Blogs have been around for a while and you likely know someone who runs a blog. But what is actually the point of a blog? Read on to find out.
In the early days of the Internet creating websites requires serious technical skills and know-how. Ranging from writing HTML, Java, Flash, and CSS to transferring files through FTP and understanding about server protocols.
This meant that personal websites were few and far between and created by people who had the necessary technical skills. Most websites were created by companies and if you had no technical skills your ability to interact online was limited mainly to discussion boards, forums, and chats.
In the turn of the Millenium, blogs changed the way content is created online. Suddenly anyone could create content over their favorite topics with almost zero technical skills.
This meant that there was a sudden influx of content around almost anything you could imagine. No matter how small of a hobby or otherwise exotic topic, someone knew about and was writing about it. Blogging essentially exploded the Internet.
What Is A “Blog”
So what exactly is a blog? Well, that depends a bit on who you ask but the common definition of a blog is that it’s an abbreviation of the word “weblog”. Meaning a personal log that you keep in the world wide web also known as the internet.
So originally blogs were intended as personal logs. Often they were written in an informal diary format and about personal life and experiences. This is what they mostly were in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
The thing that set blogs and other types of the website apart was the introduction of blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress.org as well as content management systems like WordPress.
They made content creation online possible for anyone who could write and click a few buttons. Before that, you pretty much had to know at least HTML and how to use FTP to create even rudimentary content online.
Suddenly creating content online didn’t require a lot of technical knowledge. This meant that suddenly people from all walks of life could create content online for others to find without the hassle of learning the technical skills.
At some point blogs that were built around certain topics (aka niche) became popular. It soon became clear that both readers and search engines loved content that was built around relatively specific topics.
These days a blog can often simply mean website run by an individual for their own purposes instead of a website run by a company. The line between blogs and other types of websites has become very vague, but generally speaking, a blog will still have chronologically ordered posts instead of static web pages.
In reality, a blog can have both and many small business sites, online marketing businesses and niche websites are built around a blog or on a blogging platform.
What Is The Point Of A Blog
So what exactly is the point of a blog? Well, it can be anything ranging from the original personal log or project diary to politics and hobbies.
In reality, the reason why most people create blogs is money and influence. It’s no secret that having a successful blog can produce significant income and create a real following you have influence over.
This can be used for personal interests, political influence or improving business. These many blogs are either personal brand building or well planned out niche websites that have the single purpose of producing an income to the owner.
Typically people decide to create a blog when they have enough knowledge and expertise around a topic they feel could be useful for other people. Some people start out from a simple desire to help others but financial interests as inevitable on a successful blog.
So if you know someone who is either blogging as a hobby or for a profession, they are very likely doing it to earn an income. There are of course small hobby blogs where people simply want to share their knowledge and help others out.
These types of blogs might never really grow because they are not created with making money in mind. Instead, they offer useful information to people interested in the same topic and can be a creative outlet for the creator.
How To Make Money With A Blog
So how do you exactly make money with a blog if that is what most people create them for? Well, there are many ways to actually monetize a blog but let’s start by looking at what it requires to create a successful blog that can create an income.
If you want to make money with a blog, there are two things you have to accomplish. You need to create original, useful and valuable content and then you have to get people to see it.
Without quality content you can’t make money. And if no one sees your content, you can’t make money. These are also connected by the fact that you usually need quality content to create traffic.
A successful blog will typically have a niche (and are sometimes referred to as niche websites), which means a general topic that the blog posts revolve around or are somehow connected to. This can be broad like “shoes” or very specific like “running shoes for men”.
You then need to create articles around topics people are actually searching for. This requires keyword research that is done with keyword research tools.
You then create content in the form of blog posts around these keywords and search engine optimize that content. This means doing certain technical things on the actual post as well as marketing the post and creating backlinks.
If you do everything correctly, your blog posts will eventually start popping up in people’s Google results and they will visit your blog. When they do that, you better make sure your posts are interesting and full of useful information.
If people like your content, they will likely come back and start trusting you. This is the secret to making money with a blog. You need to have consistent traffic (influx of people) and create trust.
At this point, it’s possible to monetize the blog. This can be done in many ways ranging from selling your own products, offering sponsor space, running ads and probably the most common one, affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money on a blog because it can be completely automated and doesn’t require time-consuming tasks like customer service, handling orders and shipping, reaching out to sponsors, etc.
Learn How To Make Money Blogging
So now that you know what is the point of a blog. If you would like to learn more about blogging and how to make money through blogging, my number one recommendation for educating yourself is Wealthy Affiliate.
It’s an affiliate marketing education platform that has all the tools you need to run a successful online business that’s based on a blog or blogs. The business model they teach is essentially niche blogging combined with affiliate marketing.
Conclusion
That’s it for today. I hope I answered your question about blogging but if anything was unclear, you can ask me literally anything about blogging in the comments section below. I promise to do my best to give you an answer even if I don’t have a clue about the thing you ask for. I’m nice that way.
Blogging is definitely a viable business model still in 2020 so if you like writing and have a topic in mind that might be in demand, I recommend you go through the free training at Wealthy Affiliate and learn the basics and do some keyword research.
If you pick a lucrative niche it’s only a matter of getting the right education and putting in the work consistently to see success. Don’t let anyone tell you blogging or running an online business isn’t hard work. It takes time and serious effort to see results.
But the good news is that you get to decide when you work, where you work and how you work. You are responsible for only yourself. This, of course, means that you can’t blame failure on anyone else either so the question is are you up for the challenge?
See you next time!