Realistic growth tips to new aspiring bloggers

I see several new bloggers launching a blog during the pandemic and scrambling for ways to make money. This leads to frustration as blogger fails to make money in near term. If you are thinking of having a blog as revenue generating source and starting afresh, this post is for you. It will NOT give you any shortcut to success, but will appraise you to ground realities and set you on the right path.

Before you begin:

Before you think of having a blog, get comfortable with following truth elements.

1. No one cares you have a blog, unless there's something in it for them. Your friends, family, facebook friends no one will visit a blog just you cause you have written it. They will visit only if they feel the information is useful for them. Don't expect any massive support from your friends and family, don't expect them to read like, share everything you write.

2. There is no easy money via blogs. Creating a blog won't open an avenue of income from next month. A blog needs to be sustained for several months to few years before it can gain some level of acceptance/visibility. You should be able to sustain on your own till then.

3. Get your niche and fundamentals right.

Spend some time on what your blog will be about and select right name/URL. You can't change this later. For example sonu2020.blogspot.com doesn't tell me anything about the blog. Something more specific like jaipurautonews.blogspot.com or kidsfashioninda.blogspot.com instantly gives an idea what the blog is about. Think about your passion, interests and expertise and select a right niche that suits you, than following what everyone else is doing. 

4. Figure out what will you write week after week.

What kind of content will you write? From where will you get inspiration or source of content. For example a food blogger can plan to visit different restaurants or cook different food items to write on them. A fashion blogger should be ready to buy/stitch/source new dresses at regular intervals and so on. Unless you've a clear plan, motive and source, you will lose interest in your blog within 6 months and won't be able to sustain. 

5. Define your objectives right

What are you aiming to achieve from the blog over next few years?

• Get famous?
• Make lots of money?
• Pitch to brands?
• Showcase your talent, expertise?

Set realistic targets. Some of the above are possibly achievable by hard work, others may need some luck or even impossible. Having realistic expectations and goal settings saves you from heart break later.

Once you launch your blog

1. Don't rush to sign up for adsense. Check Adsense eligibility here. In summary, you should have continuous, unique and useful content. Give the blog at least 9 to 12 months, 50-100 good posts and some level of visibility in search engines before you apply for adsense. It won't be fair for me to say don't sign up till you have x thousand visitors per month- that would be your call, but even if accepted, adsense income will be negligible till your traffic grows to respectable levels.

2. Don't torture your friends and family: Like I said earlier, no one cares. Their time is precious to them. Don't bug them to read, like, share your blog. You will become like that insurance agent everyone tries to avoid. Write good content, share on your social handles, let people notice it slow and steady.

3. Learn fundamentals and do it right from the beginning

- Learn about dofollow and no follow, image titles, alt tag, optimal size and formats, a bit of HTML to tweak your blog template/designs, SEO fundamentals and so on. If you invest some time, learn these things and do it right from beginning, results will be faster. After writing 100-200 posts if you want to change/fix these things it will be a boring, time taking process. 

4. Read

In order to be a good writer you need to read. Visit other blogs, read their content, observe what they do, learn from their mistakes and then write. Reading a lot helps you write better. 

Realistic Growth tips for new bloggers

Now you've set up a blog, managing to update it regularly and beginning to see some traction among search engines, readers and within blogging community. Now you can plan to grow rapidly.

1. Be ready to invest small amount.

Invest in a right domain, hire good content writers if you can't write yourself, select a good theme (paid if necessary).  You don't have to spend on these from day 01, but these are required investments over time if you are serious about blogging. You may not need expensive SEO services- you can learn and do it a bit yourself. Paying for link building is also ethically wrong and may not guarantee long term success as search engines get smarter by the day in detecting commercial/unnatural links.

But be careful on spending in wrong places. Every other person is an expert and has a paid workshop to change your life overnight. Take your time and spend only on trusted workshops.

2. Pursue multiple avenues

Do not depend 100% on blog. Select at least one or two other mediums and build your profile there too- may be a video channel, may be Instagram- whatever works for your interest, expertise.

3. Learn more about technical and business aspects that matter.

How to reduce bounce rate, what your readers are searching, what kind of content is doing well for you, what your readers are saying, is your pages loading fast enough? Focus on these aspects and improvise as much as possible. Research is crucial to grow faster in right direction. Else you will do lots of stuff no one cares for and doesn't return any benefits. 

4. Participate in events and network

Take part in events related to your industry/area of interest, blogger community events and network with others. You will learn a lot and also can establish yourself

5. Identify value drivers

Pick few factors that are impressive. Some posts that are doing well in search engine, some comment where someone bought a product after reading your review, some videos that have gone viral. You can use these value drivers to showcase your expertise, pitch to brands etc.

6. Build a portfolio/media kit

Once you have some credible history, success to showcase, you can build a profile for yourself and start looking for revenue generating opportunities. It is a slow and steady process, but patience and hard work pays off. You can either proactively hunt for opportunities or respond to available opportunities in various communities and networks you have been part of.

All the best for your blogging journey.  Below are some more resources to help you blog better:

1. 8 tips to manage time for your blogging

2. 10 things for bloggers to do while at home

3. 10 latest trends that should worry every blogger

4. Seven types of opportunities bloggers should avoid

5. SEO fundamentals for regional language bloggers

6. SEO tips

P.S. Image made using canva. Don't ask me who the girl is- it was in the template!