Before blogging became what it is today, it was more of an
online journal. But now, it’s a form of business and people are making not just
a living but a fortune from it. Normally I love writing; I would write in my
notebook or diary, so when I discovered blogging, I was excited to show the
word my craft. When some Nigerian
bloggers like Linda Ikeji and Bella Naija started making money from it, I thought
“oh, this is great”, I should start making money but the truth is, it’s not as
easy as it seems. If you want to start a blog; whether as a hobby (the truth is,
it always starts this way but then when you hear people making money from it,
you become tempted to want to know how to make money as well) or business, you
need to;
Do your research
Trust me; it’s very important to know what you are getting
into. For me it started as a hobby and thanks to Google Blogger for the free platform,
nothing could stop me. I just opened a Gmail account, then blogger and wah-la!I
started posting - my images were
positioned terribly, I knew nothing about editing …that the first few post
looked terrible. I was just so excited that I could share something online. So
when I saw the way these other bloggers shared their post I began to ask Google
how I can make it look like that- I’m pretty sure they all started this way.
The thing about technology is that, it upgrades and there is
always something new to do. For you to be amongst the best you have to do as
they do, and keep updating your blog – whether it’s the design, platform and
all of that. The first year of blogging I was just joking around; I would post
twice this month and would be gone for the next two months without knowing this
affects traffic. After a year, I got a domain name since I noticed people were
doing that but i was still not fully
committed until the ending of the second year which was when I got AdSense. The
funny thing was I didn’t even know I was finally approved until I started
seeing ads on my site. Again, I had no clue about how to start earning from it,
I just noticed it was on other sites and I applied for it.
Do what works for you
Though it’s good to have mentors and role models but what
works for them might not work for you. So you just have to find what works for
you and it comes down to ‘niche’… I’m sure you have seen this one on every
other site about picking a niche. It’s not just about picking a niche; it’s
about what you understand and have the skill for or what you just enjoy talking
or in this case writing about. You just have to find out what you are
passionate about and also ask yourself if you can create content on it regularly
without feeling like it’s a chore.
Also ,you have to decide what platform is best for you…This
comes after research; cause from your research you would find out if Wordpress
or blogger is good for you.. I mentioned these two platforms because they are
the most popular. For some people that are not tech savvy, Wordpress can be
complicated so they go for blogger while others that are tech savvy or have
money to get a web developer, use wordpress (that is the wordpress.org).
Be consistent
Consistency is the key to any successful business. When I talk
about consistency here, I mean working with a routine and schedule that your
audience can get acquainted to. From
your strength and weaknesses, you would know how often you can post in a day,
week or month…depending on the niche and work towards that rhythm. So before
you start a blog, make sure you have at least 10 posts ready to be published so
they can be scheduled at the proposed time.
Be prepared
To be prepared you need to know what platform you need, what
you want to publish (blog topic/niche), how to edit post, Google analytics, webmaster,
search console, how to share automatically to your social media, getting a
domain name, the best hosting companies; if you have the resources for it and
are becoming an expert in your industry, how to monetize it –either with PPC or
affiliates.
Be ready to spend
money
‘They say in order to get money, you need to spend it’ and
it also applies in the blogging world. A lot of bloggers do different things to
make money from their blog. Though they tell you ‘content is king’ which is
true but you also need to do a whole lot – SEO (search engine optimization),
email marketing and co… Besides, getting a domain and hosting is not free, you
pay for that too. Though is not so expensive but imagine being unemployed that
you don’t have a dime in your account, how can you pay for these things?
My advice is, don’t try to quit your day job for blogging,
instead take a percentage of your salary and invest in building your blog until
it starts making huge income ,then you can quit and give it your all…full time.
But if you are unemployed, you can still begin with a free platform like
blogspot.com or wordpress.com until you get a paying job, then you can get a
domain name and host it as time goes on.
It’s not as easy as
it looks
I have been blogging for six years; the first was a joke and
the second was me learning new things and when I decided to be consistent ,my
other job was taking my time that I wasn’t posting as I should. Then I thought
it was the platform I was using so I hired someone to help me move it to Wordpress
and that was the beginning of the site’s downfall. The engineer was
unprofessional and when he moved it, I found Wordpress complicated that I had
to ask him to take it back to blogger – all this happened in three to four
months; I wasn’t sharing any post, was busy at my stressful job and it led to
losing page views. And my AdSense earnings that was just picking up reduced
drastically.
There you have it! My people, blogging is fun, if you enjoy
what you are writing about… I still have that blog because I enjoy what I am
writing about but in terms of making money, I’m not even close to AdSense
threshold. It can be really frustrating but I choose to keep at it, hoping to
find my rhythm and just go with it. Not minding what people say and asking why I’m
not as successful as these other bloggers. Therefore don’t make the mistakes I made
with my first blog and do your research, make sure you are ready for it and
give it your all.