Can You Still Make Money Blogging? YES!
I'm here to tell you that despite what you might be hearing, blogging won't be dying in 2020. Although there are 7 billion blogs out there and 4 million blogs being posted everyday according to Neil Patel, you still can make yours stand out and make money.
DEVELOP THE NICHE
Here's how you develop a niche and why it's important. It's not so important to write about just Fashion (chose your genre). You have to find a niche within a niche to find a core a audience that will buy from you. Example. If you're choosing fashion, don't just chose menswear, or vintage. Try and get even more niche(r).
A friend of mine runs a blog just dedicated to the style of James Bond. That's really niche. Not just Menswear, not just film costumes but one movie franchise. Believe it or not there are now quite a few James Bond sites dedicated to the style of the fictional spy. But the internet is a big place. Just make it personal to you, make your content better than everyone else.
How will this make money?
You can make money through niche website because brands know you speak to a very specific audience. They can tap into your audience direct using you as a conduit.
Should I charge for doing something I'd do for free anyway?
Absolutely. You have spent time building that audience. Like a virtual farm you go around manicuring it every day, leaving comments on other people’s posts. Leaving messages of encouragement and delivering a platform that people can learn, enjoy and spend time on. Absolutely charge.
Brands Need SEO
Brands need online presence and they need people to backlink or funnel traffic to their website. For that they'll always need blogs or content that will drive customers their way. You blog might not be smashing it in terms of audience numbers, but brands will still need parochial websites to augment their outreach and build their online presence.
You'll be surprised what you rank for on Google and what you can do for other brands. Here is a site called Uber Suggests that is free to use and will help you with SEO and Keywords and content ideas.
Affiliates
There is still money to be made with affiliates, but you must be Vlogging. Admittedly I've let my Vlogging go this year, but will be back with a hammer punch in the new year. You have to have an omni-channel approach, share video on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook.
Will Google Punish me?
Nope. It's a myth. Google doesn't punish for duplicate content on Video. They've already announced it. Amazon Affiliates is still a good place to start if you're looking to getting into affiliate marketing. But make sure you have already developed a relationship with your audience. Don't try and sell stuff from day one as it looks overly sales(y).
Blogs and content that works
Listicles really hit home and resonate I find. People know where they stand with top ten stuff. They want to see if their judgement is as good as yours. They also want to know if you're talking bullcrap. Imagine you did a top ten movie list of all time and didn't include Top Gun. You'd be thrown off the internet.
Plus it's a good way to sell products. Link to affiliate products and sell stuff that you've managed to assess is the best through comparison and experience.
Guest Posts
If you're able to write blogs and do it consistently, you may be asked to guest blog on someone else's site and get paid. You might be asked to lend your expertise and do a key note speech based on a blog post that got people talking.
Keep blogging, keep at it.
Extra reading
How to Make money Blogging in 2020
2020 starting a blog that actually makes money
Founder of this eponymous blog, focusing on men's fashion & lifestyle.
