Wondering how to create a successful blog and make sure you are on the right track
Even if you have started before building more than one blog
And unfortunately you failed as you spent more than a year or two with barely 50 to 100 visitors maximum a week
I will ask you to forget the bad experience
Leave it behind your back and start reading this ultimate guide on building a successful blog
Forget your fears and frustrations
Now pay attention, I am going to show you how to make sure you are on the right blogging track
At least compare what I am telling you below to what you were doing
I will not sell you any course or refer you to any course to invest more money in
Everything here is completely free, it is up to you to believe what I am showing you below or play the reluctant role being scared to go to the same experience of building another blog where you are being afraid to get stuck again with no traffic and no visitors
I totally understand how you feel, may be you developed a hard shell around your head that no new bloggers are able to penetrate the blogging world
When sitting with your friends and they discuss the internet marketing money making schema, they relate it to con artists and gimmicks low standard people that sell a dream promising you of building successful blog
You cannot defend the fact that there are really bloggers making money not from making money niche
You stay speechless because they refer to you as an example of someone who spent gazillions time on his blogs where he should have invested that previous time into upgrading himself by taking new course in his career or study new field
Shortcuts on how to create a successful blog
This epic post is intended for audience who want to start their first successful blogs
without moving through multiple sites to collect all they need to know
I cover every aspect related to how to create a successful blog
Starting from thinking about starting a new blog
Whether if it is your first blog or not
At least, I am doing my best here
You can help me by writing your comments below on what you think I did not cover
Definitely I will add it right away
If you don’t want to go through the entire guide
You can click on each icon below and
It will take you to the required step
Continue reading till you see a link that brings you here again
Introduction to Starting a Successful Blog for those who lost trust in blogging
When thinking about how to create a successful blog,
Usually you don’t know from where to start
There are tons of information over the Internet
That you have to read and understand
You try to apply what you learned
Then you feel like you are stuck as every blogger has his/her own opinion/training
Ask 5 successful bloggers on how to create a successful blog
You will get back 100 different answers
Trust this guide and you will realize that everything makes sense here
What is the bad news about this ultimate guide
The bad news is, this guide will not take you by hands
Force you to follow my every single step listed below
To start a successful blog, you have to act on what is on this guide
That’s why if you have failed before on your existing attempts
Then it happens that you come to this guide without any previous blogging experience, most probably you will not take it seriously
That’s because every blog on the Internet talking about how to create your successful blog especially if you are blogging for money
They all talk about the technical part
Like how to install WordPress on your web hosting
Yes I am blogging with WordPress or which plugins are highly recommended for you to use
As if the technical part is the only blogging challenge
They do that because they earn affiliate commissions
When you purchase your web hosting through their links
Me too, I will earn commission without any extra cost to you
If you purchase the web hosting which I recommend through my affiliate link
But it doesn’t mean that I will alluringly deceive you into believing that blogging for money is just a bunch of steps you put together and that’s it
Save your effort and look for something else to do
I did not say save your money
Because web hosting is around 5$ per month
Blogging is the cheapest business investment
Yes it is a business, if you think about it as a business
What is Successful Blogging
A Blog is an abbreviation of the term Weblog, it is a site with blog posts sorted in chronological order
Successful blogs should imply the follow focused objectives
- Grab the visitors attention to click and land on your blog
- Keep their attention and make sure they move from one blog post to another
- Convince them to subscribe then purchase from or become a customer
Number 1 is all based on your titles because to grab attention you have to start with the title
Your visitors did not read your blog post yet, they are just reading you titles only
You can practice to write titles that bring Shock, Scarcity, Time Sensitivity, Exclusivity and Fear & Anxiety
Number 2 is the hardest one because you have to practice many things to learn how to keep their attentions
Please understand your audience what are their gains and pains
Just build imaginary person to talk too and target all your blog posts to him/her
You cannot be everybody to all different audience, just stick to specific person and this person represents a group of similar people whom you can target
I recommend to read how to write a blog post
Number 3 is all about doing 1 & 2 correctly, if you manage to do number 2 in a way that all blog posts connects seemingly and to cover all the stages of customers’ awareness starting from
Different levels of customers’ awareness
1. Most Aware
2. Product Aware
3. Solution Aware : customers are ready to join your mailing list
4. Problem Aware : throughout your blog posts about current problem and challenges facing your current audience
5. Unaware : throughout your blog that targets specific audience
Why do you need to blog
Question is why are you Blogging
Most bloggers starting a new blog hoping to make money from it
