Last updated on January 4th, 2023 at 10:03 am
Do you want to spend your time blogging for free, or do you want to make money while doing it? If the answer is “money,” then I have some great news for you. You can actually get paid to blog! Blogging for money in South Africa is becoming more and more popular every day because of the sheer number of bloggers who are jumping on board.
If you’re interested in making a living online by blogging, this post will show how other people are successfully using blogs as their primary source of income.
Don’t worry if starting a blog seems daunting – we’ll take it step-by-step!
As mentioned, you need a blog first, then get traffic to it, and then finally, make money.
In my experience, it works in that order.
So, let me show you how to start a blog in South Africa.
How to start a blog and start blogging for money in South Africa.
Table of Contents
Step 1). Pick a niche
Before you start a blog, decide on the type of content that you want your blog to have. It’s important to choose something that interests you so it doesn’t feel like work every time you sit down at the computer.
There are millions of niches out there, and I can guarantee yours is already taken by somebody else!
This probably won’t be an issue because most blogs cover a wide variety of different topics with each post being unique – but if this absolutely must be done then try going for a specific sub-niche.
That way, people searching may find what they’re looking for faster than if their search results returned thousands or even millions of pages from multiple sites about overlapping subjects which don’t solve their problem as well as they’d like.
Write down your niche ideas
You can’t start a blog in South Africa without having something to write about!
There are countless ways you could make money blogging in South Africa, but I’m going to cover the most popular (and profitable) ones that don’t require any special skills or expertise.
- Food Blogs
- Personal Finance Blogs.
- Making Money Online Blogs
- Health Blogs
- Fitness Blogs
- Beauty and Fashion Blogs
- Other Lifestyle Blogs
Most blogs fall into one of these categories – and since it’s highly unlikely that there is enough demand for another type of blog out there yet , this gives us an advantage over everybody else who doesn’t have their own blog yet !
This also makes sense because with so many people already entrenched in each area, how would anybody find your content?
And if nobody finds it, why should they bother reading it at all? Therefore, unless you’re just blogging for fun, it’s best to stick with one of the most popular types.
I say this because I’m sure that if you’re anything like me, you want your blog to make money as quickly and easily as possible – which means we’ll be focusing on writing about things people actually care about!
Step 2). Register a domain name for your blog
The next step in blogging for money in South Africa is to get a website name.
Your domain name is the unique address that people will type in to find your site.
For example, my own blog’s domain name is “The Blog Boss” so I could have named it anything – but “theblogboss.co.za” was already taken!
Therefore, I went with something creative and now you can access my website by typing this into your browser that addresses.
So when choosing a good domain name for blogging purposes in South Africa, make sure it has at least one of these key characteristics (and preferably both):
- Use the right domain name extensions
- brandable over generic.
- short is better than long
- make sure it’s easy to type.
- make sure it’s easy to pronounce.
- avoid hyphens and numbers.
- consider using “niche” keywords that reflect your website.
- think long-term over short-term.
This means there are literally millions of possible combinations available to choose from; making them hard to come up with on your own without help, much like picking baby names.
But don’t worry if coming up with a good name is a struggle because in my experience the best ones already have one!
I recommend buying your domain name from Truehost Africa (the company where you’ll be hosting this blog), and they offer an amazing service called SSL Certificate which protects your site against unauthorized access.
Step 3). Get hosting space
You’ll need this for your blog to be accessible by other people on the internet.
There are a lot of hosting companies out there, but I recommend Truehost because they offer an easy-to-use service, excellent customer support, and a free SSL Certificate whenever you sign up for their cheapest plan which is great if starting a blog from scratch.
Step 4). Install WordPress!
WordPress is by far the most popular platform for blogging in South Africa– but why?
It’s free (and open-source) so anybody can download it themselves.
But there are actually many reasons beyond cost that make it preferable over other options like Blogger or Tumblr.
The main reason is probably its popularity; because of how widely used WordPress has become, support forums, tutorials, plugins, themes, etc. are usually much easier to find than other blogging platforms which you’re less likely to run into problems with.
To install WordPress in South Africa, log into your cPanel account and search for Softaculous App Installer.
Once you’ve registered for hosting space, it should take less than five minutes to install WordPress on your domain name.
Step 5). Start blogging about your niche topic!
You are almost there to start blogging for money in South Africa.
Now it’s time to start writing blog posts.
But before we do, think long and hard about what you’re going to write – because everything on the internet is ranked by how many people link back to it (which is why search engine optimization or ‘SEO’ can be so powerful).
So if nobody links back to your articles, then they’ll never even show up in Google results which means fewer page views for you.
This means that when choosing good blogging topics (step 1), choose something that not only interests YOU but also attracts lots of other bloggers who will want to share their own opinions too!
If no one else really cares about this topic, then neither will your readers – so you should probably try something else instead.
Create relevant content to attract traffic
When deciding on good blogging topics in South Africa, it’s important that the subject matter is one that people are interested in reading about.
This means that if nobody has written anything related to what you want to write about before, then this is definitely an excellent idea for starting a blog!
But if somebody has already done all the hard work by creating quality articles and backlinks to their site, then why reinvent the wheel?
You’ll find it much more rewarding when building relationships with other bloggers who have created similar sites around your niche topic because they’re always looking for fresh new ideas too – so don’t be afraid to reach out with something that you think will interest them!
Be consistent and build your following
To start blogging for money in South Africa, It’s important that you’re regular in publishing new posts on your blog because this is one of the best ways for search engines like Google to notice what kind of content YOU are creating.
This way they’ll start thinking of you as an authority figure within YOUR niche topic, which means more organic traffic (with no paid ads needed)!
However, it can take some time before people get used to visiting your site regularly so remember not to give up even if nobody seems interested at first – just keep writing relevant articles related to your blogging topics while building relationships with other bloggers who share similar interests.
Now that your website is up and running, it is time to actually think about blogging for money in South Africa.
How to make money blogging in South Africa
Use the following strategies to start blogging for money in South Africa.
a). You can promote affiliate products that you personally use and recommend.
b). You can also sell your own digital or physical products that people will appreciate receiving as a gift for their birthday, holiday, etc.
c). Adsense is the most popular way to make money blogging in South Africa because it’s very easy and doesn’t require much work on your part (unlike creating and marketing a product) but if you do want to give this option a try then I would definitely recommend using Truehost too!
This hosting company in South Africa has everything all in one place where you just need to click check out instead of having to sign-up with different companies like domain registrars & web designers, which saves time overall.
There are many other ways depending on what you’re blogging about so if you can think of any more feel free to add them in the comments below!
