How to Start a Gardening Blog from Scratch
/Updated November 11, 2022
Guest post by Natasha Shetty
Gardening, like a garden itself, is an evergreen topic. The same holds true for a blog about gardens and gardening. In fact, gardening is a passion, an interest and a hobby that millions of people around the world pursue avidly. There are also a number of professional gardeners who provide vital tips and tweaks about gardening and related topics.
Ask anyone who knows gardening and they’ll surely testify it isn’t that proverbial cakewalk that involves writing merely about plants, soil, fertilizers and other paraphernalia. Instead, a gardening blog requires year of extensive experience as a hobbyist or professional gardener.
If you’re from either of these two categories- professional gardener or gardening aficionado, here are some tips that can help you start a gardening blog from scratch in 2020.
Why Start a Gardening Blog?
This question might cross your mind: why a gardening blog? Aren't there enough garden blogs out there already?
There are three main reasons I suggest you start one now.
Covid-19 Pandemic & Fallout
We’re all aware about the havoc the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked on our personal, social and professional lives as well as on financial wellness. Over 51 million Americans have already filed for Federal unemployment benefits even as countless businesses small and large down shutters for good or claim bankruptcy. Many people continue to work online, even as others have returned to the office, and in both cases, many people have come to understand the meaning of garden therapy as a way of dealing with stress and mental burnout.
Develop Another Source of Income
In this scenario, blogging can prove to be a great source of earning money, either as full-time work or a side-gig, depending upon your commitments. Blogging provides as many as three different ways to earn money, which I will discuss later on this article. Furthermore, blogging is online work that can be easily done from home: all you need is a computer with a stable Internet connection.
Gainful Use of Time at Home
Self-isolation, social distancing and a reduction of outdoor activities are expected to remain in place for long, even after the Covid-19 pandemic begins ebbing. At the time of writing this article, the global scourge shows no signs of abating despite several countries announcing successful vaccines. When the pandemic will end and whether life will return to what it used to be are questions we don’t really know the answer to. However, we can utilize the surplus time at home by stepping up our gardening activities and creating a gardening blog.
You’re Ready to Begin, So Where to Start?
If you have never started a blog before, you might feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of possibilities out there. The steps I recommend below will help you start off well without feeling buried in information.
Read and Watch Online Tutorials
Although it may take time to learn the art of engaging your audience, blogging isn’t rocket science. You can learn how to start a blog by reading an online tutorial written by any given successful blogger and digital marketer. These bloggers usually narrate their own experiences in starting a blog and making it famous. There are also many videos on YouTube that show you how to start a blog - they are a great resource for people who are new to blogging. Watch these, take notes and revise and tweak your plan as needed.
Create a Free Blog for Starters
Many bloggers recommend starting with a paid blog. I beg to differ. Instead, I suggest you open a free blog for starters. There are several good and easy to use free blogging websites such as Blogger.com, Wix.com and others. They allow you to create a unique name for your blog – just make sure that name is available. And it doesn’t cost anything unless you’re going for the paid or premium service. There’s one distinct advantage with creating a free blog: it’s useful for practice. You shouldn’t use a paid blog for testing your writing skills. Take some time to learn how to write engaging blog posts. Also, you can practice basic digital marketing processes on a free blog.
Buy a Domain Name, Hosting Service, etc.
To start a successful gardening blog, it’s better to invest a in a domain name and WordPress hosting (or other host). Nowadays, you can get a good domain name with hosting for as low as $99.99 per year. As far as possible, try to get a domain name that’s the same you’re using for the free blog. In fact, you can link the two later to attract more readers and boost your blogging income. I suggest WordPress hosting though it might be slightly pricier than Linux or Windows hosting for a simple reason: about 80 percent of bloggers use WordPress because it’s relatively easy to start with.
Create Social Media Accounts for the Blog
Another very important step to having a successful gardening blog is to create social media accounts under the name of your blog. This means creating at least a couple of social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat. I recommend that you open a LinkedIn account for your blog. Write engaging posts about your experience with gardening and explain what the blog is all about on your social media accounts. Show before and after photos of your garden as it develops. Offer lawn care tips, if you have any.
