The Internet is full of top-class blogs and magazines covering all imaginable topics. Vlogging attracts more and more readers – video is a more eye-catching and engaging format. Under these circumstances, it’s legit to ask yourself if it’s still profitable to build a blog in 2022.
The short answer is a big and fat YES, but it depends on a bunch of factors. The niche, style of the posts, content quality, and your business approach are key factors for the success of a blog.
Roll up your sleeves and read why blogging is a good choice even in 2022 and how to start a profitable blog. Disclaimer: you need to work extremely hard to develop a profitable blog.
Blogging in 2022
The big picture is simple—the Internet is full of quality blogs and magazines launched many years ago. They have thousands of posts and rank well for a bunch of keywords. Over time, they have attracted tens of thousands of backlinks. Could you launch a new blog and overcome these blogs? Nothing is impossible, but I hardly believe you can do it. You need a colossal budget for marketing and a highly skilled team of content creators.
Competing against the giants isn’t feasible, and it’s not necessary. The winning strategy is to launch a blog focused on a narrow niche. For instance, you won’t generate the same traffic as a sport-related blog, but you have more chances to convert the readers into repeat customers. The narrower the niche is, the more engaged the audience is. Therefore, an ultra-narrow niche is a solution to build a blog in 2022.
Plenty of bloggers states that you should start a blog in a niche you are passionate about. It’s true but incomplete! It’s great to write about what you like the most. However, you should write for your audience, not for your ego. Start a blog for a niche that piques the interest of people. It’s perfect if you are passionate about it, but it’s not necessary! The profitability of your blog is directly connected to the satisfaction of the audience. On top of that, some niches are easier to monetize, while others are harder. Thorough research is mandatory!
Blogging as a Business
First of all, shift your mentality—you’re better off associating your website with a startup instead of a blog. It’s a subtle but important change.
Second, craft a complete and effective business strategy. It should have detailed answers to the following questions:
- Is your niche attractive to people?
- Are there many competitors in your niche?
- How do you want to differentiate from other websites?
- How will you monetize the content?
- How will you attract more visitors and convert them into customers?
- How will you scale up the business?
Third, craft a content strategy. It should answer the following questions:
- What kind of content do you plan to publish?
- Will you solely use written content or will you include infographics, videos, or .pdf reports?
- Will you hire a freelancer or will you be the only content creator?
- Will you publish regularly or sparingly?
Last but not least, be flexible and listen to readers’ feedback. Keep in mind that you write for them, and their feedback is your guidance. Apply the audience’s suggestions to grow your business!
How to Launch a Blog in 2022
The steps to launching a blog in 2022 don’t differ too much from what you would have done five to seven years ago. The big differences come after the launch. Years ago, it was enough to publish content, earn one-two backlinks, and the blog would be one of the first results for your keywords. Nowadays, you have to invest time and work to attract people to your blog. Even SEO isn’t what it was in recent years. User experience, authoritativeness, and site performance matter more than keyword density and the number of backlinks.
Check out the following steps to help launch your blogging business. Launching a blogging business isn’t too complicated. However, the real endeavor is to grow and monetize it.
Pique a Niche
The niche makes or breaks your business. Selecting an unprofitable or ultra-competitive niche is a perfect recipe for failure. Do thorough research before picking a niche, or else you work in vain. The niche is at the root of the business strategy. For instance, if you are in the cryptocurrency area, you must always provide breaking news. Readers will be less interested in your writing style but appreciate the fresh data-backed updates. Conversely, a blog for sharing issues, solutions, and thoughts of a writer is a different story. Blog posts should be grammar-free and well written—the audience may include many grammar nazi individuals. It doesn’t matter when you publish an article, what matters is its style, grammar, and ideas.
Domain Name
The domain name is another factor that has a tremendous role in a blog’s success. It’s essentially how people name your business. When dealing with a website, it’s easy to focus on site development but ignore the domain name’s importance. The theme of a WordPress site is simple to replace, but the domain name is less convenient to change. Take into account that the domain name is a fundamental element of your marketing strategy. You should invest money to make your domain name well-known, so it doesn’t make sense to change it frequently.
Look for a brandable domain name—simple, relevant, and memorable. Use one of the numerous domain name generators out there to identify a more suitable domain name for your site.
Hosting
As long as it doesn’t have a visual impact on the blog, customers rarely want to understand the role hosting plays for your site. But the blog platform needs to meet performance, security, and scalability requirements. The host makes or breaks your site, and you have to choose the proper platform for your blog.
Luckily, plenty of reliable companies offer hosting services—there’s one out there for every type of project and budget. Consider your business strategy, budget, and expectations when choosing the host for your blog. Do solid research of the market before purchasing hosting services. It’s not the end of the world if you switch to another host, but it takes time and money.
Theme and Plugins
At this stage, you own a domain name and a host for your site. WordPress is the overwhelming platform of choice for bloggers, so you should go with it too. Choosing the proper theme and plugins for your blog isn’t rocket science, but it takes a lot of time to test them. Check our previous post featuring the best WordPress themes to start a project in 2022 to save time. The types and number of plugins you choose substantially depend on the type of project. Pay a visit to the WordPress repository to find the proper plugins for your site.
Rife Pro is our number one recommendation for your blog theme. We may be biased—it’s our work, and we can’t be objective. That’s why we decided to offer Rife for free with some limitations. You can get a complete idea about our theme without opening your wallet. Go to the Rife page and download it! Check the demos suitable for blogs; you will fall in love with them!
Wrapping Up
It’s that simple—it is still profitable to build a blog in 2022! If you pump out quality content, you can make serious money. Yeah, it’s not as simple as it was ten years ago, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream of becoming a blogger. What do you think, will you start a blog this year? Did we miss a tip that deserves to be mentioned? Leave us a comment with your interesting thoughts.