Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
A lot of people will dive into blogging with the hopes of making it a career. While some will make a pretty decent living, it takes a great deal of motivation, determination, and patience that a lot of people don’t seem to have. So, is it something you should consider?
Actually, that depends on a lot of factors outside of the few I just mentioned.
The bottom line is that it’s possible to turn blogging into something that generates a great deal of cash. However, it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.
What Goes Into a Blogging Career?
Obviously, the two most important parts of a blog are its hosting platform and using WordPress. I say, “WordPress” because it is widely the most used site builder on the Internet.
You don’t reach more than a 40% market share online by not providing a quality product.
What else do you have to worry about with a blogging career?
A Niche in Which There is Interest
To maximize your income, you want a blog niche that is somewhat popular. Now, I’m against jumping into niches because they are popular. If you’re not interested in the topics, you’ll find it exceptionally difficult to keep creating content.
I suggest creating a site around a niche or industry that you either know inside and out or have an extreme interest in learning.
That way, you’re more likely to keep cranking out post after post. As content is king, you’ll need to provide a lot of it if you want a solid career in blogging.
A Career in Blogging Takes a Lot of Content
As I just said, it will take hundreds of posts, if not more, to reach the levels of success you want to achieve.
If you’re thinking about using the blog to replace your current job, you’ll need to replace that full-time income. This means writing articles to attract a large number of visitors.
Think of it this way; every topic you don’t cover is a visitor you’re handing to the competition. And yes, you will have a lot of competition regardless of your niche.
Learning SEO and Search Intent
Search engine optimization boosts the chance of your blog being seen on sites like Google. While you can still succeed without knowing every single aspect of SEO, which would be next to impossible, writing for SEO isn’t really all that difficult.
For example, I use the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. I’ve seen rewrites of older articles increase in position just by turning all of the points in the plugin green.
Let’s not forget about search intent. This goes hand-in-hand with SEO as you also need to know the intent of your audience for finding your content.
Constant Updates and Maintenance
If you’re doing all of the work yourself in your blogging career, you’ll need to keep the site updated. This also includes maintaining things like the database, making sure the site remains fast, and addressing any issues that may arise.
This is one of the biggest reasons why WordPress remains one of the best platforms. There is a massive community of people ready and willing to help you with any issue you come across.
Though, if you don’t make a lot of changes and set WordPress elements to update automatically, the site is much easier to manage.
A Bit of a Monetary Investment
Like that adage goes, “It takes money to make money.” Initially, this means your hosting platform. I suggest using self-hosted WordPress simply because you have absolute control over your site.
You could also pay people to help write your content, pay for premium themes and plugins, or spend a few bucks to market the site beyond search engines.
Though, keep in mind that it’s possible to make quite a bit of money without doing much outside of paying for hosting. It all depends on the type of site you’re building and how you attract your audience.
Various Forms of Monetization
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why I am for self-hosting is because you can monetize it any way you see fit. Well, within reason and legality.
If you want to set up a great career in blogging, you’re going to need a variety of methods to generate cash. This means not simply relying on AdSense. Ad revenue is quick and easy to set up, but it pays relatively poorly compared to other ways.
All of the top bloggers have a few different methods for making money from their websites.
Patience
I want to reiterate the point of patience. This is because I’ve seen a lot of people give up on blogging because they didn’t make that “mad blog money” in the first month.
In truth, it could take months or even years before a blog begins to generate a significant amount of income.
Of course, this also depends on the site. Some niches and industries are easier to make money in than others. But no matter how you slice it, replacing a full-time income within the first six months is unlikely.
How Difficult is a Career in Blogging?
Starting a blog is actually quite easy. It’s creating a successful blog that generates enough income to replace a full-time job is the most time-consuming.
In reality, it’s not all that difficult to set up and promote a great blog. Once the site is established, all it takes is a consistent flow of meaningful content that people want to read.
For many, it’s this aspect that is the hardest to maintain. It requires understanding the target audience, writing in a way that engages the reader, and providing the information for which people are searching.
You just can’t hammer out any piece of content and expect the riches to come flowing.
This is why having the best keyword tools and understanding how to use them is imperative to making a career out of blogging. Then, you just need to surpass the competition for those words and phrases.
In the end, though, blogging isn’t overly difficult. If I have to label it as anything, I’d say it’s definitely time-consuming. However, if you can keep it up and continue to learn what your target audience wants, the rewards are worth the effort.
Other Blogs vs Your Own
Is it possible to have a blogging career without owning your website? Absolutely! In reality, that’s how I made the majority of my money while using content mills.
That’s because a vast majority of clients nowadays want content for their blogs.
Website owners are always interested in hiring someone who can create some awesome content. And if you can get their pages at the top of Google for specific search terms, they’ll easily throw more money your way.
In fact, writing content for other people can net you quite a bit if you can demonstrate skill and professionalism.
For a quick, 500-word post, you could make between $100 and $200. Then again, a lot of these types of clients can only afford to pay you for one or two articles per month.
But there’s nothing saying you can’t line up a lot of them to keep you busy.
One of the downsides, though, is that a lot of these blogging clients will use their names to publish the work. This means you become a ghostwriter. If you’re OK with not getting credit for the work, though, you could make a serious amount of money.
Perhaps another caveat is that you have to spend some time collecting these clients.
If this interests you, I suggest visiting my friend, Megan Grant. She covers a lot of information about how to find these private blogging clients and how to build your own writing business.
So, Should You Start a Blogging Career?
As I said in the beginning, it will take a lot of motivation, determination, and patience for you to succeed as a blogger. Some of you may fall ass-backward into success, and that’s great. Just remember that those people are the exception rather than the rule.
Blogging can be a fun, rewarding, and lucrative career path. But it will take a lot of work in the beginning.
If you’re determined to be a blogger, keep in mind these points:
- Start a blog as a side hustle until it can pay you enough to quit your job.
- Understand that it will take a lot of content to build a successful blog.
- Do more than just use AdSense to generate income.
- Bear in mind it will take a lot of time to reach certain financial milestones.
- Once you start bringing in enough money to quit your job, everything gets much easier.
This is extremely simplified. But they are the most prominent points you should think about before laying down that investment of time and money to build your website.
Would You Rather Write or Manage?
A lot of people will set up a blog and then hire content writers. All they have to do is manage the site and perhaps edit the content. While this is exceptionally easier than doing it all yourself, it’s also going to require a lot more money.
Regardless of how you set it up, though, there is a lot of potential for blogging as a career. How you go about it is completely dependent on how involved you want to be.
Create an amazing site with awesome content and people will help you replace a full-time income.
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