12 Best Ways to Invest in Your Blog
So, you started a blog, and it is doing well…what next?
Every blogger starts their blog hoping to achieve a particular goal – whether it is to share their thoughts with the world, their knowledge on particular topics, or to build a career and make money blogging, among other reasons.
However, blogging is not as easy as it might seem because creating a successful blog requires a lot of work, time, and money.
Most bloggers want their blogs to be successful, and they all have their own definition of what they consider success for their blogs. It could be defined by using numbers such as their followers, subscribers, viewers, and earnings; or things like engagement and gaining more skills or in-depth knowledge on their chosen subject, thus becoming an authority blogger in their niche.
For bloggers that want to make money blogging, increase web traffic, or improve the aesthetics of their blog, it is good to treat your blog as a business.
And like any other business, you must spend money on your blog to make money from it, and that is why you need to learn how to invest in your blog.
In this post, we shall discuss some of the best ways to invest in your blog to improve its performance, user experience, and aesthetics.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something by clicking on one of them, Aisles of Life might get a small commission at no additional cost to you.
How to Invest in Your Blog
- A custom domain name
When starting a blog, you can begin by having a free blog such as those provided by WordPress, Wix, and Blogspot, while you do more research to understand the blogging world. These usually have URLs such as yourblogname.wordpress.com or yourblogname.blogspot.com.
However, most free blogs do not allow you to customize your site much or monetize, and you only have access to a handful of free themes. Thus, as you finally find your blogging feet, purchasing a domain name is the initial way to invest in your blog.
Having your own domain name gives your blog better authority and enables you to monetize your content. Investing in your blog by purchasing a custom domain also makes it look more professional and credible to readers, especially those that find it through search engine result pages.
Most times, purchasing a custom domain goes hand in hand with choosing a blogging niche and upgrading plans, or deciding on a web-hosting platform.
- Web-hosting
If you only want to have a platform for blogging without focusing much on making money or customizing your blog, a free plan will work just fine for you.
However, if you intend to make blogging a career, getting a custom domain name and upgrading to the WordPress Business or eCommerce plan would be the best ways to invest in your blog.
To have even more flexibility with your site, look for self-hosting options.
Blogging is a worthwhile investment. Spending money to upgrade your plan or start a self-hosted blog enables you to have more control over your website design and to install premium themes.
You can get web-hosting plans starting from as low as $2.65/month on Bluehost – which is one of the best hosting platforms.
- Plugins
When you decide to invest in your blog and upgrade to the WordPress business plan or opt for self-hosting, you can then install plugins on your site. Plugins help you add more features and functionalities to your blog.
When deciding on how to invest in your blog, consider purchasing plugins for functions like security, SEO, spam protection, caching, website design, insights, gallery, contact forms, backup, etc.
Plugins improve your blog’s performance, its aesthetics, and provide a better user experience.
READ ALSO: 4 Things to Do If Someone Steals Your Blog Content (and How to Protect Your Posts)
- Promotion
If you want to reach a bigger audience and generate more traffic for your website, you need to promote your blog. You could promote your blog by advertising through ad networks, social media, and other blogs that offer advertising space or link-building opportunities.
Make sure your blog includes truly helpful and educational blog posts, such as this link building blog, which can give your users additional insightful information they can apply however they see fit.
More traffic to your blog means more money earned through ad impressions and clicks or affiliate sales. Hence, spending money on promotion is one of the best ways to invest in your blog.
READ ALSO: 10 Things That Make Blogging Frustrating
- Products to review
It is possible to review products without ever trying them out.
However, if you are a product reviewer and want to remain an honest and authentic blogger, it is best to review something you have already used.
Keen readers can tell when you don’t know the product, and you might also end up misleading others that trust you and depend on you for recommendations.
While you could pitch to brands hoping to be gifted products, there is no guarantee you will get them, or you might have to wait a long time for offers. Since your site must go on, one of the best ways to invest in your blog is by purchasing the products you want to review.
To earn the money you spent purchasing various products back or make money from your product reviews, consider joining affiliate programs to get a commission for every sale you make. Speaking of affiliate programs…
- Affiliate programs
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money blogging. It is where you promote products in your blog posts, include affiliate links to the seller’s websites, and earn a commission when your readers purchase something you recommended.
While many affiliate programs are free to join, some of the best ones require you to pay a particular amount of money in order to join their publisher network. This is done mainly to verify your bank account details and that you are a real person.
Considering the prevalence of bots and fraudsters on the internet nowadays, requesting some payment before allowing an affiliate to join is a good thing because it helps affiliate programs filter serious bloggers from bots and those who aren’t serious.
One popular affiliate program that usually does this is called AWIN. Before joining AWIN, one of the requirements is for a blogger to pay $5, which is then refunded once your application is approved.
