Marketing gurus such as Pat Flynn have rejuvenated the concept of affiliate marketing through the creation of passive income blogs. While the dream of six-figure passive income may sound too good to be true, the fact remains that modern bloggers are building new sites like never before with a gold-rush mentality, attempting to unlock the financial potential of the next big niche.
If you’re considering taking the leap into affiliate marketing and passive income blogging, you should maintain realistic expectations when it comes to what your site is capable of. By keeping the following three rules in mind, you can find build a money-making blog without wanting to pull your hair out in the process.
You Need a Good Niche
According to blogging guru Neal Patel, finding your niche is perhaps the most important element of building a successful blog.
The fact is this: the ultimate success of your site boils down to your chosen niche. The more specific you get with the scope of your blog, the more targeted your traffic will be.
In short, you need to choose a product that hasn’t been done to death by other niche sites (digital cameras, for example) yet people would still buy at a decent price point (approximately $100).
From an SEO perspective, you need to choose something with relatively low search competition, with no more than a few thousand searches per month, that you can dominate through your site’s content. If you can’t hope to get your keywords on the first page of Google, you may want to rethink your niche.
Don’t Expect Overnight Success
Patience is the key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer; however, this fact often gets lost in the hype of finding a killer niche or launching a new site.
For example, bear in mind the sheer amount of time it takes to..
- Rank in the SERPs, as it may months before you begin showing up within the first few pages of Google for your desired keywords; this is especially true if you’re competing for bigger keywords with thousands of monthly searches.
- Build a readership that drives consistent traffic to your website; likewise, consider the amount of time it takes for that readership to trust your site enough to click your affiliate links.
- Build links, including social links and shares. For many sites, this will represent a sort of snowball effect as the more content you create, the more potential for social sharing and users linking to your site.
While it’s possible to make a small chunk of change in the early stages of your blog, don’t expect to see too much for at least a few months. This revelation may be discouraging to some; however, you should perhaps take it as motivation to get started now rather than later.
Content is King, But It’s Not Everything
Content may be king in the Internet marketing world; however, it’s not everything when it comes to building a passive income blog. Many bloggers feel that they can pick a niche, launch a WordPress blog, slap five articles on it and hope for the best. Not anymore. Consider also the importance of..
- Social signals and their relevance in the eyes of Google; on the same note, the more eyes you get in front of, the more your site looks like it was built by a human versus a robot.
- Building links, which is the often the elephant in the room for many niche blogs. Whether you decide to perform blogger outreach or use content directories, any little bit helps for improving your search presence (granted it’s white-hat).
- Keyword research, which represents the foundation of your blog and its ability to be found in the first place. Having a variety of keywords to target allows you to vary your content and make it more interesting for readers.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to success when it comes to building a passive income blog. Regardless of your niche, consider how patience and realistic expectations will take you a long way versus a blogger who expects success overnight.