Want to earn money by doing something creative while still in school? Why not become a blogger here in South Africa?
Blogging here in South Africa has numerous advantages which can benefit you as a student.
For starters, it improves your creativity, raises your confidence, and the best thing is that you can make money through blogging while still in school.
What’s more, if your blog goes viral, you can collaborate with multiple companies to advertise their products in your blog hence bringing more money your way.
Blogging has become so popular and everyone wants to earn some money from it.
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What you need to know before you start
As a student, you are enjoying the best advantages when it comes to blog creation since you do not have the obligations of adults just yet, and you can start working on an amazing income by only dedicating a small amount of your free time to writing.
So, if you want to start your blog while in college in South Africa, but don’t have any idea how to get started, you’ve come to the correct place.
You can do academic writing blogs or write content that is made to entertain your audience, choose what works best for you.
Note that it is important to know your area of strength before you embark on building your blog.
If you start a successful blog in South Africa, you will no longer need to worry about cutting down on every cost except the essentials, and you can make a lot of money for now and in the future.
In fact, hundreds of people use blogging as their only job, and they earn a very fine living doing this.
You are probably thinking making a successful blog as a student in South Africa is impossible and you cannot do it.
But, if all those people you read about did, why can’t you become the next blogger everyone wants to follow in South Africa?
To help you out, we have gathered the advice you need as a student who wants to balance your studies with your writing career. Here is what you should know about blog writing as a student in South Africa:
1. Make a Schedule and Stick to It
Whether you are just starting college or are already enrolled, the first thing you should do before starting your blog is to make a schedule.
This does not have to be complex. A timetable will show you what your classes are and when you have time for blogging.
Instead of becoming a night owl and spending sleepless nights studying and writing blogs, all you have to do is make a good schedule and stick to it.
College time is the best moment to start a blog as you will have a lot of free time. You can come up with great ideas and good-quality posts for your audience. You also have time to work consistently on your blog for a year or two before getting into professional life.
Hence, the time factor is one of the most important benefits of starting your blog while you’re still a student.
Remember that as a student, blogging is not your first priority. Therefore, you should make sure your blogging time does not interfere with your academic performance.
2. Choose a niche
Blogging is all about your interests, so choose a topic that you are interested in.
As a student, you may not have the funds to subscribe to premium blogging platforms.
However, that should not kill your dream as a blogger. There are several free blogging platforms that you can use as you build your blog.
These free platforms allow you to blog at no cost while allowing you to assess your chances of succeeding in this area.
Some of these platforms include:
3. Write Frequently
The best way to develop your writing skills further is to be consistent with writing and publishing your blogs.
As a student, you have the advantage of being able to write all kinds of texts and papers, which will help you master your writing skills faster than any other method.
Fix a certain day of the week specifically for publishing your content and let your followers know about it.
Do not take long gaps in between the posting dates as it may drop the interest of your audience. Therefore, it is important to create a decent break of 3 or 4 days among the blogs to make it reach more people.
4. Attend Your Classes
Do not let the fame and fortune of bloggers make you stray from your academics.
Yes, blogging can give you a lot of money and fame if done right, but you must focus on the degree before you even start this journey fully.
This way, you will ensure that you have your degree certificates for job purposes in case blogging does not go well for you.
There are also many benefits of attending classes when it comes to blogging. Being a student and having to do your assignments helps you to work on your writing skills and boosts your critical thinking.
5. Spread the Word
Tell your family, friends, and most importantly your campus mates about your blog.
When you are writing for an online platform, you will need people to visit your blog and become your followers.
The first step to boosting your blog’s performance is working on building awareness among the people around you. Tell your college mates to share your blogs with their friends.
Don’t forget to ask your college mates to leave comments on your blog. Any activity on your blog will help you rank higher in search engines.
Your family and college mates won’t be enough to grow your blog. Choose a social media platform on which you want to put out your content.
You can choose Facebook, Instagram, or youtube or you can use all the social media platforms you have as long as you can keep up with uploading content frequently.
Make sure you interact with your audience by replying to their comments as first as you can. Interacting with your readers helps build a relationship with your audience.
6. Learn about SEO
SEO is rarely thought of at college, but it is a skill every successful blogger should know about. Therefore, learn as much as you can about SEO basics and try to implement these strategies in your blog writing.
Ranking higher is one of the main benefits of SEO in South Africa, but rankings are just a means to an end. Most of the real benefits of SEO are related to traffic.
You see, most people tend to click one of the first few search results on their browser. Therefore, ranking higher usually drives more traffic to your website.
Ranking in search engines usually leads to both consistent and passive traffic which rarely happens for mediums like social media and email marketing.
7. Meet other Bloggers
When you are a blogger in South Africa, it is simply not enough to tell your family and friends in college about your blog.
If you want to bring more followers to your page, you need to meet more people, especially other bloggers in South Africa who are famous in your field.
Join blogger groups on Facebook, attend blog camps, and promote your blog on social media. Building a good relationship with potential followers is the best way to start a successful blog in South Africa.
8. Read Other Blogs
Your academics are not enough to make you a better blogger. You will need to read other blogs in your field to expand your skills.
You cannot learn everything you need for blogging in the writing classes in college. The best way to learn about blogging as a student in South Africa is by reading what others have said and done in your field.
Find blogs related to the branch you have chosen, and make effort to read as many as you can. You will need to communicate with other bloggers and guest posts to build awareness of your blog, too.
These tips are going to guide you as you begin your blogging journey as a student. Once you create a blog many people want to read it, so you have to be consistent.
Many South African bloggers fail because they do not work on their blogs on regular basis. Therefore, make sure to work on your blog and remember to be persistent.
Success does not come easy.