Starting A Blog

How I started a Niche Blog and earning $60/month in 4 Months [Case Study]

By Ashutosh Jha → Saturday, April 24, 2021

A niche blog is still in demand and it still works!

Recently I started a niche blog and within just 4 months, it started earning around $60 per month with no much work.

In this article, I am going to talk about how to start a niche blog and earn $60 per month with almost no time. I will be sharing the step by step procedures I followed to earn and you can do the same.

I will be sharing the revenue report, traffic report, comparison, and more but not the URL due to obvious reasons.

Earning of a Niche site in Jan 2020

We collaborated with Ezoic to run the Google ads and so, I will be sharing the earnings report from my Ezoic dashboard. I have written a review of Ezoic here and if you want, you can also join Ezoic by following this link.

In January 2020, we received a total of $59.08 after the deduction of publisher charges and this was pretty good looking at the site age. Here is the daily distribution of earning-

Earning of a Niche site in Feb 2020

In February 2020, we earned a total of $42.75 after all the deductions. The earning was less because we faced some issues with ad integration and hosting. And you can see in the below image that we didn’t earn after 22nd Feb.

Earning of a Niche site in December 2019

In December 2019, we earned a total of $54.85. Although we were thinking that it will cross $75 but later due to year-end, it didn’t meet the target. Although now we are working to make it earn at least $100 per month. Here is the screenshot of daily earning in December 2020.

Now as you saw the earning report of December 2019, Jan 2020, and February 2010, it’s time to show you the traffic report of the site.

Traffic report of a niche site in December 2019

In December 2019, we received a total page view of 8862 with 6062 users. This comes with 1.23 pages per session. We aim to increase the page interlinking and take page/session to at least 2 pages per session. We are working on this and hopefully, we will be able to get there soon.

Traffic report of a niche site in January 2020

In January 2020, traffic increased a bit and we crossed 10k page views with a total of 7056 users. We saw a traffic spike of around 17% in January. This majorly happened as we published a few new contents along with the less holiday in January compared to what we had in December.

The page per session also improved a bit and we reached 1.26 pages per session compared to 1.23 what we had in December 2019. But still, this is far below our target 2 pages/session.

Another problem we are seeing with the traffic is the bounce rate. Almost every month we are seeing the bounce rate going above 80%. This is something we have to work on and we are focusing on for the next few months.

If you’ll look for the average bounce rate of blog pages then it is between 70-90% and our blog fits there.

And we aim to lower the bounce rate by less than 70% for now. Here are some of the top techniques we are following to decrease the bounce rate of the blog-

1. We are working to redesign the site to make it a little more appealing. For this, we are evaluating some of the Google AdSense optimized themes. We will share which one we finally have gone through.
2. Instead of posting some content in the form of a blog page, we are working to create those as a landing page. For this, we are taking help from the Thrive landing page creator. There are many WordPress landing page creator plugins which you can review for the use. Some of these are free while others are paid.
3. For the next few months, we are also focusing on creating some videos for the blog and we are expecting the bounce rate will improve from this.

Traffic report of a niche site in February 2020

February 2020 was even better for our site in terms of the traffic and we crossed total pageviews of 11.5k. So, our pageview increased by around 9%. But our page per session and bounce rate showed some decline.

As of now, our target in terms of the traffic is to cross 15000 page views per month. We hope in a couple of months, we will cross this target with an earning of $75 per month. We will update this post, with the updates and our milestones.

How to start a niche blog and make money?- Our story

Here are the exact steps I followed while creating a niche site. If you’re also looking to start a blog, you can follow these exact steps to get started. Overall, if I have to summarize the blog life cycle, then this image can be one of the best suited.

#1 Niche Selection

Many say niche selection is the most difficult or at least one of the hardest jobs to execute while starting a blog.

Even I second that and should be chosen wisely. Earlier I have written a detailed post on a profitable blogging niche that you can choose as a reference.