Not to deny the fact that few bloggers are blogging for fun
Or they blog to extend their Networking and exposure
While many bloggers are trying to promote their business or brand
For any motives from the above, keep in mind that
Your blog promotes yourself
You blog to solve problems
You blog to attract the kind of audience
Who are looking for answers to their problems
Who can evaluate your value provided to them
If you add your profile picture – you should to your blog
Your audience will visually imagine you behind your blog
Ask for their feedback and comments
Accept criticism as they act as your faithful mirror
People comment when they say “WOW – This guy made a perfect post”
Check again with other bloggers on social media
Facebook has tons of groups for bloggers helping each other
Ask them for their opinion by reading every blog post
You have to state what is your Audience’s problem and
Which Audience you are targeting (Beginners, Intermediate or Advanced)
Blogging can help you meet someone
Who can impact your life or
Whom you can really have an impact on his/her life
All can happen just through your Blogging style (writing)
Can you create a successful blog for free
Yes you can if you are blogging for the above mentioned reasons like
Blogging for fun, Networking and exposure …etc
Then go ahead and create your blog on Medium.com, Blogger.com or Tumblr.com
Ask yourself this question
Are you treating your blog as a business or hobby
Don’t say I will start as a hobby and if it works for me
I will turn it into a business
You cannot do that because when you are doing
Blogging for free, you have limitations with monetizing your blog
Because you don’t even own your blog
If it gets shutdown, your effort is gone
Why bloggers choose to pay for hosting their blogs
Simply bloggers choose to pay for self hosting their blogs because
1) It is not expensive to pay for Web hosting
It can be around 5$ a month, maybe less depending on where you are web hosting your blog
2) Full flexibility to choose your domain name
You don’t have to pay for your domain as
Most web hosting let you choose your domain name when you pay for their web hosting
3) Full control over your blog
You can do whatever your like with your blog
Nobody dares to shut down your blog
What are the outlines for starting a successful blog
You have to dissect your Blog building process into 4 phases
Planning phase, Building phase, Content creation phase and Promotion phase
Under planning phase
You should develop what I call your new Blogging skills
You are starting a successful blog to either get traffic or build an Audience
Building an Audience for beginners are really hard
Because you have to focus all your effort on building Authority site
You cover a specific focused niche and write everything about it
Link all blog posts together to make your Audience bookmark your site
Can I do both directions together?
Like getting traffic and building an Audience
Short answer is yes but not at the same time
For beginners, You have to start a successful blog
By getting the traffic that can generate full income for you
Then by applying to Ad network like Mediavine or Adthrive
To apply to Mediavine, they require at least 25,000 sessions per month
When you get your desired traffic
Then you can start a successful blog
By focusing on your Audience
You start by checking your Google Analytics
Analyze the demographics of your blog then
Build your blog posts to be an Authority site for specific Audience
For starting a successful blog focused on Audience
Under planning phase you need to work on
MINDSET, WHY, PROMISE, AUDIENCE and EMPIRE
I will discuss below each one of these 5 Blogging skills shortly
Planning Phase Advice
Please if you are new to blogging, don’t start with building Authority site focused on your Audience because you will not be able to know and write about a topic more enough to make your website the one that visitors are hunger to bookmark it
Start your successful blog based on increasing your traffic then you can monetize your blog easilykeep it as a very honest advice I hope you trust it
Under Building phase
Very straight forward steps, you do it once with due diligence
You master it, you don’t need to touch it again
You choose your web hosting carefully, you don’t need to change it unless it is a bad choice, also for domain name, not recommended to change it as you will lose all your existing traffic
Even if you did not have any existing traffic, no backlinks to your blog
You will lose your Google’s indexing of your blog and start again with Google
Stop wasting time by reinstalling your WordPress or plugins
There is no reason to do so as you can only change your WordPress theme or design
If you need to test different theme or design – very little impact on your blog
N.B. If you are planning to switch to different WordPress theme
Take a copy of all your Widgets code in notepad file or whatever
You lose them when switching back to your old theme
Under Content creation phase
If you understand the plan phase properly
I guarantee you a great success in this phase
You will learn below the different types of blog posts
I will show you how to create a great blog post
Under Promotion phase
If you have not missed anything from the building phase and
you created great content to promote
Promotion should not be tough
you just need to know all about the different methods to reach your audience
Developing your Blogging skills
MINDSET
Yes it is a marathon not a race but I can make it online
other successful bloggers don’t possess special talents but only determination and will
MINDSET of yes I can learn new things down the road but that does not stop me from starting right now
MINDSET of not falling into the Analysis Paralysis
You keep doing your investigation/research and not take any action
Fearing of not being perfect so you defer “I will take action now”
Now after MINDSET, comes the WHY
WHY
Always strengthens your MINDSET, I will explain it below
Why are you starting a successful blog? for getting Traffic or for your Audience ?
