AFFILIATE MARKETING
How to Monetize Your Website in 2021
With a bit of hard work and implementation of smart strategies and tools it is possible to monetize a website in 2021!
But before I tell you about these website monetization strategies, there are some things you should consider.
Monetizing a website takes time and dedication. You may not earn the expected amount at first, but don’t allow that to be a barrier between you and your freedom.
To achieve the results you want, there are some universal attributes each seven-figure website possesses.
Today, we are going to unearth those characteristics, learn how to implement them, and turn your website into a profitable business.
Let’s get started!
1. Start with Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways of earning money as it’s 100% passive income, and you don’t even need to create your own products or services.
According to research by Alchemy Coder, eCommerce has progressed at a spectacular rate after the pandemic, which resulted in the new affiliate marketing golden bubble.
The research shows that the same pandemic forces steering the rapid-fire growth of eCommerce websites have also resulted in unemployment. People who lost their jobs started looking for different ways to make money online and some have found affiliate marketing as a good way forward.
It just takes three steps to begin with affiliate marketing:
- Create an account with sites offering affiliate opportunities like Amazon
- Find products that are relevant and beneficial to your targeted audience.
- Promote these products on your website. Or add one landing page as an online store.
Then, when your website visitors use your affiliate links to make the final purchase, you receive a portion of the total amount as a commission. It can be anywhere between 30-70%, so there is great opportunity out there to endorse products and make money.
However, there’s a catch. For an affiliate marketing success, you need to:
- Properly reveal your affiliate links or how you are connected with the products or services
- Don’t promote anything or everything without testing the quality of products or checking reviews
- Recommend only products and services that your audience want
If you are set to begin your affiliate journey, make sure you have access to essential affiliate marketing tools. These tools use unique tracking links to record leads driven by each affiliate program. They also give you a 360-degree view of how affiliate links are performing and how much you earn from each.
2. Create a Profitable Podcast
As podcasts continue to mushroom, more and more people are jumping on the opportunity. They are setting up new shows to reveal their expertise, build a personal brand, grow an audience, connect with more influencers and enhance their business exposure.
Many people have added podcasting as a part of their marketing strategy and are successfully generating income out of it.
If you too have something to share with the world through podcasting, here are a few ways you can profit from your show:
- Sponsor Your Podcast: Generally, sponsors aim to sell their products or raise brand awareness. They are ready to pay you based on the total number of podcast downloads. Some sponsors pay you per 1000 downloads – known as the CPM (cost per mille.) Other advertisers or companies pay you based on the total sales your podcast generates.
- Boost the Sales of Your Products and Services: If your podcast is relevant to the products or services you sell, you can think of many ways to slip them into your podcast conversation. Natural mention of the product, benefits or an exclusive discount on the relevant product can increase sales.
- Repurpose Your Content into a Paid Product: By knowing which part of your podcast listeners like the most and what they want to know more of, you can quickly turn these topics into a saleable product like an ebook or tool.
Let’s say you run a lifestyle business. You could create a podcast on how to live your lifestyle and generate income simultaneously. Then, you could find sponsors in the fitness world as it’s relevant to the lifestyle industry and sell their stuff on your podcast.
Take it further and promote your products or services like a book on living your life fully. Finally, collect some insights from your podcast regarding what your audience is interested in. Perhaps it’s generating income while travelling the world. Convert those insights into a sellable product (maybe another book). Then repeat the entire process to keep your income flowing.
Now, if you’re ready to start a podcast, you need a home to host your podcast where you can store your audio files and build an RSS feed of your podcasting channel. The platform will keep all your podcast episodes organized and distribute them to popular directories like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc.
3. Side Hustle with an Online Course
If you have something valuable like a skill to share, you can create online courses out of it and sell them on your website.
The e-learning market is estimated to reach $325 billion by 2025. So you will never run out of students if your online course adds value.
Plus, monetizing a website through courses is a simple process that anyone can follow:
- Select a topic/niche/skill
- Develop a new website or include your course into an existing one
- Upload the teachings and promote them
Creating online courses can be a lucrative solution as your website traffic is a crucial source of income.
More traffic = More Clicks = More Income
If you are a recognized authority in your field and have a strong brand presence, you can introduce a certification program. It can be an advanced e-course associated with homework, exams, and scores.
Copyblogger, a well-known content marketing tools and training site, provides an authority program for content marketers and writers. The blog (and the bloggers) have unquestionable credibility in their industry, which puts a stamp of approval on their programs.
While the idea behind an online course is easy, the process of actually creating them isn’t. It involves more than just recording a video. You have to build an eLearning site, an entire step-by-step course program, develop assignments (if necessary), design the course chapters, and much more.
