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Want to start a blog in 2024 and are excited to do so? But you find yourself asking, Is it worth starting a blog? Are blogs still a thing? How do I even make money? Everyone these days is quitting their jobs and taking the plunge.
I’m sure you are not the only one who has asked these questions. I asked myself these questions before starting my blog nine months ago and will probably continue asking them as I evolve in my blogging journey.
Oh, and in case you were wondering…
Why should you consider starting a blog in 2024?
Starting a blog this year could change your life in countless ways. One of the best reasons is that blogging can help you start your own business; that’s one reason I started. Who wouldn’t love to be their boss and work whenever they want from anywhere?
Though it may sound appealing, it’s not simple to begin a blog that makes you money right away and gives you that freedom. For it to become a long-term profitable business, you have to work HARD, be patient, change your MINDSET, and keep learning.
Additionally, COVID-19 is a prime example of how one event altered our lives and will likely continue to do so. If the pandemic didn’t teach anyone anything, I don’t know what will!
More reasons to start a blog in 2024 are discussed in this video.
Are blogs still a thing?
Absolutely! If you’re wondering if people still read blogs, the answer is YES! If you search for something on a social media platform like Pinterest (which isn’t really “social media”), for example, 90% of your results will lead to blogs.
The same is true when you search for something on Google; a couple of blogs are likely to show up on the first page.
Is blogging going away?
No! I truly believe that blogs will always be a part of our lives. Blogging will continue as long as technology keeps evolving.
What matters is learning how to stand out in a crowded market, find your voice, and adapt to the changes that come up along the way.
Overall, blogs are still a great way for people and businesses to share their ideas and stories with the world, even though digital media changes all the time.
As 2024 starts, the blogging world is likely to change even more, giving aspiring bloggers both exciting new opportunities and new challenges.
Related: Essential Travel Gear For Aspiring Bloggers in 2024
The best way to start a blog for beginners
However, before you start being creative, you need to ask yourself some simple but important questions that most new bloggers don’t think to ask. This will help you figure out the direction of your blog and how to fit into the online world, which is always changing.
After reading this post, you should know and honestly answer the six basic but necessary questions that every person who wants to start a blog in 2024 should ask themselves.
These questions will help you build a successful and engaging blog, whether you’re an experienced writer or a complete beginner.
Question #1: What is the main reason you want to start a blog?
Honestly, a lot of people who want to start a blog don’t have a clear plan. Yeah, I get it. Blogging is often thought of as pretty simple since it seems like anyone can start a blog these days. So, I don’t judge anyone.
To be honest, though, you should know your “why” before you start a blog. Okay, I know I sound like a blogging pro, but I’m not even close!
I don’t think it’s rocket science, and I think we can all agree to disagree, but it’s important to know your “ultimate goal” with your blog, as well as your main purpose and where you want to be in life.
It might be necessary to give this some serious thought. Remember that if you don’t plan, you plan to fail.
So, to help you start a blog,
- Write down your ultimate goal and vision. For example, one of my goals is to give other people useful information and tips on how to travel on a budget and to encourage them to explore the world so they can go anywhere.
- Set short– and long-term goals: Choose if you want to do it full-time or part-time, and then set goals based on that. Thousands of people have started blogs while still working full-time jobs, and they’ve been successful. That’s right, you don’t even need to quit your job to start a blog.
This year, start a blog the right way.
Simply sit down and give some serious thought to the main reason you want to start a blog. For example, you might want to move up in your career or make passive income (because, with the cost of living so high in the UK right now, who wouldn’t want some extra cash?)
As mentioned above, you may want to work for yourself or be a new mom who wants to spend more time with her family.
That being said, the main reason you want to start a blog shouldn’t just be to make money. I know that sounds contrary, but you should be looking for more passionate reasons, which I will talk about later in the post.
If you don’t, you might lose interest or even give up quickly. And just in case you didn’t know, people can tell when someone is only in it for the money.
Question #2: What will be your niche or topic?
So, now that we know our WHY, the fun part starts: choosing a niche! Of course, if you want to start a blog, you should already know what it’s about, right?
You should have a general idea of what you want to write about.
Picking a niche can be fun and difficult at the same time because the niche you pick will either make or break your blog in the long run.
So, you might want to wait a little while and do proper research before rushing into an exciting niche.
But first, allow me to briefly explain how to pick a niche.
Let’s get started!
What are niches?
I’m sure you have heard or seen a lot of Instagram marketer mentors or online educators talk about picking a niche, right? But what exactly is a niche? And how do you pick the right one for your blog?
A niche, in its simplest terms, refers to a specific core market or industry. Just remember that there are submarkets, niches, and micro-niches below each core market. Submarkets are smaller parts of the core market.
Okay, if you are like:
“ What! I don’t understand anything.”
Let me break it down.
When it comes to choosing a niche for your blog, you want to ensure that you choose a focused niche to stand out from competitors. What do I mean?
You don’t want to choose a niche that is too broad. For example, “Travel,” which, by the way, is not a niche, is shocking, right?
Travel is an umbrella term for a core market. So if you are a fellow blogger who blogs about travel, here are some travel niches you could target:
- Female solo travel
- Sustainable travel
- Budget travel (which is where I focus)
- Backpackers travel
- Luxury travel
- Family travel
- Single parents with kids travel
- Nomadic travel
- Hidden gems travel
- Couples travel
- Group travel
- Off-the-beaten-track travel
- Travel for busy 9-5 folks
- Travel for retirees
- Plus-size travel
- Location-focused travel (e.g Paris or London travel)
But remember not to choose a niche that limits you to talking about just one single thing that probably no one is interested in. What exactly do I mean by this?