The one that I selected was on the movie download. Although this is a heavy crowded site but still a lot of options for improvement. The major reason we selected this niche was-

• Most of the movie downloading sites are illegal and those gets closed very quickly due to piracy
• Movie downloading sites get popular in no time
• And so, when a popular movie download sites get closed, people start looking for alternatives and this is where we worked

Although this is not an easy niche to work with as you have to keep an eye on the links and sites you’re using. For example, if you have listed site-A as the best downloading site and the next day that site got banned then you will have to update your list asap. This will help the user not to land on the non-working sites.

#2 Creating a WordPress site

The second step was to create a WordPress site on it. Although TricksRoad is on Blogger I start new blogs on WordPress due to more flexibility. And this niche site also I started on WordPress itself.

If you’re new to blogging and don’t have much idea on how to start a WordPress blog from scratch, you can follow the guide.

#3 Domain Selection- EMD vs PMD

Well, one thing that I have experienced is EMD (Exact match domain) no longer works!

For example, let’s say if you’re looking to start a blog on the main keyword- “dog food” then the EMD will be something like dogfood.com or dogfood.net or similar.

Means, the domain name is nothing but your keyword. This is called an exact matched domain name or EMD. Earlier (back in 2010 or 2012) this was working like superman in ranking especially for the niche site. But now search engines are way too smart and EMD doesn’t much impact the ranking in the search engine.

In late 2012, Google announced that it will change the low-quality EMDs and was announced by the then CEO of Google.

But still, if worked correctly, EMD adds a slight advantage over the generic domain name. There are many checklists while selecting the best domain name and you should follow those. Also, there are plenty of cheap domain name registrars which you can check for buying a domain name under $1.

In my case, I didn’t find an EMD and so I moved to PMD which stands for the partial matched domain. That means, if my main keyword is dog food then PMD will be something like dog-food.com, dogsfood.com, bestdogfood.com, dogfoodhq.com, etc.

#4 Hosting- Sharing hosting vs dedicated hosting

The next thing I want to talk about is hosting as many important factors like speed, uptime, etc. heavily depend on the hosting. I have talked a lot about hosting earlier and so, I am just sharing the references here.

I already had unlimited shared hosting and so, I directly hosted on the same without buying any new hosting for that niche site. If you’re a complete beginner then you may start with the free web hosting providers as well. Few things those you should look for while selecting the best hosting solutions for you-

• Uptime
• Technical support
• Speed of the network
• Security & backup solution
• Pricing & renewal pricing

Usually, you can get a decent shared hosting at around $1-$2 per month. I recommend not going with dedicated hosting for the starters.

#5 WordPress theme selection

I am not a big fan of frequent theme selection and stick to the one for a longer period. There are many premium and free AdSense optimized themes that you can try.

As my niche blog was majorly focusing on the AdSense and so, I started with the Voice theme of Meks. You can buy this from ThemeForest which costs $69. It’s an amazing & multi-purpose theme and I highly recommend this.

It’s not always required to buy a theme, you can also keep on using any free theme. And further use any plugin for the ads, the choice is yours!

Just make sure the site is optimized for all the devices- Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet. I receive around 17% mobile traffic which I expect to grow shortly and so, the site should be able to manage such users.

#6 Important WordPress Plugins

The main reason why I like WordPress most is due to the thousands of WordPress plugins available. You just name a feature and there will be many free and premium WordPress plugins available.

This has always been debatable on how many plugins you should use for your blog. I don’t go by number and instead just install when needed.

As of now, I am using 15 WordPress plugins for this niche blog for different purposes.