However, online course creation platforms streamline the entire process. These platforms provide all the tools you need to create, teach, launch, and manage your e-course—so you can concentrate more on developing valuable content.
4. Launch a Paid Membership
A membership website is a restricted part of a website charging a small fee from members to give them access to unique, premium content. Also known as the paywall method.
Take Ness Labs, for example, a site helping people work mindfully. It restricts access to some of its content, thoughtful discussions, events, and special deals for premium subscribers.
The reason why membership sites work is that if your content is worth improving people’s lives, you can charge people repeatedly, like monthly, quarterly, or yearly, to give access to protected content. Members will happily pay to keep the valuable information flowing and to keep their account active.
If you want inspiration to turn your free content into a paid one, you can look at some successful examples with six figures income.
Online forums are another excellent way to communicate with your online community, solve their problems, and make money while doing so. The simplest way to monetize forums is by granting paid access to groups as per their needs. For example, if you run a health and fitness website, you can develop an appropriate pricing forum for losing weight or developing strength. This way, users focusing on the diet will pay to connect with diet conscious people and muscle gainers will pay to gain knowledge on strength building.
5. Sell Digital Products
Selling digital products is another excellent monetization method if you have little time as it doesn’t require you to create content continuously, like blog posts. You create the product and then promote it to your target market.
There are numerous options for selling digital products online. Here are some popular categories:
Ebook
Turn your expertise into an ebook and put a price tag on it. For instance, Tiffany Alliche is a financial educator. She has published many successful ebooks on money for both student and non-student audiences.
Music
Thanks to the ability to store and send audio digitally, we can sell music online. DECAP, an American record producer, sells his drum kits online.
Meditation Recordings
In today’s world more and more people are seeking easy ways to destress and mediation is a great way to do it. The top 10 meditation apps alone earned a whopping $159 million in 2020. If you can record guided meditation audios, you can turn them into Mp3 formats and sell them on your site.
Affirmations
Affirmations are positive statements helping people cope with self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. For example, a statement like “I am love. I am purpose” can generate positive thoughts. You can create an entire ebook on positive affirmations and sell them on your webpage. Jack Canfield, a motivational speaker, sells the Success Affirmations book on his website.
6. Make Money with Website Flipping
Flipping is about purchasing a product, revamping it and selling it for a profit. Similarly, website flipping is buying an existing, inactive website, improving its overall features, optimizing it for various search engines, and attracting traffic.
You have to look after the website in a similar way you care for building your online business. Once your website achieves a considerable amount of traffic, you can sell it at a much higher rate than your original buying price.
People having basic writing and optimizing skills can quickly flip a website. However, you do have to take care of certain things before and after buying a website:
- Find websites that you are familiar with
- Look for a memorable domain. It’s much better if it possesses highly searched keywords
- Next, select a platform to host your website
- Prepare your website with all the templates and inbuilt plug-ins it needs
- Then, focus on publishing unique, quality content consistently that attracts traffic
- Optimize your website with keywords and search engine requirements
- Lastly, promote content on social media sites to enhance traffic
As soon as your site is ready to sell, you could exhibit it at different auction platforms or find buyers online. Once you and the buyer agree on the cost and terms, you have to transfer the domain under the buyer’s name, and after that, they will take charge of your website. Repeat the steps above to continue website flipping and earn money.
7. Turn Your Expertise into Virtual Coaching
If you have mastered a specific skill or possess expert knowledge in your industry, you can offer one-on-one online coaching sessions or charge for online group classes. It’s a great way to spread your experience, help the community, and generate recurring income.
One of the significant advantages of virtual coaching is that you don’t need a huge audience to secure a healthy income stream. That’s because customers pay more for customized, one-on-one programs.
For example, Nagina Abdullah helps women lose weight. She claimed to earn approximately $20,000 from one-on-one coaching. That is also with less than 5000 subscribers.
Now, when it comes to online coaching, you have a choice to go for simple and private Skype coaching sessions. Or conduct online retreats to meet large groups in person.
Let’s say you are a yoga expert and you want to create an additional income stream from online yoga classes. You can offer one-on-one yoga training personalized to each individual’s needs. Or you can also announce online retreats for a group.
For example, Adriene Mishler, an international yoga teacher, hosts live, virtual sessions on Yoga, meditation, and other self-care topics. Her recent online session was about “Anchored in Love.”
If you are following a welfare purpose, you can also add donation buttons enabling people to contribute to the common cause.
8. Become a Well-Paid Freelancer
Another way to monetize your website is to show it as a portfolio promoting your knowledge, skills, and experience. Freelancers often rely on various platforms to offer their services, but according to Hubstaff’s 2017 studies, on average, freelancers having websites charge 65% more than others without websites.
