How to Start a Profitable Blog: The 9-Step Guide

To earn a profit from blogging, you would first need a blog.

With these questions in mind, you should be able to narrow your list down to a few niches.

Now, it’s time to consider the tricky question.

What’ll make the most money?

Unfortunately, passion doesn’t always equal profit.

That’s why you must focus your blog content on a profitable niche.

These are some niches that have the potential to help you earn a more lucrative profit than others.

Some of the most profitable niches from this year include:

By combining the niches that suit you and your budget, you should find a distinct market sector into which you can launch your blog.

Your next task is to dive headfirst into research, starting with keyword research.

You want to learn about every corner of your blog niche so that you can use it to your advantage.

A keyword generator is an excellent tool for understanding your blogging niche — by doing keyword research, you can find out exactly what your target audience is asking.

Using the Google Search Console is another way to peek at what your competition is doing so that you can use their best strategies to your advantage.

Some essential research topics include:

With this new knowledge, you can stride confidently into your niche market and find a comfortable spot to become a successful blogger.

Systeme.io is an all-in-one tool that keeps your blogging and business needs in mind.

Offering a host of proven templates, you can start your own blog and make money while you’re at it.

Systeme.io offers blogging tools, free themes, email marketing tools, sales funnels, and so much more!

Your blogging business has never been in safer hands.

If you’re looking for a simple and sleek design, Medium is the platform for you.

You can think of Medium like long-form Twitter, except it has an algorithmic timeline that tells you what stories you're going to be interested in.

With over 100 million readers, Medium keeps it simple by focusing on the written content over the visual content.

WordPress offers great value, including your own free WordPress site subdomain.

Alongside blogging features, WordPress offers various tools, such as customizing your WordPress dashboard, installing WordPress plugins, and running a WordPress site.

You’ll also have access to a WordPress theme which makes website design that much simpler.

However, the price of WordPress plugins and themes can rack up quite quickly.

Overall, the platform is incredibly good at creating an individualized experience for you to become a successful blogger.

This platform is perfect for those trying to connect with professionals and businesses.

Not only is it a platform made for professionals, but it can also send your blog posts directly to your built-in audience and give you the opportunity to write sponsored blog posts.

Instagram is a social media platform that provides a unique blogging experience and is recommended for microbloggers.

Besides being one of the most popular social media platforms globally, its format works well with visually-focused content.

Each of these top-blogging platforms will provide templates, themes, and functions that should make the building and publishing of your blog post a smooth, straightforward process.

Out of all of these, systeme.io is your best bet, as it offers a blog feature that’s incredibly easy to use and perfect for new bloggers.

What’s more, the service starts free and grows with you as your blog and business grow.

Monetizing your blog is also made easier with systeme.io.

We have extra features such as email marketing, affiliate programs, product and service sales, online courses, and webinars to help get your blog content out for the world to read.

Though the methods of earning a profit in both are very different, they’re equally as effective.

The choice comes down to your passion, skills, and niche.

It’s time to start carefully crafting your blog around your concept — this is where that earlier research comes in handy.

The newly discovered knowledge of your niche audience can help you design your blog to focus directly on the needs and wants of your viewers.

Right off the bat, you want your readers to:

Let’s dive into how you can achieve this.

Firstly, you need to consider the overall theme of your blog.

Many readers can get lost in those first few crucial seconds of viewing your blog purely because they don’t find it attractive or know where to navigate.

The aesthetics of your blog is super important.

It’ll influence how potential consumers feel and think about your blog posts. Aesthetic design can affect long-term attitudes about products and even people.

So, remember to choose your design wisely.

Looking at your competitors can help narrow down your decisions.

The trick will be to create a balance between being similar enough to your competitors so that you fit into the market while also establishing a unique voice that’ll separate you from the rest.

If you’re struggling with the design of your blog, here are some examples to spark inspiration.

Your methods need to be more direct.

Your concept should be front and center — subtlety is not your friend on this one.

The lack of ambiguity lets your reader know what your blog is about and helps draw in your niche audience.

Each platform has a unique medium, audience, and tone.

You’ll need to use each one appropriately and masterfully to fit into the style of each platform.

Knowing what each platform demands will ultimately allow you to connect with your audience members and have a successful blog.

Here’s an informative article that explains the differences between each platform mentioned above and how to successfully choose which ones will suit your blog’s niche best.

Once you’ve chosen your social media platforms, it’s time to start posting.

