Is your blog stuck?
Stuck from moving and not growing.
For a lot of new bloggers, the thought quickly turns from wanting to get more pageviews to wanting to make their first $200 or more blogging.
But, you get stuck. You have no idea what you are doing and why it isn’t working at all. You’re spinning your wheels and getting frustrated at the thought of trying to make money blogging.
I started Twins Mommy a little over a year ago, and in that time, I grew my blog from 0 pageviews to over 35k pageviews, $0 to over $2000 and 0 email subscribers to over 4k email subscribers.
It’s still a progress and journey to monetize my blog, but I’ve realized there are six critical elements bloggers need to position their blog for making money.
Not every blog will make money. So, how can you increase your chances of monetizing your blog?
If you’re thinking about starting a blog, I have a handy step-by-step tutorial on starting your first blog!
1. Have a Traffic Generation Plan
Okay. The foundation of a profitable blog is traffic. You don’t need a lot of traffic, but you do need enough and the more, the better chances you have for making a living out of all this.
When I set out to grow my traffic, list, and income on Twins Mommy, I made a strategic plan to get more eyes on my blog.
I knew I had to create content for my audience, promote my posts on social media and hone my brand so that people can remember my blog.
For your traffic generation plan, make sure you answer these questions:
- How often will you publish content per week?
- What social media platforms will you promote your posts?
- How often will you share your posts on social media?
- What methods are you going to use to entice readers to click on your link on social media?
- What’s your plan for SEO?
Traffic encompasses not only social media but also SEO. This is Google traffic, and it’s something to think about as a new blogger if you want your blog to be ranked and become the go-to site for a particular topic.
So, when you look at your blog, see how you can incorporate some keywords ( I like looking on Pinterest for keywords), have a headline that makes people curious and wants to click and a content schedule so that your blog is filled with things to read.
Check out my proven blog traffic recipe!
2. Solidify Your Brand
Branding is so important for the foundation of your blog. It can make or break your strategy to monetize your blog.
But, what is branding?
To me, branding is the visual component to your blog and the overall feeling someone gets by looking at your blog and reading your content.
Branding starts with the WordPress theme you choose and the customization you do on it to make it more personal.
You can add personal touches to your blog by:
- The colors you choose
- The images you use
- The language you use for your menu and your About page
- Your headshot
The biggest component of your brand is your blog images. This is what people will first see on social media, and it will entice or repel them to your blog.
I’ve changed my main Twins Mommy pin graphics since I started. Here is one of the first pins I created for this brand:
I was using a dark image and putting a white transparent text box under my words. I also had a pink bar at the bottom with my URL.
I soon removed the bar and still used the transparent text box as well as used other colors of my brand.
Recently I changed my font and decreased the line height between my copy and tracking between letters.
And now, my pins have more white space (no more text box), and I’m changing it a bit to not use my fancy font to using different accents for my pins.
My pins have evolved and have helped me shape my brand for Twins Mommy. Will it stay like this? No, it’s already changing a bit even now. But, I feel it’s still part of my brand and element of Twins Mommy.
You can also brand your copy on your site. This means how you write your blog posts. One of my favorite mom blogs I enjoy reading is Cath from This Mama Learns. I was immediately sucked into her fun and vibrant brand and equally fun personality she put in her writing.
One of the best ways to start growing your tribe, i.e. your followers, is to have that engaging writing when you blog. This is your voice and for a lot of us, it doesn’t come out right away.
I’ve been blogging for over three years, and it took me over a year to really hone my voice as a blogger. I kept falling into the trap of copying how other bloggers write and converse in their posts.
That’s why it’s important to find your own voice, nurture it and set it free!! You’ll be more authentic, build your brand in the process, and people will flock to your blog.
3. Know Your Niche and Audience
Do you know who reads your blogs? Is it moms? Millennials? Travelers? Entrepreneurs?
Knowing who is reading your blog or subscribing to your newsletter will help you get the right type of blog posts and serve your audience. But, what if you don’t know your audience?
If you have a brand new blog, you may not have a lot of people coming to your blog. But, you can get an idea of who you want to attract with your blog posts by going to various Facebook groups and seeing what users are asking.
So, if you decided to start a home decor blog and you belong to some DIY or crafting Facebook groups, you can see what types of problems or questions occur in those groups to help you see if your content aligns with those readers.
Once you understand your audience, you can market to them and sell to them. It took me a while to figure out my target audience. When I first started Twins Mommy, I was speaking to the work-at-home mom with little ones. But, then it changed to mom bloggers with little ones. And now it’s mom bloggers who want to become mompreneurs.
So, it can take a bit of time to find your audience!
4. Network and Collaborate
One of the best things you can do as a new blogger is to network with other bloggers in your industry. Since I was new to the mom blog niche, I had to find other mom bloggers or other mom business bloggers and connect with them.
By following them, joining their Facebook group or Pinterest group, you get to grow your brand and audience. And it doesn’t hurt to have those connections down the road. Joint webinars, giveaways, summits, guest posts, and more are the result of networking.
5. Create an Email List
Should a new blogger create an email list? Yes! Totally!
Starting an email list is the best way to connect with your readers. This will shape your content and focus on who is reading your blog and not what you want people to read on your blog.
An email list is also great for marketing any future products you might have. The conversion rate with email is high than the conversion rate on social media for selling a product.
If you don’t have a big budget, go with MailChimp or MailerLite. But, if you invest in your blog, I suggest going with ConvertKit. It’s easy to use, set up and it can grow your email list fast.
6. Be Authentic and Give More Than You Take
It’s important to be authentic and stay true to yourself when you have a blog. I don’t’ know about you, but when I read a blog post I want to know who wrote it, what they look like, their story and get a feel for their personality.
Now, I know there are blogs that don’t have a personal story and are doing great, but for me, I like that connection. This makes me remember the blogger and blog.
One thing I did on this blog was traffic and income reports. I’ve never done them before, and I wanted to help other new mom bloggers and thought these reports would help.
Other ways to be authentic on your blog are:
- Share your experiences
- Tell stories
- Share your failures
Position Your Blog For Money
There ya go! The six ways you can get your blog up and running to make money. Over to you – what’s the most important thing you need to make money with your blog?
Tell me in the comments and please pin me!!