The world of blogging is vast and deep, but only a few will have what it takes to become a celebrity blogger (or a profitable one). With over 200+ million blogs in the world today, it’s now more important than ever to treat your blog like a real business and not a side project that will make you a millionaire overnight.

Anyone can spend a few dollars and set up a domain name, install a free copy of WordPress and call themselves a blogger. However, to make it as a successful or professional blogger, you are going to need to do some research, planning and preparing before you even start to launch.

Below, I break down four different articles that can not only make you a successful blogger, but might also earn you some extra cash. Each one of them was hand-picked and walks you through the process from beginning to end.

Find Your Niche

Before starting your blog, you first need to know why you are blogging in the first place — not only what you are going to be writing about, but also why. Many people start a blog so they can write what they are passionate about. Others start a blog so they can make money. Here’s a great article that can help you answer this question.

The important thing to remember is that millions of new blogs are going live every month. You need to make sure your blog is different and actually provides value. Finding the perfect niche for your blog and targeting to an exact audience is one of the best ways to find success with a blog.

Understand Monetization Strategies

Since many bloggers are focused on the sole purpose of making money with their site, it’s important to cover this topic too. This article not only covers the ins-and-outs of how to start a blog from scratch, find a niche and create valuable content, it also has an infographic for you to follow along.

You will also discover why it’s so important to cut down the focus of your blog while planning out your content creation and monetization strategy before getting started. As a blogger, the last thing you want to do is invest weeks or months in your blog, only to find out that it’s not as lucrative in traffic and revenue that you thought it would be.

Find Out Where You Stack Up

As we continue to walk through the pre-planning process of finding a winning concept for your blog and creating killer content that makes it stand out from the crowd, it’s also important for you to realize how other sites in the blogosphere are making money.

This infographic-based article highlights some of the most successful blogs online today and how much money they are earning. You’ll also learn about the many different types of bloggers in the world and the best monetization methods.

Find the Right Tools

Once your blog is up and running, it’s time for you to start working on your site visitors, increasing traffic and measuring your results. Blogging isn’t all fun and games; it’s actually a lot of work and quite time consuming.

Thankfully, there are plenty of tools for bloggers to use to help them stay ahead of the curve, while also saving time in the process. Tools featured in this comprehensive article cover everything from content ideas, keyword rankings, headline creators, competitor analysis and more. The best way to compete with the biggest bloggers in the world is to use the same tools they are using.

At the end of the day, with hundreds of millions of blogs in the world, your success ultimately comes down to you. There has never been a better time to start your blog, nor has it even been more cost effective. You can literally be up and running in just a few minutes, while spending less than $100 a year on a domain name and web hosting.