How To Start A Profitable Blogging Business In 2024
Starting a WordPress blog is the best way to start earning money from ads, affiliate marketing , sponsorship and online coaching business. It works as a central hub for all the sales marketing funnels/ content you put on the internet just like a website serves the core part of any business.
In 2024, it costs less than $100 to make a wordpress website and make it live for the internet. However, in this we will walk you through the process of how you can start a blog this year and start earning money .
How to Start Blog In 2024
Before you start a blogging business, you have to deeply understand why you want to start and what excites you most. Write down your short and long-term blogging goals. These may include: launching my blog, writing twelve 2,500+ blog posts, getting 100 backlinks, generating $1,000/month, etc.
Choose Your Niche
Your blogging niche should be in an area that matches your expertise and the interesting topics you want to write about. Plus, it should also have keyword monetization opportunities.
Most importantly, choose a blogging niche that has high market demand and a high-paying audience who will purchase something on the internet. To find monetizable keywords, you can use a tool like Ahrefs to do it.
Research Other Blogs
Once you’ve decided on your niche, perform keyword research and look into low competition keywords ( Example: best credit cards). Find a list of 20 keywords you want to rank on the first page of the google search engine.
Then check the top 10 websites already ranking for these keywords and look for the Domain Rating of the sites currently ranking. You should choose keywords to write with high search volume, competition levels under 30%, and at least one low DR site ranking on page one.
Pick Your Domain Name
Choose your domain name as(Your First name+last name).com to ensure you’re not pigeonholing your options. Because Your blog’s domain name is very important to build your personal brand on the internet and use this leverage to scale your blog in the future.
Install Your WordPress Theme
Studiopress themes are the best WordPress theme to use to design your website from scratch. To give the best experience to the readers, you should use a fast and easy-to-use WordPress theme. You simply purchase a theme, download the zip file, and install it in your WordPress dashboard under Appearance – Themes.
Then you can make all of your themes edit inside of WordPress under Appearance – Customize. Check out StudioPress Pro to choose WordPress themes for your website.
Keyword Research For Posts
In the initial timeline, you should at least have at least 12+ potential blog post ideas that you’d like to post on your blog. Look for competition level below 30% because it’s easier to rank in the shortest possible time on the first page of google.
When writing your initial blog post, make sure to add the target keywords in the blog post title, URL, and semantic keyword throughout the body of the post. Use tools like Surfer SEO to get the best idea on how to rank for certain keywords. Surfer will give you data on how many times you should add the target keywords and semantic keywords to the actual blog post.
Install Your WordPress Plugins
Choosing the best WordPress plugins you need to operate a blogging business is essential. Make sure you install these plugins before you move on:
- Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster
- Classic Editor
- BigCommerce For WordPress
- CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent & Compliance Notice (CCPA Ready)
- Extended Widget Options
- Elementor Pro
- Mammoth .docx converter
- OptinMonster
- WordPress Shortcodes Plugin — Shortcodes Ultimate
- WP Rocket
- ThirstyAffiliates
- WP Last Modified Info
- Easy Table of Contents
- Mashshare Share Butt
- ShortPixel image optimizer
- Yoast SEO
Change Your WordPress Settings
In your WordPress dashboard, you need to change the permalink structure of your post to make it SEO friendly. Here is the process:
• Settings/Permalinks: Change your permalinks structure to this Custom Structure: Yourblog.com/%postname%
Write Your First Blog Post
While writing the blog post, you need to remember that you don’t need dozens of articles to start with. In the beginning, You only need 5 pillar posts on your blog and 1 of them should be a linkbait post. Meaning that this linkbait post will help you to get backlinks from other blogs on the internet. Take a look at my post: “High-paying affiliate programs” is a perfect example of a linkbait post. Plus, try to write 5 long-form posts because one 2500+ word article is more valuable than five 500 word blog articles. So think strategically:
Optimize your blog post titles:
- Use numbered lists: Add odd numbers at the beginning of your post in case it is a list post because it attracts more clicks on google. For example:159+, Best High Paying Affiliate Programs (2022) will attract more clicks than 160+ Best High Paying Affiliate Programs (2022). Ultimately, It’s a general tendency to click on the odd numbers.
- Title length: Remember that your blog post title should not exceed more than 60 characters.
- 3. Add your target keyword at or near the beginning of the title (and URL).
Link Building Fundamentals:
Your blog needs a link in order to rank on page 1 of Google SERPs.
There are five main components to the link building process:
1. (Email+LinkedIn)Outreach
2. Guest Post
3. Outsource
4. Backlinks
5. Repeat indefinitely
If you want to build a profitable blogging business, you need to operate like a CEO and not as a writer. Let’s get into the link-building process of 2024.
Guest Blogging
Link is the currency on the internet, and guest is your first way to get into the link-building process for your website. Primarily, you want to build real relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
Don’t get into the process by thinking about what you want from them; rather, think about what value you create for them and their readers. Ultimately, you want to write for their readers and create a link back to your website so that you can build your initial domain in order to rank on google. Ask yourself these before you want to reach out to them through email outreach:
- Does your expertise matches their audience’s interests
- do they need any content to fill out their editorial calendar
- Can leverage link-building opportunities for them in other guests you are writing.
- Can you write on a topic that matches your expertise but doesn’t exist on their website?
The first step of email outreach is “you need to think about what value you can provide to them. Then start hunting email contact addresses using Hunter.io.Before you reach out to them through email, connect with them using LinkedIn.Go to the company page you want to reach out for the guest post. On the LinkedIn company page, search by term “SEO manager” content manager or editor; LinkedIn will show you 2-5 results; simply connect with them with a note.
Here’s a sample template that I’ve used to reach out target website:
Subject: Hey, First Name – Writing for Target Website
Hey, First Name,
My name is Your Name, and I’m a blogger at Your Website.
I was checking out the Target Website and loved your article on Title of Article w Link to Article.
I currently write Number guest posts per month and would love to contribute to your blog. I think that my background matches content that would be beneficial to your audience.
Here are some recent samples from me:
● Sample 1 with Link
● Sample 2 with Link
● Sample 3 with Link
Let me know what you if you’re interested, and I can send over a few topic ideas.
Have a great day!
Your Name
Blog Monetization Timeline:
Your primary goals in starting a blogging business are attracting an audience to your blog, monetizing those audiences, and ultimately making affiliate income. Here are a few ways you can make money from your blog:
- Advertising
- Online courses
- Coaching and consulting.
- Selling digital products
- Affiliate revenue
There are four distinct areas of focus when it comes to monetizing your blog:
- 1-90 days: Consulting and coaching (0-1,000 monthly site visitors)
- 90-180 days: Affiliate products ( 1,000-2,500 monthly site visitors)
- 180-365 days: Your first online course (5,000+ monthly site visitors)
- 365 days and beyond: Course memberships (10,000+ monthly site visitors)
Final Thoughts
Before you want to make a substantial amount of money from your blog, you need a domain and a web hosting service to make a website . I recommend using Bluehost for hosting your domain in 2024. However, when hosting a website on Bluehost , you will get a free domain name at no additional cost. Then you will write 5 pillar posts for the website and create 4 core pages of the website and start outreaching other bloggers and websites to get backlinks pointing to your website in 2024.
