Starting an affiliate cryptocurrency blog was both a big decision AND a no-brainer idea for me.
It was a big decision because I really wanted to do it right.
I wanted to tap into the areas of crypto I know about, learn more about the ones I don’t and bring valuable content to readers who I believe could benefit from my thoughts and interpretations on the subject.
It was a no-brainer idea in that I’ve been immersed in the crypto space for several years, believe in its transformative potential, risk/reward and want to write about it every day.
I also believe it’s an affiliate blogging niche that has a long runway of significant growth potential ahead.
And that’s not just wishful thinking.
Here are some eye-opening facts about the potential of the greater crypto space:
- Worldwide, the number of cryptocurrency users is expected to grow to 340M+ by 2027
- The global cryptocurrency market is projected to have a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 11.1% in 2021-2028 forecast period
- BlackRock pushed into the crypto market with a Bitcoin private trust. That means the world’s largest asset manager is essentially saying it has experienced demand from its clients for crypto.
All of that and much more bodes well for the crypto space as a whole, and can directly translate into increasingly more people searching online for crypto-related information and products.
That growing crypto-specific web traffic, if you have or plan to start a cryptocurrency blog, can directly result in more traffic to your site.
As an affiliate blogging marketer, there’s not much more you can ask for than a blogging niche with plenty of robust affiliate programs from which to choose, and promising growth potential.
What is Affiliate Blogging
Affiliate blogging is a process in which an affiliate (someone like me) refers a product or service in a blog post or series of blog posts.
Each time someone uses the unique link the affiliate provides to make a purchase, the operator of the affiliate program tracks the sale.
Once the sale has been confirmed, the affiliate earns a commission.
This is a process that benefits brands, the affiliate and the customer. It’s a great way for affiliates to make potentially significant online revenue.
It’s also a great reason to start an affiliate blog on cryptocurrency.
Benefits of Starting an Affiliate Cryptocurrency Blog
Several interesting things happen when you embark on a crypto blogging adventure, as I have. You get to:
- Learn About Blogging: If you’ve never had a blog or worked with websites before, you get to learn about things like domain names and registration, web hosting, WordPress, SEO, blog website themes and more. These are “digital economy” skills that are vastly useful in many endeavors.
- Learn About Crypto: No matter how much you know on the subject of crypto, you accelerate your learning exponentially because you’re always identifying, researching and writing new blog topics and posts. You might be an expert on hardware wallets, but are you also an expert on leverage trading, crypto taxes and layer 1 projects, too? Maybe, but probably not
- Build an Audience: You get to reach people you don’t know and teach them things they don’t know or don’t know well enough. You get to enjoy the satisfaction of that while gaining their trust and loyalty.
Perhaps most significantly, you get the satisfaction of growing traffic to and engagement with your blog, and growing your affiliate income.
Making that first affiliate sale and getting $10, $20 or more feels pretty great.
If you’re diligent about your writing, post regularly and work on things like SEO and link-building, it’s possible to grow your cryptocurrency blog to an income of $500-1000 within six months to a year (some do it more quickly).
And of course, there are lots of crypto bloggers who make exponentially more than that.
That includes six- and even seven-digit sums of income.
When to Start a Cryptocurrency Blog
You may be ready to start a crypto blog today. Or you may be ready 3-6 months from now.
Only you know the answer to that.
Your knowledge of the crypto space as a whole, or at least some particular aspect of it, is important to getting started. So, if you’re new to the space, consider taking some time to learn more before jumping into blog writing.
If you’re looking for ways to ramp up your knowledge, my post How to Get Into Cryptocurrency can help.
As far as your writing skills go, if you’re not Hemingway, it doesn’t matter. Start writing now and you’ll get better quickly. Read articles on blog sites you like and emulate their style and flow.
You don’t have to be a master writer to write blogs. You just need to convey your message clearly, and if you can add some personality, great.
As far as setting up a blog (hosting, WordPress, etc.), if you’ve never done it before, it’s not as hard as you may think.
Sure, there are aspects of it that get more advanced, but you don’t need those to get started.
Cryptocurrency Blog Niches
A niche blog is one that caters to a specific market. Often, it appeals to people interested in a particular subject matter or industry.
My niche, for example, is the broad niche of cryptocurrencies. In my blog, I talk about crypto gaming, metaverse, NFTs, crypto products, crypto blogging and more.
You can go broad within the niche like me if you want to. The benefits of doing so are you’ll never run out of content to write and you’ll never have to worry about growing the scope and scale of your blog.
However, there are benefits to drilling down more specific, too.
If you’re a crypto gaming expert for example, or on your way to being one, you can do a gaming-specific blog and target a niche audience who’s looking specifically for that type of content.
One thing to keep in mind: choose your domain name carefully.
If you’re thinking about doing a crypto gaming blog, but think one day you might want to broaden your horizons into other areas of crypto, don’t pick “cryptogaming.com” as your domain name.
