First of all, creating a blog and making the blog successful are two different things. Nowadays anyone can create a blog but only a few of them can make their blog successful and earn money from it.
So have you ever thought about these
- What does it take to become a successful blogger?
- How does a successful blogger make thousands of dollars per month?
- What are the things that differentiate a successful blogger from an unsuccessful blogger?
To be honest I used to ask this question a lot in my struggling days and along with that I read lots of stories of successful bloggers to know the one thing that makes them successful.
Here in this post, I have shared my 10 years of experience in blogging that helped me to generate more than $100K from blogging and fulfill my dreams.
So Let’s start with my journey.
My Journey of getting success in blogging
Like you, I also have been struggling a lot to make my first income from blogging and make my blog successful.
After making lots of effort – it seemed like nothing working out for me, but I did not give up because I had one thing from the start.
Learning attitude and doing the hard work with dedication – that’s what’s helped me to achieve success in blogging.
Fast forward to today after working on more than 100 sites – I found something that helped me to get all these success in this field.
My motive for this post is to give all the lessons that I wish I had known when I started my blogging journey.
Flashing back to my journey one thing that I have been fortunate about is:
I never chased any shortcuts or quick rich schemes to make money.
With that being said let me clear the very first things from the start:
Blogging is not a quick rich scheme to make money it’s a business and it requires the skills to make money from it.
Now let’s talk about the things that have helped me to achieve this height in the blogging field, I know most of these things might hurt your expectations – so be ready with it.
How to be successful in blogging?
After working in this industry for more than 10 years – one thing that I can say confidently is anyone can make money from blogging if they get the right guidance from the start.
But the problem that I have seen in most newbie bloggers is: that they don’t take blogging seriously at all and I mean it, here few of the reasons
- They will write the post when they are in the mood
- They will copy-paste the article & chase shortcuts
- They work on a niche they don’t even know about
- They don’t focus on one thing and just go with the trend
The problem with this: is they will never be successful and feel frustrated and the only thing that they will do at the end is complain about the Google Updates.
So you don’t have to be the one- here are the things that you need to know to make your blog successful.
Right Mindset
I feel bad to see when people enter into this field with the wrong mindset: they think that they just need to fill their website with useless content using AI tools, or any ChatGPT prompt and soon they will earn thousands of dollars.
But the most important thing they miss is – Acquiring the skills to become successful, and that’s the main reason most of them fail at blogging.
If you are also one – who is using such tools and dreaming about achieving success in blogging, then let me put the first bitter truth.
You will not get success and in fact, you will not be able to earn a single penny – because without skills no one will pay you whether it’s your client or Google.
So put it simply: If you are serious enough to make money from the blog, avoid using ChatGPT, AI tools, and any other copy-pasting things at any cost it will just lead you to the path of failure and waste your precious time.
That’s why having the right mindset from the start will help you become a successful blogger.
Now let’s talk about a few things that – you need to get clear before you begin your journey in blogging.
Blogging is skill-based work
As said before, blogging is skills-based work and to make money from the blog, you need to invest enough time to learn about the right skills.
Learning the skills is not a very difficult task – you can learn them from blog posts, YouTube videos, or through courses.
But one thing that you need to keep in mind is to implement as much as possible that’s the only way to learn and master the skills.
Master the essential skills
Now you know that you need to learn the skills but the next question is: what are the skills that you need – so here is the list of the skills that have helped me to grow my blog and make it successful.
- Niche Research
- Keyword research
- Content writing
- On page SEO
- Interlinking
The best part is I have already created a guide on every skill, so it becomes easier for you to learn and implement it – make sure to read out all our guides.
Patience – It takes times
It’s not a skill that can only help you get success – having patience is also important from the start – In one of the previous posts – I shared the data of the pro blogger about how much time it takes to first income from your blog.
As a result – On average, it takes 6 months to 1 year to make money from your blog, so you need to have patience to see the results.
Now before you select the niche and start working, there is one more thing that you need to consider: Clear the basics of blogging.
Clear the basics of blogging
Before you jump directly and select the niche you need to understand the basics of blogging & some of the things that you need clear from the start are
- What is blogging?
- How blogging business model work?
- What is domain & hosting?
- Platform for blogging
Once you know the above things – it becomes easier for you to understand the further concepts.
