In my previous article, I have explained how I left my job to make money from Blogging and Affiliate marketing and make it as a career.
If you haven’t read it, and, if you are truly interested to know if blogging really works as a career, then that’s a recommended read for you!
In short, it is a good career opportunity if preferred and prepared exactly as a job. I will explain more about this in a relevant section below!
Coming back, after I published the earlier article, some of my friends and colleagues read that article and responded me with one of the following:
- Either they do not know what is a blog and what is blogging
- Or they did not know how people earn money from a blog
- What is a blog and blogging?
- How to start your own blog?
- How people earn money from Blogging?
- Is this a perfect platform for you to earn money?
- Is this a sustainable career option?
- Do you need to quit your job to start or run a blog?
- etc.
Blogging is a word that is derived from the word “blog”.
So, let’s start from understanding about a blog.
Contents
What is a Blog?
Before the WWW (world wide web, basically the internet) what do you think how people managed to keep their thoughts, ideas, etc.?
By writing on a paper, diary, notebook etc., right?
After the internet, it’s just the same habit of writing went online.
People used website to convey their own ideas, express their views and thoughts etc.
This website was popularly known as a blog (shortened for web log)
Basically keeping a log of your writings on the internet is known as web log or a blog.
The information that you share need not be personal always. You can share information based on photography, cooking, tech guides, travel experience etc.
I have found a very good video that explains the same in a very easy to understand presentation.
When you publish your personal ideas or views etc. on your blog it is usually called as a personal blog.
Similarly, a blog can be related to anything:
- Travel
- Tech guides
- Photography
- Food or Cooking
- Music
- etc.
Any blog that covers information on a specific topic, is usually called as a Niche Blog.
Now, What is Blogging?
When you write something, that is known as writing; similarly, when you blog something, that is known as blogging!
Simple.. isn’t it?
Is there something extra that you should know?
Of course, there is more to know about blogging than just writing blog. If you do not get your basics right, you may fail in your blogging journey and never dare to come again!
Having said that, blog is a platform, where one can share any valuable information.
Blog platform is now used by different set of people for different purposes.
This is now used by individuals to share their knowledge and used by companies to promote their own products and services.
Blogging used by an Individual or a small group of people
InfySim itself is a blog that shares ideas and information about blogging, SEO, tips on making money online etc.
And, here is a food blog meant to educate people about cooking.
These are called as Niche Blog. These blogs share content related to a specific topic.
Blogging used by Companies
Similarly, companies do have their blogs to promote their products or services online.
Flipkart is popularly known as an online store in India, also has its own blog.
Have you ever thought that they could have one?
Here is a Smartphone buying guide in a blog style article on their website.
This blog post is written by keeping sales and marketing in mind.
This is what has become today’s Blogging.
[alert-success]Now a days, blogging is done for a purpose! To make money, to sale products or services, to share knowledge, to create a community, create brand awareness, etc.[/alert-success]Blogging is not just starting a blog and sharing what you know! There is more than this which you must know before making this as a way of earning money.
In my opinion Blogging is all of the following:
- Creating a blog
- Writing new content
- Promoting your blog posts on social media
- Optimizing your content for Search Engines (like Google)
- Understanding what your audience is looking for (known as keyword research)
- Outperforming your competitors (through keyword research)
- Writing how-to guides to promote products and services (affiliate marketing)
- Creating your own brand (so that you can sell your own products, if you intend to do so)
- etc.
Basically, blogging is everything that you do to make your blog reach millions of people.
Once you understand this, you see it as a whole and not just writing content.
What’s the secret of earning money from Blogging?
Well, there is no secret in this!
It was always in front of us but either we ignored or never understood this correctly.
News papers, TV shows, etc. are already earning money from this similar concept and they are already there from decades in front of us.
If you have ever read a News Paper, then I am sure you have come across some of the product promotion pages or advertisement pages.
Similarly, if you have ever watched any TV serial, or a show or a sports match etc. then you have also watched the product advertisements that comes every 10 minutes or so during the show.
