Build Your Own Blog And Create A Side Income

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Are you blogging for fun or to build your business or create a side income ?

Are you one of the 3.9 million “lifestyle bloggers” who blog to support a flexible,

family-friendly lifestyle?

Do you blog for money and fame or is it a way to express yourself?

Is your mission to help others, share your personal experiences or connect with a

like-minded community?

If the answer to any of these is YES! then you need to build a blog and treat it as a

business

If you treat your blog as a business you can achieve all of these

And get your blog to pay its way

What could be better than that?

Why Build Your Own Blog?

There are something like 181 million blogs in the world, up from 36 million only five

years ago

According to stats from Blogger.org:

81% of bloggers make less than $100 a year from their blogs

9% are lifestyle bloggers 8% earn enough to replace a salary and support

their families The remaining 2% make over $150k!

So, if you’d like to be in the 17% of bloggers who mean business with their blog and

generate a profit keep watching

Remember, if you’re not making money from your blog, it’s not a business it’s a hobby

Follow these 4 Steps To Build A Blog That Will Earn You Money From Home

1. Plan for Success

Firstly, understand why you’re blogging and what you’re trying to achieve

What does success look like for you?

Being clear on your goals and motives is crucial to success

Are you blogging to create a side income, to replace a salary or to create a luxury lifestyle?

Or do you want to make enough that you can work from home, be available to pick the kids

up from school and enjoy the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss?

Perhaps your goal is to support a worthy cause or help others in your community

Whatever your “WHY” be clear on it

Who Are You Blogging For?

Be laser-focused and clear on the market you’re serving

Blogging as a business isn’t about you it’s about the market you serve

Having said that one of the great advantages of blogging is how you personalize your writing because people like to buy from people they

“know, like and trust”

So, focus on how you serve your market, but inject your personality into your blog

posts so you stand out

Having a clearly defined “niche” (a narrowly defined segment of the marketplace) will help you focus your marketing message, the topics

you write about, your communication style and how you promote yourself and your blog

For example, blogging for work at home mums is very different to blogging for professional

photographers or organic cheese makers

Blog Planning 101

Once you’re clear on why you’re blogging and who you’re blogging for create a

simple 1-page plan

Write a plan for how often you will update your blog, how you will promote it and

retain readers, and whether you will feature photographs or video

Test out different strategies, see what your competition are doing and ask your readers

Do they want daily blog posts or one long weekly in-depth post?

Will your blog posts be a mixture of information to promotion (80/20?)

How will you keep your blog fresh, relevant and exciting?

How will you engage your readers and keep them coming back?

2. Act like a CEO

Now that you’re running a business, you must act like the CEO

Take your blogging seriously

Blog regularly, be professional and be consistent with your message, your style,

your brand and your topics

Avoid obvious spelling mistakes and use professional-looking, relevant photographs

Get Organized

Create an editorial calendar and feature a different topic or tips and tricks each month

Plan your posts in advance and use the WordPress scheduling feature to queue up

content if you’re going away

Or just to streamline your workflow

Expand Your Reach

Connect with other bloggers and key influencers in your field

Get to know them and remember that what used to be seen as competition is

more likely potential collaboration

See who else is serving your market that you could partner with and look for ways

to work together for mutual benefit

Perhaps consider running joint webinars or Google hangouts with others providing

complementary services to your potential customers

3. Smart Marketing

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing

Once you’ve got a good base, say 50 posts, the search engines will start to index your

site and you should start to focus more time on promotion than writing

Keep blogging consistently but perhaps write fewer, longer posts (one long post a week say, rather than 2-3 shorter posts) and spend the

rest of the time promoting your blog

Get Noticed (In The Right Way)

Promoting your blog is about omnipresence and standing out

Test out a combination of promotional strategies and social media platforms and

see which works best for you

Syndicate your news feeds, link to social media, and engage

(with readers, and with other bloggers and influencers in your field)

It’s all about getting noticed, but in the right way

Use plug-in’s and apps to optimize your blog for the search engines, and automate

the syndication of your content

For example, there are WordPress plug-ins that automatically distribute new blog posts to hundreds of social media and

bookmarking sites

And others that automatically send new posts to your email list and RSS feed

Be Chocolate With Sprinkles

How can you stand out? Stand for something. Don’t be “vanilla”, bland and

another “me too” blog

Stand for something you feel strongly about or take your own angle

A great example is Natalie Sisson who’s branded herself as

“The Suitcase Entrepreneur”

4. Generate Income From Your blog

Now to the crux of business blogging – how to create a side income?

As part of the planning process, consider three critical questions

How will you get paid? How much will you earn? How can you get paid more than once?

(ideally before you start your blog)

Make Money Blogging

There are two major business models for creating income from your blog

The first and most common way is to sell advertising to companies and brands who

want to reach your blog’s readers

The more readers you have the more advertising and sponsorship income you

can generate

The second is to use your blog to promote your business or to sell services and

products

You can sell other people’s products and keep a percentage of the profits (known as

affiliate marketing) or sell your own products and keep 100% of the profits

Of course, with the latter, you’ve got to create high quality products to sell so I’d recommend you start as an affiliate and

then move to creating your own products once your business is established

If you the detailed skinny on more money making opportunities for your blog, check out

my “Make Money Blogging” email course

It’s delivered direct to your inbox and you can start straight away

Make Your Blog A Business

To make a profit from your blog take a consistent, integrated approach and you’ll

see it grow into a business you can be proud of and that will sustain you

financially for years to come

If it seems overwhelming, start by doing something (however small) every day to

promote your blog

You’ll soon see results if you stick at it

Now you know how to build a blog and earn money from home, leave a comment

below and let me know the ONE action you commit to take today to get started…..

(I love it when you share!)

MMSpark.com Resources….Freebies & Guides

12 Top Social Media TipsMmspark.com/mmfreebie

Information packed webinarshttp://mmspark.com/webinars/