Anyone looking for a way to make money from home has at one time or another heard that blogging is one of the easiest ways to do so.
Well I'm here to tell you that isn't the case. Yes it can be done, yes it can be profitable, but easy it isn't. It is like any other business, whether it be online or not. It takes hard work, dedication, and it takes time. Having your own blog and being able to work from home is some peoples dream!
With that said, how does one make money blogging
There are a few things you need to start, one of those, and the most important, is a place to put your blog! A home on the internet where visitors can find your blog! Let me just interject here, many people try to use free sites, and that is their first mistake.
You want to get hosting, and your own domain name. After all, this is going to be your online business, so you should at the very least, make it look professional. Your domain name is important, and it should reflect the type of business your blogging is going to be about, or in other words, it is the niche you have chosen.
There are many places you can get hosting and a domain, I personally use Hostgator. I've set up several sites and have always used Hostgator. Any problems I had, were quickly and professionally taken care of promptly. Their pricing is reasonable, and usually they offer great deals.
Once you have your hosting and domain, I recommend using the Wordpress platform. Install it on your site, and once you have that done, begin to set up your site. If you are new to wordpress, there are literally thousands of videos on YouTube that will guide you step by step to go through the process.
When you are writing a niche blog, you want to be able to find a problem that people are looking for solutions to. You find a solution through some service, program, or product, and whether it is your own product, or an affiliate product, and write your blog about that.If you have done your research, and found something that these people really need, chances are they will buy that program,service, or product.
Sounds simple,right! Well it can be, if you have done everything right,up to this point. The only thing missing is the customers to buy! Getting the customers is the hard part. Customers, otherwise known as traffic is the lifeblood of any online business.
So how does one get visitors,or traffic to see your blog? You can do this in several ways, some free, and some not! One of the best ways, as far as I'm concerned, is through the use of Social Media. There are so many Social Media sites, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Google plus,Pinterest,Instagram, and those are just a few.
So you take a small excerpt from your blog, and post a link to it on all your social media accounts! If people like it and share it, than there may be others who see it and share it as well. It's simple, and it doesn't cost you anything!
A forum is a great place to find traffic. There are forums for just about every topic there is. All you have to do, is type the name of niche you are in with forum following it, and you will see a list of forum sites for that particular niche.
Get involved in the forum, make comments, but make sure they are useful and helpful, there is nothing worse than spamming. If you are leaving all kinds of comments, and not offering anything helpful or thoughtful, you'll soon find yourself banned from that forum.
Once you have made a comment, most forums allow you to place a link to your site, and if people find your comments useful and helpful, they will see your link and just may check out your site! Oh, did I mention, this is also a free method of getting traffic!
The above are just two free methods of getting traffic to your blog/site. There are many other ways as well. I will be continuing this series in more blogs soon. I hope you have found this much, so far helpful, and if so, please look out for the rest of this series.