For example, ToyFight offers creative services like research, strategy, branding, illustration, UX, and Development. Their website perfectly portrays who they are and what they do. Most importantly, their website covers their work experience and past projects.
Other freelance ideas include becoming a copywriter, proofreader, digital marketer, social media marketer, SEO expert, web developer, translator, SEO expert, etc.
9. Offer a Problem-Solving App
Since we are gradually relying more on our smartphones and other handy devices in our daily working lives, social lives, and even when we’re alone, it has become common to rely on apps to finish our everyday tasks. And it is in the glory of day-to-day personal or professional problems that make the app industry truly shine.
So if you think that you can solve a problem for your customers, the opportunity is right there. Develop a problem-solving app and monetize it.
In the past, small businesses have been sceptical about developing a professional mobile app. High costs of hiring experienced developers and maintaining an app for a lifetime have added to this weariness.
However, app development costs have dropped significantly, and one can create them with extra ease. With today’s no-code solutions, everybody can build SaaS apps without the need to write code. The app-building and launching of apps have become a piece of cake with the help of drag and drop features.
Now that we have removed every barrier to creating apps, here are some popular ways to monetize them.
- Offer in-app purchases
- Enable subscription service providing a different experience to paid users than the free ones
- Run in-app ads. Make sure the ads align well with your products or services
- Connect with sponsors, brands, and trusted partners that may want your mobile app to connect with their target audiences
10. Publish Sponsored Posts and Product Reviews
One way to make money by blogging on your website is to negotiate sponsorship deals with other businesses.
You can charge companies for:
- Publishing a blog relevant to the company with a link to their website
- Review your sponsor’s products or services in your article
- If you have an email list, you can include sponsor’s content in your newsletter for better exposure
- Bonus promotions on social media bring an added advantage
BuzzFeed sponsored content shows how brands are using relevant sponsored posts to raise awareness and build trust. Hot Wheels, a children’s toy company, sponsored a post on BuzzFeed regarding children’s playtime.
As you see, BuzzFeed created an opportunity by following its own content style, then paired it with a brand having topic authority.
11. Advanced Ways to Monetize with Google Adsense
Google AdSense is one of the most common and easiest ways to earn some cash as it requires minimal setup. You can quickly place ads on your blog or website. For newbies, it is called a PPC (pay per click) – an online advertising model where website owners make passive income whenever a visitor clicks on banner ads.
Selling ad space is another advertising model where you earn money by offering free space on your website to promote other brands’ products or services. These ads take the form of links and appear at the bottom of your website pages, as sidebars or tiny pop-ups.
Here is the example of an art and design blog, We and the Color, who display ads at the top and side of its homepage, giving readers something to explore more than what meets their interests.
As the method follows the pay-per-click or pay-per-visitor model, advertisers will pay you based on the number of visitors clicking the ad.
The selling ad space method is a bit time consuming, but it amplifies revenue when a website grows. However, to get the most out of this method, you need to generate more website traffic and have a high conversion rate.
So here’s how you let advertisers or brands know that you sell ad space:
- Prepare a media kit consisting of the statistics and facts (like page views, clicks, etc., of your website)
- Send the media kit to potential buyers. Tell them why your website is a good fit for their products or services.
- Once you land a few deals, use Google Ad manager to organize your advertisers.
You can also use Google Analytics to see your website’s information (page views, etc).
12. Offer Value with WordPress Plugins
If you are a WordPress user or have ever been, you will be aware that you can’t run a WordPress website without installing a few plugins.
Right?
These plugins insert extra features to streamline the WordPress blogging process. They work as problem solvers for website owners.
One of the worth-mentioning examples here is the Elementor page builder. This mega page building plugin aims at making it easy for you to create custom page layouts and is used by 4+ million WordPress sites. Additionally, the plugin developer monetized it by launching a premium version called Elementor Pro containing advanced features.
If you have a solution to a problem and can convert it into a plugin that your audience is looking for, nothing can stop you from making money out of it. Just make sure to develop plugins based on the specific needs of your targeted audience.
13. Sell Through Influencers
Whether you are selling digital or physical products, you need influencer marketing to increase your sales.
Of course, PPC and social media marketing drive clicks. However, the click doesn’t necessarily convert. An Influencer marketing strategy, on the other hand, follows a different approach than direct selling. Influencers leverage their influence among their followers to generate product interest which ultimately leads to conversions.
You can leverage influencers or use influencer marketing in a number of ways. For example:
- Start an affiliate program and increase your physical or digital products’ sales
- Send influencers your products for free to try, promote, or give a testimonial
- Invite influencers to join your webinars during a launch
- Publish guest posts on an influencer’s website or blog
- Show up as a guest on influencers podcasts or interviews
Following the above steps will get you more referrals, which turns into MORE SALES!