Integrating social media into your blog helps draw the reader further into your online brand and increases traffic to your recently published blog posts.

Another beneficial social media marketing strategy is networking with other bloggers.

Though they’re your competition, you both have the same niche audience.

You can use this to your advantage by bridging the gap between your reader bases.

The goal is to build a network by cross-promoting content and possibly guest posting for each other’s blogs.

If you have the capital, you could also opt for sponsored posts on other platforms to reach a wider, established audience.

Guest posting is a great way to promote your content.

This will help you create relevant posts in your niche, extend your reach, and lead you to a more extensive reader base.

If you're having trouble churning out your own blog posts and guest posts in time, you can speed up your writing process 10x by using AI-based tools like Jarvis.

One of the most necessary aspects of digital marketing is engaging directly with your audience.

Engaging includes talking to individuals in your target audience, listening to what they have to say, and using this information to better cater to their needs.

Some ways to do this is to:

This first-hand experience will be 10 times more beneficial than any research you could find through a Google search.

You can get to know your audience on a personal level, so you can fine-tune who your niche audience is.

An easy way to do keyword research is by using keyword finders, such as Ubersuggest.

This will help you to find keywords and write popular blog posts accordingly.

The higher your word count, the more likely you are to increase your keyword frequency.

You’ll also have more opportunities to add internal links.

The longer the reading time of your blog post, the longer people stay on your site.

There’s nothing more frustrating than a slow site. This can easily deter traffic.

Read this article that lists 12 techniques of website speed optimization to help keep your website from losing potential customers.

You gain credibility as an honest and unbiased blog by including links to other relevant websites and articles.

Doing this can help you rank in search engine traffic.

Internal linking helps Google search engines establish a hierarchy within your website’s structure and adds more link value to your most important pages.

These play a unique role in SEO. To optimize your content, you can use the Google Search Console or read this blog post to find out how each feature should be approached.

Here’s another helpful article on how to create the perfect heading (H1).

Keep your URLs as simple as possible by sticking to only a few keywords that are easy to understand.

These techniques should increase your search engine traffic in no time.

If you want to optimize your SEO further, you can find even more techniques here.

This is the stage in the funnel when the user first becomes aware of your blog and what you have to offer.

Here, you try to spark the user’s interest and feed them quality content to hook them in.

This stage of the funnel is when the prospect decides whether or not to make a purchase and is the time to pull out those persuasion skills.

The user has made the purchase, but it doesn’t stop here — now you can try upselling or express your gratitude and invite them back for more.

To better understand the 4 stages of a sales funnel here’s a helpful article exploring the best sales funnel examples.

Building an effective sales funnel can take a lot of hard work and practice.

Systeme.io can simplify this process. We offer an incredible sales funnel feature to build a sales funnel in 30 seconds with just a few clicks.

You can start free here and make money blogging in no time!

eBooks are a very popular digital service product, especially among bloggers who are more experience-based.

Almost every food blog has a recipe eBook, and every fitness blog has an epic exercise plan.

An eBook is usually an additional product, secondary to the central concept of the blog.

For example, a food blog writer might draw in readers with great recipes and expertise; then, once the reader is hooked, they’ll sell them a recipe eBook with unique recipes.

One of the reasons eBooks are so popular is that they’re so easy to make and they’re profitable.

With no paper or publisher needed, all the earnings become profit.

Creating an online course is the perfect way to share your expertise while getting a return on your hard work.

Because yes, starting an online course can be a lot of hard work.

However, if you have the passion and can find a web hosting company, creating a course can be pretty easy.

Take systeme.io, for example.

We provide an online course feature that guides you through building your online course, and we supply you with a platform for you to launch it.

We also supply resources on how to build an online course and then how to sell an online course.

Online courses are mainly used to compliment your blog but can also be used as your central concept if needed.

(Do you need a blogging platform too? We’ve got you covered with our Freemium plan!)

A webinar is a term used for a seminar held over the web. Much like online courses, webinars are a place to share your expertise.

Unlike online courses, webinars are usually a one-time presentation and can either be live or pre-recorded.

Live webinars take place through a virtual meeting place (like Zoom or Skype) where the host and the audience can directly engage.

Pre-recorded webinars have the advantage of multiple replays.

Webinars can be used for:

To host a webinar, you’ll need a webinar platform.

You can learn more about the different webinar platforms and find a hosting plan that suits you best by clicking here.

