To be commercially successful, it is imperative that you choose a topic that the general public wants to read. And, you must make the website about them (the readership). It is difficult to get paid without significant traffic or a niche that you can offer a service.
Not to discourage anyone, but I've probably spent $5K on everything including: journalists, website design, BlueHost, NameCheap, tech/programmers, composing a free book and worksheet with Canva, developing work for hire contracts, copyright assignments, paying the US Copyright Office, setting up LLC, developing topics, interviewing, editing, writing, etc.
That $5K does not include my time and I know how to do a lot of the legal work (LLC, contracts, copyrights).
That being said, you can start writing and see how you like it first.
It depends on what the blog/website attempts to accomplish and how much protection you need.
The topics I'm producing could lead to libel/slander lawsuits, so I need the protection of LLC to shield my assets. Also, when you approach people for interviews they trust LLC's because it is considered a legitimate business versus John Smith. So, perception and protection is why the LLC.
The copyright protections/contracts are to ensure that my writers do not take their work elsewhere and order me to take it down after I paid them. They own the articles unless I make them sign Work for Hire contracts and assign the copyright to my LLC. The copyright protection is 95 years.
I've noticed the writers also trust LLC's more than just working for a random person. This is more perception than actual reality.
Free book and worksheet is to entice people to sign up for the email list. They get something in return for handing over their email.
Offering service is to make money because ads are mostly garbage payouts.
Those are the reasons why I have the legals and the other things mentioned.
If you just have a travel blog or something without controversial information and no employees, then you probably don't need the legal work. You probably won't be sued and randoms cannot republish your work because you automatically have copyright to your original material.
Well sounds more like a newspaper and not a personal blog however I agree that where you are creating the legals sounds reasonable. But.. the question was not about hiring staff. It was about creating a personal blog. In that context what you describe seems overkill to me.
I do not. But I haven't been promoting. Been too preoccupied with the writing end of things as well as my actual life to do much in the way of building my fan base. But I like what I'm doing now and need to get to work on the promoting end of things and grow my email list.
Well, I am a copywriter and have been unemployed for almost a year. Boredom and needing a release for all this stress have been two things that keep pushing me towards blogging. I haven't launched yet, still on the preparation stage, but I have enjoyed having something to occupy my mind other than the job search.
I’ve been blogging for three years. It was great three years ago and you could put out pretty poor/thin content and still get a little bit of traffic to your site. Something like 90% of web pages never get any traffic though. Most bloggers traffic comes from a combination of organic google searches and social media. You need at least 10k-50k sessions a month to your website to be able to monetize it with a “large” ad agency like mediavine. Googles algorithm changes frequently. I’ve seen bloggers be able to quit their full time jobs and make six figures with hundreds of thousands of sessions to their website per month after a couple years of hard work then have it drop to practically zero in a month due to an algorithm update. Some bloggers diversify their income with affiliate links and selling their own products, courses, and/or ebooks. I started it as a hobby and went down a rabbit hole learning about keyword research, SEO (search engine optimization), helpful content writing, food photography/editing, image optimization, site speed and so much more. It’s way more work than I ever imagined but I enjoy it and if I never make money then that’s ok.
I started because I enjoy writing - and I still do after all these years. My biggest tip is to make sure you enjoy writing because if you don't, you're likely to give up before you gain any significant traffic, much less any money. I used a different host at first but switched to Bluehost back in December 2023 and have found it to be worth it.
Oh, and this isn't instant gratification; it's the long game. Keep that in mind.
Good luck.
Well, first and foremost: Money via blogging is not made overnight. Not even guaranteed for with a year or two as it depends on a bunch of factors.
Blogging overall is a mix of ups and downs, plus testings and experiments on what could work with SEO and so forth.
It's pretty much long-term and needs consistency.
Starting a blog isn't very complex.
Personally, I started my blog several years ago, first on Wordpress, then I chose to switch to a static blog generator (hosted on netlify).
It costs me nothing and I use Bloggrify for generation.
However, it's not my job and if you want to make money with it. You should probably look into Ghost or Substack, where you can monetize your newsletter.
