Benefits and Obstacles You Will Experience After Starting a Niche Blog
Money can be made from blogging in 2023 — It’s just harder than before
It’s 2023 and blogging is so 2005, right? Wrong.
Bloggers are still earning money from their website. It’s not a fad that came and went, it’s just fallen off the radar a bit. The rise of side hustles like affiliate marketing have taken its place.
There are many benefits of starting a niche blog. Sadly, there are just as many obstacles that stand in the way of your blog’s success.
How do I know? Because I’ve started one, succeeded, failed and now I’m trying to bring it back to life again.
Here’s what I’ve learned, how I’ve failed and how I plan to win.
Benefits
The benefits of owning a niche blog far outweigh the challenges, in my opinion. If executed correctly, your blog can become a major asset.
It’s designed for writers to win
Writers have the upperhand when starting new niche blogs. We can learn and produce new content whenever we want. It’s an extremely valuable skill.
That’s why writers can find clients to pay them a lot of money for these skills. But instead of writing for a client, try working for yourself first. I cut ties with all my clients for this reason.
Several ways to monetize
There are so many methods you can use to monetize a blog. Some of my favorite include:
- Affilate links
- Display ads
- Digital downloads
Those are just my favorite options. In the past, I’ve earned more than $100/month in display ads from my blog and more than $50/month in affiliate links.
The money is real. Once you can get traffic to your blog by optimizing it to rank high on Google, throwing some ads in front of you readers can get you paid.
Of course, the hard part is getting the traffic.
Easy, cheaper business to start
Lastly, a blog is a simple, easy business to start. You buy a domain, purchase a hosting package and for less than $50, you have a business that’s all your own for the next year.
Seriously, all you really need in your first year of blogging is $50 to get started.
Challenges
Nothing’s easy, especially not blogging. Besides writing the actual content and getting it up on your site, there are some curveballs along the way.
It’s a waiting game
New niche blogs don’t have a high domain ranking. This is the rank Google uses to determine how trustable your site is. (If you already have a blog, find its domain ranking here.)
It takes time for Google to trust new sites. At the minimum, a year. Most times more. Here’s how long it took me.
So even if you’re consistently publishing high-quality content, it might just not be your blog’s time to shine yet.
Google is a pain to deal with
I was making money via Google display ads, until I wasn’t. Long story short, they canceled my account and kicked me out…and didn’t tell me why.
I swear I was honest in my publishing, but apparently getting booted from Google ads for no reason happens often. This was one of the major reasons I took a break from my niche blog for several months.
I wrote about it in more detail in the story below:
Affilate sales can be slow
Sometimes I earn $30 in a month from affiliate sales, sometimes I earn $3. I have literally no control over who decides to purchase an item after visiting my website.
And that’s OK. More traffic means more chances to refer a customer and get an affiliate commission.
Time and money are on the line
Basically, owning a niche blog boils down to one thing: If you’re willing to put in the time so you can make money before spending too much.
Your first year of owning a blog will only cost you about $50.
The next few years will get increasingly more expensive as hosting gets more expensive.
Every year you don’t break even is another year you’re deeper in the hole. Just something to think about, you’re racing the clock.
Here’s how I plan to suceed
More content, more affiliate links and kill my competitors.
I wrote those words on my desk at the beginning of 2023 and I mean it. It’s time to double down on my investment and build a site that creates more income for me.