In the blogging world, it is all about supply and demand. So you want to ensure your niche is narrowed down with a clear direction to set yourself up for success in the long run and not just for the sake of narrowing down, a.k.a. niching down.
Before you start a blog: Tips for brainstorming and selecting a niche
When you’re picking a niche, it’s also important to make sure you pick the right topic based on your interests, knowledge, or experience.
This will help you write without having to think about what to write. If you’re good at something or enjoy doing it, that’s what will make you stand out from the crowd. Because no one else has lived and experienced life the same way you have.
As an example, a lot of people have been to Paris and written about it, but if you have been too, I’m sure you had a unique experience that you could tell everyone about.
The best ways to pick your niche for your blog
There is more than one way to choose a good topic for your blog before you start writing it, besides the usual “pick a niche.”
First, you should do something really simple: get an iPad or a notebook, as I do, and start writing down ideas for your niche based on the main market and submarkets I talked about above.
Here is an example of mine:
I called my first Instagram travel page @thetravelcollective, which sounds too broad now, but it seemed cool and perfect at the time. But as soon as I started setting up my blog, I knew something had to change.
I wasn’t going to use that handle as a niche and buy a domain for it. After some research, I came up with the brand name niche (adventures with Jane).
When you come up with your niche, don’t forget to think about your domain name as well. You should choose a domain name that is easy for people to remember and not too specific.
That way, if you change your blog’s main points, you won’t have to change everything, including the domain name. By the way, it’s not a good idea to change your domain or blog name all the time, like we do on social media.
Question #3: Who is your target audience?
The biggest mistake most new bloggers make is believing their blog is for them. As much as I’d like to avoid giving you bad news if you want to start a blog that makes money, you need to take yourself out of the picture.
Okay, I’m going to give you a very simple example. Please read it and give it some thought.
This blog post, which you are reading now, was written to reach specific people, like you, an aspiring blogger or online entrepreneur, who are looking for answers or solutions to help them with a problem or frustration.
In this instance, “How can a beginner start a blog properly? What should I know before I begin?
So, this post is NOT for me to write whatever comes to mind without giving my audience something of value. So, as you choose a niche, think about the people you want to write for or make content for.
Start a blog right away with the Blog Planner Template
I made a section in my Blog Planner template for user personas, or target audiences, to help you figure out who might be interested in reading your blog. You can download it below and use it as a guide as you answer this question.
Question #4: How much time can you commit to blogging?
It’s not enough to just write good posts and find a niche. Successful bloggers share income reports, Instagram stories of their blogging successes, and extravagant travel destinations.
Some things aren’t told to anyone. It’s easier to talk about how well a blog works than how it was made.
Blogging is a journey. It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to make it work and become a blog that makes money. There are days when I feel like I’m just starting.
It requires a lot of discipline and perseverance.
So decide if you are ready to give up some time and stick with it. One thing that helps me stay motivated to do things like write blog posts and organise my time is to disconnect from Instagram completely.
It’s the best way to clear my mind. I just turn off my phone or put it somewhere else in the room when I want to work on my blog.
Question #5: Are you prepared for challenges and setbacks?
Just like anything in life, some challenges and setbacks come with blogging. Here are some of the common challenges bloggers may face:
- Writer’s block: This is the hardest for most of us. When a blogger has writer’s block, they just can’t think of anything creative to write for their blog. Sometimes you just get uninspired, disorganised, or have no idea. To be honest, it can be really hard to get out of this. So, it’s important to know why you want to start a blog. This will help you keep going when you get stuck.
- Lack of traffic: One way most bloggers make money is by getting people to visit their blogs. But it takes a lot of hard work to get that traffic! You will have to learn and do a lot of things. Starting with SEO, writing regularly, and using the right social media sites to promote your blog are the most important ones.
For example, I didn’t write much in the first two or six months after starting my blog because I was too busy promoting my posts on Instagram. By the way, this is normal when you first start blogging; you’ll make a lot of mistakes.
For that reason, one of my blog goals this year is to post less on Instagram and spend more time writing on my blog.
Question #6: Do you have basic technical skills, or are you willing to learn them?
Finally, before you start a blog, you should make sure you know at least the basic technical skills you’ll need to keep it running.
Some bloggers, including me, have said very bluntly that you should build your website on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress.org as if that’s the end of the technical stuff.
In reality, though, you will run into a lot of technical problems as you start blogging. So, you might need to learn them.
In my next blog post, I’ll talk about setting up the blog and some of the technical parts of it. Don’t forget to sign up for my email list; that way, you’ll know when the article is ready.
Bonus Question: Are You Willing To Invest Money?
We all know that nothing is free these days, right? Therefore, you should think about whether you want to start blogging for free or for a fee.
To start a blog, you’ll need to spend some money, especially if you want to own it and possibly make money from it. When you first start, though, I think you should only spend money on a domain name from Godaddy or NameCheap, theme, and hosting. When it comes to WordPress plugins, try to stick to the free ones.
That being said, if you have extra money lying around, by all means, buy some blogging resources and tools. Getting help might make your work easier. Besides, think of this as an investment in your future business.
Best of luck with starting your blog!
Now you know the six most important things you should think about before you start your blog. You will learn a lot more, but trust me, these will give you a good start.
Best of luck!
Jane xx
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