The number one question amateur bloggers ask is:
The average earnings of a beginner blogger (someone who is in their first year of blogging) can be anywhere between $200 – $1000 per month.
Having said that, most amateur bloggers roughly earn under $300 a month, and there are many reasons why.
First, a new blog takes time to start ranking on Google, usually between 3-6 months.
Second, blogging is not simply writing and publishing content. There is a lot more work that goes into it, like keyword research.
But once you have a clear understanding of the basics, blogging will be a lot easier and a great way to earn passive income.
The majority of the learning process takes place in the first year, making it a slow but progressing monetization process.
In this post we list out 27 key amateur blogging tips and tools to help grow your blog successfully.
1. First thing to do is research a profitable niche and one that you are passionate about. Some successful blog niche ideas are: parenting, weight loss, finance, pets, recipes and personal development.
2. Get your blog self-hosted on WordPress right from the start. If you are serious about making money from your blog, its best to set a strong foundation and opt for a paid WordPress platform – not the free version.
3. In my opinion, there is no need to “launch” a blog. Launching a blog means creating and drafting out blog posts and getting it ready to be published on a set date.
I started my blog with just 2 posts published and absolutely no audience, and managed to grow it to over 100,000 views a month in 2 years.
What I am trying to say is, you can start your blog with nothing and slowly build it. There is no need to worry about setting up a blog with a bunch of ready-t0-publish blog posts.
4. First thing to do when starting a blog is to think of a blog name and register your domain right away.
Try and get your blog self-hosted as soon as you decide you want to start a blog. Aged domains do well on Google. So the longer your domain is active, it will allow you to rank faster on Google.
5. Now we get to blog design. Try using a clear font for your text. Some easy to read free fonts are Poppins, Lato, Open Sans, Montserrat, Hind and Muli.
7. Don’t waste time on branding and logo. Many bloggers, including myself, spend a lot of time creating the perfect logo design. While logo’s are important, you can always start out with something simple and change this later on.
8. Label all your images with a description. This means when you upload any image to your site – in the featured image section or within the blog post, it needs to have a description.
For example, food bloggers may describe their image as, a plate on a white background with noodles and a bowl of salad.
If an image is a decorative flat lay or a stock photo, a description of the photo is required. Like a bunch of roses on a yellow solid background.
10. Word count – How much should you write? This varies and depends on your topic.
If it is an in-depth tutorial, it can average 2000-3000 words. Or if it’s an answer to a question you can just write up to 800 words. On average a minimum of 1000-1500 words can be considered a good number.
11. Next let’s talk about plugins. Amateur bloggers often worry about what plugins their site needs. Having too many of them can slow down your site.
12. Brainstorm content ideas. Sometimes not knowing what to write is the hardest part. Here are some blog topics to consider:
14. Gaining backlinks are essential for domain authority. What this means is that websites have scores between 0-100 which show domain authority(DA). The higher the domain, the higher the quality of the site.
HARO is free to sign up and you will receive regular emails requesting information about a particular topic.
Once your submitted response is considered, you may get a link back to your site. Sometimes you might just get a mention without a link back. In such cases, you can request to see if a linkback can be provided.
17. Email list – yay or nay? This is a tricky one.
Because the vast majority of bloggers consider having an email list to grow subscribers to sell affiliate products. While this is a good long term strategy I have personally never had much luck here. But it is definitely something to consider.
Plugins such as WP Rocket can help improve site speed if it is not up to mark.
19. Legal pages such as the disclosure page, privacy policy page, terms and conditions page and accessibility pages are all essential legal documents that your blog needs – no matter how small your blog is.
20. As blogging is a self employed business, so make sure you save money to pay taxes. Best way to do this is to keep money aside each month, based on your blog income.
21. There is always a misconception that a blog with less traffic cannot make a lot of money. The truth is if you have a strong affiliate marketing strategy, you can certainly make money with a small blog.
The way you can do this is by promoting high ticket affiliate programs on your site. So if you promote an online course for $500 and earn a 50% affiliate commission, you make an instant $250 in income. Selling just 4 courses a month will give you $1,000 in monthly income.
So yes, amateur bloggers can make money with the right strategy.
22. As your blog grows, you can certainly get help with blog related tasks. Having a virtual assistant can help free up your time. Here are some jobs you can outsource:
23. Concentrate more on ranking your blog on Google rather than focussing all your energy on social media promotion. I did that mistake as an amateur blogger and felt exhausted with social media marketing.
While SEO takes time to work, its good in the long run.
24. Don’t waste money buying too many blog related courses. One, you may not end up going through all of them, and secondly, you may end up getting the same information you already know.
Choose one course to help set up your blog, one for social media promotion and one for SEO.
In my opinion, these are the only three required for an amateur blogger. You can also consider courses in email marketing and affiliate marketing if you feel driven towards them.
25. Treat your blog like a business right from day one.
26. Equip blog that is ready to sell – Write less about yourself, avoid using names in URL, and reduce the amount of personal stories you write.
Like any other business, you can also sell your blog for 30/40 times the monthly income.
It’s also tricky to sell a blog that has a lot of personal experience or stories attached to it.
27. Finally, have a blogging buddy, this certainly helps to stay motivated, and be updated on latest trends and algorithm updates. Blogging is a 100% remote and solo business – if you are doing it on your own. Having someone along this journey can help you stay focussed and motivated.
With 77% of people regularly reading online blogs, and 61% of online users in the US buying something after reading a blog post, and 67% of bloggers who post daily saying their blog is a success, blogging is still profitable in 2022.
They also mention that 20 billion WordPress blogs are viewed monthly by a staggering 409 million user audience.
What is even better news is that 37% of the bloggers made over $100 a month, and 13% of the bloggers made at least $10,000 a year, and 4% made at least $100,000 a year.
Apart from blogging, if you are considering an additional side job to diversify you income, here are some business ideas to consider:
The blogging market is growing as most of the internet is reading blogs on a growing scale.
The best time to create a blog is now, as there is opportunity in every niche with users of all types with different interests.
Even a brand new amateur blog can earn great results in its first year.
The post 27 Amateur Blogging Tips You Won’t Find Anywhere! appeared first on One Fine Wallet.
