4 Ways to Run Blog as a College Student

Are you planning on becoming a student blogger? You might have heard or read stories where bloggers built an online platform to share their thoughts and experiences while at the same time raking in hundreds or even thousands per month from monetization methods like affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and advertising revenue, and thought to yourself, “Yeah, I want to do this.”

The good news is that it’s possible to make a good income from blogging as a college student. In fact, Luisa Zhou reports that a blogger can make up to $2,500 per month during their first year.

However, like any profession, running a successful, money-making blog requires significant dedication, strategic planning, and a lot of hard work.

But don’t get things wrong; this post is not meant to discourage you but to show you how to start your blog and earn money from it, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort.

Know Why You’re Doing It

Yeah, you’ve read a bunch of blogs and watched some YouTube clips on how much you can make from blogging, but are you really sure you know why you want to do it?

Earning as a blogger is not as direct as these sources suggest. Before you pick a niche or write your first post, it’s absolutely critical to have a clear purpose and motivation for starting a blog.

Your blogging objectives will directly shape your strategies and how you measure your success. So, you have to ask yourself, “Am I doing this to become famous on campus, or am I doing it solely for financial benefits?” 

I know you might be wondering, “Why not both?” but believe me, it’s not that easy. You have to focus on one area and hopefully the other will come as time goes on (a lot of time).

If supplemental income is a top priority, you’ll want to focus more heavily on search engine optimization and monetization channels like affiliate marketing. Otherwise, your aim should be growing a loyal following on campus, and social media engagement may be your top ally in achieving this objective.

Either way, by knowing your “why” from the start, you’ll avoid aimless blogging and be able to make strategic decisions that will help you achieve your goals.

Choose a Niche You Love 

How good you’re at being a blogger largely depends on your chosen niche. You have to pick a niche that interests you; otherwise, you’ll not have the motivation or discipline to grow your blog.

Successful blogs thrive on consistent, high-quality content creation, which can be a massive task if you aren’t deeply passionate about your niche. So, select a niche you’ll enjoy writing about for years to come, and here are some tips to help you:

• List your hobbies, areas of expertise, unique life experiences, or specialist knowledge.
• Research popular blog topics and see if any overlap with items on your list.
• Use tools like Google Trends to identify high-interest niches with growth potential.
• Consider “subniche” opportunities within more prominent categories.

For instance, you may be an expert home cook who can prepare a good meal on a tight budget. Rather than making your niche a general “food blog,” you could narrow it down to something like “Healthy Meals for Broke Students” and establish yourself as an authority for that specific audience.

After you’ve grown an active and passionate following from this niche, you can monetize through targeted methods like affiliate marketing for kitchen tools or, better yet, offering a meal-prep ebook that your audience can buy. Irrespective of your chosen niche, just be sure to select a subject you genuinely care about to avoid burning out early.

Grow Your Readers with Hot Trends

Students want to know the “latest,” and you can capitalize on this to draw them to your blog. For example, let’s say you run a college news blog. You can post about that viral Campus Appreciation Awards ceremony or the latest polls for the forthcoming student government elections that have been the most talked about on campus.

In any case, your goal should be to attract new readers regularly, and there’s no better strategy (aside from SEO) than following the latest trends. Your audience determines how much you can make as a blogger, so you have to leverage every strategy to improve their numbers regularly (this includes focusing on trends).

Optimize and Monetize

Why is SEO so critical for bloggers? Well, according to Google’s internal data, a staggering 53% of web users are more likely to ignore a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

And 75% of these same visitors stay within the first page of search results. This means that even if your site opens faster, you’ll still need your content to be optimized to rank on the first page for relevant keywords; otherwise, you’ll miss out on organic traffic and the revenue that comes with it.

So, from a technical SEO standpoint, focus on:

• Optimizing your site’s page load speed and mobile-friendliness 
• Using targeted keywords in titles, headings, image alt text, and meta descriptions
• Building high-quality backlinks through guest posts and outreach 
• Creating comprehensive content “hub” pages to increase keyword relevance

With your blog’s SEO in place, you can then focus on other streams of income (if you’ve grown the following), like leveraging your influence for compensation from brands who align with your content, allowing third-party advertising on your blog through platforms like Google AdSense, and joining company affiliate programs related to your niche to earn a commission by simply linking to their products/services on your blog.

Wrapping Up

Running a blog is good, especially when you can earn a good income, but remember why you’re in college and always prioritize your studies. It’s not easy to juggle both, so evaluating your availability to commit may be better before starting. Good luck!

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