ELENA PETERS | MIDLIFE BLOGGER

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Many people are now leaving behind the grind of the 9-5 and working for others and are now setting up shop as a blogger. The reason for this is that they feel as though it’s an easy way of making some passive income with no risk-taking. And I mean who wouldn’t? Pinterest is chock full of articles all tooting how quick and easy it is to become a six-figure blogger.

However, not everybody who sets up a blog will see thousands of dollars coming into their bank balance every month. In fact, 80% will never make more than $100. Well, that’s a kick in the pants, especially if you started a blog believing it was your way out of the rat race.

I truly believe there is an element of luck to blogging. Sometimes all it takes is to have one successful or influential blogger share your post or blog with their audience and you are off to the races.

But for most of us, the process of blogging involves a lot of spaghetti throwing.

In the beginning, very little sticks. And that is totally normal so don’t beat yourself up or compare yourself to someone else’s journey.

However, I want you to know that there are things that you can do to help your blog grow, get traffic and make money.

5 Income Sucking Traps For Bloggers

1. You have no clear objective or purpose

The main reason that people turn to blogging to begin with is that they have a particular interest in something that they want to share. But when they don’t see instant success, they start to veer away from that initial focus.

When you blog, you want to address people with a clear objective.

For example, somebody with a business background creates a blog about running a business. Their posts are all about different areas of running a business. If they start posting about conspiracy theories or how to bake the perfect lemon cake, their audience becomes confused and loses interest very quickly.

The key to success is to find a niche topic that you are interested in and have specific knowledge about before starting your blog. You want to build your blog with purpose and stay true to your mission. Don’t get distracted.

2. Your blog is not SEO friendly 

SEO is a term that flies around the business world in the area of digital marketing. It basically means being able to find a way of being the answer to what people search for online. 

Again, this is why having a niche is important. It will help people to find your blog online and teaches search engines what you are all about. The more you can do that, the more likely your blog will show up in results.

For example, if people are looking for how to refinance home loan, they may search for ‘’How can I refinance my home?’’. If your money management blog has an article about refinancing vs selling, for example, it should contain those keywords and phrases that people are searching for. That will help search engines point potential readers in your direction and in turn, create a simple way to build more online ‘traffic’.

Always try to use keywords in your titles, headings and copy. Not only will you get more organic traffic but you will find that your posts are shared more often. 

3. You don’t put in effort 

So many people believe that blogging is an easy way to make money because of all the income report posts from other bloggers they see online.

You know the type I talking about: “How I made $1000 in my first month of blogging” and the like. But what most people don’t see is that many successful bloggers had previous unsuccessful blogs before making it big. Or that they worked 24/7 for months writing engaging, quality content and spent hours everyday promoting it before making any money at all. 

Since I started my first blog in 2014, the number of new blogs has grown exponentially. And with millions of posts published every single day, you need to put in much more effort now to be noticed.

And that effort must be laser focused on your niche, mission and goals. I find many bloggers waste a lot of time doing things that don’t move the needle. Evaluate how you spend your time blogging and make sure everything you do is creating value for your audience.

4. You’re inconsistent with your posts 

If you’re wanting success as a blogger, you’ll need a regular schedule. Unlike writing for a hobby, this job can’t just be done when you feel like blogging or the inspiration takes hold. If you don’t treat blogging as a job, you won’t be able to replace your income by blogging. 

In order to start making decent money you need to ensure that you regularly produce high quality content. Especially in the beginning. Your only job is to write and post.

If you have trouble doing that, you can hire writers or get guest bloggers to fill in the gaps at least until you have this magic number of posts on your blog.

Having a backlog of posts and creating a content calendar will help you to keep your posting on track. 

5. You’re using ads and pop ups too soon

As you start a new blog and try to engage audiences organically by building trust and rapport with your readers, you should avoid using lots of ads or pop ups on your blog.

Yes, we all know that these ads are an easy way to bring in that extra cash, but ads are spammy and annoying when you’re trying to establish your blog. 

And asking people to sign up for your email list using a pop up only distracts from your valuable content. when they have no idea who you are yet.

If quitting your job and making a full-time income blogging is one of your goals, know that it is doable for anyone. Just be patient and avoid the trappings above.

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