The best bloggers are motivated by pure enjoyment. While the blogging business involves many aspects, the best blogs are a product of passion.
If you truly love your subject and the art of writing, you will create compelling content.
In the past, passion might have been enough to build a career. However, in modern times, authors have to take on multiple roles.
They not only have to create the content but also manage the entire publication. This can be advantageous, though.
Writing, and therefore blogging, takes time. Authors need to show some business savvy in order to earn money from their craft.
Fortunately, when it comes to blogging, it’s not that hard. A bit of technical know-how and hard work can go a long way.
How to Run a Blogging Business In 2024?
1. Start Right With a Quality Web Host
The options all look attractive. Dozens of web hosts will offer you an introductory package that costs less than $100 per year.
That’s less than $8 per month, which seems like a steal for hosting a blog. Yet those deals aren’t quite what they seem.
It takes a little research, but finding a good web host is relatively easy.
- Upgrade plans– Introductory plans might be cheap, but a good blog will grow beyond them relatively quickly. Looking at pricing for VPN and dedicated hosting will be important since authors can anticipate paying those fees eventually.
- Data centres– This takes a little googling, but finding what kind of data centres a company uses can make a difference. I recently read that the power company ABB provided secure data centres, so I am now looking for data centres associated with them.
- Customer service– A customer service rep is a gatekeeper for the technical people. Good reps will connect you to the right person. Bad reps will give you the runaround. The test: call the host and see if a human picks up. That’s a good sign. As a question, and see how quickly they connect you to the appropriate party.
2. Find the Ad Networks That Work With Your Niche
Let me preface this with the observation that ad networks, in general, don’t provide much revenue.
Some in the industry call it webmaster welfare because it pays the bills and little more. Still, if running a couple of display ads pays for hosting costs, it can be a worthy investment.
Google Adsense is always the first stop, but this isn’t always the best for a particular niche.
Shop around for auction companies, such as Pulse Point that can provide a higher overall CPM (cost per 1,000 visitors).
Google is also looking for ad networks in a particular niche. A sports blogger would do well to search for “sports blog ad network” and see what comes up.
3. Determine If You’re Affiliate-ready
While ad networks can pay the bills, affiliate marketing can pay for a lifestyle. Of course, not every blog can handle affiliate sales.
After all, it’s called affiliate marketing for a reason. There has to be an active marketing element involved if any money is to be made.
The question a blogger or author has to ask herself is whether she’s prepared to write about products and services and then point readers in that direction.
Some writers are not comfortable with this, and so affiliate links will bring them no revenue.
But a little bit of marketing here and there can certainly pay some more bills. It’s worth a shot.
4. Always Be Emailing
The modern web is all about communities, and it’s amazing what people will do to help people within their communities.
Yet, if a blogger is alone on an island, even a friendly community will not help.
It’s up to the blogger himself to make connections within a community. In most instances, that means emailing.
It takes just a second to send an introductory email. The only advice I can give is to be genuine rather than self-serving.
Ryan Holiday has a great piece on emailing people you don’t know. Make sure to show respect and offer something.
After that, you can build a real relationship within a community.
5. Guest Post Like Crazy
Authors need to guest post to promote their blogs, just as I’m doing right now. This doesn’t have to be crazy.
It should be on a few targeted sites that can provide a few benefits.
- Audience and attention– When an author writes for a new audience, she shows her best stuff to people who might not have heard of her otherwise. With some quality material, some of these people can turn into fans.
- Traffic– This isn’t greatly important, but traffic does build upon itself. In order to get that snowball rolling, there needs to be a boost from somewhere. That can start with a well-placed guest post.
- Ranking– Again, this shouldn’t be of foremost concern, but blogs offer a blogger a link back to his blog when he guest posts. Google then indexes that link, and it raises the blog’s ranking. Building a few links this way can prop up a blog in search engine rankings for its niche terms.
6. Brainstorm Products
Ebooks are hot these days. Many blogs have created ebooks on topics that you won’t see in a local bookstore.
Every author has a story — that’s why they’re authors. Turning that story into an ebook can help generate revenue.
It might even generate more revenue than affiliate sales and ad networks.
This needn’t be a work of fiction. In fact, fiction ebooks don’t sell very well. It should be a story from personal experience that can help others.
A blog on internet marketing might write an ebook on link building or SEO. A blog on food might create a unique cookbook.
There are so many possibilities, and it’s so easy to create an ebook.
7. Analyze Everything
It’s one thing to implement many ideas on the business end of a blog. It’s quite another to keep track of them and determine how they’re helping.
That is to say, it’s not enough to merely collect data. The blogger has to analyze that data and make sense of it in order to make the proper adjustments.
For instance, a blogger might see great success from AdSense but not from a niche ad network. It’s time, then, to start running more AdSense ads.
If affiliate sales are doing well, perhaps it’s time to change an ad network spot to an affiliate one. Are ebook sales not going well?
Perhaps it’s time to come up with a better offering. These adjustments are necessary but can only be made after data are collected and analyzed.
Quick Links:
- Ways by Which You Can Make Your Blog Post Presentable
- Know The Negative and Positive Sides of Guest Blogging
- Types of Blog Posts People Love To Read
- Crucial Steps for Successful Blogging
Conclusion: Run a Blogging Business In 2024
Each of these points can go much deeper, of course.
This is merely a primer for an aspiring, or perhaps established, blogger to get started on the business end.
The good news is that this is the internet, where anyone can find information on anything.
So, go ahead and explore web hosts, ad networks, and affiliate opportunities. It’s all there for the taking.