If getting traffic then you have to think about each blog post separately
Each blog post you write should be a master piece
People wanted to read it, I will show you how below
You write it in the best version possible
If for building your Audience
Your Audience know that you want to make money online through them
They will stick around if they feel that you are solving their problems
Don’t entice them and offer a solution to their problems in a paid product
To simplify it with an example
I created my WHY for this blog because I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to learn the tools that will empower their lives
Although I covered all the technical steps for starting a successful blog in previous posts
It was not enough and that’s why I started this post
PROMISE
The reason WHY strengthens your MINDSET
Because every time you lose hope
Ask yourself and look at your previous writings
Have you really put your best effort to make each blog post the best version or to solve your Audience problems
After defining your WHY, proceed with the PROMISE
Promise yourself that every post you write keeps up to your WHY
Now you have the MINDSET, WHY and PROMISE
It is time to look for your
AUDIENCE
Looking for your AUDIENCE in some niches are easy
Like “Weight Loss after pregnancy” or “Paying student loans for young people aged 25-34”
If your niche is not targeting any demographics due to being followed by broad AUDIENCE
You can find it later when you start analyzing your traffic
Which is coming to your blog through Google Analytics
After AUDIENCE comes your EMPIRE
The EMPIRE here is how to create a successful blog even if great source of traffic falls
Your EMPIRE does not collapse
Finding your passion
I want you to start a successful blog
You need a passion for something you love to talk about
Let me call it a niche
You don’t have to be an expert in your niche
If this is your first time blogging
I recommend not to pursue a niche that you are not interested in
At least you should have a passion that keeps you reading about it
You read a lot from favorite blogs
Where you can find missing content to write about
For example, I love reading about making and saving money, budgeting, financing and blogging
Should you take your new niche to a new blog
If later on I find that DIY is a popular niche and has tons of traffic
I can add it to my list of niches under the same blog or create a separate blog website for it
This decision should be yours
I will not tell you
If it is right or wrong to create a separate blog or expand on your existing blog
If you think that you can build a blog with hundreds of blog posts
Covering only the DIY niche then you are moving into building an authority site
If this is the case then definitely create a new blog site for DIY niche
Then you build a gigantic knowledge that you start teaching others about what you know
This is when you start building courses or creating eBooks
Before doing that you provide all you know to your audience
Don’t keep secrets or hidden knowledge for your paid products
I know what you have been thinking
What if your passion is about niche that does not make money
Like Astronomy or breeding a spider then forget about it
This is where the next step comes below
Researching within your niche
Well, do you like or enjoy reading about any of the following
How to make money
Health and Fitness
Personal finance
Beauty and fashion
Relationships and personal development
Lifestyle like survival, gardening, Women’s lifestyle..etc.
If so then you have a winner, pick one from the above broad niches
Dig more inside to find what sub-niches you still love to pursue
For example, in the Health and Fitness, you can tackle “Weight Loss” or “Hair Loss”
Weight Loss by itself is a still big niche, you can narrow it down to “Paleo Diet”
You can start with narrow niche like “Paleo Diet for Athletes”
Then who knows you can scale it up to cover everything about “Paleo Diet”
Start narrow then scale it but not the other way around
What if you have multiple interests on different niches
How to choose between multiple niches for your blog
Yes it happens to all of us
We have multiple interests
There are tons of blogs covering multiple niches
Stay at home moms write about Parenting, Blogging and Fashion
That is totally fine to pursue multiple niches if you want
Recommended reading : Great Tips on Finding What to Blog About
Why researching niche when starting successful blog is critical
Read this section below carefully
In order for any blog to survive online
It requires to get its traffic through search engines
I will call it Google throughout this post
Because Google is the master of all search engines
Google is very slow when it comes to ranking your new blog
Pinterest is the next winning horse for traffic
With Pinterest you can get traffic from day 1
I will use both Pinterest and Google to get all of my traffic
Let me start with Pinterest and optimize my blog for the Google long term plan
I cannot use YouTube because majority of bloggers including myself
We don’t have the right talent to create rich and enticing videos
That can bring thousands of views per month
By default it ends up that Pinterest and Google are the only sources of traffic
I know what you are thinking
I forgot social media, No I did not
Social media can be a good supplementary source of traffic
But not the main one to rely on
Your blog will never be like Buzzfeed
Where you create very attractive headlines
You write about every things in all niches
Sometimes fake news about celebrities that attracts readers like magnet
You have to consider in any niche you pursue that it is always
Not seasonal and evergreen plus it gets tons of traffic
Validating your niche for the right amount of traffic
By using the common sense
You realize that niche like weight loss is evergreen