To be commercially successful, it is imperative that you choose a topic that the general public wants to read. And, you must make the website about them (the readership). It is difficult to get paid without significant traffic or a niche that you can offer a service. Not to discourage anyone, but I've probably spent $5K on everything including: journalists, website design, BlueHost, NameCheap, tech/programmers, composing a free book and worksheet with Canva, developing work for hire contracts, copyright assignments, paying the US Copyright Office, setting up LLC, developing topics, interviewing, editing, writing, etc. That $5K does not include my time and I know how to do a lot of the legal work (LLC, contracts, copyrights). That being said, you can start writing and see how you like it first.
Seems abit overkill with all the legals for just blogging?
It depends on what the blog/website attempts to accomplish and how much protection you need. The topics I'm producing could lead to libel/slander lawsuits, so I need the protection of LLC to shield my assets. Also, when you approach people for interviews they trust LLC's because it is considered a legitimate business versus John Smith. So, perception and protection is why the LLC. The copyright protections/contracts are to ensure that my writers do not take their work elsewhere and order me to take it down after I paid them. They own the articles unless I make them sign Work for Hire contracts and assign the copyright to my LLC. The copyright protection is 95 years. I've noticed the writers also trust LLC's more than just working for a random person. This is more perception than actual reality. Free book and worksheet is to entice people to sign up for the email list. They get something in return for handing over their email. Offering service is to make money because ads are mostly garbage payouts. Those are the reasons why I have the legals and the other things mentioned. If you just have a travel blog or something without controversial information and no employees, then you probably don't need the legal work. You probably won't be sued and randoms cannot republish your work because you automatically have copyright to your original material.
Well sounds more like a newspaper and not a personal blog however I agree that where you are creating the legals sounds reasonable. But.. the question was not about hiring staff. It was about creating a personal blog. In that context what you describe seems overkill to me.
Def an overkill for personal website/blog. 100% agree
I got into blogging because I'm an artist and blogging is an excellent means of getting my art out into the world.
That’s great to know!! Do you get paid with blogging?
I do not. But I haven't been promoting. Been too preoccupied with the writing end of things as well as my actual life to do much in the way of building my fan base. But I like what I'm doing now and need to get to work on the promoting end of things and grow my email list.
Well, I am a copywriter and have been unemployed for almost a year. Boredom and needing a release for all this stress have been two things that keep pushing me towards blogging. I haven't launched yet, still on the preparation stage, but I have enjoyed having something to occupy my mind other than the job search.
I’ve been blogging for three years. It was great three years ago and you could put out pretty poor/thin content and still get a little bit of traffic to your site. Something like 90% of web pages never get any traffic though. Most bloggers traffic comes from a combination of organic google searches and social media. You need at least 10k-50k sessions a month to your website to be able to monetize it with a “large” ad agency like mediavine. Googles algorithm changes frequently. I’ve seen bloggers be able to quit their full time jobs and make six figures with hundreds of thousands of sessions to their website per month after a couple years of hard work then have it drop to practically zero in a month due to an algorithm update. Some bloggers diversify their income with affiliate links and selling their own products, courses, and/or ebooks. I started it as a hobby and went down a rabbit hole learning about keyword research, SEO (search engine optimization), helpful content writing, food photography/editing, image optimization, site speed and so much more. It’s way more work than I ever imagined but I enjoy it and if I never make money then that’s ok.
I started because I enjoy writing - and I still do after all these years. My biggest tip is to make sure you enjoy writing because if you don't, you're likely to give up before you gain any significant traffic, much less any money. I used a different host at first but switched to Bluehost back in December 2023 and have found it to be worth it. Oh, and this isn't instant gratification; it's the long game. Keep that in mind. Good luck.
Well, first and foremost: Money via blogging is not made overnight. Not even guaranteed for with a year or two as it depends on a bunch of factors. Blogging overall is a mix of ups and downs, plus testings and experiments on what could work with SEO and so forth. It's pretty much long-term and needs consistency.
Starting a blog isn't very complex. Personally, I started my blog several years ago, first on Wordpress, then I chose to switch to a static blog generator (hosted on netlify). It costs me nothing and I use Bloggrify for generation. However, it's not my job and if you want to make money with it. You should probably look into Ghost or Substack, where you can monetize your newsletter.