Blogging has been around since the inception of the internet. People started using blogs as personal journals documenting their lives and helping people keep up with their lives. But like many other things on the internet, it evolved and has become its present form helping people find useful information and resources. But did you know it is profitable to be a freelance blogger by simply sharing your passion with the world? Freelance blogging is one of the best and oldest ways to make money on the internet. And it doesn’t require much, no strict schedules, no boss to manage you and more.
You may be wondering how it all works. Your only exposure to blogs may be reading content from them, but you never really wondered how it all works. You do not need to worry about the technicalities as it’s all simple though not an easy journey.
What is Freelance Blogging?
Freelance blogging involves getting paid to write blog posts for other bloggers, corporate websites, and more. It also covers making money from your blogging activities. Bloggers are commonly identified from their blogs. For instance, you own a blog with lots of readers. You can have a section that allows any of your readers to contact you for your blogging services. Starting your journey as a freelance blogger is easier than you think. Most people will get caught up in the thought that they cannot start because they do not have writing skills and they do not know much about the internet. Ironically, that is what makes blogging interesting. No blogger starts knowing it all. You have to start from somewhere and luckily, there is no starting point. You can start anywhere and make it as a successful blogger, no matter your current situation, location, skills, or knowledge.
You may wonder…
What is a Blog?
A blog is a website, mostly with a single author who frequently updates the website with content about a specific topic or themselves. A personal blog is used to share stories and the life of an individual while a niche blog covers various topics within a field like food, sports, fashion, or entertainment. You need to own a blog and frequently contribute to the blog to be called a blogger.
How to Get Started With Freelance Blogging
Blogging requires a passion for doing something which supersedes the learning cycle it takes to master the art of blogging. Being a freelance blogger can be the most rewarding decision you have ever taken if you are passionate about what you do. This leads us to the first step.
1. Take A Step Back, Soul Searching, and Niche Finding
A niche is a focus area that one is comfortable with. When applied to blogging, a niche is an area you choose to write about as a blogger. There are lots of things you can write about and that is exciting. Blogging is best done when one truly enjoys what they write about.
If you don’t have a peculiar liking for technology and yet you choose computers as a niche, you may find it difficult to research and write content for your blog. Without regular and frequent content, your blog may not do so well. Passion for your niche comes first. There are many niches to choose from so you might want to take a step back to do some soul searching as well as research to find an interesting niche to write about. But you must avoid the mistake most people make.
Choosing a niche can be exciting because you can write about anything. But what if you are the only one who likes the niche that much? You may write but no one will read. That means you need to find a balance between what you like and what others like. This is the niche problem. If you have monetization in mind, you need to consider that as well in deciding the niche. You need a niche that excites you, excites others, and is profitable (people are willing to pay to advertise, buy your products, etc.). We will cover some ways to make money as a blogger to keep in mind as you start your freelance blogging career.
Best Blogging Niches for 2022
- Personal Finance
- Education
- Food
- Business & Marketing
- Travel
- Parenting
- Do it yourself (DIY) Blogs
- Health and Wellness
2. Buy Domain and Hosting
Getting a niche is a bedrock on which you will build your blogging career. Your niche will help you decide the name to choose for your blog. A domain name is a link you give to people to visit your blog. An example is example.com. The .com is a domain name extension and varies depending on what you do. The .com is for commercial uses and is the commonest domain name extension. Others include .me, .net, .com.gh and more. There are lots of them but the standard .com is great for anyone. Your domain name should be the same as your blog name. If you are creating a personal blog, you can use your name. Otherwise, you may have to be more creative and come up with a name that is not taken.
After deciding on a name, you can buy it from a domain name provider like godaddy.com or namecheap.com. Buying the name secures it and prevents others from going ahead to purchase it. While buying your domain, you might as well buy your hosting.
Here is a brief of how hosting works. Your website or blog is a combination of web pages, images, and other files. These files are stored on a web server. This web server is a computer with storage that has been configured to talk to browsers. That way, if anyone types in your blog address, the browser can quickly ask your server for your website files and deliver the files to the visitor. This way, anyone at any time can access your website or blog. Hosting servers are always hooked to the internet 24/7 with a few minutes of downtime occasionally.
Most domain name providers will have to host services as well and might give you a free domain or give you a discount when you buy a hosting package.
3. Create Your Blog
Armed with a domain name and a hosting server, you are more than ready to rock and roll. Finally, you can start seeing your idea come to fruition. It’s time to create your blog.