But I mentioned earlier that writing about
Weight loss is not the right choice
You have to be more specific
1- Validating you niche using Google trends
I would say this step is a must to do on Google trends
Even if you decide to narrow down your weight loss
Without using Google trends
You act as someone shooting in the dark
For example, I searched for different types of diets without Keto
I use United States and one year – Past 12 months with traffic type as web search
Mediterranean diet is the winner
Wait, I added Keto diet and here is what I got
Keto diet outcomes all the other diets
What about the 5 years long term plan
Wait again, Mediterranean and Paleo diets are steady for the last 5 years
I would say it is really hard to predict how Keto will perform
Start tackling both Keto and either Mediterranean or Paleo diet at the same time
It will be tough to keep writing on Keto only
2- Validating you niche using Pinterest
You need traffic from day one
You cannot wait for Google to love your blog
After validating Google trends
Validate that your niche has footprints on Pinterest
Not all niches are the same on Pinterest
For example, blogging is the worst niche to drive traffic through Pinterest
To prove this, when you go to Pinterest to create a new account
Blogging is not even there at all
To validate that your niche drives good traffic
You have to look for all pins and see how many repins
Unfortunately Pinterest started to hide number of repins from desktop
But it is still available on Pinterest mobile app and other chrome extensions
I will discuss different chrome extensions later
The above pin got 71K
This is a crazy number
People are interested to read topic and repin it
Take it to the next level by following this tip
Since this domain has one pin with 71K
Copy this domain to Ubersuggest and search for all blog posts
Below you got all blog posts with total number of repins
Now export your result to Google drive to keep them on Cloud
You can check them from your mobile phone too
Keep exploring and expanding your list
You will collect a list of blog posts to write about
3- Validating you niche using keyword research tool
While collecting your data from Pinterest
You have a mission to write your blog post from the eye of Google too
Google needs a long tail keywords to write your blog post about
I tend to look for low competitive keywords
By using a keyword research tool called Keysearch
I use keysearch to hunt for low competitive keywords with high volume
My first task is to look for the main keywords around my Pinterest blog post
It is easy to spot it from the title or if this blog post is not optimized for SEO
Yes it can happen, then I suggest to use Google keyword planner
Export all keywords which you collected from Google keyword planner
Copy them to Keysearch to search for all keywords volume and competition
Also you can come across a very low competitive keywords related to your niche
Take a note of them by saving them to your Keysearch list
4- Validating you niche using Google
It can happen that Keysearch tool suggests few low competitive keywords
Don’t trust the tool but go to Google and do your due diligence
5- Validating you niche using YouTube
This step will help you find what users are interested to watch
Remember watching is not like reading
People go to YouTube to watch product reviews
YouTube will give you a sense of similarity to Pinterest
For example the search above showing saving money on low income
This is similar to Pinterest pins to save money or pay debts
Even if you are on low income
6- Collecting all the related blog posts
If you remember earlier under how to create a successful blog
I mentioned the 5 stages of customers’ awareness where you have to write all blog posts to cover different types of awareness
Most bloggers that fail they create separate blog posts not connected to each other and they expect to see significant result from their effort
Don’t fall into this trap, putting an effort worth more than 1 year of writing contents should be done in a way that rewards you of your effort, but how?
I will continue with the Save Money, I need to get all the LSI which stands for Latent Semantic Index
I found a free LSI website called lsigraph.com just type Save Money and you get a list of articles to work on
Click on this link to go back to the shortcut on top
Choosing your web hosting
I will not act here as other bloggers
Who claim that their web hosting is better than others
I am currently hosting this blog on Siteground
Now this question to you
How to choose a reliable web hosting
There might be other web hosting companies equal to or better than Siteground
But You should consider the following before buying your web hosting
1) Server reliability (Up-time scores and security)
Compare all your web hosting companies which you are interested in by uptime scores
I don’t think this piece of information is hidden to the public
With Siteground, I did not experience for the last year even one single downtime
2) Customer Support
How long they keep you on the phone for an agent to answer your calls
I wait always around 2 minutes for agents
If I use the chat, it is around 1 minute
But I prefer speaking to a live agent over the phone
3) Availability of site backups
Actually when I switched to Siteground
I did not know that they keep a backup for one month
You can go back in time to any day during the last 30 days
I consider this a great add-ons
4) Maintenance cost and renewal fees
There is no maintenance cost only renewal fees
Maybe Siteground is little expensive than Hostgator Bluehost
Again it comes for so many reasons
5) Ability to add domains
Almost most web hosting companies allow you to add multiple domains
Exclude any web hostings that don’t
6) Account Limitations
I will not limit it to specific features
When I switched from Hostgator to Siteground
