If you are not familiar with my story, then you should know that blogging has always been a core component of how I became who I am today. The side hustle that I started in 2009 as a passion project has grown to become a massive beast.
But that was a long time ago. The state of blogging isn’t the same today as what it was back in that time. It’s even better.
If you are wondering whether blogs can still be a great side hustle, the answer is a resounding yes. Even if the blog environment is more competitive than ever, the blog industry has equally grown to be just as profitable.
And this week, we will share with you the data and reasons why blogging is still a great side hustle.
This week’s newsletter brings you:
- Trends. If you are wondering what’s trending in the world of blogging, we bring you the latest data.
- Strategies. This week we go over the state of blogging in 2022, including the associated costs, time commitment, and ways to monetize it.
- Tool of the Week. Looking to start your own blog? Then you’ll want to use a platform like WordPress.
And now, it’s time to talk about the blogging business.
Trends
Wondering what blog niches make the most money, and how much? What about the challenges bloggers face when promoting their blogs? We’ve laid it all out for you – so sit back, and dive in!
Blogging effectiveness in 2022
So let’s start with the answer to the big question, does blogging work in 2022? In short: Yes. According to Orbit Media, 80% of surveyed bloggers report that their blog delivers “some results” or “strong results.”
The effectiveness of content marketing has remained steady since 2016.
Most popular blog niches
Food blogs are by far the most popular niche for pro-bloggers, and when you see the average income graph below, you’ll know why! Following food is lifestyle blogs, then travel. The other section in this chart represents all other blog niches.
Blog success factors
Bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year place a bigger emphasis on article headlines & introductions, SEO, email marketing, site design, blog name & URL, and relationships with influencers than lower-income bloggers do.
Highest-earning blog niches
One of the most asked questions by bloggers is, “How much money do the most profitable blogging niches actually make?”
For median income, food and personal finance blogs were at the top of the list. The food bloggers had a median monthly income of $9,169, and the personal finance bloggers came in just a hair below at $9,100
The next two niches that made up the top 4 were lifestyle/mommy blogs ($5174) and travel blogs ($5000).
Pro-blogger income distribution
Pro bloggers making between $7500 and $25000 per month get 33.3% of their income from ads and 42.2% from affiliates.
While there is plenty of money to be made from selling courses, you have to wait until you have a nice-sized email list.
To make money with affiliate marketing you need a strong skillset in link building. The majority of keyword phrases tied to popular affiliates require up to 100 unique referring domain backlinks.
Ads are the easiest way to make a living from blogging. Your entire focus is on writing content and getting traffic. You can also rank for all kinds of low-competition keyword phrases without a single backlink.
Top challenges facing bloggers
We won’t sugarcoat it, blogging remains challenging. Most bloggers struggle to find time to create and promote their content. For many side hustlers, blogging is not our only responsibility. Finding time to write and promote blog content competes with our other priorities.
Strategies
You’ve seen the trends and statistics, now it’s time to learn why blogging is still a good side hustle in 2022 and will continue to be in 2023.
Is blogging still a good side hustle?
68% of marketers find blogging to be more effective than it was two years ago, according to a recent study by Data Box.
There is more competition than ever before in the world of blogging, but it’s still an industry that is absolutely booming.
For context, let’s check out some numbers:
- Content marketers include blog posts in their strategy 92% of the time
- Organic search is used by 89% of content marketers to distribute their content
- Blog posts are valuable to 60% of people at the beginning of their buying process
- Around 70 million new blog posts are created each month by WordPress users
- Monthly views of WordPress blog posts exceed 409 million
But there are thousands of blogs on the internet! I hear you yelling. What are my chances?
Well, it’s all about adapting your approach. Building relationships is the purpose of blogging. Long-term thinking is key. You should spend time discussing topics that the readers (and yourself) are interested in, and providing valuable advice.
In this way, you’re positioning yourself as someone they can trust and rely on.
The average consumer is smart and has a limited amount of time. Their choices are informed, not only about what they want to buy, but also about what they want to read. In order to get the conversation started, you need to offer your reader something really valuable.
Blogging will be more successful if you create high-quality, original content. And if done correctly, blogging can bring in a lot of money.
Bloggers in the top 5%-10% make between $5,000 and $10,000 per month, which is quite a bit higher than what the average blogger earns.
There is, however, a huge gap between what many bloggers earn. There are some people who earn $0 per month, some who earn $1000 per month, and some who earn $100,000 per month.
Glassdoor reports that the average salary for the job title “Blogger” is around $50,000 per year (base pay), but the majority of people earn closer to $28,000 – $30,000 per year. This applies for bloggers that work directly for a company.
ProBlogger’s survey of freelance bloggers’ monthly earnings showed the percentage of people in the following income brackets:
- Under $10 – 38%
- $10 – $99 – 25%
- $100 – $499 – 17%
- $500 – $999 – 7%
- $1000 – $9999 – 9%
- Over $10,000 – 4%
However, you should also consider the startup costs along with your income potential, and yet, the cost of starting a blog is hard to pinpoint.
Setting up a blog typically costs between $50 and $200. After that, your monthly expenses should be around $20 to $60. However, it really depends on your long-term goals and what kind of blog you plan to run.
The way you choose to create your blog will affect your overall outgoings. You can use a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, or a content management system (CMS) like WordPress if you’re doing it yourself.
The alternative would be to hire a designer, which could cost $5,000+.
In order to get your blog up and running, the cheapest way is to use a website builder. The pay-monthly plans on offer will ensure that your costs remain consistent.