Here is the list of top WordPress plugins I am using in this blog-

1. 1. Visual composer- for the page creation and landing page creation
2. 2. Contact Form 7- For the contact form
3. 3. Meks Flexible Shortcodes- for shortcuts like column, background, etc.
4. 4. Easy Table of Contents- for a table of contents and is highly recommended
5. 5. Meks Easy Ads Widget- Comes with the theme for the ads. If you will be using Ezoic, this is not required.
6. 6. Meks Simple Flickr Widget- Comes with the theme to display your Flickr photos inside WordPress widget. Not compulsory to have.
7. 7. Meks Smart Author Widget- Comes with the theme to display the author's image. Not compulsory to have.
8. 8. Meks Smart Social Widget- Comes with the theme for displaying social media icons.
9. 9. Meks ThemeForest Smart Widget- Comes with the theme and help you display ThemeForest items on your blog like affiliate banners
10. 10. WP Review- Free plugin for the review of any page or posts. Highly recommended
11. 11. Mighty Classic Pros And Cons- Another free and highly recommended plugin to show a pros and cons table
12. 12. Thrive Architect- It's a premium plugin to design the landing page and other elements quickly
13. 13. W3 Total Cache- It's a freemium plugin for Search Engine (SEO) & Performance Optimization (WPO) via caching. The free version will be sufficient for you
14. 14. All in One SEO Pack- The WordPress SEO plugin which helps you write the title, description, evaluate keyword, and more. An alternative is Rank by Math and Yoast SEO plugin.
15. 15. WPBakery Page Builder for WordPress- Free page builder plugin to create the elements. I have stopped using this after I installed Thrive Architect.

#7 Keyword Research

Once your blog is live, the next thing you might want to look for is the content. But before that, I would like to tell you about keyword research.

Don’t start with a random topic as this is a niche blog and you need a proper plan. for this keyword research will be highly helpful to you.

You can take the help of any keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner, etc. to do keyword research. Even you can take the help of search volume display Google chrome extension like keyword surfer for this.

So, now let’s say you finalized the following 2 keywords for your blog (I would at least recommend going with 10+).-

1. 1. Dog food
2. 2. Purina dog food

Now look for the LSI keywords related to these main keywords. To get the Latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords, you can take the help of Google search. LSI keywords are those keywords that people use with the main keyword.

For example, when you will search for “dog food”, you will find a list with the heading “Searches related to LSI keywords” at the end of the search page. Those are nothing but the LSI keywords. You should use these LSI keywords in the content as well along with the main keywords to attract more traffic.

optimizing your content for these LSI keywords will help you rank for these keywords as well. And this will help you get more traffic.

#8 Content- Posts & Pages

After you have finalized your main keywords and LIS keywords, it’s time to draft the content. First, create some important pages like-

1. 1. About
2. 2. Contact
3. 3. Privacy Policy
4. 4. Disclaimer

These are the 4 mandatory pages one must create. And then start creating the main content. Initially, I would recommend you write a few evergreen contents. The number of words also impact the ranking for the keyword and research shows the below-

At least while starting, create some posts with 2000+ words and later you can keep adding 1000+ words. Make sure the content is making sense and not anything just for the sake of completing the words. Use your main keywords in the content, URL, headings, description, image meta tag, etc. Also, use the LSI keywords as and where required and suitable. Don’t make the keyword overcrowded so that it will look over-optimized for the search engines.

Research shows the below for the perfect keyword density-

I kept the keyword density between 1-2%. This means in a 1000 words article, I used 4-5 times main keywords and 4-5 times a combination of long-tail keywords.

While writing the content, take care of your audiences as well. For example, I am getting maximum traffic from the age group of 25-34 and so, the content I am aligning is more inclined towards such groups.

Another technique that I followed while writing the content is to personalize it. Similar to what I did for age, I also followed the gender. As my niche site was on movie niche and so, the taste of movies varies from age group to gender. I get 70% male traffic and 30% female traffic. And so, the content on the site is also distributed similarly.

As I was working on the movie download niche and so, most of my content was related to alternatives. For example, putlocker is one of the top movie download sites and so, I used to write like top putlocker alternatives and similar articles. And as I was making the article based on data like on age groups, genders, location, etc. and so targeting was a little easy.

#9 On-Page SEO

After you have added the content, it’s time to optimize the content. This comes in the on-page SEO part where you don’t need anything extra and just optimize the existing content as per the ranking guidelines. I have written a mega guide on the on-page SEO optimization technique and I would recommend you going through that. For that niche blogs also, I used the same techniques listed here.

#10 Social Media pages & Social Signals

The next thing that I did was to create the social profiles for the blog. Although for the niche blog, you may not use it a lot it’s required to look genuine both from a user perspective as well as a search engine point of view.