I noticed that Siteground has built in Cloudflare
If you are not aware of what is Cloudflare
it is a US company that provides something called Content Delivery Network Service
It boosts your web site page loading speed
Protects you against any attacks .. and many more
That’s why I had to switch my web hosting from Hostgator to Siteground
Choosing your domain name
I already wrote before about how to choose your domain name
Keep in mind, if you plan to do multiple niches
Don’t choose a domain name that is restricted to one niche
A trend started some time ago
Where you get a domain name with your nickname + blog
Or any variations of family name (if unique) + blog e.g. MarcelloBlog.com
Installing WordPress
Actually a week ago before publishing this blog post
I thought that WordPress and Drupal are the only popular Blogging platform
I found there are so many CMS on the Internet that I haven’t even heard their names before
Read more on frequently asked questions to know what is WordPress
Also I recommend looking for WordPress Tutorial for beginners on YouTube to help you get started
How to choose your blogging platform
I have never thought about using any other CMS for Blogging except WordPress
I am biased here to using WordPress
As every wish of a component I dream about
I found it in their plugins
That is why I decided to do a comparison
Between WordPress and other blogging platforms with
How to build a website from scratch expectations vs reality
WordPress hosts around 30% of all Blogging sites
Nowadays most web hosting made it very easy to install WordPress
Last thing you would worry about is the technical part
I am not saying that because I know the technical stuff (I am a computer programmer)
There are millions of places including YouTube that show you that
Once you install WordPress on your web hosting
It becomes no brainer
Check out this post below on How to setup your blog using WordPress
Configuring your WordPress theme and plugins
So many opinions about plugins
I even get confused if my list of plugins are suffice
If you are in doubt about which plugins to install on your WordPress blog
Take it back to the PROMISE and AUDIENCE
You promise to provide your audience great contents
Then you need to measure that
You need to install Google Analytics Plugin
Enhance the performance with W3 Total Cache
Increase the security with Wordfence security
The rest is up to you
Read this post to see what I installed on my blog
Designing your WordPress blog
You may think why I added this extra step here after configuring WordPress theme and plugins
Well, now you have your theme ready and plugins installed, next is
You have to arrange how your theme will look like
Keep in mind that every theme has its own features
Some are completely optional but few are mandatory to keep
Below this is what I recommend to have
How to design your WordPress blog
You need to add/configure 4 things and you are ready to start Blogging
1) Your WordPress Must Do pages which are “About Me”, “Disclaimer”, “Privacy Policy” and “Contact”
Notice, I use the ME as you are trying to be personal
This tone is acceptable as you are not a corporate
2) Your WordPress blog menu
Most WordPress themes make by default the home page as a collection of blog posts in chronological order
From your WordPress Menu, create a map or structure of how you want your audience to use your blog
Like most bloggers create a menu that is called “Start Here” or “Courses”
You can link your “Start Here” page to all your blogs posts under one category
But I prefer to create a WordPress page so you can build blog posts that look like a course
3) Your WordPress sidebar
Sidebars are the right, left or both margins on every post, page and homepage
Some WordPress themes can let you configure where you want your sidebars to show up
On homepage, specific or all pages/posts
Anyway it is highly recommended to have it everywhere (I don’t see any valid point of restricting your sidebar on specific post/page)
I also highly recommend to have a profile picture, few words about yourself
Your social media icons to make it easy for audience to connect with you
I will not cover which affiliate offers or ads to add to Sidebars
You have to test these things to see what works and what doesn’t
It all starts to work for you once you get traffic rolling to your blog
4) Your WordPress footer
Some bloggers miss configuring their WordPress footer
I recommend to check what you can add as widgets to your WordPress footer
Just an advice, if your footer is close to the end of your blog posts
You can add a call to action underneath your blog posts
Like subscription to your newsletter or any other call to action
Also add contact information if possible
Organize your footer links into columns, if possible
Include a copyright notice
Use graphic elements (like as soon on CNN…etc)
Click on this link to go back to the shortcut on top
Reading thoroughly on your topic (understand each types of blog posts)
Even if you have excellent knowledge about your niche
Still you need to look what other bloggers wrote about it
The best writer is the one who reads a lot
Now let us make a habit of taking bullet points of all the topics
That you plan to cover in your post to create a useful content
What are the famous types of blog posts you can write confidently
You don’t have to be an author
Your audience are not looking for authors
Learn these blog post types
Then you are ready to write on your blog
LONG list as known as the Skyscraper :
LONG list when you list items/things with little contents
This was before Brian Dean invented the Skyscraper method
If you find a long list of how to solve xxx problem
You list a longer detailed number of things and to solve same xxx problem
Like 101 Ways to Drive Traffic to your website
How to and Tutorials :
You create a guide or white paper on a product or tool
