What is a Blog and what does a blogger do, anyway? If you’ve been wondering about that, keep reading. In this article, we’ll explain exactly what a blogger does and how to become one.
If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, it’s important to learn what is required to become a blogger.
And you probably have many unanswered questions as a beginner, like: What is the role of a blogger? What skills do you need to be a blogger? How do bloggers get paid?
Don’t worry, you’re in the right place. We’ll answer all of your questions about what a blogger does and how to become a blogger in this article.
So, let’s get started!
Before we dive into what a blogger does, let’s define the meaning of a blog.
What is a Blog?
A blog is a type of website where a writer or a group of writers share their views on a particular subject. It can be for personal use or for business purposes.
Blogs are regularly updated with content and the posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, with the newest posts appearing at the top of the page.
Here’s an example of a blog that fits that criteria:
WPBeginner is a blog that regularly produces content meant to educate readers about WordPress.
And the blog post you’re reading right now is from Blog Tyrant, a blog all about blogging.
For more examples, check out this post on different types of blogs.
Now that you have an idea of what a blog is, let’s go over what bloggers do…
What Does a Blogger Do?
What you do as a blogger depends on your goals. If you want to start a blog for fun or to use it as an online diary, then you really only need to do one thing:
Write.
But, if you want to make money from your blog and turn it into a part-time or full-time career, there are other tasks you need to do. Some of these tasks include:
- Affiliate marketing
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Selling products
Plus, there are various administrative tasks like monitoring your website analytics, keeping your site updated, responding to comments, and much more.
This is not a complete list, but let’s go over some of the most important aspects of a blogger’s job now.
1.Write Content
The primary job of a blogger is to write content in the form of blog posts.
Blog posts are meant to provide valuable information to people in a way that’s free and easy to read. It’s the first step to building trust with readers so that you can turn them into customers in the future.
For example, if you have a food blog, and write blog posts about your favorite recipes, your readers will find value in that free content. Then, in the future, those readers will be more likely to buy your cookbook.
What you write about on your blog is up to you. There are blogs on the internet for pretty much any subject imaginable like travel, health & wellness, finance, religion, gardening, video games, and so on.
But, to attract a loyal audience, it’s best to stick to one specific subject, also known as a blog niche.
Once you decide what you want to write about, you need to start publishing blog posts on a regular basis. To figure out how often you should be publishing new content, check out our guide on blogging frequency.
Now, let’s get to the actual writing part.
There are a number of tasks that go into writing content. You’ve got to:
- Brainstorm topics you want to write about
- Research the topic online and look at competitors’ posts
- Take notes and draft an outline
- Write the blog post
- Add images for visual engagement
- Optimize your post for SEO
As you can see, writing content isn’t just about putting words on a page.
If you’ve never written a blog post before, don’t worry. Many bloggers are self-taught and they learn how to write as they go.
If you want to speed up the learning process, you can read our guide on how to write a good blog post.
Writing is the foundation of a successful blog.
But, if you want to make money from your blog, you need to do more than just write…
2.Recommend Affiliate Products
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways bloggers make money. It involves recommending products to readers within your content. Every time a reader uses your affiliate link to buy the product you recommended, you earn a commission for the sale.
Here’s an example from travel blogger Nomadic Matt. He wrote an article about the 5 best travel insurance companies:
He has an affiliate link for each travel insurance company he recommends in the post. Whenever anyone clicks on a link and purchases travel insurance, he makes some money.
Affiliate marketing is an easy way to start making money from your blog because you don’t have to create a product yourself. Plus, you can write one good product review, and that article can earn you money over and over again.
Just make sure that the affiliate products you’re promoting on your blog are ones that you truly use and believe in.
They should also be relevant to your audience. It wouldn’t make sense for a travel blogger to recommend kitchen appliances or car parts. Things like luggage, travel insurance, and hotels would be more relevant to your readers.
To get started with affiliate marketing, you can join an affiliate marketing network like ShareASale:
Simply sign up for free and search for products you want to recommend on your blog.
Want to learn more about affiliate marketing? Read our guide on how to start affiliate marketing.
3.Email Marketing
Email marketing goes hand-in-hand with blogging. With email marketing, you can develop a more personal relationship with your readers through regular, direct communication.
Plus, any time you have a new blog post or product to promote, you can send the information right to your subscribers’ inboxes. This will help you drive more traffic to your blog and even generate sales.
Getting started with email marketing isn’t as difficult as it sounds. At Blog Tyrant, we have a complete guide on how to do email marketing.
You can also follow along with this tutorial to learn how to create an email newsletter.
What can be difficult though, is convincing people to sign up for your email list.
That’s why we recommend using a tool like OptinMonster.
OptinMonster is an amazing lead generation tool that makes it easy to turn website visitors into subscribers. You can quickly create beautiful email optin popups using the professionally designed templates and drag and drop builder.
And you can automatically deliver a lead magnet, such as a free ebook, when someone signs up for your email list, like in the popup example above. Most people are more than willing to provide their email addresses if they’re going to get a free gift in return.
With OptinMonster, you can quickly grow your email list and start building long-lasting relationships with your readers.
Aside from building relationships with your existing readers, you also need to attract new visitors to your blog…
4.Self-Promotion
Self-promotion is another thing you’ll have to do as a blogger. After all, if you want new people to discover your blog and read your content, you have to promote it.
Don’t worry though, this doesn’t mean you have to buy ad space or create a big marketing campaign.
You can simply promote your content on social media.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are perfect for promoting your blog because they’re free and easy. Plus, most people are on social media these days, which means it won’t be hard to attract your target audience.
