Most bloggers start their blog as a side hustle with a far fetched dream to make it as their main thing and pay their bills from it. Yes, these side hustles have the potential to become big someday and countless bloggers are earning a hefty sum of money through blogging, but all of it has not come easy.
If not in the literal sense, it has taken these blogger’s blood, sweat and tears to become profitable and successful. Regular experimentation based on user feedback with one eye constantly looking at the goal of profitability is what is required to reach this position.
Though, Let’s see what are the 6 tactics to make your blog profitable.
1. Find your Differentiating Factor
Google says there are more than 500 Million blogs already on the internet. 500 Million. That is a huge number. Chances that the area in which you want to start a blog might already be taken by hundreds of people if not thousands.
That’s the reason it becomes important to figure out a differentiation strategy for your blog. The differentiation strategy can be any of the following (not limited to these):
- Content-type (You could only focus on one or a few types of content like Video, Images, Infographic, text)
- Geography to which you are targeting
- User Demography in terms of Age, Gender, Income, etc.
A differentiating factor is vital for the blog to be not passed as just another blog and get its due share of the audience.
2. Invest on a Good Website
For a blog, the website is everything. There is no other product or service which can be marketed without the blog. It is no brainer to understand the importance of a good website. By good website, we just don’t mean good content. A good website also means a great design that enables the user to visit and stay on the website for a longer period of time, a reliable hosting server to have a robust experience, etc.
Website speed is equally important. No one would like to come to a website and wait for a lifetime to load a page. All these are subjective factors but they have a tremendous impact on the experience you are creating for your reader. A good website will cause your readers to come frequently and a bad one would bounce them off only to never come again.
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3. Early Money through Affiliate Marketing
Once you have a substantial audience base built for your blog who are loyal and keep coming to your blog from time to time, then this is an auspicious time for you to start early-stage monetization using affiliate marketing tactic.
By affiliate marketing, we mean setting up affiliate marketing plans with brands so that you get paid a small fee when a user on your website clicks about the brand and ends up making a purchase from that brand. The key point here is to choose the right affiliate partner so that you not only generate revenue but also work with a brand that resonates with your blog.
As a by-product, it also gives you a good idea about what kind of products or services go well along with your blog depending on how the affiliate program(s) have performed. So when you design your own product or service, this becomes an important input.
4. Figure out your Offerings
With your affiliate program in place, you know what products or services work well with your blog and what doesn’t. It is now time for you to up your game and come out with your own products or service. Depending on your blog and its audience you can figure out whether you want to offer a physical product or an intangible service.
If you are a fitness blogger, you may like to Launch your own branded Fitness equipment blogger. If you are a big enough lifestyle blogger, you may launch your own clothing range or Makeup range. If you are a stock market blogger, you may launch your own e-book, book or general consulting/coaching sessions. In case you are a travel blogger, you can launch your own travel packages.
These are just some of the examples, depending on your blog, its audience, you are the best judge to decide your offerings.
5. Iterate and adapt
Iteration is the name of every game now. Once you figure out and deploy all of the above, it is not the time to settle down. In fact, it is the time to get on your toes and see what is working, what is not working, and make the plans for the future. You may have to re-design your offerings, work on pricing, improve the promotion, or just enhance the logistics. But to run this marathon, go step by step and improve at each step.
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6. Make your own mailing list or messaging groups
Don’t be dependent on your readers to always visit your site. It doesn’t work that way. The most lucrative thing you can do when your users land on your site is to collect their emails or phone numbers and insist that they subscribe to your blog. This will ensure that you can reach out to them, instead of just them reaching out to you. Building an audience on social media is also good but most social media channels tend to change their system quite often, which reduces the reach of your content. So, it’s better to have an email list rather than depending on social media.
Making and writing a blog is the easier part. Have a foresighted vision with your blog to gain the maximum returns on investment of effort, time, and money.
In the meantime, here the articles that are helpful for you:
4 Tips to Know if Your Website is Scam
Most Important Technology Tools for Bloggers
Google Analytics 101 for New Bloggers
How to Start and Grow your blog ( FREE Easy Guide for Beginners)
How to Get Approved For Google Adsense