An appealing introduction to yourself and your own lawn and garden projects is ideal, since it will attract drive more people to your gardening blog. A great LinkedIn profile for the blog, combined with regular, short posts also attracts a lot of people to your main blog site.
Create a Free Channel on YouTube
Generally, bloggers who also have vlogs or video blogs have a better chance of becoming successful, because millions of people prefer watching videos over reading content. Also, a YouTube channel allows you to establish one more source of income while promoting your blog. The content on your blog posts and YouTube channel can be the same. In fact, you can promote both of them together. Providing your own videos on your blogsite also drives more traffic to it and helps improve its overall Google rankings to make money.
Acquire Digital Marketing Skills
The success of every blog, including the visibility of your blog posts, also depends upon digital marketing skills. It’s fairly simple and easy to acquire them. You can either opt for a paid digital marketing course available from e-learning platforms such as Udemy.com or watch free tutorials on YouTube. Learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, social media marketing and email marketing, for starters. These are very easy to learn and the skills will prove very useful to propel you to success as gardening blogger.
Write Interesting, Engaging Content
Now here comes the most difficult part of blogging. And that’s writing interesting and engaging content. All of us have some ideas about what we should write in our blog posts. Unfortunately, we may go into a kind of brain freeze when it comes to actually writing. How do you overcome this challenge? Write content as though you’re telling own story. Narrate your personal experiences with your own garden. Speak about various elements of gardening with your examples such as what you’re doing or going to try. Don’t be afraid to tell others about your failures and how you overcame or plan to overcome them.
Subscribe to Google AdSense
With engaging content in your posts and some digital marketing processes under your belt, you’ll be able to get quite a lot of followers and readers for the gardening blog. Here comes the best part of blogging about gardening: monetizing your blog. The first step to monetize your blog is by subscribing to Google AdSense. By subscribing, you’re giving permission to Google to display advertisements on your blog. They pay when someone clicks on these ads and for other activities. You’ll need a PayPal account to receive this money quicker. You can also subscribe to Google AdSense for your YouTube channel.
Sign Up for Affiliate Marketing
One of the best ways to make money with a gardening blog is by signing up for lots of affiliate marketing programs. Just in case you’re unaware, Amazon operates the largest affiliate marketing program in the world. eBay and other online sellers also have their own affiliate programs. Becoming an affiliate enables you to create links to various products and post them on your blog. You can also review products and write content about them by including an affiliate link in the body of your blog. Whenever anyone uses the link to buy something, you get a small commission. Amazon, for example, pays between two percent and 18 percent of the cost price of each item.
Publish Paid Posts
A lot of companies will pay to post their content on your gardening blog, since they wish to reach out to a wide audience. There’s a reason for this. Surveys reveal that about 80 percent of consumers read blogs before deciding to buy anything. Therefore, companies that want to reach these consumers will look at your blog. They’ll pay you some money for publishing what’s known as ‘sponsored posts’ or ‘sponsored content’ on your blog. This is perfectly legit as long as you’re sure the source of content is a genuine company or business and the content itself is harmless and talks about something in gardening.
More Tips for Starting a Gardening Blog
A couple more tips will help you stay engaged with your audience even as you are building it.
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First, always respond to comments on your blog and social media pages. This encourages readers and attracts more followers to your blog. Second, let your followers know about your latest blog posts and vlogs. Third, always take high quality photos to go along with your content. Though there are several excellent sites to get free or paid pictures, nothing works better than taking and posting your own pictures on your gardening blog, as they serve as a testament to your expertise and experience in the garden.
As you can see, starting a gardening blog is fairly easy. However, it requires some extra effort to take it up a notch so that it becomes a source of income for you. Setting up a blog is simple. However, making it successful enough to pay rich returns is another ballgame altogether. At the same time, it’s not complex or difficult to create and maintain a blog. You can decide the frequency of posts on your blog and vlog. Actually, blogging is enjoyable provided you’re ready to learn a few new things. And if you manage it well, over time a blog can even make you rich.
Natasha Shetty is a passionate blogger whose career revolves around writing, which she fondly calls "the art of words." Writing about career and business is what she enjoys the most.
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