Spending your money to join an affiliate program is one of the best ways to invest in your blog because if it is a good program like AWIN, it is worth it. You will make a lot more money after joining. You can join AWIN and become an affiliate by clicking on this link.
- Online courses and books
Most bloggers start a blog without much knowledge and skills on how to run a website, design it, write high-quality SEO content, promote their posts, and, generally, make their blogs successful.
If you are like most of us, you probably need some help to understand the art of blogging when starting and even as you go along.
You can never know everything about blogging as it is ever-changing, and there are always new things and strategies to learn.
Enrolling in online courses and purchasing books to learn more about various aspects of blogging, from writing to website design, marketing strategies, and more, are some of the best ways to invest in your blog.
READ ALSO: 5 Best Ways to Invest in Yourself for a Better Future
- Grammar and spell-checking tools
As a blogger, your writing style plays a role in the success of your blog. And while you could proofread your blog posts, you are only human, and you might miss some errors.
Some readers click away from a site when they encounter grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. So, don’t give your website visitors any reasons to leave your site prematurely.
Make sure your writing is readable and free of grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. One of the best ways to invest in your blog is by signing up for grammar and spell-checking tools and sites such as Grammarly, ProWriting Aid, and Ginger.
- Stock images or a camera
Pictures are important as they are the ones that catch a reader’s eye and keep their attention, whether on the blog itself or when used on social media posts. Hence, you need to find the best high-quality images for your blog content.
There are many websites where you can easily find high-quality free stock images, such as Pexels, Pixabay, and Unsplash, among others.
However, if you want your blog to be unique, it is best to avoid using free stock images as everyone has access to them. The pictures you choose could have been used by many other bloggers already thus, your blog won’t stand out.
Some of the best ways to invest in your blog are by signing up to premium stock image sites such as iStock, Getty Images, and Stocksy, or buying a better camera or phone to take your own pictures.
- Photo editing apps and tools
Having pictures to use on your site is not enough. You need to also be creative and edit your images before posting them for promotion on social media, especially on Pinterest.
When choosing how to invest in your blog, remember to include photo editing apps and software in your budget.
Some of the best photo editing apps and tools for bloggers include Canva, Picmonkey, Visme, and VSCO. Most have a free version you could use to create simple designs, but for the best experience and additional editing capabilities, consider signing up for the premium versions since they are not expensive.
If you aren’t a very creative person or want to save on time, you could also purchase premade Canva templates for Instagram and Pinterest posts.
- Social media tools
Social media platforms are some of the biggest sources of traffic for many blogs. As such, when deciding on the best ways to invest in your blog, social media tools should be at the top of your list.
Social media tools make your work easier by helping you automate tasks, schedule social media posts, manage engagement, analyze performance, track mentions of your brand online, and monitor competitors.
Examples of social media tools to invest in for your blog include; Sprout Social, Buffer, Hootsuite, BuzzSumo, and Tailwind.
- Planners
Like any other job, blogging requires discipline. Therefore, you must become more organized, set goals, and plan or create a schedule for all the blogging activities you need to do.
As you are thinking about how to invest in your blog, digital planners should be among the things you are considering spending money on.
Planners help you plan your days, set your priorities, keep your goals in mind, become more efficient, and enhance productivity.
READ ALSO: How to Manage Your Time as a Blogger
The Bottom Line
Investing in your blog is one of the best decisions you will ever make if you want it to be successful. It can seem daunting at first mainly because you might be unsure of your ability to make a profit, but take that leap of faith and try the above best ways to invest in your blog.
However, keep in mind that no matter how much money you invest in your blog, content is still king, thus, you need to create high-quality posts and promote them in order to get a profitable return on investment.
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Helpful blog 😃
Thank you so much for reading! I’m very glad you liked the post❤️
Super informative, Sheri. Great post. ❤️
Thank you, Jeff❤️
Wow! So informative blog on investment on blog. Loved to read it. I really didn’t know how to invest as a blogger. Thank you for sharing 👍❤
You are welcome, Priti, and thank you so much for reading!❤️ If blogging is not just a hobby for you, then it is good to invest in your blog.
Yes I write short stories
Nice to hear that! I will make sure to check your blog out. Sounds like something I would be interested in reading😊
Okay, please visit 🙏
Thanks for the advice. I shall have to find out if AWIN works in the UK.
It works in the UK as well. Do try it out. Thank you so much for reading, Jamie!❤️
Find ways to invest in your blog. A lot of bloggers have their own websites, but there are other ways that you can invest in your blog. Establishing relationships with other writers is a good way to get your name out there, and reaching out to businesses for sponsorship will give you new sources of income.