Hello, and welcome. I’m truly grateful that you’ve found your way to my little corner of the internet. I sold my startup, It Really Works Vitamins, in 2022, and ever since, I’ve really loved sharing my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
I feel like it’s actually become a mission of mine to show that building, scaling, and selling an online business can indeed lead to financial independence, or at the very least, save you many years of working a conventional 9-5 job!
I have a simple life philosophy that packs a punch:
- Start a side hustle
- Grow this hustle into a legit life business
- Make a million dollars.
Simple – yet not quite easy.
Speaking from experience, side hustles take energy and perseverance, but once you start building momentum – when first-time customers become repeat customers and the word gets out – it’s honestly exhilarating!
Today’s deep dive is all about blogging—a side hustle that, with the right approach, can be transformed into a profitable business.
With my first startup It Really Works Vitamins I managed to attract 35,000 visitors per month purely from blogging. Along the way, I learnt a great deal about what works, and most importantly – what doesn’t.
In this article, I’m going to break down everything you need to create a successful blog that generates a substantial income. Let me tell you everything I learnt over seven years.
Table of Contents:
- Blog Length and Quality
- How Often Should I Publish Content?
- Personal Experience Content
- Choosing a Profitable Niche and Understanding Your Target Audience
- Understanding Your Target Audience
- Setting Up Your Blog with Hostinger and WordPress
- WordPress is The Best Platform for SEO: Here’s Why
- Crafting High-Quality, Engaging Content
- Mastering SEO for Your Blog
- Fostering a Sense of Community Around Your Blog
- Monetising Your Blog
- Affiliate Marketing
- Display Ads
- Sponsored Posts
- Selling Your Own Products or Services
- Scaling Up Your Blog
- Expanding Your Content
- Diversifying Your Income Streams
- Building a Team
- Investing in Marketing and SEO
- Networking
- Final Thoughts and Tips for Success
- Stay Patient
- Always Learn and Adapt
- Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
- Nurture Relationships
- Believe in Yourself
Blog Length and Quality
Gone are the days when you can plop out 500 words and it would rank on the first page of Google. Search Engines don’t want to see a half-hearted summary you’ve churned out from Chat GPT. For Google to take your blog seriously, you have to take it seriously. Length and format are part of that. Now there’s no need to pad the blog out with fluff. Put together a well-written article of at least 1600 words. Make every word matter.
And the longer the article, the more adverts Ezoic can place within it. Win-win. I wanted to get this little nugget of wisdom in as I know you’ll be interested. And now for the next juicy question…
How Often Should I Publish Content?
If you can’t publish every day, then aim for four times per week. As we’re aiming to bring in a five-figure income, it’s vital that you’re publishing as much as possible. And speaking of Chat GPT… here’s something that it can’t compete with, your personal, lived experiences…
Personal Experience Content
Telling a personal story is like lighting a campfire in the vast digital wilderness. People gather around because they’re drawn to the warmth and light – your unique experiences and insights. This captivates their attention, making them more likely to stick around, and increasing readership time. Now, Google loves this. Their algorithms notice when people hang out on your blog for longer periods, interpreting it as a sign of great quality content. So, they reward you by sharing your story with even more people in search results.
Now, here’s the cherry on top. As more people visit and stay on your blog, your ad monetization can skyrocket. Why? More eyeballs mean more chances for ads to be seen and clicked on. Plus, if people feel connected to your personal stories, they’re more likely to support you by engaging with those ads. So, telling personal stories isn’t just great for building a loyal audience – it can also be a fantastic way to boost your blog’s revenue.
Moreover, in an age of Chat GPT, your personal stories and unique experiences make your blog stand out! A jolly flag in the arctic wilderness of generic ai produced stories!
Here on the FireFortuna blog, I fill it with personal stories, from entrepreneurs whose side hustles made them millionaires to my own experience of setting up my own supplement brand and later selling it on acquire.com.
Choosing a Profitable Niche and Understanding Your Target Audience
The journey to successful blogging begins with finding a niche—your specific focus or topic—that you’re passionate about. The Internet is a gigantic space, and generic blogs tend to get lost in the crowd. Selecting a niche allows you to hone your content and target a specific audience, making your blog unique and attractive. This focus could be anything you’re knowledgeable about and genuinely love whether it’s personal finance, vegan cooking, travel, or tech reviews.