I created the following profiles on social media-

1. 1. Facebook page
2. 2. twitter page
3. 3. Instagram page
4. 4. Pinterest page
5. 5. Linkedin Profile
6. 6. YouTube channel

Remember, most of these sites give you a backlink also which will eventually help in off-page SEO.

After I created the profiles, I bought some social signals like Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and some YouTube views. To buy these, I ordered around 1000 Facebook likes, 500 Twitter followers, and 5000 YouTube views. This I simply bought from Fiverr.

Although these are not the best but to start with, it’s decent. Just make sure you are not buying the Chinese likes or followers.

#11 Link Building: Off-page SEO techniques

This was the tricky and hardest part. After getting some social signals, I kept on adding the content and started interlinking. After keeping the site for around a month, I started building links and followed the following techniques for the same-

1. Comment backlink

To keep the backlink profile look natural, I started doing some blog commenting. I did it manually and found a success of around 60%. That means, if I commented on 10 blog posts, 6 of them were approved. But remember, usually comment backlinks are no-follow backlinks but still useful. Here is the list of 25 commentluv enabled sites to get comment backlinks.

2. PDF submission sites

The next thing I did was to submit some PDFs to the PDF submission sites. This way also, I created around 50+ links. Please note that you don’t create all the links in a day. Keep it diversified so that it will look natural and will avoid the Google penalty. I followed around 10 links per day.

3. Guest posts

Later on, I bought around 15 guest posts that were DA 20+. For this, I took the help of Risement and they outreach for us and delivered in 15 days. So, we got 15 very high-quality dofollow backlinks from those 15 guest posts. If you want, you can also connect with them at risementmail@gmail.com.

These were the three techniques I followed to get the backlinks for the site. By the time, I started doing guest posting, I found traffic was increasing and the site was ranking on the first page for a couple of keywords but of low searches.

#12 Signed up for Ezoic

Once the traffic reached around 5000+, I thought to start monetizing it. Although there are many techniques to earn from the blog, I followed the AdSense one due to the niche selected. I already had an account with Ezoic for my other blog and so, I just added this site to my account and integrated the site for the ads to serve.

Within a day, the ads were visible to the site and I started earning from it. As of today, the site gives between $1-$4 per day depending on the traffic.

Conclusion

These were all about how I started a niche blog and started earning $60 per month with almost no work. Initially, I worked but later the site is on auto-mode.

So far, I have published around 15 HQ articles and 10 normal articles. I have been a little slow these days but have planned to put at least 1 good article per week.

These are the exact steps I followed and you can do so. If you’re also looking to start a niche blog, just follow the guide and comment below, if you need any clarification.

I hope you found this guide on how to start a niche blog useful. If you did, please share it with others as well. Here is the video tutorial of the same-

Starting A Blog

The All-Encompassing Blogging Guide To Success

By Ashutosh Jha → Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Blogging can be a tiring feat. From starting with nothing to building your audience, to keeping track of your word count, there is an infinite number of things to consider when you decide to start a blog.

Fret no more because this article will tackle everything you need to understand the blogging business. Starting from the basics of how to create a blog to maintenance tips, here is the all-encompassing blogging guide to success.

How to Start a Blog

Here are some of the important steps need to be taken while starting a blog. If you're looking to start a specific WordPress blog then you may also check how to start a WordPress blog from scratch.

1. Find your niche

Before even creating your blog, you need to find a unique topic and angle of industry you’ll be writing about. A good example of a niche would be a blog centered on sustainable interior design or middle-grade fiction novels. These topics have a large enough audience for you to attract with less competition.

An easy way to figure out your niche topic is to ask yourself these four questions:

• What am I passionate about?
• Of these things, which of these passions are similar to others?
• What can I say about my topic that hasn’t been said before?
• Do I see myself doing this long-term?

Answering these questions shouldn’t take long, but don’t feel pressured if you need more time to figure out which answers would be the best fit for you and your future business. Here is a guide to most profitable blogging niche for reference.

2. Pick a blog name

Your blog name will be your brand image. The perfect name can make attaining success easier, so brainstorming for the right blog name is crucial.

