Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2010. Its SEO advice reflects that time: Google stopped publishing PageRank scores in 2016, Google Insights for Search was folded into Google Trends in 2012, and later algorithm updates penalize thin or keyword-driven pages. The AdSense payment timelines may also be out of date.
A promise is a promise, so here are some very simple tips you should never forget if you want to make money with a blog. If you’re wondering whether it’s really possible to make money (a lot of money) with a blog, the answer is yes. As I mentioned in the previous article, the blog where this article first appeared was the latest one I’d created, and it’s my pride and joy because of its subject, which I’m truly passionate about.
You’ll hear of blogs that took six months, or even eight, to receive their first AdSense payment (Google’s monetization system). That blog did it in three months, not because I’m exceptional, but because I started writing it after an accident I had, and during the three months of recovery I devoted myself entirely to it (I’m no good at doing nothing for long). It also helped that I already knew how to build a blog and how to focus it on the reader.
And to encourage you, I’ll tell you that everything I’ve learned about blogs basically comes down to the points I’m about to show you. They’re all very important, and the first one is essential to start a profitable blog.
1. SEO techniques
Before you start a blog, learn the basics of SEO. SEO is the set of techniques for ranking naturally in search engines, so it’s the essence of what you need to know before getting into the blogging business. These days, if you don’t have at least some SEO knowledge, forget about trying.
However, although some people insist that you need a degree to understand SEO and how search engines work, believe me, in two days you’ll know all you really need to know. Don’t overload yourself with information, because it isn’t really necessary, and in many cases you may be tempted to abuse these techniques, which is as harmful as not using them at all.
If it’s any consolation, even SEO specialists themselves (and this is where the disagreements may start) are wrong on some points, which we’ll go into throughout this article.
Nobody knows Google’s algorithm, even if Larry Page has let something slip. Being a semi-perfect algorithm, it keeps changing so that nobody ever figures out all the techniques, tricks and secrets. Otherwise there would be three times as much junk on the web as we find today.
Even PageRank is becoming less and less important, but we should still keep it in mind (for now).
PageRank is the importance Google assigns to a page based on the links that other pages point to yours, giving a lot of weight to the quality and PageRank of the pages linking to you.
That’s why you should study these terms and keep them firmly in mind. Google itself has published a free basic SEO guide.
2. Choosing a topic
It should be a topic you know inside out and, above all, enjoy writing about; otherwise you’ll be getting into a business, or rather a job, that weighs on you more every day until you finally give up.
It also has to be a topic people search for online. You may be an expert or a professional in a subject, but if that topic is searched 1,000 times a day, that’s the slice of the pie to be shared among all the blogs on that subject.
To find out how many visits a topic or keyword generates, you can check Google’s search statistics tool (at the time, Google Insights for Search). You can also look at a short summary we put together of the most searched topics online.
Many of the blogs I see every day don’t get much traffic, not because they haven’t done a good job, but because their topic, or the keywords they rank for, targets a very small audience. Always keep that in mind when you build a blog to make money. If you’re doing it for other reasons, this tip obviously doesn’t matter much.
3. Content
A blog’s content must be original. If you copy articles from other blogs, your days are numbered, because Google detects duplicate content. And even if you managed to fool Google by changing a few words or adding new text, the original author has tools to catch you, and I don’t mean Copyscape, but simpler and more advanced programs. If you get off on the wrong foot with other bloggers, you’ll make it much harder for yourself to move forward.
What’s more, as a matter of pride, if you’re not capable of producing good content, do something else you’re good at, because experience tells me you wouldn’t last long in this world. And if you did get somewhere, or even far, with those methods, complaints about duplicate content would later send your blog to the bottom of the search results, or it would simply be hit with a total penalty.
Be honest and play fair; victory tastes better that way. Without going any further, some of my own articles have been copied by 15 blogs without citing the source. It would be sad if it weren’t so utterly pathetic, and when I talk to other blog authors, they have the same problem.
We call those blogs “junk blogs“, and we assume they’re made by people with no ideas of their own. So never copy, and if you do so occasionally, cite the source and link to the original article. That way, even though you’ve produced duplicate content, at least you won’t be punished or singled out by other bloggers.
4. Types of content
On this point I’m going to be very frank and honest. Every blog, mine included, has some filler, some junk and some good content.
There’s a reason for this: while it’s important to focus your content on readers, it’s also essential to focus on search engines. If you don’t, you might have very good content, but few people would read it because it wouldn’t rank well in the search results.
The secret is striking the perfect balance between junk content and good content.
Junk content: Content you create expressly to rank in search engines, aimed specifically at keywords and often not very relevant to your topic. For example, the Eurovision Song Contest. It has nothing to do with the subject of a business blog, but you know people will run millions of searches for information about the event and you want to draw them to your blog. However you dress it up, you’ve created junk content, but you’ve got a lot of people to discover your blog, and they may come back for the good content another day. Of course, others will leave your blog in 0.2 seconds, raising your bounce rate in the statistics.
Filler content: Content you either copy from other blogs (something I’ll never do and advise you never to do) or write when you have nothing to say or are short on inspiration but have to publish something. Some bloggers think that in that case it’s better not to write anything and to wait for inspiration. They’re absolutely right, and that view does them credit, although I prefer to keep up a steady publishing pace, so I admit there’s “filler content” on my blog. It’s true, and I’ve often been surprised to find that this filler content has brought in lots of visits and ranked well in search engines. When that happens, I edit it again and turn it into good content.
Good content: No need to explain. It’s what you should publish, because in the end readers reward this kind of content with loyalty to your blog.
So look for a balance between them. Sometimes I think what we do is like a singer’s album: three smash hits, five so-so songs and three filler tracks.
