Do you want a well-paid job to take your kids to school every day, or do you want to actually find time for your hobby? Do you want a great career that will take you to places you never imagined? Blogs can do all that and more!

Before you start blogging, here are four key things you should do to ensure your blog is off to the best possible start.

1. Decide on the content of your blog

Choose wisely. If it comes out, you'll probably be writing on this subject for the next 10 or 20 years! The bad news is... there are so many great things to blog about.

What do you like to read, talk about, and do in your free time? Cooking, travelling, golf, running, chess, fashion, beauty? What can you write about in the next 10+ years?

What is your expertise? What do your friends say you're really good at? Why do people always ask for your opinion? Are you good at putting together great clothes? Do you feed your child vegetables and put them to bed at night? Cooking on a limited budget? How to be organised? Or do you have special skills and qualifications? Are you a financial expert? Nutritionist? A trained lawyer?

What Others Really Want to Know

The most successful blogs solve problems. The bigger the problem, the more likely your blog will be successful and the easier it will be to monetize your blog. Some of the big issues that need to be resolved are:

How to get healthy/lose weight/be vegan or gluten-free, how to save money/live on a budget, how to get rich, how to look good, be organised and productive at work/home. How to be a parent, how to have children sleep, eat and act. If you can teach people any of these things, or something similar, you're a winner.

Before you start blogging, if you have a clear idea of ​​what you want to blog about, it will be much easier to create content and grow your blog and start making money faster. can also do.

2. Research blogs in this niche

Once you have a rough idea of ​​what your blog is about, you should start researching what other blogs in the field are saying about the subject. This is especially important if you don't read that many blogs right now. You need some idea of ​​the style of blogging in this niche. What are people saying? How do you write? What else would you like to include in your blog post regarding graphics/images/quotes/bullets/headers/etc? 

Writing a blog is very different from writing a newspaper article or a book, for example. Therefore, you need to quickly learn how to blog in your niche.

You'll also want to get an idea of ​​what's already covered in that niche...and what you can bring to the table. Do you have a unique or different angle to your niche?

3. Brainstorming ideas for blog posts

It really matters, why? Because it tells you two things:

Do you have enough blog ideas on this topic and would you like to write about it? After brainstorming content ideas for 30 minutes, if you find that you only have three ideas, you may need to choose a different topic. On the other hand, if you're frantically writing down ideas until your hands hurt, you've probably picked the right topic.

4. Think about how your blog will make money

It doesn't make sense to come up with a great idea for a blog, only to discover, months after you've invested time and money in it, that your blog isn't making any money at all.

Broadly speaking, there are five ways to make money blogging:

Advertisements – Classic advertisements, such as those found in magazines and newspapers. The advantage of this is that it is a very passive way to monetize your blog. The downside is that it takes too many page views to make any real money from your ads. It can also be a distraction to your readers, so it's not recommended if you plan to sell products or services on your blog. However, a great PPC Management strategy can get the passive income flowing.

Services – Similar to products, but instead of creating products such as ebooks and courses, we sell services related to blogging. You're a nutritionist and your blog is full of healthy recipes and nutrition tips. Your blog acts as a giant advertisement to attract the kind of people interested in booking a personal consultation with you.

Product - This is when you create a product and sell it through your blog. This can be an e-book, an online course, or even a physical product. The potential for success is enormous, especially for e-books and courses. But that requires creating quality stuff, which takes time. We also need to bring something different and better to market.

Sponsored Posts – This is when a brand or a PR firm representing the brand contacts you and asks you to post their product on your blog for a fee. .) This can be done as a review or as part of a recipe or DIY project. You can also offer a free product on your blog. The downside to this is that PRs and brands usually want to work with established bloggers who have good traffic and engagement on social channels. You can earn money-sponsored posts faster by engaging with brands directly.

Affiliate Link – A small text link you include in your post from a company such as Amazon or ShareaSale that has an affiliate program. These are links generated specifically for you and tracked by the company in question. When one of your readers clicks on a link and buys the company's products, you earn a small commission. 

There You Have It

By being a little different, a little unique, you're much more likely to succeed than doing exactly what everyone else is doing. Everyone else who's been blogging for years got a head start but are stuck in their ways. You have a fresh take to spot a gap, and a blog that can fill that gap!