10 Steps to Win with Blogging in 2021
By: Christopher Luxe
Tags: Marketing, Business, Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Writing

10 Steps to Win with Blogging in 2021

A no-stress guide

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

2021 is almost here and now is a good time to start a blog so that you can experience some success and make real money in the new year.

Many people choose blogging as their professional career and make a decent income doing it. Many newcomers consider blogging to be their professional career but don’t know the proper way to start making money.

However, if you want to start a blog, you have to go through the steps and do the work. And if you’re diligent your blog can perform well and earn more revenue with your blog. This article is about starting and running an effective blog business to earn a little more in 2021.

Here are the steps to start a blog and make money in 2021:

1. Choose a suitable niche

Before you plan to develop a blog, you should decide on the blog’s niche. At this stage, some research may be needed on the market/niche because domain knowledge is necessary to write and run a niche blog.

Several niches can be used for your blogs, but you should plan to choose just one that’s dear to your heart and interests. If you choose a competitive niche, then it can be difficult for you to rank on search engines against your peers. Don’t be afraid of this. Some of the more common niches are written as follows:

Fashion

Health & Fitness

Sports

Education

Technology

Marketing

News

2. Choose a conspicuous brand name for your blog

Blogging is a real business in which you invest your money, time, and effort. In this regard, you need to consider branding your blog by giving it a professional, creative name. A good name could attract the audience to read your blog when the name is discussed. Once you have selected the niche, you should focus on choosing the best name that fits your niche and attracts the attention of the user.

Remember that the name you select must be unique and interesting. Hopefully, the domain will be available for your blog that matches your desired blog name. Finally, the name should fully describe your brand and be inviting to your target demographic.

3. Buy a domain and hosting

The domain is the name used by users and search engines to recognize and access your blog while hosting is the server on which all your files are stored. There are thousands of domain registrars and website hosting companies.

The task is to find the best domain registrar and hosting provider because bad hosting will cause a lot of problems for your blog. The main concerns would be the speed and security of your blog. If your website’s page speed is not fast, search engines won’t rank your site higher than your competitors.

4. Choose a platform for your blog

Here are two ways to create your blog–use a content management system (CMS) and or code it from the ground up. If you know how to code, you can create your own blog, but it could be a complex and time-consuming to create an appealing blog this way.

The CMS is the most popular option and WordPress is the most commonly used CMS. WordPress is one of the best options for making your blog because it provides the themes and plugins that will help you develop and launch your site quickly. Besides, you can change the colors of your blog, header, footer, or add the post to WordPress quickly and very easily. If that’s not enough, WordPress is available on the cPanel of most web hosting platforms.

5. Customize your blog

In this step, you need to install a WordPress theme or develop it yourself. After that, you have to choose the colors you want for your blog and generally customize it. The best combination of colors increases the interest of readers. If you use WordPress, you can add neat widgets on your header, body, sidebar, and footers to improve user experience.

6. Create a content strategy

By this point, your blog’s done and the steps to operation and monetization begin! Now, you can create some of the effective strategies for the regular writing of your content. The content should be unique, informative, and inviting to the reader and if you are successful with your content strategy, your visitor will become loyal readers! In addition to writing, make strategies to organize your content with a content calendar, optimize your content, and share it via your social media channels. You won’t regret it.

Power tip: Use a duplicate content checker before publishing content from another writer on your blog.

7. Search Engine Optimization

To reach the top position on SERPs (search engine result pages), you should apply SEO optimization to your blog in the following ways:

On-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO

Technical SEO

Backlinking

Keyword research

Social Media Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

8. Apply for AdSense and other sources of income

There are many ways to earn money from your blog, including ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and event blogging. A couple of these options are briefly explained below:

Display Ads

The best-known brand for displaying the ads is Google AdSense, which pays you according to clicks and impressions on your website. You should apply after you have read the Terms of Use and after your blog is six months old. You can also apply for Ezoic after your website reaches 10,000 sessions per month or Mediavine after your blog reaches 50,000 sessions per month.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is to sell someone’s product, but by displaying and discussing the product on your blog. If your site visitor buys a service or product after clicking an affiliate link on your blog, you will receive a commission under the agreement. Cha-ching! You can look into making an affiliate account with companies like Amazon and eBay.

9. Social Media Marketing

We all know the importance of social media in today’s world, and if you (or someone on your team) are not active on social media then you are missing a big opportunity to share your content. Your readers and competitors are on social media and you should be too.

10. Analytics

Analytics are kind of like having exam results year-round. Analytics helps you measure the success rate of your campaigns, whether on your blogging, link building, or social media marketing. Analytics help you to know the views, bounce rate, and session time of your website. If you’re not measuring your traffic via analytics then you don’t know where you stand. Don’t skip this last important step for starting a blog in 2021.

Use Google Analytics to track website analytics for your blog and Hotjar to track how visitors interact with your website. That’s it. No unnecessary conclusion needed. Get to work now by choosing your blog’s niche.