If you are a beginner, who doesn’t have the budget then you start your journey from Blogger it’s a free blogging platform, but be sure to buy custom domains like (XYZ.com).
But many people are confused: about whether creating a website on a blogger will rank or not.
So here is the quick answer – Yes it ranks and also gets traffic I have worked for more than 2 years on Blogger so there is no doubt about it.
Once you have decided on the blogging platform it’s time to choose the right niche
Now let’s talk about the second most important thing where most new bloggers fail and are not able to make their blogs successful.
Choosing the niche
One thing that can make or break your blogging journey is niche research but most of the bloggers don’t have the right knowledge about niche research.
As a result, they ended up choosing the niche based on the things that won’t matter much and some of the things are
- Search volume
- Traffic potential
- CPC
- Keyword difficulty
Some common niches that they choose are – APK downloads, PDF downloads, Movie downloads, or multi-niche where they can cover multiple topics.
But the main problem with these types of niches is – that they usually get the copyright or DMCA strike and in the end, their all efforts go in vain.
So now the next big question is: what is the right niche and how do you find it?
Let me first explain, what I mean by the right niche.
What is the right niche?
Right niches are the niches where you focus on one topic, create content around it build the authority that will help you rank your blog & make money from it.
In short: You have to work on the micro niches and focus on one category instead of covering multiple topics.
Now let me explain to you with an example
Suppose you have decided on your niche in tech like laptops – but when you start researching further you will find that there are already a bunch of websites that are ranking on the top.
These websites already have high authority in your niche – so what will you do?
Now you only have two options
- Build the website in this niche & give years to outrank them
- Find the micro topics under this niche and create the micro niche website ex – gaming laptop
As per my experience choosing the second option is more profitable as it has less competition & you have to cover fewer articles to build the authority of your sites
In essence – You will get ranking in these types of niches & also be able to make money from it.
How to find the right niches?
There are various ways that you can find the right niche for your blog but one of the proven methods that I use – find sites that are already doing good and earning money.
After finding the sites – I researched more about that niche and used my niche selection formula, the formula is broken down here
- Choose the niche that I am interested in
- Find the sites that have less than 200 RD
- Top ranking must have less than 200 articles
- Top-ranking sites are already making money
So these are things that I see before selecting any niche to work upon – this formula has a huge contribution to my blogging journey – so you must use this formula the next time.
If you want to learn another method that I use for finding the niche – you can check out my post on niche finding these methods have helped to find million-dollar niches.
Now once you decide on your niche – the next thing that you need do is to select the domain name.
Selecting the domain name
Selecting the right domain is very important and the one thing that you need to keep in mind while selecting the domain name is :
Always select the domains that are relevant to your niche and category, and avoid buying a domain name that does not have any correlation with your niche.
What types of domains you should select?
Whenever you are buying the domains always go with the (.com/.net/.org/.info) but sometimes these TLDs are only available now.
What do if these TLDs are already booked?
If the TLDs are already booked, you can go with the country-level domain-like – like (.in/.au/.co.UK), or some other TLDs including (.online/.me/.xyz).
After working on multiple blogs the one thing that can say fearlessly is :
TLDs do matter much in making your blog successful but the things that matter most are – the niche you have selected and how you are writing the content for it.
Where to buy the domain & hosting?
This is the next question that most of my fellow bloggers have, to let me put it straight: Always buy the domain from a trusted provider.
I usually buy the domain from Namecheap, Godaddy, or PorKbun, but I am not recommending you buy from the same platform.
But just to make you aware – don’t buy the hosting or domain just because someone is giving you a huge discount because – you will not get the help when you need.
In short – Avoid buying the domain or hosting from an untrusted source.
Now once you have purchased the domain and hosting it’s time for you to your site and take the steps toward making it successful.
Site setup
Site setup is another important step after buying the domain & hosting, as you need to connect both of them – so that you can do any further work.
However, the other wired things that I noticed in the new bloggers are :
They are too obsessed with the site setup and designing it to make it look cool and for that, they change the logo, color, and theme all the time.
But what they doing is: Wasting time on useless things that don’t even matter in the start.
So let me first walk you through the things that you need to avoid from the beginning.
