Blogging is one the best way to get more traffic. Whether it's from big corporations, small businesses, or individual bloggers, everyone that has a website, generally wants more and more traffic.
But the question is: "How long will it takes before I can see good results?"
The answer for this question is fairly simple: it depends.
But if you have a blog and kept on publishing contents to support your brand, your best hope is that you can establish a good authority on the web, guide potential customers through your sales funnel, and get more leads and customers.
And the ultimate goal, is to make more money.
While the amount of time varies from one blog to another, there is a line that can be stretched to get into conclusions. Taking into account that you can put the following ideas into your blog:
Your Blog Topic
Anyone on the web can create an online business; blogging about any topic imaginable. Some blogs are lucrative, while some others aren't.
But not that "lucrative" or "less popular" means that they are major differences between them in making money. There is always the possibility that a highly trafficked web page that has a viral content, go pass beyond the competition but makes less to no money. And there are also lesser popular blogs with lesser amount of traffic, but are able to make a decent amount of money.
So what's the point here?
It all depends on your audience. A highly popular subject, for example, politics, celebrities and tech, can have a lot of posts to be made. But the thing is, there are a lot of competitors that are older and have more authority. As a result, the money can be less to be make there (revenue to traffic percentage).
On the other hand, lesser popular topics like finance or law may have less amount of competition. This puts the probability to make more money vs. traffic a bit higher.
But this doesn't mean that one blog or topic is better than the other. The key here, is for you to write and compile your own story using a variety of sources, and create compelling posts, and reach the best audience out there.
Here, you need to pick a niche or topic that you have knowledge of. The more qualified you are in the niche, the easier for you to write compelling posts, the lesser the burden to create new posts, and the more enjoyable your blogging work will be.
Regardless of what topic you choose, there are potentials to be made.
Your Blogging Schedule
"How often are you going to blog?"
One or two posts a day, or more? Once a week? Or maybe just a few times per month?
The answer is, the more frequent, the outcome should be better. Assuming, of course, you’re able to maintain consistent quality and the ability to share. The better you can do these all, the faster you’ll be able to ramp up your revenue.
The next thing that comes in mind, is the type of contents you need to have. Different blogs' niches may need more than others. But in general, the more content types you can manage, the variety will give your blog the attractiveness it needs to reach a move diverse audience.
Another thing you need to consider regarding your posting schedule, is to know your audience's demography. Assuming that you know the prime times of your niche (for example, politics and finance are more likely to be consumed in the morning, whereas blogs about hobbies are more popular on other times of the day), you also need to know where your audience live.
Let's say that most of your visitors come from half way across the globe. You need to calculate the best time for you to post your posts, in a way that is a contrast to when your visitors mostly come from your own country or locally.
Your Blogging Revenue Options
The most important factor that determines how long it will take to make a good money from your blog, is the source of income.
In general, there are the following choices:
- Advertising By far the most popular and the easiest. But the problem with advertising is that it generally has poor performance. Your blog needs to have a huge amount of traffic before you can earn enough revenue to cover your spent resources.
- Sell products and/or services: Most large businesses that have blogs, are already having something to sell. Whether it's a product or a service, their blogs are meant to boost traffic by targeting keywords. For small businesses and individual bloggers, they usually approach it the other way around: blogging to get traffic first, then make a product/service out of it. Either way, selling things is one of the most popular choice for making money out of blogs.
- Affiliate Relationships: This strategy involves getting commissions after recommending or directing your visitors to purchase things from someone else.
Your Blog At Work
After knowing the three factors mentioned above, the next thing to do, is put everything together and deploy.
To do this, you need to have a plan:
First, start your first months in creating contents as fast (and as good) as possible, while at the same time, building an audience with no expectation or attempt to monetize. Have SEO take place and do some social media promotions to boost and help you in getting your blog on its feet.
At your first attempt, don't create any posts that are sales-oriented. Instead, create posts that answers questions and add knowledge to your visitors. Try to be original and authentic, and always deliver what the demands want. In short, don't focus on driving revenue early because this attempt may delay your blog's growth.
After a solid few months of hard work, you'll be more likely to have some fans and followers. Your blog will see a relatively growing amount of visitors, putting some of your posts high up on search engine results' pages.
This time, you can try to divide your focus, to include marketing. Create great contents that may sell, and start thinking about your preferred approach to monetizing, and structure your blog accordingly.
"Are you going to deliver answers to questions?" Or "Will you write reviews about products and try to get some affiliates?" Or "Are you going to promote your products/services?"
Whatever approach you choose, your blog and content should always be educational to your readers. People on the web that want to know about something may land on your page. If your page doesn't have what it takes to get their attention, any of your revenue sources may come next to useless.
Here you need to make your visitors happy, present the sale opportunity, and funnel them correctly to whatever your call-to-action is.