Have a think about what you’re passionate about, what you can create content about consistently, and what other people might be interested in reading. There are profitable niches in almost every area you can think of. From minimalistic living to vintage car repair, from photography tutorials to homemade baby food recipes, there’s a potential audience for almost every topic. However, the key lies in identifying a niche that is not so crowded that your blog gets lost and not so narrow that you run out of content or audience.
The FireFortuna blog focuses on side hustles and financial independence. Anything in the financial niche has a relatively high EPM (earnings per thousand views) and I’ve recently seen my EPMs grow to over $26 per thousand views, which I’m pretty pleased with. I wonder if there’s a financial aspect to your niche that you may be able to explore.
Understanding Your Target Audience
The next vital step in your blogging journey is understanding your target audience. Your target audience is the group of people most likely to be interested in your niche. They are your potential readers and, hopefully, your future loyal followers. Understanding them—knowing their interests, needs, and concerns—will help you create compelling, targeted content that will keep them coming back for more. It will also inform how you market and monetize your blog in the future.
Several tools can provide valuable insights into what your potential readers are searching for online:
1. Google Trends: This can show you how interest in a particular topic has changed over time, allowing you to gauge its popularity.
2. Keyword Planner: This tool can provide ideas for potential blog posts by showing you what phrases people are searching for in relation to your niche.
3. AnswerThePublic: This tool aggregates the questions that people are asking about specific topics, giving you a wealth of content ideas.
Identifying a profitable niche and understanding your target audience are the foundations of a successful blog. They help you position your blog to stand out from the crowd and ensure you’re creating content that resonates with your potential readers.
Setting Up Your Blog with Hostinger and WordPress
Once you’ve identified your niche and understood your target audience, the next step is setting up your blog. I created my beautiful blog using Hostinger (for hosting) and the WordPress website builder that is built into Hostinger.
I had initially wanted to opt for WordPress on its own- but the one thing I can’t bear is non-existent tech support. If I have a quick troubleshooting question the last thing I want to do is wait 48 hours for an email response! I NEED LIVE CHAT SUPPORT HERE PEOPLE.
THAT’S WHERE HOSTINGER COMES IN!
Hostinger offers 24-HOUR LIVE CHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE. I’m shouting!
A few times per week, whenever I have a tricky WordPress question, it’s answered quickly by my besties, the Hostinger Customer Support Team.
Now let’s discuss how brilliant WordPress is for Search Engine Optimisation.
WordPress is The Best Platform for SEO: Here’s Why
- WordPress provides excellent SEO-friendly URL structures, allowing you to easily create clean and keyword-rich URLs for your blog posts and pages.
- The platform offers numerous SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, which provide comprehensive optimization features and guidance.
- WordPress generates semantic HTML markup, which search engines favor, making it easier for search engine crawlers to understand and index your content.
- The platform is designed to be mobile-friendly and responsive, which is crucial for SEO since mobile usability is a significant ranking factor.
- WordPress allows easy integration of various SEO tools and services, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console, enabling you to monitor and analyze your website’s performance.
- With WordPress, you have control over your website’s meta tags, titles, and descriptions, ensuring you can optimize them for better search engine visibility.
- The platform supports the creation of XML sitemaps, which help search engines crawl and index your website more efficiently.
- WordPress offers a range of SEO-friendly themes, designed to be lightweight and fast-loading, improving your website’s performance and user experience.
- The platform has a strong emphasis on content creation and organization, allowing you to structure your content effectively and optimize it for relevant keywords.
- – WordPress supports the use of schema markup, enabling you to enhance your website’s appearance in search engine results pages (SERPs) with rich snippets and structured data.
With Hostinger you get all the benefits of WordPress plus a wealth of tech support: so useful for a newbie to blogging!
These factors contribute to why WordPress is highly regarded for SEO purposes, providing bloggers with the necessary tools and capabilities to optimize their websites and improve their search engine rankings.
Now let’s move onto the nitty gritty:
One of the first things you’ll need to do is choose a domain name. This is the web address where your blog will be located (like www.yourblogname.com). Your domain name should ideally be short, easy to remember, and related to your blog’s niche. With Hostinger, you can easily search for available domain names and register your chosen domain.
After choosing your domain, the next step is selecting a theme for your blog. A theme determines how your blog will look, and Hostinger offers a variety of free and premium themes to choose from. The ideal blog theme should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and aligned with the overall tone and content of your blog.
