Introduction on how to start a blog in South Africa
Do you want to start a blog in South Africa?
Good.
Because with the unemployment rate at 34.9 % in the 3rd quarter of 2021 it’s important to start thinking of alternative ways to make money. We have to start thinking outside the box. The regular 8 – 5 jobs are fast starting to become a thing of the past. That is if you can manage to find one in the first place.
So with all that said, you have to find other ways to generate income and make a living. Luckily for us, it is 2022 and we have the internet that can help us accomplish anything.
All you need is a laptop, an internet connection, (that you can even access for free at coffee shops), and the willingness to learn new skills.
Which is why you are on my blog right? To learn how to start a blog in South Africa. You have definitely come to the right place.
I will teach you how to start a blogging business in South Africa.
But.
Is it worth it to start a blog in South Africa?
Blogging isn’t really as popular here as it is in the United States of America. Nevertheless, with the internet, you can blog from anywhere in the world and people can read your content.
That is what your aim should be. All it takes is a lot of hard work and a few years of dedication, motivation, and persistence. Also, make sure you target a global audience.
You probably won’t earn much if you only target South Africa. The traffic in America is worth much more than in South Africa. You also make a lot more money with ads and affiliate marketing.
South Africa has a lot of growth to do in terms of blogging and how people view it. It has become a legitimate business throughout the rest of the world. Especially in the States.
So before you start, make sure that you pick a topic that Americans will be interested in. And register your blog with an American website.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure page here.
Now let’s get started on how to start a blog in South Africa.
1. Find your why.
Why do you deserve your dream?
What will be different when you get it? Really think about these questions and answer them honestly, it will carry you through the difficult times that will come.
Commit 100% to your blog.
At times you won’t feel like creating content or learning new ways to grow your blog. Push past that feeling, acknowledge it then do the work anyway. Your goals are more important than your feelings.
2. Do research on how to start a blog in South Africa
Let’s face it. Blogging involves a lot of research.
You want to produce the best content that you possibly can for your audience.
So you have to learn everything there is to know about blogging.
Like what exactly is a blog?
What skills do you need to start a blog?
How much will it cost you to start a blog?
What will you blog about and how profitable is the niche you choose?
What will you name your blog?
Who are you blogging for and what are their needs?
How to promote your blog?
How to make money?
Google, Pinterest, and youtube are your best friends, my friend. Everything you do has to involve research. It is crucial for the growth of your blog.
3. Find your audience/ niche
Who is your audience? What is their biggest problem? How do you plan on helping them? Can you relate to them?
Find their problem and provide a solution. It will always have a monetization strategy. It will also narrow down your niche. Helping a very specific type of people.
When using this method of choosing a niche, you won’t get stuck on how to pick what to write about.
Most people struggle with it because they make it more complicated than it has to be. It doesn’t.
Find a problem and solve it. Give your audience what they want. But make sure that you at least like to write about the topic. You are going to create content about it for years.
Here are some top niches that make money faster
Personal Finance
Make Money Online
Health and Fitness
Food
Travel
Lifestyle
Parenting
Beauty and Fashion
DIY Crafts
Related Post:
How to choose the Perfect Niche
4. Choose a blog name
Don’t overthink this step either. People spend way too much time on their blog names. Instead of what’s really important. It’s not about the name (not really. It’s about great content.
But brainstorm names that are easy to spell and remember, that tell people immediately what your blog is about or something unique and eye-catching.
Don’t use a long name that is difficult to spell or pronounce. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find and remember your blog.
If you can’t come up with anything, you can always use your name. Also make sure you use the top-level extension, meaning .com. It’s the most popular extension and what people usually type in after what they search for. Don’t go for a .co.za extension. You want to target global traffic.
Your blog name is important but not the be-all and end-all. Choose something simple but good and move on to the next step.
5. Create quality content
Great content is king.
You can have a beautiful site but if your content sucks no one will read your blog.
Write 10 to 15 sensational blog posts Posts that people want to read and share.
Make it a mixture of how-to posts, top 10 posts, list posts, and your pillar posts.
They tend to do their best on search engines.
You should also interlink all your posts to other blog posts. Any number above 1000 words is fine as long as it is helpful information and not just a bunch of fluff. 1500+ words will also give you lots of love from Google SEO.
How do you write a blog post if you’ve never done it before?
Decide what to write about
Always make sure you have a bunch of blog post headline ideas. That way you don’t have to start from scratch. Work on your title, it should catch your reader’s attention immediately.
Remember to include keywords to make sure people would want to click on it but please don’t be clickbaity.
Deliver on what you promised your reader. You are trying to build trust here.
Research your topic
I used to be in research mode for days, don’t do that. Research for an hour or so then start writing, using
keyword research.
- Ubersuggest is very helpful for long-tail keywords and content ideas.
- BuzzSumo helps you understand which topics receive the most social shares. You get five free searches per day on a website.
- Answer The Public generates questions people have about a keyword
Who are you writing for? Who is your audience?
