Blogging As A Side Hustle?

With everybody trying to earn some extra money, blogging as a side hustle remains a popular option. With the rise of AI creating engaging professional content is becoming easier. Videos, artwork and content can be generated and edited much faster than before.

The benefits of blogging as a side hustle

There are many perks of having a blog. Blogging is an excellent way to share your passion for writing or content creation, while you earn money.

Businesses will blog for exposure, answer questions related to their services or products, to rank in search engines, attract target audience. Some of them will outsource the content and also look for good blogs to do outreach.

Let’s dig in some more and let’s find out how to start blogging.

1. Earn a passive income

Having your own blog allows you to decide how much or how little you work, where you work, and how much or how little you earn. The cherry on top is passive income.

For example, some bloggers sell direct advertising in the form of paid links and paid guest posts. Paid posts would, of course, be relevant to the blog. This assists in integrating advertisements into the site and earning revenue, while also assisting in the generation of relevant, useful content.

2. Work from any location

Blogging allows you to work from anywhere. This can be a huge advantage when it comes to running a side hustle. However, you will need the equipment and depending on what type of content you are creating, maybe a small office space.

3. Go at your own pace

You may decide to post multiple articles a week or once a month. Either way, the it is best to concentrate on quality over quantity.

Staying consistent is key.

4. Additional opportunities

As you build your blog's brand and expertise, you open yourself up to even more opportunities and additional income. Like holding workshops, speaking at conferences, or even providing consulting services. Other companies may approach you as well and offer you to come work for them.

5. Going Viral

Many people are drawn to blogging because of its seemingly limitless potential for exponential growth. You never know when your post will reach the right person and go viral.

If this happens, your site's traffic will skyrocket, as will your earnings from ads, products you sell, and affiliate marketing links.

With all this being said, Blogging is hard work, and you have to be consistent. Once you have decided on your topics and brand, you will have to take care of a few technical elements.

Blogging as a side hustle can be a great idea, if you are willing and able to put in the time and effort required to make it a success.

How to start a blog

Step 1: Pick a blog name and get your blog hosting

Once you have decided which topic you are going to focus on with your blog, choose a domain name.

If you’re having a hard time choosing your domain name, there are many platforms or naming tools that you can use like GoDaddy, Shopify, and more.

After you've decided on a domain name, you'll need to set up your web hosting. While WordPress is free, you will need a reliable host for your WordPress blog.

Our HelpDesk Heroes Hosting option is ideal for bloggers with no technical knowledge. You will not need to access the control panel - instead we have a dedicated team that does everything for you.

Step 2: WordPress installation

After you've successfully hosted the registered domain, the next step is to install WordPress. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that allows you to add content and media to your website.

Install WordPress using the C panel which you got from the domain hosting. Having the C panel gives you full control over the domain.

Step 3: Plugin Installation & Configuration

When you've finished installing WordPress on your new domain. The next thing you should concentrate on is plugin installation and configuration. Install and configure all of the basic plugins required for the brand new website such as Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, Smush It, Really Simple SSL, Wordfence Security, Stream, and All in One WP Migration, for optimal performance.

Step 4: Google Webmaster Tools

Google search console is a free web service provided by Google to publishers that allows them to index their websites.

You can gain insights in to which pages are performing well, how many visits and a host of info about your site.

Step 5: Write compelling content to create a blog that your readers will enjoy

The website is now perfectly set up and ready for content to be added. To add content to the website, simply log into the WordPress dashboard.

It's finally time to start blogging. This is where the adventure begins.

The truth is, it takes TIME to build an income from blogging.

Blogging success won’t happen overnight, it can take months and even years before you see a significant return on the time you invest in blogging. Writing an article which will perform well can take a few days. Unless you have a the time to write constantly, most people work with a team. You will need to make sure that you have it well written, well formatted and with SEO in mind.

How much does it cost to set up a blog

Making sure that you have considered all your costs to start your blog is really important. They will be things you didn't think of at first. Equipment, templates, plugins, software, IT support, accountants are all going to have some running costs.

There are loads of great free Wordpress templates, but many offer pro versions with extra features. The same goes for plugins.

Creating Your Blog

Once you have your ttemplate, fonts, colours and general style decided, you need to start creating the content. Using Keyword tools will help you to choose your blog post content. Now with the addition of AI tools like Chatgpt to help you work out your blog formats you can get started planning your blog posts and page content.

There are several AI tools that can help bloggers with different aspects of their work. Here are some of the best AI tools for bloggers.

1. Content Assistant from HubSpot: This tool uses AI to help you optimize your blog content for SEO and improve readability.
2. Jasper: This AI tool can help you generate blog post ideas and create outlines for your posts
3. WriteSonic: This tool uses AI to generate blog post titles and meta descriptions
4. Copy.AI: This tool can help you generate blog post ideas, create outlines, and even write content for you.
5. ChatGPT: This AI tool uses natural language processing to help you craft new content for your blog.
6. Anyword: This tool uses AI to help you write better headlines and ad copy.
7. AI Writer: This tool can help you generate blog post ideas and write content for you.
8. INK: This AI tool can help you optimize your blog content for SEO and improve readability.
9. Rytr: This tool uses AI to help you generate blog post ideas and write content for you.
10. Frase: This tool uses AI to help you research and write content for your blog, as well as optimize it for SEO.

These are just a few examples of the many AI tools available for bloggers. It's important to research and compare different tools to find the ones that best fit your needs and budget.

You may find you need to use additional tools, for creating website images and design like Canva, which is an excellent for creating social media posts, and promotional material as well. You can use it for free but the pro version has lots of useful extras. It also has a useful whiteboard feature! (part of the free plan) A great place to organise your thoughts, and layout your site structure as well as brainstorming. In fact there are lots of FREE online whiteboards to choose from..
Canva has an Ai text to image option, but you have an ever growing number of options, including Midjourney and DALL- E.

Blog Maintenance

Blog maintenance is crucial. Keeping up with routine maintenance, will prevent problems in the future.
This includes;

• Updating your software and plugins regularly
• Monitoring your website performance
• Backing up your site
• Optimizing your database
• Checking for broken links

Thousands of WordPress sites are hacked due to bad maintenance. Website owners who don't update get hacked.

If you don’t have time or the know-how to do this yourself, outsource your WordPress maintenance to an IT company.

You will also have to promote your blog, by posting on social media and gaining backlinks from relevant websites. There are hundreds of tools and sites that can help to promote your blog. From using apps to promote yourself like About.me (you can click here to see our Helpdesk Heroes page on About.me These types of apps offer a great way to promote yourself and your blog with a personalised link) to the latest all in one AI tool.

Have IT Support for your Blog

Whether it is getting set up, upgrading, or having support in the event of a disaster, you must have reliable IT support.

If the technical side of things is too much and you just want to get going, call our team who will set up your web hosting, load up your WordPress and configure it for you so you can get started. We help individuals and small businesses with blog maintenance and any issues that may arise.

Read our IT Guide for small business for a full breakdown of all the things you need to know, to keep your business running smoothly.

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