These days, lots of people are making money online. Some of them have found electronic products to sell from home and created an online store, while others are teaching English as a foreign language over Skype. The fact is, the opportunities are endless. And one of the most popular opportunities, that’s been around since the beginning of the Internet, is blogging. Whether you’re a blogger looking for a way to get new readers, or you’re just starting a new blog and want to find out how to stand out and start making money, there are some strategies you should definitely be following. And in 2019, lots of these strategies are new.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of tips. Read on if you want to learn how you can make your blog business popular this year, getting more readers and making more money.

 

1 Carve out time for blogging

To run a successful blog, the most important thing you need to be doing is posting regularly, and ensuring that your posts are high-quality. Readers will come to expect content a certain number of times a week, and they’ll want posts that are well-written, researched, and informative. That’s why you need to be dedicated. According to a 2018 survey, the average blog post takes 3 hours and 28 minutes to write--so you need to carve out at least that amount of time, plus time for research and choosing accompanying pictures and videos, too. And if your blog is new, remember to make time for designing your site, and engaging with readers, too.

 

2 Understand your audience

Once you’ve cleared up your schedule so that you have time to write, you need to understand your audience. If you’ve already been blogging a while, that doesn’t mean your work is finished; it’s always worth the time to survey your readers and study up on analytics collected via your site and social media platforms. This will help you in three ways: you’ll know what content to post, how to design your site, and how to market yourself on social media. According to statistics released in 2018, over 2 billion blog posts were being published each year worldwide--so understanding your audience is key to getting their attention in this huge sea of information.

 

3 Give readers something in exchange for contact info

One of the best ways to get your readers coming back for more is by having their email address. That way, you can contact them anytime you’ve got a new post up, and if you’re selling new products, they can find out about that, too (and hopefully buy them!). But they aren’t going to simply give up an email address just like that. That’s why it’s so important to give them something in exchange. This can be free swag, or an ebook (e.g., a guide to getting self-published, if you’re running a blog where you sell writing courses or editing services). Another great plus about having emails is that you can send out surveys to find out more about what your readers want and who they are, which will help you improve your content.

Considering that 43 percent of people admit to skimming blog posts, the better you know your readers, the less likely they’ll be to do that.

 

4 Use the right tools

If you don’t have a ton of tools in your blogging arsenal, it’s time to start. There are so many out there! If you have trouble coming up with ideas for posts, use a content idea tool, or a blog title tool. Tools such as Grammarly make it easy to edit your work, and there are SEO tools like Yoast (a WordPress plug-in) which make it easier for people searching your content online to stumble onto your site instead of someone else’s. If you’re struggling in any particular area, look for tools related to it, and you’ll find an easy solution in no time!

The average blog post is 1,050 words, which means that cutting down the amount of time you spend outside of writing them by using these tools will make you a much more effective blogger.

 

5 Make your site mobile-friendly

Finally, no blogging strategy is successful anymore unless you’re making everything more mobile-friendly. Your site needs to be easy to use on a small screen, and if there are any forms for readers to fill out, make that easy, too. Keep in mind that lots of people are using voice search now, so update your blog titles to reflect that for better SEO. Additionally, stay active on social media. It’s a natural extension of your blog, and lots of your readers will be scrolling through their phones on Facebook and Instagram when they discover your blog. It isn’t SEO per se, but it’s close enough that you need to think about your social media strategy anytime you publish a new post. (Just think about it: Instagram alone had over 1 billion active users as of June 2018.)

These are some of the best strategies for making your business popular in 2019. What other strategies work for you?