Things to avoid in site setup
Hifi Design – After talking with several newbie bloggers one thing that found common in all of them is: that they have this myth that having a heavy design will help them to rank in Google.
So let me make it clear to you: Blog design has done nothing with ranking the website.
Paid theme/ Paid Pluign – It’s the common thing: Chasing the paid plugin and tools, with the same thought that it will help them to rank on Google.
But it’s just another lie that you have told from so-called fake blogging so don’t even have any idea about what blogging is.
The only things that will make your blog successful are content, content, and content – writing good content is only the way to rank on Google.
So let’s come to the point that matters and you should focus on
Website Setup – Things you should know
Blog Design – In the beginning, you don’t have to spend too much time on designing your website, just install any free theme you are ready to go – not take too much time to decide the best theme.
Here is the list of the free themes that I use and recommend to other people
- Generatepress
- Astra
- Kadence
If your blog is new: you can install any of the themes and you are good to go another benefit of these themes they are lightweight & easy to customize.
Now let’s talk about the plugin – oh sorry paid plugin.
When it comes to choosing the plugin most of the new bloggers think: They need a paid plugin to rank on Google and if you also have this thought in mind.
The first thing can do is remove & erase this thought from your mind,
Because nothing will work without content.
Second, you don’t need to fill your website with a bunch of plugins, just install the essential ones, here is the list of plugins that I use for my blogs.
- Table of content
- Yoast SEO / Rankmath
- Contact form
- Wp rocket
- Sitekit
Additionally, one more thing you need to consider- don’t install the new plugin just because someone else suggested you.
Otherwise, you just waste your time & energy, the best thing is to stick with one thing and focus on the things that will make your blog successful.
When you set up your sites, you will also need to create the important pages and it takes your blog more professional & people will take your blog seriously.
So here is the list of the important that you need for your site, and make it more professional
- About us
- Contact us
- Terms & conditions
- DMCA
- Privacy policy
- Disclaimer
Apart from the above pages, you need to analyze your competitor and see the pages they have created for their sites you can replicate the same but don’t copy thier page content.
I know many new bloggers are reading this – who don’t even know how to create the pages set up the plugin or customize the theme.
But don’t worry over time you will learn all these things but only if take these things seriously and implement whatever you will learn in this process.
When you start learning the skill gradually you also become confident that you can get success in blogging and earn money.
Once you finish the site step-up, it’s time to fill your webiste with content – but for that, you need to find the keyword or topic to write about
So now let’s understand keyword research and find the right keywords for your site
Keyword research
I have mentioned this many times – one keyword can change your life and it has changed my life too that’s the reason it’s important to learn to find the right keyword – a keyword that will help you make money & drive traffic.
Let’s look into the things that you should consider while doing the keyword research
Keyword research tools
Using the tools is a good way to find the keywords for your niche but the main problem arises – when people blindly trust these tools
Keyword research tools are just for the idea’s purpose you don’t have to depend on it to select the keyword.
In addition to that – you don’t need paid keyword research tools for keyword research there are a bunch of free tools that you use to find the keyword of your niche, some of the free keyword research tools are
- Google keyword planner
- Ahrefs keyword generator
- Google autocomplete
- Ubbersuggest
I started my journey with the free keyword research tools and one thing that I can is that skills will, help you achieve success in any field, not any tools.
When it comes to the paid keyword tool, the names always that pop up in the market
- Aherfs
- Semrush
I mostly use the paid ahrefs version as it saves my time but it’s very costly so if you are looking for budget-friendly keyword research tools, you can use Semrush as it also offers you a free trial so you can try that as well.
Overview of the keywords
Before beginning your keyword research process, here are a few things that you need to understand.
Keyword Intent
The intent of the keyword means – what users want to see when they are typing the specific query and you need to understand the motive behind the searches of the queries.
For example – If someone is searching for the best hairstyle for men – he is more interested in seeing pictures rather than reading the 2000 blog post.
Similarly, if someone researches the best gaming laptop, he is more interested in learning about the specifications and features of each laptop.
In short – You need to understand the intention behind any search query, as it will help you create exceptional content that people will love.
Types of keyword
When you learn about keyword research – you will there are many types of keywords, like
- Short tail keyword
- Informational keyword
- Transactional keyword
- Navigational keyword
- Long tails keyword
But the thing that you should focus on is: targeting the long tail keyword as it has low competition and is easy to rank.
