The Pros And Cons Of Blogging
So you want to start a blog, you see across social media where you can make a lucrative income in blogging. Before you set out on this venture let me give you the pro’s and con’s of blogging and what it takes to create and build a lucrative blog site.
Everything Start With A Plan
Who is the blog for, what information are you providing to those who will become regular readers of your blog?
- What type of content are they searching for?
- How will your content stand out from the rest of the bloggers out there?
- And most importantly why do you want to start blogging?
Research, Research, Research
Before starting any venture it comes with research to ensure that you are able to deliver on the promises that you are making to your audience. But you said wait what promise did I make? I don’t remember saying that. When you put yourself out there online to offer any type of information to help others, you are saying that you have information that will better, change and help those who are your followers and your potential customers.
Your promise comes in by continuing to show up regardless if you get feedback or not you know your reason for putting out relevant content on whatever basis you choose to show up and people are watching whether they respond or not.
Your followers will vet you first before they decide to spend money with you, truth be told so many people have gotten burned by so-called guru’s and experts that their trust level is just not there in the beginning of following someone new online.
This is why it is of vital importance that you do your research before launching out before you begin blogging. I’m sharing this because of the mistakes that I made in the beginning. There was a coach online who I was following for a little over a year, she had a decent size audience and she had the proof that her coaching worked for those who wanted to work with her.
In my experience just because something works for someone else doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you, and that comes with knowing where you are in your business. What stage is your business in.
- Startup
- Influence Stage gaining a following
- Growing (monetizing your business
The reasons for me pointing this out is because if you don’t know what stage your business is in you will waste time, money and resources for products and services that you don’t need and they will just sit on your computer and will not be utilized.
What Am I Researching?
You are researching what your audience likes to consume, is it in the form of :
- How To Guides
- Informational Infographics
- Business Hacks
- Productivity Apps
- White Papers
When you know what topics your audience likes, you will never run out of topics to blog about. Forget about “ people have short attention spans today” Well if that was true we wouldn’t have on demand services that cause people to binge watch their favorite shows. People spend time on content that they love and that’s the bottom line.
So now let’s get into the meat of this blog post as you learn about the pros and cons of blogging so you can make a well informed decision if this is the route you choose to take.
Pros Of Blogging
- Blogging is a no cost to low-cost way to start your blogging business. You can simply create your blog using WordPress or Blogger. If you decided to have your own domain name then you can simply choose a hosting company to host your website with.
My personal favorite is WPX hosting, I’ve tried the others and they just don’t give me the excellent service that I get with WPX. This is important especially if you’re using photos and videos on your blog, you want to ensure that your site is loading within 3-5 secs.
* Blogging gives you the freedom to work from anywhere, whether you’re on a laptop or Ipad or cell phone.
*Blogging gives you the freedom and creativity to express yourself and share your tips and strategies as well as your experiences with your readers.
* You can monetize your blog to bring in extra income by placing banner ads on your site, but a word of caution here. How do you want your blog to be perceived to your followers?
Will they be turned off by the ads that can slow down your site if your hosting company is not a quality service? I’ve visited some sites that placed ads on their site and it does take away from the aesthetics of the site.
Your main goal is to provide your followers with information and not have them sift through ads to read your content. (the choice is yours)
Here are some examples of popular blog sites that are making money with their blog, however their content is relevant to their audience so keep that in mind, just placing ads on your site will not do it, your content should cater to what your readers want to consume.
Huffington Post blog was started by Arriana Huffington in 2005 which covers topics on life and politics. It is the most successful blog in the world. The earning of this blog is more than $1 billion and the main source of the income is sponsored advertisement through banners.
- Founder Name: Arriana Huffington
- Website: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/
- Blogging Started: 2005
- Domain Authority: 93/100
- Global Alexa Rank: 487
- Estimated Visits/month: 131.7M
- Earning: $41,660,000 per month
Engadget is founded by Peter Rojas in 2004. It is the most popular blog that publishes articles on gaming, entertainment, gear, events and review on technology products like consumer electronics. This blog also makes huge money from direct advertising.
- Founder Name: Peter Rojas
- Website: https://www.engadget.com/
- Blogging Started: 2004
- Domain Authority: 94/100
- Global Alexa Rank: 771
- Estimated Visits/month: 51M
- Earning: $3,950,000 per month
Rand Fishkin founded the “Moz” blog which is very famous for the Search Engine Optimization world. It was started in 1998. Moz helped many bloggers by providing top marketing articles to increase their blogs’ visibility and performance. It is also earning huge income like other bloggers.
- Founder Name: Rand Fishkin
- Website: https://moz.com/
- Blogging Started: 1998
- Domain Authority: 89/100
- Global Alexa Rank: 6,033
- Estimated Visits/month: 6M
- Earning: $3,740,000 per month
The Keys To Blogging Success
I provided you with 3 blogging sites that are doing exceptionally well with their blogs and so can you. Visit the above sites to study what they are doing consistently and how their information is relevant to their target audience. As you see the stats above some of them have direct ads placed in certain places on their sites giving them a hefty monthly income.
I am sure they have blog contributors who continue to provide relevant content on their site. As an entrepreneur and a blogger you are going to have to wear the hat of an investigator and see how successful blogs continue to stay relevant each year.
They just don’t go it alone; they find experts in the niche that they are in and get them to contribute content which keeps the site up to date with relevant information.
The Cons Of Blogging
* Time Consuming: Creating a blog is not just sitting down and coming up with whatever rolls off the top of your head, it comes with knowing the content your audience needs at this moment in time, it comes with research and putting out content that is going to cause your followers to come back for more.
I love a statement Gary Vee said, You don’t get to decide if your content is quality or not, it’s your audience who decides it, and you will know that based on
- Feedback
- Questions
- Looking at your data
The reason why the above bloggers are so successful is because they know what their audience is thinking, they know the problems that they are having, and they have created a lucrative business around that.
* Consistency Is Key: I am speaking from experience here, if you want to earn extra income as a blogger then you’re going to have to put on the mindset to live, eat and breathe it.
* Your focus starting out is not about monetizing your blog until you see a steady flow of committed followers. You have to be relentless in putting out content that your audience needs, and you won’t know that until you keep creating content and find what content your followers are actually consuming.
* SEO: Optimizing your blog to be found on search engines, this takes time and planning when you sit down to write the 1st draft of your blog post it should be about the headline, because if the headline doesn’t grab their attention then the rest of the content they won’t read.
Here is my plan when I sit down to write my blog posts.
*What does my audience need more information on that they are not finding answers to?
*Keyword Research Ubbersuggest*
*Headline Analyzer Coshedule
*Backlinks (are links from one website to a page on another website. )
*internal links (links to content on your site)
*Photos for my blog post
*CTA (Call to action) do you have a checklist, ebook, white paper, PDF, Video, Podcast that you can give to your reader that will give them more insight into the content that you just shared)
You determine which content you will create CTA’s to garner signups for your email list.
*Technology: Depending on what platform your blog is on you may run into difficulty and this can take more time to get the post up and running, blogging is a commitment to show up consistently for your audience.
*My rule of thumb is to have at least 2 blog posts already scheduled to go out each week. Now I know a week may seem like a long time when successful bloggers may blog everyday.
This is where you have to determine your level of time and commitment that you will spend blogging and what your schedule will look like. Don’t take on more than you can handle at first.
There are more pros and cons to blogging but this should give you some insight to know if this is an area of business that you desire to pursue.
I will leave you with this if you love to write and have a passion for it then go for it, as the saying goes nothing ventured nothing gained.
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