Plus, there are many influencer marketing platforms to choose from which can help you track campaigns, and measure results.
To Conclude
You can start earning money with one method only. But applying a couple of methods will help you create multiple income streams. It’s important to monitor which methods work best to maximize your website monetization.
And guess what?
You don’t need to work on each tactic exclusively. They all are correlated. Suppose you create a website to promote and sell affiliate products. Slowly, as the traffic grows, you can start personal coaching on your expertise to level up your income. Next, pack your coaching solutions into an online course and invite your audience to join. In the midst of it all, create a digital product like an ebook and sell them on your website.
Keep trying a mix of different approaches. Double down on what’s working. Eliminate what’s not. Continue the process to keep the money flowing to your website. At last, don’t forget to tell us what worked for you the best.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
HustleGPT: An Intriguing Blend of Humor and Concern in AI Capitalism
This article serves as a condensed overview of the original piece titled “HustleGPT is a hilarious and scary AI experiment in capitalism.”
Introduction:
OpenAI’s release of GPT-4, an advanced generative AI model, sparked an innovative experiment that blends humor and concern in the realm of AI capitalism. Brand designer and writer Jackson Greathouse Fall initiated a project, transforming GPT-4 into “HustleGPT” with a mission to automate hustle culture. This intriguing venture has captivated the internet, with its potential to redefine get-rich-quick schemes and shed light on the role of AI in the pursuit of wealth.
The Birth of HustleGPT:
With a mere $100 and a straightforward prompt, the experiment unfolded. The objective was clear: turn the initial amount into as much money as possible in the shortest time, all while adhering to legal boundaries. The human counterpart, Jackson Greathouse Fall, acted as a liaison between the AI and the physical world, providing updates on the cash total without engaging in manual labor.
The Business Plan Unveiled:
HustleGPT’s proposed business plan involved setting up an affiliate marketing site for eco-friendly products. A cheap domain, greengadgetguru.com, was swiftly acquired, and with the assistance of GPT-4, a logo and a detailed site layout were generated. The project took a tangible form as Hall invested $29 in hosting, bringing the Green Gadget Guru website to life.
Strategic Moves and Investments:
With $62.84 remaining, Hall sought guidance from HustleGPT on the next steps. The AI suggested allocating funds for Facebook and Instagram ads to enhance visibility. The project gained momentum as Twitter hype attracted an undisclosed investor, injecting $100 into Green Gadget Guru on the first day.
Scaling Up the Operation:
As the experiment progressed, GPT-4 displayed its capabilities beyond initial expectations. It recommended hiring freelance content creators and developing a Software as a Service (SaaS) product. The project expanded rapidly, with GPT-4 advising on capitalizing on Twitter followers, launching a GitHub repository for others to replicate the challenge, and attracting more investments.
The Viral Success:
HustleGPT’s viral success is a testament to the fascination surrounding AI capabilities. However, beyond the entertainment factor, the project is demonstrating the potential to build a legitimate business. With $7,812.84 in investment, a growing team, and content in the pipeline, the experiment has garnered attention. The question remains: can Hall and HustleGPT transcend the common startup pitfall of hype without profits?
AI’s Role in Capitalist Ambitions:
HustleGPT’s journey reflects the ongoing debate about AI’s role in capitalist endeavors. While the experiment leverages GPT-4’s virality to achieve financial goals quickly, it raises concerns about the ethical implications of automating hustle culture. The project showcases how AI can navigate the business landscape, from generating content and attracting investors to scaling up operations.
Conclusion:
In the evolving landscape of AI and capitalism, HustleGPT stands as a unique and thought-provoking experiment. It encapsulates the potential and challenges of integrating advanced AI models into entrepreneurial endeavors. Whether it succeeds or encounters the common pitfalls of startups, the project serves as a fascinating case study, offering insights into the intersection of AI, hustle culture, and the pursuit of wealth in the digital age.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
10 Early Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid From Day One
There were so many early blogging mistakes that I made when I started my blog a few years ago, and that’s the reason why I decided to talk about it in this post.
While some people believe that it’s time to pivot from blogging, I genuinely think that blogging still has some potential compared to other digital platforms like social media or vlogs. For a start, as an audience I would rather read a blog to get some information than use TikTok or Youtube for an answer. And I know I’m not the only one who does that.
If you are considering blogging to be your next venture and in need of advice on how to do it right, you may want to avoid some of these blogging mistakes that I made at the early stage of my blog!
10 Blogging Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a New Blog
From not knowing the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org to spending too much time promoting my blog instead of working on my content for SEO purpose, I honestly made a lot of mistakes when I started my blog.
However, I took them as some lessons learned so that I can genuinely share what I’ve learned with everyone who’s trying to get on the same path in the blogging industry.
