How to Make Money Blogging For Beginners
As an internet user, you are probably well aware of how fun, educational, and interesting blogs can be. You may even have your own blog. Have you ever thought about how to make money blogging? Did you know that there are several ways to make money blogging online? In this article, we look at what blogging is and how to make money from blogs as a beginner.
What Is a Domain Name and How Does It Work?
The first thing you need before you can purchase hosting or start a website is a domain name. What is a Domain name? A Domain name, web address, and website URL are all the same thing. A URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. In the same way that you can use coordinates to locate a point on a map, You can enter a URL into your internet browser to find a website on the internet.
A website in simple terms is just a group of files, graphics, and images that have been assembled into an orderly design, Altogether, we call that content. Website content is securely stored and hosted on large data banks called servers. You need web hosting in order to get your website’s content visible on the internet.
Read: How To Get Cheap Web Hosting Guide
A Domain is an identifier, people can distribute it and find it through search engines. Once someone has your domain, they can use it to find your content online. Your domain name is your online address and identification. One domain cannot be used by different people. Each domain is unique and used by a single user.
Domain Names
A Domain is your online address. Anyone who will like to see your online content or visit your website will need your domain first. If you submit your domain to search engines like Google, Bing, and yahoo, your website can be found without personally having to give your domain name to someone.
A Domain plays a crucial role online. If you intend to start a website, The first thing you need is a domain. You can get a domain by purchasing one online. An Example of a Domain is:
- google.com
- yahoo.com
- facebook.com
- Instagram.com
- mydomain.net
- un.org
What Is a Domain name Extension ?
A Domain extension is the very last part of a domain. For example, The domain extension for afiaghana.com is “.com”. With Domain extensions, there are ordinary domain extensions and TLD extensions. TLD stands for Top-Level Domains. TLD extensions are classified into two parts, Country specific TLD or Country-code TLD (ccTLD) and generic TLD.
Generic (TLD)Top-Level Domain extensions
- .com, .edu, .net, .org
Country code Specific TLD (ccTLD) extensions
- .au |.com.gh | .ru | .ca | .co.uk
The above list of domain extensions is only to show you an example for each type of extension. These domain extensions are not the only extensions available, there are more. I just listed the most common ones you may have seen before.
Now that you know what a domain is, how it works, what a domain extension is and the type of domain extensions we have, you will be able to decide on the type of domain you want to get.
It’s always advisable to go in for a generic TLD (.com, .net, .org) if you are not sure what exactly your website’s content will be about yet, or your target audience. A .com domain specifically is highly recommended.
More than 50 of the largest websites online use a .com domain extension. The .com domain extension is not only popular, but it’s also one of the cheapest TLD available.
With only $10 to $18, You can get yourself a .com domain name for 12 months. Domain names are paid on a yearly basis, meaning every 12 months you will need to renew your domain to continue using it online. To keep your domain for several years, You will have to either register the domain for the number of years you intend on using it for or register for a year and renew it at the end of your 12 months contract.
Read: How To Buy A Domain name
Purchasing a domain isn’t rocket science. It’s one of the easiest things to do as a webmaster. The hardest part of the process is coming up with an available domain name to register.
90% of the domain names you will come up with are already taken by someone else. Apart from the fact that someone thought about the name before you did, and registered it first, Some companies specialize in buying premium domain names and selling it for 10x to 100X the price.
This is why it’s always advisable to register your domain as soon as you come up with the name.
What is a Niche Website?
In this post, I’m going to be explaining what a niche website is and how it works. A niche website or niche blog is designed and aimed towards a specific audience or group of people. With a niche website, the content and design of the site is made to focus on a particular topic or theme.
Having a niche website doesn’t necessarily mean having a small website, The term “Niche” simply refers to a segment of an overall market or product. An example of a niche website is ESPN.com, Its content, and the theme is focused on sports only.
Example of Niche Website Ideas:
- Food
- Sports
- Coupons
- Health
- Finance
- Business
- Dating
- Beauty
- Hairstyles
In blogging, a niche is usually defined as a specific area in which a blogger focuses. The content on the blog or site relates to this particular subject matter and is considered high-quality and authoritative on the topic.
When creating or building a niche website, You can either have a niche site that covers a general category or Narrow the niche for eg. With Espn.com, they focus on a broad niche which is sports. They cover topics from baseball, football, basketball..etc with a micro-niche site, it’s a bit different.
What Is a Micro Niche Site?
A Micro niche website covers or focuses on a smaller topic. With a Micro niche website, You get to narrow the niche into smaller topics. In other words, micro-niche sites are sub-topics for a broader niche. A micro niche website mostly consists of up to 10 pages.
Micro niche sites focus on one keyword only. If you intend on starting a micro-niche site, You’ll first need to pick the topic and the keyword you intend on blogging about then register a domain name matching the exact keyword or keyphrase. For eg. If You intend on Blogging about Cheap flights in Accra, You should get a matching domain like “cheapflightsinaccra.com” and write content only focused around cheap flights in Accra.
Micro Niche Website Ideas:
- Cancer Treatments
- Herpes Home Remedies
- Acne Treatments
- Shoprite Coupons
- Sugar-Free Snacks
- Fruit Juice
- Hotels in [Your City]
- Gopro Cameras
- Drones
Why Build a Niche Website?