Here’s how the blog Pinch of Yum promotes their latest blog posts on Instagram:
As you can see, they use an eye-catching image, an engaging caption, and relevant hashtags like #Lasagna, #Pasta, and #Vegetarian to promote their new blog post. The hashtags make it easy for people interested in recipes and cooking to discover this post via Instagram search.
They also add the URL of the blog post to the caption in order to drive traffic to their site.
By consistently promoting your content on social media, you’ll be able to get the word out about your blog.
Check out our ultimate guide to social media for more tips.
Promoting your blog on social media is easier when you have a large following that will engage with your posts and share them for you.
So, to grow your social media following, try embedding social media feeds on your blog. This will introduce your social profiles to website visitors and encourage them to follow.
You can easily do this with a plugin like Smash Balloon.
Smash Balloon is the best social media feeds plugin for WordPress. It’s super easy to use; simply connect your social media account and in less than a minute you’ll have a beautiful feed on your site.
You can choose from different layouts, decide which posts you want to display or hide, design the feed to match your brand, and more.
There are also lite versions of the plugins that you can try out for free.
5.Sell Products
Many successful bloggers scale their businesses by selling their own products. So, if you want to boost your blogging income, this is something you should learn how to do as well.
Most bloggers sell digital products rather than physical ones because they’re much easier to create. Plus, you only have to create a digital product once, and then you can sell it over and over again.
Now, you might be wondering, what kind of digital products can you sell as a blogger?
A digital product that’s both easy to create and sell is an ebook.
Here’s how the blog Succulents and Sunshine does it:
They created a PDF ebook on propagating succulents. Since their blog is all about teaching their readers how to grow succulent plants, this ebook is filled with valuable and relevant information their audience would want to know.
Want to learn how to create your own ebook? Check out our guide on how to easily make an awesome ebook.
Another popular type of digital product you can sell is an online course. Online courses are an interactive way to teach your audience about a particular topic.
In the example below, blogger Melyssa Griffin created a course to teach people how to create profitable online courses.
This course sells for a whopping $997! But, since Melyssa’s blog is all about how to build a successful online business, her readers are willing to pay the price to learn her tips and tricks.
And don’t worry, you don’t need to have any teaching experience to create and sell an online course. All you need is some knowledge and experience in the subject you want to create your online course on.
To build an online course, we recommend using MemberPress.
MemberPress is an all-in-one membership plugin for WordPress that includes a user-friendly online course builder. That means not only can you create and sell online courses with this tool, but you can also create a membership site. With a membership site, you can charge users a monthly subscription fee to view your blog posts.
Take a look at our guide on creating an online course with MemberPress for step-by-step instructions.
Now that we’ve gone through the main aspects of what a blogger does, let’s go over some of the other tasks a blogger might have to do in a day…
A Day in the Life of a Blogger Checklist
The following checklist is an overview of all of the tasks you need to do as a blogger.
Of course, this list will vary depending on the blogger, but it will give you a general idea of what bloggers do in a typical day.
Let’s take a look:
- Brainstorm and search online for new blog topic ideas.
- Plan out your upcoming content using an editorial calendar.
- Write new blog posts 1-5 times per week, depending on your publishing frequency.
- Do keyword research so that your posts can rank higher in search results.
- Search for images to use on your blog or take your own photographs.
- Write and send your email newsletter, typically once per week. You can use an email marketing service like Constant Contact.
- Share your content on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Manage and reply to new blog comments.
- Oversee the back-end of your website. This includes fixing any issues that come up, keeping WordPress plugins updated, etc.
- Optimize your website for search engines. Find out how in our beginner’s guide to SEO.
- Keep track of your website analytics to see how many visitors your site is getting. You can do this with a plugin like MonsterInsights.
- Answer emails and reply to people that have reached out to you via your contact form.
- Spend time reading articles, listening to podcasts, and taking courses to improve your skills.
- Network with other bloggers on social media.
- Collaborate with other bloggers by guest posting, usually 1-2 times per month.
- Join affiliate programs for products and services you can promote on your blog.
- Create lead magnets to grow your email list and digital products like ebooks that you can sell.
- Do any bookkeeping tasks, especially if you have your blog set up as a business.
You can check out our massive list of 101 blogging tips for more ideas of how you should spend your time as a blogger.
FAQs About Being a Blogger
If you still need more information about what’s required to become a blogger, take a look at these frequently asked questions.
What is a blogger?
A blogger is simply someone who writes articles, tutorials, and other material for a blog.
How do you become a blogger?
The great thing about blogging is that anyone can become a blogger. All you need to do is set up a website and start writing!
For step-by-step instructions on how to become a blogger, check out our guide to starting a blog.
What equipment do I need to be a blogger?
All you really need to start blogging is a computer, an internet connection, and a blogging platform to write on.
When you start making money, you may want to invest in other marketing automation tools to grow your business.
How do bloggers get paid?
Bloggers get paid in a variety of ways. You can get paid by displaying ads on your site, with affiliate marketing, by selling products/services, and more.
For more ideas, check out this post on how to monetize a blog.
What is a blogger job?
As a blogger, you can work for yourself and make money online.
But, if you want to get a job in blogging, you can start freelance blogging. This is where you get paid to write blog posts for clients.
For more information, check out our guide to freelance blogging.
That’s a wrap!
We hope you enjoyed this article explaining what bloggers do. Now that you have all of the information you need, you can get out there and start blogging yourself!
If you liked this post, you might also want to check out our list of the best ways to make money online.
And don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter so you can get useful content like this sent right to your inbox!
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