Customizing your blog’s appearance is an essential step to making it unique and representative of your brand. Hostinger’s intuitive interface makes it simple to customize various elements of your blog, such as the layout, colour scheme, fonts, and more. Plus, their drag-and-drop website builder allows you to easily add, remove, or rearrange sections of your blog, with no coding skills required.
Setting up the backend of your blog involves tasks like creating a navigation menu, setting up a comments section, adding social media buttons, and more. Although these tasks may seem technical, Hostinger’s platform and customer support make it straightforward and manageable, even for beginners.
Setting up your blog is a blooming massive step towards turning your blogging side hustle into a profitable business. By choosing a platform like Hostinger that provides a smooth, user-friendly experience, you’ll be well on your way to creating a blog that not only looks great but also serves as a solid foundation for your blogging business.
Crafting High-Quality, Engaging Content
Once your blog is set up, you are ready to start filling it with high-quality, engaging content. This step is where your blog begins to take life. Crafting blog posts that are informative, entertaining, and valuable to your audience is paramount to the success of your blog. In a sea of online content, only the best, most engaging posts will stand out and capture your audience’s attention.
Remember, consistency is key in the blogging world. Creating a content schedule can help ensure that you’re regularly publishing new content. This consistency not only keeps your blog fresh and engaging but also signals to search engines that your site is active, improving your SEO ranking.
An essential aspect of crafting engaging content is understanding what your audience wants to read. Remember the research you did when choosing your niche and understanding your audience? It comes into play here too. Use insights from tools like Google Trends, Keyword Planner, and AnswerThePublic to identify trending topics, relevant keywords, and popular questions in your niche. These insights can serve as inspiration for your blog posts and ensure you’re creating content that resonates with your audience.
High-quality blog posts are not just about great writing—they also need to be well-structured and easy to read. Break up your text into short paragraphs and use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and images to make your posts more engaging and easier to digest.
Including a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your posts can encourage readers to engage with your content. This could be asking a question to prompt comments, inviting readers to share your post on social media, or encouraging them to subscribe to your email newsletter.
Another key to engaging content is authenticity. Let your personality shine through in your writing.
Blogs are often more personal than traditional media, and readers appreciate getting to know the person behind the posts. Share personal anecdotes, opinions, and experiences related to your niche. This personal touch can help build a connection with your readers and foster a sense of community around your blog.
Fortuna, me, a quote from me Xxx
Creating high-quality, engaging content is one of the most challenging yet rewarding aspects of blogging. It requires creativity, research, and a deep understanding of your audience’s interests and needs. However, seeing your audience engage with and appreciate your content makes it all worth it.
Alright, let’s delve into the next section: Mastering SEO for Your Blog.
Mastering SEO for Your Blog
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital tool in your blogging arsenal. A well-executed SEO strategy can increase your blog’s visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately lead to more revenue. But what does SEO entail? In simple terms, SEO involves optimizing your blog and its content so that search engines can understand it better and rank it higher in search results.
To start with, every piece of content you create should be optimized around keywords that are relevant to your niche and popular with your target audience. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help you identify high-search-volume, low-competition keywords to target.
Another critical aspect of SEO is creating high-quality, in-depth content that provides real value to your readers. Search engines favour content that fully addresses a topic or question, so try to cover your chosen subject thoroughly in each post. Don’t just scratch the surface; dive deep and provide your readers with valuable insights they won’t find elsewhere.
Link building is a significant part of SEO. Internal links (links to other pages on your own blog) help search engines understand the content and structure of your site, while external links (links to relevant content on other websites) can increase your blog’s authority and relevance. However, be sure to link only to high-quality, reputable sites! I also wouldn’t purchase links from sites like Fiverr. It’s not a good idea to go down the rabbit hole of blackhat SEO.
To get actual real-life links, reach out to people you admire and would like to learn from. I did this with my cute little Youtube channel and literally interview millionaires and billionaires on here.
Furthermore, you’ll want to ensure your blog is mobile-friendly. With the majority of internet users accessing content through mobile devices, search engines have started to prioritize sites that perform well on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Last but not least, pay attention to your blog’s load speed. A fast-loading blog enhances user experience, and search engines are known to favour sites that load quickly. Fortunately, using a hosting provider like Hostinger, known for its speed, puts you at an advantage.
