The peak of blogging is over, but it’s still a good way to get traffic to your site and create a bit of extra income for yourself. Blogging might be dying in one way, but in another sense it’s still a ripe opportunity. Other booming areas mean there is simply less competition nowadays. If you can either learn SEO or find a ripe niche, you can still make blogging worthwhile for yourself. In this article, I’ll show you how you get started blogging, and drive traffic to whatever offers or products you have.
- If you have no money.
Starting an online business when you don’t have much is super hard work. But it can be done. If you don’t have any money at all, you’re going to want to begin your blogging journey right here on Medium.com. Medium will give you hosting and an audience. The only downside is that you can’t put display ads or stuff links all over your articles. - Write 30 blog posts, then evaluate the situation.
Most blogs don’t get any views at the beginning. I had a blog on Medium that I grew to 4000 views before deleting because i didn’t have a monetization strategy. It took me over 50 articles to get traction, because all I was doing was writing stream of consciousness. You can do better if you’re writing about a mainstream topic and have a well-rounded social media profile, but even then, it’s going to be a bit of a slog at the beginning. I suggest keeping your head down and writing for the first month or two. You’ll be surprised at how much power you have when you come up for air. - Come Up with A Digital Product to Sell
People don’t really want to see ads. They download ad blockers and do all kinds of things with their computers to avoid seeing them. So if you’re only depending on display, you’re probably not going to earn a living. The same is true for the Medium partner program- you’re limiting the size of your audience. The best way to get money from your blog is to create a digital product and sell it. This can be an eBook, a course, a comic. As long as it can be sold over the internet, you’re good to go. If you’re running your blog on Medium, you can host your digital product on Gumroad or Payhip. There’s no need to spend money in order to make money online. - When you have some cash or an audience
Hosting a blog on a WordPress site is a good option if you have the resources and time for it. This will allow you to customize your blog more than on Medium. It isn’t necessary to run your online business though. At all. If all you want to do is write and drive some quick traffic, do what I do. If you want your blog to be an experience, I recommend going on Namecheap.com and getting yourself a domain name and hosting package. - Keep working.
Consistency is key. If you don’t write, you won’t grow your audience. Keep putting in the work, and you’ll soon find that you know people, and have attention from players in your niche. I’ve done this a few times. If you are spending time grinding, it always works. The only thing limiting you is the size of your niche and the wealth of your audience.