When drafting potential names, don’t forget to incorporate your blog’s niche into it. If your blog is about photography, your blog name should have a word that points to that specific industry to give potential readers a glimpse of your content.

Keep it short and unique. A blog name that’s too long will be hard to remember and a blog with a name that’s too similar to your competitors will have a hard time gaining traction. If you’re hit with writer’s block, use online name generators to spark some new ideas. The perfect blog name will come to you. You just need a little bit of creativity and a lot of patience.

3. Choose a blog template

Your blog template should be a nod to your niche while keeping it neat and organized. Themes that are device-agnostic and easy to customize and navigate are good features for a blog page.

Because visual appeal plays a big role in creating a good first impression with your viewers, choosing a blog theme is a big task that shouldn’t be overlooked. You can check our detailed guide on how to select best blog template.

4. Draft your blog posts

When it comes to blogging, content takes center stage and plays the biggest part in attracting readers and gaining subscribers. Having a catchy title, for starters, helps capture the attention of users and encourages them to read “below the fold”.

Presentation is key in content creation so remember to keep your paragraphs short to improve readability. Other factors like visuals, font size, and line length need to be considered when drafting your post.

Adding inbound links (links to existing content in your blog) and outbound links (links to credible content by established websites) also helps boost your stats.

5. Attract an audience

Once your blog goes live, your job is to create a loyal following. Tell your family and friends about your blog and make connections by reaching out to other enthusiasts of your topic!

If you constantly keep at it, it won’t be long before your blog gains popularity and becomes the top blog for your industry.

6. Monetize your blog

If you’ve managed to gain a following and your blog generates a significant amount of traffic, you can monetize your blog through advertising opportunities, affiliate links, and sponsorship. We have a detailed guide on 17 ways to make money from blog which you can check to monetize your blog.

Blogging Tools

It’s hard to reach top blogger status without a few helping hands. These blogging tools can help you manage the workload of creating and maintaining your blog. While some of these tools are free, others require an investment if you’re truly serious about becoming a blogger. You may also check 100+ top blogging tools list here with details.

1. Web host

For your blog to go live, you need to have a web host. Web host services, in essence, store your blog on servers that allow users to find, access, and read your blog.

Web hosts also give you your domain name (yourblogname.com) and/or personalized email accounts (yourname@yourblogname.com). There are many free web hosting companies as well as premium web hosting companies which you can select to host your website.

2. Word count tool

Keeping track of your word count when you draft blog posts is a crucial factor if you’re thinking about ranking on Google.

Depending on your goals, your word count goal will vary. If your goal is to generate comments from your users, a post of 300 words is more than enough to tick that off your bucket list.

But if you aim to become a ranking page on Google, tools and algorithms require a range of 1,500 to over 2,500 words to be seen at the first search results page.

3. SEO tool

Keywords are the lifeblood of your blog’s content. Brainstorming a list of relevant keywords using an SEO tool helps you see which of these phrases are most popular with users and more likely to get them to read your blog. You can take the help of any keyword research tool to get the list of rankable keywords.

Be mindful of algorithm changes to these SEO tools because the slightest change can make or break your stats. An example of a technological advancement that changed search engine algorithms is the prevalence of voice search.

Thanks to Siri and Alexa, more people are going hands-free and voicing out their searches rather than typing them out.

4. Design software

Don’t underestimate the wonders an effective visual can do for your blog. You don’t have to be a Photoshop junkie to create stunning infographics.

Software like Canva allows you to craft digital posters, invitations, and banners for your page. It even comes with free stock photos!

5. Project organizer

When your blog is up and running, you’ll need to get good at juggling. More often than not, you’ll be managing more than one project at any given time so invest in a project organizer to keep track of your tasks and avoid missing a deadline!

You can arrange your tasks by due date or importance to get a clear understanding of what your everyday tasks will look like.

Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know the skills and tools to run a successful blog, don’t be afraid to go back to the basics every now and then to refresh your memory with this blogging do’s and don’ts.

DO

1. Do market your blog

Marketing your blog is as easy as telling your friends about it and sharing a link on your respective social media pages.

You can remind your followers about a blog post they might have missed earlier in the week so don’t be shy! Tweet that links and wait for your stats to climb.