Keyword modifiers
In keyword research, modifiers play a huge role in modifiers like – can, how, is, are, best, and review, these are a few examples but you need to learn how to utilize them to find the low-competition keywords.
Modifiers are the best method to find the untapped keyword of your niche that you can rank without hassle.
If there is one thing that I recommend you invest most of your time in: doing keyword research it’s the next most important thing after niche research that will contribute most to making your blog successful.
But Finding the good keywords is one side of the coin because you also need to understand: How to write the content that ranks & makes money.
Let’s come to the part of content writing – the things that you should avoid while writing.
Content writing
As I always say – writing the content is not a one-time activity it’s a process that you need to practice every day, and you can only learn the art of writing the content when you start writing it.
But most people overthink and judge their content – whether it will rank or not which brings me to the first things that you need to avoid
Overthinking
The first thing that you need to avoid while writing the content is overthinking and instead of this – you should focus on giving your best while writing it.
Chasing the shortcuts
As said before, if you want to make a successful career in blogging you need to avoid taking shortcuts as it will not help you get succeed, and some of the things that you have to avoid are
- No Copy Paste
- No ChatGPT
- No AI tools
- No Translation
You have to give time to learn things and take the path of genuine work – that’s the only way to be skillful & make money.
Instead of using these tools, focus on learning how to create the content.
Research
Before writing any content the first thing that you need to do is the enough time to do the research and I can assure you that 90 % of your content writing issues will be resolved – If you give sufficient time to do the research.
Some of the things that you need to check while doing the research are
- How did the competitor create the blog post?
- What are the things they are covering?
- How many variations of keywords they have used in their content?
- How do they structure their content?
Furthermore, the other things that you can do for the research are
- Check the types of results Google is showing
- Find the related keyword of your topics
- Watch some videos about the topics
- Read the answers of forums of your keywords
- Use autosuggest to find more keywords
Tool for content writing
The only that I suggest to any beginners to use for content writing is Grammarly – it’s the best tool that will fix and resolve all your grammar issues and spelling mistakes.
Optimize your content
Once you have found your content – you have to optimize and add the images and graphics to make it more appealing to the users of your sites.
Here are some of the things that you can do to make it more attractive and attention-grabbing
- Use the free stock images
- Take the images from Google (don’t forget to give credit)
- Create your images (using Canva)
- Add the video related to your topics
- Add the popular quotes of authority people
These things not only help you make your content attractive – but also make it readable for the audience and they will be more likely to spend more time on your site.
If you want to know how I write posts for my blogs – you can check out our guide on how to write a blog post that ranks.
Optimize your content with SEO
So till now – you have learned about finding the niche, choosing the right keyword, and writing quality content – but one thing is missing from the picture.
And that’s SEO – Writing the content only will not help you to rank in SERP you also need to optimize the content as per the SEO.
Let’s talk about SEO, so generally There are two types of SEO that you should know
- On page SEO
- Off-page SEO
On page
The things that you do inside your website for its better ranking are known as page SEO, and some of the things that you need to optimize your website are
URL optimization
The first things that you need to do when it comes to optimizing the content are – to make your URL short and include your keyword in it.
Heading & subheading optimization
The other things that you need to optimize in the content are the heading and the subheading – so what you can do to optimize it, here are some of the thighs that you need to do
- Add the keyword in the heading
- Use the related keyword in it
- Optimize it with variations of the keywords
Image optimization
If you add the image to your content then it becomes very important to optimize it from the SEO perspective as it increases the overall SEO score of your content & helps google to identify your images along with the content.
Page speed optimization
It’s not only important from the audience’s point of view but it’s the ranking factor of Google that you should consider – the other benefit of page speed is that people will spend more time on your sites.
Here are some of the things that you can do to improve the page speed of your site
- Avoid using heavy themes & plugins
- Always choose to host from a trusted source
- Never install any third-party plugins or tools
These are points that you need to consider to increase the loading speed & performance of your site.
Content Optimization
As mentioned before, after writing the content, you need to optimize it for a better ranking on Google.
In this process of optimization, the main thing that you need to consider is adding the relevant keyword throughout your content so it helps google to identify your content.
