Imagine if you could turn a little bit of money into a lot more, simply by making a few small investments into your blog. Whether you think about it or not, your blog is a business. I’d hope you would want to make this business as profitable as possible. By making a few small investments for your blog, you can rake in even more money for the long term.
Here are five things you can invest in to make your blog even better than it already is now.
1. Get A Fast, Reliable Web Host
If you’re serious about your website, and hope to pull in a lot of traffic to it, it’s absolutely vital that you get a proper web host. Resellers, although cheaper, simply won’t do. Not only is their space limited, their bandwidth also only allows a limited amount of people to visit at one time. Instead of waiting for problems to arise, it’s better to just get a bigger, better web host right from the get go.
And if you’re currently using a free host like Webs.com or Blogspot… it’s important to switch right away if you want people to actually take you seriously as a business.
I highly recommend checking out my article, Four Crucial Things To Look For When Choosing A Web Host. In that article, I go over what makes a great web host great, as well as my personal suggestions for web hosting. It’s definitely worth a read.
2. A Premium Theme
Think of the theme and framework for your website as the building materials and interior design of your house. It’s important that these are strong and presentable, which is why I highly recommended getting a premium theme and framework, such as Genesis. Free themes are often buggy and often result in massive security issues that can allow hackers to completely compromise your website. Not to mention, they are often poorly optimized, meaning that they take a long time to load which results in lower rankings in search engines.
I recommend Genesis for a few reasons. First of all, it’s one of the cleanest frameworks available for WordPress, period. The team behind Genesis are professional programmers who know what they are doing. There are never any security issues, and the theme loads extremely quickly. There are also so many different designs to choose from, and even then the themes are highly customizable. There’s a reason so many top websites are powered by Genesis – not to mention, one purchase and you can use it on ALL of your websites. Genesis was one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and I can say with utmost certainty that all the benefits of the framework have made me far more than what it had cost me.
3. SEMRush
Ranking in search engines these days isn’t easy. It seems like most of the search engine results are dominated by big players, who have seemingly unlimited marketing budget and can rank for almost anything with no effort.
These days, we have to go after long tail keywords. These are keywords that don’t have nearly as many searches as shorter keywords, but are significantly easier to rank for. SEMRush is a bit pricy at $97, but the fact of the matter is that you will make far more than that due to the insane increase in search engine traffic you’ll get to your articles.
4. Boost Your E-Mail Newsletter
For most niches, your e-mail newsletter will likely be your number one income generator. Not only does an e-mail newsletter keep people coming back to your site consistently, it also is the number one way for promoting products, and has the highest conversion rate. If you aren’t building your email list right now, you’re making a mistake. Start doing it now. Period.
Of course, you’ll want to get as many people subscribed to it as possible. The best way to go about this is to use a service like ActiveCampaign, which offers a ton of great opt-in templates, which comes free with a subscription. ActiveCampaign is currently offering a free trial, so you’ve got no excuse not to sign up and test it out. I’m using ActiveCampaign on all of my sites, and the results have been phenomenal.
5. Video Equipment
If you’re not on YouTube, you’re making a huge mistake. Not only is it another revenue source ($6.2 average per 1000 monetized views), it’s also an amazing traffic source to your website. YouTube videos rank a lot easier than a lot of articles do on the same subjects. If you’re on YouTube and your competitors aren’t, you already have a huge advantage over them.
It’s important to have the right equipment to make professional looking videos. I’m personally using the Shure SM7b, Panasonic G85 Camera, and Chromakey Green Screen. Again, it’s important to invest in top-of-the-line equipment early on, so you don’t have to spend extra money upgrading later.
Conclusion
Although there are a lot of other investments you can make into your blog, these are my personal top 5 recommendations. If you want to invest money into your blog for a good ROI in the long run, there are few better options than those listed above.
In what ways have you invested in your blog, and how has it turned out? I’d love to hear your stories.
Hey James, I am so ecstatic to be able to connect with you and oh boy…you got a great website here and fantastic articles. I mean your six years experience in blogging sums it up. 🙂
Literally speaking, investing in one’s blog really is the way to go if one wants to enjoy blogging success and the points you have highlighted here are just so on point.
