Make Money Blogging
This seems to be a trend - but again, after a conversation with my friend Patty and offering ways for her to make some extra cash, I tossed out blogging. Not having any real idea about what I was talking about I decided to do some research and want to spare what I learned. The process of how to make money blogging it's easy but, it may be perfect for those who already have a blog, are wanting to create one.
So literally I have no experience in this, beyond the small little blog that I have created here. I have no technical ability I do however have an interest. And, what really interests me is that it can be a part-time or full-time experience and income. So here is what I learned.
How to make money Blogging?
- Set up your blog
- Start creating useful content
- Get off your blog and start finding readers
- Build engagement with the readers that come
- Start making money from the readership you have through one or more of a variety of income streams
It sounds easy, doesn’t it? On some levels the process is simple – but you need to know up front that there’s a lot to each step and below I’m going to give you some pointers that I found on each.
So here we go!
1. Start a Blog
So here's the obvious - In order to make money blogging you’re going to need to have a blog. While this is pretty transparent it is also a stumbling block for many bloggers who come to the idea of blogging with little or no technical background.
If that’s you – don’t worry! It apparently is my story too, and from what I hear, most bloggers start out feeling just as overwhelmed by the process of starting their blog as I did.
2. Start Creating Useful Content
This seems obvious as well. A blog is not a blog without content so once you’ve set your blog up you need to focus your attention upon creating useful content. What you choose to create will depend a little on the topic that you choose to write about.
The key to creating content is to make it as useful as possible. It's important to focus upon creating content that changes people’s lives in some way will be the type of content that people will value the most and it will help people to feel like they know, like and trust you – which is, of course, is really important.
I found that there are thousands of articles and podcast episodes on about how to create content. So don't take my word for it - try out some of these sites.
- How to Create Blog Posts that People Remember
- How to Come Up With Fresh Ideas to Write About On Your Blog
- How Often Should You Blog? (Hint: The Answer Might Surprise You)
- 21 Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog
- 10 Ways to Switch Your Brain to Writing Mode When Working From Home
3. Get off your blog and start finding readers
As you sit at your computer thinking that you've just created the most useful content that you possibly can, it is easy to get very insular with your focus and spend most of your time looking at building your blog. Many bloggers have a ‘build it and they will come mentality’ with their blogging but this is a bit of a trap and a big fantasy.
If you want to make money from your blog you need to not only focus upon building a great blog but it is also necessary to get off your blog and to start promoting it.
There are many ways to experiment with growing your blog’s audience but it is important to enter into all these strategies remembering that you should not just be looking for ‘traffic’ but ‘readers’.
It is suggested to start by thinking carefully about the type of reader you’d like to have read your blog. Once you know who you’re hoping to have read your blog ask yourself where that type of person might already be gathering online. Begin to list where they might be gathering:
- Are they reading certain blogs? List the top 3
- Are they participating in certain forums? List the top 3
- Are they listening to podcasts? List the top 3
- Are they engaging on certain social networks? List the top 3
- Which accounts are they following on each of these social networks? List the top 3
Did I mention that this was a job?
Each of these places that your readers might already be gathering has opportunities to develop a presence whether by leaving good comments, offering to create guest posts or simply by being helpful and answering questions. The key is to build a presence, to add value, to foster relationships – not to engage in spammy practices.
Here are a few other links to check out on the topic:
- 5 Mistakes Bloggers Make with SEO and What To Do About Them
- Here’s How My 2 Blogs Grew
- How to Socialize Your Posts for Maximum Effect
- How to Promote Yourself Without Coming Across as a Jerk
4. Build engagement with the readers
With a sustained focus upon creating great content and finding readers for your blog it is suggested to begin to notice people visiting your blog and engaging with your content. At this point, you need to switch your focus to engaging with those readers and building community. Just like Facebook and Instagram - the more you comment and connect with your followers the more they will come back.
Here are a few more site to check out.
5. Start making money from the readership you have through one or more of a variety of income streams
OK – the first four steps of starting a blog, creating content, finding readers and building engagement with those readers are important foundations that you really do need to get in place before you’ll be able to build long term income for your blog.
There’s no avoiding that what has been covered is a lot of work. But if you do it well you’ll be setting yourself up and giving yourself every chance of being able to make money from your blog. With these ideas in place, you can now be ready to start attempting to make money from your blog but you do need to be aware that just because you have set up your blog, have content and have engaged readers that the money won’t just automatically flow.
Like anything - It takes a lot of work and experimentation to make money from your blog.
There are Many Ways to Make Money Blogging
One of the biggest misconceptions that bloggers having about monetizing blogs is that they have to do it in one of a handful of ways. The reality is that there are many ways to make money from blogs.
In my research I found this graph - I'm not just tossing this in here to fill space - lol - I really thought it would help. I hope it does.
Take note: this money map was updated in September 2016 - so things have changed a bit and they will again tomorrow.
Don’t worry though – while this map is quite overwhelming at a first glance there are a few main ‘clusters’ of income streams that you might want to focus upon rather than all the specific ones.
1. Advertising Income
This is where many bloggers start. In many ways, this model of making money from blogs is not dissimilar to how a magazine or newspaper sells ads. As your traffic and brand grows you’ll find advertisers will be willing to pay to get exposure to your audience.
While you need decent traffic to do a direct deal with advertisers there are ad networks that act as a middleman and enable smaller publishers to run ads on their blogs. This is where many bloggers start.
2. Affiliate Income
A recent survey found that affiliate promotions were the most common type of income that our readers have.
To put it most simply – affiliate income is when you link to a product that is for sale on another site and if someone follows your link and ends up buying that product you earn a commission on that sale.
There’s more to it than that but this is another great place to start with monetizing your blog as affiliate programs are easy to sign up for and if you have an engaged audience you will find they follow the recommendations that you make on products.
3. Events
Having a background in Event Planning I found this to an awesome idea. While not something most bloggers do it is something that I think that I want to look into more. I'm hoping that it will increase the number of readers I get on my blog. These events could range from big conferences and events which hosts hundreds of bloggers every year right down to smaller meet-ups for a blogger’s readers where money is made either through charging readers to attend or by finding a sponsor for the event.
4. Recurring Income
Another growing category of income that drawing more and more bloggers is recurring income streams (sometimes called continuity programs or membership programs). This is where readers pay a regular recurring amount (usually on a monthly or annual basis) for access to either premium content, a community area, some kind of service, tools, coaching (or some combination of these things). I'm passing on this - I don't know how comfortable I feel about charging people to read my blog. lol - charge companies to advertise is another story.
6. Promoting a Business
Many brick and mortar businesses indirectly make money from their blogs by using their blogs to grow their profile and direct readers to their business. The key here is to ask your local businesses and those that would be interested in what you have to say, to advertise on your blog. I'm running right out to make this happen.
7. Services
A common way that many bloggers make money is by offering services to their readers. These might be anything from coaching and consulting, to writing or copywriting, to design, training or other freelance services.
8. Products
Products can, of course, take many forms and income virtual information products like books or courses but also other virtual products like software, reports etc.
The other type of product some bloggers sell is physical products. This is most common when the blogger has a business but sometimes bloggers also create merchandise (T-shirts etc) or other physical products to sell.
Multiple Income Streams
Most full-time bloggers make money more than one way and end up with multiple income streams.
Diversifying your income in this way not only is smart and helps you spread the risk from having all your eggs in one basket but it also speeds up the journey to going full time.
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