How to Make an Entertainment Blog that Makes Money

Are you looking to start a blog in the entertainment industry? No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone is always talking about their favorite media with friends and family. And if you do it right, an entertainment blog can be very profitable.

Today, I am going to help you start your very own entertainment website.

Pick An Entertainment Blogging Niche

Before you even think about web development, your first step needs to be selecting your niche in the entertainment industry. It’s a very broad term and there are a lot of blogging sites that cover video games, movies, television shows, books, and music.

Each one of these categories could have their own blog, and if you want to be successful and build an audience, you need to select a niche and present it differently than other sites. After all, if you’re not unique, why should visitors follow you?

Keep in mind that many of these topics can be broken down into subtopics. For example, let’s say you want to make a blog about movies. You could entirely focus on the movie juggernaut known as Marvel and never run out of content.

Identify what you like, who it’s popular with, and the competition before starting.

Find a Webhost and Select a Domain Name

Regardless of what website you are creating, you need to find a web host. Websites are stored within web servers, and visitors must access them to connect to the website. Web hosts own these servers and maintain them so they run 24/7.

However, not all web hosts are equal.

Here at GreenGeeks, we strive to deliver the best experience possible by delivering excellent speeds, strong security, and 24-hour live support. And we do this all of this at a competitive price.

However, what really separates us from the competition is our commitment to the environment. Unlike other web hosts, we take special steps to ensure none of our websites leave a carbon footprint.

You will also need a domain name. This is the URL of your website and it is extremely important. It needs to be short, easy to remember and represent your niche or topic. And if you sign up with GreenGeeks, your domain name is free for the first year!

Use WordPress to Build Your Entertainment Blog

You are also going to decide what platform to build your website on. And let me tell you, there is no shortage of CMS to choose from. But, there is a clear winner in WordPress. It is by far the best place to build a blog, especially for beginners.

It offers a user-friendly interface that is easy enough for anyone to use effectively. Unlike other platforms, it does not rely on coding. Instead, features are added via plugins and themes. And luckily, there are thousands to choose from.

The platform was built specifically for blogging and over one-third of all websites use WordPress.  Its popularity is a testament to its accessibility and versatility, which is exactly why you should give it a try.

Understanding Plugins and Themes

A big part of WordPress is the vast library of plugins and themes, in which there are two kinds, free and premium. In most cases, especially when starting out, free plugins will be more than enough to get the job done. But as your website grows and demands increase, it is worth paying for more powerful tools.

But what exactly are plugins and themes?

Plugins add additional features to your website that you would normally need to write code to achieve. Think of them as apps for your smartphone. However, it is recommended to only use what you need, as each one slows down your website.

Themes are often thought of as the canvas you design your website on. But nowadays, thinking of themes as purely cosmetic is a mistake. Many come with built-in features that make them stand out from each other.

Here are some plugins and themes you may find useful:

The Events Calendar

As we all probably know by now, in the entertainment world, timing is everything. Thus, you need to stay on top of major releases relevant to your blog, and The Events Calendar can help.

For example, if you review television shows, you can keep track of when each episode airs. Not only does this help you, but it can help your visitors, too.

Simple Social Icons

Social media offers websites a great way to engage their audience, while at the same time working as a marketing tool. You can help visitors find your content by adding social icons to your website. The Simple Social Icons plugin does exactly that, making it a great choice.

SEO Writers Blogily

SEO is extremely important for any blog, which is exactly why you want a theme that is optimized for search engines but also looks good while doing so. Enter SEO Writers Blogily. This theme has an excellent modern design that is perfect for blogging.

Informative Blogs

Many web designers have found a lot of value in minimalist themes. These are themes that don’t have much going on design-wise, but really let your content do the talking. If this is something you are interested in, the Informative Blog is a great choice.

Marketing Your Website

Once you have your website ready to go, you need to figure out a marketing plan. All of the hard work you just did will be meaningless if no one visits your website. And that’s where marketing comes in.

However, there are a lot of ways to go about it.

• Using Social Media
• Buying Ad Space
• Email Subscriptions
• Run A Giveaway
• Utilize Forums (Reddit)
• Start A Podcast

Yet, even with all of these options, there is a better way to get your website growing, and that is search engine optimization (SEO). The more SEO-friendly your content is, the higher you will appear on search results. And this is where most of your content will come from.

Most websites will receive 53% of their overall traffic through search engines (organic traffic). Thus, you need to research the best SEO practices before writing any content.

Get Writing

With everything ready to go, all that’s left is to get writing. Just remember that you need to not only release a lot of content, but it also needs to be high quality. The better your content, the better your results will be.

Badly written content will not help you grow, it will just undermine all of the hard work that went into building your website.