While mastering SEO can be a complex task, it’s an essential component of successful blogging. Take the time to learn SEO basics and continually update your knowledge as search engine algorithms evolve. This effort will pay off in the long run as your blog climbs the search engine rankings and attracts more organic traffic.
Fostering a Sense of Community Around Your Blog
As your blog begins to attract readers, it’s crucial to foster a sense of community. An engaged, loyal readership not only boosts your blog traffic but can also provide valuable feedback, spread the word about your blog, and even become customers if you decide to sell products or services later on.
Interact with your readers both on your blog and through social media. Respond to comments on your posts, and take the time to visit the blogs or profiles of those who engage with you. These actions show your readers that you value their input and are interested in what they have to say.
Encourage reader engagement by creating interactive content. This can include running polls, quizzes, or contests, or simply asking for readers’ opinions or experiences related to the topic of your post.
Consider creating a newsletter for your blog. An email list is a valuable asset for any blogger, providing a direct line of communication with your most engaged readers. Send out regular updates with your latest posts, news, and any other information your readers might find interesting or useful.
Hosting webinars or online meetups can also be a great way to connect with your readership on a deeper level. You could share tips or insights related to your niche, answer reader questions, or even invite guest speakers.
An active, engaged community can significantly enhance the reach and impact of your blog. This interaction can lead to more shares, more comments, and more visibility for your blog. More importantly, it can help build a loyal readership that looks forward to your posts and engages with your content.
Absolutely, let’s discuss the next step: Monetizing Your Blog.
Monetising Your Blog
Monetizing your blog is the turning point where your side hustle starts to generate income, moving you closer to financial independence and early retirement. It’s the stage where your blog transforms from a hobby or passion project into a profitable business.
Here are the most popular ways to monetize a blog:
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting a product or service on your blog and earning a commission for every sale or action (like a click or sign-up) that comes through your referral link. You can find products or services to promote on affiliate marketing networks like Awin, which is the one I use! It’s great.
Display Ads
Display ads are banners or sidebar ads that appear on your blog! You get paid for impressions (how many times the ad is shown) or clicks. I thoroughly recommend Ezoic.
Ad networks like Ezoic connect you with advertisers looking to reach your audience.
Starting out as a blogger, I was eager to make my blog profitable right away. The challenge? Many big-time ad networks such as MediaVine and Epom require a hefty 50,000 or 500,000 monthly views respectively.
For those of us new to blogging, we need an ad network that’s not bothered about minimum traffic. But not every ad network is made equal, let me tell you.
I gave Monetag a shot, only to be bombarded by unsuitable adult and gambling pop-ups, and also those scary ‘your site is infected’ alerts that my phone identified as dodgy. It’s meant to be a legit personal finance blog, after all. How can I show this to my grandmother?
In fairness to Monetag, they were quick to respond to my complaints and tried to filter out the spam. But even after that, I still ended up with some pretty shoddy ads.
Then I tried Hilltop Ads, and guess what? Same story, but this time with explicit images in the ads!
Evadav Ads? Well, they offer both adult and mainstream ads. But get this, the default includes suggestive content. You need to email them to filter out the explicit stuff.
This is the kind of stuff we’re up against in the ad network game.
I’d advise against spending too much time researching all other ad networks. Trust me, I’ve been down that road, and it would’ve been better spent on my blog. All these networks, except for Ezoic, are basically the same. They accept anyone, and their ads are just not up to scratch.
So, unless you want your website to look like a scam, EZOIC is the only way to go for ad networks with no minimum traffic requirements.
Plus, their EPMs are something to write home about. I’m now raking in over $26 per 1000 page views, way more generous than Google Adsense.
The ads with Ezoic are top-tier – think elegant jewellery and dreamy Jamaican holidays. That’s the kind of stuff we want, not scams or anything indecent.
And don’t worry about customer service, Ezoic has you covered. While they don’t offer live chat, they do have a community board where an expert gets back to you in about 30 minutes. Trust me, I had my doubts about a ‘board’ too, but it works!
Sponsored Posts
In sponsored posts, a company pays you to write a blog post about their product or service. It’s crucial to be transparent with your audience about which posts are sponsored and remember to only endorse products or services you genuinely believe in and think would benefit your readers.
