Blogging is a way for many to share thoughts, stories, products and ideas. And today’s technology makes this easier than ever without costing an arm and a leg. Is it feasible to turn blogging into a career and support yourself?
Yes.
In fact, a lot of people create blogs for the sole purpose of making money. However, many will fail or give up because of what’s involved.
It’s not like you can simply write a post every day and call it good. There’s a great deal involved in building a successful, money-making site. And not everyone is up to the challenge.
Today, I’ll go over some of the more vital factors that will determine if you can handle a blogging career.
There’s a lot more you need to consider than just writing content.
So, You Want a Blogging Career?
Being able to sit at home and write a post or two and replace a full-time traditional job is ideal for many. Hell, I would love to get to a point where I could do this full time and get paid well.
However, it takes a great deal of time to get a website to that point. No successful blog started off by generating hundreds of thousands of visits overnight.
Now, some people might be able to fall ass-backwards into a blogging career and become a success relatively quickly. But, those instances are incredibly rare and still depends on many of the factors I’ll go over in a moment.
Like anything else in life, becoming a success at blogging depends on your level of commitment. If you’re heart just isn’t in it, the blog is not going to meet your expectations.
And that’s probably one of the biggest issues I’ve seen from many. When a site isn’t growing as fast as a person likes, he or she often quits after only a few months.
Factors to Weigh in a Blogging Career
OK, these are some of the most common factors that play heavily into whether you’ll create a successful website or not. And in many ways, you’ll put in far more work cultivating a blog than you would working a 9-to-5 job somewhere.
The difference is you might find yourself doing something you love. At that point, it no longer feels like a “job” and you’re excited about what you do.
What Kind of Topics Are You Covering?
Probably one of the biggest factors in whether a blog is successful or not is the niche. The topics you write about will contribute to whether people read your content or not.
It’s true, there is an audience for just about anything on the Internet. But, some topics and subject matter are just more popular than others.
Case in point, my gaming blog still gets more than double what WriterSanctuary.com does, even though I’ve published one piece of content over the past few months.
What Kind of Time Can You Put In?
In the very beginning, you’re going to put in a lot of time setting up the blog. And I’m not just talking about installing WordPress after finding quality hosting, either.
For example, it can take me just over two hours to write up an in-depth review, add screenshots, research facts and publish a post. Then, I spend another two hours going over visitor data and maintaining the backend of the site.
Then, I’ll spend a bit of time replying to every comment on the blog as well as the YouTube channel while responding to emails from both.
My point is the more time you spend developing the site, the more successful it will become.
How Will You Market the Blog?
It’s not enough to just write content and hope Google crawls your website. Although search results account for more than 75% of the traffic to WriterSanctuary.com, I still work to get it in front of as many people as possible.
In fact, using YouTube to market the blog has been an incredible blessing. It now has its own audience while sharing some of the traffic with the website.
Lately, I’ve been growing on Twitter and getting a bit more interest in what I do simply by being social. And there are tons of ways you can market a blog without spending a single dime.
How Are You Monetizing the Site?
Being able to use blogging as a career relies on how you monetize the site. If you just use something like Adsense, you won’t reach your financial dreams any time in the near future.
That’s because it can take hundreds of thousands of visits per month just to replace a minimum wage income.
WriterSanctuary made $0.002653 per average visitor in the month of May, 2020. For me to bring in at least $1000 per month, the blog would need about 376,983 pageviews in 30 days!
Luckily, there are a myriad of ways you can monetize a blog that are far more efficient. Things like eCommerce, affiliate sales, promoting paid sponsor posts and more can help generate extra cash.
And that’s part of the “time” issue I mentioned earlier. In the beginning, it’s going to take a lot of work to make the kind of money you want to replace a full-time job.
Can You Write Well?
Another important aspect of turning blogging into a career is being able to engage the audience. And I’m going beyond grammar and spelling skills, but those do count.
Can you write in a way that keeps people reading? Because it won’t matter how good you are in terms of grammar if no one wants to read the content.
The longer you keep people on your site, the greater are your chances of making money. So between choosing the best topics and writing well, it comes down to you connecting with your specific audience.
Are You Willing to Learn All You Can About SEO?
Search engine optimization plays a vital role in success. If you don’t appease the Google gods, your blog can get sunk to the depths of search pages overnight.
In fact, Google killed Crossing Colorado inside of five hours after an algorithm change in 2019. From 250+ visits per day to less than 10…just that fast.
Now, I’m not saying that you need to turn into an SEO expert or else fail. But, knowing everything you can about optimization can make a huge impact on turning blogging into a career.
Personally, I try to automate everything I can to help cut down on time. I use plugins such as Yoast SEO, caching tools and Search Console to help streamline how the sites perform in search.
Blogging as a Career Choice is Difficult
Those who say that blogging is super easy and anyone can make a mint is not telling you the whole truth. There is a great deal that goes into setting up, managing and maintaining a blog.
But for the most part, it all comes down to creating a flow of content your audience can rely on.
Once your blog becomes established online, then it’s vastly easier to maintain. However, it will take a great deal of dedication, motivation and perseverance on your behalf to get to that point.
Don’t assume that once you get a site up and running that your worries are over. It may take months or even years for a blog to start paying for itself, let alone paying you want you need to survive.
Of course, that amount of time depends on how committed you are to create a money-making website.
It Takes a Lot of Effort to Succeed with a Blogging Career
I only scraped the top of a very large iceberg. There’s still so much more that you need to prepare yourself for a blogging career. But if you can address the questions above, it will make things quite a bit easier.
It all comes down to your expectations of the website and patience. Don’t come out of the gate thinking you’ll be rich before the weekend. Be realistic with your goals and strive to improve over time.
How long did it take you to reach your financial goals as a blogger? Leave your answer in the comments below.