The worldwide blogosphere incorporates over 160 million blogs.

What at the beginning was only a way to share your thoughts, experiences or adventures, for many became a way of living and making money.

My profession? Blogger!

The richest blogger in the world, Chiara Ferragni, as you can probably guess, works in the fashion industry. She is the author of theblondesalad.com blog and earns… $8 million a year! Today, most of her profits come from Chiara’s own clothing line – she’s a style icon and the first blogger in the world to hit the cover of Vogue. However, her adventure has begun with creating a blog in 2009 – today, portal employs 16 people.

Another example of blog owner, who quickly became a millionaire, is Michael Arrington, the founder of today’s most popular new-technology-service in the world – TechCrunch. This tech enthusiast started with sharing his hobby with others, and after a few years sold the service for $ 25 million.

Those above are obviously extremely successful cases of blogging career. All these stories allow us to point out some regularities. Putting it simple, to succeed on the Internet you need to find a niche, have passion, and –  the most important – be consistent. A flash in a pan ends in a proportional number of readers. Reliable work allows making a living of the blog. But only fully professional and passionate approach will give you a really prosperous life.

How to start?

As we know, everyone who wants to work effectively needs proper tools. Bloggers need to remember about a lot of things. Starting with the necessary – computer with Internet access. It’s enough to put your thoughts together on virtual paper and share your creativity with others. Remember that your laptop should accommodate a large number of photos, videos, and texts. If you want to create a photo-video blog, new essentials emerge – a professional camera, a tripod, a microphone… or at least a good smartphone. But all this seem obvious.

Once we have an idea and the computer, we have to settle for a site. It doesn’t have to be WordPress or Blogspot, but deciding on one CMS or another is the crucial choice for the future blogger. The list of necessities starts to fill up. There are also several things that can be useful in your specific blogging industry (eg. new products for tests, travel guides, gaming accessories…). Moreover, to be professional, make sure you remember about software for photo editing, movie making, graphic design, site traffic analysis, keyword tracking and – last but not least- internet monitoring.

This last group is a set of tools necessary to anyone who, apart from their own satisfaction and recognition, wants to “squeeze” more from the blog. Because in the online world – as everywhere – the key to success is the quality of content, which should be interesting, unique and tailored to your customer. However, sometimes it’s not enough. You need to stand out and find the audience who otherwise simply wouldn’t  find you on their own in the crowd. Even the best content will stay unseen unless you get noticeable.

Why you should use internet monitoring tool

If the internet is your workplace, there is no other way – you have to know it thoroughly and use every opportunity. And SentiOne comes with help here.

Internet monitoring for bloggers may come in handy as:

1. A source of inspiration – by tracking related keywords in SentiOne you are able to find discussions related to your our subject. It means that you can get to know the interests of your potential readers quickly and easily.

2. A compass pointing ways to new audiences – once you find a discussion related to the subject of our blog, it’s worth getting involved, letting people know that you write about it. A short comment with a link to the related article should be enough.

3. A target group identifier – according to the Polish Blogosphere 2016 report, men are most likely to read personal blogs, lifestyles and those about culture and art. Women, which is not surprising, prefer fashion industry. With SentiOne, you can find which topics engage women or men more. Just enter the keyword, an address of a specific page, or post:

Gender distribution in time. Topic: fitness clubs. Source: SentiOne.

4. A trend barometer – nothing increases your reach better than writing about important and popular real-time topics. By monitoring the internet, you are able to find out what’s on top at the moment and how to attract the reader.

5. A reputation guard – the more recognizable you become, the more you have to lose. With email alerts set to your blog name or your own name, you are able to answer any questions in real time. Of course, this can also be used for other keywords – if the topic is particularly important to your industry, you can immediately appear where the discussion begins.

8 stages of blog development. When online monitoring is most useful?

1. Searching for information about the platforms you’d like to set up a blog on and useful blogging software.

2. Market recognition – has anyone already discussed topics that we want to write about? Are there any blogs about the similar subject?

3. Building awareness of your blog (engaging in discussions).

4. Discovering the target audience and acquiring new readers.

5. Checking the potential of the blog and articles stats.

6. Copyrights protection – fight against plagiarism.

7. Checking the blog’s advertising potential.

8. Tracking opinions about your name and your blog’s perception audit.

Did you know that SentiOne has a special offer for blog creators? Join almost 500 bloggers who use our tool for free! Contact our PR director via jagoda@sentione.com and discover online listening opportunities!