So, here’s the blogging 101 you need to know before publishing your blog on the World Wide Web!
#1 Choosing the first blogging platform available without knowing the pros and cons of using it for your blog
It may sound so simple, but trust me… Choosing the right blogging platform is a make-or-break decision for your blogging journey. It’s 2020s, and there’s a handful of blogging platforms that you can choose from in the market, so finding the best blogging platform to start your blog can be a little tricky.
When I started The BeauTraveler in 2017, I chose the wrong blogging platform because I had no idea the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. I know almost every blogger recommends WordPress as a blogging platform, but I didn’t know there were two types of WordPress that I should’ve known!
The first mistake that I made was building my blog on WordPress.com. I upgraded it to the Personal Plan so that I could use my domain, without knowing that it wasn’t the self-hosted WordPress that everyone recommends for blogging.
I learned the difference the hard way when I bought a premium theme on Envato Elements, only to find out that I couldn’t use the theme as it could only be used on self-hosted WordPress on WordPress.org.
It took me months to accept the fact that this mistake cost me time and money, as I had already spent a one-year Personal Plan on WordPress.com. I wanted to migrate it right away, but I was hesitant as it had only been around 4 months since I upgraded and bought my domain on WordPress.com.
I remember I upgraded my WordPress.com account in February, and it was only in September that I decided to swallow my defeat and migrate my website to self-hosted WordPress on Dewaweb for many reasons.
I got a lot of recommendations about web hosting providers like Bluehost or Hostinger, but it was too expensive for my budget at the time so I had to search for a local Indonesian alternative that I knew would be more affordable. That’s how I ended up with Dewaweb, and I’ve never really looked back ever since.
There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding which blogging platform is the best for you. Apart from budget, you also need to factor in the customization, as well as your technical skills, if you want to build your own website from scratch.
I know a lot of bloggers who choose platforms like Squarespace or Web.com as they find them easier to design with pretty-looking templates to enhance their branding.
While I have to admit that the website templates on Web.com and Squarespace make it easier to design your own website from scratch, I know those platforms aren’t suitable for me in terms of pricing.
So far, I have to follow what most bloggers say about self-hosted WordPress.org being the best platform for blogging. I think if you have time to follow the learning curves (that can be quite steep at times!), WordPress definitely has everything you need to build and grow your blog from scratch!
Quick tip: If you want to start a blog with minimum expense, alternatively you can also use a free blogging platform like Blogspot to get you started.
However, I would also recommend getting a custom domain right away so you can start building your domain authority from the very start, as well as growing your blog as a brand. You can consider getting a cheap domain through platforms like Namecheap or Domain.com and connecting it to your Blogspot account.
#2 Use the default permalink structure without considering any other viable options
The permalink structure is often overlooked, but you’ll definitely thank me later to find out how important it is to set up the right permalink from the start.
If you’re not sure what permalink is, it is basically the format for the URL for your content. For instance, if you take a look at the URL of my blog post here, you can see that I use thebeautraveler.com/post-name as my permalink structure.
Well, that wasn’t the case when I started my blog in 2017. I didn’t even know that the permalink structure would matter so much, so I just used the default format with the publishing date in the format.
It took me maybe a year or two after I started blogging when I found out that the permalink format, especially the one that included the publishing date or year in the URL, could make your post seem outdated on search engines even if you created evergreen content!
Most people go on search engines to find the most updated information about something, and the year of the published date on your permalink could make it seem like your post is no longer relevant.
That being said, the best blogging practice to choose the right permalink for your blog is to get rid of publishing time from the URL. That’s why I eventually switched from thebeautraveler.com/YYYY/MM/DD/post-name to thebeautraveler.com/post-name format.
If you just got started with your blog, then it’s the right time to change the best permalink format for your content now!
If you change your permalink later when you already have a lot of posts published and ranked on search engines, you will have to deal with the redirection process which will require some technical aspects to make it right. But if you do it right from the beginning, you can save yourself from the stress if you’re not a very tech-savvy blogger!
Not sure if you have the right permalink set up on your website? If you use WordPress as I do, you can go to your WordPress dashboard and check the “Settings” option in the menu, where you can see “Permalinks” in the sub-sections. Once you click it, it will show the permalink format you are using for the website right now.
#3 Add a clickbait-style title to “attract” more traffic to your blog
You see, I’m an Indonesian millennial who got so used to being fed with clickbait-style news by digital media here. My biggest blogging mistake is to use the same strategy as those media!
When I started blogging a few years ago, I thought the longer the title, the better… Boy, was I wrong!
Not only is a long title not good for SEO, but using a clickbait-style title for your blog is no longer relevant these days. Most people who search for information on Google or other search engines are leaning toward posts with more straightforward titles these days.
