The internet is a world full of money-making opportunities, and these opportunities online can either be free or paid for. One easy and free way to make money online is to provide important or useful pieces of information for readers online. And this is done through blogging. We have free blogging platforms and we also have paid blogging platforms. For the free blogging platforms, you don’t pay for hosting space. All you need is a registered domain name or you can use their free subdomains to operate. And for the paid blogging platforms, you have to pay to use their CMS (content management system) and everything else. Blogger or Blogspot is one good example of a free blogging platform. WordPress is an example of a paid blogging platform. In WordPress, you pay to host your blog, you also buy most of their very useful blogging features. There are other blogging platforms online, but the above two are the best online. In this article today, we will discuss more on blogging for money.

In real life, before you venture into any business, first you need to know why you want to do that business. This will enable you channel your energy and time toward the right direction to produce effective results. Same with blogging. Although, some people blog for passion. While some blog for a purpose. In either ways, you still need to ask yourself, “why do I want to blog?” If you fall in one of the below reasons, then, this article is for you:

• To make money
• To build your writing skills
• To express your passion
• To build a community online
• To become popular online and offline

Number one above is one common thought that easily pops up in every new blogger’s mind. Also, as a novice in blogging, if not guided with the right info, your passion or purpose might quench, after some time of blogging without expected results. Oh yes! You heard me right. This is why we are having hundreds of thousands of abandoned blogs online. You sure don’t want to fall into this category.

Below, we will be taking these steps in order of importance. I mean, when the first one is neglected, the next one suffers, same with other steps that come after.

STEPS TO CREATING A BLOG THAT DRIVES TRAFFIC AND GENERATES REAL REVENUE

Choose Your Niche:

I believe this is the determining factor in blogging. If you get this wrong, every other attempt or step will be affected. In choosing your blog niche, you have to be very careful, as this will determine your position in the market, the type of audience to your blog, how professional you are in that area and how much of revenue you will generate online.

Before you choose your niche, you must answer the questions below:

• How good are you in this niche?
• Can you create a lot of useful contents around this niche?
• Can your created articles proffer solutions to your readers?
• How long can you be active in this niche?
• How popular is your chosen niche in the niche market?
• Do you know your competitors in your niche?
• Can you compete with them?
• What is your niche search volume?
• Are you passionate about this niche, or are you purpose-driven?
• Does your niche cover high paying keywords?

Note: If your “NO” in the above questions is up to 3. I will advise you to choose another niche.

Also, I will advise that your niche should be useful and productive in the below ways a blogger can make money online:

> Affiliate marketing
> Sponsored contents
> Ad revenue (AdSense, Infolink, etc)

There are about 300 known niches online, but only a few of them are popular. Some are broad e.g Healthcare. Under this, we have Mental health, health and fitness, disease and conditions, weight loss and so on. So, when you choose a niche, focus on covering everything, and don’t narrow your niche to it’s sub-niche.

According to statistical reports, Personal finance is the most lucrative niche in the market. And the second most lucrative niche is Food.

Income of 3 Personal Finance Blogs:
ThePennyHoarder = $1M + per year
DollarSprout = $200K + per month
MakingSenseofCents = $100K + per month
Below are list of some blog niche to choose from:

Health
Food
SEO
Technology
Money making
Finance
Insurance
Weight loss
Lifestyle
Blogging
Parenting
Loans
Travel or tourism
Diseases and treatment, etc.

When you have carefully chosen your niche, then you can move to the next.

Choose A Domain Name:

Yes you heard that clearly. Everyone needs an identity online. To own a presence online, you need to register a domain name. First, search for a domain name that either speaks about your niche or about you or what you do. This will make your online marketing easier. Make it short and simple to remember, so that your audience can always remember your domain name and return to your blog. After this, you will need to search for a domain name registrar to register your domain name. But if you are using WordPress, you will also need to search for WordPress hosting, register and pay to host your WordPress blog.

Choose A Blog Design:

This also plays an important role in blogging. Carefully choose the right template or theme. I will recommend an SEO responsive blogger template, with an excellent page load time. Keep your widgets at the minimal rate, as too many widgets will cause your blog page to be very slow in loading. It will affect your SEO. That means very big loss in website traffic. Avoid adding JavaScripts or large banners to the top of your page. Your blog design should be user friendly and not offensive. Users should be able to navigate your blog easily without stress. Avoid too many colours. Be professional with your design.

Create Good Contents:

This is the life of a blog, good and original contents. This is what keeps your readers coming back again and again for more.

Don’t just write, help some: It is not just about the contents, it’s about offering solution to your readers. In other word, be a solution giver and not a time waster. Give your readers good reasons to come back again, with good and useful contents. That is how to make your name heard in your niche.

Remember, when you write or create a content or article, always remember to add those useful keywords that are related to your niche both in your post title and in your contents. This is very imperative. This is the Oxygen your contents need to survive and stay alive online.

Create Backlinks For SEO:

Backlinks are like blood that keeps your blog alive and working. Without this, surviving online will be very hard and stressful for you.
There are ways to build backlinks for your blog for free. You can do this by submitting your blog to top dofollow directories with high domain authority or high page rank, top dofollow social bookmarking websites with high pr, top profile creation sites with high PR, submit blog to search engines and more. If you can get as enough backlinks, there should be no need to pay for internet marketing. Another way to create backlinks and promote your blog is to add social sharing buttons to your blog, either below post title or below post body. With this, your readers can share your post with their friends on social networks. This means more traffic to your blog.

Place Ad On Your Blog:

As mentioned above, there are many ways a blogger can make money online and Ad revenue is one of them. You make money on your blog by displaying contextual ads. There are 100s of Ads companies online, but few offer high paying ads e.g. Google AdSense. This is the people’s favourite. And the best way to earn big with AdSense is to post good and rich contents with relevant long tail keywords related to your niche in your contents. Signup with AdSense and get approved to start making money with AdSense.

Affiliate Marketing:

This is another popular way bloggers are making money online., by joining affiliate programs and promoting or internet marketing products and services related to their niche on their blogs. There are thousands of affiliate programs online, but only a few are worth it. Some of these affiliate programs offer products and services with high sales rate or percentage, good affiliate marketing tools, mouth watering referral program, fast payment and so on. We have some recommendations for you: AdmitAd , Rakuten Advertising, Commission Junction.

Accept Sponsored Contents On Your Blog:

This is another way to make more money on your blog, by sponsoring articles about company, product or service on your blog. On Blogmeloud, we have so many sponsored contents on product and service review. This is one good way of generating revenue with your blog. But remember, never indicate an article as Sponsored. This doesn’t go well with Google.