You’ll find these three types of content on every blog, and anyone who says otherwise is lying. In fact, you’ll notice some blogs that have three very similar articles, changing only the words in the title and playing with them, while the content explains exactly the same thing as the other article in different words.
Here’s an example of SEO abuse and a bit of junk content: three titles that say the same thing but are written this way to dominate the search engines.
- How to make money with a blog
- Make money with your blog: here’s how
- How to start a blog and make money
It’s done to cover more search results, but they don’t realize it ends up taking its toll, because if readers notice, they leave as soon as they arrive. And a higher bounce rate lowers a blog’s profitability. That’s been proven, just as Google’s algorithm also detects identical explanations written with synonyms, which means a relevant blog can write a single article, for example Make money with your blog, and that article will rank ahead of the other three.
Just remember one thing before you try to slip one past Google: Google is smarter than you, and its page-indexing algorithm does the work of 1,000 people for every 20 web pages. So bad practices won’t get you far in the long run, because users know exactly what they’re looking for.
5. Always reply to every comment
Unbelievable as it may seem, there are bloggers who neglect their comments or are too arrogant when dealing with them. It’s as if the person who gets a reply from the blog’s author should go to church to give thanks for having received an answer from such a god.
I’m sorry to say it (and I hope nobody takes it personally), but none of us is Michael Jackson or Barack Obama, let alone John Paul II, so just as you hope people will read you, your readers want to feel heard.
Always reply to the messages you receive in your personal email, whatever the subject. Believe me, not replying, whether to a reader or to another blogger, even just to say you’re not interested, is considered very rude in any language or country. If at some point you don’t reply because you don’t know the answer, say so clearly. Anyone will understand and appreciate your honesty.
In fact, you’ll learn from your readers, make contacts and make friends. Anyone can contribute something positive. If you think otherwise, there’s still time to get help from a professional to make you a more humble person.
In short, treat others the way you’d like to be treated (empathy).
6. Publishing frequency
Remember this before you start writing a blog: you’ll have to work very hard for one or two months if you want to make fast progress. There’s no set minimum number of posts, but keep in mind that the more, the better.
The more you publish, the faster search engines will index your blog and the better you’ll rank, and obviously, with more content on your site, the more likely you are to get visits, since Google feeds on content.
When I started that blog, there were days when I published up to seven articles, and it showed in the positive, upward trend. Work hard at the beginning; later you’ll have the chance to relax. In the blogging business, as in any business, nobody gives you anything and nothing happens on its own, so fight hard for it and, I repeat, play fair.
7. Make things easy for your visitors
Make everything easy. Let readers share your blog’s content by email and on any social network, with the buttons designed for that. If you ever want to add buttons, gadgets or any other element, visit these two sites (both in Spanish), which I find very useful for dressing up a blog: El Escaparate de Rosa and Olobloger. While you’re there, notice how attentive and considerate they are with their readers, as well as their good, useful content. Wise, humble and attentive = success.
Make it easy to comment without having to register, unless you have some trouble in your comments section and need to take action.
Don’t force visitors to sign up by putting a subscription prompt in front of them as soon as they land on the page. That’s steamrolling the reader, and in many cases internet users aren’t very experienced and don’t even know how to close that pop-up, so they end up leaving the page. I’ve always seen that practice as if someone stopped me in the middle of the street and forced me into a shop to listen to the special offers, like begging from internet users. But that’s not the worst of it. The worst are those windows that, when you click the “X” to close them, open a new advertising window. I respect those practices, but I’m completely against invasive advertising.
It’s a different matter to offer a free guide or book in exchange for signing up. Even so, doesn’t it sadden you that people sign up to get the guide and not because they’re interested in your content? Never force a subscription, but make it easy for people to subscribe. Better 1,000 interested readers than 9,000 passive subscribers who once signed up to get something and probably don’t know how to cancel their subscription.
In the end, readers reward and punish.
8. Be humble, be a decent human being
Unless you have a God complex or a superiority complex, never lose your bearings. I’ll give you an example. As I said, I have several blogs, but I haven’t put all my eggs in one basket, so I try to make each one work on its own and, if possible, keep people from connecting them with one another.
Not long ago, I asked a blog, which I won’t name, for a link exchange. The author didn’t deign to reply, and curiously, that same author contacted me on another of my blogs, interested in appearing on it. Obviously, he got exactly what he gave: nothing.
It takes very little effort to be humble in this life, and I don’t understand why some people insist on not being so. Attitude also takes its toll; remember that.
Some bloggers will see you as a fellow professional and others as competition. The latter will live with more worry than the former and will certainly make less progress, turning their fear of being overtaken into reality.
I’ve met a lot of people in these five years. Some asked me for help, and others offered it to me with advice I didn’t even ask for (for which I’m enormously grateful). I’ve learned from both, and it has always been a pleasure to help someone starting out in something I’ve already learned, because that person always gives you something too. Not to mention the great help I’ve received in Google’s own webmaster forum, where some bloggers spent their time on me and helped me selflessly, and I think that’s why they are who they are and where they are (earning thousands of dollars a month from their blogs).
In this life I’ve learned that you reap what you sow and receive according to what you give. So be humble and, above all, be a decent human being.
9. One last tip
My last piece of advice is never to write articles as long as this one, because they can get a bit heavy to read, although in this case it was necessary.
Anyway, in my humble experience, that’s basically what matters most for succeeding with a blog. Everything else you’ll pick up along the way and by interacting with other bloggers, but I’ll tell you there isn’t much science to it: just follow a few basic guidelines and keep working steadily, especially at the start.
If you know a subject, can create original content and read the basic SEO guide (20 pages), you can build a blog that will bring you a worthwhile income for a long time.
What I’m sure of is that from now on, every time you visit a page or blog, you’ll look at it with some of these points in mind.
Featured image: Sean MacEntee, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