The way I see it, a clickbait-style title still works in social media like Instagram Reels or TikTok, but it’s definitely an obsolete strategy if you aim for a blog post to rank on search engines!
#4 Upload high-quality pics for supporting images on your blog post
So you take great pictures to be included as supporting images on your blog posts, and you want to present the best quality of your pictures. Your first thought would be to upload the HD version of the images to ensure the quality of those pictures.
Ekkk, wrong. If anything, uploading the high-definition images will only slow down your site. It’s not good for SEO, and it will also take lots of bandwidth on your website since a high-quality picture usually has a larger size as well!
So, instead of using HD pictures for your supporting images, always upload the compressed image with a smaller size so it won’t take up too much space on your website.
Not only will it optimize your website content in general, but it will also give a better user experience as your audience won’t have to wait too long to get your images loaded when reading your blog posts.
I have to admit that I still have a lot of large-sized images in my early blog posts when I started this blog, but I’ve learned my lessons.
Nowadays, before uploading pictures for my blog posts, I always make sure that the photos that I use for supporting images won’t be larger than 1000px. Plus, I only use JPG format for the images instead of using the larger format like PNG.
In addition, I also use the TinyPNG plugin on WordPress. While it’s free for up to 500 photos per month, I occasionally exceed the limit per month as I tried to optimize a lot of existing images on my website as well. I signed up for their Pro plan, and on average I paid around $5 USD per month for these extra optimizations.
If you don’t want to use the plugin, you can also compress your images manually online on TinyPNG.com.
#5 Try to master all social media channels in the hope of getting a larger audience
I started my blog when the influencer industry was at its peak in the midst of the 2010s, so naturally, I spent a lot of time on social media to see if I could make it in the industry. Which I didn’t. LOL.
When it comes to social media, I suppose it’s more like each to their own thing because I know a lot of people who actually make it in the industry, which brings thousands of traffic to their blogs.
I don’t think social media affects my traffic so much, and even if it does… It certainly doesn’t work better than SEO for me.
At some point, I decided that social media wasn’t really working for me so I focused more on creating content on my blog than posting things on Facebook or Instagram.
The only social media channels that are worth my time when it comes to gaining traction for my blog are either Pinterest or Flipboard, and I’m not even sure whether these platforms can be considered social media.
#6 Treat your blog as a hobby instead of a business
Treating my blog as a hobby at the beginning was one of the biggest blogging mistakes that I made when I first started. I didn’t know anything about SEO, and I definitely wrote a lot of things that were kinda cringe if I had to read it today.
Even if your blog is new, I’d recommend treating your blog as a business right away. In this case, you should think through your branding strategy, and you can implement it through your writing voice. It will be hard to achieve if you treat your blog as a hobby like I did.
Because of these mistakes, right now I have to do a lot of extra work to update all my blog posts in the first few years of blogging to ensure that the content matches my current branding voice and format.
When you treat your blog as a business from the beginning, it can be avoided since you already have your branding guidelines to follow instead of just writing whatever you feel like writing at that time.
While you may not have earned any income from your blog when you first started, it’s also great to start streamlining your blog as a business so you can choose the best payment platform when you accept some sponsorships or paid collaborations.
#7 Neglect the chance of networking to grow with other bloggers
As someone who tends to be more comfortable doing things on my own, I never thought networking was necessary when I started my blog. However, you have no idea how beneficial networking with other bloggers is to climb the ladder in the industry!
Facebook groups for bloggers are my go-to for networking and making connections with other bloggers. From collaborating through round-up posts to guest posting, so far I haven’t found any platform that works better than Facebook groups to network with people from the blogging industry.
In addition to collaborations, you can also get the opportunity for knowledge-sharing about the industry. Even if you’re a novice to blogging!
When I started my blog, I gained most of my understanding of SEO from a lot of Facebook groups for bloggers that I’ve joined. I also network with other WordPress users in Indonesia to understand the prospect of running an English blog despite it not being my first language.
With respect, all the insights I got from the community aren’t always right. But it’s when I gained the understanding that blogging is actually a personal journey. It’s the kind of thing you do where you shouldn’t compare your journey to the others.
Blogging is something that you should try and test yourself to see if the result works for you. No matter how many blogging coaches say A works better, sometimes you just need to see how B works out and see if the result can be better than A for your platform.
My advice is it’s okay to seek advice from others, but don’t eat the whole up since maybe you need a slightly different strategy to succeed. Be open to suggestions, but stay curious. Plus, it won’t hurt to pour your creativity here and there to see how it works out!
#8 Ignore the best practice for blog formatting strategy on your blog posts
This sounds so simple, but it was also overlooked when I was a beginner. Do not neglect subheadings when formatting your blog posts!