The clearer you are on who you are writing for, the more specific and helpful your content will be.
Solve the problem that you promised in the headline. Give them a reason to stick around and read to the end.
Outline, write and edit your post
Write down your main points then fill in what you want to say. Provide value.
Optimize your post for SEO (search engine optimization) so Google can start ranking your blog posts.
Then give a clear call to action.
Break up your post into two to three sentences and add quality images.
Edit, publish and promote.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time on your longer in-depth posts. They are very time-consuming.
Related Posts:
How to Write your First Blog Post
9 Ways to write blog posts faster
6. Purchase your domain and hosting.
What are domain and hosting? And where do I buy them?
If you want to start a money-making blog, you need a self-hosted website. In order to have a website, you need a domain and web hosting. You can buy them together or separately, as they are separate services.
(Yes, unfortunately, you have to make a tiny investment. Believe me, I looked for ways to start a blog for free but none of those methods provided ways to make money. So I went for the next best cheapest way.)
If you buy your domain and host separately, you need to point your domain name to your hosting company by editing the DNS settings. I think that it’s better if you buy them together to avoid that extra step.
If you are on a tight budget like I was, I would recommend you go with NameCheap. Like the name says it is cheap but also reliable. It’s great when you are just starting a blog. I also chose them because you can pay on a month-to-month basis for hosting.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a .com name. The name that you name your blog after. The address of your website that people type in the URL browser.
There are different types of domain extensions. The .com is the most popular.
Namecheap is the best place to buy a domain.
- Their WhoisGuard is always free and they offer free SSL protection at $7.88/year.
- The renewal prices are less expensive than their competitors.
- I chose them for my hosting and domain name.
- They have 99.9% uptime
- Great customer support.
- They are overall just a very reliable web hosting company and domain registrar.
If you choose to go with another hosting company like Bluehost, they offer a free domain for the first year. But it is much more expensive for the renewal. I would suggest you start with NameCheap from the beginning to avoid any future hassle.
What is Hosting?
Hosting is the place where your blog lives. The home of your website. And in that home, you add your furniture which is your blog content.
If you want something very good and have the dough for it I would recommend siteground. They are among the best where hosting is concerned.
They offer 24/7 support.
Fast site speed is good for Google SEO.
They also have ultimate security and protection for your site.
Now they are a bit on the pricey side if you don’t have much capital, but definitely worth your money spend.
You can always go for Bluehost, which is what a lot of bloggers recommend. It is very popular and easy to use.
Related Posts:
How to start a Money – Making Blog in 2021
Easy Bluehost Tutorial (Beginners Guide)
7. Choose a CMS (content management system)
A content management system is just a fancy word for a blogging platform. Which is a software service used to publish content online. The best and most popular is WordPress.org. It is the go-to platform for bloggers.
It powers over 455 million websites as of 2021 on the internet. Considering there are about 1.3 billion websites on the internet.
It’s great when customizing your blog and when you want to add features through different plugins.
It is a bit complicated to understand and navigate in the beginning, but the many functions and monetization benefits outweigh the steep learning curve.
It took me many sleepless nights to figure WordPress out. Bloggers don’t warn you about that. Be prepared and use Google and youtube to guide you through the process. There are tons of good videos that walk you through the steps.
Other blogging platforms are
- Squarespace
- Weebly
- Wix
- Blogger
- GoDaddy
- Tumblr
8. Choose a theme
Here is where we start talking about branding.
What is branding?
Branding is just the overall look of your site, the colors, the fonts, your logo, and the overall aesthetic of your site. Your site has to be a reflection of your personality. What colors do you like? Choose three to four colors and use them throughout your blog. On your logo, in-stock pictures, and in your pin images.
The same goes for when it comes to choosing a theme.WordPress has plenty of free themes to choose from. Pick something that more or less reflects who you are and what your brand stands for. It has to be functional, easy to navigate, and mobile-friendly.
When starting out, it’s perfectly ok to use a free theme. A good free theme that I can recommend is Astra. It is simple and easy to navigate. As far as free themes are concerned it is very nice looking. From there you can download the Gutenberg templates; it comes with built-in pages. Very convenient.
9. Install the most essential plugins.
A plugin is a software that you can add to any WordPress website. It makes it much easier to run your blog. As plugins tend to slow a website down, it is necessary for you to only install the most essential plugins that you will need. There are over 50k WordPress plugins available. So it can get pretty overwhelming to decide which ones to pick.
Here are a few of my free favorites:
1) Wordfence security or social welfare.
They both protect against attacks.
2) WP super coach.
It is a Cache plugin that if someone visits it saves a copy of your latest website
3) Updraft plus
Is used to backup your website
4) Shortpixel image optimizer.
It compresses and reduce the size of images but know that you should reduce the size of your image before you upload it as well
5) Yoast SEO
Yeost is an SEO plugin. It helps to optimize your site for search engines
6) Growth social pro
Social media sharing buttons to make sharing your content easy
7) Google Analytics
Where you find out who, what, when, and how they visit your website
10. Publish your blog
Phew! We are finally getting to the fun stuff.
