Blog Yourself Rich: Perez Hilton

If you have ever considered blogging as a career or side hustle, then you have to be an expert at fetching relevant information. Blogging is one of the new trends within African communities. It is a shame we didn't latch on earlier, but things can only get better they say. Blogging has given many a new voice and making money from blogging is not as difficult as it may seem.  If you blog, there are ways of making your blog work for you. To do this, you must be willing to put in the work.

Some of the most successful bloggers work at it for up to 8 hours a day. To learn how to make money off blogging, read on. If you are just a “lazy blogger” who sits at home and picks up on other writers’ blogs, read on. If you do not know what to do with your life at this moment in time, read on. Whatever you gain from here might be your opportunity into the land of plenty.

Like anything else we do, good blogging requires that you have a plan. Write down what you want to achieve and when and make sure you refer to this frequently. The structure of a blog determines its success. As well as a catchy name for your blog, below is a list of things you may want to consider buying in due course;

A good Camera

A good phone

A laptop/notebook

A Scrapbook/ pens and pencils

Blog topics

Blogging is a competitive business and being in the right place at the right time is crucial if you will get first dibs on good stories. High bounce rates (where visitors do not stay on your site to read other articles) are normal if your story is second hand. If you must blog after anyone else, your writing style must not only be analytical and critical, it must be unique. You must possess a voice like no one else. Making money from blogging can be a tedious job, often calling on the blogger to be patient, active and alert.

The first thing you need to do is use your platform to advertise your service. Let people know you are a specialist in what you do. Tell them they can access your services at a reduced rate. Bloggers gain approximately 40% of their revenue from adverts, so you must be able to attract a high number of hits to get advertisers onboard. Depending on your blog site, you might want to charge advertisers between £250 and £1000 a month. You can also charge for affiliate skim links and other banner ads, for which some bloggers charge up to £200 a month. Find ways of adding banners ads via internal links and earn a commission each time someone visits a site or makes a purchase as a result of connecting from your link. A good example is Google Ad sense, on which you earn a small amount every time someone clicks on a link on your page.

Another great way of making money from your blog is to develop a specialist skill set. Create a stylist or consultant out of the person you are. As a consultant, you know what you are talking about and people actually trust your information as firsthand. You might be a consultant on any lifestyle subject. Offer incentives to attract customers. If they found out about your services from your site, then give them a promotional code to quote when contacting you for any service. The more relevant your information is, the more people will commission work from you.

If you are a fashion blogger for instance, you can charge an hourly rate to write blogs for fashion and beauty brands. Being on top of your game is very important, so make sure your information is current. Discover the latest trends and tell the world about them. Fashion shows, celebrities hang outs and shopping malls should be your second home. There are lots of websites which give away hot spots. Often, you can get into these events free of charge, simply by saying you are a blogger. Get acquainted with celebrities and take your blogging to new heights. Organise events for them if you can and charge for these. Once your events are popular, a profit upwards of £3000 per event is achievable. Develop relationships with Magazines, radio and TV shows and provide information for them. If you are not paid at the beginning, do not worry. Again, with increased popularity, people will pay to have you on their shows.

Airline companies and hotels are always looking for positive marketing and publicity. Writing for them can be a good little earner. Pick a niche and capitalise on it. It is worth knowing that people want and need others to do things for them. If you can identify something you are passionate about, it will be a lot easier to sell your ideas to others and have people rely on you.

Lunn, 30, earns more than £35,000 a year from blogging. His advice to anyone looking to make money out of blogging is to develop your niche. Identify what it is you know about and love and stick to that. Post links to your blog everywhere. Build networks and always remember to be factually correct, original and relevant.

According to Christ at www.screwlife.com, traffic hunt should be your priority when blogging. After stocking your blog with quality posts, don’t simply sit around in the midst of your abundant patience waiting for your blog to grow; go out there and traffic search.

This is another tedious undertaking but wouldn’t it be stupid to produce high quality content which is only read by you and 2 friends who are not really interested in what you‘re saying?

So you see, blogging is like any other job out there but it demands even more effort, patience, sacrifice and time. Do not dwell solely on the thousands of dollars other bloggers make. Consider the sheer bloody effort and sacrifice they put in and then decide if blogging really is for you