Latest Posts on This Week in Blogging

Niche Product Sites Case Study #5 – Finding Momentum

Last Updated on March 6, 2023 by Jeremy

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Welcome to the fifth entry into our niche product site case study series.

In this case study, we are tracking the performance of niche product sites I created between 2020 and 2022, what is working, what is not, income and traffic changes, and lessons learned along the way.

The first site we will look at is The Grape Pursuit, a wine blog I started in early 2020. The second site is Hipster Homesteaders, a home & garden plus food & beverage blog we started in late 2021 (where we merged two lagging product sites, a coffee blog and sous vide blog, into a broader umbrella branding to allow for more content to be produced with other topics).

In the last six months, the wine blog has started to find its footing and is gaining momentum with new ideas we are replicating at scale. The homestead site's growth in traffic has been slow, but an uptick in affiliate sales is showing progress that we're on the right path.

5 Blogging Business Models to Consider to Generate Revenue

Last Updated on February 27, 2023 by Jeremy

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If you are thinking about starting a blog (perhaps a 2nd or 3rd blog), or run a site that is not monetized, you may be thinking the question we all have on our minds: how do I make money blogging?

While we will be the first to admit that there is no one-size-fits-all business model for blogs, as the field is truly quite versatile, when we stopped to think of it we realized there are five main models that blogs follow to earn revenue.

So in this one, we wanted to take a broad look at the most common business models blogs have, share some pros and cons of each, and explain why the best model of all may be doing a bit of everything!

Note: While income potentials vary, we will try and equate models with each other by using the Revenue per 1,000 impressions (RPM) term. While there is no hard and fast rule that Model [X] will always make RPM [Y], we will fill the gaps in with our experiences of what we have seen in the industry.

7 Essential Pages Every Blog Should Have

Last Updated on February 20, 2023 by Jeremy

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If you are looking to start a new blog, the tasks you have to complete are often overwhelming. Setting up servers, WordPress, themes, plugins- the sky is really the limit and that is before you even create a single piece of content.

Once you are ready to start writing articles, you may need to take a few days to put together some pages that we consider to be essential for every blog to have.

So in this one, we thought we'd take a look at pages you should publish on your blog, why you need them, and brief discussions about what should be included in each.

Note: We discuss the pages below as must-have pages that should be linked within in a navigation menu, but do not discount having them in a navigation footer on your site as well. This way users can reach all of the required pages at the start and end of your site.

How to Work With a Graphic Designer for a Blog Logo

Last Updated on February 7, 2023 by Jeremy

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Having a killer logo is one design element that bloggers use to stand out and create a unique brand identity.

Unless you are skilled in graphic design yourself, odds are good you'll be going with a designer to help create that perfect logo for your brand.

After updating our logo here at This Week in Blogging, we'd thought we'd take a look at the process to help give some tips to ensure you get the best logo for your budget, needs, and branding!

Note: Our friends at Reggio Digital hooked us up with a killer logo as a courtesy to try out their new graphic design service. In using the service, we got the idea for this article and thought it was timely to share. This was not a requirement of a sponsorship; however, we are plugging our friends as a courtesy- we're simply fans. Photos of the non-final designs are used with the permission of Reggio Digital.

Taking a Vacation from Blogging – What to Do to Stay Active

Last Updated on January 30, 2023 by Jeremy

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As full-time travel bloggers, Chris and I travel a lot- upwards of 100 days a year each if not more.

When we travel, we very rarely work on our websites. While travel writing is our job, we treat the “work” of travel as a vacation experience first and proper work second. As you can imagine, this begs the question of what to do before departing as leaving a blog and its corresponding social channels without updates for days and/or weeks is often a bad idea.

So in this one, we thought we'd share what you should do to keep your blog active to ensure you get the most out of your site while away!