Every time you watch a YouTube video, the first promotional video appears is nothing but an ad. Or on the right side of the screen appears is an ad.
See the below screenshot to get an idea.
Similarly, you see ads on websites or blogs.
See the below screenshot which I took from lifehack.org that has one ad on top and two ads on the right side of the screen.
Advertisements are everywhere.
Where there is a medium to reach people, their is an opportunity of promoting product and service through advertisements.
A blog is a medium in online to reach a group of audience. So, product manufacturers start advertising on websites.
If your blog gets more visitors everyday then more advertisers will be interested to show ads and hence more earning for you.
So, the earnings are directly proportional to the number of people visit your blog.
STRICTLY, Don’t Blog Just for Money!
Since blogging has emerged as a way of earning money online, people have started doing it without having any clarity of where to start and how to succeed.
There is no exact data to write but, most bloggers fail to continue in this blogging journey.
Because people see this as a get-rich-quick scheme, but this not!
Blogging is a process of writing good content, building a good audience base and then earning money out of it.
You See! It takes time in building this!
If you see my own journey, I earned my first $100 mark after 1 year of AdSense approval and then the second $100 in another 10 months.
First $100 earning took from June 2014 to April 2015:
Second $100 earning took from April 2015 to March 2016:
So, it took almost 2 years for me to earn just $200 from blogging.
If you are in hurry to make money from your blog, then I would strongly suggest, you STOP right here!
You learn to be patient, create quality content consistently or you will fail in blogging.
FAQs About Blogging
There are hundreds of guides about blogging online but still people do not get the right information.
So, I thought to include the most commonly asked questions about blogging.
Now you know the basics and how people earn money out of it, let’s look at some other practical aspects of it.
Who can start a blog?
What is the scope of Blogging in the Future?
Now you know how people earn money, but how long the trend will continue?
How easy is it to get into blogging?
Earlier (usually in 90s), to start a blog, you needed to have a thorough understanding of internet, web servers, HTML, etc. and few more technical things here and there.
Not many people had that technical expertise to start and maintain a blog.
But, over the period of time, the usage of blogging has changed.
Of course you still need to understand many technical things like: domain name, hosting, WordPress etc. but you have more access to resources to learn these things than ever!
How do you think it is going to be scaled in the future?
Let’s look at some real data!
According to a statistics report published by Statista, almost 4.66 billion people were actively using internet as of October 2020. That’s not long ago!
Now, this value is roughly 59 percent of the global population. So, a 40% of people are yet to come online.
Blogging is a full-time career for me, so this data means a lot to me.
I see an abundant opportunity going forward.
Can Blogging replace a full-time Job?
We get our education to get a job. We spend almost 15+ years to prepare ourselves to get a job.
If you understand this correctly, you know that how much time all of us spend for a job.
If you have left anything in between your educational journey, you would have landed somewhere else.
Take Engineering, for example:
I am an engineer, so it is quite simple for me to explain.
I did 10 years of schooling, 2 years of Intermediate in Science and 4 years of Engineering course.
Everything in the educational hierarchy is important to follow. It was not possible to leave 10 years of schooling and just appear for +2 or twelfth or Engineering out of nowhere.
Or, if I would have chosen Commerce in my +2, I could not have taken engineering at all.
So, practically, I (and almost all of us) have spent 16 years to complete Engineering and get ready for a job.
Basically, nothing happens overnight.
If all of us think the same way and spend only few consistent years for Blogging or any other career opportunity for that matter, we will know that it really works.
If you see closely, Blogging itself is a job.
The only thing is, this can be done while doing other jobs in parallel.
So, the bottom line is: Blogging works and it can be made as a career or as an extra income if you are willing to learn it in the right way!
Do you need to quit your job for Blogging?
NO!
I have been in blogging since 2013 while I was in a job.
I continued blogging along with the job till 2019. I could have continued the same way but my goal was to quit the 9-to-5 job culture, so I did!
It was my personal decision to quit the job otherwise it is not necessary to do so.