While starting up in 2013, I had helped myself with some great books and ebooks about blogging and how to actually succeed in blogging.
So the next step I took was to quit my day job, ransacked myself and of course my bank, got myself a good and reliable host in arvixe, paid someone who’s got a vast wordpress experience to set it up for me, then I made sure to get a good genesis framework theme.
And that singular act has really helped me and has helped me to achieve some really awesome success. BUT, I am yet to be effective in the last three shared points.
I will start as soon as I make more money. 😀
Thanks for sharing this great post with us though and just to let you know how I loved this post I shared it with my kingged dot come family. Here: http://kingged.com/invest-blog-long-term/
Sam
Sam Adeyinka(Quote)
Hey Sam, thanks for stopping by. You have a great story and it’s nice to hear about your success online. After all, quitting your job is a big, big decisions but I’m glad to hear it it seems to me working out for you.
I am always a fan of long term investing, because it often yields the greatest return over time. The great thing about all the products I mentioned above is that they can be used for every single one of your websites – making them an even greater value. I definitely recommend picking them up when you get the opportunity, as they pay for themselves rather quickly.
Also, thank you so much for sharing my article. I really appreciate it. I hope to talk to you again soon!
– James McAllister
James(Quote)
Hi Sam,
Thanks for introducing this amazing blogger to your fellow kinggers!
Yes, he is a wonderful blogger with lot of valuable contents in it.
This post itself speaks volume about making money through different source.
The mentioned 5 things if we are not using it as said by the author its a great
mistake.
Thanks James for this valuable information you shared through this post.
I just visited your other pages too found very informative posts as Sam said here.
Keep up the good work
Keep informed
Best
~ Philip
Hey, James Thanks again for this informative and valuable post, I appreciate your time and effort you put in to create this. I just visited some of your other posts too, and found worthy reading, will come back again to look in. As Sam introduced us at kingged.com I found this post there and kingged it and posted the above comment there.
Keep it up my dear boy.
Best Regards
~ Philip
Philip Varghese Ariel(Quote)
Hello Phillip,
First off, thank you for your kind words. They mean more than you know.
I had never heard of Kingged before. I’ve spent a bit of time on the site, and I’m really enjoying. I’ll definitely be visiting it more often.
Thanks for stopping by and let me know if there’s ever anything I can do for you.
– James McAllister
James(Quote)
Hello James,
This is great post! I must admire your knowledge about this blogging world.
Investing in blogging helps to build a safer future of blog. It is like one-time investment( nearly ).
Getting a good host which guarantees 99.9% uptime is good to choose. If you choose cheap hosting provider, your site will go down frequently and you’ll miss the flow of visitors to your site.
Also, having a premium customizable theme matters alot. Premium themes are more SEO friendly, beautiful looking and secure.
Anyways, Thank you for sharing this tips with us!
Well, i found this post shared on http://www.kingged.com a content aggregator site.
Swaraj Nandedkar(Quote)
Hi Swaraj, thanks for stopping by.
You’re absolutely correct, and that’s one of the great thing about these long term investments. You pay for them once, and they’re yours to use forever, on all of your websites. You never have to worry about a lot of the issues that come from free products again, because the creators do such a great job at making sure their premium products are bug-free.
Hope to see you again soon.
– James McAllister
James(Quote)
Swaraj! What a great name that is. You know I come across many different names every day, especially Indian names and I must say yours is pretty unique. 🙂
So I love what you had to say about James’ fantastic post. Really, this investment we are talking about here is a one time thing and that’s the good thing about the whole thing.
Bout hosting and downtimes, think I can share a bit on that.
You know while starting up business blogging not fun blogging, I decided to get a host to host my blog “motivatenaija” but it was a nightmare trust me.
It always go down and finally was hacked has the hosting company was 1) uncknown 2) they have less experience 3) they are just too frail and you know all of those other stuffs.
That just goes to show the importance of getting a good and reliable host from the word “go!”
And about themes or templates, whatever you call it. I want to believe this a no-brainer.
We here the world “Content is the King” almost every day that it has almost become a watchword – and even newbie bloggers post about it on their blogs (though after stealing articles from other blogs). 😀
But what they usually fail to realize is that “design is also the king’s crowner”. (Fact)!