Selling Your Own Products or Services
Perhaps the most profitable way to monetize your blog is by selling your own products or services. These could be digital products like ebooks or online courses, physical products related to your niche, or services such as consulting or freelance work.
While monetizing your blog can be a lucrative venture, it’s essential to maintain the trust and loyalty of your readers. Make sure your monetization efforts align with your audience’s interests and needs and don’t compromise the quality or integrity of your content.
Remember, monetization takes time. It requires building a substantial, engaged audience and consistently delivering high-quality, valuable content. But with patience and effort, you can turn your blogging side hustle into a profitable business and achieve your goals of financial independence and early retirement.
Let’s dive into the next section: Scaling Up Your Blog.
Scaling Up Your Blog
After you’ve established your blog and started to generate some income, it’s time to think about scaling up. This stage is all about increasing your reach, boosting your income, and turning your side hustle into a fully-fledged business.
Expanding Your Content
One of the most effective ways to scale up your blog is to produce more content. This could mean publishing more posts per week, exploring new topics within your niche, or even branching out into new content formats like videos or podcasts.
You might also consider guest blogging—writing posts for other blogs in your niche. This strategy can help you reach a larger audience, boost your SEO through backlinks, and establish your reputation as an expert in your field.
Diversifying Your Income Streams
As you scale up your blog, look for opportunities to diversify your income streams. If you’re already making money through affiliate marketing, consider adding display ads or sponsored posts to your monetization strategy. If you’re selling a product, think about creating an additional product or offering a related service.
Building a Team
As your blog grows, you may find it challenging to handle everything yourself. At this point, consider building a team to help you run your blog more efficiently. This could include hiring writers to help with content creation, a virtual assistant to handle administrative tasks, or a social media manager to manage your social platforms.
Investing in Marketing and SEO
To reach a larger audience and increase your blog traffic, consider investing in marketing and SEO. This could involve running paid ads, hiring an SEO consultant, or using advanced SEO tools.
Networking
Networking can be another powerful tool for scaling up your blog. Attend industry conferences or events, join blogging communities, and reach out to other bloggers in your niche. Networking can lead to collaboration opportunities, guest posting invitations, and valuable insights from more experienced bloggers.
Scaling up your blog is a significant step towards turning your blogging side hustle into a profitable business. It involves investing more time, effort, and potentially money into your blog. But with the right strategies and a growth mindset, you can take your blog to new heights.
Let’s move on to the concluding section of this guide: Final Thoughts and Tips for Success.
Final Thoughts and Tips for Success
As we wrap up this guide, let’s take a moment to reflect on the journey we’ve embarked on. Building a successful blog isn’t a walk in the park; it requires dedication, perseverance, and a touch of creativity. However, with the right mindset and strategies, your blogging side hustle can blossom into a profitable business, leading you towards financial independence and early retirement.
Here are some final tips to carry with you on your blogging journey:
Stay Patient
Success in blogging doesn’t come overnight. It takes time to build an audience, establish credibility, and start earning income. Stay patient and trust in the process. With consistent effort and quality content, you will see progress.
Always Learn and Adapt
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, with new trends, tools, and strategies emerging all the time. Stay curious and open-minded, continually learning and adapting to stay ahead of the curve. Subscribe to marketing and blogging newsletters, join industry forums, and don’t be afraid to experiment with new tactics.
Prioritize Quality Over Quantity
AGAIN! While it’s important to publish content consistently, never sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity. Your readers will appreciate well-researched, thoughtful content more than frequent, low-value posts. Focus on providing real value with each post you publish.
Nurture Relationships
Remember that behind every click or comment is a real person. Treat your readers with respect, show appreciation for their support, and engage with them authentically. Relationships are at the heart of a successful blog.
Believe in Yourself
Lastly, believe in yourself and your vision. There will be challenges and setbacks along the way, but with confidence and determination, you can overcome them and achieve your blogging goals.
Blogging is more than just a potential source of income—it’s a platform for sharing your passion, connecting with like-minded individuals, and making an impact in your own unique way. So, embrace the journey, and remember why you started.
Thank you for joining me in this guide. I hope these tips and insights will serve you well as you embark on your blogging journey. Remember, every great blog started with a single post. So go out there, start creating, and let your voice be heard!
I’ll see you soon for another lovely blog post about making lots of lovely money!
Appreciate ya!
No responses yet