Turning Your Personal Blog Into Business

Almost everybody who is anybody in the social media world today either has it or had once experienced having it. Blogging started as the technology-savvy diary, and now it is more than that. It is a business opportunity, and who doesn’t love business.

With about 6.7million people on blogging websites and another 12million people blogging on other social media, getting your personal blog to produce revenue would require hard work, dedication and some tips.

Here is a few ways how.

  • Identify your audience

According to successful blogger Neil Patel, the first thing you should do is to get to know your audience. This is the basic strategy to any marketing medium there is out there, and it works. Knowing your audience well enables you to produce and deliver articles that they want. Patel suggested Google analytics, which helps you identify not only their demographics but other specific categories like affinities and in-market segment.

  • Have a vision board

Most of the successful blogs have a single theme that differentiates them from other blogs. Pick a category and stick with them. If you are into fashion and have lived in two different countries, talk about fashion in the two countries. If you love travelling, do a travel blog.

List out, or draft out your vision board and have a mission statement. As strict as this sound, it will actually help you stay on track and come up with blog ideas. It will also keep your audiences interested.

  • Expand your skills

Writing alone is not enough at times. So try expanding your skills into photography, videography, and even web designing. You don’t have to be a master at everything but knowing the basic will help you manage your blog and keep it interesting. On top of it, you don’t have to outsource, so this saves you money so you can invest on other things, like your article materials (travelling, new camera, etc.)

According to Social Media Examiner, 71% of marketers report using visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy. And according to another source, Articles with images get 94% more views. (Jeff Bulas) As more and more people browse internet through their mobile, visuals attract more attention than text. So better get brushing on that photography skills.

  • Cash on advertisements

Advertisements pay. The easiest way to set this up is to register your blog for Google Ad.

If you are just getting started, than this is your best option. It takes about 5 minutes to set-up and you don’t have to worry about it ever again. It might not pay you RM200 a month at the start, but the money will come as your traffic grows.

However, you might want to be careful not to bombard your readers with too much ads. 1 to 2 ad banners should suffice. After all, you are running a blog, not an online billboard.

Once you are more confident with it, research other ad networks like Adknowledge and Clicksor.

  • Affiliate Programs

Like banner and text advertisements, affiliate programs require you to place an advertisement for another business. The only difference is that you don’t get paid until a sale is made through your clicks. Try picking a business that would suit your blog theme. Amazon and BN.com is a great place to start for this service.

  • Create a brand and merchandise it

Do you have a tagline you always use? Do you have a catchy blog name or a unique logo? Merchandise it. The easiest way is to make t-shirts. Bloggers like Goubtube and Cian Twomey are two of famous youtube bloggers that launched their own t-shirt line with their tagline, and their unique facial expression.

There are two ways of doing this, either your scout a local t-shirt store with a copy of your brand and have it delivered to you within a few days, or week or you can order online from on-demand branding websites like Vistaprint and CustomInk.

You might have to invest a few Ringgit, but that is what business is all about.

  • Take advantage of SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is a service that aims to improve your search engine rankings. There are plenty of SEO tools like Google Analytics and Moz Pro that helps you improve your site traffic, which in return brings you more revenue. Different SEO tools caters to different services like generating keywords for your blog, filing a report of your audience traffic and also helping you develop content for your site.

Once you have a clear idea of what your need, where you are heading and what your budget is, you can pick an SEO tool that works best for you.

 

The key here again is to be consistent and to put work in. If you are managing a weekly blog, make sure you have fresh content every week on the same day. You also have to promote yourself consistently. The internet is a fast-moving realm and once you slack off you will easily be replaced by another new blog. Don’t be afraid to experiment but stick to what you know best. Have fun exploring!

ThunderQuote is the most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.

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