Does your business need to get on the blog bandwagon? Maybe you’ve heard about people making money from blogging, and it sounds pretty easy — as well as a lucrative way to drive more traffic to your business site. The truth is it can be easy, once you get rolling, but the most frustrating part is the early stage when you’re faced with a number of growing pains.
Blogs can take up a lot of time, and there’s no such thing as a born blogger. In fact, it’s often best to leave it to the pros. You need to know a few things about blogging for income before you get started. First, keep in mind that this is a slow process and it will be months before you start earning anything. This will test your determination, and it shows you whether keeping up with a blog is really for you.
Before writing a blog, consider what other people (like your customers!) are interested in, not just you. Of course, it will be truly beneficial if you’re passionate about something, or at least knowledgeable about a subject, that’s regularly searched for. Let’s say you’re a wedding videographer or you manage a pet store in Austin. You already have a smorgasbord of knowledge to share.
For your first blog, you can go the semi-free route with Blogger or WordPress — an SEO firm can set these up for you. They are both fairly easy to use, and you can customize a .com domain for less than $20 per year. Check to make sure obvious, clear URLs are available.
You can also have a website developer place a blog on your current website. This will put you ahead of the game.
Start blogging as if you already have an army of followers. Focus on high-quality, original content with well-researched SEO. Search your competitors’ sites and see what kind of phrases pop up on their homepage or in the meta tags. Choose a few key phrases for every blog post and organically place them.
Don’t start dabbling with spinning software or outsourced articles just yet. Hopefully you’re getting into blogging because you’re a decent writer or you’re ready to pay someone who is. Capitalize on that, edit your blogs twice before posting and commit to at least one post per week. It doesn’t sound like much, but if you can’t keep up with that from the start, it’s not for you.
Google AdSense is the starting point for many people, but you might not realize that you need a site for at least six months before applying. Google has that rule in place for a reason. You need to prove you’re serious and you’re in it for the long haul. Use those six months wisely and set your foundation.
After you’ve secured AdSense, it’s time for affiliate marketing. Build your presence with social media. You’ll learn as you go, and your next blog will be easier and move along much faster. Sound intimidating and time-consuming? Contact Be Locally SEO, your blogging professionals, and let us take care of everything for you.