Top 10 things you need to start a blog and make money

tagged with

"Want to know how to start a blog and make money as quickly as possible?" This article will highlight ten really important, but easy-to-implement features that all good, money making blogs have in common.

Like any "top ten" list, it is probably quite easy to find examples of blogs that are successful without having each and every feature. This is because content quality is the over-riding factor in determining how much traffic, and therefore how much money can be made blogging.

Simply put:

If you can create interesting content that people love to read and share, you can make money blogging!

Creating quality blog content takes a bit of practice, and if you are not an experienced blogger, I recommend reading the following articles on how to blog effectively before continuing:

Blogging and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) go hand in hand, so if you are not familiar with SEO, I recommend you also browse through this list of the top SEO articles.

Top 10 features of money making blogs

This top ten list of features focuses on the features of the blog itself and not on the writing or content quality of the blogger.

As mentioned it is the quality of the blog content that will ultimately determine success or failure, but implementing all of these important features on your blog will ensure that "making money blogging" is as quick and painless as possible.

1. Images and other media

Images are absolutely vital to blogging. They can serve a number of roles from providing visual clues to what a blog post is about, to helping readers assimilate and remember your posts.

Most importantly, images and other media (like video blogs) offer additional ways for people to find your content via search. In fact, Google now offers people the option to search for "websites with images".

Like images, video is becoming more and more important. It's now super-easy to record video and upload it to YouTube, where a whole new social marketing platform awaits. If you are serious about getting a lot of exposure then images and video are a must.

2. Great SEO

Without fantastic SEO, you better be prepared to for a long haul. No SEO = no organic search traffic = uphill battle.

Search Engine Optimization is something you must learn, but it takes a bit of time and you shouldn't expect to get everything right overnight. These great SEO articles will get you started:

3. Social sharing and following

It's important that readers have a way to share your content with their friends. Not only that, but they also need to be able to follow you with one-click.

Every single blog post needs social sharing buttons, as well as social follow buttons. Share buttons are available directly from all the major social networks, and your blogging platform may offer a plug-in that does them all-in-one.

Obviously, you will also have to create an account on each of the social networks you want to gain a following on. I recommend Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn (for business related blogs), and FaceBook.

4. RSS Feed (Feedburner)

The way content is shared online is via RSS feeds. All good blogging platforms offer RSS feed features, so hopefully this won't be too much of a problem for you to implement.

I strongly recommend you use feedburner to manage and monetize your feed.

RSS feeds can be used by other websites to "syndicate" content. Make sure that only a portion of your blog posts are shared via RSS, otherwise you may run into Google Panda algorithm penalty problems for duplicated content.

David Mercer's picture
WSM4B

I am a software developer, serial entrepreneur and bestselling author of programming, development, eCommerce and marketing books.

I love solving complex problems and bringing cool solutions to market. I have a cum laude science degree (double major in applied mathematics and mathematics), and 15 years of Web development, programming and online business experience.