You’re passionate about creating content and sharing your expertise. You have put in the efforts to build your blog and attract a following. Now what?
You have seen others monetize their content and you wonder if you too, can turn your blog into a thriving business so all the hard work will pay off.
There are many tried-and-true strategies for building a successful business on top of a blog and here are a few essential steps to get you started:
1. Define Your Audience
Many bloggers just write whatever comes to mind, and that’s all well and good when blogging is a hobby. However, you need to create content that people want to read when you’re building a loyal following to support a business.
The first step to successful content marketing is to understand your audience. You can create buyer personas to define your readers’ challenges and position your content so it’s relevant and helpful.
2. Drive Traffic To Your Content
If you build it they won’t come (unfortunately)… In today’s noisy digital world, an audience doesn’t appear out of thin air. You have to promote your content and drive traffic to your website.
SEO (search engine optimization) helps you get found by the right audience and it’s one of the most effective strategies that yield sustainable long-term results.
While you’re building up your website’s SEO juice, you can get some “quick wins” by attracting visitors with online advertising, such as Google PPC or Facebook ads.
3. Generate Leads and Build an Email List
People are more likely to make a purchase when a product is recommended by someone they trust. In order to build trust and relationships with your audience, you should communicate with them and provide valuable content consistently through email marketing.
Install a lead generation mechanism on your website and entice visitors to join your email list. You can offer a piece of valuable content in exchange for their information to increase the signup rate.
4. Create Digital Products Or Subscription-Based Premium Content
After you have built an audience who likes, knows, and trusts you, you can now monetize your content and expertise.
You probably have a lot of content, resources, and knowledge that can help your audience solve their challenges. You can create digital products, such as ebooks, online courses, video series etc. to sell on your website.
You can also consider a membership program to which people subscribe for access to premium content and other “perks” (e.g., a monthly coaching call) on a regular basis.
5. Monetize Your Website With Affiliate Marketing
You can also generate revenue from your blog by promoting products from other brands through affiliate marketing like Aragon Premium.
By creating and promoting highly valuable content and including affiliate links to drive traffic to advertisers’ websites, you get visitors to purchase through your links and receive commissions.
For many publishers, the challenge is to find products or services that are a good fit for their audience. Not to mention, approaching and screening each brand is a time-consuming task that could limit your income potential.
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
