How to make a successful blog and sell a lot of stuff online? I received this question from a loyal reader a few days ago and today I will share a few helpful tips.
The first thing when it comes to making a successful blog is to think about a niche that is both profitable and does not have too much competition. Your niche (what you blog about) has to be something people are interested in and willing to spend money on.At the same time, your niche must have relatively small competition to make it easier for you to get a decent ranking in the search engines.If you just start blogging about things you like, there is a chance that the competition is too high and you will never earn any money.
Here is a great video I found on YouTube showing how to choose a profitable niche:
When you have picked a profitable niche with relatively low competition, the next step is to choose a domain name for your new blog.The best place to get a domain is GoDaddy.com.It is very important to choose a domain name that is a top level domain (.com, .net or .org) and if possible a direct match.By direct match I mean a domain name that matches your best keywords and does not have any other words in it.This makes it a lot easier to rank in the search engines.
After you have your domain name, you will also need a hosting account where all your blog files will be stored.I personally use a blog hosting service called Hostgator.They allow you to host an unlimited amount of sites for less than $10 per month.Their service is great, easy to use and I especially like their online help.You can just contact them from your admin area and they will help you with setting up your blog and everything that has to do with hosting.
The nest thing when it comes to how to make a successful blog is of course your content.The content is what makes search engines index your blog and great content drives people to your blog again and again.When you write excellent content that people finds useful, they will send it to social sites and in return you will get even more traffic.
Many people think only about how to make as much money as possible.I think this is the wrong approach, we need to think how to help people solve their problems.A lot of people want to know how to do something or find a cure for something.If you can provide the information people are looking for, then you are on your way to a highly successful blog.
Another thing when it comes to make a successful blog is link building.You need to build links to your blog from other sites, search engines look at the quality of links coming to your site and use that to determine how high your blog should be ranked.How many links that point to your site is just one criteria, quality content is the most important thing.
The last thing when it comes to making a successful blog is making an income from it.Like I mentioned before, you need to think about helping people. Instead of slapping your blog full of ads to different products (too many ads makes your blog look cluttered and ugly), choose one high quality affiliate product.
Your reputation is on the line, you cannot afford to sell a crappy product.You can either choose a high quality affiliate product from Commission Junction, Share A Sale or some other site, or you can create your very own product to sell.Information sells really well online and as a vendor it is the best possible thing to sell.No need for a ware house because people can download your product directly after payment.
Here is a short recap for how to make a successful blog:
1.Find a niche that is profitable and has little competition.
2.Choose an exact match domain name.(.com, .net or .org)
3.Write great content.
4.Build links to your blog from other high quality sites.
5.Choose the best possible affiliate product.
(6.Making a successful blog is a long term project, do not expect huge earnings instantly.)
These were my 5 simple tips for how to build a successful blog.What do you think, leave a comment!
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
His five steps, in my opinion we’re right, because you need a cool theme, a domain that has to do with the topic. Write things with good content is also essential. Anyway, your tips are great and your post too. Congratulations.
I think writing excellent contents are grand. Also, yes, doing major SEO on your blogs are going to be very much useful! I think it also starts out by searching and picking out a profitable niche!
Nice successful blogging tips.. It’s important to take blogging seriously and consider it a business if the goal is to profit from it. That doesn’t mean it can’t be fun, it should be; but there’s still a lot of work involved.
The niche that you select has to be an area that you are passionate about—this will sustain you and keep you blogging while you are building your community. As you said, it is not instant but it is worthwhile—if you love it.
I think your blog has a much better chance of success attracting traffic if either it writes about contentious topics or you write about hot topics.
Great steps! I think for business the most applicable domain is .com. And you’re right, don’t expect instant income because you need to build links and get traffic to your site which can be achieve through consistent posting of quality content and information.
Nice successful blogging tip. It will surely attract the traffic of bloggers. It’s important to take blogging seriously and consider it a business if the goal is to making profit. There is still a lot of work involved. Thanks for the article.
Blog is such a platform where many people come and visit it for their desired content or for what they have been looking for. These are some vital and the most significant tips which one should consider to make the blog successful.
According to me, content plays very important role in any blog. Just make sure about creating good content every time and update the posts on regular base.
That is so true, Tom. Having a proper niche is THE most important factor for any business. One thing I learned before I became a bestselling author and long before Inc Magazine voted my company as one of the fastest growing companies is that selection of a niche for a newbie is more based on the popularity of the products, not actually on the research an taking in consideration the other aspects. I am sure this post will help a lot of newbies out there.. Thank you for sharing!
Finding the niche is probably the most difficult part for any blogger who wants to be successful. It is not only a question of finding one that is profitable, with not very much competition but also a niche in which the writer has personal or professional experience in as well as academic knowledge so that his or her posts are worth reading and interesting. In addition, that niche should be somehow easy to explain to a broader audience.
“When you write excellent content that people finds useful, they will send it to social sites and in return you will get even more traffic.” – that’s right and it’s REALLY important. You don’t have to promote your blog all the time. First create a valuable content for your visitors and they will help you to make even more visitors by sharing your blog with others.
Pawel, you’re right. I’ve seen a lot of blogs with no valuable content which were advertised almost everywhere
I think it was a waste of money and time of the blog’s owner. My blog is new, i decided to focus on content and then I’ll try to firnd visitors.
wow this article is great it will give me a good start as a blogger i’m still a newbie in this industry and looking forward to get more of your post
Hi Tom, your advice on looking to solve people’s problems BEFORE looking to make money is really important. If you focus only on how soon and how much you will be making money, then sadly this will inevitably show to your visitors and readers. It is far better to be found as an authority figure in a given field and offer good advice for their issues/problems. This creates trust as well as longevity. The money will come if you follow these steps.
Great steps!
That is so true, Tom. Having a proper niche is THE most important factor for any business.I’ve seen a lot of blogs with no valuable content which were advertised almost everywhere. Thank you for sharing!
Hey … I’ve been looking through your website and getting some real good advice on getting into the blogging world. I personally started my own blog (it’s related mainly to the repairing of blackberry cellphone….i’m a cellphone technician). I don’t know what made me stay away from blogging but i’m glad i ventured into it.