2. Do take time to read your readers’ comments

A blog that listens to its readers is successful. When you take time to read and respond to each comment with a personalized message, you’re telling your readers that you care about their opinions and are willing to listen to them.

This kind of interaction builds a genuine relationship with your audience and there’s a high chance they’ll stay loyal to your branding.

3. Do keep track of your performance

Motivate yourself by targeting new milestones every season! You can track different key performance indicators such as subscriber/follower count, site traffic and ranking, amount of comments, etc.

By tracking your performance, it encourages you to keep at it to reach the next goal and prevents you from regressing.

4. Do build an email list

Another way to build an interpersonal relationship with your audience is to build an email list and send out e-newsletters.

By bringing it straight to their inbox, users can get a glimpse of your content without having to actively seek it out. Once you've gathered the emails, you can use any email marketing software to send emails to your subscribers.

5. Do network and interact with other blogs

Branch out and grow your network by interacting with other blogs in your industry. This boosts your connections and can expose you to business opportunities that will help your blog grow.

Who knows? You might make lifelong friends with these bloggers and team up for sponsorship and partnerships.

DON’T

1. Don’t assume it’s a one-and-done job

The only thing harder than creating a blog is keeping it. There are so many blogs that are left behind after a few months because people realize that blogging isn’t a one-and-done job.

The work doesn’t stop after you’ve published your first blog post. The work doesn’t stop after you’ve reached your 1,000th subscriber. The work actually never stops if you’re looking at blogging as a full-time business.

2. Don’t ignore your readers and their suggestions

Your readers are your most important asset, second only to keywords. Your readers are the ones who generate traffic and they can increase your popularity through word of mouth.

If you ignore your readers and their suggestions for a better user experience, your blog won’t last long.

3. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity

Continuously publishing blog posts is hard work, but you should never sacrifice quality for quantity.

It’s better to post a carefully researched and well-articulated piece once a week than to spam your users daily with tactless and cheap content.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Keep your pride at bay and learn to ask for help when you need it. The truth of the matter is, you can’t do everything by yourself no matter how much you want to.

Trying to juggle everything when you clearly can’t handle it is a one-way ticket to Burn Out City, and you really don’t want to go there.

5. Don’t underestimate your competitors

You may be number one now, but that doesn’t mean your competitors are accepting it without a fight. Being complacent is the worst thing you can do when you finally reach that number one spot because the person holding the number two spot is working consistently to take your place.

You should never underestimate your competitors because it will be the cause of your downfall.

Author Bio

Jayson Antonio is an Outreach Specialist at Word Count Tool that offers useful tools such as Word Counter Tool, Character Counter Tool, Scrabble Word Finder, Pomodoro Timer, and Mind Map Tool for your creative writing. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, writing and playing mobile games.

Blog Niche

8 Excellent Tips on How to Have a Successful Blog in the Health Niche

By Ashutosh Jha → Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Are you looking to operate a blog in the health niche?

Today, blogging has become one of the most popular careers in the digital world. As digital marketing becomes even more prevalent, blogging is going to continue to grow even more. In fact, it's estimated that there will be over 30 million American bloggers in the year 2020.

While operating a blog provides helps to provide an outlet for creative writing, it also has the potential to earn a profitable income. 

If you're looking to break into the world of blogging, you're going to want to read this. We're uncovering eight of the most useful tips and tricks on how to have a successful blog.

1. Educate Yourself 

First and foremost, it's essential to stay current with your health and fitness education.

If you have vast experience or an educational background in health, share this with your followers! While it's not essential to have a traditional health background, it will make you appear more qualified.

However, don't fret if your experience in the health field is not supported by traditional education. It's never been easier than it is today to educate ourselves both for free and for a low fee.

In the digital world, there is such a large assortment of free information available online. You can also choose to take an online class that can be attended anywhere in the world at any time.

For example, you may choose to take an online certification course. These courses can help to provide knowledge and education on health-related careers such as a pharmacy technician. Read more details on how you can start building this education!

2. Be Consistent 

One of the most important things to remember when operating a blog is the need to be consistent.