Systeme.io, on top of everything else, also has a feature where you can run an evergreen webinar.

Evergreen webinars are webinars that never go out of fashion (or stop making money)!

They’re usually on-demand and contain content that remains relevant regardless of the date it was published.

Whether it’s an evergreen or regular webinar, there are a few important things to keep in mind:

Webinars, if done correctly, can be an easy and effective tool to market your new blog, share your expert advice, and build a better connection with your audience.

A membership site works by offering premium content and deals to your members at the price of a monthly fee.

One of the main advantages of this is that you get a recurring, reliable source of income.

A membership program also creates a smaller, more exclusive circle within your reader base with whom you can more deeply connect and communicate.

Just remember that your premium membership content has to be much more valuable than your regular content.

Your members should never ask themselves, “Is it worth it?”

You can consider incorporating your online courses, eBooks, and webinars into your membership to prevent this.

This way, you can ensure that you provide highly valuable content.

Building a membership site can get quite technical, so here’s a detailed article on creating a membership site.

One of the pros of affiliate marketing is that joining most affiliate programs and networks is free.

At no expense, all the money that you make is converted into profits.

Here are lists of the top affiliate programs and affiliate networks in 2023.

You can pick the offer you want to promote and start making money through your chosen program or network.

To find out more, check out this article on how affiliate marketing can be a great asset to your blogging business.

Make sure that you have a clear understanding of your target audience before you write your blog post.

Use buyer personas to establish who you’re creating content for.

For example: If you’re writing content for teen users, you’ll focus more on entertainment, but you’d write about educational software and content for their parents.

A content management system (CMS) will help you create a website domain where you can publish all the new blog content you produce.

They also help you to manage your website and respective landing pages.

When you use systeme.io, you can create a website with a running blog in just a few clicks (and that’s not even mentioning the other features you’ll have access to)!

Another popular option is using a self-hosted WordPress blog with the respective WordPress themes and plugins.

Though, these can get a bit pricey if you want specific WordPress plugins and themes.

If your CMS hosting plan doesn’t provide the option of creating a free domain name, you can always create a BlueHost account and register your hosting and domain name there.

Once you’ve established your domain, you can customize the look of your blog.

Customization allows you to reflect your online brand to your reader the moment they enter your website.

For example, if your blog targets surfers, you might want to consider blue as the primary theme color.

With systeme.io, you can personalize your blog to your heart’s content without worrying about all the nitty-gritty details of setting it up from scratch.

Before you can start writing, you need to find a topic.

To do this, you can do keyword research and construct your blog post topic by using Google Analytics to look at what’s ranking in the search engines.

Here are 3 formats to consider using in your first blog post that might help you to frame your topic:

It’s best to avoid “How to” blog posts at first — you should start with establishing yourself as a credible source before giving people advice on how to do things.

Once you’ve decided what kind of blog post you want to write, it’s time to start thinking about working titles.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when generating your title if you want to rank in the search engines:

There’s a gentle evolution from topic, to working title, to final title:

You don’t have to hit the nail on the head the first time around; sometimes, it takes a few attempts to get the right title for your new blog post.

These are the first lines your reader will be introduced to — you want to make it captivating, exciting, and actionable.

If you lose the reader’s attention in the introduction, they’ll stop reading before you’re able to provide them with valuable information.

Here are a few things you should consider doing in the introductory lines of your blog post:

You want to follow this up with a quick explanation of what your blog post is about and the problem it will address and solve.

Sometimes blog posts can be overwhelming with the amount of information they contain.

So, much like a book, you want to create a table of contents that’ll help readers easily navigate to the section they want to read.

You want to organize the information so that the readers won’t feel overwhelmed with the information you’re presenting.

It will also guide you to know what to write about when and keep all the information flowing logically.

While this isn’t the last step, it will be the most important one — it’s time to provide all the valuable information you’ve been teasing!

Now that you have your topic, title, and outline, you can simply fill in the missing spaces.

Write about what you know, what you gathered in research, and back it up with facts, statistics, and testimonials.

Don’t forget to link to the data — external linking will help you rank in the Google search results and make you a more credible source.

With your blog building, promoting, and monetizing skills down, you should be well on your way to starting a lucrative blogging business.

Using systeme.io will put you on track to success, and although there are many steps to consider to reach the final product, you can trust that your new blog will be making money in no time!

Just remember to follow your passion and let it drive your entire journey to success.

Good luck, and happy blogging!