If you are like me and you have a great interest in illustration, and you wonder if it is possible to start a blog with it, then my answer would be an astounding yes! In my opinion, blogging is great, and everybody can do it.
But, even though the idea is simple, the reality is that it’s really hard to make money with it. The first choice you have to make is, do you want to blog as a business or as a hobby. Meaning, do you intend to make money with the blog or not? Answering these questions will have an impact on your website layout, content, and long-term planning.
In my case, I have always seen blogging as a source of income, so I consider it a business. Therefore I make decisions that are in the best interest of my readers, and not my own.
Start with your blog topic
The first thing you have to think about is what your blog is all about. As the title suggests, it’s of course about illustration. But what kind of content and audience are you speaking to? Are you mainly talking about digital illustration? Or how to illustrate, thus creating tutorials? Or do you want to interview other illustrators?
No matter what you want to do, you have to think about what value you have to offer to your readers, and then form that into a business idea and if possible a long-term strategy. I suggest you create an excel list and start writing at least 100 blog post ideas that you think you can write about.
Please understand that 100 posts for a blog isn’t much, but is the minimum to really be considered a serious blog.
Like I said before, I create content that is beneficial to my readers, I wouldn’t write about things that are personal or add no value to others. In each post, I try to give my readers as much useful content as possible. This is because I know that as a business I rely on my visitors. This is how I attract more visitors and how in the end my blog is making money.
Traffic
For a blog, traffic is what keeps your blog alive and gives you the opportunity to make money. Therefore you have to understand how to generate traffic. Now, there are many different ways you can do that. I will give you the 3 most important ones.
Using SEO
Understanding SEO and applying it to your website and blog posts is crucial. In many cases, you have to rely on Search engines to rank your website pages. SEO basically stands for all the rules you have to follow in order to rank well on them. The ultimate goal is to rank on the first page.
Applying basic SEO isn’t that difficult and with the help of plugins and free SEO tools, it has become increasingly simple to make sure your pages are SEO-friendly.
Backlinks
To help you increase the chances of ranking higher on Google and other search engines, you have to create as many backlinks as possible. Backlinks are links on other blogs and websites linking back to your website. The more backlinks, the higher you will rank on Google and the more traffic you can expect.
Make sure your backlinks are legit and never buy backlinks, as this might have the opposite effect. Google might penalize your website and rank your website way lower.
The best way to generate legit backlinks is by writing blog posts for other blogs. We call these kinds of posts, guest posts, and this is what gives you the highest chance of building a good reputation and generating backlinks. Reach out to other bloggers and ask them if they are open to doing guest posts.
Social media
Nowadays, a successful illustration blog cannot live without social media. The reason is simple, millions of people use social media on a daily basis. This gives you the opportunity to generate vast amounts of traffic. But keep in mind that in many cases you first have to build an audience before social media marketing really works.
On the other hand, there are also many bloggers that solely use Pinterest to generate 1000s of visitors, even without a large following. So if you create great content, and if you are posting on a consistent basis to social media, you have a good chance of getting tons of traffic.
As an illustrator, you have skills that you can use to create more attractive social media posts. For example, you could create unique illustrations for each blog post and use these illustrations on social media as well. This gives you an advantage over other bloggers, as most of them use the same pictures from Unsplash or Pexels over and over again.
Monetization
Now that you know what your blog is going to be about and how you are going to receive traffic. You have to know how you are going to make money with your illustration blog.
This should be something you should do right from the start. But if you are totally new, all options might not be available right away. Anyways, here are some of the best ways to make money with your blog.
Sell your own products
As an illustrator you could create your own products, this could be a course on how to illustrate or a download with illustrations or other files. Nonetheless, one of the greatest ways to make money with your blog is to create your own products. Think about what your readers would like and what they would pay for. Then use your skills to create amazing products.
Display ads for your illustration blog
Nearly all blogs have ads on their pages, and mostly they use Google Adsense for this. It’s easy to apply to Google Adsense and even easier to display the ads on your site. Still, keep in mind that you need large amounts of traffic to start making decent money.
Affiliate marketing
If you do not yet have your own products, then another great way to make money is through affiliate marketing or referral marketing. In both cases, you will be referring people to other websites using a unique link. When people click on the link and buy a product you earn a commission.
Affiliate marketing is very common and basically all bloggers are using it. You could start with Amazon associates and recommend products that you use. Or you could sign up for Skillshare, Shopify, or any other affiliate marketing program. There are also affiliate marketplaces like Impact or ShareASale.
Conclusion
There you have it, my take on how to start a blog about illustration. As soon as you have set up your blog and you have monetization going, you can mainly focus on writing and creating content and driving as much traffic as possible.
Good luck,
Ron.
Ron Hoekstra is the founder of The Hiive Newsletter. He is a graphic designer, self-taught entrepreneur, writer, and Illustrator. He will give you professional insights and tips in the world of A.I., This includes new tools, business, automation and much more.
