You have a passion and an interest that gets you excited; most times you discuss it freely with friends and family. But do you know you can make a blog on such things and let it earn money for you? If it works well for you, you could become an employer of labour through it and also become an entrepreneur, as it opens you up to more business ideas. Just in case you are wondering, blogs are online journals. They are used as short form of web logs which means a list of writings on the Internet. When all the writing is combined together to give it a look like a small website it is called a blog. A blog can be comprised of news, articles, personal diary, gossips etc.
Choose your blog niches
Before you start a blog, it will be helpful for you to do a search on the topic you are interested in or have experience in such as business tips, entertainment, sports, agriculture, technology and much more. Ask yourself what you love, care about or wish to share with others. If you are going to write about something on a regular basis and keep your blog fresh with new information, then you need to write about something that you are passionate about or things that reflects your daily experience.
Get a domain name
Next step is to go to domain marketplace such as godaddy, arivixe, syskay, bluehost or namecheap, choose the relevant domain name related to your blog. For instance, if you are interested in blogging on drawing it is best you buy a domain name such as “drawingapicture.com, drawingforfun.com or howtodrawing.com”. The cost for buying a .com name is within the range of N1, 500 – N2, 500; this is dependent on the domain marketplace. If you are not financially capable of buying a domain, you may use a blogging platform, such as wordpress.com or blogspot.com, but these have limitations.
Open a hosting account
After the domain name has been secured, then you need to link the blog together with its hosting account. A hosting account can be opened or operated for approximately N1, 000 per month and it can be used for multiple domain names.
Choose a blog platform
Creating a blog from scratch is easy, choose a blog platform or interface that you find easy and nice for you. A great recommendation will be either wordpress or blogger. WordPress is a much better option because it is search engine friendly.
Search a theme
If you want your blog to look great, you can find a theme or template that is relevant to your blog content. There are free and also paid themes, if you want to manage your blog easily, it will be advised that you use the paid one, but if your aim is simply to test the waters, then you can use the free one. If you need to do a custom theme you can also find it and the service will cost you within the ranges of N6, 000 – N8, 000 depending on the web designer. Note that if your choice is a free blogging service like wordpress.com and blogspot.com, then you do not need to buy a theme.
Publish your blog
Then ensure you create content that is relevant to your blog; for instance, if you are in technology you can publish about gadgets, computers, devices such related matters. Please do not mix up your blog with irrelevant content; if you are blogging about technology and your content is about sports or how to sleep well or how to make money, it is not acceptable because it passes a conflicting message to your readers. This will turn readers off because it is not relevant but not just that, it would be difficult to monetize such a blog.
Monetize your blog
You can make money with your blog by adding some affiliate link from CPA program or PPS programs. You can also promote an e-book on your blog. Other ways that you can make money from blogging is to set up a page that consist of an ecommerce store, many of the bloggers will use amazon associates and include it in their own blog. It is free to set up an amazon.com.
Creating a blog from scratch is not difficult, and it is an enjoyable experience if you follow the steps that as mentioned above. Focus on publishing unique and relevant content, and your blog will earn the status of some successful bloggers such as Lindaikeji.blogspot.com, Bellanaija.com, Olufamous.blogspot.com, and others like that.
Chima Michael Oleru