Case studies :
Very reliable if you carried the experiment by yourselves
I created a case study to prove that Siteground is faster than Hostgator
Roundup :
Very good if you are busy writing other blog post contents
All you do is send your question(s) to fellow bloggers
Wait for their reply back and create a post around it
Most of these blogger should be very well known in your niche
Cheat Sheets, Checklists and To-do’s :
I found Cheat sheets, checklists and To dos are suitable for sharing on social media
Think how you can summarize tutorials or long posts to create Cheat sheets
Reviews :
Reviews are good for writing about a product or tool
Your honest review will appeal in your writings
Infographics :
It a new type of image
You illustrate your blog post by an image
Before thinking this is not for me
There are many website offering easy tools to create fancy and attractive Infographics like Canva, GetStencil and Snappa
Interviews :
Find an authority person in your niche
Build a relationship through social media
Invite them for an interview
No need for face to face just web cam, chat using Facebook Messenger or any chat tool
What is your blog’s tone or voice
What is your writing style
Don’t pretend to be someone else
If you read a lot for fellow bloggers
It can happen that you like one for the others
Maybe he/she is writing in a sarcastic voice
If you are not a sarcastic person
You act always serious
Just be yourself
You should have your own personality
Tell a story about your weakness
When you are relating your audience’s problem to yourself
What are the steps taken to overcome this weakness
You have to be a real person “human being”
You should have your own point of view
Writing your contents
Now you understand all types of blog posts, you know your voice (tone)
You are now ready to start writing your blog posts
How to create a great blog content that attracts your visitors like a magnet
1) Understand your audience
Any blog post becomes a great content
If it resonates with your audience’s mind about their problem
Always target very specific audience
If it is for beginner, continue as a beginner guide
2) Start with an Introduction
Don’t just right away to the solution
Although this is what your audience look for
But at least remember to grap their attention
Make them agree with you that you also suffered their pain
3) Make your contents navigational
Long contents even if they have separated into proper paragraphs
Still very daunting to skim it to read what you want
Please make sure to create table of contents
Add a recap to the end of your blog post
4) Add media files to your post
Adding spices to your post
Nobody likes long text with no images
Always use the proper images or infographics
That can easily help to illustrate your words
5) Add Call to Action
A lot of bloggers do great job in providing values
They just forget including myself to include the call to action
After having your audience read your blog post
What actions do you want them to fulfill
If you want them to subscribe to your newsletter
Don’t be afraid to say so
Again this is a quick overview
I recommend to read the full blog post on
How to write great blog post content
How to plan for your blog contents
Before I hit my point for planning your blog contents
I assume that you have read the famous types of blog posts in the previous section
Based on what I have said before on the WHY, PROMISE and AUDIENCE
It is very clear when you start a new blog
If you are targeting beginners in your niche
you need a lot of Ultimate guide (something similar to this blog post)
How Tos and Tutorials when you start
Don’t refrain yourself in pursuing other types of blog posts
Just keep in mind to stick to your PROMISE and AUDIENCE
1: Set Goals for Your Blog
When you start your new blog
How long you plan for content creation
Take a look at the below image for all types of blog posts
How many How Tos, Ultimate Guides or Tutorials do you really need
If you can write down all your planned blog titles categorized based on their types
This will help you estimate the amount of work load required from your end
I know when building a new blog, you work all by yourself
Content creation should be your number one priority
2: Create Audience Personas
With keeping up the PROMISE and AUDIENCE
Things can go not as you expect
How would you know
Checking your audience under Google Analytics
I found that I am targeting 83% of female
3: Revamp your old blog posts
Do your best to create all different types of blog posts
Final judge is your audience interaction on your website
If you go to the traffic coming to all your blog posts
As shown below, audience decided that not all your blog posts are created equally
They like some of them over the others
Analyze your top blog posts that got the highest traffic
Revamp each blog type either by creating another type of it
Or even making it way better than what it was before
By adding Infographics, creating Cheat sheet from its content
I know you got the idea
Click on this link to go back to the shortcut on top
Monetizing your blog
Almost all bloggers including myself we monetize our blogs from day one
This is not practically wrong but I came to this conclusion
I want your opinion about it in the comment section below
If for fact, the first few months – 6 months to a year
You gain almost zero or few cents if using advertisement network like Adsense
Why don’t we ignore monetizing our blogs for the first 6 months
Focus only on writing your blog contents that reach out to your target Audience
Again this is not an advice, I can call it a hint or conclusion
That it has an impact completely on starting a successful blog
Anyway let’s say you are ready to start monetizing your blog
So the question now is
How to monetize your blog
I don’t want to waste more words here as these items below are self explanatory