Here are a few other promising niche ideas within the crypto space:
- Crypto news
- Crypto apps
- Crypto trading
- Crypto hardware
- Crypto taxes
- Crypto exchanges
- Crypto stocks
- Bitcoin mining
- NFT
- Metaverse
Crypto Affiliate Programs
It might be a little while into your crypto blogging career, when you finally start to get meaningful traffic, before you’ll choose crypto affiliate programs with whom to partner.
Once you do, it’s a lot of fun. It’s your time to make the sale.
You want to go with companies that have a good reputation.
It also helps if you actually use the products or at least have tried the products of the companies with whom you partner. This lends to the authenticity of your review.
You’ll want to compare the payouts of affiliate programs among similar companies, as they can vary greatly.
You’ll also find that payouts for a product, like a Ledger wallet, are higher when you use an affiliate link directly from Ledger, as opposed to an Amazon affiliate link, for example.
Here are a few noteworthy cryptocurrency affiliate program options:
The above is just a small sampling of the crypto-related companies that offer affiliate programs and you’ll easily find many more with a simple web search
Start a Cryptocurrency Blog | Step-by-Step
Here are five simple steps to get your blog up and running quickly:
1) Choose a Domain Name and Web Host
Kick off your new blog with a really fun exercise: name it.
You could use your own first and last name for the domain, some other version of your name, or you could name it something that relates to your blog niche.
For example, the word “crypto” in your domain name can make your site name more memorable and potentially help with SEO.
When naming your site, think about the long-term implications of your domain name and how you want your site to grow.
Don’t pick something too narrow in focus unless you’re sure that’s all you want to write about.
When you have your name figured out, go to what is widely considered the most robust and reliable web host, SiteGround.
A good web host allows you to create, maintain and make your site accessible to the web.
SiteGround has a lot of great features to help you on your journey:
- Simplicity: easy to use site and tools that are powerful
- Pricing: get started for as low as $2.99 a month.
- Customer Service: highly rated and available 24/7
Choose WordPress Hosting and select the plan that best suits you.
WordPress, if you’re not familiar with it, is the most popular website builder and content management system used today. It also has an incredible number of tools and plugins for affiliate marketers.
The basic SiteGround WordPress Hosting plan, StartUp, might be perfect for you.
2) Install WordPress on Your Blog
Once your account is set up, navigate to the Website Setup Wizard.
Access your Client Area and go to Websites > New Websites.
Then select Start a New Website and select WordPress.
Now you can access the WordPress Admin and start building out your site.
3) Choose Your WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme is a group of files that make up the front-end design and style of your site.
From your site admin page, go to Appearance > Themes.
Here you’ll see any themes you currently have installed.
If you click Add New, you’ll then be able to add themes from the WordPress library.
There are lots of free themes you can use, including ones specifically designed for blogging. You can also upload a theme from your computer that you’ve found elsewhere. That’s what I do.
I use GeneratePress, a lightweight theme focused on speed and stability. It has 500,000+ active installs and is one of the most popular themes out there.
They have a pretty cool site library of pre-built blog themes that you can use.
With their premium plan, they also have really great customer service that can help you work through technical obstacles.
4) Add a Few Key WordPress Plugins
A WordPress plugin is software that you install into your WordPress site. It adds a specific functionality that WordPress doesn’t already have built into it.
There are tens-of-thousands of WordPress plugins, but I suggest two to start.
- AIOSEO – It’s a really great SEO toolkit that allows you to easily add keywords, meta descriptions and other elements you need for on-page SEO optimization.
- MonsterInsights – This is the premier Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It lets you see robust analytics for your website right within your dashboard.
Some other types of plugins you may want to look into in the early stages of your blog are anti-malware and image optimization.
5) Write Some Seriously Good Content
When all is said and done, if you don’t have good crypto blogging content, nobody is going to stay on your site for long, let alone buy anything you recommend.
There are no real shortcuts to this (you can use an AI writing tool or hire a writer, but the content will rarely be as good as doing it yourself).
Here are some general blog writing guidelines that can help:
- Have a clear, concise topic. For example, write about the best layer 1 cryptos, but don’t muddle that up with the benefits of hardware wallets and the finer points of Bitcoin tax.
- Write a compelling title. Be clear and on-point about what your audience stands to gain from reading your post.
- Write from experience. Your personal knowledge of the subject matter and your overall authenticity should come through in your writing. That’s what readers want.
- Offer ideas and solutions. Your readers are here to learn something useful from YOU.
- Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords. These can guide you to in-demand topics and drive traffic to your blog. I use Semrush and Google’s Keyword Planner.
Final Thoughts
Crypto blogging and affiliate marketing are a powerful combination that can allow you to grow an audience and earn really good supplemental, or even full-time income.
The top crypto blogs focus on great content, solid SEO and strong effort at marketing the blog itself, be it via backlinks, social media or otherwise.
You now have the key tools to get started as an affiliate crypto blogger and I wish you a successful journey ahead.