Students start blogging for all kinds of reasons, but making money is somewhere near the top of the list.
Good goal, isn’t it? Yet, a student’s passion for blogging can become a source of trouble at school and home if their academic performance suffers. Unfortunately, that is very likely to happen when you’re just starting because any new activity is extremely time-consuming until you learn the ropes.
But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Student help services such as EssayHub can take care of your essays and other assignments while you’re setting up your blog and learning how to run and monetize it. To do it more efficiently, study the tips below.
Plan Your Schedule
If you have your mind set on starting a blog, do some preparation first. Otherwise, you might waste your time without achieving any satisfactory result.
The main thing to start with is planning your time to make slots in your schedule sufficient to run a blog. If you’re keen on blogging as a business, be prepared to make those slots big, but don’t forget to include sleep, exercise, and socializing, too.
Prepare a Strategy
For example, drafting a marketing strategy. To write one, ask yourself the following questions first:
- What is your blog’s topic?
- What should it look like?
- What content can you produce?
- What products are you going to sell?
- Who is your target audience?
- How can you reach it?
- How much money can you invest in promotion?
Write a draft of a marketing strategy based on your answers to these and other questions that will inevitably pop up in the process.
Use Multiple Platforms
Several years ago, most people used to think a blog should only be website-based. Today, blogging has many different forms: you can be a YouTube blogger (vlogger), a TikToker, a Twitter microblogger, and so on.
Regardless of which platform you choose as the main one, you can reach a much wider audience if you expand to other popular platforms. It doesn’t mean you have to produce different content for each – adapting one piece will be enough.
Create Quality Content
“Content is king,” Bill Gates wrote in the 90s – meaning, of course, quality content. And the statement couldn’t be more relevant today when the choice is much broader than back in the 90s. Today, only those producing the most engaging content win the audience.
However, quality is not enough. If you want to grow your audience and sell products, it’s vital to learn copywriting and SEO techniques. This knowledge will ensure that your blog will not only attract people but drive sales as well.
Add Visuals
You might have a preference for writing, but multiple studies show that images and videos are far more engaging than texts, especially for young audiences. So, throwing in some visuals will help you attract more visitors and receive more feedback.
That said, bad-quality visuals can spoil good texts. So, if you lack experience, gain some first by taking courses or surfing for free tutorials on the internet. Another option is to hire professional designers and video editors, but that is usually not necessary for micro-businesses.
Improve Usability
Suppose you deliver mind-blowing content, gain an audience, become popular, and still get no sales. What’s the problem? There can be a bunch of them, but one of the most common is poor usability. In other words, your website is not convenient when it comes to making purchases.
To find out if this is the case, ask your friends to try buying something from your blog. If they’ll be having trouble finding their way around, making some tweaks to improve UX might be necessary. Sometimes, integrating a decent e-commerce plugin will be enough.
Try Retargeting
Retargeting (remarketing) is a commonly used digital marketing technique for pushing potential customers to make the purchase. Here is how it works: after a visitor has left your website without buying, they will keep seeing ads reminding them of your brand.
These retargeted ads are great to offer a discount, provide more information about the product, and more. To make the technique available, add a retargeting pixel to your website.
Team Up With Influencers
Young audiences trust social media influencers more than ads when it comes to making purchases. If your blog’s audience is not big enough yet, teaming up with an influencer can work miracles for your sales.
Of course, big influencers are out of reach for a student startup – but you don’t need a big one for a successful collaboration. Just choose the ones who share your values and have the most loyal followers.
Final Thoughts
There are multiple ways to market a student blog and sell products from it. We’ve touched upon some of them in this article, but the list is by no means exhaustive. However, any blogging (and any business, for that matter) is first of all about devotion, perseverance, and consistency. Don’t forget about that while you’re using our tips to your advantage!