But I will put few words for each one
1: Advertisements :
Displaying advertisement on your blog where you get paid if your visitors click on the ad like Google Adsense
2: Affiliate marketing :
You recommend a product or service with an affiliate link that indicates that it is coming from your blog
You get paid if visitors make purchases through your link
Recommended to read : Affiliate Marketing Reality vs Illusion
3: Email marketing :
Making money from your list of email subscribers if they buy your eBooks/Courses or through your affiliate link
You have to build your email list and it has a learning curve by itself
4: Selling ebooks :
Creating your own eBooks, it can be a PDF file
Most bloggers create a lucrative affiliate system to get use of other bloggers’ traffic
5: Selling Courses :
Similar to eBooks but can be delivered using a third party system like Teachable or Thinkific
6: Selling digital products :
Not limited to eBooks but any sort of multimedia like selling Video series to teach something
7: Selling coaching (consulting) services :
Sometimes you need to sit an hour with an expert that can be hard to find in eBooks or eCourses
8: Selling memberships :
Paying once or recurring payments for getting a service or consultation hours
Click on this link to go back to the shortcut on top
Getting engagements on your blog
It is about getting and increasing engagements to your blog
- Don’t obscure your content
- Focus your blog contents on your target audience
- Ask questions in your blog posts
- Choose your titles and headlines carefully you can ask for suggestions on Facebook groups like which title to choose title A or B and put all titles there
- Focus to write appealing introduction to every blog post
- Add visual contents to your blog posts
- Ask for engagement nothing is wrong about it
The Real Truth About Starting a Successful Blog
According to a survey from ProBlogger
49% earned under 100$
23% earned over 1000$
16% earned over 2500$
9% earned over 15000$
These numbers don’t add up to 100%
There are so many details
That’s why I included the full chart from ProBlogger blog
Credit for this survey image goes back to ProBlogger
Yes you can follow the niche discovery tutorial above
But still not make any money
Now it is either you give up or look back and see what went wrong
One of the main reason for failure is
Doing small actions so you feel you wasted a lot of time like a year with no benefits
Having people around you who know you are currently blogging
On every occasion like Thanksgiving or Christmas
You hear funny comments about how nerd you are with your blogging – waste of time thing
Is Blogging dead or You can still make Money With your Blog
Yes you can, so many bloggers make 4 to 5 digits per month
This is not a myth, it IS a system not a secret
That’s why it is available for everyone
Yes It is a very long road that needs all your patience and strength
If you have not built up any experience
Keep in mind to
* First unleash your ideas within you
Everything you are going to write about has already been written on the Internet
The key ingredient here is to add your unique experience, your own distinct voice
Your own personality will attract others similar to you looking for a solution to their problems
But if you focus on your audience problems, you are shooting the moon
Look for your audience where they ask questions on Quora and Reddit to find solutions
Even you need to write the exact same questions they ask in your blog post
* Enjoy your niche like crazy
If you don’t love your niche, it will show on your writing
Actually this is true to a great extent
Because if you know well about the topic then you need to write it from your audience point of view
You will come up with ideas on creating digital products, revamping your blog posts content, writing eBooks
* Build a very strong relationship with fellow bloggers
This is number one success factor
A lot of work can be done for each other
Like commenting on each other blogs
Asking them to guest post on your blog (if you are busy writing)
Share your blog posts on their social media sites
Don’t be afraid to ask questions to other bloggers
Even if it is a simple questions
We are not created all equal in all Blogging skills
* Expect a year of dedicated hard work Blogging before making money
During your first year, you can still make few bucks
If you hear bloggers making significant money during first or second month
Maybe They are not lying but they are Gurus
Who failed before and have an excellent learning curve
* Don’t give up no matter what
At first, you will not get any visitors
Just focus on writing your appealing contents that touch your Audience problems
Never forget why you started Blogging in the first places
Keep it on mind and hold tight to your dreams
How to arrange your Blogging schedule
The most successful key aspect to Blogging is consistency with writing
You have to stick to a schedule of when you will be able to write every week
Let’s say you will stick to Wednesday and Friday of every week at 7 pm for one hour
If you are writing using a mobile application
There are so many mobile applications that let you focus and stop being distracted
They block you from receiving phone calls or text messages
Same features if you decide to use desktop/laptop applications
Remember I said stick to writing schedule
I did not say stick to publishing schedule
Meaning you cannot force yourself to publish a blog post once or twice per week
This will be too much pressure on you
You need to stick to writing schedule
Knowing that you don’t spend so long for one blog post
If you are writing a long blog post (Skyscraper)
You can arrange for another blog post that does not take long time from you
Remember those that are able to push through things are the ones that succeed.
