How to Blog And Make Money in 2024
Welcome! In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about how to start a blog that makes money in 2024. Let's get started!
Blogging is alive and well in 2024. In fact, it's arguably one of the best ways to build an audience online and generate income. With over 600 million blogs on the internet, there has never been a better time to start blogging.
In this detailed guide, you’ll discover a step-by-step plan for how to blog and actually make real money in 2024 and beyond.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Step 1: Choose Your Blogging Platform
The first step is selecting the right blogging platform. The main options to consider are:
Self-Hosted WordPress
This is the most popular blogging platform used by over 60% of all sites. You get complete control and unlimited monetization options. But you need to pay for web hosting.
WordPress.com
A fully-hosted free option by WordPress themselves. Super quick to set up but less control and you cannot run ads. Upgrade options allow monetization.
Blogger
Google’s free blogging platform. Very easy to use but no native monetization features. Less customization options vs WordPress.
Medium
Platform focused on longform articles. Very quick and easy to publish content. But you don’t really “own” your blog. Limited monetization features currently.
We suggest starting with self-hosted WordPress using low-cost shared hosting from a provider like Bluehost or SiteGround. This gives you full control to monetize your blog fully over time.
Step 2: Choose a Profitable Blog Niche
Your niche dictates so much about your blog success. Get this wrong from the start can doom your income earning potential before you even get started.
When brainstorming ideas, here are some smart niche selection criteria to use:
Factor 1: Personal Passion Points
What topics do you absolutely love learning and talking about? Ideally this is a niche you can immerse yourself for years to come.
Factor 2: Existing Audience Interest
Use Google Keyword Planner and search volume data to validate market demand and audience interest already exists for topics in your niche.
Factor 3: Money-Making Potential
Study existing sites in your prospective niche and identify what potential money-making approaches would work well for loyal followers. Lots of niches lend themselves well to selling digital info products, affiliate marketing etc.
Factor 4: Competition Analysis
Use SimilarWeb and SEMrush to study sites ranking well for valuable keywords you’d target. Too much competition can make it an uphill battle. The goal is finding "Big Fish in a Small Pond" opportunities.
Check off each criteria above for your top niche ideas to land on a winning choice!
Step 3: Start Creating Valuable Blog Content
High-quality blog content is the lifeblood of any successful blog. Use these proven tips to create compelling content fast that attracts and engages new readers:
Tip 1: Establish an Editorial Calendar
Map out blog post ideas and topics weeks or months in advance using an editorial calendar. This helps you maintain a consistent publishing schedule.
Tip 2: Interview Industry Experts
Reaching out to niche experts for quotes or even full interviews is an easy way to create insightful, authoritative blog content with built in promotional partners.
Tip 3: Curate Content Roundups
Roundup posts with “best of” recommendations curated from around your niche are an easy way to provide lots of value fast without needing to create totally original ideas every time.
Tip 4: Transform Existing Assets
Repurpose other content assets like presentations, videos, podcast interviews etc into new long form blog articles to get more mileage from things you’ve already created.
Follow these tips to continually brainstorm, create and publish amazing blog content optimized for search and social sharing month after month.
Step 4: Promote New Blog Content
You can have the best content in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one finds and engages with it! That’s why blogger promotion across channels is so critical.
Here are 5 powerful yet often overlooked content promotion strategies:
Strategy 1: Email Marketing
Email subscribers are up to 30x more likely to engage vs social media followers. Offer an irresistible lead magnet to rapidly build your subscriber list to tap into this high-converting channel.
Strategy 2: Guest Post Outreach
Reaching out to authority sites in your niche to contribute guest posts is a win/win. You get a backlink, brand exposure to new audiences, and traffic from author bios. Make the topic irresistible!
Strategy 3: Facebook Groups
Engage in relevant Facebook Groups where your audience is already active. Provide value and share your latest content. The groups give a means to connect 1-on-1 with readers.
Strategy 4: Quora Answers
Provide thoughtful answers to questions asked in your niche on platforms like Quora. Insert links to your content resources where relevant. The built-in audience sizes on major platforms are massive!
Strategy 5: Follow Up Sequences
Don’t just publish a post and cross your fingers. Create follow messaging sequences to re-engage website visitors that left without taking action to continue nurturing them over time.
Rinse and repeat across each channel above to continually put your content and brand in front of new audiences primed for what you offer.
Step 5: Make Money Blogging – Top Models Revealed
Here are the most popular and profitable ways top blogs monetize their content, traffic and audiences in 2024:
Google Adsense
This pay-per-click advertising program is free and easy to implement. Just paste their ad code on your site. Google optimizes performance for maximum earnings based on your niche and traffic profiles.
Affiliate Marketing
Promoting other company’s products in your niche is an extremely scalable model. You earn commissions driving leads and sales vs needing to handle product fulfillment logistics yourself. Some top bloggers easily earn over $100k/year strictly from affiliate income streams alone.
Digital Products/Membership Sites
As you build authority in your niche, you can leverage this influence offering premium digital products - online courses, video tutorials, eBooks, membership communities etc. These digital info products often have 60-70% profit margins selling directly to your audience.
Managed Ad Programs
There are ad management platforms like Mediavine, Adthrive and Ezoic dedicated to monetizing blogs. They handle ad sales/optimization and generally earn significantly more than just running basic Google Adsense.
Brand Sponsorships
Lucrative brand sponsorships and ambassador deals are possible as you continue growing your audience and influence. These long term partnerships pay $5k+ per month typically.
Mix and match the models above to create multiple income streams leveraging the audience you attract over time.
Step 6: Measure and Optimize Metrics
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Be rigorous about tracking key blog performance indicators to continually fine-tune your growth:
Traffic
Measure your monthly website visitors across both organic and social channels using Google Analytics. Set targets to accelerate growth over time via promotion strategies.
Subscribers
Your email list size tied to lead magnet opt-in offers is critical for building predictable revenue and orchestrating launches of new products. Benchmark open and click through rates to optimize subscriber engagement.
Revenue
Whether it’s advertising income, product sales or affiliate earnings - track monthly revenue growth across every stream. Identify your biggest wins to double down on what’s working.
Continually monitor your core metrics to shape priorities and investments towards the highest potential activities fueling your growth. This leads to a positive compounding effect over time.
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Thanks for reading this in-depth guide on how to start a blog and make money in 2024! I hope you feel empowered to get started and launch your own successful money-making blog this year powered by your unique passion points and expertise.
The opportunity is there for the taking. Now get out there, pick your niche, start publishing great content, and begin monetizing your influence! Wishing you tremendous success. Read more.
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