Learn How A Blog Can Benefit Any Side Hustle
Oftentimes when people hear the term blog, they think of an online diary that no one really reads. Luckily for business owners, this could not be further away from the truth. A blog is a section on your website where you write articles related to your business for readers to access or find. Now, even though that description isn’t the sexiest, there is a reason why blogging is so important and effective for business owners. And no matter what type of side hustle you have, a blog can prove to be beneficial and help your business grow!
Whether you run a service-based business, product-based, you’re local or your business is virtual, a blog can help your business be seen more and grow. No matter what your business model is, your side hustle should have a website and a blog. And here are the biggest reasons why!
Perks Of Having A Blog
When it comes to running a business, blogging can be a game-changer for many reasons. One is, that you are producing new content for your website. This is good in general. When your website has new content added, it tells search engines like Google that your site is legit and fresh. Search engines recognize this and begin to rank your site higher and higher.
Having a blog on your website doesn’t mean you need to develop new thoughts or ideas. And it doesn’t mean you need to even blog personally. Your blog should simply be an extension of the information, services, and solutions that your business already offers. This new content on your website is what does the magic! According to Opt-In Monster, websites with blogs get 97% more clicks than websites without blogs. And when it comes to your website, your number one goal is for people to spend as much time there as possible, clicking, browsing, and ultimately buying your products and services.
create An Online presence
One reason why every side hustle should have a blog is to create a legit online presence. When someone lands on your website and sees that you actively keep your blog up to date, this builds credibility. This tells a viewer that you tend to your side hustle and that your business is active!
Your blog also helps you create an online presence to be found. The main goal of blogging is to produce content that is beneficial for others (ideally your potential customers/clients). And when that blog post is found online, your business has a new viewer. They can consume the education you’re providing and then naturally take the next steps to your business.
Having a website alone for your side hustle doesn’t create an ongoing online presence. It simply puts your business online for others to consume when they are directed there. Tools like blogging, help others organically find your website. Simply put, when you blog for your side hustle, you can cast a much wider net for potential clients via your online presence.
serve your audience with content
Customer service can be the ultimate deciding factor for your customers or clients. It can set your side hustle apart and lead to more opportunities. One way that we can create more customer service is through blogging. Blogging may not sound like a customer service tool, but it can be so useful!
When you create a blog for your side hustle, you want to blog about the solutions that your business provides. Not only can readers gain benefits from working with you, but they can benefit from reading additional nuggets of information that’s on your blog, related to pain points they may be facing.
You can also incorporate your blog posts into workflows with already existing clients. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, write a series of posts on how to best prep for your wedding day. Or what details to layout for your photographer to capture. Blog posts like this can be simple tools to send out to your brides that both serve them, save you time and even boost your website ratings!!
HOW TO SERVE YOUR AUDIENCE THROUGH BLOGGING:
- Share tips and tricks with potential clients
- Introduce solutions to pain points that your business offers
- Write a blog series on how to work with you and include it in your client workflow
- Provide easily accessible posts that you can send to potential clients upon inquiry
educate your audience on your business
Another reason why every side hustle needs a blog is so that you can educate others on your business and industry. And you can do this, no matter what type of business you run. Your ideal customer may not even know that they need you. Or that you exist. This is the power of blogging!
Blog posts can serve as great information for your audience to consume quickly and easily. And when they learn more, they are more likely to begin connecting dots. For example, if you run a food truck on the side, you can begin blogging about why events with food trucks tend to be more memorable than events with standard catering. Or how food trucks offer a variety of healthy and indulgent food.
When your audience takes to the internet to begin finding a solution, your blogs posts can show up! Plus, these blog posts will likely show up well before your general website. And when a potential client does find you, your education blog posts can decrease or eliminate any hesitations they may have for hiring you.
HOW TO EDUCATE YOUR AUDIENCE THROUGH BLOGGING:
- Consider your ideal customer and what “pain points” they are solving; this is what you blog about!
- Educate your audience on how your products and services can solve their pain point
- Prove yourself as a subject matter expert and provide further education that can be useful to your audience
get found with local SEO
If your side hustle is local, then blogging should be a must for your business! Blogging regularly for a local business can improve your local SEO ranking significantly. This is important because when it comes to someone looking for “xyz” type of business in “location”, they more than likely take to the internet! Most of the time, Google.
When you blog for your local business, you can incorporate your location in a number of ways. You can even format your blog posts with a location in mind. For example, if you’re a family photographer located in Columbia, South Carolina, blog posts like “Best Locations In Columbia, South Carolina For Family Portraits” can get you in front of potential clients who are looking to take family photos, looking for a photographer and a location!
Another example could be “5 Things You Should Do The Morning Of Family Photos”. With this example, you would incorporate your local information in the first few paragraphs of your blog. Maybe by introducing yourself, your business, and your location. This type of blog post will still get you found by your audiences and search engines can still pull that local information inside your posts and put it in front of local audiences.
BLOGGING TIPS FOR LOCATION-BASED SIDE HUSTLES:
- See if you can naturally incorporate your location in your blog post title
- incorporate your location in your meta description
- Consider round-up posts for your location
- Think about what your audience is searching for online and explore how to naturally blog about that
- Avoid listing your competitors in the area
- Partner up with another local business for a shout-out post!
- See how to incorporate your location in the first paragraph or two
- Be sure to have Google Analytics installed and a local Google Business account set up
Passively Earn Affiliate Income
Another reason why every side hustle should have a blog is to earn passive income through affiliate marketing. No matter what type of business you run, you can earn dive into affiliate marketing that serves your direct audience or indirect audience. And when you begin to earn passive income through avenues such as affiliate marketing, your business begins to generate revenue without needing direct man-hours. This is gold!!
Consider what your audience is looking to you for. How can you serve them past your products and services? And what trusted brands can you partner with to make this a mutually beneficial service? Let’s go over a quick example!
If your side hustle is a local charcuterie service, your clients will be those looking for quality and Insta-worthy snacks delivered on demand for a special get-together. So one way to begin incorporating affiliate marketing with your blog post is to blog about “best charcuterie knife sets on amazon” or “how to spice up your dinner party with these extra details…”. Posts like this can be affiliate linked with trusted products and/or services that you recommend to clients. Be sure that it aligns with your product, truly serves your audience naturally and doesn’t directly compete.
Affiliate marketing can be incorporated into any side hustle! And blogging allows you to cast a wider net and begin earning a truly passive income. If you’re wanting to take the next steps with affiliate marketing and become a true expert, this course is hands down the best! Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing walks bloggers through strategies for naturally promoting products, how to keep it legal and where to put your links for maximizing your payouts.
How to start your blog today
If you run a side hustle and you haven’t started blogging yet, trust me it won’t let you down. Long gone are the days when blog posts are online diaries that no one reads. Think about this… When you search for something on Google, click a link and read what it says, what you’re reading is a blog post! Blogs are sources of content and information that are found online. And they can be game-changers for your business before and after a booking or sale.
If you’re ready to start your blog, start with my blogging outline sheets. This is a $9 download that will guide you through laying out every blog post of yours the right way. Don’t waste your time blogging with no results. Create a result-oriented blog post that will truly serve your business by starting with a strong outline. These sheets are designed to keep the goal of your posts on track and make blogging easy!
Just the side hustles, blogging can be mighty! So what are you waiting for? Make blogging for your business a priority and see the results come in for yourself! I know it can be a game-changer for you because it has been for every side hustle of mine. Have fun with it, share your posts with family and friends and get ready for opportunity to come in through your magically blogging fingers!
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