Promoting your blog
I know you have been waiting for this moment to read about
How I promote my blog
In fact, I am a very lazy person when it comes to promoting my blog
I only rely on expertise from other bloggers
I recommend checking Brian Dean 27 Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2019
That’s why I believe in creating the content that your audience is searching for
Click on this link to go back to the shortcut on top
What are your blogging expectations
Assume that you have already completed setting up your blog and
you wrote between 20 to 50 blog posts (each is 1000+ words)
It took you an average of 6 months to do all of that and because content creation is an ongoing process
let me say that you managed to start promoting or you started promoting earlier
When you were writing your initial blog posts
Time passes by, I will say another 3 – 6 months and seriously no sales at all or at good one or two
If you give up, I won’t blame you but before you give up
I will review thoroughly your blog and ask you few questions like
Stop and check your why, promise and audience
Do you remember the WHY, PROMISE, AUDIENCE
Check your WHY if you say yes I stuck to the WHY
Then I would say I will be your audience and I am visiting your blog
I want to learn about gardening for beginners
I come to your blog post on How To Start Gardening in 2 weeks
Very catchy title and promising to teach me in a short period of time
So I keep reading
You sprinkle affiliate links for organic fertilizers from Amazon
I may click on the link to check the item but I will not buy
Because you did not teach me Gardening in 2 weeks as promised
I still need to know lot of things like what is
Best soil to use / best pots for gardening / best time to water your seeds …etc
Affiliate marketing is about CAT which stands for
Context, Authority and Trust
In few words, you did not promote something highly relevant to the topic (missing context)
If it is about an Amazon book about Gardening for Dummies (I may buy it)
You did not cover your blog post in deep (missing authority)
Don’t misunderstood authority by having a blog like Wikipedia
At least authority to cover every aspect in your blog post
That help me solve my problem
You did not educate me enough which happens mostly through email subscription
How to know If my blog idea Is a good one
I will repeat again this part
If it happens that your blog covers one or more niche
This means that even if you tackle this niche from different angle
What they call it an idea
So come up with a new idea within these mentioned niches
Again regular idea in popular niche, better than a brand new idea in unknown niche
Go ahead and unleash your ideas
You are completely covered
I will give you an example
In Personal finance niche
You can come up with an idea
To help household save on utility bills
I just came up with this idea
As I found blog posts for saving on electricity
So I said to myself
Let me make it a little bit broad
I just wanted to show you
How easy it is to come up with ideas within your niche
Are Audience in my niche willing to spend money
Everyone in this world cares about
Wealth, Health and Relationship
That’s why the above niches
Work all the times
People are willing to spend money
In order to lose weight (Health)
or trying to bring their Ex back (Relationship)
To invest in future (Wealth)
You got the idea
Is my niche too broad or too specific
Think about it this way
If you are going too broad
It is very hard to write on all topics
Plus it will be very hard to compete with authority sites
On the other hand side
If you have the above idea about
Saving on electricity bill
Then you went too tight
Is my desired niche saturated
I don’t believe in niche saturation
What I believe is competitive niche
Where you will put extra effort and time
The good news is that
The more competitive niche
The more it indicates that
There is money to be made
Is planning phase always required, what if I am currently making money with my blog without even knowing about it
Yes it can happen that many bloggers are not building a solid WHY, PROMISE, AUDIENCE and they are still able to make money from their blogs
Does this prove that I am wrong
No, look at the image below and try to understand that
There are so many blogs which were built without the planning phase
Like Review sites, Lifestyle blogs and Mom blogs
Where the latter addresses topics related to
Blogging, Cooking, Parenting and Travels
They manage to spend more time on traffic
Especially the right traffic like Pinterest
Which works best for Cooking and Parenting
They promote very highly relevant contextual affiliate programs
Golden Rules on blogging and contents creation
- Blogging is not a rocket science, it is all about being patience, writing great contents, learning basic skills for creating media files like images/videos and keep learning about marketing and social media presence with a solid plan to start SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and link building from day one
- Starting a new blog is considered a very long journey meaning expect 1-2 years of hard work with no significant return
- Always evaluate your contents, are you really targeting your audience by answering all of their problems, I am afraid you waste 1 or 2 years for nothing (refer to previous bullet point, be on the right path, write useful contents that solve problems)
- Focus on one niche and start a successful blog on solving the main problem for your audience with ultimate guide, take it from there and expand to cover more problems and include more blog posts to cover extra topics very highly relevant to your main problem which you are solving
- Focus on the content creation when you start, you cannot do everything at the beginning, you will be distracted, even if you think about expanding your brand to social media start only with one (highly recommended to start up with Pinterest first)
Golden Rules on affiliate marketing and relationship with bloggers
- Always start from the beginning to build strong relationship with other bloggers who own blogs relevant to your niche
- Affiliate marketing comes second after writing great contents as you solve problems first then recommend to your audience the best affiliate tool/program/course that can help make their life easier (don’t do it the other way around by finding affiliate programs and then building contents around them – big NO)
- Not everyone around you will understand what you are doing so stop talking about blogging to negative people or those who don’t share the same beliefs
- Please do yourself a favor and stop procrastinating your ideas, focus more on content creation and don’t be picky on your WordPress theme or current designs as all these things can be changed later (You don’t marry your theme)
Recapping on how to create a successful blog
At the end of this post, I don’t really consider it an end as I will add more details on certain topics from those listed above, I won’t leave you confused but at least I need your help by commenting below of what you think still missing or you still need to know about or
Finally if you learned few things on how to create a successful blog, please share it with your friends using social media.