My logic when I was new to blogging was that since I could easily make the font bold, I could always use the bold font to enhance the hierarchy of my blog post.
But guess what? Apparently, formatting also matters for SEO too and the hierarchy of a blog post only counts when you use the correct subheadings in the article.
So, yeah… While you’re probably smarter than I was when I first started, this is a little reminder in case you have the same logic that I did so that you don’t have to repeat my bad blog examples!
#9 Procrastinate the chance of earning money through affiliate marketing
A few years ago, when I wrote about my income sources from blogging, I mentioned that affiliate marketing didn’t work for me. Boy, was I wrong!
Affiliate marketing could work, but there are a lot of factors that you should consider when choosing affiliate programs to ensure that they will bring value to both your content and income.
When I started The BeauTraveler a long time ago, I applied for Amazon affiliates and of course, I didn’t make it because (1) most of my audiences at the time were close friends who are mostly based in Southeast Asia where Amazon isn’t really popular, and (2) I simply didn’t have enough audience to actually convert anything there.
It was only this year when I realized that affiliate marketing could actually work for me. But even that, I still refuse to apply to standalone affiliate marketing programs.
Why? Because at around 7,000 sessions and 10,000 pageviews per months, my audience is still considered low to convert to reach the payout threshold for most direct affiliate programs. And that’s why I chose to work with affiliate networks like TravelPayouts or Impact instead.
There are pros and cons of joining affiliate networks compared to doing it directly. But if you’re a new blogger trying to build content and affiliates, joining affiliate networks may work better since you can join various programs under one bucket. That way, it’s easier to reach the payout threshold than doing it directly with numerous brands for the sake of higher commission.
Another alternative is Skimlinks. Although they cut around 25% of your earnings, Skimlinks is probably the easiest platform to join if you want to get into affiliate marketing. They literally have thousands of merchant partners around the world, and you can convert all the links into an affiliate link without having to apply for each brand.
The only affiliate program that I’ve joined directly is SafetyWing, and it works tremendously well for me since they have regular bonuses and contests to earn around $100 USD per campaign without any pressure to convert your affiliate to eligible sales.
#10 Spend too much money on fancy blogging tools
I know a blogging coach who emphasized that in order for your blog to succeed, you should invest in some paid tools.
While I know she meant well and I admit that over time, you definitely will need to invest in something in order for you to grow, you don’t need to spend too much money on fancy blogging tools from the beginning!
For instance, tools like Ahrefs or Semrush are too overpriced if you barely make anything from your blog. Even more so if you have zero skills in analytics to make them worth the price.
Instead, I’d recommend free tools from Google to get you started. Master Google Analytics and Google Search Console to learn how to analyze graphics for your blog, and you can also use the keyword planner tool on Google Ads to see the search volume of your content plan.
If you have the budget to get started with blogging professionally, you can consider spending it on a keyword research tool to help you build optimized content for your blog.
For a low-budget tool, you can sign up for Keywords Everywhere or Keyword Cupid to get started. For a mid-range option, Keysearch is pretty popular among the travel bloggers’ community. If you have an extra budget, you can also check KeywordTool.io which enables you to search keywords for SEO across channels from Google, Bing, to Pinterest and even TikTok!
Alternatively, you can also invest in the cheaper version of Ahrefs/Semrush with Ubersuggest. Ubersuggest’s lifetime access price is on par with the monthly subscription of the other tools, although I have to admit that I feel like the data on Ubersuggest is kinda wonky. I use Ubersuggest personally, so I think they really need a lot of improvement when it comes to data and user experience.
FAQs about Starting a New Blog
Now that you know some common mistakes in blogging for new bloggers, I will also add some of the most frequently asked questions about starting a new blog so you can gain more insights to decide whether blogging is for you.
So, here we go!
What makes a blog fail?
To tell you the truth, blogging is not for everyone because it requires consistency. It isn’t an easy way to make money, and it could take months or years to the point you can make a living out of it.
I think blogging works for me because writing is something that I will still do for free. When I started my blog, I practically only spent my money on the domain and hosting provider with Dewaweb, which was only around $30 USD per year at the time.
As I started my blog not too long before I quit my full-time job, I practically had enough time to write more content in my free time. It took me around 7-8 months until I started generating regular income from my blog, which makes it profitable even in the first year.
Nonetheless, my situation makes it easy for me to stay consistent about working on my blog, creating fresh content, and optimizing it when necessary. It can’t be the case if you have a lot going on, which can hinder your consistency in working on your blog.
It’s one thing to have writer’s block, but it’s another thing when you have other responsibilities to deal with.