If your site’s design is bad trust me no one will read your content.
I can’t begin to tell you sites I visit everyday and immediately run off after getting on the page. It’s not just user friendly. That’s what a great theme does for you.
One thing I came to understand after some few months into blogging seriously that I had to start investing in that area.
So swaraj, you’ve here in your valuable comments talked about some great stuffs, which James really expounded more upon in his great post.
Thanks for stopping by brother, both here and James’ post. He will love you for it. 🙂
Sam
Sam Adeyinka(Quote)
Hi James,
Your post is highly insightful, recently I read a blog post on why blogging should be treated like a business (Actually blogging is a business) This post corroborate the entire article. The idea of starting a blog for free has gone over-board to the extent that bloggers rarely take out their time to see where and how they can invest on their blog for long term benefit. I make use of Long Tail Pro (It’s a must if you’re planning on staying around for a long time), I use Genesis too, although it’s heavily customized, and importance of a reliable host cannot be overemphasized.
BTW, I love the simplicity of your website, Goodluck.
Augustus(Quote)
Hey Augustus, thanks for stopping by.
I definitely agree that the days of starting a Blogspot or WordPress.com are long over, at least if you want people to take you seriously. I’m glad to hear you’re also enjoying some of the products I’ve mentioned in this article – they are lifesavers and some of the best investments I’ve ever made into building my business.
I also appreciate your comment on the design of my site. I’m aimed to keep it simple to help with page loading times, although I’m going to be designing a nicer logo and maybe adding a bit of colour to it pretty soon.
Hope to see you again!
James(Quote)
Investing in your blog for the long term? I think that will of course depend on how the blogger involves sees his or her blog.
Many really find it difficult to understand blogging is a business on its own and should be seen as such but not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Investing in all of these are really very important especially when it comes to hosting!
Emmanuel(Quote)
Making money blogging has been one of the most prominent ways to earn money online, and investing with your blog would be the least suggestion I would recommend you if you want a long term profitable business.
There are a lot of investments that you can do with your blog, and these suggestions listed above are included.
I must agree with the insights shared above, they are factual and relevant to blogging investment. I’ve also found the products mentioned helpful and effective to use on your website.
Thanks for this post! 🙂
P.S. I was fascinated with James’ blogging career. 🙂
Best,
Ann07
By the way, I found this post shared on Kingged.com
Ann07(Quote)
Hi James,
Thanks for this eye opening article post. BEFORE INVESTMENT WILL TAKE PLACE, THERE MUST BE AN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY.
There is no doubt that a blog is an asset that need investment in order to make it valuable & also yield huge profit in future.
Few of the first investment all bloggers make are DOMAIN & HOSTING, followed by WORDPRESS THEME and other blogging tools you mentioned in this post.
Tools like Long Tail Pro software, Video equipment for video bloggers and auto-responder for bloggers willing to build list.
But i will like to add PAID ADVERTISING to the long time investment all bloggers must make.
As we all know search traffic does not come quick, one need to invest in paid ads like facebook advert, google adwords, banner ads and so on.
Thanks for sharing this article post with us and hope it will go along way in helping fellow bloggers.
Have a nice weekend
Olamosh(Quote)
You’ve got some great points, Olamosh!
I am actually working on a post regarding ad campaigns right now, which I’ll publish sometime in the future. I didn’t add them into this article because I consider them to be (in most cases), short term investments, as these campaigns usually begin and end rather quickly and are unsustainable if you aren’t turning a profit. With paid advertising, it’s all about finding a good ROI, which can be difficult depending on the market you’re in. I’ve had more success using paid promotion for a single squeeze or landing page than promoting a blog in general. However, that’s a story for another day.
Hope to see you again!
James(Quote)
How much money should I spend on advertising per month?
Wolfe Miglio, Crypto Attorneys(Quote)
Hi Wolfe,
In an ideal scneario you’ll know your numbers at each step of the process, so I suppose my answer would be whatever you can spend profitably. Not every campaign will make money and you will likely operate at a loss in the beginning, but it’s possible to grow your business very quickly if you dedicate enough time, energy and money into building up profitable campaigns!
James McAllister(Quote)