So, practically, if you already happy with your job, you don’t need to leave your job for blogging.
You can first learn, execute, get expertise, get succeed and then you can decide to keep the job or keep blogging or keep the both.
Blogging is all about writing
Without writing there is no blogging.
If you have learned otherwise, you need to re-learn the right thing. Blogging is nothing but writing your thoughts and ideas.
We all write.
As a student we wrote in note books, exams, lab records, etc.
As a working professional, you might have wrote some documentation, some test cases, e-mail writing, business copy writing etc.
If not anything, more or less we all write on Social media to chat with people, showcase our achievements, stories, etc.
That’s what blogging is all about… writing!
You need not be scared of writing once again if you want to start your own blog and earn money out of it.
That’s okay, But what to write?
Write what you know. Write what you know well!
Ask yourself the below questions to come to a conclusion:
- what is that you know well
- Or at least, if someone tells you to write, what is that topic that you will choose to write?
- How much can you write about that topic?
- How long can you write?
Focus on your ideas, those ideas which will keep you busy.
If you are running out of ideas soon, then you may first need to learn.
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.
Read books, articles, watch videos, follow entrepreneurs to learn and to get ideas.
You think you are not good at writing?
Well, nobody is… initially!
Sometimes you don’t write well and sometimes people don’t understand.
STOP looking outside and comparing yourself with others, if you are doing so!
Everyone has their own thought process. No one is better than none.
First, let your thoughts come out. Then, just convey those thoughts to write in words… in your own words!
If you genuinely know you are bad at writing, then focus on improving it.
But unless you start writing, you cannot do that, right?
So, first you need to start writing again, then only you can think of improving it.
Stop giving excuses!
Take a pen and a paper right now and write down whatever you have in your mind!
That’s how things start.
Not confident to Start a Blog to Write?
Not ready to start writing on your blog?
No problem!
You don’t need a blog to start writing initially.
Let your thoughts come out to your fingers and write down wherever you want.
Don’t have a computer? Write down on your phone.
Don’t have a phone? Write down on a paper.
Don’t have a paper? Write down on the walls.
Don’t stop!
Keep writing. Gain confidence!
When you will have confidence to come to the blogging space, buy your own domain name and a hosting to start a blog.
If you are already confident, have ideas and knowledge to share then you can jump to start a blog of your own.
Wondering Where and How to Start Blogging?
To reach somewhere, first you need to start!
I started blogging from zero and earned more than $5000 in a single month.
Below are some of the earning proof for one of my website from September 2019 to December 2019.
Everyone starts from zero, you need to remember that!
If you think you are not good at writing, then keep writing till you gain confidence.
Once you are confident to write, choose a specific topic or niche (as commonly referred in blogging) in which you can write well.
Find a niche in which you are passionate about, on which you can write more and more content.
This is important because this is the only thing that will keep you motivated even if there is no sign of progress.
Also, selecting a niche (topic) which is scalable from earnings perspective.
If you know you are already good at writing, and identified in which topic or niche you are going to cover buy a domain name, buy a hosting plan, install WordPress on it and start your first blog post.
I will make a new post on how to start your first blog.
What is the Formula to Succeed in Blogging?
To earn money from your blog, you need people to read the content that you write.
For most blogs this traffic of readers comes from search engines, preferably Google.
Of course you are writing for humans but first Google has to understand your writing which is a machine and then it will show your content on it’s own page.
Yes, it’s Google’s crawler bots that understands (parses) your content to understand the topic of your writing.
So, to be good at blogging you also need to understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO), build links to your blog etc.
Conclusion
Blogging is a platform, an opportunity to earn money, but first it is a medium to share knowledge and information.
Once people know about your blog, you will get a chance to make money through advertisements.
Basically, it gives you an opportunity to run behind your passion and make money out of it.
You have just come to know about blogging. There is a long way to go.
Stay with me, I will take you through the journey.
If you want to know everything right now, you can just leave a comment so that I can guide you what to do next.