6 Tips to Starting a Blog for your Side Hustle
Starting a Blog in 2021
Many people do not realize the wonders blogging does for your business. Blogging builds consumers’ trust and establishes your voice and authority in your specific industry. It truly is one of the best ways to quickly become an expert! For small business owners and self-employed hustlers, starting a blog for your side hustle is also a great way you drive traffic to your website. It helps you rank better on search engines and make it easier for customers to find you online.
Blogging’s gone through an evolution over the years. When I first started about 10 years ago, bloggers were the first “influencer.” Calling yourself a blogger was thought to be grandiose and people associated it with trying to get stuff for free. But now, blogging, social media influencing, podcasting, and all these mediums are very mainstream and important to the success of all small businesses. Although it might sound quite simple to blog about what you do, once you sit in front of a blank screen at your computer, things start to look different. Writer’s block exists!
I will admit I struggle tremendously with writer’s block. Part of this is the medication I take for my migraine medication and the brain fog I’ve suffered due to my chronic illnesses over the years. Back when I first started blogging, I was smart as a whip! Multi-tasking was my jam! Sometimes I forget the simplest of words and become extremely frustrated. Other days the words flow like water.
For many of you though, this won’t be a problem! The first of anything we do as humans is usually the worst. My first YouTube video, execise tutorial, tv appearance, etc. – not the best!
Your first blog will be the worst one you ever write. I promise. Once you write the first one, the rest all get better from there. Just take it one post at a time.
Besides, here are 6 tips you need to know before starting a blog for your side hustle, to ensure its success.
Starting a Blog for your Side Hustle Takes Time and Effort
Updating your blog regularly and keeping your content fresh and relevant is a time-consuming task. You need to do regular research, not just on the topics you think might be of interest to your customers, but on what they are searching for. This is why you need to devote time and effort as part of your workday, to maintaining your blog.
This is the reason so many people outsource their blogs to professional writers. While you’re running your business with all its day-to-day requirements, you simply may not have the bandwidth to think about topics for your blog. Or, if you can think up topics, you may not have the time to sit down and write regularly.
If you do decide to manage your blog yourself, my advice is to block time for two stages on each post: one for research, one for writing. Ideally, you want to post once a week to create engagement and build some volume of content on your website. So make sure you leave yourself 2 hours every week, free of other commitments, to work on those posts.
One of the best decisions I made was to hire someone to help me write articles. She composes the basic information for me doing the research and outlining the articles. This gives me a HUGE head start and clears my mind to just add my own information, anecdotes, and experience into the article. Once the basic article is outlined, I find that my memories and experiences flow out of my brain much clearer than when I try to do everything.
Maybe you enjoy doing the research and want to find someone to compose the blog posts after you find all the details. That totally works as well! Most professional writers are willing to work with you to help create a system between the two of you that is mutually agreeable. I personally use Upwork.com to find most of my freelance people.
You won’t be making money (or gaining clients) right away
Blogging is not fast money. I don’t care how many Pinterest pins you see saying they made 6-figures in 3 months!
There are two big reasons for blogging: either to drive traffic to your website and create brand recognition or to create a revenue source from your blog. The two are not mutually exclusive. However, they each take time to yield results.
If you’re looking to improve your SEO rankings, be aware that search engines take some time to validate your website as a trustworthy source of information. You can thank all the people who took advantage of systems years ago to try to get their sites ranked quickly.
You’ll need to have quite a few posts, ideally with internal and external links in them to gain some traction. Then you will benefit from having other websites reference yours. Finally, have a guest post or two, and guest post on other people’s pages.
All of these actions give your users time to find you, building your reputation. As I said, it’s not fast money. And, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.
The same applies if you’re looking to make money from your blog directly. That could take years of work, as you build your credibility and online presence. Blogging as an income stream is a complex topic, but for now, it’s important to know that income isn’t going to materialize overnight.
However, understanding the importance of building a foundation and setting up the correct systems in the beginning will help you profit from your blog sooner rather than later.
You can earn some money quickly with a side hustle – I’ll show you how here.
Having a Niche is Good
Before starting a blog for your side hustle, be very clear about your purpose and your business goals and target market. The more clear your niche is, the more chance you have to be seen as an authority in your field.
Some people blog about adjacent topics to their main niche, too. That’s absolutely fine as long as there are cross-overs. For example, assume you’re a travel advisor and coach. You may be writing blogs about great destinations, how to pick your vacation times, how to get the best rates out of booking agents etc. But you can extend your topics to include food in destinations, or activities, or how to be a travel blogger. You see how all these topics are inter-connected so they expand your reach to different audiences, without diluting your message.
It is better to have a small but very engaged audience than a huge audience who doesn’t care about anything you say. Do you remember in school doing mind mapping exercises for writing? You put the main subject in the middle circle and then put topics around the circle you wanted to cover? This is a great exercise when you think about your website or your blog.
Think about what your audience wants to read and learn. Not what you want to share.
Stay Away from Keyword Stuffing
SEO. Keywords. Ugh.
A lot of businesses think having a blog serves to stuff their website with keywords that rank well on Google. The truth is that search engines are smarter than ever and keyword stuffing won’t work anymore. Google doesn’t like it. Your readers won’t enjoy it. It will just backfire.
The key to starting a blog for your side hustle is to combine a few well-chosen keywords with useful information that your readers will fully appreciate. Pick your keywords and incorporate them into a juicy detailed blog post that your readers want to stay on the page to read. Google even has a free keyword planner tool you can use to help you.
A good tip is to check other websites that rank well for content similar to yours. Learn from those that do well!
You Need a Social Presence
Your blog is more likely to be successful you routinely share your posts on social media. Along with using keywords and hashtags to attract viewers’ attention. Adapt your posts to the media you’re using, for example picking a catchy image that relates to your blog content for Instagram, or a good quote from your own advice for Twitter.
You can also use free software like Canva to make Instagram posts out of quotes from your blog. This enhances the look and style with some graphics and colors.
Be Yourself
The last, but most important tip, is to simply be yourself throughout your blogging. Don’t fall into imitation traps, trying to push out tons of content that’s similar to your competition. At the same time, it helps to have your personality come through in your writing. It will allow your readers to create a closer connection with you and thus be more likely to buy your services.
This is why it is very important to me to go in and add my own personal stories to all my blog posts. My blog is very personal to me and I share a lot of information about my life. While I do have some help formatting my posts, all of the information is edited, added to and finalized by me.
Whichever way you go about starting a blog for your side hustle, make sure you have a clear plan and goals you’re trying to reach with it. Measure against them and adjust your strategy as you need to!
I’m going to continue to add to these starting a blog post series to help you get started and earn an income from your website and blog posts. Don’t forget to sign up for my email list or subscribe to my blog to be notified of new blog posts.
Until Next Time,
Rebecca
The Bexa Boss Lady
Don’t forget to check out my online shop – www.bexabossladyshop.com
