It’s nearly impossible to live in the modern world without hearing about vaping. Wherever you go, you can find a lot of controversy, debate, and fascination regarding the subject, but one thing is sure: the vaping industry will continue to grow over the next few years. In fact, the global vape market is currently worth $22.6 billion, and it’s predicted to reach $43 billion by 2023. If vaping has been your hobby for some time, now is the perfect time to turn it into a business.
There are many ways to start earning money on vaping, yet blogging is probably the best option if you don’t have spectacular capital or simply like working from home. Whether it will be a health blog to promote vaping as a substitute for smoking, a review or marketing blog, there are some common ideas on how to get started.
How to Start a Vaping Blog for Local Smoke Shops
Blogging’s main advantage is affordability. You don’t need to invest hundreds of dollars in it just to get started and you can have any level of experience in writing and creating content. All you need in the beginning is an extensive review on any of the top products like an innovative vape starter kit. Then one just needs to have a laptop, and determination to get it up and running.
While this might seem simple enough, there is actually a lot of work that goes into the content creation and promotion process. Anyone can create a blog, but those who see a lot of traffic and revenue from their sites, also have time, money, and marketing plans for their sites.
To help with this process, we’ve laid out the following steps for best results.
Find a direction
Survey the market and choose a direction for your blog. Are you going to write vape kits reviews? Will build your blog around giving advice about choosing the best vape and e-liquid? Do you want to promote vaping as a clue to a healthier lifestyle for those struggling to quit smoking? Do you possess enough knowledge in the area you chose to focus on? These are the questions that can help you define where you’re heading and estimate how equipped you are.
In addition, don’t be afraid to reach out to companies and offer to write reviews for their vaping products. You may start with showing them your existing content or writing for free. Many bloggers fear being rejected or have illusions about manufacturers contacting them first at the beginning of their blogging careers. Neither is a good approach, and you should remember how important it is to make this step if you want to start making some serious money on your blog.
Don’t chase perfection
You might be tempted to strive to do everything perfectly straight away, but that’s just not how blogging works. It’s better to get started, make some mistakes and steadily improve than to fuss over tiny details without taking any real steps at all. It’s important to understand that blogging requires a high level of flexibility and the ability to constantly modify and adjust your content if you want to post ideas or news while they’re still relevant. Besides, mastery comes with time and practice.
Instead of trying to replicate what is winning for other brands, why not take information and statistics that are already out there, and then create unique visuals and infographics of your own. This is what brands like HempireSEO are doing for their own local vape clients and seeing massive success. Since most of these local brands and businesses are focused on their retail location, not many of them are familiar with how to create such visuals or blogging content.
Once you’ve create a nice visual like the one below, you can then submit it to various infographic directories and also perform the necessary manual outreach to see if any big news and media outlets would pick it up. The great thing about visual and infographic marketing, is that once you put the time and work in, you will likely see residual results for weeks and months to come.
Ask for feedback
Your followers are your most reliable source of information about the quality of your writing. Don’t shy away from asking for feedback, learn to identify constructive criticism, analyze it and think about what you can change to appeal to the dissatisfied readers. It can also help you catch the moment when you take a wrong turn before you lose a significant number of followers. After all, it’s up to you to decide whether to implement new ideas, but it’s often beneficial to give your readers’ thoughts some consideration.
Know your tech
Blogging can happen anywhere from Facebook to Instagram, although social media is far from an ideal place for that purpose. To start receiving income from your blog you want it to be recognizable, unique and easily accessible for everyone. Owing a site is also a good idea if you want to avoid possible moderation and censorship.
When creating a blog you have an ever-expanding list of options. In fact, blogging platforms come in so many flavors it’s easy to burn your taste buds before you get a chance to savor the fruit of your work. For a total beginner who wants to explore blogging before leaping into it, a free plan at WordPress.com would be a great option. It’s suitable because you will be able to get a taste of what it’s like to be a blogger without paying a cent for it. There are certain downsides, like limitations in customization, a necessity to get permission for advertising and less credibility than your own website would have, but it’s an overall good starting point.
Once you decide to get serious, your next step will be choosing a hosting for your blog. It simply means that you will need to “rent” space on the internet to store your blog’s data and make it accessible to people. Among all the hosting companies out there, BlueHost is one of the best solutions, since it’s pretty cheap, reliable and simple to use.
Finally, there are several well-known platforms you can use like Squarespace and Wix, but WordPress is the undeniable leader due to its vast variety of themes and useful plugins. WordPress offers three paid plans, costing from $4 to $25 per month that would grant you different levels of flexibility. With WordPress, you’ll be able to create a website that you own and that comes together with some powerful customization tools. Choose your plan and you’re ready to go.
To be, or not to be?
Blogging sounds like a pretty awesome thing to do, regardless of whether you’re aiming for getting income out of it or simply writing for pleasure. As with anything, however, there are certain parts of it you should understand in order to avoid disappointment and potential waste of resources.
Opinions will differ
Even if you think you are ready for that constructive criticism we’ve mentioned, people won’t always be kind and supportive. While most of your readers will appreciate and show genuine curiosity about your content, it might be helpful to develop a strategy of dealing with potential haters.
For best results, always put the audience first and make sure you are providing value in your content. Take a moment to look around at other sites in the industry, and see why their sites are so popular when others aren’t. Also, if you are going to create a review style site, put in the time and effort to have well written reviews.
It takes lots of time
Although it may not seem like it in the beginning, blogging will have you spending hours in front of your laptop, perfecting a post and brushing up skills in any relevant area from publishing to photography and video editing. Also, while it’s relatively easy to attract readers, you have to put some serious work in keeping them interested. Pace yourself carefully to avoid burning out before your blog starts working for you.
All in all, blogging can be a great way to turn your vape pen starter kit into some cash. Survey the market, choose a platform, give it a try and don’t get discouraged if you don’t get to the desired level on the first try. After all, blogging is highly competitive, and success in this area is impossible without some failures.