Bloggers: The Superhumans
Blogging has taken the online world by storm, and it’s all thanks to the content creators behind the scenes.
Have you ever thought about starting your own blog? It seems to be good business sense nowadays; whether you want to make money by advertising and reviewing products for other businesses or want to simply boost your current website’s SEO, blogging is big business. Some of today’s biggest online publications started out as blogs, and many of the “smaller” blogger sites have well over 100,000 subscribers.
Starting your own blog couldn’t be easier: simply sign up to a free blogging platform, register a domain name, grab a website template and begin inputting your content. And you can talk about anything you like – there’s a whole world of blog-worthy topics out there. Consider this, though: to attract a loyal audience who will keep on reading and actively seeking and sharing your content, you must be thematically consistent. Bloggers with a niche will garner a huge following if their content is engaging for their readers.
There are two primary types of blog: business and personal. The UK2 Blog, for example, is a business blog dedicated to providing useful information for anyone interested in technology, business and setting up an online presence. A business blog isn’t likely to generate much revenue for the business; it can give a business website an SEO boost and create an avenue of discussion with virtual customers and online readers. A personal blog, on the other hand, can become a business in its own right…
A blogger can monetise their website in several ways. Those bloggers who are relatively “small time”, or just starting to build up a readership, can earn small amounts through affiliate marketing (although more popular bloggers also do this). This involves including an advert or a link out to the products or services of another company – usually or ideally one in the same field that you’re writing about – in exchange for commission when they make a sale via your link. For example, a fashion blogger may affiliate with Topshop, directing their readers to buy their clothes through a personalised affiliate link banner ad in the sidebar of their site.
Many bloggers actually make money for the content they write; brands will commission blog posts from influential bloggers reviewing their product in exchange for free products and/or a fee. For the more popular online sensations this can mean big money, as brands will pay well for the endorsement of someone with a large following. This kind of brand marketing has become increasingly popular as advertising has declined; customers are seeking advice from bloggers they look up to, and have a conceived “bond” with the blogger that brands find it difficult to emulate.
For many personal bloggers, blogging is merely a hobby, and some bloggers with large followings create content in their spare time while holding down a full time job alongside. This is why they’ve been dubbed “the superhumans”; blogging has to some extent usurped journalism as our primary source of news and interest content, and yet most bloggers aren’t professional writers and only a small number have a journalism degree. This boosts the relatability of the blogger to their audience, as their content isn’t necessarily as crafted and openly advertorial as the content they would expect from a professional journalist or advertiser.
When starting your own blog you should consider how popular your site may be, and how popular you’d like it to be. If you anticipate heavy loads of traffic you can’t expect the site to stay up if it’s built on a free platform. When your blog starts to receive steady traffic it’s time to look into a paid hosting solution which will give you the resources you need to ensure your blog website is available in all corners of the globe and at all times, and fast!
When your online blog outgrows its free platform – or when you want to get started with a solid back end – consider Premium WordPress Hosting from UK2, which is designed and optimised for bloggers and webmasters building their site in WordPress. Find out more here.