How to make money from your blog and turn it into a business: a simple guide.

Before I founded Morse Creatives, I was a food and lifestyle blogger; before that, I was a YouTube vlogger, and before that, well, never mind.  

It all started as a therapeutic outlet. I would write poetry, cook, record and edit everything, and then post it online. After a few years of creative experimentation, I decided to take my blog and YouTube channel seriously and was able to monetize both platforms within the same year. One of my regrets (or lessons) in content creation was deleting my old channel and blog instead of simply pivoting my niche when I was ready.

Still, making money from my food blog and old YouTube channel gave me the courage to start Morse Creatives. I knew that I could replicate that process and also help other content creators monetize their passions.

So how did I do it? I will share my monetization journey with you so you can learn how to turn your blog into a business.

1. Research

2. Gather Resources

3. Start Creating

4. Edit, Proofread, and Publish

5. Monetize Your Blog

6. The key to making money from your blog

Research

Learn from my mistake and do your research ahead of time instead of figuring it out as you go along. Unless blogging is a passion project for you like it was for me, you want to start with a well-researched plan. Define your niche or niches. I was stressed about finding a niche for so long when, in reality, most creators don’t fit perfectly into one niche. So, it’s okay to have more than one niche. The key is creating content that feels intuitive and natural and fits your branding and business goals. Take some time to identify your passion, skills, and unique voice and perspective.

The kinds of content that will catapult your blog to the next level will be a blend of topics you’re passionate about and the ones your audience is interested in consuming. Maintaining this balance is very important in content creation.

Once you get a general sense of the kinds of blog content you want to create, define your target audience. Define your audience, paying close attention to their needs. Your content should address their needs – without losing yourself in the process. You don’t want to create content only for your audience (imagine how exhausting that would be). Again, balance what you want to create and what your audience wants to consume. Creating a brand value proposition will help you through this process.

Gather Resources

In general, many bloggers and content creators get stuck in this phase because we try to start with the most professional equipment instead of starting with what we have and improving as we grow. Forget about comparing yourself to other bloggers, recording videos in 4 K, or capturing super high-quality photography for your blog posts; trying to get the best tech equipment before starting only stalls you. Start where you are, with what you have. You will learn and grow as you create more blog content. What matters here is strategically using what you have to create the best quality content.

If you already have a blog, just optimize your old posts and use the guidelines in this article to create future content. If you don’t already have a blog, research before settling on a website builder to host your domain and blog.   

In addition to a website builder, you’ll also need these foundational tools and resources:

• Camera (your phone camera is perfectly alright to start with)

• Microsoft Word or Google Drive: write, organize, and store your blog posts

• Grammarly: professionally edit your blog posts using their handy AI features  

• Adobe: edit your photography and source professional copyrighted media

• Canva: create stunning media assets for your social media

• Google Analytics: track and analyze your blog traffic

• Yoast SEO:  use this WordPress plug-in to optimize your blog posts for SEO

• JetPack: use this WordPress plug-in to optimize your blog posts for security and performance

• MailChimp: create, send, and analyze email campaigns

• Google Adsense: allow Google to place ads on your blog to generate revenue

• Social Media platforms (no more than three): promote your blog

• Blogging forums: Reddit, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups

• Google Trends: find popular and valuable keywords and topics

Start Creating

As you create content for your blog, remember that this is or will become your business. So, it would be best to consider your audience and branding as you create. Remember the business goals you established as you create if you have a business plan. Your business goals should supplement your blog content strategy.

Make sure your brand voice guides your content strategy. This should be your north star. Find that balance between creating story-based content to connect with your audience and creating helpful content to grow your business. It’s a delicate balance that can be challenging when you start, but you’ll improve with practice.

No matter what, please remember always to have fun as you create.

Here are some guidelines for your blog content creation:

• Create and follow a content calendar.

• Prepare your content creation tools.

• Scout locations for filming, depending on the kinds of photos or videos you’ll include in your blog posts.

• Create bulk content.

  • Set aside one week to create a one-month worth of content.

  • Edit and schedule your bulk content.

  • This way, you’ll follow your content calendar without freaking out every time you’re scheduled to post.    

• Connect with your audience and ask what they want to consume.

  • Whether it’s a live stream, Q&A blog post, or email campaign, reach out to your audience and ask what kind of content they want to see from you.

• Have fun! Content creation and creativity are fun. Lean into this.

Edit, Proofread, and Publish

After compiling and organizing your bulk content, edit them promptly. The further ahead you create bulk content, the more time you’ll have to edit and proofread.

As you edit your blog posts, you want to pay close attention to keywords, tags, titles, and photo descriptions. SEO is not only about the tags and keywords you use. It’s also about the webpage structure that allows bots to crawl and rank a page. A higher-ranked page is more likely to be placed on the first few pages when someone searches for something on Google, Bing, or another search engine.  

Use a hierarchical structure to organize your blog posts: H1 (title), H2 (subtitle), H3 (subsections), and so on. Lastly, optimize for fast page speed and mobile-friendly designs. Most and all major website builders already have these features.

Monetize Your Blog  

We talked about six ways content creators make money. There are other ways bloggers make money, including:

• As mentioned above, Google Adsense

• Collaborate with other brands and businesses to create sponsored blog content

• Create and sell your products and merchandise

  • Sponsor your products!

• Sell your expertise through digital products or services. You will have to set aside a couple of months to create and promote your products and services.

  • Courses, virtual workshops, e-books, etc.

  • Membership

  • Subscriptions

• Depending on your website builder, everything above can be done within your website.

The Key to making money from blogging

Ironically, the key to making money from or turning your blog into a business is not focusing so much on money. This is precisely why I listed ways to make money at the very end. When you create consistent (meaning timely, not frequently) and high-quality content, your audience grows naturally, and you intuitively find ways to monetize your blog.

Continue to engage with your audience as they grow. When nurtured and curated strategically, the comment section of your blog, social media, and YouTube channel can be a healthy and fun place to connect with your audience. Simply put, show up for your audience, and they will reciprocate.

 For many content creators, companies reach out to them for sponsorship. And for others, they create media kits and reach out to companies for partnerships. No matter your chosen strategy, you need to build your audience first, starting with content creation.

So, how do you turn your blog into a business? Create stunning content.