I think if you decide to start a blog and don’t want your blog to fail, you need to at least dedicate your time to creating content at least once every two weeks. Otherwise, your blog will slowly become a liability instead of an asset, which may result in failure.
What is the ideal blog length?
I know I tend to write a little bit longer than it should, but a good blog post is the one that actually solves the audience’s problem.
While technically nothing is set in stone when it comes to an ideal blog length, 1500-2000 words are a sweet spot to ensure that you give adequate information within your post while it’s also not too long now that most audiences have a shorter attention span.
Is blogging still relevant?
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I still prefer searching for information through blogs since I just can’t stand video content these days. I believe I’m not the only one, so blogging is still relevant for the audience just like me, who prefer reading to watching videos.
The only issue is with search engines that might change algorithms from time to time, which can make blogging triple harder than it was years ago.
Conclusion
If you decide to start a blog now, it’s important not to overlook all the basic things that may matter in the blogging industry. Something as simple as knowing the best platform for your blog to the knowledge of how to optimize your blog post for search engines like Google or Bing.
When you know all the basics and you can be consistent in the process, your blog can gain traction without spending too much money on fancy tools at the early stage of your blogging journey.
So, are you ready to start your blog anytime soon? Or are you a blogger who wants to share some blogging mistakes that you made at the early stage of your blogging journey? Share in the comment below, and cheerio! 😉
Marya The BeauTraveler
I am the founder and main editor at The BeauTraveler. I spent 4 years working in the aviation industry but ironically got to travel more right after quitting the industry in 2015. Born and raised in Indonesia, I started working remotely in 2017, and while I stay at home most of the time, I also regularly spend 2-3 months living a semi-digital nomad life elsewhere every year.
Disclaimer:
This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.
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Best Bluetooth speakers at every price point from JBL, Anker, Sony and more.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 4:15PM
These are wireless Bluetooth speakers from JBL, Sony, Sonos and Bose
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You need a powerful, stylish Bluetooth speaker, either for large gatherings or small intimate occasions. We have gathered the best wireless Bluetooth speakers available – everything from tiny speakers to portable boomboxes. Here are our top picks for every category, vetted by our team of experts so you know the products you’re buying are either top-rated, staff favorites or from a brand we trust.
What we look for in Bluetooth speakers
Range: You don’t want to be standing next to the speaker all night. The Bluetooth speaker needs to have robust connectivity to keep the party going regardless of how far the speaker is from you.
Battery life: Bluetooth speakers’ baseline battery life should be around 12 hours, but the longer the runtime, the better. We also take into account whether the speakers have “always-on” features and how that affects battery life.
Quality-Cost tradeoff: Some speakers have better sound quality than others, and some are better value for what they cost. What you need might not be an expensive, high-tech speaker, but one that plays clear sounds in a small room.
Weather-proof: Whether it be dust-proof, waterproof or heat-resistant, wireless speakers have to withstand the elements and deliver consistent quality sounds come rain or shine.
Best overall wireless Bluetooth speaker
Alongside its rugged, portable design, the JBL Flip 5 contains booming bass, 12 hours of playtime and robust waterproof technology fitting for endless outdoor fun. At 38% off, you’re getting a great speaker for an even better price.
Best Bluetooth speaker under $30
Anker Soundcore 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Highly affordable, the Anker Soundcore 2 will solve all of your simple speaker needs without breaking the bank. Sound is crisp on the Soundcore 2, but lower waves carry a small buzz that might be annoying in the long run.
Best portable Bluetooth speaker
Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3
The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 packs clean mid-end sounds, booming stereo audio, and up to 14 hours of runtime within its portable design.
Best mini pocket Bluetooth speaker
The Sony SRS-XB13 pushes all of its power into the bass, which creates expansive sounds for a dustproof speaker that can fit into your purse. An absolute bargain at 41% off.
Best big room Bluetooth speaker
Sonos Era 100 Wireless Speaker
With dual beam-forming tweeters and smart Sonos tech, the Era 100 contains booming stereo and room-filling sounds that are perfect for crowded parties. The only drawback would be its price if you don’t have already have a Sonos ecosystem at home.
Best value for price Bluetooth speaker
Bose SoundLink Flex Bluetooth Speaker
The Bose SoundLink Flex has a robust, compact design to go with its proprietary sound technology that fills both outdoor and indoor settings. Waterproof and dust-resistant, this Bose speaker is the best value for its price, now 20% off.
By clicking on the featured links, visitors will leave Localish.com and be directed to third-party e-commerce sites that operate under different terms and privacy policies. Although we are sharing our personal opinions of these products with you, Localish is not endorsing these products. It has not performed product safety testing on any of these products, did not manufacture them, and is not selling, or distributing them and is not making any representations about the safety or caliber of these products. Prices and availability are subject to change from the date of publication.
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