WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
WordPress.org (ie. self-hosted) is the most popular blogging platform. But it requires some technical skills and money before you can start using it.
Please check out our tutorial on WordPress Web Design.
3. Medium
Medium is an American online writing platform founded in August 2012 by Evan Williams.
The platform is free to use and content published here can be monetized if the publisher is accepted into their monetization plant.
Creating a Blog Site
In this lesson, I will work you through how to create a blog on the Blogger platform. This is somehow similar to creating a blog on Medium. Just like signing up with an online platform.
Creating a Blog on Blogger
Now, let us begin with the steps involved with creating a blog on Blogger.
Go to blogger.com and sign up with your Gmail account.
Choose the blog user name.
Enter the blog URL (eg. foodstuff.blogspot.com)
Click on the Finish button
Setting Up a Blog
Template
After creating your blog, you will have to choose a template for the blog. You can select from the available templates or download a custom template online for free.
Layout
You will have to navigate to the layout section of the blog using the left navigation panel. Here, you will organise the look and contents of your blog site.
Pages
Next is to create vital blog pages such as about us, contact us, privacy policy, disclaimer, etc. This is vital for search engines such as Google.
Settings
You should also look at your settings and adjust them correctly so as not to mislead people who may come to visit your blog.
This is a place where you will set up a custom domain. But you will have to do that with your domain name provider.
If you will be interested in learning how to create a blog with WordPress. Please check out the course in our gallery.
Writing Your Blog Posts
Writing a blog post is similar to other writing. But you need to consider the type of article you intend to write. So you should be clear if you want to write an essay, news, review, listing, documentary, etc.
Blog Content Structure
Blogging has unique content structures that you should take note of. They are:
Paragraph (or Normal)
Title (or H1)
Sub-Heading (or H2)
Minor Heading (or H3
Etc
Blog Tag
A blog tag is a term or phrase that characterizes the content of a blog post. They are a simple method to attach “labels” to your content.
Use tags to sub categorise blog posts that are related. This will help your readers to navigate your blog. It will also help search engines to understand your blog.
Meta Description
A meta description is an HTML element that gives a concise overview of a web page. This is usually what shows when your page appears on SERP. But, some search engines now select and present what they think is the best for the user.
If you still need more, there is a course wholly dedicated to Content Writing for Beginners which will give you in-depth knowledge.
Featured Image
You may have heard that pictures speak thousands of words. Always add featured image to every of your blog post. Use the image that well described the article.
You should also add ALT image text to help search engine to understand the image you used. If possible, add more than one image if you are writing a descriptive or tutorial articles.
Share Your Blog Widely
Search Engine Optimisation is a good method used by many bloggers to get their blog notices from users. But you cannot always rely on SEO. You should also use other methods.
Email Distribution
An email is a wonderful tool used by many bloggers to distribute their articles and get more views. There are many free email marketing tools that you can integrate into your blog.
Examples are:
MailChimp
Sendinblue
Omnisend
Sender
Etc
Social Share
You should also use social media to promote your articles. After publishing your article, share them on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
If you have an active Facebook Group related to your niche, use it to promote your article. People are also using Telegram Channel for this same act.
How do I get people to share my blog?
Here are things you should do to get your readers to share your articles.
Use share button
Remind them to share
Create vibrant title
Write great content
Enhance with images
Forum or Discussion Boards
A forum is another good place to get people to know about your article. You can join Forums like Quora, Reddit, Nairaland, etc.
But you should be careful not to spam them. Otherwise, you will be kicked out.
Monetizing Your Blog
Blog monetisation can be difficult when you are starting up. If you do not have relevant impressions and traffic, no one will be interested in your blog. So you should take a deliberate decision at startup. We recommend that you read our niche selection strategy again.
Below are some of the ways you can use to monetise your blog.
Ads Network
One of the common ways most bloggers use to moentising their site is with ad networks. Google AdSense appears to be the dream of every blogger. It is so nice that some bloggers need it on their sites even if it is just for decoration. Use our AdSense Calculator to measure your earnings.
Other ad networks are - Ezoic, Popads, Adsterra, Adcash, Media.net, Mediavine, PropellerAds, SmartyAds, etc. Just sign up with any of them and wait for their approval.
Direct Ad Space
Advertisers can also approach publishers (bloggers or blog owners) to provide them with an ad space where they can place their advertisements.
This is known as direct ad space and it can be charged based on the duration of the ad and the authority of the website.
Sponsored Post
Bloggers can as well accept publishing advertorial content on their blogs. This may be in a bid to promote a product, service, or general awareness.
It is important to note here that you should be careful of the type of posts you accept to publish in your blog. A post that misleads the public can ruin your blog and your personality.
Digital Products
Another great way of monetising a blog is by selling digital products. For us, Akanne Store is especially for the sale of digital products such as eBooks, Videos, Audio, Templates, Software, Plugins, etc.
By this, you do not have to worry about the hassles in delivering products. You will also not worry about producing more copies. But authorised sharing and reselling of products are big issues you should consider how to deal with it.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a method of earning a commission by recommending a product or service made by another store or advertiser.
You can use your blog to promote products or services related to your blog niche. And earn a commission when you help to facilitate a sale.
For me, I use ShareASale, you can get started with that.
Remember,
There are whole lots of other ways to monetise your blog, including blocking access to highly classified information to only blog subscribers.
What you should focus on is growing your traffic. Once this is done, the opportunity is almost endless.
Blogging Tips
Below are some of the tips you should hold dear as you start your blogging journey.
Always remember that Rome was not built in a day. As you work on your blog, give it time to grow naturally.
When you start a blog, it is recommended that you publish articles on your blog on a regular basis. Consistency is key to blogging success.
Check out what other bloggers are doing to get ideas and inspiration. But never copy content from others. Otherwise, you will be penalised by search engines.
Maintain a writing tone and pattern. Let your readers quickly understand they are reading your article, even if they find it from another place.
If you have a comment section enabled in your blog. Always engage your reader by answering their questions.