Before pressing publish you should proofread your pre-written blog posts. Check your grammar. You can use Grammarly for this. Check and recheck your post.
Make sure your content is SEO optimized. Written in small paragraphs, and have applicable high-quality images on.
The best place to promote your blog is Pinterest.
It used to be the best place of promotion for new bloggers. That has changed and it’s much harder to get traffic nowadays.
You should also promote on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It’s good to promote with all social media platforms. You need to diversify your traffic source. But focus on mastering one social media platform at a time to avoid spreading yourself too thin. Or become too overwhelmed that you end up not growing at all.
See what works best for you and your blog and do more of it.
You should also start writing with SEO in mind from the beginning in order for google to start ranking you as soon as possible. Which usually takes three to six months. Google brings in the best traffic because it is consistent and passive once you’ve done all the keyword research upfront.
After proofreading, create at least 2-5 eye-catching, clickable Pinterest pins per blog post. You should already have decided on a color scheme, fonts, and stock photos for your graphics. Having these ready will make creating images for your blog very easy.
Pinterest loves new content. Keep creating new pins for your posts.
Add the necessary affiliate links. Interlink to your other relevant posts. Add backlinks (linking to others’ websites) then publish your post.
Promote your blog as much as you can.
Your tribe will not come to you. As much as I wish that was the case. You have to go find them. Find out where they hang out (Pinterest and Facebook Groups) and become their bestie by showing them how you can help them.
Always remember to be consistent in your blogging schedule whether you are posting once a month or three times a
week. Make sure you do it consistently with quality content.
Other places where you can promote your blog post
1) Reddit
2) Quora
3) BlogLoving
4) Mix.com.
5) Medium
6) Blog post-vote up
7) blogarama
8) Youtube
Related Post:
10 Places to share your blog post after you hit publish
11. Monetization
Now the main reason why we start blogs.
To make money.
It’s ok to admit you want to make money. You work hard to provide value to your audience and you should be compensated for it. As long as you don’t do it just for the money.
There are many ways to monetize your blog. Figure out how you are going to make money.
Different methods work for different people. Think big.
Find out what works for you.
I suggest starting with one or two methods, really taking the time to learn how you can make money with it. Once you’ve mastered them, move on to the others. The easiest to start with are ads and affiliate marketing.
Some bloggers are against ads and I understand why. But then you find those who swear by them and make a lot of money with it. That’s why I love blogging. There are no rules. So do you.
There are unlimited ways you can make money with your blog.
After a while start adding sponsorships, creating your own products, freelancing, services, and/or coaching. Creating your own products will give you more control over how much you earn along with more passive income.
Different monetization methods
1) Affiliate marketing is where you recommend other people’s products and services in exchange for a commission. Amazon associate is a great place to start.
2) Ads having Google Adsense ads where if people click on it you get paid a small amount per thousand clicks
3) Sponsorships are where brands pay you to write about their products in order to get in front of your audience.
4) Create your own products and get a hundred percent of your earnings. Because it’s your own product you are in complete control of everything. However, it takes a lot of time to create. But it is passive income at its best once it’s done.
5) Freelancing is very cool because you can start making money now by advertising your writing services on your blog and getting clients.
6) Services are almost the same as freelancing, you offer a service like becoming a virtual assistant or managing other bloggers’ social media accounts.
7) Coaching is basically teaching an individual or a group of people about something that you have a lot of knowledge about and is of high value to them.
Related Post:
9 Monetization methods to make money Blogging
Conclusion on how to start a blog in South Africa
And there you have it. How to start a blog in South Africa. It is a lot of hard work, with lots of ups and downs. We really don’t know how much work it takes when we start the journey. And you feel like quitting and giving up when the results don’t come immediately. But don’t quit because on the other side is everything you want.
If you do all of these steps consistently and commit to it, you will definitely start seeing success with your blog.
The main takeaways from how to start a blog in South Africa
- Have a million dollar mindset. Believe in yourself and your abilities.Commit 100%. Have a goal and keep your eye on it. Know your why.Visualize yourself as a successful blogger. When adversity comes, push through and don’t give up.
- Create quality content by helping your audience solve their problems. If you help enough people get what they want, people will want to help you get what you want. Life is give and take.
- Promote your content 80% of the time. Use the other 20% to write great content.
- Use different promotion tactics and see what works for you.
- Learn marketing and market the heck out of your content.
- Have clear monetization strategies. Starting with one or two, making sure you know the ins and out of how to make money with each strategy. Trying out different strategies, keeping the ones that work and dumping those that don’t. Then only moving on to the next.
At first, it will be a very slow process. You won’t know what you are doing. But by learning every day you will get better at it.
Most things you try won’t work, but some will. Eventually, you will find a system that works for you. It is different for everyone. And before you know it you’ll be able to call yourself a successful South African blogger.
If you do not quit. You can’t fail.