Whether you choose to post once a day or once a week, be sure to keep this routine. Without consistency, your followers are going to tire of your blog and search elsewhere for content.

Whatever you do, be sure that you're maintaining your presence and avoiding periods of neglect. If you plan to be away on vacation or taking a brief online hiatus, don't be shy to let your audience know ahead of time.

3. Market Yourself to Health and Fitness Brands

If you're serious about making your blog profitable, it's essential to market yourself to the brands that matter.

In terms of a health blog, you may want to consider marketing to local health stores, medical offices or sporting brands. Not only will this give you the opportunity to gain profitable writing clients, but it also provides for the opportunity to write for well-known brands.

To start, it may be helpful to offer your writing services on a low-cost model. While you may be writing for a small profit, you're benefiting from being able to associate yourself with the brand.

4. Share Your Content Online

If you operate a health blog, it's imperative to share your content online.

Today, a number of social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter make it simple to share your content. Not only is this a great way to advertise yourself for free, but it's also a great way to gain the attention of future followers.

If you're putting significant amounts of effort into building your content, you're going to want to make sure that it's being viewed.

5. Connect with Local Influencers 

Today, influencer marketing has become one of the most popular and trusted sources of marketing. In fact, 70 percent of teens report trusting and relating to influencers more than well-known celebrities.

An influencer helps to bring attention to a product or idea by marketing the product in a seemingly natural way. For example, they may choose to advertise a product or idea on their social media page and recommend it to their network.

If it's within your budget, try to connect with local influencers. For a fee or sometimes free products/services, they can market your blog and refer it to their followers. This is an entirely effective yet still natural means of increasing your name as well as your blog traffic.

6. Make Your Content SEO Friendly 

If you're making the effort to build killer content, you're going to want to ensure that it's SEO friendly.

SEO friendly content helps to rank that content higher on traditional search engines. So, when your content is created with SEO in mind, it's more likely that it will catch the attention of those browsing the internet.

This is the best way to ensure that your content is actually reaching your targetted audience.

7. Create an Advice Column 

Establishing a question and answer form is one of the best ways to naturally engage with your audience.

Remember, you are operating a health blog. This means that many of your visitors are going to have a list of burning questions they are looking to have answered.

It's also beneficial to have this advice column be anonymous. Many visitors will feel shame in asking their intimidate medical questions and would prefer to go unnamed. Again, this will help to encourage communication and better your engagement with your guests.

If you're looking to incorporate video, a question and answer column can make for the perfect video. For example, you can film a weekly video that answers all of the anonymous questions from that week.

8. Be Authentic! 

Last but certainly not least, it's essential to be authentic in your blog.

Remember, health is a topic that can feel extremely intimate and extremely personal to many. That being said, don't take this fact lightly and remember the importance of the subject that you're discussing.

In terms of your audience, they are more likely to feel connected to your blog if you are being your authentic and honest self. Don't hesitate to share with your followers your own health journey and any struggles you have had along the way.

Being upfront and honest with your audience is another natural way to improve engagement. When you show a raw and honest part of yourself, your followers are bound to appreciate and connect with this sincerity.

How to Have a Successful Blog: Health Niche Edition 

While many passionate writers choose to operate a blog, there's a significant difference between a profitable and non-profitable blog.

A profitable blog has the potential to turn into a career that is financially and mentally rewarding. If you're serious about transitioning your health blog into a career, you're going to want to start implementing these tips on how to have a successful blog.

Are you unsure as to whether you're ready to start a business with your blog? If so, be sure to read our article that will help to answer this important question!

Blogging Resource

How to Find a Blog Niche You Love

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, January 18, 2019

The life of a blogger is not easy. Between writing amazing content, making optimization-focused edits, researching new ideas, and checking site analytics, it takes a lot to keep a blog going. Not to mention, there's even more work that goes into monetizing a blog and/or creating a large market presence.

But, the process can be incredibly rewarding!

One of the best parts about blogging is being able to share valuable insights about a subject you care about. Whether you're blogging just because or you're trying to turn a blog into a side hustle, the writing comes much easier when you choose a niche you care about. 