Remember – Adding keywords does not mean filling your content just with the keywords, you also need to take care of your audience who will read your content.
Internal linking
Nowadays it’s become another ranking factor for Google – so first let’s understand what interlinking means
Internal links are the types of links that connect one page of your website to another page of your website within a single domain are called internal links.
Off-page SEO
All the activities that you do outside of your website to increase its traffic and ranking are called off-page SEO.
In off-page SEO, generally, we build the backlinks & social media profiles to increase its visibility.
Some of the backlinks that you need to create in the off-page SEO are
- Social media profile backlinks which include – Quora, Reddit, YouTube & Facebook
- Forum link building
- Web 2.0
- Guest posts
- Email outreach
These are the most common ways to build backlinks for your site and one more thing that I want to mention is
Backlinks are also the ranking factor of Google as they treat it as a social signal.
For the beginner, I recommend learning about social media link profile building, forum link building, and web 2.0 – guest post & email outreach the advanced concepts that you can learn later.
But you only have to build the link when your website starts some traffic from Google & few of your keywords start showing on the SERP.
If you want me to create a complete guide on building the backlinks – please let me know in the comment section.
Now come to the most interesting & important part of the article that you are waiting for – monetization methods
Monetization Method
If you follow the right steps and process that I have shared so far – then your blog will start ranking and getting some traffic.
So you can use the various ways to monetize your blogs & make money that’s what matters in the end.
But having the monetization knowledge is also important – so here are some of the ways that you use to monetize but the two methods are the most popular
- Display Network
- Affiliate
But don’t worry we discuss more ways to monetize your blog beyond these so make sure you read till the end.
Now let’s discuss each one of these in detail – start with Adsense
Display Network
Using the display network is one of the most common ways that you use to monetize your blog, and some of the most common display networks are
- Google Adsense
- Ezoic
- Mediavine
But as a beginner, you should focus only on Google AdSense and Ezoic because Mediavine is for the big and established websites.
In monetization, many newbie bloggers face the issue of getting the approval of Google AdSense – But I think that I have experienced it – if you have genuine and if your blog is getting some traffic you will get approval.
My recommendation is to apply for AdSense only when your website gets traffic because getting the approval will not help you make the money you also need to have traffic on your site.
Note – If you also want me to create another post on getting AdSense approval, please let me know in the comment section.
Affiliate
Using an affiliate is the best way to monetize your blog & make good money from your blog but it’s mostly for those who earn some money from blogging and have some experience in this field.
If you are earning some money from blogging -then you can try the affiliate on your blog there are many types of affiliates that you can use, here are some of them.
Amazon Affiliate
For beginners – Amazon Affiliate is the best affiliate network that you use to monetize your blog – to join the Amazon affiliate you just need to sign on to their Amazon affiliate program.
Direct Affiliate
In the affiliate network, the method that you use to monetize your blog is direct affiliate it’s a lucrative way to earn good money, and here are some of the direct affiliate networks.
- Click bank
- ConvertKit
- ShareASale
- Shopify
But I don’t recommend these things to new bloggers, – in the beginning, the only thing on which you should focus is the display network and once you get the experience of earning from the display network you can move into the affiliate.
Bonus skills to add to your bucket
Google search console
If you want to grow your blog and get high traffic to your sites you must master the art of using the Google search console – that tool itself is the goldmine but many people ignore it.
The best thing about Google search console – you get the real-time data of your users some of the things that you learn are
- How is your blog performing on Google?
- What types of keywords are getting clicks and impressions?
- How to update content with ranking keywords?
And if you master the Google search console and Google trends no one can stop to from getting traffic to your sites and making money from it.
Basics of Canva
As I mentioned above adding images to your article makes it more engaging and attention-grabbing and Canva is the best platform you use to create them.
So learn the basics of Canva some of the things you can learn are
- How to create featured images
- How to create social media posts
- How to create infographics
Adding this skill to your bucket is like adding the cherry to your favorite cake so make you add it.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in this post getting success in blogging & making money is possible but only if you follow the right steps from the beginning.
To be honest it took me 10 years to learn these things by committing mistakes and getting multiple and I don’t you go to same – so use this blogging roadmap and start working towards your dream.
If you still have any questions related to blogging, please feel free to mention the comment section.