There are two ways to create a blog:
- Custom code it/Get someone to code it for you
- Use a content management system or CMS
As a beginner, your best, most reliable, and cheap option is to use a CMS. We recommend using WordPress. WordPress is a free CMS that powers about 37% of all the websites on the internet. Here\’s a fun fact, there are 1.86 billion websites on the internet as of June 18, 2021.
To get started with WordPress, you will need to sign up with the platform via wordpress.org. Once you are done with that, head straight to your hosting provider and install WordPress on your server. Depending on your hosting provider, the process may be a little different but all good services have good documentation to guide you through the process.
Done and dusted. Your blog has been created, but it doesn’t look good, right? Lets do some customisation.
4. Customise Your Blog
There are lots of things you can customize and change on your WordPress website. It is an exciting world of tools, plugins, themes, and more. But as a beginner, it is great to keep things minimal. Do not overly edit and change stuff. With this cautionary lesson, let’s get to the real work.
The first things you will have to change are
- Your site identity: This includes your blog name, your logo, and your site icon.
- Your theme. The theme is the general design outlook of your blog and overtakes the entire blog. You might want to get a free theme if you are low on budget. If you search extensively, you will get a really good theme that is also free. But if you have a couple of bucks to spend, themeforest.net is a great place to start your search. They have visually appealing, functionally capable, and fully optimized WordPress themes for both beginners and pros. If you are going with the free option, WordPress has an in-built library that contains thousands of free themes you can install with a click of a button.
WordPress is extremely simple and easy to use. When you get stuck, all you need to do is to do a google search or if you are a visual learner, a youtube search and a flood of solutions will come flowing to you. However, as already warned, don’t get sucked into editing everything. All you need do is to change your blog identity, get your free simple theme and you are ready to go. If you want someone to work on it, find a web developer who is good at WordPress. But keep ti minimal and stick to the basics. You will eventually learn all the complexities of WordPress as your blog grows. On to the next step it is.
5. Publish Your Furst Content
Content is King. Bill Gates predicted our present world. The statement has permeated our world and it is only getting started. Content is projected to grow and become even more profitable. Without content, your blog may never get discovered. That would be sad after all the learning and energy you had when you decided to start a freelance blogging career. The journey of becoming a blogger is a marathon but most beginners approach it as a sprint and burn out just before the magic happens. The average blog takes 6 months to 1 year to gain traction. Google is known not to trust brand new blogs and gives them a period to sort of prove themselves. If you don’t stay long enough, you may have worked for nothing.
6. Build a Community
Blogging is a great learning opportunity. With growth comes the need to develop a community closely knit around your niche. This is a great strategy if you want to take your business to the next level. A community is the greatest way to support yourself as a blogger, not just financially. The emotional connection you get from creating a community is much more fulfilling and will keep you innovating to meet their needs and care for them in any way possible.
What Do You Need to Get Started?
To get started as a blogger, just do it as Nike says. It’s that simple. Truth be told, the top-earning and most successful bloggers started as rookies with nothing but a burning desire to do great things. Once you rid yourself of the thought that you need something special to get started, then you are truly free to explore blogging entirely. But we will give you some tips to get started, because hey we are sticking to the basics. If you try to become a pro in a month, you are almost certainly going to burn out. Get started and let the magic happen.
1. Writing.
Your primary job as a blogger is to write. You might as well learn a few tricks experienced writers use to synthesize information and come up with the best content in their niche. But as you learn, remember blogging is not only about your ability to write.
2. SEO
SEO is the art of getting your content discovered on google organically. This means you don’t pay google or runs any ads to get discovered. The strategies and tactics are much more complicated but the basics involve learning how to use SEO in your writing. The much more technical ones can be learned later in your journey.
3. WordPress
The last thing you need to learn is to use WordPress. You may have managed to customize your website, but to grow, you have to learn more than merely customizing your website. It takes more to grow. As problems come up, don’t fret but rather, see them as growth areas and your journey will be much smoother and less stressful.
Conclusion
Congratulations, you are now a freelance blogger ready to make money. A good tip right here is to bookmark this page so you can return to this page as you follow the various stages of moving from idea to niche to blog and finally to publishing your first article. Comment your site address once you buy your domain and our team will review it for you. Freelance blogging is a journey and not a one-day run, take this to heart and develop your side hustle at your own pace.