There are countless of positive reasons why you should consider building a niche website. Some of the reasons incude:
- Easy Website Navigation
- Helps in SEO
- Low Competition
- Easy to Market
- Improved Engagement
- Brings in Targeted Traffic
- Easy To Monetize
- Good Conversion Rate
- Helps in Building your Email List
A niche website makes it easier for your website visitors to understand what your site is about as soon as they arrive on your webpage. In addition, Advertising or marketing products to your visitors or audience tend to convert into sales a lot easier as compared to having a general blog. Niche sites have low competition, help you rank faster on Google, and makes building a targeted email list very easy.
Getting Started With a Niche Site, Is it Right For you?
With Every Business or plan, there are pros and cons. If you intend on starting a website or blog, choosing a niche to focus on is a great way to build authority and credibility for your blog.
Creating a micro niche website and selecting the right topic will help you stand out from other blogs. This will automatically improve your google search ranking due to low competition in your niche. By creating a general niche site, you need to understand that ranking the website on google and competing with other well-established blogs will be much more difficult.
Read also: How To Create A Blog for free
How to Find low competition keywords for your niche.
If you’re entering a new industry or niche, or perhaps starting a new blog or website, you are going to want to find as many low-competition keywords for your SEO strategy as possible.
By using Semrush or Ahrefs, you can quickly find long-tail keywords and specific questions people search for online that will be easier to rank for with our metrics like keyword difficulty, competitive density, and volume.
Go to Ahrefs.com, Login to your dashboard and follow the steps below:
- Enter a keyword or phrase into Keywords Explorer
- Select the “Phrase match” report
- Set a Keyword Difficulty filter of max. 10
- Set a Search Volume filter of min. 1,000
What is Website Monetization?
Website monetization is generating revenue or income from your website’s content. If you have a website or blog, and you intend to make money from it, you will need to monetize your website.
There are so many ways to monetize a website, The most common way is by integration or placing CPM (Cost per Mile) or CPC (Cost Per Click) ads on your website.
In order to do so, You will need to sign up with a display ad network. Once approved, You will be given an account with a dashboard in which you can track your earnings and stats.
Having a good amount of website traffic plays a vital role in how much you can earn from monetizing your site as well as the rate in which you can charge advertisers for placing adverts on your site. The more website traffic you receive on your website, The more valuable your website becomes. It’s impossible to monetize a website with 0 Traffic or visitors.
Apart from the fact that most advertising networks will not accept you if you have no traffic, Advertisers can’t advertise with you directly if you have no one viewing or reading the content on your website.
What is a Display Ad Network?
A display advertising network also known as a display ad network is an agency that links advertisers to website owners who wish to display or exhibit advertisements on their websites/blogs.
In other words, display ad networks serve a broker or middleman between online publishers and advertisers.
Types of Display Ad Network
- Affiliate Ad Networks
- Vertical Ad Networks
- Native Ad Networks
- Premium Ad Network
Popular Display Ad Networks
I put together a number of display ad networks to give you an idea. Examples of display advertising Networks:
- Advertising.com
- Google Adsense
- Infolinks.com
- Media.net
- Tribal Fusion
- Chitika
- PulsePoint
Popular Affiliate Marketing Ad Networks
- Commission Junction Affiliate by Conversant
- LinkShare
- Amazon associates
What Is Google AdSense
Google AdSense is the advertising platform by Google where publishers or website owners, and Youtube creators can place ad (advertising) code directly on their websites or blogs and google Adsense will automatically fill up that ad space with the right ads related to the content of your site. Google reviews all ads to ensure they are of high quality and relevant to your audience.
What is Google AdSense account
In order to start monetizing your blog, website, or youtube channel with relevant ads from Google, You will need a Google Adsense account. A Google AdSense account is an account for Google ad publishers only. Having a Google AdSense account enables you to place ads, and track your ad clicks, ad hits, earnings, traffic sources, best and least converting ads, and ad rates.
In order To Get a Google Adsense account, You need To Apply for an account and get approved by Google. The duration mostly takes up to 2 weeks to hear back from Google after applying.
Read also: How To Get Approved For Google Adsense
What Is Website Traffic?
Website traffic, in short, is website Visitors. Website Traffic is sometimes referred to as “Sessions”. This is the amount of data carried out by a user to your website. This is how your website audience is analyzed and tracked.
Similar Terms include:
- Web Traffic
- Sessions
- Website Visits
How To Track Website Traffic
Tracking your website visitors is very important for every online business owner. It helps you know where your audience is coming from to your site as well as the content and pages on your website your visitors are reading and visiting the most. In order to track your website traffic or visitors, you will need an analytics tool or software. Here are some top website traffic tracking tools you can use to track your website visitors.
- Google Analytics
- AWStats
- W3Counter
- Woopra
- Sitemeter
- Elogic
- Webalizer
How to Get Paid to Blog Online
So you’ve made a blog, and now you have a following of supporters who read it and leave comments regularly? The next step is to make money with your site. Small businesses and other businesses can put ads on your pages. Whenever anyone clicks on an ad on your page or visits your site, Google Adsense pays you a commission.
It’s not enough to live on, but it will be a good amount depending on how many ads are shown and how many times people click on them. This will also help you rank higher in search engine results because web spiders will follow the links back to you.
But you need to be cautious about who you let advertise on your page because some ads might offend some of your readers, which could cause you to lose some of your fans. Again, too many ads won’t help because they will make your web pages look like a billboard, which will turn people off. The best thing to do is choose ads that people will want to click on and keep the number in check.