Resources:
Are Blogs Still Relevant in 2022? By Neal Schaffer
How Much Do Bloggers Make in 2022 by Thrive My Way
Blogging in 2022
Before you start thinking about creating a blog, there’s a few things you should ask yourself:
- How do you envision yourself as a blogger?
- What motivates you to blog and what are your goals?
You don’t need to be a great writer to start a blog, but you need to know why you are doing it.
Having a passion for your topic is all it takes to succeed as a blogger. And when it comes to blogging, few things are worse than realizing you have to change your brand after you’ve invested a lot of effort into it.
The goal of blogging is to develop a readership with an audience. Establishing yourself in a niche is what it’s all about. If you change your approach midstream, you may destroy your readership and all your hard work.
But that’s not to say you are limited to writing about one thing. A successful blogger will often write about a wide variety of topics on the same blog because of the format. Most bloggers write in a very informal and conversational manner to provide their readers with a personal perspective.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to bloggers. Blogs are written by a wide variety of people. Some of the types of bloggers you’ll find are:
- Blogs focused on a particular interest or topic are called hobby bloggers. Sharing their knowledge and connecting with others who share the same interest motivates them.
- Bloggers who make their living as bloggers are professional writers who approach blogging as a profession. Those writers work hard and reap the rewards of their efforts.
- A journal blogger approaches blogging as a public journal or diary. Many journal bloggers specialize in a particular niche, such as pets, travel, raising kids, or domestic life. Blogging in this way is very expressive and personal but be aware that it involves a great deal of ‘putting yourself out there’.
- Blogging for the sake of blogging is known as creative blogging. Poetry, short stories, photos, quotes, and other creative content are some of the things they may specialize in.
Resources:
How to Start a Blog in 2022 by The Blog Starter
10 Fundamental Strengths Every Great Blogger Should Have by Express Writers
How to monetize a blog
There’s a lot of different ways you can monetize a blog. There’s always ad revenue, but we find that one of the most effective methods is aligning yourself with other brands.
Here are some examples of things you can do to monetize your blog:
- Marketing through affiliate programs: Affiliate marketing is a very popular method of monetizing blogs, which is particularly useful if you are just starting out and do not have your own products or services. It’s simply a matter of developing content that will complement your affiliate offers.
Amazon Associates is an example of an affiliate marketing program.
- Marketing via email: Email marketing is one of the most powerful methods for making money from your blog. However, building your list is essential to success. Through the process of marketing both your own products and services along with affiliate offers directly via email, you can effectively generate a sizable amount of money.
- Advertisements: In most cases, adding some pay-per-click (PPC) ads to your blog is a great way to earn money, but unless your blog gets huge amounts of traffic — 10,000+ visitors a day or more — your income will be marginal. It is not until you reach about 100,000 visitors per day that you begin to make any real income here. You could, however, negotiate terms directly with advertisers by using display ads rather than PPC ads.
- Sell products or eBooks: If you have products of your own, or you are writing an eBook about something related to your blog, then you might as well use your platform to help sell your product.
It can take about two years to earn $4,000 per month through blogging.
However, it is difficult for people to reach that goal without the proper approach to keyword research and competition analysis.
And yet, achieving that threshold within 12-16 months is possible by prioritizing tasks and avoiding unnecessary ones. For instance, you can consider outsourcing some elements of your blog.
These are some examples of tasks you can outsource:
- Link building: With just one well-trained assistant, you can easily expand your link building through blog partnerships and guest posts. The primary aim of these services is to assist you in managing your guest posting system so you can acquire more guest articles (and links) with a minimal level of direct involvement from you.
- Graphic design: Don’t underestimate the power of effective graphic design. In addition to boosting conversion rates, it may also improve user experience and build your brand’s reputation. In addition to blog post images, graphic designers can create infographics, eBooks, product photos, and more.
- Website development: If you’re having problems with WordPress or DNS records, or if you’re not familiar with web development, you may want to hire a developer.
- Guest blogs and content writing: This might come as a shocker, but you don’t always have to write your blog posts yourself. Having a writer do the heavy lifting for you can sometimes be more efficient than editing the post to make sure it fits your vision and brand. If you need an initial draft written quickly and consistently, you should hire a skilled and focused writer. Such writers can be found on Fiverr, Upwork, or Pro Blogger. You should, however, always interview writers and set clear terms before assigning them to your projects.
Resources:
8 Ways to Monetize Your Blog and Make Money Online by Entrepreneur
How to Monetize a Blog in 2022 by Kinsta
How to Outsource Your Blog by Leslie Samuel
Tool of the week
A WordPress website or blog is the easiest, most popular way to build an online platform. In fact, more than 43.3% of all the websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress. That means WordPress powers more than one in four websites you visit.
Anyone can use or modify WordPress software for free, since their platform is open source.
For the longest time, WordPress was used almost exclusively to create blogs. However, that hasn’t been the case for a long time. WordPress’ massive ecosystem of plugins and themes makes it possible to create any type of website. Thanks to changes to the core code and plugins, you can create any type of website today.
As an example, WordPress powers a large number of business sites and blogs, as well as eCommerce stores!
For freelancers, WordPress costs around $14/month. In reality, you should expect to pay $200 up front, with an ongoing monthly fee of $7 – $59 per month. If you need to hire a web designer, your WordPress costs could quickly climb to $1000 or more.
The different WordPress plan options
You’ll need to budget for the following five WordPress pricing factors:
- Pricing starts at $8 per month for hosting.
- Themes made to order can range from $0 – $200 (one-time charge).
- The cost of plugins can range from $0 to $1,000 (per month or one-off).
- The cost of security starts at $50 per year (ongoing or one-time).
- A developer’s fee is between $0 and $1,000 (a one-time fee).