That's only the first step in figuring out how to find a niche for your blog, though.

Keep reading for the complete 5-step guide you need to use when finding a niche.

1. Make a List of All the Things You Love 

Maybe your issue with picking a blog niche isn't that you don't know what you'd like to write about. Maybe there are so many things you love that it's hard to choose just one!

This is a situation many new bloggers find themselves in. It's human nature to have more than one passion. You likely have all kinds of different topics you want to learn more about and/or share your knowledge on.

So, the best way to start finding your niche is to write everything out. Make a list of the topics that excite you; the ones you're constantly reading about or discussing with friends. Consider the hobbies you enjoy and the thing(s) you've always wanted to learn more about, too.

Then, rank everything on your list from the most exciting and interesting to the least.

2. Research Blogs That Are Already Out There 

The next step in picking a niche is to research the competition you might be up against if you were to create one kind of blog versus another.

You're bound to have plenty of competitors no matter which niche you choose, considering the millions of blogs on the internet right now. The more you make yourself aware of these competitors, the better position you're in to differentiate your content.

This is also a good time to learn more about how SEO works. All successful blogs have some sort of optimization strategy to them. As you're browsing the most popular sites among different industries, you should start to see a trend.

Notice how user-friendly a blog's navigation is and the way that some blogs have created affiliate strategies. Keep in mind how often these blogs are releasing new content and maybe sign up for their newsletters to see what those are like, too. Even pay attention to the kind of action words they use like "check this out" or "learn more here."

These are just a handful of the tactics that big blogs have used to get to where they are today. Learn about them now so you can make your blog a huge success once it starts - no matter the niche you choose.

3. Identify What You Could Do Differently 

As you start narrowing down the different niches that appeal to you, think about what gaps your blog might be able to fill. Sure, there are all kinds of travel sites out there that talk about airline deals or things to see/do. There's no shortage of personal finance blogs, either.

But, there you have a bright, innovative blog idea to share with users. You just have to figure out what that idea is!

Go back through the top blogs you've been researching, and do so with a more critical eye. Ask yourself what else you'd like to see from them. Consider what's missing, and think about how these great blogs could be even better.

It's this kind of attention to detail that will help you take a stand within the niche you end up choosing. It gives you the ability to carve out your own space in such a saturated market.

4. Consider the Audience You'd Be Speaking To

By this point, you should only have 2-3 niches to choose from. These ideas should be semi-mature, meaning that you have a clear idea of what direction you would take each different blog in depending on the niche you end up diving into.

Now it's time to consider the kind of people that each blog would reach. It's much different to make a financial blog for millennials than it is to write a travel blog for retirees, after all.

You should be able to relate to your target audience on a personal level, though. Blogs work best when the people producing the content are able to put themselves in their readers' shoes. But more importantly, you need to know who your reader really is!

Take a deep dive into the target audience for each blog idea you're contemplating. Get to know these people's interests, habits, desires, and pains. Create a clear picture of them in your mind and consider which persona you'd be able to connect with - and provide value to - the most.

5. Assess the Opportunities for Growth

You can expand into different topics and industries as your blog grows. But, it's hard to create a strong brand when you're just getting started if your content is all over the place.

As such, the final step in choosing a niche is to consider where you want your blog to be a few years from now. Once you establish a strong presence within the first niche you choose, what other topics would you like to explore? Who would you want to reach beyond your target audience?

It's never too early to start thinking about a long-term growth strategy. In fact, you need to be thinking long term in order to choose the best possible niche. This gives you the creative freedom you need to keep coming up with new article ideas and ways to monetize, which are essential to a blog's success. 

How to Find a Niche While You're Expanding

It's one thing to figure out how to find a niche when you're just getting started in the world of blogging, but it's a completely different story to expand into a new niche after you've established your blog.

You want to make all your expansions as seamless as possible. It should feel natural for a frequent reader of your blog to visit it one day and see a whole new section of how-to's, reviews, or whatever else you decide to write about. Similarly, you want the people in your secondary niche to find value in the topics that you wrote about from the get-go.

For more blogging tips and tricks to use at any point of your blog's journey, click here.