Introduction:
Why should I start a blog? My blog as I’m sure you will have worked out if you have looked at any of my posts is a personal finance blog. For the most part, I have written posts about making money and saving money and the whole time have kept you the reader at the forefront of my mind.
So I have so far not blogged about blogging as it is not something I really wanted to do as blogging is a whole separate niche. I have since decided though that making money from blogging is a good way of earning extra cash so it should be included in a separate section on my blog.
I will be writing a series of how-to posts dedicated to setting up and running a blog as well as the big thing which is of course monetization.
This is a little like an Introduction to blogging and answers the questions of why should I start a blog?
I have been blogging for over a year now which still makes me a bit of a newbie but I have had previous experience in writing and making money online through various other methods such as Hubpages.
This means that I am qualified to help you decide whether to start a blog and how to start making money from blogging as well.
When I started writing my blog all I saw was advice from people who made thousands of pounds per month from blogging which while that is inspiring and my end goal it felt a little out of touch with reality for me so I ended up getting advice from some great posts from people such as Becca at Boostmybudget and Rebecca at Bosssinglemama. These two ladies although earning money had some great posts which helped me and some advice as well.
So why learn about blogging from rich successful bloggers that will charge you for it when you can learn to blog from me someone who is currently actively doing it and all very recently to boot.
Why Should I Start A Blog?
Well, the question is quite simple but there are a variety of answers. In my mind, there are 3 good reasons most people start a blog. Have a think and see if any of these apply to you. If they do then the question of should I start a blog has probably already been answered.
Number 1: Is they have information and knowledge that they would like to teach other people about and feel they can give back to society or they are just good kind people that want to help.
Number 2: They also have information and knowledge but they feel it helps themselves getting their thoughts and feelings down in a personal blog. They feel it is like a kind of therapy and this has been proven to work by the way.
Number 3: They see lots of other bloggers making money from blogging and running their blog full-time from home and having lots more financial security and time to spend with their families and they want the same for themselves. They essentially want a blog they can earn a full-time wage from.
There is nothing wrong with either of these 3 categories that most bloggers fall into, A lot of bloggers actually fall into more than one of these categories. In fact, I can tell you now that I fall mainly into category Number 3 but also into category number 1.
Blogging can also help with your writing and communication skills as well as broadening the number of people in your social network. I usually converse with a few people in various Facebook groups which is good for your mental health.
So these are just some of the answers to why should I start a blog and I would imagine most of you will fall into one of those categories and realize that you have the knowledge you didn’t even realize.
As my blog is based on personal finance I will be writing mainly about the aspects of making money from blogging and how to’s of setting one up.
Before You Start:
When thinking about why should I start a blog you need to look at the reality of blogging. Before you jump straight into the blogging world there are a couple of things we should go over.
The main one is not to expect to be making money from blogging in your first year. You may make money sooner but this is a nice starting point to get your reality in check.
Blogging is really hard work and you see little to no reward for many many hours of writing and publishing and social media use etc. In fact, you have to learn so many things at times it can make your head spin and this is one of the reasons that so many would-be bloggers quit before a year is up and before they start making money from blogging.
Never Fear to Wait A Year. This has always been my motto for any kind of online publishing and SEO. So many bloggers get disheartened and give up within a few months but it is the honest truth when I tell you that if you push through those down moments and keep posting quality content and learning about blogging as you go you will succeed.
Success may be quicker or it may take longer but persistence and learning all about blogging are key. I know bloggers that have been making money blogging within 4 months and I mean a lot of money whereas others have taken 2 years to make even one dollar.
So Blogging is hard and you need persistence is the key to take from this. It is important to know that before you set out.
Niche:
Again before you start out you need to know what kind of niche you are going to write about. A niche is essentially a topic or product that appeals to a small selection of people.
Big niches that are making money from blogging at the moment are Mom blogs, Personal finance blogs, Health and fitness blogs, and Recipe and food blogs.
However, these are just a small selection of popular niche’s that people blog about.
You need to find your niche. It could be Knitting, it could be pet care or it could be about home decor. Whatever it is about just do a little research through google and see what other bloggers are blogging in your niche and how popular they are. You could even reach out to them to see if they are getting good results with their blogs.
So when asking Why Should I Start A Blog? The answer is because you are knowledgeable in a great niche that you think could benefit readers online.
Next Steps:
Once you have decided you do want to be making money from blogging and you have a good niche that you have some knowledge in and you wish to share this with the people then you may be wondering what the next steps are?
The next step after you have made that decision to start a blog is to have a think about how to write a post. You may already have experience in this field or writing may be a strange affair for you.
Before I started writing for Hubpages I opened up Word and just wrote about a certain topic and then spellchecked it and made a couple of my family members read it.
I then went online to popular websites in the niche I was writing about and looked at the way they wrote posts. For example short paragraphs with lots of white space. Correct grammar and spelling and the way in which the content felt. Ie was it from a personal perspective or was it more factual.
When I was asking myself the question of why should I start a blog? I was always worried about the fact I wasn’t an expert in my field. I knew more than the average joe on the street but I wasn’t what I would have considered an expert.
Please believe me when I tell you this does not matter. As long as you have good knowledge of the subject then your passion will shine through and anything you don’t know you can find out and learn about as you are already interested in that subject. This can then be passed on to your readers.
After all of this, the next steps are to come up with a name for your blog or what is more commonly referred to as a domain name. This can be a little tricky but is worth getting right at the start.
Next, you will need to find some kind of blog hosting. This is a service that is provided which makes it possible to have your blog seen by people online. This is all explained in the next part of this series which explains all about domain names and hosting. This will hopefully put you on your way to making money from blogging. So when asking should I start a blog the answer is yes! I hope to see you all in the next article.
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